Truth Be Told

"Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. 6 Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them with their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.

7 “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 What man among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12 Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets."
Matthew 7:1-12 

Today's Message: Truth Be Told 

Good Morning Beloved,

It is my honor and great privilege to be with you today,
I am so incredibly blessed to be to share today's message with all of you.
Thank you all for joining us, I pray that you will be blessed.

I'd like for you to understand, how very important is the message in our text.

Jesus’ words condemn a certain type of judgment, but there are limits to our tolerance.
The problem, however, is rather an easy one to detect, we are evil. Now, here is the rest of the problem, when we become Christians, we still have a sin nature in us, do we not? The ongoing battle for self, and selfishness dominates our lives, and fights to dictate or behavior. Beloved, we desperately need to be broken, in our hearts, so that we might be unselfish toward others.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You that You began a work in us, the planting of love within us. O Lord, we pray that You will continue that work, though we often resist, rather than welcome the change. We know our part is to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto You, as an act of our spiritual service. The only good within us is the beauty of Christ in us, the only capability we have to live this love out in our lives. The love that You poured into us. May those of us who are Your children, manifest the love of the One who is our Father. Help us to know Your truths and live them out, so that our relationship is right with You, preventing us from being critical, judgemental, condemning toward others.

Father, as we strive to love others as we love ourselves, doing to them what we would wish done to us, we know there are some, even here among us today, who are frustrated because of these things, for there is no capacity to fulfill them,in their abilities because You’ve not taken up residence in them. O precious and loving Father, we pray that today, might be that day when they open their hearts, their eyes and ears, by giving entrance to Your Son, Jesus Christ.
These things we ask and pray
in His name
Amen and Amen

Now, I'd like to invite all of you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7. Before we begin, I'd like to share with you a story, one that garnered national attention some years ago, that while i was studying the text for our message today I was reminded of and holds great significance to our message today.

Some years ago, a congregation of the Lord’s church in Oklahoma disfellowshiped a woman for immorality. When she filed a lawsuit against the church, the story made all the national news media. One of the shows to give the lawsuit coverage was Phil Donahue and on that show, I think the attitude of Donahue and most of the audience could be summed up in the words: "Judge not that you be not judged!"

Allow me to read to you from today's text, I pray that as we examine this particular section of the Scriptures, we will become a changed people, especially in dealing with our relationships with others.

"Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them with their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.

“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What man among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets." 

I'll be the first to admit, it deeply disturbs me to hear someone use Matthew 7:1 that way. And I must also confess, I have a similar reaction, when a non believer, uses any particular passage in Scripture to "prove" their viewpoint. But, you see, it’s nice to have a verse to prove what you already want to believe, and I think, over many years, that is exactly how this verse has been used. It has been used to convey the idea, "You live your lifestyle and I’ll live mine. You don't get to tell me how to live, and you certainly don't get to try to impose your standards of morality on me." 

Because we, the church, are vital to the rising generation. Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, is in us, and every one that loves his neighbor, is surely born of God. So, today, beloved, if God loved us, I'd like to encourage each of us, to love one another.
"Judge not that you be not judged" is probably the most familiar quoted Bible verse ever. The first, of course, would be John 3:16. However, this particular verse, is touted by many people who have no earthly idea what Jesus meant in saying. And I would venture to guess, that the people who quote this verse the most often the ones who understand it the least. I suppose it just happens to fit with the spirit of the present day. Here is one example that comes to mind:

A teenager, who became at odds with his father, over being caught doing something he was asked not to do, followed by disrespectful behavior, and because his father laid down the rules that his communication with a certain person, who exhibited ungodly behaviors, was limited because he doesn't believe it would be good for his son's spiritual development. So, he storms out of the room and yells, "That's so not fair! The Bible says, "judge not that you be not judged!" Then, pouting, he stomps off, going to his room. The funny thing is, how he somehow feels vindicated, that he’s cleared himself of responsibility in trying to tell his parents off, because he thinks he did it biblically. 

So, what is Jesus saying to us in Matthew 7? I think one of the keys to understanding this verse is found in Matthew 5:20: "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." The point is, we are to have a very different kind of righteousness from that of the scribes and Pharisees. They wore theirs on their sleeves; it was superficial. Our righteousness, is to be that of Christ.

Beloved, ours must be cultivated and grow out of a heart committed to our Savior and to our Father. Furthermore, Matthew 7 is part of that context. Jesus, here in the Sermon on the Mount, deals with two extremes within the error of human judgment. The first extreme is a harsh, critical spirit. The second extreme is permissiveness. Today, I'd like us to examine both of these extremes.

Don’t Judge: Matthew 7:1-2
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you."
As Jesus looked at the religious situation of his day, he saw that judging others had become a tremendous religious problem. The Pharisees and scribes sat in judgement. They were quick to criticize those who didn’t live up to their unrealistic expectations.

When Jesus was in the house of Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman anointed his feet, Simon said, "This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner." in Luke 7:39. The Pharisees, in their arrogant self-righteousness, had created a special class of people called "sinners," as if they themselves were not such.
The Pharisees were used to judging others self-righteously. Jesus said there are problems with that kind of judging. It’s overly critical, always going around with a nit-picking attitude, digging and searching for faults, always suspecting the worst.

And so, for this reason Jesus says that we are not to judge. Now he’s not talking about the judgment in a courtroom. He’s not talking about judging open and obvious sin, and we’ll get to that later. He’s not talking about judging false teachers. What he is talking about is a hasty, unloving, "holier than thou" attitude. Which, back in the day, we called it "jumping to conclusions". It’s at the very heart of gossiping and rumor-bearing.

Jesus wasn’t saying we should never assess people with some discrimination, but rather that we should not have a harsh, judgmental spirit. Jesus does not tell us to cease to be men by suspending our critical powers which help to distinguish us from animals, but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God by setting ourselves up as judges. That’s what drives our overly critical attitude and behavior, is the belief that I can see as God sees. I can see your motives. I can see the way you’re thinking. Because, I am so righteous, I know all the things that have led you to this point in your life. This is what Jesus desires to eliminate in us.

Whenever we make a judgment, we do so based on what we have seen and sometimes that’s not enough to provide the whole picture. Human judgment is limited to the information which we put into it and sometimes that isn’t enough to make an accurate judgment. The American Indians had their  own way of saying this: "Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins." And, I believe, that there’s something to that. One example, is a person who has been raised in a Christian home, cannot really understand and relate to, the temptations of a teenager raised in a broken home, in a sinful environment. Truth be told, if we had any concept of what some people have to go through in their lives, rather than condemning them for their behavior, we might marvel in the knowledge that they have successfully succeeded at being as good as they are.

God once made it clear in His Word, that "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart," in I Samuel 16:7. That’s why you or I do not have the right to sit in judgment on someone else’s motives, because we don’t know what they are. Only the God knows that! Because God knows all things.
It was in response to this same sort of critical attitude that Paul responded, "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you....In fact, I do not even judge myself. But he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes." in I Corinthians 4:3-5.
We can’t know everything in everyone else’s heart. I can’t read all your motives. I can’t see you as God does. I need to give you the benefit of the doubt. That’s what Paul meant when he said in I Corinthians 13 that love "believes all things." Love believes the best. But above all, love shouldn’t be going around trying to find every fault in your life.

I'd like you to notice that self-righteous judgment has a boomerang effect: "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." In other words: "Look, if you start throwing out, in a critical spirit, your criticisms onto other people, WATCH OUT, it will be coming back to visit YOU!

To sum it up, we will receive the same kind of treatment that we dish out to others. If we are critical, if we judge others harshly, jumping to the worst conclusions about them, we can be assured, that the Lord, will be judging us in that same way. And furthermore,  I believe, we will experience this both by God and others. In searching for the "specks" in others, we find within us, a "plank."

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ’Let me remove the speck out of your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye."

And, there’s another problem with Pharisaic righteousness. Not only was it overly critical, but it was also hypocritical. It was two-faced. We like to look at people with bifocals. We use the bottom part to see ourselves, and it has kind of a rosy tint to it. We tend to look past any shortcomings. But the top part we use to look at others. And that’s the hypocrisy Jesus was denouncing.

We have changed our mindset. Otherwise, we're going back on our word, our commitment to Christ!
Look, it’s like the parable in Luke 18, where a Pharisee goes to the temple to pray. The Pharisee looks through the top part of his bifocals and says, "Oh my! I’m glad I’m not like that scumbag out there." And then he looks through the bottom part and says to God, "You are just so blessed to have me on your side." That’s what so many do today. And that's the kind of judging Jesus condemned.

We’re not qualified to sit in judgment on others because it’s impossible to be impartial, we are strongly, improperly I might add, influenced by our own imperfections. Jesus here uses the graphic example of a plank of wood and a speck of dust.

The picture is ridiculous. Now, we’ve heard it so many times that it has lost its humorous twist, but the people in Jesus’ audience were probably laughing out loud. It sounds like a scene out of the Three Stooges. Here’s one guy with a little piece of sawdust in his eye. There’s somebody else with a two-by-four coming out of his forehead, and he’s trying to get that speck out. Every time he turns around, the other guy has to duck.

I think Jesus used the illustration of a plank and a speck because he was a carpenter; that was familiar to him and it was familiar to the people around him. But if he were living today, he might have said that a man sitting in judgment on another person is like a man watching a football game. He's merely a spectator, while someone else is doing the work!

Have you ever listened to a man watch a football game, especially if his team is losing? He’ll criticize the quarterback for not throwing well, the receivers for not catching the easy passes, and the linemen for not blocking well. Have you ever thought. If he’s so good at knowing what to do, then why is he sitting in a chair watching the game instead of being out there playing? I’ll tell you why. I’ve seen him try to get out in the backyard and play ball! Jesus says, "You’ve got no room to criticize others because of your own ineptitude!"

Do you see it? Even though we are incapable, and might I add, unqualified, we still judge. And we often do so for selfish reasons; it makes us "feel better". If we have a problem with sin in our own lives, it takes a little pressure off of us to point the finger at others for a while. It makes our sin seem not so bad after all, because theirs is far worse! Beloved, Jesus warns us that we’ve got to clean up our own act before we find fault with the lives of others.

And I don’t think that the plank in our eyes is necessarily a worse sin. I think he’s talking about the sin of self-righteousness, appointing ourselves as the official speck inspectors of the brotherhood.
When I spend my time pointing my finger at your sin, my attention is distracted from my own sins, and that’s the real danger of judging. We’re all sinners, and we’re to work together as a family to overcome our sins. But ultimately, the only sins over which I have control are my own, and those are the ones that should command my greatest attention.

We can see so well the things in others’ lives that we want to pick on, but Jesus said we’re usually being overly critical and hypocritical when we do. However, it’s particularly important for us to notice that He didn’t just stop there. No! He didn’t instruct us to stay out of other people’s business. Rather, he gave us the responsibility of helping our brother: "First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye." Matthew 7:5.

So what’s the loving, Christian thing to do when someone comes to you and he’s got a speck in his eye? Turn and walk away? Of course not! Do you say, "Oh, no. I could never take that speck out of your eye. For I’ve had specks in my eye before"? No! He’s got something in his eye and he needs it taken out. Jesus commands us to help him remove it.

Allow me to give you another example, let's suppose a child comes to you with a splinter in his finger. He’s crying, "Please, please, take this splinter out!" What’s the Christian thing to do? Leave the splinter in there? No, you take the splinter out. So what Jesus was saying there is a place for some discernment in people’s lives. If you see brothers or sisters who has a speck in their eye, you need to help them remove it!

But first you take out the two-by-four of self-righteousness out of your own. Paul put it this way, "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness." as written in Galatians 6:1
You who are spiritual, not self-righteous, but spiritual, those of you who have the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, you go restore him. Matthew 7 shouldn’t interfere with the responsibility we have to go to somebody in loving confrontation.

What's The Right Way to Judge? Let's look back in Matthew 7:6
"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."

The harsh, critical spirit is obviously wrong and though some have tried to get so far away from it that they’ve gone to the opposite extreme, which is permissiveness. The holders of this position point to the first five verses of this chapter as their proof text; we are not to judge. They stress long and loud that "Oh. we cannot judge." They interpret that as meaning we cannot judge in anyone in any case or for any sin, in any setting, and especially don’t try to tell me I’m doing anything wrong.

However, quite an interesting situation arises, though, when somebody takes this position. They believe that you can’t judge anyone else as being right or wrong and you have no right to condemn the way anyone is living. Even if its against what the Scripture teaches. Beloved, if you are doing that, you are dead wrong! That's just not biblical, and therefore, you shouldn’t live that way. So, now, they themselves end up practicing the very thing they claim is wrong for others. How ironic!

The permissive person holds to a religion that serves what Nicholas Von Hoffman, an American author and journalist called the "the Mush God. He once wrote: "The Mush God has no theology to speak of, being a cream of wheat divinity. The Mush God has no particular credo, no tenets of faith, nothing that would make it difficult for a believer and non-believer alike to lower one’s head when the temporary chairman tells us that “Reverend, Rabbi, Father, Mufti, or So-And-So will lead us in an innocuous, harmless prayer.  For this god at public occasions is not a jealous god. You can invoke him to start a hookers’ convention and he/she won’t be offended. Everything is all right with God."

The motto of the permissivist is "live and let live," "live your own truth." He’ll never condemn a practice as sin or a doctrine as false because to do such is judging, and he believes in being "tolerant".
But, Jesus doesn’t end his discussion of judging with the command "judge not". No, He goes on to say, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs." If, for one moment you think verses 1-5 prohibit any kind of discerning in judgment, or righteous judgement, you’ve got a real serious problem here. Because you’ve got to use some kind of criteria to decide who those spiritual dogs and pigs are.

First Jesus says, "Don’t judge, don’t condemn." Then, without even taking a breath, he says, "Make certain judgments concerning people and certain behaviors." In other words, get mad about what makes God mad!

So how can these two positions be reconciled? The two positions actually complement and perfectly limit one another. In the first statement, as we’ve already seen, Jesus condemns the critical, holier-than-thou, conclusions jumping hypocrite sort of judgment that the Pharisees were known for.
Then, in this second statement, Jesus acknowledges the need for making decisions concerning people and behavior that is detrimental to our Christian lives. Verse 6 stands as a safeguard against an extreme interpretation of verses 1-5. It’s not the case that Jesus condemns all judging.

Truth be told, he demands that we make some judgments.

In John 7:24, Jesus said, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." In I John 4:1, John tells us not to believe every preacher that comes along, but "test the spirits, whether they are of God." Then, in I Corinthians 5:11, the apostle Paul tells us not to associate with a brother who is "a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner." Beloved, do you not see, that demands that we make some sort of a judgment? The command not to judge others doesn’t mean that we must look past the sinfulness of certain actions.

Now, we’re never to look down in self-righteous judgment on another sinner, for we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. We are to recognize sin as sin, and moreover, we are never to try to justify it. Sin is sin! And wrong is wrong! This is something I believe many today would do well to learn.
With nearly the whole country divided, by one issue or another, everyone with there own very of truth, what's right or wrong, there is but ONE TRUTH. God's truth. He created the game, therefore He gets to set the rules. And because some people choose not like His rules, doesn't mean to have somehow been given the authority to change them!

Look, and, that goes for some standing in the pulpits of today's churches as well. If God calls a particular sin a sin, you do not have the authority to attempt to re-write the Bible.

You don’t give to the dogs the sacred sacrifice reserved for the priest and you don’t feed your pearls to the pigs. You can take a pig and put him in a bathtub. You wash him. You can even brush and floss his teeth. You put mousse in his tail. You can dress him up in a tuxedo, if you'd like. You can most certainly do whatever you want. But guess what! As soon as you take him back outside, and you know where he’ll go? Right back to the mud and he will wallow around in it!

Jesus was saying there are people like that. Look, I understand, these words are harsh, but his point is that we shouldn’t waste spiritual treasures on those who have no spiritual interest. And we certainly shouldn't martyr those who commit sin, on EITHER SIDE of the fence! Wrong is wrong, regardless of which side of wrong you're on. And right is still right, even if you're standing in the middle of two who are doing wrong. But it's our Christian responsibility to call it what it is, SIN!

In Matthew 10, Jesus sent some disciples out and he said, "Look. When you go into a town, and if they don’t have the time of day for you, shake the dust off your sandals and get out of there." Some people are spiritual pigs and dogs.

The apostle Paul received some rough treatment in Corinth, while on his second missionary journey, and Luke reports, "But when, the Jews, opposed, Paul, and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, ’Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’" as recorded in Acts 18:6. We’ve got to use that kind of discernment and not waste spiritual treasures on people who will just spit and trample on them.

Now this is the exception rather than the rule. We can't take this and stop evangelizing. But there are some people who have no spiritual interest. They will trample the very things we hold as precious and dear to our heart. And Jesus said to use some discernment, have the ability to make judgment in our minds.

In Closing....

So what is the message in Matthew 7:1-6? I believe it’s a warning! A warning for us to avoid the extremes of judgment. We need to be careful not to become too harshly judgmental, searching for faults in everyone we see, taking the opportunity to look down on others from our high position of self-righteousness.

But neither are we to overlook sin. Justify wrong doing. Make it all OK. It's not OK! We need to be able to recognize sin for what it is. Sin! And any attempt to overlook, excuse or justify sin on any grounds is in and of itself sin!

The bottom line is this: It all comes down to the issue of sin and righteousness. If everyone was living up to their God given calling, we wouldn't see have the problem we're facing today. However, we know that as long as Satan is running around corrupting the minds of men, we're in for trouble. And trouble is exactly what we're as facing as a people, as a nation and as a world. Everywhere you look, there is chaos and disruption. Beloved, it's only going to get worse as we move forward in God's timetable.

May we learn to Go deep, in the Word. Live strong in our faith in Christ.
The answer to the call of The Great Commission, is to cultivate powerful Christ-like behaviors!

Love others, and stop making making excuses for wrong behaviors. 

God has provided everything we need,in order to know what the "right thing to do is."

All we need to do is read it, study it and live by it.

The message in Matthew 7, is not just about wrongfully criticizing others, nor is it not to judge anyone at all, for anything. But be righteous in judgement, and be careful, sometimes, that mirror of judgement will be reflecting our own self image back at us. 

Beloved we have seen the teachings of Jesus; as we close, let’s notice His example. In John 8, Jesus is confronted by a mob pushing before it a woman that was caught in the act of adultery. 

The mob tried to use her, as if she were some sort of bait, a thing, in order to trap Jesus. The Jewish law said she must die. Roman law said that she couldn’t be killed without their permission. We know, there was never an issue concerning her guilt, nor was there any doubt as to the seriousness of her action.

So what did Jesus do when confronted by this sinner? The first thing He did, is He refused to look down upon her. And, He wouldn’t allow the mob to treat her as some sort of a thing. Instead, He forced the mob to consider their own sin. Secondly, one of equal importance, He refused justify her behavior! He refused refer to her action as anything other than sin. The next action Jesus did, is He forgave her and called her to stop sinning, another significant action.

Jesus will do the same thing for you today. If you come to him, He will also forgive your sin, no matter how those around you may judge you for it, but He will forgive it, with the call to live a life of purity for Him. Jesus does accept you where you are in life, He is willing to meet you in the middle of whatever mess that you have created, or find yourself in. He will forgive whatever wrong you have committed. However, He does not intend for you to continue in your sin, but to be transformed, a new creation, a new way of life, free from sin.


And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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