Judge Not

Jesus is addressing the issue of judgmental attitudes in Matthew 7. He emphasizes that we should not judge others, as we may be judged in return. The context of this passage is in relation to the scribes and Pharisees who were hypocritical in their outward appearance of righteousness, but lacked a genuine relationship with God. Jesus highlights the importance of looking at the heart and intentions of individuals rather than judging based on outward appearances. He also shares a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector to illustrate the difference between self-righteousness and humility. The main point is that we should not be quick to judge and condemn others, but instead focus on our own relationship with God. In Matthew 7, I simply took the very first two words, verse 1, and that is our title this morning, Judge Not. Now, how many of you have heard the question, you know, you're not supposed to judge me, who are you to judge me, right? When we hear this stuff thrown around all the time today, especially in our day and time in our society, where we are living in a generation of toleration. We are supposed to tolerate everyone and everything, right? And so immediately it gets thrown up to us that we are not supposed to judge. And probably more so than John 3, 16 these days, this passage of Scripture is probably quoted more than any other Scripture in the Bible in our present day and our time. But notice what Jesus says. He says, Judge not that you be not judged. We've been looking at this Sermon of the Mount. When Jesus Christ comes, and I've kind of entitled this series, Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. And as we're thinking about that, remember the entire Sermon of the Mount was written and preached in order to approach and to attack the scribes and the Pharisees who were the religious institution of that day and time to show them that they really were not near as godly as what they thought they were. And so they had the outward appearance of a relationship with God, but inwardly they were all messed up. And we see that a lot in our society today, amen? We see people that look good on the outside, but inside they are messed up. They do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And when you look at these scribes and these Pharisees, you will find that they were dominated by pride. They were very prideful. They were part of this system. We saw that they have denied the Word of God, but yet they were establishing their own word. They were making up their own rules and regulations in what God said. They were focused on this outward morality rather than their inward attitude. And so they outwardly worshipped God, but Jesus Christ said, man, your hearts are far from me. You're not anywhere close to me. And so, man, we saw last week where they were possessed with this idea of obtaining money and possessions because that seemed to be the standard for their blessings. And so as we look at these scribes and these Pharisees, when it comes to human relationships, and that's what this next section deals with, is now that we are in this kingdom, we are told to be light and salt within this earth, how do we interact with each other? What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to behave now that we are in this kingdom of Jesus Christ that He has come to establish upon this earth? And when it came to human relationships, the scribes and the Pharisees were very judgmental. They were judgmental against people, and they had a problem with this obsessiveness of judging individuals by their outward stuff. And so, man, when you look at the scribes and the Pharisees here, the scribes, if you remember, were those that wrote down, those that interpreted the Old Testament and the law, and the Pharisees were those that lived and set the standard for what the law was supposed to be doing. And Jesus Christ said neither one of them, even though their life was surrounded around the Word of God, neither one of them had a relationship with God. And I think sometimes we get caught up in that. I think sometimes we get so involved in Bible study, so involved in prayer life and coming to church and doing all of these things, that we forget about our relationship with Jesus Christ. And God wants us to have a personal relationship with Him. And so when you look at the scribes and the Pharisees, man, you see that they were constantly condemning people. They were constantly criticizing people. They were censoring individuals that didn't rise up to their created standards. But remember that Jesus Christ said a couple of weeks ago that unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And so they thought their standard was elevated. However, Jesus Christ said your standard is not even close to the standard that God requires. God wants holiness. That's what God requires. And so notice what He says in John 7 and verse 24. He says, "...Judge not according to the appearance, the outward, but judge righteous judgment." In other words, look at the heart. Look at the motives. Look at the intentions that a person does what they do. Sometimes when we look at the outside, we can have problems with that, and we'll see that here in just a minute. But in Luke 16, do you remember Jesus Christ shared a parable about the scribes and the Pharisees? And the Pharisees, He says in verse 14, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided Him, and He said unto them..." So He is speaking directly to these Pharisees. And He said, "...You are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." And so He's telling them, here you won't say a praise of men, and men praise you for being righteous. Everybody knew that the Pharisees were the top notch of Christianity. They were the elite ones. I mean, they obeyed the law. They kept everything that was there. But God is saying to them that guess what? I know your hearts. And you may have fooled men, and you may think you've fooled men, but you haven't fooled God. And then later on in Luke chapter 18, He goes on and He illustrates this point about the Pharisees. And He states this parable, "...unto certain which trusted in themselves." Who were they that trusted in themselves? The Pharisees. We just saw that in Luke 16. So a couple of chapters over, He is speaking to the Pharisees because they were righteous and they despised others. So you can see this critiquing, this condemning, this censuring heart that they had. And here's the parable that Jesus gives them. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one of Pharisees, talk about calling them out in a parable, right? He doesn't beat around the bush. He's talking to them. And He says, I'm going to give a parable and just in case, because the Pharisees was most likely going to hear this and say, He's not speaking to us because we are righteous, right? We are reaching the standard that has been created. So He calls them by name. He said two men went into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee. The other a publican. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with themselves, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. What is a publican? A publican is a tax collector. The Pharisees was accepted by the people. They were loved by the people. The people modeled the Pharisee. And on the other hand, you have this tax collector. You have this guy that the public despised. They hated. They did not want anything to do. Any confirmation that they were even close to being like a publican. And so He puts this contrast to them. And He says, notice what He said. He said, I'm not like this publican. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And then look at what it says in verse 14, because Jesus interprets this parable for us. He says, I tell you, this man, the publican, went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Jesus is telling them that they think they have all the answers. They think that they're the judges. They think that they are the standard of holiness, the standard of Christianity, the standard of Judaism. But they were wrong. They were wrong. And so let's look at this judge not. Judge not. What is He saying? Before we can get into the rest of this, typically, most of the time in my sermons, we start with what it is not. This time we're going to reverse things, because I want us to look at what judge not is, and then we'll pick up in this story and we'll find out what it is not. Because Jesus gives the negative aspect here. In verses 1-6, He gives the negative side of dealing with people. In verses 7-12, He gives the positive side of dealing with people. And so as we look at this negative, I want to first of all flip it and look at the positive. What is judge not? And so when He talks about this, if you look at that word judge and you begin to look it up, what you will discover is there is somewhere between 12 to 20 different ways judge is translated in the New Testament. And so there's a lot of confusion on exactly what does this word judge mean. In some places, it is translated to separate. In other words, like Jesus Christ, remember He said, I will separate the goats and the sheep. I will judge them. And so it has this idea of separation. It also is translated to choose. Choose you this day. Judge. You make the judgment of whom you will serve. It also means to select. It's also translated to determine. And it might even mean to evaluate. And so this is just about five of the nearly 20 different ways that this word is translated. And it could actually mean to condemn. When you judge somebody, you condemn them. The judge gives that deal. And so how do we know which one is meant here? And especially since everybody is using this verse in our culture of toleration today, how do we know what this word judge is talking about? And I want us to look at some Scripture and I want us to first of all see what we know judge not is. Because the Bible cannot contradict itself. And so if judge means condemn here, then guess what? We often find other passages in the Scripture where we can or cannot condemn people. And so as we look through the Scripture, the first thing we can determine is judge not is discrimination. In our world of tolerance, that's what we say is you cannot discriminate between people, right? You cannot discriminate us. Everybody in our culture today wants to be all-inclusive. We've got to love everyone. Everyone loves everybody. We've got to be accepting of everybody. But here's what the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us if you go back to Matthew 5, and we didn't cover this part of the Sermon on the Mount, but Jesus Christ said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In other words, what Jesus Christ is telling us, and Paul confirms this in Romans 13, that it affirms the right of a nation to judge people. We have courts, right? And if you break the law in the United States of America or in Arkansas, you go up before the courts and what happens? You have the right to a defense. You have a right to defend yourself. And so you do it in front of your peers, and then when they find you guilty, what happens? All they can do is find you guilty or innocent. Once they have done that, then the judge comes back, and what does the judge do? He sets the sentence. Because you have been found guilty of this, you will serve, and he usually has a parameter from the least amount to the maximum amount. And the judge gets to decide how he wants to condemn and act that. And so all of us understand that we have courts. Courts are needed. Courts are there. The Bible does not condemn any kind of judging as in discriminating between those that obey the law and don't obey the law. And as a matter of fact, the Bible tells us, especially as believers, as Christians, that we are to discern between good and evil, right? We're to know the difference between good and evil so that we can know the difference between what is true and what is a falsehood. You can't read any of the epistles without Paul warning us what? Be aware of wolves that sneak in and sheep's clothing. How do I know if they're a wolf or a sheep? I have to make a discernment. I have to look at them and determine are they teaching according to the Word of God or are they not? So as believers, we are told to discriminate. We also understand that judge not is discernment. The Bible teaches us that we are to discern. As a matter of fact, here in this Sermon of the Mount, Jesus Christ tells us that we are to discern between what is true religion and what is false religion. He's going to finish out this chapter talking about there will be many in that day that will say to Me, Lord, Lord, did we not do mighty works? But He says depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. And He says you shall be able to know because of their fruit. In other words, there's a difference in judging as far as condemning and judging as far as inspecting or discerning the truth from the evil. As a matter of fact, in Hebrews 5, the author of Hebrews says, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Part of our spiritual growth is to exercise our senses. What is our senses? Your senses are your eyes, your nose, your taste, your touch, right? These are the senses. And this is how we perceive what's going on. And so he says that your senses, does it look right according to the Word of God? Does it sound right according to the Word of God? Does it feel right according to the Word of God? In other words, our senses as we grow spiritually, our senses are exercised and you should be getting better at discerning good from evil rather than getting worse. That's part of the maturity that is there. He also tells us in Galatians 1, 8 and 9, he says, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be what? Accursed. In other words, if we are going to accurse somebody, how is that going to do? We have to discern between are they giving us the right gospel or a false gospel. And he says, just in case you're unclear, he repeats it again in verse 9. He says, as we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. 1 Corinthians 5, we are told to remove those from the congregation that are sinning. You remember 1 Corinthians 5. There was a man that was sleeping with his stepmother. And what did he say? He said, I am ashamed in you that you have not dealt with this issue. That matter of fact, you are rejoicing in this fact. And he told them at Corinth that you need to get them out of the congregation. And so why? Because the individual would not repent. Now all of us are going to sin and mess up, but there's a difference in willful, continually sin, where you don't repent than someone that is repenting and trying to do right. And when we have sin in our church and in our congregation, and that person will not repent, the Bible teaches us, man, you've got to separate from them. And so He gives us this discernment and this ability to do that. And matter of fact, it goes all the way back into the entire Old Testament when the Old Testament tells us, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. That verse tells us that hatred is actually not rebuking an individual when their life is in sin. Love is going to that individual and rebuking that sin. Why? Because the entire goal of the Christian life, the entire purpose of everybody, the first thing we have to do is God's goal, it's God's will, it's God's desire that we what? Be reconciled unto Him. That we accept His sacrifice for our sins. That's the whole Gospel, right? The whole Gospel is the fact that I am a sinner, but Jesus Christ died in my place in order to be saved. I have to recognize that I am a sinner and I have to recognize that Jesus Christ is sinless. That He was able to suffer the consequences of sin. The wages of sin is death, so He gave His life on the cross of Calvary. He died and He was buried, but He did not stay in the grave. Why? Because He was sinless. And so God brought Him forth from the grave to live and to ever make intercession upon our half. And so that's why Paul said in Romans, that what? If you believe in your heart, that inner being, that inside, that Jesus Christ died for your sins, that He was buried, and that He proved that He was sinless because God brought Him forth from the grave. He said if you will confess with your mouth, you shall be saved. That's the Gospel. The whole Gospel is upon repentance. Even for the Christian, what are we supposed to do? The Scripture is to judge us. It is to convict us. It is to tell us when we are sinning and when we are not so that we can do what? We can confess our sins. Go read 1 John, right? If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But if we say we have not sinned, then we're a liar. And we make God a liar. And so when we look at this, understand this is the purpose. And so love confronts sin. Love does not tolerate sin. Hatred tolerates sin. And what we are showing and reasoned in my opinion that the church is not growing and exercising its authority in our world today is because we have accepted this attitude that we are just going to tolerate sin in this world. We don't want to cause waves. We don't want to rock any boats. We don't want to offend nobody, right? But the Bible tells us if we really love others, we've got to let them know that they're sinners. Because you cannot be saved. The heart of the Gospel is focused on the fact that you recognize that you are a sinner. What did Jesus Christ say a few weeks ago? Paul in Romans said, I would not have known sin had it not been for the law. If God didn't give me those Ten Commandments, then I would think I was a pretty good guy, right? And that's what the Pharisees were doing. The Pharisees were looking at this. I've never killed anybody, but Jesus said, wait a minute, wait a minute, if you're angry in your heart, have you ever wished somebody to be dead? Have you ever wished somebody for bad to happen to them, right? He said that's the root of murder. That's the root of the sin. So we are, as Christians, obligated to separate. We are, as Christians, obligated to evaluate whether or not things are true or false. Whether things are sin or righteousness. We are called to determine. And so this could not be what Jesus Christ is referring to when He says judge not. As a matter of fact, in Romans 16 and verse 17, He says, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and what? Avoid them. Listen, I cannot mark an individual and avoid an individual unless I discern or discriminate between them. And so judge not is not talking about not discriminating or not discerning between individuals. What is judge not not talking about? What is He referring to here in this passage of Scripture? In order to find out of these 20 different ways that this Word is translated, in order to find out which Word is right, we have to go to the context. You remember context? And context does not start in chapter 7 and verse 1. Context starts back when Jesus Christ, seeing the multitude of people doing what? Coming to Him and being healed of all of these things, and He's performing all of these miracles and good works, when the message is, repent for the kingdom of heaven is not in hand. He looks at this multitude. They want the benefits and the blessings of the kingdom, but they don't want to admit to their failures in order to get into the kingdom. It kind of sounds exactly like the church today. And so He approaches them and in this context, what does He do? You have established this religious establishment. You have created this standard that you think makes you look holy before God. It may look holy before men, but it is not holy as God sees holiness. And so this is the contrast. This is the context that He is speaking about here. And so when you boil it down to what is He talking about when He says, Judge not, I believe it comes into one simple word. He's saying stop criticizing. Stop criticizing. In other words, here's where we get this in the context. Because He's referring to this critical, judgmental, this condemning, this self-righteous egotism of the Pharisees. The Pharisees. I am glad I am not like this publican, right? He has already condemned this publican to hell. This publican is going to what? He is approaching Jesus Christ the same way that the Pharisee is, right? But their outward looks just a little bit different. But the inward, what? The Pharisee is proud and boastful. He's full of himself, while the publican would not even lift his eyes toward God. He'd put a smote upon his breast. God, be merciful to me a sinner. You see the difference? You see the difference in the attitudes that was here? And so he's talking about this criticism that was there. The scribes and the Pharisees were criticizing people because of their sin. Because of their personality. Because of their character. Because of their weaknesses, their frolities. Perhaps the way they looked, or even the way that they might have dressed, or the fact that they may not have actually done things like the way that we do them, criticizing their motives. They were criticizing their motives which they couldn't see or perceive any way because we are humans. All we can see is what's happening outwardly. None of us can look at the heart. And what he's saying is, don't go judge that individual until you have walked in that individual's shoes. Until you know their heart. You know, it's easy, and I'm bad about this. I'm telling you, I am preaching to me this morning as much as I am preaching to you because I look at an individual and I see how they look and how they dress and maybe the way they carry themselves and I think, man, there's no way that they could be a Christian, right? There's no way that they could be following Jesus Christ, but what I can't see is their heart. And I don't know. And so what do we do? We have to understand that what he is talking about here, we do not know why a person does what they do. Even on Thursday nights when I go into the prison and I preach to these guys, even though they may have been found guilty of something in the past, I don't know what professions they have made or changes they have made since they have come into the prison, right? They could have repented. They could be different. But yet, what happens? They still have to serve their time because the court has appointed them. So what he's not talking about here and what he doesn't want us to do and judge not, is this official judging. And what I mean by official judging is because he's talking about our personal relationships Remember, the context is we are to be salt in life. And how do we be salt in life? By going through these beatitudes and humbling ourselves in order that Jesus Christ might live through us and therefore we become salt that permeates into people's lives. We become light that radiates to a lost and dying world what Jesus Christ has done on the cross of Calvary for us. And so what is he telling us? We're talking about personal relationships. We're not referring to the court of law. In other words, you can steal from me, but I cannot do anything about bringing about justice. What do I have to do? I have to leave that up to your peers and the judge. They're the ones that can officially convict you. They're the ones that can do it. And so if something happens to me, what do I do? I have to file a lawsuit. I have to bring it before the courts. Because that's official judgment. You know, even the discipline of the church, I might add. When we talk about church discipline, church discipline, if they won't listen to you, if they won't recognize and repent of their sin, then what are we commanded to do? Bring them before the church body. Why? Because any conviction, any condemning, any official judging has to be done with two or at least three witnesses. And so if something is going wrong in your life, and I've dealt with this since I've been pastor here, if I am the only one that knows about it, I cannot bring charges until what? At least two or three of you know about it. That's the difference between a public sin and a private sin. But if we all know about it, and we go to that brother because we love them and say, hey, your life is not representing Jesus Christ, what they should do is, you are right, I am sorry, I repent. But when they don't repent, then what do we do? We bring them before the church because as a church, as a body, we are God's authority here on this earth. And the decisions that we make, what we bind on earth, is bound in heaven. What we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Because when we make decisions as a church body, it is not an emotional deal. It's not based upon hearsay. It's not based upon gossip. It is based upon the facts and the witnesses. You tracking with me? And so that gives the church, just like the court of law is for civil law and official judging, the church has the ability to judge within its congregation. And so that's why you have to believe in the local New Testament church. Because why? I cannot judge somebody over at Sharon because why? I'm not a first-hand witness what Sharon's members are doing. It's none of my business they're to control what their members. We are to control what we have here. And as the shepherd of the flock, it is my responsibility to do what? To investigate the sheep. To evaluate the sheep. To discern. To discriminate. To do this. And so we're not talking about this official judgment. We're also not talking about hasty judgment. And this is what we fall into a lot of times. We understand that we're not God, right? We don't have the right to officially judge or condemn anybody, but sometimes we do get a little hasty. As a matter of fact, Proverbs 18 says, He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. We don't always have all the information, right? We don't have the information. We don't always see what we think we see. You know, we may think we see Brother Donnie's truck was parked down at the liquor store the other day, right? And so we just assume what? We assume Brother Donnie is in there buying alcohol, right? But unless you see me at the register purchasing the deal, I may have ran in gas and that's the only place I could have pulled my truck. I may have had a flat tire and that's where I had to be. I might have come there because the owner had reached out and wanted to know about Jesus Christ because he attended the funeral the day before and he was convicted. And he said, Preacher, if you don't mind, stop by and tell me about Jesus Christ. See, we make a lot of assumptions. And we rush to these hasty judgments when we don't know all of the information. And when we do that, you know what we immediately begin to do? We're breaking one of the first commandments because we set ourselves up as God. See, only God knows the interior motives and the exterior. Only God is able to see both. And so this is precisely the bottom line in this sin. To judge people of their motives and so forth is to play God. It's to usurp your divine position over the position of God. That's what the scribes and Pharisees. They were the ones. The Pharisees said, We are living the standard because the scribes have accepted and said this is the standard. And Jesus said both of them are wrong. The scribes have misinterpreted the law and the Pharisees are trying to live the law and both of them are wrong. Every time you sit in judgment of someone. Every time you criticize their motives. Every time you think you have the right to make an evaluation, you are playing God. Every time you carry out vengeance or a vendetta, or you're going to get even on your own, guess what? You're playing God. Every time you pass sentence on someone arbitrarily, you are playing God. And so judge not isn't true if there's an obvious sin. If you can take it because why? Jesus Christ said, I did not come to condemn them, but I came that they might what? Be saved. And He said, therefore, I don't condemn you. You are condemned already. Why are you condemned already? Because you have not believed in the only begotten Son of God. In other words, He's saying it is written. You have the law. And guess what? You are a sinner. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But guess what? Jesus Christ came to die in the place for me. But when I reject that, then guess what? I can't be saved. And so notice this judging. Judge not isn't true if you follow the principles of biblical judgment, which is always with two or three witnesses. Don't think you're not an official and don't make hasty judgments. Judge not is wrong when you set yourself up as the authority and you're going to call all the shots and you're going to determine who fits and who meets the standard, and in so doing so, you have taken God's seat. You've taken God's seat. So then, now that we understand what is this judge not, let's real quickly look at the rest of this that he tells us through verse 6. Why shouldn't we judge? Why should we not set ourselves up as God? I mean, I have the authority of the Word of God, right? I'm able to do that. And notice what he says. He says, first of all, judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you measure out, it shall be measured to you again. Who is the only authority that is allowed to condemn or convict an individual? God. God. Period. Jesus is not talking about this reciprocating judgment. And then I hear this all the time and it just makes my belly turn and I get nauseated when I hear people say this. Well, if I judge you, then it's going to end up turning back and getting on me, right? We even say it this way. If you point one finger at somebody, you've got how many fingers pointing back? Three, right? And so it's like this reciprocating judgment. I have no right to judge you because guess what? If I judge you, then guess what? It's going to be turned back to judge me. That's not what the context is talking about. What is he talking about here? Jesus is reaching in and what He's doing is this idea that we are fallible judges. We are incapable of judging because we cannot look at the heart. We don't know the motives. All we see and all we perceive is a snapshot in a period of time. And so we're making our judgment and calling this God. God sees what? The past, the present, and the future. And He is the only One that can condemn or convict. Matthew 7. Look at what He says. And so this judgment is if you are condemning somebody because of their outward actions, if you're criticizing somebody because of what they wear or because of what they may have done to their body, then guess what? If that's going to be your standard for judgment, then guess what? God's going to judge you the same way. I don't want God judging me by my standards. Amen? I want God to judge me according to His and I want Him to extend mercy and forgiveness. And so why? What are we to do? Give mercy and forgiveness. That's the way I judge. I don't know their heart. You know, when I do something wrong or you perceive me to do something wrong, all you're seeing is the outward, but God knows the heart. God knows the motive that is there. So now look at v. 3 and 4. So now look at v. 3 and 4. And He clarifies it for us. Why behold thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considereth not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how about say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Now, nobody can say that Jesus Christ does not have a sense of humor, because He gives this very comical illustration of what He is talking about when He means by judge not. He says when you are judging an individual, and you are condemning, and you are convicting them in official or hasty judgment, then what you are doing is you are literally trying to get some sawdust out of their eye, and you are forgetting you've got this big old telephone pole, this beam sticking out of your eye. So think of this picture. How many of you would love to get something in your eye and go to the eye doctor, and the eye doctor that's trying to get that little speck that is irritating you, that is bothering you out of your eye, and he's got this big old 2x4 in his eye. I'm like, what am I going to say? Doc, you need to go get that taken care of. Send someone else in to take care of me, right? And so Jesus is putting this ridiculous scenario in front of them, and isn't it amazing though that most of the time, that's what we do. We are going around looking for specks. We're going around looking for splinters in other people's lives while we are ignoring the big stuff and the big sins that are in our own life. And He's saying as soon as you approach someone to judge them or condemn them or criticize them, then guess what? All of a sudden, you are evidencing the fact that the attitude in your heart is not what it should be. Because why? It's not to condemn someone. It's to what? It's to cause them to repent. I have a guy that's in Melbourne this week that has been blowing up Facebook, and he's been sitting there as God. And he literally believes that he can cast out devils and stuff, but by his own statement, he proves that he is not God because he said everybody, every Christian that participates in Halloween is not saved and going to heaven. That's not true. That's not true. There's a lot of people. There's a lot of Christians that celebrated the holiday and the festivities, but they did not worship demons. They did not worship Satan. They didn't pray to the dead. They didn't try to bring the dead back or communicate with the dead. And so guess what? There's a lot of good, honest Christians that are saved children of God that did not do that. But when you put them all in one category, then what are you doing? You're setting yourself up. And you're criticizing. And guess what? Jesus says, I'm going to judge you the same way. And Lord, I don't want God to get into the attitudes of everything of my life, right? Because would you believe some Sundays I don't want to preach? Would you believe some Sundays I get up here and I preach out of obedience, not out of love for preaching? Sometimes my attitudes are not what they ought to be. And so man, I don't want Jesus Christ looking at my heart sometimes when I get into the pulpit. And so I'm going to be careful not to look at the heart of others. You realize that every single situation in the New Testament, Jesus Christ condemned sin. You cannot find one single place where Jesus Christ did not condemn sin except one time. He always condemned the sin and never the sinner. But there's one time that guess what? He no longer condemned the sin, but He condemned the sinner. You know what that is? It's the scribes and the Pharisees. He condemned them because of their self-righteousness. He didn't only condemn the sin, but He said you guys, and remember just a couple of weeks ago, unless your righteousness does what? Exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. What is Jesus saying? That they are self-righteous and they've allowed this sin to cause them to go to hell. They're not making it to heaven because of their sin. So not only did He condemn the sin, but He also condemned the sinner. Nowhere else do you find that. The woman in adultery. What did He do? He says, I forgive you. Do what? Did He say your adultery is good? Your sins are forgiven? Go back home now and chat back up with that guy? No. What did He do? He said go and sin no more. Go get your life straightened out. Go get things fixed up. Don't continue. Zacchaeus, when he went to his house, what did he do? He didn't condemn Zacchaeus. What? But something happened during that meal that Zacchaeus realized after he realized Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that Jesus Christ gave him, that every one that he had wronged by taking taxes, what did he do? He went back and repaid them 7% above what he took from them. See, God didn't condemn Zacchaeus. He condemned the sin. And every single thing in the Bible is that way. And so what is this solution? What is this solution to judgment? And notice what he says. The solution to judge not. He says in verse 5, Thou hypocrite. Thou hypocrite. First, first, so first is a number of what? Sequences, right? Judge not, but if you are judging, right? If you're looking at somebody's speck and you're judging someone's life and you're not evaluating your life, then you are a hypocrite. So he says you hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye, then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. And then he makes a very strange verse. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast you your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again to rend you. And so notice what he says. First of all, he says don't be a hypocrite. First of all, don't be trying to get specks out of people's life when you've got all this sin of self-righteousness in your life, right? First of all, get that, because really that comes a long way up in front of the Ten Commandments, right? Because we're not supposed to have no other gods. We're not supposed to love. When we make ourselves a god, guess what? We're busting all first four commandments before we ever get to the lies, killing, murder, or anything else. And Jesus Christ said the greatest commandment is what? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. The second is to love your neighbor. So he's saying, man, you've got problems with God when you're worried about what people have with problems with men. And so get this beam out of your eye first. Don't be a hypocrite. Get the beam out of your eye. And this happens. How do we get the beam out of our eye? We've got to confess. We've got to confess. We've got to repent. You know, it's just amazing to me that we can meet every single Sunday for 13 years, and yet hardly nobody ever comes and repents for what they're doing or what they've done during the week. Jesus said, but we'll all admit we're sinners, right? We'll all admit that we're sinners, but are we repenting? Are we repenting? And so that's the first thing. And so how do we go through this confession? We go right back to the very beginning of the Sermon of the Mount. Remember what did He say? Recognize your poverty of spirit. You are not God. You're not perfect. You are a sinner. You are bankrupt. You are deserving of hell, right? And then what did He say? He says you ought to mourn. When you realize that your destiny is hell because you are a sinner, it ought to break your heart. When people are caught up in sin and a lifestyle that is contradictory to the Bible, it's not our job to condemn them. It's our job to pray for them and witness for them. We ought to mourn. It ought to be breaking our heart what's going on in our school systems right now. It ought to be breaking our heart in what's happening in our own county right now. But no, what happens? We just shove it over to the side and say, well, we're not supposed to judge. We're not supposed to call sin sin. And we can just be over here and we're just going to nestle into our church and we're just going to kind of take care of ourselves. And then He says what? Blessed are the meek. The meek submitting to the authority of Jesus Christ. And then what? Hunger and thirst for righteousness. You see, once you've done these four things, then, what is the next one? You show mercy. You're not judging or condemning somebody. You're merciful. Why? Because guess what? I am a sinner saved by grace. You know what separates me from them? The fact that I have believed in the name of Jesus Christ and have been saved. I'm still a sinner. I'm still a sinner. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 31 says, For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Anybody know what 1 Corinthians 11 is about? The Lord's Supper. We're going to observe that tonight. We're going to read this passage of Scripture tonight. Hopefully, if you're a member of Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church, you'll be back to observe the Lord's Supper tonight. But what's He saying? And what do we say? Well, I'm not worthy to have the Lord's Supper. Guess what? None of us are worthy. Because we have all sinned. We've all come short of the glory of God. Jesus Christ was the only One that was worthy to die and to be brought back from the dead. And so what do we do with the Lord's Supper? We remember the fact that Jesus Christ gave His blood and He gave His body in order to do what? So that you and I can sit at the table and fellowship with Jesus Christ as sinners. None of us are worthy, but the difference between an unworthy person and a worthy person in 1 Corinthians 11, what was the people doing? They were coming and making this big meal in this party. And what were they doing? They were taking... Man, I've got to get to the front of the line before all the good stuff's out, right? And they weren't focused on their sins and what Jesus Christ had done. What are they focusing on? Their position and their power and their status. And He says because of that, what? Many of you are dying. You died because why? You're self-righteous. You're worried about yourself instead of recognizing that you're a sinner just like everybody else. See, when we partake of the Lord's Supper tonight, I'm not any better than any of you. I get to partake in the body of Jesus Christ the same way that you do because we have all sinned. The difference is there are some that sin and never confess their sins, and there's others that sin and confess it and repent. That's what God wants. God says, well, after you're saved, you're not going to all of a sudden be perfect. No, what He says is you're still going to sin, but I want repentance. Repent. If you confess your sins, I'm faithful and just to forgive you of your sins. And I'm going to go another step. I'm going to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. I'm going to fix things and make things right. But anyway, and then, once you get the beam out of your eye, then you can remove the sin in the others. Look at what He says. First, cast out the beam. Then, only then can you see clearly enough to cast out the mote of your brother's eye. When you recognize your spiritual poverty and you have repented and you have submitted to Jesus Christ and you seek to live for Him, then you're going to be merciful and you're going to be understanding. How many of you have had something medically, physically done to you that you can now sympathize with someone else going because of that because you have experienced it? Right? You know, sometimes I look at a doctor and it's like, man, they just come in and they poke you and I'm like, hey, when I had my kidney removed, right? I've made your surgery and everything, and I'm like, you're poking and pushing on me. Have you ever had this type of surgery? Right? That hurts. That's pain. Because, wow, they've never experienced it. So they don't know. And so that's what He's saying here. And so then He finishes this out and this brings it all together and ties it all together. This statement that looks like it is completely out of place. But He comes and He says, first, you get the beam out of your eye. Then, you can deal with other people's sin. He didn't say not to deal with other people's sin, right? But now you're able to discriminate. Now you're able to do what needs to be done. And then He says in v. 6, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast you your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and wring you. Now, two things that we have to understand. In order to understand what He's talking about here, we have to know what a dog and a hog is. You know what a dog and a hog is? A dog in biblical days is not this cute little animal that we have in our house that we paint their toenails, that we put a little necklace on, and we pamper, and we do all of this for, that now our dogs have become our family members, you know, our kids. And that's not the dogs of the Old Testament. The dogs in the Old Testament were mongrels. They were wicked. They were evil. They were scavengers. The dogs back then, nobody had a dog in their house. When they could barely feed their family, why in the world are they going to feed a dog? And so you had all of these dogs that was going around Jerusalem and they were just scavengers. They would pick up what they could eat, where they could eat it, however they could do it, and all of that. And then, on top of all of that, they would end up in these bunches of dogs and they would go through the garbage. As a matter of fact, when the Jews looked at them, they were unclean. They did not want to be around a dog because of their uncleanness. You don't know if they've been digging around a dead animal or what, and now fixing to go down to the temple and worship God. I can't be unclean, right? So they didn't want to have anything to do with these dogs. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says, "...I, brethren, could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." Jesus is speaking to His disciples. And He could only reveal certain things. And we know all through His ministry He had to hide certain things. Remember, He told them that's the reason He spoke in parables. Did He speak in parables to confuse His disciples? No, He had to speak in parables because why? These scribes and Pharisees who were dogs, who were heathens, who were scoundrels, who were scavengers off of the people, they could not understand spiritual stuff. And so He would speak in parables. Then when He got them to the side, He would bring them over and He did what? Let me explain to you what I was saying. And the more He did this and taught, the more the disciples were able to perceive when Jesus gave these parables. And then the hogs on the other hand, hogs was also an unclean animal to the Jew, right? And hogs in the Bible, where did the demons want to go that Jesus Christ cast out? Put us in them hogs, right? That's where we belong. That's where we are at. And so I want to wrap up with this passage of Scripture right quick in 2 Peter 2. And we'll do it very quickly because this tells us, Peter tells us who are the dogs and who are the hogs. And he starts in verse 1 and he says there were false prophets also among the people. Notice the false prophets. Even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in what? Damable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring unto themselves swift destruction. Verse 2, many shall follow their what? Pernicious ways. And you go down through this passage, and I don't have time because I'm out of time, but he begins in verse 6. He mentions the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because of their homosexuality and everything else, what did God do? He destroyed them with ashes. He condemned them and burned them up because of their ungodly lifestyle. Verse 14, he says, also having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, a heart they have exercised with covetous practice, they have cursed children because they can't control the flesh. They've cursed the children and the next generation. He talks about in verse 14 this curse of the children. They went the way of Balaam. Verse 17, their wells without water, clouds that are carried with the tempest to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. And who do we have? Look at verse 20. Because you can go and read chapter 2 if you want to this week. But look at verse 20. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. And look at verse 22. But it has happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. What is God saying? He says these dogs and hogs are all of these people that cannot control the flesh, that are giving over to sins, that won't repent, that think their selves are good and everything else, and they've allowed this sin to condemn their life. It's all of chapter 2. And He says what? He says if you take spiritual, holy things and give them to these sinners, you're wasting it. You're wasting it. And what He's actually referring to is when you look at the feast and you look at the sacrifices and when they went up to the temple to sacrifice, do you realize every one of them priests, there was some of the sacrifice that they had to completely burn up on the altar. But there was some of the sacrifice that they were allowed to take home and share with their family and their neighbors. And He says even the priests know that you don't take that that was offered holy, even if they took it home, they're not going to give them dogs the bones and the scraps, because this was holy meat. This was reserved. It had a special place. It had special rules to what they had been doing. And so the whole thing of what He is saying here is these people that are living in the world today, and He comes right back to this, those that we started the message with those that say what? You can't judge me. You're not God, right? He comes right back and He says what do you do to that individual that is living in habitual sin, and yet they say you can't judge us? He says you don't give them the Gospels. You don't give them the Good News. You ignore them. You ignore them. You don't focus with them in what they're doing. We must never be judgmental or critical, because we set ourselves up for some self-righteous judge. And I tell you real frankly today, it all comes down to your attitude. See, when we condemn people, when we say all homosexuals are going to have their place in the lake of fire, right? When we do that, it's not our responsibility to condemn, because why? They might be saved. I follow some reformed homosexuals on the internet that have totally revoked their past life and have given their entire life now to Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They're not going to die and go to hell. And so what? Only God knows the motives and what's going to happen in their life. As a matter of fact, He told them when He sent them out into the cities, what did He say? If they will not hear the Gospel, what do you do? You shake the dust from your feet. Let God's conviction, because why? When the rich man looked up to Abraham and he said, would you please send somebody back for my brothers? What did Abraham tell the rich man? They have the law and the prophets. That, the law, is what condemns. You and I can't condemn. It's our job to preach the Gospel. It's our job to share the Gospel. But yet, you can't share the Gospel with someone that's not going to appreciate the Gospel. See, if you give a hog a pearl necklace, you know what they're going to do with it within a matter of minutes? They're going to chew it up, tear it up, and it's going to be lost in the bottom of the muck. Because they don't appreciate pearls. You know what they want? They want your slop. Your leftovers. That's what they want. They want that slop bucket. And so when you give it, oh, I'm not going to feed you today, but here's this beautiful string of pearls. And he says, you just wasted them pearls. And the Gospel of Jesus Christ, folks, is not something that is to be cheap or wasted. It is precious. For it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us eternal life. And so the whole goal is to repent. The whole goal is to put it out there. But it's not your responsibility to see that everyone is saved. Do you understand that? It's your job to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are all sinners. And Jesus Christ died for our sins. But it's not your responsibility that they accept it or reject it. God is going to sort that out. And I don't know who has accepted it and who hasn't. Every one of you here today, guess what? I have to take you at your word that you're a profession of faith. When you join and we baptize you or we take you for membership, we do it based on your profession. I don't know what you've done in your heart. And so it's easy. Well, they haven't attended church in five weeks. I guess they're not saved. No, you know what? I don't know what's going on in their life. And so typically, if you miss one or two weeks, you know what? Usually the preacher calls. What's been going on? Have you got some sin in your life? Or have you been sick? Or have you been on vacation? What's been going on, right? Because why? I need to discern how to pray for you, how to help you, how to see you through this moment. Or, what? We need to see how to repent and get things right. And so that's our goal is reconciliation. Jesus came for reconciliation. He said, I didn't come to condemn. But guess what? That same Jesus that said, I didn't come to condemn, is one day going to sit on the throne. And guess what? He is going to be the one that condemns. And that's what He gets in in this next little section. He said, there are going to be many of me that are going to say to Me, Jesus Christ, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not cast out devils? Did we not do mighty works? And He's going to say, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. And He says He's going to take that lost individual that has now been condemned to hell. And He's going to take hell and He is going to throw it into the lake of fire. And He says, that is the second death. There's never an opportunity for repentance after that. And so you and I don't know what God's doing in someone's life. And so it's not our responsibility to judge. It's our responsibility to share the Gospel. To discriminate. I don't need to be around the sinner. I don't need to be involved with the sinner. They are to rise up to the standard of God. I am not to lower the standard of the Gospel to reach anybody. God's conviction and Holy Spirit deals with that. And so let's leave what's God's guides and let's do what we're supposed to do with sharing the Gospel. As we stand and have a verse of invitation.