Well, as you all know, last week
we finished our meditation in the epistle of Paul to the Colossians,
and I had it on my mind to go to another epistle, but in meditating
upon it, a word dropped powerfully upon my mind, and I felt I should
bring it to you tonight. And that is the beginning of
the seventh chapter in Matthew. Of course, it's the last chapter
in the Sermon on the Mount, and really from verse one to verse
five. So the first five verses in the
seventh chapter of Matthew, we'll meditate on tonight. And they
read, 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 would 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. These few verses really direct
us to what we might say is fault finding because it's very easy
to find faults in one another and to judge one another and
that's why Surely the Lord has addressed us like this so clearly,
and yet so importantly. And very similar words occur
in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6, verse 37. And we read there,
judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not. and ye shall not be condemned.
Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. That doesn't mean to say, of
course, that we shouldn't have righteous judgment before God
when he clearly shows that there are errors to be considered and
to be spoken against. But really, the Lord is speaking
here about ourselves and looking at other people and comparing
ourselves with other people and therefore thinking that in essence
we are probably better and therefore we're able to rectify what we
might see as something which is wrong in their lives. And
therefore the Lord very wonderfully and graciously really instructs
us to first of all look at ourselves. and it's an important consideration
and it's necessary for all of us to do just that. And therefore
he says, judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment
ye judge, ye shall be judged. Then he says, and with what measure
ye meet, that means whatever we may have or think, it shall
be measured to you again. So we shouldn't think that we
have more than God has granted to us. We shouldn't think we
have more understanding than God has given to us. And so we
have a very simple statement saying this, with what measure
ye meet or it shall be measured to you again. And then he goes
on and says, and why beholdest thou the moat? Well, moat apparently
is like a splinter, something quite small, is in thy brother's
eye, but consider it's not the beam that is in thine own eye,
something obviously far greater. And again what this really means
is that we can look and see in others perhaps something really
quite minor, and yet in ourselves there's a much greater problem,
a much greater error which we ignore. and pass over. And so that's why the Lord says,
and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?
It's easy to look at others and find fault. And yet the Lord
says, but consider it's not the beam that is in thine own eye. It's good if we look at ourselves
first and see the wrong things that we do and the wrong things
that we have and the wrong things that we say first. and then remove
that obstacle, remove that problem, rather than criticise other people. Or, have what thou say to thy
brother. Let me pull out the mote of thine
eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Well, we see in
these few words, don't we, clearly the Lord's direction to indeed
the people of God to ensure that they walk rightly and not wrongly. And we judge, you see, naturally
by the outward appearance. So easy for us to wrongly judge. And yet, you see, as the Lord
said, when, in actual fact, there was
that occasion that the prophet Samuel the prophet went to the
father of those sons to select a king. And he looked at the
first one and he thought, this surely is the right person. But the Lord hadn't chosen him. And as we know, he went right
down through the sons until at last Joseph was called. And the Lord said, but the Lord
said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance or on the height
of his stature, because I have refused him. The Lord says, not
as man says. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And of course,
you and I can't see each other's heart. All we can see is the
outward appearance. So we have to be very careful
how we judge things. And then also in the Proverbs,
we read this, the heart, our individual self, The heart knoweth
his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his
joy. So we don't know what bitterness
one another may be having to carry. All we can do is to see
the outward appearance. These are really warnings and
good instruction for us to be very careful how we operate and
what we say. indeed what we think and so the
Apostle goes on to instruct us when he wrote to the Corinthians
the sixth chapter he says this in the fourth verse if then ye
have judgments of things pertaining to this life set them to judge
who are the least esteemed in the church again we tend to do
the opposite We tend to look at people who we think have great
natural ability. And yet the Lord says very clearly,
through the Apostle, that we are to go to those who are the
least esteemed in the church, to obtain their considered opinion,
rather than go to someone else who we may have a higher opinion.
And then finally, he says in the Second and Prince's, examine
yourselves. It's always a good test, isn't
it? Examine yourselves. Whether ye be in the faith, prove
your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus
Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. It's good for us
to always come back to that and to diagnose ourselves. And it's good if we're critical
of ourselves. It's easy to be critical of other
people. It's more important to be critical
of ourselves. Because if we are, then I'm sure
we will be one of those who desire to follow the great and glorious
example of our Saviour. And then the fifth verse in this
seventh chapter tells us this, Thou hypocrite, First, cast out
the beam out of thine own eye, and then show up thou see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thine brother's eye. So we see again,
we need to consider ourselves first. And if there are those
faults in ourselves, to get rid of those before we try and right
other people. Well, I hope this is beneficial
for us all. We all need instruction. None
of us should ever be above it. And the Lord's granted us such
words today for us. And may we take them to heart
and realise the benefit of following the word of God and following
this gracious servant on the mount, which the Lord spoke,
as we know, after he started preaching the gospel. Well, may
God bless his word.