If you were here Wednesday night than you already know what my topic will be this morning and where the scripture reference will come from. So, for those of you who were not here on Wednesday, today I am preaching from the Gospel of Matthew. These will be red letter words, meaning that they come from Jesus Himself. In fact it is scripture that you may have used in the past to justify something you have done, when the point is this, take a closer look at yourself, at your thoughts, your words and your actions.
(slide 2) Alright if you have brought your sword with you, open it to Matthew 7:1-5, once again our text is coming from Matthew 7:1-5. Now once you have found it as you are able would you please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word, Here is what Matthew records Jesus saying: “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
As I said a moment ago often times we struggle with this piece of scripture, oh sure we get that Jesus is saying that we need to deal with our own sin problem, before we start talking about and confronting a brother or sister with theirs.
But that is where it ends. We begin to rationalize that our own sin pales in comparison to so and so’s. Let me tell you something right now STOP IT. Your sin, my sin, and their sin, is sin and it keeps us from truly enjoying our relationship with Jesus to the fullest.
A moment ago I spoke of taking a closer look at our thoughts, our actions and our words.
(slide 3) Let’s start with our thoughts. The human mind can’t help itself, we are going to make judgments, it is just something that our mind does. But expressing our thoughts is what can get us into trouble. I know most of you have heard this before, but often times it is good to keep our thoughts to ourselves. And I get it, it’s hard, even I struggle with it sometimes. Just because we think something is best or something is worthwhile does not make it so.
Another problem with our thoughts is that what we continue to dwell on, sooner or later we will take action on. But before we do, check your self, are you free from sin? Will it bring a positive outcome, will it show the character of God? If the answer is no leave it alone, stop thinking about it. That is part of what Jesus is saying here about the spec in our eyes.
Back to our thoughts, when we judge others even in our thoughts, we are bringing about the judgement of God. And that can be both a good and bad thing.
We should welcome God’s judgement. If we are being open and honest with Him, He will let us know if our thoughts are something worth sharing, or if they are something we would be well to keep to ourselves.
Now let’s take a look at those words. Like I said earlier, our thoughts become our language. And if we are being openly critical of another of God’s creation, we will miss out on what He truly wants to give to us and that is His mercy.
(slide 4 )You see when we begin to judge others, either in thought or words, we bring upon ourselves God’s judgement. And when we engage in merciless judgement we deny to ourselves God’s mercy. Let me say that again, when we engage in judging our brother our sister we are denying God’s mercy for our own life.
In fact this is exactly what Jesus is speaking to here in this passage. The hypocrisy of condemning in others what we tolerate in our own lives is wrong. That is why Jesus uses the outlandish picture of a man with a log in his own eyes trying to remove a spec in another persons eyes. Let’s be honest that is just plain ole absurd isn’t it?
But guess what it is the same with us in judging others. If we truly care about our brother or sister, long before we come alongside them, we will check our own lives for sin. We will subject ourselves to judgement, deal with the log, the sin in our own lives, and then begin to try and love and help our brother and sisters with their own spec.
Now some may take this as Jesus saying that since we have sin in our lives that we should not even approach someone else about theirs. But actually it is quite the contrary.
(slide 5 ) This is what I mean by your actions. If we are living one way and that way is outside the will of God, then who are we to speak to someone about their actions? Again we are inviting God’s Holy judgement upon ourselves. The old saying is true, our actions speak louder than our words.
So what to do? Again, Jesus says take care of your spec, and then go and help the brother or sister with whatever is impairing their vision. When you are dealing with your log you are taking positive action.
I have mentioned before that we are all called to some level of ministry, but we will only be effective in that calling when the log has been removed from our own eyes.
( slide 6)You see it is not a matter of the spec or log, for they both must be removed.
Now this may be hard to fathom, let alone endure, but only after the shame and agony of coming under judgment of having the log removed from our own eye will we understand the need and feeling of our brother or sister. It is only then that we can clearly see to help remove the spec in their eye.
We also need to remind ourselves that only God has the right to render final judgment on them and on us. If you still have your Bible open turn over to Paul's letter to the church at Corinth in
(slide 7) 1 Corinthians 4:3-5. That’s 1st Corinthians 4:3-5: 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.
Now before you go and say wow that is in conflict with what Jesus just said in our text from the Gospel of Matthew. Well if you think that, you are WRONG.
Verse 1 of our text opens with: “Judge not, that you be not judged.
In the gospel of Matthew Jesus is inviting us to take a close look at our own lives, to clean them up, to deal with whatever sin problem that we may be dealing with.
I started the meat of my message by reminding us that even though our minds cannot escape the functioning of being judgmental, we can remind ourselves that judgment is left to God and God alone, seek His forgiveness for own sin, and then and only then help, not judge a brother or sister with their sin. I mean after all isn’t that what Jesus Does?
Pray as led.
