The Lord's going to conclude
what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Kind of remember the things
that he has told us in this sermon. He's made a very clear distinction
between true religion and false religion. He's showed us how
false religion, false worship is the outward. It's all an outward
show, what men can see. But true religion is inward.
It's in the heart where only God can see. He's shown us that
the true commandment or the true meaning of every commandment
of the law is to look to Christ to keep it for us since we can't
keep it. He's shown us the necessity of faith. We must be given faith
to believe Christ. He showed us the conduct of the
faithful. And now he's gonna close his
message with some very necessary warnings. They must be necessary. They're recorded in God's word.
And the Lord's first necessary warning here is don't be harsh
and judgmental, especially towards your brethren, because true religion
will always produce kindness. So Matthew 7, verse 1, judge
not that you be not judged. Now this is one of the most abused
and misused scriptures that I can think of. It's misused by people
who just want to do whatever they want. They want to do something
that's wrong. They want to do things that's
contrary to scripture. And then they tell others, now
don't you judge me. You don't have any right to judge
me. Judge not that you'd be not judged. Well, that is a complete
misuse and abuse of the word of God. You know that the Lord's
not teaching us that we're not to make judgments about things.
You have to make judgments about what is right and what is wrong.
You have to make judgments for your family, for your children.
What is safe and what is not safe? You have to make judgments
about other people. Is it wise to be around this
person or not? And the Lord's not teaching us
that you're not to make a judgment and say, that's sin. He doesn't
tell us you can't say, you can't call sin, sin, or you can't call
evil, evil. John the Baptist plainly told
Herod, it's not lawful for thee to have your brother's wife.
He made a judgment there and he wasn't wrong to point it out,
was he? So this doesn't mean that someone doesn't have the
right, and this might be a real good way to think about this,
someone else doesn't have the right to tell me I'm wrong when
I'm wrong. In this passage, in this chapter
seven, the closing of this Sermon on the Mount, the Lord tells
us to make a judgment, whether someone is a spiritual dog or
a pig. Look at 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. Now if you're gonna do that, you're gonna have to
make a determination who's a dog and who's a swine, aren't you?
The Lord tells us we're to judge whether someone is a false prophet
or not. Verse 15, beware of false prophets, which come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. You
should know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? You know, a false prophet is
trying to cloak what he's doing, and we're told make a determination,
a judgment about this, if a man's a false prophet or not. The Apostle
John told us we're to try the spirits, to try the preachers,
whether they are of God. Are they a true prophet or a
false prophet? We're to make a judgment about God's servants.
We're to know them, make a judgment here. Know them which labor among
you and honor them for the work's sake, for the message's sake.
We're to make a judgment about what we hear. Is it the gospel
or not? Are we like the noble Bereans
that go home and search the scriptures to see if these things be so?
We're to make a judgment about these things. Look at Romans
chapter 16. Here's another judgment that
we're to make. Romans chapter 16. In verse 17. And I beseech you,
brethren, mark them. You make a judgment here, a determination,
and mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which you've learned, and avoid them. For they that
are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly,
and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
Now you're to mark those people, and you're to avoid them that
cause divisions, that cause error in doctrine, and make a judgment.
and avoid them. Avoid giving them any sign whatsoever
that you think what they're doing is okay. Don't do it. Don't socialize
with them. Just don't give them any sign
that what they're doing is okay. To keep up a relationship with
someone like that, after God's word tells us to avoid them,
is saying, I know better than God. I'm wiser than God, I'm
more loving than God. I'm not gonna avoid this person
because I'm so loving. That's saying I'm more loving
than God. Look at 2 Thessalonians 3. Paul here in 2 Thessalonians
tells us the same thing about making a determination about
people who walk contrary to the plain teaching of scripture.
2 Thessalonians 3 verse 6. Now we command you, brethren,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves
from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the
tradition which you've received of us. Verse 14, he says, and
if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man,
make a judgment, note that man and have no company with him
that he may be ashamed. Now making the judgment to withdraw
ourselves and not have a relationship with this person It's not so
we can condemn them. You got that? It's not so we
can punish them. It's not so we can make them wear the scarlet
A around their neck. What we hope by avoiding them,
by not having a relationship with them, is it'll teach them
the error of their ways, and they'll repent from them. That's
the point. See, the point of making this
judgment, withdrawing yourself, is not to condemn them, is it?
It's to try to show them the error of their ways. So clearly,
from scripture, we are to make judgments about all sorts of
things. And what the Lord's warning us here, he's warning us against
a harsh, judgmental attitude. It's always looking to condemn
people for everything that they're doing wrong. The word judge the
Lord uses here doesn't mean to judge and make a determination.
It means to condemn or punish someone. It means what the Lord's
teaching us here, don't seek to condemn or to punish your
brethren. Now we do have to make judgments
about many things, about right and wrong, but we don't have
to be harsh and condemning when we do it. That's the whole point
of what the Lord's teaching us in these verses. And let me give
you a few reasons why we're not to be harsh and judge and condemn
our brethren. Number one, because the Lord
said don't do it. Judge not, the Lord said. That's
enough to end it, isn't it? The Lord said don't do it. The
Lord commands us, this is a commandment. Don't be harsh in condemning
your brethren. And if you want to judge somebody,
I'll tell you who to judge. Your own self. Look at first
Corinthians chapter 11. There is someone that you can
judge, that you should judge. It's your own self. 1 Corinthians
11 verse 27. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, and to
be unworthy, it doesn't mean that you've got sin in your life,
you've done something wrong, it means you don't have faith
in Christ, that you don't, not looking to, you don't see what
this broken bread and the wine, how it represents the body and
blood of the Lord. That's eating unworthily. So whosoever shall
drink the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and
blood of the Lord, but let a man examine himself, and so let him
eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth
and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,
not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak
and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge
ourselves, we should not be judged. Now the Lord's table, It's for
believers and anyone who believes Christ and rests in him should
partake of the Lord's table. The men who serve the table don't
come up to you and decide, all right, now am I gonna hold this
plate out to you or not? No, it's not up to them. We're not
to examine one another in this. We're to examine ourselves and
so let him eat. And if you believe Christ, then
you take and you eat and you drink in remembrance of Christ,
to remember him. Now this applies to the Lord's
table, but it applies to everything. Let's judge ourselves. Let's
examine ourselves and judge ourselves because the Lord deals with those
who do not judge themselves. Paul said, for this cause, some
are weak and sickly among you. And if we would judge our own
self, if we do it honestly, what will happen? It's not just we're
gonna go around saying, oh, woe is me, I've judged myself, I'm
unworthy, I've got so much sin in my life. Well, that's true.
But if we rightly judge ourselves, you know what we'll do? Flee
to Christ for forgiveness. Free to Christ to be washed in
his blood. So if we judge ourselves, God
won't judge us, because we'll be found in Christ. If we want
to judge somebody, let's just be concerned with judging ourselves. Look at Romans chapter 14. Paul says something very similar
here, Romans 14, verse 10. But why dost thou judge or condemn
thy brother? And why dost thou set it not
thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat
of Christ. For as it's written, as I live, saith the Lord, every
knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God,
so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. God's the judge. We have to give
an account of ourselves to him, not other people. So leave the
judgment of other people to God. He's the judge, and let's be
concerned with our own selves. And if you want to judge yourself
about something, here's a good thing. Let's judge ourselves
in something that's very, very, very important. that I don't
cause my brethren to stumble, either by my sin, by my bad attitude,
by doing something, you know, the apostle here talks about
eating meat and different things. Well, if that's gonna offend
somebody else, if that's gonna really trouble them, don't do
it in front of them. Let's make sure that we judge ourselves,
we don't put a stumbling block in front of our brethren. That's
what Paul says in verse 13. Let us not, therefore, judge,
condemn one another anymore. Just don't do that anymore. But
judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion
to fall in his brother's way. Now let's just judge our own
behaviors, our own attitudes, that we don't cause hard feelings
in others. So don't be harsh and judgmental
towards your brother, because the Lord said don't do it. Number
two, don't be harsh and judgmental with your brethren. because God
will deal with us the same way we deal with others. Verse two,
Matthew chapter seven. For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet,
it should be measured to you again. Now this is just a general
rule in scripture. God will deal with us the same
way we deal with other people. If we're harsh and judgmental,
God will deal harshly with us. If we hold others' feet to the
fire, God's going to hold our feet to the fire. If we're stingy
with others, God's going to be stingy with us. But if we're
kind and we're forgiving, God will be kind and forgiving with
us. All that's true, isn't it? But
let's take one step back for just a minute. If we're kind
and forgiving with others, why is that? Where'd that start?
It started with God being kind and forgiving to us, didn't it?
If we're merciful to others, how'd that start? I mean, are
we earning God's mercy by being kind and merciful? No. How'd
that start? Because God's merciful to us.
If God's forgiven us, should we forgive our brethren for Christ's
sake? If God's been merciful to us, should we be merciful
to others? So that being said, look here
at Mark chapter four, but it's still true. God will deal with
us in the same manner in which we deal with others. Mark chapter
four, verse 24. He said unto them, take heed
what you hear. With what measure you meet, it should be measured
to you. And unto you that hear, more shall be given. For he that
hath, to him shall be given. And he that hath not, from him
shall be taken even that which he hath. So take heed how you
hear now. If you hear harshly and judgmentally,
God's not going to give you a blessing from that. Look at Luke chapter
six. Luke 6, verse 37. Judge not, and ye shall not be
judged. Condemn not, and ye shall not
be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and
it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down and
shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that
you meet with all, it shall be measured to you again. Whatever
measuring cup you use to measure out to others, God's gonna use
the same cup to measure it out to you. So let's not be harsh
in dealing with others. And think about this now. How
would we fare if God judged us? If he judged us harshly and condemned
us, how would we fare if God judged us for our sin? We'd be
damned, wouldn't we? David said, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? No one. David also
said, enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy
sight should no man living be justified. Don't enter into judgment
with me. See me in Christ. Judge my sin
in Christ my substitute. So don't be harsh and judgmental
with others. If God has dealt in mercy to
us, deal in mercy to others. All right, here's the third thing.
Don't be harsh and judgmental because we're not qualified to
judge our brethren. Back in our text, Matthew 7,
verse 3. And why beholdest thou the moat that's in my brother's
eye? But consider it's not the beam that is in thine own eye.
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moat out
of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Now the
word moat the Lord uses there, it's a word that means a twig
or a straw, something that's dried up and almost insignificant,
you know, a toothpick. And the beam, he talks about
that's in our eye, the moat's in our brother's eye, the beam's
in our eye. It means a timber, one of those big timber beams
that's used to hold up a building. It's large, it's strong, it's
thick. Now, our brother's got a twig
in his eye, toothpick. No question about it, that thing's
causing a problem. I mean, you stick something in
your eye, you got a problem. Is it painful, it hurts, it's
causing pain, it's a problem. But the beam in our eye is much
worse, isn't it? It's a timber. And since we've
got a much worse problem than our brother, we're not qualified
to judge our brother. That's what the Lord's saying.
We're not qualified to judge our brother in the matter of
his smaller sin when we've got a bigger sin. And since we'll
never get rid of our bigger sin, because we can't get rid of any
sin, then we're never qualified to be judgmental about our brother. Now, if we've got a beam in our
eye, we're not going to be able to see very well. I mean, a beam.
I was talking with my son Doug about some old baseball stadiums. I told him the first baseball
game I ever went to was Old Tiger Stadium. And it amazed me. It still amazed me. I think they've
finally torn it down. But they had seats that you would
pay for directly behind a beam holding up the canopy. Directly,
I mean not just partially, I mean directly. They sold somebody
a seat like that. Well, you couldn't see. Imagine
if that beam was in your eye. Now, you've got an obstructed
view, don't you? Well, if our view is obstructed,
we can't see everything going on in the situation. Imagine
sitting behind that beam in a baseball game and people are cheering
you. You have to say, what happened? I don't know what happened. If
we've got a beam in our eye, we don't see the whole situation
the way it is. And since that's so, we're not
qualified to condemn our brother, are we? No, we're not qualified
because we don't have all the facts. We can't see everything
right. I tell you, certainly what we can't see is in their
heart. We don't know what's going on in their heart. We don't know
what's going on in their motives. The Lord may have granted them
repentance. Maybe they did do something wrong. It really is
wrong. Toothpick in your eye is a problem. They did something
wrong, but now you just don't know what happened there. And
the Lord may have already granted them repentance in their heart,
but we don't know that, because we can't see another man's heart.
Maybe our brother's gone through some horrible situation, and
we don't know anything about it. And that situation made them
act differently than they would normally. If we knew what they
were going through, instead of condemning them, we'd feel sorry
for them, wouldn't we? No, we'd have compassion for them instead
of being harsh and judgmental. And when you hear a situation
come up, I don't know why we have to be reminded about this
all the time. But when a situation comes up
and you hear about a situation between two people, Just don't even begin to start
condemning one of them until you hear both sides of the story.
You don't have all the facts now. Until you hear both sides
of the story, you don't have all the facts. Even Nicodemus,
the Pharisee, knew that. He said, doth our law judge any
man before it hear him and know what he doeth? Well, no. Well,
if we've got a beam in our eye, we don't have all the facts,
we're not qualified to judge our brethren or condemn them.
And the only reason we would want to condemn them is we feel
superior. It's the only reason. And if
we've got a beam in our eye, we're not superior. Just leave
it alone. We've got enough to do to judge
our own self. So let's stick to that. Let's
stick to that. We got all the facts about ourselves.
We don't have all the facts about our brother. So just leave that
alone. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Don't be harsh and judgmental
about our brethren, condemn them, because that's being hypocritical.
Verse five, 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. Like I said, we're never gonna
get the mote out of our eye. We're never gonna get rid of
our sins, and we'll never be qualified to take the toothpick
out of our brother's eye. And to act like we have, to act
like, oh, I've gotten rid of the mold that's in my eyes, so
now I can go around telling everybody else what to do and how to do
it, that's being a hypocrite. It's the height of hypocrisy
to condemn someone for their sin when my sin's worse. I mean, isn't that horrible?
That's being a hypocrite. And everybody hates a hypocrite.
Look at Romans chapter one. The apostle deals with this in
Romans 1. Here, the apostle is describing
the nature that's in all of us. Romans 1 verse 29. being filled with all unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy,
murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters
of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. Not
like there's enough evil things, we're inventors of evil things.
disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers,
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment
of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death,
not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judges, that condemns. For wherein thou judges, condemns
another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judges doeth the
same things. But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them that
condemns them which do such things and doest the same? You think
you shall escape the judgment of God? Not a chance. There's
not a chance. There's no way that hypocrite
will escape the judgment of God that's according to truth. So
we would be wise to judge ourselves, to condemn our own sin, And like
I said earlier, that would make us flee to Christ, to depend
upon Christ. If we would judge and condemn
ourselves, we'd see there's no hope in me. I've got to depend
on Christ. I've got to trust Him if I would
have any hope of life. And if we would do that, if we
would flee to Christ, God would judge Christ our substitute and
our place, and we'd be forgiven, and we'd go free. All right,
now that's what the master here has said in the text, but I want
to give you a few other reasons that we should not be harshly
judgmental and condemning our brethren from the scriptures.
Here's the fifth thing. Don't be harsh. Don't harshly
condemn your brethren because that's the wrong attitude. It's
the attitude of a Pharisee. Remember before the Lord gave
the parable of the two men that prayed, the Pharisee and the
Publican. In Luke 18, verse nine, our Lord spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. That's the Pharisee. Well, no
one should want to be like the Pharisees, despising others,
condemning others. That's the attitude of a Pharisee. God help us. God forbid that
we'd have that attitude. All right, here's the sixth thing.
This also has to do with our attitude. Don't be harsh. Don't
be condemning our brethren because it's like a Pharisee and it's
not like Christ. It's not like Christ our Savior.
Now, the Lord Jesus is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous. He
never has excused any sin. During his earthly ministry,
the things you read about, you never find him excusing sin,
do you? He always saw sin for sin. He
always called sin, sin, and he never excused it. Yet, publicans
and sinners flocked to him. Who was around him all the time?
Publicans, harlots, open sinners. So that the Pharisees judged
him and condemned him. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. How horrible. They wouldn't go,
but sinners did. They felt comfortable being in
the presence of Christ the Savior. They didn't feel judged by Him.
He didn't excuse their sin, but they didn't feel judged by Him.
No, they found forgiveness with the Lord. Can't find that in
man's religion, can you? But you find it with Christ.
So to condemn our brethren, that's to be like a Pharisee and to
not be like Christ. All right, here's the seventh
thing. Look at Romans chapter 14. Don't be harsh and condemning
our brethren, because that's judging another man's servant. Romans 14, verse four. Who art thou that judges another
man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or followeth. Yea, he should be holding up,
for God's able to make him stand. Now, all believers are God's
servants, and we don't have any right to judge someone who's
not our servant. We don't have any right. If you
want to judge a brother in Christ, remember this now. God's able
to make them stand. He's holding them up. Christ
has redeemed them. God has accepted them. Well,
who are we to not accept them? And we would be wise to accept
them. We would be wise to see them
as held up by God. As long as they're not violating
scripture like we saw earlier. You know what, a brother may
do that for a time. We see that in scripture. A brother
may do that. He may walk disorderly. He may cause division. He may
do something, you know. But let's remember, let's not
write him off forever. Let's not write him off forever.
You may have to withdraw yourself for a time. But let's not write
him off forever because the basis of his salvation is not his conduct. It's Christ. It's Christ's righteousness. It's Christ's sacrifice. Let's
not write him off forever. If he's a brother, the Lord will
hold him up. The Lord will turn him. Let's just wait and see
how this thing turns out because he's not our servant. We're servants
too, aren't we? Well, let's do what we're told.
And what we're told to do is not judge our brethren. All right,
here's the last thing. Don't be judgmental, harshly
condemning our brethren, because that's not fulfilling the royal
law of love. James spoke about fulfilling
the royal law of love. How do you fulfill the royal
law of love? By loving your neighbor as yourself. We got a problem judging ourselves. So we ought to have a problem
condemning our brethren. If you look at Galatians chapter
six, the apostle Paul told us how to do that. How do you fulfill
this royal law of love? How do you love your neighbor
as yourself? Galatians 6 verse one. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
and a fallen, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. How
would I fare if I was in his shoes? I'd have fallen too. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. We fulfill the royal law of love,
the law of Christ by forgiving one another. Not by condemning
one another, by forgiving one another. By bearing one another's
burdens. You know, we all got issues.
We all got issues. We all got warts and weaknesses
and well, this is the family of God. Put up with it. Just put up with it. You know,
this is your family. Put up with it. Poor Janet, she
got to live with me. I'm her family. She knows all
my wars. And she puts up with me for love's
sake. For love's sake. Shouldn't we do that to one another?
Oh, I pray God give us that attitude to love one another. If we love
one another, forgiveness and looking over, little minor falls
will come easy to us, won't it? All right. Hope the Lord bless
that to you.