Judging Others
(Divorce Series Part 2)
Scripture Reference: Matthew 7:1-5
Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
The first thing I would like to do before I start this sermon is to take a moment and salute all of the men and women that God has placed in the position of Judge. I thank God for you and I pray that you never forget what motivated you to aspire to become a Judge in the first place
As I grew from adulthood to become a man I realized one thing to be soooo true. I realized that it is so easy to judge other people.
I mean I would say to myself that, “They should be ashamed of themselves for acting the way that they do.”
When God blessed me with the word I just knew that I was better than anyone who didn’t have the word inside of them.
I mean hey look I have a personal relationship with God and you don’t so I have to better than you
Now that I am married I realized that I can simply sit back and see everything that my wife is doing wrong and if I can only get her to see things my way then we would be able to get along a lot better and get on with our life.
I mean if my wife would only abide by my judgment of her actions, then she would see everything my way and life would be so much easier
I went to God with this dilemma and He told me that it was fine with Him if I judged my wife. He said that I could be as stern with her as I wanted. I could judge any of her actions that I wanted and use as stiff of a penalty as I deemed necessary.
However there was this one simple condition that I had to accept. All I had to do was accept the fact that he was going turn around and use the same measuring stick to judge my actions. Even my thoughts would be judged with the same measuring device that I used to judge my wife (Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.).
At first I thought about it and I thought how easy life would be if God stood behind my every judgment I made of my wife’s actions. I thought about just how powerful I would be. Of course God would never expose any of my hidden thoughts or secret sins I was sure.
However after God assured me of the fact that he would expose my secret sins I began to think twice. I never really noticed how big the beam was in my eye until God threatened to expose me and judge me. Suddenly the feeling of humbleness began to take over.
I had always hated hypocrites, in fact, that was one of the things that kept me out of the church at first. I never really wanted to hear what those hypocrite preachers had to talk about.
Now here I was looking in the mirror at a hypocrite that I was forced to live with. Me.
So I said, Ok God I will get it right and then I will judge my wife just how I want. He agreed
That is where I am right now. Trying to get it right. Every time I think I am close God pulls out this magnifying glass and I am immediately humbled.
In the mean time I have had to learn a new way to handle situations involving my wife. I had to use the example that God set forth with me.
I had to use the Love that God uses with me
(John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.)
I had to use the Joy that God uses with me
(Psalm 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.)
I had to use the Peace that God uses with me
(Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.)
I had to use the Longsuffering that God uses with me
(II Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.)
I had to use the Gentleness that God uses with me
(II Corinthians 10:1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: )
I had to use the Goodness that God uses with me
(Psalms 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living)
I had to use the Faith that God uses with me
(II Corinthians 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight) )
I had to use the Meekness that God uses with me
(James 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom)
I had to use the Temperance that God uses with me
(II Peter 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.)
You know what, after I used all of these things on my wife that God uses with me I realized that she wasn’t so bad after all
CONCLUSION
I write this because someone out there is considering divorce and I beseech you my brother to give God a try first
Use these tools to judge your wife just as God has used them to judge you and I am sure that you will find that somewhere in there is that woman you fell in love with just waiting to come out again
We have to be extremely careful that we are not forcing the hand of God to judge us when we judge our wives. Brothers, this could be a trick of the enemy because he knows that all have sinned. (Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;)
Satan knows that if God were to use the same measuring device that we used to show cause for a divorce from our wives we too would be subject to a divorce from God. This is exactly what Satan wants from us. A divorce from God.
My dear brothers my plea today is that we resist Satan and his never ending traps set forth for our lives. (James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.)
Let’s Pray
Thank You. May God continue to bless you and keep you. Amen
Your Friend
Minister Juan D. Lane
