Honoring God with Your Judgments Matthew 7:1-6

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You may be seated and children are dismissed Historically the most famous verse in the
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Bible is probably John 3 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life years ago
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When Christianity had a greater influence on American society this verse was much more well known
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But in more recent years as Christianity's influence has waned
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The commonplace of John 3 16 has diminished My father had an unbelieving friend who passed away a few years back and the family didn't know
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Of a pastor so they asked him would you do the funeral?
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My dad agreed and when he went to the funeral the vote the verse that he focused on was
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John 3 16 to his surprise The deceased family came up to him after the service and told him they had never heard that verse before This is sadly the story of many as we live in post -christian
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America But as the Bible is less known now more than ever
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There is one verse that is well known in fact the knowledge of this has increased significantly over the last 20 years
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This verse is Matthew 7 1 a verse that we are going to look at today
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What this verse says is do not judge or you too will be judged
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Now why might this be the most popular verse in American society? The answer is obvious our
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Society has accepted Immorality in the mainstream and this verse has been used to say you should not call out sin
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But let people live however they want, right? This sinful agenda has permeated our society a half century ago
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Lucy and Ricky and in the show. I love Lucy slept in different beds
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Now today all kinds of immorality are right out in the open the most prominent
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Movement that pushes this forward is the L G LBGTQ community and one of their famous slogans is love is love
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But if you want to know a true definition of love we need to know it from God's Word God decides the meaning of morality
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And what first Corinthians 13 6 says is that love rejoices with the truth
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What the Bible says is this simple agenda that has been pushed forward is not love
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But rather sinful conduct that violates God's holy law
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Christian author Warren Weersbe once said love without truth is brutality
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Or sorry, let me say that again love without truth is immorality truth without love is brutality
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So we see is this verse has been taken out of context and abused in order to justify one's sin
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Today we get the opportunity to view this verse in its context to learn what it really means as Jesus teaches on it in the
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Sermon on the Mount What we are going to see today is that there is A sinful way to offer judgment and there is a righteous way to offer judgment
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We will see the important difference between These two this morning.
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So at this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 7 We will be looking at verses 1 through 6 and if you're using a red
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Bible in the pews, it's on page 9 965 this sermon is titled honor
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God with your judgments and Our big idea is this Judge with right judgment.
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We already saw that today in the call to worship Judge with right judgment. We're gonna see three patterns to follow
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But before we jump into our text this week, let me give you a little recap of last week's sermon
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We're always coming from somewhere and going somewhere else Our big idea was do not worry about your life in this world
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We saw this in verses 25 through 34 of Matthew 6 and we saw two reasons why we are not to worry
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The first reason is that unbelievers Foolishly focus their attention on the things of this world and we are not to do that Rather we are to wisely focus on the things of God And this was the second reason why we are not to worry as we focus on what
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God Has for us with an eternal focus the Lord will take care of the rest
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He will always provide for our needs Now this leads us to our text this morning
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And let me begin by reading our text and then we will dig into it. This is what Jesus said
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In verses 1 through 6 as he preaches the sermon on the mountain. He says Judge not that you not be judged
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For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you
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Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye? But do not notice the log that is in your own eye or how can you say to your brother?
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Let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye You hypocrite
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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
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Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs
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Lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. So These Jesus proclaims these words to this crowd as he's overlooking the
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Sea of Galilee And he starts off by saying judge not that you not be judged
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What Jesus does here is he transitions from personal temptations in chapter 6 to interpersonal temptations at the beginning of chapter 7
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Jesus starts off by saying these words and as I mentioned in the introduction This is often one of the most misunderstood verses in the
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Bible Our culture loves to use this and they use it as a weapon against people who really care about what the
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Bible says and There's a lesson in this as we read this Anytime we read the
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Bible Or any document for that matter. We must read everything in context
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This is so important. If you take something out of context, you can make it mean whatever you want
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But to get the proper meaning you must understand what a verse says in its
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Context and let me give you an example of this If I said to you You took your child to school
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The question is did you drop your child off at St. Croix Falls elementary school?
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Or did you dominate your child in monopoly? All right, the context matters which one
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Or obviously if you if you beat someone in a game you took the person to school that's a slogan that we use
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The context matters the context decides the proper meaning This verse has been hijacked from its context maybe more than any other in the
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Bible And we will see this come to light more as we look at this passage so Jesus continues this thought in verse 2 by saying for with the judgment you pronounce
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You will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you a Self -righteous prideful person
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Likes to set him or herself up as lawgiver and judge Another way to say this is judge jury and executioner, right?
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You decide everything The Bible is full of commands that tell us that in certain circumstances
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It is not right to pass judgment And you may ask what circumstances might this be?
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We may look at another Christian and talk about him or her like that person is an inferior
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Christian to us And not treat that person with care Treating this in inferiority as their permanent destiny at the end of the day only
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God knows Who is more faithful? We must leave that up to him.
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We should not have a condemning attitude Toward a fellow believer, but we need to be people who build others up The Apostle Paul warns us in 1st
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Corinthians 4 or 5. He says do not pronounce judgment before the time Before the
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Lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart
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Then each one will receive his commendation from God So in other words at the judgment
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God Isn't gonna be the one who tells you everybody Their faithfulness in this life.
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It's not our job to do that What is interesting is that in 1st Corinthians 3 1 the
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Apostle Paul? refers to the Corinthians as infants in Christ And this might catch us by surprise
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Because he just said do not pronounce judgment and then he says you're infants He said
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I'm not an infant, but you are Infants then in 1st Corinthians 4 15 Paul refers to himself as their father in the faith
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Well, that sounds like a judgment Paul is telling them. I am more spiritually mature than you are
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He tells them this in close proximity to the verse. I just read to you where he said do not pronounce judgment before the time
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The Bible does not contradict itself so there has to be harmony here So are we to judge or not to judge others?
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The answer is both If you perceive that someone is not as far along in the faith
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And you try to help that person grow in their walk with God This is a good judgment, and that's what
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Paul is doing here when he calls them infants in Christ However, if you say this person is an inferior
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Christian, and you do not do this constructively But in a condemning way, and you are in fact rooting against that person.
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This is very sinful This type of judgment must be repented of we see this quite a bit in Christianity today, so we need to be very careful
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Conservative Christians can be easily judgmental And Jesus is warning us about setting ourselves up as judge
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And we should not judge the motives of other Christians as if we know everything going on in their heart
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We don't It's interesting that even we don't oftentimes know the motives of our heart.
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We have to examine Okay, what why am I really doing this and? We need to dig and see what's going on in my heart
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And it's even harder to know the motives of another's heart Now if one's unfaithfulness is right out in the open
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Where we can easily see it Then we can make some judgments, but even when we offer this judgment.
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We should be very careful and I'll mention a little bit more on this later, but Jesus is warning us about being self -righteous
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This person will not be able to claim ignorance at the final judgment the person who is judgmental
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This is so because self -righteous people know morality They know what the
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Bible says about how to live and they can see very well when others stray from God's law
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But you know what the problem is Self -righteous people have a very hard time seeing their own sin
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Prideful people have a very high view of themselves But they don't like seeing their own sins, but only the sins of others
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How do we know if we are self -righteous? Here are a few tests to see how much self -righteousness we have when you hear a sermon
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Are you convicted by your own sin, or do you most often think of the sins of others?
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That's a good test Here's another one. Are you more concerned about your own sin or the sins of others?
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Or let's take make this even broader. Are we more concerned about our own sins or the sins of society?
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And this is a really tempting one right now because we look at the sins of society. We're saying man They had they're really blowing it
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Are we more grieved with our own sins? And I'm preaching to myself here as I'm preaching to you
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Do we spend enough time looking at the darkness in our own hearts Now for everyone who knows
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Christ this darkness is there is darkness still in your heart But it can be defeated through the power of the
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Holy Spirit This indwelling sin can be weakened But the question is are we killing this sin or are we letting it live comfortably within us?
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Self -righteous people like to point out the sins of others, but not their own To have a critical spirit is ugly
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Very ugly to be around people with a critical spirit is not enjoyable It's miserable
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People like to set themselves up as judge because of pride. That's the root sin here
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One likes to feel morally superior to those Around them you like to look down at people instead of humbling yourself
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And if we are honest all of us are susceptible to passing judgment on another in a critical sinful manner
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One of our missionaries Brian Stout Formerly a missionary to Macedonia, but they're moving in a few weeks to Croatia And he once said to me something that has stuck with me
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He said we are to be quick to love and slow to judge
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Quick to love and slow to judge. Those are good words God will judge the self -righteous
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Judgment and all the sins of that person People who set themselves up as judge almost think that they will avoid the judgment
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Altogether because they are so righteous. There really isn't much wrong with me The self -righteous person says the correction from God Will only be small compared to the many good things
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I have done and it's going to be so great for these these horrible people out there But this person will be in for a great surprise as I mentioned above self -righteous people are very sinful people and God knows all of their sins and The self -righteous person will be judged for every wrong done including the sin of self -righteousness
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The unbeliever will be punished for the many wrongs done in the lake of fire Well, the believer will lose much reward for their self -righteousness
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What Jesus says at the end of verse 2 is that with the measure you use it will be measured to you
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As I already mentioned the judgmental person knows morality well, they're an expert in morality and It's quick to point out the sins of others
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But since this person did not carefully live out this morality in his or her life
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God is going to hold this person to a very high standard at the final judgment
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In other words, the judgmental person will not be able to claim ignorance God will say you knew and yet you did not live this out
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James says something similar similar to this in James 3 1 about teachers those who teach the
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Bible He says this not many of you should become teachers my brothers for you
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Know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness Not many of you should be judgmental because we could say that too because if you judge others you will be judged with greater strictness
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Now it's interesting. I was at a pastor's lunch a while back and there was a young intern from one of the churches and I asked him
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How he decided to pursue pastoral ministry And he told me his story and he said he's like I wasn't really sure
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I wanted to become a pastor because I know that I'm gonna be judged more strictly When I heard him say that I'm like, wow, that's really mature to say that I wish more pastors would
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Think that way, you know, and it made me think man. I need I need to take my preacher in the
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Bible very seriously because I'm gonna be judged more strictly because I'm a teacher of the Word of God and a judgmental person will be
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Judged more strictly in a similar way God is going to hold accountable the one who knows more over the one who knows less
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Jesus says in Luke 12 48 to the one much is given much will be required We should not desire to be self -righteous people the one who knows the
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Bible and criticizes others But is not well acquainted with his or her own heart in church history some of the
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Giants of the Faith J. I Packer who recently passed away He was a
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Christian pastor and author He said of the Puritans of the 17th century
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He said that that these were Giants of the faith and I heard someone else say that they were well acquainted with their sin very well acquainted
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They they saw their sin better than they saw the sins of others
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But judgmental people are not well acquainted with their own sin They could tell you everything about the sins of others, but not their own and as conservative
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Christians we can be judgmental on Wednesday nights, we are going through Jerry Bridges book respectable sins and These are sins that we often tolerate that you know
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We don't tolerate these taboo sins, but we're willing to put up with these other sins in our lives as if they're no big deal
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Judgmentalism is one of the sins that he mentions So I encourage you to come on on Wednesdays if you were able as we go through and Really examine our hearts together as we look at these respectable sins in our life
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So Jesus says judge with right judgment and the first pattern we are to follow is not to viciously pass judgment on another
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The second pattern we are to follow is this Carefully offer Judgment to another okay, so we are given permission
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We're gonna see this here, and this is completely different than what we just looked at Verses three through five we will see this
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Jesus says this again Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye? But do not notice the log that is in your own eye or how can you say to your brother?
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Let me take the speck out of your eye When there is the log in your own eye You hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye
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And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye now when
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Jesus uses the word brother here He's not referring to fellow believers, but a fellow countrymen
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He's talking to Israelites as he is preaching here on the Sermon on the Mount And you will notice here that there are two pieces of wood in the eyes of two different people
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The log is in the eye of the self -righteous person is a big log and The speck this is little speck is in the eye of the one being corrected
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Now Jesus uses an illustration that would have hit close to home for him Mark chapter 6 verse 3 says that Jesus father was a carpenter he was used to working with wood and it is believed that Jesus himself during his life was a
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Carpenter So Jesus knew wood just like Gordy knows wood and Sean knows wood and others in our church
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And Jesus is saying here. You notice there's sin, but you don't see the giant sin in your own eye one of the sins of society that we've been pointing out lately is
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Cultural Marxism and if you watch the NFL today, you're gonna see this on full display the the cultural
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Marxist movement that has really overtaken our country and It's interesting that this is this has infiltrated the church as well.
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Not just society but the church And there are pastors who have taken part in this and I found it interesting that I Think it was about a year ago
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John MacArthur who has really stood up against this He spoke out publicly on a different issue and His tone was not the best and and I admit
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I think he sinned He could have he could have said something in a more loving way But it was interesting that all these people on Twitter who are fully engaged in cultural
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Marxism Had a field day of criticizing him and I was thinking okay there these people they're not seeing this giant log
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They're engaging in false teaching. They don't see this giant log in their own eye and yet they're pointing out
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Someone's tone. Okay, which is appropriate. It's appropriate to point out someone's tone But to miss the log that's in your own eye
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That's really bad. And so I thought that was interesting. It made me think of this passage when I was seen then on full display self -righteous people are
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Blind to their own sin, but can clearly see the sins of others Now when Jesus mentions that the log is in the eyes of the self -righteous person
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This is a call for each of us to see if indeed we are noticing the sins of others while missing all of our sins
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Whenever we make a judgment about someone or offer correction. This is a good time to examine this
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We need to ask ourselves the question is our own heart pure Much of what
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Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount is targeted to the Pharisees and the scribes these these
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Jewish False teachers who were incredibly prideful incredibly self -righteous
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They considered themselves righteous when they weren't Jesus has called them hypocrites several times already in the
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Sermon on the Mount and he does it here again in verse 5 But as Jesus is preaching to the crowd
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He says don't be like them They are self -righteous
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They notice the sins of others But are blind to their own They set themselves up as judge when that belongs to God alone
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Unbelievers can commit the sin of self -righteousness And and they so often do obviously that unbelievers are slaves to the sin of self -righteousness
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But believers, of course can also sin with self -righteousness and Jesus is warning
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Them and us do not fall into this sinful pattern of self -righteousness
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So Jesus tells us not to be like that and then in verse 5 he tells us what we are to do
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He says first take the log that this log that is in your eye
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In order that you can see the speck that is in your brother's eye
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So are we to offer judgment to another? Yes, we are
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Jesus says in John 7 24. I read this in the call to worship Do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgment.
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We are to judge with right judgment if someone strays You can lovingly correct that person
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My old pastor used to say when seeing a believer who is not following God's way he would ask the question.
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Are you open to an observation? This is the kind of culture that we want to have at this church
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One where we love, you know each other enough where we're willing to point something out in someone's life
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To do it lovingly and if you do it in the right way People are likely to respond to it.
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Well, I mean you don't want to hit them over the head But you want to say you know what I love you and I I care about you and I I just want you to see this in your life
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We want to have that kind of culture here. This is God's way of offering judgment first Corinthians 13 7
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This is what the Apostle Paul means when he writes love believes all things This does not mean we are gullible and For anything we need to be discerning
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But what Paul means is that we give people the benefit of the doubt when we're offering judgment It doesn't so it doesn't mean we offer judgment automatically to someone
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We want to give people benefit out, but there are times when we can speak into someone's life when there's a cleared line that has been crossed and if one is
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Receiving the correction knows that you love them. They are so much more likely to receive The offer of the speck in their eye and this correction should come after we have examined ourselves first to see the log that might be in our eye and If we see the log in our eye, we should confess that sin before the
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Lord or even confess that sin to someone else And if there is no log then we get then and we after exam ourselves then we can offer judgment to someone else
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So we are to judge with right judgment and the second pattern We are to follow is that we are to carefully pass judgment on To another but we need
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I want to emphasize that we need to think the best of others So we need to be slow to judge, but at times we can offer
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Judgment to others the third pattern we are to follow is this we are to properly judge those hostile toward the truth
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Okay, we are to properly judge those hostile toward the truth and we will see this in verse 6
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Jesus says this do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs
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Lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you Now Jesus mentions here dogs and he mentions pigs
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When we think of dogs and pigs we have a positive connotation. I think for the most part right at least with dogs
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We love these furry pets But in ancient times dogs did not hold such a positive reputation
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This would not have been a good time for your your furry friend to be alive They were not man's best friend, but rather scavengers who roamed the city looking for garbage to find food
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In fact even recently I seven years ago when I was in Macedonia And we visited
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Greece while I was there there were dogs roaming the streets I mean these dogs they were just sleeping there, and they were eating and and living with no owner
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The Jews considered this animal unclean and even gentile and even they called Gentiles dogs as well
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Those who did not follow God and and they also called their enemies dogs now with pigs
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We also have a positive connotation not because there are pets probably not right anybody have a pet pig probably not
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But they taste good. Okay. That's why that's where the positive connotation comes the bacon sausage pork
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These are some of our favorite foods But pigs were designed they were designated in the
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Old Testament law is unclean According to Leviticus 11 verses 7 and 8
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So they did not have a positive connotation among Jews the people whom Jesus is talking to here as he gives this sermon
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Jesus knew how the Jews thought of dogs and pigs Jesus was a Jew and so he uses them as symbols in this text for enemies of the cross
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What Jesus is telling them is you did not give dogs. What is holy because they are scavengers
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The meat sacrificed at the temple would not be given to dogs This would have been very wrong in the same way pigs were never to be sacrificed at the temple
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They were an unclean animal in the second century BC Hellenistic King Antiochus Epiphanes he offered a pig on the altar in Jerusalem and Antiochus forced the priests to eat the pig
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This led to the infamous Jewish Maccabean revolt against Greece And he did he put he did he sacrificed his pig to insult the
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Jewish people So the Jews that Jesus is talking to her would be like man We don't like pigs they were unclean and Jesus told them you don't throw your pearls before pigs as Jesus is describing dogs and pigs the
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Jews listening to him would have viewed these as vile Now when Jesus talks about dogs and pigs he's talking about unclean
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Believers what he is saying is you don't put what is precious before them
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Let me let me specify this unclean unbelievers. That's what that's what he's talking about here You don't put this before them.
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What is holy and what is considered pearls? Jesus calls the kingdom of God which he was offering throughout his ministry that people would receive him and by receiving him
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They would receive the kingdom of God This is what he said in Matthew chapter 13 verses 45 and 46
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He said the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls Who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it
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So this is what Jesus is saying Do not continue to give the
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Word of God and the gospel to haters of God's Word to these dogs and these pigs
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The Word of God is holy And he compares it to precious pearls
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You don't put what is holy and what is treasure before those who are hostile toward the gospel
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Now you might be saying well pastor set that we're supposed to share the gospel with unbelievers Absolutely we are
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But what Jesus is saying here is That sometimes when you offer the gospel to someone and they mock it and they're hostile toward it
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He said you don't keep offering the gospel to this person
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It's interesting that when the Apostle Paul was was preaching the gospel During his missionary journeys in Acts chapter 17 verses 32 to 34
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The Apostle Paul got three different responses to his gospel invitation some believed others said we will hear you again and These are the people you want to continue to get bring the gospel to but there was a third group some mocked
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They made fun of it. They were hostile To the gospel and the one who mocks are the ones that Jesus has in mind here in verse 6
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These are the dogs. These are the pigs They are hostile to the Christian faith, this does not mean that these people will never believe
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But you are not to keep bringing the treasure before them when they show zero interest and are even hostile toward the message
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Unless there is a softening that you can see you are not to continue to bring it before them
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The gospel is precious. You don't put it before dogs and pigs And later on in the gospel in Matthew 10 14.
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Jesus said if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words Shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town
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Paul properly judged those who mocked in in Acts chapter 18 verse 6 when he said
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Your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent from now on I will go to the
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Gentiles. So Paul presented the gospel to them. They were hostile and he says, you know what?
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I'm done with you. I'm gonna go to those who are more receiving to the message so We can offer judgment here.
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I said we need to examine this and say Lord Would you show me those people in my life who
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I should keep bringing the gospel to and those? Who I should keep bringing the gospel to you.
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We need to make a proper judgment here And the correct judgment that we can make is that they are self -condemned those who are hostile this is a right judgment and not a
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Sinful one the Word of God is a treasure and it's sad when people throw it aside If someone gave you a treasure chest of gold, would you throw it into the
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St. Croix River? Never to see it again, of course not But this is what unbelievers do that the hostile ones do to the
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Word of God If you persist with these people after they have already rejected you
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Jesus says they will trample the Word of God underfoot and turn to attack you so he's saying
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Bring the gospel to other people who will be more Receptive and if you do this, you don't have blood on your hands
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We should share the gospel with everybody But you do not have blood on hand your hands with those who mock and what we say is
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I Will no longer continue to offer the precious jewels of Scripture to this person
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So we are to judge with right judgment and we have seen three patterns in this sermon The first pattern is we are to follow is this we are not to viciously pass judgment on on another
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The second pattern is we are to carefully pass judgment upon another and the third is this we are to properly judge those hostile toward the truth by moving on from them and Moving on to someone else and my hope and prayer is that you you can see this passage clearly
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And I want to add one more point about the hostile group is it that might catch you by surprise It's interesting when you study the
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Bible you see things. They're like, I didn't know that was in there. That's interesting And as I was digging through this, I'm like that is very interesting
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So what should we do with those who are hostile and the answer is we should keep praying for that person Okay, but you don't keep putting the gospel before them
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But you pray for the person and and there may be a time when they move from the hostile category
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To a receptive category and we should pray for that And as a church and as individuals may we not be known though as as judgmental people but leave judgment to God and when we find ourselves in those appropriate times to offer judgment to another that we would examine our hearts first and Treat the person with care
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That we are offering correction to and may we have the wisdom to know when to stop offering treasure
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Before those hostile toward the truth. So we need wisdom in this lots of wisdom and we should pray for that May the
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Lord give us wisdom as we navigate this delicate subject now next
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Sunday We are going to look at a passage that brings Prayer back to the forefront.
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We've already looked at prayer. We looked at it for three Sundays a while back And what we're gonna see is we are to keep knocking on God's door on heaven's door
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And we will be encouraged by the promise this text give us when we knock on God's door
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At this time, let's bow our heads in prayer Father you always instruct us from the
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Word of God We're always learning We're always seeing new things And everything we learn we are to live this out
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You call us not just to be hearers of the word but doers of the word And so by the power of your
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Holy Spirit help us to live this out Help us to judge with right judgment. Help us not to be those who are quick to judge
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But maybe we be those who are quick to love and when those times are appropriate that we would offer the right judgment
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To another the Lord we bring this prayer before you In Jesus name,