Turn with me now to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 7, we'll simply look at the first six verses. Matthew 7, verses 1 through 6. Let's give our attention to the reading and hearing of God's Word once again. Our Lord tells us, Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 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 from 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 from your brother's eye. 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. Remember the grass withers and the flower falls, but God's word abides forever. Amen. If you look in your bulletin this morning, you'll one, be surprised to see a bulletin title or a sermon title, but secondly, you'll see this idea, untwisting twisted scripture. And it's my intention for the next few months to take some commonly twisted passages and untwist them. Take passages that people like to use and consequently make them say something they don't really say. Powerlifters who call out Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ, and so. People appeal to 1 Corinthians 10 and say, well God never gives you more than you can handle. Jeremiah 29, I know the plans that I have for you, see brother? And there are other passages, too. And I think it's important that we recognize that, yeah, we have Scripture, but it's important that we do not twist it nor turn it to our own devices or likings, but instead to rightly reflect on it as it has been written and revealed. And so before us, we have a passage that falls into this category. It is probably one of the most well-known passages. Some might even argue that it is superseded John 3.16 as one of those passages that is quoted again and again. And yet in the quoting of it, it's pulled out of context. Society today likes to really come alongside of another and say, don't judge me. I've heard some of our youth in confirmation class, situations happening, and one of them will look at the other and say, just don't judge me. People in society, as situations are brought up, they will then say, you can't call me out for this. Yes, I might be living in immorality, and yet, Jesus says, don't judge, how dare you do that? Skeptics will look at this and ask, how can Jesus be viewed as being this consistent and loving individual? when he sets this challenge or this call regarding judgment. Individuals love to appeal to this passage and consequently use it as a defense mechanism in order to say, it's in, I was gonna say in black and white, but it's in red. Don't judge. So you just need to leave me alone. You need to let me do my own thing. How dare you come alongside of me to challenge you? Look, challenge me. Look at that. You can't even follow what Jesus says. And yet it's twisted. It's been turned. It's been shifted. It's been shifted because they've simply pulled it out of its context. One of the first keys to untwisting that which has been twisted is to note what is actually happening as it relates to this passage. Well, this verse is in probably one of the most familiar sermons ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. And in this address, Jesus does note the entirety of our life in these three chapters. He basically is hitting the highlights on every area of the life of the believer. Our relationship to God, our relationship to His word to the world, to the various things that we do as we live before him, even in our relationships. And yet, even as he sets up this summary or this call or this address, he does so in contrast and with a scathing critique of the religious. Better yet, the self-righteous. Those who would abuse the Old Testament and consequently would hide themselves behind their own morality without giving thought or interest as to what God has truly noted in His Word. And so as those who would abuse the Old Testament and assert their self-righteousness, Jesus highlights the inconsistency and the hypocrisy of that, and consequently he nails them line upon line, paragraph upon paragraph, chapter upon chapter, as it were, to note this isn't what it's all about. And he needs to do so because that's what everyone was familiar with. That's what was at the attention of God's people at the time. Because these were set up as the authority, as the religious, as the influential, as those who should be listened to. And so it's in that context that Jesus then is addressing, as one author notes, those who wore righteousness on their sleeves, but did not have it in their hearts. Those who were proud, unloving, and sought the approval of men." And it's in that context the statement about judgment comes to bear. You see, Jesus is causing us to see that there is a place for judgment. And so we're really getting into the idea of what is the principle being stated for us. The principle being stated is that there is a place for judgment. The problem comes about based on the inconsistency of those who are judging. Let's put it in the context of the Pharisees here. They were good people. They prayed, they fasted, they gave gifts. Everyone looked at them and went, wow, it's amazing to see these individuals. Outwardly, they checked off all the boxes and they met all the marks. Here's the problem. They didn't love God. They didn't love God as God said to love Him. They loved God on their own terms. They thought that God accepted them because of how great and how wonderful they were and of all the things that they were doing. And this influenced the way in which they addressed others. And so Jesus in turn is noting there is a judgment call. After all, Jesus himself judges. Look in Matthew 7, verse 6. We read this a few moments ago. What does he say? Don't give what is holy to the dogs. Don't cast your pearls before swine. He's not talking about actual animals. He's identifying people in this category, which we'll see in a few moments. Verse 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. I mean, can you imagine if Jesus said this today? If he started calling out certain individuals and saying, yep, You're false. You're wrong. These people exist. Individuals by the droves would stand up and say, Jesus, don't you know your words? You're not to judge. So he's not condemning judgment. He's not condemning this action. In fact, throughout the scriptures, we see a call that this ought to take place. just to name a few. Galatians chapter six, the spiritual are called to help others and do so in a gentle manner. In first Corinthians five, the church at Corinth was called to identify one who was a fornicator to address his sin for the purpose of bringing about repentance and restoration in his life. They had to identify, they had to call him out in love and address it accordingly. Paul in Ephesians 5 says, don't have fellowship with those who are the workers of darkness. Instead, reprove them. And lastly, John in 2 John 1 9-11 says, anyone who denies the Father or the Son should not be received in your home nor even greeted. Those are judgment calls there. Those are things that are happening, determinations that are being made. When he says, don't judge, he's challenging the manner in which we judge. That's really what's being brought out in verses one and two. judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." This is really the powerful reason that we need to give thought to how we deal with others. because he's noting that as we interact and engage and even challenge different situations in people's lives, it's going to manifest something. It will manifest what's happening in that one's life, yes, but more so it's gonna manifest what's happening in our own lives. It's gonna really show where our hearts are at. It's going to reflect how we think about God and how we view that God deals with us. Jesus is ultimately noting and he's even condemning that we not be hypercritical or that we be unfair or harsh or severe as we deal with one another, that we would somehow exaggerate the things that individuals are doing that we would be unloving or unkind even in the declarations, that we would ultimately be without mercy, that we would somehow come down and execute the law to its fullest extent so that individual will rightly and truly and finally understand that there's a consequence to what they do and they need to suffer for it. And Jesus is basically saying, Wait a minute. If you show this type of judgment to others, have you yet rightly understood the judgment that God has shown you? Because as we hear the context of judgment, what do we recognize? There's one day where we'll all die and we'll all stand before Jesus and we'll all give an account for our lives, even the judgments that we have made. And as we reflect on those, are we recipients and those who understand the grace that God has shown us or do we belittle it? Remember the Pharisees in the contrast of the prayer that Jesus makes, I believe it's in Luke chapter 18. You have the Pharisee and the publican who are there praying before God and the Pharisee is sitting there going, oh Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men, especially not like this publican over here because look at all the stuff that I do. I give, I pray, I fast. In some respects, he's sitting there going, God, it's amazing that you've made it all these years without me. No one can stand before God like that if we rightly understand who we are. And if we recognize our sin and our condemnation before God, and yet see how God has intervened, how God has intercepted, how God has overcome through the wonder of His grace and mercy, so that we then have been no longer seen as His enemies, but received instead as the children of God. The judgment that we show others is a standard or a reflection or a testimony to our understanding of how God's grace has been worked in our lives. How has God dealt with you? How has God dealt with your faults? Any of you been struck by lightning based on the last sin that you've committed? Any of you just seen the bottom drop out after you've done things that are wrong? Any of you had a recent visit to the mortuary because you ended up there on a slap? What's my point? God hasn't dealt with us as we deserve. God poured out His wrath on His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might be the recipients of His love. And if we understand that, we then change the way in which we deal with others. Jesus isn't telling us that we can't have opinions. that we have to stop thinking or forming ideas, that we should somehow stop being concerned as we might see error and sin in other people's lives, that we should somehow turn a blind eye to all sorts of faults, that we wouldn't come alongside of one another and to address them and to encourage them and to bring them along. He's not saying any of that, but how do you go about doing that? That's the key. That's the question. The way in which you speak and treat your neighbor, your fellow church member, your family member says a lot about your expression of the experience of God's grace in your life. And one who is quick to condemn or one who is unmerciful has shown that their soul has not been refreshed or strengthened by the mercy and love of God. And so what does Jesus then tell us? That we should go through some painstaking self-evaluations. We basically saw the principle stated, and we saw the powerful reason underlying the principle. And now we have some painstaking self-evaluations that we need to go through. What does Jesus say? Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye but do not consider the plank in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye and look, a plank is in your own? You hypocrite. Jesus' intention behind this is meant to give a funny picture. I mean, after all, we don't see individuals walking around with big, long beams sticking out of their eyes. It's impossible. You can't do that. We all know what it's like to get a speck of dirt or some sort of splinter in our eyes and the way that it can just become infuriating how it's just there and it just irks you and you wanna do anything and everything you can in order to get it out. But would you call someone who was blind? You ever go to a blind eye doctor? be a lot harder to determine one and two, right? As they're switching the lenses back and forth. Read the chart, what does it say? Well, I don't know what it says. Good job. You see the difficulty here? Here's this individual that sets themselves up as the one who can see, they can understand, they are able to recognize, and yet as they go to recognize, they're at a distance, they have something impeding their vision, and they're able to see some aspect of minutiae in someone else's life in order to be able to say, I'll get that for you. How can they get close? How can they come alongside to deal with it? Even more so, how easy they are to come to another and harshly and quickly criticize. And yet there's some blatant thing that needs to be resolved and addressed in their own. They see everyone else's issues, they offer all sorts of correction, they demonstrate themselves to be wise and able to give advice, and yet they can't understand their own circumstance. Do you see the hypocrisy? That's why I said that what we need is ultimately painstaking self-evaluation. Jesus doesn't forbid us to come alongside of another and to help, but we have to have our own house and our own lives in order. And if we were to do that, if we recognize the greatness of our sin and the ongoing nature of our struggles, and to see how much it's before us and how much it weighs us down, and the work that it takes, and the glory of God's grace, How are we gonna come alongside of the other individual who has some small fault? There's some questions that we need to reflect on as we go through some painstaking evaluations. Are you quick to judge the small faults of others and yet allow great sins to remain in your own life? Dads, are you hard on your kids for your faults that you see in them? Church member, do you look around in order to figure out the ways in which you can write everyone else and yet not take time for evaluation and reflection on your own circumstance? Do you recognize that there is actually degrees of sin? The beam versus the speck, both the same material but vary in size and perspective. How important is that matter really? Do you get more exercised over the sins of others than you do in yourself? How upset do you get when you see things that are happening in other people's lives and yet you're not upset at your own? That's why we read from 2 Samuel 7, Nathan comes and tells David this story. Hey guy, there's this individual, a poor individual, he only had one precious little lamb and some other one who had all sorts of stuff came and took that lamb and killed it because he didn't wanna sacrifice it for his own. And David's ready to get him. I'm gonna get that guy, and furthermore, he's gonna pay, and he's gonna pay over. And Nathan goes, you taking the time to look at yourself lately? Uriah, the love of his life, you took it, and you killed him for it. We may not be guilty of the sin of murder and adultery, but there's all sorts of sins that are present in our life that we allow to be pet issues, that we allow to remain present, that we tend to hide, or that we allow to continue to be present. And yet, as we have those things there, we then easily look out and wanna jump on all sorts of other individuals. And yet not deal with us. How often do you examine yourself regarding your circumstance? this examination isn't to beat us up. It's not to cause us to somehow feel that if we just go through this hard introspection that somehow or another that based on the effort of the introspection God will somehow love us or receive us. No, the point of it is to cause us to always cling, to always go, to always put ourselves at the foot of the cross and plead for the mercy and the grace of God. to wash us and to cleanse us and to reassure us and to strengthen us in our position in Christ's body, that it's not by us or by our efforts, but it's all by Him. And seeing the beauty and wonder and the glory of that position, it causes us then to reach out and to embrace and to encourage, to love our church members. And so Jesus says, as you go through that painstaking evaluation and you address it, then he says, perceptively discern judgment. He then says, go and talk. You will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. And then he makes this interesting statement. 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. Two parts to this perception. The first is as it relates to the church member. The second is as it relates to the world. But all of it must be as we rightly set our own lives in our own house in order Firstly, we'll then be able to deal with those. And yet, as we do, we will do so in the spirit of love, in the spirit of humility, as the scriptures call us to do. We will seek not to tear them down, not to discourage them, not to be overly burdensome, but instead, to build up and in a loving, gracious manner, connect them to the strength of the Spirit. the wonder of God's love, the kindness of the Savior. Self-evaluation leads to effective encouragement as we engage the believer. In that examination, we ought to be quick. to believe them, for love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. We will be thorough in our encouragement and talk so that we then would not simply make a pronouncement of guilt. The spirit of hypocrisy would go quickly to that action, but the spirit of humility seeks to address in a manner that yes, calls attention to the things that need to be called to, but to do so kindly. And it ultimately does not seek punitive damages, but seeks to be redemptive. It aims for restoration so that your brother has been gained and they have been effectively loved. But this goes beyond just simply the context of the church. For discernment and judgment, even in humility, must mean that we must make judgment calls as to those who are outside of the church. And so what does Jesus note? Be mindful of who you're dealing with there too. Don't give what is holy to dogs. Don't cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them, lest they turn and tear you into pieces. What is Jesus saying here? Is he against dogs and against farming? No. The idea of a dog was not a house pet. It's this wild, savage beast that roamed the streets, that scavenged through the garbage. Is that a word, scavenge? They dug through it. And as they were hungry, and as they went about their business, they didn't care who got in their way, they were dangerous, even violent to those around them. Pigs were unclean. Think about the issue of wild boars that are present down south, where they are these feral beasts that are dangerous to those around them, even willing to take off and devour small children. They're not some cute pig in Charlotte's Web. And notice what Jesus says here. As you deal with these dogs and as you deal with these hogs, think about what you're setting before them. Something that's precious, something that's beautiful, something that has tremendous value. Imagine taking a fine piece of art and putting it before a wild dog. What is he going to do? He's going to scratch and he's going to tear it up and he'll completely disregard it and its value will be no more. Imagine taking a pearl, a pearl of great price, a pearl that would cost a year's salary to secure, and putting it before this pig who might then take it, put it in its mouth, and either eat it or bite on it and find that it has no nutritional value and consequently spit it out and trample it down into the mud. You wouldn't take something that you loved or something that was important or something that was significant, a family heirloom, something of value and say, sure, let me put it here before this wild animal. And that's what Jesus is also noting. There is something valuable that we all have. It's the experience of grace in our life and it's the expression of grace as brought before the gospel. directing us to the Lord Jesus. And yes, we're called to put the word out. And yes, we're called to go forward and make disciples of all the nations. And yes, we're called to direct individuals from every walk of life to the good news that is found in the Lord Jesus, but we must be discerning. We must make judgments about that. There are times where it would be a waste to do that. because the individual is hard-hearted, because they're obstinate, because they scoff, because they ridicule, because they have no love, no interest, and no desire for Christ. They want to put him up in order to tear him down. They want to make fun of him in order to show that he is insignificant. They want to belittle him and do anything and everything they can to fight against the spread of his message. And Jesus says we must be on guard for that. Jesus gave this direction to the disciples when he said, when you go into these communities and preach the gospel, if they hear you stay, if they don't, leave. Paul on two occasions dealing with the Jews in Acts 13 and in Acts 18 said forget you as they began to ridicule and mock and make fun of the gospel and he went to the Gentiles. Jesus himself showed this in Luke 23. Just before he was about to die, he met with Pilate and he met with Herod. With Pilate, he talks and answers his questions. With Herod, he didn't speak a word. What was the difference? Pilate was ignorant about the gospel. Herod knew it. He knew of John. He knew of the disciples. He heard of John. He heard of them. He hated them. And so Jesus spoke not a word. And yet in our discernment, we humbly evaluate. We do so with sorrow, recognizing that this is an individual who's been made in the image of God, who is apart from Christ at the moment, and if they remain in that state, they will die and perish forevermore. This is an individual that needs the gospel, but isn't interested. and we at this moment should mourn and we should weep and we should reflect because we're brought back to the grace of God exercised in us. That's the heart for all of this. Jesus is not making a statement that says don't judge. Jesus instead is telling us Remember the measure of God's grace in your life, and as you do so, give reflection to all that you engage with, those outside the church, those inside the church. And may your step be directed by grace, may your eyes look through grace, may your heart be strengthened by grace, and may you evaluate yourself through that lens so that you in turn would so engage others. Jesus sets an important challenge for us because it's very easy for us to be judgmental without compassion. And the world responds. And yet what a testimony we can have when we say judgment tempered and directed with mercy. that we may be faithful to the call that the Lord has set upon us and engage one another with the eye of grace. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, as you set these things before us this day, cause us to recognize that we have no standing in your church apart from you. There isn't anything about us that commends us. And yet, how often do we deal with one another thinking that it's the case? How quick we are to jump on others, to put down others, to push others away, and we've forgotten that we are simply the recipients of your undeserved favor. Cause us to see that as the primary thing before us. May it be the way in which we look at all others. May it so direct us. May it be present in our lives at all times. And even as we come alongside of others and address the things that are in their life, Fill us with humility and love and compassion, recognizing that if we do not manifest that now, then we cannot seek it as we stand before you on the day of judgment. So burn this into our minds. and so direct our lives as we pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.