9/22/24 - Relating To Brothers Matthew 7:1-5

Introduction: The Walmartians

There is a people group, maybe unreached

that live right here in Rocky Point, NC and the surrounding area

they actually populate every major area in the United States

They are dressed differently, often act a little different

and they move right here among us

These people are called Walmartians

They inhabit the local Walmarts and shop just like we do

However, they are uniquely different from many of us

I don’t have to show pictures, just google Walmartians

and you’ll see the pictures of people that are just different

I have a lot of respect for these folks

Being able to walk outside of their homes

unaware or at least unswerving about their fashion choices

They are able to shop for their household groceries

without a care about what other people think about them

It’s easy to judge them by their appearances

but we don’t really know their backstories, their life circumstances

or really anything about them.

We simply look in awe and snap photos to put on social media

because they are different from us

and in some ways happier

RECAP

Remember the context of the verse

The crowds were gathered to hear from Jesus

Jesus then shares the expectations of being His followers

The blessings from the beatitudes

Being salt and light to the world

The law of God versus the fulfillment of that law in Jesus

How to handle Anger, Lust, Divorce, oaths, vengeance, and loving our enemies.

How to practice righteous acts like giving, fasting, and praying.

How to handle stress by focusing on heaven instead of gathering things here on earth and focusing on ourselves.

Key Verses

There are key verses within all of these that we should remember in order to answer the questions we have today

Matthew 5:20 (ESV)

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The question behind this is are you perfect?

Sure Jesus was asking the people on the hillside that question

but if we are to be true to the passage this morning,

we have to answer that for our selves as well

are you perfect?

Because if you aren’t, according to this verse, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven

Keep that in mind as we continue walking through the sermon on the mount.

Another key verse is in Matthew 6:1

Matthew 6:1 (ESV)

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

How many of us have ever practiced our righteousness before other people?

What does that look like?

Ever pray in public for other people to hear?

Ever give money so other people can see how much you give?

Ever try to do anything that was righteous so that other people would notice?

That includes giving a “prayer request” that is actually gossip

because the person you are praying about doesn’t want their information shared

or hasn’t given their permission to share that information.

Ever donate money so you can get a t-shirt, or a plaque, or your name written on some door frame? You’ve got your reward

Today we get to talk about judging someone publically

every talk about someone behind their back?

That may be practicing your righteousness before others.

You get the idea

If you’ve done these things, and I believe we all have

scripture is clear we won’t get our reward in heaven

Another key verse is Matthew 6:21

Matthew 6:21 (ESV)

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Wonder why you’re so stressed out?

Maybe it’s because your heart is focused on material stuff rather than God

Here’s what Jesus says about this

Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Perhaps you’ve judged these people in Walmart

or people that come to church that need Jesus

because of how they act or what they wear

because what you are wearing or how you are acting is so much better than what they have

The question is who are you serving?

Are you serving the God of what you can afford?

or the God of everyone that comes as they are?

So here we are beginning Chapter 7.

We’re not perfect, have no rewards, and our hearts are focused on the wrong things

By the way that feeling you may be feeling is Holy Spirit conviction.

Tonight we are going to spend some time talking about conviction

and how important it is to disciple-making and the spiritual growth process

Relationships

Today we begin a new section on relationships.

In this new section all about relationships

Jesus is continuing to share practical ways to be a follower of Jesus

We are going to try to answer the questions in this section on how to have better relationships like

this week: What does it mean to judge someone?

Next week: How do we deal with those that don’t believe like us?

the following week: How do we relate to our Father in Heaven?

This morning is all about being judgy, judgmental

So let’s ask the question what does it mean to judge?

Is it ever OK to judge someone?

What standard and measure are we using to judge?

This couldn’t have come at a better time

We are currently in a social and political civil war

Instead of brother against brother on the issue of slavery

and fighting against each other with guns

We now fight against each other with words and character defamation and trying to ruin credibility.

The battle of Gettysburg was three days long.

In just three days 165 thousand plus troops went to war with each other

and OVER 51,000 troops were killed,

not to mention the thousands of civilian casualties that took place unrecorded.

These men were not fighting a foreign enemy

threatening to turn over the freedoms we hold dear

or protecting the democracy that had been established

The only freedom and democracy being threatened were those that looked differently

the right to own another human being.

And so family against family

brother against brother they took up arms against each other

to kill each other over that right

It would cost the President his life in the end

What are we fighting about today?

What are we as brothers and sisters in Christ fighting over that is so violent

that we would discredit and kill another person’s character

I’m not even talking about political candidates

I’m talking about the political vitriol that exists between family members

because one follows a different presidential candidate or party.

It’s not much different from the civil war to today’s war

thinking that those that have different political beliefs are the enemy

Do I have my opinions about candidates? Yes I do.

But they are my opinions and will not effect the relationships I have with other people.

I am a child of God first and an American citizen somewhere down the line.

I am an ambassador of Christ first. Then I represent my family, my church and then my country.

The last three institutions that may I remind you, God placed in this world to keep the world in order.

As Jesus begins this next section on relationships

He continues to share what it means to be a follower of the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior.

These are His words and commands.

To Judge or not to Judge

Matthew 7:1 (ESV)

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.

This is a command, not a suggestion

That being said, what does it mean to judge?

What does the word judge mean?

Is it ever ok to judge someone?

To Judge: to form an opinion or make a critical assessment of them, often based on a careful weighing of evidence.

When we look at what a judge does today in simple terms

They carefully hear both sides of an argument

they examine the evidence given to them

then they make a determination based on all that

and weigh it against the law to decide guilt or innocence

if guilty the law determines and give allowances for the punishment for the crime

If innocent, well then you are free to go.

Back in biblical days the religious leaders were the judges

These folks had laws and guidance that were outside of the commands of scripture

They did have God’s law,

but remember God’s law was and still is impossible to follow

God’s law is there to prove that we are sinners in need of a Savior

Galatians 3:23–25 (CSB)

23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed.

24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.

25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,

So the people on hillside were still under God’s law

because the faith that was spoken about hadn’t happened yet

The faith is in Jesus Christ, in His death, burial, and resurrection

in the fact that He paid the penalty for our sin

After the resurrection of Jesus

Those that are believers and under the authority of the Master Jesus

We no longer have the law, but we have faith and love

but the principles are still there, more about that in a minute

Matthew 7:2 (CSB)

2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use.

What standard do you judge by?

this will also answer the question about is it ever ok to judge?

First, Jesus does not forbid courts of law

I realize this is kind of a duh moment

but it needs to be said for those that believe Jesus is disallowing courts to take place

God Himself created the institution of Government

and within that institution are courts of law

Romans 13 speaks all about this

For one I’m grateful for those courts

it’s less that the church needs to take responisbility about

it’s hard enough to make sure believers are following Christ

can you imagine having to take care of those that aren’t believers as well?

so now that that is out there, let’s move on

Second, Jesus is also not saying that that believers should never evaluate or criticize anyone for anything

People today hate absolutes, especially when it comes to absolute truth

folks today want to speak about all-inclusive love, compromise, ecumenism, and unity.

I am all for that but there is also a standard that was written for us to follow

A phrase from Rupertus Meldenius, a realtively unknown German Theologian in the early seventeenth century wrote a quote

that Richard Baxter wrote in his book The Reformed Pastor

In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity - Rupertus Meldenius

This quote was written during the thirty year war

The 30 year civil war was a religious conflict between the reformers and the Roman Catholics

The bloodiest and most destructive European war in history

8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease

In other words we have standards that are non negotiable

But there are things that we believe that the church down the road may not

and as long as we can agree on the main things

salvation in Christ alone

the virgin birth

the inerrancy of scripture and others

I’m ok with how they do things other than those

We may not practice those things here because of our own understanding and interpretation

but there’s liberty in those things

but in everything there should be charity, love

So we have standards we are to follow

in a few verses Matthew writes

Matthew 7:15 (CSB)

15 “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

So there’s a judgy thing to do

Matthew 18 shows us how we are to judge other believers

Matthew 18:15–17 (CSB)

15 “If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.

16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.

17 If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.

Also a judgy thing to do

Romans 16:17–18 (CSB)

17 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them,

18 because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.

Also judging

Here’s the bottom line of all this

we are allowed as brothers and sisters in Christ to evaluate people

based on the standard of the Word of God

what standard are we judging people by?

are we judging someone by the soundness of their doctrine?

or are we judging someone based on our own opinion?

To judge someone against our own self-righteous, hasty, unmerciful, prejudiced, and unwarranted standard

is to play God

Because if we are using our own standard to judge someone,

we have just taken His place

The Example

If we judge someone by our own standard

We also assume we are qualified to judge

Jesus addresses this in His own illustration

Matthew 7:3–5 (CSB)

3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?

5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

Let’s break this down a little bit

If you have a beam or in the King James, a log, a long large piece of wood in your eye,

it is impossible to see what’s wrong with someone else.

Remember what Jesus also said previous to this

Matthew 6:22–23 (CSB)

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!

If your eye is blocked by a beam or in the King James a log, you aren’t letting light in either

That means that whatever is wrong with you, blocks the light of Jesus to come in

So now we have just replaced God with ourselves,

have proclaimed we are qualified to judge,

and have placed ourselves over someone else

with the inability to let Jesus come into our lives

all this because we have judged someone on our own standards

Let’s recap

Can we ever be perfect enough to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Remember the key verse from the beginning

Matthew 5:20 (CSB)

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

The righteousness that Jesus gives us as a standard is the righteousness of the pharisees Matthew 5:20

That means in order to enter God’s kingdom we have to be perfect.

I don’t know about you, but I’m disqualified

and then the rewards,

I know that I’ve taken a lot of my rewards already

and then our wicked hearts, which I can’t control

Jeremiah 17:9 (CSB)

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

and now I have made myself God

by making myself judge over someone else

using my own standards to compare someone with

So there is no hope for us to get rewards,

enter into God’s Kingdom,

or to cure our hearts,

and we are playing God

and there’s that conviction to change or repent

and grow through this.

First, Where’s the good news in all this?

The Good News

We will never achieve the righteousness of the pharisees or of God’s Law

but we don’t have to, Jesus did that for us

Matthew 5:17 (CSB)

17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

Our rewards are not accomplished on our own power, but through the works of Jesus in us

John 15:5 (CSB)

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

What about our sinful hearts?

Isaiah 1:18(CSB)

18 “Come, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are crimson red, they will be like wool.

Jesus has defeated sin, death, and the grave for us.

How do we not be judgmental in our motives and attitude?

Replace the standard of our opinion with the standard of God

That means we should be putting more of God’s standard inside of us than anything else

When we begin to use the standard of God to evaluate others

first we realize we aren’t so great ourselves

but secondly, it’s not the lens of our opinion we look at other people by anymore

we begin to have the compassion of Jesus

We’ll talk more about that tonight

Remember that we ourselves are no different than those whom we judge

We are all sinners, all deserving of Hell

as believers and followers of Jesus

God continues to show us mercy and grace

we should do the same with others

Even those that may violate the standards of God’s Word

We should evaluate and analyze not based on their motives, which we will never know

but based on the fruit and facts of their lives

and even in confrontation, it is always with the intention of constructive restoration and resolution

Hope this helps you as it did me

I remember being in Argentina a number of years ago

Here were people that lived in concrete block buildings with tin roofs

the streets were dirt

when it rained the rain cause ruts in the road so deep

they were almost impossible to cross

The kids were playing soccer everywhere you went

They would eat what they could afford

they would all sleep in one room

Can I tell you that what we consider third world poor?

they called home

and they were so happy

a lot more happier than we are with all the embellishments and added luxuries

that we have in the States.

If you want to appreciate and be grateful

go on mission to a place that has less than you

and you’ll be less likely to judge someone on what they are wearing or how they look

and be grateful for what you have

and look on in awe and wonder

to figure out how these folks can be so happy without all the stuff we have

One of the key opponents to being judgy? Gratitude.

gratitude only comes when you intentionally realize what you have

and Who gave it to you.

again, more about that tonight