to Matthew chapter 7, Matthew
7. We're going to continue our study
of Christ's Sermon on the Mount. And again, while you're turning
there, I'll remind you just once more, the overall theme of the
Sermon on the Mount is the gospel of the kingdom. And I think it's
helpful if we'll keep that in mind and really keep in mind
all that Christ has said up until this point in his sermon concerning
the gospel of the kingdom. Remember, he's not referring
to a kingdom with physical boundaries, but rather to a rule dominion,
a reign, a reign of grace, grace reigning through righteousness.
And as we've covered over and over, that righteousness is none
other than that which Christ came to do and he did do and
accomplish as a substitute. He did it in perfect satisfaction
to the law and justice of God, rendering perfect sinless obedience
to all of God's revealed will. and the culmination of that obedience,
his death on the cross. In that, he paid the debt for
all the sins that were laid upon him, that were imputed to him,
charged to his account, so that he bore the demerit that was
due unto all those sinners that he represented. The just see
dying for the unjust, as the scriptures say. And then based
on that accomplishment, our Lord, the accomplishment of our Lord,
God imputed or reckoned to the account of every sinner for whom
Christ died the merit of all that he accomplished in his life
and death, his righteousness. And thereby he declared a multitude
of otherwise the unjust sinners to be just, to be justified before
God the Father, reconciled unto the Father. And consistent with
that central message now, Christ continues here in chapter seven.
And he begins with two words here in chapter seven that are
perhaps quoted out of context more than maybe any other words
in the Bible. Chapter seven begins, judge not. And I want to say up front today,
I'll actually be asking you to make some judgments. And I hope
that in doing so you'll see that I'm not in any way contradicting
our Lord's commands or instructions here but rather when we consider
it in the context I believe you'll see how these words are actually
consistent with his commands throughout the scriptures for
us to deliberately make judgments. We'll see he actually commands
us to judge but not according to the wrong standard. And that's
what this passage today is all about. The issue here is the
standard of judgment. And the message communicated
here in verse 1 of Matthew 7, when considered in its context,
is judge not by the wrong standard. And accordingly, I've titled
today's message, Judging by God's Standard. So let's look at the
first five verses here of Matthew 7, where our Lord is continuing
in His sermon saying, 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 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 seek clearly to cast out
the mote out of thy brother's eye." As I mentioned earlier
here, this passage begins probably with one of the most misquoted,
misunderstood verses in the Bible. It's all too common, see, when
people hear preaching or teaching or even a discussion that challenges
their religious doctrine, their body of faith. that instead of
objectively considering what they're hearing and assessing
then the validity of their own beliefs, they instead tend to
shoot the messenger, so to speak. And they do that often by citing
these two words, judge not, or you're too judgmental. I don't
think we should be quite that judgmental. And in doing so,
they're dismissing, see, out of hand, any consideration of
what they're hearing. under the premise that it's not
worthy to be heard. You must be wrong because you
dare to make judgments and draw conclusions based upon a different
view, different doctrine. Often, you see, even then the
proclamation of the gospel itself, that is the gospel of the kingdom,
the very message of Christ's sermon here on the Mount, that
sets forth his own person and work, his righteousness, as the
one standard by which we all shall be judged, that declaration,
see, is mistakenly perceived by some to be sinfully in violation
of God's command to judge not. That's what they're telling you
when they say, well, I think you're just being too harsh,
too judgmental. Now, think of that. If there
was any validity at all to that mindset, we would be compelled
to ignore God's command to spread his gospel, because we would
want to make sure we avoided committing this imagined sin
in violation of his words here, judge not. And typically when
this rebuke is issued, it often, it carries with it the suggestion
that your doctrinal distinctions are mean-spirited, are perhaps
just narrow-minded, you're too narrow-minded. And it's implied,
see, that that's in sharp contrast to their broad-mindedness of
the one that's here delivering that rebuke to you. But listen,
an exchange like that is not merely some trivial difference
of opinion over who's more tolerant or who's more open-minded of
the other, but rather this pertains to the eternally vital issue
of the standard by which all of us shall ultimately be judged. the judgment where our state
will be declared. So today, I ask all who hear
this message to strive to objectively consider what they hear and set
those kind of things aside and assess the validity of your beliefs,
not based on what I say, but based on the only infallible
standard of truth, God's word. You know, as natural born sinners,
We all initially are apt to really consider the gospel message as
way too narrow, too narrow-minded. It serves us well, though, if
we'll just keep in mind in Matthew 7 here, if you go down just a
few verses, you'll see, and we'll study this later, that Christ
declares that we best be considering a straight gate and a narrow
way. He said, for it, not the broad
one, This narrow way is the one that leads unto eternal life.
Now, as I begin to discuss these verses, just as a point of interest,
someone asked me recently about a similar passage in Romans 2,
and I think you'll find the understanding of these two passages to be one
and the same. And I bring that up because it's
taken out of context, much like this one is here in Matthew 7,
and abused, I think, in a similar light. So, in consideration of
all the confusion that abounds over these two passages, we'll
take just a few minutes to refute two popular misconceptions, and
we'll do it as it relates to our text today, Matthew 7. where
in verse 1 it says, Judge not. Now the first error is the obvious
one I've already touched on of interpreting this to mean that
all judgments are absolutely forbidden by Christ. And the
second era is the era of interpreting those verses as if this is a
conditional scenario. In other words, it's to imply
that if you'll comply with the premise, that is, if you will
not judge others, you will ensure that others will not judge you.
They read it like this, judge not in order that you be not
judged. So in suggesting you'll avoid
the harsh judgments of others if you just won't be so judgmental
yourself. Well, first, let's consider the
first error. It doesn't take, as I've already
shown, much consideration, and in particular of the context
here in the Sermon on the Mount, to quickly dismiss the idea that
Christ is forbidding any and all judgment with His discourse
here that begins, Judge not. To begin with, those two words
do not stand alone. The Scriptures don't end right
after, Judge not. And it's important that we consider
verses 1 and 2 together, and really verses 1 through 5, I
think, because together they're collectively communicating one
principle. Note how verse 2, the opening
phrase of verse 2 begins. It says, for with what judgment
you judge. Now that presupposes you're going
to be making some judgments. Then a few verses later, down
in verse 6, Christ instructs them. He says, Give not that
which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine. Now, that presupposes that you
have to make a judgment to see who these dogs or the swine are
that Christ is referring to. Go down in verse 15 and you see
he says, Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's
clothing. Now, if we're going to heed that warning, We have
to make a judgment to identify these false prophets. And he's
suggesting we better make some very discerning judgments because
they're wolves that come in sheep's clothing. And in verse 16, you
shall know them by their fruit. He's suggesting how we should
be judging these false prophets. And we could go on. But I just
wanted to show you these here even in the context of Matthew
7 and the verses that immediately follow. But know the Bible is
just full of similar warnings and commands for us to be on
the alert, to identify and reject the many false prophets, the
counterfeit Christ, the counterfeit Gospels that are so pervasive
in this religious world. So it should be obvious that
He's not forbidding any and all judgments. That's not the issue. And most who defensively cry,
judge not, they're not thinking, but rather they're reacting to
the offensiveness, see, of the gospel message itself, what the
Bible calls the offense of the cross. It's a message, see, that's
naturally offensive to all of us by nature. We naturally want
to think that salvation's in our hands and the gospel of God's
sovereign, pure, unadulterated grace comes along and it declares
something different to us. And that's offensive to natural
man. As John 3 tells us, men love
darkness rather than light. So in reality, though, we judge
all things. Consider this. If you exercise
faith of any kind, then it has to have an object. If you believe,
you believe something. Whatever that something is, you've
judged it to be true and its antithesis to be false. And if
from the whole world's Menu of religions out there if you conclude
that any one religion is doctrinally accurate Which which must do
if they're religious people? Or you think any religion among
all of them out there that it's doctrinally fault. You've made
a judgment in In our part of the world many claim to be a
Christian well if you claim to be a Christian you made some
sort of judgment and Don't you, who claim to be a Christian,
you accurately would conclude that you're a Muslim is not a
Christian. You've made a judgment. And you
could go on and on. But right now, you're going to
judge today whether what I'm telling you is true or false. And you should. That's the way
it should be. We should be discerning. Sadly, you know, we've all encountered
some who seem to be interested when exposed to the doctrines
of the gospel, of God's gospel of grace. And they show some
initial interest and then they stop short in that examination.
And oftentimes it's because of their reluctance to be aligned
with that which is so offensive to others, to the natural mind. It says things about where they
were, or where their loved ones are. And that's repulsive to
our natural mind. So they cry, judge not. By refusing,
see, to make a judgment then. I just won't deal with it. I
won't make a judgment. And that's some sort of badge
of honor. And it reflects, see, a presumption that their love
and their humility towards others is really in sharp contrast to
you or whoever the one is who dares to proclaim something contrary
to what they currently believe. Now, this is important. Listen,
in Luke 13, Christ said, Except ye repent, ye shall likewise
perish. His word teaches us that this
kind of radical change of the mind, it does and it must take
place in all those who will enter the kingdom of heaven. Unless
they repent, they shall perish. So all who are given spiritual
life, at some point when they're given life, they come to grips
with something that goes against their natural inclinations. It's
diametrically see opposed to what they once thought. And if
they haven't, if that hasn't happened, there is no repentance.
And without repentance, there's no salvation, no evidence that
you were among those for whom Christ died. So I hope you see
how irrational such a twisting of God's word is. In reality,
we all judge. I've often thought that in most
cases, a more honest expression of this objection would be don't
judge me. or don't judge those I care about. And that's a reflection of the
selfishness, our self-love, and religious pride that we all enter
into this world with. But regardless of how you may
have understood this up to now, today I'm going to ask that you
hear this message and set aside those sorts of thoughts to strive
to objectively seek God's truth, to know his standard of judgment,
undeterred by that natural aversion that's found in all of us before
God-given spiritual life. Now, secondly, I mentioned the
other error. was that some interpret verses one and two together as
if Christ is suggesting a conditional scenario that would allow you
to avoid the harsh judgments of others. They say by complying
with this, by not judging others, others will not judge you. You
judge not in order that you be not judged, as if that's some
sort of promise that will allow you to avoid the harsh judgments
of others. Now before any attempted to concur
with that presumed cause and effect interpretation of that
passage, it would do us well to consider some of the characters
in the Bible, Job, Paul, even our impeccable Lord who knew
no sin. Yet consider the faults and the
cruel charges that came his way. You know, fickle men, they cried
out as he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, Hosanna. And a short
time later would they cry, crucify him. You see even Christ who
loved perfectly he did not escape the harsh judgment of others
as might be expected if that's what he meant here when he said
judge not that you be not judged. The idea we can avoid the harsh
judgments of others, see, by withholding making any judgments
of our own, that would be contrary to the whole tenor now of the
Sermon on the Mount up to this point if you'll think about it.
Christ is not dealing with matters of eternal judgment here and
then getting to chapter 7 and all of a sudden shifting gears.
And now I'm saying, now I'm going to promote something different,
a secular motive. In other words, I'm going to
prompt you to act based on how you will be judged or esteemed
by others. The Bible teaches the exact opposite
of that. Remember what Christ said in
Luke 16, 15, that which is highly esteemed among men. is an abomination
in sight of God. He doesn't prompt us to judge
based on the esteem of others. In our text today, he's still
speaking of judgments made in the realm of his kingdom. Kingdom
which reigns through righteousness and to eternal life through Christ. So just what is meant here, I
tell you it's far nobler in a far weightier issue than just some
helpful tip here on how you can be considered in a better light
by your fellow man. He's not suggesting we link our
judgments with the judgments of other men, but rather in accordance
with the judgments of God. He's talking, see, about standards
of judgment here of eternal significance. Consider that the gospel message
demands a judgment. When Christ gave the Great Commission
in Mark 16, He said, go into the world and preach the gospel.
They that believe it shall be saved. They that believe it not
shall be damned. You see, upon hearing the gospel,
one must either believe it or they must reject it. And either
way, a judgment's made. I want you to hold your place
there in Matthew 7 and turn to John chapter 7. John chapter
7, and we'll look there at verse 24. This is a verse that I know many
of you are familiar with. We've heard in years past this
passage preached and preached very well, I might add. But I
think it's good to look at it again and see with our own eyes
what Christ says here in John 7, 24. He's speaking and he says,
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. judge righteous judgment. So
based on Christ's own words recorded here in John 7, unless you think
the Bible to be contradictory, it's obvious that simply judging
or not judging is not the issue of Matthew 7. As I've said, he's
addressing the standard by which we judge. We are to judge righteous
judgment. Now back in Matthew 7, look there
at verse 2, when Christ said, for with what judgment ye judge?
ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall
be measured to you again." Literally, that reads, with what for judgment
ye judge. What's the stick you're going
to use to measure it? In other words, by whatever standard
you use for judgment, you shall be judged accordingly. When he
says, with what measure ye meet, that word meet simply means measure.
He's saying, by whatever standard you make that measurement, it's
going to be applied to you. Now, if you'll think back to
everything that Christ has said, again, up to this point, you'll
recall that he set forth the standard of judgment for entrance
into the kingdom of heaven. And it's unambiguous. It's very
clear. In Matthew 5 20 when he said,
except your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and
Pharisees put together the best of the best, you shall in no
case enter the kingdom of heaven. He then from there proceeded
to point out the, excuse me, the extent of the law telling
them, you recall, if you're angry with your brother without a cause.
you're in danger. In other words, and if you recall
when we covered that section, we went and looked at the law
as it was summarized in the New Testament. Love God perfectly
and your neighbor as yourself. Our neighbor being defined as
our worst enemy. So the least ill will ever toward
our very worst enemy would put us in a position, he says, as
liable before a holy God as if we had committed the outward
act of murder. Show and see that our sinfulness
and unfitness, that which we can produce, goes way beyond
just our outward actions. And he had shown them it was
absolutely necessary that for any to be judged righteous before
God, it had to be based on one outside of themselves. He said,
that's what I came to do, remember? He said it had to be one that
was provided for them. And we know from other scriptures,
freely made theirs by God's merciful application of it to them, by
imputation, his charging of it to their account. Remember what
he said back in Matthew 5, verses 17 and 18. He said, that's what
I came to do, to fulfill the law perfectly, every jot and
tittle. And then in Matthew 5, 48, as we've reviewed again,
that he summarized just how righteous, how much more righteous How far
shall it exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? He said, Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect. Now here we move into chapter 7 and Christ is staying
right on subject. And this is the measurement stick
I believe that he's referring to here. In essence, I think
he's saying that if you insist on judging the life and death
issues that he's speaking of throughout his sermon, including
the entrance requirements into the kingdom of heaven itself,
if you insist on measuring that based on something that's produced
from you, then you will be judged by that which you are able to
produce. Recall on Morris Hill, Paul's
sermon there, and he There, we also see the standard of eternal
judgment unmistakably set forth when he said, God, God commands
men everywhere to repent. And then in verse thirty one,
he says, why saying because he hath appointed a day in which
he will judge the world by what standard in righteousness? Whose righteousness, how righteous
by that man whom he hath ordained. whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead." Now,
that's the standard of judgment. So if you insist on your meeting
some condition, see, in order to be saved, to enter heaven's
glory, of measuring something done by you, in you, through
you, then the performance of that something must equal that
of the one whose performance ensured his victory over death,
the God-man. the Son of God incarnate, the
Lord of glory. You must be as righteous as Jesus
Christ himself. It's his righteousness that's
the standard. So the issue is how will you
judge? How will you measure? If you insist on resting in salvation
based on something you've done or presumed to have been enabled
to do, your faith, your willingness to receive Jesus, your decision
to accept him, Your willingness to pray a sinner's prayer and
admit in prayer before God that you're a sinner, if you think
that secures something for you, if you think it was because you
were willing that what made the difference between heaven and
hell, you, unlike others, were willing to accept that which
you presume he has merited for you, if you just do that part
of yours. Listen, I don't care what it
is. If you insist on judging yourself or others to be saved
because of anything other than or in addition to the one righteousness
of God established by Christ and that made the sinners by
the free imputation of it to their account, then no that this
is where you're left. It will be your performance,
see, that's going to be measured against that perfect, sinless
righteousness of Christ. So is your faith so strong and
unwavering that you choose to be judged to possess it for all
eternity? You want to be judged based on
the fact that your faith would measure up to the confidence
that Christ himself had in the Father? You see, if you persist
in judging to possess any merit before God based upon something
that proceeds from you, you're going to be judged accordingly.
I believe that's what this passage is teaching. Now, that's distressing
if you're still among those who judge that way, as all of us
initially do. But listen, there's some wonderful
news here in this verse 2 and in these words here of our Lord.
If you judge righteous judgment, That is, if your standard of
judgment results in you rightly concluding that there's no hope
outside of Christ, you truly need mercy, see, there's no hope
at all outside of the one righteousness that he produced in complete
and full satisfaction to God's law and justice, then the measurement
which shall be applied to you is likewise, none other than
this very one that he's graciously revealed to you. You see, only
those such as Christ described You remember in the first part
of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Beatitudes, those verses
that begin, blessed are. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Only
those who have been eternally blessed and given a new mind
and a new heart that would cause them to adopt God's standard
of judgment, and that alone as their own, are among the eternally
blessed. So if your entire hope is wrapped
up in Christ, see, based on that one righteousness He established
at the cross, then that is evidence of your having been justified
by His blood, of having His righteousness charged to your account. Well,
how do we know that? Because you can't truly rest
there apart from the fact that He merited and purchased that
faith, that looking to Christ for you It's only true of those
whom God the Father gave to the Son, those for whom He lived
and died, to whom God imputed or charged to their account the
merit of all that He accomplished in His life and death. You see,
when we're convinced by God the Holy Spirit of the impossibility
of measuring up to God's standard of judgment based on anything
that proceeds from us, the sinner, that nothing other than his righteousness
imputed will justify us before the Father, then and only then
are we judging righteous judgment. And the spiritual life that provides
that discernment, it's just the purchased result, the fruit and
the effect provided only to those who've already been justified,
made righteous in him because of what he merited for them.
So to judge by God's standard, to judge righteous judgment,
is to see that He did not save you because you believed or because
you submitted to His standard of judgment. But rather, it's
to see you believed and submitted to His standard of judgment because
He saved you. Because God credited to your
account the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all
of God. Now, as simple as that may seem,
it's a vital distinction. And as such, it really behooves
us as centers to really always examine, to ensure that our confidence
is in grace and that we're not clinging to some remaining remnant
of work. That's what we're determined
to do naturally. And it can take very subtle forms
because We know it can take subtle forms because we perceive it
not, see, unless God gives us eyes to see differently. For
example, as many of you know, not so long ago, until we were
taught differently, most of us here held the view that the justification
of the sinner took place in close proximity to the time of faith.
Now, for years, think of this, we were clearly taught that faith,
our believing, had no causal role in our salvation. and that
faith was merely the fruit and the effect of that which Christ
merited for us in his life and death. But in spite of that clear
teaching, in hindsight, we now see that the error as to when
righteousness was imputed apparently contributed towards some concluding
that the righteousness established by Christ at the cross didn't
quite complete the job. Perhaps, I don't know, imagining
that the exercise of faith procured his blessing, even procured the
righteousness that was established at the cross, rather than the
other way around. And of course, that would be
equivalent to trusting in another righteousness to finish the job.
Something in addition to the one righteousness that procures
all of our salvation. Now, like most of you, I'm thankful
for the teaching we've since received on this issue. and for
God's continual teaching for that matter. And I'm sure we
hold some error today that we're going to learn better of as we
go forward in the future too. But if you think about it, doctrinal
accuracy, even over the timing of justification, learning and
believing the truth that we were justified by his blood at the
cross, that will not in and of itself correct the problem for
anyone if this was their real problem. If their real problem
was in having assigned to their faith, to their believing, some
sort of efficacy. You can be doctrinally correct
on some things, including, see, having a correct understanding
that sinners are justified at the cross. But if you believe
that you're given spiritual life because you believe in justification
at the cross, or because you believe any other important truth
that pertains to the gospel, That, too, would be equivalent
to placing your hope in another righteousness, see, trusting
in something in addition to the one righteousness that not only
justifies us, but because of that justification procures for
us all grace here and all glory hereafter, all of our salvation,
even our faith. And studying various scriptures
time after time, it's been impressed upon me that The issues of judgment,
and it may be I'm simple minded here on this, I don't know, but
it always comes back to this for me, that it seems to reduce
down to whether A, one perceives their salvation to be all of
grace. And when I say grace, I mean
as it's taught here. I mean, I'm talking about pure
sovereign grace. Or B, whether they tragically
insist on some remaining tainting element of works. Something done
by, in or through the sinner that they imagine contributes
toward their acceptance before God or the procurement of His
blessing. So for the sake of emphasis,
let me repeat something similar to what I said earlier. To judge
by God's standard, to judge righteous judgment, is to say He didn't
save you because you believed or because you submitted to His
truth or His standard of judgment. You see, that would make faith
a work just as it would be if you were believing an error.
But rather it is to see that you believed and submitted to
his truth and standard of judgment because he saved you from your
sins, because he justified you, because God charged to your account
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And getting this
order wrong may seem trivial, but it's not. Putting the cart
before the horse here, so to speak, is deadly. As Jonah said,
salvation is of the Lord. That means the whole kit and
cabooled. Now look with me at verses three through five here
very briefly. Christ uses here a metaphor of
a moat or a beam in the eye. A moat is a dry twig. It's a straw. Something, a small
piece of wood, something like a splinter. Whereas a beam refers
to a large timber like a cross beam. And the eye speaks of our
understanding or our faculty of spiritual discernment. And
these foreign objects, see, in your eye, they would certainly
hinder your vision, your understanding. So a moat would be a hindrance.
But a beam suggests something, see, that would completely obstruct
our vision, our judgments, as we see here in this context,
our spiritual discernment. And both of those objects, I
believe, refer to sins that are prevalent in a person's life.
But one, the moat, being smaller, would refer to that which that
which would merely hinder our discernment and our discernment
is hindered. You know we we see through a glass dimly. And that's
because of sin. And so I think a moat refers
to all the sins particularly of character and conduct that
are common to all of us without exception. Listen I'm talking
about those who have been born again and those who have not.
sins that are common if they're judged by the strict standard
of God's law. That is, the one that summarizes
love God perfectly and your neighbor as yourself. So we all have moats,
so to speak, because we're all sinners. And we will be so, as
we heard in the 10 o'clock hour, until we depart from these bodies
of sin. But notice when he speaks of
the beam, he says in verse 3, consider us not the beam that
is in thine own eye, That word, considerous, means weigh carefully.
And the suggestion here is that one hasn't yet seriously considered
the being that would totally block their vision, their spiritual
discernment or understanding. And he's calling any who would
attempt, any who fall in that category, who would attempt to
address the faults of character and conduct, the issues, the
shortcomings of others, the motes in their eyes, while unperceptive
of the beam in their own eye, he calls them a hypocrite who
cannot see clearly and they're not qualified to be addressing
those issues. I believe the beam refers to
the self-righteousness is common to all of us prior to God-given
faith and repentance. To all unbelievers who would
judge the vital issues of saved and lost, fit or unfit for heaven
based upon the sin that deceives all by nature. As Paul called
it, the deceivableness of unrighteousness in 2 Thessalonians 2. That's
the sin of which we're all initially guilty. It's a sin that's exercised
in our natural religious thought. See, we know the sins of morality
and character and conduct. We don't even have to be taught
much to know that those things are wrong. But this is a sin
that deceives us, and it pertains to our religion. It's that deadly
sin of the having expected salvation, judging salvation based upon
anything other than or in addition to that one righteousness of
God. wrought out by Christ in his perfect obedience to death.
In other words, it's unrighteousness, not that one perfect righteousness,
something other than the one standard by which we'll all be
judged his righteousness. As I noted earlier, see that
verse five begins with thou hypocrite. Now that's what he says of these.
And that's the same description that he used in this sermon back
in chapter six, verse five, when he was describing those who pray
to be seen of men and he said he went on said that they have
their reward. That's it. Well, I hope you see
a parallel here. If you think salvation is conditioned
on you to center, then you're going to be judged as to whether
you met that condition and you'll have your reward. You're going
to have the esteem of like minded religious folks, but it's not
the reward of this kingdom. And when Christ rebukes such
a one and says, Thou hypocrite, I think he's describing most
of organized religion today. And I say that because their
focus, see, is on something, is on the moat. It's on something
other than the cross of Christ. And when I say the cross, I mean
on that which was accomplished there. His righteousness, by
which God's people were justified, their sins put away then and
there by the shedding of his precious blood. Instead, see,
the tendency of man's religion is to focus on whatever condition
they think makes the difference. And that makes sense. That's
what we should do. If you believe men can gain acceptance
before God and enter heaven, if they'll only believe something,
then you focus, and you should. I mean, it's logical you should,
on getting them to believe whatever that something is. If they imagine
salvation is acquired, for example, by living an upright moral lifestyle,
attending church, sincere interest in religion, then their emphasis
is going to be on promoting just that. And look, I'm not saying
that compliance with those things, God's revealed will in those
areas isn't important. But I am saying when that becomes
the focal point, so as to comprise their gospel message. In other
words, it pertains, they're suggesting that this is how sinners are
saved. Then it's akin to focusing on
getting those moats taken care of by folks who would be oblivious
to the being that completely obstructs their own spiritual
discernment. The self-righteousness of presuming
that any part of salvation is conditioned on themselves in
some way, to some degree. In other words, based on something
other than or in addition to the one righteousness of God
in Christ. Unrighteousness. And they consider it, as the
scripture says here, Christ said, they consider it not. They perceive
it not. And you see, that's why Paul
calls it the deceivableness of unrighteousness. It takes the
miraculous work of God, the Holy Spirit, for us to see differently.
So we come to see that before hearing and being brought to
believe with the heart God's true gospel, how he saves sinners,
our standard of judgment is fatally flawed. And it's true of all
of us unless and until God's pleased to show us different
in the day of his power. In the gospel message itself,
that standard's revealed. We discover we have to possess
a perfect righteousness that we're unable to produce. In John
7, 24, it does begin with a command to not judge by outward appearance. But don't miss, it also commands
us to deliberately judge, to judge righteous judgment. And to do that, we have to judge
according to truth. And being sinners, the only way
we can judge righteously is judge according to God's truth. Well,
do you see the implication of this as it pertains to the most
important judgment of all, the one regarding your own state
and eternal destiny? If we fail to adopt God's standard
of judgment, Christ's perfect righteousness, then by whatever
standard we judge others, we too shall be judged. So any who
judge salvation conditioned upon something done by and or through
They, in turn, shall be judged accordingly. And if you persist
in thinking salvation's condition on you, the sinner, you'll ultimately
be judged as to whether you met the condition with a perfection
equal to that of the impeccable, spotless Son of God. For the
first 30 years or so of my life, that's how I judge, sadly. But
today I rejoice that God, in His time, revealed to me his
strict holy requirement of perfection through the preaching of his
gospel, revealing that my salvation could not be and was not conditioned
upon anything proceeding from me, not even my belief of his
true gospel. You see, I would not want to
be judged according to my weak faith based on that which proceeds
from me, a sinner. And God graciously shows his
people that even their belief of true doctrine, it won't measure
up in that And you know, listen, I'm not putting, you know, I
don't put down doctrine. It's important. OK, but. It can be deadly, not true doctrine
itself, but our how we treat it, if we imagine that our belief
of true doctrine, if we mistakenly place it in rivalry with that
one thing that really did get the job done, the work of Christ,
finished work of Christ and his obedience unto death. You see,
one's belief in the truth, in the truth now, it doesn't procure
the righteousness of God in Christ. His righteousness procures one's
belief in the truth. Knowing that God's never changes
and he's got to judge in accordance with his strict holiness and
justice. I pray that all who hear this
will find their fitness in Christ alone, not as to use a scriptural
language, Not having your righteousness, which is of the law, meaning
based upon some requirement or condition that you imagine to
be able to meet, but based solely on that one perfect righteousness
that's produced by and residing even now in the Lord Jesus Christ,
made freely yours by God's judicial reckoning or imputation of it
to you. Now, to judge according to that standard is to judge
by God's standard. And I pray God will draw all
who hear this message to adopt his standard of judgment, to
judge righteous judgment.