Our scripture today is from Matthew 7, verses 1 through 12. This is the word of the Lord. Judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Father, we come hungry to hear from you this morning. We want to live faithfully and obediently in your kingdom as your citizens, and we pray that your word would have its way in us by the power of the Spirit. this morning, transform us to be more and more like Jesus and help us know how to relate well to those in our lives. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. You can have a seat. If you have a Bible, you can turn to Matthew chapter 7. If you don't have a Bible, there's Bibles in front of you underneath some of the chairs. And on page 812, I think, is Matthew chapter 7. And if you don't own a Bible, that Bible's our gift to you. So feel free to take that and read it and enjoy God's word. Well, I wonder if you've ever heard somebody say a phrase or a word and you thought, I'm not sure you understand what that word or that phrase means. You ever heard that? There's a famous line from the movie, The Princess Bride, where one of the characters says, you keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. Well, our passage I think has one of those phrases in it. Judge not or do not judge. If you've been around long enough, you've heard somebody say that. Maybe even you have thought, yeah, as a Christian, we're not supposed to judge anybody. And so you're very hesitant and you never want to talk about anything that might be wrong or some kind of sin in somebody's life. While it is true we are not to judge, what Jesus means here is not necessarily what most people think it means fully. This is part of Jesus' teaching on the Sermon on the Mount where he's talking about living as kingdom of God citizens. And this, this morning, this section really helps us understand how do we relate to other people. It's really about these kingdom relationships. that we have. Now you may have noticed when we read the text, at the end of the text is what's popularly called the golden rule. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. Now it's easy, any fathers in here, it's easy on a day like today to go, I can tell you how I want you to treat me. I got a list of ways that I would like you to serve me and take care of me. You see, that's not what Jesus means. This golden rule, this how you want to be treated, treat others that way, it's this interpersonal relationship. How do we relate to other people in such a way that we display the priorities and the purposes of God's kingdom and who he actually is. And that's what Jesus is going to tell us here. He ends with this golden rule, but he begins with a couple illustrations that give us some help in how to do this, some understanding in how to do this. And then he ends with, if you don't know how to do this, then I've got a way to help you. So first he's gonna start with, do not judge, don't judge. But then he's gonna give us in verse six this statement where we have to still discern. We have to use discernment. So don't judge, but do discern. And then the last section, verses seven through 11, really are how to get help in knowing how to do that. So right here in verse one, you see it. Judge not that you be not judged. And you think, well, yeah, it's pretty plain and clear, Jeff, isn't it? I mean, it's just straightforward. Don't judge other people. We just live that out. But see, here's the challenge when we get to a phrase like that. In the scriptures, the context of which a word is used matters tremendously. You could use the word cool in a couple different ways. It's cool in here, or they are cool, meaning not cold, but cool. hip, cool, or whatever new word is, right? I don't know. Can't keep up. So the word judge is similar. There's actually one of the language tools that you could use gives you six different ways that the word judge could be used. And some of those even have sub points. And so you have to figure out, well, how is the word being used here in the context that the words around it and the whole teaching help us to understand what the word means. And here, what Jesus is saying by not judging other people is to me not condemn them. That we don't criticize them. We don't assume their motives. We don't make the judgment that only God could make. That they are in sin, separated from Him, deserve His right punishment. We're not the judge. God is the judge. He knows every detail of the situation. And so when we think we know, when we assume we know everything that's going on and we judge somebody to this heart level, we're doing something we shouldn't be doing, God always judges rightly. And so in that sense, in this final sense of standing before him in his court, we are not to judge. We can't condemn anyone. We can't judge their motives ultimately. We even need to be very careful about being critical of how others follow the conscience that God has given them, because we don't know all those details. We do not cast that kind of final judgment on anybody. And in this context, verses one to five, the main context is among believers, brothers and sisters in Christ. The principle can apply, but it's really about brothers and sisters in Christ. that we're not to judge. But yet, the Scriptures say you're still to judge the body of Christ. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 5, 12. It's the same word, but the context is different. What he means is not in this final condemning way that only God can do, but in the sense that somebody's in sin and they need help. They need to repent from it and we're to judge that sin. We're to understand that sin is wrong and then help each other move away from it. We are to make those kinds of judgments, but we're not to make the ultimate judgment. And so Jesus gives us this illustration here in these first five verses of what that looks like with this log and the speck in the eye. He's trying to help us understand what it looks like to not judge and how silly it is to actually try and do it if you have a log in your eye. that if you have a log in your eye, you really are a hypocrite. Now the log is actually, think of a log. This is not a little two by four or a long stick. This is like a piece of wood that would be used in a house construction. Maybe holding up the roof, a rafter. It's big, it is long, and so just imagine there's this huge piece of wood sticking out of somebody's eye. So one person in Christ trying to look at another believer and say, hey, I see this little speck in your eye. You need to get rid of that thing. How hypocritical would that be? When you've still got this log in your eye and the other person has this little speck right there. So Jesus says, you don't judge, especially if you've got this log in your eye. You can't do that. He says what you need to do is you need to repent. You need to take the log out of your own eye, this sin that is clear in your life. And here's a hint, if you have a log, everybody else knows it. We all see the logs that we have in our eyes. Jesus says you need to get rid of that thing. Then in verse five, then you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. This passage can be used as this negative don't judge. It's actually really encouraging, I think. It's really this beautiful picture of believers, followers of Jesus being so close together that we've removed these major logs. We're able to come close together and with mercy and love and forgiveness and grace, we're actually able to help one another with the specks in our eyes. You ever had something small in your eye? It's so annoying, isn't it? And sometimes you just can't do anything, you need somebody else to come hold open the eye and wash it out. That's kind of the picture that we have here. Well, how am I ever gonna get close to you or you to me if you've got this log? It's not the idea just that you're beating somebody up with the log, it's that you can't get close to them. You actually can't be in a position to help them. When we have this law, we can't live out what Jesus has said in other parts of the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 5, verse 7, he said, Well, to give mercy, you've got to be close to someone. And then in chapter 6, verse 12, as we pray, we pray and we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. Well, how are you going to forgive if you're not in this close relationship and you see and experience the sin, the speck, that's in somebody else's life? So Jesus says, how could you ever judge if you have this log in your eye? You're not supposed to judge. You're not supposed to condemn somebody else when they've got this sin in their life. You gotta get rid of it. It's silly. It would be useless for you to say, hey, take off your glasses, read anything over there. I can't even read my notes. My eyes aren't good. I need help. I need assistance to be able to see things well. Well, that's what Jesus is saying. Get rid of the log, it's blinding your vision. You can't actually really see the speck and then you can't really help them. So to be a kingdom citizen, to be one who loves like Jesus, who shows mercy like Jesus, who forgives like Jesus, first we remove the log that's in our eye. We remove it and we don't bring criticism and we don't judge our fellow brothers and sisters for a speck in their eye. We just had a log. We get it, we're with them. We had this big thing we had to deal with. They have this little thing. And then Jesus says you're able to help them. You're actually then able to come to them and help them deal with this issue in their life. Proverbs 27 verse five and six says, better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. There's still wounds. It's still not easy to have somebody say, hey, I see the speck in your eye and I want to help you. It's not easy to admit the faults, the sins that we have in our life. But we're actually supposed to help each other with that. We're supposed to come close to each other in this body of Christians and help each other remove the specks that are in our eyes. See, so we're not to judge, but we still are, in a sense, to judge. We're to look and see the sins that are entangling each other and come alongside each other and help. Now Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 5 that we're to judge those inside the church, and the example there is there's a man who's immoral, he's in deep sin, and they need to practice church discipline, which we'll get to in Matthew 18. There is this judgment that's to be made on him, and if he's unrepentant, he needs to be removed from the fellowship. But ultimately, his soul is only gonna be judged by God. But in that same place, Paul says, for what have I to do with judging outsiders? See, the context is within the body of Christ. Who am I to judge outsiders? I can't judge somebody's heart. I don't know where they are. That's not our role. They have to answer to God. So if you're in a relationship with somebody that's not a Christian, we're not their judge. We're not their judge. So what is our role with them? Well, we can tell them there is a judge. We can say, hey, you know, God is the righteous judge. And one day, all of us, will stand before his throne. And we will all have to give an account. And here's the good news. You could stand before him free and clear, forgiven and righteous because you decided to let Jesus take all the sin in your life upon himself. You can be forgiven by him. And then when you stand before his judgment throne, Jesus will say, they're mine. That's what we can tell a non-Christian. There's an opportunity, in a sense, to avoid that judgment from God. That's the good news of the gospel. But as we relate to them, we've got to be very careful about judging their life. They're not Christians. They're not following Jesus. Our role is to help them know the good news of Jesus, that he is fully satisfying in every way. So here we are, we're not to judge one another. So it leads to a couple questions for us. Do you have a log in your eye? Is there this big sin in your life that you know it's there, and you haven't been dealing with it? You've been trying to hide it, but it affects your life. Jesus says, get rid of that thing. Confess that thing, repent of that, do whatever it takes. It's gonna take some work to get rid of the log. You can't just flick it away. It's gonna take some work to get rid of it. But if you want to be helpful to other brothers and sisters, Jesus says, get rid of the log, and then you can help them with the speck. But what about you, do you have a speck? Do you have this besetting sin, this thing that just keeps nagging at you? It just keeps creeping up every so often. You can't seem to get rid of it. Will you let somebody else in? Will you let somebody else take a look at your eye and say, I can help you wash that out? Together we can do this under God's grace and his mercy and forgiveness and we'll fight this together. I can get close because I got rid of the log in my own eye. I'm just like you. We're in this together. See, this passage, this teaching is so beautiful. It's so beautiful, yet don't judge. So that you can live together in such close proximity that when the specks get in your eyes, you can help each other remove it. Imagine what kind of people we could be if we lived this way. It's a picture of how to live together as kingdom citizens. But we have other relationships, right? We have other relationships in our life and Jesus here in verse six seems to take a turn very quickly almost. But I think it's still in the realm of how do we relate to other people as kingdom citizens? And here in verse six, he's gonna tell us, yeah, don't judge, but you still need discernment. You should discern in these relationships. Look again at verse six. Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. So first question should be obvious. Well, who's he talking about? Who are the dogs and the pigs? So get out of your mind right now your pet dog if that's not what he's talking about, right? We love pet dogs and we groom them and we feed them and we take them to the vet when they got hangnails or who knows whatever dogs, right? We just do all this to care for them, right? That's who we are. That's not true in this time. At this time, dogs were mangy, gross, scavengers. They were disgusting animals. The psalmist, Psalm 22 verse 16, he says, for dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircle me. That's the picture of a dog. They're bad. They're not good. And that's the image that Jesus is using here. It's somebody who is like a dog. And then he says, and pigs. And pigs, for the audience that Matthew is primarily writing for, a Jewish audience, they would have gotten it. Pigs are the epitome of unclean animals. Leviticus chapter 11 verse seven. And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. The original audience would have known you stay away from a pig. They're horrible, completely unclean. We shouldn't even get close to them. And so Jesus uses this picture of there are people that are like dogs or pigs. And what do they do? They trample the holy things, the pearl. that you give them, and what is that? What is the holy thing? What is the pearl that we're giving to these people that are like dogs and pigs? Well, Jesus will tell us in Matthew 13, verses 45 through 46. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it. The holy thing, the pearl is the message of the gospel. It's the good news of Jesus Christ. His offer of forgiveness and new life with him to live forever in righteousness and holiness and closeness to the Lord and Savior Jesus himself. That's the holy thing, that's the pearl. So the picture is that Jesus is saying you are communicating the gospel to somebody. But you know what they are? They're like a dog or a pig. They're just gonna take the message and trample on it. And they might even turn to attack you, persecute you, defame you. Those people, he says, what do you do with them? You don't give them the message of the gospel anymore. You walk away. Now, at first glance, when you hear that, you think, that doesn't sound right, does it? Aren't we supposed to keep communicating the gospel? Aren't we supposed to be faithful? Keep going at it with people? Trusting God to eventually use us or someone else to tell them and their eyes would be opened? For some, yes. But here, Jesus says, there are some that you communicate the gospel to, and if they're gonna trample on it, If they're on the verge of attacking, walk away. Walk away. And what that means is that you are entrusting them to God, the righteous judge. That's what you're saying. You don't have to answer to me, but you're gonna have to answer to God. And then you walk away, and you keep praying for them, and you care for them. Over the years, I've seen people invest lots of time and energy in people that might be like this, that don't really want to hear the good news of the gospel. In fact, what they want to do is they want to hurt us. They want to change us and take us away from Christ. When I was in campus ministry, I saw it all the time with young college guys. You've seen the guys walking around town in white shirts and black ties and name tags. They're there to convert people to their religion. And I've seen young college guys get real excited, oh, I'm meeting with these guys. I'm meeting with them over and over and over again. I think, well, how long should you keep meeting with these guys? And it hit me one day, it became clear to me what Jesus was saying. One day, those guys came to a meeting on campus. A Christian meeting, and after the meeting was over, one of them went up to the speaker and asked a question. And so the meeting's over, and then I go up to the speaker and go, what did they want? The guy in the white shirt and the black tie, what did he want? He said he asked if he could get up in front of all these students and make an announcement and invite them to his Bible study. I thought, see, he's not here to learn. He's not here to question his own theology. He's not here seeking Jesus. He's here to attack the sheep. He's here to try to get innocent young believers and twist them and turn them and devour them into a false religion. What do we do? We don't keep meeting with them. We don't give them the good news of the gospel over and over again. We preach it to them. Anytime you have the opportunity to preach the gospel to somebody, go for it. but it might not be a relationship that you need to keep going with. Jesus said this to the 12 apostles in Matthew 10. When he sends them out, he says, if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. It's the sense of, okay, we're done. You don't wanna listen. You don't wanna pay attention to the good news of the gospel. We're gonna walk away after telling you, and you're gonna have to deal with God. He's the judge. I can't judge you, but you're going to have to deal with him. Brothers and sisters, we want to be faithful to proclaim the gospel message. But Jesus says there is a time to walk away. As citizens of the kingdom, we need to have wisdom to know how to walk away. It's hard to do. It's difficult to make that kind of decision, but that's what Jesus is telling us to do. There is a time to say, I love you. I want you to trust in Christ, but I'm done. I'm no longer gonna give to you the message that you're trampling and even on the verge maybe of attacking me. Do you see how challenging these teachings are? How do I know that I'm not judging? How do I know that I can help somebody with the speck in their eye and do it in a loving, merciful way? How do I know with this person I'm talking to, should I continue, should I not? Is this a pig that I shouldn't keep giving pearls to? What do I do? Well, Jesus gives us the answer to how to get help. In verses seven through 11, he says, you know how you get help? You pray. You pray and you get help. Here in verses seven through 11, to ask, seek, and knock. This is one of those passes that's used perhaps in a wrong way often. It could be used to say, see, if you just ask, seek, and knock of Jesus, then he'll give you anything that you want. But that's not what Jesus is saying. That's not what this teaching on prayer is specifically about. There's lots of teaching in the Bible on prayer. But this teaching on prayer is connected to these relationships that we have. And how am I supposed to know what I'm to do? How am I supposed to know how to have wisdom and how to live out this teaching and all the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus has just given to us? Well, Jesus says, you go to your heavenly Father. And you pray. And how do you pray? You ask. You seek him and his wisdom through his word. You keep knocking on the door and trusting that God, because he's a good father, will give you good things. Think about what we've studied so far here in the Sermon on the Mount. Some of the challenging commands that we've been given to live as kingdom citizens. How are we supposed to get angry and not sin? Pray, ask God to help you, seek him, knock on his door. How do we not lust in chapter five? How do we stay married for a lifetime? How do we let our yes be yes and our no be no? How can we, when we're hit on one cheek, turn the other cheek? How do we actually love our enemies? How do we give and pray and fast and live out the spiritual disciplines in such a way that it's never about us? Not to be seen and noticed, but just for our good and to be with our Father as a response to what he's done for us in Christ. How do we lay up our treasures in heaven and not on earth? How do we not be anxious? How do we not worry about tomorrow? How are we not to judge other people? It's so hard. I assume motives all the time. How am I not supposed to do that? And what do I know? When do I walk away from this? I don't know. Jesus says, yeah, I'm here to help. Your Father is here to help. And if we pray, he'll give us good gifts. He'll give us good gifts. Today is Father's Day, and fathers, generally, we like to give good gifts to our children. Not everything they want, that wouldn't be good. But we give them what we think is good, that will bless them, that will benefit them, that will help them grow and mature in life in following Jesus. But we pale in comparison to God, our Heavenly Father. If we who are evil, Jesus says, can give good gifts, how much more will God, our Heavenly Father, give us? So if we wanna know how to live out these kingdom values, then we need to pray. And when we pray, when we ask, and we seek, and we knock, then we'll be given. God will help us. He will give us wisdom. He will bring maybe somebody else into our life with a word that will help us. He'll bring us to scripture that will remind us of something and then he will empower us by his Holy Spirit to live out everything he's told us how to do and be in the Sermon on the Mount. So it leads to the question, if you have a log in your eye, have you asked God to help you get rid of it? Or have you just been trying to buck up on your own, figure it out on your own, with your own power? We can't do it. If I have a log, I need God to help me. Even a speck, I just, I can't get it out, I need help. And so I can ask God, bring somebody to help me remove the speck in my eye. Father, I want this person to know you, but it just seems to be going nowhere. I'm gonna trust you. and I'm gonna walk away and I'm gonna pray that you do something miraculously in their life. Remember where we started this morning with the golden rule. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Think about how you want somebody else to come alongside you when you have a speck in your eye. Do you want criticism? Do you want condemnation? No. I want somebody to just love me enough and care for me enough and show me mercy and help me get rid of this thing so I can walk in freedom in Christ. If you are in Christ, none of us should want sin to stay in our life and to just be overlooked. We should want somebody to love us enough to say, hey, I've noticed something. And I had things just like it. Can I help you? Can I help you overcome that? That's not judgment. That's part of living in relationship with one another. And when we live this out, Jesus says, it's the law and the prophets. What does he mean by that? Well, he says you're fulfilling everything that the law required. And he'll tell us this in Matthew 22, 36 through 40. And he said to him, the two greatest commandments, Jesus summarizes this this way, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. How do we do that? Pray, go to God, say, God, you're the great, you're the great one, you're the judge, you're the one that has power, I need help. I come to you knowing, trusting you're my good heavenly father. And the second command is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the love, all the law and the prophets. As we live this out with God's great help and his good gifts, we are fulfilling the law of God. We are loving God and loving our neighbor. Let's pray. Father, we give you praise and glory for your word. It's challenging. It's so hard to think about how to live this out. How do we not judge? When should we maybe walk away from a relationship and all the other things you've taught us in the Sermon on the Mount? God, thank you for the promise that if we ask you, if we seek you, if we knock on your door, that you will answer. and you will give us good things and those good things are wisdom and the power to live as kingdom citizens and know how to navigate the relationships we have as kingdom citizens. Father, help us, help us be obedient to you and that we would love you and we would love our neighbors. We pray in Christ's name, amen.