He was a Godly man. Even his critics acknowledge that, they may have disagreed with his techniques and thought he was a little flashy but he was definitely a man of God. His message from God was one of no compromise, and his moral standards were the highest around. And not only did he uphold the very highest standards but he expected that from everyone else as well. Few preachers have matched him for his condemnation of sin, his outright rejection of immorality. He called them as he saw them and didn’t shirk the difficult duties that came his way. And his music, wow if anything that was the thing that made his ministry different then all the others, music that only God could give, even those who saw differently then him on other things loved his music. He practically became a household name. His supporters were almost fanatical in their loyalty while his enemies were equally dogmatic when they spoke against him.
As a man you either loved him or hated him there didn’t seem to be much middle ground. And then it happened. Well you all know the story don’t you, but have you ever asked yourself how in the world could it happen to him? He took such a strong stand against sin. Adultery, who would have believed that he was capable of adultery, and the worse part was, that all the time he was in sin he just carried on as if everything was alright. He never even acknowledged that what he was doing might be wrong. It wasn’t until another man of God confronted him that he seemed to open his eyes to what was happening. His tearful pleas for forgiveness are probably as well known as his sin.
What was your reaction when you heard, how harshly did you judge him, did your opinion of him change, did you think less of him when you heard the story, because you all heard the stories. I mean everyone in the church, regardless of denomination knows the story and a lot of people outside the church as well.
Even the woman he was caught with became known, she was a nobody and yet most everyone can name her now. How harshly did you judge him? Or did you just feel disappointed and let down. Did you criticize him and call him a hypocrite or did you defend him as being a man who made a mistake?
I don’t know what your reaction was, but I do know that Jesus said in Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.
Not the easiest portion of scripture in the world to figure out is it? I mean he spends five verses telling us not to judge and then in the sixth verse he tells us not to throw our pearls to pigs, or to give holy things to the unholy. Well whose going to determine who the pigs and unholy are if we don’t judge. Well in most cases I think that it’s fairly obvious, and Christ does tell us that we need to pay careful attention to the fruit that a Christian bears. And I know the old argument, “brother I’m not a judge, I’m just a fruit inspector.”
Well I got a feeling that a good deal of what Christ is talking about here has to do with attitude. Not what we do, nearly as much as how we do it. When you look at a person and his life what do you feel, can you in fact separate the sin from the sinner? That’s what’s required.
The early church used vs.6 to determine who should and who shouldn’t partake in communion. And they had a very strong stand, they felt that the Lord’s Supper was the most sacred sacrament in the church, and there was no way that they were going to open it to just anyone.
There’s a lot to be said for that. But while I think I have an obligation to make it clear who should or should not partake of communion they have to make the decision.
1) It is Doable Here is the secret. There has to be room in the church for reproof, there has to be room for correction. This passage is not a prohibition against judging it is simply a warning about judging. When ever you confront someone with sinful behaviour they are always quick to quote Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge others.” But there is not period there it’s a comma, Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.
We judge people every day, Jesus judged people, remember Matthew 23:25 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!
Paul judged people listen to what he said to the believers in the church in Corinth 1 Corinthians 5:11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people. Sounds a little judgmental to me. And Peter warned in 2 Peter 2:12-13 These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. Ouch
The scripture tells us to stand up against what is wrong and to stand for what is right. When we see things that are in direct violation of the word of God we need to be able to say “That is wrong.”
But what Christ is talking about here is a spirit of condemnation. When a believer is acting in a sinful way they needed to be corrected. But once a person is forgiven by God, would it be too much to ask that they be forgiven by people as well.
When you correct someone is it your goal that they get straightened out, or are you just enjoying the fact that they are messing up. Do you remember the story about Jesus walking on the water in Matthew 14. Peter get’s all excited jumps over the side of the boat and starts to walk toward Jesus, then it dawns on him what he is doing and he starts to sink.
Matthew 14:30-31 But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
Now notice that Jesus took time to save the sinker before he rebuked the doubter. Didn’t point a finger of accusation instead he extended a hand of assistance. Take that as an example and when a brother or sister in our congregation begins to sink for what ever reasons don’t stand there and criticize, help them.
I guess it goes back to the premise that if you’re not a part of the problem, and you’re not a part of the solution then you probably shouldn’t be involved.
You really need to examine your motives when you judge someone, why are you judging them? It’s been said that there is going to be a lot of disappointed Christians if God lets everybody get off scott free at the judgment. Really I got a feeling that there’s a lot of sadistic Christians out there who are quite happy to turn the good news into the bad news. They aren’t nearly as excited about all the people who are going to heaven as they are about all the people who are going to hell.
And so we need to ask ourselves, why shouldn’t we judge people? The question would be fairer if it asked: Why shouldn’t we condemn people?
Matthew 7:1-2 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.”
2) It Is Dangerous Here is the warning, you have to understand that the way you judge others is going to be the way you are judged. And that’s scary. You think about how you have judged others, maybe not to their face, maybe not even out loud but how you have judged others in your heart. Is that the way you want God to judge you?
When you judge without mercy then you are condemning yourself to be judged without mercy. Think about it when you judge without knowing the full story, when you judge a brother of sister who has already repented, when you sit in judgment on other Christians because of things like style of worship, length of hair, musical preference you are setting yourself up for a very similar judgment.
Sometimes we even judge without know the whole story. When I was a teenager I loved the music of Jim Stafford and in 1974 this was one of my favourite songs, listen carefully. (Play My Girl Bill) The story gets a little different after you’ve listened to it for awhile doesn’t it. How often are we willing to judge someone based on the first verse of the song? Even God doesn’t plan to judge a man until the end.
If we were honest I’d be willing to wager that most of us are glad that God didn’t judge us earlier in our lives. And yet so often we are willing to draw a line in the sand and say “Ok I’m want to judge you right here at this point in your life.”
Christ reiterates that time and time again, his message is: as you forgive you will be forgiven, as you judge you will be judged, with the same measure that you use for mercy, and judgment and forgiveness God will show you mercy and forgiveness or will judge you.
Paul said in Romans 2:1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.
You say “Well pastor that doesn’t matter because I have been forgiven, I’m born again my sins are under the blood.” Well All I have to say to that is that wonderful retort of childhood, “oh yeah”. You’ve only been forgiven if Christ has forgiven you, right? Right. And Christ says that you will be forgiven in the same manner that you forgive right? Right. So it would appear that if you are judgmental and non-forgiving then you have cut your own throat. And it would appear that your defence is full of holes.
Matthew 7:3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” Not only is judging others dangerous 3) It Is Dumb. We don’t often think of Christ having a sense of humour, but if you look at the illustrations that he uses it doesn’t take long to begin to get a chuckle. Here is a picture of a man who is very carefully trying to remove a small speck of sawdust from a friend’s eye, but he can’t even get near because of the monstrous beam that is protruding from his face. Further along in Matthew Christ talks about the blind man who is leading his blind friend along and they both fall into a ditch.
Well, a blind guide is one thing but a blind ophthalmologist is a horse of a different colour. Picture if you will, you’ve gotten something in your eye that you can’t get out so you make an appointment to see your local eye specialist. The nurse gets you comfortable in the examination chair and as you begin to relax and wait for the doctor to appear you hear, tap, tap, tap, tap. And you look over and sure enough here comes the doctor with his white lab coat on, walking toward his tray of instruments, the only problem is that he’s wearing dark glasses and the tapping you heard is coming from his white cane. Now what is your first reaction? Sure you’ll probably say “Here I am doc, just grab one of those tools and dig right in you can do it by feel.”
Uh-huh, you’d be oughta there quicker then a scalded cat.
Alexander MacLaren wrote “we have two sets of weights and measures: one for home use, the other for foreign. Every vice Has two names; and we call it by its flattering and minimizing one when we commit it, and by its ugly one when our neighbour does it.”
Christ is saying; which of us is just enough to judge? All of you who have ever sat in judgment of others how pure have you been? Remember when the woman who was caught in adultery was brought to Christ in John 8:3-11. You gotta wonder what happened to the dude she was with? Adultery isn’t exactly a solitary sport. Anyway the Pharisees drug this poor woman out into the middle of the street and demanded that Christ judge her. According to Jewish law they were well within their rights. She had committed adultery, and committing adultery was against their law. But Jesus said, “if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” I think that was fair don’t you? And not one of them picked up a stone.
And just because we didn’t do what they did doesn’t mean we haven’t done something. I’ve told the story before about someone asking my uncle Keith if he thought Uncle Denny should be teaching the men’s Sunday School Class because he smoked. And Uncle Keith responded “If all of our sins smoked you wouldn’t be able to see across the church.”
It’s a hard one to call isn’t it. One the one hand we do have a responsibility to not give that which is holy to those who aren’t, to not cast your pearls to the pigs and on the other hand a command not to judge one another. We’re going to talk a little bit about fruit inspecting next week.
But in closing let me relate a story from my past. Thirty years ago between grades eleven and twelve I spent a summer working on a coastal oil tanker and one glorious day while we were working on deck I ended up with a flake of rust in one of my eyes. On most large vessels the first officer is also the medical officer. In our case the first officer was an enormous man with a huge red moustache who looked like a walrus. And I remember thinking how big his fingers were when he had me look up at the light that afternoon. But in spite of the size of his fingers he was so gentle that I didn’t even feel it when he got the rust flake out.
There will be times that we will find other Christians who have something in their eye, the advice that Christ gives is simple. Make sure the beam is out of your eye, and then this is the most important thing of all, be very very gentle. Which is why Paul cautioned the believers in Ephesians 4:2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Remember that when the time comes for God to do eye surgery on you he’s going to keep in mind the method you used.
Oh by the way you all know who the man of God was that I was talking about in the first part of the message don’t you? That’s right it was King David. Who did you think I was talking about?
PowerPoint may be available for this message contact me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
