The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew): Gospel Freedom from Judgment of Others and Yourself

Good morning and happy Halloween and happy Reformation Day and uh Happy Braves win.

A lot of you have a Braves hangover.

It's one of those good as a good hangover, not a bad hangover.

Won't talk about the other ones.

Um you can come in this week.

You need to talk to me.

You can come in this week and we can talk about that too.

That's very possible.

Uh so good to see you.

Good to have you here.

Ted Lasso's here.

That's great to see that he's here in the house of the Lord to confess his sins this morning.

Um, it is good that the gospel equips us.

We are so secure in the gospel that we can laugh at ourselves and our Enneagram sevens in the room dressed up for us, our Enneagram fives, like myself.

We thought about it all week.

All week.

We thought about whether we would dress up or not.

We researched it, and then we just couldn't do it.

We just couldn't do it.

Um so the gospel equips us, we'll laugh at ourselves.

And then also the gospel equips us to do what we're gonna do this morning, and that's to take a really hard look at ourselves.

That's part of being Christian as well.

So we're moving from Matthew 6, which was about surrendering our desire.

Sam Rapp did such a good job last week of laying this out for us, our desire for money materials, which is really about control and what we're gonna trust in in this world.

And then in Matthew 7, Jesus takes us into how we view other people.

So Matthew 7.

Uh, we'll read our way through it, work our way through it.

Verses 1 and 2.

Judge not that you be not judged.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you.

So, right away, Jesus has, by saying this, he's admitting that uh there's gonna be friction.

You're gonna have disagreements.

Somebody's gonna say something or do something, or you will, uh, very possible.

And we're gonna want to be in judgment over each other.

We're gonna want to do that.

See, the closer we get to each other, the much more likely uh you're gonna get a really, really great hug when you need it.

And then also the closer we get to each other, the more likely we're gonna feel those tensions and you're gonna be offended, right?

I'm no more loved and offended than I am in my own house, right?

I mean, it's the same thing with you.

It's like you're you're so well loved in your own home and family, and you're so offended by these people in your family that offend all your goodness and how great you are.

That's how it works.

And this passage says for us not to judge, not to be in judgment over each other.

So this word judge, the word judge in the Bible can speak of, it can speak of legal proceedings, it can speak of decision making.

But here in Matthew 7, judge speaks to the harsh practice of lowering another person as to raise yourself.

So John Stott, pastor theologian, he wrote this about this chapter and this word.

This is a fault finder who is negative and destructive toward other people and enjoys actively seeking out their failings.

So this doesn't mean that you suspend your mind.

It's not saying, oh, you gotta suspend your mind or your intellect or your discernment or your wisdom or your moral guide.

That's not what it's saying at all.

It means you're not on a mission to lower other people.

So it's like this.

I snuck into the preschool room this morning and I stole these.

So some little kid doesn't have Legos this morning.

But you do.

And so it's like this.

And say, let's just say this is you and this is somebody else, okay?

You and Cindy Joe.

And so Cindy Joe over here, uh, we love to judge Cindy Joe, like what she wears and what she says, and we just nitpick her, like the news, the news she watches, how much she watches, that's the thing I like to judge.

Not so much what news you watch, but how much.

That's where I really kick in on my judgment.

Or social media, you just see like what she posts or how she posts or how often she posts.

I mean, there's a playground of judgment for us, or maybe real sin, like the affair she had, right?

Or that she's divisive, or she's a gossip.

These are all real possibilities for our judgment.

It's a playground, and so we get to lower her and we measure her, okay, all right, and then you go, oh, okay, look at me.

All right, right, right.

But here's the thing what Jesus is saying, it's impossible to judge her without getting out the tape measure.

And now you automatically are always also measuring and judging yourself.

So Jesus is saying when we live in judgment on others, we will automatically, automatically live destructive and negative toward ourselves.

You can't do it to Cindy Joe and not do it to yourself.

The judgment you put on her or him or them has automatically come back on you because you've become a person of judgment.

Verse three, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, when it's his sister'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's 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.

Point number one is this you cannot see yourself if you are busy pointing out issues in others.

You can't see yourself.

There's this parable story in Luke 18, and Jesus is teaching a group of people, a group of people who thought a lot about themselves.

They're really proud of themselves.

Thought they were better than other people.

And so he tells this story.

Two men go to the temple to pray, one's a religious guy, one's this lowly tax collector guy.

Nobody would have thought much about this guy.

And here's a story in Luke 18, verse 11.

Luke 18:11

You've probably heard it before.

The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus.

God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

Now, isn't it interesting that he actually lists things that are wrong?

So this isn't a suspension of a moral ethic.

It's about the practice of destructively and negatively lowering other people.

He keeps going, I fast twice a week.

I give tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

I tell you, this man.

So that lowly guy, not the religious guy, that man, he went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

So the Pharisee makes this mistake.

So easy.

To boost his own goodness and to lessen any possibility that this other person that he thinks he has figured out, he has them boxed in.

Right?

He is God over this other guy.

He has the ability somehow to judge this guy's motives and know everything about his life.

He boosts himself and he lowers him, takes out the tape measure, off he goes.

So he gets to feel more self-righteous.

Without any real honesty about his failings or his motives.

And when we do this, Jesus says in Matthew 7, verse 5, we are hypocrites.

Matthew 7:5

So if you remember, we ran into this word a couple of weeks ago, and the word hypocrite gives us the image of an actor or one who wears a mask, fitting for today, right?

We're gonna see a lot of masks today on Halloween.

Now, I could wear a George Clooney mask.

I could.

I will never look like George Clooney.

I mean, actually, this week I was shaving.

I shave on Wednesdays and Saturday nights, just so you know my rhythm.

So it was Wednesday.

It was a shaving day.

I'm coming down my cheek, up close to the mirror.

I see something up near my eye.

I go to wipe it away.

It was a new wrinkle.

I've never done that before.

Tried to wipe away my own face.

I came out of the bathroom and said, Chrissy, I just tried to wipe away my own face.

That's where I'm at in my life.

And it wasn't like a good, like George Clooney wrinkle, where like every wrinkle he gets, he gets better looking.

It's just a wrinkle, just like a middle-aged, average-looking man wrinkle.

It's all it was.

And that there's reality.

Like that's it.

Like I could put a George Clooney mask on, but it wouldn't be reality.

It wouldn't be honest.

It would be uncomfortable and it would be a lie.

It would be it'd be an act, right?

That's what a mask is.

That's what Jesus is saying.

When we judge other people, we're putting on the mask.

We're not seeing ourselves.

Priest and author, Henri Nowen, he says this.

The desert fathers said that judging others is a heavy burden.

While being judged by others is a light, like a light one, once we can let go of our need to judge others, we will experience an immense inner freedom.

Once we are free from judging, we will be also free for mercy.

Let's remember Jesus' words.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged.

Point number two is this awareness and confession.

Awareness and confession of your own sin leads to increased generosity toward others.

So this is that beautiful second side of life where you can confess your imperfections and your sin to God because of Jesus' forgiveness for you, and you are righteous totally and completely in him.

So you're so free in that gospel that you are free to be more and more self-aware, and you can confess more and more.

You're coming into greater acceptance that you're created beautiful in God's image, and you are a sinner, and you are redeemed.

And that's not self-contempt, none of that.

No, it's a freedom of a humility to live in that confession, to see any of the logs and the specks in your eye, and then enables you in love and generosity to even have a conversation with somebody else without judgment.

Verse 5 says this you hypocrites 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.

So there we could say brother or sister's eye.

So the text takes us, if we look at the text, it takes us from judge and hypocrite, judge and hypocrite to brother or sister.

Judge and hypocrite to brother or sister.

My sister's name is Sherry.

Here's a picture of my sister and I at the beach, I think last year's spring break.

She's three years older than me.

She lives in Virginia with her husband, two daughters.

We do not agree on everything.

That's okay.

She is smarter than me.

It's okay.

I got the height.

She got the brains.

It's very clear in the picture, right?

Like that's what's going on.

And like a good sister, if I'm a moron, or I'm out of turn in my family, or I'm out of turn toward her family, she will call me.

And she will tell me.

But she will do that in love.

She will not do that in judgment.

And if I needed anything, I could show up at her house in the middle of the night with my family, and the door is open.

Right?

Why?

Why?

Because the base of the relationship is not perfect agreement.

The base of the relationship is not some comparison.

It's not perfectly matching lifestyles or never getting on each other's nerves.

No, no.

The base of the relationship is she's my sister.

I'm her brother.

We're brother and sister.

See, brothers and sisters in Christ, we care for each other.

That infiltrates everything else about how we relate.

It changes how we view each other.

And see, our growth in grace, this passage is laying it out for us.

Our growth in grace is from judge and hypocrite to brother and sister.

Here's the good news.

Point number three.

Because of Christ's righteousness for us, we no longer have to defend ourselves with self-righteousness.

Isn't that freeing?

So today's not only Halloween, it's Reformation Day.

Some of you would just like to do away with Halloween, understand, and just focus on the Reformation Day.

So here's your part of today for you.

October 31st, 1517, in Wittenberg, Germany.

Probably the greatest transformation in Western society.

Martin Luther, here's a picture of Martin Luther.

He nailed his 95 thesis about God and the Bible and salvation and how we have relationship with God and forgiveness.

He nails it to the doors of a church.

And it begins the Protestant Reformation.

Here are the doors of the church.

The original doors burned down, but this is the church building where he nailed them.

And that begins this huge debate through the church, and it begins the Protestant Reformation, right?

And so that big siege Christian church, Catholic and Protestant, this is where the division begins.

Protestant being those who protested the Catholic Church.

Because at the time, at the time, they're selling forgiveness.

This crazy thought.

So convenient to the people in power, right?

Like, so give enough money to the church and then you're right with God.

Give enough money and you are forgiven.

Give enough money and you're in eternally you are saved.

How convenient.

How convenient in a society where the Bible is not available to everybody.

And then in the mid-1400s, the printing press becomes available, Bibles become available to people, and Martin Luther starts to study his Bible.

And what he discovers is that relationship with God is by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ's work alone.

And this whole thing about giving money and buying forgiveness to be right with God, that's crazy messed up.

And so the Protestant church begins.

That's what we're talking about.

We talk about Reformation Day.

There's been a reformation.

And so today we look back on that day.

That's a celebration for us.

Because people were being crushed by that type of performancism and merit-based faith.

And so we celebrate the freedom we have in Christ's work.

Our judgment is over.

Our defense mechanisms, they can rest because Jesus really is enough.

My mentor's mentor, Professor Jack Miller, he said this the gospel frees me to believe the log in my eye is always a bigger issue than the speck in anybody else's eye.

It's not the gospel forces you, it frees you.

You're that free.

You're that free to be able to look at yourself honestly and begin with yourself.

Matthew 7, 6.

It's an odd verse to end this section on.

Do not give dogs what is holy.

Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

What an odd verse to end with.

I mean, a pearl would have been an immense treasure.

I mean, it would have been so costly to have something like a pearl.

And a dog and a pig would have been a nasty animal.

It would have been a destructive animal to give something to a dog.

It's not like my dog, like, you know, like, you know, groomed and, you know, like he won't step in a muddy puddle.

Like that, it's not like that.

I mean, my dog won't.

He won't, he doesn't like to step in, like, he doesn't like to go for walks if it's too wet out.

You know, this is like a nasty animal.

Like you give anything to the to a dog or a pig, they're gonna destroy it.

So this is talking about not wasting energy, giving the truths of God to people who only defiantly and continually destroy them.

Now that really sounds oppositional, sort of like in tone and spirit to what we just read and talked about.

So, a couple thoughts.

I don't have it all figured out, by the way, but a couple thoughts.

First, this practice is exceptional in nature, not normative.

So this is this is an exceptional type of principle or practice.

Second, is this teaching calls us into discerning through God's Spirit, discerning somebody else's character and actions and habitual actions toward us, but without contemptuous judgment.

That's why this is all connected.

So what it means is there's some point.

I don't know.

I don't know when the point is.

That would be something that you have to sort out with the Lord, I guess, because I it's not like it's laid out for us.

Like here's the three criteria by which you can now pull back from this person who's being habitually, defiantly destructive toward you and what means something to you.

But there's some point, not when you don't love someone, not when you look down on them, because we already just talked about that in the preceding verses, but a point when you are released from defiant and damaging outflow from a destructive person onto which matters most to you.

You can sort that out.

Now back to the pearls and our beloved Braves.

Because pearls.

I mean, I've seen eight-year-olds, eighty-year-olds wearing pearls.

We went to the battery this week and eight, there's pearls everywhere.

I've been a baseball fan for about six games.

Like most of you.

So I have a lot to say and offer on the conversation of baseball.

So, Jock Peterson, here's what I've picked up on.

This is what I'm picking up on during a baseball game.

Jock Peterson wears pearls.

He just started wearing them, I think, at the beginning of the postseason or something.

I read a couple articles online.

Nobody's quite sure, according to the articles, uh, the real meaning of him wearing them.

Nobody's quite sure.

But the stands are full of pearls.

I read an interview online in Sports Illustrated.

He said his pearls, they interviewed his jeweler, and his pearls are worth about$4,000.

So the other guys are wearing gold chains worth a lot more, but still$4,000 around his neck.

That's a lot.

It's not a lot to him.

He makes about$7 million a year.

I picked up on that also.

That's the kind of baseball information I'm interested in.

So here's the question.

Would he ever, would he ever, in right mind, in right mind, because he does make$7 million a year.

So he could do this, but still, they're still worth$4,000.

So in right mind, would he ever, in right mind, just just throw them in the dumpster on the way to his car?

Would he ever do that?

Would that ever make sense to do something like that?

Like it's a Snickers wrapper, right?

Like would you would you ever do that?

Would you ever just throw away that which your heart longs for the most?

Would you ever just not matter to you?

Ignore it.

When we think about an immense treasure, we can think about it in that context.

There's a short two-verse parable in Matthew 13.

Matthew 13, 45 and 46.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

So here's what Jesus is saying.

We have a kingdom given to us, meaning a relationship with God that we can have by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ's work alone.

It's beyond anything that this world can offer us.

It's the true treasure of our hearts.

It's the way of forgiveness and the way of righteousness, the way of wholeness and salvation.

And it is such a healing and all-encompassing treasure that it saves us, it makes us right with God, it heals us and it reorients our hearts.

And our growth in grace, this is how it all ties together.

Our growth in grace extends even to how we view other people.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and mercy to us that we are made right with you, not by our work, but by your work.

May we trust and surrender more.

May we know the freedom of your gospel, that Jesus is so sufficient and we are so secure that we can become more aware of the log in our own eye.

Before we ever go and begin to look for specs in other people.

May we be a people of trust in Jesus and love of others.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.