Speak, Pray, Act

Call to Worship: Psalm 147:7-9 // Prayer

Adoration: Blessed are you, Almighty Father, maker of heaven and earth; blessed are you Eternal Son, begotten of the Father before all ages—God of God, Light of Light, True God of True God—eternally begotten, who for us and for our salvation humbled yourself and took on flesh for our salvation—of Your Kingdom there will be no end! Blessed are you Spirit of God, Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from Father and Son—Father, Son and Spirit, Triune God, we adore your beauty and give you glory—for Your name’s sake you have saved us, and you are our eternal fountain of joy...

Confession: Yet we have so quickly walked away from you to drink from the tainted and poisonous fountains of sin: our pride has blinded us to your glory, and our selfishness has plugged our ears to your love, so that we have sinned against you and against each other. Father, forgive us.

Thanksgiving: But we see that the fount of your forgiving and cleansing life, through your Son’s death in our place, ever flows for all who have turned from sin to you. We are your sons and your daughters, and you have not let us go, but you have kept us, and you delight even in our confession of sin! For such divine love, we praise you!

Supp: And we ask you, Father, teach us to fulfill the mission your Son gave us: give us courage and passion to proclaim your unrivaled glory and your redeeming love to those who do not know you, that your name be glorified among the nations! // and we ask this not only for us, but also for the saints of Hope Fellowship of Hillsboro: may their hearts overflow with the joy of their salvation until each one cannot help but tell his neighbor what you have done to rescue sinners // and even beyond our own community, we ask this same thing for the saints in China—may their hearts be filled with courage to proclaim the gospel over and against a government that is trying to shut them down // now, as we go through our lives, you know our daily needs, and will care for us—but we wish to bring before you our brother Ken, who has lost his living situation and does not know where he will be living long term: we beg you to provide for him; to comfort his heart with your faithfulness; if you can bring him up here… but in any case, a godly congregation; and you know also, the many sorrows that we carry, the many health challenges we face, the many difficulties we shoulder—please help us, for we are weak, and teach us in all things to give you glory and take joy in your love // And now…

Family Matters

Next adult SS class series: discipling others!

Benediction

2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 ESV

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Sermon

Read: Matthew 7:1-12

Intro

So, we’ve got this great vault of spiritual gold from the Sermon on the Mount. All these beautiful teachings for our lives. But how do we put them into practice? It’s like a beautiful change of cloths… how do we actually put them on?

Really, this is like anything else. You can imagine a 15 year old boy. He gets that drivers manual, and dutifully reads it. He wants to drive so bad. He learns about various road signs, rules for lane changes, how to parallel park… but then he actually climbs into the driver’s seat, and actually pulls onto the road, and it’s another experience altogether, right? So he has all that knowledge in his head, but his dad is sitting next to him mostly just saying, “stay calm”—right? Because if this new driver looses his cool, none of that information from the driver’s manual will do him any good.

Likewise, we can grasp what Jesus has taught us so far—about anger, lust, prayer, humility, honesty—but there are certain things which can derail us as we try to put this kingdom life into practice. Last Sunday, we learned about how anxiety over earthly needs can derail us. This Sunday, Jesus will give us three more: we can derail our attempts to live for him by (1) speaking in pride, (2) neglecting prayer, and (3) failing to act with genuine love.

Or, to state it positively: we have all this wonderful teaching from Jesus. How can we actually put it into practice? By speaking with humility, praying in faith, and acting in love.

Speak with Humility

So, speaking with humility. That’s what Jesus deals with in vss. 1-6.

You know, the interesting thing is that Jesus starts out here assuming that we need to speak to one another—not only to encourage one another in faith, but to help each other fight sin. He assumes that we have a duty to one another, to lovingly point out sin in a brother’s life or a sister’s life, with the goal of seeing that person grow and flourish in Christ. That’s a necessary part of living out the Sermon on the Mount. And you can see that in vs. 5: the goal in these six verses is not to become silent in the face of someone else’s sin, but actually to become effective at speaking into a fellow believer’s sin problem: to become effective at taking the speck out of your brother’s eye.

But what is the most famous line from this section? It’s the first two words: “Judge not!” Right? It’s lifted out of context, and the idea is, “Doesn’t the Bible say that you shouldn’t judge people? Doesn’t that basically mean that you should never call someone else’s behavior sinful?”

Is that what Jesus teaches us here? Is that what those two words mean in context? If I can’t judge a brother’s actions to be sinful, how am I ever supposed to help him with that speck of sin in his eye? What are we supposed to do?

Let’s see what the passage actually teaches us:

[Do Not Speak]

If you just read vs. 1 and 2, here’s what you get:

Matthew 7:1–2 ESV

“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.

What does this mean?

Well first, Jesus is prohibiting something. There is some way of thinking and speaking which must be avoided at all costs. And he calls it, “Judging”

And notice how strongly he warns us about it—if you do this thing, if you “judge” someone else, it will come right back on your own head. If you cut someone else down with this way of measuring, the measuring stick will come right back and cut you down.

So yes, the command “Judge Not!” may be abused by some. They may use it to say that no one can ever name the wickedness in their lives.

But we dare not react against them by minimizing this command.

What did your heart do when you heard this? Did you start thinking primarily of how others have broken it against you? Or did your heart start defending ways that, maybe, you’ve broken this?

Brothers and sisters, we need to sit under this command, and let it lead us to repentance.

But to do that rightly, we do first need to get clear on what it means, and what it doesn’t mean. And as is so often the case, what we need is context—what do the next couple of verses say?

Matthew 7:3–4 ESV

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?

So what’s the actual problem here? What does Jesus mean by “judging”? Essentially, seeing someone else’s sin while being blind to your own, or ignoring it.

Calling out your brother’s sin as if he is in the category of sinner, while you are in the category of righteous.

Sometimes it’s not that you are oblivious to your own sin. You might know, technically, that you’ve sinned—and this is something I’ve caught my own heart doing—you know that you’ve sinned, but your sin doesn’t really concern you. But the sin of the other person against you? Oh, it is just about the worst sin ever committed. And when this idea is expressed, it sounds like this: “Yes, so, I did do that to her. But do you have any idea what she did back to me?”

Here’s Jesus’ interpretation of that: “So maybe there’s a bit of a 2x6 plank wedged under my eyelid. But have you seen the speck of sawdust floating in her eye?!?!?”

We all have a tendency to do this. Where does it come from? Pride.

Pride, hiding deep down in our hearts. And we are much more prideful than we think.

And what we do, in our pride, is that we minimize our own sins and maximize the sins of others—especially if those sins were committed against us.

And so it is pride that will prevent us from living out the kingdom life together. How so? To sum up what we’ve seen:

First, pride causes us to approach others with a self-righteous attitude, when we think we see sin in their lives. And our self-righteous attempts to correct their sins will be rejected. Why? Because a self-righteous rebuke is unsafe. It doesn’t come with humility and mercy, and so when someone comes at you like that: “I’m better than you, and you need to fix this.”—what do we do? We go into self-defense mode. We probably respond with our own self-righteous counter-rebuke: “Well actually, I’m pretty sure you’re actually the worse sinner.” And the one thing that doesn’t happen is anyone making any progress against sin.

And second, pride blinds you to your own sin, or causes you to minimize it. And when that happens, both your pride and your sin severely warp your perspective of the other person’s sin. You’ve got a spiritual log in you eye. Don’t even think about trying to address the speck in someone else’s! It can only cause disaster!

You know, maybe you judge your kids like this. You discipline them not in humility, but in pride or anger.

Or maybe it’s your parents that you judge.

Or maybe someone in the congregation that’s offended you.

And this is primarily about believers relating to each other. But it should overflow from that toward eveyone God places in your life. Who are you tempted to judge with pride?

[Repent]

What’s the solution? First, do not speak, if your heart is doing this kind of prideful judgement. “Judge not.”

But second, what does Jesus say? Vs. 5: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye.”

What does that mean? Repent of your pride, and then take a look at the other sin in your life, and repent of that too. Take those things to God, and confess them, and ask his forgiveness.

And actually, if you have never personally repented from sin to Christ, and trusted in him to redeem you, it’s basically the same. Maybe your pride has prevented you from seeing how ugly your sin is. But in comparison to the beauty of God, the purity of God, the perfection of his goodness, your pride and all of your sin are revealed as actually very perverse! But if you catch a glimpse of that, and turn from your pride to Jesus, he is mighty to save and to forgive. As he said:

Matthew 5:3–4 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Those who see the ugliness of their pride and run to God for salvation will be saved

But of course, those of us who have trusted in Christ do still wrestle with pride. And so, we have a need to confess it, to turn from it, and to pursue humility and holiness. Which here, Jesus calls, “Taking the Log out of your eye.”

And practically speaking, that may also mean confessing your sin to those you’ve sinned against. Maybe even to that person who has a speck in his eye that you’ve been wanting to remove.

Harsh words in the past. False apologies. Ways that you’ve ignored the rights or needs or desires of others. Ways that you’ve hurt others through foolish choices.

[Speak]

But then what are you supposed to do? You stopped speaking in order to deal with your pride and your sin. Do you now remain silent?

Absolutely not! What does Jesus say? “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 again, the assumption is that, as brothers and sisters in Christ, this is something that we ARE supposed to do for each other. We ARE supposed to address sin in each other’s lives! That’s part of kingdom living!

Now, someone might object, here. “Is it really that important?” Maybe a few Christians should do this… but I really don’t want to. I really don’t feel like it’s my place.” Or, “I really don’t feel like it is necessary.”

Maybe you feel that way because of misguided humility. In that case, I’d just ask you to consider: according to this passage, what does Jesus expect you to do when you see a piece of spiritual sawdust in your brother’s eye? Love your brother enough to take action.

Maybe you feel that way because others have hurt you by pridefully judging you in the past. You can’t imagine what it looks like to humbly, lovingly confront sin. To you it is all judgmental, and if we start confronting sin in each other’s lives, it will all end just in that same way—the way that you were hurt. Now, that’s a hard place to be. But once again, I’d ask you to consider Jesus’ teachings. Meditate on vs. 5, and ask God to help you conform your heart to it.

But maybe you object to this idea of confronting sin in another’s life because it seems dangerous or tiresome. You’re worried that the person you confront may lash out at you. And in fact, those are legitimate expectations: it may be exhausting, or you may get hurt. But getting tired or hurt for the spiritual good of another—isn’t that exactly what Jesus did for us? So it’s a question of love: do you love your brothers and sisters enough to come alongside? Do you love them enough to care about the damage that sin is going to do in their lives? And ultimately, do you love God enough that it matters to you when a fellow believer drags his name through the mud in unrepentant sin?

But maybe you object to this idea of confronting another believer’s sin because you don’t think there’s that much sin around which needs to be confronted.

Now, I do want to say, the “speck in the brother’s eye” in this passage doesn’t represent just any sin you observe. It represents sin that isn’t being dealt with: either a brother isn’t repenting from a sin he committed or is committing, and needs you to confront him; or maybe he’s repented, but is really struggling to make progress against this sin, and so he needs you to come alongside him.

But I have to say, if you think there isn’t much sin around that needs to be dealt with, it might be because you don’t know your brothers and sisters beyond a superficial level. Now, I’m certainly not saying that everyone needs to know everyone else’s sin. But what I am saying is that as you truly get to know folks, one of the things you get to know are each other’s struggles, including sins. And you see sin in each other’s lives. And sometimes you’ll realize that your sister or brother in Christ is not dealing with a particular sin in a good way, and that you should speak into his or her life—as a matter of love, and to help that fellow believer to flourish.

Of course, as with anything, wisdom is needed. And you can find legitimate exceptions to this, and so on. But I have to say, if this way of dealing with sin is utterly foreign to your experience, and doesn’t make sense to you, you’ve missed the spiritual reality of this life. It is a battle! Each one of us has a daily battle to fight against sin, and we we’re not meant to fight that battle alone. Rather, we’re meant to speak humbly into each other’s lives—and that kind of humble speaking is necessary for us to actually grow together in following Jesus’ teachings.

[Do Not Speak]

So, we must speak humbly into each other’s lives… but, there is one exception to this. Vs. 6:

Matthew 7:6 ESV

“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.

What does this mean?

Here is at least one exception to the pattern we just learned, where you are supposed to go to fellow believers about sin. And the exception is this: if there is someone who will only mock you and hurt you, you aren’t required to go back and try to get that person to listen. In fact, you are advised against it.

How does this apply?

Remember, the primary context here is speech among believers about sin.

So you go to a fellow believer and say, “Brother, I saw the way you’ve been doing this, and it’s not good. And if you need help and prayer with this sin, I’m here for you.” But the brother responds by mocking or lashing out against you. If that happens once or twice, don’t confront the person again.

Or, the sin is a violent sin which has been committed in anger against you, and the person is unrepentant. In that case, you’re not to confront that person alone.

But that doesn’t mean that you necessarily leave the sin alone: if that person is a member of your congregation, as Jesus teaches in Matthew 18, the next thing you do is go to him again, but bringing another believer or two with you. And if he still won’t repent, the process escalates, with a desire to see him change his heart.

But to sum it all up: when we go to speak into the lives of other believers—which we must do for the kingdom’s sake—but when we do this, our pride will totally derail us. The solution, then, is to speak humbly into each other’s lives, as we help one another live for the kingdom.

Pray in Faith

***Now, all of that is a tall order—not an easy pattern to live out. And now we’ve got a double difficulty: to learn to live for Christ ourselves, and to help one another to do it.***

What are we supposed to do with this?

We’re supposed to see our need for help, and pray for it with faith. That’s what Vs. 7-11 are primarily about:

Matthew 7:7–11 ESV

“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!

Now, I want to pause for a moment, because I just said that these verses are about asking God for help in following Jesus and in helping others to follow him.

But that may not be how you are used to thinking about this passage—you may be used to thinking about as instructions for asking God for the earthly things that you desire—a nice house, a good job, a positive prognosis from the doctor, more energy to care for your family… something like that. And it’s not that those things are excluded, but they’re not the focus.

Instead, the focus is on kingdom things—and there’s three reasons to believe this:

First, this isn’t the only thing Jesus has said in this sermon about prayer. Back up one chapter, and he gave an example prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer. And in that prayer, only one short line is about earthly needs—the whole rest of it is given over to God’s glory and our holiness. And we shouldn’t think that in this section, Jesus is changing his priorities.

Second, the whole section leading up to our passage for today was all about focusing on God’s kingdom and righteousness rather than on earthly needs. Following right after that, we should understand these verses to be primarily about seeking the good things of the kingdom—humility, righteousness, and so on.

And third, notice that these particular verses come right after a section about helping your fellow believers to follow Jesus—that’s verse 1-6—and right before a short section on following Jesus yourself—that’s verse 12. So the context of this section is living out the kingdom life—which means that the emphasis here—the things that Jesus is urging you to request from Father, is much less on earthly blessings and more more on kingdom success.

You could phrase it this way: “Ask to grow in righteousness, and it will be given to you; seek purity and you will find it; knock on the door of peacemaking, and it will be opened to you.

And Jesus is very serious here: you are weak. You need this help from God to live out the Christian life. You need to ask. But if you ask, YOU WILL RECEIVE. God does not save you into his kingdom and then leave you floundering: he will provide what you need to live out his kingdom’s righteousness.

And Jesus has already preached wonderful things to us about the Father’s Love: he will cloth you and feed you. He cares about you.

And there’s a spiritual reality behind this: God loves and cares for his whole creation—but there’s a special kind of love that he has for his children. And if you have personally turned from sin to Christ for salvation, you are his child. As Paul wrote:

Romans 8:15 (ESV)

... you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

And so now, Jesus basically says (in vs. 9-11), “You guys even know how to give good things to your children.” You know the pleasure it gives you to see your children happy and flourishing and doing well. When they ask you for bread—do you give them boiled Brussels sprouts? Maybe you do. I don’t know......... But you take care of them. You want them to have joy and health.

Now listen to the punch line in vs. 11:

Matthew 7:11 ESV

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!

What’s the point? Ask!

Ask the Father for courage to share the gospel with that one person

Ask him for help to defeat lust

Ask him for power to forgive

For humility to help another believer with that sin

For patience to love and serve those he’s put in your life (examples)

You need his help! Without it, your attempts to glorify your King will surely be derailed. But Jesus says, if you ask for help, he will surely give it, and you will make real progress in living for Jesus.

Act in Love

***But before Jesus pivots to the closing section of the Sermon on the Mount, he wants to address one more way that we can get derailed while trying to live out his teaching***

[Uncovering our hearts] Listen to vs. 12:

Matthew 7:12 ESV

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Why give us such a general command, after so many specific commands?

There is this risk that we might become so wrapped up in the details of the Sermon on the Mount—or of any Scripture, for that matter—that we forget the point.

You could, for example, get caught up in the details of whether or not Christians can swear oaths, or debates over when divorce is permitted, and you could be extremely scrupulous about following these details—which is a good thing—and yet at the same time you could totally miss the heart of the matter.

But then you run into this: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” Why? Because, Jesus says, this thought sums up everything that Scripture has to say about how to treat others.

In another place, Jesus gives the same basic thought by saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

So you could follow some of Jesus’ commands externally, and yet still totally fail to live out the ethic of his kingdom

How? By doing those things from anything other than a heart of love… staying married to your wife, but failing to treat her with honor and kindness; telling the truth, but only grudgingly, and not out of love for your neighbor; fighting lust, but only because you find the consequences personally unpleasant

Instead of such things, we are to pursue obedience to Jesus with hearts that ask, “How can I do this in such a way as to love and bless others.” We are to act with love

Conclusion

So we have all these wise and wonderful commands from Jesus in this Sermon on the Mount. And we have the mission from Jesus of both following this commands and also helping others to do so. But to pursue this successfully, we must speak with humility, pray in faith, and act in love.