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Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Judging Like Jesus

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March 23, 2025
Matthew 7:1-6
Josh Bremerman
Pastor for Discipleship

Wisdom & Discernment

Pride & Humility

Forgiveness

Transcript

0:19Let's pray. Yes, Jesus, you are worthy. Lord Jesus worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing forever. So I pray that you would give us breath in our lungs this morning to praise you. Pray that you would give us minds that are attentive to your word. Pray that you would give us hearts that are humble to what you would have for us. And pray that we would have our hearts cry. Be that you alone are what we desire and who we worship. In your name we pray, amen. Good morning everyone. I'm Josh Breman. I am the pastor for discipleship here at the North Church and I am excited and eager to dig into this passage with you this morning.

1:13I'm excited to see what the Lord has for us and to see how verse six relates to verses one to five. I think we all understand the basic principle behind the passage this morning, but when we look at ourselves, we realize that we tend as humans to have a sharper eye for the deficiencies we see in others, the sins we see in others than for our own weaknesses or sins. We often overlook or ignore our own issues while hyper-focusing on the flaws of others, especially the people that are closest to us. Every culture has proverbs that describe this sort of behavior. In Arabic, we have the, the camel can't see its own hump or in uh, Chinese the thief, yells, thief, the loudest or in English, the pot calling the kettle black.

2:06And so you're most likely familiar with the principles of this passage and you've probably been convicted by this passage or you've been helped by this passage or you've applied some aspect of it to your own life. You might have even seen this passage used against you in certain circumstances. Don't judge me or you better deal with that log problem before you deal with my spec. Which prompts questions like, does Jesus mean this? In every circumstance? Do not judge, is there ever a right time to judge? You might even read this passage this morning and think to yourself, I don't want to judge anybody else and I certainly don't want anybody to judge me.

2:47Why don't we all just leave each other alone, mind our own business and work on ourselves. However you've seen this passage used in the past or whatever feelings pop in your head as you heard it red this morning. I just want to present to you what I hope for us to see this morning In Matthew seven, one through six, we see that Jesus calls us to live more and more into God honoring discernment. Jesus wants us to judge when we should and in the way that we should. And so I hope for us to see in our text that the hypocrite is the one who judges harshly without honest self-reflection. But we as Christians should judge with right judgment and humility and we should do so as Christ followers not allowing this beautiful teaching to get twisted into something.

3:41It's not. We're not to allow it to be used against us, to stop us from calling good, good and evil. Evil. And so to put it as simply as possible, Matthew seven, one through six calls us to judge others how we should want to be judged, judge others, how we should want to be judged with fairness and mercy in humility and as brothers and sisters in Christ. And so I need help from the Lord to present that truth clearly and compellingly from this text. And I think we all need help from the Lord to think rightly about this passage, to feel rightly and to live rightly in view of what we see. So I'm gonna pray again and I'd ask you to pray with me in your hearts.

4:24Lord God, help me to preach this text faithfully. Help me to preach it with clarity and would you help us? Oh God, to see Jesus clearly. We don't want to just see specks, we want to see Christ. And so he is the one in whom mercy triumphs over judgment for our sins. And so I pray, Lord God, that you would by your spirit at work in us help us to walk out the fruit of kindness, the fruit of goodness in our own judging and evaluating of what is right and wrong or wise and unwise. And so would you do that for our good and ultimately for the purpose of bringing glory to your name. And it's in Jesus' name that I pray that. Amen.

5:08So let's start again at verses one and two. Judge, not that you be not judged for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged and with the measure you measure you, you use, it will be measured to you. So first I think some definitions are an order. When we hear this word, judge Jesus is not just talking about the final judgment type of judging, condemnation or absolution is one aspect of judging. Judging the way Jesus is using it is talking about the action of making judgments. Discerning. What he's talking about is making assessments of value. What is good and evil, what is right and wrong?

5:53What is wise and unwise? And we do this every single day. We judge every single day. And so the question that we should ask next is are we not supposed to do that? Are we not supposed to make value assessments? Are we not supposed to think right and wrong judgments at all? And this is absolutely what our world would have us think. There's so many examples when a famous music artist was arrested for driving while intoxicated, another musician came along and uh said to a newspaper Judge, not lest you be judged in 2022, there was a Tennessee nurse and professing Christian who wrote that she as a Christian should not judge others and therefore she has no right to tell a woman whether or not abortion is right or wrong.

6:43And the next time you think of telling someone, who are you the pope, you should think about that. The Pope of all people said when asked about homosexuality and the Catholic church, that if a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has goodwill, well who am I to judge them? You're the pope. The world would have us think that we have no right to tell others what is right or wrong. Everyone must live by their own standards. And so let's look at the verse again. Is this what Jesus is saying? There's a command judge not, and there's a reason given for that command that you be not judged. And that reason actually helps us better understand the command in the first place.

7:27Jesus is not talking about the action of judging itself. In other words, he's not saying that we should never judge under any set of circumstances. Rather he's talking about the type of judging. They should be nervous that they are going to get judged the way that they judged. Jesus's problem is the standard of judgment being used when making judgments. It's a little like this. A dad might at times tell his kids don't run across the street. That's right. But that is under a certain set of circumstances. The cars are coming, the light is green. When the light turns red and the cars stop, go ahead cross the street.

8:13Jesus's problem is not the judgment itself. It's a specific standard of judgment in these circumstances. In fact, in John seven, seven, uh, 24, Jesus says, do not judge by appearances but judge with right judgment. Jesus's concern in this passage is that they are not using right judgment. He wants as we're going to see in verse six for us to call the dogs, dogs and the pigs. Pigs we're gonna see in verse five that he wants us to see clearly to take the speck out of our brother's eye. His concern is not that we are making judgements, driving while intoxicated, sinful and reckless abortion, wickedness and murder, homosexuality, evil and vile, transgenderism nonsensical and rebellion against God.

9:04He wants us to see the specs, lazy parenting or financial mismanagement or coldness toward a spouse. And he wants us to help one another see those things. But the problem here in Matthew seven is the standard of judgment. His listeners should not want to be judged as verse two says, for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. The problem is the judgment that they are using. The problem is the measure that they are measuring. The problem is showing mercy to ourselves and harshness to everyone else. The principles in these first two verses is this, we should judge with a fair and merciful standard applied to all judge others how you should wanna be judged, starting with fairness and mercy.

10:03And this, this isn't contrary to one Corinthians five where Paul says, do not judge the outsider in that context. He's talking about church discipline. He's talking about the fact that this church in Corinth can no longer affirm the profession of faith of the man who is unrepentant sinning. That's his problem there. He's saying, Paul is saying, we don't excommunicate the people that are already outside. He wouldn't have a problem with Jesus saying, we judge right and wrong with fairness. And to be clear, fairness does not mean equality, that everyone gets the same thing. It means to be impartial and without favoritism.

10:44And for our purposes it's especially favoritism toward ourselves. We all sit before one law giver and judge. We are all judged according to his standard found in the scriptures. Fairness means to look at everyone including ourselves as guilty before God's perfect standard. But oh, what a savior. We have brothers and sisters. We can remember that aside from God's great mercy sending his own son to die for sinners so that we could have forgiveness and new life in Jesus by faith aside from that mercy, we would be dead in our trespasses and sins judged under condemnation and we would be incapable of proper discernment in everything else in life.

11:37We must live by Christ's standard alone. And this unearths two problems with us as humans. First problem, we create our own standards of judgment. Second problem, we expect other people to live by our standards of judgment. And that's a problem because our preferences should not get the final say on right and wrong, good and evil. We all live according to Christ's standard and we must stand on solid footing when we're going to make judgments about right and wrong in order to be fair. It's by his standard, not our own. And sometimes that's easy as we saw with some of those examples I brought up earlier of immorality.

12:22But other times life is lived in the realm of wise and unwise, which makes value judgments a lot more difficult. We should still make value judgements and seek to grow in discernment, but that's where the mercy comes in. The fact that we do not like or prefer something does not necessarily mean it is wrong and worthy of condemnation. Let's start with a funny example. I married into a family that when doing laundry, pours detergent into the cap and then throws the entire cap into the washing machine. That's wrong, at least according to my way of doing things. But in order for me to take that speck out of Bailey's eye, I need to know that I'm standing on real and solid footing.

13:16Not every preference is an occasion for judging. In fact, at times we are called to die to our own preferences for the sake of love, for the sake of patience and for the sake of building one another up. Now it gets even harder when there are times when discerning gospel principles from the scriptures we have a strong and well-formed opinion on an issue of discernment. You might think of family discipleship and child discipline or entertainment choices or uh, forms of political engagement or how much money is too much money or what to wear or not to wear to church or the right food or exercise regimen, whether to participate and in what ways in secular holidays.

14:05And yet when it comes to these things where we seek to grow in discernment, where we have gospel principles from the scriptures, we can still judge with a fair and merciful judgment. We can say for example, that it is right to raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians six, four. And at the same time the exact form and pattern is wisdom judge not Jesus says, if your judgment is unfair and your measure is harshness, we seek to recognize that right and wrong is a different equation than wise and unwise. And we still seek to patiently and mercifully help brothers and sisters live into Christ honoring discernment.

14:54But if our judgment is unfair and our measure is harshness, Jesus is warning us here. We should judge others as Jesus judges with fairness and mercy. So how can we apply this principle to our lives? Put simply, we should know the standard of right and wrong, good and evil from the scriptures and we should seek to grow together in discerning wisdom from foolishness. We should grow in discernment over time and judge with fairness, remembering to show mercy and patience along the way. And this moves us into verses three through five. These verses reveal a third problem in us. Not only do we often create our own standards of judgment and then we hold others to our standards of judgment, but we don't even live by those standards ourselves.

15:50Listen to Jesus in verse three. 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? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye. When there is a log in your own eye, you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Jesus's principle here is this, when we judge others, we judge in humility, judge others how you should want to be judged with fairness and mercy in humility. Jesus wants these listeners and us today to judge with right judgment and that means to start with ourselves.

16:41The word hypocrite in the first century referred to actors in a play. It's this person donning a mask to play this role. That's a hypocrite. There's a comic from the 1960s on Spider-Man and in the comic there's a villain who dresses up as Spider-Man in his exact same costume. And there's this scene that comes up and the two spidermans are looking at each other in the street and they're pointing at each other. You're the fake. No, you're the fake. And this picture's kind of taken a life of its own on the internet. And it's used when there's like a comical, hypocritical similarity between two people that are calling each other out on something.

17:22And intuitively I think we all understand this reality when we see it happening. We might call a hypocrite. Someone who lives by the mantra do as I say, not as I do. It's easy to see this in others. It's the doctor who tells this patient, go clean up your diet and then they run into each other at McDonald's after the appointment. It's the celebrity lecturing all of us about our climate footprint while flying a private jet, hundreds of thousands of miles every single year. It's the politician who rigidly enforces lockdowns and restrictions while attending birthday parties for his own friends. I remember watching a lot of the Tour de France when I was younger.

18:03That's a cycling competition for those who don't know. Uh, my dad loved cycling. He's a big cycling fan. We would watch this every year. I grew up and I started asking why I'm I'm sorry dad. Uh, and and these cyclists are going after these green and yellow jerseys. They're sprinting as fast as they can. They're climbing the mountains. And the best ever was Lance Armstrong wrong. Lance Armstrong hated in his words cheaters. He would talk about how many dopers were in the sport using performance enhancing drugs to enhance their own cycling ability. He would even call out people by name as cheating.

18:45And then years later it comes out that he is the one who cheated. We know hypocrites when we see them In the Scarlet Letter, the Reverend Arthur Dimsdale is preaching rigid morality, but he's committing adultery with one of the very women that he's condemning. But where I think this hurts the most is when we are the hypocrites husbands and wives. Have you ever accused your spouse of not giving you enough credit only to realize that you haven't affirmed anything in them For weeks? Parents, have we ever yelled out of anger and impatience for our kids to stop fighting with each other?

19:28Employees? Have you ever complained about punctuality for meetings or emails or deadlines, but you found the excuse of traffic or a busy season in life as convenient explanation for your own tardiness? Teenagers? Have you ever been asked by your parents to use your own gas money to go to the store and get eggs that they're paying for and you feel frustrated and we know who's getting the better end of that deal? Kids, have you ever snatched a toy from your brother or sister because you think they should share? But when they ask you when they can play with your toy, you say, Mm, A thousand minutes hypocrisy is all over the place, especially in our hearts and Jesus's picture of the log and the SPECT is meant to teach us that we have to start looking for it by looking at ourselves in the mirror.

20:27The fact of the matter is that there are actually times when the other person in the relationship might have the bigger problem, the log so to speak. But why does Jesus give the one who is making judgements the log in his picture? It's because he knows we are prone to lack self-awareness. We are a people prone toward an off standard excuses for me, but not for you. I was tired or hungry or stressed or provoked. You acted out of intentional malice.

21:03I made a mistake, an honest mistake. You wanted to hurt me. We often have 2020 vision for the deficiencies in those close to us, but we are legally blind to our own issues. And Jesus does not want this to paralyze us from judging others. But he wants us to know that when we judge, we should judge with a fair standard remembering mercy and doing judgment in humility. We're seeking to do good to our brothers and sisters. So we should always discern right and wrong. We should grow in discernment of wisdom and foolishness and we should always be seeking to follow up by building our brother or sister up in love.

21:44And we can't do that hypocritically. So we have to start with humility. Jesus says first, take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. I like to think of it this way. How can we rightly go on a spec hunt the next time you discern something right and wrong or wise and unwise in your spouse or in your children or in a coworker or in a friend? I would encourage you to maybe remember this paraphrase from a popular children's book. We're going on a spec hunt. We're going to catch a big one. It's a beautiful day. We're not scared. Oh no, a log, a big blinding log, can't go over it can't go under it.

22:37Oh no, we've gotta go through it. We've gotta deal with the log before we can get the spec out. Judge others, how you should want to be judged, starting with fairness and mercy and walking in humility. And here's one pathway that I think we can follow to do just that. It's five things. It's hard to remember. I'm not expecting you to. We'll walk through them, pray, look, ask, take responsibility and then overlook or hold accountable, pray, look and ask, take responsibility and then overlook or hold accountable. Basically we're starting with humility before God and then we're seeking to move into humility before others, before taking action.

23:32So pray, help me God, to see my sin or foolishness in this situation. We can pray the words of Psalm 1 39, 23 and 24. Search me oh God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there'd be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. If we see something in a spouse or a friend, we can start there. Oh God, what is my role in this?

23:59So we pray and then we look, where do I see my own sin or foolishness in this situation? Hebrews four 12 says, the word of God is living an active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. As we reflect on God's standard, where do we see our own lack, especially in our heart, disposition towards this other person. We pray, we look, and then we ask either the person directly involved with us or the others who know us well, where do you see my sin or foolishness in this situation?

24:42God reveal it to me. Look for it myself. Ask others. Follow the wisdom of Proverbs 19 verse 20. Listen to advice and accept instruction that you may gain wisdom in the future. We pray, look, ask, and then take responsibility. I I really appreciate this quote from Ken Sandy's book, resolving Everyday Conflict. Even if you are only responsible for 2% of a conflict, you are 100% responsible for that 2%. To not take ownership of my 2% would be hypocritical and often I'm closer to 40 or 50 or 70.

25:21We need to apologize with genuine repentance and then work toward reconciliation. And then finally we can overlook or hold accountable. There's a glory in look in overlooking or covering an offense. Proverbs 1911 says, good sense makes one slow to anger and it is his glory to overlook an offense, especially when it's related to one of those wisdom issues that take takes discernment and looking at gospel principles and building on those foundations. But this issue, it's not necessarily against God's standard completely. We should not overlook out of cowardice to confront. We should not overlook out of an attempt to fake a peace between us and another, but we can overlook out of mercy and patience as we judge with fairness and mercy and humility.

26:17Times come where the spiritual good of the other is not served by another confrontation, but instead by patient discipleship, reason and prayer, it's for their good that we overlook. But at other times we should hold one another accountable. When we discern an issue of sin, an issue of right versus wrong, we should follow Galatians six verse one. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. So when we discern, when we're making value judgements and we see immaturity or a lack of fit of wisdom, we should work hard to convince the other person of the right path and we should do so with fairness and mercy, walking in, humility ourselves for the good of that other person.

27:10And that's Matthew seven, one through five's connection to verse six. Look with me at verse six, 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. Some interpreters have called this verse the most confusing verse in the Sermon on the mount. And so I think it's helpful that we start with some definitions. First, we can see that Jesus is making a proverbial statement. If we were to read this and then read the book of Proverbs, we'd say, that sounds awfully similar. There's something similar going on there. And that's because the holy things are lining up with the pearls and the dogs are lining up with the pigs for Jesus to make one point the holy things line up with the pearls, the dogs line up with the pigs and then the final line works its way out from the middle because pigs trample and dogs attack.

28:09And so what are the holy things and the pearls in Matthew seven verse six, I think it's helpful to actually start with proverbs. Proverbs three verse 15 describes wisdom as more precious than jewels. And Job 28 18 says, the price of wisdom is above pearls. So it seems that Jesus is referring to his teachings both here in seven, one through five and in the rest of the sermon on the Mount as pearls of wisdom and the dogs and pigs. If we were to go to passages like Philippians three, two, or the woman begging for bread in Matthew 1521 through 28, we would see that the dogs and pigs are the outsiders, the ones who are not in the faith.

28:54And so here's this principle of wisdom. Do not give dogs what is holy. Do not throw your pearls before pigs. Jesus is saying, I am in charge of the teachings. Don't let the outsiders have them. Jesus is in charge of his teachings and so don't let the outsiders twist them. He's providing a counterpoint to everything that we saw in verses seven, one through five. He's providing a counter ballast to how an outsider might use these teachings in the first five verses. They might like the pigs make a mockery of the teachings, trampling them underfoot or they might like the dogs use these teachings against you to attack you.

29:42You can't judge. No one has the right to judge. And Jesus is saying, no, I am in charge. You follow my teaching. They can't have the teachings. And so here's how we can apply this final verse of our passage to today. Judge others how you should want to be judged with fairness and mercy in humility. And don't let the outsiders define what is fair, merciful, or humble. They don't get to determine the rules of the game Jesus does. They don't get to define or apply his teachings. Jesus does. So we should come under his standard and then stand on it. Notice that in verses three through five, Jesus applies this standard of judgment to the brother relationship three times he's doing so to say that this is my standard of judgment for how you relate to one another.

30:39And he knows that moving out of this circle comes with danger. Enemies of the faith will mock or trample the teachings. And so we approach outsiders with a similar angle of discernment. We don't lose fairness because it's not our standard, it's his. We don't lose mercy because we sit under a merciful judge. And in humility we know our own propensity to sin. But when we are told that Christ's standard is unloving or unfair or lacks care and concern for others, when we're told to stay silent to mind our own business, we say that we're under his standard, not yours. And we choose to follow verses like Proverbs 26, 4 and five.

31:25Answer, not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself, answer a fool according to his folly, less TB wise in his own eyes. We don't stoop to that standard of engagement. We don't become like the fool ourselves with ad hominem or name callings or or just uh, pointing out everything we can find. But we also answer foolishness with what it deserves. Sound rebuttal, followed by at times even mockery and a refusal to engage. We don't need to continue offering the teachings to a fool when he will only trample the teaching or attack us with it. That's where we call for repentance. What Matthew seven, six is teaching us is that we don't lose proper discernment and judgment in the name of meekness or charity.

32:14Jesus gives us this counterweight to the first teaching so that he can clearly say, when you see boys playing in girls sports, when you see babies massacred in abortion facilities, when you see God's creation design for men and women twisted and misused, don't be afraid to call evil evil. That's not what I mean by don't. Judge Jesus is in charge of these teachings. And so we don't let the outsiders twist them against him. Which brings us back to the proper balance of verses one through six. We should not judge unfairly or harshly, but we should judge with fairness and mercy. We judge as judges who have been forgiven, we all stand before the great law giver and judge.

33:03And when the mirror of the scriptures is held up in front of us and we see that I am a hypocrite, Romans two verse one is really helpful. Therefore you have no excuse. Oh man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you the judge, practice the very same things. Oftentimes I find that the thing that bothers me most about my spouse or kids or roommates or siblings or friends is the very thing that I fall into most often.

33:40And so if we judge unfairly, if we judge with harshness, if we judge hypocritically, we need to remember our own standing before the one law giver and judge Jesus tells this parable in Matthew 18, it's about a servant. The servant owes this master an insurmountable debt. And yet the master forgives him. And tragically, after the master swallows the debt of his account, he goes to a second servant. And that second servant owes him a comparatively minuscule small amount. And the first servant refuses to forgive the debt and has him cast into prison. So the master comes back to the first servant in anger.

34:26He says this, you wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you. Oh, what a warning this is James two 13 says, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment. That's the savior that we have. That's the savior that we sing to each and every Sunday on the cross. God is absolutely just impartial and fair. Jesus became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God, the righteous one in the place of the unrighteous. And yet at that moment, God pours out lavish mercy on undeserving sinners.

35:18So when we judge, we boast in nothing but the forgiveness of Jesus For When we judge, we hold onto the merit of righteousness that he provides us. It's not my standard, it's not my perfection in this issue. It's Christ's standard. And I wanna help you brother or sister. And when we look at the outsider and we judge evil and call evil, evil and good, good, we remember that there is repentance and hope for those who are on the outside. They can come to faith. We don't cast them out. That's not our job. We plead live according to Christ's standard by his grace at work in you turn and be healed. Judgment begins with the house of old of God and then it moves outward.

36:08And so we judge with his judgment according to his standard, to the praise of His glory alone. And we judge others how we should want to be treated, starting with fairness and mercy, walking into humility and doing so for the good of our neighbors and the glory of God. And ultimately that will be for our great joy. And so let's pray. Look, God, thank you for judging us with absolute fairness and thank you for your lavish mercy on sinners. Thank you for sending your son to die on the cross to secure both of these things, justice and mercy. Would you help us now as we leave this place by your spirit at work in us to discern right from wrong, to grow in discerning wise and and foolish?

37:03And would you help us to walk confidently and humbly into conversations with one another about growing in these things? I pray that you would do that for our good to be made more like Christ, to the praise of His glory we pray. Amen.

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Matthew 7:1-6

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