This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. All right, good afternoon. If you have your Bibles, let's open back up to Luke's Gospel, chapter 6. And we'll be picking up in verse 39. Luke chapter six, verse 39. This is the reading of God's word. He also told them a parable. Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. 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? How can you say to your brother, brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite. First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. That's a reading of God's word. Please have a seat. Let's pray. Father, help us to draw near once more. Help us to hear clearly once more. And Lord, help us to trust you once more. Put down that old man who wants to cry out for autonomy. Silence all the world's murmurings left over in our hearts and our minds. Lord, we want to hear you. We pray that you would help us and we pray that you'd be pleased with us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So I called this sermon, Take the Log Out of Your Own Eye, which the way Steve read it this morning made me think that maybe it was coming across a little heavy. Yeah, yeah, a little heavy, but there's just no getting around it with this passage. It's interesting, you come to a passage like this and where we just were was, for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And then Luke goes right into, we also told them a parable. Can a blind man lead a blind man? And so on and so forth. And it's really, it's understandable if you read that and you think, I'm not sure what the connection between the two sections is. And that turns out to be just a reality of navigating the Gospels. The Gospels, you have to picture Jesus's life and his ministry stretching over years, and yet we have something condensed down two chapters. And so sometimes that compression is made evident because it goes very quickly. I sort of suspect that Jesus had other things and he transitioned into this a little more gently, but we find ourselves jumping right into a thought that you're not always sure why it connects to the passage before. I just wanted to encourage you, when you read Jesus, there certainly are times like that. You're just not exactly sure why we got to where we're going. There's different theories on how exactly these connect. It's been suggested that the theme of blindness relates especially to the danger of judging others while being blind to one's own faults. You can imagine that. But some people also are just going to say, this is just a new topic. And it seems to be loosely arranged around the idea, loosely again, of leadership. something like that, but whatever it's here, whatever the transition was, you find in this passage, it is full of wisdom from God and my goodness, powerful conviction for how we live our own lives. I read for you a bit at a time and we'll just ease through this because there's sort of distinct sayings here. Verse 39, he also told them a parable. Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? The picture is really clear. It's really actually vivid as well. It's very approachable. You have a blind man characterized by not being able to see all the various dangers about him. And so he might draw on the help of a guide. That only helps if the guide can see. What if the blind man enlists the help of a blind man? Well, there's no help there. They both end up falling into a pit, in Jesus's words, because the leader couldn't see either, and the follower entrusted himself to a leader no more capable than himself. Now, what are we supposed to take from that? Two points, two points for sure. First, we don't want to follow blind leaders. You're going to find this point will apply to any type of leadership from politics to business to education. We don't want to follow blind leaders. That all makes sense. But the emphasis here is most certainly on the spiritual realm. We will reap the fruit or the consequences from following blind leaders. from trusting in blind leaders. And when it comes to your soul, we're talking about eternal fruit and we are talking about eternal consequences. A blind spiritual leader can result in outright spiritual ruin. What happens when we follow a blind spiritual leader? He may lead us right into danger, right into folly. What happens when we follow someone who redefines the gospel? you will find that we reap the consequences of that salvation, this gospel. What happens when we follow someone who conveniently alters the Bible to match what he wants it to say? Well, then we will reap the consequences of men who edit God's word. If we are someone, if we are, excuse me, if we are disciples of someone who has abandoned the way and the truth and the life, Well, then we simply follow them down the way of destruction. It doesn't matter. Sometimes we want to say, well, I had really good intentions. I followed in sincere faith. It doesn't actually matter. If you follow blind leaders, you follow them at your own peril. First point seems to be then that we all must be prudent and thorough in who it is we follow. In many ways, we are going to reap what our leaders have sown. Second point though, and this applies to each of us as we take on roles of leadership and roles of influence. We don't want to be that blind leader either. Start with pastors. Seems fitting that a pastor has to start with a pastor. So you don't think I'm giving myself a pass here. Not all of us will be pastors, but for those of us who are, we tremble at the idea of leading the flock of God astray. We will give an account of the stewardship with which we have been entrusted. The scriptures say we will be judged with greater strictness. Now, aside from Jesus, there is no such thing as a perfect pastor, but that's no excuse for apathy, is it brothers? No excuse at all. As pastors, we must strive to be seeing leaders. We must be those who grow in wisdom, who grow in knowledge, who grow in our understanding of our Lord. We must seek counselors from within the body and without the body. and the authors we read as well. May the Lord protect us from ever leading his flock into a pit. The pastors, they're far from the only kind of spiritual leader out there. They're husbands, they're fathers. If you are a husband, if you are a father, you will answer for how you lead your family. You are not put in your place of leadership in order to get your way. God did not empower you so that you can have your opinions and your preferences. You are to lead for God's glory and for the good of your family. And when you take on that role of leadership, every decision you make now is a leadership decision. Your family will reap what you sow. Not a single one of us can afford to take this lightly because we will answer for how we lead. So fathers and husbands, may we be those who strive for wisdom, for a deeper understanding of our God. May we be humble as we submit to God and seek the input of others, even when other people want to call us out because we're wrong. May we be humble to seek that out. May the Lord protect us from ever leading our families astray. This teaching isn't just for pastors. It's not just for fathers. It's just not just for husbands. It's for mothers too. The fathers are called to lead their families, but we all know this. There is so much that the mother is doing without the father being anywhere near it. All day long, especially in my household, all day long, mom is the one who must discipline faithfully. Mom is the one who must lead and counsel wisely. Mom is the one who must point those children to their Lord Jesus Christ. passions of a mom, the structure of her life, they are on display all day long and those kids will reap what she has sown. Her guidance and the points she emphasizes with her life, they will have a profound impact on the well-being of those children. She is far too important to ever even humor not taking her place of leadership and her place of influence seriously. She too must be one who seeks to grow in the Lord, to grow in the word. She too must be humble. seeking wisdom, seeking correction from others. The Lord did not give you kids so that you could just go your own way and go about it with your own methods and your own preferences. He gave you kids for his own glory. May the Lord protect our mothers from leading our families astray. You'll find that this teaching at some level or another, it applies to all areas of influence. You put it in some totally informal circumstance and you imagine your friend, the one you trust, basically you and one other person in this whole world. And in that moment, they decide they're actually going to open up. They're actually going to seek your counsel. And they say, what do you think? Are you a blind leader or are you a seeing one? And the answer is gonna flow right out of your life. Do you invest with your life in growing in wisdom? In growing in the Lord, you can only give to them what you have already received, right? Again, the Lord is not just calling us to share our opinions and to share our preferences. As much as possible, we need to be those who share God's truth. We want God's opinion on all these things. That is when we honor God. And that's when we really bless others. As I go through this, I mean, I hope to stir you up by way of exhortation, but I also want to pause because I want to minister and I really don't want to forget. I want to minister to the heavy hearted too, because there are those of you who are not even the closest thing to hard hearted. You have a soft heart towards this, and you reflect on how you have influenced others, and you know you have failed. You know that you have sinned, and even worse, in your sin, you have taught other people how to sin. Child of God, there is grace. There is grace greater than your sin. Never doubt it. Never doubt it. Rejoice in a God of grace who pours grace out upon your failures. Rejoice in that God, believe in that grace. And I want to encourage you, put your hand back to the labor again. Don't go away heavy hearted. You get to verse 40. A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. You find that this emphasis on blind leaders, it starts flowing very naturally into this verse where Jesus is going to relate to how a disciple relates to his teacher, how a disciple relates to his teacher. And the picture here is of a disciple following one teacher. And I make that clarifying note because we might think of this in much more complicated terms. He's not talking about a situation where you've got seven teachers at school, several teachers at church, you've got dozens more on the internet, It's simpler than that. One teacher, one teacher. And this is the one you follow. And this is the one that you're growing up to be like. And in this relationship, it's just understood that a disciple is not going to surpass his teacher. What he can hope for, what he can hope for is that after he has been fully trained, he will be like his teacher. So take that, combine it with the teaching right before. And you see a really clear application develops. If you follow a blind leader, are you somehow going to become a seeing disciple? You hear that? If you follow a blind leader, are you somehow just magically going to end up being a seeing disciple? I mean, no. The obvious answer is no. At the very best, you're just going to end up being like your teacher. At the very best, you are going to end up being another blind teacher. So again, we see how important it is in the decision we make when we choose the leaders we follow. It's so important that we choose good leaders. We will be like them. We will be like those we follow. We want leaders that we would be happy becoming like. They should model godliness. They should model wisdom in ways that we want to acquire for ourselves. Now this is kind of a humbling thing to preach because I can imagine you're sort of looking at me and you're thinking about the pastors here and you're thinking, I'd like to be better than that. Um, actually, yeah, yeah, that's true. And you're, you're sort of on a good line of thought, assuming you're doing that with a good heart. You're actually on the right track. If you look at the human leader and you think, well, we can do better than that, can't we? Now I encourage you, hold us to high standards. We should be held to high standards. Anyone you follow should have to meet some high standards. But human leaders, human shepherds, they will always let you down. They can't help it. It's not possible for them to be good enough. It's not possible for them to be strong enough, to be a leader that you in every single way would want to emulate. There is only one shepherd who you would want completely to be like. And it's the chief shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. We're just under shepherds. That's what pastors are, under shepherds. And our goal is we're hoping to point you along to that true shepherd. Our goal is that somehow by the Lord's grace, the Holy Spirit's work in our lives, that we give you a little bit more of a desire to be like Christ. Jesus alone is worth following. And he's worth following all the way to the cross. Now you get to 41 and 42. I'll read them for you again. As we follow others, we're going to exercise influence over others and their lives. Jesus is going to give us a much needed teaching and really a much needed rebuke. Here you go. 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? How can you say to your brother, brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. All right, here's the picture. It's actually, again, one of these really clear pictures. There is a guy who has an outright log in his eye. But sometimes I think we miss how compelling this visual is supposed to be. Go back for me, rewind it, like in your imagination, back to the time when you hadn't quite heard this, repicture what this is saying. He has a log in his eye. By log, we mean log. It's not like some metaphorical thing. Log in his eye, like a heavy piece of timber that you could like, you know, hold up a roof with or bar a door with. And it's in his eye. You just imagine what's life like for a guy with an outright log in his eye. He's walking around, he's bumping into stuff, he's running into people. I mean, this is just, you're doomed to that kind of life with a log in your eye. And I don't want you to miss, because sometimes we get a little too serious sometimes, and we forget that Jesus was actually fairly funny sometimes. This is not a serious, sober picture. This is funny. This is funny. This is outrageously funny. And so this is actually a well thought out preaching tactic I'm about to do here. I'm trying to preserve the feel of this picture for you and to do it in a way that keeps it fresh. So we are going to name this guy, we will call him Log Face. Somehow, Logface becomes aware of a speck in another person's eye. So Logface goes over and says, hey, let me help you with that speck. All right. Some of you have actually had eye surgery, haven't you? Eye surgery is this like remarkably delicate affair. It's incredible to me that we do things like this to eyes. Right? To eyes. How would you have felt? Picture that. Those of you who had had eye surgery, you know, I picture you're on some kind of reclining thing, maybe a table, I don't know, whatever it was, right? How would you have felt if they bring out the surgeon and he's wearing a blindfold? Right? That is like red alert at that moment. You will fight that man off before he touches you. Right? Cause I mean, the idea here is that there is no way a surgeon would be qualified to do that delicate work if he can't see. Same picture here. There is no way that log face is qualified to go and remove a speck from your eye. And that's what leads into, it's a funny picture, but it is in fact also an outrageous picture. Log face will not be able to help. Log face is only going to cause more problems. And really, if log face is so concerned with stuff in people's eyes, How about you deal with your own I, first log face, right? Deal with your own problems before you start coming and trying to solve mine. In our own lives, we so often ignore our sin and we want to focus on other people's sin instead. One more time. In our own lives, we so often ignore our sin and instead we want to focus on other people's sins. Why do you think I repeat that? Because I know, I absolutely know that some of you don't get it. I'm not saying that because I think you're terrible people. I think you're great people. Most of you, at least. No, I don't say that because you're terrible people. I say that because this is human nature. Unfortunately, we have a very hard time seeing ourselves clearly. And it's kind of the honesty check for you. Let's just fess up that a whole bunch of us right now are thinking, man, so-and-so really needs to hear this. A few of us, right? You're like, I really wish that person would read this. I'm downloading the sermon, burning them a CD, taking it to work or wherever, they are going to listen to this. If you are thinking of someone else right now, you are completely missing the point. If you are thinking of someone else right now, you are completely missing the point. If you are thinking of other people and not yourself, I warn you, Jesus has some stern words for you. And it goes like this, you hypocrite. That's what he says to you if you're thinking about other people and not yourself. You actor, you pretender. Oh man, being called a hypocrite, it's like one of the worst insults possible. It's right up there, way up there. If you've ever been called a hypocrite, it's the kind of word that takes the breath out of a room. It's the kind of insult that makes your heart beat faster and the blood rush to your face. It's the kind of insult that actually makes you want to hit back and hit back as fast as possible, literally or metaphorically, whatever. Being called a hypocrite just demolishes our pride. See, let's be clear, being a hypocrite, it's not merely failing. A hypocrite is someone who proclaims high standards for everyone else, but doesn't require them of themselves. So in that moment, if you get nailed as a hypocrite, It is your own standards that condemn you. When we are guilty of being hypocrites, it's shameful. We feel it. The shame is crushing. We hate hypocrisy. We hate it in others. And if you can prove it, prove it to us, we hate it in ourselves. And the sad truth of the matter is that we have all played the role of the hypocrite. Turn a blind eye to our sin, and it's like I've got x-ray vision for yours. Ask me what sins I'm working on in my life. I don't know, I'll have to get back to you. Ask me what sins you should work on in your life. Well, if you want to start somewhere, you can start with A, B, C, right? It's really easy for me to talk and think about your sin. We are so concerned with holiness and sin just so long as it's not our holiness and our sin. Christians are often called hypocrites. And instead of getting defensive, let's just be honest. We are. We are hypocrites. Our hypocrisy really drives home the extent of our sinfulness. It's because in hypocrisy, we actually have a visceral connection to the ugliness of that sin. It truly bothers us. Some sins have stopped to bother us. and that reflects a calloused conscience. But with hypocrisy, it really bothers us. We know it is ugly, but it turns out hypocrisy is only a fraction of our sinfulness. This is a lot like this morning's sermon in that way. We are a million times worse than merely hypocrites. Yet Jesus Christ loved us. Yet Jesus Christ died for us. Yet we have the hope of glory and we have the hope of life everlasting. I really don't know why God should want to be around a bunch of hypocrites like us. But good news, brothers and sisters, our God is the God of hypocrites. The gospel is for hypocrites. What amazes me in all this is not that we are hypocrites, that's actually fairly obvious. What amazes me is that the Son of God would ever die to save hypocrites. We can't stand hypocrites, yet Jesus Christ died for hypocrites. What marvelously good news that Jesus Christ is the Savior of hypocrites. This is love. That even while we were hypocrites, Christ died for us. This is love that even as we have continued to be hypocrites, God sent his Holy Spirit to dwell among us. This parable really helps us to see Christ with fresh eyes. And it also demands that we look at ourselves. When we are in conflict, which just life being what it is, most of us are probably in some kind of conflict right now. When everyone around you is throwing mud, hurling accusations, the disciples of Christ are meant to stop and look at themselves. We don't sit around and ask ourselves who has the greater share of the sin. We don't sit around and ask ourselves, hey, who was it that sinned first? We look at ourselves. We look at ourselves again in that unflattering light of the word of God, and we ask, where is my sin? Where is my sin? Four reasons I give you, four reasons. that you should start with your own sin. First reason, start with your own sin because your sin is always there. We are always struggling with our sin. We know, if you asked, are you perfect? You'd say, no, I'm not perfect, which means you are still struggling with your sin. We know we are not perfect. We know we will not be sinless until we're seeing Christ face to face. So start with your sin because you know it is always present. Second reason, start with your sin, because as far as you're concerned, your sin is the most important sin going on. Why do I say that? See, you can't actually repent on behalf of other people, but you can repent of your own sin. When you are in sin, any amount of sin, it is your relationship with God that is affected. Other people sin, it doesn't affect your relationship with God. It doesn't. But your sin always does. You remember King David could say that his worst crimes, his worst sins, they were ultimately not against the people he had sinned against. They were ultimately against God. Even your smallest sins are sins against your holy and loving Father. The most important relationship in your life, that is the relationship with your God, it is affected by your sin. So do justice to your sin. Third reason, start with your sin because you are of no use to others so long as you haven't dealt with your sin. See, God does in fact expect us to minister to one another. God does in fact expect us to go after the speck eventually. We are called to speak truth to each other. We are called to seek to restore one another out of our sins, out of our folly. We are called to rebuke one another when it's necessary. But how can we do any of that when we ourselves are blind? Let's say we give ourselves full credit that we have good intentions. We just want to help. Okay, if you just want to help, then you cannot help until you have dealt with your sin. You are no good to others if you are not looking at yourself under the light of God's word. That doesn't mean you wait until you're perfect. We always fear then, well, what can I do? No, it doesn't mean you wait till you're perfect. If you had to wait till you were perfect, you would never help anyone. But you must be regularly and habitually pursuing your sin first. You must be. Fourth and final reason. Start with your own sin for the sake of your testimony and for God's glory. how shameful it is that Christians are known for our hypocrisy and not for our humility and not for our repentance. The world should know us, whether they agree with us, whether they like us, they should know us as those who are striving for our own holiness and not merely the holiness of those around us. So some concluding thoughts. In the face of your hypocrisy, there are two important conclusions. First, the most important marvel, marvel at the savior who redeemed and intercedes for hypocrites. I tell you, the gospel shines all the brighter when we understand the depths of our darkness. And second, Important, not as important, but important. In any and every situation, don't be a log face. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you forgive us for being hypocrites. Forgive us that we have dealt lightly with our sin and we have dealt severely with other people's. Forgive us that the thoughts that keep us up at night are how big of sinners the world is full of and how big their problems are and how much they need to work on things. Lord, help us to see the log in our eye. Help us to do justice to this teaching. Help us to be faithful. And we praise you, the God of hypocrites, the God who redeems hypocrites, who sanctifies hypocrites. We thank you. Thank you for bearing with a people like us. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.