SF 1638 Matthew 7

***** SERMON MANUSCRIPT*****

Melburn H. Hardin, D.Min.                Kerrville, Texas

TITLE:    How to Judge One Another

SCRIPTURE:   Matthew 7:1-6

TOPIC: 

SERIES TITLE:   The Sermon on the Mount   

INDEX NUMBER:   SF 1638

DATE PREPARED:   2008/12/29

DATE PREACHED:   2009/01/04

PLACE PREACHED:  Kerrville Sunrise Baptist Church

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Introduction

1.  Back in those days before electric refrigeration, it was common practice in rural communities here in the Hill Country to borrow and then repay quarters and halves of beef. No family could make profitable use an entire beef, freshly butchered. Typically, when one family would butcher a beef, they would loan perhaps 3 of the 4 quarters to  three different neighbors. Each neighbor would then repay the quarter borrowed when he, in turn would butcher his beef.

1. About the time I was being born, my maternal grandfather worked as a butcher in a country store operated by my paternal grandfather, up at the little village of Hunt.

1. One day, a certain “Mrs. Walch” came to my grandfather’s meat market and asked a favor. (Now Mrs. Walch was married to a wealthy doctor; the Walch’s had recently moved  to Hunt. They had purchased the land that is now “Camp La Junta.” Mrs. Walch had been reared in the Deep South and talked sorta funny.)

1. She said to my grandfather, “Mr. Hunt, may I borrow a ‘quatah’ of beef until we butcher our fine steer?” My grandfather had purchased and butchered a rather large steer that very morning. He was glad to accommodate Mrs. Walch. He loaded a large hindquarter into her fancy automobile.

1. A couple of weeks or so later, Mrs. Walch returned to pay back the beef she had borrowed. She asked my grandfather to accompany her out to her car to get the quarter of beef. When my Pa Hunt saw the quarter she had brought, he was surprised. He was not sure whether it had come off of a steer or a jackrabbit; it was so tiny. He said, “Now, Mrs. Walch, this is not near like the large hindquarter that I loaned to you.” She said, “But Mr. Hunt, a ‘quatah’ is a ‘quatah’!

1. That saying, “a quatah is a quatah” has been in my family now for over 70 years. We use it whenever one of us feels like he is being treated unfairly, getting the short end of the stick, or in some other way taken advantage of.

1. Jesus our Lord taught us about being fair with one another—not only in the way we treat one another with our actions, but also in the way we judge one another.  We are to use the same standard in judging each other that we want to be used on ourselves.

I.                   WE ARE TO JUDGE OTHERS AS WE WANT OTHERS TO JUDGE US

1. (7:1)  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

1)      What, do you suppose, Jesus meant by this? Perhaps we should first consider what he did not mean.

2)      He did not mean that as Christians we are never to form opinions of the morality or spirituality of other persons. By the way, this verse, Matthew 7:1, is one of the most-often quoted verses of the New Testament. It is so often quoted by those who feel their morality is being challenged in some way.

3)      But Jesus our Lord commanded us to apply judgment to others. For instance, we are to judge the credentials of the prophet or the teacher, before we follow his guidance. We find this in this same chapter, beginning with verses 15-16. 15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

4)      Also, Jesus did not mean that we are to turn blind eyes to the faults and sins of others. In verse 20 of this chapter, Jesus told us that we would recognize true believers by seeing the fruit of their lives. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

5)      Can you imagine someone being on trial for murder, and one of the jury members stands up in the middle of the trial and says, “I’m sorry, but I have no right to judge this person, even though it looks like he is guilty. Who am I to judge his motives? Perhaps God made him a murderer. We should just set him and all other prisoners free, because none of us are  in a position to judge others.”

6)      Well, after this person was removed from the courtroom by big guys wearing white coats, the trial could continue!

7)      Part of our job in society is to judge between good and evil. And to abdicate that responsibility is to invite anarchy and ruin. We must make judgments, and we are to make them using the right measure. Here in God’s Word we have the measure, the standards! God has given us his standards of righteousness and unrighteousness.

8)      And, my Christian brother or sister, think about forgiveness. Forgiveness—which is such an important issue in our spiritual lives—forgiveness of others would be virtually impossible if we did not recognize that those persons had committed sins—and were in need of restoration and forgiveness. 

II.                WE MUST BE DISCERNING OF THE LIVES OF OTHERS

1. Look at verse 6:  6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. Probably verse 6 should be understood thus: “Do not give sermons to dogs or pearl necklaces to pigs.” We must be discerning of others.

1. We should be  discerning, judging the ability and readiness of others to receive what spiritual ministry we have to offer. I remember as a very young pastor, I spent a great part of one night dealing with a stranger who came to the parsonage door. He was somewhat inebriated; I was not sure just to what degree. He claimed that he was not saved; he had never given his heart to Christ—and did not desire to do so.

1)      However, he insisted that God had called him to be a preacher of the Bible. He wanted me to help him get started. We talked on and on. Finally, when I became convinced that he did not want to be saved, I realized that I was wasting his time and he was taking my sleep.

2)      My witnessing to him was like trying to tie a pearl necklace on a pig! I asked him to leave. Which he did, reluctantly and somewhat angrily.

1. By telling us not to judge, Jesus did not mean that we are to condone sin, i.e., be soft on sin. Jesus himself was radical in his confrontation and condemnation of sin.

1. What Jesus  did mean, I believe, was that you and I should not have a judgmental, censorious spirit toward others. Jesus stated this in the present tense, implying a life-habit. We are not to go around looking for something to condemn in others. We are not to practice fault-finding and nit-picking in others’ lives.

III.             WE ARE NOT TO DEMAND MORE OF OTHERS THAN WE DEMAND OF OURSELVES

1. Indeed, we are to demand no more of others that we demand of ourselves! (7:2) 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

1. A Kathy Plate of Orland, Florida, told about visiting a neighbor. While she was there  five year old Andrew pulled out his kindergarten class picture and immediately began describing each classmate. “This is Robert; he hits everybody. This is Stephen; he never listens to the teacher. This is Mark; he chases us and is very noisy.” Pointing to his own picture, Andrew commented, “And this is me; I’m just sitting here minding my own business.”

1. Actor Steve Martin—who is a much better comedian than a theologian—quipped: “Never judge a man unless you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. Then you’ll be a mile away and you’ll have his shoes.”

1. And here our Lord has given us a wonderful, portable reference tool for judging others. (Better than the ones little Andy and Steve Martin used!) We can carry this tool around with us wherever we go and with whomever we meet. It tells us how to judge others: essentially, it says “use your own self under judgment as a guide in judging others.” (7:3-5) 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

1)      Jesus here warned us that we will be measured by the same way we measure others. This reference came “right off the farm.” It had to do with buying and selling a bucket or a basket filled with grain. One must use the same measuring container (the same standard) in buying grain and in selling it—else someone will be cheated! Do you housewives remember that for many years, sugar was sold in standard-sized 5 lb. paper bags?

2)      Then, do you remember how a few years grocery stores started selling sugar in 4 lb. paper bags instead of 5 lb. paper bags? Do you remember how deceitful that was?   It was a rip-off! That 4lb. bag looked and felt like much like that 5 lb. bag—and the price was just as much—but the sugar was 20% less! They deliberately distorted the standard of measure!

3)      Jesus warned us that we had better use the same standard on others as we do on ourselves. Jesus used humor here, to get his point across. This reminds me of Jesus talking (in another place) about the Pharisees’ “gagging at a gnat and swallowing a camel.”

4)      When Jesus used “the speck of sawdust” and “the wooden plank” as illustrations, he did not necessarily mean that one person had more sin in his life than the other. You and I may not have more sin in our lives than the other person we would judge.

5)      But we know more about the sin in our own personal lives than we know about the sin in the life of another person. Often we attempt to hide our own sins by holding up the sins of others and criticizing them. If we really serious about doing something about evil, our Lord suggests that we  look first at the place where we  have personal knowledge that it exists—i.e., within our own beings!

6)      We should not be unconcerned and uncarrying about the “speck” in our brother’s eye. We should want to help him with his sinful problem. But judging, criticizing, condemning—these are usually not the best ways to go about it. We can better teach him by living a good example before him—rather than by criticism. And when we succeed in overcoming particular sins in our lives—succeed in getting those big planks out of our eyes—then we will have more understanding and capability to held our fellow travelers with their sin problems.