Sermon: Judge Not Lest You Be Judged

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So today, I'm gonna pick back up in the Kingdom of God series. I'm gonna be doing

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Matthew 7, one through six. And so I titled it,

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Judge Not Lest You Be Judged, which we've all heard, right? Yes.

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So, unless you've been living under a rock or aren't on social media, you're not aware of the couple of weeks we've had.

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It's been rough, just to be transparent. We've had a few articles posted on the internet that's gone kind of crazy, saying some crazy stuff about us that is furthest from the truth.

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And it's funny though, the last three times I've taught on Sunday, there's been some sort of major blow up on social media, like as I was preparing, and it's gone right along with every message

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I taught. So I think God's trying to show me something bigger. But like I mentioned, we've all heard it.

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We've all heard someone say, stop judging me. Only God can judge me. And of course, well, the

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Bible says not to judge. The question is, is that what it really says? So the text again is

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Matthew 7, one through six. Judge not that you be not judged. For the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

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And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

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

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

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

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One of my favorite quotes you've probably heard Jeff mention is from Paul Washer. He says, people tell me, judge not, lest ye be judged.

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I always tell them, twist not scripture, lest ye be like Satan. So today

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I wanna explain and show you why taking that verse like that is twisting it like Satan.

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But before we do, let me pray. Lord, I just thank you once again, just for this opportunity to bring the word before the church today,

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Lord. And I ask that you would speak through me, that you'd get me out of the way, that you'd give me the words to say, Lord, and that you would be glorified.

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I ask that we come away with a better understanding of this text, and we ask these things in Christ's name, amen.

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Okay, so judge not, Matthew 7, one through two, I'll repeat it. Judge not that you be not judged, for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

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This is probably, besides maybe John 3, 16, the most quoted verse by non -believers, by atheists, and by secularists.

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A .W. Pink said this, which before I get into, let me mention this, I just told Isaac, it's funny,

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I had my notes pretty well prepared this week, I've been working on them, and then I came across A .W.

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Pink's commentary on Matthew, and I was like, what have I got myself into? Because he's just incredible, and there was way more material that I missed, so I've been kind of scrambling to fit stuff in and bring it all together, but I'm gonna quote

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Pink a few times, he's got some really great insight. So he said, there are few verses quoted more frequently than the opening one of Matthew 7, and few less understood by those who are so ready to cite it and hurl it at the heads of those whom they ignorantly or maliciously suppose are contravening it.

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Let the servant of God denounce a man who is promulgating serious error, and there are those boasting of their broad -mindedness who will say to him, judge not that ye be not judged.

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Let the saint faithfully rebuke an offender for some sin, and he is likely to have the same text quoted against him.

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So in the media, who are the ones that are always judging? Christians, right?

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We're always told we're being judgmental. Anytime we make any sort of stance on any moral argument whatsoever, we're automatically the ones judging.

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Here's my question. Isn't that judgmental to say that I'm judging?

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Aren't you judging me, saying that I'm being judgmental? Lonnie said yes.

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I heard him. Of course, this is true, right? Unless you're a Christian. And then you can just throw that little piece of logic right out the window.

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What we have today is moral relativism. So judgmentalism ultimately is defined by subjective feelings and emotions.

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The postmodern moral motto, right? That's what we're up against, is stop judging.

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And if I'm not allowed to be judgmental, then you can't judge my judgmentalism.

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We hear this argument mostly when it comes to things like sex, marriage, abortion, lifestyles.

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That's when you hear most of the time people saying that you're being judgmental. However, you never hear anybody bring this argument up when you're talking about theft, murder, or rape.

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But ultimately, these are all moral judgments. Al Mohler said this.

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If you have this ethos of complete tolerance, then you have to find a way to tolerate intolerance.

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Ultimately, we all make judgments. We have to, life requires it, and God expects it.

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Couple examples. None of us in this room would ever hire a convicted child molester to be our babysitter.

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Neither would any of us hire a thief to be our accountant. And it's not just us as Christians.

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I think most people in the world, most unbelievers would do the same thing. But you have to make those judgments against people.

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For the intolerances, as Doug Wilson calls them, the issue is not that we're making moral judgments.

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It's just that we're not making their moral judgments. So let's get into the text.

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So first, my first point is that Christ is not saying not to judge.

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He's not saying we should not judge. If you look at the context, verse six, he tells us to make judgments against dogs and swine or pigs.

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So he's not saying not to make judgment, but judge how you want to be judged.

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So before we get into the verse, I'm gonna look at the bigger context of the chapter. So verse 15, in the same chapter,

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Christ says, "'Beware of false prophets who come to you "'in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.'"

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Judge between the wolves, right? Verse 16, "'You will recognize them by their fruits, "'our grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistle.'"

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Again, he's telling us to judge. Verse 20, "'Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.'"

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Here we're supposed to judge false prophets by their fruit. Verse 23, "'And then will

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I declare to them, "'I never knew you, depart from me, "'you workers of lawlessness.'" So here

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Christ is speaking of future judging, but the question now becomes, how do we define lawlessness by the context of this verse?

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Verses 28 through 29, "'And when Jesus finished these sayings, "'the crowds were astonished at his teaching, "'for he was teaching them as one who had authority "'and not as their scribes.'"

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So the answer to that question, how do we define lawlessness, is by Christ's authority, by his standard.

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If we accept this idea of no judgmentalism, does that mean that we escape judgment?

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The answer, of course, is absolutely not. Ultimately, all men's thoughts, all men's actions will be judged righteously by God's perfect judgment.

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So the bottom line is, we judge according to God's law, not by arbitrary subjective reasoning, but by God's objective standard.

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John 7 .24 says, "'Do not judge by appearances, "'but judge with right judgment.'"

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To reiterate, again, he's not saying to not judge at all, but judge righteously.

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Ultimately, God is the judge. We're not the judge, but we're only proclaiming what the judge says.

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We should desire to be judged by God's law, not man's law, not autonomously.

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No one in their right mind, I don't think, would want this. I know

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I wouldn't want to be judged by my autonomous standards, and I think that's part of the problem with our culture is everybody is wanting to subjectively determine what is truth.

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At that point, there's no standard of justice, and every decision ultimately becomes arbitrary.

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Thank goodness God does not judge us like that. The second point

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I want to make here is, let's look immediately preceding this verse, let's look at the context.

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Who is Christ speaking about specifically in verse three? The brethren.

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He talks about looking at the speck in your brother's eye. So the entirety of the context of this is a

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Sermon on the Mount. He's talking to his disciples, and he's explaining to them what he requires as far as their character and their conduct, and the fact that he expected to be radically higher than their religious elite, like the

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Pharisees and Sadducees. So if an atheist says to you, the

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Bible says not to judge me, ultimately we can say to them, so what, right?

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To use what Jeff always says, so what if I'm judging you? However, if someone claiming

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Christ says to you, well, scripture says not to judge me, which I've had happen, and I'm sure most of us in this room probably have as well.

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Again, two points. Christ is not saying we can't judge, and specifically this refers to believers.

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So not only is he not saying we can't judge, but he's saying to judge believers. So that brings us to the text.

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Verse one, again, judge not that you be not judged. Judge here literally means to judge, to pass judgment or condemn.

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The idea is that you're putting someone on trial before court. So do not pass judgment lest judgment be passed on you.

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Do not condemn lest you be condemned. At this point,

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Calvin says, this depraved eagerness for biting, censuring, and slandering is restrained by Christ when he says judge not.

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It is necessary that believers should become blind and perceive nothing, but only that they should refrain from an undue eagerness to judge, for otherwise the proper bounds of rigor will be exceeded by every man who desires to pass sentence on his brethren.

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So verse two, for what the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

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Pink here warns us that there is one above whose eye is ever upon us, and his ear open to every word we utter.

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If that solemn fact were more seriously laid to heart by us, it would act as a powerful restraint upon us.

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So do you wanna be judged righteously? Then you should judge righteously. Do you wanna be judged by God's standard?

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Then you judge by God's standard. You will be measured by the same way you measure others.

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This does not mean that we should judge others with leniency or generously, hoping in return that God would judge us with leniency or generously.

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We should judge others truthfully, expecting the enduring scrutiny of the divine judge.

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And just because we have a righteous standing before God because of Christ's death for our sins, it does not mean that we won't be judged by God.

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We won't be judged here on earth. In fact, God promises to discipline his children.

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The parallel passage in the Gospels is Luke 6, 37 through 38, which says, "'Judge not, and you will not be judged.

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"'Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. "'Forgive, and you will be forgiven. "'Give, and it will be given to you.

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"'Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, "'running over, will be put into your lap. "'For what the measure you use, "'it will be measured back to you.'"

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And then also in Mark 4, 24, and he said to them, "'Pay attention to what you hear. "'With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, "'and still more will be added to you.'"

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So the idea here is, he's using an example of like measurement of goods. What's given should be equal to what's received.

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It's like the imagery of equal scales, right? Judgment for judgment, grace for grace.

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They should balance out. Again, we are not the judge. We do not occupy the judgment seat.

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And ultimately, we can only point to the judge's law. Here, Calvin says, "'We are not permitted, but are even bound "'to condemn all sins, "'unless we choose to rebel against God himself, "'nay, to repeal his laws, to reverse his decisions, "'and to overturn his judgment seat.

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"'It is his will that we should proclaim the sentence "'which he pronounces on the actions of men, "'only we must preserve such modesty towards each other, "'as to make it manifest "'that he is the only lawgiver and judge.'"

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We should never make our own law, and we should never judge someone by our own law, only by God's laws.

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James 4 .1, or I'm sorry, 4 .11 through 12 says, "'Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.

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"'The one who speaks against a brother "'or judges his brother speaks evil against the law "'and judges the law.

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"'But if you judge the law, "'you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. "'There is only one lawgiver and judge, "'he who is able to save and destroy.

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"'But who are you to judge your neighbor?' Similarly, in Romans 14, 10 through 13, it says, "'Why do you pass judgment on your brother?

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"'Or you, why do you despise your brother? "'For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, "'for it is written, "'As

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I live,' says the Lord, "'Every knee shall bow to me "'and every tongue shall confess to God. "'So then each of us will give an account "'of himself to God.

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"'Therefore, let us not pass judgment "'on one another any longer, "'but rather decide never to put a stumbling block "'or hindrance in the way of a brother.'"

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At this point, Matthew Henry said this, "'We must not sit in the judgment seat "'to make our word a law to everybody.

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"'We must not judge our brother, "'that is, we must not speak evil of him. "'We must not despise him nor set him at naught.

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"'We must not judge rashly "'nor pass a judgment upon our brother "'as he has no ground, "'but is only the product of our own jealousy "'and ill nature.

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"'We must not make the worst of people "'nor infer such invidious things "'from their words and actions as they will not bear.

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"'We must not judge uncharitably, unmercifully, "'or with a spirit of revenge "'and a desire to do mischief.

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"'We must not judge of a man's state by a single act "'nor of what he is in himself by what he is to us, "'because in our own cause we are apt to be partial.

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"'We must not judge the hearts of others "'nor their intentions, "'for it is

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God's prerogative to try the heart, "'and we must not step into his throne. "'What have we to do thus to judge another man's servant?'

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"'Counsel him and help him, but do not judge him.'" So this leads me to my next point, is that practically speaking, we should never judge someone's heart or intentions or motives or their appearance, only their actions.

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I'm gonna go briefly through here. Matthew Henry, I just read to you, has a list of judge -nots, right?

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So judge -not rashly. Judge -not out of jealousy or ill nature.

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Do not make the worst of people. Do not judge uncharitably or unmercifully or with a spirit of revenge or with a desire to do mischief.

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Here Pink says, "'To pass judgment on the motives of another "'which are open to none save the eye of omniscience "'is highly reprehensible, "'for it is an intrusion upon the divine prerogative "'and invading of the very office of God.

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"'Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? "'To his own master he standeth or falleth.'"

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If we could see our brother's heart, what would we see? Probably our own hearts, only probably not as bad.

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Psalm 51, nine through 10 says this, Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities, create in me a clean heart,

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O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Are we ever that grieved of our sins that we ask

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God to hide his face from them? Pink says, but one who is walking with God who is painfully conscious of the plague of his heart, who in some measure at least sees himself as God sees him, is so thoroughly aware of his awful corruptions, his many inward and outward defects, that he knows quite well that the worst men can say against him falls far short of the estimate he has for himself.

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The one who unsparingly judges himself is unruffled by the criticisms of others.

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So next time you go to judge somebody, remember this, when I judge,

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I'm being judged by the judge on how I judge. Let me repeat that.

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When I judge, I'm being judged by the judge on how I judge. Is the way we're judging others honoring to Christ?

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Is it from selfish motives and ambitions? So, so far to this point, we've looked at this text as God being the judge.

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There is some discussion amongst theologians that the judge may actually refer to other people when it says, lest you be judged, you might be referring to, say, your brothers and sisters.

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I think either one works, but Pink says this, not the judgments of men, but the judgments of God, not the decisions of time, but the verdicts of eternity.

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And then Spurgeon said this, if you impute motives and pretend to read hearts, others will do the same towards you.

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You do not object to men forming a fair opinion of your character, neither are you forbidden to do the same towards them.

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But as you would object to their sitting in judgment upon you, do not sit in judgment upon them.

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Examples of this sort of judging might be, say, the way someone looks, the clothes they wear, passing judgment upon them for their outward appearances.

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Another example may be, I don't know, some video you saw on social media and you assume their motives and intentions.

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The next point, and we're gonna move on to Matthew, or the verse three through five, we're gonna look at the log in your own eye.

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So verse three, 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?

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

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

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I think these verses are pretty self -explanatory, but I wanted to get a little bit into the text here.

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So the phrase, why do you see, implies why are you concerned, why do you care, why do you even pay attention to that speck in your brother's eye?

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And the phrase, how can you say, has the idea of, do you think it's right to say that, or by what right can you say that to your brother?

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So the word for hypocrite here is hypocrite, we all know this, Jeff talks about all the time.

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Literally, it's a play actor or a role player. The idea is that you're pretending to be somebody that you're not.

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Matthew 6, five says, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.

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Christ calls these guys whitewashed tombs, right? They look real nice on the outside, they're dressed real nice, they look very clean, but their hearts are filthy.

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Specifically, Christ here is talking to the Pharisees. Typically, throughout the

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Sermon on the Mount, the Pharisees are standing in the background, kind of muttering amongst themselves, probably whispering, maybe laughing.

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And these Pharisees like to parade around their righteousness, right, so that they look good before everybody.

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Luke 18, nine through 14 is the Pharisee and the tax collector. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

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Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Keep in mind, the

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Pharisee is the religious elite, everybody looks up to them, they're the example everybody wants to live by.

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The tax collector, everybody hates, it's the IRS agent. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus.

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God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax collector.

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I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get. Keep in mind, he's praying this in a way that everybody can hear him.

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But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying,

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God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

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I'd like to share, before I go a little bit further, my background, if you haven't heard my testimony.

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I was raised very, very legalistic, in Northern Baptist home.

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I come from a long lineage of missionaries and gospel heroes.

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My great -grandparents were missionaries in Kenya, where my grandfather was born. My grandfather went back to the

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Belgian Congo as a medical missionary, and my mother was actually born in Belgian Congo in the 60s.

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I consider my grandparents gospel heroes, and I mean that sincerely. They're some of the most amazing people.

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My grandfather is now with the Lord about almost four years, but my grandmother is still alive. She just turned 98.

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And the example they left for me and my family is incredible.

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You wanna talk about multi -generational legacy, just pretty much all their grandkids, all their kids, great -grandkids are being raised up in the

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Lord and are involved in ministry. And if I can just share a really cool story, actually, real quick.

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So when my grandpa was in the Belgian Congo, he built a hospital.

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And actually, the Belgian, well, he built a hospital, but then the Belgian government came and built him a real nice, say, art hospital.

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He ended up having to flee and never use it. But he literally carved this thing out of the jungle, built a house, hospital.

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And so my dad actually just been looking on Facebook and came in contact with this young man whose first name is

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Zimmer, which is my grandparents' last name. So he's named after my grandparents. And so that hospital is still being used today.

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There's like a village there now, and there's believers. And so it's cool, especially in light of everything that's happened this last couple of weeks, to hear the story of someone who's been affected by my grandparents and their view of the gospel and how it affected that area of the jungle in Africa.

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So back to what I was saying. I was raised legalistic. I love my grandparents to death, but they were legalists.

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I grew up thinking that if you smoked cigarettes, you were going to hell, especially a vape pen.

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That vape pen's of the devil, right? I thought if you had tattoos, you were probably going to hell.

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My grandma's never seen my tattoos. I'll just say that. I grew up thinking, or at least being told that dancing was like sin.

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You can't go to dances, right? Cheryl and I got married. We had dancing at our wedding, and it was quite the ordeal.

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But this, my friends, is true judgmentalism. Although I was raised with an inward holiness, an emphasis on inward holiness, outward holiness was over -emphasized.

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Who established these outward holiness codes? Tell you, it wasn't God. It wasn't the

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Bible, but legalists. When Cheryl and I first moved here to Arizona nine and a half years ago,

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I guess it was the second Sunday, we attended a church service where we ended up becoming members, but the pastor was wearing shorts, a

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Hawaiian shirt, and flip -flops. And we were like, what is happening? That guy's got shorts on, and flip -flops, and a

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Hawaiian shirt. That's how I was raised. When I go back home to Indiana, I don't dare wear my hat in church, which feels really awkward.

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I feel naked. So this pastor had no three -piece suit on.

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I'm not wearing a three -piece suit. It's 120 ,000 degrees outside right now. But I can promise you this.

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The apostles didn't wear a three -piece suit. They were probably wearing sandals, probably had unkempt hair, definitely had beards.

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They probably smelled like homeless people, and they had glorified dresses on. Now, if someone walked into church right now dressed like that,

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I think our church would be very accepting. I can tell you the church I grew up in, if someone walked in like the apostles, they'd be like, this guy needs to leave, call the cops.

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So they will know you by your fruit, not by the way you dress.

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Holiness is inward, it's not outward. I'm not saying that the clothing we wear shouldn't honor

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Christ. I'm not saying that we should come to church dressed like an

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ASU college student in August. That would definitely not honor Christ. But the point is that we as Christians should not judge other

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Christians by their outward appearances. So that leads me to the last couple weeks.

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I mentioned there's been a few articles. I'm not gonna get into details on that, but the point is that there's this group of people called discernment bloggers.

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I think of them as the Christian TMZ, because that's what they are.

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They look for anything they can get ahold of and make a big headline out of it, and they cause division and disunity among the body of Christ for their own glory, for their own

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Facebook likes, for their own Twitter followers, what have ya. Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 says, there are six things that the

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Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.

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A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

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So these are the six things that the Lord hates. Yes, he hates things. Despite what, nevermind.

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The six things God hates. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies.

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The seventh thing, which is an abomination to him, is one who sows discord among the brothers.

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In this list of things, number seven is worse than even murder.

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Personally, this church has experienced six of these this week, the last two weeks.

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I've learned a very valuable lesson that slander spreads like gangrene and becomes a game of Chinese telephone.

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One person writes one article that's not true and slanderous, next thing you know, there's six other articles that take it and run with it and get worse and worse each time.

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Leviticus 19, 16 says, "'You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people "'and you shall not stand up against the life "'of your neighbor.

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"'I am the Lord.'" These are modern Pharisees. They revel in other's sin and other's demise.

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I liken them to sharks. Why is that? Because they lie in wait.

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As soon as they smell the blood, they come out of nowhere and jump on whatever's happening and devour their brothers and sisters.

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This is an unhealthy fascination with their brothers and sisters' sin or lack thereof.

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This is what I call spin to make sin. You guys, I'm sure, watch O 'Reilly, he's got the no spin zone.

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I don't recommend it, but I'm just saying you probably heard of it. The point is that these guys spin their stories to make it appear as if their brothers and sisters are in some sort of horrible sin in order to get headlines.

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They love the twist words, again, in order to gain a following on social media.

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I liken them to twisters, like tornadoes, not the game twister. If you get too close with a twister and you try to play with it, it's gonna suck you in and destroy you.

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But if you leave that twister alone and you watch from a distance, it's gonna cause damage, but eventually it's gonna run on a wind, it's gonna die, and it's gonna go away.

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Like the Pharisees, these guys are moral supervisors. Remember what the

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Pharisees said in the parable of the tax collector? God, I thank you that I'm not like these guys.

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Similar to Matthew 7, 1, Proverbs 3, 34 says, toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.

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Don't be scornful, be humble. Those of you that are familiar with humble beings, release records, they have a shirt that says more humble rappers, please.

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It's true. We don't just need more humble rappers, we need more humble pastors, more humble fathers, more humble mothers, more humble

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TV producers, more humble IT guys, more humble janitors, you name it, go down the list, we need more of them.

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So back to the text. The idea here is that there's dust or a speck or a splinter in your brother's eye.

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One point I wanna make is that in order to see that little speck of dirt in your brother's eye, it's determined by watching them pretty closely.

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It's not something you just happen to notice passing by. You overlook all the good in that brother to find the one little bad speck in their eye.

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Sin is very blinding, and I wanna emphasize it, not saying that the person in the story here is blind, but blinded, meaning they're definitely a believer, they're not completely blind to the truth, but their sin is blinding their vision.

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There's a foreign substance in their eye that needs to be removed. So he says you can't see the log in your own eye.

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So log here, in the Greek, it's basically a heavy timber, it's a beam used for roof construction or to bar a door shut.

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So Christ intentionally exaggerated this to make a point. The handbook on the

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Gospel of Matthew says, on the other hand, the word rendered log describes a piece of lumber used in building.

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The saying about the speck in the log is purposely ridiculous, and is to be compared with the saying in Matthew 9 .24

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about the camel in the eye of the needle. One scholar describes the figure as intentionally grotesque, since no one can in reality have a log in his eye.

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It is intended to contrast the insignificant wrongs that the others do to us with the enormous sins that we commit against God.

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And so its real purpose is to exclude all condemnation of others. Indeed, this exaggerated language should be retained in the translation to make sure the reader gets the point.

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So the idea is that you're walking around basically with this giant log, right?

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Like sticking out of your eye, and you can't even see that it's in your eye, but you notice this little speck of dirt in your brother's eye.

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First remove the log so you can see clearly, and then you'll be able to remove the speck from your brother.

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You can't see clearly because you can't see past this giant beam sticking out of your eye.

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Obviously, the speck and the log are metaphors for sin. So back to verse one and two, are we to surrender all moral judgment?

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The answer is no. Are we to point out sin in our brothers and our sisters' lives?

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Yes. Are we to righteously judge our brothers and sisters? Yes.

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But first, we need to clean out our own eyes. If our brother has sin in their lives, how much do we say, judge not lest you be judged.

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No, of course not. We make a moral judgment. But again, first, we have to examine our own hearts, examine our own sin before we can do so.

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As a side note, always do it in private. Matthew 18, 15 through 17 says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

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If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a

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Gentile and a tax collector. Always do it in person, or at least send a private message on social media.

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I don't recommend you make assumptions and then write an article and blast it all over social media.

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Definitely not the way to go about it. So we are to practice moral judgments, but we need to do it with humility.

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We need to do it as sinners saved by grace. We do need to be concerned with the sin in our brother's lives.

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But first, we need to ask the Spirit to convict sin in our own lives. We need to see that sin in our brother's lives clearly.

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If we don't call out the sin in our brother's lives in a loving way, then we hate him.

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Illustration would be, if your brother's house is on fire, you see smoke billowing out his windows, do you say, eh, judge not lest you be judged.

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No, you go and tell him, hey dude, your house is on fire. It's the same idea, if your brother is burning himself down in sin, you need to go to him and say, hey man, you're killing yourself here, let me help you.

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So Christ is not forbidding admonishment of brothers and sisters, but he is forbidding the wrong manner in which so many of us do it.

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Our motive must be love, the purpose must be to glorify

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God, and the aim then is the restoration of that brother. I was just talking to my wife,

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I think it was last night, because I made myself a note to make sure I put this in.

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Everybody knows what's going on this week in the news, you know, with the racial tensions and people being murdered.

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I told her last night, I was like, more than ever, we as the body of Christ need to be unified.

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We need to have the same goals, the same intentions, and that's to expand the kingdom, to preach the gospel, and then ultimately, that will transform the culture.

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Instead, we got to spend more time the last two weeks trying to combat nonsense on the internet because of other brothers just stirring up strife and disunity.

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So we need to put that stuff aside and just focus on the gospel. Spurgeon said this, and it's a little bit of a long quote, so bear with me.

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The judging faculty is best employed at home. Our tendency is to spy out splinters in other men's eyes and not see the beam in our own.

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Instead of beholding with gratified gaze the small fault of another, we should act reasonably if we penitently consider the greater fault of ourselves.

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It is the beam in our own eye which blinds us to our own wrongdoing. But such blindness does not suffice to excuse us since it evidently does not shut our eyes to the little error of our brother.

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Fancy a man with a beam in his eye pretending to deal with so tender a part as the eye of another and attempting to remove so tiny a thing as a mote or splinter.

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Is he not a hypocrite to pretend to be so concerned about other men's eyes, and yet he never attends to his own?

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Jesus is gentle, but he calls that man a hypocrite who fusses about small things and others and pays no attention to great matters at home in his own person.

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Our reformations must begin with ourselves or they are not true and do not spring from a right motive.

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Sin we may rebuke, but not if we indulge it. We may protest against evil, but not if we willingly practice it.

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The Pharisees were great at censuring, but slow at amending. Our Lord will not have this kingdom made up of hypocritical theorists.

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He calls for practical obedience to the rules of holiness. After we ourselves are sanctified, we are bound to be eyes to the blind and correctors of unholy living, but not till then.

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Till we have personal piety, our preaching of godliness is sheer hypocrisy.

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May none of us provoke the Lord to say to us, thou hypocrite. We clearly, especially here at Apologia, are products of the

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Reformation, but as Spurgeon brought up in this quote, he is a surgeon, surgeon of the heart.

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True reformation starts where? With the heart. Back to Luke six,

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I read through a little bit earlier, 43 through 45. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.

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For each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.

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The good people out of the good treasure of his heart, or the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.

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For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. So reformation does not start from thorn bushes.

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It does not come from a bramble bush, but from a good tree, a good heart.

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Paul Tripp, who is a really awesome guy, has this analogy, we talked about a tree, you can't take, say, a thorn bush and staple apples to it, right?

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You can't try to make something produce fruit that doesn't normally produce fruit. It has to, from its root, have a solid root, it has to be able to produce that fruit from the root.

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Mark 20, or 720 through 23, which is a parallel to Luke six, says, and he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him.

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For from within, out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

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And these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. And then

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Proverbs 27, 19 says, in water, face reflects face.

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So the heart of man reflects the man. And then

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Psalm 51 .10, which we read through earlier, I'm just gonna read a portion here, it says, create in me a clean heart,

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O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Thomas Horton, who was an old

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English Puritan, said this, it should be so also for its influence, and according to this sense especially, are we to take it here in this place, and the desire of David.

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He was now upon the business of repentance. And amendment of life.

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To set upon a new course of life over what he had of late taken up. And now see here what he, or where he lays the groundwork and foundation of such a business as this, namely in the cleansing of his heart.

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Create in me a clean heart, O God. He begins with that. This is the spring and fountain of all amendment and reformation whatsoever.

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They that desire to reform their lives, they must endeavor to reform their hearts. They must labor to have right spirits, and the more else, all will be vain unto them, whatsoever they apply themselves to as concerning this matter.

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The reason of it is clear, because the heart is the original and spring of all evil, as our

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Savior himself has told us. We talk about all the time the spheres of government.

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You got self -government, family government, church government, and civil government. Reformation starts with self -government.

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Before we can sanctify the other spheres, we need to sanctify ourselves. Similarly here,

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Matthew Henry says, "'This spiritual charity must begin at home. "'For how canst thou for shame say to thy brother, "'Let me help to reform thee, "'when thou takest no care to reform thyself?'

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We need to have self -reproval. Before reproving our brother, we need to reprove ourselves.

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Again here, Henry says, "'Here's a good rule for reprovers. "'Go in the right method. "'First cast the beam out of thine own eye.

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"'Our own badness is so far from excusing us "'and not reproving, "'that our being by it render unfit to reprove "'is an aggravation of our badness.

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"'I must not say I have a beam in my own eye, "'and therefore I will not help my brother "'with the moat out of his.

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"'A man's offense will never be his defense, "'but I must first reform myself, "'that

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I may thereby help to reform my brother, "'and may qualify myself to reprove him.

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"'Note, those who blame others "'ought to be blameless and harmless themselves.'"

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So there it is again, self -government, self -reformation. I wanna reiterate, before we can reform our brother, we need to reform our own hearts.

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As Henry puts it, before we reform our brother's badness, we must examine our own badness.

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If we are unfit to commune with God due to our own sin, how in the world are we qualified to reprove our brother?

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So the last point here is verse six, pearls before swine.

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

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First, I wanna say that Christ is clearly telling us to discriminate, to make moral judgments.

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We need to determine who the dogs and the pigs are. The dogs represent those,

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I'm sorry, the dogs are opposite of holy. They're actually unclean, especially in the context it was written.

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So basically in Jerusalem, there was wild dogs that roamed everywhere, and they ate the trash.

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People didn't like dogs, they didn't have pet dogs. These dogs were vicious. If you were to interfere with their scavenging, you would get attacked.

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The Jews hated these dogs so much that that's what they refer to the Gentiles as. And then swine or the pigs here, basically they don't appreciate what is valuable.

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They will indiscriminately eat trash and food with equal pleasure. You can give them your

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McDonald's wrapper, and they'll eat that and be fine. You can give them an apple, mix it together, they don't know the difference, they're gonna eat it all.

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However, if you were to give them a pig, if you were to give them a pearl, they'd probably chew it, spit it out, and then trample it in the mud.

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So in other words, the dogs and the swine are those who reject or trample the gospel.

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Remember, Jesus had just got done calling the Pharisees hypocrites. They're still there in the background. And guess what?

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They despise the gospel. Acts 13, 40 through 41.

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This is Paul, and he's quoting Habakkuk 1 .5. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

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Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

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The gospel is holy, it's precious, and it's the truth we cling to.

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The point of this passage is to not waste our time with sinners that don't care about that truth, lest they turn and attack you.

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An example would be, say you walk by a liquor store and there's a drunk out front.

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He's asking you for money. You're not gonna give that guy money because he's gonna turn around and go back into the liquor store and buy some more alcohol.

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Second Peter 2 .22 says, what the true proverb says has happened to them. The dog returns to its own vomit in the sow after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.

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So you can brush a dog's teeth all you want. He's just gonna turn around and go back to the vomit.

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You can bathe a hog, you can put a bow on it. It's just gonna turn around and go back into the muck in the mire.

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As I mentioned, the dogs and swine here represent the unregenerate. If you give the dog the gospel, he will return to his untruth.

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If you give the hog the gospel, they will return to their sin.

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Without a regenerate heart, we would all return.

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There's a couple analogies here. I know Isaac likes both of these. I can't remember which one. I think he liked the lion one, right?

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So there's two. Basically, you can't make a pig clean itself like a cat.

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Pigs are always dirty. They like to be dirty. They like to wallow around in the mud. They don't lick themselves, and they're not clean like a cat.

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Why is that? Because by nature, they're a pig. The one that Isaac likes is if you take a lion and you give it a plate of vegetables, it's not gonna eat the vegetables.

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Why not? One, he's not Marcus, because by nature, he's a carnivore, and carnivores don't eat vegetables.

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So you can't make the lion a vegetarian because by nature, he's not a vegetarian. Jeremiah 6 .10,

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to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised.

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They cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn. They take no pleasure in it.

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Matthew Henry says, among the generation of the wicked, there are some that have arrived at such a pitch of wickedness that they are looked upon as dogs and swine.

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They are impudently and notoriously vile. They have so long walked in the way of sinners that they have sat down in the seat of the scornful.

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They professedly hate and despise instruction, and they set it at defiance. So they are irrevocably,

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I'm sorry, irrecoverably and irreclaimably wicked. They return with the dog to his vomit and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire.

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So what Christ is saying here is that we need to judge righteously who are the dogs and who are the swine.

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However, we need to be careful not to make immediate judgments. We need to at least give them a chance to reject the gospel.

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As I mentioned, the gospel is precious, but how precious? Is it precious enough to share?

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That means I need a drink of water. Is the gospel precious enough for us to share?

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We should never not share it due to prejudgments. What I mean by that is we should never,

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I mentioned before, it's like a homeless person walked in and we should never not share the gospel with them because they're homeless.

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Because they don't look clean from the outside. This really only applies after someone openly and repeatedly rejects the gospel and shows that they are hard -hearted.

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Again, Matthew Henry says, the rule here given is applicable to the distinguishing sealing ordinances of the gospel, which must not be prostituted to those who are openly wicked and profane, lest holy things be thereby rendered contemptible and unholy persons be thereby hardened.

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It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. Yet we must be very cautious whom we condemn as dogs and swine and not do it till after trial and upon full evidence.

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Many a patient is lost by being thought to be so, who if means had been used might have been saved as we must take heed of calling the good bad by judging all professors to be hypocrites.

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So we must take heed of calling the bad desperate by judging all the wicked to be dogs and swine. As you guys know, we say this all the time, there's no neutrality.

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Either someone accepts the gospel or they reject the gospel. However, there are some that violently oppose the gospel.

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I wanna mention that Christ is not saying to avoid notoriously bad sinners. We shouldn't not share the gospel with someone just because they're a horrible person because they need the gospel.

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We need to give them opportunity to reject the gospel. I also wanna say that we should not be impatient.

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We should give them more than like five minutes, right? Like if you're sharing the gospel with someone and like five minutes into the conversation and they're like rejecting it and you're like, man, that guy's a dog.

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Give them some time, be patient. Mormon missionaries are a perfect example for this.

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There's been many times where we've met with some Mormon missionaries or seen them at the temple, shared the gospel with them.

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And then we saw them again later on at a different date. And guess what?

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They're still preaching a false gospel. As Dr. White calls that, they were committing eternal murder. So the second time around, they'd shown and proven that they were hardened against the gospel.

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At that point, it was a time to rebuke them, call them to repentance. And I would say you could call them a dog or a pig, not to their face.

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But the point is that they're rejecting that gospel and calling their pens and don't waste any more time casting pearls before them.

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So Christ is saying that there will be times we need to protect the gospel from these hard -hearted sinners. Here, Calvin says, we are all by nature unholy and prone to rebellion.

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The remedy of salvation must be refused to none till they have rejected it so basely when offered to them as to make it evident that they are reprobate and self -condemned.

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Matthew 10, 14 through 15, this is Christ's instructions to the apostles. 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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Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

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It's the same idea here. If they're so hard -hearted against the gospel and they're rejecting it, they're clearly reprobate.

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Literally shake the dust off of your shoes and leave. Here, Henry says, in detestation of their wickedness, it was so abominable that it did even pollute the ground they went upon, which must therefore be shaken off as a filthy thing.

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The apostles must have no fellowship nor communing with them, must not so much as carry away the dust of their city with them.

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So in Acts 1, 44 through 52, this is an example of the apostles doing as Christ instructed them.

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Starting in verse 44, the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the

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Jews saw the crowd, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

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Why were they filled with jealousy? Because he was preaching to them and to the Gentiles. So Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly saying, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, the

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Jews. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the

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Gentiles. For the Lord has commanded us saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

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And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were pointed to eternal life believed.

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And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

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What did the apostles do? They shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium.

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And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So the

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Jews had uncircumcised hearts. Their ears took no pleasure in the gospel. And what did they do?

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They violently rejected the gospel. They violently rejected the apostles. The Gentiles, on the other hand, who were appointed to believe, believed.

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They rejoiced. So the apostles, like I said, shook off the dust and left. So similarly,

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Spurgeon says this. You are not needlessly to provoke attack upon yourself or upon the higher truth of the gospel.

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You are not to judge, but you are not to act without judgment. Count not men to be dogs or swine, but when they avow themselves to be such or by their conduct act as if they were such, do not put occasions in their way for displaying their evil character.

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Saints are not to be simpletons. They are not to be judges, but also they are not to be fools.

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Great King, how much wisdom my precepts require. I need thee, not only to open my mouth, but also at times to keep it shut.

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We need to guard and we need to protect the preciousness of the gospel. Ultimately, God's word is our weapon against darkness.

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So we should sheathe it, keep it safe, protect it. Hebrews 4, 12 through 13 says, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

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The word of God will divide men. It will show clear distinctions in the hearts of men.

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Proverbs 9, seven through nine says this. We have two hearts, we have a scoffer, we have a wise man.

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Whoever corrects the scoffer gets himself abuse and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

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Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you.

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Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning.

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So the heart of the scoffer or the wicked man ultimately produces abuse, incurs injury, or also produces hate.

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However, the heart of the wise man or the righteous man produces love, more wisdom, and an increase in learning.

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So in conclusion, there's three points I want you guys to take away today. One, judge righteously.

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Two, don't be a Pharisee. And three, guard the gospel.

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So point one, judge righteously. Spurgeon says, there is a sense in which we are not to judge men, but there is another sense in which he would be an errant fool who did not constantly exercise his judgment upon men.

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So we are to judge righteously and lawfully according to God's standards, not our own standards.

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Don't judge others according to your own personal preferences. Don't judge hearts, don't judge motives, and don't judge intentions, only actions.

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Pink has what I call seven judge nots. And I really wish

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I had time to get into each of these in more depth, but I don't. But he says, judge not unlawfully, judge not presumptuously, judge not hypocritically, judge not hastily, judge not unwarrantably, judge not unjustly, and the last one, judge not unmercifully.

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Second point then is don't be a Pharisee. Don't parade around your righteousness.

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As I was writing this, I'm literally picturing the Pharisees having a righteousness parade with a band and banners, look at us, we're righteous.

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That's the idea, don't do that. Be humble, keep your righteousness to yourself between you and God.

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We need more lumberjacks and less maids, right? We need more people hacking the logs out of their own eyes and less maids with their little feather dusters sweeping out the dust in their brother's eyes.

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More axes, less dusters. This has nothing to do with beards,

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I wish I could have worked in beards somehow, but I didn't. And the last point is guard the gospel.

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John Calvin says, as the ministers of the gospel and those who are called to the office of teaching cannot distinguish between the children of God and swine, it is their duty to present the doctrine of salvation indiscriminately to all.

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Though many may appear to them at first to be hardened and unyielding, yet charity forbids that such persons should be immediately pronounced to be desperate.

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It ought to be understood that dogs and swine are names given not to every kind of debauched men or to those who are destitute of the fear of God and of true godliness, but to those who by clear evidences have manifested a hardened contempt of God so that their disease appears to be incurable.

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We need to judge who the dogs and the swine are. Why is it that we need to do that?

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Because there will be times when you need to end conversations. There will be times when you need to rebuke unbelievers.