Alright brethren, I'm going to
preach out of Matthew 7, but I want you to turn to Romans
14 first. We began this chapter last Sunday,
and Lord willing we'll continue it this Sunday, but I want to
look at a subject we saw here concerning judging. Romans 14.1
says, Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful
disputations. For one believeth that he may
eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs or vegetables. Let not him that eateth despise
him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge
him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who art thou that
judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. Look at verse 10. But why dost
thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at naught
thy brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess to God. So then every one of us shall
give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one
another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Now let's
go to Matthew 7. I want to speak some on this
subject of judging. Now this is our master speaking,
and he says in verse 1, Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged. And with what measure you 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, then shalt thou see clearly to
cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Now, our master
here is speaking to to brethren, to believers. He begins there
in verse 1 and says, Judge not. Now those words may be more well
known than John 3.16. Because when you begin to tell
somebody what God says in His Word, if God's Word is opposite
to what they're doing, one of the first things you'll hear
is, Judge not. Right now, the word is tolerance.
And this world wants everybody to be tolerant. If you're not
tolerant, you can be accused of a hate crime. But when you
declare God's word that marriage is between a man and a woman
alone, biblical marriage is between a man and a woman alone, it's
often the common case that you'll hear, judge not, judge not. When men hear us preach God's
word that all men are totally depraved, dead in trespasses
and sins, and especially when we speak about false religion
and their sinful works that they do. Somebody will be sitting
there visiting and they'll hear it and afterward they'll say,
I thought the Lord said judge not. Christ is not teaching us never
to judge. He is not teaching us never to
judge. 1 John 4 verse 1, He said, Try the spirits. Try the preachers. We have to use spiritual judgment
to discern if the preachers are preaching the truth or they are
preaching a lie. He said through Paul in 1 Thessalonians
5 verse 21, Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. He says down here in verse 6,
right here in the same sermon, he says, 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
wring you. You have to use spiritual discernment
to judge if you're speaking with someone who's a dog and a swine
who's going to hate the gospel and turn and wring you. In verse
15 and 16, he says, Beware of false prophets, which come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves.
You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistles? That's going to require us to
judge false prophets. And we're going to know them
by their fruits. That's requiring some judgment.
So the Lord's not teaching us to never use judgment. He teaches
us to judge righteous judgment. You better judge. If you don't,
you'll end up being led astray by a false preacher. So we use
judgment. But the Master's teaching his
disciples here to be not critical, accusing, condemning our brethren,
especially not in things that are not vital issues. He's condemning
a self-righteous, fault-finding spirit, which magnifies one's
errors and infirmities. He's condemning that spirit that
keeps score. Now, our Lord gives four reasons
here for not judging. Four reasons, and these will
be our divisions, and we'll just start with verse one. First of
all, we should not judge because Christ commands us not to. He
says, Judge not. Judge not. If we have a God-given
love for Christ, He's put the love of God in our heart, then
by God's grace, we'll obey Him. By God's grace, by the Spirit
of God, we'll obey Him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love me, he will keep my words. And my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our boat with
him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word
which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. When
Christ says to believers, judge not, that's the law of Christ
that we're under. It's the law of love. I believe
that is the law that James was talking about. Look over at James
4 verse 11. He says, speak not evil one of
another, brethren. See, he's talking about the same
thing Christ did. Speak not evil one of another,
brethren. He that speaketh evil of his
brother and judges this brother speaketh evil of the law and
judgeth the law. What law is he talking about?
Well, what Christ is telling us is speak not evil one of another. That's Christ's law to his people.
That's a precept he's giving you and me. The man that speaks
evil of his brother speaks evil of Christ's law not to judge. He's saying, I don't think that's
a good law. I'm going to do it anyway. And look, he's judging
Christ's law by that. Now look at, but if thou judge
the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's
one lawgiver who's able to save and to destroy. Who art thou? that judges another. Now think
about this. We talk about this being Christ's
rule to His people. Judge not. This is Christ our
Redeemer. Do you know what you are before
Him? Do you know what we are before
Him and we have been since eternity? We've been vile, wretched sinners. You don't see it like He sees
it in you, and I don't see it like He sees it in me. Vile,
wretched sinners. And yet, even when we were enemies
to Christ, He came and took all our sin and laid down His life
for us. We were worthy of His judgment
and wrath. But He didn't give it to us.
He gave us grace. He gave us mercy. He came and
laid down His life and suffered that agony we just sang about.
He suffered that agony in our room instead. And then He came
to us dead in trespasses and sins, and when we were regenerated,
Christ Jesus in Spirit entered into us. And now He's our Master. He is our master, ruling us. And He says, judge not. Now that ought to end all critical,
accusing, condemning talk of anybody. Of anybody, especially
our brethren. This is the word of Christ our
master. He's teaching us not to walk
contrary to His love toward us. Charity suffereth long, is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Charity beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Think about from eternity, when
Christ entered covenant with the Father, from the time we
fell, Think how long Christ has suffered with us. With man. Period. And think how long He
suffered with you and me when we didn't know Him. And think
how long He suffers with you now that you do know Him. He's kind to us. He's gracious
to us. He's merciful to us. He's forgiving
to us. He's not critical. He doesn't
accuse us and magnify our offenses and condemn us. Let's be like our Master, long-suffering,
forgiving, merciful, gracious, forbearing. Why? Because He said, judge not. We should not judge because in
this life, God will judge us with the same judgment with which
we judge. In this life, God will judge
you and me, His believing children, with the same judgment that we
judge others with. Here in verse 1, He says, Judge
not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment you judge
you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. Look at Luke 6 again, and listen
to what he said there now. Luke 6, 37. He says, Judge not,
and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not
be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, give mercy, give grace,
give forgiveness, give long suffering. Give and it shall be given to
you. Now what measure do we give? Good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, running over. That's how men shall give into
your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet with all,
it shall be measured to you again. Our Lord is teaching us here
that if we rejoice in judgment, if we rejoice to condemn our
brother for the things that he's done, if we rejoice to accuse
him and blame him, God will judge us with the same judgment. He'll do so by chastening us
and He will use men to do it. So is this judgment from God
or from men? Yes, it's from both. Because
God will chasten us and He'll use men to chasten us. If we're
forgiving and gracious in abundance, you know the picture there shaking
down, it's like if you had a bushel of peas or something and you
put them in a basket at the counter and the guy's weighing them,
he puts them in there and he shakes them real good and makes
sure they're all down so he can add more to it. You know when
you buy a box of chips or crackers or something like that and you
get to where you are and you open them up and they're all
down in the bag and there's a big space at the top? It's because
on the way there, they were shaken down. And they all sit down on
the bottom now and there's all this extra space. He said, don't
give forgiveness that way. Don't give mercy that way. He says, you give in abundance.
Shaken down, running over, and that's how men were recompensed
into your bosom. You think about it. Our God is
sovereign God. He rules everyone in the world
and everything in the world. Can He not use men around us
if we need to be judged? If we've been judging harshly,
can He not use men to judge us harshly? And then sanctify it
to our hearts to make us know this is His chastening hand?
Sure He can. He's in control of everything.
Now He won't do this for everybody. Some people go through their
life judging and accusing and condemning everybody they see. And they're never chastened for
it. Why? They're bastards and not sons,
that's why. But if you're His child, God
will chasten you for that. Listen to what He told His brethren
when He was teaching them to pray. He said, you pray, forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then He said this,
for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
He can't be talking about final judgment because there's going
to be seasons you fall into this unforgiving spirit and you're
going to have to be chasing. So what's He talking about? He's
talking about right now. If we do that, God's not going
to forgive it, He's going to correct us, is what He's saying.
Now don't misunderstand, Christ has come and redeemed His people
from all iniquity. He laid down His life for His
elect and the scripture says, by His one offering, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. God says, I will
remember your sins no more. They won't be brought up. And
that's before the judgment seat of God. Before the law of God,
before the judgment seat of God, there is therefore now no condemnation. But for our good in this life,
God's not going to let us do something that's going to harm
us. He's going to correct His child. And if we're not obeying Christ
like He teaches us to, He will correct us. He won't forget that.
He will correct us. And that's what Christ is saying.
It's in this life, God will either use men to judge us and chasten
us for disobeying our Lord, or God will use men, and when we've
given in abundance, God will use men and give to us in abundance. Now hear Christ speak here. He
says, give mercy. You see that sin, or that infirmity,
or that weakness in your brother, or error, or whatever it is?
He's not saying that you can't lovingly speak to him about what
it is in Scripture. We can do that. But make sure
it's seasoned with grace. But now this condemning, this
haughty, puffed up condemning, and accusing. And then a brother
comes and asks forgiveness and you refuse it. This is what we're
talking about. God is going to correct for that.
You just mark it down. He is going to. Or if we give mercy and we give
grace and we're kind and long-suffering, God will use men to give that
to us in abundance. This is God. He says to us, Give,
and it shall be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, running over, shall men give into your bosom. For
with the same measure that you meet withal, it shall be measured
to you again. It shall. And so, in James 2.12,
he said, So speak ye, and do as they that shall be judged
by the law of liberty. Speaking due is those that are
going to be judged by God. Is God going to, when you come
into final judgment, is God going to pull out those books and open
them up and charge you with every minute sin that you're guilty
of, believer? No. He said, I've blotted them
out. Christ's blood has blotted them
out. There won't be anything in that day to accuse us. That's
the law of liberty. We've been redeemed. There's
therefore now no condemnation of them who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So he says,
in this life, you do, you speak and you do as one that's going
to be judged by liberty. He says, for he shall have judgment
without mercy that has showed no mercy. and mercy rejoiceth
against judgment. What he's saying is, the believer
who's experienced the mercy of God, who sees what a dire, hell-deserving
sinner he is, and sees the mercy of God to it, he's going to rejoice
in mercy. The one that's going to rejoice
in judgment, and go on rejoicing in judgment, never be corrected,
go on rejoicing to judge, judge, judge, judge, is the reprobate
who hates Christ, and when he meets God, he won't have any
mercy. But he says you judge as one
that shall be judged by the law of liberty, the law of liberty,
by the gospel. Now thirdly, we should not judge
because when we do, we're guilty of a far worse sin. We should not judge because when
we do, we are guilty of a far worse sin. He says there in verse
3, Matthew 7, 3. He says, And why beholdest thou
the mote that is in thy brother's eye? It's a splinter. 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? Do you behold a mote in
your brother's eye? Do you? It's real. There's really a mote in his
eye. There's a lot of them. He has a lot of things that you
can judge him with. There's a lot of them. But is
it anything compared to your being that's in your eye? Is
it anything compared to what you're guilty of? What's the being? Every time
one of us judges our brother, we're guilty of a far worse sin
that Christ calls a beam. You see the difference between
a beam and a splinter? A beam's bigger than a two-by-four.
He could have just said, they got a splinter, you got a two-by-four.
He said, they got a splinter, you got a beam. That up there
is a beam. It's even bigger. What is it
when we have a beam in our eye? When we're accusing our brother
and judging one that God has said, who shall I charge to mine
elect? It's God that justified, it's
Christ that redeemed us, who's even right now making intercession
for us. When I judge one of these little
ones, what am I guilty of? What's the beam in my eye? One,
we're attempting to usurp authority over Christ our Master. We're
trying to tell Him to get out of the judgment seat. We're going
to sit here now, and we're going to take care of this. Romans 14, 3 and 4, who are you
to judge? To his own master he standeth
or falleth. Yea, he should be held up, for
God is able to make him stand. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.3,
he says with me it's a very small thing that I should be judged
of you. The Corinthians had some folks there that they had some
serious beams in their eyes because they were judging Paul. They
were accusing him of being a false prophet. They were saying he
didn't walk like a prophet ought to walk. He didn't talk like
a prophet ought to talk. He was just a vile, wretched,
guilty sinner. And they had passed judgment
on him. As far as they were concerned, he was condemned. Paul said,
it's a very small thing that I should be judged of you. Or
of man's judgment in general. If you all got together, it'd
be a small thing to me, he said. Yea, I judge not my own self. For I know nothing by myself.
Yet am I not hereby justified? But he that judgeth me is the
Lord. I don't want to try to kick the
Lord out of the judgment seat. It's the Lord that's judging
His people. Number two, we're passing judgment before it's
time. The rest of that verse, 1 Corinthians
4, 5, Paul said, therefore judge nothing before the time until
the Lord comes. who will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts. Then shall every man, every believer
have praise of God. But here thirdly, here's the
beam of my eye, we're guilty of that sin God hates. We're guilty of pride and self-righteousness. We see sin in our brother. What's
pride and self-righteousness? We see sin in our brother, but
we can't see it in ourselves. Verse 3. He says, Why beholdest
thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? But considerest
not the being that's in thine own eye. Luke said, You perceive
it not. You can't see it. When we get
into this place, brethren, we're blind. We're blind. We can see everybody else's sin,
but we can't see our own sin. That's Christ speaking. He said
in verse 5, Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine
own eye, then shalt thou see clearly. See, we can't see clearly
when there's beams in our eye. Judging our brother and not perceiving,
not considering our own sin, We've become proud and self-righteous
like the Pharisee. Look over at Luke 18. Luke 18 and look at verse 9. Christ spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. What did they do? They trusted
in themselves that they were righteous and they judged others. That's what they were doing.
They were judging others. Christ gave this parable. Two
men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and
the other a publican. Pharisee stood and prayed thus
with himself, God, I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in a week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. If I judge my brother, that's
what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying right
there. God, I thank You I'm not like he is. I don't do all the
sinful things he does. I do what I'm supposed to do.
That's exactly what I'm saying. I'm thinking I'm righteous in
myself and I'm despising, I'm condemning others. Look at this
publican. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. Listen to this.
For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. Now, lastly, We should not exalt
ourselves in judgment because if we are God's child, if we
are God's child, we shall be humbled by God's chastening hand
and made to see our sin. We shall. Look here in verse
5. Now you just imagine Christ speaking
this to you. And when He chastens, this is
what He makes us hear in our heart. When we're in this position
and He chastens us, maybe He uses some stranger we don't even
know to judge us and condemn us, and He sanctifies it to your
heart, He brings to memory, and He makes you hear Him say this
to you, 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. Whenever Christ chastens His
redeemed, He makes us hear this word loud and clear in our heart. Have you heard it? I've heard
it. I've heard it. And it's an unmistakable
chastening hand of God when He does this in the court of your
conscience. Thou hypocrite. You know what He's saying? You
actor. You actor, you're playing a part
on a stage. That's what a hypocrite is. You're
guilty of the very same things. Look at Romans chapter 2. He gave that long list of sins
in the first chapter. And the Pharisees were sitting
there and they're thinking to themselves, oh, thank you God.
I thank you I'm not like them. Those folks are. And Paul said,
therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judges, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself,
for thou that judges doest the same things. But we're sure that
the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit
such things. Brethren, judging others is one
way Men try to deflect from their own sins. If you get into an
argument or you get into just a discussion with somebody that's
a Pharisee, you may start that conversation off talking about
them. They're going to turn that around
on you. And everything they say is going
to be you, you, you, you. Everything. But God knows our
hearts. God knows our heart. Brother
Mahan used to say, we are all three people. We're all three
people. We're the one we think we are.
We're the one others think we are. And we're the one God knows
we are. So Christ convicts His child
in the court of our conscience. He convicts His child. He brings
this home. He makes us realize our hypocrisy. Now, if you want judgment rather
than mercy, God will deal with you in judgment. That's what
He's teaching us here. He will deal with us in judgment.
And it's the greatest thing that could happen to us because He's
going to keep His child from being a Pharisee. He's going
to keep you a humble publican. And so it's good for us to be
chastened by God in our heart and in our conscience. He's going
to make you see your own sin and your pride in your self-righteousness.
He's going to make you see yourself. And when we're convicted of our
sin by the Spirit of God, does a believer ever get the beam
out of his own eye so that he can see clearly to get the splinter
out of his brother's eye? Well, yes and no. know in that when Christ does
this, He makes you see you're the worst sinner there is. It's no more this, oh well I
know I'm not as good as God is, but you know I've got some sin. Oh no. He's going to make you
see you are the chief sinner. You are the very worst sinner
there is. And so no, in that sense, you
don't see to get it out of your brother's eye, at least not in
the way you were going about it. And I think it's on purpose. I know it is. It's on purpose
that the next word in our text, our Lord said, ask and it shall
be given you. Because you know when He does
this work, you know what He does? He brings you to cry out with
that publican, Be merciful to me, the sinner. He brings you
to ask, Lord be merciful to me, the sinner. Psalm 51.9 You know
David, David committed murder, he committed adultery and Nathan
comes to him and Nathan says, you know there was this poor
man that had one little ewe lamb and there was a rich man that
had all these lambs and that rich man came down and took that
poor man's one lamb and killed it and had it when his guests
came to visit instead of one of his own lambs. And it says
David's anger grew exceedingly, and David said, who is this man? He has to die according to the
law of God, and he has to restore fourfold what he's taken. He
was ready to condemn. He was rejoicing in judgment.
And Nathan said, you're the man, David. And then he prayed, Lord, have
mercy on me, the sinner. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Hide Thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create
in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from
me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation and uphold me with
Thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
Thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto You. Have you
ever considered this, that God puts you with a brother who struggles
with sins and struggles with infirmities and weaknesses and
errors so that God can humble you from your proud, self-righteous
throne so that God might use you to teach other sinners? Did
you ever consider that? Instead of condemning them, I
ought to think, well, maybe God put me here to bring me down
a notch or two. Well, do we ever seek clearly
to get the moat out of our brother's eye? Well, no, not like we were
trying to do it, because we see ourselves chief of sinners. But
yeah, God chastens us and He humbles us so that He can use
us to help some other brother that's overtaken in sin. Turn
to Galatians 6. But next time, this is how we'll
do it. I've been brought to that place
to see what a hypocrite I've been and to see how great my
self-righteousness is and my arrogance in the face of Christ
who loved me and gave Himself for me. Then next time God uses
me, this is what I'll do. Galatians 6, 1, Brethren, if
a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted. Remember what happened last time.
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself something
to be something when he is nothing, He deceives himself. That's how
we'll deal with it the next time after God's done that for us.
I pray God now bless that and make us deal with one another
in mercy and in the spirit of meekness.