In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of not being judgmental and condemning others. He uses the example of David, who was angry and judgmental towards someone who had stolen from another man. The speaker emphasizes that when we judge others, we often overlook our own faults and failings. He also mentions the concept of "what goes around comes around" and warns against measuring others harshly, as it can have consequences for ourselves. The sermon concludes with a prayer for a hunger to know God's word and for it to have a practical impact on our lives.

Matthew 7, verses 1 through 6. Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the same you measure out, the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how do you say to your brother, let me remove the speck out of your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye. Do not give that which is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. Father, we, once again, how we thank you for your word. Lord, we ask that you would just give us a phenomenal love for the word of God. Lord, that we would find ourselves wanting, like, to devour your word more than our necessary food. Finding, Lord, that just the joy that can happen when we develop an insatiable hunger for the word of God. Lord, it's so practical, it's so necessary, teaches us so much, equips us to live so victoriously, aids us, Lord, through so many of the circumstances of life. We need it, Lord, just to get through every day, and in the smallest issues of life, there are such profound things to learn from your word. They can make life such a blessing, such a joy, and without it, Lord, life can be such a disaster. God, just give us a hunger to know your word, let it go deep into our hearts, and watch the work that it will do. And as we study it tonight, we ask that you would just take from it, make it practical and real to our hearts and our lives. For, Father, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, here we move now into a new segment, essentially, of the Sermon on the Mount. And here Jesus is just wanting to teach us and elaborate. He kind of draws together a number of things in this chapter that have to do with just some practical issues in life. The things that happen as we're growing, as we're maturing. One of the things that begins to happen with a certain amount of growth within the Christian life, it doesn't necessarily take an awfully lot of growth, but there's this great ability so often that we get within us, not necessarily at all from the Spirit of God, but this ability to look at other people and see what's wrong with them. And it's one of the things that when we were in the world, and before we knew Christ, before we knew his word, before we knew a sense of obedience, we really didn't care about people very much. We didn't even care to observe or analyze what was good or bad or right or wrong or strong or weak about them. We just kind of saw people's lives and basically liked them or didn't like them, almost. That's the way kind of we were as worldly people. But once somebody becomes a Christian, there's some things that you begin to do and abilities you get to have where it's easy sometimes just to look at people and analyze them. And then that analytical mind sort of a thing turns into a judging, and the judging can be very paralyzing. But here, let's just get into it. Jesus, when he says, judge not, he says that you be not judged. Something that I think is very important to first just look at this on is that this is not one of those type of statements that is as simple as it would appear when you would look at it, because it's not at all to suggest that a person as a Christian isn't to go around judging at all. That isn't the context of it all. Something that I know is interesting, I remember years ago during the hippie movement, in the early late 60s, early 70s, one of the things that was happening with the flower power and the loving everyone sort of a thing, and in the middle of the hippie movement, if any of you are at all around it or have studied it or learned much from the thing, you're aware that there is all sorts of spirituality kind of within it. Some of them were into incense and beads and Eastern religions, and a lot of them were ones that had little, you know, trimmings and trappings from Christianity and all sorts of other religions. But it was kind of a religious revival as well in the midst of the whole rebellious movement from society kind of. And there was an awful lot of religious things happening, you know, within it. And as this was kind of going on, you know, they oftentimes, they would meet and have their love-ins, and they would have times, you know, where they were loving God and they were loving each other, and yet oftentimes, of course, they would look at a flower and say, this is God. Or they would look at all sorts of things, and it was just kind of an interesting sort of a movement. And then it was kind of, they had a lot of things with it where there was kind of a free love and there was a lot of immorality going on within the movement. There was, you know, a lot of drinking, partying that still kind of went with it. Marijuana to get a little high and worship God happened very much within the movement. And yet at the same time, there was, you know, the orgies that went on and the love-ins and sort of a thing. And we would go out oftentimes to want to share the gospel with them and to tell them that they needed Jesus. And that it was wonderful that they were seeking love. It was wonderful that they were wanting peace. It was wonderful that they knew that love was from God and all of this, but that the way that that all became personal was through Jesus Christ and turning your life over to him and coming out of a lot of these things of the lifestyle. And one of the favorite verses that was thrown at us an awfully lot when we were around the hippie movement, around those on the beaches and other things, was that you're trying to tell me that I'm not finding God the right way. And this seemed to just go through the whole hippie movement almost because you heard it constantly. And they would turn and quote this scripture to you. When you would tell them something from the Bible, they would tell you, well, wait a minute. Doesn't the Bible say, judge not lest you be judged. Who are you to tell me that my way of finding God is not right, is not acceptable. And you would oftentimes look at their lifestyle. Most or many of them, oftentimes, they didn't work. And oftentimes went out and a lot of the grocery stores were not amounts of food, the ones that were around great quantities of the hippies. And a lot of them doing drugs. Of course, Timothy Leary, who was one of these guys supposedly seeking God and getting high. And, you know, at the same time, and it was, you know, tune in, turn on, drop out or whatever else. I can't remember it all. But in the midst of it, this was a great spiritual movement. But while it was all happening, you know, they were looking. And when you would want to talk to them, they were saying, this is God. And who are you to tell us that we're wrong? Who are you to tell us that our way of seeking God isn't right or OK or acceptable? And that is not at all what Jesus is saying here. That would be a gross error and a mistake when someone would look and when he's not saying, in a sense, he's not saying discern not. He's not saying evaluate not. And but he was when he's saying judge not. Because the Bible teaches us that there's something that we are to do a lot of judging, in a sense. Jesus judged the Pharisees when he was around them. He called them. I would say when you call people whited sepulchers, that's I think that would touch on judgment. Kind of a you know, when you call them, when you turn to him and say, you know, that you're going to hell and you're of your father, the devil, I mean, those are type of things that might get to some people. And it'd be very easy to say that's judgment. And I think it is. He called the murderers. He called them hypocrites. And he was extremely direct with the Pharisees. He judged very, very clearly and distinctly religious issues, spiritual matters. It's something when you look at the at the New Testament, you look at somebody like Peter. He he judged. You remember at the at Ananias and Sapphira when people come and said, oh, we've given everything to God and we're offering everything to him. And then the spirit of God revealed to Peter that they had lied. And he looked at Ananias and Ananias, why have you lied to the Holy Spirit and that you have done this? And then Ananias, of course, fell down and died. That's rather judgmental, you might say, in that sense of the word. The same thing with Sapphira. You find in the Apostle John known as the Apostle of Love. And yet at the same time, when you look at his writings and you see what he had to say in third, John, he rocks, he writes there to a man named Gaius, a wonderful, precious, godly man. But he spoke in that little epistle. You may remember a man named Diotrephes, who was fighting very much to make sure that the Apostle John didn't come to the town. John said, OK, I won't come. But he and he referred to Diotrephes. He says he's a man who loves the preeminence, but he judged him. He made some very evaluations. Paul, when you look at him, you find him very clearly many, many times looking at people and calling some of them wolves, false prophets. Sometimes, you know, looking at people and warning the people to look out for these people, be prepared for them. James, when in his epistle, he looked and he called, you know, those church leaders that catered to the wealthy. He has some rather embarrassing sorts of things. It's something that Jesus later on, only a few sentences over in Matthew chapter seven and verse 17. You know, he says, even so, he says, every good tree bears fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. And he tells them in a sense, he says, evaluate. He says, judge things. He tells them, he says, beware, it says in verse 15, of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing. And we're taught to discern between that is good and evil. And I can remember one of the things that we finally learned to tell people when they would come and say, you're judging me. So I finally tell me, I'm not a judge. I'm just a fruit inspector. You know, and the thing is, the Bible says, you know, that you're to know those that labor among you. You know, you'll know a fruit or a tree or a fruit by its tree or whatever. But that's sometimes true, too. But the the thing is, he told him, he says, you'll you'll know a tree by its fruit. And the Bible teaches very, very much that a Christian ought to be extremely discerning. It ought to be one that is that is looking and fully expecting all manner of things to come at him. And he has many a judgment to make on the matter. It's it's something that is a matter of fact, I think, one of the great problems in the church today. And one of the things that Jesus tells about the last days is that there will be many winds of doctrine coming around the church. And, of course, some things that have happened in the last 10 and 20 years that have theologically, the things that have come down the pike hitting the church are more than when you would go through church history to deal with than ever before. Some of the weirdest things that people call Christian, all sorts of things where they maneuver through the scriptures and put together all sorts of theological things. I'm not going to get wrapped up in them tonight because I'll get angry and I'll judge them. They don't do that. But the the thing is, is that that many of these things that happen in the meantime, the church is not discerning well at all. All sorts of people and issues are coming in and preaching this and preaching that. And and they're not true. They're not theologically sound. They're biblically wrong. They lead people astray and people get stumbled by them. The body of Christ is hurt and wounded because of the fact that people aren't discerning or aren't judging things in the right sense of judgment. The word here in Greek on this is not so much that you're not judging or evaluating or testing the spirits or discerning things. The word here, and this would better be translated, condemn not. And the issue here is, is that he does say that the issue when you look at a person, you're never, ever in this life to put somebody in a category to where you, in a sense, sit upon the great white throne judgment seat, in a sense, to where you feel that you have the right or the insight to condemn someone in a sense or to damn them in a sense to where you can look at somebody. And even though it may be very easy, in a sense, biblically, I may look at somebody like an Adolf Hitler. You may look at a Saddam Hussein and say it's extremely highly unlikely within my evaluation of the man by what I know of him, I do not believe the man is on his way to heaven. I don't believe that the man has much of a chance if he would be brought into heaven on any soon experience. And I may even wish it to be so. But at the same time, as I look at this, Jesus, he says, don't you, he says, I alone, in a sense, he is the exclusive ultimate judge who has the right to bless or to damn someone for eternity or to, you know, the ultimate judgment. And he's looking there in a sense of don't ever find yourself condemning people to hopeless judgment. Don't ever look at them that way, because as soon as you do that, there's something about us that we then immediately write them off. We then look at them. And the amazing thing that happens is as soon as we think that way, as soon as we write off people, when it's something that, number one, we're never, it's never our right, never our privilege, nor our responsibility at all, because as long as someone is alive, as long as someone is breathing, there is always hope, always hope for them. All the way to the very gates of hell until somebody has passed over its threshold, from our perspective and our knowledge, there is always hope. Though there is a point, the Bible says, my spirit will not always strive with man, but we don't know when God's spirit has written somebody off. To me personally, I can't think, to me, what a wonderful thing, what a wonderful thing to me it would be someday to get to heaven and to find that in their final hours, in the final moments of their life, that some that had caused chaos and misery and pain in this life, broke before God, fell on their knees and they found themselves weeping and asking for forgiveness and atonement. I mean, to see even an Adolf Hitler, to see them there where Jesus could have finally touched that man with his mercy and with his grace. And to see that man retrieved out of the devil's hand, because of course, he didn't originate any of his terrible crimes. As much as he was a man that was responsible, humanly speaking, for the death and the murder and the pain and the sorrow, you know, upon countless millions of lives. It is something, all he was, was the chief prisoner of what he was doing to other people himself. A man that the devil had so controlled and taken over his life, but what a wonderful thing to see Jesus be able to snatch people out of the devil's hand at the last moment. It's something that ought to be that a child of God looks and we have it, that God, if there is any and all, that you can draw unto yourself. For Hebrews tells us that Jesus died not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. There is absolutely, I mean, when his blood was shed, the Bible makes it quite clear that there was not anyone whose sins were not forgiven. Who the atonement would not cover them if they would so turn towards him. Now we do know that God, because he tells us about those elected before the foundation of the world, and he tells us even as we read, we didn't get to it this morning, we'll probably pick it up next week, in Revelation on those that were called. Those that before the foundation of the world had been chosen by God. But we don't know who's called, we don't know who's chosen. And if you write people off as unacceptable, as ones that could not ever get saved, then we're taking a terrible thing into our own hands, for who knows what it is, that God, who he'll save. I know myself growing up, I was the last one in my family to get saved. And I know some of the things that I went through in the processes of growing up. I know that it was at times to where other people I knew, Christians I knew, basically kind of, I was well known as the black sheep of the family. And when I began to hear stuff like that, that was people's ways of thinking they were going to convert me or something. I didn't want to just look at them and say, you know, I mean, for some reason I was so spiritually dead, it meant nothing to me, and almost made me want to go on and do more rebellion. In the sense of things by their attitudes and their ability to write me off and tell me what they thought of me. But the wonderful thing is, is that at what point do you write somebody off? You know, I mean, when they haven't ever come to Christ by the time, I'm glad it wasn't, you know, if he made it where you haven't got saved by the time you're 18 years old. Well, I'd never got to heaven. I'd been written off. Or at what point, if you've, you know, committed adultery, if you've stolen, or if you've stolen how much, or if you've hurt this number of people, or if you've done this or that, at what point? And the thing is, is that we don't know that point at which God's spirit won't continue. And so he just simply tells us, he says, don't ever write anybody off. Because the moment that you do write them off, you are now totally ineffective as ever being a tool that could ever be used to bring them into the kingdom. You've now cut yourself off, you know, from being a tool of hope, a messenger of hope, a messenger of grace, a messenger of redemption. And it ought to be that we look at anybody, everybody, everywhere, regardless of what they've done, or what they've done to others, or what they've done to us, that we look at them and say, God, I know that Jesus died for them, and you can still save them. And you can still work within them. And it's something where, so he just makes a statement there that, again, it's don't condemn. Don't, you know, write, condemn not, you know, somebody there. Don't ever, ever do that. And he says, you know, he says, for with what judgment or with what condemnation you judge, that it'll be judged to you. The same will come back to you. The same things so often that you wish upon somebody else's life, the way that you can write off other people. It'll be amazing, Jesus says, the measure in which you measure things out, you'd better be very careful because it'll be amazing on how things can come back to you. Sometimes I think that, well, you know, it's like, you know, what goes around comes around kind of, and things that we start, you know, pointing out to other people. James tells us that when we judge another, know you not that you judge yourself. When we're looking there at other people and writing them off and doing these things and having all of these vicious opinions about them, we're actually usually condemning something that we have the same seeds of experience in our own life, only usually not as exposed as theirs. That's what James tells us, that when we're looking at other people and we are hostile and we are upset and we are judgmental and we are angry at them, it is usually because there are things going on within our own life as yet usually undiscovered by other and unknown by other, but at the same time they're going on. And the intensity so off of our judgment is something that is directly related to our own personal guilt. You look at David, remember him, of course, with Bathsheba. Remember the terrible sin there, you know, with Bathsheba, and how David finally thought he'd covered the whole thing up. He had taken, he'd gone and married Bathsheba, taken her in and, you know, but Uriah, he'd, you know, got Uriah killed and his men around and things had happened, but it was kind of all hushed up and nobody knew about it. Till one day, only God knew about it. And God sent Nathan the prophet, you know, in to see David. And here as he spoke to him, Nathan gave him a little parable, gave him a little story there that he needed David's judgment on, he needed his opinion on what to do about it. And he says, there's this man, he had one little lamb. And as he had this little lamb, that's all that he had, but there was another man down the road that he was a very wealthy man, he had all sorts, he had quite a flock. But one day a traveler came to town and he visited this man who had all of these sheep, had all of this stuff, but rather than this man taking of his own flock, taking of his own, you know, things that he had, he went and he took this one man's little lamb that he had. And he says, David, what do we do with him? Well, David turned and he says, well, you'll repay him. First of all, you'll repay him fourfold. And he says, and for that the man will die. Then, of course, as you know the story, Samuel then turned to David and he says, David, thou art the man. And, of course, here was David with all that he had had, and here was Uriah down there with his wife Bathsheba. And David came when this traveler came to town, the traveler being lust, of course. When it came to town, he went and he took what wasn't his, you know, unto himself and stole it and destroyed it. And here, the thing is that was interesting, the law back in Leviticus makes it very clear that if a man steals something from another man, he'll pay it fourfold, but that's it. David, he then turned when he came to him and he said, you know, what do we do? He says, the man will repay it fourfold and he'll die. See, David, he was so angry, he was so judgmental, and he added, excuse me, great intensity to the judgment that ought to happen to this other person because it was really something was stirred up by his own personal guilt, by his own personal failings in these things that were going on. And it's amazing on how so often when we fail, one of the ways that we cover it up is we find somebody else over here guilty and we put all of the emphasis over on them and we think we remain hidden. We get smoke screens over here so that nobody finds out about us. And here Jesus said that when you're out judging somebody and you're doing this and you can't do it in mercy and grace and kindness and gentleness and with the issues and with the methodology of biblical ways of resolving things, but you're just out condemning them when they fail. Not loving them, but when Jesus found somebody that had failed, somebody that was guilty of sin, his greatest act, the thing that he was the quickest to do, where he was quick to forgive, he was so quick to pour out his mercy, quick to pour out his grace. But when there's somebody that goes out and sees somebody else's failure and they find themselves judging them, it's so often because there's the same things that are guilty going on within their own life. I remember there was a rather well-known evangelist on TV that I used to watch him now and then. And on one hand, I always thought he was very good in a sense. I was moved and I think God definitely did use him tremendously. But at the same time, oftentimes I would listen to him. And as he would talk, there was something that was very easy. Oftentimes from his pulpit on TV, he would make it clear. He says, you won't hear this from the pulpits of America. The rest of the place is so messed up, but I'm going to tell you the truth. And then so often he would take off after people. I looked at him and used to tell my wife, he's got an Elijah complex. Remember on how Elijah one time, God had used him and raised him up. But then, you know, after he was used so much, but then he started thinking he was God's only tool. And the next thing you know that happened is when he stood before God, God wanted him to go do something. He turned to God and he says, I alone. I'm all you've got, basically. God said, here, I want you to do this. He says, I'm not ready to go. I'll let you know when I want to go. And he says, I alone am the one that serves you. And God spoke to Elijah. And he says, I've got 7,000 that haven't bowed the knee to Baal. I've got all sorts of servants out there. I can use anybody I want to, anytime, anyhow I want to. I don't need you. As a matter of fact, Elijah, you're through. And from then on, anytime in the Bible you ever see the name Elijah, it should have been Elijah. He says, I'll show you another man. You'll anoint him and turn your ministry over to him. You're coming home. And he had pushed, you know, he found himself there to where he, but he got extremely judgmental. And it was very easy to judge other people. And when that happens, where somebody starts looking, and then next thing you know this particular preacher that was, I mean, take off after all sorts of groups. And he'd take off after, you know, the whole drug cartel and all the beer companies and take off after pimps and prostitutes and, you know, in front of pulpit, tell them, you know, the fires of hell are cooking, waiting for you, sorts of things. He's a fiery guy. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about. But if you do, you may not. You may think, but you may be right. But I don't know that I should say anymore. But the thing is, I mean, he'd do all of these things. But little by little, when you're just taking off and taking off and judging and condemning, and he would take a lot of people by name and accuse them by name right from the pulpit and talk about things. On one hand, you'd listen to him and say, Boy, he sounds pretty powerful, sounds pretty bold, pretty gutsy. But the underlying factor is there was a heavy condemnation trip that oftentimes was what he was coming down with. And the thing that happens with somebody like that is little by little, the world starts looking around and other people and looking for a little chink in his armor. They start looking for something, looking for the opportunity to see something there. And the next thing you know, if they can find that little chink, they'll pierce it. And the next thing you know, they'll go after him until they've absolutely destroyed him. That's exactly what happened to this particular one. And next thing you know, I mean, he loved to go after the government. I mean, he could really go after the government. And then finally, the government went after him and got him on taxes he hadn't paid and on a lot of things. And he'd go after a lot of immorality, and then somebody followed him with a camera, and all sorts of things happened. But the thing is that the issue is that when somebody goes out judging, it'll come back. There'll be the day that it's going to get them when it's in a condemning way. It can absolutely destroy their life. One of the things, and there was a... I know a fellow who used to preach here years ago and who later on went into TV ministry. I wouldn't say any names there either because I don't want to do that. But the thing is, is that it was interesting because to me, there was a time I used to listen to him. I thought he was a tremendous teacher. This guy was one of the most solid, powerful teachers I ever heard. And some of you are nodding. You have an idea who I'm... No, that's probably not them. It's none of your business. But the thing is, is that it was amazing to me to watch him because what amazingly happened is he... One time he basically, because I knew the story, I had followed it a little bit, he had raised some money over the airwaves. While at the same time, he was oftentimes taking off after the government and doing different things. And he kind of set himself up for it really. But he was taking off and judging different people and things. But then he went and he raised some money for a fountain of all things in the church and he used the airwaves to do it. And then he never built the fountain. And the government came back and the FCC came. And legally, if you use the airwaves to do something and say you'll do something with it and then you don't do it, it's illegal. And they have a responsibility just as much as if you had a commercial on television that said here, send us this money and we will send you the little Gidget gadget that will, you know, clean your potatoes or something for you. Same laws, same thing, that the government now will go after them and say you deliver that little Gidget gadget or whatever or else you give them their money back. Well, they did that to him and came and said, you said you're putting in a fountain and either you build that fountain or you're going to give the money back. He decided, uh-uh, it's none of your business. There's a separation between church and state. You don't have anything. And they decided, we're going to find chink in your armor. And the next thing you know, the tragic thing that happened is you watched a guy, if you followed him very much, where process by process the guy lost all vision for ministry. He decided he was going to fight and he was going to win and he was going to get it. And although there's battles in life, no question about it, that can happen, but some of them you just bring on yourself. And I know that he thought the whole world was coming after him with unrighteous judgment. No, he was just, the measure at which he had measured it out, it was coming back. There was a biblical principle that I'm sure that he had probably even taught at times himself. But now when it came down to it, looking and saying, you're right, I was wrong, I shouldn't be doing this, rather than doing that. It's interesting on how the next thing you know, it reminds me like with Nehemiah, remember when he went and built the wall and the attacks started coming, but he told his men, when the attacks are there, on one hand he says, carry a sword in hand, but also a brick. Let's never stop building, when the battles come, we're going to keep on building, no matter what else it is in life, and we'll fight off what it is, but we're not going to stop building. And you see sometimes people that drop bricks and throw bricks or whatever else, but stop building and figure we're just going to start fighting and the next thing you know they only get more judgmental. They only get more angry. I was looking at a Christian periodical the other day and the guy that was the evangelist, he has now come out with a book on spiritual warfare. Because he looked and felt like he was so persecuted for all that had happened to him over his defrocking or whatever that happened with him and losing all his TV sorts of ministry. He looks at it as spiritual warfare was coming. I went like, that had nothing to do with spiritual warfare. You were judging and you got judged. Take your licks and shut up. You know, and get on with it. Repent. But there's something about the flesh we want to justify. But the thing is you never win. Because Jesus gave a principle. He said, you do this, they'll come back at you. And he says, why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own? Or how can you say to your own brother, let me remove the speck out of your own eye and look, a plank is in your own eye. Here is something that Jesus says, why do you bother with these things that are in other people's eyes? And yet you don't consider the one that's in your own. And here what he's actually doing, he says, you're seeing something in seed form in somebody else. It's a little thing in theirs, but it's really a huge thing in yours. And this is exactly that same principle. The same thing with David. He, you know, there was a speck in this man's eye that had the sheep, you know, that came there and how he judged it. But in reality, he did it so intently because there was the exact same sin in his own life. The things that if you'll notice about it, that you and I are the most judgmental about other people are the various things that we so often have the same exact things in our own life, the same tendencies. And when we see them in somebody else, so often we get so intense about it. And Jesus says, what gives you any idea that you can take care of that little teeny problem in somebody else's life when you can't solve the same problem in your own life? Why is it that you believe you have an answer for somebody else, but that answer will not be applied to your own vision? How is it that you think you can help somebody else correct their life or their walk or their behavior, but your behavior is much the same? And he's just simply, he's saying, don't do that. He says, because that is hypocrisy. That there Jesus looked and he says, hypocrite. And there Jesus is judging in the right sense of the word when he says hypocrite. And he says, remove the plank that is from your own eye. And then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye. And here essentially to me what Jesus is simply saying, he says, you know, he says if you will let God deal with the plank in your own eye, the beam that's in your own eye, this problem that's in your own heart, your own experience, if you will deal with it, he says then, once that the speck is out of your own eye, you will have the ability and the capacity and the know-how to help somebody else with the same issue. But until you can get out of your own eye, whatever it is that you think you've got isn't any good until it works for you. If it doesn't work for you, don't try it on somebody else. And it's essentially, you know, that what it ought to be is that, you know, what is a speck in somebody else's eye, what is a failure in somebody else's eye to the spiritual man's eye, is terrible to himself. When somebody, when we really look and we see somebody failing, we see sin in their life and we see something wrong, that it ought to be, you know, in a sense that a man himself, rather than being so quick to judge it, he ought to have more of the heart and the capacity and the desire to look and say, God, I have these same things in my life. I have some of these same tendencies. I think anybody, to me, I mean, as I look, and you can pick any figure you want, most, you know, you can look at the, a lot of worldly men and carnal men and evil men and things that they do, and the thing that on one hand, what they do is wrong and as terrible as it is, but the scary thing that ought to be in our own heart, or it sure is in mine, is God, I am not that much different in my thoughts, in my capacity. And God, you know, for you, you must take this out of my eye. You must take it out of my heart. You must take it out of my vision. You must take it away from my sights. I don't want to look at it. And I look at it in my own heart or in my own life so much, and God, until you can remove this, I'm no good for anyone anyway. And, you know, I found that truth very much in my life when I was a young Christian. I remember when I first got saved, and I was one of these guys that I was in college, and I was kind of your typical college fraternity guy, sort of a thing, and the Ivy Leaguer, you know, type guy, and played a little bit of sports, and did enough with kind of fraternity life and a little bit with student government and stuff, and enough that I was kind of, you know, just one, I don't know what I was, but at any rate, the thing that happened is so soon after I got saved, I was tremendously zealous in Campus Crusade for Christ, who I think a lot of, but they kind of picked me up and said, Hey, you want to share your testimony? I was so zealous, I said, Sure, I'll be glad to tell anybody what Jesus has done for me. And I was hardly even saved yet, and immediately I was being taken and shipped on to campuses and asked to share to fraternities and to sororities, and I was before, you know, football squads and talking to different people and telling them what Christ had done in my life. And it was something, the amazing thing is is because the Word of God doesn't return void, there was some remarkable results. There were some amazing things that had happened in my life. When I went, soon after getting saved, and I was in college, and I'll never forget, I had a picture in my room of Jesus on how I thought he looked, and a guy came into my room who had grown up in church, and I had one, it was by a man named Hook, and it was a very masculine, he was a good-looking Nazarene, you know, type guy, had, you know, tough skin, and, you know, just a strong-looking face, and I saw this picture of Jesus, and I was so excited about this, I went and I stuck it in my room. Well, a guy crossed the hall from me, who was the center for the basketball team, one day he came in, and he's looking there, and he says, Who's that? I said, That's Jesus. And he said, That's not Jesus. I said, It is, too. And he said, It is not. He says, I've seen pictures of Jesus my whole life, and that isn't him. And this is a true story. And I said, Well, I don't know what your Jesus looks like, but that's what mine looks like. And he says, Oh, no, he's got long, flowing, golden hair, and curly at the ends, and he's got this, you know, white robe on, it's not a spot-on thing, he's kind of a little frail, and he's got this nice little staff that comes up, and he's got little kids and sheep around him. Everybody's seen him. And I said, That's maybe your Jesus, but it's not mine. Mine went in, and he threw people out of temples, and I couldn't see your one doing that. But mine did it, and that one could do it. So we got into this. Well, he got so interested in the thing, he said, I want to talk to you about this. I was just leaving for a thing. I said, I'll tell you what, you come back after dinner at 7 o'clock, and I'll talk to you. We had about eight guys in our room that night. And a couple of them came to Christ, and so they wanted to come back. Next week we did it again. I can't remember the progression of numbers, but within a few weeks we had 30 or 40 jammed in a little dormitory room. And so we moved downstairs. They let us go down into the common room downstairs in the dorm. And next thing we know we had about 70 or 80. And so then when we got too big for it, they gave us a room in another place in the school where we went up, and we had about 150. But I didn't know anything. All I knew was, That's Jesus. I know that's Him, and He saved me. And I was so zealous, and they're asking me to keep on teaching and telling about Him. And I kept on asking people, Quick, tell me something. They're going to ask me more. And I didn't know anything. I knew a few verses in the Bible. And so Crusade came along, and they said, Hey, look, we'll send you off to this leadership weekend, and they'll teach you all sorts of stuff. So, man, I grabbed every book and every little idea and everything I could and came back with ten basic steps to Christian maturity. And I had everything from the four spiritual laws to the bird book, how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That didn't work. And all sorts of other stuff at the time. It didn't work for me. I don't know why. But at any rate, the thing is, is that I had all of these things, and so I'm just kind of going through these. I'd study them in the afternoon and teach them at night. I didn't know anything, but, man, my life was real messed up at the same time. And I used to go to people, and I'd ask them, Can you help me? And I'd tell them what's going on. And a lot of the ones I knew, they hadn't been Christians much longer than I was. And the ones that I kind of went to for any counsel or help, and I can remember there was a phrase at the time, people would tell me, I never heard it until I became a Christian, Oh, we've got to pray for you. You're under the pile. I'd say, That's quite a pile, too. I mean, I never, so I learned that as, Yeah, we've got to pray for so-and-so. They're under the pile. It was a famous thing from the 60s. But at any rate, and I'd go to people, and all the answers were simple and they were trite until finally I just stopped asking people for help. I didn't think any, and I was just kind of condemned to this life of hypocrisy, hoping I could work my way or grow out of it with time, but I had no one with real answers. And the neatest thing that finally kind of happened was, is that one time I can remember, I was over at my father-in-law's house, and we were talking. And as we were talking, I was very zealous, and I was sensing that I wanted to serve God. I was going through school and business, and determined I didn't know if I'd ever end up in a ministry. I wasn't necessarily looking for that. All I knew is wherever I go, and whatever I do, I want to serve Him. And I had no inclination I'd ever do anything like this with my life. But at the same time, he asked me, he says, What is it that you want to tell people? And I can remember telling him, because he obviously knew it wasn't like you want to tell the gospel. But what is it that, how do you want to help people? And I said, I'll tell you how I want to help. I gave him a long story. I won't go into that. But only basically, I went on how that Moses, when he was in the wilderness, he was in first Canaan, and then he was in the wilderness, and then he got into, I mean Egypt, the wilderness, and then on into the promised land, Canaan. And here, and I had studied it, and I come to find that there was this land, Canaan, where, you know, where they lived in victory, and they lived in blessing and in power. And I saw them in the wilderness, how they just went around in circles, murmuring against God, murmuring against each other, murmuring against Moses. Lives were carnal and weak and pathetic, and I had seen all this. And I told him, I said, I want to find out someday how you get into Canaan. And when you get in there, I want to get in, and then I want to help other people get in. But that will give you an idea of where I was at the time. I was telling all sorts of people how to get out of Egypt, how to get saved, but I knew nothing about how to grow. Nothing about how to be getting solid. I knew nothing of just lordship and its daily attributes of power within the inner man, in the heart, of really, you know, the power of Jesus that way. And finally, I'll never forget, my mother-in-law had been reading a book by Alan Redpath. We'll have it in our bookstore soon. A Victorious Christian Living. We've convinced the publisher to put it back into print. And either that, or I told them I'll print it. So they decided they would. But the thing is, is that it's a wonderful book on the life of Joshua. But in it, there was this wonderful thing on how Joshua had brought the children of Israel into rest. And it was so powerful. It touched me so much. I ended up, he was speaking in Pasadena soon after that. I went to hear him. Ended up buying all his books. And then, later on, I mean, it was so blessed to me just to see the things that this man, as he shared, and the things that, on how to deal with your own heart and with your own life. And it ended up, my father-in-law, at the time, was the chairman of the board of deacons at the church that we were at. And he had been asked to take him out to dinner one night. And so, we went out to dinner and met him. But my mother and father-in-law had already been out with him. They'd already been at dinner and we came there a little bit late. By the time we got there, I didn't know it, but they'd spent all this time telling him about their son-in-law and what a wonderful guy he is and his heart for God and how he's being so tremendously used and God's hands on him. They'd just been going on and on of all this great stuff about me. All lies. But the thing is, is that I came in a little late for dinner and he looked at me and he says, Well, tell me, young man, how are you? I looked at him and I felt I could run the risk that I hadn't done in a good year, year and a half, but I looked at him and I said, Do you really want to know? And he said, Yes. I said, I'm ready to quit. I said, I'm flat ready to quit. I don't know where else I'd go, so I can't give up the Christian life, but I can't succeed at it. And I look at you and for some reason I feel you have something to say to me. And he just smiled. And he said, Maybe. And he ended up, we spent some other times together and he said, Would you like to come live with us for a year? And which we ended up doing. But the thing is, is that, the wonderful thing is that there was a man that I had realized the change that had happened in his own life. He wasn't out preaching, telling everyone else how to get the speck out of their eye. He was a man that you looked at and I realized there's not a speck in his. His vision of God is clear. His understanding of Jesus is rich and deep. He's a man that his Christianity has not been something that's been out dealing, telling everyone else how to do it. His Christianity has not been one that's been trying to fix everybody else in the world. His Christianity has been one that above all else is God help me. Every time I'd listen to him, I'd realize areas that God was touching and working and molding and making and fashioning his own life. And because of the fact that he had allowed God to do it within him and take the specks and the beams and the motes and the planks out of his own eye, is that the result was is that he had a tremendous message to give to anyone else who was having a struggle seeing God. Anyone else that had any obstruction in their own vision. And I've never been so blessed just listening to a man. And here Jesus is saying, essentially says, you learn how to get the speck out of your own eye. You learn to deal with these areas of your own life. Instead of seeing in somebody else's life, getting upset, angry, judging them for it, and at the whole time realizing you've got the same capacities, you've got the same frailties, you're no different at all. We're all, like Alan Redpath used to say, we're all out of the same mold. Just some of us are a little moldier than others, but we're all out of the same mold. And that's the exact truth. Man is man. The nature of man is the nature of man in every human being that's ever been born. We're no different. None of us. We all have the same specks. We all have the same problems. We all have the same frailties of humanness. The only difference is is that when there's somebody saying, God help me. Not help them and fix them so they don't bother me, but God help me. And here Jesus is saying, instead of looking, don't write other people off. Don't say they're too far gone and they're hopeless. But rather than that, in trying to fix everyone else out there, He says, you come and find out what I can do under your skin and in your heart and in your life, and if I can change and resolve it and make you a new person in this area. Now, you can tell somebody else how I did it. And essentially that's all that the ministry ever is. It's all the Christian service ever is. It's simply as somebody once said, that it's just one beggar telling another beggar where he found food. Where he found bread. How God dealt in his life. What it is that strengthened him. What it is that ministered to him. And if it's just pointing to somebody, oh there's food over there, go get it. But they've never gotten it themselves, then it means little. And he says, otherwise you'll take the great truths of God. And he says, you'll cast your pearls before swine. You may have great truths of God. You may have great things that you can preach and that you can share and that you can minister to other people. And he says, but you will find that if they don't work in your own heart and your own life as yet, you'll just be pouring it out and wasting it. And he says, don't give that which is holy to dogs or that which are cast pearls before swine. Unless they trample them under their feet and they turn and they tear you to pieces. If it hasn't worked for you and you preach it them, it won't help them and they'll turn against you. If you're telling other people how to straighten their lives out. And that's of course what happens to most people that do it. They go out and they take the truths of God. They take the precious thing, they take the pearls, they take the gems. Then they're eternal truths but because they haven't worked in that person's life and been applied in their own experience. When they go out and start throwing them at other people, they don't believe they won't work either because we didn't ourselves. They weren't good enough for us but they were good enough for them. And the Bible says forget that stuff. But when somebody can say, God help me. Work in my heart. Work in my life. Now you can help others. Like David himself said after Nabal after God had judged him and dealt with him over the thing and after he had and the wonderful thing in Psalm 51 as he turned there and he asked God he was saying that I created me a new heart. Renew a right spirit in me. And then he goes on and he tells God he says then God if you can do this for me. If you can forgive me as terribly as I've sinned. And you can pick me up and you can wash me and you can cleanse me. He says then I will teach transgressors thy ways. Now God I can go out and tell somebody how deep you can work in them. If you can do it under my skin. If you can do it in my heart. Now I have a message that will really help others that are in the same predicament of failure as me. But when we like David want to throw it out and judge people. When we ourselves have not been touched. We're in trouble. It's no good for anybody. But oh when we can let the judgment fall on us. And say God deal with my heart. Deal with my life. Get me where you want me. Teach me. Mold me. Fashion me. He says then you'll have something to help other people with. And that's what the gospel is all about. It's not perfect people telling imperfect people how they became perfect. It's just people that are imperfect that have been forgiven and are being washed and Lordship is coming in saying how I got forgiven. And how I got touched. And how I was repented. And how God helped me. That's it. That's the wonderful thing. Let's pray. Father how we thank you for your word. And we thank you Lord for the power of it. The wonder of it. And yet the simplistic practicality of it. Lord I pray that you through if there is anything within us to where we look and just want to write off people. Say we're through with them. May they be coals for the fires of hell. Lord if we would even think that way. Lord help us and forgive us. Lord take the weapon out of our heart that would want to strike another or judge another. And Father help us to realize that the things that so often we are so hostile and angry about with other people are things where we fail ourselves. And in those areas when we can just bow before you and say oh God help me then. Help me in this area of my life. Touch me in this way. Make me a messenger of your mercy, of your love, of your grace, of your humility, of your servanthood. Instead of reigning over and ruling and dictating. God may we be ones or may we be ones that are willing servants of others that when the day would come that they need help, that they would even see something in us that they would want to come and say how did God change you? How is he working within you? Lord that we could be ones that wouldn't point at others. But rather than that our lives would so point to you and your ongoing ministry within our lives. What you're doing today, what you're teaching us today, how we're growing today. And Lord that through that we can then reach out to someone else and bring them with us. Lord that we can just be a beggar who has told another where we found bread. And so Father we ask that you just take your word, hide it in our hearts. We ask it in Jesus name.