Judge Not Lest You Be Judged - Tim Conway

[Music] matthew chapter 7. i'm going to read the first five verses judge not that you be not judged for with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you 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 let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye now i will tell you this you can find sermons that are largely or almost entirely taken up with what these words do not mean i know i know between matthew 7 1 and john 3 16 the lost world out there probably twists these passages more than just about any other portion of scripture i recognize that and when when a verse is wrongly used is it appropriate to say it doesn't mean that of course that's appropriate but i think given the fact that when we get to the end of this chapter it's really important that we hear and do we don't want to just simply take up all of our time with what this doesn't mean we really want to look at the heart and soul of what this actually does mean and so just right here at the beginning i will tell you what it obviously doesn't mean but i'm only just going to spend a moment on this judge not you see it judge not do not judge or what what's the consequence if you judge [Music] you will be judged that's that's exactly right brethren our lord's prohibition here is clearly not a command to put discernment out the window he's not telling us quit being critical thinkers he's not telling us that he's not commanding us to put away any kind of critical faculties this is not an injunction to simply turn the blind eye to when there's sin in the church he's not saying well don't dare tell somebody i see sin in your life he's not saying don't tell somebody if you see a speck in their eye because you see clearly from the context right there's there's several things in the context here that ought to be very clear to us look at verse five first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye you see that jesus is not telling us to cease it wants to discern between what's true and what's not true what's good and bad the very clear context here is he does want us to be able to discern and see and be able to say to a brother brother you do have a speck in your eye we need to get to the proper place where we're able to do that the lord's using an analogy here the speck in your brother's eye is it's it's that's not good that's something about their life it's not good to have a piece of dirt in your eye and it's not good to have uh in his analogy here the idea is you've got something in your life some kind of sin some kind of fault something that's backwards something not good seeing clearly he's not talking about with the physical eye he's talking about having discernment that's what we're talking when you see clearly in the spiritual realm that means you have proper judgment you have proper discernment you are being a right critical thinker you're able to clearly analyze something you've got insight you've got spiritual wisdom with regards to this it means we're able to recognize spiritual specks that's the idea we have the ability to discern it to make these judgments to critically analyze and then there's this look at verse six do not give dogs what is holy do not throw your pearls before pigs unless they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you let me ask you something we're gonna look at this next two weeks who's a pig let me ask you this do you think he expects us to identify pigs well if you're not supposed to cast your pearl before swine does he expect you to figure out who's dog-ish and who's swinish yes you need to be able to make those kind of judgments he expects us to look at somebody and say that is a spiritual pig now we may not like that we're going to look at that in two weeks brethren i think you know what i think it's it's critical that we actually take these passages and implement them into our lives there is a place to no longer take the word of god to somebody there is a time to stop and he's expecting that we'll have the ability to figure out who those people are again in the context here look at verse 15 matthew 7 15. see all this takes critical evaluation you have to be able to measure people by a certain standard and you see it here in verse 15 beware of false prophets and how are you going to know these false prophets well they come to you in sheep's clothing check that out so this means our our spiritual judgment needs to be very refined because it's not just figure out who the false prophets are it's you have to be able to see past their disguise this takes extra ordinary ability inwardly they're ravenous wolves you will recognize them by their fruits do you think he expects us to look at now look one of the ways that you can tell false teachers look at their life they may say the right things and they may appear as sheep but look at the fruit of their life look at how they handle money look how they handle women i mean those are very important areas to look at some this takes critical evaluation brethren we need to be more than just a little discerning we need to know how to critically evaluate these things we know how we need to know how to test the spirits we need to know how to take this because this is this is where we measure things by we need to be able to take the word of god and we need to be able to need to measure what's happening in people's lives what's what we need to be able to look at people know who's pigs know who's faults profits among us the apostle paul said it this way such men are false apostles deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of christ no wonder for even satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it's no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness their end will correspond with their deeds you know what bible talks about false teachers false prophets false apostles false christs and how are we going to discern them you better be able to judge what's true and what's not enough with that now what does this mean because that's obviously what jesus is really after here what does this mean what's the focus i think it's important that you remember this about the sermon on the mount go back to chapter five when i began preaching on this in fact the very first message i emphasized but in all the sermon on the mount chapter 5 verse 20 really sums up the very heart and soul of this sermon on the mount if you're looking at anything any one verse that kind of gives you the the feel for what the lord is developing here what's the thesis here he says this i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven your righteousness better exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees jesus refers to these guys again throughout the sermon but you know what's interesting you'll remember this probably matthew chapter 23 remember matthew chapter 23 jesus condemns the scribes and the pharisees what does he call them over and over and over again hypocrites you know what as he develops this sermon on the mount he gets to where he's not even calling them scribes and pharisees anymore he just calls them hypocrites you see this look at verse six two when you give to the needy sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do or 6 5 when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites or 6 16 when you fast do not look gloomy like the hypocrites brethren if there's anything that describes that characterizes the scribes and the pharisees it is hypocrisy and jesus is condemning this he says your righteousness better exceed this we need to be people that bear out the beatitudes in our life the poor in spirit not this hypocrisy there needs to be honesty about us hungering and thirsting after righteousness hypocrisy and brethren if we have eyes to see when he comes over to chapter seven he's dealing with the same thing again you see the reality is that these these scribes and these pharisees were extremely judgmental and you you can see it in 7-5 he deals with hypocrisy you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye he doesn't want us to be these hypocrites hypocrisy is the very characteristic of these scribes and pharisees which you better have a righteousness that exceeds theirs and by the way the sermon on the mount is not speaking about imputed righteousness we believe that we believe that by the obedience of one many are made righteous definitely believe what paul taught what isaiah taught but listen the whole of the sermon on the mount is about how we actually live it's about how we pray how we give how we fast how we judge and we're not to be these hypocrites we're not we're to exceed because that's what the grace of god does the grace of god will always lift us way beyond these these hypocrites scribes pharisees that's a reality hypocrisy here's here's the question when is judging hypocrisy let me ask this what is hypocrisy let's go back and just think about that what is hypocrisy being an actor pretending appearing to be something that you're not so when are our powers of discernment and expression of that when are our powers of discernment an expression of seeking to be something we're not well we can use our lord's own analogy you have a speck in your eye you have a speck in your eye i have a beam in my eye now i have the ability i have 20 20 vision i could i could march in your right there so i'm going to use your exam i can see the spec in his eye that's not true i can barely see your face brother see i don't wear my glasses up here because i can breathe this perfect i just can't see beyond like the third row but say okay i got 20 20. i'm bragging on my ability to see i see that speck in your eye brother but i got a beam in my own eye i mean that spec right there jumps right out at me and there truly is a spec there and i see it wow i'm so discerning aren't they you see that's my claim to fame boy i've got this discernment i can i've got this guy figured out but what's the hypocrisy i can't figure me out and i've got something far bigger far worse far more glaring wrong in me you see i'm coming across as i'm very astute i'm very perceptive aware insightful i have a very penetrating spiritual gaze here so it's discerned the slightest blemish in you but when i look in the mirror oh i'm beautiful and see that's not true i'm a piece of lumber that's that's what jesus that's the analogy jesus is after here much larger but i'm oblivious to it there's the hypocrisy the scribes and the pharisees were have you ever noticed these there's two accounts that i mean jump at me when it comes to the scribes and the pharisees hypocrisy in judging others listen to these you need to turn to them they said to the blind man in john 9 what did he do to you how did he open your eyes he answered them i've told you already you would not listen why do you want to hear it again do you also want to become his disciple they reviled him saying you're his disciple we're disciples of moses we know that god has spoken to moses but as far as this man we do not know where he comes from the man answered why this is an amazing thing you do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes we know that god does not listen to sinners but if anyone is a worshiper of god and does his will god listens to him never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind if this man were not from god he could do nothing and then it's what they say next this this is one of the most glaring hypocritical judgments that you find anywhere in scripture that these men made they answered him you were born in utter sin and would you teach us and they cast him out i mean you talk about hypocrisy you were born in utter sin have you ever read that and asked well how are they born on the clouds and angels wings i mean you know what and then there's this there's john 7. the officers answered you remember this whole account why didn't you arrest him the officer said officers said no one ever spoke like this man the pharisees answered them have you also been deceived have any of the authorities or the pharisees believed in him but this crowd that does not know the law is accursed you know this is see this is judgment just the crowd this is their own people these are jews but you know what we're superior you're all cursed because you're not like us jesus looked at them and said none of you keeps the law i know that it's saying those who don't know it they're not saying those who don't do it they prided themselves in knowing but jesus this such hypocrisy they can say that they knew it and yet jesus constantly said have you never read it was just a thrust of the knife right in the hypocritical bellies of these guys they believe they had all manner of spiritual perception they could figure that you're all together born in your sin we're the authorities this people that knows not the law they're a curse they were judging you see the kind of judgments they were making no ability to discern themselves and yet jesus said they're going to face the greater condemnation they looked at the people like these people are accursed jesus says you don't want to know who's most accursed them no ability to discern themselves and then and then their most miserable assessments of spiritual judgment came with regards to christ himself remember what they called him they said he had a demon a samaritan i mean they derogatorily call him a friend of tax collectors and sinners as the what he was being defiled by them he he came eating and drinking as though what he's a glutton and he's a he he's a drunk they constantly they accused him of breaking the sabbath and you know what he said you know what he said you hypocrites again hypocrites why why because he he says i made a man whole i made this woman whole on the sabbath don't you lead your animals to water or if one fell in a well you hypocrites see that's how these guys were they couldn't see you see this is the problem with it all when you make judgments of somebody else the reality is you're guilty of the same things you've got the same problems brethren this is a classic problem not just with scribes and pharisees this is a classic problem with mankind with us and you know it we condemn in someone else what we allow in ourselves harsh judgments sensoriousness wrong assumptions quick conclusions you know how often we assume somebody else's motive when we don't know we do that on a regular basis i hope i hope it's very much been killed in you since you've been converted but we abound in this and jesus wants this put to death in his people brethren i'm going to give you some examples i already i told you this story some time back some of you probably weren't here and didn't hear this but i think it's it's worth telling again i told the story about my mechanic situation you remember i found up here haywood area i found this mechanic he's a honda mechanic it's what i had back in the states and so i thought oh this is great i don't have to take my car to the dealer so call the guy up need some work done make an appointment thursday morning nine o'clock load up my bike because i'm gonna take the car over leave it jump on my bike ride home get everything packed up go over there i'm early even hoping that he'll be there early i can get that car dropped off to him get home i got things to do and there i wait and i wait and i wait and he doesn't come and he doesn't come and so finally i go home now as i'm driving from haywood back to my house i'm having these thoughts now this guy dropped the ball this guy i i probably shouldn't use him anymore i'm having these thoughts because this vehicle was there see so i'm i'm assuming his vehicle's here which means he probably left it yesterday which why would he leave his vehicle here when he went home yesterday and why is he not here now his vehicle's here but i thought he probably went he probably went out with some friends after work they came and picked him up and and he went out he got drunk and now he's at home in bed and he's got no car and he's not here he told me he'd be here and this is really shoddy practice so i'm going home and i'm thinking i'm not calling him and i may be done with this guy and i'm home no more than like a half hour and he calls and i have him on the speaker phone and he tells me that well he had a problem with his ex-partner and they have a son between them and his partner now has a new partner and there was some kind of conflict there and he anyway he told me bring back your vehicle immediately and i got off the phone with him and i wasn't overly placated by all this i just thought that that's bad because he's got a phone he could have called me he told me well my number was on a different phone and you know if i thought about that for a second i carry two phones i got my us phone i got my english phone and that does happen to me but i didn't give him the benefit of the doubt i i i thought that even if all he was saying was true he still should have called me i get off the phone my wife comes in and says oh it just sounds like he's having a hard day you should take him some chocolates taking some chocolates i'm thinking about where i should dump this guy so i did i we had some chocolate there and i took it to him and the guy the guy was really affected by that jumped on my car right away got it done really fast did a good job fixed what i didn't think he'd be able to fix and bring it brother and i bring this up now i'm not look i'm not i'm not bringing this up because i'm telling you you ought to use a shoddy mechanic not at all i'm bringing it up because i jumped i jumped to judgments on that now still i don't think everything about it would i think he could have had a bit of a better you know just approach to not being there when he said he would be there but you know we can begin to assume motives brethren the thing about this is every single one of us know what it is to hold someone else to a standard that we ourselves don't measure up too and we do that and i'm not saying we ought to pick a mechanic who does shoddy work i'm not saying that i'm not saying you should pick a mechanic who doesn't keep his word i'm just saying that to assume things as though we have this perfect discernment long before we had isn't it i mean isn't that and see i'm condemning myself in this but isn't that so like all of us why didn't i automatically assume that well he probably got covered last night and he's at home very sick i should find out where he lives and make sure that he gets help or why didn't i assume oh you know what he's a mechanic and somebody right when he was getting off work they showed up here and they whisked him away because they had some emergency situation with their vehicle somewhere else and he just he wasn't able to make it back here today and maybe he lost his phone why didn't i assume that you can say i don't know brother why didn't you well i think for the reason a lot of times we we speak about things as though we have perfect discernment long before we have the facts and the thing is that the very thing that gets done to us we've done to others but isn't it amazing the very same thing that you see somebody else do especially when it's done to you is you you can get the magnifying glass out you can see that thing perfectly but when you do it to somebody else you've got all sorts of excuses you have your ways of minimizing it brethren that's how that this is this is what our lord is after he's after this hypocritical kind of judgment very thing you and i find fault within others is a very thing you and i have been guilty of and you know what paul says to the romans therefore you have no excuse oh man every one of you who judges from passing judgment on another you condemn yourself now i know this is not specifically speaking to christians right in this passage i mean he's basically condemning the gentile and the jew in their natural state and hopefully we've been we've been transformed so that these verses here in matthew 7 have are actually being implemented in our life to a great degree but the brethren the lost world around us they pass judgment on one another and he said you have no excuse you see the very fact that you can see sin in others makes us without excuse it means you have the ability to see you have the ability to discern that and yet the hypocrisy of it all every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself because you the judge practiced the very same things we know the judgment of god rightly falls on those who practice such things do you suppose o man you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself that you will escape the judgment of god let me give you another example this one this one is theoretical it's it's something i've made up but it can be very real you walk into church you walk past a sister you greet her and she responds coldly isn't it amazing that oftentimes the default mechanism kicks in to judge harshly she's being mean and that comes to each look look at that look at her i mean she could have at least smiled she could have acted like she cares she might have at least made a little bit of an effort here and so we what do we do we come to these conclusions we begin to draw our own uh rationale about about the you know what's going on inside her we begin to examine we conjure up these motives i know what the problem is she doesn't like me she's never liked me what's wrong with her i wish she would think about others for once in her life it's no surprise she has problems with her husband she's selfish i wonder if she's even a christian i'm not saying it always is that harsh and but you know things can what if what if we replay this and it's like there's somebody and they greet you that way and you actually take paul to heart when he says love bears all things and it believes all things and it hopes all things i mean what if you rather think oh my sister must be going through a great trial i mean maybe she's maybe there's pain maybe she's like me i get migraines what if what if that's it or what if she just scolded her child she's been spanking her child endlessly all week long and she walks into the church building and there the child does the same thing she's been spanking him all week for she's exasperated she's out of gas she feels like her husband isn't helping her brother maybe she's wrestling with something before the lord i don't know how your walk is but sometimes i'm not at peace with the lord you're wrestling you're resisting there are 10 000 reasons why a person may not be cheerful when you greet them and it may actually not have anything to do with you do you realize some people are shy do you you know what sometimes people can fault other people for the way they respond to them when the fact is the person just doesn't simply have the personality faculties and the social skills to respond the way you think they ought to and you know what they may regret that more than anybody else i know i watch my wife my wife has social skills i don't have i wish i had them but i don't and i mean look there are many reasons and or take this somebody in the church they break your confidence that kind of thing can happen you share something with someone else that you expected to be confidential and suddenly you find out that well it's a rather public and what happens you immediately make this judgment well they must they went out and told people i just can't trust i can't trust them and you know what i can't trust anybody here i can't trust anyone in the church i mean look even if it's the worst case scenario and they did do that they shared something that not it just should not have been shared i would just say this have you never done that have you perfectly controlled your tongue and never said something you shouldn't have said have you done that and you know what happens sometimes you think well there's nobody else that could have done that i mean the only person i shared this with was my my wife and and that guy and then you actually investigate a little bit and you find out it was your wife that made it public but see you jumped to this conclusion brethren these kind of things happen and what we you know what what if what if that guy over there did actually share it but you know what he shared it because he really he cares about you and he was seeking counsel from somebody else what if he really cares about you and he shared it sincerely because he was looking for prayer for you and i know sometimes we can say we need to pray for so and so when all that is is just a manifestation of gossip it's a way to to you know put a holy veneer on just speaking but brethren what we need to do is we need to think how are we judging other people and you know this comes up again in romans chapter 14 you get somebody that deserves a day somebody that doesn't observe a day somebody that that eats meat somebody that doesn't eat meat who are you to judge your brother i mean look we stand or fall before the lord in these days in these coved days we've got all sorts of things we've got we've got i mean there's all sorts of people running around the vaccines are mark of the beast and you i know in this country and in the u.s you've got all sorts of people making judgments about whether you do this or don't do this and oh brethren we need to be careful how we are judging each other look we need to be people of the word we need to be people of spiritual judgment we need to be people that can discern the spirits we need to be people that are able to critically analyze things we need to be able to test good and bad right and wrong we need to be able to do that we need to be able to look at something and say i don't believe that to do that is biblical i don't believe it's right but brethren we've got all sorts of areas in our lives that we need to be gracious towards one another do you realize what jesus is saying here he says listen to what he says in verse 2 for with the judgment you pronounced you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you and i would not gloss over that you know the problem with a lot of the things that are said in the sermon on the mount like unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and pharisees you will not inherit the kingdom statements like that statements all the way through unless you gouge out i cut off hands why because if you don't he says you'll go to hell you know one of the problems with our understanding of say the doctrine of justification you know what we we so often approach scripture with this assumption i'm safe and therefore these warnings can't touch me you don't want to read scripture that way you want to flip that thing around because what jesus is saying is that people that judge unrighteously and hypocritically they're giving every evidence they're not justified and he says this you know that there are two categories of people they're the saved and the lost but what you've got to be recognizing in all of this is what he's saying is those who are saved will respond to these kinds of warnings you see the wise man he hears and he does and when that storm comes the person that hears the word of god and doesn't do it oh brethren you're deceiving your own self that's what james says be very careful here with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you brethren when you're always finding fault with others you're very you're very critical person constantly finding fault you may put on a good veneer here to walk out the door when you're alone with your husband alone with your wife then your mouth rattles off constantly critical constantly fault-finding habitually putting others to a standard that you yourself don't hold the lord is saying your end is going to be this one you're going to in the end be measured by your own ruler that's what he's saying with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged in such a case your righteousness has not exceeded that of the scribes and the pharisees it's just like their righteousness do you see what this is teaching us brethren the way you make these assumptions and judgments about one another as you sit there judging others you are the one who is truly being judged you see this says everything about you that's the issue and you know how scripture speaks if one gives an answer before he hears it's his folly and shame james says my beloved brothers let every person be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger brethren one of our big problems is that we talk too much and we speak too soon we make judgments before we have the facts we're quick to speak slow to listen it's all too common to have prophets in the church who think they have supernatural revelation about the motives of others and we guess at these motives and assume our hunches gospel truth brethren this is contrary to the very flavor of the way the sermon on the mount started blessed are the merciful you want to be merciful in your judgments blessed are the poor in spirit do you realize what poor in spirit so you're going to be slow to judge other people critically when you recognize what you've done yourself very quick to realize you know if i find fault in them for this i've done that before that doesn't mean that we don't have a responsibility to deal with these things brethren [Music] there are only two categories we have the lost we have the saved the saved let me tell you what happens you know you have a promise in the new covenant god says this in jeremiah 32 40. i will make with them an everlasting covenant that i will not turn away from doing good to them now listen and i will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me do you know what happens two categories lost and saved unsaved now they may have infiltrated the church because there's wheat and there's tares in the church these are professing christians oftentimes but what happens they fearlessly judge and criticize and find faults though they themselves do the same thing but you know what happens to the true christian i'm not saying they're perfect in this but god has put his fear in them and so when they hear things like this it actually becomes the truth what christ says at the end they hear and they do they recognize there's a fear in them they don't want to displease the lord in this area there's a fear of them that they don't want to be judged by that unkind unmerciful standard they they don't want that and so what happens that spiritual dynamic kicks in the fear of god fear of me in their hearts and they don't turn from me they don't turn from his ways brethren one of the things that we want to recognize when we're trying evaluating anything about anybody else do you know or even the lost out in the world i mean do you realize what do i have that i've not received look the truth is that even if there is a standard of righteousness in my life and there needs to be because our righteousness needs to exceed that of the scribes and the pharisees what do i have that i didn't receive i mean brethren do you ever look at people and you recognize they're doing wicked things look something rose in me to see that guy attacking sonny yesterday but you know at the end of the day god's had mercy on me and not on that man at least not savingly yet i mean what makes us differ what what is it i mean can't we get to a place where we can judge with leniency i mean do you recognize we could think i remember for the life of me i could not remember where this came from but i read it lloyd jones sermon one time lloyd jones he he talked about just the assessment we make of other people and he said you don't know what kind of trial these people may be going through you don't know what they may have been exposed to growing up you don't know they may not have had a father or father that beat them that kicked them that did all sorts of you don't know they may have been exposed to to pedophiles in their life when they're young all no good standard no good parents no good example we can look at people and we can recognize and you know what if it's even another christian i mean there's nothing that any of us among this christian group of people here there's nothing that the other person does that you yourself haven't done that you yourself haven't thought brethren people are often ignorant to the very things that you have been enlightened we're talking about that voice of christ you've heard his voice they haven't brethren we can we can curse the darkness but we have to ask ourselves which one of us don't need a savior ourselves i mean if you have your act together above and beyond someone else is it because you're better is it because you're wiser is it because you're more righteous in and of yourself brethren you know that's not the case we can always say there go i aside from the grace of god and brethren even in the church do you recognize you better be very careful because then behind all of this is pride and you know what even if you're a genuine christian you're making harsh judgments you better be careful galatians chapter 6 says you better be careful because you know god is in the business of resisting the proud and he has a way of drawing back your hand i often think of pilgrim's progress where pilgrim is making gains on hopeful is it hopeful it may have been faithful it may have been at the earlier part but he's he sees him and he's running up to him and he runs past him he kind of has this smirk on his face that he just outran his brother and you know the next thing that happens he trips and he falls flat on his face be careful that you don't be smug brethren let those of us without sin be the first to throw the stone listen james says this humble yourselves before the lord and he will exalt you do not speak evil against one another brothers the one who speaks against a brother judges his brother judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges of the law you see what james is saying in the end when you go to judging other people harshly hypocritically wrongly you see what you're really doing you're standing in judgment of the law of god himself who said that you need to love one another if you judge the law you're not a doer of the law but a judge there's only one lawgiver and judge he who is able to save and to destroy but who are you to judge your neighbor that is a question that i want to leave you all with brethren we do very well to ask ourselves that question who am i to judge them who am i to judge my neighbor when it comes to any number of things who am i brethren i'll tell you this if we're going to judge and we're going to see the spec in their eye then we ought to be able to say this i will tell you who i am to judge you i see the speck in your eye who am i to see that i'm a christian i'm a christian who has this book i'm a christian who has this book and i recognize yes i've had many logs in my own eye but because we're supposed to care for one another i'm i'm trying to deal with those logs in my eye maybe there's some i don't see but who am i to judge my neighbor i'm a christian who is seeking out of love for your soul to point out the wrong and for the sake of the purity of the church you see we need to be able to answer this question because the truth is with the attitude we have with the disposition we have a lot of times when we judge we're nobody to judge one another because we're doing it wrong we're doing it like the hypocrites but brethren we want to we want to be able to answer that question and say i'm pointing out that fault in them because i really do care i'm pointing out that fault because i care about the purity of this church brethren that's a reality and i am what i am by the grace of god and i realize that when i'm judging others love covers a multi multitude of sin who am i to judge another that's right i'm nobody i'm a saved sinner i'm a saved sinner who is headed towards the judgment seat of christ and so are you and i think i can speak for every one of us here we all have to appear before the judgment seat of christ and we have to give an account for what we've done in this body when we stand before that great grand the size and all the offspring of adam all of his posterity are gathered together not one is missing and your name is called and it's going to happen i can speak for all of us we want mercy we want to be judged based on the merits of christ brethren we want that all of our secrets you know what scripture says what was done in the dark is going to be brought out into the light what's been whispered is going to be shouted from the housetops that's your life that's everything you've done everything you've thought all that you are all that you've done we want mercy we want mercy and jesus is saying how you will be judged in that day can be connected back to how you judged one another now that's what he's teaching brethren there's a connection here father i pray that you would really do a work of grace in us to have us judge others lord i know i need i need help with that just as much as any of the brethren here help us to be charitable help us to be kind in our assessments helps to be slow to speak quick quick quick to listen to not assume the worst to assume the best help us lord to be a discerning people radically discerning but to mix our discernment with loving one another more and more having that love that covers a multitude of sins having the discernment to see the sins but also having the discernment to know when love will cover them and when for the sake of love for the sake of the good of our brethren for the sake of the good of the purity of this church when we should indeed stand up and point out the speck or even the logs lord help us to be a charitable people help us to judge according to this standard help us to be people who really are aware of wanting to tremble and at these words to be people that hear and do to be people that really are mindful every time we make an assessment of somebody else to help us to be mindful of these words that there really is a connection between how we judge one another and how we will be judged in that day i pray for your help lord help us make this word powerful living alive in in us cause it to resonate with us helps to be a people that aren't like james paints that picture of somebody looks in the mirror and they forget who they are lord we want to be able to retain the word of god have it to be a lamp unto our feet as we walk through this life help us for christ's sake amen you are dismissed

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 3,007

Rating: 4.8993711 out of 5

Keywords: Tim Conway, Matthew 7:1-6, judgment, critical, spirit

Id: XGQqyS0Rk94

Length: 51min 1sec (3061 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021