Christians Judging [B]

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Well, this morning I said a couple times that if you wanted to know how the message ended, you’d have to come back tonight, and I’m grateful that a few of you were curious enough to actually come back. We’ll be back tonight in Matthew chapter 7, and we’re going to continue looking at this passage that we started this morning. I introduced this new series to you this morning as well as the pattern that each of these messages will follow to come in and introduce the passage to you and then discuss the ways it’s misinterpreting and why that’s not what the Bible teaches and then come back in the evening and explain to you what the Bible actually is saying in each of these verses.

And we did that this morning with Matthew chapter 7. We looked at verses 1 through 6 but really focused in on Matthew chapter 7 verse 1 because that’s really the only part of it that’s usually quoted. If it’s quoted at all in its entirety, it’s only Matthew 7.

1 that’s given to us, judge not that ye be not judged, but more often than not, what we hear in the world at large is just judge not, and they put a period where God put a comma. You know, a few years ago, the United Church of Christ, which is a, well, they call themselves a mainline denomination. I think that’s code for ultra liberal. They had a media campaign where they were running commercials and they had billboards.

They had banners out in front of their churches that were red with black lettering. And I sort of thought it looked communist at the time. I’ll let you glean from that what you will.

But they were red banners adorned with giant black commas and they said God is still speaking. And I thought, well, there’s some truth in that, but not when you get down to what they’re saying. They’re meaning God’s word continues to evolve and the message of the church needs to continue to evolve.

And I thought, we need to start an alternative media campaign that has a giant period and says God has already spoken. There are many places where mankind wants to put a comma where God has put a period. But it’s interesting to me that when we get to Matthew 7.

1, the world wants to put a period where God has put a comma. The verse is not just, judge not. It is judge not that ye be not judged, and then he goes on to further explain that.

He says, judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 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? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Again, how would you know? if there’s no judgment going on.

Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. And so we talked this morning about how that, there’s more to this passage, and quite frankly, there’s more to God’s teaching on the subject than just judge not, period. That’s not what that says.

It says judge not that ye be not judged, and the other things that we read after that. And if we want to take judge not, And if we want to take that verse and say, okay, we interpret that to mean Christians aren’t supposed to speak out against sin, period. Well, that’s blatantly wrong, according to the rest of Scripture, because there are too many places where we are told to abstain from all appearance of evil.

Well, how would we know? We’re told to avoid the unfruitful works of darkness. How would we know?

We’re told to mark those who teach contrary to the truth which we’ve already heard and received. Mark them and avoid them. How would we know?

How can we follow the commands of Scripture and avoid false teaching and avoid sinful behavior? How can we do those things and still conform to this verse if it means that we’re not supposed to take a stand against sin? Well, and I think we, I hope I made a convincing case this morning that that’s not what it means at all.

We’re taught in Scripture to take a stand against sin. We just have to make sure we do it in the right way. That we do it in the right way.

We do it with the right kind of life to back it up. We do it from the right kind of standard, which is God’s. And we do it with the right kind of motivation, standing against sin not so that we get to beat other people down, but in hopes of reconciling people to God.

And since we discussed this morning what that verse is not teaching, now we dig into it tonight and see what is it teaching. See, you cannot divorce the verse from its context and still expect it to make sense the way it was intended to. And so really we have to consider that this verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole.

And in the Sermon on the Mount as a whole, Jesus really spent a lot of time teaching by contrast, Drawing contrast between the Pharisees and what God expected. Drawing contrast between the religious system of his day and what God expected. Now, there are two great things, two great.

. . I don’t even know what the terminology is, because I think of it from an English standpoint when you’re teaching metaphor and simile and all that.

There are two great literary devices that we can use to convey what something is like. One is to compare it to other things that are like it. That’s why Jesus said so many times, the kingdom of God is like this, the kingdom of God is like that.

The other is contrast. I’m going to give you two very different things and show you how they differ. And throughout the Sermon on the Mount, he sets up a contrast here. Stark colors, black and white, between what the religious establishment of their day, the Pharisees, were doing.

The way they were teaching, the way they were living. And what Jesus says on the other hand, God expects because the two were about as far apart as they could possibly be. We go, if you just want to look back with me real quickly, we’re not going to go through the whole Sermon on the Mount in depth tonight.

We wouldn’t have time to. But just to look at a few things. He draws contrast in chapter 5.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted. He’s drawing contrasts.

There’s mourning and there’s comfort. Blessed are the meek. The meek are the ones who could not take over the earth for themselves if they ever got the intention to.

And he says, for they shall inherit the earth. There’s a contrast. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. He’s drawing contrasts here.

He talks about the perception. Starting in chapter 5, verse 17. the perception that he’s bringing in radical ideas that are to overthrow the Old Testament law because they would have been quick to point that out thinking it could get him killed.

Well, he says, I’ve not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. He’s drawing a contrast here. Five times, five times in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, you’ve heard this, but I say that.

And it’s not that he’s correcting the Old Testament law. He’s correcting their interpretations and showing them what the Old Testament law really was teaching, what God really expected. Five times.

He says in verse 21, you’ve heard, and I’m paraphrasing a little bit, but you’ve heard thou shalt not kill. He’s not saying that’s wrong. But he says in verse 22, he says, let’s take that a step further.

I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.

Jesus taught that to be angry with your brother without a cause was similar, if not the same thing as murder. And he says, you’ve heard here, and the Pharisees stick very closely to this, but on the other hand, I say, being angry with your brother is the same thing, and the Pharisees do that. He’s drawing a contrast. He goes on again in verse 27 and says, you’ve heard it said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery.

He’s not saying that’s wrong, but he’s drawing a contrast. He says the Pharisees will take a firm stand and say, well, you can’t commit adultery. You can’t sleep with another woman. He says, in verse 28, but I say to you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.

He says, I say, in contrast, there’s a heart issue. So the contrast here is not really between the Old Testament law and Jesus. The contrast here is between the Pharisees and their interpretations of things that just dealt with outward behavior and God’s interpretation which dealt with the heart of the person and the heart of the matter.

Verse 33, again, you’ve heard it said by the. . .

Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. He says, verse 34, but I say, don’t swear at all. What was his reasoning?

He says elsewhere, Let thy yes be yes and your no be no. In other words, why should we have one standard of honesty when we’re swearing an oath on something important and another standard of honesty for regular everyday behavior? Shouldn’t we just be honest? He says in verse 43, you’ve heard it said, Love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy.

He says, but I tell you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them which hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. I missed one. Verse 33.

You’ve heard it said. Well, that’s not the one I missed. I can’t find the one I missed.

I saw it earlier. But where the law talks about where they were told before, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He says, but I say to you, I say instead that you’re to turn the other cheek.

So all throughout the Sermon on the Mount, we see contrast after contrast after contrast. And the whole point of the Sermon on the Mount is don’t be like the Pharisees. Don’t have the appearance of religion. Don’t have the appearance of self-righteousness with nothing internal to back it up, with no change of heart to back it up.

Don’t just have an empty religion, but instead you need to have a relationship with God that manifests itself in the way you behave. He goes on to talk about their prayers. And he says, they stand up and they make sure they ring a bell.

They gather everybody they can. Lots of words so everybody can see how eloquent they are. He says, but I tell you, go pray in secret.

Or there are those who would lay up treasure here on earth. I’m telling you, lay up treasure in heaven. Folks, read the Sermon on the Mount again sometime for yourself.

Start making a list of all the contrasts. And if you’ve never looked at it as a list of contrasts before, it is pretty interesting to look at it and see. There is teaching in there that Jesus is telling us this is how you’re expected to behave.

But the way he does that a lot of times is by drawing a contrast and saying, don’t be like that, be like this. So we can see the black and the white stacked up next to each other and see how different they really are. So by the time you get to chapter 7, judge not, they understand.

This is not just a blanket statement, never judge, never speak out against sin. This is saying, don’t judge the way the Pharisees do. Don’t have this empty external religion that is all about your rules, not even God’s rules, but your rules that you think you can keep and that you think I can keep these and other people can’t, so therefore I look more righteous.

Don’t have that kind of religion, but instead have a relationship with God that manifests itself in the way we behave. And so at that point he says don’t judge this way. Don’t judge the way the Pharisees do.

And so when he says, judge not that you be not judged, it’s not saying don’t stand against sin as we discussed this morning. It’s not even a promise that if we’ll just not judge people, then God won’t judge us because that’s debunked elsewhere in Scripture. It is a warning.

It is a warning against the self-righteousness of the Pharisees in the way that we take a stand against sin. Which if we do the things that we talked about this morning, we’ll be all right. If we do it with our own house in order, then it’s not hypocritical. If we do it following God’s word as opposed to our standards, then really we’re not even the ones judging.

And if we do it with the right motive, guys, it’s going to come across the right way. There’s nothing worse. There’s nothing worse than a Christian who speaks the truth, but not out of a heart of love.

Folks, it doesn’t come across the right way. Because again, you can’t divorce something from its context. Christianity, even with all of its talk of sin and judgment, is a message of God’s love and God’s mercy toward mankind.

You take out the love and the mercy, it doesn’t work. And if we speak against sin and don’t have a heart of love and a desire to reconcile man to God as our motivation, as I said this morning, we need to keep our mouths shut until we get our hearts right, and then come back and speak against sin. So the things that this passage actually is saying tonight, guys, I can’t promise that we might move through this faster than I thought we would.

The three things that this passage is teaching is, first of all, in saying, judge not that ye be not judged, he’s saying, avoid judgments that are harsh. Avoid judgments that are harsh, because he goes on to say, judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. It’s a warning.

It’s what the world likes to call karma. I don’t believe in karma, and I get so irritated when Christians talk about karma. If you’re one who says that, I don’t know it, so I’m not attacking you.

But I want to go to these Christians that I see on Facebook and write, is it karma awful? There’s no such thing that’s a Hindu concept that has nothing to do with Christianity. Now we can say, whatsoever man sows, that does he also reap.

That’s biblical. Karma is, and I think a lot of the times when people use the word karma as Christians, they’re thinking that, that it’s payback. Well, karma goes further than that and says it’s working off your bad debt so that you can be reincarnated as something else, something better. Okay, so we want to stay away from the idea of karma.

But there is the idea taught in Scripture. It is scriptural. Look it up in Galatians. Be not deceived.

God is not mocked. For whatsoever man sows, that will he also reap. Now, that doesn’t mean that everything runs on a system of punishment and reward because the Bible also says that God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And I still haven’t decided whether the rain falling is a good thing or a bad thing.

I guess it depends on how much rain you’ve had or not had. But folks, what he’s talking about here, he says the way you judge other people is the way you’re going to be judged. Not by God, but don’t be surprised when that same standard is turned back on you.

Don’t be surprised when you’re harsh with people in your judgments. Don’t be surprised if that measuring stick is turned right back on you. I mean, it’s just practical wisdom here that he gives at this point.

Whatever measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. When we speak against sin, when we stand up against sin, are we harsh in our approach? Because don’t be surprised if the world is going to be harsh right back to us.

Don’t be surprised if our brothers and sisters are harsh right back to us, not that we should be. I have taken flack at times because I won’t say I have stood up for the heretics at Westboro. If you’re familiar with that church in Kansas that loves to come down here and protest. I have not stood up for them, but I’ve stood against the behavior.

I’ve spoken out against the behavior of so-called Christians. I don’t know what goes on in the rest of the country, but so-called Christians here in Oklahoma who stand against them and say God is love and then don’t show it. I think they’re absolutely horrible people.

I think their message is absurd and unbiblical. And I say that being somebody who thinks that, you know what, they’re right to speak against sin, but the way they do it and the way they condemn everyone and leave no room for grace, leave no room for the mercy of God, is completely unbiblical. And yet sometimes the people who counter-protest come out with these biblical messages, God is love, or they want to talk about the forgiveness of God, but in my own hometown, they were run out by a mob that couldn’t be contained by the police. How Christian is that? In McAllister, Oklahoma, they had their tires slashed and nobody in town would sell them new ones.

How Christian is that? Now, I’m not saying I agree with them or want them here. And I’m not saying, ladies and gentlemen, that what the.

. . I said all that.

. . I prefaced it this way to say that I’m not siding with the counter-protesters at all.

I’m not saying that what the people of Moore or what the people of McAllister did was correct either. But has that church not judged everyone in America in the harshest way possible? Have they not condemned every person in America because of the actions of a few, whether we agree with them or not?

They assume that we agree with them and stand with the sin because we don’t use the same tactics that they do. Have they not judged in the harshest way possible when they have rejoiced, when they have exhibited glee over the deaths of small children? Yet, ladies and gentlemen, that same measure of harshness that they judged with has been meted out to them too.

Was it right? No. Was it right for them to.

. . I’m telling you, I don’t have a dog in this fight.

When you’ve got heretics out there saying abominable things and you’ve got vigilantes out there trying to harm them, I don’t have a dog in the fight. But that is an example right there. The way that they have harshly judged everybody in America, that same judgment was turned back around on them.

When their founder, when Fred Phelps died not too long ago, there was rejoicing. I know the liquor store there in Moore was giving people a discount, had it up there on their marquee. I think they were doing like 10% off on champagne.

I don’t go there. I just pass it on going down the road. 10% off on champagne.

People were rejoicing because it’s what they did in their judgment. I’m not saying it’s right, but I’m saying there’s wisdom in what Jesus said that the same measure you mete out is going to be measured back to you. The same yardstick we use is the same one that will be used on us.

And so he warned against doing as the Pharisees with these harsh judgments. How harsh were the Pharisees? Well, ladies and gentlemen, is it wrong to commit adultery?

I believe it is. I believe that’s what God’s Word teaches. Is it wrong to drag some woman out before she has an opportunity to even get dressed and make a spectacle of her?

I believe that’s wrong as well. We can read through the Scriptures. We can read through the Gospels especially.

And we see time after time how harsh the Pharisees were. Yet we see that same measure being turned back on them again when Jesus pointed it out. He pointed out where they were harsh.

He pointed out where they had erred in their judgment. And so we’re not told don’t judge. We’re not told don’t speak against sin.

But we’re warned against being harsh in our judgments. Second of all this evening, we’re warned against judgments that are hasty. We’re warned not to make a snap judgment.

So many times we judge people, and it’s not a Christian thing, it’s a human being thing. But we judge people based on the way that they look. I was listening to a sermon this afternoon that had nothing to do with this, but a point that was made applies here.

Erwin Lutzer up at the Moody Bible Church in Chicago. I was listening to a recording of one of his sermons, and he was talking about the change that the Word of God makes in people’s lives. And he was talking about these places in our country where there have been riots.

And he said, imagine, he was talking about Los Angeles, makes me think it was an old recording. But I’ll say, bring it into today’s time. Imagine you’re driving through Ferguson, Missouri in the aftermath of the riots and you’ve taken a wrong turn and you’re lost And so that’s why you’ve ended up in the riot area And suddenly you run over a big piece of metal and you realize you have two front tires or two flat tires You should have two front tires, but you have two flat tires No cell phone, no way to call, middle of the night You’re in this riot area, people are going around looting and doing all kinds of things and you don’t know what you’re going to do.

And suddenly a door flies open and a group of young men come out. He said, how would you feel about that? And he asked the congregation, he said, would it change your feelings on the matter at all if you found out that that group of bulky young men were on their way home from a Bible study?

He said, you know what? I think even an atheist would feel better at that point because the Word of God does something to us. And I thought about that and I thought, there are all sorts of people we look at and judge on a daily basis just because of the way they look.

These hypothetical young men, they could be coming home from a Bible study. I’m still going to lock my door because without knowing them, they look scary. How often do we judge people just based on the way they look?

How often do we make snap judgments? How often do we hurt other people with our snap judgments, with rushing to judgment. I think we make much better decisions the more information we have.

And I can tell you, there are men that are in my same family situation that 10 years ago I would have looked at and thought, no, there’s no way. It’s got to be your fault. And would have just rushed in, made it snap judgment, and assumed they should not be in ministry anymore.

10 years ago, I would have thought that. Unfortunately, God softened my heart on that before I found myself here. But without knowing all the facts, I would just assume you’re not fit for ministry.

And I wish I knew how many times I had articulated that view and how many people I could have hurt with my words, my rushing to judgment, not realizing that sometimes things happen to people that are not their fault. You know what? I’ve heard of people who were single mothers before, and you just automatically assume they had a child out of wedlock.

And when you come to find out, later on, they were widowed. Husband died before the baby was born. I’m guilty of that.

We rush to judgment. Please don’t ever think when I’m up here telling you, this is what we need to do, that I’m saying I’m better at it than you are. I’m talking to myself a lot of the time too and saying this is what we are doing and we need to do better.

But we as believers, a lot of times, make snap judgments without knowing everything. We rush to judgment. What greater rush to judgment could there be than the man who sees the speck in his brother’s eye doesn’t even take time to notice he’s got the log in his own just rushes out to we got to deal buddy we got to deal with the speck in your eye but wait what about it doesn’t matter we got to deal with this we need to slow down I’m not saying that we excuse sin I’m not saying that we compromise with sin I’m saying we slow down and realize that that not everybody who’s in a situation that we don’t understand has put themselves in that situation by some sinful action sometimes we need moment to understand where somebody is.

You know what? Sometimes people who are in a situation that may have been caused by their own actions have come to a point where they’re repentant and God has changed them. And yet we continue to judge them based on something that God has forgiven.

So we’re warned to avoid judgments that are harsh. We’re warned to avoid judgments that are hasty. Third of all, this is the big one.

This is the big one. This is the one that I see most clearly of the three in this passage. We’re warned to avoid judgments that are hypocritical. We’re warned to avoid judgments that are hypocritical. Going back to the issue of the beam and the speck in each other’s eyes.

How on earth can we with credibility stand up and speak out against a sin when we are involved in the same sin? How can we speak up against sin in general when we’ve got sin in our lives that is not dealt with? How can we speak out against the speck in the world’s eye, when we’ve got a log in our own that we haven’t dealt with.

Again, as I indicated this morning, I’m not saying that we never ever sin. But I’m saying if we have sin that we abide in, that we don’t deal with. Our message to the world is not never sin.

Our message to the world is that there is forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ and that He changes us after He saves us. There’s saving grace and there’s changing grace available at the cross. That’s our message, one of reconciliation to the world.

So we don’t have to be perfect for that. But if we’re going to tell the world that Christ can save us from our sins and that He can change us from our sins, then our lives need to demonstrate that before we go and speak out against those sins. Don’t think from this that you have to be perfect before you can speak out against sin, before you can proclaim the truth of God’s Word.

If that was the case, there would be no human preachers. But ladies and gentlemen, my brother, my sister, if we’re to speak out against sin, and not just from the standpoint of telling the world, don’t sin anymore, but of saying you’ve sinned and there’s forgiveness and there’s changing at the cross, then we need to make sure that our lives are examples of that. Not examples of sinlessness, but examples of people who’ve repented of that sin.

Examples of people who when we sin, we hate it and we confess it and we deal with it and God forgives it and we go on. Examples of people who do not abide in their sins. Examples of the fact that Christ really can change hearts and lives today, just as He’s changed people for thousands of years.

We’re not called on and told, do not judge, do not speak out against sin ever. But this morning, the things we talked about and the things we’re talking about tonight, we’re warned about doing it the right way. There’s a very clear contrast drawn.

And when He says, don’t judge, and then goes on to give the examples that He did, what he’s really saying in context of the whole Sermon on the Mount is don’t judge the way the Pharisees do don’t make it all about me and what I think and what I feel and how you need to be as good as I am on my standards because folks it’s not about us it’s not about our standards it’s not even about making other people good it’s about warning warning every man preaching Christ and warning every man as we go back to that scripture we looked at this morning that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. We want to stand against sin in a non-hypocritical way and in an uncompromising way to be sure, but in a loving way. In a way that’s not hypocritical. And in a way where it’s our heart’s desire we cry out to God in hopes that we can see people reconciled to Him.