LUKE 6:37-45 TO JUDGE OR NOT TO JUDGE2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 6:37-45 To Judge Or Not To Judge

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011. Well, as we look at our portion this morning, we're continuing on with what's called the Sermon on the Plain. It began in verse 20 here of Luke chapter 6, and it's a message or a teaching that Jesus was giving to his disciples saying,

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He started out talking about the blessings and he said, blessed are you poor, blessed are you who hunger, blessed are you who weep and

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All of these different conditions, you're blessed if you're in this condition, he was explaining. And then he shared, we saw the next week, the woes. And he looked at the opposite condition. He said, woe to you if you're in this condition. Woe to you if you're in that condition. Then last week, we looked at the next portion, which Jesus was talking about loving your enemies.

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And that was quite a challenging portion as Jesus tells us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, and to pray for those who spitefully use us. There's some challenging truths that we looked at last week.

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Well, as we continue on now with this message that Jesus is giving, we have some more challenges ahead. Some more things that probably will make us a little bit uncomfortable and we don't like to think about. But we'll be talking about Jesus is addressing this idea of having a judgmental heart or being judgmental towards people around us. And really what we're looking at is some relationship insights that God is giving to us to help

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Help us relate to the people around us in the way that He would, in the way that He desires. Now, if you want to be further challenged by these truths that we're looking at today, I would encourage you to spend some time in Matthew chapter 7.

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They're the parallel passage to what we're studying today on the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is sharing many of these same truths with slightly different twists. And so it gives a little bit different background, a little bit different insight into these things that we'll be studying today. What I boil it down to, and I'll come back to this throughout the message, is breaking the cycle. Really, Jesus is calling us to break the cycle. That's what we were dealing with last week.

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As Jesus said to love your enemy, the word enemy means it's someone who hates you. And so instead of returning hatred to someone who hates you, which is our natural tendency, Jesus taught us to break the cycle. Don't return hatred for hatred, but return love for hatred. To return something different back to that person who's

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Bringing hatred towards you or if someone's cursing you to not return curses upon them, which would be our normal tendency, but to break that cycle. Because what happens is they hate us and then so then we hate them and then they hate us because we hate them and then we hate them because they hate us. And it begins to build and become worse and worse.

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And so Jesus has been teaching us to break the cycle, to not continue on in that pattern, but now to love those who hate us and to bless those who curse us. And now as we talk about the subject of judgment, the same concept applies. A judgmental attitude and condemnation, as we present that to people, as we are judgmental towards people,

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Well, it produces in them that same attitude, that same heart back to us. And then we become more judgmental of them because they're judging us and then we judge them and they judge us. And it's this cycle that develops and that grows. And Jesus is really calling us here to break that cycle, to not continue in that and instead to represent him and to have his nature and character

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In the relationships with the people around us. And so these things are very important for you and your spouse. For you and your children or you and your parents. It's very important for you and your co-workers, you and your neighbors.

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Whatever relationships we have, these things are essential for us to understand so that we can accurately represent the Lord in those relationships. And so there's four things we want to look at today as we talk about the subject of to judge or not to judge. The first thing I see in verses 37 and 38 is that you receive back the measure you use.

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This is what we need to understand in our relationships. We receive back the same measure that we use for others. Let's look at verse 37. Jesus says, Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. He lists a few things here. Judging, condemning, and forgiving. And he says,

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Talks about this cycle that takes place. If you don't judge, then you won't receive judgment back. If you don't condemn, you won't receive condemnation back. But if you forgive, you will be forgiven. And so he's talking about these relationships that we have and the things that are produced in others by the way that we relate to them, by the attitudes and actions that we have.

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Now as we talk about this idea of judging not, and you shall not be judged, it brings up an area that is something that we really need to address. It's an area of weakness, I believe, within the church as a whole, within Christians generally. Because this verse, and the parallel verse in Matthew chapter 7, is often quoted as

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It's like the favorite verse for backslidden and compromising Christians. That anytime there's an issue in their life and someone wants to address that issue to help them see the sinfulness of their lifestyle, the things that they're practicing. The verse that is quoted very often is this one.

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Judge not and you shall not be judged. And it's usually presented with the question, hey, why are you judging me? Jesus told you not to judge me. And so there's this defense that's built up. It says, you can't ask me about my life or tell me that something's wrong in my life because you are not supposed to judge me. Anytime correction is being applied or rebuke is being given, this verse is very often quoted or referred to.

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But it's important for us to understand what Jesus was saying here because that is a total misunderstanding of what Jesus is talking about. It's a complete misunderstanding of what the Bible teaches. Jesus is not saying that we can never correct or rebuke one another. On the contrary, the Bible teaches us very clearly correction is important and necessary. We'll see that in our portion today as well.

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It's important for us to be corrected. It's also important for us to bring correction to other believers. And so there's different kinds of judging that we need to distinguish between. There's the external judging, that is judging what's on the outside, judging the actions of a person. And then there's judging the heart, judging the things that are going on within.

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Now judging the actions is something that is appropriate for us as believers. It is appropriate. It is right. It is necessary. Listen, when a person is practicing sin, when they're violating the word of God, to bring correction to them is not judging them in the way that Jesus is talking about here. It's

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A misunderstanding to say, hey, you can't judge me and show me and point out when I am disobeying God. That's not what Jesus is talking about. In fact, the Bible teaches us we do need to judge each other's actions. We do need to hold each other to the standard of the Word of God in our lives.

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Paul goes through this in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. You might remember the background to that. There was a man who was living in sexual immorality. And as he's living in sexual immorality, the church is not addressing it. They're not calling him to repentance. They're not rebuking him for it. Instead, they're having the heart, the attitude that, hey, look at us. We're so tolerant. We've got so much grace and mercy. We even allow this sin to continue on in our midst.

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And Paul writes to the Corinthian church and he corrects them. He says, no, you cannot allow sin to continue like that. You need to rebuke him. You need to correct it. You need to address the situation. He goes on in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 11. He says,

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He goes on to say, He'll go on to say,

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But inside the church, as brothers and sisters in the Lord, he says, do you not judge those who are inside? There's a necessity for us to judge those who are within the church, those who are called Christians, those who are our fellow believers.

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What do we judge them on the basis of? Well, Paul says, if anyone is named a brother, so we're talking about someone who calls himself a Christian, but they're involved in sexual immorality or covetousness or idolatry or reviling or drunkenness or extortion. And so he says, look, these are...

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Some examples of disobedience in a person's life. He says, if there's someone who's called a Christian and they're practicing those things, you're not to keep company with them. There needs to be a judgment that takes place that you recognize they're living in disobedience. And you're not to have close fellowship with them.

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With that type of person who's called a Christian. Now he says, look, I'm not talking about outside the church. Because if that were the case, well, we would have to leave this world. Because outside of the church, yes, of course, they're involved in immorality and covetousness and idolatry and so on. Of course, because they're not believers. But someone who says, I am a Christian, someone who comes to church, but continues to live in sin, Paul says, there needs to be some judgment on your part.

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There needs to be some action taken regarding sin. You need to bring some correction to that situation. And so there's an aspect of judgment that is appropriate, necessary, and required within the church. It's judging the actions, disobedience to the Word of God. And I need to be very clear here. We're talking about open sin judgment.

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Not just our traditions, not just our personal preferences or personal convictions, not even just the things that are wise. We're talking about when a person is practicing something that is clearly spoken against in the scriptures. Or when a person is not doing something we are clearly commanded to do in the scriptures. So when it's a clear violation of the word of God,

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When that's their lifestyle, when that's their practice, that needs to be addressed. That is the right kind of judging. And it's a misunderstanding to say, you can't judge me. Because really, it's not me judging you, it's the Word of God judging you. God has declared it. He's the standard. Here's what we have. He's given this to us to evaluate one another by. More importantly, to evaluate our own hearts by, but we'll get to that in a few minutes.

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And so it's not me judging you, but it's the Word of God judging you, bringing that judgment into your life. Now there's another kind of judgment that is not appropriate for us. This also we need to understand. And that is judging the heart. This is really what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about this idea of judging the internal things, the heart, the motives, and being judgmental towards people on the basis of what we think is happening within.

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The word judge simply means to pronounce an opinion concerning right or wrong. And boy, are we quick to announce our opinions, aren't we? Oh, that person's right, that person's wrong. We very often are quick to jump in and say what we think about that situation or about that person.

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But Jesus here, as he talks about judging, it's that pronouncing that opinion. I like the way commentator John Gill puts it. He says, it's interpreting men's words and deeds in the worst sense. And so the idea is, you know, we look upon a situation, we look upon something that is happening, and we interpret it in the worst possible way.

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We think, man, they're doing that because they're wicked, because they're vile. They're doing that because they hate us. It isn't necessarily the case. We don't know what's happening inside. And so what we do is we add to it our own interpretation. And that interpretation is, well, it's the worst sense. It's the worst of them.

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I think this is kind of compounded in the day and age we live in today because much of the communication that takes place is not with our mouths, but it's, you know, by email, by text message, by Facebook, you know, it's not spoken. And so we miss out on the tone of voice, the passion, you know, the way things are said. And listen, we don't do a real great job even when we're communicating with our mouths, you know, passing on what we mean, you know, we fail in that. And then

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Doing it all by keyboard is even worse. It's really bad at conveying the heart of

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And so then the person receiving often, you know, puts in their own attitude. They put in their own heart what they think. And if they're interpreting it in the worst possible sense, which does happen, then, you know, they're offended by something that you did not, you know, mean at all. And so there's this issue of interpreting and understanding or guessing really

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That someone is right or wrong, what they meant, their heart, their motives in a situation. And the bottom line is we're just not equipped to judge the heart. You and I are not good at judging hearts and motives. Not only are we not good at judging heart and motives of other people, but even our own hearts we don't understand and don't know very well. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5 to judge nothing before the time.

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Why? Well, he says, because when the Lord comes, he will reveal the counsels of the hearts. It's the Lord who sees the heart. He's going to address the issues of the heart. That is not something that you and I are equipped to do, nor are we authorized to do. We are able to pronounce right and wrong when it comes to actions that the Bible speaks directly about.

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We are not able to pronounce right and wrong when it comes to a person's heart or motives. Because God sees the heart and we do not. And you see, when it comes to things that we do not see or things we do not know, we really need to have the mindset, the attitude that they are innocent until proven guilty. We need to think the best of them, in other words.

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Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 that love believes all things. Now he's not saying that, you know, love is gullible, but what he's saying is love thinks the best of people. And so when you don't know the details, when you don't know the motives, when you don't know the heart, you believe the best of that person. You believe the best of that situation, not the worst. When we don't know, we need to assume the best.

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that they meant well, that they were wanting to help, that they were wanting to bless, and not assume the worst. Love believes the best. Now, the context, as we're looking at this passage to judge not and you shall not be judged, we've been talking about loving your enemies, right? And there in that portion, Jesus said, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

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Isn't this the way that you would want to be treated? That people would assume the best of you and not the worst? Don't you hate it when someone assumes the worst of you and accuses you of, you know, manipulation or meaning something? They accuse you of, they're imposing these things and saying, this is what you meant, this is what you're doing. Oh, that's frustrating, right? Because how do you defend yourself? No, I wasn't, and that's not a strong defense. How do you want to be treated?

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Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Again, we're talking about this cycle. And Jesus is explaining that in these relationships that we have, when we are judgmental and assuming the worst of others, they learn to do the same towards us. And so we need to not be that way unless it's a direct violation of scripture. We believe the best of people.

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And so judge not, condemn not. Condemnation is that passing of a sentence, that declaration whether a person is condemned to hell or not. Passing of a sentence and behaving as if they are guilty. We put them on trial in our own minds. We determined, yep, they had bad motives and then now we behave as if they are guilty or they were convicted. But then he shares the opposite way, forgive. Forgive.

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And then you'll receive forgiveness back. He goes on in verse 38, give and it will be given to you. And so we're talking about these relationships that we have and the impact that we have on others who are relating to us. And he says, look, when you forgive, it will be forgiven to you. When you give, it will be given to you. And he then talks about some measurements. He says, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. Now these measurements

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that he refers to are measurements they would be familiar with as they were, you know, measuring out different types of products, you know, corn or wheat or whatever, you know, they would have different types of measurements that they would use and these are references that they would be familiar with. Please.

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For you and I today, you know, we might be familiar with a heaping tablespoon, right? There's some recipes that when you put in an ingredient, the tablespoon is supposed to be kind of like rounded. You know, it's heaping over. The others are to be, you know, kind of scraped off and you need that exact amount. Or maybe it's like brown sugar where you kind of squeeze it in, you pack it in. And there's different kinds of measurements that we are familiar with in the same way that they were familiar with these measurements. And so here's what Jesus is saying.

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With the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. Whether it's a heaping tablespoon or a cup or a quart or whatever, the same measurement that you use is what you receive back. And so if you give out a teaspoon of forgiveness, that's what you receive back. If you give out quarts of condemnation, that's what you get back. If you're giving out heaping measurements of forgiveness, that's what you receive back.

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But whatever measurement you use, Jesus is saying, that's the same type of return that you're going to have. As you condemn people by the bucket, you know, just like pouring out condemnation. You're teaching them, you're training them, and they are going to then respond to you in the same way and bring condemnation against you. And so Jesus is explaining here, we need to break the cycle. To believe the best, to pour out, instead of

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bringing hatred back to those who hate us or bringing judgment back to those who judge us or condemnation we need to forgive we need to be generous we need to love breaking that cycle and believing the best of those that we're relating to the measure you use will be measured back to you well he continues on now as we look at verse 39 and 40 and this is the second point

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That is that you lead others to be like you. You lead others. You teach others to be like you. He gives us this point with a parable there in verse 39. It says, and he spoke a parable to them. Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.

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Now there's a couple ways that this parable can be applied, the blind leading the blind, and it's something that's used in a couple different contexts. But keeping it in the portion that we're talking about here, keeping it in the context of what Jesus is addressing, he's talking about judging not, you will not be judged, condemn not, you will not be condemned. He's about to continue on with that same topic of being judgmental,

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And he uses this parable of the blind leading the blind. And so what is the point? Well, here's my perspective on it. When we judge, when we have this heart of judgment towards others or condemnation, we put ourselves up as the leader. But here's the problem. We're blind. Because when we are judging someone's heart and motives, we can't see their heart. So we're blind.

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And so we are putting ourselves up as a leader saying, that's wrong. You're wrong. Your heart's not right. Your motives are impure. We're saying, I know I'm a leader, but in reality we're blind. And so it becomes that the blind is leading the blind because again, the same measure that you use is returned back to you. And so when I pass judgment upon you and I pour out this court of condemnation, I'm teaching you, I'm training you, and then you...

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Pour out a court of condemnation towards me. And this cycle continues. And so I'm teaching you, I'm leading you. The blind leading the blind. James says it this way. In James chapter 4 verse 11 he said, Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge."

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James says, look, there's a difference between a doer of the law and a judge. And if you say, I can tell, I know this person's heart's wrong. I can see their motives. I can see what's going on. You are declaring, I'm not a doer of the law, but I am a judge. You're setting yourself up and saying, I'm a leader. James would go on to say, it's God who is the lawgiver. Who are you to judge another? You don't see the heart.

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You don't know what's happening within. You are blind. And you're leading the blind if you continue on in that because you're continuing on the cycle. By your example of judging and condemnation, you are teaching and training others to be judgmental as well. And we see that more explicitly stated in verse 40. It says, a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. What is Jesus saying?

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He says, you are making disciples. The way that you live your life is discipling others. It's teaching and training others to live like you. And so you lead others to become like you. And a disciple is not above his teacher. So you cannot pour out judgments and condemnation and have that heart towards somebody, but then expect them...

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to go above you, to take the high road, and to offer back forgiveness and grace and mercy. Now that can happen if God gets a hold of their hearts and they turn to the Lord, and then He's their master and they're His disciple. But the normal tendency, the normal course of life, the normal course of our relationships, is we return back, we relate to people according to the way that they've related to us. And so there's a responsibility that's there for you and I.

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When I am behaving in a way of judgment or condemnation towards a person, I'm responsible for that because I'm teaching them and training them to have that same heart of judgment and condemnation. And then that's what I receive back. And so, again, I'm blind when it comes to heart and motives.

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I'm not equipped. You're not equipped. We don't see those things. We don't know those things. Unless God reveals it supernaturally, that is not something that we can determine. And so we're blind. But when we pass judgment, we set ourselves up as the law giver. And we say, I'm the one who can say what's right and wrong. And we're leading others who are also blind. We're teaching them and training them to behave the way that we behave. You train people to have the attitude that you have.

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We have a lot of responsibility there. And so we need to be careful. You lead others to be like you. And so in the case of like the religious leaders, Jesus actually refers to the religious leaders in Matthew chapter 15 verse 14. And he says specifically of them, they are the blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. That's what Jesus said. He said it of the religious leaders, the Pharisees who were self-righteous and

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They had this, I'm holier than you mentality, this attitude. That's what was happening in their hearts. How do we know? Think about this. We only know that about the Pharisees because Jesus revealed it to us. If Jesus didn't reveal it to us, we wouldn't know that about the Pharisees. We might be able to guess. We might pronounce right and wrong, but we don't see the heart. Only God knows the heart. And so if the blind lead the blind, you're both in trouble.

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So don't be blind. Open your eyes. Lead well. Break the cycle. To judge others is to lead blindly. Because you're standing up in judgment. But you don't see what's really going on. To not forgive somebody is to lead. We think of not forgiving or unforgiveness, it's kind of passive, right? No, no, no. Unforgiveness is active. You are leading in your unforgiveness. And you're teaching and training other people

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To not forgive. You're the blind leading the blind. You're teaching them. You're prompting them. You're soliciting from them that same type of unforgiveness or judgment or condemnation. And so we need to open our eyes. We need to break the cycle. This is what God did for us. We were singing just a few moments ago the song that it's your kindness Lord that leads us to repentance. The scriptures talk about us being enemies with God. Not on his part but on our part. We're against God.

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But God then isn't against us. He's kind towards us. He offers to us grace and mercy. Whether we receive it or not, that's up to us. But He offers it to us. He breaks the cycle. He gives us the opportunity to be reconciled. Well, that's the same thing that you and I are to do. To pass on what we've received from God. To break the cycle. To offer mercy and grace to people around us. To forgive. To be generous. Not to judge and condemn.

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but to open up the opportunity for reconciliation. As we talked about last week, Warren Wisby said, the best way to conquer an enemy is to make him a friend. Become a friend to that enemy. Break the cycle. Don't continue to lead the blind as a blind person yourself. Well, the third thing we find in verses 41 and 42, and here Jesus addresses the fact that you must check yourself first.

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You must check yourself first. Look at verse 41. He says, and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye.

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This is a classic portion of scripture. I'm sure you're familiar with it, you've heard it, but don't let that distract you from what the Lord wants to say this morning. The picture that Jesus describes here is actually very funny. You see your friend and you say, hey Gabe, I see you got some sawdust in your eye, you know, it's kind of red and watery. Let me help you with that sawdust in your eye. And so Gabriel looks up and he says,

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Sees you like this. And Gabe says, get away from me. Yeah, I got sawdust in my eye, but you're going to poke my eye out if you try to help me. Jesus says, why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but you do not perceive the plank in your own eye? The contrast there is very clear. A little speck, a little splinter versus a beam or a plank. It's huge. It's huge.

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Now the contrast is important here. It's not just for a laugh. I think it shows Jesus had a sense of humor, but it's not just for the laugh. Here's the point. It is so much easier for you to see faults in other people than for you to see faults in yourself. You and I, this is how we are. We spot. We can see it from a mile away. You got a speck in your eye. We spot other people's faults. We see them. While we're completely oblivious...

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to the real big issues in our own lives. Here's another reason why we must not be judgmental. Because we already see all the little problems other people have. We don't need to add to that by assuming the worst and imagining more problems in their life on top of that. We already see the specs. We already see those issues. And if we're judgmental, then we're going to be dishing out judgment in buckets. Because there's a lot of problems that we face.

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have in our lives there's a lot of problems that we face a lot of difficulties we have to work through but it illustrates how clearly we see other people's problems jesus goes on he says how can you say to your brother brother let me remove the speck that's in your eye and you yourself don't see the plank that is in your own eye jesus asked two questions number one why do you see their sin

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Think about that. Why do you see that person's sin? Why do you see that speck in their eye? Secondly, he asks, why do you think you can help them with their sin? You want the answer to those two questions? He goes on and he says, hypocrite. Here's why you see their sin. Because you're a hypocrite. Here's why you think you can help them with their sin. Because you are a hypocrite. This word hypocrite, it's a word that the Greeks used to

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reference a person on stage who is playing a part. They were under a mask. They're impersonating a character. They were called a hypocrite. It wasn't a negative term in that sense. It was someone who is playing the part, who is in character, an actor. But in the context of what Jesus is talking about here, it's not such a nice thing. It's not such a good thing. A hypocrite, it's one who's playing the part, who's in character.

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And when you and I see the specks in each other's eyes, it's because we're in character, pretending to be the judge. Pretending that we can see. When of course the reality is we cannot. Why is it that you can see their sin? Why is it that I can see their sin? Hypocrisy. Because I think I'm the judge. Pretending I can see.

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Warren Wiersbe says, people who are always criticizing others are usually guilty of something worse in their own lives. You better be careful about that. When you're always criticizing others, usually there's something worse than us. And see, that's the real issue here. Being a hypocrite is pretending I don't have that kind of problem. I'm not susceptible to that. I don't deal with that. I don't have to worry about that.

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I can see, I know what's going on in the heart. I can see and judge the motives. And so I look and I see, oh yeah, I can see problems in your life. No problem, it's easy to find. In fact, let me help you with that. Because I'm in character. I'm not being real with the Lord. You see, when you're really walking with the Lord, when you're real with God and there's that relationship, there's a humility that comes along with it. Because God's showing you your own heart. And He's addressing and dealing with issues in your heart.

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And so we're not so quick to look and point out other people's and say, hey, let me help you with that. We're reluctant because, man, Lord, I struggle with issues. I've got things to deal with. I have things you need to change in me. And so we're not so quick to see and to point out other people's issues. Now, here's the thing though. Jesus is not saying we should not help each other with those specks in our eyes. He's just declaring that

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How to do it. What the proper order is. Look at what he says. He says, first, remove the plank from your own eye. And then, you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye. It's not an issue of whether or not we should help one another with those specks in our eyes. It's an issue of the priority and when to do it. First, something needs to happen. First, remove the plank in your own eye. And then...

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You can deal with the speck in your brother's eye. It's not, you've got a plank, forget about it, walk away, let someone else deal with the speck in your brother's eye. That's not what Jesus is saying here. He says, no, first deal with your plank and then you can help them. It needs to be done. It just needs to be done in the right order. It needs to be done well. You and I often, we do not see our own faults clearly.

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But they're apparent to others as if there was a plank sticking out of our eye. This is your condition. This is why we get so offended when people judge us. You know, pass judgment or they're judgmental towards us. We get so offended. Because our tendency is to think the best of ourselves and the worst of others. Jesus is saying, look, you need to deal with your own heart, your own life. And very often you cannot see your own faults.

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We need people around us who can help us deal with those issues in our eyes. Help us deal with those things of our life. We need good and honest friends to help us. Don't just write them off and say, hey, don't judge me. Let them speak into your life. Allow them to. We need it. I love the honesty and humility of the disciples in the upper room. When Jesus says, one of you is going to betray me. And they went around the room and said, is it me?

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Now later on, Peter would go on to say, I'll never deny you. But for this moment, he was pretty good. He said, is it me? Kind of having the understanding, I'm capable of what you're saying. I'm capable of betraying you, Lord. There's no question about that. As the saying often goes, except the grace of God, there go I. You and I, we are capable of gross and hideous sins. We're not above anything.

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any sin that is being practiced in the world you and i are capable of it and we could be there in a heartbeat that that's who we are that's why we need the lord so desperately that's why we need him to work in us we need that honesty that humility with the lord so how do we deal with jesus says first remove the plank and then you can take care of the speck how do we deal with those planks in our lives

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Well, I think first of all, we look at David's prayer in Psalm 139. He says, search me, O God, and know my heart. He says, know my anxieties. See if there's a wicked way in me. First thing we do is we ask God, Lord, you search my heart. Because I can't see the planks out of my eye, but you search my heart. You reveal what's going on. Again, not only are we terrible at seeing and understanding the hearts and motives of other people...

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But even our own selves, Jeremiah 17.9 tells us the heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Where it's deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? Only the Lord knows the heart. Even your own heart. And so God, I need you to search my heart. I need you to reveal those wicked ways in me. And then he goes on to say in Psalm 139.24 and lead me in the way everlasting. So reveal those issues of my heart and then

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Lead me out of it. It involves confession. The word confess, it means to agree with God. And so God brings up within our hearts, look, this is the plank in your eye. This is an issue. The wrong thing to do would be like, ah, that's not a big deal, God. Don't worry about that. You don't need to keep bringing that up. I'm okay with that. That's not agreeing with God. The right thing to do is God brings up the issue. He searches your heart and reveals it. Then you say, you're right, God. That's wicked and sinful.

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And then accompanied with that is repentance. So that you stop practicing it. That you change. That you go in the opposite direction. And don't continue on living in sin. You ask God to change your heart. Again, we assume the worst of others and the best of ourselves. But we need to ask God to search our heart. And then once He does, then we are to help one another with those specks.

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In Galatians chapter 6 verse 1, Paul says, Hey, if a man is overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. It always has to be done in gentleness, not in condemnation and judgment, but in gentleness. He goes on to say, Again, I'm capable of the same things. Presenting myself before the Lord, dealing with the planks in my eye. Lord, you search me. You work in my heart.

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And so it's not that we cannot correct each other. It's just that you must check yourself first. You must let God examine your heart. Well, finally, the fourth thing we find in verses 43 through 45 is that you are known by your fruit. Look at verse 43. He says,

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Jesus now uses another picture, another illustration. He's using quite a few here in our portion. He now looks at a tree and he's pointing out that you cannot separate a tree from its fruit. In other words, you can't say this is a really good fruit tree. It just produces bad fruit. Jesus is saying good trees do not produce bad fruit. So good tree, good fruit.

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Bad tree, bad fruit. You don't have good trees producing bad fruit or bad trees producing good fruit. You can't separate the two. Good tree, good fruit. Bad tree, bad fruit. Now, applying that to us, this is what often happens in our society. You know, I'm a good person. I just do bad things. But that is not the reality.

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A good tree doesn't bear bad fruit. And so we blame the environment, we blame circumstances, we blame everybody else, and that's why I behave the way that I do. I'm not really like that. I'm a good person. But that's not the reality. We like to live behind that facade, but it's false. It's fake. It's not real. I'm a Christian, people will say, but, you know, I just keep on living in this sinful area. You know, it's not a big deal. I just keep practicing that.

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No. Good tree, good fruit. Bad tree, bad fruit. I'm a Christian, you know, I just have this plank in my eye. You know, it's fine. I can see through the other one. No. Jesus is really addressing the deception that happens in our hearts. A good tree does not bear bad fruit. The plank in your eye reveals what's happening in your heart. Listen, we all have struggles and we all sin. But to continue practicing sin...

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is to produce bad fruit to continue on in that you can't say i'm a good tree but i just have bad fruit jesus put it another way in john 14 21 he says he who has my commandments and keeps them it is he who loves me so good tree good fruit jesus says love me you keep my commandments you disobey me you don't love me you can't say i love jesus i just don't obey him that's

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That's not true. You could say it, but it doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it real. Our obedience, Jesus says, proves whether or not we really do love him. Good tree, good fruit. Love Jesus, obey Jesus. Bad tree, bad fruit. Disobey him, do not love him. He goes on in verse 44, for every tree is known by its fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.

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I was thinking about that. It might be kind of nice, you know, when the Santa Anas come through and the tumbleweeds, and if they had grapes on them, you know, you can grab some grapes as the tumbleweeds go by. That'd be pretty cool. But that doesn't happen. Good tree, good fruit. Bad tree, bad fruit. How do you know what kind of tree it is? Well, you look at the fruit. What is it producing?

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Now again, we cannot judge the hearts or the motives. We don't see that. We're blind. God only sees it. But here's what we can do. We can check the fruit. We can't judge the heart, but we can see the fruit. That's external. That's on the outside. And again, that is appropriate for us to look at, to examine for our own selves and also for others. I really like the book of 1 John.

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there's John's writing the letter. He says over and over and over again, this is how you can know that you have eternal life. And basically what he does is he says, look at the fruit in your life. Do you have this kind of fruit? Do you have that kind of fruit? Do you have this other fruit over here? Do you have that going on? He says, look at these external things and by this be encouraged, you can know that you have eternal life. This is the fruit that is produced by someone who has eternal life.

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Jesus points out in Matthew chapter 7 that false teachers are known by their fruit. And so we can know our own hearts by our fruit. We can see what is being produced and see where we stand. We can also see false teachers, false doctrine, and we can determine by the fruit, by what's being produced, is it good fruit? If it's good fruit, it's a good tree. If it's bad fruit, it's a bad tree. He gives us now a sample of what kind of fruit we produce.

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In verse 45, he says, "...a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Now he gives us another picture. It's the picture of a storehouse or a treasure chest. And in the treasure chest, in your storehouse, you have good or you have evil.

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Now a good man has good in his storage house or treasure chest, and so he pulls out of that treasure chest something that's good, and that's what he delivers. On the other hand, an evil man pulls out evil treasure out of his storehouse, out of his treasure chest, and that's what he produces. And then Jesus says, you see where that's produced by what's coming out of the mouth. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

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Our words reveal our heart. Our words come out of our treasure chest or storehouse. And the things that come out of our mouth are fruit revealing our heart, revealing our condition and our situation. We love to blame everybody else. You know, that guy cut me off, that guy did me wrong, and man, I don't normally talk that way. But then this guy did that. What are we saying? We're saying, he made me say those things.

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But here's what Jesus says. No, those things were in your storage house. They were in your treasure chest. You pulled them out, spewed them all over. He didn't put those there. They're already within you. Those words are in your heart and that's what you brought forth. God allows those things to happen so that we can see the fruit. We can see our heart and we can say, Lord, wow, that's my heart. That's gross. Lord, change me. Lord, work in my heart. Work in my life. That's

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You just saw it right there. That's my life. That's my heart. And so it's a revelation of who we are within. We're terrible judges of the heart. But God can see the heart. And sometimes He allows us to get a glimpse in the things that we say. Again, we brought that out of our own treasure chest. It wasn't put there by somebody else. That's your heart. And that's why we need God to change it. The whole overall emphasis in this message that Jesus is sharing is

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To break the cycle. Not behave as we normally would, but to behave as He would. To have His character and nature. To do unto others as we want them to do unto us. Or to do unto others as the Lord would do to them. And if we pour out judgment upon them, it produces, it brings back more judgment. Condemnation, as much as we measure out, it comes back to us. In our relationships, husband and wife, listen, it's very important. You produce in each other judgment.

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The attitudes that you have. Break the cycle. Don't let it continue. Parents and kids, you produce in each other. You need to break the cycle. Start forgiving. Start giving. Start loving. And then even more so, as what you're getting back is hatred or animosity. Break the cycle. Love. Don't go around pointing your finger. Allow God to search your heart.

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And then after he's searched your heart, after he's done the work, then help someone who's struggling with that speck in their eye. We need to break this cycle of pointing the finger at each other, of judgment and condemnation, realizing we're blind. We don't see the heart. We don't see the motives. We don't even see our own failures. We're terrible judges. Horrible. We need God desperately.

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So break the cycle. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who persecute you. And pray for those who spitefully use you. Let's pray. God, I pray for us. Lord, these are challenging things for our hearts. Lord, these are things that are so unnatural for us. Lord, it's easy for us. It's natural for us to bring judgment and condemnation. But Lord, to bring forgiveness, Lord, we need your help with that.

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Lord, to recognize and acknowledge the plank in our eye. Oh Lord, we need help with that. We're blind to it. We don't see our faults. And so God, I pray that you would search our hearts. That you would reveal those things. And Lord, I know you already have been. And so God, I pray that you would help us. As you've been speaking to our hearts this morning, help us to confess it. To agree with you. Lord, that we would not dismiss it.

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Or say it's not a big deal, but Lord, that we would agree with you about that condition of our heart. That we would repent. That we would lay it aside and go the opposite direction. And instead of hatred, we would begin to love. Instead of unforgiveness, we would forgive. Instead of greed, we would be generous. Lord, that we would turn from whatever it is that you're speaking to our hearts and that we would seek you with our whole hearts. Help us, God, to do that. Change our hearts.

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Lord, help us to break the cycle just like you did for us. And Lord, that our kindness would lead others to repentance. Lord, as we demonstrate the kindness that you've given to us, help us, God, to do the same. Forgive us, God, for our sin, for those planks in our eyes. And help us, God, to minister to one another in love and mercy and grace just like you do towards us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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