Morning everyone. Today's reading is going to be from Matthew chapter 7 and we'll be reading verses 1 to 12.
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?
Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your own eye?
And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, also do to them.
For this is the law of the prophets.
Well, why don't we pray before we get into God's word?
Would you pray to me?
Our father, we've all got lots of things in our minds, whether exciting things, joyful things, or whether trouble in our life.
I just pray that you would help us to focus on your word now.
Help us to sit under your, what you want us to hear.
Lord, especially as it comes to judging, Lord, we want to be people who are full of your mercy and truth.
And so please help us to be more like you.
Please speak to us now and give us energy and a desire to hear.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, apparently Matthew 7, verse 1 is the most Googled, the most well-known verse in all of the Bible.
Judge not, lest you be judged.
So the most famous verse, it's not Romans 6, 23 or John 3, 16.
Do not judge is one message from Jesus that our current culture is delighted to hear.
Don't criticize.
Don't call something wrong.
Otherwise, you're a hypocrite judging when Jesus said not to.
When I was a scripture teacher, I visited lots of different churches who supported me as a scripture teacher.
On particular occasion, there was a Q&A session.
The first question I got was, do I believe in hell?
Well, second question, do I believe homosexuality is a sin?
After my attempt at a careful, grace-filled answer, you can guess what the argument back was.
Doesn't Jesus say not to judge?
Don't judge.
It feels like a knockout argument.
It's assumed that Jesus is advocating for the tolerant live and let live ethic of our day.
As if it's unloving to call anything someone does wrong.
There's a deep mistrust and suspicion of anyone who claims to have an ultimate authority, an ultimate standard that a person's life can be evaluated by.
Because if a person doesn't fit within that ultimate overarching standard, then they're on the outside, they're rejected, they're condemned.
To have an ultimate standard, therefore, is oppressive in our culture's thinking.
The solution?
Live and let live.
I'll let you do whatever you think is right, whatever you think is good, and you let me do the same.
This is the ultimate standard that will protect everyone's freedom to live as they think is best.
Anything else is judgmental.
And I think this belief of our times has crept into the church.
Even while we say with our lips that Jesus and his word is the authority on all matters, we have this thinking, live and let live, even within the church.
So for me personally, giving sermons, I struggled for a long time with receiving constructive feedback from my sermons, as if criticism was dismissing me as a person.
Or consider Bible study.
Do you find it a little awkward, that small group, if someone's contribution about what they think the Bible passage means is challenged?
Do we sense that it's unloving to say a person is wrong?
We say the Bible is the authority, and yet all disagreement is put in this category of being unloving.
Or in relationships, when a brother or sister shares what they're going through in life, and you feel that they just need a different perspective.
But do you feel paralyzed to say anything?
Because to say anything would be judging.
All you have to do is affirm and sympathize.
I think part of the motivation is, I won't say you're doing anything wrong, so that you can't tell me that I'm doing anything wrong.
Or this thinking, let me ask you this way.
Do you appreciate the community at church?
Do you appreciate the community equally for the encouragement you receive, as much as the accountability that a community holds you to?
I think this live and let live ultimate ethic is in our minds and in our hearts and in the church, and we call it showing grace.
But do you see the irony?
By making live and let live, don't judge me, only love me.
By making live and let live the ultimate standard to measure people by.
Anyone who doesn't live according to the live and let live ethic, who claims there is a higher authority that we all must answer to, they are rejected and condemned.
The live and let live spirit of our times is just as judgmental and oppressive.
If you don't believe me, just read a few comment threads on social media.
We need a better way.
We need an ultimate standard that tells us what's right and wrong, what is good and what is evil.
But an ultimate standard that isn't used as a back to beat people down with.
And one that promotes humility and loving help.
We need both truth and mercy together.
So let's come to our passage.
What does Jesus say true mercy is?
Well, the first thing Jesus says, true mercy is not judgmental.
Let's hear Jesus' hilarious but piercing parable again, verses 3 to 5.
If you have your Bibles with you, have a look at verse 3.
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?
Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the 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.
True love, true mercy.
First of all, it's not judgmental.
Being judgmental is to be fault-finding.
It's to be severely critical of others.
It's an attitude I think we can smell in someone a mile away.
But it's not easy to define.
It can be expressed in a facial expression.
It can be in a piercing joke.
It can be a harsh word.
It can be silence.
It can be a harsh sermon.
It's a spirit.
It's an attitude.
But it's not the seriousness of the criticism that makes something judgmental.
It's when something is said without mercy and love for the person and then it becomes judgmental.
It is the posture of sitting up in the judge's bench with your fellow brother or sister below you in the dock, pronouncing wrongdoing on their path.
I think this grace-less throwing the law at people, sitting in judgment, can come from three places.
First, I think it can come when we think we are excelling when that person is failing.
Like maybe do we ride someone off as not serious about their faith because they haven't attended small group or church in a while?
Maybe we're critical and ride someone off about their spiritual maturity because of their lack of Bible knowledge compared to my own.
Or telling someone who confides in you that they are struggling with lust and just telling them pray and have self-control.
Pluck out your eye if necessary.
All these conclusions lack mercy.
They lack a context of grace.
They lack any actual help.
Thinking that simply laying God's law down will help a person.
You can only lay God's law down and think it helps if you think you're doing okay at keeping that law.
I think a second place that a judgmental spirit comes from is similar to the first, but it's when we're failing as well.
If I'm loaded down with guilt and shame myself, my words can come out even stronger.
This too is a lack of mercy, first towards myself and then towards my brother or sister.
It's like trying to turn up the dial on God's law as if more law will produce change.
But we ourselves can't stand the heat.
So we put that heat on someone else and think we're more righteous by doing that.
I think the third place a judgmental spirit can come from is envy, is jealousy.
Let me use the movie Chocolat to illustrate.
So there's the religious mayor of the town and he is observing the religious fast during Lent.
But others in the town are just indulging in eating chocolate rather than obeying the religious festival.
So he is criticising severely and he starts despairing and he's praying,
what do I do for these people to help them?
And he comes up with an idea.
He breaks into the chocolate shop and starts smashing all the chocolate,
destroying it so that people can't have it until a bit of chocolate lands on his lip.
He tastes it.
And then he just goes to town.
He just shoves it all in his mouth, literally rolling in the chocolate.
And he's lying there miserable that he too has failed.
And yet he's just got exactly what he wants.
If we actually desire sin, and I'm not saying chocolate is a sin, by the way,
but when we desire sin, but we think God's ways are restricting us from that sin that we actually want,
and we just do God's ways begrudgingly, we condemn everyone else who isn't even trying to be self-controlled.
So whether it's feeling like we're excelling or when we feel like we're failing,
so we come down harder on people, or maybe when we're envious,
they're sinning in ways we wish we could.
Jesus criticised the Pharisees in Matthew 23, 4.
You tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders,
but you yourselves are not willing to move them with a finger.
You do nothing to help.
Repeating God's standards, saying you should do better.
God's standards without any true mercy just places a heavier, merciless burden on people.
All the while, we have a two-by-four plank sticking out of our eye,
and we go, hey, please, that I help my brother out.
Sadly, our culture's criticism of Christians being judgmental,
wielding God's standards without mercy is sometimes true.
So if coming down hard with God's law isn't the answer,
we naturally think the opposite is a solution.
Reduce God's law.
Get rid of it.
And so we ignore sin.
And I think we're probably more prone to this these days,
or most of us are anyway.
We commit it.
And we think we are applying Christian grace.
Notice in the passage, Jesus doesn't say that there is no speck in your brother's eye.
There is a problem.
There is a splinter in the eye.
A foreign body is there.
It doesn't belong in your brother's eye.
It is causing damage.
The story ends with Jesus affirming that you should feel responsible
for taking the splinter out of your brother's eye.
Maybe we are aware of the depths of our own sinfulness,
the plank in our eye,
and so we conclude,
well, what right do I have to tell them to live differently?
But that can't be the problem Jesus is addressing here.
Otherwise, none of us would be able to help anyone else.
True mercy can't be about ignoring others' sin.
God doesn't ignore sin.
Jesus isn't telling us to switch off our critical thinking,
to not be discerning.
True love, true mercy requires you to see the worst
in a person.
You can't diagnose and then help a brother
unless you are first willing to see the worst
in a brother or sister.
So true mercy,
it's not being judgmental,
coming down hard with God's law,
but it's not ignoring sin either.
We might think we need to balance these two
as if they're opposites.
Some Christians take God's law too seriously,
others are too relaxed.
But Sinclair Ferguson,
he calls these two attitudes,
I really like this phrase,
they are non-identical twins
that emerge from the same womb.
They are non-identical twins
that emerge from the same womb.
I think that same womb
is what Jesus exposes
when he talks about prayer
in verses 7 to 11.
This bit about prayer,
it can't be an instruction on prayer
because we've already got the Lord's Prayer
in chapter 6.
There's a much deeper point Jesus is making here.
These verses challenge both the person
who wields God's law judgmentally
and the one who does away with God's law
as if it's restrictive.
Both these people conclude
that God and God's ways are not good.
It forces us to ask the question,
how do I see the character of God
only as a judge
who reluctantly gives blessing
if I obey,
who can't be relied upon
to give life?
Or do I see God as a father
full of mercy
who only gives me good?
So let me read it again.
Ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and it will be open to you.
But everyone who asks receives
and the one who seeks finds
and to the one who knocks it
will be opened.
Or which one of you,
if his son asks him for bread,
will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish,
will give him a serpent?
If you then,
who are evil,
know how to give good gifts
to your children,
how much more
will your father who is in heaven
give good things
to those who ask him?
For those of you who know me,
I wonder if you realise
just how self-absorbed
I actually am.
I thought I was a patient man
until I had to look after a child.
When Sam was real young,
sometimes I had to put him down
and just walk away
because I was just so frustrated
and angry.
And yet you all expect me
to look after Sam.
And so you should.
Or maybe you don't expect me to
now that I've admitted that.
I've never given him
pebbles for dinner
or mouse bait.
Although this morning
he was trying to eat pebbles
in our driveway.
But we don't give it to him
on purpose.
You expect me
to look after my child
even though
I am not a good man.
And yet
when it comes
to our heavenly father,
what do you expect
to receive from him?
We pray
and sometimes
we don't expect
a response.
We desperately long
for what we think
will give us life
and when we don't get it,
we conclude
God mustn't
want to give me life.
Or maybe you do believe
in the power of prayer
and you're too afraid
of what God might
take away from you
to give you more life
in knowing Jesus better.
You might think
that so many of my prayers
go unanswered.
I'm starting to like that.
I'm starting to dislike
that term unanswered.
I don't think the problem
is silence from heaven.
I think it is answered
and the answer is
no.
No,
I won't give you that.
I love you too much.
I have the best,
the good life
to give you.
Is there something
in you
like there is in me
that is suspicious
of what Jesus calls
good things
promised here?
we know it's not
promising a Ferrari
if we pray for it.
We don't go as far
as to say
that God is lying
in this passage.
I think we just conclude
oh,
he means heavenly gifts,
spiritual things.
What's so good
about that?
our father is so patient
with us,
isn't he?
He has given us
the best.
In fact,
our father has given us
all that is
actually good,
everything
that he's got to give.
He's given us
his only son.
He has filled us
with his Holy Spirit.
While angels
look on
from a distance,
we are brought
into the family
of God
that we might be
his treasured possession.
Knowing the judge
of the earth,
not afraid,
but as a loving father.
Knowing the one
with all power
is using all of it
to give us life.
Knowing his constant
stream of mercy
all of the time,
wherever we are,
whatever's happening.
Do you think
you can stop
being judgmental
on your own?
Do you think
that naturally
you can show mercy
to others?
If we've learnt
anything from
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount,
one thing is really clear,
that none of the kingdom
values come naturally
to us.
We need to be emptied
of ourselves,
coming to God,
trusting him
to give us good,
trusting that he gives us
mercy.
Our God,
who he is,
is true mercy.
He is full of truth
and grace.
We need to receive
the heart of God
if we are to be
truly merciful.
And so,
we're told,
ask.
And this heart of God,
being like God,
knowing you,
growing to be like him,
will be given to you.
Seek and you will find
true treasure.
Knock
and the kingdom of heaven
will be opened to you.
If you seek
what's important to God,
what's actually good,
the Father is excited,
wanting to give you life.
All the storehouses
of heaven,
the armies of heaven
will be opened up to you.
Ask
and you'll receive.
True mercy
is who our Father is.
And that mercy
is meant to run
in the family.
Each of us
have entered the family
by the same blood
of Jesus.
So,
as brothers and sisters,
we are called
to show
this same mercy
that we have received.
We see this
summed up
in verse 12.
So,
whatever you wish
that others
would do to you,
do also to them.
For this
is the law
and the prophets.
Now,
this is a summary
of all Jesus' teaching.
If you want to know
what God's law is about,
it's quite simple,
love.
But I think
in particular,
Jesus is contrasting
this attitude
with being judgmental,
laying down
God's law
without grace.
Because which one
of us
doesn't want
to receive mercy?
And if we want
to receive mercy,
then we should give
our brothers and sisters
mercy.
this question,
what would I want
if I was that person?
It's a really
simple question,
but it's a profound one.
It's quite a loving
teaching
from our Lord
because life
is complex.
We want to bring
all the scripture
to bear,
but sometimes
we just don't know
what to do.
Asking this question,
it can really help us.
How would I want
to receive mercy?
Now,
this isn't placing
myself as the standard
of what to give.
It's not like
when buying someone
a birthday present
and you buy them
what you would want
rather than what
they would actually want.
A true love
is to understand
a person
as much as he can,
to be in their shoes
and ask,
how would I want
God's forgiveness,
God's help,
God's instruction
to be applied to me
in this situation?
If I was stubborn
and hardened
in my sinful thinking,
although it would
anger me at the time,
in hindsight,
I would want my brother
to clearly show me
the destructive
consequences
of the part of me
and I want my brother
to then help me
see my father's
better way.
Or if I was trying
to please the Lord
and I was just failing
in how I was carrying it out,
I would want my intentions
to be affirmed
that then receive
encouragement
and advice
to change course.
How would I want
the grace
and help of God
applied to me?
Show mercy
as you
want to receive mercy.
But then there's those
who are outside
the family of God.
There are some
who absolutely
refuse
mercy
and I think
that's what
verse 6 is about.
Do not give dogs
what is holy.
Do not throw
your pearls
before pigs
lest they trample
them underfoot
and turn
to attack you.
Dogs
and pigs
are in Jewish
thinking
they're unclean
animals.
They don't belong
in the holy
presence of God's
community.
So don't
think of a dog
like a Labrador
as a pet
in your home.
Think of a wild
dog that you
want to stay
in your car
to hide from.
The Jews
of Jesus'
day would
have thought
of Gentiles
as dogs
outside the
kingdom
especially
the Romans,
Samaritan
mongrels
and any Jews
who are unclean
morally,
religiously.
And yet
what do we
find
in chapter
eight?
Who is it
that enters
the kingdom
of heaven?
We're going
to come
to it soon
but we
first see
an unclean
leper,
Jesus touching
him and
cleansing
him,
welcoming
him in
and then
a dirty
Roman soldier
comes into
the kingdom.
Jesus is
redefining
who is
considered
dogs
outside the
kingdom.
Who is
it that
after hearing
this sermon
by Jesus
will be
so offended
by his
grace that
they will
want to
destroy him?
It's
the self
righteous
religious
people,
the Pharisees
and scribes.
Chapter
23,
Jesus says
to them,
woe to
you,
hypocrites.
In other
words,
you are
going to
hell,
woe to
you.
You
outwardly
appear
righteous
to others
but within
you are
full of
hypocrisy
and
lawlessness.
And then
after saying
this,
Jesus is
in tears
weeping
over Jerusalem
how I've
longed to
gather you
as chicks
under my
wings,
but you
were not
willing.
This
judgment
we're told
to give.
Notice
that we're
told not
to give
what is
holy.
don't
give
pearls.
There's
some
who
stubbornly
refuse
to receive
God's
mercy,
mocking
Jesus'
blood
even to
the point
of attacking
you.
If they
refuse
God's
mercy,
you've
got no
other
good to
give
them.
For
some,
I know
we're
meant to
take
risks.
We
might be
hurt in
response,
but we
need
discernment
as well.
There
comes a
point where
we need
to leave
someone in
the state
they're in
if they
won't receive
mercy,
but we
do it
with tears.
So true
mercy,
it's not
judgmental.
True
mercy,
it doesn't
ignore sin,
but God's
true mercy
is always
both full
of truth
and full
of love.
love.
We
often
err
to one
side,
but in
the person
of Jesus
we see
what true
mercy looks
like.
I think
of the
woman who
was caught
in adultery,
who was
brought before
Jesus.
His
self-righteous
adversaries
tried to
corner Jesus
between the
law of God
that clearly
taught that
such a
person
deserved to
be stoned
to death
and between
his teaching
of forgiveness
which seemed
like he was
permitting sin,
doing away
with God's
law.
They thought
they had him
cornered.
He had to
choose between
the two,
God's law,
God's truth,
or forgiveness
and love.
Jesus
calmly
answers,
let him
who is without
sin among you
be the first
to throw a
stone at her
and beginning
with the
oldest first,
they all
put down
their rocks
and walk
away.
When they're
all gone,
with just a
woman left
with Jesus,
she is
standing before
a sinless
man,
God
himself,
the judge.
And what
words does
she hear
from him?
Neither
do I
condemn you.
Go,
and from
now on,
sin no
more.
True
mercy
is full
of truth
of God's
standards
and it's
full of
grace
that come
together
in Jesus
Christ.
That woman
was not
condemned
because Jesus
took that
condemnation
himself.
This
sinless
judge
took it
upon himself
and he
sees my
life
and he
sees your
life
and he
says to
us,
I do
not
condemn
you,
but come
to
pursue
my
righteousness.
As
children of
God by
mercy,
we don't
discard God's
law as if
Jesus died
for nothing,
but we
look to our
father's ways
to give us
life,
while at the
same time
we are
humbled by
his great
and costly
sacrifice for
us.
Only knowing
his truth
and love
are we
ready to
be
mercifully
take the
speck out
of our
brother's
eye.
True
mercy is
not
judgmental,
it doesn't
ignore
sin,
but it's
both full
of truth
and grace.
There is
only one
way you
and I
will become
more like
our older
brother Jesus
and like
our father.
We're not
naturally like
this.
We need
to ask,
seek,
and knock.
Will you
pray with
me?
Let's
pray before
our good
father.
Lord,
you
have given
us only
good.
We
rightly
stand
before you
as judge
of all
the earth.
Lord,
if you
gave us
what we
deserved,
none of
us could
stand,
but instead
you have
poured out
all of
yourself to
us.
You have
brought us
into your
family.
You have
promised
eternal
life.
You've
already
given us
eternal
life in
knowing you,
in knowing
Jesus,
being filled
with your
spirit,
being united
with one
another.
Lord,
please help
us to see
one another
as brothers
and sisters
in the
blood of
Jesus.
Help us
to treat
each other
with the
same mercy
and truth
that we
want to
receive.
Lord,
do this
among us
so that
the world
might see
just the
difference
in your
church,
what true
mercy
looks like.
Lord,
change
us.
Help us
trust that
you are
our
good
father and
help us
to pass
that mercy
on to
others.
I pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.