Now please take your Bible and turn with me to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 6. And while you're turning there, I want you to think about a virtue. What do you think about when you think about the word virtue? A character trait that is considered good and noble and upright. Well, the society in which we live today values one virtue in particular almost above all the others that they consider virtues. It praises this virtue as an opportunity to be a peacemaker in the world, as an important key to maintaining civility and enabling people to get along. This character trait anyway, this highly valued virtue in today's society is, can you guess what it is? You got it. Tolerance. D.A. Carson says that tolerance is today as non-negotiable a virtue in the culture at large as motherhood and apple pie were in America in the 1950s. Not only has tolerance grown to a highly prized position among the virtues, But this notion of tolerance has taken a turn from what it was generally conceived to be in days gone by. It has undergone a shift. It used to be that tolerance represented a willingness to defend a person's right to believe what they believed even if you disagreed, or to disagree with each other agreeably. However, today's understanding of tolerance is characterized by an unwillingness You are considered tolerant if you are unwilling to say that someone else is wrong in their viewpoint or in their moral conviction or in their action. This is especially true in areas of morality and religion. In these areas, one thing that is wrong, the one thing that is wrong, is for a person to assert that another person is wrong. To do so is to commit the socially unpardonable sin of intolerance. To do so is to be told, you're not supposed to judge. Well, what about that? Are you supposed to judge? Well, generally people will quote a Bible verse when they say that. They generally will quote Matthew 7.1. Judge not lest you be judged. Well, we're going to look at that today and see how we should understand what Jesus said here, what Jesus meant for us to understand here. So let's stand together and read the Word of God, Matthew chapter 7, 1 through 8. We are continuing our study here of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. 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 this 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 a log in your own eye? you hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how 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." Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you this morning, just mindful, first of all, of your greatness, of your mercy, of your tenderness, of your faithfulness and of your righteousness, Lord. To you, we come to praise you because that you are spotless and flawless in every part of your being and everything that is contrary to your flawlessness. to your perfection is evil and wrong. And yet we come to this text this morning desiring for you to teach us as to how we need to live in a world where there's wrong everywhere, even in our own hearts, that we need to admit and deal with properly. And so, Lord, give us ears to hear, we pray. Give us understanding. Give us a heart to go from the understanding to transformation in our lives, in our attitudes, and the way that we involve ourselves in the lives of others. To you be the glory for this passage of scripture, Lord. Help us to break it forth as you meant it, as you mean it. And we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So let us recall that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is preaching with His disciples around Him, the multitudes in the background, and He is declaring to them the Kingdom of God. And He, from the very beginning, opens up for them, the people that are in this Kingdom, that there are certain people who make up this Kingdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. And Jesus characterizes then the entrance into this kingdom and he goes on to characterize the distinct nature of the people who are in this kingdom. They are salt. They are light. And these people live in a certain way. They live with a love of the law of the Lord. They obey him. And they see that obedience to God is more than a superficial outward thing. It starts in the heart. It starts from the very root and core of our being. And coming out from there we obey Him and we serve Him in that way. And as we do, then we live in this world. And in this world we are we are involved in the things of this world, the property and the needs that we have and Jesus addressed these in the two passages that we just recently dealt with saying on the one hand we shouldn't lay up for ourselves treasures of these things and on the other hand we should not be anxious in living our lives in constant pursuit of even the basic needs that we have on the earth but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things He will take care of. Now this morning we come to look at how the kingdom citizens are to relate to sin in the world and in themselves. And particularly the sins of the world and even the sins of their fellow kingdom citizens. Are we to judge? Are we to discern? Are we to act in accordance with what we observe? Well, this is what we're going to look at this morning. And I first of all want to have you think with me about this truth about Matthew 7, verse 1, that it is probably the most misunderstood verse in the Bible. I want to direct your attention to the most misunderstood verse in the Bible. Judge not that you be not judged. Now, I want us first of all to just think, well, how is this verse misunderstood? That won't be very hard because it's the way you hear people doing it all the time. People regularly say things like the following, you're not supposed to judge. It's not your place to tell me what is right and what is wrong. It's wrong for you to make moral judgments about people. You shouldn't be making judgments about sexual behavior or marital fidelity. It is not your place to say that homosexual marriage is wrong. Who are you to tell me that I'm a male when I feel like a female? or a female when I feel like a male. And it is not your place to tell me anything that I want to do that it's wrong. You're not my judge. That's judging. And the Bible says, judge not lest you be judged. So from the outset this morning, I want you to know that these remarks and others like them represent a misunderstanding and a misapplication of what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7 verse 1. I want to show you then why this verse is misunderstood and in showing you why it's misunderstood you'll come to a right understanding but we are going to get to clearly articulate what the right understanding is. But let's just consider why it is wrong We're going to make a judgment here. It is wrong to quote Matthew 7.1 as a defense whenever anybody tells you that something you're doing is wrong. How is it misunderstood? It's misunderstood first because of a failure to look at the immediate context. No verse in the Bible is a complete island. They all come together. They create for us a context in which to read every sentence and every word. And everything in the immediate surroundings feeds into a proper understanding of each word and each sentence. But it also is true that the whole of the Bible feeds into every single word and every single verse and understanding it. properly. Every word must be carefully considered in light of its scriptural surroundings or we will be headed off the tracks of accuracy and understanding. And so let's first of all make the point that The verse, the first verse of Matthew chapter 7 is misunderstood because there is a failure to understand the immediate or apply the immediate context. The verse is right here into properly understanding the first verse. So we look at verse 2 of Matthew chapter 7. And here we see a verse that speaks volumes about what Jesus says in Matthew 7-1. Look at verse 2. 4. With the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. First of all, the word the In English, what do we know? It is a definite article. It is declaring a one particular kind of something, or this is a one thing. And the wording here indicates that there are different, therefore, kinds of judgment. And Jesus is talking about a particular kind of judgment, the judgment that you use. That is, there's a kind of judgment you can use that is different from all the other kinds of judgment you could use. And so Jesus goes immediately from saying, judge not lest you be judged, to pointing out that there's different kinds of judgment. And he has a very particular kind of judgment in mind when he says, judge not lest you be judged. And then there's this little word for, which connects verse two to verse one. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. It is an indication that verse two is like an underlying foundation for why he says what he does in verse one. Because you will be judged with the judgment that you use and you will be judged according to the measure that you use. Therefore, do not judge. Do not judge in the way that there's clearly a way that is being warned about here. We learn that there are different kinds and different measures of judgment and the ones that God will apply to you are the ones that you use. It's kind of like reaping what you sow. So when Jesus says, judge not, he is speaking of a particular kind and a particular measure of judging. He further explains his point when he proceeds to verse three. Here he asks people, Why it is that people see wrongs in others but miss huge sinful matters in their own selves. He calls persons who judge like this by a particular name and it's a rather judgmental name, you hypocrites. So what is Jesus doing right here at this point in the sermon? He judges. He declares a certain kind of person to be a hypocrite and that is not a good thing. And then he tells them that what they need to do is what? Stop judging. That's not what he says. What they need to do is to take the log out of their eyes so they can judge better. Take the log out of your eyes so that you can help others. My brothers and sisters, you cannot do what Jesus is saying that we must do in these verses without some form of judging, discerning, and declaring. Discerning right from wrong and declaring right from wrong and working in a under an understanding of the fact that there is right and wrong and we must behave in accordance with that. People who say that Matthew 7 verse 1 means no judging period are shown to be mistaken because they fail to pay attention to the context in which Jesus makes the statement. The verse is further misunderstood because of a failure to consider the whole of the Bible, the whole biblical context. Let me give you just a couple of examples which underscore the necessity of some kind of judgment. We would see as one example John the Baptist who was charging Herod with sin because he had Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. John, when he was saying this is sin, is judging, he's declaring what is wrong and he's saying to Herod, you're guilty of it, it's sin. Then there's John 7 verse 24 where Jesus says, do not judge by appearance but judge with right judgment. You can't get much stronger than this statement made by the Apostle Paul in Galatians. To the Galatians in chapter 1, Paul is very concerned about a right gospel and a wrong gospel and he judges those who declare a wrong gospel. He says, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed, which the word is eternally condemned. Again, I say, as I've said before, so now we say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. The Bible is a book. of laws and commands and precepts of the Lord with the implication that they are to be loved, cherished, and obeyed. And there is judgments all over the place for those who don't trust and obey. The breaking of God's law incurs judgment. That is why His wrath is coming. And God has put people together, in part, in churches now, to remind one another of what God approves and of what God disapproves. And to exhort one another to walk in His ways. And God has put the church in the world, in part, to be a light which shines out in the darkness saying, this darkness is sin and it is wrong. And there is light that God has given to us, and His light is right, and we must proclaim it, and we must stand with it, even when we stand like what looks to be small lights in the midst of a great darkness in the world. And when you even think what the Bible says that preachers are supposed to do, preachers and Bible teachers, what are we supposed to do? Well, listen to what Paul the Apostle instructed to Timothy. He was giving him instruction as to how he was to teach the Bible. And Paul tells Timothy this, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. And he tells him this, reprove, rebuke, and exhort. You cannot, you cannot do what Paul is telling Timothy to do without judging. without judging right from wrong and declaring it so. Rebuke in itself means to confront the wrong in another person. You can't rebuke then without some form of judgment going on here. So to assert that judging wrongly means to make no judgments at all is to miss the context of Matthew and it is to miss the context of the whole Bible. There's a third reason why I think people misinterpret this verse. The first two were interpretational, scriptural. This one is because of who people are by nature. The text is misunderstood because of our natural bent. None of us wants to be told that what we are doing is wrong. Who has the first reaction in your heart and mind when someone says, you're not wrong, you're not right, you made a mistake? Any way to correct you, what is the first and initial reaction that wells up deep within your soul? Now be honest, because I know what it is in me. That's called the flesh. I don't like it. You don't like it. None of us like it. And the world certainly doesn't like it. We would like that this verse disallowed all judgment period because our flesh would be all the more happier. Jesus declares in John 3.19 that everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed. There is an evil motivation in the flesh to escape judgment and so we are prone to look for that way of escape. One of the things that is really hostile to our heart and that we despise a lot is when somebody else tells us we're wrong. And so we want to escape it. And so if we can erect a wall to protect ourselves from people saying that, we will. So let's find a verse. Even if we don't have any respect for the Bible, we'll go to, oh, judge not lest you be judged. So we pull it up, it sounds good, and we can use it as a defense to keep people from saying that we're wrong. And so you have three reasons here why people misunderstand and misinterpret this verse. It's because of the immediate context, the greater context, and because It's what we would want. We want to be protected from people or even from the Bible pointing out our mistakes, our wrongs, our sins, our transgressions. So individuals who care very little for the Bible as a whole seize upon this verse to assert that you're wrong for telling them they are wrong. And not a few people who claim to believe the Bible do the same. But they are all wrong. Jesus is not saying there must be a suspension of moral judgment in his followers. Rather, it is judging in a particular kind of way that he disallows. The most unloving thing that we could do would be to keep silent about sin and let people perish in it. And so let's look next this morning at the judging that Jesus is disallowing. The judgment, the judging that Jesus disallows. He is clearly not disallowing all judgment, but what kind of judgment is Jesus instructing his kingdom citizens to avoid or not to carry out and why? He is strong about avoiding this kind of judgment because if you do it, you will be judged for it. There's a warning that comes with it. So first of all, we need to think, as we look at this, that you be not judged, let's be clear as we talk about what kind of judgment that Jesus is addressing here, that we realize that it is an incredibly serious thing. It is out of character for what Jesus has been setting forth in the lives of his kingdom citizens to judge in the way that he's talking about. And clearly it is hated by heaven if it is to be judged. And by the way, this seems to be a fitting place for us all to be reminded that there is a day of judgment looming on the horizon. where men will give account to God and God will judge according to His holy law. And His judgments rendered will reflect His absolute holiness and glory and unbending stance of upholding and supporting His law in the world. The disdain that human beings have for being told that we are doing wrong, that we are sinning against God, would lead us to take refuge in false ideas that there is not a coming day of judgment. Such refuge is but a mirage. False ideas will not change the fact that a day of judgment is coming, and it will be a fearful day indeed. 2 Corinthians 5.10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Romans 14.10. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. The picture we get about God on that day is not going to be that he's going to suddenly become a wilted judge who doesn't care about righteousness, but one whose law that he has upheld and brought before the world since day one of creation will be as indomitable as ever. And so believers will stand and give account. Unbelievers will give account as well. We are warned so that we might escape being judged or judging wrongly. So what is this judging wrongly? In this text right here, there are two marks or two characteristics of judging, the kind of judging that Jesus is disallowing. So it is judging with these two marks that we'd see that Jesus has in mind when he says, judge not. These two marks actually fit together, but they also fit together and they lead to one another. And they are these. One mark is the absence of mercy, merciless judging. Judging with no sense of pity. And the other mark is the mark of self-righteousness. Judging others as though you're wrong and there's nothing about me that's wrong. The judgment that Jesus condemns is judgment without mercy and without the admission and acceptance of one's own sinfulness. In verse two, we see that the judging that Jesus condemns is judging in a way that we would not want to be judged ourselves. But what's the warning here? For in the way that you judge, you will be judged that way. You don't want to be judged in a way you wouldn't want to be judged by. And so what is that way? The warning is that we who judge wrongly will be judged in the way that we're judging. And this warning, the fact that it's a warning, is a bad sign. It's not a good sign. You will want to avoid this kind of judgment before God with which many are judging each other. And so what kind of judgment is this? And in a word, it is unmerciful judgment. It is judgment without pity. It is hard and insensitive. It is almost happy to find in someone else and happier still to point out the sin in someone else, almost to gloat over their sin in order to point out how bad they are. This is the way the Pharisees judged. They upheld the lesser parts of the law, the ceremonial parts of the law, and even man's invention parts of the law in order to excuse not keeping the greater parts of the law of the moral law God gave. And usually the result of their attention to the surface rather than the hard issues was the hurt of other human beings. They were without mercy. They were without care for anybody but themselves. Take, for example, the day when Jesus was walking with his disciples through the grain fields. And it was the Sabbath. And you know, on the Sabbath, six days you shall work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, you don't work. And the Pharisees and the rabbis through the years had added all these traditions to say what was work and what wasn't work. And so here are the disciples walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and the disciples were hungry. And so they picked the heads of the grain off of the stalks of the plants, and they were harvesting on the Sabbath. They were hungry, so they picked the heads of grain, and so they were eating the grain. And the SS, Pharisees, aha, Jesus, did you see that? Your disciples, they're doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath. Well, you know what Jesus said? You Pharisees, have you read your Bible? Did you read about the time when David was hungry along with his men? Do you read about the time when he went in and ate the bread of the presence? Because he and his men had no food. And it was lawful. It was OK that he did that because the implication is that hunger and the need for food and the fact that David and his men were starving to death meant there was a greater care for their physical well-being than for the ceremonial laws that guarded the bread of the presence in the tabernacle. And so Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, you people are merciless. He says to them, he wished they had known that God loved mercy. God desires mercy. And charged them with not understanding God's desire for mercy. And then Jesus went from there, on still the Sabbath, and here's a man with a withered hand. And the Pharisees are still in their SS mode. They're still gathering evidence for prosecution. And so they asked Jesus, is it lawful to heal a man on the Sabbath? And Jesus, and the reason for them asking this was they wanted to accuse Jesus, and Jesus said, Jesus healed the man. And he healed the man saying, it is lawful to do good. on the Sabbath. It is lawful to show mercy, and that is in complete and direct opposition to what these Pharisees were all about. So what did the Pharisees do when Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath and proclaimed that it was lawful to do good? Oh, he is such a kind man. He is such a merciful man. We need more men like this. No, they went off and conspired how they were going to kill Jesus. how they were going to destroy Him. That is judging without mercy. It is judging to condemn and not correct. It is judging to condemn and not convert. It is judging to condemn and not to help, not to redeem. It is judgment performed in order to show themselves superior. This is what we could call judgmentalism. There is no compassion, no love. Their judgment will be without mercy as well, according to what Jesus says in verse 2 here. In the way that you judge, you will be judged. It reflects your heart. And kingdom citizens do not have this kind of heart. They are poor in spirit. They mourn. They are peacemakers. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. It's not that they don't know the difference between sin and righteousness. They do. Oh, they do. And therefore, when they discern between right and wrong, when they point out sin and righteousness, it is not with hostility and hatred and self-promotion, but with mercy and tenderness and concern for those involved. So one thing I do not want you to take from today is to say, yeah, It's right to be intolerant in the world that we live today because Jesus is saying you need to judge, but you shouldn't have a judgmental spirit about it. That is one of the things that makes it wicked. This is the kind of judgment he is talking about that he is disallowing. Now, corresponding to the absence of mercy, this judgmentalism which Jesus is denouncing is marked also by an air of self-righteousness. The idea, you know, I don't have any sin. The idea that I'm good, I'm elite, and so my judging is looking down my nose at how bad these other people are and seeing myself as completely separate on a different level, on the elite level, while I look down at them. This is what Jesus is disallowing. Refusal to own up to sin itself. Having a haughtiness, an arrogance, pride, and being blind to one's own sin. Look how Jesus illustrates the point in verses 3 to 5. 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? Now let's think for just a moment, a couple weeks back when we were talking about Jesus saying you shouldn't lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven because what happens is those treasures cloud what? Your eyesight. And your eye is the lamp of the body. The way for light to get in your body, it comes through your eye. And so if your eye is clouded, Light can't get in and you're inwardly, he's not just, he's not talking, he's going metaphorically from the eye to the spirit and to perception of truth and the cloudiness that worldly goods keep us, the cloudiness that worldly goods cause us to have so that we don't see clearly and the darkness in our understanding and in our heart is exceedingly dark because it's clouded out, because the light is clouded out by all this stuff. And so with that in mind, think about how Jesus now has got this, he's still going here with the eye. And he says, see, you people. You shouldn't judge this way, like a person with a log in your eye. Because what would happen? If you have a speck in your eye, ever got anything in your eye? Who hasn't? If I get a fuzz in my eye, I can't stand it. So I have contacts. I wear them every day. And some days I just about want to claw my eye out because a fuzz got in there. Because I go, what is it? I take my contact out. I can't see anything. Clean it off with the solution real good. Stick it back in. Ah, comfort. If a fuzz gets in your eye, it distracts you. Think what it would be for a splinter or a piece of wood to be in your eye. But Jesus says about these who are judging this way that he despises and that he disallows, you're judging with a log in your eye. And you just think about, okay, if the eye is the lamp of the body, you've got a log in your eye, you can't see a thing. You cannot see a thing. And it's not just blindness physically. He's talking about the spiritual blindness that comes with this thing that is keeping you from seeing. Now the speck, that is the word speck that's used here, probably the word itself is more than just a piece of dust, more than just a tiny dot, but actually probably a little more substantive, like a stalk, a stem, a stick, or perhaps a splinter, but still much smaller than a log. Nevertheless, it is sizable and is seen by Jesus to be a very serious issue. He's not talking about things that don't matter when he talks about the speck. He's talking about things, however, that are much less offensive and problematic than the log. All sin is bad. All sin is rebellion against the Holy One. All sin destroys fellowship with God. All sin is terrible, but some sin is extreme in its wickedness, and the log represents such sin. What is it that keeps someone's attention on the lesser sins of others while seeming oblivious to their own more serious sins? It is in itself the sin of self-righteousness. Here's the one who believes they're better, who believes they're not a sinner or not that bad of a sinner. Yes, the log in the eye is an obstruction that clouds the light, and how great is the darkness in the soul. We see this faulty judgment illustrated in the little parable that Jesus told about the tax collector and the Pharisee, both of whom went to pray. And as you remember, hopefully you remember this parable, the two men want a tax collector. And why is this so astonishing? Because tax collectors are considered by Jewish society to be the lowest of the low. They're the outcasts. They hang out with prostitutes and thieves. They're all bad, bad, bad, bad people. And so here's a really rotten person, and he draws near to pray to God. And on the other hand, here is a Pharisee. And all of Jewish society knows that the Pharisees are so zealous for the law of God, and they make a big deal about it. They are the holy and the elite. And so here are The elite on the one side, here's a representative, the Pharisee, and here is a terrible old tax collector drawing near to God. And in this parable, Jesus displays the prayer of the tax collector. The tax collector is not even willing to look up. He beats his breast. And he prays simply, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And in contrast, the Pharisee reflects the judgment, the judgmental self-righteousness, even as he prays. Listen, fresh and new to what he said, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like that tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Oh, if only the Pharisee were like the tax collector. If he were more like the tax collector, then he might have been able to help the tax collector. But no, he thinks he is better than that. He is deadly oblivious to his wickedness and his self-righteous, judgmental spirit is the thing that Jesus condemns right here when he talks about the log. The one with the log lacks a heart that has dealt with his own guilt. He has no mercy but is full of self-righteousness. That is his log. And until he comes to confess his own guilt, his own sin, his own pride and haughtiness, he is no good to anyone but to stir up strife and contention. People have splinters in their eyes. They have obstructions. These are our sins, and we need help. We need to help each other. And such help requires judgment, but not this kind of blurred and obstructed judgment. Kingdom citizens do not soft-pedal sin. They are concerned about the righteousness of God. They want to be holy in all their conduct as He who called them to be holy. But they realize that it cannot happen without their first ripping the log of their own self-righteousness out of their eye. They must be willing to see themselves for who they are before the holiness of God. They are the sick. who need a doctor. They are the wandering sheep who need the shepherd to come and get them and take them home. There are no help to the other sheep until they first get things squared away with the shepherd. They must repent of their hypocrisy. The great shepherd, by the way, the great shepherd died on a cross made out of logs. made of wood, hung there for our sins, hung there for the self-righteous who will repent. He hung there for people with specks and splinters in their eyes, for our sins, for us to pay the penalty due our sin against God. Glory to Him He has provided for our salvation if we will take this, take the log out. and meet him at the altar, which is not this place. You know, we sang that song a while ago, come to the altar. We're not coming. This is not the altar. This is a podium from which we preach the word. And the altar is the place of sacrifice. This call to the altar is a call to come embrace the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for sinners. bow before Him in the great provision that God Himself has made of sacrifice so that we can be reconciled with Him. But you won't come there until you first reckon with the fact that you are a sinner separated by God even by your own belief that you're okay, that you're not that bad, that everybody else is the filthy, rotten sinner out there. That's the kind of judgment that Jesus is disallowing in this text. And then finally, I want you to see the judging that Jesus endorses. Because he's not saying, do not judge. He's saying, don't judge this way. But what he is saying indicates that there must be a kind of judgment. And so this is how I'm going to conclude this morning. The kind of the judging that Jesus endorses. Now, let me just preface this. You know, we think about how bad and rotten our society is. and the things that we must do to raise the awareness of our society to the fact they're sinning against God. So we have these big social issues in our day where our society is just casting away the stuff that God has clearly said is right. How do we come to them? And how do we come to another brother or sister? It's very important that you don't hear a preacher saying what I'm saying this morning and say, yeah, I can go out and talk to people any way I want to. I'm going to stand for truth and I'm going to put my finger in their face. That is not what Jesus is approving here. That's the very thing he's not approving. But he's not saying you shouldn't say anything. So let's hear what he's saying. And Jesus is not calling for his kingdom citizens to go soft on sin. He certainly didn't go soft on sin himself. I think how he called out the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. because of all the things you do, all the appearances of righteousness that you have when you deny the very heart of it. I would set before you, in fact, that among the greatest offenders of this command, judge not that you be not judged, are those who see it as a prohibition of judging altogether and those who use it to say, don't judge me. Because for them, the whole core is whether you judge or not. And there's all kinds of sin in all of our life. And then we tell others, don't tell me what's wrong with me. It's wrong of you to tell you for you to tell me what's wrong with me. Then that becomes itself a violation of what Jesus is teaching here. So be careful against denouncing those who love you enough to speak to you of righteousness. Now, what is Jesus calling us to? Not to go soft on truth and righteousness, but he is telling us to go about it in a certain way. What way is that? Well, first of all, this. He is calling us to humility. Jesus is calling us to humility. He is calling for sinners to see themselves as fellow tax collectors and to beat our breasts, beat our chest before God for our sin. This is what will enable us then to get the pieces out of each other's eyes. As Paul tells the Galatians, If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. So judge with mercy, judge gently and humbly. Secondly, Jesus is calling for clarity of vision. Getting the log out of your eye is necessary to be able to see. He is calling for the clarity of vision that comes when you're willing to admit your own sin. daily be on your face confessing sin and humbling yourself before God. And may that always be a major part. May you go when you when you must go to help a brother or a sister get a speck out of their eye. May it be that you get up off of your knees. On your way. That you've been humbling yourself before God. seeking clarity of vision and to make sure that you're not going because secretly deep within there is a motive to prove to this person you're better, you're right, they're wrong. Thirdly, Jesus is calling for caring confrontation. Now I say again, use the word confrontation, don't use it lightly, I use it with some caution because I have seen before in my life plenty of people who take the need to do this kind of thing to the limit, and they become the policemen for everybody else. And again, that is the very thing it seems to me Jesus is proscribing in what he says here. It's not our mission to go find everybody who's wrong and make sure everybody knows about it. When we must, we must. And when we do, we're motivated not by ourself, but by care for them. Verses three to five, three times. You see one word repeated three times in verses three to five here, and it is the word brother. There is the emphasis here upon a relationship between each other that is kind of a mutual thing in the getting the specks out of the eyes. This is part of what brothers and sisters are for spurring one another on to love and good deeds. Iron sharpens iron. Brother helps brother get the painful and obstructing specks out of each other's eyes. Listen to Hebrews 10, 19-25. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, Let us draw near, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. Jesus is calling us to caring confrontation. And finally, Jesus is calling for discerning discipline. Look at verse 6. 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. You simply cannot identify a dog or a pig without some judgment. And you can't do what Jesus is saying you ought to do here without some judgment. The dogs here are not Labradors or Collies or Corgis, but half-wild scavengers. They were dirty, dangerous and despised. Pigs. Well, we already know hopefully they're unclean and Jews wouldn't have anything to do with pigs. Probably the only pigs they were custom to were also wild pigs who probably maybe would have accompanied the dogs to the trash piles in search of something to eat. These two figures represent those who have not the desire for the word. They got desire for garbage. They are consumed with the world. In Philippians, Paul warns of those who mutilate the gospel and trust in themselves, and he calls them dogs. They reject the word. They reject the gospel. Jesus' instruction about dogs and pigs is this, identify them. And when you identify them, don't give them what is holy and don't put before them your pearls. When you encounter people who reject the ministry of the word and act in hostility to the truth, you're trying to give it to them and they reject it and they hate it. They reject the true gospel. Then let them go. Don't keep giving them what is holy. Don't keep sharing with them the precious pearls of the faith. Pull back. Go elsewhere. That is judgment. Kind of like when Jesus told the disciples, when you go into a city and you're teaching them there and they don't want to have anything to do with you, shake the dust off your feet and go somewhere else. That's what Jesus is saying here. Share holy and precious parts of the gospel truth with those who are receptive. That doesn't mean try to figure out in advance. You know, we all, I don't think, I wonder if they'd like to hear that today. You only know a dog or a pig by what you see them do. Jesus isn't trying to get us to not talk to people. He's saying, when you talk, when you're working with them, when you're sharing, and they are hostile and hateful, you don't need to worry about continuing with them. Go to somebody else. That requires judgment, both to discern, detect, identify, and then to enact the behavior that he says to enact. The dogs and pigs will not be interested in what you have to say. They will just trample you down because they hate it. So see, Jesus actually does call us to judge. And he does actually call us to act judiciously. Do not be silenced by the self-righteous world in which we live that says it's wrong to speak up about right and wrong. Just make sure that you do it in the right way without self-righteousness and without evil and with merciful intent. It is not a delight to have to condemn sin, but it is a delight to see a sinner repent of the sin. First, therefore, humble yourself before God, take out the log, cast yourself on Jesus' mercy, and then help the brethren in our quest to rid ourselves of sin for the glory of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we just thank you for the opportunity today to look squarely at a text that is so misused and abused in our society and even many times in the church. Help us to faithfully respond, to respond with a determination to be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, but to be humble, to be holy, to be conscious, intently conscious about our own sinful selves as we deal with one another. Prayerfully, Lord, in a way that is gentle and God-glorifying, but in a way that sees specks being removed all the time and lives being conformed to the image of Christ, who is the image of God, in whose name we pray. Amen.