Collierville First Baptist Church

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We're going to talk about something tonight that I think everybody probably deals with at one time or the other. If I were to ask 10 Christians what their favorite verse was,

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I would bet you that the vast majority of them would say John 3 16. If I were to ask 10 totally secular unbelievers what their favorite verse is, I think their favorite verse would probably be the first verse we're going to look at tonight, Matthew chapter 7 verse 1. "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." I honestly believe this is the most misinterpreted verse in the entire Bible. So tonight we're going to dig down and we're going to find out exactly what Jesus meant when he said, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." Now let's do a little catch-up. We've been in the Sermon on the Mount for a while. I love what Pastor Ray Fowler gave as a synopsis of what we've covered so far in the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 5 verses 1 through 12, we looked at the Christian's character. You know, we looked in depth at the Beatitudes. Okay? And then in verses 13 to 16 of chapter 5, we looked at the Christian's influence. Jesus said where to be what? Salt and light. We're to make a difference in our culture. And then in verses 17 to 48 of chapter 5, we talked about the Christian's righteousness. Jesus said, "If our righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees," we won't go to heaven. And you say, "Oh no, I'm in trouble." No you're not. No you're not. Because their righteousness was a self-righteousness. Okay? Theirs was not a biblical Christ-centered righteousness. The Bible says this. The Bible says that Christ died on the cross for our sins so that we might be forgiven and so that we might have His righteousness imputed to us. We go to heaven on His righteousness, not our righteousness.

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And that's something we got to always keep in mind because there's something about our culture today. We live in a self-centered culture and sometimes it leaks over into the church. And we've got to always guard against this idea that we have something to do with our salvation. The only thing that you've contributed your salvation was faith in Jesus. You trusted Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. Okay? And then the Christian's motivation, chapter 6 verses 1 to 34, and remember what Jesus said. He said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all this other stuff that you worry about will be added to you." Right? And then tonight we're going to look at verses 1 to 6, the Christian relationships, and we'll take the second part of that next week. And then we'll look at the Christian's destiny,

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chapter 7 verses 13 to 27. So again, what did Jesus mean when He said, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." Is it wrong to make a judgment about people under any circumstances? I want you to look at Matthew chapter 7 just a moment, verses 15 to 20. Jesus said this, He said, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." Now look at verse 20, "So then you will know them by their fruits." Now think about this, I think we're made to feel like it's totally sinful for us to make a judgment about anybody, but how are we going to know if somebody's a false prophet if we don't judge their fruit? You see what I'm talking about? Jesus said we're to judge their fruits to determine whether they are a true prophet or a false prophet. And He said you will know by their works, by their fruit, by their works. So here's a question, is there a difference between judging and in being judgmental? Is there a difference? Well think about this, look at it. If we're judging, okay, it means we're making evaluations or forming opinions based on evidence, facts, or reason. The purpose of judging is so we can make good solid decisions, understand situations, and set boundaries. Let me ask you a question.

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Let's say that you're a 40 year old dad and you've got a beautiful young daughter and some boy comes to the door and knocks on the door. Are you going to make any judgments? You better believe you're going to make some judgments. You're making a decision whether he's going to walk out the door with your daughter or whether you call an audible and you take your daughter to Wendy's for an hamburger. So we make judgments all the time, okay? If you're a businessman in here, you have to make judgments. If you hire somebody to paint your house and you say I want the paint to be white, okay, and the guy decides, you know, I think I'm going to paint this house a beige color, a khaki color. Well when he comes for the check, are you going to make a judgment? Are you going to pay him to do what you didn't ask him to do? Are you going to make a judgment? Say, no, no, no, I don't think I'm going to pay until you paint the house exactly the color I want you to paint it. So you make a judgment, right? Those are good judgments. That's solid based on evidence and fact. Then the impact. Judging can be constructive, leading to positive outcomes or helpful feedback. Example, here's an example. A hiring manager assessing a candidate's qualification based on their resume and interview performance.

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All right, so that's good. That's judging and that's okay. That's what we're supposed to do. But what does it mean to be judgmental? And there is a difference, a difference as daylight and dark. Here's the definition. If you're judgmental, it means you're making harsh, critical, often unfair evaluations of others, often based on limited or biased information. The purpose of being judgmental is so you can criticize, condemn, or belittle others.

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You know, I think one of the reasons that some people are judgmental and they're harsh and critical toward other people is because they do it to make themselves feel better. They're putting themselves up and in so doing they're putting other people down. And the impact can be harmful, creating negativity, conflict, damaging relationships. And here's an example. A person constantly criticizing others appearances, choices, or behaviors often behind their backs. Ooh, often behind their backs.

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Look, in my adult life, I've been in two professions. I was a coach for eight years. I've been a pastor for 41 years. And in both those professions, you can put yourself in a position to face some judgmentalism. I remember when I was coaching, I was head coach and athletic director of South Hill High School and some fathers decided that they knew more about what plays should be called than I did. And they thought we should be throwing the ball a lot more. Well, we didn't have the talent to throw the ball a lot more. And we focused on running the football. And so there was some judgmentalism going on. It wasn't judgment. It wasn't constructive. It was judgmentalism. And so the thing I want to encourage you tonight is don't let the culture force you into a corner where you say, I'm never supposed to judge anybody about anything. That's not true. You are. All right, look at this. Look at verse one of chapter seven. Do not judge so that you will not be judged for in the way you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Now, let me let the context of these verses are so important. When you're talking about the Sermon on the Mount, remember to really interpret scripture properly. You've got to study what comes before it and what comes after it. You got to get the context correctly. And so the context is that Jesus is dealing with toxic, religious rhetoric and actions by scribes and Pharisees. He dealt with it all the time, didn't he? And let me just give you a couple of examples. Take your Bible. Look at Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18. Let's look at verses 10 to 14. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now remember, tax collectors were hated. They were hated. And Pharisees were considered to be the good guys, right? Well, look at this verse 11. The Pharisee stood and was praying this, he notes it to himself. He's praying this to himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers,

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unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

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I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. Now, so what was a Pharisee doing? He was lifting himself up and he would do what? He was pushing the tax collector down, right? He was being harshly critical of the tax collector. Now look at this. But the tax collector, standing some distance away,

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was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breasts and saying, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." And Jesus said in verse 14, "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humble, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." Now, it's important that you see there the judgmental spirit of the Pharisee. This gives us the context that Jesus was dealing with in the sermon on the Mount. Now, look at John chapter 8. Jesus is on the Mount of Olives and the scribes and the Pharisees, and he came to the temple and the scribes and Pharisees, verse 3, "brought a woman caught in adultery, red-handed. And having sent her in the center of the court, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery in the very act." Now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do you say? They were saying this, testing him so that they might have grounds for accusing him, but Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and he was left alone. And the woman where she was in the center of the court, straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you either. Go from now on sin no more." Now, let me ask you this question. Did the Pharisees in this story of the woman caught in adultery, were they judging or being judgmental? Judgmental. They didn't care anything about helping this woman be whom God called her to be. Notice their hypocrisy. Where was the man involved in the adultery? Why didn't they drag him before Jesus? It's hypocrisy. They were being judgmental. They were not judging. Now, let's look, number one, at the problem Jesus addresses in verses one and two. Now, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged, for in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard measure, it will be measured to you." So the word judge in some form or another is used four times in two verses. The word judge implies a careful evaluation. So if you really are judging the way Jesus wants us to judge, you do a careful evaluation based upon facts and biblical principles. Now, it's very clear that we are to make careful judgments or evaluation based on solid fact. Now, let me give you some verses.

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Some people say, "Well, in no circumstances are we as Christians supposed to judge anybody about anything." Now, let me ask you a question. If somebody came to you, let's say a Jehovah's Witness comes to your door and they share their truth with you, are you just supposed to accept it or are you supposed to reject it? Well, to accept it or reject it, you got to make a judgment, right? And you are to evaluate, you are to judge what that man is saying in your home, and you know scripture, you know the truth of the gospel, and you know what they're saying is not true at all. So you're judging, and that's perfectly legitimate. Now, look at John 7.24. Look at what Jesus said. He said, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."

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So, is Jesus contradicting Himself? In 7.24 of John, He said we're to judge with righteous judgment. In chapter 7, verse 1 of Matthew, He said, "Do not judge, lest you be judged." Is He contradicting Himself? No. Not if you understand the context and if you understand the meaning of the word judge. So the word judge can be used to refer to a careful evaluation based on solid facts, or it can be used to refer to condemnation, okay, which is judgmentalism. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 to 3. It is actually reported, this is Paul writing to the Corinthian church,

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it is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles that someone has

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his father's wife.

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Now, is Paul being, is he judging or is he being judgmental? He's judging. He's making a judgment based upon biblical truth. He said it's wrong. It's wrong. Some people are so tolerant and open minded that I honestly believe if they've been over their brains would fall out. I'm serious.

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We're not supposed to be like that as believers.

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Look, we've been given truth in the Word of God, and we talk about it all the time. Our final source for faith and practice is what? It's the Bible. It's Bible truth. And so we have to make judgments to do that. I heard this story today about a pastor in Florida, and he was driving around and he had a woman in the car with him. It wasn't his wife. And boy, some church members saw it and they got on the phone and they started calling each other. And it really, really developed into almost a tsunami. And come to find out when some of them took the time to find out exactly what was going on, it was this man's sister who was visiting him from another state.

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But the damage was done. The damage was done. Now that is judgmentalism. And there is no place in the Christian church for judgmentalism. Okay. I promise you, if you see me with another woman in my vehicle, not Darlene, it's going to be my sister. It's not going to, you just rest assured it's not going to be anybody but Darlene or my sister. Okay. I promise. Or my daughter, or my daughter or my granddaughter. Okay. All right. So, so look, let's go back. Verse two of first Corinthians five. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. Whoa. How can you practice church discipline

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if you don't carry out biblical solid judgment? You've got to do it. Verse three, for I on my part, though absent in body, but present in spirit have already judged him. Uh-oh. This is the apostle Paul. He said, I've already judged him who has committed this as though I were present.

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Now I want you to rest assured about them. As a born again believer,

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you have every right to make solid biblical judgments. Okay. You do not have the right to be judgmental and harsh and critical. Okay. Look at James chapter two verses one to four.

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My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly into church with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, you sit here in a good place and you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges? Look at this with evil motives.

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Now the Bible has no place for that kind of judgmentalism. I heard about a man that was wealthy and he went to his bank and he wanted to cash a hundred dollar check, but he was dressed, he was dressed poorly, had been working dressed like a farm laborer and he went to the bank and and he cashed a check and he went to the teller and said, look, I want you to validate my parking ticket. Now it was just a small amount and she said, I'm sorry, we can't do that because you didn't make a deposit and he said, ma'am, I'm a pretty significant depositor in this bank

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and she said, I'm sorry, you didn't make a deposit and he went to the bank manager, same thing

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and so he went home and he started drawing all of his money out of that bank one million dollars at a time. True story. Why? Because they made a judgment about him based upon his clothes.

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They couldn't believe that he was a significant depositor in their bank and it cost them dearly. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we're not to show any kind of favoritism to anybody because if we do,

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we are being judgmental and there's no place in scripture for judgmentalism. How many times have I said that? I've said that several times. You know, in the Bible, when the Bible repeats something over and over is for emphasis sake and the reason I'm repeating that over and over is for emphasis sake. We've got to get this right. Now, if ever there was a time in the history of America and the Christian church that we need to practice good, solid, biblical judgment is today because there's a lot of weird stuff out there that's being passed off as truth and it's not again. Well, how do you recognize? How do you know if something's true or false? You have to saturate your mind and your heart with the word of God. You have to know the truth so that you can recognize something that's not true. Does that make sense to you?

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So the time for us to practice good, solid, biblical judgment is today. It's today. Now,

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as a follower of Jesus, you and I are to make careful, well-thought-out judgments about people's attitudes, actions, and beliefs. So the word judge can also imply condemnation.

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Now, John Stott made this statement. He said, "Jesus does not tell us," I love this statement.

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He said, "Jesus does not tell us to cease to be men or women by suspending our critical powers

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which help to distinguish us from animals." Animals don't have the ability we have

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to practice discernment, to distinguish between something right and wrong,

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but to renounce presumptuous ambition to be God by setting ourselves up as judge. I preached a sermon one time and one of the statements in sermon, "You ain't God. You ain't God."

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I can't know your motives. You can't know my motives. All we can do is be fruit inspectors, right? I can't know what you're thinking. You can't know what I'm thinking. So we have to take your Bible, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 4, just a minute.

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I didn't have this in notes, but 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Look at verse 1, "Let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ

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and stewards of the mysteries of God."

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In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

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But to me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you or by any human court.

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In fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself,

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yet I'm not by this acquitted, but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore, look at verse 5, very important.

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"Therefore, do not go on passing judgment before the time,

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but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's heart, and then each man's praise will come to him from God." Now, let me explain that to you just a minute.

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There are some people and there are some situations that you can nail real quickly, whether it's right or wrong, whether it's godly or ungodly.

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And in those situations, you're okay. You can judge that person or that situation.

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But there are times when people will fool you. I remember at Mullen station when I was passing when I was pastor there, we had a couple move in and, "Man, I'm telling you to hear them talk, they were the next best thing to the apostle Paul and Priscilla and Aquila." I'm telling.

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And slowly but surely, things started not adding up. And then I found this out.

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They had gone to several senior adults in the church and they had asked for money, significant money. And the senior adults gave them the money and they vamoosed.

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Okay. Now, at the beginning, I didn't know if it was real or not. In fact, I thought it was real. But as I watched them, it became obvious that they were charlatans.

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And so in those types of situations, you have to wait and let God do the judging and bring delight what is hidden in the darkness.

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That makes sense. Now, can I just be honest with you? That's happened in this church too. And I want to say to every senior adult in here,

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you need to be very careful about doling out your money to somebody who asks you for money. If you have any questions, come to the staff and let us help you with that. Okay. All right. So in verse two, back to our text, chapter seven of Matthew, verse two, Jesus is setting up the golden rule here. For the way you judge, you will be judged by your standard of measure, it would be measured to you. In other words, if you judge people not to condemn them and not to be critical and not to push them down and rip them to pieces,

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then the same thing will come back to you like a boomerang at some point in the future.

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Look at verse 12 of chapter seven. In everything therefore treat people the same way you want them to treat you for this is the law and the prophets. Now, we've looked first at the problem Jesus addresses in verses one and two. And secondly, I want you to see the practice Jesus approves. Look at verse three to five. This is an interesting text. This is interesting what Jesus said, we're to handle the situation. Why do you look at the spec that is in your brother's eye,

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but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? I want you to picture a guy with a two before sticking out of his eye.

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And this guy comes in and he said, man, I got a speck of sawdust in my eye. Can you help me get it out?

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Well, there's no way that this guy with a two before sticking out of his eye can ever help the guy who's got a speck of sawdust get that sawdust out of his eye. And so Jesus said, or how can you say to your brother, let me take the spec out of your eye and behold, the log is in your own eye. You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye

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and then you will see clearly to take the spec out of your brother's eye. So let me ask you this. In verses three to five is Jesus saying it is okay to judge people. Yes, he is. As long as you do it in the right way, you got to make sure you get the log out of your own eye or you can't help anybody.

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Okay. Keep in mind that the Pharisees were critical of others to make themselves look better. Believers on the other hand, she makes sound judgments to help other people and to encourage them. Listen, we are to lift people up. We're to incur we're to be barnapuses to encourage people. Jesus uses humorous illustration and exaggeration to make a point. Now it's easy to become unbalanced. We're talking about taking the log out of her own eye. Sometimes we can be too shallow and we can easily look over our own faults. We can say this. Well, you know, I've got this in my life, but okay, and there man, he's got something a lot worse than me. So I'm better off than Ken. And that's being shallow when it comes to taking the log out of your own eye. We can't do that because that does not get us to where God wants us to be. Here's what we got to do. Number one, we got to walk with Jesus. We got to ask the Holy Spirit, is there anything in my life that is quenching or grieving the Holy Spirit grieving you Lord, show me. And we're to confess and forsake anything that the Holy Spirit brings to our mind and heart. We don't have the luxury of comparing ourselves to somebody else and making ourselves look better because the whole issue is am I grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit so we can be too shallow or we can be too ruthless. We do a deep dive on our own faults and we beat ourselves to a pulp. Now, if I do anything,

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if I'm unbalanced, I'm unbalanced in the second one. I beat myself to a pulp. And I've always been like that. And I have to really guard myself

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and make sure I do not let the enemy get the victory in my life by beating myself to a pulp.

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So balance is the key. Okay. So we got to get the log out of our eye before we can help someone else get the spec out of their eye. Now, I want you, third thing I want you to see in this last one,

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the perception Jesus advances in verse six. Jesus said, "Do not give what is holy to dogs." Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking about little fluffy that you're your pet dog and little fluffy. You spend hundreds of dollars caring Dr. Horn for Dr. Horn to make sure fluffy still lives, right? Well, we're not talking about little fluffy here. We're talking about

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dogs in that time were not considered pets. They were considered wild scavengers. Okay. So Jesus said, "Do not give what is holy to dogs or wild scavengers. Do not throw your pearls before swine." Now, at one time you could have made it made an easy transition from that, but people today even have pet pigs. Is that not amazing? I hope nobody in here has pet pig. Yeah, I know if you do, I just offended you, but don't be judgmental. Okay.

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So do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine

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or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces. As God's people, we are a part of an eternal kingdom. Do you remember when Jesus sent his disciples out two by two? He told them to go into these cities and to preach the gospel, to heal, to cast out demons. And he said, "Listen, if they don't receive you, if they reject you, if they reject your message, when you're walking out of town, you shake your sandals off." This is sort of what he's talking about here. So we don't give something holy and special to people who will abuse it. All right. We must never do anything to cheapen the precious gifts of the word, the gospel, and the blessing to God. Now, as a believer, you must practice sound judgment. Let me see what time it is.

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I got some time. Take your Bible, look at 1 Corinthians chapter. I mean, Acts chapter 18. Let me show you something.

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Look at verses one to six. "After these things, he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome, and he came to them.

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And because he was of the same trade, what was the same trade? They were tent makers, right? He stayed with them, and they were working for by trade, they were tent makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they, look at this,

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but when they resisted and what? And blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood will be on your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles."

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Now, what verse six says right here is exactly what Jesus is talking about

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in Matthew chapter seven, verse six, where you don't throw your pearls before swine and scavenger dogs. Now, in Proverbs chapter nine, verse eight, I found this verse today, and I want to include this.

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The Bible said, "Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you." That's essentially what Jesus is saying here in Matthew chapter seven, verse six. Listen, if you judge, let me give you an illustration.

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There was a situation in a church in another city a million years ago, okay?

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And in this church, there was a young couple. And this young couple had been very faithful

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until the wife found something out about the husband.

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And she was devastated. And she came to me in the office a million years ago,

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and she laid it out for me. And I called her husband, and I asked him to come see me.

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And he came in, and he knew the gig was up, and he was crying.

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And I told him, I said, "Listen, you're within a gnat's hair losing your family,

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and you have got to do something. You've got to earn your wife's trust back. She's not going to give it to you freely. It's not monopoly. You have got to do something to earn her trust."

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And I told him, I said, "If it means you take your computer, and you take it out in the backyard, and you take a baseball bat and beat it to smithereens where you never have access to computer ever again in your life, do it." Now, he could have said, "Who are you to judge me?"

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But he was not a scoffer. He was a man that the Holy Spirit of God had already convicted.

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What does the Holy Spirit do? In John 16, Jesus said the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin,

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righteousness, and judgment. And the Holy Spirit had already done the work. I was not, I promise you this, I was not casting pearls before swine or scavenger dogs.

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And do you know, man, that couple, they're still together. They love each other. And it's a million years ago. Okay? And it's just amazing to see how God worked in that situation.

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But see, when you judge somebody and you try to help them based upon biblical truth,

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it can only be good for them. It won't hurt them. Now, they'll still have to decide where they're going to listen to you or not. Okay? Now, one final thing I want to talk to you about. Here's what I've discovered. It's easy when you're around negative critical people.

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And they start giving out their negativity and their criticism and harshness, talking about other people behind their back. It's very easy to be sucked into that. Okay? And you know what I do before I, if I'm meeting with somebody like that, or I'm going to lunch with somebody like that or something, I always pray, Lord, put a guard over my tongue.

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Don't let me get sucked in to a negative critical harsh spirit. If I can't say anything good, Lord, don't let me say one word. And I think that would be good thing for all of us to do because we don't want to fall into the habit of being judgmental.

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We want to practice the kind of judgment Jesus is talking about that helps people, that encourages people, that lifts people up, that gets them on the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Right? All right. That's all I've got tonight. I'm glad you came. Next week, we will pick up with verse seven and eventually we're going to get through with the Sermon on the Mount. Now here's what I'm going to do. When I finish the Sermon on the Mount, I'm going to teach verse by verse through the book of Daniel. Okay? So I'm looking forward to that. It's a great time to teach the book of Daniel. All right. All right. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the men and women in this room, for those who have joined us by live stream.

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And I pray, Lord, that you would take what we've learned tonight and that we would always be able to differentiate between judging and being judgmental. And I pray, Lord, that we would never fall into the trap of being judgmental, but that we would judge the way you taught us to judge, to help people, to encourage people, to lift them up, to get them on the paths of righteousness.

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Lord, we love you. Thank you for your word. In Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.