Righteousness Starts at Home #2

When a brother comes to you in sin and you've done this, then you have the right perspective in order to deal with him, in order to speak with him, in order to respond to him. The sins of others seem much smaller when you've dealt honestly with your own.

If King David suffered from a log in his own eye, are we any different? We hear things about the world or other people that outrage us, but we somehow are less outraged about our own failings. That's the continuing subject of Pastor Don Green's message, Righteousness Starts at Home. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and today's lesson is part of our series, The Art of Discernment. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs believers to approach judging others with humility. After all, we'll all have to give an account of ourselves to God. We'll again be in Matthew 7, so turn there in your Bible as we join Don Green now in the Truth Pulpit. Turn over to Ephesians 4, if you would. Verse 32, where the apostle Paul said, Beloved, this is so very important. You start your thinking with this as a Christian, vertically.

You know what? God, in our Lord Jesus Christ, has forgiven me of all of my sins. You say, Here I am in Christ. Christ, at his own initiative, went to Calvary to shed his blood to wash away all my sin. Whereas before, I was burdened with guilt, and I was facing a certain judgment, now that guilt has been removed, and he's put peace between me and God. Christ has stood before me like an eclipse, like Christ has come before the holiness of God and the sin. Christ has come before that and blotted out in darkness all of my sin, washed it away in his perfect blood, and now the burning heat of God's judgment will not fall on me because I'm under the shade of a perfect Savior who loves me and cares for me and represents me before the Father who's in heaven. I've been forgiven in Christ. And you start your thinking there, and then you realize that that starts to impact the way that you think about the sins of others. God has forgiven me in this manner. Now, someone has sinned against me. I see sin in the life of someone else. Well, in light of how gracious and merciful and kind God has been to me as the preeminent first priority, then the only thing that I can do is to turn to others of lesser sin, others who have stumbled along the way just like I have, and respond to them with tenderness and kindness and compassion. And when they've sinned directly against me, that I freely forgive them as freely as God forgave me. If God who is righteous and God who had more against me could forgive me of the greater things, then I can gladly take my cue from him and show forgiveness and tenderness toward the one who has wronged me. This is Christianity 101.

This is not doctoral level stuff. This is the basics of what the Christian spirit and the Christian heart looks like. And so, going back to Matthew 7, if you will, verses 3 and 4, Matthew 7 verses 3 and 4, this informs the way that you look at the faults and sins of the brothers around you. Young people, this affects the way that you look at the failures of your parents. Parents, this affects the way that you look at the faults and sins of your children. Even within a family dynamic, there should not be a harsh, unbending spirit that marks the families of those that are led by Christian parents. You should be setting a tone that brings discipline.

Yes, they need correction. Yes, you have to bring them up in the instruction and admonition of the Lord. Yes. But don't you realize that you're dealing with little sinners that are just a product of what you yourself passed on to them? It was your own sinful nature that you passed on to them. Well, then, can't you find a measure of mercy as you deal with them? Can't your home be flavored by a sense of grace and kindness that you say that God has dealt with you personally and vertically in your own life?

Can't you do that? Can't we deal with one another that way in light of the great mercy that God has shown to our individual souls? This is really undeniable, isn't it? This becomes a moral imperative. This becomes, I have to do this because that's the only right thing I can do in light of the mercy that God has shown to me. And that's what Christ would have you to see. The looking and the noticing bring out the relative attention that you should pay to your own sins compared to the sins of others. You should say, I've got to cultivate my own righteousness as my big priority here. That's what's going to occupy my attention. That's what I'm going to notice. That's what I'm going to turn my attention to. My own soul needs to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. And, oh, by the way, you know what?

There's people stumbling along the way. I'll be kind and merciful to them. Maybe I can help them, but I realize that the one who really needs the help here is me. Jesus says, but instead of having that point, instead of having that spirit, I should say, rather, you've devoted yourself to putting the finger on the sins of others. You can find that in a lot of bloggers, can't you?

You can find that in a lot of people claiming to speak for God in social media who can tell you everything that everyone else has done wrong behind their own persona that they create online, to which Scripture would come in its fullness and say, what are you doing? Your entire perspective is wrong. You're thinking about this all wrong. You're thinking that your assigned commission from God in life is to identify everything wrong in everybody else. You have flipped it entirely upside down. You're a lumberyard coming out of your eyes. And what Scripture says and what Jesus would correct is that if your concern for righteousness is sincere, if it's real, put it this way, if it's born from God above, the desire for righteousness that is born from God above produces a concern for righteousness in your own spiritual life as the first priority.

It's the first thing that you want. Lord, others may stumble, but I've stumbled too. Lord, this is what we need to correct here.

It's me that needs to be corrected. That's what Jesus is imparting here. And he says, until that becomes your focus, you're not equipped to help others. Look at what he says in verse 4. He says, how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and behold the log is in your own eye? To drop the metaphor, why do you rush into the realm of someone else's life to correct them when you haven't first applied it to your own self?

Do you see the hypocrisy in it? If you're seriously concerned for righteousness, start in your own life. Start at home.

Start in the home of your heart. And what Jesus is saying in that question, verse 4, how can you say this? Let me take the speck out of your eye, the logs in your own eye. That offer of help is only a pretext in reality. It's only a pretext to point out someone else's faults from a position of pride. Jesus says you should be giving complete attention to your own faults, which are far greater by comparison. Anything else is a blatant inconsistency. And in the whole context, beloved, this is serious.

This is sober. This matters. Jesus teaches for keeps. In the whole context of this passage, what Jesus is saying, what he's warning us together is this. He says that hypocritical attitude, that hypercritical attitude, is something that God will not treat lightly at judgment. The argument is profound that Christ is making. He says you profess concern for righteousness, good for you. He says if your concern is so sincere, why not repent of your own sin?

Why not address that as the thing which matters the most to you? Your concern for your brother's speck is only an indication of your own proud heart, and it indicates hypocrisy of the worst kind. And it's remarkable, our capacity to deceive ourselves in this is unlimited. I have a friend who says no one can buffalo me like me, talking about himself. No one can fool me like me. Heart's deceitful, desperately sick. Who can understand it? Your capacity for self-deception in this area is so great and profound and so is mine that it's easy to miss it.

It's easy to assume everything is okay and you miss the whole point. And back in the Old Testament, King David gives us a very sad illustration of this. Turn if you would to 2 Samuel chapter 12. You remember King David.

He was at the pinnacle of what God had given him, but he took Uriah's wife, committed adultery with her, and abused his military authority to murder Uriah as part of the effort to cover it up. It was an astonishing fall from his position, which incidentally just reminds us to look, as we look at David in the Old Testament, we want to look beyond David to his greater son who never failed. Look to David's son who is the true king of righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. We look, David is an imperfect pointing to someone else to come from his loins in the Lord Jesus. But here we have David who shared our human flesh and propensity for sin.

And so you know the background. And God sent the prophet Nathan to rebuke him after months had gone by. In chapter 12 verse 1, you can see that the Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan came to him and said, there were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he bought and nourished.

And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom and was like a daughter to him. Now, a traveler came to the rich man, the one who had many flocks and herds. And that rich man, verse 4, was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him. Rather, he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

What an abuse. This man with all the resources and far more than he needed could have given without diminishment of his own wealth to this traveler who came to him. He wasn't willing to do it. Instead he went to this poor man who had one little ewe and said, I'll take that and I'll use that to fulfill my obligation, my duty.

I will provide my hospitality at your expense. Poor man's not in a position to respond or resist that. He just has to watch it happen. Verse 5, Nathan's presenting this. Remember, David's the king.

He thinks that this is something that's taken place in his realm and he's outraged and he'll use his authority to pronounce punishment upon such a one. Verse 5, then David's anger burned greatly against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.

He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and had no compassion. And verse 7, remember, David's saying this while sitting on top of his own far more egregious sins. David's speaking with logs coming out of his eyes. And verse 7, Nathan then said to David, you are the man.

Wasn't talking about somebody else, David. I was talking about you and the judgment that you've pronounced that this rich man deserved, it's the judgment that you pronounce against yourself. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, it is I who anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these. Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

David, the illustration was about one little lamb. Look what you've done by contrast. Let me show you the log in your eye and feel the weight of conviction that comes by the speck that you were pointing out in what you thought was someone else. David, forget that speck.

Take the log out of your own eye. Beloved, you and I are fully capable of the same kind of self-deception. If you reflexively deny that and say, not me, you are in a position of great spiritual vulnerability to think it's such a thing. David's sin was obvious.

This was undeniable. And yet, because he looked outward rather than inward, he missed the whole point. And so here we are, here you and I are in this really vulnerable position spiritually. We all stumble in many ways. We're prone to self-deception.

We're heading toward a final accountability that's going to be flavored by the way that we judge others. And we're so mixed up. Our thinking and our desires are so distorted that they would lead us astray and set us up for a less than best outcome in the end.

What should you do? Well, what you need to do is follow the command that Jesus gives. Here's our second point. Follow Jesus' teaching. You know, one of the many, many, many things I love about our Lord Jesus is this, is that he doesn't simply rebuke us and correct us and point out what's wrong. He leads us by his teaching in order to change, in order to improve, in order that he might protect us by what he has to say. And as you go back to Matthew chapter 7, you'll find that he's done that in this section of the Sermon on the Mount as well. He rebukes us. In verse 5, he says, you hypocrite, to which apparently we are to somehow say guilty is charged, you hypocrite, here's what you need to do. And he gives a command here in verse 5. He 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.

He's calling you to self-examination, to stop, to step back, and to look at your own heart, look at your own life, and look at it critically, looking for the faults and sins that you will find there. That is your first priority. He says, you do this first.

Look at it there in verse 5. Adopting this as your approach to life, adopting it in individual situations that may come your way, you hypocrite, do this first. Before you do anything else, do this as the priority. Make this what you do first. He 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. First and then then.

Watch it with me. First, then. You do this immediately, and then after you've done that, something else follows.

There's a sequence that is involved that we must make ourselves conscious of. First, take the log out of your own eye. First, recognize and confess your own sin, beloved. First, recognize and repent of your own sinfulness.

No one should be correcting someone else in sin that is carrying around their own sin that's not dealt with, right? The hypocrisy of that. The hypocrisy of that. I confront you in your sin.

What's that baying of the sheep that I hear behind you? Deal with your own sins before you address the shortcomings of another. Charles Spurgeon said this, he says, Jesus calls that man a hypocrite who fusses about small things in others and pays no attention to great matters at home in his own heart. Our reformations must begin with ourselves or they are not true." I would love to have the opportunity to preach this at the Republican National Convention when moral issues start to dominate the discussion if they ever do again. That's not going to happen. But I would love the opportunity on both sides of the aisle to rebuke the self-righteousness of politics that points out the faults in others when the one speaking has not addressed sin in his own life. Wouldn't that be great?

You see how this would just turn upside down society? But Jesus isn't speaking to society, speaking to us, speaking to his people, to his disciples. And beloved, here's the thing. Self-examination equips you to genuinely minister to other people in their sins and in their struggles. But until you've examined yourself, until you've repented yourself, until you know something of the brokenness of your own sin yourself, you're not in a position to do it.

What self-examination does when you say, oh, that was my tongue, those were my eyes, this was my conduct, this was my ingratitude, this was my unfaithfulness. Once you come to grips with that, beloved, what does it do to you? If you don't know by direct personal experience, what Scripture says, the impact of Scripture is this, is that when you... Oh, this is so important. When you have taken the log out of your own eye, when you have examined your own heart for sin and been broken by what you found there, when you realize Jesus opened the sermon, Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

It all starts there. You recognizing your own spiritual bankruptcy, you mourning over your own sin before you ever get to somebody else, what that does is, beloved, it softens your critical spirit. You deal gently with the misguided, you deal gently with the fallen. Why? Because you yourself have fallen and the Lord has dealt gently with you.

And that's the whole point. You remove this and you look at your log and say, oh, that was me. Oh, you have a speck? Brother, let me help you now. Let me help you as a fellow fallen sinner who has been on the receiving end of undeserved grace. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 4, chapter 5, if you want to turn back there with me, we'll take just a moment to see this. This was the pattern in the Old Testament also, beloved. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 1, Hebrews chapter 5 verse 1 says, for every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Look at verse 2. He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided since he himself also is beset with weaknesses. And because of it, he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins as for the people, so also for himself. The Old Testament high priest was a man who was to deal with the people who came to him gently as they confessed their sins.

Why? Because he knew that he was also beset with sin and weaknesses. And so it flavored the way that that ministry was to be done. That's what Jesus means when he says, then, go back to Matthew chapter 7 verse 5, when he says, then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. What he's saying is, is that when a brother comes to you in sin and you've done this, then you have the right perspective in order to deal with him, in order to speak with him, in order to respond to him. The sins of others seem much smaller when you've dealt honestly with your own. The apostle Paul may well have had Jesus' words in mind when he wrote Galatians chapter 6 verse 1.

And let me invite you to turn there because this is my closing passage and you can see it for yourself. Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 says this, brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. So, beloved, where does your concern for righteousness begin? Does it begin through the window or in the mirror?

Does it begin with someone else or does it begin in your own heart? Jesus never said no judgment is to take place. Rather, he instructs us to judge others only after first starting with self-examination. Important teaching today on the truth pulpit. Pastor Don Green will continue our series, The Art of Discernment, on our next program. So be sure to join us then.

Right now, Don's back in studio with a special invitation. Well, friend, if you are anywhere near the Cincinnati area and you don't have a good church home, I invite you to visit us at Truth Community Church. I'm in the pulpit almost every Sunday and we have a loving congregation that would simply be thrilled to meet you and welcome you to our body.

We are striving to manifest the principles that you heard taught today. Why not come and see us? Bill will help you find us on our website. Just visit thetruthpulpit.com for directions and service times. There you'll also find a link to Don's Facebook page. Once more, that's thetruthpulpit.com. And thanks for your support of this ministry. I'm Bill Wright, and friend, we'll see you next time on the Truth Pulpit.