If everyone can make their way into their
seats, I am eager for us to get
started.
And I want to tell you why.
I was on the phone with my dear
friend, Kenneth Moresco, who oversees our church and
several others, and just provides exceptional care for
my soul.
And he was asking me about some reports
that I turned in and some different ways
that I run the church.
And he asked me a question if the
way that I did it was better than
how Covenant Life does it.
That wasn't supposed to be funny.
And in that moment, I sinfully judged him.
I assumed that he was saying that because
he thought it couldn't be possible.
When I spoke to him the next week,
I asked him about that, and he said,
Oh, I absolutely wasn't thinking that at all.
If you were doing it in a better
way than us, we wanted to learn from
you.
And I was obviously aggrieved.
My friend was being humble, and I was
judging him as being proud.
The reason I said I'm excited about this
sermon is because it's on the topic of
sinful judgment.
When I think of weaknesses inherent to humanity,
and certainly our church is not exempt from
that, I think of sinful judgment.
I think of the frequency in my own
soul of how many times I assume the
worst instead of assuming the best.
How many times I ascribe conclusive opinions to
the motives of another person and why they
say certain things they do.
So it has been a prayer of mine.
It has been a burden of mine for
many months.
I don't think it would even be wrong
to say over a year that I've been
eager for us to be better taught on
this topic of sinful judgment, and in the
kindness and the providence in the economy of
God.
Brian Chesmore is with us, and he just
did a wonderful treatment on a passage from
Luke that deals with this more authoritatively than
any other Bible passage that I know of.
Brian's been here before, but let me just
tell you a tiny bit about him before
he comes to serve us so effectively.
By the way, I have heard this sermon,
and my heart is so poised because I
think the truths he's about to communicate have
the potential to change your relationships, to absolutely
change the way you process things that are
said to you, or things that are done,
or actions of other people.
It has the potential to make us more
like Christ in a profound way with love
and charity and mercy that has been given
to us.
So Brian is a dear friend of mine.
He is part of the Family Life ministry.
In fact, he leads the Family Life ministry
at Covenant Life Church.
I know Brian better as the guy who
went to Chicago.
He holds a special place in our heart
because of his passion for church planning.
He served a dear friend of mine, Tab
Traynor, who has also been with us for
five years without having enough money at that
church to bring him on staff.
He worked hard at a job and served
that church.
My wife and I were recently there in
the spring.
How encouraging to see the effects of this
man as he's been gone for some years
now, but to hear the different men and
individuals and families talk about the difference that
Brian and his dear wife Kristen made, why
they were at this church.
So this man is no stranger to church
planning.
He certainly is an effective pastor.
He's a humble man.
He applies everything he's going to teach to
you, and that's what makes him so very
qualified to serve us this morning.
So will you welcome our friend Brian Chesmore
as he comes to bring God's Word to
us.
Thank you, buddy.
Thank you, bro.
So very kind of you.
Thank you, Bob, for those very kind words.
If you would, please open your Bibles to
Luke 6, verse 36.
That's where we're going to hang out this
morning.
I was here probably close to two years
ago when you all were meeting in the
elementary school.
So to be here this morning in obviously
a new and bigger facility and to see
more people who have come into this local
church and who have had their lives transformed
by the fellowship they're experiencing here, it is
just a joy to be here and to
observe grace all around me, to see how
the worship team has grown, and to see
Kirk here and see him leading this morning.
It's just grace everywhere you look.
And so I am so grateful to be
here.
I was thinking on the way here, if
I could, and thinking about the pastoral team
here, if I could have Bob's leadership gift
and physique and Tito's smile and Zach's musical
abilities and Mike's accent, what a combination that
would be.
I mean, that would be the closest thing
to the perfect man this side of heaven.
So sorry, Mike, to only bring up the
voice.
I guess you didn't have anything to do
with that.
It's a joy to be with you all.
But I really do have a passion for
church planning and a passion for what you
all are doing here.
And one of the things that Josh has
sought to build into us as a pastoral
team and as a local church at Covenant
Life is we want to have a church
planning mentality at Covenant Life.
We want to make sure that every one
of us as members is viewing Covenant Life
as a church plant.
It's a church plant that's existed for many
years now, but it's one where we're continuing
to seek to feel the call to reach
out to our community, to share the gospel,
and to be mindful of the opportunities we
may have to church plant.
So even as we sent out the folks
to Frederick to plant a church there, we're
so excited.
And so as I come here this morning,
I'm so excited to see how the gospel
has been brought to Ashburn through a local
church plant.
So thank you to each one of you
for the part you're playing.
Even as Bob mentioned Alpha and the desire
that they have to see more people there,
I would just come alongside what he said
and just want to repeat that and say
pray.
Pray for the harvest.
Pray that God would use you in your
neighborhood.
You don't have to be a skilled evangelist
to share the gospel, to share the love
of Christ.
Even as we talk about the topic of
mercy today, think about those in your neighborhood
who need to know the mercy and grace
of God.
So let us look at God's word as
spoken in the gospel of Luke, verse 36
of chapter six.
Be merciful, even as your father is merciful.
Judge not, and you will not be judged.
Condemn not, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you.
Good measure, press down, shaken together, running over,
will be put into your lap.
For with the measure you use, it will
be measured back to you.
He also told them a parable.
Can a blind man lead a blind man?
Will they not both fall into a pit?
A disciple is not above his teacher, but
everyone, when he is fully trained, will be
like his teacher.
Why do you see the speck that is
in your brother's eye, but do not notice
the log that is in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, brother,
let me take out the speck that is
in your eye, when you yourself do not
see the log that is in your own
eye?
You hypocrite.
First, take the log out of your own
eye, and then you will see clearly to
take out the speck that is in your
brother's eye.
Will you join me in prayer?
Father, we marvel at your kindness to give
us your authoritative word.
We marvel that in light of our sin
against you, in light of our rebellion, you
would be so kind as to speak to
us and to give to us the gift
of your word.
God, no one has ever seen you, but
the only Son who is at your side
came and made you known.
And in this passage of scripture, we get
an opportunity to hear his voice, to hear
his words, and to learn through his words
more of your character and to learn through
his words what it is you're calling to
us to emulate about your character.
So we pray, God, that we would submit
ourselves to your authoritative word this morning.
We pray that right now, in each of
our hearts, we would put ourselves under the
authority of your word.
God, help us, help us by your Spirit
to be good soil for your word.
Lord, as it is preached, and I pray
you would help me to preach it accurately
and passionately and appropriately.
God, as it is preached, Lord, we pray
that the full intended effect of this passage
would reach our hearts and our minds and
that we would be transformed by the words
of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
And we give glory to you, God, for
how you're going to use your word to
further shape this local church, this community of
believers, to transform our lives individually and corporately.
And we pray in your Son's name, Jesus
Christ, amen.
Amen.
Well, the right information, carefully collected and appropriately
applied, can make all the difference in a
given day.
The wrong information, prematurely acted upon, can also
make quite a difference in your day.
Allow me to tell you about a painful
personal experience that made clear for me the
difference between those two types of days.
Prior to having the honor of serving as
a pastor in Covenant Life Church, as Bob
mentioned, I lived near Chicago in the western
suburbs and worked at a financial company that
traded some significant amounts of stocks.
Now, you need to understand how humorous it
is that I got hired there.
I was a music major and a graduate
of the first year of the pastor's college.
That was the year that they allowed anybody
in who wanted to come.
So, in light of my career that I'd
had prior to applying to this company, it
is just marvelous and amazing mercy from God
that I would get hired by them.
You need to understand, it's almost criminal that
I worked for this company.
Fast forward a year into that job and
our company had been tracking a particular stock
and so we had been accumulating for several
weeks, if not months, large amounts of this
one stock, waiting for the most opportune time
to sell out of that stock.
And so on a particular day, my boss
had told me that we were going to,
on this day, close out the position of
that stock.
That just simply means to sell the shares
we had.
Now, my job, very simply, was to track
the number of shares of any given stock
that we had at any given time.
And so, I was a novice, but this
job was relatively straightforward.
Well, when my boss informed me that it
was time to close out that position, I
calculated the number of shares we had, confidently
went to him and told him the number
of shares we had, and he made the
appropriate call and sold those shares.
Now, I assumed that what I told him
was accurate.
The number of shares that I informed him
that we had was accurate.
The deal was done, the money was made,
and, as it seemed on the surface, all
was well.
As I walked back to my desk and
sat down, I had this awful, sinking feeling.
This question emerged from me.
Did I have the accurate number of shares?
Did I calculate that correctly before I talked
to him?
And so I began to scramble and look
at the numbers I had come up with.
And, you know, I had heard of horror
stories, of low-life trading clerks like me,
who had calculated wrong numbers of shares and
turned that information in, only to find out
that a trade was made on the wrong
number, and sometimes losing tens of thousands of
dollars, and in some occasions, hundreds of thousands
of dollars, based on wrong information.
I sat there, as I scrambled, putting together
this information, concerned that I had given wrong
information.
I sat there wondering, am I going to
read about myself tomorrow in the loser section
of the Wall Street Journal?
Fears were welling up in me, and, sure
enough, it was true.
I had been the victim of fuzzy math,
and I was at least a few hundred
shares off in the number that I had
given to my boss.
So, knowing at this point that the price
of any given share is always changing, I
quickly pushed myself back from the desk and
walked over to my boss, and I told
him the sad news.
You need to understand, my boss is a
wonderful man.
He is one of the pillars of the
church there in Chicago, and so I go
up to him and I tell him, I
tell him, Tim, I have to inform you
of something unfortunate.
I gave you the wrong information on that
stock.
It's actually this number of shares, and this
guy just breathes mercy, and it was all
he could do to not just hang his
head and say, are you sure?
And so I turned to him and I
said, yes, I'm sure.
Sadly, I was sure at this point, and
so he made the appropriate trades to try
to shore up my mistakes, and I went
back to my desk wondering, how could this
happen?
Why did this happen?
Well, it happened because I miscalculated how many
shares we had, and I failed to confirm
that number.
It happened because of a faulty assumption on
my part, a reliance on what I assumed
to be the full picture rather than a
confirmed objective information.
I made a major mistake.
In that one mistake, I lost our company
the equivalent of my yearly salary.
Oh, it was painful.
And here's the good news.
In the mercy of God, I no longer
work with stocks.
Oh.
But here's the scary reality for each of
us.
It's also possible to have faulty assumptions about
people.
It's possible to come to premature and inaccurate
conclusions about those who are around us.
I've made major mistakes in this area as
well.
Can you relate?
Such assumptions and conclusions when acted upon prematurely
result only in relational damage, relational loss.
Well, in today's text, the Savior addresses kindly
for us our tendency to speak before we
know, to conclude before we inquire, to, in
a phrase, sinfully judge.
And in this passage, Jesus calls us to
be merciful towards others.
Jesus calls objects of great mercy to be
living expressions of mercy.
Are you and I responding to that call?
How can we know when our relationships with
others display the Father's mercy that He's shown
towards us?
When these seven brief verses, the Savior makes
very clear for us two ways that every
object of mercy is to be a living
expression of mercy.
Those two ways.
Number one, extend mercy at every opportunity.
Extend mercy at every opportunity.
And number two, address sin, but start within.
First, extend mercy at every opportunity.
Jesus begins this passage with four exhortations.
In verse 37, you see them.
Judge not, condemn not, forgive, give.
Four commands, but really just one charge.
Be merciful to others.
It's like four quick jabs, but the effect
is to deal one blow to our hearts
and minds.
Be merciful towards others.
Now, the Savior's command is not one that
we can obey in relational isolation.
His words assume relationship with others.
This is, as you know, part of the
Sermon on the Mount.
Our Lord had just concluded His stunning words
about how we are to love our enemies.
He's defining now how we are to love
in a community of believers.
His words also make this assumption.
The presence of sin.
These commands assume that relational conflict really is
inevitable, even in the church.
Now, Jesus' words aren't impersonal.
He's addressing His church.
He's addressing those that He is soon going
to save through the shedding of His blood.
And He knows that there's going to be
challenges ahead for this group of believers.
His death will transform them, but it's not
going to eradicate sin and its influence from
their hearts.
Sin will indeed cause conflict.
So in our text this morning, our Savior
prepares us for relational conflict.
And He provides the appropriate response when relational
conflict occurs.
Now, my wife, Kristen, and I, we love
our home church.
We love Covenant Life Church.
Evidences of grace abound there, as they do
here.
But we have brought our sin to Covenant
Life.
Now, you've brought yours, too, to Grace Community,
don't forget.
And though you're going to experience great grace
in this church, you will at times experience
relational conflict as well.
And that's because of the continuing presence of
indwelling sin in each of our hearts.
And when you do, when you do experience
relational conflict, what should you do?
Judge not, our Savior says.
Judge not.
I think this is likely the most often
quoted and yet least understood phrase in all
of Scripture.
The average man off the street knows less
and less these days about the Bible, and
yet, when issues regarding morality or his spiritual
beliefs or practice are questioned or they might
be challenged, this assertion is confidently made and
tightly held.
Judge not.
The Bible says, judge not.
You could rightly say, hey, Brian, the words
are clear.
They're right here in the text.
Judge not.
The Savior says them.
They're right there.
But is the Savior categorically forbidding all judging?
Well, we know from the entirety of Scripture
and even from the book of Luke that
Jesus is not making a categorical statement that
forbids all need for discernment.
We are commanded to discern between truth and
error, between right and wrong.
Judge not.
It has its specific limitations, and we need
to be aware of that even as we
study this text, which commands us to judge
not.
How are we to watch out for a
false prophet unless we deem one as such?
How are we to identify good fruit and
bad fruit in people's lives unless we discern
it?
How are we to deem a man's character
fit for ministry unless we observe his life,
evaluate it over time, and in the end,
make a judgment?
How are we to obey the command in
the verse to forgive?
In this very verse, it calls us to
forgive.
How are we to obey that command unless
we first deem something has been a sin?
So there are humble, discerning conclusions that the
Savior calls us to be making, and these
can be called wise judgments.
But in this passage this morning, the Savior
addresses the critical, the arrogant, the premature, the
merciless conclusions which can be known as sinful
judgments.
There's a world of difference between the two,
and to the latter, Jesus says emphatically, judge
not.
Normally, where there is relational conflict, we're gonna
find the reality of sinful judgment.
When I'm in a conflict, I know that
I'm often inclined to assume the other person
is wrong.
The scenario that Bob shared about a few
moments ago, hey, that sounds very similar to
scenarios I've found myself in.
That's the effect of the fall.
Our tendency is to ignore our own sin,
to ignore our own failings, and judge others,
typically, in the wrong way.
I'm all too quick to sinfully judge.
I experience this tendency and temptation daily.
I experience it in a variety of ways.
Let me just give you one illustration from
a few weekends ago.
A few Saturdays ago, I left my townhouse
early.
It was a Saturday morning, so I'm off
to meet with the guys who are in
our discipleship group that we call INVEST. Now,
I'm excited to meet with these guys.
I have some last-minute preparation, so I
wanna get there early.
But Saturday morning always means for me trash
day.
And so I need to take out the
trash before I find my way to my
car.
So I exit out the basement door of
our townhouse, and it's a particularly heavy trash
day.
We've got the big blue can that's practically
overflowing with trash, and then we've got three
bags sitting beside it.
Now, I do not wanna make two trips
because it's around the back of the townhouse,
up a hill, and into the front yard.
So I have my backpack going with my
computer in it, 17 books, and then a
trash can that's overflowing, and then three bags.
So I have the backpack.
I grab the three bags with this hand.
I start yanking.
The trash can is clear.
I'm not gonna be able to pick it
up with one hand, so I'm dragging this
thing through my backyard, open the fence door,
drag it around the outside of my house,
and begin to ascend up the hill.
Now, this thing is about...
And it is filled with dirty diapers.
So as you can imagine, it's not the
most pleasant experience.
My arms are burning.
I'm just praying, Lord, get me to the
top of the hill.
So as I get up there, and then
I walk the long walk to where the
trash cans go, I set the bags down,
put the trash can there, make sure the
lid is somewhat on the top, and go
about my day trusting all will be well.
Well, when I came home that afternoon, I
pull up, delighted to see the trash bags
gone, but then as I look closely, I
see the trash can is still full.
I'm thinking, what did I do wrong?
So I walk over.
I'm not the most insightful guy on these
things, so I lift off the lid, make
sure I close the bags appropriately, and put
the lid back on.
Okay, all looks normal.
And I look around.
Everybody else's trash has been removed.
What in the world?
Don't they realize how heavy this thing is?
Don't they realize what it took to get
this here?
Now, you need to understand, these trash men
who come through my neighborhood are some of
the kindest trash collectors, sanitation workers in the
universe.
I mean, my son, Liam, who is my
middle son, he's almost four.
When he hears the beep, beep, beep, beep
of the trash truck, you know, coming backwards
up to our house, the kid jumps out
of his seat.
He said, trash man's here, trash man's here,
runs to the window, looks out, sees if
he can see it, opens the front door,
and then my other two sons follow right
alongside, and they all just kind of stand
together, and as soon as they see the
trash guys, they just start waving.
And these trash men, I mean, they are
diligent.
They are diligent.
This guy hops off the back of the
trash truck and then runs down the side
while grabbing trash cans, running them up to
where the trash truck stops.
Not only does he grab the trash cans
and start running, he looks to our door
and then waves at my sons.
So these guys are not only diligent, they
are kind.
Well, one time of not taking my trash,
and that's all it took for me to
judge these guys as incompetent, not caring about
me.
I mean, as far as I was concerned,
they were off the Christmas list for December.
They were gone, never to be put on
there again.
One mistake, and that's all it took for
the kindest, most diligent sanitation workers to be
judged by me.
Servant-hearted, no, these guys are slackers.
Kind, no, these guys don't even care about
how hard I worked to get this thing
up to the top of my hill.
Next time I hear the beep, beep, beep,
my kids start to jump down, no, sons,
upstairs.
See, incompetent trash men pulling up again to
our front yard.
Do not dare wave to these guys.
I am all too quick to sinfully judge.
Well, when the next Saturday came, I happened
to be home that morning, and I just
wanted to see, hey, you know, do they
not like my trash can, or, you know,
was this just an honest mistake?
Sure enough, to my shame, these guys get
the trash can, dump it in the garbage
truck, all is well.
It's a normal Saturday, trash is gone.
That's all it took for me to sinfully
judge one small mistake.
We don't just judge with the garbage men
that we don't personally know, do we?
Sadly enough, we do it with those that
we know well.
We have a tendency to judge those we
should most love, those who are nearest to
us, those whom we worship with.
Sadly, we do this with people we're supposed
to love the most.
Ever judged your care group leader for maybe
not leading a meeting the way you'd hoped?
Or not noticing that you were struggling that
evening at care group?
Ever judge him for not returning an email
as quickly as you would have hoped in
light of the content?
He doesn't care about me.
Ever judge someone for their sarcasm, thinking, well,
you know, boy, I think that's a sinful
response maybe to the observation I gave them
last week.
Joe didn't show up for the outreach.
This guy's not outwardly focused.
This guy doesn't have a commitment to serving.
Ever judge your pastor for not implementing that
idea you thought was a great one and
would make a significant difference in the life
of the church?
At times, I've judged my two-year-old
for not, as defying me, for not responding
the third time I called, only to find
out that he couldn't hear my voice over
Dora's.
I've judged my wife for not doing some
laundry that I felt like I needed, only
to find out that she was using that
time that day to train and discipline a
disobedient child.
Sometimes we sinfully judge, then we find out
that our judgment was accurate and we call
it discernment and we excuse our sin.
Well, the Savior confronts our sinful tendency to
judge, and He provides us with the appropriate
response to such sinful judgments.
He provides us the appropriate response when we
think we've been wronged, when we're sure that
we've been wronged.
He forbids us.
This is the response.
He forbids us from all sinful judgment.
He commands us instead to forgive.
We need to remember this morning the difference
that mercy makes, the difference that it's made
in our lives.
Can you think of a time when you
were on the receiving end of mercy?
Have you ever been in a situation where
you just messed up, like I did for
the company I worked for?
Maybe it wasn't that serious, but you messed
up or you sinned, and you know that
you deserve to be laid into.
You anticipate another's anger.
Have you ever found yourself in that situation
only to be on the receiving end of
somebody's mercy?
See, it's easy for me to read this
passage and to think, oh, mercy.
I love receiving mercy.
I love getting mercy.
It's so much harder for me, though, when
I am tempted to think I've been wronged
to extend that mercy.
So I need to meditate on the sweet
experience it is to be the recipient of
another's mercy.
In particular, if there's anybody who should have
laid into me, who should have come down
on me in light of my wrongs, is
it not the holy God who we were
singing to this morning?
How I have wronged Him.
How I have sinfully judged God time after
time after time of not being good to
me, of not giving me the circumstances that
I deserve, of not showing the kindness to
me that I think if I were in
His place, I would script for my life.
How merciful God has been to me.
Instead of pouring out wrath on me in
light of my sin against Him, He sent
His Son, Jesus, to go to the cross
to bear the wrath that I deserve, to
pay the price for the sins that I
committed.
Is this not mercy?
Is this not kindness undeserved?
Mercy upon mercy from the living God.
To extend mercy to other people, it's to
imitate God.
And that's why Jesus starts this section by
saying, be merciful as the Father has been
merciful to you.
When I'm sinfully judging others, when I fail
to show them mercy or to forgive them,
I am not imitating my merciful Father.
I'm contradicting what God has been like to
me for situations and sins far more serious,
far more grievous than what another has done
to me.
Jesus calls objects of great mercy to be
living expressions of mercy to others.
Judge not, condemn not, forgive.
Give.
God wants to enlarge our capacity to both
understand mercy and to extend it to others.
And that's what this passage is designed to
do.
So He calls us to meditate upon mercy
and to measure it out freely.
Look again with me at verse 38.
Give, and it will be given to you.
Give.
Give what?
Give mercy.
How inviting is this?
Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over,
will be put into your lap.
For with the measure you use, it will
be measured back to you.
The measurement coming back to us when we
show others mercy, the measurement coming back is
divine mercy.
So we show others kindness.
God shows us divine kindness.
We extend forgiveness.
God extends divine, holy expressions of forgiveness.
Those who show mercy, if this is your
tendency, if this is the way you receive
this passage, if you begin to show mercy
in increasing measure, you're going to find yourself
like a kid in a candy store being
given a bag saying, fill it up with
divine goodies, so to say, and enjoy them
thoroughly.
Those divine goodies from God will be spilling
over in your life.
A Christian motive for mercy is both sobering
and inviting.
It's inviting in that we can demonstrate the
mercy of God and find ourselves again and
again and again on the receiving end of
God's mercy in this life and in the
life to come.
With the measure you use, it will be
measured back to you.
We can also, though, have opportunities to extend
mercy and withhold it, can't we?
I've done it.
We will be accountable before God for the
way we have handled the opportunities given to
us to show mercy.
How can we extend mercy at every opportunity?
Let me give you maybe three categories to
consider in order to cultivate this heart of
mercy.
First, can I encourage you to meditate regularly,
regularly on the mercy of God.
We sang this morning about the greatness of
His love.
Well, as we were singing, at one point
I turned to Psalm 103, just thinking, you
know, this God of glory that we're singing
about, we're singing about how great and how
high He is.
Well, Psalm 103 says in verse 11, For
as high as the heavens are above the
earth, so great is His steadfast love toward
those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the
west, so far does He remove our transgressions
from us.
Earlier it says that the Lord is merciful
and gracious, slow to what?
To anger and abounding in steadfast love.
God is great, and one of the ways
He shows His greatness is in His forgiveness.
The greatness of His forgiveness towards sinners, the
consistency of His mercy, the slowness of His
anger.
Hasn't God been patient with us?
Are there people in your life that are
somewhat difficult for you?
Think about the mercy, the patience that God
has shown to you.
Meditate on the mercy of God.
Meditate on Psalm 103.
Number two, can I encourage you to have
a conviction about exercising charitable judgments?
Charitable judgments, that's a phrase that was much
more common in years past amongst the church.
It's a phrase that we should be quite
familiar with.
Charitable judgments, this simply means that we should
believe the best about other people until we
have facts, nothing secondhand that would lead us
to believe otherwise.
Believe the best about other people.
Believe the best about their responses until we
have facts, nothing secondhand that would lead us
to believe otherwise.
Third thing that we can do even as
we sit here this morning, we can ask
the Spirit of God to reveal to us
anyone from whom we have withheld forgiveness.
Is it a parent?
Is it a child?
Is it a friend, a coworker, somebody in
your care group, somebody in this church with
whom you, as you think about it honestly
before the Lord right now, you know you
have withheld mercy at opportunities given to you
by God.
Secondly, we address sin, but we start within.
So we extend mercy at every opportunity and
now as the passage tells us, we address
sin, but we start within.
Notice that the passage doesn't conclude with the
inspiring promise of verse 38.
It goes on to tell us in verse
39 that Jesus also told them a parable.
Here are his words.
Can a blind man lead a blind man?
Will they not both fall into a pit?
Here's a rude reminder of the enemy within.
Who is this blind man?
Well, Jesus hasn't switched his audience and started
talking all of a sudden to the Pharisees
who were there that morning.
No, he's talking to the disciples and on
any given day, I can find that the
Savior is also addressing me.
Because of my sin, all too often, I
am the blind man described in this parable.
I'm a walking blind man.
Early in my marriage, I became much more
aware of the blinding effect of sin in
my life.
I received some very helpful words from my
wife, Kristen.
Words which, as I look back now, I
realize I didn't fully comprehend the severity of
what she was sharing with me, but they're
words that have lingered with me and helped
me even as I prepared this message.
She was expressing her desire to care for
me, to pray for me at this season
of our marriage, but she said that while
she was very aware of my concerns regarding
sin in her life and areas in which
I was trying to help her, she was
entirely unaware of any area of sin in
my soul.
She was unaware of any issues I was
struggling with.
In other words, here's the problem.
She knew my concerns for her, but she
had no idea of how sin was functioning
in my life.
Sadly, I'm sure that in my attempts to
care for her, that too often, she was
on the receiving end of my sinful judgments.
She was receiving care from a blind man.
I didn't perceive my blindness.
I didn't see the log in my own
eye.
I had not started within.
So we need to address sin in our
marriages.
We need to help our spouses, but we
need to start first within.
So which is your spouse more aware of
this morning?
Your concerns, your corrections, your criticisms, or specific
confessions about sin in your own life?
When starting with your own heart, it's going
to change entirely the way you seek to
care for others and the effectiveness with which
you do it.
You're not going to be bringing your self
-righteousness to bear on your attempts to care
or to correct.
Starting with your own heart, you're going to
come with humility.
Your spouse will experience mercy and observe someone
who first goes after their own heart.
Before we can effectively help anyone with the
speck in their eye, we must first take
out the log that is in our own
eye.
Jesus said it clearly, simply in verse 41.
Why do you see the speck that is
in your brother's eye, but do not notice
the log that is in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, brother,
let me take out the speck that is
in your eye, when you yourself do not
see the log that is in your own
eye?
You hypocrite.
Are you aware, are you more aware this
morning of anyone else's sin than you are
your own?
This is a tendency familiar to us as
sinners.
And it's self-righteousness, plain and simple.
And if so, you've been blinded by sin.
And someone who is spiritually blind to their
own sinful condition cannot effectively help another, can
they?
Carefully consider the following insightful, humbling words from
William Law.
William Law writes, we may justly condemn ourselves
as the greatest sinners we know, because we
know more of the folly of our own
heart than we do of other people's.
We may justly condemn ourselves as the greatest
sinners we know, because, why?
Because we know more of the folly, more
of the sin that dwells within, more of
the nuances of how we think and feel
and how sin works and functions in our
own lives.
If we're appropriately aware of how sin works
in our lives, we should be regularly condemning
ourselves as the greatest sinners we know.
Now, when we're convinced of this, then we
are able to effectively go and serve others.
We're qualified at that point to bring correction.
Now, this passage can be a culture-shaping
passage for Grace Community Church.
Bob said it well, this can affect how
we view all of our relationships.
If we take this one passage, meditate on
it, and apply it to our lives, it
can shape the way that we view every
relationship God has given us.
Every challenging conversation, every difficult circumstance with another
individual can be shaped and changed and be
described as one where mercy existed and was
shown, because we're aware of sin, but we
start by addressing it within, so that when
we try to help a friend, we're seeing
things accurately, we're coming humbly, we're qualified to
care and to correct.
Now, correcting one another has been a means
of grace at Covenant Life Church.
I'm sure it's a means of grace here,
and we don't want that to change.
We need other people helping us.
I'm so grateful for the many, many, many
specks that have been removed from my eye
through the faithful, careful help of those around
me.
But let our correction be done in love.
Let our correction be done humbly, not self
-righteously.
Jesus came and He breathed mercy into the
air.
This was a pharisaical environment.
It was a pharisaical atmosphere.
And what did Jesus do?
He came and He breathed into it mercy.
How inviting these words must have been to
the disciples.
How different and distinct these words must have
been.
Love our enemies, show mercy to those around
us, forgive, judge not.
Boy, this is a different message.
This is a different kind of God.
Oh, that every home represented in this church,
every dorm room represented in this church, oh,
that it would be shaped by, characterized by,
an atmosphere of mercy, where the mercy of
God is the subject of meditation between parents
and children, between spouses, between friends, where forgiveness
flows readily from one another when we have
sinned, which we will, where judging is restrained
by mercy, where people share their concerns, but
they share them humbly, most aware of their
own sin.
Where friends enter our homes and encounter that
sweet atmosphere, that aroma of mercy.
Do you see what appears to be a
speck in someone else's eye?
After searching your own heart, dealing with your
own sin before God, go point it out
to your brother.
Jesus doesn't say that there's not going to
be specks in people's eyes.
Actually, Jesus assumes that there's specks in all
of our eyes.
We all have sin.
We all need help from one another.
But what does Jesus say?
He tells us, He tells us first, take
the log out of your own eye.
Then you will see clearly to take out
the speck that is in your brother's eye.
Is there a speck?
Yeah, likely there is, but it's just a
speck.
It doesn't compare to the log that the
Lord just showed you that exists in your
own eye.
Deal with self-righteousness.
Deal with sin that's been minimized in your
life.
And then go and care.
Don't go to be right.
Don't go with your judgment.
Go to care.
Go to come alongside that brother or sister,
that child who inevitably needs your correction.
Go in love.
Go with mercy.
You know what we want to be?
We want to be a log-excavating bunch
of Christians.
We want to be a log-excavating local
church.
That's what we want to be here.
We want to just be walking around mindful,
hey, I got a whole lot of logs
and I'm busy.
I'm busy enough here taking care of these
logs so that when we go to one
another, we go with a distinct humility.
We go with kindness in our hearts.
We need to fight aggressively against the sin
that wages within our own hearts.
We need to address sin in this community,
in this wonderful community that God has placed
you in.
You do need to address sin, but you
start within.
Let's charitably point out the specks that we
observe.
Let's do so kindly, gently.
We're objects of great mercy, aren't we?
Hasn't God been kind to us?
Hasn't God been patient with us?
Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Be merciful, even as your Father has been
merciful to you.
Let's pray.
Oh, how great is your love towards us,
God, that you have shown us, demonstrated to
us most clearly through your son, Jesus Christ.
Thank you for sending him into this world.
Thank you for sending him to speak these
messages of mercy to us and then to
go and display mercy in its clearest, most
powerful form.
Thank you, Father, for not laying into us
in light of the sin we've committed against
you, but instead laying into your son, pouring
upon him the wrath that we justly deserved.
Thank you, pouring out punishment on him, crucifying
your beloved son, that we might not be
the objects of your judgment, your just judgment,
but that we might be the objects of
mercy, amazing mercy.
God, may we leave here amazed in a
fresh way by the cross and committed to
meditating on mercy and showing mercy to others.
We pray.
Amen.
Stand with us.
♪ Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song, the joy of my heart
and the boast in my tongue.
Thy free grace alone from the first to
the last hath won my affection and bound
my soul fast.
♪ Sing that again.
Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of
my song, the joy of my heart and
the boast in my tongue.
Thy free grace alone from the first to
the last hath won my affection and bound
my soul fast.
♪ Without Thy sweet, without Thy sweet mercy
I could not live here since it would
reduce me to utter despair.
But through Thy free goodness my spirit's revived
and He that first made me still keeps
me alive.
♪ Thy mercy is more than a match
for my heart, which wonders to feel its
own hardness depart.
Dissolved by Thy goodness I fall to the
ground and weep for the praise of the
mercy I've found.
♪ Sing that again.
Verse three.
Thy mercy is more than a match for
my heart, which wonders to feel its own
hardness depart.
Dissolved by Thy goodness I fall to the
ground and weep for the praise of the
mercy I've found.
♪ Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I
own and the covenant love of Thy crucified
Son.
All praise to the Spirit whose whisper divine
seals mercy in part and righteousness in mind.
All praise to the Spirit whose whisper divine
seals mercy in part and righteousness in mind.
♪ Hallelujah.
Verse two of that psalm says, Without Thy
sweet mercy I could not stand here.
Sin soon would reduce me to utter despair.
And I just couldn't help as I sang
that of thinking how my criticism and sinful
judgments have reduced my wife at times to
such despair.
I want you to know I don't think
those thoughts go with despair because I am
far more aware of the mercy extended to
me for my mercilessness to her and others.
I also am grateful that this message of
hope that Brian brings by his power has
been resting my heart.
And I can say that this wasn't true
at the beginning of the marriage.
Currently in my marriage I view myself as
a bigger sinner than Laurie.
And what a difference it is making in
the way I relate to her.
What joy it is to extend mercy that
has so freely been given to me to
this woman that I love.
So listen, I don't want you to miss
this unique opportunity where you have been convicted.
It's not hard to discern that.
You're simply more aware as Brian said of
the sins of others than you are of
yourself.
That's a gospel failure.
So it makes the solution abundantly easy.
You just simply need to draw near to
the cross and to believe what it says
about you and your sin and the amazing
love and compassion and justifying grace that has
come through it to you.
When you believe that no one can offend
you.
No one can sin against you in a
way that will remove that heart of gratitude
and a joy and a love to extend
that where you've been wronged.
So listen, I'm going to ask all our
care group leaders their wives and assistants to
make their way forward where bitterness, where judgment,
where criticalness, where you've lost respect for your
roommate, for your spouse.
Perhaps where there's this kind of tension between
you and your children.
God wants to restore that and the power
of His mercy is here to do just
that.
So as our leaders position themselves, will you
please not hesitate.
Please make your way forward and humble yourself.
Acknowledge where there hasn't been mercy.
Acknowledge where criticism rules your heart.
Acknowledge where this person annoys and I don't
like being around them and everything they say,
I take it the wrong way.
They're like sand in my mouth.
Please come forward and ask God to show
you His mercy towards you, which He delights
to do and it will set you free
in your attitudes towards others.
These folks will be up here as long
as necessary to care for you.
So please make your way forward at this
time.
We will be officially dismissed at this moment.
For those of us who have children in
children's ministry, please thank them for serving so
heroically.
Ask them if they have any observations of
your children.
For our guests, thank you again for coming.
We hope you'll stick around.
We hope to get to know you better.
And again, anyone who would desire ministry in
this area, please make your way forward as
God wants to meet you.
Thanks so much.
...Music
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