Now let's look back once again
at Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Let's read the first verse. We'll be dealing with the first
five verses, but let's just read the first one. Our Lord says, Judge not that you be not judged. Judge not that you be not judged. How often have you heard this
verse of Scripture? How often have you heard someone
use this verse of Scripture, usually abuse this verse of Scripture? Usually, usually you will hear this verse
of Scripture in response to perhaps a critical remark that was made
about a denomination or a preacher. As you understand what I say,
usually you'll hear this when you make a response or a remark
about some denomination or a preacher or what have you, some so-called
church or organization. And what this response generally
is, is an ignorant response of some
cowardly religionist who has absolutely no real doctrinal
conviction nor believes in any absolute truth or dogma, has
no dogmas. You understand what the word
dogma means? To be firmly persuaded and unmoved
away from that belief. Usually people reply with this
verse in response to a critical remark about a preacher, a denomination,
a church or something. It's an ignorant response of
some cowardly religionist. who has absolutely no real doctrinal
convictions, nor believes in any truth, real doctrinal truth,
absolute truth, nor dogmas. But they only hold to some silly,
sentimental, and perverted belief that we are to love and tolerate
and receive anything and everything that goes by the name of religion,
or in the church, or somebody says from the Bible. Right? Did you hear that statement?
That was a long sentence. Dr. Gill didn't write that. Dr. Mahan
did. But, you know, I'm not a doctor.
Like Terry Worthy said, I'm not even a good practical nurse.
But it's usually, usually they only believe some silly, sentimental,
perverted belief that we're just to love, tolerate, receive anything. And everyone that goes by the
name of religion or is in the so-called church or comes from
the Bible, all under the cloak of love, you know, love. That's
the Bible. That's the chief word that people
use, is cry out for unity, love, and so forth. And I have preached, we have
studied the love of God and the love we're to have for the brethren
and what our Lord teaches concerning love. and a number of times here,
constantly. But what the world calls love
is not true love. What religion cloaks
under the term love is not true love to men's souls. You're doing damage to men's
souls. Listen to John Warburton here. This is one of the best
articles I've ever read. This was in our bulletin back
in 1990, and that's the reason I came up late. I was searching
for this article. I listened to Brother Warburton here. This
was written a couple hundred years ago, a hundred years or
more, 150. He said, I do, and now listen
carefully, I do and am constantly maintaining, both privately and
publicly, As far as ever the Lord has enabled me, the wonders,
the glories, the beauties, the preciousness of love. And yet
I must be branded as being a man that is an enemy to love. Because
if by love these people mean that I ought to unite with, and
he gives a couple of, the names of a couple of heretical groups
of people, Arians and Socinians. Just take my word for it, they
were heretics. Armenians, he could say Armenians
and freewillians. If by love these people mean
I ought to unite with Arians and Sosinians who deny the deity
of my God. That's the Russellites, that's
Jehovah's Witnesses. But love them? No. If they mean by love, we ought
to unite with those who deny the deity of my God and my Savior. whom I have proved again in my
very soul, he's the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. If by love they mean I ought to meet and unite occasionally
with people who can testify and say without a blush that election
is a damnable doctrine and they hate it in their hearts, that imputed righteousness is
imputed nonsense and a doctrine that ought to be abhorred and
spurned by all, which is the very garment covering and hides
all my soul, the very robe that adorns my naked soul, and so
very many times has been the joy and rejoicing of my heart,
and which I have found to be so many times the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness. If they mean by love that I ought
to unite with people that can say and testify that we may be
a child of God one day and a child of the devil another, that Christ
died and atoned for the sins of Esau as well as of Jacob,
for Cain as well as Abel, for Judas as well as for Peter, and
that there are thousands of people in hell for whom Christ died?
If they mean by love that I ought to unite and call those brethren
who profess to believe in the doctrine," he said, "'Call them
brethren.'" If they mean by love that I ought to unite with and
call these people brethren who profess to believe in the doctrines
of grace and call themselves Calvinists, but can declare at
times that those blessed doctrines which are so precious and glorious
to my soul are non-essential things, that's a reformer. That
is, if I understand their meaning right, they'd view the doctrines
of grace as useless things and of no consequence whatsoever,
whatever, whether we receive or believe these doctrines or
not, provided we just unite with all sorts and pray for all and
be candid and mild in esteem, all as partakers of grace. I
confess from my heart, if all this is love, I'm destitute of
it, and instead of being grieved for the lack of it, I glory in
it that I don't have that. If you hear that, you want me
to read it to you again. If that's what they call love,
united with those who deny the Lord God and deny the blessed
truths of the gospel, all under the cloak of love, if that's
what they call love, I don't have it and I don't want it.
Right? So, and people use this, Matthew
7, verse 1. They use this every time you
make any kind of critical remark about any sermon or preacher
or denomination or whatever. They do it now. That's the only thing they know.
It's an ignorant response. Ignorant response of those who
have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of any doctrine, of
any dogmas. Just ignorant. Now, two things
need to be understood, two things need to be considered, rather,
to properly understand Matthew 7, verse 1. Two things need to
be considered to properly understand this verse. Number one, the Lord
does not prohibit judging anything and everything without exception.
He does not prohibit that. He's not saying there that you
are not to judge anything and everything without exception.
Don't do it. He's not saying that at all. Look over at verse
6 in this same chapter. He said, Don't give that which
is holy unto dogs. Sounds like judgment to me. How
badly could you judge a man and call him a dog? Huh? Don't give your pearls to swine,
pig, dog. Judge not. He judged so hardly there, he
said, they're dogs. That's why. Turn over to John
chapter 7. John chapter 7. The Lord does
not prohibit judging of everyone and everything without exception.
Not at all. John chapter 7. Now, in order
to distinguish true from the false, In order to distinguish
the true from the false, you're going to have to do some judging,
aren't you? You have to rightly judge things. The true gospel
from the false, how are you going to know? If you don't judge,
you're going to receive the false. That's our nature. In order to
truly understand or properly understand true doctrine from
heresy, true preachers from false, the true church from the counterfeit,
you have to judge, right? There must be a judgment involved.
Look at verse 24. Our Lord said, Judge not according
to the appearance. Or that is, don't judge according
to the naked eye, your first impressions. We're all guilty
of that, aren't we? First impressions. And I've been
so wrong so very much of the time, most of the time, Barbara,
I have been wrong in my first impressions of people. You, you, me. Am I very right? We can't, we're
not infallible, we're not omniscient. We can't look at somebody immediately
and say, you know the man. Can't do it. Can't do it. The eye, the first impression
is sometimes, most of the time it's wrong. Don't judge according
to the outward appearance, he says. But he says this, though,
judge righteous judgment. Judge righteous judgment. You
see, he does permit judgment, doesn't he, John? He does. But it must be judgment according
to truth, according to righteousness, judgment according to justice. Judge righteous judgment. He does not permit, or he does
permit, I'm sorry, judgment. But it must be according to truth,
according to righteousness, according to justice. You see, here's a
man that stands up and says he preaches the gospel, calls himself
a gospel preacher, and so do the people that hear him. And
what he is preaching, he says, this is the gospel. I'm going
to preach the gospel. We've got ourselves a gospel quartet here.
We've got ourselves a gospel church. This is four square gospel
church. This is the gospel. I'm a gospel
preacher and gospel quartet and gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel,
you know. You've got to judge what he's saying in order to
tell whether or not it's the gospel, don't you? He says, oh,
gospel. OK, I'll hear it. I'll believe
it. That's gospel. Oh, no. The gospel must be judged
primarily by what I preach this morning. The person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If that gospel a man preaches
is not centered in, majoring upon, giving all glory to, giving all credit to, points
him 100% to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
for the salvation of a soul. It's not the gospel. Christ is
all in salvation. I mean all, from start to finish. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. It's all of grace, too. It's got to be judged according
to grace. It's a man preaching grace, and I don't mean grace
plus. I mean grace, 100% pure grace. Now, ninety-nine and forty-four,
one hundred percent, but one hundred percent grace, all of
grace, right? Christ alone. Christ plus your
faith, Christ alone. Your faith is a result of what
Christ did. Your faith's a gift from Christ.
It's all of Christ, one hundred percent. So the gospel, whenever
a man claims to preach the gospel, you've got to judge it by how
he gives all the glory and all the credit and makes the whole
thing the work of Jesus Christ alone. imputed righteousness
of Christ. If you don't hear that term in
the man's preaching, he's not preaching the gospel. I started to say, I'm sorry.
No, I'm not sorry. That's just the truth. It's a
biblical term. Brother Warburton talked about
it, and he said, that's what hides my naked soul. We talked
about that robe this morning of Christ's imputed righteousness.
Sounds like a big word, but what it really means, though, is that
what Christ did is your only covering before God Almighty.
Unless you're in Christ, covered by him, unless what he did, he
did for you, God won't accept you. Doctrine. Here's a good way to judge doctrine. You've got to judge doctrine.
You've got to judge doctrine. Paul said in 1 Timothy, he said
that some come and preach in the doctrines of devils, didn't
he? It's got to be the dog John said
and first John he said them and transgresses and abides not in
the doctrine of Christ. He's not a he is right. The doctrine
of Christ got here's the doctrines of devil here's the doctrines
of Christ. How do you know the different judge. Here's a good
way to judge what's of God and what's what's false number one
chiefly Whatever gives God all the glory is most likely to be
the truth. Whatever gives God all the glory
is most likely to be the truth. I'll give you an illustration.
You talk about faith. Everybody likes to talk about
faith. This is the dividing line, generally, of faith, all right?
We could talk about dictum. Yeah, let's talk about dictum.
Christ. Now, did Christ make any template?
Did Christ come to make a down payment on your salvation and
you pay the rest? Did He come to lay down and make
salvation possible so that anybody that wants it can just take it?
Does that give God all the glory? And over here, Christ came and
paid in full for our redemption, and everybody for whom He paid
that for is going to be saved. God Almighty will honor it and
save everyone for whom that price was laid down. Which one gives, you see this
over here, man doing with it as he will, that gives him a
little credit, a little glory, doesn't it? That's false. That's
the doctrine of the devil right there. Doctrine of the devil. What was the other one I was
about to talk about? Start out with. Just on and on you can
talk about man's free will as opposed to God's sovereign will. Which one gives God all the glory?
Faith. That's what it was. Faith. Here's a man, now if you'll
do this, God will do that. Well, then that man can go to
heaven and get a little credit, get a little pat on the back,
can't he? He did it. He did it. He believed. He of his own free
will exercised his faith, and God had to take him in. God's
obligated. But over here, face the gift
of God Almighty. Here's a man who doesn't care
anything about God, doesn't want God, not seeking after God, not
looking for God, never thought it or bought it, and God Almighty
sets his love and affection upon him, says, You're going to believe.
You're going to repent. You're going to come to Christ.
You're going to bow down. You're going to worship me. You're
going to serve me. And you're going to be changed. I'm going
to give you faith and Christ, and you're going to believe,
and you're going to be saved. And you're going to persevere, because
I'm going to preserve you all the days of your life. I'm going
to do all this. Which gives God all the glory. So you've got to judge doctrine,
don't you? You've got to. You've got the glory of God,
judge it by the grace of God, judge it, the doctrine by a doctrine
of imputed righteousness. Paul said in Romans 10, he said,
I know there's a lot of people who are sincere, a lot of people
are zealous for God, but they've got the wrong God. That's serious. You better judge whether or not
you have the right God. The Muslims, the Buddhists, Hindus,
they're worshiping a God of their own imagination, right? They're sincere. They got the
wrong God. You got to judge, don't you?
A preacher. We looked at that last Sunday
on 1 John 4, verses 1 through 6. John said, you try the spirits. You try the preachers. Put them
to the test, buddy, whether or not they're of God or not. Try
them. Don't believe what they say. Just because they wear their
hair a certain way and wear a suit, you know, and look good and sound
good, don't take their word for it. Go home and get you a Bible
out and see whether or not what they were saying is so. You got
to judge them. You got to judge them. Try the
Spirit. Judge them by their message.
The church. Let's go to church. Where? Oh, anyone doesn't mind
a church. Church, you know. There's a church. There's a church.
Why you... And you peeps, some of you have driven long ways
or gone long ways to go to a the church, where the gospel is preached,
you've received persecution because of that. People scratch their
heads and say, why in the world are you doing that? Well, here's
the church right down here. What's the difference? Haven't
you? The church right down here. Ain't our church good enough?
My mom and daddy went to the church. Their daddy and mama
went to this church. What's wrong with our church? They don't preach
the gospel there. I've got to go where the gospel
is being preached. Well, there's one. There's one. No, it's not
one. That's an organization. That is a Methodist organization.
That's not the Church. The Church is where God's people
meet under the sound of the gospel, and where His Holy Spirit comes
and takes the things of Christ and meets with His people. That's
the Church. The Church is a body of believers,
not a building. You've got to judge. Judge a
church by their beliefs? Judge a church by their beliefs,
by their practices? Yeah, if their practices are
man-centered and dependent upon man. If they've got, Terry, if
they've got evil, covetous practices, you know, hiding dollar bills
under seats and busting people in, this and that, that's not
the church. God brings his people in. You don't have to resort
to trickery and gimmicks and this and that and the other.
That's not the church. I'm not going to go there. It's not the
church. It's by the people. Judge, Christ
said. You know, which is it? Judge
not or judge? Which is it? Judge. But don't
do it with the naked eye. Do it by the naked truth. Judge,
but don't do it with the naked eye. Do it by the naked truth.
Now, here's the second point you need to understand. Back
in the text. Well, first of all, he's not prohibiting judgment
without exception. Not at all. Not at all. Judge,
righteous judgment, he said. What he is prohibiting here in
Matthew 7 verse 1 and verses 1 through 5 is judging your brother. Right? Your brother. Look at verse 3. He says, Why do you behold the
mote that is in thy brother's eye? Is that clear who he's talking
about here? Your brother. Now listen to me. We say, isn't
everybody my brother? No. No. Not at all. Everybody's your neighbor, but
not everybody is your brother. We say a word about what Paul
said in Romans 9. He said, I wish myself a curse for my brethren.
Read on. My kinsmen according to the flesh.
Not my brethren in Christ. My kinsmen according to the flesh.
My brother. My flesh and blood brother. I could say that. I
hope. Could you, Sherry, say that about
your brother? You could wish yourself a curse from Christ
for your brother, your kinsman, according to the flesh? He'd
love it if you did. What Christ is talking about
here in context here, he's talking about judging a fellow believer,
okay? We're told not to judge, condemn,
or be critical of a fellow believer. And he's not talking about everyone
that goes under the name of Christian. Because that's one out of every
two adults in the United States. This just makes good sense, doesn't
it? All right? And then, too, now, keep this
in mind, though. Let me say this. Let me add this.
That even when we deal with the public in general, at large,
we ought to have compassion. We ought to have patience. We
ought to have understanding. And use a spirit of meekness
when dealing with every son of Adam. But it can be judged. It can be judged whether or not
a man's lost. Right? Sure it can. Not infatigably. You can't look at every man,
every woman and say, you can't tell. But there's some people,
it's quite obvious they're lost. Right? A man who's out there
running around, no care for God whatsoever, and living like the
devil, he's lost. It's obvious. He's lost. And it can be judged whether
or not a doctrine is false. If it doesn't give God all the
glory, it's false. It's false. And that a preacher
is a false one. Robert Tilton. Now, so let's
pick somebody else who's a little more subtle, at least. Billy Graham. Now, he's close. And if it were
possible, he'd deceive the very least. But he's not a true preacher.
I heard him say one time, it's written, if my memory serves
me correct, I'll look it up if you really want the reference,
but he wrote in a McCall, some kind of women's magazine, in
an interview back in 1984 or 5, he made this quote. He said,
I used to think years ago that there was only one way of salvation. But he said after visiting people
in Africa and different places, primitive tribes and so forth,
he said, I am somewhat different in my opinion now. That God is
merciful to all, and so forth. And he does, the man does. His
methods, his methods prove his message, don't they? His method. And it can be judged that a church
or a denomination is heretical. Catholicism is heretical. Say
what they say. Put as many... Well, I'm really
getting off here. Put as many advertisements in
the paper that they want to and talking about that they don't
worship Mary. But the fact of the matter is they do. Anybody
you pray to, you worship. Anybody you pray to is an intercessor
for you, right? And you're denying what Scripture
says about the Lord being the only intercessor, the only mediator. And on and on you could go. But
the believer is not to judge a fellow believer. All right?
That's clear. But there is a judgment, a righteous
judgment to be made, to be made. A believer is not to judge a
fellow believer. Judge not, he says, that you
be not judged. Verse 2, he says, for with what
judgment you judge, you shall be judged. With what judgment
you judge, you shall be judged. God will use the same standard
on you that you use on others. My, my, my, my. God will use the same standard
on you that you use upon others. I don't like the way he lives.
I don't like the way he lives. So God will say, OK, let's closely
scrutinize the way you live. You don't think he lives right,
or he's whatever. Let's closely examine now the
way you live. Let's put it under a microscope.
Oh, wait, wait, Lord, wait. I don't, he shouldn't be doing
that. He ought not be doing that. Well
then, let's see now, let's see what you ought not be doing.
The Lord says, let's see what it is that you're doing that
you ought not be doing. You see, most of our criticism
of people, you know what's behind it, don't you? I'm sure you do. The only reason we ever criticize
anybody is because, I've got it right. I'm proud,
proud, proud, self-righteous. That's the only reason, isn't
it? The only reason behind it. I've got it right, they ought
to do it like me. I've arrived. I got a long way to go. They
ought not to do that. I don't. They ought to do that. I do.
Pride. What's the first thing the Lord
says he hates? Proud look. Proud look. The Lord says with
what judgment you judge, he's going to judge you. And with
what measure you meet, look at this. A little bit different
thought here was what measure you made or what you dole out,
it'll be doled out to you. God measures people by their own
bushel basket. He measures people by their own
bushel basket. Whatever you give out is what's
going to come back to you. Mercy. Did that convict you when we
went through that? Matthew 5, blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. He went on to say in another
place, with the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful. And
I asked you men, I said, can you look your wife in the eye
and ask her, honey, am I merciful? Did that convict anybody, any
husband in here? Did this one. He says, with the
upright, thou wilt show thyself upright. With the pure, thou
wilt show thyself pure. With the forward, that word forward
means perverse or cantankerous or contrary, and God will show
himself unsavory. You know it's so with your child,
don't you? When your child starts acting contrary and cantankerous
and hard to deal with and all, then you become hard to deal
with, don't you? Huh? Isn't that right? All right. That's the way you're going to
be. And if that's the way you're
going to be, I can be that way too. That's what God says. You don't show mercy? I ain't
going to do it either. That's what he says, isn't it?
The measure you meet should be measured to you again. Verse
3, now he says, Besides, why do you behold the mote that is
in your brother's eye, but considerest not the telephone pole that is
in your own eye. Let me get that little splinter
out of your eye, Henry. That's the analogy the Lord uses
here. I'm trying to be funny. That's
what he used there. A mote, a little splinter, a little tiny little
speck in somebody's eye, and you've got a beam, a glaring
fault. Everybody can see it. Right? The little fault we see
in a brother's character is nothing compared to our glaring faults
and biases and offenses, is it? And if we don't have the strength
of character, nor do we have the understanding and discernment
to see our own selves, if we can't look in the mirror of God, We don't have the wisdom to take
care of another man. What makes us think we've got
the wisdom to take care of somebody else's fault? If we can't look
and say, that's me, and say, oh Lord, and work on it, and
change. If we can't do that much, what
in the world makes us think we've got the wisdom and the foresight
and the understanding and the knowledge and the skill to, well,
I'll take care of your problem. That's what he says in verse
4. How will you say to your brother, let me get that mote out of your
eye, and is a beam in your own eye? You say to somebody, I know your
problem. Listen to me, I'll take care of that. I'll solve it. Watch me. This is how you do
it. This is how it should be done. Now, the Scriptures do say, And
the Scriptures do say that faithful are the ones of the friend. They
do say that. A brother called me on the phone
yesterday. We talked at great length. And
I am a sweet and precious brother. I love him dearly. I esteem him
so much higher than myself. And we began talking somehow
or another. We got on, I guess we were confessing
our faults to one another, and something was said between us,
and I had overheard some others say
something about this brother that had an element of truth
to it. And it just grieved me every time I heard it, and I
have seen it, but you know, I dreaded ever having to talk to him about
it. It's not like I called him up and said, listen, you got
a problem here, I'm going to straighten it. No, but the thing came up, and
it's something that's detrimental to him personally, and to the
ministry, and it's causing problems and conflict between him and
other people and so forth. And I told him, I assured him
it hadn't damaged our relationship whatsoever, but I was hesitant. I didn't want to talk about it,
really. You understand where I'm coming from? I didn't want
to say anything, realizing my own glaring faults. But he begged
me. He said, please, I won't take
it wrong. He said, faithful, and he quoted
him, but faithful are the wounds of a friend. Please tell me.
And he's such a person. He's such a man that can take
it. I know men that are like that. There aren't very many. Most people cannot take criticism.
Most people can't take it. He's one that can, and he'll
work on it, too. That's Christ love. I mean, that's
the spirit of meekness. But I talked to him, and the
Scripture does say faithful are the ones that are free, and it
does say open rebuke is better than secret love. But you better
have the wisdom. You better have the discretion.
You better have the prudence. You better have the subtlety.
You better have compassion. You better have honey dripping
out of your horse. You better have some wisdom before
you go to telling somebody where they lie to all. You better have
it. Most people cannot take it. But
above all, talking about faithful are the wounds of a friend, above
all, you better deal with people according to scriptural truth. Don't just tell them what you
think. Don't you dare. Deal with them according to the
scriptures. And to be honest with you, I, you know, I've said
this many times, I don't much like so-called, what they call
counseling. I'd be more than happy to talk
to anybody that had a need or a problem, more than happy. I
feel like, to a certain degree, that's what pastors are for.
But most of what I like to say and try to say to you is from
this pulpit. And 100% of what I try to say
and want to say to you is from this book. And whenever somebody
asks me a question, I cringe. I got a question for you. Oh,
I just want to melt right there on the spot. I really do. I don't
perk up and say, yeah, I got the answer. What is it? No, I
say, oh, I pray. I'm going to let you in on something. Immediately, I say, Lord, give
me wisdom. Immediately. I've got a question
for you, Lord. Give me wisdom. Give me scriptures. Don't let me deal with them according
to my own natural wisdom or whatever. Biblical truth must be used,
or at least biblical principle. There's some things that are
not, some things we deal with as modern, everyday, some things
that are not real clear cut or black and white. written down
in the Scripture, but they're Biblical principles that do apply. You understand what I'm saying? They're Biblical principles that
apply, and you can use at least those principles if there isn't
an exact Scripture that pertains to, like a TV set. You know what
I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Moderation
would be a good key for that. What's your moderation? What
surroundings are pure, don't watch an impure TV program. That's scriptural evidence. It
doesn't say in the script you can't have a TV set. There have
been many people saved as a result of that gospel broadcast in Kentucky
because of a man preaching the gospel over the TV. I guarantee
you if the apostles were working today, they'd use that medium.
They'd use that medium. It gets the gospel out. Nobody
listens to the radio anymore. That's the reason I haven't got
on the radio here. Nobody listens to the radio anymore.
They watch TV. They watch TV. And that is the
medium today to get the gospel out. But you know, it's not dealt
with in the Scriptures. Well, don't look down on and
criticize a brother or sister for something you think is wrong
or what you think is a flaw in their character, their lifestyle,
until you first straighten out your own life. That's what the
Lord said. Until you first straighten out
your own life. And what he means by straight
is not the best you can do either. When you say, I am holy, I am
perfect, then you might be able to start dealing with people. Verse five, hypocrite. Could the Lord give a more accurate
description of us than that? Could he call us by a more suitable
name than that? Huh? You hypocrite. Doesn't that
describe everybody in this room? Now, he's not talking to the scribes
and pharisees here now. I quote that all the time. Scribes,
pharisees, hypocrites, he's talking to Hitler somewhere. And Paul
Mayhem. Hypocrite. That's what you are,
isn't it? Somebody said one time, I'm not
going to church down there, it's nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.
Somebody answered and said, well, come on, there's always room
for one more. But that's all we are, every one of us, a bunch
of hypocrites. A bunch of hypocrites. We don't allow things in others
that we allow in ourselves. Right? We allow things in ourselves
that we don't tolerate in other people. Right? We won't tolerate
even little things in other people when we quickly justify ourselves
in major offenses. Don't we? Is there anybody in
here who says, We won't tolerate the slightest
thing in somebody, but we will quickly justify ourselves in
a major offense worthy of hell. And we demand complete repentance
on somebody's part before we forgive them. And a quick apology. We're like the Fonz. You remember
that program? Some of you? When he was wrong,
he had such a hard time. I hesitate to use that, but it's
a good illustration. He'd say, I'm sorry. He was wrong,
you know, he knew it, and he was going to try to apologize.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He just couldn't get it out. Couldn't get it out. We're so
slow to even admit being wrong, we're even slower to apologize. Right? a bunch of hypocrites. I'm preaching to a bunch of hypocrites. I'm a hypocrite too. I know you. Why? Because I'm one. Hypocrite,
he says, first cast out the beam out of your own eye, and then
you'll see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's
eye. Get rid of that glaring fault called self and pride,
and then you'll see clearly to cast out the mote out of your
brother's eye. But I tell you what will happen now. If you see your own glaring false
pride and self-righteousness and horrible vices and evil wickedness
and all that in your own self, you'll probably be a whole lot
more patient and understanding and gentle and compassionate
and caring. You'll use more wisdom and discretion.
And I tell you what, you'll probably not deal with that person's faults
at all. When that comes down to it, you
probably won't deal with them at all. As a matter of fact,
you'll end up confessing your own faults. Like I was telling
you about my brother. Brother, so-and-so, I don't want,
you know, I've got some problem of my own. You counsel me, not
vice versa. And you may not even bring it
up at all if you consider your own problems. And probably, when
it's all over, you'll ask him for help. Instead of trying to
help him out or her out, you go to them for help. You ask
them for help, realizing you're on. Judge not. Does that open that up a little
more clearly? I know you've seen it before. I know you've studied
it before, but line upon line, precept upon precept, here a
little, there a little. And it's very clear. It's very
clear. understanding. To see that the
Lord is not talking about just judgment of anything and everything
without exception, that you're not to judge. No, he's not saying
that. John 7 was at verse 24, he said, Judge not according
to the period, but judge rightly of judgment. Judge doctrine,
judge churches, so-called, judge the Gospels they preach, judge,
judge. But judge not according to the
outward appearance, but judge righteous judgment according
to the truth, according to the truth of God's Word. And context
to what he's saying here is, don't judge your brother. Let's
turn over real quickly to Romans 2, and then we'll quit. Romans
2. You know, we look at this passage
as dealing with just the Jews. You know, Romans 1 is talking
about the Gentiles. Romans 1 is talking about pagan,
idolatrous, wicked, openly wicked Gentiles running around in absolute
terrible wickedness. And in Romans chapter 2, the
Apostle Paul deals with religious Jews, and he says in verse 1,
Oh, you are inexcusable, old man, whoever you are that judges.
For what you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you that
judge, you do the same thing. Right? They may not do it to
the extent that they do it, but we do it. We do it. He said over in chapter 3, look
at chapter 3, verse 9, then he deals with everybody under a
complete blanket. He says, OK, then what then?
Are we better than they? No, in no wise. We've before
proved that both Jews and Gentiles, a whole lot, there's none that
do us good. They're all under one blanket
called sin. All are under sin, as it is written,
as none righteous, no, not one. As none that understand, as none
that seeketh after God, until God seeks after them. As nobody
has any wisdom unless God gives it to them. As none righteous,
except those who have righteousness imputed, imparted to them. So don't judge your brother.
Don't judge your brother, that you be not judged. For the judgment
you judge, you'll be judged also. And what measure you mete out,
it'll be meted to you also. Be very slow and use judgment
and counsel or whatever. Use it very sparingly. But bring a big bushel basket
full of mercy. Bring a big basket when you get
ready to show mercy. A small one in judgment, a great
big one in mercy and grace. All right, stay with me. I'll
dismiss this.