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Sermon on the Mount, Fifteenth Sermon
The Twentieth Sunday After Trinity
October 13, 2002
 
TEXT: NKJ Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 6 "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
 
 
TEXT: 1 "Judge not, that you be not judged.
 
In the Old Testament we see references to judgment—and Jesus has begun most of His topics in this sermon with a direct or indirect reference to the Old Testament
 
Let’s look at some Old Testament writings—beginning with God speaking to Abraham—before Israel was brought to Egypt
 
NKJ Genesis 15:13 Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. 14 "And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
 
The key thought I want you to retain from this verse is that God Himself will judge the nation that enslaved Israel
 
Israel is the nation of God’s people—believers—and Egypt is the nation of unbelievers
 
Now we proceed to Moses in the wilderness—having just left Egypt—leading God’s people—and judging the quarrels the people had amongst themselves
 
NKJ Exodus 18:13 And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. …19 "Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. 20 "And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 21 "Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. … 24 So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
 
This was the beginning of Church discipline—God’s people submitted themselves to God for discipline—through the audience of God’s representatives
 
They submitted themselves to the authority of God’s Word—now as the nation of Israel grew—so did the process of judgment—we return to God’s Word
 
We god to the book where Moses repeats the Law of God to the people—the book called the second giving of the Law—Deuteronomy
 
NKJ Deuteronomy 17:8 " If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses. 9 "And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. 10 "You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the LORD chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. 11 "According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. 12 "Now the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. 13 "And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.
 
With the foundation of the Old Testament established—let’s go to the writings of Paul in the New Testament for an application of what Jesus is teaching us
 
NKJ 1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner -- not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."
 
Paul’s reference to outside and inside is to be understood as outside or inside the Church on earth
 
We Christians have an obligation to judge within our ranks—just as God taught in the Old Testament references we just read
 
Those outside the Church—unbelievers—will be judged by God
 
If someone sins from within the Church—we Christians have a responsibility to follow the example of Moses
 
Teach them the error of their way—encourage them to stop sinning—and finally put away an evil person—we Lutherans call that excommunication
 
In the Old Testament times—we might have been instructed to stone such a person to death
 
Today we ask them to leave the congregation—we cut them off from the Word—which accomplishes the same end as the Old Testament stoning—eternal death for the offender
 
NKJ Matthew 18:15 " Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 "But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' 17 "And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
 
Again we must remind ourselves that Jesus is preaching this sermon to the 12—and to the great multitudes that made their way to the top of that mountain—and amongst those observers were the Pharisees and the scribes
 
Those Pharisees and scribes considered themselves to be the judges of God’s people
 
They considered themselves—and themselves alone to be righteous—and all others to fall short of understanding God’s intentions—and to require their judgment
 
Hence—by not being righteous—as Jesus demonstrated to them in chapters 5 and 6—and by judging the masses of the Hebrews
 
The Pharisees and the scribes were to be judged by God as outsiders—just as the Old Testament and Paul—a Hebrew’s Hebrew—taught
 
TEXT: 2 "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
 
The Church has a responsibility to keep itself pure in doctrine—those that are amongst us must always be learning or teaching that doctrine
 
If someone teaches contrary to that doctrine—or refuses to subject themselves to that doctrine—it is our responsibility to correct them—or eventually separate them from the Church—as we’ve learned earlier
 
We do this for the good of the Body—we do not pass judgment because we don’t like a person who is a member of the Church
 
Jesus here encourages His disciples—and us—not to judge people as individuals—and to be considerate of what we measure others against—because we will be judged and measured accordingly
 
Let’s look at an illustration to help us understand
 
TEXT: 3 "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?
 
Why do you look at the speck in another man’s eye and ignore the plank in your own eye?--what a ridiculous picture this presents—but Jesus is making His point—with a plank sticking out of your eye—you could not see the splinter in another man’s eye
 
The Pharisee—who thinks he walks in righteousness—is like the man with a plank sticking in his eye—with a plank sticking out of your eye—it should be obvious—how could you not know?
 
Yet this man with the plank—looks at others in minute detail to see the smallest fault—like a speck in his eye
 
Jesus—of course—is speaking of moral perception—slightly wrong in one man—and being judged by a man devoid of moral understanding
 
The Pharisee who thought he walked in perfection—criticizing the man who slightly strays from the path of righteousness
 
Jesus’ point is—how can the Pharisee who does not properly understand or apply God’s Word—assist the man who strays without knowing?
 
Now the picture of the man with a plank sticking out of his eye—who is going to remove the speck or splinter from the other man’s eye—becomes a very good illustration
 
            The man with the plank is more apt to poke out the eyes of the splintered man
 
TEXT: 5 "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
 
How did the plank get into the Pharisee’s eye in the first place—it was placed there to illustrate that they did not properly understand God’s Word—nor how to live by it—nor how to use it to teach others
 
Jesus’ illustration is to assist them with proper understanding—therefore—Jesus isn’t telling them to live perfect lives before they try to instruct others—He is telling them to re-read God’s Word—understand it—and use the Word to correct a straying brother
 
And that’s the lesson to the disciples—and to us—correct and teach with the truth of the Word
 
TEXT:  6 "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
 
Keeping in mind that Jesus is teaching His disciples the things they need to know before they are sent out to preach—this verse makes perfect sense—but we need to understand its spiritual meaning
 
Dogs and swine were considered the most unclean of all the animals—dogs were scavengers roaming the cities and camps eating trash—and No Jew was allowed to own a pig
 
Jesus is teaching that when the Gospel is preached—some vile and despicable people will prefer to stay in their dirty and trashy world—instead of being in this world—they want to remain of this world
 
The holy thing and pearls—are a reference to the Gospel message
 
Paul understood what Jesus was talking about—let’s look at some of the application examples he gave us
 
NKJ Acts 13:45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
 
This example tells us two things—first it shows Paul turning from the Jews to the Gentiles—and second—since Paul is approaching the Gentiles with the message of the Gospel—we know that Jesus was not saying in verse 6 that the Gospel could not be preached to the Gentiles (the Jews call the Gentiles dogs)
 
Paul again turned from the Jews in Acts chapter 18
 
NKJ Acts 18:6 But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, "Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
 
The way I like to think of this verse is this—there is such a thing as persistence when approaching someone with the Gospel—but if we continue investing effort into that person—we are ignoring others we could be trying to help
 
Satan could be using these resistant ones to distract us from those that might respond to the Gospel message
 
Notice the lesson Paul taught us by example—when they turn from the truth of the Word—leave them and go on
 
Don’t waste your time trying to through the pearls of the Gospel message down the throat of a pig
 
I am confident that you now better understand what Jesus is teaching us in this lesson—ALL GLORY BE TO GOD