Red Letters #4 - Judging is Dangerous
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Introduction and Review
Introduction and Review
This is the 4th in a series we are calling “Red Letters” - taking a look a the teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In most bibles, the things he spoke are written in red ink - signifying the blood he shed so that we could have life.
But we must remember that it wasn’t only his blood that brings us life. His words, his teachings, bring life also. He said it best:
The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
“The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” - note that the “s” on spirit is not capitalized, signifying that Jesus is speaking of OUR spirits, not the Holy Spirit. His words, when lived by us, when taken into our spirits will always have the effect of bringing us peace, rest, joy, comfort, strength and every other good think you can list or think of. And the greatest of these is LIFE.
Introduction to the Message
Introduction to the Message
So with that said, here are our red letters for the day:
“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
The Lord first gives us a life principle here - if you don’t judge, you won’t be judged. That’s probably the safest approach for all of us - simply DON’T judge!
Most people, when asked, would say that they are not judgmental. That they don’t judge others - especially in the church. But the truth is that we judge others every day - ESPECIALLY in the church.
Why are they on the worship team? They can’t sing, they don’t worship.
Why does the Pastor allow them to serve? They smoke. They drink. They cuss. They don’t have their lives together.
Why don’t they do more in the church? Look, I’m doing all of this, and they are hardly doing anything.
Why does he let him preach every time he’s gone on Sunday? I can do better than he does!
Look at the clothes they wear to church! I wonder why they can’t dress up just a little bit!
Each of those statements involves one person judging another. And can I say this? Its dangerous!
Why? You ask.
Jesus answers that with his admonition - a warning - if you DO judge, its YOU who sets the standard for the judgment that God will apply to you. Sobering isn’t it?
Can we narrow the door?
Can we narrow the door?
Think about this: If I judge that person who smokes as unfit to serve God, how do you think He will judge that little white lie I told to stay out of trouble?
If I judge that that person who doesn’t serve as much as I do as doing wrong, how will I be judged if I don’t do as much as the pastor does?
As I said, its sobering - AND its DANGEROUS!
Exploring the Passage
Exploring the Passage
But is the Lord saying that we can’t judge others at all? Is He saying that when I see that person throw that cigarette butt on the ground and think “Man that was wrong to litter like that”, I am going to hell?
No, that’s not what he’s saying. What he is saying is that when and IF you do judge another, you better be right when you judge. And by that, I don’t mean that your judgment must be the right judgment. What I mean is that you had better be RIGHT when you judge. If I judge that another is wrong because they threw a cigarette butt on the ground, I better be darn sure that I have NEVER, EVER littered in any way in even the smallest measure.
Why? You may ask.
The Dangers of Judging
The Dangers of Judging
When you judge, you are endangering your relationship with God.
When you judge, you are endangering your relationship with God.
Follow with me here for a minute. It was the ability to judge between right and wrong that was gained in the garden. The serpent told them they "would be like God" "knowing good from evil".
“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Ironically, that was true, but God put them out of the garden (and his presence) for the very same reason - "man has become as one of us, knowing good from evil".
The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Lucifer- the devil - was cast down because he thought he would make himself like God - he "exalted" himself. When we judge, we make ourselves like God - we exalt ourselves. We lift ourselves above the one that we are judging.
That's why Jesus said what he said: our standard of judging will determine how we are judged. When we exalt ourselves to the level of God - by judging - we had better be absolutely right in our judging - as he always is.
And remember, each of you who claim the blood of Jesus as your salvation - God doesn’t judge you by what you have done - He judges you by what Jesus has done for you. When you look at that other person and judge their standing with God, or the life that they are living, or their actions and judge them by what they have done, you are applying an entirely different standard than you got the benefit of.
If you don’t judge rightly, you make yourself into a hypocrite.
If you don’t judge rightly, you make yourself into a hypocrite.
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Jesus had a real problem with hypocrites. He called them whitewashed tombs - all shiny and looking good on the outside, but full of dead men’s bones on the inside. Every time we look at someone else and make a judgment of right or wrong regarding their actions, we set ourselves up to be described the same way - to be a hypocrite.
God judges hypocrites harshly.
God judges hypocrites harshly.
Do you really think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment?
When you judge you set a standard to be judged by that is tougher than the one God uses.
When you judge you set a standard to be judged by that is tougher than the one God uses.
This is what Jesus is warning us about in our text. God’s standard is mercy and grace. What’s yours?
How to Stop Judging
How to Stop Judging
Acknowledge your own status
Acknowledge your own status
Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God’s glory.
Before you judge what another is doing or has done, remember - you’re a sinner too. Is your life really totally in the right?
At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
For every one of us, there was a time in our lives when we were outside of the grace of God. We were lost. For some it might have been less time than for others - for me it was several years.
The bottom line is that without Jesus, you would be headed straight for a sinner’s hell. Without God’s mercy and grace, without the blood of Jesus, without his perfect sacrifice for YOUR sins, you would be doomed. So what makes you think that you can judge another?
Which brings me to the next point:
Remember that the other person is entitled to the same grace that you have received.
Remember that the other person is entitled to the same grace that you have received.
Then Peter began to speak: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism,
From the time of Abraham, God had chosen the Jews as HIS people, HIS children. But those same Jews turned their noses up at the Savior and ultimately crucified him. They judged him for eating with sinners, for claiming that he was the son of God, for picking corn on the sabbath and on and on. As a result, God’s judgment on them was very harsh, and He sent those spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles, who received it gladly and were filled with the precious Holy Spirit. When Peter saw this, this is what he said.
If it took God’s grace and mercy to save you, why can’t you show the same grace and mercy to that person? When you didn’t know any better, God didn’t write you off, but still chose to open a door to you. Can’t you do the same for them?
Remember that there are no “levels” of sin
Remember that there are no “levels” of sin
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As far as it relates to our relationship with God, sin is sin. Any sin - no matter how small - separates us from God and breaks our relationship with him. So what does that have to do with you? Simply put, you must always remember that the sin in your life is just as revolting to God as the sin in the other’s life.
It is very humbling to remember that, really, I am no better than they are.
Its much harder to judge upward. Its always easy to judge down. By that I mean when you are humble and realize that you are a sinner just as they are, that you need God’s mercy just as much as they do - when you put yourself lower than them, it becomes very difficult to judge them BEFORE you judge yourself.
When you meet a situation that seems to call for judging - give it to God
When you meet a situation that seems to call for judging - give it to God
There is reserved for me in the future the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved His appearing.
There is only one righteous judge - one who can judge correctly and one who is right enough to be able to judge others - and that is God. When you find yourself in that place where you are judging someone else, remember that. And remember this - what good are you doing by your judging? What wrong are you setting right? What good thing are you accomplishing?
Why not give it to Him and just relax. I assure you that He can fix their problems and their shortcomings far better than you can. And besides that, judgment and criticism never works to fix much of anything. Love, caring, grace and mercy go much farther.
The Joy of Not Judging
The Joy of Not Judging
We’ve looked at the dangers of judging. We’ve talked about how not to judge. But what are the benefits of not judging?
Rest comes when I don’t judge.
Rest comes when I don’t judge.
Remember in John 6:63, Jesus said that his words were spirit and life. When we put aside our judging ways and instead begin to extend the grace and mercy to others that God has extended to us, the first thing that goes is our critical nature. The life that Jesus came to give us is not found in being critical. Its not found in taking on the “task” of trying to make sure everyone else is right.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
And in another place, he said this:
If anyone hears My words and doesn’t keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
There is far more joy, peace and rest in not judging. Jesus himself said take his yoke - it was not to judge, learn of me - he didn’t judge, and you will find rest for your souls.
I don’t know about you today, but I want that rest, that peace that only Jesus can give. And when I leaving judging up to God, I will begin to find it.
