Living Toward the Day: “On Judging Others” (Matt 7:1-6)

Living Toward the Day: “On Judging Others” (Matt 7:1-6)[00:00:00] Hi, I’m Stuart, one of the elders here, and I have the great privilege of looking at this passage, more teaching from Jesus in what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Let me pray and orient our minds to the Word of God.[00:00:12] Our gracious Father, we thank you that you sent the Lord Jesus to be our teacher and our guide. We thank you, too, he came as our Savior and our Lord. We pray that as we hear his words now, that we would be moved to understand and moved to obey. We ask for your Spirit to be with us, that might be true.[00:00:29] We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. we are in this big chunk. When Matthew wrote his gospel, he put Jesus’ teachings in five big chunks. This is the first big teaching, five, six, seven, chapters five, six, seven of Matthew. And what he’s doing in this passage that we call the Sermon on Mount because he’s up on a mountain, literal mountain, as he’s preaching, teaching to thousands of people, and at times we get a sense he’s teaching just to the close group of his disciples, his followers, but at other times, the broader group is in mind.[00:00:57] And there’s a sort of a dynamic going on [00:01:00] between those. What he’s doing is explaining the sort of culture he wants, having come to earth. As he comes and s- sets up establishing God’s kingdom in a new way, because he is the Son of God come, he’s trying to establish a new group of people with a certain culture.[00:01:17] And so he t- does all this teaching around what kind of people they’re to be ‘ Cause he realizes if he can get the hearts of each follower right, then they can start working on their relationships together to get those right, and then that will help them as a group to be able to reach the world that it might be right, so that people will hear about Jesus, so that they’ll submit to His lordship, receive His salvation, and follow Him.[00:01:41] And when God is at the center of all that, then it all ties together and makes sense. And so you’ll see that’s part of his teaching. And a lot of it, he’s orienting, how do we focus just on understanding? when things are stressy, how do you live that life? When there are problems come to you, how do you live that?[00:01:57] When you think about, “I wanna live for God,” what does [00:02:00] that actually mean? They’re the kinds of things that he’s dealing with. And in this passage, he’s particularly thinking about how we get on in relation to people around us, and the way we treat them, and the way we think of them compared to us. And it’s under this heading, “Don’t judge.”[00:02:15] That’s how he starts off, “Do not judge.” He’s particularly thinking about the, the judgment that we make of others. But there are other judgments in this book, too. At the very end of this Sermon on the Mount, the last story is so critical. And when you read through and you know the end, it’s very hard not to read the earlier parts in the light of the end because he says there is a great cataclysmic storm coming.[00:02:38] It’s a way of talking about His return and the judgment God will make on all people. There’s this great cataclysmic storm, and you’ve got two choices. You can build your house on, your life, your house on sand, or you can build it on rock, and the rock is Him. It’s His Word. And so the whole point is, I’m teaching.[00:02:56] Which teaching would you believe? Would you build it on my [00:03:00] teaching, build your life on my teaching? ‘Cause if not, the storm will come. God will judge. And if you’re not living by Christ’s way, you’ll be destroyed by that. That is the judgment that’s coming. And then also, we need to remember that at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew, there is a mission coming.[00:03:16] When He’s died and He’s risen and He sends His disciples, says, “Go. I give you all authority, my authority. Go and teach the Gospel. Teach them about what I’m teaching you.” And so that’s the way we have to think about this passage. And so as we think about first up, verse one, “Do not judge.” Do not judge. It’s a very clear command, isn’t it?[00:03:37] He says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Pretty plain. Don’t judge. The trouble is, it only takes another verse or two before he starts saying how you should judge. And so it’s just a bit of a clue to us when we read things. We can’t just dive straight in and go, let’s just circle that piece off as though God never wants us, Jesus never wants us to make any judgments about anything.”[00:03:58] No, He clearly does, and He [00:04:00] wants us to judge about people. So what’s He getting at to begin? This is not an absolute command. What he wants to do is to start us off as people who have humility in the way we relate to others. And what he’s really getting at is it’s very easy for us to have an attitude that we’re superior, that we’re above others, and that we can see what they’re doing wrong, and particularly if we get into a kind of a religious in- excitement.[00:04:24] If we get into a kind of a sense that, I’ve been doing all these choi- I’ve made all these choices, choosing for God, doing good stuff, very easy to look back and see others who have not done as well as we have, or at least have that attitude[00:04:36] Very easy to make judgments. Don’t be that sort of person, is what Jesus is saying. As He thinks about building this community and the culture that He wants within His followers, if you’ve got censorious people, if you’ve got superior people judging others, that’s a disaster for the culture Jesus wants[00:04:55] Being critical of others is his problem[00:04:57] It’s very easy to think, “I’ve got this [00:05:00] ministry of criticism. I’ve got an insight to your problems, and I’ll tell you about it.” And not to approach a brother or sister, and he uses that language, not to approach a brother or sister in a sense of love and care and humility I want the best for you, but to say, “You’re doing it wrong.[00:05:16] You should be like me.” That’s what he’s getting at. Now, our culture has very different attitudes to judging. you jump on, social media, I nearly never do that. In fact, the only social media I look at is Marian’s when she’s showing it to me, because there’s something interesting to show me. But I understand that there are really bad things happen on social media, right?[00:05:35] Because, they bring it up every now and then in the news, and you hear it in situations where people are traumatized by what has happened on their account, where people have judged them. I think, sports people, you hear this all the time, don’t you? Someone doesn’t perform well and think…[00:05:49] And then all of a sudden there are a thousand or ten thousand or a hundred thousand people all saying, “You’re a complete turkey at that thing. How dare you represent our country being a sports person when you couldn’t even kick that [00:06:00] goal, shoot that goal, run that fast, do whatever you should have done the break dance the right way.”[00:06:05] You know what I mean? therefore, you are terrible as a person. And that just seems to be in the mentality of people. It is so i- interesting, isn’t it, how quickly people do what Jesus say don’t do. Even though our culture is against that thing, it’s still rampant. Tells you something about the way we are as people Might be worth us thinking about our own social media posts So easy just to let it rip and justify it because they’ve clearly got it wrong and I can see what you did wrong[00:06:31] It’s not just individuals though. It’s not just social media. That’s easy to point at. What I notice is it’s very common amongst couples, and even families, but amongst couples, where you define what you do as right and everything else is wrong. Such an easy thing, and I, I’m aware of this because it’s this thing Mary and I keep have to pull ourselves up on again and again Remind ourselves not to be like that, where we define our way of parenting, our way of spending money, our way of choosing [00:07:00] things, our way of the way we dress, the way we do whatever else, that culture, our little mini culture, is the best one and everything else is faulty.[00:07:07] Very easy to have that spirit amongst you. I can guarantee you, if I gave all of you $1,000 … I’m not going to, by the way. This is not, this is, this, just an imagined, this is a thought experiment, right? If I gave you all $1,000 and then you all saw what everybody did with it, you would look at a lot of the people and go, “Gee, I think they should’ve put it on the mortgage like we did.[00:07:24] Don’t know if they’ve done the best thing with the money.” Or others it’d be, “Gosh, they’re pretty stuffy, aren’t they? the only thing they could think of was to put it on the mortgage. They’re not living life.” It’s very easy for us to go, “What we do is the best thing,” ’cause we’ve worked it out. We’ve even, maybe even prayed about it.[00:07:40] Now we know what to do[00:07:41] Parenting styles. Very easy to think your parenting styles are the best. Don’t even get me on talking about my children’s parenting styles of their kids. What amazes me is they have these delightful children with the styles of parenting they’ve got. See how it works? A bit judgy. Just a bit judging. [00:08:00] Yeah.[00:08:00] And as I say, Marion and I have worked hard at this, and we keep doing it. That’s the thing. We keep having to remind each other, ” Let’s not do this now. Let’s not be those kind of people,” about whatever matter it is. So consider how you help each other as couples, those of you married, that you might have a godly approach as a couple.[00:08:19] And to recognize that your relationship doesn’t need to be right. You don’t need to say everyone else is wrong for you to feel okay. There are other things that tie a couple together[00:08:29] as we look at Jesus’ words, verse two, He gives the reason. So the principle is do not judge. And, we realize that it is that attitude that’s the problem. He says, “For in the same way,” very practical, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”[00:08:47] It’s a little bit like the Old Testament Proverbs. When you read through the Proverbs, it’s not all, some kind of well-thought-out theological thing. Some of it’s just a really practical thing. And that’s what we’ve got here. You make, you’re the sort of person that judges everybody all the [00:09:00] time, puts people down, tells them off.[00:09:03] You’ll get that back a- and it’s a true thing on earth and it’s a true thing in heaven. This is how it works. If you’re a critic, others will love to get back at you. They will love to come, “Oh, you thought you were so good, but look what you did.” Yeah, that’ll just be the speech. But if you’re a gentle and lovely person, it’s not so likely you’ll get that.[00:09:23] I guess you still might. But judgment on earth works very practically. Whatever you give, that’s the sort of stuff that’ll come back to you. But it’s also true in heaven. It’s true that this is how God will treat you because none of us, we see from other verses, none of us can actually get it right all the time.[00:09:39] And so if we have this judgmental attitude, put ourselves above everybody else, God will judge us. ‘ Cause what is the primary characteristic of the person who comes to God? It’s humility. It’s gotta be humility because we have to ask for His salvation So Jesus’ words, whatever judgment you make, however you function here, that’ll come back to [00:10:00] you, both on earth, this life, and in the next.[00:10:03] God’s justice will be there. That’s part of a much bigger Bible theme, that God judges those harshly who are self-righteous, those who are pompous, who put themselves above others because they’ve disregarded God[00:10:17] One great little verses, couple of verses in Romans 14. There’s lots of passages like this in the scriptures. he’s talking about the different attitudes Christians have. So the Apostle Paul writing some years, 30 years later, he starts talking about the way different Christians have attitudes to each other about how food is eaten, offered to idols.[00:10:33] It’s quite a complicated argument, but he goes on and makes these simple points. Romans 14:10, “You then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Why do you treat them with contempt? For we’ll all stand before God’s judgment seat as it’s written, ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me.[00:10:51] Every tongue will acknowledge God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one [00:11:00] another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.” So don’t judge. it’s not an absolute command, ’cause we’re about to see when we judge, we should do it well.[00:11:13] So the next few verses, three to five of our passage, Matthew 7, it’s how to make good judgments about your brothers and sisters. Verse 3, ” Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye?” This is really interesting. There’s only a couple of references in the Gospels where Jesus uses a story or makes a reference to being a carpenter.[00:11:32] It’s interesting, isn’t it? the, the word carpenter, that’s the word we translate. it’s a tekton. it’s a kind of odd jobs man. It’s a handy guy. It’s a guy to be on a building site. and so there are stories of Jesus where he, he talks about, his yoke. He would’ve made lots of yokes. You need a yoke when you’re in a village and you’re the tekton.[00:11:51] but also buildings, Consider when you’re gonna build a building. Think about building a building. So there are a few stories, but mostly they’re about other people’s careers. It’s interesting. [00:12:00] Anyway, I just thought I’d point that out ’cause I find it fascinating the sort of what’s the life of Jesus.[00:12:03] How come he tells the stories he does? But you could guess, couldn’t you, that having a speck in your eye is a pretty common thing. I used to work years ago for BHP, and I was in, one of my offices at one point was right next to the, the medical center, and people were coming in all the time to get specks out of their eyes, and they were in complete agony.[00:12:21] And then, this guy, w- you’d lie down and the guy’d be there, a sort of medic guy, and he’d just dab the thing out, and he’d squirt some water in, and they got happy. It was amazing. But pre- pre-dabbing your eye and squirting out water and stuff, I guess having a speck in your eye was, I think, was a constant pain working.[00:12:37] Safety glasses? I don’t think they had them then. So this is a real thing, that speck in your eye. And he gives this example, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” That’s an awkward moment, isn’t it? What he’s saying is, “Look at yourself, buddy.[00:12:56] Look at yourself. Look what you’ve got wrong with you.” And [00:13:00] yet your attitude is not about what you’ve got wrong when it’s so obvious to everybody else, plank in the eye. You’re starting to give lectures on the removal of dust from people’s eyes Verse four, he goes on, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye?'”[00:13:15] I’m the expert at eye speck removal. ” How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” We all have planks in our vision. It’s a critical thing for us to keep meditating on our lives, reflecting on why did I get angry? What is going on there?[00:13:33] Why was I rude to that person? What was it in me that had to be somehow exalted in that occasion? Why was I short-tempered with the kids? Was that really fair? There, there are so many things in our life we have to keep analyzing and so that we might be able to reform our lives and change it by God’s Spirit.[00:13:53] what Jesus is getting at here, it’s not really an optical problem, it’s a heart problem. It’s our heart that He’s really [00:14:00] pointing to because there’s so much going on in our lives, in our hearts, that keep us from living the way God wants to. And He says, “Be at the job of finding that stuff out.[00:14:10] Work it through. Take the plank out. Live a different life.” Our hearts before God are the big issue. We need the forgiveness that comes from Christ because none of this is really possible. You can reform and reform, but you keep going back to how you were. But until the Spirit of God comes in your life, you really can’t be the person that gets that plank out and consistently gets it out.[00:14:32] Sometimes we can get it out and it’s gone. Other times we have to keep coming back and say, “What is this sin that’s in my life?” And praise the Lord, God’s Spirit just empowers us again and gives us encouragement of our Christian brothers and sisters to keep going. A- and we rejoice. We can tell stories.[00:14:46] Each one of us here, if you know the Lord, even for a short time, you could tell a story of what God has done in your life to change you. And you can say, “I used to be like that. I sometimes still get it wrong, but by golly, what a different life it is.” What a great work of the [00:15:00] Spirit in our lives.[00:15:01] And the problem that, Jesus wants to nail here is the hypocrisy that’s behind when we keep noticing their speck and stop commenting on our plank. When we come up to them to talk to them and all we can do is just notice their problem and never really acknowledge ours. That’s the difficulty. Look how aggressive this language is of Jesus.[00:15:23] verse six, verse five, “You hypocrite.” You plank person, you hypocrite. ” First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you’ll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”[00:15:35] Remove that plank first. This is not don’t ever notice the speck. This is make sure you work on yourself because once you’ve done that, even if you haven’t got it all sorted out, once you’ve done that, you will approach that other person with such a different attitude. You’ll approach them with an attitude of humility.[00:15:53] It’ll be, “I’m working on all this stuff, and I also notice with you.” That is a whole different [00:16:00] conversation from, ” I’ve got it worked out. Look at your problem. Let’s just focus there for a minute, shall we, speck person?” See, He wants us to be ch- helping each other to change. This is not about never make a judgment.[00:16:13] This is not about only ever focus on yourself. no, no. But in fellowship, we come together as humble ones before God. And that just makes it a whole different conversation. You’re not self-righteous talking to the person. You know yourself to have failed. You know yourself to be dependent on God day after day.[00:16:31] You know you need His Spirit to have any chance at your plank. But then you come and you talk about them. You say, “Brother, I was offended the other day when you said this,” or, “I’m really having difficulty.” Or, “I noticed you got angry there. I noticed something went … What was going on there? Can we talk about that?[00:16:45] Because it just didn’t look like how Jesus would want you to be, and I’d love to see you prospering in the Lord. I’d love to see you going ahead in the Spirit. I’d love to see that. Can we talk about that?” Man, oh man, that’s a different conversation[00:16:58] When Jesus is [00:17:00] building this culture, He wants us to be growing together and looking at the things of life so that we get it right and we know ourselves to be on a journey, not on our own. This is not a solo walk, We’re not out on our own. It’s together. It’s a wonderful thing. He wants us to be helping each other to change for good.[00:17:18] Not that superior attitude, but to speak always from a place of humility. Some of you find it harder than others. I find it harder than many people. I’ve got to keep working at this[00:17:29] We have to work hard at removing our planks in this, ongoing attitude of change. And this is why in our church, the gospel communities are so important. This is why our DNA groups, the little subgroups, the prayer groups are so important is because there’s an opportunity that we can say, “Let’s bound this little group off and let’s make this a safe space where we can actually look at planks and specks.[00:17:48] We can actually talk about stuff and we got a chance to open up in a way that we might not normally in daily life.” Let me encourage you not to run away from those conversations. Sometimes they, you need extra help. Sometimes you [00:18:00] just gotta put on pause, ’cause all sorts of other things can happen.[00:18:02] Sometimes things are just way too much anyway. but let’s not run away from the conversations where we’re growing and changing, ‘ cause it’s such a gift to us, and our gift to others. This is how God wants us to work, to be different, better people So let me, the last little bit. So we’ve talked about don’t judge.[00:18:19] There’s the principle, don’t have that heart attitude, but then also engage with your brothers and sisters in a way which will help them to grow and to change, and you to grow and change. And then the last little section, verse six, is, it’s a little bit of a jarring one. It’s a bit strange, but I think it’s just another example of good judging.[00:18:37] Verse six, “Do not give dogs what is sacred. Do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.” It’s a fairly gruesome image, isn’t it, being gored by a pig? We think of pigs as cute little things. No. No, think of ones with big tusks and that sort of stuff.[00:18:54] That’s what’s going on here. Now, this language of dogs and pigs is classic language from the first century. [00:19:00] This is just standard rude language, very rude words that a Jewish person would use of a Gentile person. Others would do it as well in the first century. Other groups would, you, you dogs of the Jews.[00:19:11] that’s a great insult. but to call a non-Jewish person a, a dog or a pig was just standard rude language, and everybody accepted it. What I find so interesting is that Jesus buys into that language. He will change it as time goes on. As the gospel moves on, you’ll see that language has shifted for a good reason.[00:19:29] But what is he getting at? When he thinks about growing the culture of his people, this new group of Jesus followers, what he’s trying to teach them is th- this theme, and it comes up again and again, is of there will be opposition to you. There will be people who oppose you, who when you say good and glorious things about me, Jesus, when you say good things about Jesus, people will oppose you.[00:19:52] First of all, they just won’t get it, and then they won’t like it, and then they’ll rip into you. That’s the picture. And he teaches this about himself, and he warns the [00:20:00] disciples again and again, “If they’ve done it to you, to me, they’ll do it to you.”[00:20:04] Matthew 24, so towards the end of the gospel, Matthew s- quotes Jesus. He s- he says, “Then you will be,” he’s talking about the future of their faith. “Then you’ll be handed over to the pers- and be persecuted and put to death, and you’ll be hated by all nations because of me.” That’s pretty tough language, isn’t it?[00:20:20] That’s a tough thing to come to terms with. And when people just hate you because you’re one of Jesus’ people, we’ll suffer that occasionally in small ways in our culture, in our situation, but there are Christians for whom that’s the case. They’re just hated because they love Jesus, because they name the name of Christ[00:20:37] But now put that alongside, we know Jesus wants us to go and tell others about Him. And so He’s warning us here about making a judgment about when to stop telling people about Jesus, when to realize this is not gonna end anywhere good, move on. And He’s got teaching on that, too, just a couple of chapters later.[00:20:54] So we’ve been looking at chapter seven. Chapter 10, it’s in a mission context. He’s sending out the 12 apostles [00:21:00] and He says, “Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person.” Not a believer, just a person who gets it. ” And stay in their house until you leave. As you enter their home, give it your greeting.”[00:21:11] That’s a lovely thing. ” If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it.” You may declare something. May the peace of God be here. ” If it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake off the dust of your feet. Truly, I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.[00:21:35] I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” You’ve gotta make judgments in mission, in ministry, and He wants us to be alert to the dangers. And at some point, it’s appropriate to stop giving the sacred, the pearls, the good things of Jesus. It’s appropriate to stop doing that and to just walk away.[00:21:58] It’s a tough one to know [00:22:00] when that is, but that’s a thing that Jesus wants us to be aware of. We’ve gotta make difficult judgments as Christian people, as His followers, is the idea. It’s not an excuse here, oh don’t ever share. no, no. Because people will come to faith. People will come to know Him, and they’ll li- love Him, and they’ll rejoice in the fact that they’ve been given this, this opportunity to hear the gospel.[00:22:20] Plenty of people will hear about Jesus. They’ll be drawn to Him. But some will just become ferocious, and they ought to be left alone. And let me just finish then, too, with the way this theme of dogs, these, the, this rude word to outside- about outsiders, how it gets developed as it goes on, ’cause it’s great.[00:22:38] There’s this woman who comes up to Jesus, and she is an outsider. She is, in the parlance of the day, she’s a dog. She comes from Syrophoenicia, out on the coast, and they’re not believers. they’re not Jewish people, and yet she has come to understand something of Jesus, and she’s got a problem.[00:22:54] She’s got a daughter who’s sick. She comes and says, ” Can you help me? Jesus, you’re doing all these [00:23:00] miracles for all these peop- Can you help me?” And He feigns an answer. no, no. Is it right to give what is the children’s to the dog?”[00:23:08] And she says, “Yeah, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table.” Such a clever answer. A position of extreme humility, of saying, “I get in God’s history of salvation, I’m not fitting in.” And as it turns out, we’d say, “Yet.” ” But I just wanna come and get what you’ve got to give, Jesus.” And Jesus replied, ” It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”[00:23:34] “Yes, it is, Lord,” she says. ” Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall under their masters’ table.” what a great statement of faith. And so she’ll own the name, but of course, as she owns the name, she’s transformed out of it. She’s no longer a dog. She’s no longer an excluded one. She’s brought into the kingdom in this very act of faith[00:23:50] There’s this undercurrent of truth in the message of Jesus that brings everybody in. And so while in mission discernment is needed, do I move on? Yet we know the [00:24:00] big picture for Jesus is that He wants people, whoever they are, to hear about Him and to come and have faith in humility, trusting in Him. So let me wrap it up.[00:24:08] Do not judge. Don’t have that heart. When you do judge, do it from a p- a position of humility[00:24:14] Judge outsiders because sometimes you need to move on but know too just how great the love of God is for all people and how He wants us to share the gospel and bring them into the community, which is Jesus’ community.