KEEPING IT REAL
In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey tells the following story. He said:
A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick,
unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through
sobs and tears, she told me how she had been renting out her daughter – two years old! – to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit… I had no idea what to say to this woman. At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naïve shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.” (Page 11)
“They’d just make me feel worse.” Things have certainly changed since the time of Jesus. You know, people like that were the ones who used to flock to Jesus. He was called a friend of prostitutes, tax collectors and drunkards. Oh my friends, we need to get back to the Gospel. We need to get back to the Good news. We need to keep it real. Turn with me please to Matthew chapter 7, as this morning we are reminded again of how to keep it real.
- Read Matthew 7:1-6
I. TRUTHS ABOUT THE GOSPEL
This passage begins with what is probably one of the most misquoted, misapplied verses in the entire Bible. It is quoted by folks who don’t even believe the Bible, usually when they’re ate up with sin. Judge not lest you be judged. There are those who say that means Christians are not supposed to judge. Hogwash!
In verse 6, Jesus says we aren’t supposed to throw what is holy in front of dogs and we’re not to cast our pearls before pigs. Some of you have wondered where that came from. Where there it is. Now let me ask you something. How are we supposed to determine who the dogs and hogs are if we don’t judge? In verse 15, Jesus tells us to look out for false prophets, and then tells us how we can spot them. To say that we are never to express or form an opinion concerning others would go against numerous passages in the Bible, and against the example of our Savior and the apostles as they continually exposed and corrected error and evil.
There are those who say that Christians cannot take a stand against wrong, because of this passage. To correct people means we are being unloving. O my friend, not to correct sin is a form of hated, not love.
Imagine if I went to leave the house this morning, with something on the end of my nose. Gladys would have to tell me to go wipe my nose. Why? Because she loves me and wouldn’t want me to go out like that. Or imagine that I’m getting ready to preach when Gladys notices my fly is unzipped. Love would require her to tell me, because she doesn’t want me to be embarrassed. Love requires the truth.
If Jesus is not commanding us to remain quiet, what truths do we learn from this passage?
1. There are hurting people in the world – 3-5
In these verses, Jesus talks about people who have specks or splinters in their eyes. Can you imagine how painful it would be to have a splinter in your eye? If I get a grain of sand or a hair in my eye it bothers me, but to have a splinter? Those people would be in pain.
My friend, I want you to know that there are hurting people all around us. Jesus Himself said in John 8:34 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. All around us are people trapped in sin they seem to be unable to escape. There are people trapped in materialism, drowning in a sea of debt. There are men and women who are no longer attracted to their spouses, because they’re comparing them to the internet pornography they’re addicted to. There are people killing themselves with food, because eating brings the only sense of peace they find during the day. Others are starving themselves to death, hoping if they get thin enough someone will love them. Some are abusing drugs, including increasing numbers of seniors, hoping to escape their pain and loneliness for a while. Oh my friend, all around us, inside and outside of the church, there are hurting people.
2. We are called to help them – v5
In verse 5, Jesus told us to take the splinters out of other people’s eyes. We are help the hurting.
Shortly before He left, Jesus said “Go into all the world and make disciples of every nation, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all things I have commanded you.” We are to go, we are to introduce people to the Gospel, we are to teach.
If people are going to find peace and love in their homes, they need to have the God Who created marriage, in their home. If they are to escape fear, they need to know the Good Shepherd. If people are to escape the bondage of debt and material things, they need to know the Savior Who can break those chains. People need to know the Creator who made them. They need to know the God Who loved them enough to send His Son their behalf. Our children need to know about a Father that will never leave them. Our young adults need to know Jesus, Who said he came that we might live abundantly. The only way they’ll ever hear that Gospel is if we go. My friend, YOU are called to help them.
3. We must first tend to our failures – v5
Before we can help others however, we must first tend to our own failures. What Jesus pictures here is something right out of the 3 stooges, or a skit Lucy would try pull off. Can’t you see someone trying to get a splinter out of another person’s eye while they have a log in their own eye? Every time they turned around, people would be ducking all over the place.
Sadly, many of the people we are supposed to help, find themselves ducking all the time because you and I haven’t taken care of our own failures first. As Jesus shows here, many of us act as though we don’t even have any problems. As a result, your family has to duck, afraid of when you’ll lose your temper the next time. Your husband, your wife, your children, the very people you’re first called to love, tip toe around you, wondering when they’ll next be hurt by your sharp and cutting tongue.
The people at work hear all about the things wrong in their lives, because you’ve never read that passage in James that talks about the danger of an uncontrolled tongue. Your children never learn to handle money, because they see it controlling you. People aren’t attracted to the Jesus you claim, because they see little joy in your life.
My friends, there are hurting people all around us. You and I are called to help them. Before we can help them, we must first address our own failures. Let me ask you, what is there in your life that’s keeping people ducking? What logs do you have you need to get rid of?
4. We must approach others with grace – v5
Jesus says, take the beam out of your own eye first then you can see clearly to help someone else. Let me tell you, if a person has ever had a beam in his eye, he’ll not soon forget it.
When you and I strive to help others, as Jesus has called us to do, we must approach them with grace. The same grace Jesus offered when He called us. We must approach them like one starving beggar telling another starving beggar where to find food. We must approach them, remembering that Jesus was placed on the cross because of our sins as well. I believe it was F. B. Meyer who once said, that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are two things we do not know. First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin; and second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.
We must approach others with grace. That’s much easier said than done. Shortly after bathing, we often forget how much we stunk. How do we approach others with grace? I believe we do that by seeking God regularly. By making our relationship with Him the 1st priority in our lives. That grants us 2 things.
a. A fresh vision of God – Isaiah 6:1-4 In this passage, Isaiah received a fresh vision of God. He was reminded again of Who God is. …
b. A fresh vision of ourselves – Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah probably thought he was doing OK, until he had this vision. When he a fresh vision of God and His holiness, suddenly his eyes were also opened to a new vision of himself. He saw himself as he really was, a man of unclean lips.
Several years ago there was a soap commercial, where the man, just coming off the field, stinking, said “Don’t get next to her until you get next to Life Boy… Don’t get close to them, until you get close to God.
