All right, let's ask the Lord
to be with us. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you
for the truth of what you've said. In all of this world, men
claim to know the truth or struggle to learn it, but here we have
it revealed to us from heaven. And we know this is your word,
and we believe it, and we believe you. We trust in your word. It's
the only thing in this world that we trust. Though we find our hearts enamored
by things in this world and tempted to trust and be afraid because
of the things we see and experience that come upon us, we have the
reassurance from Your Word that we can trust You in all things.
And so, Lord, as we look into your word today, we pray that
you would bless us, teach us, comfort us, instruct us, correct
us, and teach us as your children, as a father does his children.
We ask these things for the praise of our Savior because of his
merit, because of what he has accomplished, what he's earned.
We trust in him. We trust in no other. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen. Turn to Matthew chapter 7 with
me, if you would, please. I realized as I was studying
this and thinking about it, I skipped over the part of chapter 6, 1,
fasting, so I'll have to pick that up another time. But I want
to focus today on these first few verses in Matthew chapter
7. Let's read the first six verses. It says there in the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus is continuing, Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge,
you shall be judged. And with what manner 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, and then shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. And then in verse
six, give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your
pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet
and turn again and rend you. So there's really two things
here that are mentioned. One is judging, and the other
one is having the wisdom to know when not to give what is holy
to dogs. And one of the things you'll
see in a lot of what Jesus taught is you'll see the use of metaphors.
That's a big word. What does it mean? What's a metaphor?
Well, a metaphor is a word that really isn't physically the thing
that's being described. Here he says that if you have
a beam in your own eye, he doesn't actually mean you have a timber,
a log in your eye. But that's a metaphor for what
he's speaking about, which it links that thing, that beam,
that picture of that in your mind, to the real thing that
he's speaking of. And Jesus does that all the time
here. And in verse 6 he talks about dogs and he talks about
swine. He's not talking about literal
dogs and he's not talking about literal pigs. And he's not talking
about literal pieces of wood in your eye. But he's talking
about important things in the kingdom of God. And I think we
know that instinctively and intuitively. But the Lord makes use of metaphors
all the time in scripture. Now, one of the things you see
here is he says, judge not that you be not judged. For with what
judgment you judge, you shall be judged. Here, if you look
at these verses, and I've looked at them quite a bit, and still
feel like I should continue studying them, but if you look at these
verses carefully and you think about what they're talking about
here, and then look at the metaphor that the Lord uses of a speck
in one eye and a beam in the other, it's almost comical in
their proportions. And because of that, it's memorable
and it teaches us something. It teaches us many things. When
he says here, I just used to have this, I can't help but have
this picture in my mind of somebody walking around with his telephone
pole sticking out of their eye, trying to reach and probe to
get something small and insignificant out of somebody else's eye. It's
amazing, isn't it? It draws a picture in your mind
that's so memorable that you just don't forget it easily.
But when you see this, you see really it explains in an effective
way what the Lord is talking about. Because if you have something
so huge in your eye and you're looking for a speck in someone
else's eye, it means that you're so blind to your own condition
that you don't realize the foolishness of what you're trying to do.
And that's what we are naturally. Naturally, we come with a critical
attitude and a fault-finding attitude towards others, and
we're entirely blind to our own faults. That's what he's saying
here. It's so easy for us to find something insignificant
with someone else and completely miss the huge problem we have
with ourselves. And don't you know that that's
what he's saying here? And so if we understand that, that the
Lord is talking about judging others for things that really
are insignificant, especially when they're compared to what
we are in ourselves, then we understand, we get the message
of what's being said here. How many times have you heard
someone say, judge not, judge not. And what they're really
saying is, you can't judge me. My lifestyle, what I believe,
all those things, don't judge. And they don't want to be put
on the spotlight. Because men want to have a free and unrestricted
liberty to do whatever they want to do. They don't want to have
any condemnation. And so the world resists all
criticism of itself. The world resists all criticism,
although the world criticizes. It criticizes those who hold
to truth. And the reason the world does
that, we know why the world does that, because we think naturally
like the world. One of the reasons is that the
world doesn't want to be held to account. We want the liberty
to do what we want to do. So that's one reason. The other
reason, the other ironic reason is that even though the world
wants to do what it wants to do, the world is very quick to
judge. And so when they say, judge not,
they're really judging those who are judging them. Because
as we'll see, that's exactly what we are. We're naturally
judgmental, and we naturally resist any truth of God. And
so the Lord says here, judge not, that you be not judged.
The primary teaching here is to not be critical fault-finding
of others, but put yourself under the microscope of God's Word
and let the Lord judge you. So we're going to get into these
things a little bit. We naturally minimize our own
faults and magnify the faults of others. It's like looking
the wrong way through a pair of binoculars. or telescope. When you're looking through a
telescope, everything you see looks a lot closer than it actually
is. If you turn it around, everything's far away. That's the way. We
see ourselves looking through the wrong direction of the telescope,
and we don't see ourselves as we truly are. So it's, one of
the things that you see here is that, and I think this is
the main thing, is that the Lord is teaching us to be kind one
to another. And we're gonna look at some
verses around that. But first of all, let me give you some,
a list of things here I think that the judgment that men bring
does. First of all, naturally we're
concerned with wrong in others rather than wrong in ourselves.
And it's easy to do that. A second thing here is that these
verses teach throughout the scripture is that men in judging are willing
to show justice without mercy on others. But they resist all
attempts to bring justice toward themselves. Remember the woman
taken in adultery in John chapter 8? The Pharisees who brought
her were trying to put Jesus in a dilemma. There were two
choices, they thought, and only two that could be made. Two things
that he could have chosen from, neither of which for him would
have been a good choice. They thought they had him. It
was a dilemma. But that's because they only
thought of two choices. Either show justice without mercy,
which they were willing to do for others, or they would have
him show mercy without justice so they could accuse him of violating
Moses' law. So that's what we also do naturally,
is we show we're willing on others to show justice without mercy
and become the accusers and side with God's law as though we are
judges of God's law. So the Lord says, don't do that.
We're ready to condemn sinners. Here's the third thing I see.
We're ready to condemn sinners as if their only hope comes from
them. Why don't you pick yourself up
and get yourself out of the mess you're in? I saw a sign on the
sidewalk. Someone had poked it in the gutter.
It said, the war on drugs is a war on us. That sign was saying,
I'm a victim and the law is the villain. But the problem is that
we don't want to acknowledge the fault of our own sin. Sin
is all my fault. And until we acknowledge that,
we won't need a Savior. Jesus came to save sinners. When we look at sinners and we
see them in the helplessness of their sin, maybe they're addicts,
maybe they're in prison, maybe they're just not like us in a
lot of ways, we're ready to condemn them as if their only hope comes
from them, their own personal obedience or their own improvement. And so that's another way we
judge others. And then the way the Pharisees judged here is
they condemned Christ because he rightly found fault in them.
In John chapter 7, the household, the family, the brothers of the
Lord Jesus said to him, nobody who seeks to be known openly,
take a look at that in John chapter 7. I'll show you what they said
to Jesus. This shows you their hatred for
him, because he was right, he spoke the truth. He says in John
7, In verse 3, his brethren, because
there was a feast of the tabernacles, John 7, 3, his brethren therefore
said to him, Depart, Hanson, go into Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that
doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
openly. They assumed that Jesus had only
one goal, to be well known and promote himself. If thou do these
things, show thyself to the world, they said to him. They were mocking
him, really. There's the feast, there's the tabernacle, go up
and make yourself known to Jerusalem. They knew in their hearts that
if he went up, that the Jews would seek to kill him. Then
it says in verse 5, For neither did his brethren believe in him.
And then Jesus said to them, My time is not yet come, but
your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but
me it hates, because I testify of it that the works thereof
are evil. So that's the other way the Pharisees judged Christ.
Because he spoke against their works. and exposed them as evil,
their good works as evil, they hated him and they condemned
him and they judged him. They found fault with him for
exposing them as false and full of hypocrisy and disobedience. And then we also see that when
we judge others We also want to clear ourselves of guilt to
avoid condemning ourselves. We don't want the law to be too
harsh. We would prefer that the law
was easy on us. And so rather than justifying
God and honoring His law, we would rather make the law less
strict than it really is. And so there's all these things
like this are reasons why we judge others and find fault with
them. But God's judgment is just. His law is right. It will not
be broken. And there's nothing we can do
about that. God will judge. The judge of
all the earth will do right. Sinners will be punished. There's only one hope for us,
therefore, and that is that the Lord Jesus Christ takes our sin
and answers to God for our sin, and answers to God for the obedience
required from us. And that's exactly what God has
done. It says, take a look at a couple
of verses with me on Proverbs chapter 20. I've pointed these
out before, but I like referring back to them. Proverbs chapter
20. The Pharisees thought of only two options. Justice without
mercy, or mercy at the expense of justice. And here the Lord
shows that His throne is established on not just justice, but mercy. Look at Proverbs chapter 20 and
verse 28. It says, mercy and truth preserve
the king, and his throne is upholden by mercy. That's amazing, isn't
it? His throne is upholden by mercy. Who would have thought that God's
throne would be upheld not only by justice, but also by mercy. Aren't you glad it's that way?
I am so glad it's that way. Look at Isaiah chapter 16. The same thing is said here about
the Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah 16, verse 5. shall the throne be established,
and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging
and seeking judgment and hasting righteousness." So all these
things teach us that the Lord himself is merciful. His throne
is called in Hebrews chapter 4, a throne of grace. A throne
of grace. How comforting is that to us?
And so I want to think about these things with you and this
matter of judging and not judging. One of the things that I see
here is echoed in Ecclesiastes. If you have your, you're back
in Proverbs, take a look at Ecclesiastes chapter seven. When we think
about judging others, we always think only in one direction.
They're bad and I am above reproof. But look at this in Ecclesiastes
chapter seven. He says in verse 20, There is
not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Also, take no heed unto all words
that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee." Don't
always be so sensitive that you're wearing your feelings on your
sleeve. You have to know everything that
someone's saying about you. Verse 22, for oftentimes also
thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed
others. You're so sensitive to find out
what someone else is saying and yet you yourself are guilty of
cursing others. And then look at this. So, I point those things out
so that you can see that we ourselves are just as guilty as the ones
that we seek to judge. If your brother is overtaken
in a fault, what are we supposed to do? pray for him. Why? Considering yourself. Considering
yourself. When we see someone overtaken
in a fault, we're to think, there, but for the grace of God, unless
God upholds me by his grace, there I go. That's where I will
be. And so, when the Lord comes back,
he commends his servants for bringing him a drink when he
was thirsty, food when he was hungry, clothing when he was
naked, and visiting him when he was in prison, because all
those conditions are conditions where mercy is needed. He's not
speaking physically, again, with the metaphors. He's comparing
the spiritual state of our souls to a needy man who's thirsty,
hungry, naked, and in prison. And what do we need? We need
the mercy of God in Christ. And so, believers judge. Believers
do judge, but they judge in the way that God has taught them
that He judges. And how has God taught us that
He judges? He doesn't judge without mercy. And He doesn't show mercy without
justice. But mercy and truth have met
together, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other,
Psalm 85, 10, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we judge,
we judge according to the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel is
always our standard. And what does the Gospel say?
Outside of Christ, there is only judgment. But in Christ, there
is only mercy and grace from God, because Christ has answered
all of the demands of the law for us. If we remember that,
I think then we'll be able to judge rightly. So he says in
1 Corinthians, I'm sorry, that's a different verse. I didn't want
to point that out right now. There is a lot of concern in
the world about judging, as I mentioned. The world doesn't like to be
judged and they oppose any kind of scrutiny. And the religion
of the world also doesn't like to be judged. One of the things
you'll find is that religious people don't want to be held
under the scrutiny of God's Word. It's not right, according to
most religious people, to hold another person's doctrine suspect,
or to hold them who teach it suspect. But we're going to find
out that's exactly what we're supposed to do. So the question
comes to mind, are we supposed to judge Is there any ground
in God's word for us to judge? Because these words here, just
taken at face value, judge not that you be not judged, seem
to say that we're not to judge at all. Is that what the Lord
is teaching us? Look at John chapter seven, at
some of this. John chapter seven, because Jesus
was going about doing good, only good. Yet he was judged. And so in John chapter 7, it
was on the Sabbath day. The Lord had made a man completely
whole on the Sabbath day. And the Pharisees came and judged
the Lord Jesus. They criticized Him. They found
fault with Him for healing a man on the Sabbath day. And Jesus
says this in verse 23. If a man on the Sabbath day receives
circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are
you angry at me because I have made a man every whit hole on
the Sabbath day? And in verse 24 of John 7 he
says, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous
judgment. So he's telling the Pharisees,
you hold me guilty for being a Sabbath breaker. But the Pharisees
themselves, now remember what the Lord said, with the judgment
that you judge, you shall be judged. And so the Lord will
hold us accountable to the same standard with which we judge
others. Here, they were accusing Jesus
of being a Sabbath breaker. And yet he tells them, look,
I've made a man completely whole on the Sabbath day. He received
circumcision on the Sabbath day, and that's just a sign. And here
I've made a man completely whole. Don't judge according to appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. They were guilty of breaking
the Sabbath, because the true meaning of the Sabbath, they
were breaking. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
rest. He's the one who has completed
the work, and they failed to rest in Him. They were Sabbath
breakers. And the judgment they brought
against Christ will one day, if they remain in their unbelief,
be the judgment God brings on them. Just like we read in Luke
chapter 19 about the man who accused the Lord. I knew you
were an austere man, taking what you didn't lay down and reaping
what you didn't sow. And therefore I hid your talent
in a napkin in the earth, so it couldn't be lost. And the Lord said to him, that
man, out of your own mouth will I judge you. You knew I was austere. If I was austere, you knew I
was austere. You knew I would take up what
I didn't lay down. You knew I would reap what I didn't sow. Therefore,
because I could do that, you should have put my talent to
work. And I would have received the increase because I'm able
to do that. But because you don't truly believe
me, you're confessing your thoughts of me are only evil. You're accusing
me of being unjust and greedy and covetous as yourself. And
in unbelief, you're accusing the Lord Himself of being wrong,
and therefore I'll use your own words to judge you. So we have
to be very careful about how we judge. We're to judge by righteous
judgment. And what is the judgment with
which we judge? What is that judgment with which
we ourselves are to judge? I believe that the Lord has given
us the gospel to be our guide, as I mentioned before. Pharisees
thought only of justice without mercy or mercy at the expense
of justice. But the Lord solves that problem. He solves that seemingly insolvable
problem. He's both just and the justifier
of him which believeth on Jesus. Look at a few references to look
at this with me. He says, look at Romans chapter
2. Romans chapter 2. Now you know
Romans chapter 2 is a is showing to the Jews that they're as guilty
as the Gentiles, even though they judge the Gentiles. In judging
the Gentiles, they're merely signing their own sentence of
judgment. In chapter 2, verse 1, you can
read it. He says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever
thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest
thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things. That's
the big point. Whoever judges, know this, the
way you know why something else is wrong is because if you set
yourself as a standard, then you yourself are guilty of those
things because you know them because you do them. But look
over in verse 16. Paul says this, he summarizes
it this, In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ, how? According to my gospel. There you see that the Lord is
saying it's the gospel that's going to be the measure of judgment
in the last day. Did we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do we hold to the truth that
God has satisfied His justice and fulfilled all righteousness
for His people? And are we coming to God through
Him alone? Or are we relying on our own
righteousness and on the basis of our sinful judgment, condemning
or clearing ourselves and condemning others? Look at 2 Timothy chapter
3. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15. I was thinking
about this because of Hurley and Taylor being here with us
from week to week, and I wanted to read this. This is a verse
that children frequently learn as they're children, and it's
a good verse to learn. It says this, 2 Timothy 3, verse 15.
It says, that from a child, speaking to
Timothy, Paul is saying to him, from a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures. What are the scriptures? It's
the Bible. The Bible alone is the Word of God. The 66 books
of this Bible is the Word of God, and there is no other word.
The Apocrypha is not the Word of God. Dreams and visions and
tongues that men receive allegedly nowadays is not the Word of God.
Catholic canons and all sorts of doctrines in the churches
of the different denominations and creeds who hold their additional
things or their traditions to be also inspired, they are not
the Word of God. There's only one Word and that's
the Scriptures. And in the scriptures alone,
we know truth. We do not discover truth through
science, contrary to the world's popular belief. We do not discover
truth through our own intuition. I read, I can't remember where
I saw it, I think it was back when we were in Back East. There
was a quote, and I read through the quote and found out who the
quote was. It was something like this, and
I'm not saying it exactly, but it was, Don't believe what is
written. Don't believe the scriptures.
Don't believe anything anyone tells you. Only believe what
you, what makes sense to you in your intuition, what you observe
in the world as being good and right. And it was signed, Buddha. I'm misquoting it, I'm sure,
but I got the sense of what was said there. Isn't that in a nutshell,
what the world believes. Isn't that what God said in the
book of Judges? Remember that book in the Old
Testament? What is it called? Judges. And what was it that
the people did in the book of Judges? In that book it says
that every man did what was right in his own eyes. That is the
definition of bad judgment. And so here, when we read this
in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, he says, "...from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures." Now, why is that of value? Why is
it important to know the holy scriptures? We'll look at the
next phrase. "...which are able to make thee
wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The
scriptures have a subject. The subject is the Lord Jesus
Christ and salvation by Him. And it's the scriptures, by the
scriptures, and only the scriptures, that were made wise unto salvation. That's why it's important. And
it's important for us to know it. And he says to Timothy, that
knowing this from a child is a great blessing. And then he
says in verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. What the scripture says, is God
speaking. It's what God says. It's what
God thinks. It's what God has revealed. And
that alone is how we know God is through the scriptures unto
salvation. Sure, we know that God created
the world. We understand His eternal power and Godhead looking
at creation with the knowledge that God did it by Himself and
therefore all things are of Him and through Him and to Him. But
it's the scriptures that come along and teach us these things
in words. So he says all scripture is given
by inspiration of God and it is profitable for doctrine, the
scriptures, for doctrine. for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works." The Scriptures are
not only truth, but they're all sufficient truth. The Scriptures. And what is the subject? The
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the subject of Scripture.
And so look at the same place in chapter 4, 2 Timothy 4, reading
just a little bit further. Look what Paul tells Timothy
to do. Remember, how do we know how
to judge? It's the gospel. Look at this.
Verse 1, I charge thee therefore before God Since the Scriptures
are truth, and you've known them from truth, and they're able
to make you wise to salvation, and they're complete in making
you perfect and thoroughly furnished to all good works, he says, Therefore
I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom,
preach the word. What word? The Scriptures. Be
instant in season and out of season. Notice, compare these
words with what we read in Matthew 7.1, which says, Judge not, lest
you be judged. Here, Paul says to Timothy, Reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Now, that teaches
us that when Jesus says, Judge not, that you be not judged,
He's not saying that there's never a time for judgment. In
fact, He's saying the very opposite here, because He's saying that
the Scriptures are how we know truth, and it's essential that
Timothy preach the Word, in order that he might, by the preaching
of the Word, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, and teach in all
doctrine. And so, the fact of the matter
is, is Jesus is not teaching us not to be without the ability
to judge. He's not telling us to refrain
from judging at all. In fact, in the very sermon that
we were reading there in Matthew chapter 7, take a look back there
where we were, Matthew chapter 7, and look there around verse
14 and 15. What does he say here? He said
in verse 15, the Lord says, beware of false prophets. Well, if we're
not supposed to judge at all, how are we going to beware? How
are we going to be able to detect whether or not they're false
prophets? Well, He tells us right here, "...beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening
wolves." Now, isn't that a judgment? The Lord Jesus Christ is making
a judgment here. There are false prophets. They
look like sheep, but inwardly they're wolves. And the reason
they're wolves is because they're bringing false doctrine and false
teaching. And with the false teaching,
they're devouring those who are unsuspecting. Like a wolf devours
sheep. And so they make themselves look
like religious That they're religious people. That's what a sheep looks
like. Looks like a true person of God. A true believer. And so they
pretend to be that, but inwardly they're wolves. And then he says
in verse 16, you shall know them by their fruits. Now there's
another metaphor. Do people have fruit hanging
on them? I have a little orange tree in my backyard and the oranges
are beginning to turn a little orange this time of the year.
And I look at that little tree and it's got fruit all over it.
And Jesus said, you'll know them by their fruits. What kind of
a tree is it that's growing in my backyard? Well, I look at
the tree and lo and behold it's growing oranges. So what kind
of a tree is it? It's an orange tree. Well, Jesus
says, you'll know these people, the false prophets, by their
fruits. Do people have fruit growing on them? No. They don't
have literal fruit growing on them, but they produce something. And what is it that they produce?
Well, they produce something that's like fruit, but it's not
real, physical fruit. It's a metaphor for words, for
what they're saying. It's a metaphor for doctrine,
what they're teaching. That's what the Lord is saying
here. Most of the time we think, fruit, oh I know, it's what they
do. If I watch what a man does, I'll
be able to detect whether he's a true believer or not. Look
at that man. He holds himself straight up.
He sits quietly in church. He gives of his money. He talks
nicely to people. He seems to be honest. He must
be a believer. But that's not the way you can
tell whether someone's a believer or not. Because how many times
have people appeared outwardly to be good and yet be wrong inwardly? Weren't the Pharisees outwardly
good? Didn't Paul say before he was
converted that he was blameless before the law? He looked like
what you would think a Christian would look like. He was doing
all the right things. But you couldn't tell by that
whether he was a false prophet or not. There was only one way
you could determine whether he was a false prophet. How was
that? Did he bring the truth of the gospel? Look at Deuteronomy
chapter 13. Deuteronomy chapter 13. Now the Lord is saying, judge
not, but he doesn't mean that we're not to be without judgment
of discernment. We're actually supposed to judge
in this way, because he says, beware of false prophets. Deuteronomy 13, verse 1, If there
arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth
thee a sign or wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass,
whereof he speak unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which
thou hast not known, and let us serve them, So here's a man,
he says, I'm a dreamer, I'm a prophet, and here's a sign. And he gives
you the sign, and boom, it comes to pass. Wow, this man must be
of God, right? No, he says. If he tells you
in what he says, let us go after other gods, which thou hast not
known, and let us serve them, thou shalt not hearken. Don't
listen to him. Don't hearken unto the words
of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your
God proves you to know whether you love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul. Look over at Deuteronomy
18. The same thing is said there.
Deuteronomy chapter 18, he says in verse 15, The Lord thy God will raise up
unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren
like unto me unto whom unto him you shall hearken. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. Moses is saying I'm a prophet.
God's going to bring a greater prophet than me and you better
listen to him. According to all that thou desirest
of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly saying
let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God neither let
me see this great fire anymore that I die not. And the Lord
said to me They have well spoken that which they have spoken I
will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like
to me and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him and it shall come to pass
that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall
speak in my name I will require it of him but The prophet which
shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not
commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other
gods, even that prophet shall die." You see that? How do they
know in the Old Testament, according to Moses, who was a true prophet
of God and a false prophet? By what he said. Look at Matthew
chapter 12. Only one more text on this subject. So they were to prove, they were
to beware of false prophets. Judging in that sense what was
right and what was wrong according to the gospel. As we read in
2 Timothy and in Romans chapter 2. But look here in Matthew chapter
12. He says in verse 32. He says in verse 31 of Matthew
12, Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh the
word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven
him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Either
make the tree good, And his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt,
and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his
fruit. Now he's going to go on. Listen.
O generation of vipers, poisonous snakes. That's what he compared
them to. How can you, being evil, speak good things? You see that? If you're an unbeliever,
if you hate the Lord Jesus Christ, In your heart you cannot speak
good things. You can't speak the truth of
the gospel because you don't know it. You can't proclaim it
in truth. You will promote yourself. You will add works to it. You'll
do something to pervert it. For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. He's talking about fruit here.
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good
things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart
brings forth evil things. But I say to you that every idle
word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof
in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Do you see
that? The Lord Jesus Christ is telling us Like he says in, I'll
read this to you in Job chapter 35, I think it is. There's one
verse here in Job 35. He says, speaking about judgment,
he says, well, maybe it was 34, got the
wrong reference here. Here it is, Job 34. He says,
for the ear trieth words. It means it judges words. As
the mouth tasteth meat. Let us choose to us judgment. Let us know among ourselves what
is good." How? By listening. We hear what's
spoken. We compare it to Scripture. We
know the doctrine of Scripture. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And if what a man is saying doesn't
compare to Scripture and agree with what God has said concerning
how He saves His people, why He saves His people, what the
Lord Jesus Christ did, where He is now, His will is being
accomplished, and all the things the Gospel teaches, that man
is a false prophet. And we're not to hear him, but
beware of him. And so we have to judge in this
way. Look at 2 John. The epistle of 2 John, he says very similar things. 2 John, are we to judge at all? What kind of judgment are we
to judge? 2 John chapter 1, there's only one chapter, verse 7. For
many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and
an antichrist. Who is an Antichrist? Someone
who denies the Lord Jesus Christ. That He came. He was God. He
came as a man. As man He came to do the will
of God. He did it. He fulfilled it. He obtained
eternal redemption. Established everlasting righteousness.
Procured for us eternal inheritance. All the things that He did. Verse
8, look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we
have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth,
that means to go beyond, and abideth not in the doctrine of
Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into
your house, neither bid him Godspeed. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is a partaker of his evil deeds." Isn't that a judgment? Hasn't
the Lord instructed us that we are to judge? What are we supposed
to judge? We're to try what men say. We're to try what they say and
compare it to the gospel. The gospel of our salvation.
That's how men are going to be judged at the last day. It's
the gospel. That's how God judges now. It's
the Word of God that we're supposed to... And how do we judge? We
judge by hearing and we judge by preaching and teaching. Because
when we preach the gospel, We show men that the Word of God,
remember Hebrews 4.12, is like a sword. It divides asunder.
It separates soul from spirit, joints from marrow. And is a
discerner, a judger of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It
means we test things. We put them to the criteria.
When I was an engineer, we had... one of the things we did is we
tested something. Most things have to be tested. And why do we test things? What
does it mean to test? I made my whole career doing
this. It's a very simple thing. You take something that you don't
know how good it is, and you compare it with criteria. You
compare it to some criteria. That subject that you don't know,
to some criteria. And based on how it compares
to that criteria, what do you do? You make a judgment. It's
good, it's bad, or it's really, really good, or it's really,
really bad, or whatever. We can test things, comparing
them to the criteria. What we test are what men say.
What we test are how men act. What we test is ourselves. And
the criteria we use for testing is the Gospel, the Word of God.
And the judgment we pass is, does it agree with what God has
said in His Word? Does it agree with our Lord Jesus
Christ? Is this man teaching God's Word or is he teaching
something false? So it's important that we judge.
But mostly, back to Matthew chapter 7, I say that because men are
opposed to all. Remember what Paul said in Galatians? concerning the gospel. He said,
if anyone brings, whether it's me, or another apostle, or even
an angel from heaven, any other gospel than what I've already
preached to you, let that man be accursed. Was that a judgment? Absolutely it was a judgment.
And how many times throughout scripture do you see people's
names mentioned? where they've committed these
things. There's lots of examples of good judgment and bad judgment,
which I won't take time right now to give you. But I want to
get back to Matthew chapter 7 to get to what I think the Lord
was really saying here. to His disciples, besides the
fact that I wanted to address this question of, do we judge
at all, and what do we judge? So I'll have to leave that question
as far as we've taken it so far, but back to the Scripture. Notice
again, What the Lord, I think, is teaching here is first and
foremost is don't hold people up to a critical spirit, a critical
eye. Don't always be looking for faults
in them. We're so good at this. I am so
good at this. I can find fault with the best
of people. It's terrible. I hate it. It
just naturally comes out of me. Like a perfectionist, always
thinking that I can find what's wrong with others. And I get
angry at people who are judgmental like me. Because I'm angry with
myself for being judgmental. You see that? That's the way
we are. A lot of times we carry this
attitude of disgust for others because we're disgusted with
ourselves. It's so frustrating. We just have to remember what
the Lord is teaching here is kindness. Kindness. And I want to just take a couple
of minutes more to show you this. Look at just a couple of verses
here. Look at Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter 4, look
what in the first two verses here, what does Paul say to the
Ephesians? He says, "...I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called."
Paul was a prisoner, and he mentions it here as a motive. He says, look, all my life, everything
I have, I'm giving it for the sake of you, the Lord's people. And I'm a prisoner in the pursuit
of this stewardship that God has given me to preach the gospel,
to bring it to you. So I've not only spent all that
I have, but I've been taken by those who oppose the gospel and
put in prison. And while I'm in prison, the
one thing I have, the labor that I have still, is for you. So
he mentions it here in that context. I'm a prisoner. Remember this.
It's for your sake. And I beseech you, I beg of you."
He's not coming to them with a rod and beating them on the
head and saying, you're such a bad bunch of believers, you
just are not conforming to the right rules. He's not saying
that. He's coming beseeching them. And what does He beseech
them? That you walk worthy of the calling.
And how is that? Verse 2, with all lowliness and
meekness, with long-suffering, doing what? Forbearing one another
in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. I don't think we appreciate the
significance and the importance of the unity of the Spirit of
God. In Matthew chapter 18, if you
read it, I'm not going to make you read it now, but if you look
at it in verses 16 through 18, the Lord says this, if two or
three of you on earth agree touching anything, it will be done. Now, you might not understand
that. I might not understand that completely,
but this one thing I do understand about that. The Lord considers
the judgment of his people on earth, the church, as an extension
of his judgment from glory. And He so works in their hearts
according to the Scripture, so that in the unity of their purpose
and their pursuit, when their intentions and their desires
and their prayers align with His will, two or three, it's
done. That's how important it is. And
so He says, I want you to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. This bond is like glue. It cements
us together. The bond of our unity is peace
with one another. And that peace is by the Spirit
of God. And then look on further. In
verse... Verse 25 of the same chapter,
Ephesians 4, 25. The one thing the gospel teaches
us up front is be honest. Don't attempt to pull a wool
over someone else's eyes or enwrap yourself in a garment of self-righteousness. Be real. Be honest about yourself. And speak the truth. But not
just speaking the truth, you know, I think you really stink
today. That's not the truth. That's
not speaking it in love. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about speaking the truth with one another. Don't
be a pretender. Don't say, I'm this, when you're
not really that. And speak the truth of what God
has said in the gospel. We're here to encourage one another.
And then he says, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun
go down upon your wrath. give neither give place to the
devil let him that stole steal no more but do what labor working
with his hands the thing which is good that he might have to
give to him that has need our labor as brethren in the church
is to give we used to steal We're not going to steal. In fact,
we're going to turn it upside down. We're going to work in order
that we might have to give. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God. What does that mean? It means
to act. Even though you say and have
heard how that you're one in Christ, the sons of God, It means
to act contrary to that, to act not in love, but in self-interest,
self-seeking interest, and criticism, and all the things that go with
that. He says, don't grieve the Spirit of God. It's like, there's
nothing that grieves me more as a father when my children
are angry towards one another, or angry towards us as parents. It grieves me. Because I want
them to love one another. I want there to be harmony in
my home. And so the Lord says, don't grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed under the day
of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor,
and evil... He goes down the list. I want
to make sure you understand this. Bitterness, and wrath, and anger,
and clamor, and evil speaking. He uses the words here, be put
away from you. We would say it like this, just
stop it, quit it. The Lord is concerned that we
are not critical. Fault-finding people. But do
what? Here he says, verse 32, But be
ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. That means
covering up. Not wanting to expose someone's
faults, not wanting to even notice when someone does wrong, but
trying to cover it up and put it away so that it doesn't become
a cause of dissension between us. Sure, you might not look
like I look. You might not have the same language
that I have. You might not have the same position
in life. You might not have the same body
proportions. You might not have a lot of things.
You might have different preferences that I have. All these things. You might be slow and careful,
and I might be quick and just rush over things. But we all
balance one another. Those things that you think are
weaknesses in others, sometimes are the strengths by which the
body is made up. So be tender-hearted and be patient. Remember, you didn't learn the
gospel in one moment. It came to you, and it came to
you, and it keeps coming to you, and you keep learning it. Be
patient with one another. Wait on the Lord. Let the Lord
work His maturity of grace in one another. Be patient, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. This is the flip side. This is
the positive. of judge not, lest you be judged. Don't hold one another to a standard
you don't want to be held to. Remember, the gospel is our standard. Lord, save me for Christ's sake.
He is my only plea. And isn't that what you want
for your brothers and sisters? That is what we want, and that's
what the gospel teaches us. And he sums it up later in Matthew
7, do unto others as you would have them do to you. That's it.
It's that simple. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
the gospel would mean more to us than just a doctrine, but
we would live it because you had implanted it in our heart.
You showed us what we were when you showed us the gospel, that
we were sinful, willfully rebellious against you, and lost in darkness
without a hope, no way to find a light, no ability to choose,
no will to do right, and all the things we thought were right
were wrong, and you saved us from it. Lord, help us to be
so gracious to others as you have been to us, and help us
not to be with a critical eye, always finding fault, but help
us to overlook one another's fault with the aim that we would
pray and seek the salvation and the edification of your people
in this world, that your name might be glorified, that we would
truly be the children of God because we love one another as
you've loved us. This kindness, this understanding
of how you deal with us is unique to believers and we pray, Lord,
make it, give us this clean heart, this new heart that we might
truly Be your children, followers and disciples of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.