Earlier on in the year, we began a
series on the Sermon on the Mount and
when the summer season came upon us, the
series fell into abeyance.
This morning we would like to take up
the thread once again and we shall from
now on continue with Matthew chapter 7, leading
to the conclusion of this remarkable Sermon on
the Mount inside, uttered by our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ.
We turn this morning to the first passage
in this remarkable chapter, verses 1 to 6
in Matthew 7, and I would like to
read these words now.
If you have your New Testaments handy before
you, I'm sure you'll find it helpful.
Do not judge, or you too will be
judged.
For in the same way you judge others,
you will be judged, and with the measure
you use, it will be measured to you.
Why do you look at the speck of
sawdust in your brother's eye, and pay no
attention to the plank in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, let
me take the speck out of your eye,
when all the time there is a plank
in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of
your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to remove the speck from your brother's
eye.
Do not give dogs what is sacred.
Do not throw your pearls to pigs.
If you do, they may trample them under
feet, and then turn and tear you to
pieces.
Sensoriousness forbidden is the title we have given
to these words of our Lord, and I
trust that is accurate to what our Lord
had on His mind and on His heart
when He first uttered these words.
Now, whereas chapter 6 has been concerned particularly
with the relation of the Christian to his
God, and the promotion of that perfection referred
to by our Lord in verse 48, when
He said that we are to be perfect
even as our Heavenly Father is perfect, this
first section of chapter 7 forcefully fixes our
gaze upon our relation to others, other people,
though we shall also find some things in
this chapter that will turn our gaze again
back directly to our Heavenly Father.
The point is, of course, in the ongoing
movement of this great sermon, the things mentioned
in chapter 6 need to be supplemented by
the things that are brought out in chapter
7.
And we are dealing with only one thing
at a time.
We tend to forget the wholeness of things.
Giving to the needy, praying, fasting, laying up
treasure in heaven, and then learning not to
worry because of God's unique relation to His
people.
Things we discussed, things we expounded in chapter
6, all those are absolutely indispensable.
But so also is this matter before us
today.
To use the words of one commentator, one
moat hunter, quoting the translation of the King
James about seeking to cast out the moat
in your brother's eye, one moat hunter in
a congregation can divide the people of God
and decimate them.
One censorious individual among the fellowship of the
saints can scatter the Lord's people and bring
disaster in the train of his loose thinking
and his loose speaking.
So in this passage we have our Lord
forbidding something which is quite important.
He is forbidding us not so much to
judge where judgment is necessary, but to walk
among the people of God or out in
the outside world as if judgment were committed
to us.
As if it were a gift given to
us alone and our judgment is infallible and
we feel that we have a right to
judge everybody and tell everybody where to get
off and what to do and what not
to do.
Ultimately judgment belongs to God alone.
In so far as it is necessary for
us to discriminate between one thing and another,
and it is as we shall see in
a moment, we must do so in the
spirit of God and according to the word
of God.
But this is the most delicate thing committed
to Christian people to do.
It is to have to distinguish between truth
and error, right and wrong in the lives
of other people as well as in our
own.
And it must be handled with due care,
with compassion and sensitivity, lest in so doing
we dishonor our Lord rather than honor him.
Now in the first place I want you
to notice therefore a vital distinction which emerges
here right at the beginning of this passage
and it needs to be made very clear.
When Jesus is here forbidding us to quote
not to judge, he is not and cannot
be thereby telling us to hold our faculty
of judgment in abeyance completely.
We have to distinguish between black and white,
between right and wrong, between truth and error.
The whole of the Bible, the whole of
the New Testament is based upon that.
When you became a Christian you had to
choose one thing from another.
You had to choose truth from error, God's
word against the words of men.
The Lord Jesus Christ rather than other objects
of faith or lords over your life.
You had to choose, you had to make
a choice, you had to judge in that
sense.
Now Jesus cannot be meaning that we should
forego that kind of discrimination and distinction, process
of distinguishing.
Otherwise he would be undermining the whole teaching
of the Old Testament and of the New.
We have to distinguish between one thing and
another.
What then is he saying?
Well we shall come to that but in
a moment let's get this very clear.
Judgment and discrimination are absolutely essential and you,
all of you and I included, we've all
had to be distinguishing things during the week
that has gone.
We distinguish between people whom we're going to
befriend and those that we're not.
People who are worthy of our confidence and
those whom we may not be quite sure
of.
Something was suggested to us and we thought
well now the standard is not quite right
and we distinguish.
We say no, no I can't do that
but I will do this.
This is altogether necessary.
We are summoned to live a moral life,
a Christian life, a God honoring life and
in all of this we have to discern
between the one thing and the other.
Truth must be distinguished from falsehood, right from
wrong, good from evil, right.
The next thing I want you to notice
is this that Jesus practiced that and his
disciples practiced that principle and after our Lord
Jesus was ascended and the church began to
grow in the book of the Acts of
the Apostles the same thing was necessary.
There had to be this kind of distinction,
distinguishing between one thing and another.
I say it and I have to dwell
upon it for a moment because you might
think that Jesus is saying well don't judge
one another in any way at all.
Just go on let everybody do right or
wrong, good or evil and we do not
try to teach each other and help each
other towards truth and righteousness and godliness and
sanctity.
Jesus expected his own disciples to distinguish as
they engaged in their ministry.
Now if you've read the Gospels recently and
if you've got a good memory I don't
need to repeat anything to you but let
me just give you one or two illustrations
very quickly.
When our Lord sent his disciples to preach
into the villages for example he told them
something like this whatever town or village you
enter search for some worthy person and stay
at his home until you leave.
As you enter the home give it your
greeting.
If the home is deserving you notice they
have to judge.
If the home is deserving let your peace
rest upon it.
If it is not you see they've got
to discriminate.
Let your peace return to you.
If anyone will not welcome you or listen
to your words now here it is again
shake the dust off your feet when you
leave that home or that town I tell
you the truth it will be more tolerable
for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of
judgment than for you.
So we've got to distinguish one thing from
the other.
The same thing again with reference to the
Pharisees Jesus said every plant that my heavenly
father has not planted will be pulled up
by the roots but don't you touch them
he tells the disciples you leave them they
are blind leaders of the blind.
The same principle there are some people we
are not to listen to they may be
they may be commissioned by the church to
proclaim what should be the word of God
as the Pharisees were and the scribes were
by the church of the Jews in New
Testament times if we may so speak.
But they were not doing so honorably and
correctly and our Lord says they're blind leaders
of the blind you've got to forget about
them and just go on follow my words
follow my teaching.
So Jesus expected his disciples to distinguish and
to discriminate as they went about their business
again the Apostles had regularly to do the
same in their ongoing ministry this side of
Pentecost Peter on the day of Pentecost had
to distinguish between those who were believers and
those who were not and on that great
Pentecostal sermon you remember at the heart of
it he says this save yourselves from this
corrupt generation.
There is distinguishing again there is judging again
this generation says Peter is corrupt and you've
got to get away from the corrupt generation
separate yourselves from the corrupt and the corruption
and you've got to repent of your sins
and turn to Jesus Messiah that your sins
may be blotted out and that you may
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit you
have to do that they distinguished you see.
Now you go on into the book of
the Acts you will see that they likewise
had to distinguish between true believers and false
believers.
Let me give you one classical illustration there
is the case of Simon the sorcerer in
Samaria we read in Acts chapter 8 and
verse 13 that Simon believed and was baptized
and he followed Philip everywhere astonished by the
great signs and the miracles that were done
and everybody thought this sorcerer as he is
called he has become a Christian but Peter
when he arrived on the scene addressed this
same man and he had to say this
to him you have no part nor share
in this ministry because your heart is not
right before God repent of this wickedness and
pray to the Lord you see the Apostles
had to judge and you may go on
and you see not only do they have
to distinguish between true believers and false believers
but they had to discern and distinguish between
babes in Christ and mature Christians and Paul
was writing to the Corinthians one Corinthians chapter
three he said this to them rather pathetically
he said brothers I could not address you
as spiritual but as worldly mere infants in
Christ I give you milk not solid food
for you were not yet ready for it
now just imagine it here is the Apostle
of the Lord here is the mouthpiece of
the Almighty God and he's writing to Corinth
and he's telling them look he says I
want you to know that I can't talk
to you as mature believers I've got to
cut up everything I have to say into
little bits and pieces more than that I
can't give you I can't give you meat
I can't give you anything to chew I
just got to give you milk like a
baby or like to what a mother gives
a baby and you know there are many
congregations of Christians in that in that situation
still they can only take a few drops
of milk and in in little drops few
drops they can't take the deep things of
God they would go quite mad either at
the preacher or at the truth you have
the same thing in the epistle to the
Hebrews we have much to say says the
writer of the epistle to the Hebrews concerning
the high priesthood of our Lord but it
is hard to explain because you were slow
to hear or to sorry to learn in
fact though by this time you ought to
be teachers you need someone to teach you
the elementary truths of God's Word all over
again you need milk not solid food anyone
who lives on milk is still an infant
what a condemnation of a people who profess
the Christian faith for many years and they
can still only take a little drop of
milk now and again their digestive system is
such they cannot take the meat of God's
revealed word and you see the apostles had
to distinguish it's very interesting that John Calvin
in interpreting that that passage about rightly dividing
the word of truth tells us that what
it really means is this it's the father
at the head of the table the family
meet for meals and he looks at them
and some of them have been working up
assuming there's a large family of course some
of them have been out plowing in the
field and perhaps they come in and they're
very hungry and that man needs a good
chunk on his plate somebody else has got
a very weak appetite he doesn't need so
much and there's a babe there well he'll
have no meat at all he'll have milk
brothers and sisters we've got to distinguish there
is no such a thing as a Christianity
which does not pass judgment whatever it is
it is not the Christianity of the New
Testament I would have to not time to
come to come to go any further but
just to mention this the same goes with
relation to false prophets but of course the
clinching thing here is this if Jesus were
meaning that we must never judge anything or
anyone then he's going to contradict himself in
the sixth verse of this same paragraph because
there Jesus is calling certain people dogs and
hogs dogs and pigs I'm not using that
the Son of God did and he's passing
judgment and he is exercising this this discrimination
of one from another between one and another
so then we've got to take note of
that vital distinction now that brings me to
the second thing what is the forthright prohibition
that we have here well now I would
plead this morning for one thing which is
not as obvious in the New International Version
as in most of the other versions I
would plead for one thing and I have
no time to dwell upon it but only
to ask for it that we should look
upon these first six verses as one paragraph
undivided I had come to the conclusion that
the New International Version the translators of the
New International Version must have had a reason
for splitting it up into three little paragraphs
I thought there must be some textual reason
for that well I can find none none
whatsoever it's only a linguistic matter or they
like to split things up into small paragraphs
that's the best way they think to get
the message across well now I'm not quarreling
with them but what I am saying is
this in order to see the full significance
of what Jesus is saying you've got to
take the whole paragraph one to six very
closely together and if you just take the
opening words on their own then you're going
to make nonsense out of them do not
judge are the first words if you're going
to put a period there and forget that
the whole thing is linked very intimately with
what follows you're going to land up in
a position that you're going to make our
Lord contradict himself and that he never would
do what then is our Lord saying here
I can only summarize it first of all
he is saying something like this when it
is necessary for us to judge between one
thing and another good and bad truth or
error we must do so according to a
standard which we apply to ourselves before we
apply it to others in other words this
is not just a theoretical matter or this
is not something that that I do merely
merely in relation to other people it must
be a conviction it must represent my acceptance
of the truth in question or of the
right portrayed by God's Word and I must
be applying the principle or the standards to
myself that I am applying to other people
do not judge or you too will be
judged for in the same sense in the
same way you judge others you will be
judged and with the measures you use it
will be measured to you again God will
judge you ultimately he says by the standard
you employ to judge other people therefore the
sooner the better you accept that standard before
you start judging other people see that you
use the same measuring rod for yourself this
is very important for a Christian community because
it's so easy to judge other people with
a measuring rod that we don't use on
ourselves but the concern of our Lord you
see was really to prohibit a kind of
sensorious attitude which goes around looking for other
people's faults bringing them out into the open
whether they're imaginary or real and spreading rumors
did you hear about so-and-so what
do you think about this and suddenly we
are sitting in judgment upon other people sometimes
utterly baseless without any basis for what we
suggest or what we say or what we
imply you see the scribes and the Pharisees
tried to do this kind of thing with
Jesus they spread rumors and they were not
true rumors for example that that he was
disloyal to Moses or that he was disloyal
to Abraham or that he was disloyal to
Caesar and so forth and they would have
pursued those things those charges but our Lord
was able to show that the thing was
quite baseless the charges were baseless in each
case and in every other case lurking behind
the words of Jesus is a highly important
principle if I have time this morning I
would like to refer back to Romans chapter
2 and the first verse few verses there
you can do that at your leisure you
you you wonder how heathen people how how
people who've never heard the gospel are going
to be judged at last Paul has something
to say about it but what I want
to say and that is related to it
what I want to say is this if
we know a standard of behavior to be
God's standard and we only apply it to
other people then we are very perverse to
say the least and we are not acting
for the well-being of the church nor
for the glory of God first of all
we must apply the truth to ourselves and
then maybe we shall have the humility and
sometimes the courage that is needed and the
right spirit to apply it to people at
large because you see ultimately judgment doesn't belong
to you or to me judgment doesn't belong
even even to a church or a session
of a church judgment is the prerogative of
God Almighty and he has committed all judgment
to the Son and in so far as
it is necessary for us to discern to
distinguish between one course of action and another
we've got to be very careful that we
do it in the way God does it
with mercy and with judgment with compassion as
well as with right in righteousness now when
we judge others this is the second thing
we must never therefore do it hypocritically why
do you look says our Lord and this
is hyperbole of the first order why do
you look at the speck of sawdust in
your brother's eye and pay no attention to
the plank in your own eye how can
you how can you say to your brother
let me take the speck out of your
eye when all the time there is a
plank in your own eye you hypocrite first
take the plank out of your own eye
and then you will see clearly to remove
the speck out of your brother's eye this
is remarkable hyperbole really isn't it and it
exposes the sheer impropriety and perversity of somebody
doing like this let me put it in
different language here is a man coming and
there's a there's a 12 foot plank sticking
out of the socket of his eye well
now that's not possible of course but that's
what Jesus is saying here a 12 foot
plank eight by six coming out of the
socket of his eye everybody can see it
everywhere and he can't see anything but he
comes up to somebody and says hi brother
you got self a foreign body in your
eye let me deal with it you know
it's nonsensical it can't be done if you've
got a problem like that in your eye
you can't see a speck in somebody else's
eye to start off with and even if
you can see it with your one good
eye you're not in good shape to take
it out I wouldn't trust my eye to
you did you ever know of a blind
leader of the blind well you may have
but I don't think you've ever heard of
a blind doctor attending to people's eyes to
get rid of foreign bodies and Jesus says
it's as much nonsensical as that you might
be tempted to say that that man was
thinking of others more than he was thinking
of himself and he was willing to help
others whilst he had a great trouble in
his in his eye well Jesus doesn't look
at it like that that man was not
really concerned about truth or error right or
wrong he was out he was a moat
hunter he was a fault finder he was
he was he was he was looking for
things and where he couldn't see them he
imagined them and if he didn't like such
and such a person well he would stick
something on to him and say hi brother
what's what's that in your life this kind
of hypocrisy is found in unexpected places but
less somebody thinks and I shouldn't be at
all surprised that there may be somebody of
this morning who says now that's really exaggeration
nobody would do that I won't ask you
to put your hand up if you believe
that but let me give you a classical
illustration from Scripture and I think I could
give you some illustrations from experience too but
I will confine myself to one classical illustration
from Scripture it was read for us this
morning from 2 Samuel chapter 12 verses 1
to 7 you remember the story very well
a man what a plank in his eye
and yet he wanted to deal with a
little moat and somebody else's eye and it
was none other than Israel's great King David
you remember what happened David lusted after Bathsheba
who didn't belong to him she was somebody
else's wife I don't need to go into
the details save to say that he committed
adultery with her and he fathered a child
to her and then so that so that
her husband would not find out he worked
things so that her her husband who was
in military service should be killed on the
field of battle and if her husband Uriah
was killed in the field of battle no
one would be any the wiser all things
would go well and to go on just
as usual well no God had seen God
saw God sent his prophet Nathan to David
you know God make some wonderful choices and
Nathan went to David and did you notice
Nathan didn't speak to him in ordinary speech
that is in plain language in prose he
spoke to him in a kind of parable
and he said to him you remember he
said to him there was a certain wealthy
farmer a very rich man he had large
flocks many sheep and strange to say when
somebody came and he wanted to make a
meal he didn't want to take one of
his own sheep out of the flock but
he set his heart on getting a little
ewe lamb the only one that a neighbor
of his possessed and he just went on
with it says Nathan to David and he
got this one little ewe lamb that meant
so much to this other neighbor and David
got hotter and hotter and more angry and
more angry and he said ultimately who is
that man he'll have to pay back fourfold
and Nathan said David you are the man
see the point he condemned in others in
the parable he saw it was wrong and
with all his soul he boiled in righteous
indignation against it he was blind to his
own guilt at that stage I'm not saying
that he didn't know that he was guilty
what I'm saying is this that he didn't
recognize the heinousness of it the gravity of
it was a plank in his eye you
see Israel's great king was blind to that
plank in his own eye whilst he boiled
with fury at the thought of such a
sin in someone else's eye are we ever
in danger of that Jesus would tell us
what he told his disciples at a later
stage in John 7 24 stop judging by
mere appearances and make righteous judgment those aren't
Jesus own words here then is an area
of life we all need to consider very
carefully our communion season is coming up brothers
and sisters it is necessary for us to
make sure that we are right with God
and very right with one another too and
if there is any such a spirit abroad
not only shall we miss something but we
shall be guilty of grieving the Spirit of
God as he would come to us via
the sacrament on the word as we meet
together in his good providence that brings me
to the last thing a challenging application to
exercise sound judgment in verse 6 do not
give dogs what is sacred do not throw
your pearls to big pigs if you do
says Jesus they may trample them under their
feet and then turn and tear you to
pieces I see what Jesus is doing having
told them not to be quick to judge
others nevertheless he says it is necessary to
discriminate between one thing and another this verse
has shocked many people unless you are familiar
with the Gospels you may have long forgotten
that the one who could be gentle as
a lamb could also act like a lion
and there were times during his earthly ministry
when Jesus was exceedingly outspoken as when he
called Herod Antipas that fox when he branded
some hypocritical people as whited sepulchers and again
in the same context in Matthew you snakes
you brood of vipers those are the words
of gentle Jesus meek and mild and you
can be sure they were justified before he
spoke them and it was he who spoke
in this context of dogs and pigs what
can this mean how are we to discern
who is who and to separate the one
from the other well let a contemporary commentator
help us here who then are the dogs
and the pigs he asks by giving them
these names he replies Jesus is indicating not
only that they are more animal than human
but that they are animals with dirty habits
as well the dogs he had in mind
were not the well-behaved lap dogs of
the elegant home but the wild pariah dogs
vagabonds and mongrels who scavenged the city's rubbish
dumps and pigs were unclean animals to the
Jew not to mention their love of mud
now there in few brief words we have
the explanation let's look at it just a
little as we come to a conclusion dogs
and pigs described some people in terms of
their reaction to the gospel dogs and that
which is sacred do not cast that which
is sacred to the dogs do not throw
the sacred to the dogs brothers and sisters
followers of Christ have been given something which
is altogether sacred divine our gospel is
divine it originated in the heart of God
in the mind of God no one else
had a word to say about it did
you know that not a man not a
scholar not a simpleton not anybody our gospel
originated in the heart and mind of God
and God alone he didn't consult with anyone
and in the execution of it he put
all the work of our redemption in the
hand of his co-equal son the Lord
Jesus Christ and his own son came and
was born of the Virgin and lived a
holy life and laid it down in death
so that in the execution of it as
well as in the in the origination of
it it is sacred it is divine also
in the application of it how does the
salvation that originated in God and was made
possible by Christ his co-equal son how
does it come home to me how does
it come over to me by the Holy
Ghost the Holy Spirit you can never work
up an awareness of your lost condition without
Christ you can never repent of your sin
unless the Holy Spirit convicts you I can't
either of course none of us can the
whole of our salvation is of God God
is in it it is the power of
God working unto the end of salvation that's
what the gospel is you see it's a
sacred thing and what Jesus is saying in
the proclamation of the gospel there comes a
point when you cannot give the gospel to
some people if you've started to give them
the gospel you'll have to stop you have
to distinguish because in relation to the gospel
they will treat it as a dogwood now
what does this mean I believe that it's
something like this it doesn't imply that we
do not preach the gospel to sinners the
gospel was was was originated in the heart
of God to save sinners God sent forth
his son to save that which was lost
it doesn't mean that but what it means
is this there are some unbelieving men and
women and the more you offer them the
gospel the more they will blaspheme and the
more it will provoke the sin of their
hearts and the unbelief of their souls and
the anger of their spirits and you will
only provoke the work of Satan in them
the more you offer them the gospel there
comes a time when you don't cast that
which is before the dogs you see the
Old Testament Jews would never give sacred food
food that had been consecrated in the temple
or in the synagogue in the temple or
the tabernacle they wouldn't they wouldn't give that
to the dogs they wouldn't give that to
a man only to the priest now says
Jesus bringing up the illustration of bringing it
up to death you cannot cast that which
is sacred to the dogs and when you
see sinners blaspheming against the gospel stop pass
on go into all the world and make
disciples of all nations move on Jesus there
are others waiting as Jesus himself did you
remember after spending a whole day in Capernaum
the beginning of Mark's gospel and they wanted
him to come back another day and but
as he was praying and the disciples went
and woke him up or alerted him from
his prayers and they said everybody's seeking for
you no no he says I'm not coming
back to Capernaum today let us go forth
into the next villages the other towns also
for thither for therefore came I have got
to move on they've heard they've seen and
what they've heard and seen has not brought
forth faith but something else it will be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the
day of judgment and for them brothers and
sisters this is an element of the gospel
and we don't pay attention to and in
Christian work in church planting in missionary work
it is all important there comes a time
there comes a time when people have been
so so overwhelmed with a gospel that it
only makes them more angry or harder and
I believe our Lord is telling us at
that point move on same as the principle
in the next do not throw your pearls
before swine all the language is harsh but
the truth is a terrifying one the gospel
is a pearl of great price you a
believer in the Lord Jesus today I want
to tell you you've got the most wonderful
pearl in all creation and of all time
in the parable Jesus said the man who
should be prepared to sell everything that he's
got in order to gain this pearl of
great price that's what the gospel is you
don't throw that you don't throw that to
hogs feed them with corn feed them with
acorns feed them with it whatever their menu
may be but don't feed them with pearls
they don't know how to distinguish between pearls
and acorns and when they put the pearls
in their mouth and try to eat them
and can't they will just trample them underfoot
and if they get angry they may turn
upon you to move on you've got to
distinguish oh my good friends we're dealing with
something this morning which may sound strange and
we do not often preach about it but
it is something exceedingly important in the work
of our Lord and we need the gracious
spirit of Jesus himself to be able to
discern the right from the wrong the truth
from the error may he grant to you
as you meet people out in the outside
world this week may he grant you that
spirit may he grant it to all of
us may he grant it to us as
a congregation may he grant it to us
in whatever work we're involved in to know
when we have reached saturation point in presenting
the truth to people I know men and
women who have sat for over 50 years
under the sound of the Word of God
and when you speak to them about faith
in Jesus Christ they get angry I believe
Jesus is telling us something nevertheless my friends
the body of men and women are not
in that in that category the multitudes in
the outside world this morning are waiting they're
like a harvest field ready to harvest the
real danger perhaps for you and for me
is to forget that the vast multitudes have
not heard by the grace of God let
us hold these truths in balance and thus
honor him who speaks so clearly in his
word and who has promised us this Holy
Spirit to obey him let us pray God
our Father grant us your spirit we pray
that we may rightly respond to your word
and its message to us we thank you
that in the delicate task that you have
given to every believer and to your church
in general and to your servants whom you
have thrust forth to labor for you in
your harvest field in this you have promised
yourself to come with your servants to go
with them Oh Lord our God forgive us
if we have sometimes acted hypocritically and have
judged things wrong in others which we have
justified in our own lives enable us to
acknowledge such sins and to confess them before
you and to forsake them straighten out the
crooked in us build up the valleys in
us that our lives may be a highway
prepared for the coming of the glory of
the Lord we ask it in Jesus name
Amen