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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] good morning church today's scripture reading is taken from the book of matthew chapter 7 verse 1 to 6 judging others do not judge or you too will be judged for in the same way you judge others you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you 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 how can you say to your brother let me take the spec out of your eye and when all the time there is a plaque in your
00:00:49 own eye you hypocrite first take the plaque out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye 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 turn and tear you to pieces this is the word of god praise be to god we thank you god for your word good morning fbc joash i'm youth pastor let me just start by saying uh a few weeks ago we did family sunday this the youths led songs and uh the the feedback that i received
00:01:33 was so positive and uh they were saying oh i haven't seen this person in so long look how much they've grown make me miss church even more all these positive things that they it just gives me an overwhelming sense of love i feel like the church really loves our young people and from the bottom of my heart thank you now let's dive right into this sermon in 2017 there was a banner study in the u.s they interviewed those people who are 16 to 29 years old and they ask them one simple question what do you
00:02:12 think about christians can you guess what is the top word used to describe christians judgmental that's 87 second second word uh 85 percent of them say that christians are hypocritical now you might be thinking right it's talking about the christians in us you know we see the news we already know nothing to say right obviously they are judgmental and obviously they are hypocritical and we know right our our relatives and our friends in malaysia we we know they say that christians are judgmental but you know why they say it
00:02:57 right they say because uh all of them met the uncle the uncle from church who's very judgmental oh they they met that that that teenage girl you know who is so hypocritical you know her lifestyle so if if only they met me right then then they would know that christians are awesome and great and nice and kind and gentle and loving it's always about somebody else can i encourage you right now stop thinking that this sermon is about someone else let's let's take this uh next few moments right to really
00:03:38 examine ourselves let's ask the holy spirit to search our hearts are we judgmental are we hypocritical have have i taken the place of god and judge others have i been careless with my words have i made false accusations against others am i in danger of condemnation of judgment from god do i need to change let's let's make this time uh uh we surrender it to god and we just allow the holy spirit to to speak to us and to reveal the truth in us amen let's pray holy spirit search our hearts reveal to us
00:04:30 any way that is wicked and offensive to you and lead us to the way everlasting in jesus name i ask and pray amen the outline of the sermon the definition the danger the root the remedy and the right way to judge let's go the definition of judging judge not that you be not judge what is why exactly is jesus forbidding here because the word judge right got a few options i'll give you i give you a last question i want to go for lunch i mean ss17 should i go ss 15 when there's a lot of traffic a lot of cars or should i go to
00:05:16 uh ss 18 or ss14 when lesser cars you know is it a school holiday uh is school on you know i i think through all these options and i make a judgement call okay and so i decide ss15 you know what there's a restaurant there with a healthier option so i'm gonna go there ss15 but as i drive i realize there's no parking space because it's ss15 right lunch hour and uh the the time is taking the lunch hours only one hour so i have to come back already so i have to make a judgment call already right do i double park or not
00:05:56 right and that's where we go to the next definition of judgment is this right or wrong is this ethical or unethical i'm making a moral discernment here okay so i think okay you know what let me double pump okay but you know i'm going to be nice i'm not going to go inside eat it i'm just going to order tapao and get out okay so you you make your order and just before you pay you hear the horn blaring and you know it's you what's the first thought that comes to your head do you say so impatient this person
00:06:40 this is your grandfather's road may cannot wait a while only your time is important etc etc and that's where we go into another form of judgment which is moral condemnation so let's run through again the three definitions right number one is you're making a judgment call once or the one like or dislike option a or option b neutral options number two you enter the ethical realm you're making a moral discernment right or wrong ethical or not and third one is moral condemnation is this person righteous is he
00:07:22 hypocritical is he patient or is he rude what exactly is jesus forbidding us to do is jesus telling us not to make any moral judgments not to discern right from wrong obviously not the sermon of the mount contains right so many moral quotes that jesus taught us to live by the way we treat one another even our enemies the way we practice righteousness in public and in private even the way we feel about the uncertainties about the future these moral judgments are not only limited to our own lives but
00:08:03 of one another in the same chapter mark 7 15-16 beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but imali are ravenous wolves you will recognize them by their fruits jesus is telling us you have to see people's outward behavior what they manifest their fruits and then you can know whether they are false prophet or not uh this one we we learn from massive muslim men right matthew 18 15 the words of jesus if your brother sinned against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone if he listens to you
00:08:41 you have gained your brother when we talk to one another when we deal with one another in our religion sometimes our brothers sins against us we sin against our brother and we have to go and tell them we have to make a moral judgment and say what you did was sin what you did was wrong and so what is jesus forbidding he is not forbidding moral discernment but he is warning against moral condemnation is where we move from telling someone what they did wrong to assuming why they did it let me show you these two verses that
00:09:21 have been most helpful for me in thinking through this we read the two verses first then we talk about it first corinthians 4 5 therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart and each one will receive his con commendation from god next one do not speak evil against one another brothers the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law
00:09:56 but if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law but a judge there is only one lawgiver and judge he who is able to save and to destroy but who are you to judge your neighbor again remember we're talking about moral condemnation what is moral condemnation what is judging the apostle tells us that when we assume someone's motives or intentions we assume their posture and their attitude we move from moral discernment to moral judgment why because only god knows the purposes of the heart is hidden
00:10:37 only god knows so don't pronounce judgment before that before the lord comes okay and so when we make a judgment about the person's intention we also make a judgment on that person's integrity their character and even when even even if it's based on someone's action over a long period of time right even though you have the have the knowledge of looking at this person for a long period of time you are making an assumption that is slander that is false accusation you are speaking evil against one another you know why because
00:11:16 you don't no we don't know other people's hearts but but you know we always assume we always assume we got special knowledge right to that person right we we do it to a lot of the we do it to the people on the news right when we see news conferences when we when we see the news headline talking about this person and that person we we immediately know oh this person did it must be because of dot dot dot fill in the blank uh we do it to people who are closest to us also our family members our our
00:11:56 church members because we think we know them for a long time we think we can see through them right so let me give a few examples are you so few people surf so people so few people volunteer to help out every week also got an announcement about uh the church needs volunteers these people who don't suffer they must be nominal christians you make a moral condemnation on the other side you are you're at home and you see so the the people working so hard to make the video that sunday school people serving too much
00:12:39 right and you and you say this ah these people you know why they serve too much they got they got messianic complex now they got this superhero syndrome they think that they need to save the world that's why they do so much maybe in your family among your spouse my spouse you say you always you say you never don't stop statements uh father-son relationship maybe maybe as a child you feel like your father doesn't give you enough time doesn't spend time with you okay you're making that uh you're seeing something obvious you're
00:13:22 saying a behavior he doesn't spend time with me but then you go and judge his intention you say he hates me or maybe you see your son playing a lot of video games right every time you open the door he's playing video game instead of studying he's not studying enough as much as you want right you you call him lazy based on his behavior but then you go and judge his intention you say he doesn't appreciate our sacrifice such knowledge about the human heart is only available to god and so when we judge right we are taking the place of
00:14:02 god in fact very often now when we when we judge others right we assume that we are standing on the side of the judge we are standing along with jesus to make judgment on the defendants the the other side and while we are able to see externally we can see the external behavior only right we assume right we have a special insight to the internal workings of a person instead of judging what they did we judge them for who they are so actually we're supposed to we're supposed to be here we're all defendants before god right
00:14:37 but when we judge someone right we are we are assuming that we're standing alongside jesus and saying yeah jesus i know right i know this person shouldn't do i know he must be no no no subconsciously right we are we are displaying our superiority complex we are looking down on them and it's very subtle one right we we don't know we're doing it to others because we all have this uh good godly noble reason right for speaking the truth in love to confront people but when we are on the receiving end right
00:15:14 we can detect it immediately you know how it feels you feel devalued you feel condemned you feel rejected you feel treated less than you feel judged james tells us that there is only one judge we must know our place which is along with all the other sinners james 5 9 do not grumble against one another brothers so that you may not be judged behold the judge is standing at the door which leads us to second one the danger of judging judge not that you be not judged for with the judgment you pronounce you
00:16:00 will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you when we condemn others we will be condemned the question is who will condemn us for the judgment we make publicly our fellow humans will condemn us you already know right when politicians stand at the press conference and they make all these sops about social distancing and what are the dues and what you cannot do during the lockdown and then and then you see these people violate the same rules they impose on other people i'm talking about america
00:16:49 in fact you know there's a there's a website in america i won't i won't tell you because i don't want us to be judging them but there is a website in america that tracks you know all these politicians what they say about what we shouldn't do and they go and uh do exactly that and you we will see right they'll be a lot uproar on social media people will condemn them but you know most of our judgments are done in secret right we we there are some of us who are more more daring more brazen and confrontational
00:17:26 but most of us are we like to do our judging behind people's back we either gossip with like-minded people uh with our friends behind the screen on social media or in our heads right maybe in our car when you're driving your road rage or someone you score he don't know the condensation you gave him and so he cannot condemn you back so who will judge us for all these judgments we make in secret the answer is jesus jesus himself john 5 22 jesus says the father judges no one but has given all judgment
00:18:11 to the son in second timothy 4 verse 1 paul refers to jesus right as the the judge of the living and the dead jesus the righteous judge the one who will judge us on judgment day on the last day right he is telling us now in the sermon on the mount he is telling us how he is going to judge us he says whatever standards you use against others i will use it against you matthew 12 also the words of jesus i tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak for by your words you
00:18:50 will be justified and by your words you will be condemned so imagine all of us uh anyway this illustration from team keller i heard uh imagine all of us have a tape recorder and just just here right invisible one okay but every time we say you know what i think we should he ought to you know in this situation i would never compare to if i was there i wouldn't and every time you make those statements right the tape recorder records you know and when and at the last day our own words our own recording
00:19:30 will judge us because as we judge others we see that we also fail to meet those standards and so we are doomed for condemnation we all judge others and because we do that all of us will be condemned thankfully jesus doesn't leave us hanging in fear of judgment he shows us why we judge and then he shows us how we can change so this is the route of judging you know what let's take a water break everybody cheers why do you see the spike that is in your brother's eyes but do not notice the log that is in your own eye
00:20:33 or how can you say to your brother let me take the spec out of your eye when there is the law in your own eye why do we judge others what leads to judging that brings about condemnation the lock in your own eye imagine someone with a lock sticking out a big lock sticking out of his eye right and he isn't aware imagine that imagine him walking along the street he he will have trouble gauging distance our people will be doing all sorts of somersault just to avoid him he will be knocking into things he will
00:21:16 get hurt but he won't realize why he got hurt because he doesn't realize the lord in his eye he will bump into things that ow why did it hurt you know and when he hurt others right he'll be surprised why hey how did i offend you jesus said we all have a lock in our eye meaning that each one of us we have our own underlying issues our relationship with our parents our upbringing our past experience our herds and wounds they all accumulate right to make up our likes and dislikes our proneness towards sin what we are sensitive about
00:21:57 what is our pet peeve what can what we can tolerate what will trigger us our insecurities what we notice in a person what we prioritize in a relationship etc and all that accumulates to become the long in our eye and all it takes is that one trigger that one moment instantaneous subconsciously unknowingly repro reproject all of that upon someone else whether it's stranger or whether it's loved one jesus illustration is teaching us a few things about ourselves number one we have blind spots we are very unaware
00:22:41 of our faults and failures in fact what i'm preparing this well i was preparing this sermon right i when i want to make examples uh i keep thinking about examples of other people you know i cannot i cannot it's very hard for me to think of oh how do i judge other people because we have our blind spots don't judge me maybe you're better than me okay don't judge me so have you ever tried to settle a dispute between two kids there's a play date going on the adults are in the kitchen the kids are in the
00:23:18 living room suddenly crying you go and say then the one kid said he beat me then the other kid said what he bit me first who beat who first if you're the kid right you strongly believe that he beat you first you know the other guy is the one that instigated it you you were the victim and therefore you fight back okay you truly believe you know in your heart why because we have blind spots we can never settle the dispute we don't know unless we see tv we will never know who hit who when you argue with your spouse right
00:23:57 you say don't raise your voice you raise your voice first did i did you we all have blind spots the log in our eye causes us to have impaired vision our our mess right causes us to not see others clearly we have skewed perspectives we have our buyers we have our prejudice which which leads to wrong judgment about others you know we we see there's so much wrong in other people and we see that we need to work very hard to fix their problems you know but without realizing that we have this giant log in
00:24:35 our eye we you know and so we keep trying to fix other problems other people's problems it's a vicious cycle it never ends because there's a problem here wrong judgment leads to poor application the wrong diagnosis leads to wrong treatment because we have blind spots because our we have poor vision we diagnose wrongly and we treat wrongly instead of someone uh instead of helping someone remove the speck the tiny little thing in their eye right we end up causing more trouble than before i choose this picture because
00:25:16 it's funny because uh it's a fake picture okay yes you try to tell the city that you love them by burning their buildings this is just a fake picture okay but it's a powerful illustration wrong application wrong diagnosis leads to wrong application it's like it's like going to it's like going to a eye doctor for surgery to remove the log in your eye and then when the doctor comes right you see there's a tree going out from his eye you wouldn't want to go to that doctor right that's us doctors we lock in our eyes trying to
00:26:04 treat other people trying to save other people through our judgment so what can we do we have this log in our eye that is causing us to condem other people and as a result right eventually it will come back to bite us and we will be condemned accordingly and so we say i don't hurt others you know what i don't know her others and you know i certainly don't want to be condemned so you know what i'm just not gonna say anything i'm i'm gonna mind my own business i'm just gonna keep my mouth shut but is that what jesus wants
00:26:40 doesn't he also still wants us to make moral judgments jesus jesus here right he still wants us to take the speck out of our brother's eye galatians 6 1 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 true be tempted that's what friends do that's what church members do we help one another with our weaknesses the question is how do we do it without condemning one another how do we stay on the lane of moral judgment
00:27:22 without without uh moral discernment without going to moral condemnation so that's we go to the remedy of judging verse five 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 so here are three a's for you number one a emit my hypocrisy jesus addresses those who are judgmental and calls them hypocrite you hypocrite the first thing to do is to have enough awareness to say jesus is talking to me i am that hypocrite step one
00:28:07 step two assume that my mess is bigger than others jesus tells us that that when we see a speck in our brother's eyes we first assume that we have a giant log in our eye we have a much bigger problem than they do and when you know that you have a bigger problem than they do then you can go to the third one which is to ask for help first one admit my hypocrisy assume my math is bigger than others and three ask for help now this is the exciting part where do i go for help with the log in my eye where do i go to avoid condemnation from
00:28:54 all the judging that i have committed in the past all the past times that i have secretly condemned my fellow brother where i secretly condemned the people on the news where do i go to escape that condemnation that is coming for me go ask help from dr jesus you see jesus is not only a righteous judge he is not only a rabbi teaching a sermon he is a skilled physician he has the position right precision to not only remove the log but to make us brand new he has a way of dealing with all our mess the sin and the effects of
00:29:48 sin in our lives without destroying us i'll give you two examples uh luke 9 zacchaeus zacchaeus was a chief tanks collector the bible says he is known as a notorious sinner what happened to him one house visit from jesus he is freed from greed he proclaims that he will give half of his wealth away to the poor and anyone that he swindled he will return them for full one house visit from jesus is free from green john 4 the woman at the well a samaritan woman who goes to the well to draw water under the noonday sun why because she
00:30:38 wants to avoid the crowd she lived a promiscuous life everybody in town she's avoiding most likely they are they they judge judge her their prejudice their eyes they give her the sting eye whenever she comes so she stopped going to the well in the evening or in the early morning she goes noonday one conversation with jesus and she runs into town to tell everyone about him the woman who is filled with guilt and shame and wanting to avoid crowds rushes to the town square to talk about who jesus is
00:31:25 one conversation from jesus she is free of her shame what did jesus do jesus offered them kindness both of them zacchaeus samaritan woman both of them suffered prejudice rejection from their own people before any interaction people already hate them or they they would have been judged they'll be the spines rejected jesus displayed kindness jesus extended grace to them jesus spoke and and and dealt with them in a way that no one expected him to now what did jesus do for hypocritical judgmental sinners like us
00:32:19 he offered us kindness fully displayed on the cross let me show you isaiah 53 which describes what jesus went through on the cross verse 3 says he was despised and rejected by men men of sorrow and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hid their faces he was despised and we esteem him not why did jesus suffer on the cross he suffered what all of us suffer when we are judged he was despised he was rejected he was not regarded as valuable he grieved he had to hit his face verse 8 9 by oppression and judgment he was taken
00:33:08 away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living stricken for the transgression of my people and he made his grave with a wicked and with a rich man in his death although he had no he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth there was no deceit in his mouth jesus never said anything wrong about anybody he did not live as a hypocrite yet he suffered judgment convicted as a guilty criminal despite despite his innocence condemned to death on the cross
00:33:49 why because he was suffering on our behalf he was stricken for the transgression of his people that condemnation that we deserve he willingly took on himself when we when we judge someone right we put ourselves in the place of the judge and we we we condemn we put down we shame we reject we despise fellow men but jesus jesus the one who is rightfully here as the judge the righteous judge right instead of offering condemnation that we deserve he comes and he takes our place instead of condemnation he offers
00:34:38 kindness instead of instead of beating us down jesus lifts us up he comes to our outside of the room he receives the condemnation on our behalf and praise be to god jesus did not remain in the grave he rose again he proving that all our condemnation has been dealt with completely if you say that you are a christian this is what jesus did for you instead of condemnation he offers kindness instead of putting us down he lifted us up if jesus did not condemn me if jesus took my condemnation upon himself how could i
00:35:29 condemn anyone else and of course the visit to dr jesus dr christ is not a one-off matter the major surgery is done but then there are follow-up sessions towards full recovery in times of prayer we ask the holy spirit to help us remember the kindness of jesus our savior and help us lay down our hammer of condemnation our hammer of judgment we confess our sins in prayer we ask for forgiveness and we try again we we sit under discipleship to learn how to observe all of jesus teaching we gather with fellow brothers and sisters
00:36:25 who also have received that kindness and we remember it together i'm standing in the the church hall now and i remember when we had communion together and what what are we doing in communion in communion right we are we are taking the elements and we are telling everybody all of us are making a proclamation together that we are hypocrites i have a lock in my eye i have i have sinned i have things that are done towards me my my upbringing or whatever experiences i've been through that caused me to have a giant log in my eye
00:37:11 the sin and the effects of sin in my life are great and i and i come before christ and i say i have nothing i have nothing i i need forgiveness i need healing i i i i'm already condemned i need kindness from a savior and we're telling one another right and when we take the communion we rejoice because we're saying that christ has forgiven us no longer condemnation but grace love kindness mercy and we we say to one another we are we are undeserving recipients of great grace that's what we do in communion
00:37:58 we pray we gather together we sit under teaching we we eat the lord's sample together what we're doing we're remembering the kindness of our savior and if we live that life consistently we become a community that can really help one another with the speck in our eyes this is last verse verse 6 do not give dogs what is holy do not throw your pearls before pigs unless they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you so this is the right way of judging now that there are there are few uh translations interpretations of this
00:38:52 text uh this is what i think it means uh anyway a lot of people were thinking like oh jesus said don't judge don't judge then now he's calling people dogs it's like he's taking a hard turn um i don't think so i think in context it just simply means this uh if you want a good outcome you have to know your audience you have to offer gifts that are palatable according to what the person can receive if if you if you give the dogs one as holy they cannot appreciate it if you if you give pearls to pigs they cannot
00:39:28 appreciate it okay there is a different way to correct a child there is a different way to address a teenager another for someone who is older than you and and it very much depends on your relationship with that person it very much depends on their maturity level the more the more sensitive the issue the more trust is needed between the two the relationship has to be strong enough to withstand the weight of the matter and so here's a simple checklist to help us the next time we need to remove the spec
00:40:03 from our brother's eye don't assume you know everything don't look down on them and make sure they know they love you um remember we listened to massimo sermon about uh about church discipline the first step uh before we head towards the first step is if your brother sins against you right go and confront them right go and go and win them over so when you go do that remember remember this three number one don't assume you know everything remember the log in your eye remember the log in your eye is limiting
00:40:44 your vision possibly distorting it your your vision don't assume you know everything remember you're not the judge you don't see you cannot see their intentions you cannot see the purposes of the heart only god can so don't assume those things don't look down on them jesus tells us to assume that our problems are much bigger than others we have a log we have a log they have a spec so our posture we come in humility we come in weakness not snobby but in humility number three make sure they know that
00:41:24 you love them there should be sufficient trust and bond between you and your brother before you make that move even in the way you speak to them the way you handle the situation should be seasoned with love and gentleness make sure they know you love them and maybe you're totally not the right person to address that issue maybe you need someone else to do it summary the definition of judging what is jesus forbidding is forbidding moral condemnation the danger of judging is that when we judge others
00:42:05 we will be judged the same measure the same standard we we cast upon other people it will be it will come back to bite us why why do we judge one another we have this lock in our eye we have all these pent up all our baggages all our sin all our experiences all our wounds our victories all causing us to have a certain worldview certain perspective certain way of thinking and so there's a there's a big log in our eye that's causing us to see the world in a skewed way and we need to seek help from a great physician
00:42:44 that's the remedy to judging it's only after we deal with the lord in our eye when we go to talk to jesus to receive kindness from him then we can offer kindness to one another and that is the right way to judge conclusion have you suffered judgment have you been called a notorious sinner do people look on you with scorn they they give you haas harsh words you are good for nothing you're useless you're wicked you're evil you're shameful you're a horrible person you're a hypocrite have you suffered
00:43:35 judgment have you met judgmental people in church go to jesus receive the kindness that he extends to you remember the samaritan woman one conversation she's freed from shame you know she's she was even freed from her anger and bitterness you know you know the people that condemn her and judge her and despise her and shame her that caused her to have to go to to draw water under the hot sun she she ran into town right after talking in general she ran into tower and she didn't withhold any information
00:44:14 from anyone no she didn't pick and choose who she talked to you know because the savior of the world has come you know and this good thing uh going to withhold from people that i don't like people who hurt me people wounded me before no she she offered kindness to everyone even to those who were judgmental towards her no vengeance no judgment pure kindness how did that happen she was with jesus go to go to jesus and experience that transformation for yourself have you been judgmental towards others
00:44:56 have you have you ever assumed people's intention think that you got special knowledge towards people's inward workings and their heart condition why they do certain things they do do you say things like i would never do it if i were in that position if it was me never have you been judgmental towards others go to jesus receive the kindness that he offers to you the cross offers forgiveness the removal of all condemnation that judgmental hypocrites like you and me deserve fellow christian let me ask you when was
00:45:36 the last time you went to jesus and talked to him about that log in your eye the baggage you carry all the pain and sorrow you experience all the wounds and all the hurts that has happened to you when was the last time you went to talk dr jesus and pour your heart out all all this pain all this suffering that you have been through that is causing you to to be easily angered to be triggered here and triggered there bring it all before jesus he is kind he is mighty to save and he is mighty to heal
