Matthew 7:1

CORNERSTONE BIBLE CHURCH

August 7, 2011

KINGDOM LIVING: HERE & NOW, 16

A LIFE OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Matthew 7:1–6

 Matthew 7:1–6 [open]

Introduction: Wife & Kids gone this week

• The family has been in Indiana all week, visiting grandma & grandpa. I

got to tell you, I have missed them a lot. I have this weird thing about

being gone from them. When I am traveling & they are home, I miss

them. But when they are traveling & I am home alone, it is misery. I don’t

know what to do with myself but to get lots of work done.

• I don’t know why I told you that story other than to say, there is

something else I have missed. I have missed our series on the Sermon on

the Mount. I have enjoyed taking a month off to go through a few Psalms,

but I really missed studying these words of Jesus.

• But we are back this morning. Let me catch us up, just to remind us what

is going on here in Matthew.

Jesus is about a year and a half into His public ministry. He has been healing

people & teaching them about the Kingdom of Heaven. At some point, He

realized that His disciples just didn’t quite get it. They rightly believed He

was the Messiah, but like many of us, they made some radical assumptions

about the nature of the Kingdom.

That is why Jesus takes them aside and instructs them. His purpose in this

sermon was to correct their thinking about the nature of the Kingdom of

Heaven. In this message, He wants them to realize that the Kingdom is active

and available today, here and now. Of course, it is not what it will be

someday, but there are aspects of the Kingdom that are available today.

Remember the key phrase that we keep saying each and every week? It’s

about the heart! Jesus is dealing with heart issues with them, and us today.

And that is none truer than our passage this morning. Getting back to the

Sermon on the Mount, we hit it with a bang today. I suppose there are some

that would say John 3:16 is the most famous verse in the Bible, but I think I

could make a good argument that Matthew 7:1 is the most often quoted verse

(even though those who quote it don’t know it’s meaning or where it’s

located).

You know what I mean, look at the first part of chapter 7: “Do not judge so

that you will not be judged.” How many of you have ever heard this before? I

find it sort of funny, cause we live in a world that judges everything! Think

about this, people all the time judge others for all sorts of things. For instance:

On Monday night, I went to Pittsburgh with Dan Itschner to see the Cubs play

the Pirates (btw, they have won 7 straight). Guess what I found myself doing?

Whenever there was a bad call against me, I found myself judging that the

umpire was wrong.

Or, let me ask you this: Did anyone make a judgment this past week on the

“balancing the budget” issue? Who thought they could do it better? Did you

watch anyone with some judgment on how it should be handled? And for the

most part, it is received as everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Not many people have a problem with this type of judging. But once you start

talking about someone’s personal life or some situation they are involved

with, they start quoting things like this verse: “doesn’t the Bible say that you

are not to judge me.” And there you have it; the conversation is usually over.

Let me paint how this picture of how it normally goes.

 Imagine a situation where you find out your friend, who goes to another

church, has been sleeping with his girlfriend and they are now moving in

with each other. You feel like you should say something and try to tell

him that it is not a thing that is pleasing to the Lord. He responds, “oh,

your so righteous, plus Jesus said your not to judge me.”

 Imagine a situation where you spend some time with that co-worker of

yours on the golf course. He is not a believer, but has always acted nice

and has been pleasant to be around. But once on the golf course and a few

bad shots later . . . look out! The language starts flying, every other word.

You ask him to stop talking like that around you, especially taking the

name of God in vain and his response is “Hey, Jesus freak, didn’t He say

you shouldn’t judge me.”

 Imagine a situation where a friend of yours who goes to your own church.

You know they are a believer; you have had many good conversations

about Jesus. Maybe they ask if they could hook their IPod up to your

ITunes on your computer so they can download all your music. You say

something about that being stealing and then say something about them

not doing it. The respond, “don’t you judge me.”

 Imagine a situation where you are talking to your neighbor one day and

they openly, very nonchalantly tell you that they just killed someone—

just kidding! 

Ever have any sort of conversations like these? So I guess we can’t say

anything like this to people, because Jesus does say here, “Do not judge.”

Right? But let me make a statement that might seem shocking to you. When

Jesus said “do not judge,” He did not mean that we are never to judge! We

need to fully understand this text in light of the proper context, for Jesus does

say other places that we should judge.

Vs. 6  just a few verses later, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that we are to

judge. There will be a situation when giving that which is holy to dogs and

pearls to swine should be stopped. But that means we have to judge who the

dogs and swine are, right?

Vs. 15  a few verses later, Jesus tells His followers to watch out for false

teachers, who come to you in sheep’s clothing. Well, if we are to do that,

doesn’t it mean that we are going to have to make a judgment about them?

And even some other passages:

 1 John 4:1



“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to

see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone

out into the world.”

If we are going to test the spirits, doesn’t that mean we are going to have to

make a judgment about them?

 John 7:24



“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with

righteous judgment.”

Here, Jesus is telling us to judge. But to make sure it is a righteous judgment.

So which is it? Is Jesus contradicting Himself or other portions of the Bible?

NO, when Jesus gives this command to not judge, by it He does not mean that

we will never have to make a decision between that which is good or bad /

false or true. So, what does He mean? Let me give you several ways in which

these words of Jesus should be understood.

First, We Are Not To Be Judgmental. Yes, as Christians, there are many times

when we are called to judge between that which is right and wrong / true or

false. But we are never to be judgmental. You see, there is a difference

between being ‘judgmental’ and being someone who ‘judges.’

The person who is judgmental is the person who is critical and condemning.

They are the person that when you see them approaching, you cringe. You

know that nothing is ever good enough for them. They are the people who are

very ready to find the fault in everything.

Honestly, this is the sort of attitude that I have to wage war against. Many

years ago, a friend pointed out to me that I tend to always think of how a new

idea “couldn’t work” instead of reflecting on the ways it could work. I was

very quick to point out the negative instead of the positive. I am sure this is

still part of me, but I am trying to work on it. It doesn’t mean that I will never

have to point out something in someone’s life, but that if all I ever do is point

out things in people’s life—something’s wrong!

Second, We Are Never To Judge Without First Looking At The Cross. This is

what He will say and we will look at in a minute. When we go to point out

things in other’s life, we should be constantly reminded of our need for the

cross! Jesus is saying that we should not look down at others with disgust

because of their sins or their actions in life. Yes, we might have to point out to

them that adultery or stealing is contrary to the ways of Christ, but we do it

while we weep with them instead of condescending them.

You want to know why I share stories of areas in which I struggle, which

most every preaching book tells me not to do? I do it because I want you to

know that I am standing at the foot of the cross in the same way that I want

you to do. I refuse to be the preacher who stands up telling you to do things as

if my life is all perfect. I want to be the preacher that begs and urges that there

is plenty of room at the foot of the cross, come on down here next to me!

If we ever get to the place that we forget the cross, then we will become that

judgmental person I just talked about. But if the cross is always before us, it

will bring humility and sensitivity when we need to point out things in other

people’s lives.

Third, We Are Never To Judge That Which We Can’t See. This means we

cannot judge the heart and motives of people. God sees them, we don’t. God

will judge them, we shouldn’t.

We can and should deal with the fruit that people show, but we can’t deal

with the seed as it begins to grow in their heart. We can’t explain or evaluate

motives.

The main reason I have called this “a life of encouragement” is that the most

encouraging thing we can do for someone is to call them to the standard of

Jesus with a gentle and sensitive spirit. But if we judge them without thinking

of the cross or by making points about their intents and motives, we are not

encouraging. We are breaking the commandment of Jesus by being critical in

their life.

Now, after Jesus gives us this admonition, He gives 4 THINGS TO

REMEMBER AS WE JUDGE OTHERS. This should help us as we look at how

to walk this fine line of balance between judging and being judgmental.

1. WE WILL ALSO BE JUDGED (VS. 1)

Some people take this as a human judge. You know, here’s the motivation to

not be judgmental. Those who are judgmental and walk around judging

everyone will also be judged. It’s so true. There are some ministries or

churches that only end up pointing out what is wrong with everyone else.

I once read in a book this quote: “those who witch hunt end up riding

brooms.” I have had friends that have experienced this. They were so quick to

point out things wrong in everyone else that when things went wrong in their

life; everyone was quick to point out what’s wrong in his life. Do not judge so

that you will not be judged. While it is true, that’s not what Jesus means here.

We are never told to be motivated to Christianly actions because of how other

people will respond to us.

So, what judgment is Jesus talking about? Well, our other option is a

judgment by God, the true Judge! And when we come to God being the judge,

we have to determine what He means. Obviously, Jesus is not talking about a

judgment of condemnation. If we are truly saved, we are told in Romans 8:1

that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no

hell! There is no eternal punishment! So, Jesus is not saying that if we live our

lives judgmental or critical, we will be condemned in hell.

Well, there is another type of judgment that we see in the Scriptures. Many

people refer to it as the judgment of rewards. In Romans 14:10–12, we are

told that each one of us will have to give an account of ourselves before the

Lord. In fact, the Apostle Paul also says,

 2 Corinthians 5:10



“For we must all appear before the judgment seat

of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deed in the body,

according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

When it says that we are to “appear” it has the idea of being turned inside out.

One commentator, Philip Hughes, comments on the use of this term

“manifest” as to what happens on that Day of Judgment for Christians:

“to be laid bare, stripped of every outward façade or respectability, and

openly revealed in the full reality of one’s character. All of our hypocrisies

and concealments, all our secret, intimate sins of thought and deed, will be

open to the scrutiny of Christ.”

Can you imagine? Can you conceive of what that is going to be like? To be

looking into the eyes of your Savior, the One who died for you, the One who

loves you with a love that is so uncompromising that He died for you when

you were still His enemy. To look at His scars on His hand, to think about the

crown of thorns that He once wore and to know that you are completely laid

open to Him of all your secrets, all your masks that you wear, they will all be

gone. You will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ.

While it is not a judgment of condemnation, I can’t say it is going to be a fun

judgment. We will give an account for everything we have done and how we

have used the gifts He has given us. I would suspect tears and embarrassment.

This will be a time where we are give rewards for how we acted in this life.

But I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 7:1.

Qtd in Lutzer, Erwin W. Your Eternal Reward: Triumph and Tears at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

(Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishing, 1998), 28.

I say that because it does seem that Jesus says this is a judgment that we can

avoid. Do not judge so that you will not be judged. Jesus makes it clear that if

we do not live our life in a judgmental way, we will not be judged. But we

will all be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

So, what is it? There is only one possible explanation to this statement. The

judgment that Jesus is saying will come our way when we live as the

judgmental person is the judgment of discipline.

Hold on, okay? This could shock you a bit. We are told in the Scriptures, that

if we are believers and are disobedient to the Lord, He will discipline us in

order to bring about repentance in our life. For instance, the Apostle Paul tells

us this happened to some of the people at the church of Corinth when they

approached the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner. He says,

 1 Corinthians 11: 29–32



“For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks

judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason

many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged

ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we

are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with

the world.”

Some of them found themselves weak, some sick, and a number of them died!

What, died? Yes, Paul says there were some believers in their midst who so

trivialized the Lord’s table that He found it necessary to end their time on this

earth and take them to be with Him forever. He says that if we judge

ourselves rightly on this earth, then we will not be judged (or disciplined) by

the Lord. The author of Hebrews further explains this . . .

 Hebrews 12:5–6



“ . . . My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of

the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the

Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He

receives.”

Wait a minute, so Thad, you’re telling me that I lost my job or have this

illness because of some sin in my life. Well, I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not.

What I am saying is that it is clear that the Lord will & does discipline those

He loves (believers) and will do all things to bring us into the image of His

Son. And that Jesus says that if we live our lives not as a judgmental person,

we will avoid some type of judgment. So . . . maybe! I would sure take the

time to evaluate my heart and life. And if I discern no sins in my life, then…

 James 1:2–4



“Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let

endurance have its perfect result, so that you maybe perfect and complete,

lacking in nothing.”

And so when Jesus says, “do not judge so that you will not be judged,” the

only thing that makes sense is that we will avoid the discipline of the Lord

while we live our life here. Just remember when you are tempted to be that

negative, critical, condemning person that it very well could come back

around to you.

2. WE WILL BE HELD TO THE STANDARD WE ENFORCE ON OTHERS

(VS. 2)

It is fairly easy to understand what Jesus is saying here, the way we judge will

be the way we will be judged. The way we hold others to standards will be a

similar standard held against us.

As I was studying, this did bring up an interesting question: “But aren’t we

judged by God’s standard?” Well, the answer of course is yes. God is the one

who is the judge and He sets the standard. What Jesus is saying is that if we

are gracious and patient with our judging of other people, then we can expect

to experience a similar sort of judgment by Him.

But if we are picky and critical and condemning, then we should expect that

sort of judgment. It is almost like Jesus is thinking about the Pharisee’s and

their self-righteous attitudes. Remember that story of the Pharisee & the

sinner in Luke 18? The Pharisee prayed that he was so thankful that he did

everything just right according to the law and that he wasn’t like that other

person who was in the corner confessing his sin.

Let’s take that scenario and apply it to Matthew 7:2, what Jesus is saying is

that if you want to condemn everyone according to the nitty bitty details of

the law, okay? Let’s do it! This is what Paul wrote in the book of Romans.

Romans 1 is a rebuke against the Gentiles for their sinful nature. They have

abandoned God, they have chosen to worship the creation instead of the

Creator. I can just picture the Jewish person applauding Paul as this letter is

read. But then they get to chapter 2:

 Romans 2:1–3



“Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who

passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn

yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that

the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.

But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who

practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the

judgment of God?”

Awesome! Paul turns it now on those that think they are the Righteous! You

do the same things and you think you will pass? God is going to judge you by

the same standard that you are passing on others. One more illustration:

 James 3:1



“Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren,

knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”

Why does he pick on the teachers? Because he is setting up a principle that if

you set yourself up as the authority, if you think you are the master, you

basically judge yourself. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says,

“You are setting yourself up as an authority? Very well; that will be the very

standard applied to you in your own judgment . . . If, therefore, I am careful

in my scrutiny of other people and their lives, that very standard comes back

upon myself, and I have no ground at all for complaining. The answer to me if

I complain would be this: You knew it, you were able to exercise it with

regard to others, why did you not exercise it in your own case? It is a very

surprising and alarming thought. There is nothing I know of that is so likely to

deter us from the sinful practice of condemning others and from that foul and

ugly spirit that delights in doing so.”

Next time when you are judging someone’s thoughts and motives and are

being critical, I want you to ask this question: Am I willing to be judged by

this same standard?

A 3

point to remember as we judge others:

3. WE HAVE OUR OWN ISSUES (VS. 3–5)

Well, obviously, if we are going to be examined by the same standard we

judge others, it is probably good if we remember that we have our own issues.

In vs. 3–5, we get a sense of the sarcasm of Jesus. Yes, Jesus uses a form of

sarcasm here to drive home His point. The speck He refers to is like that of a

speck of sawdust. The log is a term for a plank. And His question is why do

you look at that little speck in someone else’s eye when you have a rafter in

yours.

Illustration: Think of it like this!

His point? We are so quick to point out the faults in other’s lives when we

often have even larger ones in our own life. The fault in the life of your

brother is minor compared to how God thinks of your issue. We are very good

at rationalizing our own sin. Well, it’s not like it hurts anyone. I used to do

those things, but not any longer. It isn’t as bad as what that person is doing.

“We find it so easy to turn a microscope on another person’s sin while we

look at ours through the wrong end of a telescope! We use some strong term

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Vol. 2. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,

1993), 177–8.

for someone else’s sin but a euphemism for our own. We easily spot a speck of

phoniness in another because we have a logjam of it in our own lives.”

Look, Jesus says it’s like this, the natural question is how in the world can that

person not see their own sin? It’s a log! I think that’s exactly the point Jesus is

trying to make. Put a huge log in your eye and it would blind you. We are

often blind to those things that are the biggest in our lives.

What’s your blind spot? What are those things that you often don’t see, but

you know they are there? Do you want to know that the only way to find out

what your log is? You have to ask someone! You have to sit down with your

spouse and ask them to be really honest with you. You have to ask a good

friend to tell you the truth. And then sit back and listen without responding.

And then do the steps necessary to take the log out of your eye!

That’s the point of this illustration, isn’t it? It’s not that you should never help

the other person take out their speck, but that we need to first be constantly

dealing with ourselves before the Lord. Sure, we can point out to the other

person their problems (their specks), but it really doesn’t mean much and we

find ourselves being a hypocrite.

Judge yourself accurately first and repent of your sins. It probably could be

said like this: Do we weep over our own sins? Let’s take those illustrations

that we used earlier as examples for us:

 When you hear about that person who is sleeping with or moving in with

their girlfriend, does that make you respond in disgust or does it make you

weep because of your own lust?

 When you listen to your coworker swearing up and down and taking the

Lord’s name in vain, does it drive you to repent of your own anger and

living contrary to the name of the Lord?

 When you see your church friend stealing music, does it move you to

think of how bad they are or does it move you to look at your own life of

how you maybe steal time from your employer?

Get the point? It doesn’t mean we don’t deal with those issues in others life,

but does it drive us to the point of weeping and repenting of our own sins

before we help them. When we do help our brother’s or sister’s take the speck

out of their eye, how should we do it? The eye, as well as the soul, is very

sensitive. We need to do it with a delicate touch. A great summary verse:

 Galatians 6:1



“Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you

who are spiritual, restore such a on in a spirit of gentleness; each one

looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”

Hughes R. Kent. The Sermon on the Mount. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), 231.

But before we move on, I do want to take a look at this from the other

perspective. What if someone is pointing something out to you, and honestly,

you do not respect them because of the log in their eye? How should you

respond?

First, be thankful. Be thankful that someone would point something out in

your life. I know that is hard to say, and even harder to receive.

Second, resist turning it back on them. I remember one time in a very heated

moment of a meeting, one man said to the other, I just see so much pride in

your life. Want to know how the other man responded? He said, “Your proud

too.” Well, that conversation went nowhere!

Third, look for the truth in it. There is probably some truth to it, take it and

deal with it. Don’t overlook the possibility that the person really does want to

help you, they just have issues they are dealing with as well.

Things to remember as we judge others: (1) We will also be judged; (2) We

will be held to the standard we enforce on others; (3) We have our own issues;

4. WE CAN’T HELP EVERYONE (VS. 6)

Many people have a difficult time seeing the correlation between vs. 6 and the

previous 5 verses. And it is tough, for it seems as though it is the opposite of

the previous section. We have just been told to not judge and now we are told

to not give what is holy to dogs or pearls to swine. Well, that means we are

judging.

Here is how we should understand this: In vs. 1–5, we are being warned about

being too harsh. But in vs. 6, Jesus says that avoiding being harsh doesn’t

mean we should become too lenient. Jesus is trying to balance His followers.

When they had just been exhorted to love their enemies (5:43–47) and not to

judge (7:1), they might swing that pendulum so far to the other side that they

are undiscerning simpletons.

We should be willing to help all that we can, but there might come a time

when we no longer will be able to help someone else and we should stop

giving to them what is holy. There are some that even when we deal with our

own log and judge them correctly, they will respond violently and hatefully to

us.

When you think of the dogs, don’t think of Rusty, your golden retriever.

Think of wild dogs. And the swine, don’t think of that little piglet. These are

the unclean, wild, and vicious animals. And Jesus says that if we continue to

offer what is holy (the gospel or maybe even the reproofs of vs. 1–5), they

won’t listen and might even turn on us.

We might summarize these people as any persons giving clear evidences of

rejecting the gospel with vicious scorn and hardened contempt. To them, we

need to understand there is not much we can do.

 Proverbs 9:8



“Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a

wise man and he will love you.”

So, what can you do for them? We can pray for their soul. Take it to the Lord,

and ask Him to do the work that He desires to do. Pray for them. But we can

also Live the Cross-Centered Life. We can live our life with Jesus and the

cross at the center of everything we do.

At the center of our decisions

At the center of our confrontations

At the center of our confessions

We can live with Jesus at the center of all things.

So, are you judgmental? Do you have a problem that you need to confess this

morning? Are you critical? As the men come forward for our time around the

communion table this morning, this would be a great time to go to the Lord in

prayer and confession.

ASK THE MEN TO COME FORWARD FOR COMMUNION:

What we do here this morning carries no further grace from God. This is a

time for us to come and remember, reflect, and proclaim what Christ has done

for us in our salvation.

We have bread and juice, and these are to be a memorial for what Jesus did

when He went to the cross. This is a time of remembrance for Christians. We

celebrate an open communion, which means that if you’re a believer, please

join us in celebrating Christ’s death. You do not have to be a member of our

church; you do not even have to be a regular attendee, just a believer in Christ

and part of the universal church as we talked about this morning.

Warning: 1 Corinthians 11 says that you should not take this table in an

unworthy manner, that is, you should not come here with unconfessed sin,

harboring bitterness to others, or if you are unsure if you’re a Christian. We

are going to sing some songs, if you need to deal with the Lord some more, do

it. There is no shame in passing the plate by and not taking. Resist the

temptation to take these elements simply because others next to you are doing

so.

PRAYER FOR BREAD:

 I Corinthians 11:23-24



“

For I received from the Lord that which I

also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was

betrayed took bread;

and when He had given thanks, He broke it and

said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

PRAYER FOR CUP:

 I Corinthians 11:25-26



“

In the same way He took the cup also after

supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as

often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

For as often as you eat

this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He

comes.”