May I please the Lords to help
us as we continue our meditation in the Sermon on the Mount and
turning to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7 and we'll read verses
3, 4 and 5. The Gospel of Matthew chapter
7 and reading verses 3, 4 and 5. And why beholdest thou the
moat that is in thy brother's eye but consider it's not the
beam that is in thine own eye. Or, have what 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. Surely the Lord is very gracious
to give us so much instruction for our natural life, which of
course also leads on to the benefit of our spiritual life. And in
these words here before us, the Lord Jesus is addressing those
who have a wrong attitude and telling them what they should
do and what they should not do. And he speaks here about the
eye. He speaks about a mote, and you
might wonder what a mote is. Well, a mote really, the mote
meaning here is a piece of straw or a splinter. Something really
quite small, but nonetheless can be very irritating and very
dangerous. on the one hand and then on the
other hand where he refers to a beam, that really of course
means a large piece of timber. So therefore he's speaking about,
we might say, a small piece of timber and a large piece of timber. And the illustration the Lord
gives to us is very clear, isn't it? We're very thankful, we should
be, for the simple illustrations that we have in the Word of God. They're not hard for us to understand. And he tells us therefore, if
we behold in someone's eye, and he refers to it as a brother,
and that of course would really mean one of the household of
faith, a child of God, one that we esteem, or at least one that
we should esteem, And to see such a thing in their eye, some
little fault perhaps, we can bring it down to that kind of
situation, we might see some little fault in their eye, in
their body, in their living, the way they operate. We might
find fault with something relatively small. Our natural reaction is to react
against it and to take things into our own hand and to put
things right as we think. And well, it may be something
which is small, which may be wrong, but on the other hand,
before we launch out into an attack or on such a person, we
should first of all look at ourselves. That's why we have here why beholdeth
thou the mote that is in thine brother's eye, but consider it's
not the beam that is in thine own eye. It's so easy to look
around at other people and to find things that they are doing
wrong. Whereas true that might be, we should first of all examine
ourselves. And that in the light of the
Spirit of God to see what we're doing wrong. And God gives us
grace to do that. we'll be surprised to find how
many things we are doing wrong. And perhaps just to qualify that,
things which may not be apparent in an outward way. But don't
forget the law looks at the heart and that's what we need to examine.
And perhaps we might see somebody doing some small thing in a wrong
way, and yet we may be doing many great things wrongly in
our heart, which no one knows about. So therefore, what are
we to do? Well, the Word of God tells us,
And how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the
mote out of thine own eye? That means, Let me put you right. Let me tell you what you're doing
wrong. And behold, a beam is in thine
own eye. We are self-righteous and we're
very easy, my friends, to be self-righteous. We don't like
to think we're wrong, do we? We like to, we see something,
we think it's wrong and therefore we think, well, we'll put that
right and we'll soon speak and get that sorted out. And if we
do that, Without looking to ourselves, be sure we do it with the wrong
spirit. As we mentioned last week, it will be a censorious
spirit. It won't be a right and it won't
be a humble spirit. Because we will go setting ourselves
up perhaps as a standard. Whereas when the Spirit of God
comes and touches our heart, so that we are able to look into
our heart and to see all manner of evil there, all manner of
unjust thoughts, all manner of wrong thoughts, perhaps all manner
of wrong words, perhaps all manner of wrong actions, which we seem
to be able to just pass over. If the Lord gives us grace then,
to see, as the Word of God explains it, as a beam, something very
big really in us. And if we observe that, And if
we're conscious of that, I'm sure that will then give us a
right spirit to speak to a brother. And perhaps we'll amend what
we were going to say very considerably. Perhaps we may not even say it.
But if we do say it, how will we say it? I'll tell you how
we'll say it. In love. In love. That's a way that you and I are
to address one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Not censoriously,
but in love. And perhaps pointing out that
we're no better. In fact, we're worse. But for
the honour and glory of God's sake, we desire just to show
that this may be a wrong situation which is being developed or being
walked in or being spoken. And so what a wonderful thing
it is if the Lord shines into our hearts and shows us how we
stand before God. We see how people stand, don't
we, naturally. But it's good when we see how we stand before
God. That'll be a good influence,
I'm sure. And the Lord speaks here very
solemnly to those who have this being, this wrong desire, this
wrong action perhaps, this wrong life that they might be living,
and they're not prepared to deal with that first. They want to
deal with this other small sin in someone else. And what does
the Lord say? He addresses such very solemnly. Thou hypocrite. And what is a
hypocrite? We mentioned last week. Somebody
that pretends to be what he's not. Pretends to be what he's
not. Well, there are many hypocrites
today. My friends, may you and I not be a hypocrite. Somebody
that pretends to be what they're not. And so the Lord says, Thou
hypocrite. Well, what's got to be done first?
The Lord tells us. cast out the beam, that big problem,
that big sin, which we perhaps didn't want to notice and didn't
want to recognize. And as the Lord looks into our
heart and as the Holy Spirit reveals such a situation there,
then you see when that's been taken out, when that's been removed,
be sure we'll be a different person. Be sure we'll have a
different attitude. One of the things which it would
have done is this. It would have been to reduce
our pride. Because perhaps we would have
been proud and think, well, of course I'm not doing that and
I'm not following that way. But you see, we may be true,
but we may have a much greater fault, a much worse fault. And therefore when the Lord deals
graciously with us, and remember, and this is wonderful, the Lord
deals with love to us. Love to our souls. We don't deserve
it, do we? Rebellious and hard-hearted,
the Lord comes and deals with us in love. And when we see what
he's done for us, and how he's borne with us, that brings us
into a different situation. It produces a different attitude.
And what does it do? It brings about a God-honouring
attitude, a humble attitude, an attitude of love, an attitude
desiring peace. Thou hypocrite, first cast the
beam out of thine own eye, and then, shalt thou see clearly,
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Well, it's a good
thing. It's good for us to go through these verses here, really,
in this Sermon on the Mount. There's so much wonderful instruction
to us. Perhaps we are relatively familiar
with such an account, but it's good to just, as it were, stand
still and sit still and meditate, and can say, well, Lord, how
does this apply to me? How does it apply to my actions? Are they God-honouring or are
they self-honouring? It's good when we can realise
that God is dealing with us as sons and daughters of the Most
High God, so that we're able to come and recognise as we view
ourselves before God and before others as less than the least
of all saints. When we're all sworn in our own
eyes, then we can believe the Lord will use us for his honour
and for his glory. Amen.