Judgment and Judgmentalism, Part 1: God's Judgment and Ours

Grace Reformation Bible Church

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on the mount. And as we break into chapter 7, we turn away from the emphasis that we've seen over several weeks now from the end of chapter 6.

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Of course, the call remains, and now we move toward application in some new directions.

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The call is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And now the application begins with how we are to seek

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His righteousness in community as fellow believers. And that will occupy this week as well as next week.

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And then we'll consider how that relates to those outside of a community of believers, those on the outside, unbelievers.

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And then also, as we press forward through that, we'll consider how we all together in light of these things relate to God.

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And that will bring us to Matthew 7, verse 12, where we sort of have the bookend of verse 1, the golden rule that lays down everything from verse 1 through verse 12.

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Well, as we come to Matthew chapter 7 in light of the events this past week,

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I wonder how perhaps even our church history study on Sunday evenings.

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We've been looking at martyrdom now for how many weeks, and I wonder if it's hit us a little bit differently now that we have seen a believer, a brother in Christ, who was very outspoken in terms of his convictions, in terms of his faith, and ultimately being killed for that boldness, for that conviction.

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And we can see the impact it's had. I saw even on Thursday night at prayer, there was a sort of heaviness in the room as we all began to pray in light of that.

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Really a lot of our prayer time was focused for that and for the effects of that, and in my mind that gives us a little window into what it was like to be a

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Christian in the early church and to see high profile figures end up paying the ultimate price, even their own lives, because of their convictions, because of their faith.

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Perhaps the events of this past week have brought us to that appreciation. We see the impact, we see the impact it has among believers.

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Potentially, Lord willing, we'll see the impact it has upon unbelievers. And I wonder if for any of us it's added a certain depth or a certain color to Matthew 6, 33, to seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then trusting

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Him whatever else comes, trusting He'll provide for us in all the ways that we need. And so we're still, in a way, we're looking at how we are to seek the kingdom and the righteousness that belongs to the kingdom, but as I say, we're beginning to address this in terms of how we relate to one another as subjects of this kingdom, those who have been called to this righteousness.

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How are we to operate our lives together? How are we to walk side -by -side in this holy calling, seeking to advance this kingdom of God?

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Well, it would be good for us to approach this week and next week with with great self -awareness and great self -examination.

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I cannot emphasize that highly enough. I've said from this pulpit in times before, it is the hardest thing in the world to get someone to look in the mirror.

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It is impossible, apart from the Spirit of the Lord, but I would highly encourage you, beseech the

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Lord that He will allow His Word to be like a mirror so that you can see yourself rightly in light of what

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Jesus has to teach us here at the beginning of Matthew 7. And as James says, having seen yourself, that you don't walk away heading into tomorrow or the rest of this week forgetting what you have seen.

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Otherwise, we're deceiving ourselves. We're not able to do that which we have heard. And so let us be doers of this word of righteousness, not mere hearers deceiving ourselves, and let us let the mirror of God's Word shine in the darkest corners of how we regard ourselves and one another before the

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Lord God. That's where we're at in Matthew 7 this week and next week. Now, thinking of that as a church community,

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I'd like to use a metaphor that I picked up last October at a preaching conference. It's the metaphor of spring training.

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Spring training is something that baseball players do. We're at the very end of the season heading toward the playoffs now, and Red Sox haven't been doing that great the last couple against the

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Yanks, but that's alright. We'll get them out. The spring training would, of course, begin after the winter, usually down in the warmer parts of our country.

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Red Sox would be down in Florida. And it doesn't matter whether you're wet behind the ears, fresh out of the reserves, maybe just past your

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NCAA days, or if you're an old pro, a Golden Glove winner, whether you've had so many trophies that you have to have a spare room in your mansion for the amount of trophies and awards you're getting.

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It doesn't matter whether you're a pro at the very top of his game or an amateur that's just beginning, everyone goes to spring training.

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And at spring training, everyone practices the basics. Throwing, swinging, running.

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You practice the basics, no matter how experienced, no matter how knowledgeable, no matter how skillful you are, you practice the basics.

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I forget the player, there was some player some years ago, I remember it being an occupation of sports commentators, who had skipped spring training.

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I think he came to like the last week and a half of spring training. And as the season began, of course, he has this multi -million dollar contract and all the expectations of a multi -million dollar contract upon him.

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But he had skipped spring training and his season got off to a very lousy start. So everyone was in an uproar.

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Why are we paying him? You know, look at the kind of zeal he has for our team. He didn't even show up to spring training. And you could see the impact of not getting into the rhythm of the game had.

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And I think he ended up jeopardizing their playoff run. And so in some ways, as a church, it doesn't matter, as I said last week, whether we are deep like a well and not like a fountain in ways that we ought to be.

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It doesn't matter if we think of ourselves highly. It doesn't matter if we are to be regarded highly.

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It doesn't matter if we're lowly. It doesn't matter if we're stuttering our steps forward in this calling of God.

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We all have to practice the basics. And Matthew 7, in my mind, is a great opportunity to practice the basics, the throwing and the swinging of the

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Christian life. We begin here in Matthew 7 with a very common verse.

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This is perhaps the most famous verse in all of the world. It's certainly the most often quoted verse.

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I was thinking of Charlie Kirk this week, and how many times was Matthew 7 -1 an answer to the things that he was saying?

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Probably thousands upon thousands of times. I've certainly heard it hundreds of times. I'm sure you have as well whenever you speak to anything that regards the kind of light that men hate because men love darkness rather than light.

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And when light is actually contrasting in the darkness, the automatic response, the only scripture, if any scripture, that the world has memorized is

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Matthew 7 -1. Judge not that you be not judged. Or as I grew up understanding it, judge not lest ye be judged.

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Judge not that you be not judged. That is a memory verse for the world.

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And how it's often used is not actually how Jesus teaches it. And we'll see that very clearly by holding

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Matthew 7 -1 with Matthew 7 -2. And then beyond that we'll see that not only in Matthew 7 but from Matthew 5 -7,

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Jesus has a lot to say about judgment. And then beyond that throughout the Gospel and then throughout the

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New Testament and then throughout all of Scripture. So understanding Matthew 7 -1 rightly is is absolutely critical because this is one of the few verses the world's the world actually knows.

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It's the only scripture you'll get in conversation with most people. How it's usually given is a you don't have to talk to me anymore because if you think anything of me you're actually disobeying your

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Lord Jesus. Jesus told you you don't have you have no place to judge me. You're not to judge me at all. And if you say anything against me you're really just saying something against yourself.

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That's how Matthew 7 -1 is used. Of course Jesus says judge not that you be not judged.

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Then he goes on to say for with what judgment you judge you will be judged.

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And with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. We're gonna unpack why verse 2 explains the meaning of verse 1.

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But let me just give a bigger context. In fact if you think about it what are some of the other common verses if any verses are known?

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It's usually along the same lines and used to the same effect. Judge not. Another one would be let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

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It's often used. Or God is love. Now notice that the most frequently quoted verses are actually all twisted out of a context and they're twisted out of a context for a certain reason.

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It is again is I'm fine. You have nothing to say to me. In fact if you're a

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Christian and you're gonna follow the word that you believe you can say nothing to me. You should not say anything of me.

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And then sadly there are Christians, there are churches that are saying yeah you're right. We should never say anything against anyone.

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We should never actually in any way be unloving or judgmental.

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Of course Jesus is not saying to be unloving or judgmental. He's pressing us to understand what true judgment and false judgment are.

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What the difference we could say between judgment and judgmentalism. Between being loving in speaking the truth which often looks like a friend that faithfully wounds rather than to not love at all which allows someone to go headlong into destruction.

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That's no love. That's actually a very sophisticated and elaborate form of hatred.

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Soul hatred. That's satanic love. Not the love of a Christian.

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Not the love of Christ. So these are the things that we're going to unpack together this morning. But let me just give a big picture here from how we're getting from verse 1 to verse 12.

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We're talking about seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness. And the question is how does this righteousness involve us relationally?

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And if we're looking at verses 1 through 12 there's really three spheres of relationship that overlap.

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We could say that at the beginning it's the sphere of those who are on the inside. The community of faith.

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Jesus begins with how we are to regard and deal with one another. That will then go to how together we regard those that are on the outside.

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So there's an inside, the community of faith, and outside, those that are not of faith. And then over and above that, how we relate to God.

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So inside, outside, and above. And then we get to verse 12 with this golden rule that summarizes everything between verse 1 and verse 12.

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But today we're just looking at the first two verses. Judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge you will be judged.

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And with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Jesus does forbid judging others, but he presses us to note exactly what he means by judge.

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Judge in Matthew 7 -1 cannot mean discerning or evaluating what is right or what is wrong.

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That is something Christians are not only called to do, it's something we are always doing. Christians are always receiving the light of God's Word, casting that light upon their lives and the world around them, and recognizing the difference between what is right and what is wrong.

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And as Psalm 1 situates the way of the wise, the way of God's children, they will be inclined to walk in the ways that are right, that are true, that are good, that requires moral judgment, that requires the light and wisdom of God's ways.

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And so there's a difference, there's a fork in the road. And as we've said, you're not standing at that fork, you're on one of those two ways.

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There's the way of the righteous that leads to life everlasting, and there's the way of the wicked that leads to eternal death.

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So judge here cannot mean discerning or evaluating the difference between right or wrong.

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That goes against everything that Jesus teaches, that goes against everything that we read throughout the rest of Scripture.

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And of course the problem is that those who often quote Matthew 7 -1 are unaware of how Scripture informs and balances everything else that God has to say about His judgment and our judgment of others.

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In John 7 -24, just as an example, in John 7 -24 we have a very similar command to Matthew 7 -1, and then what seems to be the very opposite of that command.

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John 7 -24, do not judge by appearance. That sounds a lot like Matthew 7 -1, judge not.

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Do not judge by appearance. And then here's the antithetical exhortation, judge with righteous judgment.

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So right there in one verse you have something held together. Don't judge in this way, but judge in that way.

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Don't judge as men judge by appearance, but judge with a righteous judgment.

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Judge with a God's will -informed kind of judgment, do you see? A righteous judgment.

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So clearly not all judging is forbidden. We see it held together right there. If we're reading carefully, we see it held together here in Matthew 7 -1 and 2 as well.

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If there were no judgment whatsoever, if every form of judgment, irrespective of context or application, was forbidden, then the church would have absolutely no boundaries whatsoever.

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How could you distinguish between sheep and goats, wheat and tares, children of light, children of darkness, subjects of the kingdom, subjects of Satan's tyranny?

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How could you distinguish any of these things without moral judgment, without, as Jesus will say later in Matthew 7, knowing that a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit?

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What is that? That's moral judgment. And Jesus says to His followers, you'll be able to discern.

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In other words, you will be able to judge a tree by its fruit. So you see, these things matter.

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The church would have no boundaries. There'd be no place for discernment. There'd be no place for discipline.

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All these things that are taught throughout Scripture stand upon the ability to judge rightly, judge righteously.

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In Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, you think of the saga of church discipline that played out last year into the beginning of this year.

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Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 5 follows along these lines. I've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person.

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Again, a person called a brother, a person who says, I'm your brother.

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I'm a fellow believer. This is what Paul says. What do

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I have to do with judging those who are on the outside? Do you not judge those who are on the inside?

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But those who are on the outside God will judge, so put away from yourselves the evil one. What is

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Paul doing there? He's saying there's a place that judgment does not belong. There's a place that judgment is required.

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He's asking a rhetorical question. In English, that can be ambiguous. In Greek, you can use syntax to show whether your rhetorical question is to be answered affirmatively or negatively, and here it's to be answered affirmatively.

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Do you not judge those who are on the inside? And the answer is, yes, of course we do. How could we be a church if we weren't to do that?

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That's Paul's point. His point is, when I said to you Corinthians not to keep company with someone named a brother who was walking in this way of immorality or drunkenness or idolatry,

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I was not telling you to judge those on the outside. You'd have to go out of the world if that was the case.

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God will judge those on the outside. Who are you to judge them? What role will you have in judging them?

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They're already condemned if they're outside of Christ, but you are to judge those on the inside if they're calling themselves a brother and they're walking in this way.

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So you see, discipline actually turns on a right kind of judgment, and when you appreciate this, you realize why the

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Sermon on the Mount is full of moral judgment. Jesus will go on to say that otherwise we're hypocrites, right?

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If we don't remove the plank from our own eye as we're splinter -hunting, what does Jesus call us? Hypocrites. That's a moral judgment.

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Hypocrites. He's had a lot to say about hypocrisy in chapter 6. He tells believers to beware of false prophets.

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What would you have to do to beware of a false prophet? You would have to line up their teaching and their activity with what

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God's Word reveals and make moral judgments, and then deal with those moral judgments in a very biblical way.

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With the upcoming verses, we might ask these questions. Who are the dogs? Who are the pigs?

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How do we know what is holy, or what are pearls? Is everything a pearl, or is everyone a pig?

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Jesus is using moral language. So whatever he means in Matthew 7 .1, he certainly does not mean that Christians have no place for judgment.

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The issue is, will there be a righteous judgment done in the right context toward the right end?

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That's what we're after this morning. Jesus says, if your brother sins, rebuke him.

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He adds to that, if he repents, forgive him. First of all, elders are tasked.

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Think of Titus 2, think of 2nd Timothy 4. Reprove and rebuke and exhort with all patience and authority.

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There's a way that sins are to be rebuked. Straying and missteps are to be exhorted, admonished.

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There's to be comfort and encouragement as well, but the idea is moral judgment is, in some ways, the life of faith.

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Ever discerning what's right and wrong, ever examining yourself to see what's growing off of these limbs.

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Is it good fruit or bad fruit? Do I need to be pruned in repentance or by trial?

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Are there brothers and sisters who are my genuine God -given friends because they're the only people honest enough to wound me?

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And though I might run from them and though I might grimace at them, I'll end up blessing God for them because they're faithful enough to point out the thing that is going to destroy me or destroy others through me.

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These are all ways that we have to get closer and closer to what is consistent about the righteous judgment that Jesus requires and the wrong judgmentalism that Jesus condemns.

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Now, of course, one other thing that's always mentioned in conjunction with Matthew 7 .1 is that Jesus, and it usually goes something like this,

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Jesus loved hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors, right? He was the hippie's hippie.

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He just got along with everyone, you know? Wasn't that the byword about him? He's a friend of tax collectors and sinners, he's a glutton, he's a drunkard.

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Look at how jovial he is with these ne 'er -do -wells in our society. He dwells with those, as it were, in the very gutters of righteousness.

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Of course, Jesus did spend time with prostitutes and tax collectors, but he did so as light shining in the midst of darkness.

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He never did so as one endorsing or approving, but actually in such a way that he was able to say in so many ways, go and sin no more at every juncture, and that's why tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom ahead of those who were judging the tax collectors and the prostitutes.

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So we're called often to make judgments about what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is bad, what is holy, and what is evil.

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If we're not able to do that, we are not able to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. If you're going to seek righteousness, you have to know what unrighteousness is.

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That's a moral judgment. If you're seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, most of your daily life will be discerning between what is right and what is wrong, and inclining and walking in light of what is right.

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And to the degree that I am seeking that, I will see that so much of what is wrong runs like a stream through my mind, through my conscience, through my heart, through my activities, through my ambitions, through the idols that I so carefully camouflage in my life.

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I'll realize that at the end of it all, in seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, I am, like Paul says, a chief of sinners.

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Apart from Christ, I am lost, ruined, utterly ruined. But as Paul recognizes, no, there's nothing good that dwells in me.

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This is all harmonious with chapter 633, seeking first the kingdom and His righteousness in Matthew 7 and 1.

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Judge not. Because you recognize that stream of sin that you're judging around you is actually a stream that runs within you, and so you inevitably fall upon the mercy of Christ.

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And if you've been saved and embraced in that mercy, then you will not have a judgmentalism toward those that are yet to be saved or those that are walking in sinfulness.

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You'll have a merciful tone about your whole life, because you're one who's clothed in mercy. That's the point.

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It produces a certain love for Christ, a zeal for Christ, a desire that others would come to know the same mercy that you've received.

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And that grows in a right kind of judgment, not the wrong kind of judgmentalism. James says we'll get to in a moment.

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James will have a lot to say about judgment without mercy. You're gonna grow in judgment if you're a growing believer. You're gonna mature in righteous judgment if you're a maturing believer, but that maturity looks like growing in mercy as well as in judgment.

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Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge you will be judged.

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What does this judgmentalism mean? Well, Jesus clearly here is forbidding a way of looking down on others, criticizing or condemning them without any love or mercy.

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So there's not a hope of reconciliation, there's not a hope of redemption, there's not a loving concern that causes you not only to see the wrong but even desire to address it.

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This is actually part and parcel of loving your neighbor rightly, even if your neighbor hates you for it.

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This judgmentalism is not concerned about the neighbor's welfare, it's not actually built upon a love for mercy or a love for lost souls, it's built upon self -adulation, self -esteem, the kind of self -esteem that is constructed by the criticism of others.

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I have to tear others down in order to build myself up. I have to think less of others in order to think more of myself.

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This is the kind of judgmentalism that Jesus condemns. And you notice the key, as Grant Osborne rightly says, is the complete absence of love.

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It's the complete absence of love. I remember,

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I think I've shared this in years past, maybe not, but it was very impactful to me hearing

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D .A. Carson share as a young man up in Canada and he was being discipled by a professor,

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I think, at the Baptist Bible Seminary up there. And they went away for part of a day to pray and they were by a lake, they were sort of talking and spending time.

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He's this young man, he's sort of with this wise teacher that he really appreciates, he admires, and all of a sudden this pickup truck pulls up and all these teenagers hop off the back and they're drinking beers and blasting a boombox and D .A.

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Carson is there rolling his eyes, muttering under his breath, you know, a perfectly nice afternoon ruined by this.

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So he's there kind of in this total hostile reaction to this scene of teenagers reveling, as it were, breaking his perfect little afternoon with his theology professor.

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And he looks over and he sees this man with tears streaming down his face saying, oh teenagers, what a mission field, what a mission field.

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And Carson was instantly condemned. He had a complete absence of love.

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They were interrupting his day, his desire. He wanted to grow in godliness, that's why he was there that afternoon.

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An opportunity for godliness came along and he was mad about it. It was a sort of Jonah -like experience.

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These things happen in our lives every single day. This is what

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Jesus is condemning, this judgmentalism, that in order to think well of myself, in order to have a certain bounce in my walk,

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I have to think ill of others. I can't extend charity, I can't extend mercy,

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I certainly cannot extend love. What did Jesus call us to in Matthew 5? A love that is extended even to one's enemies.

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That's kingdom righteousness. Seeking it cannot be done with a judgmental spirit, with a harsh, censorious, condemning kind of spirit.

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You cannot seek the righteousness of God in that way. The wrath of man never produces the righteousness of God, James says.

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And so in this forbidding of judgmentalism, Jesus forbids a sense of self superiority.

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You think of the fifth beatitude. God says, blessed are the merciful. This is a call to be merciful in the way that we regard others, full of mercy.

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You think of the petition in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

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What is Jesus doing in that petition? He's saying if you begin with your own sin rightly, it will frame the way you think about others' sins.

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The problem is as Christians, we often begin with other sins. Lord, deal with them.

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Lord, help them to see this. Lord, how could they treat me this way, Lord? Let them know that you're after them,

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Lord. Jesus corrects all of that. You begin with yourself. Forgive me my sin.

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Forgive me my debt. And then I look at the debts and the sins of others against me. It frames this mercy.

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It frames this desire that if I'm seeking forgiveness for the sins that I've committed, how could I withhold forgiveness from others who have sinned against me?

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You think of all Jesus has to say in chapter 5 against anger and revenge and hatred. And how does

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Jesus frame all of this in Matthew 7, 1 and 2? Well, he says to the one that's almost a hopeless case.

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Everything he's laid down in Matthew 5 and 6 has not been heard. And Jesus says, fine, if you don't have my attention from the attitudes, if you won't hear me from God's own commandments, if you won't look at the murder that exists within your heart that breaks the sixth commandment, if you won't understand the mercy that I plead for, the hypocrisy that I forbid, then let me give you the biggest context of all.

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If you continue to judge others in this way, in the superior, self -righteous, other -condemning way, you will be judged by God in that way.

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He takes it up to the highest level. This is the judgment of judgment.

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God's judgment. The judgment of all of our little regards, snipes, backbites, all of our little condescending attitudes, all of our rolling of our eyes, all of our muttering under the breath, all of our hostile gazes across the room, all the ways that we strut around like some proud peacock, stretching out the feathers of self -righteousness, wanting all of this attention to the degree that we're not receiving it.

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We need to put bad light, negative light on others. Jesus says, judge not that you be not judged.

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Now in Greek, that's a passive construction, right? You don't have a stated subject.

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Be not judged. And the question would be, by whom? And the implicit answer is by God.

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This is called a divine passive, very common in the New Testament. Do not judge others.

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Why? So that God will not judge you. That's the construction. God will judge the judgmental.

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That's what Jesus is saying. There's a certain thrust that has been working its way through the

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Sermon on the Mount, and it's going to carry through this close. We're seeing it at the beginning of chapter 7, and we're going to see how it corresponds to the end.

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Judgment is in view. Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, on that day. So judgment is the bigger context of where we're going in Matthew 7.

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Where does He end? Those who are building on sand, whose structures may seem firm in the moment, but when the storm comes, it all comes crashing down.

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And that storm, that day of reckoning, that day of judgment is sure. Jesus is drawing our minds to it now.

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Those who are judgmental will be judged by the just judge, the one who discerns not by the ear of man, but by the very intentions and motives of the heart, all that has been done under the sun.

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That's what Jesus is pointing to. When we judge others in this way, not in a righteous judgment, not motivated by a love of neighbor because of a love for God, then

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God will in turn judge us. And in fact, Jesus presses it in 7 too. The way that we judge others is the way that God will judge us.

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Powerful, isn't it? Now how is this going to correspond to Matthew 7 12?

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To treat others the way you want to be treated. Why? Because you'll be judged in the way that you judge others. You see this perfect symmetry.

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I almost want to just have us pause and reflect for a few minutes in silence about what it means that we will be judged in the way that we judge others.

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I think we just read past it and keep moving. I won't give us that kind of airspace, but I can't underline this enough.

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It ought to impact your conscience at some level to think that the way you regard others is how God will regard you.

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The way that you treat others is how God will treat you. The way that you condemn, even if in the secrecy of your own mind, the way that you condemn others, that is open before God and so He will condemn you.

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Someone's got to be sweating. I can't be the only one. This is a principle of really lex talionis, an eye for an eye.

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God is a just judge and He presses in that principle by pressing into verse 2.

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The measure that you use is the measure you'll receive. You can think of going to an ancient marketplace where they have perhaps large canvas bags or ceramic bowls full of grain and the idea is can you really trust the merchant's measure?

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If you were doing, if you were trading, I'll trade you some of this for some of that. Okay, as long as we use the same scoop.

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I don't trust your share versus my share. I don't trust your measure versus my measure.

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Let's use the same measure to make sure that we're each getting the same treatment. Jesus is again just reinforcing what

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He's laying down. Don't judge because the way that you judge is how you'll be judged. The measure you give out is the measure you'll receive.

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The parallel passage to Matthew 7 is found in Luke 6 in verses 36 through 38 and there as Luke says, he actually connects what we saw from Matthew 5.

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Be therefore merciful as your father is merciful. Judge not and you will not be judged. That's exactly what

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Jesus is getting at. James holds it together as we'll see. Not that there's not to be judgment, we've established that, but that judgment is never to be without mercy.

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So you are to be merciful because your father in heaven is merciful. And if your judgment is without mercy, you can expect judgment without mercy.

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That's the idea. You notice that the way

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Jesus frames divine judgment, judgment at the last, carries through in the way the

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Apostles then teach. You think of Paul, he's writing to the church at Corinth and he says, don't pass any judgment before the time until the

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Lord comes who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal even the thoughts of the heart. And then everyone can have his praise from God.

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So when he's dealing with the factional strife at the church in Corinth, he's reminding them there is a judgment that will come when all is laid bare.

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You don't have to garner and maneuver your way to receive any adulation or applause from man.

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You will have your praise from God if you're living rightly in view of his judgment. The measure that we use is the measure we'll receive.

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The weight we throw on others is the weight that will be thrown on us. If we actually allow this teaching to sink into our hearts, it will be radically transformative to how we walk together.

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It will be radically transformative to how we walk together. The golden rule is called the golden rule for a reason, and it's as rare as gold is.

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You go panning through the streams and barely get a gram after a lifetime.

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It's a golden rule for a reason. No one but the Lord Jesus ever carried out the golden rule perfectly.

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The golden rule actually being to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself. Think of how

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Paul speaks of judgment. Again, in Romans 2, he's talking about how man, fallen man, is left without excuse.

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He says, oh man, whoever you are who judge, in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself.

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For you who judge, practice the same things. But we know the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

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Paul, whether on those inside or those outside, he's constantly referencing the judgment of God.

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I spent part of this year working through Augustine reading City of God, and that's a thing that Augustine is constantly framing and returning to.

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All of life is essentially being moved inescapably, incontrovertibly, toward the judgment of the last day, when all will be revealed and all will be made manifest.

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So he frames the whole of the life of the City of God in the context of that forecoming day.

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There is a judgment that is to come. And do you think, oh man, Paul says, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

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This is what Jesus is warning about in Matthew 7. If you receive the measure you give, will you be able to stand on that day?

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If you will be condemned in the way that you have condemned, will you be able to be saved at the last?

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That's the issue. But notice what he has to say about the judgment of God. In accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you're treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render each one according to his deeds.

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Eternal life to those who by patient continuance and doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality, but to those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, anguish on every soul of man who does evil.

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And he says in verse 11, Romans 2, there is no partiality with God. There is no partiality with God.

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There is nothing but partiality with us, but there is no partiality with God.

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To the degree that we're recognizing our Father in heaven is merciful and we are to be merciful, our

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God and Creator will call us to stand and give account for every careless word that we've uttered.

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If we recognize these things, we will seek to be as impartial as God is, to judge righteously.

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We will seek to have a charity, almost a foolhardy charity in the way that we think the best of one another.

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There will be mercy in all of our ways. Mercy will not only drive us to faithfully wound, but mercy will drive us to seek the heals, to seek the healing of that wound.

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We live in a day where there's nothing but partiality. We live in a day of trial by Internet. You form all your judgments, all your thoughts, just by a snapshot, just by a moment, and social media in some ways has trained us to do that even when we're off social media.

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Snap judgments, a quick recognition, a quick identification.

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One of the most powerful transformations you can have in the way that you live out your faith with others is to let

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Matthew 7, 1 and 2 sink into your consciousness and change the way you regard, think, speak, and act toward others.

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Talk about being salt and light. Talk about being a contrast to people.

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Christians are those kinds of people that can find the good in the most horrific things. Unbelievers are the kinds of people who find horror in the most beautiful things.

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If I look around and find any angle, any opportunity to quickly believe the worst about someone,

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I am not understanding what Matthew 7, 1 has to say. If I want to receive a fair hearing, if I want people to be open to changing their mind, if I want people to honor me or show respect to me, isn't that the measure

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I have to deal to them? What I receive and how I receive it and what

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I do with what I've received is part of this. The measure that I give is the measure

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I will receive. How I regard others, the charity I extend to them. Listen to what Paul says in 1

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Corinthians 11, slightly different context, but take this as a maxim. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31, if we would judge ourselves, we would never be judged.

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That's the bumper sticker for Matthew 7, in my opinion. If we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged.

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If we could actually allow the will of God, the light of God, to shine upon us, and in light of that recognition of our sin, realize how desperate we need

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God's mercy. If we would judge ourselves rightly in that way, we would not be judged because we would not be judgmental, we would not be condemning, we would not lack charity or grace.

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We would truly speak the truth in love. This shows how important it is for us as subjects of the kingdom to judge righteously, and that righteous judgment begins with oneself.

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As Jesus will say in next week, it's only when you've removed the plank in your eye, it's only when you've righteously judged yourself that you can then in mercy go to help the one who has the splinter.

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I would argue if you don't begin with the plank in your own eye, if you don't righteously judge yourself with God's light, with God's will, you're not going to remove a splinter out of love, out of mercy.

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You're going to gouge an eye out. You're not there to help your neighbor, you're there to condemn your neighbor.

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You're not there as one who's received mercy to show mercy, you're there to rather boost your own ego, validate or vindicate yourself.

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If we would judge righteously, we would not be judged. So therefore we cannot pretend that if Jesus is pointing us to the larger judgment, what he's doing in those places and ways that we want to condemn others, in those places and ways that we want to be judgmental,

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Jesus is reminding us you're only looking around, you're looking horizontally, and it's never a good thing for Christians to do.

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Christians should never look around horizontally until they first look upward, look vertically.

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And Jesus is doing that. If we're stuck looking down on others, he's grabbing us by the chin and forcing us to look up.

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There is a judgment day that's coming, and however you're regarding others is how you'll be regarded.

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The way you treat others is how you'll be treated. He's causing us to look upward. There's this vertical dimension that is required if we're going to seek the righteousness of the kingdom.

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You will not be able to walk together rightly if you're exclusively looking at each other horizontally.

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You have to look at each other vertically. It's not what so -and -so, so -and -so, so -and -so has done or hasn't done.

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It's my brother, it's my sister, it's my fellow believer, it's the one who received mercy undeserved in the same way that I received mercy undeserved.

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It's my fellow sinner, my fellow pilgrim who has sin infecting their life and their walk in this dreary world around them, but has the same burning hope that I have.

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That's a vertical way of looking at others. Is there partiality with us?

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Of course there is. Of course there is. If you're a parent, you know exactly what that partiality looks like, how prone we are as parents to just assume the best for our children.

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In the back of our minds, we just assume the best of our children. We assume perhaps the worst of others.

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Or even if we're not assuming the best of our children, but trying to be rather level -headed and sober -minded about it, when others are not assuming the best about our children, we assume the worst about those others.

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There's no escaping our partiality, but there is no partiality with God.

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A Christian who knows the kind of mercy they received is a Christian who can extend mercy after mercy after mercy after mercy, because that's how

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God extends his mercy to us. It means that we will not persist in walking horizontally together.

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We will rather persevere in walking vertically together. My brethren,

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James says, don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

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You see what James is doing again? This church that, as he says, why are there wars and fighting among you?

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Is it not because of the flesh? It's just all horizontal. There's wars and there's strife.

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Why? What does Proverbs 13 say about that? That the reason there's strife is because of pride. There's pride, there's conflict, there's factionalism, there's wars, there's backbiting, and he says, brethren, it's time to look up.

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Don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, with partiality. Stop looking horizontally.

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Start looking vertically. And then he goes on to say, if one comes in with gold rings and fine apparel and you say to the man in the filthy clothes, back of the bus, buddy.

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Someone that's worthy of a good place has come, you're showing partiality. That's a very lightweight example.

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We might not do that in the most obvious way in a church like ours, but we have that same partial spirit in much deeper and much more, in my mind, destructive ways.

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It's the spirit not of someone in fine clothes versus someone in rags, the spirit of,

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I don't really think that you're worth my time and attention. I don't really think that I should have a close presence with you.

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I think you can go over here. I think you can dwell over there. May not be because of clothing, but it's the same sinful spirit and the

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Lord of glory will judge it. The Lord of glory will reveal it. Listen, James says, my beloved brethren, has

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God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

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But you dishonored the poor man. So you realize that judgmentalism comes with a certain censorious spirit that is full of dishonor.

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Rather than extending charity and showing honor, we allow a sort of coolness to exist, a dishonor.

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James goes on to say, verse 8, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.

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But if you show partiality, you commit sin and you're convicted by the law as a transgressor. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

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Verse 12. See, James is doing exactly what Paul is doing, who is doing exactly what

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Jesus is doing. Here is what God is like, here's what you are like, here is what

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God calls you to do, and you will be judged by God. He's pulling our chin to look upward, to live vertically, and he's saying, speak and act, regard and treat as those who are judged by the law.

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And what does the law require? Love your neighbor like you love yourself. That's a golden rule of Matthew 7, 12.

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Look what he says, for judgment is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy. Judgment is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy.

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Isn't that exactly what Jesus said in Luke 18? When the one is forgiven this insurmountable debt and then goes outside and lays a hold of a man's throat that owes him pocket change?

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And what does the king say when he hears of the evil servant who had been forgiven much thrown into the dungeon until he repays?

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And the whole point is he'll never be able to repay. He'll be in that dungeon forever. That's the idea.

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Judgment without mercy. Judgment without mercy.

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When one who has received mercy is unable to show mercy. Do not speak evil of one another,

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James says in chapter 4. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law.

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But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, you're a judge. But there's only one lawgiver, and it's not you.

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There's only one who gave the law. There's only one, James says, who's able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

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You see again, it's exactly what Jesus is saying in Matthew 7, just with the dial turned up. And to the degree that you can yawn at this, to the degree that you think this is a great sermon for them to hear over there, you're just not hearing it.

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Oh, I hope, is this gonna be recorded? I hope so -and -so will listen to this. No, you need to listen to this, like I need to listen to this.

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Judgment without mercy is the end of one who shows no mercy. Mercy is all of God's ways.

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Mercy is to be the life of a Christian. Mercy will lead you into those conversations and situations where the person will say, hey, judge not, lest you be judged.

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Actually, I just heard a sermon on this. That's not actually meaning what you think it means, but it's actually because of mercy that I'm speaking to you, because of mercy that I want you to know this.

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Mercy is all the way of a Christian. It's speaking the truth in love. Those are never antithetical.

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Everything that God does is true. Everything that He does is love. It's consistent with His love. You realize that what's required is the

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Spirit of God to bring about the mind of Christ and the meekness that belongs to that gentle, dove -like presence of the

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Holy Spirit dwelling within. We must actually recognize the depth of our own sin. That's why

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Paul in Galatians 6 .1 says, if any brother is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual seek to restore him in a spirit of meekness.

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There's three layers to that. It's not enough to be a brother. It's not enough to be spiritual. It's also required to have a spirit of meekness.

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How tender does God want His people to be in dealing with fellow sinners? In light of Galatians 6 .1,

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judge not lest we be judged. That's the idea. So we have a spirit of meekness and a mind of Christ, a love for a neighbor that's willing to faithfully wound.

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This is in part because we are our brother and sister's keeper. We are to keep watch over one another.

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We're to consider one another. We're to pray for one another. This is something we're obligated to do.

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This means that the charity that we extend to one another as fellow pilgrims, as fellow brothers and sisters, is a charity that stands against a judgmental spirit.

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We're to gently confront one another when there's an erring or a straying that seems dangerous to one's own faith or the faith of others.

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This is true, of course, leading up to even church discipline in the steps of Matthew 18. All of that is shrouded with mercy and love, with charity and grace.

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That means superficial judgment is wrong. What we would call making a mountain out of molehills.

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Taking the magnifying glass of a wounded ego and blowing everything out of proportion.

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It's just like the one who's been forgiven a hell -deserving future to go out and chase a little ego boost from a fellow brother or sister.

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Superficial judgment is wrong. Hypocritical judgment is wrong. How often are we annoyed at the things we see in others and the reason that we're annoyed is because we do the same things.

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We're annoyed at what we see in ourselves, we see in our reflection. Hypocritical judgment is wrong.

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To think less of someone and then find yourself doing that very same thing or a different form of that same thing.

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A harsh, merciless, censorious judgment is wrong. God requires a certain gentleness that we have toward all men.

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A love that extends even to enemies. The one that shows mercy will be shown mercy.

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The way that we treat others is how we will be treated. So that means a self -righteous judgment is wrong.

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A right judgment is a judgment that's extended with the knowledge, I too am a sinner.

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I too am in need of mercy. A mercy that renews every morning. My righteousness is not my own.

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I'm clothed in the righteousness of a Savior who loved me and gave himself for me. I have no place for self -righteousness, no place to think highly of myself.

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In fact, if I recognize this righteousness, I'll see that indeed others are perhaps more worthy, more deserving of mercy than even

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I am. And I'll treat them in that way and I'll speak to them in that way. I'll speak as one who had been lost, one who has been found, one who was an enemy, a rebel against the grace of God, and now has been embraced by that very same grace.

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It's essentially rehearsing the very gospel truths over and over in your life until your mind in regard for others is saturated by that gospel of grace.

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If there's any pocket of self -righteousness in your life as a Christian, you have not understood the doctrines of grace.

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Talking with several people this week who are moved by the depravity of man.

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If you really want to be moved by it, recognize you have the seeds of that depravity in your very flesh.

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You are more than capable of doing all of the things that you so recoil at, but you were saved by the grace of God.

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If there is an area at all for self -righteousness, we have not understood the first thing about the doctrines of grace.

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There's no way we'll be able to seek the righteousness that belongs to the kingdom. We will live judgmental lives, and my perspective, speaking pastorally, my perspective is those who are the most judgmental are the most aloof to their judgmentalism.

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Let me repeat that for effect. Those who are the most judgmental in the way that Matthew 7 -1 will condemn and reveal at the last are those who are the most aloof, unaware, ignorant to the fact that they are that judgmental.

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We need to have a Godward, vertical view, not just of the greater judgment to come, but also of the hope that belongs to that judgment that's found at the mercy of Christ, so that mercy can govern all of our ways.

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What does Proverbs say? All the ways of a man are pure in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives. A lot of wisdom in that.

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I can do no wrong. Others can do nothing but wrong. Me? Everything I do is right. Oh, my motives are always pure, but the

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Lord shows no partiality. He weighs the motives in ways that defy your own self -understanding.

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That means as a Christian, I don't assume that my motives are pure. In fact, as a Calvinist, as a pocket card carrying

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Calvinist, I assume my motives are crooked until God's light shines upon them and renews them and redeems them in the power of the

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Spirit. There's nothing good that dwells in me. Why do we forget that as Christians? I think we're

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God's gift to the earth not long after. Paul always preached a gospel that included the prospect of future judgment, a day, he says, according to my gospel, when

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God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ. Every careless word, every contemptuous thought, every judgmental way measured back upon us.

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That's the prospect. You remember

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John MacArthur passing, how many weeks ago now? A month maybe, a little bit more than that?

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I saw a clip I had never seen of John MacArthur. He was on Larry King Live, and I'm probably dating myself with that, but Larry King Live, this kind of talk show segment, and they had representative religious figures answering this question on air about what happens when we die.

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And so John MacArthur was there representing the sort of Christian view. There was a Jewish rabbi, there was a

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Muslim imam, there was an atheist, there may have been a Buddhist, and they're all, how do we think about death?

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What happens when a human being dies? Does anything happen at all? And at one point, of course,

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Larry King is maneuvering toward MacArthur, and he's saying, so Reverend MacArthur, your position is that if a man who's trying to live good, these men sitting next to you are decent men who've done wonderful deeds, charitable deeds, and they've done well, their whole lives have sought to do well, and you're saying because they don't believe in Jesus Christ for salvation that they'll be in hell for eternity.

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And John MacArthur said, yes, that's my position. And Larry King replied, well that just doesn't seem just.

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And John MacArthur instantly hopped on that and said, oh Larry, you don't want justice. If it's justice, then we're all in hell.

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That's exactly the right sentiment. Listen to what

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MacArthur's getting at. Brothers and sisters, you don't want justice, you want mercy.

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You don't want justice, you want mercy. And if you're measuring out justice, you're gonna get what you would never want if you could see what

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God sees. You want mercy, therefore what should you be measuring out? How should you be dealing with others?

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How should you be regarding things? Matthew 7, 1. Judge not that you be not judged.

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Paul says in 1 Corinthians, that same context of chapter 4, he says, you know, you Corinthians are judging me, saying, well maybe he's not all that he seemed to be.

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You know, now we're gonna follow Apollos, now we're gonna follow all these other... He says, it's a small thing that you would judge me.

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I love that about Paul. I love his rhetoric. It's a small thing to be judged by you. It's like, you think

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I'm trembling under your judgment, Corinthian believers? No. I actually am aware of the judgment seat of Christ.

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So it doesn't mean much to be judged by others. All that matters to me is how my God will judge me.

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How many bad tattoos are there that people have, only God can judge me. And they walk around all proud.

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It's on the back, you know, they're drinking Budweiser's and on the back of there, only God can judge me. It's like, yeah, that's a terrifying reality.

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That's not something you should boast in. You're gonna be calling for the rocks to fall upon you if you understood the truth of that statement.

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How could we ever judge a brother? How could we ever show contempt for a brother? We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

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That's what Paul says in Romans 14 10 and 11. He's emphasizing a brother.

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What makes you to differ? How are you any different? What do you have that you did not receive?

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What makes you to differ? Are you just a little bit more holy in and of yourself than they?

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Are you not living by undeserved mercy? How could you ever judge a brother or show contempt for a brother, knowing you're gonna stand before the judgment seat of your master?

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That view, I am simply a servant. It's not my part to think more or less, to judge, condemn, regard in a cool fashion those who are fellow servants.

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That's the master's business. That's the master's dealing. I'm to love them, to show them mercy, to exhort them, to be all that I covenant to be toward them, but I'm not to judge them.

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I'm never to condemn them. That view that I'm simply a servant of Christ.

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That's why Paul can so lovingly and so winsomely go to a church like Corinth or go to a church like Philippi and can plead with them.

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Go to the Galatians, these foolish, bewitched Galatians, and lovingly plead with them because he understood,

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I'm just a servant of Christ for your sake. That's it. I'm a slave to Christ for your sake, just doing what

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He commands. My regard is for Him. The judgment that I answer to is His, and so my whole dealing with you is not about my ego, my flesh, my pride, my wounds, my defense.

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I serve the Lord Christ. To Him I answer. To Him I must answer, so I won't judge.

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I won't have this condemning spirit. I'll seek mercy. I'll seek restoration. I'll seek reconciliation.

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I'll seek the fruit of the Spirit. I'll seek to walk in the ways that lead to life everlasting. My wife sent me a little clip.

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I haven't really ever followed Charlie Kirk much, and now this week I think we've all heard more of Charlie Kirk than we've ever heard before, but my wife sent me a snippet that was sent by his wife,

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Erica. You think her husband now in glory, and she's there raising her children as a widow, a young widow, and this is what she communicated.

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She wrote, as God continues to tenderize my heart, I've come to this truth. Eventually you stop wasting time judging people.

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This is profound. Her husband's just been murdered, and this is what she's saying as a

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Christian. God continues to tenderize my heart. I've come to this truth.

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Eventually you stop wasting time judging people. You stop gossiping. You stop keeping tabs on others.

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You're too focused on what belongs to you, your marriage, your children, your calling. You become one whose peace isn't up for negotiation, whose mind has stayed on Christ, whose heart is rooted in heaven, and the noise will not shake you anymore because you've learned the sweetness of living low to the ground, hidden in Him, anchored in His love, content in your assignment.

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From your very first inhale to your final exhale, you're living in the countdown of grace, and one day the breath

01:05:33

He gave you will return to Him, and you will stand before the giver of time and account for how you spent it.

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I want to be remembered for being faithful. I want my Savior to say, well done.

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Is that not powerful? Someone who understands

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God's ways, God's judgments, God's calling, God's gift,

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God's grace, God's mercy, God's love in this way, will never run into the judgment of Matthew 7 .1.

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How could they? How could they spend their days keeping tabs, sowing gossip, judging others, having a whole sort of Rolodex of where other people are in relation to them, exclusively horizontal?

01:06:25

It's impossible. If you're living like that, you're living vertically. You're looking at your whole life and every breath you draw vertically.

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You're looking at everyone around you, whether in the church or out of the church, vertically. Do you want your

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Savior to say, well done? A Godward view, a vertical view, in light of the judgment of God, in light of the mercy and hope of God, will help us never to judge in a way that is judgmental, condemning, fleshly, carnal of the evil one.

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It will help us, rather to focus on the mercy we receive, the mercy we require. We will grow to be merciful as our

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Father in heaven is merciful, because we're seeing the ever greater depths of His mercy in our lives.

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I thought I had a lot of the Christian life figured out when I first became a Christian, and the further

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I go in it, the more mercy I realize I require. More mercy, more mercy, even still.

01:07:40

So much more I want to say, but I think I'm going to have to close here. Christians are called to love one another in a very unique sense.

01:07:51

Jesus loves His own with a unique love. Jesus gives us a commandment that we are to love one another in that unique love, in that fellowship of the

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Spirit, in the bond of peace. This is a love that is to be a contrast to all lesser loves, a love that the world cannot explain, a love that the world cannot dismiss.

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We know, John says, that we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren.

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Whoever does not love his brother abides in death. The reality is we're either loving one another faithfully, faithfully wounding, faithfully persevering, faithfully covering, faithfully admonishing, faithfully exhorting as is the day.

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We're either walking in this faithful love with one another, or we're walking in a judgmental spirit, and oh how that judgmental spirit will groan and mutter under the weight of the judgment that is returned upon it.

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The measure that you dole out is the measure you will receive, brothers and sisters. So let us pursue the things which make for peace.

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Let us pursue the things that edify one another. Let us be meek as the

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Spirit is meek, not envious, not censorious, not prideful, but full of mercy and kindness, enduring with one another patiently.

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And let us consider one another to stir up good works and love. Judge not, brothers and sisters, lest we all be judged.

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The measure that we use will be measured back to us. The judgment we give we will be judged by.

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Judge not, brothers and sisters. Let's pray. Father, help us,

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Lord, help us. Help us to apply these things. Lord, even this morning,

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I know there are so many ways for us to apply these things, just in this room alone. Grant us conviction, grant us illumination, grant us repentance, grant us encouragement and comfort, grant us your mercy that animates and enlivens all of these things, that gives us not only the means, but the end of these things.

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Lord, we would be merciful as you are merciful. We would be servants who do not walk in judgmentalism, but rather speak truth in love, who are meek and humble and lowly, content in your calling, able to bear with one another ultimately for your sake, who know intuitively well how to keep watch and consider one another in a way to stir up love and good works.

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Help us, Lord, in these ways. We're so fickle so fleshly, so needy. Forgive us for all of the sins that are ever before you,

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Lord, sins in our minds, sins from our mouths. May the same mercy that you have given us,

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Lord, be a mercy that we're able to show to one another, and a mercy that is put on display to the world around us, that they would know we are