Jesus spoke candidly about being judge metal. So does Dr. Michael Yusef, as he looks at the words of Jesus on this episode of Leading the Way. Listen, when you criticize or you put down a family member, when you criticize or put down another brother in Christ or sister in Christ and judge their motives, be very careful.
When you assume the role of omniscient judge, you will not be able to plead ignorance when it comes to your sin. World views have made radical shifts in recent years. Society once measured all of life against the word of God.
But now opinions and political positions drive truth, giving freedom to judge metal and divisive spirits and culture. Hello, welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef. In today's message, looking at the words of Matthew chapter seven, Dr. Yusef brings his series, Jesus Has an App for You, to a practical conclusion. He'll be looking at the time that Jesus spoke honestly about judging others. And it's not what you may think.
Listen with us as Dr. Michael Yusef begins. Today's app from Jesus is a very unusual one. It's double edged. It's dual application. It's about an action that most certainly is going to produce reaction. It's about throwing a boomerang and most definitely is going to boomerang back to you. It's about cause and effect. That's why it's very important.
It's a very important app. And there's something about this particular app in Matthew chapter seven, verses one to six. These particular words of Jesus are the most misunderstood and abused and misinterpreted even by people who do not believe the Bible. They know those words and they use or abuse those words. You hear it in the movies. You hear it on television and you certainly hear it at church and then you hear it in many professing Christians.
I want to explain it to you and you'll immediately get the point. Suppose someone living in an immoral lifestyle and because they are created in God's own image, they know deep down in their soul that they're going against the grain, that they're going against God's created order. And so without even us having to say a word, they have that guilt still within them by the virtue of creation. And so when they are confronted, not necessarily with words, just you being there, they immediately misuse these words of Jesus and say, don't judge me. Who are you to judge me? Didn't Jesus say, judge not lest you be judged.
What are they doing? They are obscuring the word of God to cover up their guilt. Instead of dealing with their guilt, they covering it up. They are misusing the word of God as a defense mechanism to alleviate their guilt, which doesn't work.
And that is why I need to explain to you what this app of Jesus is not before I tell you what it is. Today, we have so many people who have rejected God's moral absolutes. We have so many people who have rejected biblical authority. We have so many people who have rejected the truth of God. And an effort to silence anyone who would try to convict them of sin, they say, you must never, never, never, never judge sin of any kind, anywhere, anytime. But that's not what Jesus is saying.
And I'm going to show you why. That's not what he's saying here. That is not what this app is all about. This is misapplying this app.
This is trying to get an app to do something that is not designed by its designer to do. In fact, the entire Sermon on the Mount is a contrast between truth and falsehood, between holiness and hypocrisy, between God's holy standards and man's empty religious activities and rituals, a contrast between internal faith and external rituals and external appearances. It's a contrast between reality and sham, between God's way and man's way.
The whole Sermon on the Mount. In fact, if you go down just a few verses to verse 15, you find Jesus goes on to say, beware of false prophets. Beware of false prophets. In other words, you are to judge and to discern who really speaks the truth of God and who doesn't. We are to discern, we are to judge the truth from falsehood. John Stott said that our Lord's injunction to judge not cannot be understood as a command to suspend our critical faculties in relationship to other people to turn blind eye to their faults. It is of vital importance that you understand this distinction, okay?
Otherwise, you're going to get sucked in with somebody when you're trying to lovingly help them out out of their predicament. They're going to say, don't judge me. Jesus said, judge not by literally misinterpreting the words of Jesus. And so Jesus is not telling us to turn a blind eye on somebody's sin.
No. So what does it mean then? Judge not lest you be judged if he's saying that we are to judge and discern sin. He is saying that we are not to judge the other person's motives. We cannot judge the motive. We can only judge the action. We can only judge the fruit.
As somebody said, we just are fruit inspectors. We are to judge what they do, not what their motive is. We are to judge their action and not motivation. In fact, that is why Jesus in Matthew 18, he tells his disciples exactly how to deal with the sin in another person's life. He gives us the details. A lot of people talk about Matthew 18, but they really do not understand what Matthew 18 is all about. Matthew 18, Jesus is instructing his disciples. He is instructing us how to deal with another person's sin with a brother or sister in Christ's sin. He said, first of all, you go to them one on one and if they refuse to repent, you go and take two or three others with you. And if they refuse to repent, then you take them to the church. And if they refuse to repent, you put them out of the church. That's what Matthew 18 is all about. He gives us the procedure.
He gives us the process by which we are to deal with another person's sin. So much for what this app is not. Now, what is it?
What is this app all about? Now, there are people who have a critical spirit. They just criticize everyone and everybody everywhere all the time. But then there are others who criticize on occasions as a form of self-defense.
It really is. Either way, I want you to listen very carefully. There are several things that you need to know about a critical spirit. People who have a critical spirit often criticize behind the person's back and that's contrary to Matthew 18.
Why? Because in these cases when somebody is constantly criticizing you behind your back, in most cases, and I'm not saying in all cases, but in most cases, because that individual is so insecure in themselves. They think that the only way they can elevate themselves is by pushing down the other person. And they think that's the only way to kind of put themselves up.
They think that the only way they're going to come across as they've got it all together and they are fine and they are just splendid is by tearing down another person. Now, some people do this to their bosses. Some people do that to their colleagues. Some people even do that to their family members. And tragedy of tragedies, some Christians do that to one another. But the problem is most of it backfires. It backfires.
So boomerang comes back at you. Now remember the story about this elderly couple who went to a museum and this elderly man particularly was a very critical person. I mean he criticizes everything and everyone and everywhere all the time.
Critical, critical, critical. So he walks into the museum with his wife and the first painting they see, the first frame, he looks at that and he said, this is disgusting. This is terrible. This is the ugliest picture I've ever seen. How dare they put this in the museum?
Don't they have enough artistic taste not to put that thing in the museum? Even at just in the beginning of every time his wife tries to say something to him, he says, don't interrupt me. Don't interrupt me.
Any window into an hour. Rant and ranting and raving about how ugly that picture is. And finally she waited until he finished and and she said to him, she said, dear, don't you realize this is a mirror? And so when Jesus said, judge not lest you be judged, he is saying, do not judge another brother or sister's motives. You see, only God can judge our motives. We can't judge each other's motives because we don't know them. Don't start judging either in haste until you have all the facts. In fact, Proverbs 18, 13 said, he who answers before listening, that is his folly and shame. Only God is omniscient.
Only God has all of the facts. Only God can pronounce judgment on a person's motives, not us. Hasty judgment, often merciless judgment. And merciless judgment reveals a person's faulty view of God.
It really does. Listen, to judge another person's motive is to play God. Now, to judge a person's action, to judge a person's sin, it is an obligation of stewardship to do it lovingly.
And even then I'm going to show you there is a way to do it from the word of God. In fact, James said in 4 11, he said, anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges the law. Jesus is saying, by all means, confront your brother or your sister about sin. Confront the wrong action. By all means, you must do that, but do not judge their motives.
Why? Because by the very standards of which you are judging a person's motive, God is going to use that measurement to judge you. Judging motives stems from a distorted view of God. But secondly, judging motives stems from a faulty view of oneself and of others.
It really does. We'll look at the next two verses, verses three and four. And the best way I can describe verses three and four is this. Imagine somebody has got a speck of dust in his eye and he goes to a eye surgeon and he goes to the eye surgeon and the eye surgeon begins to perform a very delicate eye operation to remove that speck.
But instead of wearing magnifying glasses, the eye surgeon had two logs in front of him. He can't see a thing. I mean, you would say this is preposterous and Jesus agrees with you.
He really does. In fact, this is a humorous side of Jesus that most of us miss. This is really a sense of humor that you see sometimes in the teaching of Jesus. A lot of people miss it. This is kind of a funny thing.
Imagine a guy with a big log in his eye. I mean, it's just a funny thing. It's a humorous thing. So what is Jesus saying? He's saying not only that when you judge another person's motive, you are having a distorted view of God, but you will have a distorted view of yourself and of others.
Why? Because the person with a critical spirit is that eye surgeon who is actually performing an operation with a log on both of his eyes. The reason Jesus is making fun of such a person, he really is, he's making fun of the person, is because that person who criticizes does so because he or she hiding something much worse in their life.
They got something to hide and that's why they talk about the speck in another person's eye. Their critical spirit is a clear indication that they are covering up something worse in their own life. And that is what the Bible calls self-righteousness. I know we use that word about self-righteousness, self-righteousness. You know what self-righteousness is? A self-righteous person is a person who cannot see the sin in his or her life.
That's a self-righteous person. Oh, if somebody happened to point it out or somehow but they gloss over it or ignore it or they don't want to face it. They're blind to it. They're blind to their sin. And Jesus is not saying to ignore your brother's sin.
Please understand that. He's not saying to ignore the sin. He's not saying not to confront the sin. But be sure you do self-examination first before you confront your brother's sin. He is saying go and talk to the brother about that sin. But you better start by crying out to God and repenting of your sin.
You better cry to God and say search me oh God and know my heart. Listen, when you criticize or you put down your boss or when you criticize, you put down your colleague at work. When you criticize, you put down a family member. When you criticize or put down another brother in Christ or sister in Christ and judge their motives.
Be very careful. When you assume the role of omniscient judge, you will not be able to plead ignorance when it comes to your sin. God has no double standards.
He really doesn't. There are some people today it's very popular to talk about God is unfair and God is unjust and God is this and God is that. It is absolute heresy. God does not have double standards. In criticizing unjustly and unfairly and mercifully a person's motive, we are implying that we ourselves above criticism. When we criticize others behind their back, we are asserting that they are inferior to us and God does not let that go unnoticed. Such judgment boomerangs, self-righteous judgment will become its own gallows. You see when we judge others motives, I keep repeating that because it's very important. We really have a faulty view of God.
We have a faulty view of ourselves and we have a faulty view of others. But what does Jesus really mean? The last few verses about the dogs and the swine and don't throw pearls there and don't give holy food to dogs. Listen very carefully because in Jesus' day, dogs were not this lovable domesticated pets. The dogs were known for being scavengers.
They have the scavenger nature about them and they will take bite, eat, whatever it is. And the Bible often uses and I know Jesus does that kind of a thing to describe a person who is lacking in discernment, who's not able to discern right from wrong, who's not able to discern wrong action from right action. Sadly, we have so many undiscerning Christians today and they are busy attacking and criticizing each other's motives instead of being out in the battlefield, witnessing, evangelizing, sharing Christ with their neighbors and with their friends and with co-workers.
We really do. I read something the other day. It went something like this, soldiers in the battlefield are busy fighting the enemy.
But soldiers in the barracks are busy fighting one another. You see, back then it would have been unthinkable for a Jew to take a piece of meat from the altar that was offered as a sacrifice to the Lord and give it to a dog. It is unthinkable. It would have been the height of desecration and they knew that. Just as it is unthinkable to give holy food to dogs back then, Jesus is saying it is equally unthinkable for you to judge your brother's motive.
It would be like trying to take a speck out of their eye when your eyes are filled with logs. So what is the answer? The answer for believers to download this app every single day, to repent on a regular basis, to do self-examination on a regular basis, to turn away from this disastrous road, to turn back and confess a sin, to look at the glaring sin in our life before we begin to talk to our brother about his or her sin, a sister. Be sure to repent first even when you are confronting sin in obedience to the Word of God. See, that's the only way that you'll avoid this boomerang judgment of God. Lord Jesus, you have said many hard things when you taught your disciples. In fact, one time you taught something very hard that most of them, except the 12, have departed and left you because they could not take hard things and hard sayings. And Lord, I know this is a hard saying.
I know it's convicting to me. But Father, I know the blessing comes when we take your words to heart, when we obey them, when we follow them. And Father, I pray, I pray for that individual who have never committed their life to you that this will be the day to come and receive Jesus as their only Savior and Lord. I pray for that individual who habitually judges others' motives.
Father, I pray that you would bring us to you before we be judged in the same measurement. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for giving us second and third and fourth many chances. Thank you for your word and for your conviction of your Holy Spirit. Come with power now, convert us, convict us, above all, Father, restore us so that we be the mighty army of the living God who would go out into the battlefield and win the victory for you.
In Jesus' name, amen. Encouragement to practice self-examination and grace when you're dealing with those close to you. Thank you for listening to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.
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