Christians Judging [A]

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Transcript:

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be studying some of these passages that stand out as some of those that are most widely misinterpreted in our society, in churches today. Some of those that are twisted and tortured and pulled out of context and made to say what people want them to say. You can take any verse of Scripture, I’m convinced, and stand it on its own and twist it.

If you twist the meaning of words around enough, you can make it say whatever you want it to say. Sort of like a prisoner. If you torture it enough, you can get it to say whatever you want it to say.

But when we look at the Bible, when we look at verses in their context, not only the context of the verses around it, but the whole chapter, the whole book, what does the rest of Scripture say about a subject? You know, the Bible isn’t just full of words that are empty of meaning. Words have meaning.

Context has meaning. And God’s Word is very clear about some things that are taught differently in the world. Now, as we go through this series, there are going to be some of these messages where you think, right on, because I’m talking about things the world misinterprets.

There are other lessons where you might think, okay, now you’re meddling, because there are things that we inside the church like to misinterpret. But the fact is that there are some, as I said, you can take any verse out of context and make it say what you want to say, but there are some that are more often misinterpreted. And what we’re going to start with this morning is one that I would guess almost everybody in America knows this verse.

If not, I’d be very surprised because I hear it enough. And no, it’s not John 3. 16.

I think that one has a very clear interpretation. I’m sure you could still make it say whatever you wanted to say if you twisted hard enough. But I think that one’s pretty clear.

This verse we hear all the stinking time. And I shouldn’t complain about that. Now, the verse we’re going to look at next week, I hear all the time from my mother or from Charla or from other women around me.

Sorry, it’s not an anti-woman thing. It just happens to be the women who quote the verse, be still. I said one day at the ER with Madeline, I think I told you all about that, took her in because we thought she’d swallowed a nickel.

She didn’t. We found out four x-rays later. I asked the x-ray tech, so did you see a nickel in there?

She’s like, you know I can’t tell you that. Oh, great, because we’ve got to wait for the doctor to come back. We wouldn’t want to overstep bureaucracy here.

And Charlie looks at me and says, be still. And I said, oh, my goodness. If there’s a verse of the Bible I’m sick of hearing, it’s that one.

I’m not really sick of it. I’m just, could I not hear it 15 times a day? Okay, I’m not in favor of taking any verses out of the Bible.

But if you’re like me, there are some that you think, I’m just tired of hearing that one. not because it’s not true but because it gets said to me all the time and sometimes it’s because it gets said to me all the time and it’s not in the correct context now be still is not that one but how about this one judge not that’s not even the whole verse ladies and gentlemen but the world and and even even some people who profess to be christians like to quote that like that’s the entirety of the bible that’s not even the entirety of that verse but that is thrown out there as some sort of thought-ending cliche that at that point we can’t say anything else because judge not. Homosexuality is wrong.

No, judge not. Adultery is wrong. Judge not.

You should use your turn. Judge not. I ask for sweet tea.

Judge not. It gets thrown out in every context to where it’s just supposed to be this magic bullet where we can’t say or think anything because we’re not supposed to judge. But is that what the Scriptures really teach?

First of all, I submit to you, you should know the answer, if that’s not even the whole verse, let alone the whole thought of the passage. That’s not even the whole verse. But we’re taught as Christians in society, we can’t say or do anything.

We can’t be against anything because your own book says, judge not. Now, when it especially irritates me is when it comes from people who don’t even believe the Bible themselves, but they’ll throw it at us. And folks, I don’t mean this to sound like an angry message.

I’m really not angry at anybody. I just want to set the record straight about what this passage means. This morning we’re going to talk about, I’m warning you, there are two points in this message.

We’re only going to get through point one this morning. You’ll have to come back tonight if you want to hear the rest of it. This morning we’re going to talk about what this passage does not mean.

What society has interpreted it to mean and why that’s not what the Bible is saying. And then tonight we’re going to talk about what this passage really does mean. What is it that it’s telling us to do?

Because Jesus very clearly is telling us something we’re not supposed to do. But it’s not the same thing the world takes this verse as and says you’re not supposed to do it. So before we get into it and before I spread my opinion, which this message is not going to be based on my opinion, but lest it look like my opinion, let’s look at God’s word and see what it says this morning.

In Matthew chapter 7, we’re going to look at verses 1 through 5. Actually, we’ll look at verses 1 through 6 this morning. Judge not that ye be not judged.

There is, believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen, something that comes after that comma. It’s not a period. It’s a comma.

Judge not that ye be not judged. He’s saying, don’t judge so that you are not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.

And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured again to you. So what he’s saying in those first two verses right there is for us to be very careful. He’s not saying here just a blanket statement, don’t judge.

he’s not even saying here as we could make it sound if we took it out of context again the whole of verse one judge not that you be not judged it could sound like oh if I don’t judge other people god won’t judge me that’s not what the scriptures teach but you take those two verses together judge not that you be not judged for with whatever judgment you judge you shall be judged and with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again take those two as a whole and look at it as one complete thought. He’s saying you be very careful in judging other people because whatever yardstick you use to measure other people is going to be turned right back on you. You’re going to be held to the same standard that you hold other people.

Does that mean that God is going to hold us to the same standard that we hold to other people? No, because God has his own standard. God has his own standard by which the world is judged.

But do we not sometimes judge people by one yardstick and judge ourselves by another and then the world looks at us and says you hypocrite that’s what he’s warning against he’s saying don’t here have one standard for yourself and one standard for other people because the judgment that you meet out is the same standard you’re going to be judged by by other people he says in verse 3 and why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother’s eye but consider us not the beam that is in thine own eye why are you concerned about the speck if we were to update the language a little bit because we don’t use mote and beam so much. Why are you concerned about the splinter in your brother’s eye, but you don’t seem all that worried about the log that’s in yours? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye.

How are you going to see to pull the splinter out of your brother’s eye when you’ve got a whole cord of wood in there? He says, thou hypocrite, First, cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother’s eye. I see this with my kids all the time.

I see so much of my kids in the scripture. Benjamin will get very upset if Madeline has not done something she’s supposed to. For one, they’re not supposed to have their sippy cups outside the kitchen because I don’t care what the manufacturers or the commercials say, they leak.

Y’all know that? They leak. They can say spill proof.

There is no such thing. You could take something that’s been engineered by NASA to be spill proof and put it in the hands of a four-year-old. You’re going to have grape juice all over your house.

And more grape juice than what you put into the cup will be all over your, I don’t know how they do it. It defies physics. There’s no such thing as spill proof.

So they have to keep sippy cups in the living room. And Benjamin will come tattle to me. Or he’ll get on to Madeline directly.

Because she’s got her sippy cup in the living room. Not realizing he’s got a sippy cup. He’s got a bowl of Teddy Grahams. He’s got a banana.

He’s got a cheese stick. He’s got everything he’s not supposed to have in the living room. But he’s concerned about she’s got that sippy cup.

We do the same thing, don’t we, sometimes? Anybody else willing to fess up, they do the same thing? You don’t have to raise your hand.

I’ll admit it for all of us. We do that sometimes. We say, oh, shame on you because you X, Y, and Z.

You fill in the blanks. And meanwhile, we’ve got bigger problems going on, bigger issues. And Jesus says, don’t point out the speck.

Don’t point out the splinter that’s in your brother’s eye when you’ve got this log in yours. He said, first, go get all of that out of your eye and then go take care of your brother. It’s a principle that’s taught over and over and over again in Scripture.

Something I say with some frequency. When cleansing is to happen, when judgment is to happen, when repentance and revival are to happen, they need to start among God’s people. Let it start from the middle and go out like ripples in a pond.

That if I see a problem in our country, if I see a problem where our country needs to get right with God, I don’t go out first to the country and say, Wicked, wicked Americans, you need to get right with God. Get right or get left. I need to start with getting right with God myself.

And then my household, my family, we need to get right with God and live in a godly way. We need to then make sure our church is living for God in the way it should. And then we go out.

You see that? Out in concentric rings. But the principle is taught over and over and over again in Scripture.

when change needed to happen, when cleansing needed to happen, it needed to happen among God’s people. First. He says, First cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you.

Now the reason I throw that verse in there on this subject is because a good friend of mine reads the, just as I do, gets tired of hearing judge not, judge not, judge not. He says you’ve got to read the whole passage, read the whole thought. He pointed out a few years ago, you get to verse 6 and it says, cast not your pearls before swine.

He said, how do you know? Doesn’t that sound like a judging statement? Now, I would never look at somebody and say, I can’t do that for you or I can’t tell you that or I can’t, because cast not thy pearls before swine.

At that point, you’re just being ugly. Being ugly to somebody else. But isn’t that a judging statement?

How do you know what are the dogs, what are the swine? I mean, in that context, there’s got to be some judgment. There’s got to be some judgment about sin.

There’s got to be some view of black and white. There’s got to be some discernment to know right and wrong. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know what are pearls and what are swine.

The Bible, ladies and gentlemen here, is teaching a very simple principle about the way we judge. It’s not just a blanket statement about do not judge, do not say anything about sin, keep your mouth totally shut, as it would appear to be if we left off with the comma. Now tonight, we will talk about what it really is saying.

We’ll talk about what God is telling us about judgment. And I hope you’ll come back tonight when we explain this more fully because I don’t want anybody to leave here and think that this is just a blanket excuse either for, well, we can go out and judge as much as we want. No, no, no. We need to be careful.

We need to be very careful in the way we approach other people. We need to be very careful that we make sure we stand. There’s some truth in it, but I do get tired of the phrase, ladies and gentlemen, love the sin or hate the sin.

Or if you want to put it the other way, hate the sin, love the sinner. Because all people here usually is the hate part. Even when we’re talking about them, hate.

I heard somebody years ago use a phrase that has stuck with me ever since, love the sinner, hate my own sin. Because I’ve got enough sin of my own to hate and to deal with. Another one I’ve heard, another play on that that says, hate the sin because we love the sinner.

And we can stand against sin because it’s destructive and because God says no, but we’ve got to remember, first of all, we’re not immune from sin. But second of all, let’s keep in perspective why we hate sin. Is it because it’s different from the way we sin?

Your sin is different from mine, so therefore I hate it and condemn it? No, no. I hate sin because of what it does to the sinner. We should hate sin because of what it does to people, what it does to families.

We could go through and name some sins and see how God was wise, does not even begin to cover the brilliance of God. That he was so wise to see how it was going to be destructive, how it was going to hurt us. You name some of the ones that Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount.

Adultery. How does that hurt? First of all, it hurts somebody else.

It hurts the spouse. It hurts the children. I submit to you, it hurts the person who’s guilty of it.

You talk about lying. You’re hurting people by breaking trust. What should be a trust and understanding between people gives way to distrust and suspicion and eats away at us. Theft, it hurts the person we’re stealing from.

I submit to you that it hurts the person who’s doing the stealing too. I don’t want to sound like a bleeding heart. Oh, we should just feel bad for them for stealing.

But I’m telling you, sin destroys the one who’s doing it. When we begin to make stuff an idol so much that we just have to have it care who we take it from. When we divorce the gaining of stuff, either from the generosity of other people or the virtue of hard work, there’s something dehumanizing about that.

Ladies and gentlemen, sin harms and sin destroys. And for that reason, we hate sin and speak out against sin because we love the sinner. And all the while remembering we hate our own sin.

So this passage tonight, we’ll talk about what it actually means and how it says we’re supposed to judge. But we need get past the idea that it’s telling us don’t judge ever, don’t say anything about sin? Because that’s not what’s taught in the rest of the scriptures.

The idea that society has about judging is the idea that speaking against sin is judging. That’s not the biblical idea of judging. And what I’ve said for a while is God doesn’t call us to judge, but he does call us to tell others what the judge has already said.

There’s a difference between the two. Speaking against sin is viewed as judging in our world, but it’s not what the Bible talks about judging. Speaking against sin is something that we are as Christians commanded to do.

Again, not because we condemn other people, not because we hate them, because we love them and we hate sin, whether it’s theirs or ours, because we see how it destroys the person and destroys the relationship with God. Three things that we need to recognize this morning about speaking against sin that are taught in Scripture that are not what he’s talking about here. First of all, speaking against sin requires the proper timing.

And we’ve already hit on this a little bit. But he warns us in verse 5 to take the beam out of our own eye before we go after the mote or the speck that’s in our brother’s eye. There’s got to be a proper timing.

There’s got to be a proper sequence of events before we come out and speak out against sin. We need to make sure that our homes, that our houses are clean. I don’t mean our literal, tangible houses go home and vacuum before you speak out against sin.

I mean, if we’re doing anything that sounds critical of somebody else’s behavior, we better make sure our behavior lines up with what it’s supposed to be first. Now, are we ever going to be perfect? I’m not. And if I read my Bible correctly, you’re not either.

I hate to break it to you. You’re not now and you won’t be. We’re never going to be sinless, but there’s a difference between giving in to a lifestyle of sin and slipping and falling but still striving against it.

There’s a difference in our attitudes. Even as believers, we’re going to continue to sin at times. Now, we looked a few weeks ago at the passage that says that believers cannot continue sinning.

And we talked about the fact that what that means is a lifestyle of sin. We cannot go on in the same lifestyle. It doesn’t mean that we’re never going to sin again along the way.

Even as believers, we’re going to continue to sin. Otherwise, it makes no sense that God would tell us in 1 John 1. 9 that when we sin, He is faithful and just, that if we confess our sins, excuse me, if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We look at that passage. He’s talking to believers there who sin along the way. And if we’ll confess it and we’ll deal with it and go on, then he’s faithful and just to deal with it and put it behind us.

We as Christians are not supposed to, on the other hand, go on in a lifestyle of sin. Oh, I’m going to sin from time to time, so I might as well just not fight it. Just give in to it.

We know the difference. Any believer who’s ever sinned knows the difference. You sinned.

Now what happens? Do you feel bad about it or do you say, oh well, might as well keep going on that path? We know there’s a difference.

And we need to make sure we’re on the right path. We need to make sure that we’re keeping a short list of accounts with God before we go and talk to anybody else about sin. We need to make sure that we’ve dealt with the beam in our own eye, that we’ve dealt with the log in our own eye before we go and talk to anybody else in the world about the splinter in theirs.

We need to deal with that first. speaking against sin is not wrong to do, but we’ve got to make sure that it’s done with the right timing. We’ve got to make sure that it’s done after we’ve already dealt with our own issues. Because it is hypocritical. It is hypocritical to say, do as I say, not as I do.

I don’t think it’s hypocritical at all to say, do as I say, not as I did. Are we not supposed to learn from past experience? Are we not supposed to learn from the things that we, from the mistakes, from the sins that we’ve done in the past and say, I’ve been forgiven of that.

I don’t do that anymore. This song, I’ve mentioned it a couple times here lately, and I don’t know why, it just keeps coming to mind. That song that my friend Ed in Fayetteville sang several times, thanks to Calvary, I don’t live there anymore.

It doesn’t mean that we don’t have a past. It doesn’t mean that we’ve not done things in our past that we’re not proud of. And the world would like nothing better than to throw that in our face and say, didn’t you used to do drugs? didn’t you used to have an affair didn’t you used to cheat on your taxes didn’t you used to list all these things yeah I did I mean not me personally yeah I’ve done things that I’ve I’ve sinned the things I just named off that’s not my list and maybe it’s not your list either but we all have a list of things that we’ve done where we’ve sinned against god we’ve all done things we shouldn’t have done but what better testimony to the grace of god that he’s changed us and he’s dealt with that sin and it’s not there anymore.

And once that sin is dealt with, we can stand against sin and not be hypocritical at all. To say, yes, this is wrong. Whether you do it or I do it, it’s wrong.

And you know what? If I did it today, it’d be wrong still. When I did it then, it was wrong.

But there’s forgiveness and grace. Not only saving grace, but changing grace in the cross of Jesus Christ. Folks, as Christians, we’re called to stand against sin. We’re called to speak out against sin.

I don’t care if it’s homosexuality. I don’t care if it’s adultery. I don’t care if it’s drunkenness.

I don’t care if it’s gluttony. I don’t care if it’s stealing. We are called to stand against sin.

But we’ve got to make sure our house is in order first and not just pretend like the only sins out there are the ones that we’re not involved in. Homosexuality comes to mind a lot because it’s everywhere we look around. It’s 2% of the population and 240% of the news coverage.

I don’t understand. So it’s right there. So it keeps coming to mind.

Ladies and gentlemen, as Christians, we have a bad reputation, and deservedly so, for treating that like it’s the only sin there is. Is it a sin? Yes or no?

Is it a sin? Yes. Is it the only sin?

This is the quiz. Who wants their gold star? No, it’s not the only sin.

I don’t have a gold star, but I might have a Paw Patrol sticker in the car if that works. It’s not the only sin. We need to stand against all sin and make sure our houses are in order first. Second of all, speaking against sin not only requires the proper timing, but it requires the proper standard.

We need to address sin from God’s perspective of righteousness and not our own. I don’t get to decide what sin is and what sin is not. We hear all the time, well, who are you to say?

I’m nobody. I’m nobody. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m nobody.

I have no authority to say what sin is or to determine what sin is or what it’s not. So yeah, if we’re going on my authority, my opinion, my say so, that and a dollar will get you a newspaper. My opinion is worthless.

My standard is worthless. My standard is different from yours and yours is different from the person down the street and they’re all different from each other and they’re all different from God’s. If it were my standard, maybe I wouldn’t be so hard on some things as God is, things that are problematic for me.

Because I can try to explain away and excuse away my own sin and say it’s not a big deal. On the other hand, I might judge people really harshly and make a sin some things that God doesn’t call a sin. Because we’re looking through our sinful perspectives and want to justify ourselves. We’ve got to be very careful as we speak against sin that we don’t focus on just the things we don’t like and ignore the sins that we’re most prone to.

Tell you what, I’ve noticed among a lot of preachers who will tell you this themselves, that overeating is an issue. I have that sometimes. I have that issue.

I told my parents last night, I said, no matter how I try to pace myself, I eat like I just discovered food for the first time. And they’re going to quit making it. You know what?

The Bible describes gluttony as a sin, doesn’t it?

when’s the last time you heard a message here or anywhere else on gluttony but we’ll talk about all sorts of other things because we’re folks we’re judging by our standard when’s the last time you heard and I’m not talking about from the pulpits when’s the last time you heard somebody speak out against the sin of gossip oh no but we’ll we’ll be first in line to speak out against the homosexuals we’ve got to make sure we’re looking at things from god’s standard not my opinion not what I like or dislike but what God says and he said in Ephesians chapter 5 let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience be not ye therefore partakers with them for you were sometimes darkness but now are you light in the Lord walk as children of light he’s told them don’t don’t let people deceive you this is I don’t remember if I said this is Ephesians chapter 5 verses 6 through 11.

Because of the things that he’s describing here, the wrath of God falls on the children of disobedience. God’s judgment will come on those who disobey him. He says you were part of that group.

Ladies and gentlemen, we were part of that group. If you’re a believer this morning, you were part of that group. And yet through no good of our own, he’s plucked us up out of it.

And he says, now you’re the children of light. Walk as children of light. You’re my children now.

you’re in the light, now act like it. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. He says here, basically, I don’t care what sin you came from in the past, now you’re my child, act like it.

And he says, don’t have fellowship with the works of darkness, reprove it. I don’t care if it’s the darkness that I plucked you out of or some other darkness that you think you’re above, reprove all of it. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.

That doesn’t sound to me like we get to pick and choose what we stand against. That doesn’t sound to me like we get to pick and choose what we reprove. Oh, well, that was really not such a bad thing after. No, if it’s sin, if God says it’s sin, we stand against it.

I stand against the world’s sin. I stand against my sin. It’s all sin.

It’s all sin. We need to make sure that we judge by God’s criteria, that we speak against sin according to God’s criteria and not our own. Third of all, speaking against sin requires the proper motive.

This is the hard one, I think. This is the hard one because as I talked about two weeks ago, we’ve been conditioned by the media. For all of our, for many of us, for our irritation with the media, we fall into exactly the game that they’re trying to play.

We’ve been conditioned that if we disagree with somebody, we’re supposed to hate them. And I’m not talking about just Christians. I’m talking about as Americans, they’ve divided us into camps and said, you’re over here, you’re a Christian, you’re over here, you’re a homosexual, you’re supposed to hate each other.

Or you’re white and you’re black and you’re Hispanic and you’re all supposed to hate each other. You’re a Democrat, you’re a Republican, you’re supposed to hate each other. I don’t buy that.

Especially on that last one. We’ve got both in here, I’m sure. I haven’t looked you all up, but I’m sure we’ve got both.

You’re wealthy, you’re poor. You’re supposed to hate each other. And so sometimes we’ll look at, as Christians, we buy into that.

And we look at groups of people who are engaged in this sin or that, and we say, I just want to get you. And of course, I’m going to speak out against what you’re doing because you’re horrible and I hate you. We wouldn’t say that.

But if we’re honest, sometimes that can be the motivation of our hearts, and we’ve got to be on guard against that. Folks, when we speak out against sin, it’s got to be with the motive of reconciling people. That’s why I talked two weeks ago about the ministry of reconciliation.

Our calling is not to compromise with sin. It’s not to compromise with sin, but it’s not to condemn just for the sake of condemning either. Our job as Christians is to preach this ministry of reconciliation.

Our job as Christians is to stand against sin in an uncompromising way, but in a loving way, where we speak against sin but demonstrate love with our actions in hopes of reconciling sinful people to a loving and holy God. That’s our job. If that’s not our motive for speaking against sin, then at that point I’ll say we need to keep our mouths shut until we get our hearts right.

But Paul wrote in the book of Colossians chapter 1, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labor, striving according to this working, which worketh in me mightily. Now what he is saying there, what he is telling them, is that this is my job, this is my labor, this is the thing that I’ve committed and consecrated my life to. Not because he was an apostle, but because he was a Christian, and said this is my job, this is what I do.

I speak of the Christ which is in you, the hope of glory. He said, whom we preach, talking about going to the Gentiles and preaching Christ, preaching that Christ died for sins. He says, whom we preach warning every man.

Why would he preach Christ and warn every man? He’s warning of the idea of sin and judgment. I’m going to be real honest with you.

If we abandon the idea that there is sin and there is righteousness, if we abandon the ideas of right and wrong, then the cross makes no sense at all. The only context in which the cross of Christ makes sense is the fact that before there was this good news of Christ, there was bad news that we were separated from a holy God by our sins. Every little act of disobedience, no matter how small, no matter how seemingly insignificant, was sin, was an act of open rebellion, drove a wedge between us and God.

The Bible says our sins have separated us from God. And where there is sin, there is judgment. And the world doesn’t like to hear that.

It sounds harsh. But when somebody breaks the law, we expect them to be punished. If somebody commits a crime against us, it’s only fair that the judge hands down a sentence.

We demand justice, but when it comes to our own sins, we think God is harsh to carry out the judgment. If anybody ever really was innocent and deserving of justice, it’s God. As the Bible says, he can’t sin.

He can’t lie. There are some things God can’t do. And He can’t sin.

He can’t li

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