So if you can remember we're in Luke
chapter 6, Luke chapter 6 and I'm going
to take a little longer reading so we
can get the context of where we've been
and I think it's more than three months
since we were last in this passage because
I'd gone to Australia just before we closed
down and then we closed down so I
think it's probably fourteen weeks since I last
preached to the congregation.
And this is a new experience, it's fourteen
weeks since I last preached to a congregation.
For fourteen weeks I've been preaching well in
Australia and then twelve weeks to a camera.
So it's good to see your faces, even
though I can't see all of the faces,
but good to see the faces.
So Luke chapter 6 and verse 37.
Luke chapter 6 verse 37 we're going to
read through verse 45.
And obviously with the doors open we have
to deal with the noise as well.
Luke chapter 6 verse 37.
Judge not and you shall not be judged.
Condemn not and you shall not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and it will be given to you.
Good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running
over will be put into your bosom.
For with the same measure that you use
it will be measured back to you.
And he spoke a parable to them.
Can the blind lead the blind?
Will they not both fall into the ditch?
A disciple is not above his teacher but
everyone who is perfectly trained will be like
his teacher.
That's as far as we got last time.
And why do you look at the speck
in your brother's eye but do not perceive
the plank in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother,
brother, let me remove the speck that is
in your eye when you yourself do not
see the plank that is in your own
eye?
Hypocrite!
First remove the plank from your own eye
and then you will see clearly to remove
the speck that is in your brother's eye.
For a good tree does not bear bad
fruit nor does a bad tree bear good
fruit.
For every tree is known by its own
fruit.
For men do not gather figs from thorns
nor do they gather grapes from a bramble
bush.
A good man out of the treasure of
his heart, out of the good treasure of
his heart brings forth good.
And an evil man out of the evil
treasure of his heart brings forth evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart
his mouth speaks.
So the passage begins, or this series of
thoughts begins in verse 37, judge not.
And those are verses that people really love
to throw at Christians.
So you know, I can be immoral, I
can live my own sinful lifestyle, I can
do whatever I want to do, who are
you to judge me?
Many Christians like to use that that phrase.
Clearly you'll see in the passage, the section
that we closed on, he is speaking about
judging.
He's saying that you need to check the
tree by its fruit.
How do you know that the tree is
good?
Well you know it's good by the fruit.
So he's saying that there is judging.
So are we to judge or are we
not to judge?
Well we are to judge but not be
judgmental.
So if you can just think that through
for a moment.
We are to judge but not be judgmental.
For the same, in the same way we
can say that you must be discerning but
not critical.
And we say well those things are the
same.
Well they're pretty close.
The difference between discerning is that I understand
the difference between right and wrong, between good
and bad.
The problem with critical is that everything is
bad outside of myself.
The critical person doesn't find good in anything
in anybody, or in any church, or in
any other Christian.
He's the only one who's right.
He's the only one that's good.
This is what makes cults.
Cults are made up of people who believe
that they are the only ones who have
the truth.
Whether they are Jehovah's Witnesses or whether they
are Christian cults of various kinds.
There are many so-called Orthodox churches that
in fact are cults because they believe that
they are the only ones who are right.
Everybody else is wrong.
That is being critical.
That is not being discerning.
Unfortunately most Christians don't understand the difference between
those two things.
When we speak about being judgmental it's the
same thing.
Being judgmental means that you're constantly judging others
and looking down on others.
In fact in the context of the passage,
not judging yourself.
Whereas at the same time clearly we must
judge.
We must be careful what we hear.
We must be careful what we watch.
We need to be careful about who we
associate with.
We need to be careful about what church
we go to.
Unfortunately again we have these two extremes.
There are those who say well it's us
four no more.
Let's close the door.
We're the only ones who are right.
And then on the other extreme there are
those who say well I'm not going to
go and I get these emails all the
time.
Almost weekly I get an email from somebody
saying well you know I live in such
and such big city and I can't find
there is not a single church in this
city that that preaches the gospel.
That is nonsense.
There are good churches in every city.
There may be small towns that may not
have such good churches because you have a
choice of three and maybe all three of
them are suspect.
But you can you get the difference between
being critical and discerning.
Between being judging and being judgmental.
So let's have a look at the section
that we deal with this morning.
Verse 41.
Why do you look at the speck in
your brother's eye but do not perceive the
plank in your own eye?
We know this passage well.
I think this is one of the passages
that many people even non-Christians know.
So it's not a new one.
But I want us to just think it
through this morning.
How can you say to your brother, brother
let me remove the speck that is in
your eye when you yourself do not see
the plank that is in your own eye.
Now Jesus is using a a comical thing
here.
I mean can you can you imagine a
cartoon of somebody drawing a cartoon of a
guy with a two by four sticking out
of his eye and he's got a tweezers
and he's wanting to take a little bit
of dust out of somebody else's eye.
That's the picture that Jesus is drawing.
And obviously it's ridiculous.
How can you possibly remove a speck of
dust out of somebody else's eye when you
yourself have got a two by four in
your eye and you can't see a single
thing.
And that's the problem and Jesus calls that
hypocrisy.
And yet it is something that we we
do so very very easily.
It's a trap that we all fall in.
We have as human beings and unfortunately that
carries over into Christianity.
We have an amazing ability to see the
fault in other people but not to see
the fault in ourselves.
It is the most difficult thing for any
individual to be self-perceptive.
To see himself the way other people see
him.
To see himself the way that God sees
him.
And I think that the the answer really
is to deal because Jesus doesn't say don't
take the speck out of somebody else's eye.
He says first deal with a plank in
your own eye.
Now just think about that.
If you have a two by four in
your eye, are you going to and you
obviously aware that you've got this two by
four in your eye, are you going to
really try and sort somebody else's speck out?
No, the two by four should be worrying
you so much that you don't have time
to worry about somebody else's speck.
And you see there's where the problem is.
The problem is not whether there's a speck
in somebody else's eye.
The problem is what is in my eye.
And when we begin to understand our own
weaknesses, when we begin to see our own
failures, it becomes very hard to judge others.
The only way in which we can judge
others, and please remember, I don't think we're
going to get there this morning, but the
next section deals with checking the fruit.
But how can I possibly sit in judgment
of somebody else, and whether that person is
another Christian or somebody in the family, how
can I possibly sit in judgment of somebody
else if I am aware of my own
tremendous failure?
And there's the key.
The key is not to not be discerning.
The key is not to judge, but the
key is to judge myself first.
When I see myself the way I really
am, then there is not much room to
be judging others.
We've made reference many times to Isaiah chapter
6.
It's one of my favorite passages because it
is the passage that God used to pull
me into the ministry when I was a
young boy.
A very, very powerful thing, and I can
very clearly remember how that happened, but I'm
not going to get into that.
But in Isaiah chapter 1 through 5, Isaiah
has a lot to say about the society
in which he is living, and he is
right.
He criticizes the government, and yes, the government
is wrong.
He criticizes the religious establishment, yes, the religious
establishment is wrong.
He criticizes the merchants and the capitalists, and
yes, the capitalists are wrong.
And I'm not speaking now about our situation,
I'm talking about his situation.
Six times he says, woe to these, woe
to them, woe to them, woe to them,
and he is right about every one of
those things.
And yet, in chapter 6, he sees the
Lord, and when he sees the Lord, he
sees himself compared to the Lord.
And as he sees himself compared to the
Lord, there is only one response, and you
know what his response is.
Woe is me, I am undone, I am
a man of unclean lips.
You see, he could see the faults of
everybody else, and he was right about their
faults.
But until he met the Lord, he could
not see his own failure.
And until he saw his own failure, and
until God dealt with him, and remember, the
coal touches his lips, because that's where his
problem was.
But God deals with his problem, and only
now he becomes an effective mouthpiece, and he
spends the next 60 chapters in the book
speaking as a mouthpiece of God.
You see, we cannot speak into other people's
lives until we have allowed God to deal
with our lives.
But God cannot deal with us until we
are willing to face the facts, and that's
exactly the problem.
We don't like to face the facts, and
I'm not judging you, we all have the
same problem.
We don't like to see ourselves how we
really are.
I've told you before, I hate watching myself
on video, because I see all the mistakes,
all the things that I teach my students
not to do, I do those things, like
putting my hand in my pocket, like umming
and ahhing.
But we must face ourselves, and as far
as preachers are concerned, I encourage my students
to watch themselves on video if they have
access to video, or to listen to themselves
recorded, so that they can learn by their
own mistakes.
And yet as Christians, it's so hard for
us to look at ourselves, and to see
ourselves objectively, to see ourselves from someone else's
point of view.
I remember earlier in the same chapter, Jesus
speaks about doing unto others as you would
have them do unto you, seeing other people
the way you want to be seen.
When we first came to America, Inna and
I used to go to a lot of
yard sales because we needed stuff, and so
we would buy furniture and household stuff, whatever
we needed.
So we were living in the old church,
and we didn't have anywhere else to go.
And one of the things that I was
constantly amazed at, was that in driving down
the street and looking for yard sales, you
find a sign, yard sale, but the sign
is other side the turnoff.
So now I've crossed past the turnoff, now
there's a sign.
Where should the sign have been?
Before the turnoff.
Now what does that got to do with
what we're saying?
You see the guy who put the sign
up, never thought about looking at it from
the way somebody else would look at it.
All he's concerned about is this arrow pointing
down the side.
But he's not thinking and saying, well if
somebody drives down the street and they want
to go to my yard sale, where do
they want to find the sign?
They want to find it before they get
to the street so they know how to
turn at that street.
But you see they didn't think about anybody
else.
They were just looking at their own idea,
their own, what was comfortable for them.
And the same problem is that we have
an amazing ability to see the wrong in
other people, and yet we can't see it
in ourselves.
And I believe that one of the keys,
one of the secrets to a blessed Christian
life, to spiritual growth, is the ability to
face the facts.
The ability to face the facts.
Like Isaiah, Isaiah doesn't duck the issue and
say, well Lord, you know, you want to
see the other prophets out there.
And was he right about that?
Of course the other prophets were all saying
peace, peace when there was no peace.
But he looks at himself, and he says
the problem has to be fixed here first,
before it's going to be fixed out there.
I've spoken to you many times, and you're
those who may remember 17 years, 16 and
a half years when I first came to
this church, the first message I preached was
on David and Saul.
What was the difference between David and Saul?
Saul was a failure.
David became one of the greatest men of
God of all time, in spite of his
failures.
What was the difference?
Saul could not face his own failures.
Saul could not look at himself and say,
I have done the wrong thing.
He sins, and he comes to the prophet,
and he says, blessed are you Samuel, I've
done everything God has told me to do.
And you know how the story goes.
In fact, even before that, what he does
is he raises a monument to himself of
his great deed, when in fact he had
been blatantly disobedient to the Lord.
And because he couldn't repent, God tears the
kingdom from him.
And we touched on that, I think, last
week in the ribbons of blue.
David, on the other hand, when Nathan comes
to him, remember what David did was far
worse than what Saul had ever done.
And yet when Nathan comes to him, the
prophet comes to him and says, you're the
guy.
David repents.
And we have his repentance recorded in Psalms
51.
Absolute repentance.
He could have said, well, you know, it
was Bathsheba, she, she, you know.
Does that sound familiar?
I wasn't me, it was the wife you
gave me.
I wasn't me, it was the snake.
Folks, we must be able to see the
plank in our own eye.
One of the things that I find incredibly
frustrating in, in dealing with people, and I'm
not just meaning you, I'm meaning people in
general, is, is how often people will complain
about other people, and, or about their kids.
But when, in fact, they themselves are guilty
of the same things.
Or their kids are guilty of the same
things.
You see, here's the, here's the amazing thing,
is that we have a, a ability to
see our faults clearly reflected in other people.
And those things that most worry us, or
irritate us about others, is often the very
issues that we, we deal with.
How many times have we, have we seen
preachers who make preaching against homosexuality, and of
course we understand the whole issue of homosexuality,
but preaching against homosexuality, the cornerstone of their
ministry, when in fact in the closet, they
themselves are homosexual.
How many times have we come across preachers
who style themselves as holiness preachers?
And I know some people like to call
me a holiness preacher.
I don't call myself holiness preacher.
I preach the Word of God.
But preachers who style themselves as holiness preachers,
when back home they live the most immoral,
ungodly lives that you can imagine.
You see, it's easy to see the sin
in other people, when in fact the, the
sin lies right here.
And, and in fact, when, when in fact
the, the sin is bigger here than it's
there.
I have a two-by-four, somebody else
has a speck, and yet I can't deal
with, I can't face the two-by-four,
I can't realize, I can't see the two
-by-four, but I can see the speck
in somebody else's eye.
Now what Jesus says is, he doesn't say,
don't be critical, or discerning, but first remove
the plank from your own eye, and then
you will see clearly to remove the speck
that is in your brother's eye.
First remove the plank from your own eye.
You see, here's the response that I've also
come across.
Someone says, you know, so-and-so does
this and that.
And you say, well, you do the same
thing.
And I say, okay, well, I've, I've learned
my lesson.
I mustn't criticize.
No, that's not the lesson.
The lesson is deal with your issue.
Deal with your issue.
The point here is not to stop being
discerning.
The issue here is not to stop looking
at what kind of fruit is on the
trees.
But the point is to deal with my
own issues first, because that's what Jesus ends
up with saying.
He says, then you will see clearly to
remove the speck that is in your brother's
eye.
Folk, it's only when we have dealt with
our own issues that we're able to help
others.
It's only when we have dealt with our
own issues that we are able to help
others with those issues.
And in fact, not only does, not only
does it allow us, because we now no
longer have the two-by-four, but it
qualifies us because we understand the problem.
We understand how hard it is to deal
with that issue, whatever that issue may be,
whether it's immorality or pride or greed or
anger or whatever it may be.
It's only when I've been able to face
my own issues and I've wrestled with them
that I'm able to help others in their
struggle and in their wrestling with their problems.
Now we don't suggest for one moment that
Jesus had sinned.
Of course he never sinned.
And yet the Scripture says he was tempted
in every point like as we are, yet
without sin.
And what was the purpose of that temptation?
To test him?
No, it wasn't to test him.
It was to qualify him as a faithful
high priest who can be touched with the
feelings of our weaknesses.
And and in fact in that passage in
in Hebrews he contrasts Jesus with the high
priests of that time or the priests of
that time.
The priests of that time could not put
themselves in the people's shoes.
They could preach to them, they could tell
them what the Bible says or the Old
Testament or the law says, they could tell
them what they were supposed to do, but
they had no sympathy for the struggles of
the people.
You remember Eli was, he wasn't too bad,
he was he wasn't clearly not good because
the Lord condemns him for a number of
issues.
He was a high priest, remember, right at
the beginning of the kingdom of Israel.
But his own sons were evil and wicked.
He's able to judge others, but he's not
able to judge his own family, his own
household.
He tells the people of Israel not to
sin, but his own sons who are priests
are stealing from the people and abusing the
woman who come to make sacrifices.
See, he's able to judge others, but he
can't judge himself.
So God help us that we might be
able to be victorious in our issues.
You see, you see here's the thing, it's
not about us feeling bad.
I've said this so many times, it's not
about us feeling bad about our sins.
And the purpose of our preaching, and when
I'm preaching this way simply because that's what
the text is, is not for us to
feel bad and say, well, you know, I
just don't make the grade.
The point is for me to repent, to
change, to fix the things that need to
be fixed.
And so when we fix those things and
we get victory over those things, we're in
a place to be able to help others.
And we're a high priest like the Lord
Jesus who is touched with the feelings of
the people and of those around us.
How can we minister to them with empathy?
How can we minister truth to them?
Because because all we end up doing is
upholding the law, saying, well, you must, you
must not.
But we don't know how to get there
ourselves, so how can we tell others how
to get there?
You know, this applies to so many areas
of our lives.
There is not an area of our lives
that shouldn't come under the spotlight of the
Word of God and of the Spirit of
God.
Whether it be our thought life, whether it
be our moral life, whether it be the
way that we deal with finances, whether it
be how we raise our family, how we
relate to other people, how we relate to
the government, the list goes on and on
and on and on.
It's easy to judge others.
I'm on purpose not making statements about the
political situation in our city and the rioting
and the injustice and all the stuff that's
going on.
There's not much that we can say about
those things.
But one of the things that is central
to all of that is the inability to
see our own issues.
The inability to see our own issues.
To set our own house in order first.
And when we set our own house in
order, then we're in a position to begin
to tell others what they need to be
doing.
And so there is an answer.
There is a solution.
And the solution is the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's not just finding forgiveness.
And so again, there's a series of steps
and I'm going to give them to you
very, very quickly before I close.
The first is seeing what I need to
see.
Seeing the two-by-four.
Seeing my issues.
The second is facing those issues.
You see, we can see things and choose
not to see them.
There are many things that we are aware
of in our own hearts and lives, but
somehow we have an amazing ability to just
escape them all the time.
Just to somehow avoid them.
Somehow just begin to think about something else.
Go somewhere else.
Transfer the guilt to somebody else.
Oh, but you know, that's my parents.
They raised me this way, whatever.
Oh, but yeah, I'm not as bad as
the next guy.
No, we need to face the issues.
Facing the issues needs to bring remorse.
Remember 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
Remorse needs to lead to repentance.
And remember, repentance is a change of mind
which leads to a change of heart, which
leads to a change of action.
That's the process.
But until I begin to see the problem,
I will never come to the solution.
We thank God for the blood of Jesus
Christ that cleanses us of all unrighteousness.
But remember that that verse says that as
we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us.
We confess our sins.
Now I'm not going to get into some
kind of doctrine saying, well, he can only
forgive the sins that we confess.
But there is an element of truth in
that, although there's all sorts of other doctrinal
problems attached to that as well.
If you never confess, can you forgive?
I'm leaving that question in your heart.
But clearly what he is saying, what John
is saying, is there's a need for confession.
There's a need for acknowledging.
And when I acknowledge and I say, yes,
Lord, there is cleansing.
There is forgiveness.
But there is also deliverance.
Now we've run out of time, but I
do believe that God helps us.
I don't believe that God gives deliverance to
everybody who comes forward and we pray over
you and now suddenly you delivered of whatever
your problem was.
I think that that can happen, but I
don't believe that that's the norm.
But when I genuinely repent, God enables me
to get victory in that area.
But when there's no genuine repentance, what do
I mean by no genuine?
When I don't really want to change.
Yeah, Lord, I feel sorry about, you know,
I'd like to be different, but I pretty
much like to be the way I am.
He's not going to help you.
But if there's a crying out, in fact
I read a story this week, and forgive
me if I don't remember the peripheral details,
but it was about this man who got
saved and he was a vile man.
The other people in his village wouldn't even
drink with him in the pub because he
was so vile.
He was so foul-mouthed.
And as we'll see next week is that
what comes out of the mouth is what's
in the heart.
So that even his unsaved buddies didn't want
to associate with him.
That's how bad he was.
And then he got saved, but he found
that he was still foul-mouthed.
And then one day he, if I remember
the story correctly, he was getting dressed for
work, and he couldn't find his shirt.
And he asked his wife, where's my bleeping
shirt with a whole string of other stuff?
And suddenly he heard himself.
He heard what he had said.
And the story goes that he fell on
his bed.
I think this was in the Welsh Revival,
but he fell on his bed and he
cried out to God.
He says, if I cannot even ask my
wife for my shirt without cursing.
And he cried out and God met with
him and changed him and changed his language.
Yes, he had gotten saved, but he hadn't
let go of this problem because he hadn't
faced it.
But the day he faced it and he
called out to God, he says, I cannot
change myself.
I cannot change my language.
I've spoken this way all of my life.
God met with him.
In fact, I do believe that God will
meet with us and give us victory and
help us to overcome in the areas that
we need victory, if only we would face
the plank that is in our own eye.
Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you, Lord, that it is not
just here to condemn us, but Lord, it
is here to open our eyes, not just
to our problem, but to the solutions and
to the answer.
And so, Lord, I pray that you'd help
us to, as Paul says in Corinthians, twice
in Corinthians, let a man examine himself.
Lord, help us to examine ourselves truly.
Help us, Lord, to face the facts.
And Lord, help us not to feel bad
about them, but Lord, to do something about
them.
Change those things that need to be changed,
that we may be able to help others
who find themselves in similar situations.
And so, Lord, we pray now that you
would go with us as we pass from
one another, Lord.
We pray for your protection against the virus
on each one here, Lord.
We can't claim that, but Lord, we do
ask for your help.
We pray that you would protect us, Lord,
individually and as a congregation.
We pray, Lord, for our city, and for
the anger and the bitterness that is prevailing,
and the looting and burning that's going on.
Lord, I pray that you would soften hearts,
that you'd bring men and women to a
realization that there's only one answer, and that
is Jesus Christ.
We pray, Lord, for the police.
Lord, I pray especially for Eric.
Lord, that they may be restrained, that they
may not do foolish things that brings about
condemnation.
But Lord, that they may be wise, but
also protect them physically.
And Lord, I pray that you'd protect them
emotionally.
I pray again, especially for Eric, Lord.
I can't imagine the stuff that goes on
in a man's mind and heart when he
is facing other people face to face, and
they're spitting at him, saying all sorts of
terrible things.
How does a man deal with that?
Lord, I pray for Eric, that he may
find peace in you, that Lord, that he
may not bring that home, that it may
not change him from the man that he
is, but Lord, that it may make him
a better man.
Lord, we pray for our nation.
We pray, Lord, for the many problems that
face us.
We pray, Lord, that as much as we
were hoping that this weekend would be a
new time of reopening stores and being able
to go places again, and yet that's been
taken.
Lord, I pray for the store owners who
for three months have lost their business and
now may have lost everything as their business
has been burnt down.
Lord, I pray for those people.
Help them.
Help them above all to find their faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, Lord, I pray for our church.
I pray, Lord, for those who cannot come
on Sunday mornings because our numbers are limited
and because of other concerns.
Lord, I pray for those who are watching
on the live stream.
I pray, Lord, that you would help each
one to be a doer of your word,
and Lord, that we may indeed be lights
in the dark world.
Lord, that we may not contribute to the
darkness and to the anger and the bitterness,
but Lord, that we may bring light into
our society.
I ask this in Jesus' name.
And so, Lord, I pray that you'd go
with us now.
Keep us and protect us.
In Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen.