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Morning. It's definitely a privilege
to preach in chapel. It's scary every time. This is my second time. But I'd
like you to turn with me and your Bible to Matthew chapter
7. If I tried to go through and thank everybody that's helped
me here in my time, I would have a long list. I'd like to thank
the teachers for all the things they've invested in me. Like
Dr. Bill said, I have changed a lot.
I came here very African, or very, Paige says it's not really
African, it's more just Cuthbertson. I don't know. I'm living a little less that,
I think, than I came. One thing that I've learned in
master's that I didn't learn in senior is that I don't know
very much at all. I identified that a lot more
during my master's, how much I didn't know. So I'd like to
praise the Lord for those who encouraged me to stay here in
master's. The passage that I chose today
is something that's not exactly the most comfortable thing for
me to preach about, because it's something that I struggle with and I've
had to work with. Usually when I preach, I like to preach on
missions, soul winning, the Great Commission, when we travel for
deputation, God's privileges to start already. Usually that's
what I'm preaching on, is something to do with how to save souls
or witnessing. This passage is something that
I've had to work on, and it's something that I've heard a lot.
Probably, in my opinion, the second most known verse that
unsaved people know is the verse we're gonna look at today. Matthew
7, verse one. We'll read verses one to five.
It says, 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 mote out of thy brother's eye. I'm sure you guys
have had the experience if you talk to just a few people, this
verse is quoted a lot, the first verse. You talk to them about
sin, talk to them about how they can be saved, and they say, well,
God says don't judge me. There's actually a song out there
about, only God can judge me, which is crazy. And there's tattoos
all over, all kinds of different, I was looking it up, all kinds
of different renditions of tattoos that say don't judge, only God
can judge me, only God can judge me. Well this passage here tells
us not to judge, lest we be judged. I'd like us to dig into this
passage a little bit more to see if these people who use this
passage to justify their lifestyle, they don't want to be convicted
by what you say, so they say, don't judge me. I can do what
I want, you're not the judge. I wanna look at this passage
and identify if their understanding of this passage is right, if
we really have a right or if we have a responsibility to judge
people. So the four points I have is the prohibition, the practice,
the problem, and then the provision that we find in this passage.
Before we continue though, I'd like to pray. Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank you for today. Thank you for the privilege we
have to open your word. Thank you that your word is living
and active. It's sharper than any two-edged
sword. I pray that you will use it today. I pray that you'll
use it through me and you'll use it in me, that you'll speak
to each one of us here, that you'll help us be tender to your
Holy Spirit, that you'll conform us more into the image of your
Son. I thank you in Jesus' name, amen. So first of all, we have
here in Matthew chapter 7 verse 1, judge not that you be not
judged. Like I said, the first point
is the prohibition, judge not. When I looked it up in the Greek,
this word judge not is a present imperative, which means that
this judge not is something that they were in the process of doing
and they had to stop. So God isn't just saying don't judge
people, he's saying stop judging people. And if we look at the
context, the second part of the verse is that ye be not judged.
It's obvious that they are judging other people. It's not that they're
judging themselves, it's they're judging other people. So we're told here,
stop judging other people, or they will judge you, all right?
So the prohibition. When we judge people, why is
this a problem? Judge not. And do we ever do
it? Do we ever set ourselves up as
the standard to condemn people. This idea of judging, I looked
up the word, it's forming a personal opinion or evaluation. That's
what this word judge can mean. We have, first of all, that judging,
we're not supposed to be the standard. We're not supposed
to be the standard. In this command, Jesus is talking
to the Jews. And it's interesting because
the Bible tells us that the Jews were supposed to be a light to
the nations. But instead of being a light, they were being the
judges. Look at the Pharisees, they walked around with their
long phylacteries and they were the pious people that everybody
thought was spiritual. and they were the judges of people.
We have in Matthew 23, 13, Jesus says, According to God, our opinions
aren't really that important. What I think, I'm sure you've
heard the expression, we all have two opinions like we have
two armpits that both stink, right? We have opinions and we
think that they're so important, we try to push them on other
people. In this passage, we're told don't judge or stop judging
or you'll be judged. Our opinions aren't that important. Titus 1, 10 and 11, it says,
for they, talking about Jews, are many unruly and vain talkers
and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. whose mouths
must be stopped, who subvert whole families, teaching things
they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. There were Jews who set
themselves up as judges, and the prohibition is we are not
supposed to be judges either. As a Christian, we're not supposed
to be judges. I'm gonna look at a little bit how this happens. Second point here
is the practice. Like I already said, the tense
of this verb means that they were in the process of doing
it. He warned them what would happen if they continued this
practice. He said, judge not, or stop judging
people, or you're gonna be judged. So if we set ourselves up as
the judge, people are gonna begin judging us. It's interesting, when we judge
people, we in a way are teaching them that this is what we're
supposed to do. We teach people we're supposed to be judges,
and we start to judge each other. What I find so ironic, when,
again, going to witnessing, when you talk to people that are saying,
you know, don't judge me, only God can judge me, they say that,
but in the same time, they use men as their standard for whether
or not they're good. Let's say I'm a good person,
and they're basing it upon somebody else, so in a way, they're letting
other people be their judge, and claiming only God can judge
me. If only God can judge me, then only God's the standard,
and God's standard is perfection. But here, this practice of judging,
Others were learned to judge in Romans 14, one to five, were
told, him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to
doubtful disputation. For one believeth that he may
eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him
that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which
eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who
art thou that judges another man's servant? to his own master,
he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above
another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully
persuaded in his own mind. Here we're commanded, don't be
the judge of other people, let his own master be his judge,
and that's God. They, I'm not even sure what this point is
supposed to be. I have a weird point here. In Isaiah 49, six,
he said, it is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved
of Israel. I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of
the earth. When we set ourselves up as a judge instead of as an
example, there's a difference. A judge versus an example. When
we set ourselves up as a judge, We make ourselves a standard,
and we teach other people that what we think is most important.
When I talk to people, a lot of times I'll tell them that
in the judgment day, no pastor's gonna be up there to judge you.
It's God, so his standard's the one that matters. And it's the
same with our Christian life. When we stand before God, what
your roommate or what your friend thought was important isn't really
gonna matter unless it was what God thought was important. A
lot of people, they think they're going to go to heaven because
they're a good person, because they go to church, because they were baptized, because they
pray. All those are things that people have told them instead
of God. God never said that. This practice was being done
by God's chosen people, judging. He was talking to the Jews, people
that were selected by God to be a light to the Gentiles. And
today, Christians are doing the same. Luke 12, 48, it says, But
he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall
be beaten with few. For unto whomsoever much is given,
of him shall much be required. And to whom men have committed
much, of him they will ask them more. This problem with judging, when
we judge, we're setting ourselves up as a standard. The problem
with judging was something that was going on among God's people.
In this day, it was the Jews, before he changed to work with
the church. But when I was considering what
message to preach, sometimes, often, I'll preach messages that
I like to preach about, that I'm passionate about. But God
led me today to preach a message about what I struggle with and
what I see a lot of times in my life. This problem with judging,
like we said already, it's something that was going on. Think about,
in our own personal lives, how we judge people. Judging about
how people dress. We here at Ambassador have learned
a standard, a good standard, a great standard. But when we
see somebody that doesn't have our standard, we think they're
less spiritual or evil. That's this verse, judge not
lest ye be judged. Yes, skinny jeans aren't good,
I'll say it. But some people don't know that.
And this verse says to whom much is given, him much is required.
Whom little is given, he's required little. So if they've never been
taught, Why are we gonna be the judge, and why not let God be
the judge? We continue on a little bit more, this is a big one,
virgins. Bible virgins. Some people use NIV, they still
do. It's crazy, I know. But some people don't know. I
grew up not knowing. I used the NASB for a long time
in my life. And I learned from it, and I
grew from it. Is that amazing, that I grew from a wrong version?
Yeah, it is. Because it still has God's word. But sometimes
we set ourselves up as, oh, they're the lesser Christian because
they don't use the right version. Maybe they haven't been taught.
A lot of schools aren't like Ambassador. They don't teach
that the way they taught it here. I actually avoided versions.
I avoided GBI when I came because I was afraid of people who judged
based upon King James. I'd been in churches where they
preached the cover, King James, instead of preaching the Bible.
Continuing on a little bit further, just a few more things, judging
about their skin. You ever judge somebody because they have a
tattoo or piercings where you don't think they should? This
is his verse here. This is the right application
of this verse. What I think is interesting is
that the unsaved quote this verse all the time, judge not that
ye be not judged, judge not that ye be not judged, that we avoid
the verse altogether. Often when people would quote
this verse, I would jump over to John where it says, judge
not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. And I say,
well God says I do need a judge. And then I leave the verse alone.
This verse is in the Bible though. We're told not to judge, and
we do. How people dress, how people, their skin, this is one
that I struggle with, how people spend their time. You know that
some people, what some people think is important, it might
be important to them, but it's not to you, and you're not supposed
to be their judge. Example, somebody that might stand in front of
the mirror a long time to get ready for class. You might say, well, they're
wasting their time. Or somebody that plays video games. Now,
that usually is wasting time, but sometimes it's not. or TV,
how they spend their time, or books, or sports, or working
out. I've been a judge of people a
lot. And here's one that I learned from Paige. What do you, how
do you call it? I am a, I wrote it down, I think. I think I remember where we found
it. I grew up in Africa where I didn't
have a lot and I liked it. And I would judge people who
spent money. I was stuck up poor. Nose in
the air instead of the rich people. Yeah, it's weird. What? A what? A reverse knob, yeah. Because for real, I'm not even
teasing at all. I would look at people who spent,
like I would stand in line, just an example, stand in line at
Starbucks. Or standing near Starbucks and see people how much they
spend there. Yeah, you can ask Paige how I
spent money in Israel, because I hadn't learned that I was a
reverse snob yet. But we judge people, we judge
people all the time. We'll look at other schools,
we'll look at other people, and we think we're so much better
than them. And that's this verse right here, judge not lest ye
be judged. Judging their goals in life,
maybe you think that That career is not a worthy career, worthy
job. Sometimes, yes, they're living for money, but God says,
don't be judged. Judge not, lest ye be judged.
So we have the prohibition, don't judge. We have the problem. It
was happening. It's a command that is happening.
It's telling them, stop it. Stop judging. If we go to John
7, same idea. Judge not according to appearance.
Judge not is in the imperative present, which means they are
in the process of judging people and they need to stop judging
people according to appearance. So how you see, God says, don't
judge based upon what you see. What's the problem with this?
We have the prohibition, we have the practice, but why is this
a problem? We saw that if they do judge, they're gonna be judged. If you judge, you're teaching
people to judge. And that's what the unsaved are
doing. We judge them on how they dress, and so they judge us on
our own consistency. And they say, well, there's hypocrites
in the church. Yeah, well, we are judging them, so they're
learning to judge us back. And that's what this verse says.
So what is the problem? Why shouldn't we judge? We continue
on a little bit further. It says, for with what judgment
ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet,
it shall be measured to you again. What you sow, Galatians 6 says,
you are gonna reap. How you judge people, they're
gonna judge you back. Verse three though, makes it
a little bit personal and kind of sad too. It says, 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. Now, if somebody
has a speck in their eye, if you had a speck in your eye,
Danny, wouldn't you want somebody to help you get it out? Especially if you couldn't. I
mean, your eyes are all teared up and you can't hardly open your eyes
because it itches. It's not a mean thing to help
somebody get something out of their eye. It's a nice thing. So there are people
that have problems, this passage is telling us. But when we are
being a judge, we disqualify ourself from helping people.
We hurt them more than help them. Imagine, I'm coming with a 2x4,
and I try to help Danny and I knock him out. Because I turn my head
and he's knocked out. That's kind of the picture he's
given. The beam versus the moat. The moat is like a 2x4. The beam is like a spec. Might
be big when he's looking at me, but in his eyes, small if I'm
trying to help him. The problem, when we start to judge, fear
of man begins to develop. We start to care what people
think. When we set ourselves up as judge, people start to
care what does Danny think. Have you ever changed the way
you live? You were doing something completely normal, and then when
somebody that you liked or somebody that you knew was going to come
over, you changed? Maybe you changed the music you were listening
to from classical to ABC, Ambassadors music, because they didn't like
classical music. Now that's a crazy example, but change the way you,
the music you listen to because, or maybe the way you dress. You
know, there's an example of that with Peter. Remember in Galatians,
Bible says that Paul withstood Peter to his face because he
stood condemned. Because when the brothers came, the Christians
came from Jerusalem, Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles. There's
a lot of that going on all over. Growing up, I wore shorts like
every single day except on Sunday when I went to church. They were cargo shorts and I
put my tracks and my tools in my big pockets there. It was
really nice. But I feel kind of weird coming to Ambassador
that way. And that's not really a bad example because we have
a rule that we're not supposed to wear shorts on campus. But
the question is, the problem is when we start to fear man,
You start to let their standard be what really matters, not what's
truly important. The fear of man starts to develop.
We're told in Proverbs 29, 25, the fear of man brings a snare.
It's a trap. It ties us, it holds us from
doing what we're supposed to do. Galatians 2, like I already mentioned,
Peter. But when we also make ourselves
the standard, people are hurt instead of helped. We've already
mentioned that. Proverbs 11.2 says, when pride cometh, then
cometh shame, but with the lowliest help. Proverbs 13.10, only by
pride cometh contention. And pride is keeping that moat
in our eye and trying to help the person with the beam in their
eye. Your sin, we already mentioned a little bit, your sin can harm
people. It's interesting if you look in the past, in the lives
of many, many people, many Christians, who set themselves up as a standard
and then who sinned, they helped other people do that same sin.
Think of Abraham. Remember Abraham when there was
a famine? He ran down to Egypt. Pragmatism. And he got himself a slave, Hagar.
He comes back and there's a problem with Lot and him. And Lot uses
the same method that Abraham used. He used pragmatism to go
to Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham couldn't say, hey, you shouldn't
do that. You should pray about it first. He didn't. You think of David, he
committed adultery. When his son Amnon commits adultery,
what does David do? Nothing. Why? Because David was
the standard and David had messed up. When we set ourselves up
as a standard, whenever we mess up, and we will, we limit ourselves
from being able to serve God or do anything because we're
the standard. The Pharisees, Jesus called them
hypocrites time and time again because they were the standard
and they messed up. In Romans 2, 17-24, Paul says, behold, thou art called
a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast in God,
and knowest his will, and improvest things that are more excellent,
being instructed out of the law, and are confident that thou art
a guide to the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hath
the form of knowledge, and of the truth and the law. Thou,
therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou
that preachest, a man should not steal. Dost thou steal? Thou
that sayest that man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit
adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost
thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of
the law through breaking of the law, dishonest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. And that's
exactly what's happening today. So many unsaved people aren't
getting saved because we have set ourselves up as a standard
and we're not keeping the standard. And Paul says, the name of God
is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Because we're
disobeying this verse, and we're the judge. My last point though,
so we've had the prohibition, stop judging. The practice that
was going on. The problem, when we are the
judge, we limit, we don't help people, we hurt them. We make
ourselves a standard, and when we fall, they fall, they mimic
us. But this passage doesn't just
say don't judge. Because if we continue on, he
gives the example of the moat and the log, or the moat and
the, sorry, that's the other version that I used to read before
I became an ambassador. The moat, for real, the other version was
the log and the speck. That's the version I used to
read. I actually memorized this passage in another version, so
it gets really hard. But the moat and the beam. is in a picture, is a picture
not saying don't judge, but qualify. Qualify, he's not saying don't
help people. He's saying qualify to help people. The picture here
is not you don't want to help people when they have the problem
in their eye. It's get yours out first so you can help them.
Verse five says that. It says, thou hypocrite, or fake,
first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt
thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's
eye. Get your problem fixed first, and then you can take care of
other's problem. Provision here, God is the standard. God is the standard. I want us
to turn to John chapter seven. We're told in Acts 17, 30, we'll
read there in a second, it's John 7, 24. We're told that God
is the standard, he's the one that's gonna judge in the last
day. Acts 17, 30 and 31, when Paul's preaching at Areopagus,
he says, the time of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men that he hath raised him from the dead. God's the judge. What he deems worthy is what's
going to count in the end. Remember in 1 Corinthians 3,
it talks about a judgment where you're going to be tried by fire.
Some things will be burned up. Some things will last. Wood,
hay, and stubble. Gold, silver, precious stones. God is the judge. God is the one that gets to decide
what you're doing worthwhile. It's really easy to do. It's
to judge people's motives. Not just what they did, but why?
He really didn't mean that. We judge what their purpose in
doing whatever they did was. He was trying to hurt me. He
was trying to be mean. He was trying to cut me down. How do you know? God is the judge. God's the standard.
And the Bible says in John 5 that God has relinquished all judgment
to the Son, Jesus, so that all will honor the Son even as they
honor the Father. John 5, 20 to 23. When Jesus, when we get saved,
Jesus comes and lives inside of us through the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, we are not supposed to
be the judge, but we're supposed to let him be the judge through
us. Let's read John 7, 24. It says, judge not according
to appearance. Again, this is the imperative
present, which means stop judging people based upon what you see.
You're doing it, stop. The second part says, but judge,
righteous judgment. That's a command. You realize
that's a command? So in this verse we're commanded
to stop doing what we're doing, but we're also commanded to start
judging people, righteously. That's a command, that's a requirement
for every Christian. And the provision is that we
have the Holy Spirit now living inside of us. and we're supposed
to let Him be the judge. Christians are to let Him live
through them. Revelation 20, 10 to 15, we're
told of the great right to run judgment, when the books will
be opened, and the book will be opened, the book of life,
and the dead will judge, those things which are written in the
book. Galatians 6 tells us that for
us to be judges, like we're commanded to be, If, I believe, I believe
that if we were, if Christians would take up the challenge,
take up the command to be the judges that God has required
of us, we would see less people saying, oh, Christians are hypocrites.
We'd see less people with the big tattoos on their arms or
on their chest saying, only God can judge me. We see more people
realizing their sin. In reality, I believe that God's
given us the requirement to judge so that he doesn't have to. You
realize if somebody dies without Jesus, God will judge them. and
He'll condemn them. Whereas if we judge them righteously,
they can get right, and God won't have to judge them. I praise
the Lord that God judged Jesus instead of me. To be the judge, though, first
of all, we have to mimic God. We have to determine what is
God's standard, not what is my preference, not what is my conviction
even, but what is God's standard. Secondly, you have to be spiritual
to judge. Galatians 6.1 says, brethren,
if any man be taken in a fault, ye that are spiritual restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness. Ye that are spiritual. So there's
a qualifying factor in this. It's a command, you must judge
righteously. So if we went a little bit further,
you must be righteous so that you qualify to judge. So the
question is, do we qualify to judge? Do we, when people see
us, when people see you, Grant, do they see Jesus, or do they
see Grant? When they see your convictions,
your standards, do they say, oh, that's Stephen's standards?
Or is that my standards? Or is that God's standards, sorry?
We're commanded to judge. The provision is that we have
the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and we're supposed to
shine God's standard in people. Be spiritual, Galatians 6.1.
Carnal people don't qualify to judge. And that's the problem,
I believe, that so many carnal people are trying to be the judge. Back to Matthew 7. The whole
idea behind the moat and the beam is that you're supposed
to be trying to help people, not trying to condemn them. And
that goes back to this, righteous judgment. A lot of times we judge
people because we want to look better. Want to cut them down
so we look so spiritual. Judging righteous judgment. So
the question, the conclusion, how have you been at judging? Do you judge other Christians
here at Ambassador? Or do you judge Christians at your church
as being less spiritual? Do you judge the lost that have
the tattoos and the earrings, the piercings? They're just carnal. I've seen tattooed people that
are saved. They're actually spiritual. It happens. Are you being the judge that
God commands you to be? Righteous judge. Do you qualify
to obey that command? I hope you do, I want to. I've
been the carnal judge. I've looked at people and thought,
wow, they're not as Christian as me, they're not as spiritual
as me. Let's judge the way God commands us to judge.
How Do You Judge?
Series Spring Semester 2018
| Sermon ID | 81721636156926 |
| Duration | 29:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Chapel Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 7:1-5 |
| Language | English |
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