Judge Not, Part 3

Introduction and Review of 'Judge Not'

0:03 We turn, please, to Matthew chapter 7 as we resume our studies in this last chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7.

0:15 Having seen the Christian, a description of his character in the Beatitudes, having reflected upon that same person in his relationship to the world as light and as salt, and then his relationship to God's holy law, then having looked at this man as he prays, as he gives and as he disciplines his physical appetites to spiritual ends, having looked at him in the world of things, food, clothing, and raiment, we now come in this last chapter to consider the child of God as one who is in the climate of judgment, not in the sense of the condemnation.

0:59 For sin, which judgment is passed for the believer, but as one who is living his life still under the eye of his God, and will one day stand before the Lord Jesus and give an account of the deeds done in the body. We will conclude this morning, the Lord willing, our studies of the first section in chapter 7, verses 1 to 5, dealing with the problem of sinful criticism. Judge not, our Lord says, that ye be not. 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.

1:40 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 the mote out of thine eye, and behold a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite! First cast out the...

2:00 beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye. We've already spent two Lord's Day mornings studying this passage. May I briefly review the main thrust of the truths that we've confronted in our initial studies. When our Lord said, Judge not, that ye be not judged, what did he mean?

2:26 Well, whatever he meant, he could not contradict. Either the context of the Sermon on the Mount, or the rest of what he teaches us in his own words and in the words of his inspired apostles. So we discovered that when our Lord said, Judge not, that ye be not judged, he was not telling us that we are to throw out all our capacity to discern character. He is not telling us that we are to throw out all of our capacity to discern between truth and error.

2:57 He is not telling us that we are to throw out all of our capacity to discern between We discovered by relating this... to other passages that he was certainly not condemning the necessary kind of judging that must be done if we are to practice church discipline, nor was he condemning the place of civil courts.

The Nature of Sinful Criticism

3:12 We read in Romans 13 very clearly that the civil government is the minister of God to avenge evildoers and to reward those who do well. Well, then, what did our Lord mean? And we spent a morning considering that. Our Lord...

3:29 Our Lord was condemning that kind of censorious, self-righteous, hypercritical attitude which was characteristic of the scribes and of the Pharisees. It manifests itself in drawing premature conclusions, in unnecessary criticism, in showing no desire to find a good motive, in showing no desire to see a balanced picture of a person's character, in setting up...

3:59 arbitrary standards, and then writing people off or receiving them as they conform to our own arbitrary standards. It manifests itself in that attitude of condemnation, wanting to write this person off and that person off and the other person off. Now, why should we not indulge in this? Three reasons are given in the passage.

Reason 1: Incurring God's Judgment

4:23 We have considered just the first one. Our Lord said, judge not, and reason number one is this. That ye be not judged. When you and I engage in this sinful criticism, we are incurring to ourselves the judgment of God.

Reason 2: Setting the Standard of Your Own Judgment

4:42 Now, the second and the third reasons we find in verses two to five. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. The first reason, or the second reason, the first in our study this morning, is that when we indulge in this activity of sinful criticism, we are not only incurring God's judgment upon ourselves, but we are setting the standard of our own judgment. And I think this is one of the most frightening and searching things in all the Sermon on the Mount.

5:25 Our Lord said, are you indulging in sinful criticism? All right. Not only are you bringing the judgment of God upon yourself. Not only are you bringing the judgment of God upon yourself for that activity, but you are setting the very standard by which God will judge you.

5:40 Notice how he brings this out in verse two. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now, let us first of all see the principle stated, and then I shall seek to explain the principle, and then apply it very briefly. The principle is this.

6:02 Notice, the disposition or spirit with which you have exercised judgment will be the disposition or spirit with which God will judge you. For with what judgment ye judge, that kind of judgment, the spirit and the disposition of your judging of others will be the measure of the spirit and disposition with which God will judge you, and also the same rule or standard. Notice further. Notice further in the verse.

6:33 And what measure, this is dealing with the rule or the standard of judgment, with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now, what did our Lord mean in this? I believe this is what he is saying. Have you judged with an acid spirit, unsweetened by mercy and compassion?

6:57 Has this been the disposition of your judgment of others? An acid spirit, unsweetened? With mercy and with kindness? All right, God says, that's the way you'll be judged.

7:12 That's the way you'll be judged. What have you used as a measure to judge others? Have you dispensed judgment and criticism with bushel baskets while you've dispensed mercy with teaspoons? All right, God says the same proportion will be used on you.

7:32 Have you poured out the bitter waters of condemnation with buckets?

7:39 Using? Have you used a little eyedropper to measure out long-suffering and compassion and understanding? All right, God says the bucket and the eyedropper will be used on you.

7:52 Has the rule of your judgment been made of inflexible iron, forged with strict legality,

8:02 not tempered at all with mercy, compassion, and kindness? God says, all right, the same rule that you've used, if it's been an inflexible rule, not tempered at all. All right, God says, all right. All right, God says, all right.

8:14 All right, God says, all right. All right, God says, all right. With the recognition of the frailty of humanity, with the weakness of the flesh, if you've been setting yourself up as a judge and a critical judge of others, God says, all right, the same rule will be used on you. If anything would dissuade us from engaging in sinful criticism, I should think this would be the thing that would do the trick, for the disposition and the rule that you and I use on others.

Parallel Passages on Mercy and Judgment

8:45 Let's look at several parallel passages that explain this in almost similar terms. Just flip back a page to Matthew 5, in one of the Beatitudes, and we'll simply quote it. We'll not go into detail. Matthew chapter 5, notice verse 7, blessed are the merciful, for they and only they, is the emphasis of the original, for they and only they shall.

9:18 Obtain mercy. With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. Has your judgment been without mercy? All right, then God's judgment of you will be without mercy.

9:29 Have you sought to mingle mercy and compassion and pity with your criticism where necessary? With your evaluation of character and of teaching and of men and of movements of friends, of brothers and sisters in the Lord? Have you sought? Have you sought when you've had to ladle out judgment, to ladle out with equal measure mercy and tenderness and compassion?

9:55 The Lord says, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Another parallel passage, James chapter 2. James chapter 2, and I'm confident in my own mind that James had our Lord's words in mind when he made these statements. James chapter 2 and verse 13.

10:18 Verse 13. For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy, and mercy rejoices against or in the face of judgment.

10:37 He shall have judgment without mercy who hath showed no mercy.

10:45 Isn't this what our Lord is saying? In your disposition and in your rule of judgment and evaluation of others, is it being dished out in the bucketfuls of people? Pure justice unmixed with mercy? The Lord says, that's what you'll receive.

11:01 But he says, mercy rejoices against or in the face of judgment. The commentators differ as to what this means. My own persuasion is that what he's saying is, but if you have been one whose heart has been touched with the mercy of God and with the compassion of the Spirit, and you have shown that mercy and compassion in your dealings with others, you'll be able to rejoice in the day of judgment, knowing. That the same grace that worked mercy in you by the Spirit will now be shown to you when you stand before your Lord.

11:35 Not that my mercifulness obtains or merits His mercy. No, but as a child of God who's been saved by pure grace and mercy, to the extent that that mercy has been worked out in my relationship to others, I will know a greater boldness when I stand in the judgment seat of Christ. And I'm rewarded for my faithfulness as a child of God. Then one other parallel passage, Matthew chapter 18, where our Lord gives us the same principle in a parabolic form.

12:17 Matthew 18, and I think there's little need of comment, I shall simply read the parable. Matthew 18 and verse 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his service. And when he'd begun to reckon, one was brought unto him that owed him ten thousand talents.

12:40 And for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant fell down and worshipped him and said, Lord, have patience with me. Show pity, show mercy, and I'll pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion.

13:03 And he loosed him and forgave him the debt. He didn't say the debt is not there. He didn't act as though there were no debt, but in the face of the debt, where he could have brought strict judgment, he mingled mercy, and mercy brought forgiveness. And the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants that owed him a hundred pence.

13:26 And he laid his hand on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Notice now, same words that he pled. He pled for mercy.

13:43 Now one is before him pleading for mercy.

13:47 And he would not. But he went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then the Lord, after he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that was done.

14:05 I forgave thee all that was done. I forgave thee all that was done. I forgave thee all thy debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest then thou not have also had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?

14:16 And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. You see? You see what happened to this man?

14:37 He showed judgment without mercy, therefore he received judgment without mercy. I think there need be no further comment. Here's a perfect illustration given by our Lord.

Application: The Desire for Mercy in Judgment

14:51 And I tell you, dear ones, this passage has been working on me.

14:55 I didn't realize how often I was succumbing to this matter of sinful judgment until I began to live in this passage the past few weeks. And time after time over the past few weeks, it's come back to me. Do you want God to deal with you the way you're about to deal with that person? And I say, Lord, no.

15:16 Lord, no. And this brings us now to the application of this principle. When you and I stand before the Lord, what will we want in that day? We'll want mercy.

15:26 Paul says of a man who sought him out when he was in difficulty in 2 Timothy 1.18, speaking of this man on a syphorus, he said, when I was in Rome, he sought me out diligently. May he find mercy. When you stand before the Lord in that day, when you stand before the Lord Jesus as a Christian, won't you want God to put the best possible meaning on your greatest weakness?

15:52 Won't you want God to show the most amount of compassion he can show and still be God toward that particular sin that plagues you? Maybe your besetting sin is produced, like all sins, basically, because of our sinful nature. But maybe your temperament, your background, your environment. Everything around you just sets the stage, so to speak, to make it so easy for you to fall before your besetting sin.

16:21 Won't you want God to take all that into account when you stand before him? Come on now, won't you? I'm sure you will. You'll want mercy.

16:29 You'll want understanding. You'll want compassion. You'll want God to put the best possible construction on the worst thing you can do. Now, God says, if that's what you want in that day, you better show it here.

16:43 You better show it here. You better show it here toward others. For with the judgment that you judge, you shall be judged, and with the measure that you meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now the only one who has a right to show strict justice without mercy is God, because he's the only one who's holy.

17:08 He would have a right to demand what justice in its pureness would demand. We don't have that right. We are sinful creatures. And if we're not in hell today, whether we're saved or lost, it's only because of his mercy.

17:28 And the only one who has a right to show judgment without mercy will take that right into his hands with everyone who has assumed that right as a sinful creature. You see, that's the teaching that's involved in this parable. That Lord had a perfect right to make an exact demand of that initial man and say, pay me, and say, pay that you owe, or to prison you go. And the man in prison couldn't have accused him of being unjust.

17:57 That would have been pure justice. But he sovereignly chose to exercise mercy. But once he became a recipient of mercy, that other man who was forgiven, he had no right to be a tight-fisted, unforgiving judge. For having received mercy, he was under an obligation to show mercy.

18:19 And when he refused to show it, then the Lord of that servant, the Lord of that servant, said to him, I will show you mercy. I will show you mercy. I will show you mercy. I will show you mercy.

18:23 The Lord of that servant took his right into his hands and says, I am the only one who has a right to show judgment without mercy, and since you took that right upon yourself, I'll turn the tables on you, and I'll use that in my dealings with you. And he delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was his due. Does that strike any fear to your heart? It does mine.

18:48 When I think of the situations where I've been so quick to pass sentence upon a brother whose heart is broken, and I've been so quick to pass sentence upon a brother whose heart has fallen into some form of sin, how I've seen it recently in the past several weeks in terms of the events that surrounded the death of my dear brother Clancy over in Union. I've seen people so willing, not knowing the facts, not being aware of the climate and the circumstances, to pass sentence.

19:22 Beloved, that's exactly the way God will deal with you. We see someone have a loss of temperament. We are immediately quick to judge them. There's a professing Christian blowing his stack and all the rest.

19:39 You may not know that person may be plagued 20 hours out of every 24 with migraine headaches that are enough to drive people insane. You may not know other circumstances that bring them to the place. Yes, the grace of God is sufficient. We're not minimizing that.

19:57 But when you begin to know the circumstances, you realize that maybe your little, little attitude of irritability is a far greater sin in the sight of God than their occasional burst of temper.

20:12 And yet, we would want God to put the best construction on our weakness while we are putting the worst construction on the weakness of our brother. Now, the Lord says you better desist. You better stop this matter of sinful judging and criticism because not only do you bring judgment on yourself, you set the standard of that judgment. I believe I told this.

Illustration: General Oglethorpe and John Wesley

20:37 I told this story one time before, but it bears repetition along this line. John Wesley was coming over to the States to preach, and on the ship with him was General Oglethorpe, who was governor of Georgia at the time.

20:53 Mr. Wesley heard a terrible commotion as he passed by the stateroom of General Oglethorpe. He knocked on the door and entered in, and General Oglethorpe said, You'll have to pardon me, Mr. Wesley.

21:06 He said, My servant here, Grimaldi, has taken my favor. You know that the only kind of wine I drink is cypress wine, and I've brought along a dozen flasks of it, and he's broken into my chest, and he's taken and he's drunk all of my wine, and I never show mercy. And he was having one of his servants beat his servant, Grimaldi, and was about to tie him and have him put on another ship, a man o' war that was about to come by. And he affirmed again to Mr. Wesley, You know that I never show mercy.

21:38 Mr. Wesley turned to General Oglethorpe, and he said, Sir, I hope you never sin. Mr. Oglethorpe got the message.

21:53 He let his servant free, gave his teas back to him, and received him back into his favor. He got the message. Do you? I hope you never sin.

22:09 I hope you never sin.

22:19 You want mercy? You want compassion? You want understanding? Then God says, You measure out judgment in the same way.

Reason 3: Unfitness for the Task (Why and How)

22:29 Now, the third reason why we should desist from this is set forth so clearly in verses 3, 4, and 5. And I would call it, to sort of summarize it in our minds, that we are totally unfit for the job that we're trying to do. Why should we not judge with this sinful judgment? Number one, we bring judgment on ourselves.

22:55 Number two, we set the standard of our judgment. Number three, we are totally unfit for the thing we're seeking to accomplish. Notice the key questions in this. Part, and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

23:16 Or how? There are the two key words. Why beholdest, and how wilt thou say to thy brother, and why? Now, to make the passage live a bit more, what is the mote and what is the beam?

23:34 Well, the word mote comes from a root word which means dried up, so it probably has reference to a little piece of chaff that's been dried up and blown away by the wind and stuck in someone's eye, or possibly it could mean a little dry splinter. And what is the beam? Well, putting it in 20th century vernacular, it's a plank, telephone pole, anything of that nature. This is a figure of speech called a hyperbole, where you make an exaggeration so obvious for the sake of effect.

24:06 You say, oh, that joke's as old as time. What do you mean? Well, you don't mean that joke was told in the Garden of Eden. You're using a hyperbole, a figure of speech.

24:14 Or you say that you're so thirsty or so hungry you could eat a horse. Well, you don't mean that, really. Really, you don't. You may have eaten some horse meat sometime when you thought you were eating something else, especially back during the war.

24:27 Sometimes I kind of wondered at the hamburg we got. But that's a figure of speech. Now, our Lord is using it here. He didn't mean that someone literally had a plank in his eye, or that someone else literally had a piece of chaff or a splinter in his eyeball.

24:41 But he's using this. It's a figure of speech. Now, this is what he's saying. If you are to help someone in the right form of helpful criticism, two things are demanded.

24:55 There must be a real concern for righteousness and holiness.

25:01 The only thing that makes it right for me to go to a brother or sister and seek to help them in pulling out some defect from their lives is that I am so absorbed. Personally, and consequently, in an outward way, with people being holy and righteous and walking before God in purity, that I can't stand to see my brother's testimony marred and the glory of Christ effaced by this particular sin. So, the real concern for righteousness must be the motivating power, and there must be some fitness for the task. Yes.

25:44 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:44 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:44 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:45 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:45 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:45 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:45 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:46 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:49 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:51 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:51 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

25:51 Yes. If I've got something in my eye, I'm not going to come to someone who's got it out for me. He'd liable to take himself a good opportunity to dig my eyeball out. Taking something out of the eye is a very delicate operation, and so it demands a steady hand, a sympathetic heart.

26:11 It demands a deep love for the one whose eye I am trying to work. Yes. Yes. Now, do you get the why and the how?

26:20 Why beholdest thou the mold that is in thy brother's eye? Can it be that you have a true concern for righteousness, the Lord is saying? How are you going to say to the brother, let me pull the mold out, and you've got a beam in your own eye? He said on these two areas you completely fade.

Illustration: National Good Eyesight Week

26:38 There is obviously no concern for righteousness and holiness. If there were, you'd deal with your own beam first. Let me illustrate in a very silly way. We have National Everything Week.

26:53 Some of you who come from other countries, you must laugh when you see this. It seems that every week of the year here in America, we've got National Good Brotherhood Week, National Shoe Shine Week, National Comb Your Hair Week, every kind of national week. It's probably amusing to some of you who come from other countries, isn't it? You don't have anything like this, do you?

27:13 I hope that's one aspect of Western culture that you'll get immunized against. I even get letters telling me what to preach on sometimes. This is National Good Brotherhood Week. Preach a sermon on good housing practices.

27:25 Honestly, I could show you. I have some letters on my desk. But now we've got one of these National Weeks. This is National Good Eyesight Week.

27:33 And everybody's supposed to be concerned about their eyesight. And so you're walking down Bloomfield Avenue, and this is National Good Eyesight Week. It's in the papers, on the billboards, and they have cars going up and down with loudspeakers telling everybody to make sure they've got good eyesight. And behind you, you hear some footsteps.

27:50 And someone says, Good morning, sir or ma'am. May I inspect your eyes? This is National Good Eyesight Week, and I'm a loyal citizen, and I want everybody to have good eyesight. And you say, well, sure.

28:02 So you turn around, and lo and behold, when you turn around, the voice that's talking to you, you see the face. And there, hanging out of the eye of the guy who's talking, here's a piece of a two-by-four, right out of his eye socket.

28:17 And you look at the fellow, and you say, What did you say? You say, well, he said, I'm just concerned about good eyesight. And I want to see if you might have a little speck of dirt, or perhaps some little particle of metal or something in your eye. I'm just so concerned about everybody having good eyes that I'm going around helping to pull specks out of people's eyes.

28:39 Now you see how absolutely ridiculous. Well, that's just a contemporary projection of what our Lord is saying. How absolutely ridiculous. You turn to this man and say, Look, mister, if you're concerned about, good eyesight, it's obvious to me with my 20-50 vision, that you've got a plank hanging out of your eye, why don't you go and get your two-by-four taken care of?

29:02 Then maybe you'll be able to help me. Now that's exactly what the Lord is saying. Exactly what He's saying. If you and I have any genuine concern for righteousness and holiness, where are we going to start?

29:17 We're going to start with ourselves.

29:23 That's what our Lord is saying. We'll start with ourselves. Hence the question, Why beholdest thou the moat that's in thy brother's eye, but don't consider the beam or the plank that's in your own eye? It can't be that you're really concerned that people have good eyesight, or you would start with yourself.

29:44 So if it isn't a real concern for righteousness, what is it? Well, it's probably a deceived spirit of self-righteousness, or more often, it's a loud attempt to cover up myself, or to cover up my own sin. I'm always wary of people who feel they've got a God-given commission to set everybody straight. Beloved, I've got enough time trying to keep myself straight.

30:11 I don't know about you, but I don't have too much time to go around inspecting eyeballs of others. I find I'm pretty busy pulling planks out of my own. That's what our Lord is saying. Then the second thing He indicates here is that there's really no concern for the brother.

Illustration: The Unfit Surgeon

30:29 The two requirements, if you're going to help the brother, there must be a concern for righteousness, and you must be personally fit. There can't be any concern for righteousness when we allow beams in our own eyes and go plucking motes in others, nor can we really love our brother, for if we did love him, we'd do everything possible to put ourselves in the best shape possible to perform this delicate operation. Again, let me use a silly illustration. Here's a doctor who says he's really concerned about you, and he schedules you to go up into community hospital to be operated on 8 o'clock Tuesday morning.

31:07 So you go in Monday, get a little used to the surroundings. 8 o'clock in the morning, nurses have been in, given you a shot or two, and you begin to get kind of groggy. Then the doctor comes in just a little bit before 8. Now he's been telling you how concerned he is about you, and he's sure that he wants you to get well.

31:25 And he shows up unshaven, bleary-eyed, you smell liquor on his breath, dirty, and he says, well, let's go up to the operating room. Now how would you feel? That you were putting your body and its delicate organs in the hands of a man who showed up to do the job totally unfit, half drunk, half asleep, dirty. You'd say, that guy doesn't care for me.

31:54 That he would dare to take a scalpel in his hand and begin to operate on my body in that condition. He has absolutely no concern. That's what our Lord is saying here. You and I go to take the speck out of an eye of a brother.

32:11 That brother must sense that to the best of our God-given ability, we have sought to be fit for that delicate operation. By the grace of God, we've put ourselves in the best condition possible to perform that delicate operation. We've had the searchlight of God sweep across our own hearts. We've looked carefully into the mirror to see if we see any beams or specks in our own eyes.

Hypocrisy and the Greater Sin

32:46 And with compassion and tenderness and spiritual keenness, we go to our brother and he senses that we're fit for the operation. And the third thing that makes us totally unfit for this attempt of helping a brother when we're really engaging in sinful criticism is that it's simply a case of downright hypocrisy. Notice how the Lord says that in verse 5. Why beholdest thou the moat?

33:21 Your motive isn't right. How wilt thou say to thy brother, You're not fit to do the job? Then he said furthermore in verse 5, Thou hypocrite! This is a case of downright hypocrisy.

33:33 These are strong words coming from the Lord Jesus. And yet they are His words. And what is a hypocrite? Well, it comes from the background of a word that means to be a play actor.

33:45 Now when someone acts on the stage, down there at the Meadowbrook, what do they do? Well, they get a script and they say, You're to have such and such a part. And so for weeks and months they try to project themselves into that particular individual so that they think as that individual thinks. The man or woman who's a good actor is not one who simply spouts some lines and tries to make some actions with the hands and face that resemble a character.

34:12 But that actor or actress actually seeks to become that person in his thought patterns. And now this is what the Lord is saying. He said, When you and I are guilty of sinful criticism under the guise of being better than others and helping them, we are assuming a role. And no matter how well the actor or actress assumes that role, he or she is not the person being portrayed.

34:41 And that's the emphasis of this passage, that we become play actors. Whatever the speck may be in the eye of my brother, whether it's covetousness or immorality or some gross sin, my sin is always greater if I'm guilty of sinful judgment because it's the sin that breaks the whole second table of the law. We read about it this morning. If there be any commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not steal, it is fulfilled in this one word.

35:22 And what is that word? Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So our Lord says, when you and I pass sentence with pure justice unmixed with mercy and love, we are guilty of the breach of the whole principle of the second table of God's law, which is love thy neighbor as thyself. Oh yes, the person I'm criticizing may be guilty of a breach at one of the given points, maybe it's immorality, maybe it's theft, maybe it's covetousness, but by entertaining a spirit of self-righteousness and self-judged vindication and passing sentence upon my brother without mercy, I'm guilty of a greater sin,

The Solution: Deal Thoroughly with Your Own Sin, Then Tenderly with Others

36:06 the sin of a loveless. Now having faced the problem, what's the solution that our Lord gives us? Some would say, alright, in the light of that, then I'm just never going to evaluate anyone else's character, I'm never going to try to be my brother's keeper, I'm going to live my own life before the Lord and let everybody else go his way. Uh-uh, that isn't what the Lord said to do.

36:28 He said, facing your own plank, then you can do something. Notice verse 5. First, cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then forget your brother. No, that isn't what he said.

36:43 And he says, then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. So what is the solution? Here it is. Deal thoroughly with your own sin and then deal tenderly with the sin of a willing brother.

37:04 First, cast the beam out of thine own eye. Now may I be intensely practical. Let me ask you a question this morning. Why is it comparatively easy to receive rebuke from certain people, even when they touch a spot in your life that's as tender as your eye?

37:27 Many of you here this morning can't even touch your own eye. Instinctively, as my wife can't do. She can't touch her own eye. When she gets something in it, it's terrible.

37:38 We try to get it out. She tries so hard to keep it open, but why is it that with some people that's the way we are? The minute they begin to move toward us, to criticize us, to exhort us, we clam up and we shy from them. Others, we willingly hold our eyes open and we let them operate.

37:56 I know people that I take almost anything from. There are other people I need buckets full of grace, to take a grain of criticism from them. Now, why? Sometimes it may just be personality, but you know what the basic thing is, as I've tried to analyze it?

38:15 It's this. When I sense that the person who's coming to help me with my moat has been dealing brutally with his own beans, I'm willing to take it. When I sense that someone's coming to help me with my moat, who's got 2x4s hanging out of his eyeballs and out of his ears and his nose, I find it awfully hard to take. Now, I admit that's a weakness.

38:43 I should be willing to take it from anybody. I realize that. But our Lord said, here's the pattern. First, cast the plank out of your own eye.

38:54 Deal mercilessly, brutally, with your own sin. And what will that do? That'll make you sympathetic in dealings with others. You see how this applies, one brother with another Christian brother?

39:09 How can we have a climate here in the church where we can obey Hebrews 3, 14, is it? Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? How can we have a climate where we exhort one another if we have a climate in which you and I individually, day by day, are dealing brutally with our own beans in our closets? Then when we come out of the closet having known something of the pain of having something yanked out of our own eyes, we'll deal sympathetically and tenderly with our brethren, and they'll know it and sense it and they'll take it.

39:47 Isn't this true? I believe it is. This is true with a husband and wife. It's amazing what a man will take from his wife if he knows that she's dealing with her own beans.

40:03 But it's amazing how little will throw up the wall of self-defense if you sense she's just looking for an occasion to pick at you. And the same is true in the wife-to-husband relationship. It's true parent-to-child. Do you know why some of you have children who resent your correction?

40:23 I know some of it's just the old adamant. I know that. But sometimes it's because they know we're telling them to be what we ourselves are not. Is that right?

40:37 What a difference it makes in the parent-child relationship, in the teacher-pupil relationship, in a preacher to his congregation. I'm convinced, and I say this for the sake of you young men going into the ministry, that one of the keys to being able to stand in the pulpit and reprove and exhort and rebuke, as the Scripture says, is for you to day by day deal faithfully with your own beans and moats in the closet. And somehow when you stand before your people, they'll sense that as you deal with them, you've gone through the agonizing process of dealing with yourself. The minute you use the pulpit as a place of accusing others

41:21 in the areas you excuse yourself, all you'll do is make people mad and split a church and then say, you're suffering for righteousness' sake when all it is is suffering for your own bullheadedness' sake. So deal thoroughly with your own sin, and then our Lord says, deal tenderly with your brother. First cast the beam out of your eye, then thou shalt see clearly to cast the moat out of thy brother's eye. To cast the moat out of my brother's eye is a duty and an obligation.

The Right Time, Attitude, and Method for Helping Others

41:50 It's a responsibility. But it involves doing it at the right time, with the right attitude, and using the right method. May I throw out a little thought that was suggested to me in something I read? Nobody has a speck taken out of his eye who's not willing to have it taken out.

42:11 If you don't want the speck taken out, you just close your eyes. So somehow, unless we're pressing this too far, is involved this matter when I go to take the speck out of my brother's eye, it's got to be at the right time when he's willing to stop and be operated on. You've found this. Sometimes you get a little cinder in your eye and you don't go to anybody.

42:35 You figure whether it'll work itself out. And you go on for a half an hour and it seems to get worse and worse until finally, you may be at work. And you say to your foreman, Look, boss, I'm sorry. I've got something that's been working in here for 45 minutes.

42:45 My eye is all bloodshot. I've got to go down to the company nurse and get this thing fixed. Now, if she came to you two minutes after, you'd have no use for it. You'd say, No, it's all right.

42:53 It's going to work itself out. Don't bother me. See? So this involves a matter of timing.

42:58 The person upon whom you're going to operate being in the right disposition and frame of mind where they are really ready to have the moat plucked out. And in my own limited experience as a pastor, I've found this again and again. I'd see a moat in the eye of one of the people of this congregation and as far as I knew, I'd dealt with my own beam and I had an obligation to deal with their moat. And I was tempted to move right in, but somehow the Spirit of God checked me until the Lord brought about the right timing and when I went to help them with the moat, they were ready.

43:33 God had let the thing fester enough till they were sick and tired and ready to have someone come along and say, may I tenderly help you lift this out. See? Right time. Then the right attitude.

43:47 If I sense somebody rolls up his sleeve and gets a snarl on his face and get an ice pick in his hand and come in at my eye, no thank you. I'd rather have him a speck than have somebody butcher my eyeball. If somebody comes to me all snarled up and ready to cut me up, I'm not going to lay bare a tender thing like an eye to them. The right attitude.

44:12 Are you thinking of another passage? You ought to be by now. Galatians 6.1 Thou man be overtaken in a fault, ye that are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of what?

44:23 Meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. And then the right method. What is the right method? Only the prayerful, Spirit-directed person will know what that right method is.

44:38 Someone came to a great preacher at one time who was wonderfully used of God in uncovering sin in the lives of believers and tracing out the devious ways of the deception of the human heart. And with wonderful insight and discernment and authority and yet tenderness, he was able to help God's people in their pursual of a life of heart-holiness before God. And someone came to him and asked this great preacher and said, Where did you obtain this skill in dealing with that of the hearts of others and in tracing out the subtleties of sin in the life of a Christian? You know what his answer was?

45:20 He said, I obtained this skill from my own heart. You see, he had been so faithful in dealing with his own beams and his own moats that he learned how to deal with the beams and the moats of others. And this is exactly what our Lord is saying. It's Galatians 6.1

45:41 right back here in Matthew. So when anyone tries to tell you that the ethics and standards of the Sermon on the Mount are qualitatively different from the ethics of the epistles and that this is for primarily a future kingdom age, tell them they're wrong. For you'll find every basic principle of Christian ethics here expanded and elaborated upon in the epistles. And so the same Holy Ghost who said to the Lord Jesus, Then thou shalt see clearly to pluck out thy brother's moat, says through the Apostle Paul, Restore such in one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,

Conclusion and Call to Action

46:23 lest thou also be tempted. Three great motives to keep us from sinful judging. Number one, if we indulge in it, we bring judgment on ourselves. Number two, we set the standard of our own judgment.

46:41 Number three, we are totally unfit for the test. May God use this passage and burn it into our hearts. What does He say to us as we close this morning if we're the children of God? I think He's saying to some of us we'd better start pulling some beans out.

46:59 Why have we been beholding the moats in our brother's eye? It can't be that we really were concerned about righteousness or we'd start with our own beans. The Lord is telling us to face our own beans, to pluck them out, and then with a sympathetic heart and a tender hand to seek to help our brethren. To those this morning who may be outside of the Lord Jesus, what does this passage say to you?

47:34 It says a frightful word. For everyone who comes before God in the day of judgment will have judgment meted out without mercy. For having despised the mercy of God offered in the Lord Jesus here on earth, there will be no offer of mercy in that day. You will stand before Him.

48:00 And so this passage which is directed primarily to the children of God to help them in their walk with Him is a clarion call to all others to repent and flee to God and seek His mercy in Christ, that in that day you'll be found not a recipient of pure justice that'll press you down to the deepest hell, but that you will stand at His right side as a trophy of His grace and His mercy and have Him say, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Let us unite together in a closing word of prayer. Lord, we confess this morning

48:45 the play-acting of our hearts. We confess to You the sin of seeking to perform this delicate operation of helping others when we have been totally unfit because of our own sin. Lord, have mercy upon us. Oh God, we want not justice from Yourself, but we want mercy.

49:14 Oh, teach us how to show mercy to others. Teach us how to be delivered from this terrible sin of a hypercritical attitude. And then Lord, keep us equally from the terrible sin of an undiscerning spirit. Lord, only You can keep us.

49:36 Some of us by nature are far more prone to hypercriticism. Others by nature are far more prone to an undiscerning gullibility that swallows everything. Lord, according to our disposition and temperament and natural inclinations, arrest us, we pray, and bring us into the balanced experience of the whole counsel of God. Blessed Lord, use Your Word today to help us to walk more acceptably in Your sight.

50:10 And now, as it please, if You take us safely to our homes over the slippery roads, cause us to feed upon You throughout the hours of this day, to come back again tonight full of expectation, full of praise, full of the consciousness of Your continued dealing with our hearts. We ask through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.