Our text for this evening is found in the portion of God's Word that we read together from the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 7 and the first five verses, verses 1 to 5. Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye." These words and their context, and as the Holy Spirit of God, we'd be pleased to help us meditate on His truth. The title we give our sermon this evening is Responding Biblically to the Sins of Others responding biblically to the sins of others. We often respond to the sins of others. We frequently respond to the sins of others. But I think we seldom respond biblically and the way that Christ teaches us to respond. So our text this evening concerns a very practical matter. but one that must be handled delicately. But more important than being delicate, we have to be accurate. We have to be biblically accurate. We have to preach and understand the text the way the preacher here preached the text and expected it to be understood. This is the Sermon on the Mount. The preacher is the only perfect preacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we seek to identify in this text how Christ preached the text and how he intended that text to be used in his church and by his church down through the ages responding biblically to sin. Primarily the sin we see in others, the sin we see in the world. Now the word judging here means to rebuke, to reprove, to challenge the unbiblical behavior and the sins that we observe in others. Sins that we observe in the world, and sins that we observe in the brethren, because the words that Christ here clearly tells us, this is a matter between brothers and sisters, as well as being about the world. Now, this is a passage and a text that has been abused. It has been twisted, it has been quoted out of context, and you all know full well by now that if you take a text out of its context, because it has no context, it becomes a pretext. It becomes twisted into something that man wants it to be. Man has an ulterior motive. Man does not want to be taught plainly by the Lord Jesus Christ. So they invent ways of taking God's word and manipulating it to achieve their own sinful ends, and there can be a myriad of ends. And so we must begin by explaining the context. Who was it that was taking the teachings of God and twisting them and resting them to suit themselves? It was the scribes and the Pharisees, the hypocrites, the false prophets, the religious leaders of the day who had for 500 years taken God's law and twisted it to suit themselves. It was no longer about God's glory. It was about religious observance and their own standing within the community. So when we read the Sermon on the Mount, which is in chapters five to seven of Matthew's gospel, as you know very well, Christ in every single verse is challenging the teaching of the day. The teaching of these religious hypocrites who were burdening the people with hundreds and hundreds of additional laws and prohibitions. And this was revolutionary. When we begin reading the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, we know the Beatitudes so well. These were revolutionary to those gathered on this mountain. They hadn't heard anything like this before. No wonder they said, no man speaketh like this man. This man speaks with authority. This man doesn't speak like the scribes and the Pharisees. They'd never heard anything like it. Christ was completely turning on its head everything that the Pharisees had been teaching these people. So we see immediately that this suggests to us that Christ is not forbidding. He is not censuring, judging the sins of others absolutely and totally. Because as we shall see, it must be done. It's a Christian's duty to challenge, rebuke, reprove, and judge the sins of the day and the sins in the brethren. But what Christ is censuring, what he is forbidding, what he is clearly prohibiting is judging others the way the Pharisees were doing it. That's what he's forbidding. Don't judge others in a pharisaical way. Don't be hard. Don't be merciless. Don't be brutal. Don't be unforgiving. Don't be self-righteous. Don't be condemnatory. That's not how Christians should judge one another or judge the world. One commentator puts it very simply. He says, we must judge others, but without ever being judgmental. And that's the hard part. That's the difficult part. The question is, how do we do that? How do we obey Christ? By judging the sins in others and in the world. but never veering onto being judgmental and holier than thou. Let's see what we can learn about this text to help us understand how to respond biblically to the sins of others. And for the children, we've got four C's this evening to help you remember how we should judge the sins of others. First of all, we must judge correctly. In other words, we must do it according to Christ's teaching, not our own twisted interpretation. This word, this Greek word judge, it's mentioned four times in verses one and two. It means, it can mean to be a judge, to be a civil magistrate in a judicial sense, but in the context it means making judgments. we would say making decisions, making assessments, distinguishing between things. Is this right? Is this wrong? That's making a judgment. It's distinguishing between two things, things that we see, things that we read, things that we hear. Some will take this and say that here is Christ teaching that Christians cannot be judges, they cannot be magistrates, they cannot be lawyers. That's the hypocrites who twist God's Word into something that isn't there, that's perverse. But neither is Christ saying that the Christian and the church is to remain silent when they see abhorrent sins being perpetrated in the world. We mentioned two this morning. Assisted dying, abortion. We are to speak out. We are to judge. We are to make a distinction between that behavior which is unbiblical and what Christ teaches on these matters. We aren't to remain silent. We aren't to ignore. And neither is the church to abandon discipline within its own bounds. Neither is the church to ignore sinful behavior by its members. How often do we hear when the Christian speaks out about sexual immorality, speaks out about unbiblical practices, speaks out about the visible church, speaks to brothers and sisters about their conduct, we hear, who are you to judge? How dare you judge me? Even within the bounds of the visible church. In the old days, if the minister or an elder came to your house, and said that you were doing something unbiblical, people would hang their heads in shame. Now they rebel. Who are you? Who are you to come and tell me? It's the spirit of the age that we're in. But just because it's difficult doesn't mean that the Christian has to ignore it. It must be done correctly. So Christ here is saying it is right It is right, the Christian must do it in the correct way, making these discernments, making these assessments. And all he's saying is, don't do it like the Pharisees. And how the Pharisees did it, is summed up in verse 1, judge not that ye be not judged. If we expand that to explain the teaching, what Christ is saying is, judge not like the Pharisees do, so that you will not be judged by the same standard and with the same motives that they exhibit. That's the thrust of the teaching. How did the Pharisees judge? Because we need to know that to avoid doing it incorrectly. Well, they judged, they reproved, they rebuked others for the tiniest thing, the tiniest infraction of the law. And they did it in a disproportionate way. The penalties for these minor infractions were perverse. They did it with a sanctimonious contempt for the people. They looked down with disdain upon the common man. So there was an injustice in their judging. It was condemnatory, or as we would say, it was judgmental. It was done in order to make them feel good about themselves and exalt themselves over these terrible sinners who were perpetrating such behavior. They were doing it with sadistic pleasure so that they would project an image of holiness in their own life. And that's not the way to judge others. You see, the Pharisees had deluded themselves that it was possible to keep the law. They weren't lawbreakers, not us. So therefore, we can condemn all those who break the law. The Christian must judge and must rebuke, but they must do it in a biblical way. What's the warrant for that? Well, we have that in verses 17 to 20. By their fruits ye shall know them. What fruit are these people bearing? What is the fruit of their behavior? What is their behavior saying about them? So if you see corrupt fruit, The Christian is entitled to say, this is unbiblical, not in a holier than thou, not looking down the nose, not to belittle, not to embarrass. Judging correctly should grieve the Christian. It should be done with a heavy heart. It should be done prayerfully, and it should be seen as a painful duty, but a duty that must be exercised nevertheless. And most of all, it must be done with a prayerful dependence upon God to be delivered from hypocrisy. Why? Because such were some of us. Such were some of you. Sinners saved by grace, do not speak in a condemnatory way about other people. So first of all, children, we must do it correctly. But there's three ways. we do it correctly. First of all, we must do it carefully. So judging correctly means exercising care, judging carefully. And verse two tells us the care with which we must judge others. that we must exercise this solemn responsibility, this obligation that Christ places on us when dealing with the sins of others. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, et cetera. In other words, Christ is saying, be very careful. how you exercise this judgment, because the way, the method, the manner, the style that you use to judge others, they will apply the same standards to you if your behavior ever begins to fall short. The same criteria, the same methods, the same standards, Note, it doesn't say avoid judging altogether. It says exercise biblical care. Go only as far as you need to go. Go only as far as warranted from Scripture. We are reminded of the text in 1 Corinthians. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. It tells us that we're all capable of falling. It tells us that the one who sits harshly in judgment over a non-believer or over a brother and sister, just remember, you could very soon, if the Lord removes His grace from you, you could be very soon sitting under the same procedures, the same judgment, the same discipline as you are currently lording over someone else. The roles could be reversed, the tables could be turned, and if you judge someone incorrectly, without due care, in a condemnatory way, what relish they will take when it's your turn to sit in the judgment seat. If you've wronged them, if you've behaved unbiblically, they will get their own back. exercise great care, remembering that there but for the grace of God go you and I. Go carefully because every one of us is capable of the sins that we see in others, is capable of the shortcomings that we see in brothers and sisters. Remember what Christ said to Peter. Satan hath desire to have you. And if the Lord permits Satan to have us, what sins would we fall into? And if we fall into sin, how would we like the brethren to deal with us? That's what this verse is saying. And what did Peter say? Do you remember Peter's bold statement? All men will deny thee, but not me. Everyone, these other 11 disciples, they're not as strong as me. They're not as good as me. A few hours later, he's swearing and blaspheming. and denying that he knows the Lord, he's associating with the world, he should have been more careful. When we judge the world, remember that in our unconverted days, we were guilty of exactly the same sins or similar sins. And when we deal with the brethren, Remember that we could be as guilty of the very same sins or the worse or even worse sins that the Lord in his good grace has not exposed. The private sins, the secret sins in every one of our own hearts. How ashamed we would be if others could see into our hearts. So let's exercise care. We must tread carefully when judging the world, when judging others. One man puts it this way. He says, we must judge while employing all our judgment to ensure that we judge with all biblical judgment. Because judgment, reasoning, thinking is a faculty of our God-given soul, analyzing. Our reasoning and our conscience tells us when something is right and wrong. And it is our reasoning and our thinking as regenerate Christians that tells us when something is not biblical, when something is unscriptural. So when exercising those judging faculties, let's weigh things up carefully and be exercised, but still responding and acting. And we see, thirdly, how we do that. We judge clearly. So we must judge correctly, we must judge carefully, and we must judge clearly in verses three and to five. In other words, we have to have clear lines of sight. We have to have clear vision. There has to be preparatory work done in the one that is judging before that judgment can be correct. And that's something that must be done hour by hour, day by day, week after week, month after month. Why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? The word for moat there is, we would use the word a skelf, a tiny, tiny little almost invisible splinter as compared to a beam, the largest supporting roof beam in a building. If you're standing behind such a beam, you can't see a thing. So what Christ is saying is if you have a sinful beam in your own eye, how dare you look upon your brother or your sister or even the world and pick up on the tiny little motes, those things which are almost invisible. Christ says, this is wrong, this is hypocrisy. If you have sins in your own life, you have no right to criticize the sinful behavior of others. Before you judge others, remove the mass of sin that is in your own life. And then you'll be able to see. Then you'll be able to judge. then you will be able to guide and correct others. The hypocrites that Christ is condemning, the scribes and Pharisees, judged the most minor of things in people's lives. The paralytic in John chapter five of the Pool of Bethesda, they challenged him because he was carrying his bed on the Lord's Day. and they robbed widows' houses, the beams. But look at the tiny little infraction of the law. The law says you can't carry your bed on the Lord's day, let's go after him. That's what Christ is condemning. Woe unto you, he says, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Eight times in Matthew chapter 23, he condemns such a hypocritical way of judging others. He says, how dare you? You have no right. And neither have we. If we are regarding and harboring sins on our own lives, we've got no right. to criticize the tiniest misbehavior, unbiblical behavior in others, that's hypocrisy. But of course we know that Christ is speaking comparatively because none of us are sinless. And yet the minister and the session have been appointed by God to exercise spiritual discipline over a congregation, but we're not sinless. So what does this mean? It means that we have to ensure that our own standing before God is right. We are still called to judge. We are still called to reprove. We are still called to exercise discipline in the church. But we can only do that if we have a clear conscience before God that we don't have some huge beam in our own eyes. Examine yourself, dear Christian. Examine yourself, dear elder. Examine yourself, dear deacon. Examine yourself, preacher. Whether you're a hypocrite for criticizing the small infractions in others, and there's some huge beam in your own heart that nobody can see but the Lord of glory. How do we respond biblically then? Well Christ tells us, sanctify yourselves. Sanctification, holy living, mortification of the sins of the flesh, honesty before God in prayer about our own personal sins. My sin is worse than the sister's sin, but I must go and speak to her. My sin is worse than my brother's sin, but I have to go and speak to them. It's a tricky one. Personal piety is the way that we can judge clearly. And that's a sobering challenge, isn't it? We're probably all sitting there thinking, I can't judge a single sin on anybody else. There's enough in my own bosom. And that's exactly what Christ is saying. Your own house has to be in order. Your eyes must be clear of the beams, because if the beams are there, the beams will ensure that you cannot respond clearly, carefully, and correctly to the sins of others. We see fourthly and finally, the correct way of judging. Carefully, clearly, and compassionately. Judge compassionately. While it's not, explicit in our text. Whenever we seek to respond biblically to anything, our model is the Lord Jesus Christ. We imitate him in the way that he responded to the sins in others. And how does Christ deal with the sins in others? Well, the sins in the hypocrites, we know. Woe unto ye, scribes and Pharisees. He wasn't afraid to call them out. But how did he deal with the harlots and the drunkards, the blasphemers, the addicts, the gamblers, the lepers? He went in with them. He exercised and demonstrated compassion. Oh, He was condemnatory in the extreme to the religious hypocrites. But with the poor, lost, ignorant sinner, and with the poor, erring disciple who had fallen, He exhibits corrective, loving, compassionate chastisement. He doesn't condone. He doesn't ignore. He calls them to repentance. And he says there is forgiveness to be found with me. He dealt compassionately with Zacchaeus, a robber, a thief, a publican. He dealt compassionately with the rich young ruler. Behold how he loved him. He dealt compassionately with doubting Thomas. And he dealt compassionately with swearing, blaspheming, disowning Peter. How thankful we should be that Christ deals compassionately with his people. But compassion is not to be confused with weakness, because dealing with the sins of others compassionately takes great strength, because the easy thing is to do nothing. The easy thing is to ignore, but it's unwise. Compassion must be exercised wisely to the glory of God and for the benefit of the person who is being rebuked. You'll never criticize someone or browbeat someone or embarrass someone into the kingdom of God. You'll never browbeat someone back into the congregation. How does Christ speak? Christ says, I will heal their backsliding, and I will love them freely. I will draw them with cords of love. With the cords of a man have I drawn them. That's the tone of Christian judging. Not standing shouting at people belligerently, not pointing the finger at them, not telling them that they're going to hell, not criticizing them, but showing the compassion that Christ showed to you, dear Christian, the hour that you first believed and went to him in repentance. And our own blue book, what we call the blue book, our own practice, teaches us that it is this compassion which is the motive for the discipline within the church. There are three marks of a healthy church. And you can gauge every church by these three measures. And the three measures are this. The faithful preaching of the gospel. Is that church faithfully preaching the gospel? They will be a healthy church. Is there the faithful administration of the two sacraments of the New Testament church? Where there is faithful administration of the two sacraments, you have a healthy church. And the third strand is the faithful and compassionate administration of church discipline. Where church discipline is not exercised, you have an unhealthy church. How does our blue book put this, our practice? Listen to this, it says, church discipline and censures. are intended to awaken the conscience of the offender so that he or she in penitence may seek the mercy of God and in due time be restored to the fellowship of Christ's church. That's the intention of church discipline. That's the intention of judging sin in others. How can I restore? How can I be of help to restore this person to the fellowship of the church of Christ, which their sin is robbing them of? How do we do that? Well, one man far more able and eloquent than me says this. The only way to ensure that we will employ compassion when we judge others is to exercise brutality when we judge ourselves. This will remind us that God does not judge his own people in the fierce vengeance that they deserve. but with his wondrous lovingkindness in Christ Jesus. We sang it in Psalm 141, didn't we? Let him that righteous is me smite, it shall a kindness be, let him reprove, I shall it count a precious oil to me. So that's how we respond biblically to the sins of others. How did we begin? Remember the quote that we began in the introduction. We must judge others without ever being judgmental. Why? Why must we never be judgmental? Particularly when we're judging and reproving the sins of the unbeliever, the worldling out on the streets. Well, how do we know that that vociferous atheist, that antagonistic violent drunkard, the blasphemy femur, the sodomite, the harlot, how do we know that one day they will be visited by the saving grace of God? Imagine, imagine the first thought that they have is, I remember that Christian was really nasty to me. I remember they spoke really unkindly to me. That's why we must judge compassionately and correctly, because we're not all the Lord's people here, not once fornicators, murderers, adulterers, drunkards, and blasphemers. Oh, yes, we were. but now we're washed, now we're sanctified, now we're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So therefore, if we are washed, sanctified, and justified, we must deal compassionately and carefully. Let us seek to imitate Jesus Christ in all our judging of others, and let's be brutal when we judge ourselves. May the Lord bless His own Word to us. Let us pray. Eternal and gracious One, how piercing is the sword of Thy Word. It is quick and it is powerful, and we pray for grace to apply it to ourselves. that we would remember that we were once dead in trespasses and sins, and Christ did not deal with us in a condemnatory, sadistic way. He dealt with us compassionately and in love. Grant unto us wisdom to be wise in our dealings with one another, to be careful in our dealings with the world, that we would go out on the morrow if we are spared with the wisdom of the serpents, and yet that we would be as harmless as doves. Teach us, O Lord, to hate sin, to hate the sin within ourselves, to destroy the beams that are in our own eyes. and then we will see clearly to help others. We thank thee for the Lord's day. We thank thee for the sufficiency of thy word. Forgive all that we have thought and said and done amidst within the sanctuary. Forgive us compassionately. Love us freely. Heal the backslider and convert the unbeliever to the glory of thine own name. Forgive our sins and hear us for Jesus' sake. Amen. Our closing praise is Psalm 101. The first four verses, the first four stanzas of Psalm 101. I mercy will and judgment sing, Lord, I will sing to thee. With wisdom in a perfect way shall my behaviour be. O when in kindness unto me wilt thou be pleased to come, I with a perfect heart will walk within my house at home. 1 to 4 of Psalm 101, to God's praise. I now say Judgment day, Lord, I will sing to Thee With wisdom in a perfect way Shall my behavior be When in kindness unto me wilt thou give place to come, I with a perfect heart will walk within my house at home. I will endure no wicked thing before mine eyes do thee. I hate their word that doth it shall not cleave to thee. A stubborn and a froward heart, depart quite from it shall. A person given to wickedness I will not know at all. Let us stand to receive the Lord's benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.