Pulling The "Judge Not" Card (Amy Grant, Charles Stanley vs Andy Stanley)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Legalism is the teaching that you are saved by keeping rules. You're saved by keeping the law. So as long as you don't do this, and you don't do that, and you don't do that, then you're going to heaven.

Legalism Versus Obedience From the Heart

Is that true? Well, that's what a lot of the rabbis, the scribes, and Pharisees were teaching. And their obedience maybe had other motives, but what should our obedience be? It should be from what? From the heart.

People sometimes try to change from the outside in rather than changing from the inside out. We need Christ in our heart. That way we change from in here and then eventually it comes out here. But if you try just to change from the outside in, you're not addressing the root issue.

So all of this, this is what Jesus is getting at. But again, there are people who still have the idea that the Ten Commandments, the law of God, the Old Testament, all that, out the window. We talked about this a couple months ago.

You know, legalism was the problem back then. Right now, legalism is not the problem. Right now, the problem is the opposite. What is it called? Legalism and license. I mentioned a few months ago the story about the Christian contemporary singer Amy Grant.

And so if you like Amy Grant, listen, I'm not against you if you like her music. This is just the perfect illustration, so you'll have to excuse me. But she talked about how she justified hosting a gay wedding at her home because she essentially said, this is the point of the message, really.

She said that God no longer believes or is worried about the Ten Commandments. He only reduced it to one commandment, and that commandment is what? You know this by now. Love. Right. And then people redefine love.

Talked about this a lot. They redefine love. They detach it from the context, which is the law. And there you go. People now have a license to kind of do whatever they wish. But you have to ask, again, why do people do that?

Why do some people think that Jesus did away with the commandments in the Old Testament? Again, some people are taught incorrectly. That's one reason. But many do it because they want to do away with the commandments.

Why? Because they want to break the commandments, and they are looking to justify themselves. But at the same time, they want to still feel spiritual and talk about Jesus, all while living life on their own terms.

You know, when we talk about a person getting saved or putting their faith in Jesus, one thing we often say is we encourage people, give your life to the Lord. Isn't that one thing you'll hear believers say?

Give your life to Christ. Giving your life to Christ is one thing. Saying the right thing and then keep on living the way I want to live, that's not giving your life to Christ. So, this is what Jesus is addressing, people who think the commandments are out the window.

So, that's one thing people do. They believe that. The commandments no longer matter. We're not accountable to the Ten Commandments. That same pastor, Andy Stanley, you know his dad, you heard this week Charles Stanley passed away.

Charles Stanley, I listened to Charles Stanley's preaching for years. And the man was solid on this, that he preached against sin, didn't he? He was faithful in that, to preach against sin. But his son said, we need to unhitch from the Ten Commandments.

And he once said in a sermon, as a Christian you are no longer accountable to the Ten Commandments. So, the apple fell far from the tree, is my point. And it's sad. But what does that communicate? You don't have to obey God.

You can do whatever you want. You don't need to obey the Ten Commandments. That's the message getting across. And of course, he's now open and affirming and celebrating homosexuality in his church. So, that's where this road leads, you understand.

So, that's what some people do. They elevate love. So, love is all that matters. Forget the commandments. Here's another thing they do. And we'll talk more about this when we get to Matthew 7. But this is all part of the context of the Sermon on the Mount.

The "Judge Not" Card and Hypocrisy

People will pull out the judge not card. Have you seen this? Who's had somebody pull the judge not card on you? Yeah. Maybe you've pulled the judge not card on someone. Here's how that works. If you say that a behavior is wrong.

And I don't believe we should go around picking people apart or just looking for every little thing to bring up. I don't do that. I don't think Christians should do that. But when there's a real obvious problem and you want to help somebody, you can say that a certain behavior is wrong.

You can be reading straight from the Bible. Or the Bible saying it's wrong. And someone will say, well, you know, Jesus said, what? Judge not. And what are they saying? That, well, Jesus taught us don't ever make any judgments about personal behavior.

Again, it's like, what Bible are you reading? Now, should we judge? See, there's verses in the Bible that say we shouldn't judge. Then there's verses that say we should. So we have to kind of define what we're talking about.

But this is the idea, again, that people have that Jesus doesn't want any of his followers to ever make judgments about personal behavior. If that's what Jesus was saying, he's contradicting Moses. Because if you've ever read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy, did Moses make personal judgments about behavior?

You better believe he did. So Jesus, if that were true, which it's not, Jesus would be contradicting Moses. And of course, Jesus would be contradicting himself. Because later on, he tells his followers to make righteous judgments.

And even within the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has a lot to say about personal behavior. So Jesus, one thing he did with the scribes and Pharisees, he exposed their hypocrisy. And let's face it, we all play the hypocrite because we have this standard of we want to obey God and we fall short.

So everyone at some point plays the hypocrite. But this statement, people who say, judge not, I just can't help but point this out. So I hope you'll indulge me for a moment. And I also want to teach you to know how to handle this.

So here's the way it usually goes. Let's say there is a behavior in the culture that's socially acceptable. I think of drugs, gambling, and sexual sin that is socially acceptable behavior because Hollywood celebrities and musicians are doing it out in the open and they're idols, right?

They're celebrities, everyone loves them. So those sins are socially acceptable. So if you say something about that, hey, judge not, don't make any judgment about their behavior. I've never heard somebody respond that way when you say, hey, racism is wrong.

Racism is evil, which I believe racism is wrong. But if a pastor said or a Christian said racism is wrong, would anybody come back, hey, don't judge. Hey, this guy is in the Klan, hey, don't judge his behavior.

Would anybody say that?

No.

It's hypocrisy. What they're doing is they're trying to make space, as people say, they're trying to make space by pulling the judge not card for the behavior that they want to make acceptable either because they're doing it or someone they care about is doing it.

But they would never say it about sins that are socially unacceptable. So are they being led by the word of God? No, they're being led by the culture. Okay, so now that I got that off my chest, I feel much better.

Thank you.

Moving on, look at verse 18. Jesus says, For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Notice Jesus is still talking about what?

The law.

Oh, man, these pastors always talking about the commandments and the law and blah, blah, blah. You know, Jesus does that a lot. He talks about the law a lot. Assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Not only are the Old Testament scriptures not null and void, they are established, we'll just say forever. But as long as this age lasts, the scriptures, the law is what? It's preserved. You realize the Old Testament scriptures Jesus talked about, that they were preserved?

Why were they preserved? Because they're still true. They will always be true. Jesus says, basically, not even the dotting of an I or the crossing of a T, not even that much shall pass away till all is fulfilled.

This also speaks to Jesus' view of the Bible, that every word, not just every word, but every letter, not just every letter, but every dotting of an I and crossing of a T, it is inspired by God, it is the word of God.

God forbid somebody says that two-thirds of the Bible is irrelevant, or they just want to pick and choose the parts they like. Jesus said, it's all the word of God. It shall not pass away. So what's Jesus doing?

Is he doing away with the law? No, he's establishing the law. He's teaching the law the way it was meant to be taught. The Apostle Paul said this in Romans 3, 31, do we then make void the law through faith?

Certainly not, or God forbid. On the contrary, Paul said, we establish the law. Without the law of God, you really wouldn't know what was right and what was wrong. I mean, you'd know some of the basics, the murder's wrong.

You'd know that without the Ten Commandments. But without God's law, you wouldn't know what was right. Matthew 5, 19, we're almost done. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So if there's a teacher and he's breaking the commandments and he's teaching other people, hey, it's all done away with.

You can now do what you want. A pastor like that is called what? Least in the kingdom of heaven. Or a Christian who does that. You realize there are Christians, well, every Christian sins. But there are some professing Christians who try to get other Christians to sin too.

They want to lead them astray. Jesus says you'll be called least in the kingdom. Now some commentators disagree. They say that that just means you won't get any rewards. Others believe Jesus is saying like that means you're out.

You're out.

You're excluded from the kingdom. And I tend to think that's probably what he meant because there are believers who do the wrong thing but feel shame about it. I think we all, if we're being led by the spirit, yeah, we make mistakes.

We want to do better. And God forbid I would ever want to lead someone else or cause them to stumble. But if somebody is just doing whatever they want and they're trying to cause other people to sin as well and they get some sort of delight, it probably means you're not a Christian.

So in conclusion, this is all very important teaching on the law of God. Again, the law and the prophets make up two-thirds of the Bible. But Jesus' goal here is to highlight the importance of the teaching ministry of the apostles.

They needed to get it right so that they could be teachers in the church. And today, we might be living 2 ,000 years later, but we need to get this right. Because it tells us how to live a moral, godly, obedient life.

And I hope that's your desire. You believe in Jesus, praise God. But that's just the start. We want to live a life pleasing to God. So this idea that God's law is done away with, you know, there's always been people who believed that.

There's people today who believe that. And they turn the grace of God into a license to break the commandments. And Jesus is saying, God forbid. Let's pray. And Lord, how thankful we are that you demonstrated your love toward us by coming into this world.

God made flesh to live the life we couldn't live. Because you, Lord, you perfectly fulfilled the law. And because we owed a debt we could not pay, you paid a debt you did not owe. And Lord, if there's someone listening right now who either needs to come to faith in Jesus or recommit their faith or just make a commitment that I want to live the obedient, blessed life, Lord, I just pray that this morning, through the power of your word and your Holy Spirit, that you'd make a difference in their heart and that they would do that.

And that, Lord, you'd bring us back here again next week to worship you in spirit and in truth. And we thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com. And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.