Before we get started, let's pray for our time in God's Word. Father, again, we're so thankful for this opportunity to meet together. I love everyone that's in this room, and I love those that aren't able to make it this week, Lord. We're so thankful for your work in and through our church. And as we just sang out, Lord, we pray your name is glorified above all. We pray we never lose sight of what it's all about and your abundant goodness to us. We pray for our time in the word dealing with a often misunderstood passage. I pray that you would teach us and correct us and train us in all righteousness so that we'd be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We love you, Lord, and thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, today we continue our study in the Gospel of Matthew. Last week we dealt with, I think, a very relevant topic with not worrying. I don't know if anyone in here has a problem with worrying, so maybe it's not that relevant after all, right? None of us worry about, you know, where our next meal is going to come from, when our next house payment, our car payment, our, you know, taxes, whatever it is. So we dealt with that last week and Jesus gave us plenty of reason not to worry. Basically dealing with, if God so cares for the birds of the air, if He so cares for the flowers of the field, the grass that is here today and tomorrow dies, if God cares, and He does, how much more does He care for you? And so we have ample reason to trust in him. We also looked at last time. Not only does God care for the little things, and that's good reason to trust him for our lives. But if it's if God has supplied us or provided salvation, and he has how much more anything we need day to day, month to month, year to year, the rest of our lives, God knows how to provide and salvation. we dealt with last time, was the impossible. We cannot save ourselves. There is no possible way that any human being can get right with God, except for God to intervene. And so He did. He sent His Son, who is perfectly sinless, and He took our sin upon Himself, died on the cross to pay our sin debt. And anyone who believes in that alone, that good news of what he provides, receives eternal life. It's as simple as that. And that flies in the face of something Jesus has been talking about, dealing with self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is the disease that has plagued us from the beginning. Eve heard those words, that in that day you eat of that fruit, you shall know good and evil. It put the arbiter of truth, the deciding factor in the hands of man, whether something is good or evil. We're not equipped to make that decision, because we are not creator, we're creation. Only God can determine what is evil. I had a conversation with my best friend on our camping trip. He doesn't see the world the way I do from a biblical filter. And he talked about how you cannot have good without evil. That it was kind of a yin and yang type of relationship. And I told him, well, that's essentially recycled paganism, but continue. And we got to the reality that evil, or I see the reality from scripture, God's authoritative revelation, that evil exists, and evil is, we had to define it in our conversation, evil is anything that goes against God's character, will, attributes, those things. So evil is that which is in direct opposition to God. And self-righteousness is evil. And so Jesus has been dealing with this because a major problem going on in the first century was the religious leaders. Imagine that. Religious leaders can be self-righteous? No. That's impossible, right? Perhaps the most self-righteous. The religious leaders of Jesus' day were self-righteous, saying, well, I do this. I don't do that. I do this. I don't do that. I am righteous before God. God loves me. In fact, watch me do this good thing by giving to the poor. Watch me with these flowery, very pomp and circumstance types of prayers. Watch me. Notice me. Behold me and my worthiness. It's all self-righteous. Well, we now turn the page to a very important topic that I'm sure you all have heard at one point in your life, perhaps you've even said at one point in your life. We've been dealing with Jesus' discourse on the law, so the self-righteous religious leaders were adding to God's law, saying, do this and don't do that, things that God never said. So he dealt with true law-keeping, murder, adultery, false witness, He dealt with true worship in the area of giving, in the area of prayer, in the area of fasting. We dealt with living. How do we live truly according to God's ways? Well, we dealt with wealth and checking our priorities. Don't store up treasures on the earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break into steel. Rather, a worthy investment is storing up treasures in heaven. How do you do that? By doing what God has said. We talked about last week carefree living. How would you like to never struggle with anxiety? I talked about how our generation, particularly my generation, but the world we live in now, anxiety is at an all time high. Why are we so anxious? I think that message was very pertinent. Whether you struggle with anxiety or you will struggle with anxiety at some point, that passage gives us every reason to trust God, even though we don't know how it's going to work out. We don't know how God's going to provide. We can trust Him. Well, today we're going to look at self-reflective living. How do we live self-reflectively, particularly with the area of pride? This cuts at the heart of self-righteousness. And I couldn't think of a more self-righteous title for this passage than how to judge people. How do we as Christians judge people? It's almost like the world thinks that this is actually a message that we come to church and learn, right? There's a class that we go through on how to judge people, how to be judgmental in our attitudes towards people, how to be whatever. But I like that title. because I think this passage is very misunderstood. In fact, I laughed. I do my sermon prep on my computer at home, and so my Bible is one continuous thing. And so I open up my Bible to read, and chapter 7, verse 1 ends, and then you have to turn the page. But it's funny, I don't know if Schofield intended to do this on purpose, but oftentimes this is where people think this passage ends. So I'll just read verse 1. Judge not that you be not judged. And then I have to turn the page to keep reading. But some think that's all it says, right? Judge not, lest you be judged, or that you be not judged. And sometimes we think this passage is saying or forbidding judging. We as Christians forbidden from judging? Well, I don't think that's what Jesus is saying. And so we'll look at what is Jesus saying. And in so doing, we'll look at how to judge people according to true righteousness. Because that's what he's talking about, right? What is the true righteousness of the law on murder? What is true righteousness on the law of adultery, on false testimony, or false witness? What is true living? What is true giving? What is prayer? What is true judging? So they outline following righteous judgment by, number one, understanding justice. Understanding justice. So to read 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. So a few observations from this, if we want to judge righteously, or according to true righteousness, there are three things we need to know. And I'm going to work in them in kind of a developing order. But the first one is understanding justice. If you are going to judge righteously, you need to understand something about justice, particularly God's justice. Downstairs we've been talking about the sons of Israel, or the sons of Jacob, and how Simeon and Levi had their birthright forfeit because of years prior their sister Dinah was violated and molested by a neighboring people, or one single guy. And their response was to wipe out the entire city, to wage war and kill hundreds or thousands. Did they understand justice? Were they capable of making that judgment or condemnation to fall upon those people? No. Not in the slightest. So likewise, if we want to judge righteously, we need to understand justice. First of all, we see the command Do not judge so that you are not judged is essentially the idea. Do not judge so that you are not judged. Now, some point out that in the Greek it's a present tense imperative. Many of you know what an imperative means. It's a command. In other words, it's not a suggestion. It's a command. There's authority behind what is being said. Some highlight that the present tense means stop. Stop judging so that you are not judged. And I think that's Possible, but context determines whether that is exactly what he's saying. Now, I think it's possible because what is he dealing with? A present issue that's going on in self-righteous Israel. There was judging and condemning happening among the people. And Jesus was correcting that thinking. Stop judging so that you are not judged. Fair question. Does the book of Matthew end right here, chapter 7, verse 1? Are believers forbidden from judging? You might have heard this, right? If you say something critical or whatever context, you've perhaps heard that you shall not judge me. Your Bible says that. You better not judge me, right? But what does the rest of the text say? What is the context in which Jesus is speaking? We've dealt with this issue already when we talked about prayer. When we look at Jesus's words on prayer, that is not everything God has to say about prayer. Jesus has a particular issue in mind, and he addresses that issue, and it enhances our understanding of the broad topic of prayer. Similarly, Jesus has a particular issue in mind dealing with judging But it's not everything God has to say about judging. In fact, I'm going to do my best to try to capture kind of the broad sweep of how not only are we not forbidden from judging, we are encouraged to judge. We must make judgments as believers. It's called discernment. But how do we do so righteously and not self-righteously? Then we see the justice of God's judgment. So judge not that you be not judged. Four, with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. In other words, thinking back to justice, right? I've used the big fancy word in Latin, lex talionic justice, like for like, the idea of eye for eye, tooth for tooth. It's a retributive justice system aimed at perfect justice or recompense. And so God's system of justice is perfect. And Jesus highlights this by saying, with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. So in other words, if you think about a corrupt trader using a scale to measure something out, and he's got it weighted against whoever's buying and selling with him so that he prospers, Well, God will use that scale against them, and they'll receive the same punishment or pain that their customers felt. With what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Now, how freeing is it that we're under grace, right? If God has paid for all our sins, Do we factor in grace in our dealings with other people? Or how about ourselves? Sometimes we could judge ourselves where God has not. I know I've struggled with that. And in talking with some of you, some of you struggle with that. Do you know that you're forgiven? Do you condemn yourself where you're free? Now I'm not saying if you're dealing with a conviction, you've got a sin issue, or whatever it might be, that God isn't working in you and through you. But sometimes we as believers walk through life with some sort of unworthiness. That's why I highlighted last week we sang Amazing Grace, right? The most famous hymn. Saved a wretch like me. Now that's true. We are, as sinners, wretched before a holy God. But when you're saved, are you still wretched? Not at all. So why do we act wretched? That's a big problem. And so perhaps this judging needs to be more personally applied in not judging ourselves, but certainly for others also. Judgment is not forbidden, but rather doing it the right way. How do you handle judging righteously? So we think of judgment as it existed in the Jewish law context, which is Jesus's context, right? The cross has not happened. The grace age has not happened. Now, with that being said, did grace not happen prior to the cross? Was God just ungracious with mankind? Of course not, right? He was gracious throughout history. He always has been. But during that period, he dealt with people, specifically Israel, through the law. Now under the Jewish law context, judgment was carried out by the priests, right? The Mosaic law talks about if someone is caught in this trespass, stoning. Or in that trespass, there's a certain sacrifice they needed to do. But judgment was carried out by the priests, or should have been carried out by the priests. But it wasn't always that way. It was also pronounced by the prophets. I've explained and I think this is really helpful in understanding the context of some of those books that can be terribly confusing. If you have no background of the Bible and you try to read one of the prophetic books, There's all this figure of speech and imagery and forth telling and forth telling that it's what in the world do we do? How do we sit through this? But if you understand a few contextual things, it comes to light. And I've explained that prophets were essentially God's attorneys bringing the indictment against Israel. Israel, the nation, entered into a contract or a covenant with God, saying, we will keep the Mosaic Law, and we will be blessed as a result. God said, if you keep it, I'll bless you. If you disobey, there's consequences to that. Now, in God's grace, before executing the discipline or the consequences, He would send what we call prophets. And the prophets would call the nation to change their mind, to repent, to return back to their covenant obligations. And if they did, they're fine. If they didn't, judgment is surely going to be upon them. And so its judgment was carried out by the priests. It was pronounced by the prophets. However, there was an issue in Jesus's day where religious leaders judged by the Mishnah. What is the Mishnah? Essentially, it's rabbinical tradition. So the same thing in the Christian Church broad category Church We've got it over the course of time a bunch of man-made laws, right? God never said this he never prescribed this but we do it because that's the way Some old holy dead guy did it, right? Well the same thing happened in Jesus's day And it's essentially legalism. This list of do's and don'ts that God never said, but some holy guy said, well, we better do it. And if we don't do it, we're not a good boy or a good girl. Well, these religious leaders would judge according to these things in their self-righteousness, right? The common Baptist, don't drink, don't chew, don't go with girls who do. Baptist sees you drinking or chewing or going with a girl that does. And they've judged you, right? They've condemned you. That's the sort of thing that was happening here in Jesus' day. And Jesus is attacking that self-righteous judgment. Now, what about the church grace context? Well, after all, Jesus said these things, right? Do not judge, lest you be judged. It's pretty severe. I don't know about you. I don't want to be judged. But what about the judgment seat of Christ? Won't we be judged anyways? So then it's not a matter of whether you judge or not, or whether you'll be judged or not, but what's going to happen at that judgment? How did you conduct yourself? How did you judge? How do you treat other people? And there's some things I think we can glean. First of all, keep a finger or a tab of some sort in the book of Matthew and go to 1 Corinthians. Chapter 5, lest we develop this idea or concept that the world likes to understand about this passage that, do not judge, period. That's not what Jesus is saying. And we see some examples, one of which was in the church at Corinth. Now, the church at Corinth was a very promiscuous church. They were very loose morally. They were very pagan prior to Christ, and they believed in Christ, and they were having a hard time shedding their sinful ways. Did that mean they weren't saved? Not at all. They believed. They're saved. They're eternally secure. In fact, in chapter 3, what does Paul say to them? They're carnal. It's tragic, it's sad, but I love how he says it. Babes in Christ. They're in Christ. They're eternally secure. They're safe forever because they believed in Christ and were baptized or placed in Christ. But what was the issue Paul was dealing with? They're acting like a bunch of babies. And Paul's message to them was grow up. Develop, mature. This is what you're called to. And there is one particular issue as we come to chapter 5, where there was a man caught in sin. Verse 1 of chapter 5, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality is not even named among Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife. Now, there's some debate on what that is. Is it his actual literal mother, or is it like a relationship where maybe his mom died or divorced, and there's a different wife, something of that sort. Either way, it's similar to the sin of Reuben, right, who had his father's concubine. Such sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed as absent in body but present in spirit have already judged as though I were present. Uh oh, is Paul violating the command of Christ to not judge? Or is there something more to judgment? I have already judged, as though I were present, him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. So now he's invoking Christ himself in this judgment. And this is the judgment, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Now again, it's tragic, it's sad, but I love that verbiage, the way he phrases that. Deliver them to Satan that the flesh might be destroyed, but his spirit saved. Why? Because his spirit is saved. If he has believed in Christ, he is eternally secure in Him. And I do not endorse this, I do not recommend this, but it is entirely possible that believers can live carnally. And there's consequences to that. God may step in. I call it the proverbial two-by-four, right? We get a spanking from our Heavenly Father. But even worse, what if God doesn't intervene? What if he gives us over? We saw that in Romans, right? Suppression of truth, and so their foolish hearts became dark, and God gave them up to their sin. Now that context is talking about pagans, but I think to some degree, it can happen to believers. In fact, that's what I think Paul is talking about. If he wants to live that way, cut him loose. That is, Flesh would be destroyed, but a spirit saved on the day of our Lord. But that takes judgment, right? Paul used the word judge. I have so judged this thing. Jump to chapter 6, verse 1. Very powerful passage. Dare any of you have a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world would be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? So again, here we're talking about judgment. And it seems abundantly clear at this point that Jesus isn't forbidding judgment, period. He's forbidding a certain kind of judgment. There are certain considerations that we must consider if we are to judge righteously. Just to summarize this context, what was happening in Corinth is believers were having fights, infighting, and they would... Well, I'll see you in court. What a tragedy. Good thing it doesn't happen today, right? And some of you know about this, but our church had to deal with this, right? It was just prior to the merger, but the same sort of thing. See you in court. I want to jump down to something I've tried, keyword tried, to live my life behind, a principle. Paul continues on, let's see, verse 7. Now therefore it is already an utter failure for you, taking each other to court, that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? Is your material possession that important to you that you're willing to cause a gap, a hole, a void in the body of Christ? And if our material possessions are that important, we need to go back to what Jesus said two passages ago, store not your treasures on the earth where moth and rust destroy. We have to check our priorities. Now, we need to temper this, we need to balance this. This isn't saying that we as Christians need to be doormats. There's a certain balancing factor to this that You know, that doesn't mean you just always have to accept wrong, no matter what. But it should be, in any situation, why not just accept wrong? You know what? It's not that important to me. In fact, you're more important to me than this issue. Take it, or have it, or whatever. Concede. I concede this to you. That's a principle I have found very challenging in my life at times. What about second Thessalonians? Second Thessalonians, we recently did a series through this book chapter 3 verse 6 But we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw from Every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us For we were not disorderly among you jump down to verse 14. I And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." Doesn't that take judgment? If someone is not willing to live according to God's word, Paul says, take note of that person, and do not keep company with that person, And there's a purpose to that, that they may be ashamed. That's a big issue in the church today, especially in America, is we don't want to offend anyone, right? After all, the people pay the bills, right? So we need to grow this church to a size that we can live comfortably. And we never want people to leave. But how that compromises our integrity, right? If you're building a house, do you want a brick that's kind of all crumbly, falling apart, structurally unsound? No. And so God wants people in the local church who are serious about doing what he has called to do. Does that mean if you're not in a local church, you can't be saved? No, it just means that you need to get serious about living according to God's ways. But I love that addition in verse 15. Yet, do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. So even those who wander, go astray, walk away from the Lord, they're still our family. And we love on them. But that doesn't mean we approve. We have to get that through our thick heads. And I did say our because mine is awfully thick. that you can love someone without approving of their lifestyle. Go to 1st Timothy. 1st Timothy chapter 5, starting in verse 19. It says, Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality. Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people's sins. Keep yourself pure. There's a lot to unpack here, but one of the things that Paul is addressing is what has been called church discipline. Church discipline is the unfortunate task of where a church leadership has to go through the process of restoring an individual who has fallen into sin. Now, there's a difference here. It's not just a believer in the church that's struggling with sin. It's someone who has publicly sinned and has brought shame to the name of Christ and to the testimony of the local church. For example, someone who's embezzling money and the community finds out that, hey, that person, doesn't he go to Fellowship Bible Church? We would deal with that. And by the grace of God, we could bring restoration to that situation. Or there's been countless stories of pastor falls into sin or one of the elders or someone in the church is living openly with someone who is not their spouse. But they go to that church, don't they? Aren't they a member? It must be dealt with. Now, one thing when it comes real quick to church discipline, it is not for destruction, but restoration. That's the other thing. Sometimes it seems like those rare churches that do practice church discipline, it's they're almost licking their chops, right? Oh, it's finally a chance to get them to assert our authority, our power, our dominance. After all, thou shall not touch the Lord's anointed, right? That type of attitude. It's a serious occasion. It's an occasion that I pray Fellowship Bible Church never has to endure. And I pray, by the grace of God, if that day should come, we would handle it in love and grace. And the key to that restoration being fulfilled is the person under discipline needs to know that they're loved before that ever happens, right? What if it's a person no one ever talks to, no one cares for, they fall into sin, deal with church discipline, and then you say, but no, brother, we love you. Would they understand that? Would they believe you? So we have to kind of set a track record of love and unity before that time, right? But that being said, Paul deals with this area of church discipline. Now, when we get to Matthew chapter 18, that sets in my mind the prototype for church discipline. Although, just a spoiler alert, I do not think Matthew 18 is talking about the church. So that as we get there, that may bring up some interesting conversations. I don't see the church at all in the book of Matthew, by the way. And I'll explain that as we get closer. However, I think what Jesus explains in Matthew 18 largely becomes the process of church discipline. You know, someone sins, you go to them personally. If they reject you, you bring to them the leadership. If they reject them, you tell it to the assembly, ecclesia, and then pronounce the disciplinary measures. And so Paul is walking this through with his disciple Timothy. But also notice the other judgment call in verse 22. Do not lay hands on anyone hastily. In other words, in the ancient world, in the first century, they would lay hands on someone who was going to be the next pastor or teacher. Paul is saying, don't do so hastily. Why? Because he might be a young fool that you just put into authority. And you don't want that. Now, thankfully, you have a young fool, but I'm balanced out by three seasoned, old, experienced, gracious men that can keep this church from my stupidity. But that's what Paul is doing. Now, that takes judgment, right? How do you know if it's too hasty or not? Discernment. Judgment. Righteous judgment. You need to, first of all, know the standard. What should they be? What mark maturity, development, understanding should they meet in order to not violate this command from Paul. Also James 4 11 through 12, we'll look at this briefly. Now James is a fascinating book. If you study the book of Matthew or particularly the Sermon on the Mount and the book of James, there's a lot of parallels. Now the interesting thing is the book of James was written by who? James. But that doesn't narrow it down. There's a lot of Jameses in scripture. Which James is it? The brother of Jesus. Now we hear from the Gospels that the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Jesus until he was resurrected. And the book of James has a lot of parallels to the Sermon on the Mount. It seems to me that James and perhaps Jesus' other brothers were there. And I explained last week that the Sermon on the Mount was, as Jesus starts, he's talking to his disciples, those who believe and are thus, quote, saved. But I think over the course of his sermon, more and more people start to gather. They see, oh, what's that gathering up on the mountain? Let's go up there and listen. And they hear Jesus teaching, and now they're interested. And I think perhaps James was there. And what's fascinating is I think he was listening very intently at what Jesus was saying. And then when he became a believer, he put it all together, and thus we have this. But in chapter 4, verse 11, he says, Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. So James is saying the same thing Jesus said. He's applying it to this self-righteous judgment. And have you thought about that specifically in a law context? If you're judging someone for something, you're essentially saying the law is insufficient. Bring in the big guns. Bring in the expert, the professional here. I will fix the problem that I perceive with the world. And we don't like that person, right? The world doesn't like that person. But how often are we that person? Ever so slightly, right? Ever so subtly. I know I am. I'll tell you what's wrong with America. I'll tell you what's wrong with that political leader. I'll tell you what's wrong with, insert blank, the Denver Broncos, which, mind you, I could correct a thing or two. We are, as they say in the sports world, armchair quarterbacks, right? Sitting in our armchair. How often, and this one's funny, you know, I'll see a Bronco player, or really anyone, you know, running the ball and they get winded and they end up getting tackled and just think, come on! What are you doing? Keep going! Meanwhile, could I do that? You know, I was joking with my friends, we were talking about, we used to box, friendly box, And I said, these days I have 15 seconds and I'm done. 15 second window that I'll get my shots in, take my shots, but after that point I'm essentially knocked out. But we do that. We insert ourselves as experts. We judge in the ways that we ourselves hate and despise. So we need to be mindful of that. So to summarize and apply, judging is not altogether condemned by Jesus, but rather judgment that does not fully understand. We must understand that we too will be judged and that should impact the way we judge. In Jesus's context, judgment was ultimately conducted through the religious system of the Mosaic Law. In other words, Jesus was dealing with people, hey, look, God gave the law to handle these issues. You're not the expert. Don't judge. For the church, judgment is ultimately conducted through the local church. So that's why we have elders, by the way. It's so that if there's an issue, it can be brought to the elders and we can seek the Lord and what his word has to say about that area. And we can try to address it graciously, but also in a serious way. So following righteous judgment by understanding justice, number two, Avoiding hypocrisy. Now we've touched on this already, but verses 3 through 5, if you go back to the book of Matthew, starting in verse 3, And 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 So if we want to follow righteous judgment, we need to avoid hypocrisy, which is the heart of what Jesus is talking about but a few observations There are three ways to avoid hypocritical judging number one consider yourself Again verse three. Why do you look at? The word there is look Why do you perceive? Observe the speck in your brother's eye, but not consider perceived. Look at the plank in your own eye So if you want to avoid hypocritical judging consider yourself. I Often have to say this with my sons worry about yourself right there in a tattletale stage Baker's doing this or Titus did that and Meanwhile, I'm literally watching them do something that violates our family law, right? I say, Baker, worry about yourself. Titus, worry about yourself. Number two, don't be self-righteous. Verse four, or how can you say, now again, the key word here is say, to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye. And look, a plank is in your own eye. Do you see the self-righteousness? Oh, let me take care of that for you. It's the same type of foolishness if you needed to have like a eye surgery, laser eye surgery or something of that nature, and the doctor comes in and is blind. Are you going to let him proceed? No! It's that same level of hypocrisy. You might say, Doc, let me look at your eye. Let me try my hand at the surgery. So three ways to avoid hypocritical judging. Consider yourself, don't be self-righteous, and be purified. Verse 5. Hypocrite. First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Now, Galatians 6, 1-2, for sake of time, we won't go there, but chapter 5, Paul deals with walking by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sin nature of the flesh. The lust of the flesh. Then he goes on to explain the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit's not a coconut, right? Anyone heard that song? Hope so. If not, I would look like a coconut. The fruit of the Spirit is listed there, and then he talks about how to restore someone who's living fleshly. And he says, he who is spiritual, restore such a one. Yet consider themselves, lest they be led astray and tempted. So there's a warning there. Now there's been a lot of people, he who is spiritual, what does that mean? Is that the holy one? The really mature? No, it's literally the one who's walking by the spirit, what he just got done talking about. And so if we want to help minister to other people, we ourselves need to be purified. So mosaic law had its process, right? If someone was ritually unclean, there was something to get ritually clean. There was an offering that they needed to do. There was a certain cleansing, bathing time frame that they needed to do. And then they'd be ritually clean. And I think there's a lot of similarities to what we experience individually in the Christian life concerning fellowship. In other words, if you trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, you have it. You're saved. You're eternally secure in Him. But do you have fellowship? I use the illustration that I like the word John uses in 1 John, abide. If you have a mortgage on your home, are you the owner of that home? Yeah, well, technically no. We won't get in that. Let's say you own your home outright. You're the owner of your home. Do you own the home? Yes. If you go on vacation, do you stop owning the home? Why not? You're not there. You're just not abiding there, right? You're on vacation. Sometimes we think that way as believers. Someone who's not abiding in Christ. Oh, they don't own the home. They're not saved. Is that the reality? It might be. But if they're a believer, they're a believer. They own the home, so to speak. They're in Christ. But we as believers are called to abide in Him. That's what fellowship is. And we may, or we may not. And there are consequences if we don't. But you know what? There's also consequences if we do. Jesus said, I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly. Do you want abundant life? Learn these principles I'm talking about. Learn about abiding in Christ. Fellowship with Him. And I promise you, you could be dirt poor, but rich beyond measure. 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In other words, the point being, are we ourselves cleansed? Are we purified before we start pointing fingers trying to purify someone else? Before you pull out the magnifying glass, pull out the mirror, right? Before you start investigating your neighbor, look in the mirror. Oh, I just told that person they need to fix their hair, but I got spinach in my teeth. Be self-reflective before judging. Avoid a self-righteous perception of yourself. Remember who you were and who you are now by God's grace. We're going to talk about Jesus' parable about the debt, the one who was forgiven a great debt. He pleaded with the master, oh, just give me some time, and he did. He went to the next guy that owed him a debt, and what did he do? Harsh. He was cruel with him. And so there's lessons that we can learn about this principle, but sometimes we as believers quickly forget that, you know, we were sinners under the penalty too. And we don't extend the same grace God extended to us. In fact, that's probably been one of my biggest issues early on in my Christian life, but it still lingers, is sometimes I find myself getting mad at or offended over things in God's place. Like someone says a foul word that I wouldn't say, but God doesn't like that. Does God not like it? No. But is God's eternal kingdom going to be thwarted because sinners do what sinners do? Is God surprised? No. So remember who you are now. Saved by God's grace. Minister to others in fellowship with God make sure you are not neglecting anything in your own life be self-reflective and Be humble, right? That's why I love that saying be humble or be humiliated Because if you're proud and you're walking around telling other people what they need to do sooner or later. They're gonna say Excuse me What about this? Let me just acknowledge the plank in your own eye and that's humiliating right? No one wants to experience that and We will touch on verse six next time, but practicing discernment. I'll read it just so you can have something to chew on and wonder what in the world is he talking about? 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. What in the world does this have to do with judging everything? So come next week and we'll deal with that. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this passage. We thank you that you're gracious, that you above all are the judge and you judge perfectly. And as your people, Lord, we want to judge perfectly. We recognize our deficiencies. We thank you for this, what your word has to say in this area. I pray that we'd be mindful of these things. I pray that we'd be humble, loving and kind to those who are wandering or going astray. And that we would seek to minister to them, not to crush them. And that we wouldn't be judgmental, but that we'd be discerning. I pray you to accomplish this in our life. In Jesus name, Amen.