If I told you I had the solution to the gun violence in our country, would you believe me? If I told you I had a no-kidding, fool-proof way of making sure nobody is ever shot in anger again, would you listen? Would you hear me if I told you there was a serious, concrete step you can take even today to do your part in this? Would you listen if I threw in the fact that it will be a great blessing to you?
I will tell you how we can solve this problem but first I want to tell you how NOT to solve this problem. It should be obvious since pretty much everybody in the news is doing it right now. Every time there is a mass shooting in our country, what happens? There is a corresponding mass shooting off of mouths telling us who is to blame.
Liberals blame the conservatives and conservatives blame the libs. The NRA blames the mentally ill and the celebrities blame the NRA. The democrats running for president all blame Trump and the Russians and global warming while Trump blames fake news and social media and video games. So, where’s the truth? It’s in there somewhere.
So, here’s something else that won’t help a bit. Passing more gun laws is ridiculous. These people are literally committing murder. They don’t care what laws are in place. They are just going to break them and if they can’t get a gun, they will use a knife or a bomb or a car or an airplane or something else. That’s just a proven fact.
But I can promise you that nobody goes on a killing spree in a school or a mall or a stadium or concert that is thinking correctly. Nobody who is mentally stable and spiritually right with God kills even one other human in cold blood. Nobody. It has never happened and never will. So, if you want to stop your neighbor from becoming the next mass shooter or stabber or spitter or pincher or mass-anything else, tell that neighbor what Jesus has done for you and develop that person into a disciple of Jesus. That’s how to solve that problem.
Now, let me tell you something else that I have learned and I promise I am leading into a biblical sermon coming from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 here in just a minute. But I have learned that people commit these killings, not because they are mad at blacks or whites or Mexicans or teachers or presidents. They commit these horrible crimes because ultimately, they are mad at themselves. Hear me out. I’ll prove it.
Have you ever done something stupid? Of course, you have. Okay, maybe not my sweet mother but all the rest of us have. How does that make you feel? Have you ever done something really stupid, really bad and then somebody you love just happens to say something minor and you snap at them and bite their head off? Now multiply that times a thousand, subtract the Holy Spirit in their lives to guide them, add the warped mentality of someone constantly bombarded by things of this nasty old world and it equals mass suffering all the time. It happens every day, sometimes ending in death and Satan giggles his little red head off.
And when it happens, the very first thing that our society does is blame somebody else. It’s not me. It’s not the group I’m in or the cause I believe in. It is somebody else. Now, the problem with blaming somebody else is that, unless you are perfect, somebody else is going to blame you. That’s just how it works and it was predicted and described by Jesus here in our passage for today in Matthew chapter 7.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has told us, as we have been studying all these weeks, how to be blessed and happy. Have you noticed that? Everything Jesus has taught us so far in this sermon has to do with living a life that is happy and blessed. Do you want to be happy and blessed? Well, you can try it the world’s way and divorce your wife and then the next wife too because she actually didn’t make you happy like you thought she would. You can try worrying, being selfish, lustful, hateful and angry. Throw in some drugs and alcohol, maybe a little revenge for good measure and what do you have? In other words, how’s that workin’ out for ya so far?
Or you can try it the way Jesus said 2000 years ago and be happy and blessed. For today and next Sunday, we are going to see how Jesus said we can be blessed in our relationships with other people. Unless you are stranded alone on a deserted island, I bet you wish you could have better relationships with the people around you. In fact, you’ve probably heard the old joke about the man who was found on a deserted island by the fishermen. They found him on the island after years of being by himself and they saw three huts he had built on the shoreline. They asked what the huts were and the man said, “Well, that one is my house and that one is my church.” The fishermen asked him about the third hut and he said, “Oh, that’s my old church but I didn’t like the congregation there so I started another one.”
Everybody wants to have better relationships so let’s read what Jesus said to do in Matthew 7: 1-6. Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
Okay, here we have the non-believer’s favorite verse. Right? Everybody knows this first verse and almost nobody quotes it in context. Matthew 7:1 is used by everybody who knows they are wrong but doesn’t want to suffer the consequences. Don’t judge me! I know I just sinned, even if I will never admit it or even understand it but I don’t want you to say anything about it. That’s how the world uses this verse…and that’s wrong. This is one of the most quoted and most misunderstood verses in scripture.
So, what does Jesus mean when He said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”? Well, let’s first see what the word means and better yet, let’s see what it meant to Jesus as He said it. We do that by looking it up in a concordance like this one from Strong’s. Sometimes words change in their meaning from one generation to another so we want to see what Jesus meant when He used the word “judge” and my concordance says it means to “distinguish, give an opinion upon and to condemn.” Jesus said not to condemn other people or you will be condemned. Sounds like what’s all over the news, doesn’t it?
Now, let’s look at the context of what Jesus was saying here. All through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been poking a stick in the eye of the Pharisees. Every time He said, “You have heard that it was said…” that means that you have heard the Pharisees say it but I am going to tell you what it really means because they don’t get it. All through this sermon, Jesus preaches that we shouldn’t do this or think that because it is hypocritical. Don’t be a hypocrite like the Pharisees.
That’s the whole context of this verse. Do you want to know what will make you happy and blessed? Know what is truth and do it, unlike the hypocritical Pharisees. What Jesus is forbidding here is a self-righteous, hasty, unmerciful, prejudiced, and unwarranted condemnation based on human standards and human understanding. He gives three reasons why this kind of judgment is sinful: it reveals an erroneous view of God, an erroneous view of others and an erroneous view of ourselves. (MacArthur, Matt. 1-7, pg. 433)
Look at verse 1 again. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Have you ever seen somebody do something good for somebody else and you think how great that is? Then you find out that person got paid to do that. It ruins the effect, doesn’t it? It’s the same in the opposite way. Have you ever seen somebody do something wrong and thought that person is such a jerk, and then find out why they did it and you changed your mind? That’s what happens when you judge somebody without knowing their motives.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, “The one who examines me is the Lord”, meaning only God knows Paul’s heart. When we assume we know someone’s motive for doing something that we would have done differently, we judge him like Jesus is talking about here and that is making ourselves out to be God since only God can judge motives. Making ourselves into God is an erroneous view of God.
Now look at verse 2. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. There is a fascinating story in Esther chapter 7 about the evil Haman having a gallows built to hang innocent Mordecai because Haman didn’t like him and felt superior to him. Do you remember what happened to old Haman? He was hanged on those gallows he built and Mordecai went free. In Judges 1, the cruel Adoni-bezek ordered the thumbs and big toes cut off of seventy other kings. Want to take a guess what happened to him? Yep. No more hitch-hiking for him. His thumbs and big toes were cut off.
That’s the principal behind what Jesus is warning us against here. When you judge and condemn someone for their actions without knowing their motive, what you judge them for may come back on you and that is only fair because so often we are guilty of just what we are condemning somebody else for.
Romans 2:1 says, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” Don’t you just hate that? Don’t you hate it when you call somebody out and then you get called out for the same thing? That’s the principal here.
It’s the democrat congressman who says republicans are evil and then gets caught paying a prostitute with campaign funds. It’s the Baptist preacher who says the Catholic preacher is an alcoholic and then gets a DWI on his way home. It’s even the little girl who tells her mommy that her brother didn’t have his eyes closed during the prayer. That is having an erroneous view of the other person and it will come back to bite ya.
Jesus gives us one more reason why being harshly judgmental is wrong. In verses 3-5, He says it is an erroneous view of ourselves. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”
*Put 2x4 up to my eye* Hang on. David, you have a speck of dirt in your eye. Let me get that. No, trust me. I can see fine. I’m good at this. I’ll have that speck out in no time. Just relax. Just sit back. No problem.
That would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it? It’s almost as ridiculous as when we judge someone and criticize them for being so unrighteous when we have so much unrighteousness in us. One of the biggest excuses people give for not going to church is that there is so much hypocrisy in the church. And I know. Our best comeback to that is, “Yes, and we have room for one more.” Yes, we are all hypocrites at one time or another. We all mess up. But just don’t be that guy that goes around criticizing people and passing judgment on people as you do the same thing you are judging them for. Okay? That’s having a wrong view of yourself.
So, is there ever a time when we can or even should judge somebody else? Right here Jesus has just said “Don’t do it.” But in John 7:24 Jesus said, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” So, now what? Did Jesus just contradict Himself? Of course not. Now, let’s take all of scripture in context. We saw the context of the verse among the other verses around it. Now, let’s look at the Bible as a whole.
We have seen that Jesus preaches against being hypocritical in our judgments. We are not to be self-righteous in our judgments. We are also not to be harsh and unforgiving. Titus 3:2 says “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” We should always be truthful in our judgments because Proverbs 19:5 says, “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.”
But judging what God calls sin is not necessarily wrong, if done correctly. Let me illustrate.
“Janet, my sweet friend, I have noticed that you have been struggling lately with using bad language. (This scenario with Janet is totally ridiculous, by the way.) If you are willing, I would like to pray for you and give you some scripture that might help.”
“Lois, dear one, I’m concerned about your violent temper (also absolutely ludicrous). Can I recommend a Christian counselor?”
One more: “Troy, Troy, Troy, it breaks my heart to see you abuse your dogs like you do (also completely untrue). Is there anything I can do to help you with them?
Okay, so while all three of those scenarios are wildly untrue, hopefully you get the idea. To be able to help somebody, I have to be able to judge what they are doing and if that is my motive; if I do truly want to help and I’m not telling anybody else about it, then that kind of judgment is not just okay, but when done in love for that person, it is expected.
Christians are often accused of “judging” or intolerance when they speak out against sin. But when done in love and if you are able to help, then we should judge someone. And if they allow you to help them, you are blessed and they are helped. The problem is, some people don’t want your help. Or maybe they want your help with the situation they are in, but they don’t really want to change.
Have you ever met anybody like that? They have made a mess of their lives and want you to fix their problems but when you suggest a way for them to change to keep it from happening again, they don’t want your help. Do you know what you should do? Walk away. Don’t say another word. This is especially true with the greatest gift you can give a person – the Gospel. Some people want you to fix their problems but when you tell them that if they would allow Jesus to be Lord of their lives then their lives would be changed – “Oh no. Stay out of my business.”
Look at verse 6 again. "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” The context of this is the right judgment that someone needs help and so you truly want to help by giving them the sacred, holy, precious Good News of Jesus and they reject it.
I have to tell you that God thought I needed a personal illustration of this and so He led two young men to my door Friday morning. They literally knocked on my door and said, “We need help. Can you help us? We are both addicted to meth and can’t quit and need someplace to go.”
So, I helped them. They got some food from the food pantry, a warm shower in the Fellowship Hall and a few other things they needed and then I agreed to take them to a rehab place in Denton. They got in the car and I asked about their salvation and they couldn’t really answer me and so, as I drove, I told them what God had done in my life and then I launched into the Gospel.
We hadn’t gone too far and I realized they weren’t much interested but I told them I was going to share it with them anyway. And I did. Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23 and John 3:16. Does that make sense? Ephesians 2:8-9, the cross, sin, Heaven and Hell, grace, peace and joy. Any questions? No? Okay. I don’t have any more to say. So we drove the rest of the way in silence and I dropped them off with a prayer and drove away.
I had a pearl of great price for those boys and I wanted to give it to them but they weren’t interested. I’m not saying they are pigs or dogs but they treated my offer of real help like a pig would treat a pearl. So, I quit offering. You can’t make somebody accept the free gift of salvation. You can’t make somebody accept your offering of help in any way and it is heart-breaking.
Just before those boys got out of the car, I told them, “One of these days you are going to remember that some guy gave you a ride somewhere and tried to tell you the Good News of Jesus. I just hope you remember it before it is too late.”
I’ll make the same offer to you today. I’m not saying that becoming a true disciple of Jesus is going to fix all your problems. It might even bring you more problems but in those problems you can have peace and even joy knowing that God is in control and He loves you. Accept this offer of salvation today and repent or turn away from your sins and ask God for forgiveness of those sins and 1 John 1:9 says He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.
Do you want to be blessed and happy? God wants you to be and so it is by His grace and through our faith that we are saved and have guaranteed life in Heaven with Him when we die. It’s completely free but it will cost you your life. Do it today. Do it right now as the music plays.
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