So we're going to be reading
from Luke's Gospel, chapter six. Luke's Gospel, chapter six, and
we'll read from verse 37 through to 42. Luke chapter six, verse 37, and this
is the word of the Lord. Jesus is speaking and he says,
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 into your bosom. For with the same measure
that ye meet withal, it shall be measured to you again. And
he spake a parable unto them. Can the blind lead the blind?
Shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not
above his master, but every one that is perfect shall be as his
master. And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that
is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to
thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in
thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is
in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first
the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly
to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye. Amen. May the Lord bless to us his
word. It is not judging that is forbidden
in these verses from the Lord. but improper judging. The Lord begins by saying, judge
not and ye shall not be judged. But it's not that judging per
se is forbidden, rather improper judging is the focus of our attention. There are many forms of judging
that are proper and necessary. For example, There is judging
in a court of law. There's judging if you have to
be on jury service. There's judging in all forms
of decision-making, in risk-taking, and very generally, in our daily
lives, we all have to judge. And believers have a duty, indeed,
a responsibility to judge. but we must do so fairly, we
must do so uprightly and impartially. These verses are being spoken
to the Lord's disciples and with them to all the Lord Jesus Christ's
people. We have made mention of the fact
that this has parallels with Matthew's account of the Sermon
on the Mount. But it's clear, given that these
words were spoken to the disciples, it's clear from the Acts of the
Apostles, for example, and the epistles of the disciples that
were written to the churches, that the disciples themselves
did not for a moment imagine that the Lord was suggesting
that they never exercise judgment, or never judge a person, or pass
judgment on an event. We must make judgments all the
time, we have to. It is needful that believers
judge between things in the world, that we judge between things
in our social responsibilities, and that we judge between things
that are right and wrong in the church. And that includes judging
what we hear as doctrine and judging inappropriate behaviour
that must be corrected using proper discipline. We're judging
all the time. And actually, I think that the
Lord's earlier instruction in the prior verses is our guiding
principle here when we think about judging and how it is to
be done properly. Remember how he said, as ye would
that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. And that is to be our standard
in judging as well. In fact, I think that we could,
if I may, paraphrase the Lord's words here and insert those very
words and say this, as ye would that men should judge you, judge
ye also them likewise. The Lord is warning against improper
or inappropriate judging. Judging that flows from a critical
attitude in our dealings with men and women. And such a manner
afflicts us all to some degree or another. And in some of us,
it needs to be vigorously checked as the Lord is here directing.
He says, don't do it. Don't judge and condemn in a
stern and severe manner. Don't judge prejudicially. when you don't know the facts.
Don't be opinionated and biased because a particular approach
doesn't suit us or match the way that we do things. Don't
be intolerant and narrow-minded. Rather, be willing to allow people
latitude and liberty in matters that are really unimportant and
immaterial. Actually, I feel as though I'm
giving you a list of my own faults here. And once again, the Lord
is encouraging a gentle attitude in his people. He's directing
that our interactions with one another be conducted with kindness
and consideration and not with sharpness and condemnation. and it's a good and valid principle
which holds usually true. How we treat people is generally
how we shall be treated. The parallel that the Lord gives
is not recorded by Matthew as having been given on the Mount,
but is recorded by Matthew as having been given at another
time. So in that sense there's a little
bit of a difference between what Matthew says in the Sermon of
the Mount and what Luke records. So here, perhaps, Luke may be
gathering Christ's more general statements from various sources
and times. And perhaps it's also the case
that the Lord employed the same teaching at different times and
in different places. But this parable, the idea of
the blind leading the blind, it's a powerful image. And indeed,
it's a saying that we continue to use today to indicate the
likely outcome of acting out of ignorance or following wrong
and faulty directions. In spiritual matters and in church
life, it occurs when men who do not know the gospel the gospel
of free grace, set themselves up as teachers and preachers
of the word and end up preaching moral lifestyles and righteousness
by works because they personally know nothing better. And we should
not assume that because a man or a woman, increasingly these
days, has gone to Bible college or graduated from a theological
seminary, that they are saved individuals. Don't assume that. Going to a Bible school does
not make you a believer. If they have never known a spiritual
conversion, if they are not regenerate themselves, they cannot lead
another to Christ, though they may be the pastors and the preachers
and the ministers of the largest, most celebrated congregations. They cannot lead another to Christ. They cannot point others to faith
in Jesus Christ if they are not regenerate themselves. Instead,
both they and their hearers, they and their followers will
metaphorically fall into the ditch. They will end up soiling
their profession. They will end up exposing their
lack of spiritual insight and understanding. Spiritual blindness
is ignorance of a saving knowledge of God. Spiritual blindness is
being without a true, meaningful understanding of the Lord Jesus
Christ or the accomplishments of salvation by Him on the cross. And you know, this is absolutely
basic. The central issue at the heart
of the Christian faith is what happened at the cross. What did
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplish there? And I tell you this, you
can tell in 30 seconds if a man knows the answer to those questions
when he begins to speak about redemption or when he begins
to speak about atonement. Spiritual blindness is ignorance
of the Holy Spirit and of his activity in the work of grace. Spiritual blindness is ignorance
about regeneration and sanctification and conversion on the soul. And people might know the scriptures
as a text to study or as a tool for their job. They might be
able to speak about doctrines from the writings of others.
But if they have never been touched in their heart by a work of grace
and quickened in their soul by the truth, then they're blind
to the gospel and they're dead to Christ. That's what spiritual
blindness is. And blind leaders of the blind
will lead both into the ditch. In verse 40, the Lord tells us,
a disciple is not above his master. And this is a continuation of
the same idea, meaning that no follower will ever proceed in
spiritual understanding beyond the knowledge of his teacher.
A spiritually ignorant and blind teacher will not, because he
can't, instil or instruct spiritual
truth into his followers. It's impossible. And that is
actually a fact that I'm very aware of. I ask the Lord to teach
me that I might teach you, that I might teach others. Because
I know that if the Lord won't lead me along the road of spiritual
illumination, how can I hope to lead others or to shed light
on their life's journey? The final two verses in this
little passage today continue the Lord's theme of denouncing
this hypocrisy and denouncing spiritual ignorance. There's
a whole religious system at work today in the world that is bereft
of gospel truth and barren of spiritual life. It produces no
true enduring fruit because it isn't itself a spiritually living
thing. It can talk about God, it can
talk about the Bible, it can talk about history, it can talk
about pastoral work, but it nurtures no spiritual children and it
enables no spiritual growth. And some people balk at this
and say, these formal religious systems can't all be wrong. There
must be some truth in it. Well, I say, if there were, then
why do they not take the Lord's admonition seriously and come
out from amongst them and be separate? They're trying to unite
light and darkness, and that will not do. It will not work. And some preachers represent
themselves as heirs of spiritual men of time past and present
themselves as being in the tradition of the great movements and preachers
of the past. And yet their doctrines betray
them. Their lives and their values
reveal the true nature of their heart. They tell others that
they can lead them to find and to know God, but they can't see
enough to discover their own blindness. They pretend to be
doctors of men's souls, but they're hypocrites and they're charlatans. And this, I think, leads us to
the essence of the message of the Lord in this context. There's
a true gospel and there's a false gospel. There is a genuine spiritual
work of grace and there is a counterfeit version built on man's own efforts. There is God's imputed righteousness
and man's self-righteousness. And let us, let us believe this
simple truth. It takes a work of sovereign
power to make a new creation. It takes an act of divine love
to adopt and bring a sinner into the family of God. There are
many today who do judge others, taking to themselves what in
the end is only truly the right of God to do. Only God is the
judge of all the earth. and all men in themselves are
by nature hypocrites, thinking better of themselves and worse
of others than they should. It is only when the Lord makes
the difference in our lives by conversion and by spiritual transformation
that we can find forgiveness for our own sin. and a better
way to live in conformity to the life and example of our Saviour. And that is a product of the
Saviour's effectual death for us on the cross. God's grace
in our lives teaches us how to live in this world. The experience
of grace makes us gracious. The experience of forgiveness
makes us forgiving. The experience of kindness and
gentleness from the Lord in His dealings with us makes us, in
turn, kind and gentle to those around about us. The Lord in
our lives enables us to live for Him and to live for His glory. We shall never be perfect in
our natural man, but neither does conversion leave a person's
character unchanged. Faith in Jesus Christ makes a
difference and it is evident in a believer's character and
in his life and in his walk and in his conversation. May the
Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.