Matthew 7:1-6: Judging Right and Wrong — A ‘Christian Growth’ Message

Transcript

In case you are visiting today, we’ve been following the very great sermon on the Mount, and for those of you who come regularly, I think this message, which is worth more than money can buy, has been getting into our souls. I think we’ve been beginning to realise as we watch and follow this sermon that Christ makes his people new, brand new.

Many years ago when the domain, the Sydney domain was used for crowds, listening to public speakers, preachers would go down into the domain and speak to big crowds in the domain. And on one occasion, a preacher was preaching, and a man in the crowd who looked as though he hadn’t had a wash for at least a month, called out Christianity has been around for centuries. What good has it done to us?

And the preacher, quick as a flash said soap has been around for centuries, but you need to apply it. Now that was a good reply, a quick reply, but there’s a weakness in the argument, and that is that soap is external. It’s an outward thing.

What Christ gives to people is internal and eternal. And I think we’ve seen this new life from Christ in His disciples in the three chapters of the Sermon on the Mount. So for example, I remind you that in chapter 5, the Lord Jesus talked about this new life affecting your living. It affects the way you live with people.

The Lord is able with a new life inside you to restrain anger. And lust and revenge. This beautiful new life living to change relationships, and then we see in chapter 6 that the new life affects what we seek. In other words, what are you looking for? What are you pushing for? And we discover in chapter 6 that the new life makes us seek the Father and his rewards and his kingdom.

And as we come to chapter 7, we see that the new life that Christ puts into his people affects our understanding.

How do we understand ourselves, how do we understand the father, how do we understand which road to take? How do we understand which person to listen to, how do we understand which foundation to build our house on?

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So the life which Christ gives, and of course he paid for that life with his death, changes a person inwardly, and they have a whole new living and a whole new seeking, and a whole new understanding.

The Sermon on the Mount therefore is about Christ washing the heart, making a person clean within. And you can work out quite quickly really, if you’re dealing with somebody, if their heart has been changed by Christ or not.

Well today we come to a very famous words, Judge not, chapter 7 verse 1.

I think it used to be said in the past that the most famous verse in the Bible was probably something like love your neighbour, or turn the other cheek, or maybe if you’re in a bad mood, don’t commit adultery.

But this particular verse I think Judge not, has become very famous today.

Because if the average non-Christian wants to get rid of the average Christian, you can imagine the non-Christians saying to the Christians, stop pestering me, Judge not. Back off, leave me alone, don’t tell me how to behave.

We need to think therefore about what this passage is all about, and I think you’ll see as we look at it, that Jesus is not attacking people. He’s not attacking his disciples, he’s helping his disciples to be humble.

That’s the 1st 5 verses, and then to be smart, that’s verse number 6. So if you can find Matthew chapter 7 in your Bibles, somebody might like to call the page out in a loud voice. 1444.

Matthew 7 and we’re just looking at the first six verses, and the first I’m going to call understanding humble service.

Understanding humble service.

That’s chapter 7, verses 1 to 5. Jesus begins like this. Do not judge or you too will be judged. As you judge, you will be judged. As you measure, you will be measured.

Or what does Jesus mean?

Does he mean if he was here in this church, talking to you this morning, I don’t want you to be discerning. I don’t want you to judge right from wrong. Or does he mean, I don’t want you to be a condemning people.

I think you’ll agree the answer is the second. Jesus does certainly not mean when he says, Don’t judge, I don’t want you to be discerning. He does not mean I don’t want you to be wise. He does not mean I don’t want you to be able to pick right from wrong. He obviously wants us to be discerning and wise.

You can see if you look at chapter 7, verse 13, he expects his listeners to pick the right road to walk. You can see if you look at 7:15, he expects his listeners to pick the right profit to listen to. You can see in chapter 7 verse 24, he expects his listeners to pick the right foundation to build your life on.

And you see what Jesus is warning his disciples against is condemning people.

It’s pretending that you or I are the great judge, and we sit in the place of God, and we happily just condemn people, we find fault with them, we have this kind of critical spirit.

And we’re therefore continually negative or destructive, and sometimes this comes from just gross inferiority. Or foolishness

So this is a problem that Jesus is speaking about here that has to do with attitude. It’s where the motive is not so much that I care for a person, but I just want to be critical.

In case you think this is Jesus just having a swipe at his disciples, you must picture him if, as if he were a father talking to his children, you know, if a father is talking to the children. The father will say something like this, I want to warn you against this attitude. I’m not angry with you. I’m wanting to warn you against this particular position that you might take, because it’s a poison. To be the sort of person who’s always condemning other people, so be very careful, Jesus is saying.

What does he mean when he says the way you judge is the way you will be judged, and the way you measure is the way you will be measured.

I think he means that if you keep on cutting people down to size, you can’t be surprised if God gets to work cutting you down to size. And he may do that in the short term by just bringing you to your senses.

But more seriously, it would be a terrible thing, isn’t it, if you took the position of God all your life? You may then find yourself facing the real judge. So this is, I think, very searching stuff. I myself can’t read these verses and be very pleased with myself.

And again, you must picture Jesus helping his disciples to understand the danger of taking this superior position which God will not allow.

So Jesus is saying, I want you to be discerning, of course, but I don’t want you to pretend that you’re the judge of everybody else. And then comes this famous illustration to help us understand the danger of being judgmental.

And it’s the famous illustration of the speck and the plank, and this probably comes straight from the carpenter’s shop where Jesus worked as a boy.

And he says, you know, why do you look at the speck of sawdust that’s landed in the eye of your brother or your sister, but you don’t pay attention to the plank that is in your own eye. And the two words that he uses, one is to sort of glance and see a speck.

And the other word is to study yourself and see the plank.

You might just notice the spec, but Jesus asks the question, why don’t you look carefully at yourself, why don’t you look carefully at yourself?

Well, we must notice first of all that there will be specks in the eyes of our brothers and sisters. I want you to know that if ever you come to church, it won’t be long before you work out that everybody in the church has got a few specs.

And of course if you want to go looking for them, it’s not difficult to do.

The church is made up of just ordinary people who know their sin and know that Christ is a great saviour. But please don’t imagine for a second that when you come to church, you’ll never find anybody who’s got a speck or two. We’ve all got specs, and I say again, if you want to go looking for them, you won’t find it difficult to go looking. This book called The Philippian Fragment, which was written about 20 or 30 years ago, it’s a very witty book, it pretends to be a 1st century document.

That it’s describing all the problems in the church that belong to the 20th and the 21st century. And this little section which I’m going to read to you, is describing what it’s like to be in a church where people get up the front to do things and they’re just not that good up the front.

And of course that’s the moment where you can say, well, that person’s terrible.

And you find the specs so quickly.

So the writer says this, remember this is tongue in cheek.

Occasionally I find a person who gives more to Christ than Christ wants. I remember a sister who read her poems and felt that she herself was a great Christian poet. She would read selection after selection of her work in the assembly, and after each reading she would say the Holy Spirit gave me this poem. I take no credit for it. There was widespread belief in the fellowship that the Holy Spirit didn’t want the credit for it either.

My latest, my latest problem is Bacchus, the bass. He is loud and deafening like a clap of thunder in a stone tomb. His softness isn’t soft. His vibrato doesn’t vibrate, and his precision is imprecise. I’ve tried to dissuade him from using his gift. One elder suggested that he try ushering. Some are praying the Lord will heal him with laryngitis.

If Bacchus continues, worship is done for in Philippi. The rodents left the building 3 solos ago, and soon the congregation will join the race of the rats. Do you get the point?

I remember a certain alto sister who had been kicked by a Taurus in the adenoids. She loved our dear lord and sang violently to his glory. She would have perished in the first wave of persecution, but singing as she did at the hour of her death, the lions would not go near her.

It’s a fantastic picture, isn’t it, of the ordinariness of the local church. I’ll explain some of that to you later if you missed it. But how do we deal with the Christian who’s got the obvious spec? And Jesus’ answer, chapter 7, verse 3 is start with yourself. Start with yourself.

This is going to save 1000 problems if you will start with yourself.

And Jesus asks how we can look or notice somebody’s weakness, but don’t pay attention or study carefully our own weakness.

Because, as I say, we can all too easily see a fault in another person. But self-awareness. Self-consciousness may escape us.

Some years ago a man came to see me to tell me that his wife was impossible. And he himself was perfect. I kid you not. He came to tell me that his wife was impossible, and he was perfect.

And I said to him, because I knew him quite well, I said if I lived with you, I would run off a cliff. You’re just impossible to live with. You just don’t realise how difficult you are.

He said, no, no, no, I’m perfect, I mean I just don’t do anything wrong, I’m loving and kind and patient and generous and I just thought to myself, if I had to live with this guy, I would just run away. He couldn’t see that he was driving his wife away. Complete lack of self-awareness.

Now Jesus put this very powerfully, you see, he says, if I do have a log in my eye, and I and I may well have a log in my eye, I’m going to be absolutely hopeless at seeing the speck in your eye, or doing anything helpful about it. But if I do spend time removing the log in my eye, and that’s going to be a very humbling process, I’m going to be in a far better position to help somebody with the spec.

Well, we don’t, we know, don’t we, when somebody is trying to steer us to a better path and they don’t care about us one bit, we know those people. But we also know those people who are trying to steer us to a better path than they really have come very humbly to us. That’s what Jesus is talking about.

I want to pause at this moment and say, let us be deeply grateful my friends, and thank God that when he comes to us in the gospel, which he does, he comes to us in the gospel, to tell us that we are quite wrong. And that we’ve made many mistakes, and we need to turn back and throw ourselves on Christ, and that’s the only way we’ll be saved, that he comes to us with not a bit of carelessness.

Not a bit of blindness.

Not a bit of lovelessness. He sees us perfectly, and he loves us perfectly when he comes to us. We see the Lord Jesus, don’t we, that he not only points out the sins, but he also pays for the sins. He’s not got a jot of motive, except that we be free and joyful. We must be deeply thankful for him.

And we must ask him to help us to have the same humility.

So that we can serve others as we should.

Because the tendency that we have to take the high position, as John Stott says, to have such rosy views about ourselves, and such jaundiced views about others. Is not going to help the fellowship or honour God at all, so that’s the first thing, humble service, understanding humble service.

That’s the 1st. 2nd, understanding why service – verse 6.

Now this is a verse that’s very puzzling and it’s hard for some people to see where it fits in at all. Jesus says, don’t give dogs what’s sacred. And don’t throw pearls to pigs. Because they may then trample you and turn on you.

How does this all fit in with chapter 7 verses 1 to 5, and the answer is it’s the other side of the coin.

So chapter 7 verses 1 to 5 is that we’re not to do damage to a person with our attack. And chapter 7 verse 6 is that we’re not to do damage to a person with our weakness.

You see the possibilities.

You could be too strong with the person, but you could be too weak with the person. It’s possible sometimes, isn’t it, to be too hard, but it’s also possible to be too soft.

Don Carson describes this verse as being about the chronic danger of being wishy-washy.

And this of course is a killer in leadership.

If a person is really wishy-washy. There’s going to be no leadership.

J.C. Ryle says we can lurch from too much correction to too much cowardice.

And so there are some Christians unfortunately who speak as if God’s mercy is the only quality he has. It’s as if God is completely elastic. And nothing matters. You can do anything and everything.

But these people are playing the mercy of God off against the holiness of God, or the mercy of God off against the truth of God.

We would never, would we help a person who needs some travel advice or getting around the city to just say to them you can do whatever you like. There’s no love in that at all, and would we help a person who needs some spiritual advice to say to them you can just do whatever you want?

These people forget that God’s mercy is abundant, but it’s inside the lines of His word.

They kind of move as if God is a kitten, not a lion. And they’re very sweet, these people, but they’re not brave. They want to come across as being entirely harmless. But they end up becoming harmful.

And in chapter 7, verse 6, Jesus is teaching that there’s a time where we may help a person by actually walking away from them. And leaving them and warning them, and if you think that’s crazy, just remember that when Jesus sent out his disciples, he said to them, if you come to a door that doesn’t welcome you, wipe the dust off your feet. As if to say to this home, you’re not welcoming us, you’re not welcoming Christ to send us, you’re not welcoming the kingdom.

You were in the most dangerous position.

Or think of how Jesus, when he was on trial, would not answer Herod a word because he knew that Herod was completely unreceptive. Or think of how the apostle Paul would walk out of the synagogue that was so hostile to the news of Jesus and go next door to the hall of the Gentiles.

John Stott says this is very exceptional behaviour, but it may be necessary that there are certain times where we just need to stop saying anything to a person.

And Carson says Don Carson says, I actually refuse to explain Christianity to the person who just wants to mock.

So you see how these two fit together. Chapter 7 verses 1 to 5 is dealing with the danger of being too strong, too hard, too active, and chapter 7, verse 6 is dealing with the danger of being too soft, too weak and too passive.

And we need to ask the Lord who is perfectly balanced in humility and wisdom.

To help us to be wise in the way we deal with people. I want to finish this morning by just showing you a few words that are in the 6th verse, chapter 7, verse 6, which I think are very important for us to remember as we go from church this morning. The first is, you’ll notice that Jesus calls the gospel message a pearl. The word in the Greek is Margaret. If you want to know what the word Margaret means, it basically means a pearl.

And Jesus describes the gospel as a pearl, and the message of the gospel is invaluable, it is priceless, it’s beyond value.

You know the message where the apostle Paul says to the Philippian jailer, believe in, believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. There’s no message in the world like that. There’s no message in the world to compare with that.

Believe on the Lord Jesus and you’ll be saved.

Second, you’ll notice that Jesus dares to describe the people who turn their back on the gospel or fight or mock or reject as dogs or pigs.

Now this is not because Jesus is being just unnecessarily unfriendly. He’s really saying the person who turns their back on this life which God offers you, has reduced themselves to a really savage beast. It’s a serious thing to turn yourself into a dog or a pig. Because you’ve turned your back on the gift of life.

And the third thing Jesus does is he not only practises, but he preaches and preaches and practises the policy of turning away from some people, not because he has lack of compassion for the person, but because he doesn’t want to do more damage to the person.

And the 4th thing is that Jesus expected his disciples to know that this may be necessary as well.

And it will require a great deal of discernment.

You think of the people who are on the mission field right now in very, very difficult areas, and nobody responds and nobody listens and nobody cares, and nobody comes to Christ, and that missionary with the family that they’ve taken overseas must say to them every now and again, is this really a good idea?

And they must say to themselves at this point, do I persevere, knowing that God is patient, or do I leave knowing that there may be a better door, a more useful door.

So it is with the church.

What does the minister do with a church that is rejecting? Sleeping? Disinterested? Careless?

Does he go and look for a place which is welcoming? Alive, takes great discernment?

Or think of you conversing with a family member or a friend, and you’ve tried so many times. And you think to yourself, would it be better for me to just stop talking to them? Or should I go on? Of course I’ll go on praying, but should I stop talking to them? This all takes a great deal of wisdom and discernment, and no wonder we can turn our voice to the heavenly Father, who, as I say to you before, comes to us with perfect humility to save us.

And he can help us to be humble. But he also comes to us with perfect wisdom and perfect strength.

And he can help us to have the wisdom and the strength for serving him. So those are the two things which I think come out of our passage today, a call to understand how to humbly serve.

And a lot of that’s got to do with beginning with self.

And then a call to understand wise service.

When to stop, when to start, when to stay, when to leave.

And again, the Lord is able to help us because he knows exactly the best way forward.

Let’s bow heads and pray.

Our heavenly Father, we thank you first of all that you are full of love and humility, but also strength and wisdom. We thank you that we see that so clearly in the work of the Lord Jesus coming down to save, but also being so strong, clear, wise.

And we pray that You would help us, Heavenly Father, to have the humility that you long for us to have. And that you would help us to have also the wisdom that we need for living for you in this complicated world.

Please help us to look to you and please work in us new understanding for humble service and wise service, and we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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