Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date September 15, 2024
Text Matthew 7:1-14
Pastor Paul Lehmann
Too often in our Christian life, we discover that Christians have a high possibility, but may be guilty of low performance. This often happens in a lot of areas of our life. When I was in grade school, before we got letter grades about 6th or 7th grade, my teachers always wrote one of two things. Either it was: “Paul talks too much” or “Paul isn’t working up to his ability.”
The high degree of success attained by our machinery in the mechanical age of the first ¾ of the last century is due to efficiency, and efficiency is the relation of a machine’s performance to its possibility or potential. The same is true in the more recent high technological age that we are in, Efficiency in the hi-tech age is the relation of a computer’s performance to its potential. Of course, the real problem is not the computer’s potential, but the users understanding of using it.
I do not even come close to utilizing the potential of my computer. You know the “Dummy “books you can buy? : Like “Baking for Dummies” or “Electricity for Dummies.” Well: the book “How to Use the Computer—for Dummies’} —- I even had trouble understanding that..
:A Christian’s efficiency is the relation of performance to possibility, we then ask, “What are the possibilities of Christianity?” More specifically—what is our potential as a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian? It is unbelievably supernatural. That is if we are living our lives directed, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Having said that, we have to be careful not to overstate ourselves here and put the possibility so high that the performance could never match it or even approximate it. The answer of Jesus’ purpose, is sufficient. He said, in John 10:10; …”I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ( more abundantly (KJV) or in all its fullness_. That is above the average, above the crowd. This is our possibility or our potential.
We all probably feel that our possibility far exceeds our performance.
But we should do what Paul did when he felt the same way. We read in Phil. 3:13-14;…”I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, (that is the power ot the resurrection), but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
We human beings display a vast capacity for self-deception. For example, we are in danger of changing righteousness into self-righteousness, and perfection into a perfect reputation; but we accomplish this so cleverly that we are at best only vaguely aware of the monstrosity we have created.
Against all such types of righteousness, Jesus strongly denounced in chapter 6 verses 1-18 where he teaches about giving to the needy, and then on prayer. — and he gives searching counter-demands in verses 19-34 where he teaches about fasting, money, and worry.
Now in Matthew chapter 7, He warns against two other dangers:
FIRST OF ALL—THE DANGER OF BEING JUDGEMENTAL
- In verse 1, we have the command. “Do not judge! It is easy to see how powerful and dangerous the temptation to be judgmental can be. The challenge to be holy has been taken seriously, and a fair degree of discipline, service, and formal obedience has been painstakingly won. Now, I tell myself, I can look down my long nose at my less disciplined peers and colleagues (our brothers and sisters in Christ). Or perhaps I have actually experienced a generous measure of God’s grace, but somehow I have misconstrued it and come to think that I have earned it.
As a result, I may look critically at those
whose vision, in my view, is not as large as my own,
whose faith is not as stable,
whose grasp of the deep truths of God is not as masterful,
whose service record is not as impressive (in man’s eyes, at least),
whose efforts have not been as substantialYou see, people are diminished in our eyes; we consider their values as people inferior to our own values.
The harping, critical attitude may become so poisonous that men whose spiritual stature, personal integrity, and useful service, that are really superior to us, somehow emerge as spiritual pygmies and intellectual paupers by the time we have finished our ungodly assessment of them.
Jesus warns in the Sermon on the Mount–do not judge or you too will be judged. There is a wide range of meanings to the word used here which we translate as judge. To judge can mean to discern, to judge judicially, to be judgmental, to condemn (judicially or otherwise.) The context must determine the precise shade of meaning. The context here argues that the vese means do not be judgmental do not adopt a CRITICAL SPIRIT, a condemning attitude. The Living Bible simply says, Don’t criticize
The same verb is found twice, with identical meaning in Romans 14:10 “You then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written as surely as I live, says the Lord, Every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.” –So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.”
We know we are to:” judge prophets:” we see that in I I Corinthians. We also know that there is the gift of discernment. It is a Christian’s responsibility to discern if a person’s attitude or spirit is of God or not. However we sometimes jump to the conclusion that if it isn’t of God it must be a demon. But we must realize that our human sinful nature can cause us to speak and act like out in the flesh and not the Spirit. That’s when we need the gift of discernment in order to tell the difference. We know that we should tell the difference –“by their fruit.” We often here the defense of someone with a critical spirit; “I’m not being judgmental, I’m just a fruit inspector”
Dr D.A. Carson in his book on the Sermon on the Mount, says; “the one who says that usually, has taken on himself some special role. What is fundamentally at stake he thinks is attitude. This is clearly seen in that particular kind of critical spirit found in gossip. It is not always the case that what the gossip says is malicious; what one says might in fact be strictly true. But it is always the case that the person says it maliciously; that is he speaks without any desire to build up, or any real concern to instill discernment. That person wants only to puff himself up, or to be heard, or to enhance his own reputation, or to demean the person about whom he is speaking.
James 2:12-13 tells us; “ Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.”
The point of verses 1-2 in our text is not that we should be moderate in our judging in order that others will be moderate toward us, but rather that we should abolish judgmental attitudes lest we ourselves stand utterly condemned before God. Chapter 6 verse 14 reminds us: “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy—For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive man their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
It seems that Jesus in these two verses is using this belief to drive home his point—the measure we use, when criticizing others, will be applied to us.
For instance: When we criticize someone for not telling the truth. How truthful are we? Do we slant the truth, or exaggerate to make us look better? Or perhaps we apply God’s standard of justice to wealthy people who exploit the poor by unfair practices and greed. But how often have we been greedy? How often have we robbed others of value for money in our work? Robbing our employer of time.
Mal. 3:3-8 talks about robbing God. “you have (cheated me) robbed me of tithes and offerings. Do we rob God of his tithe?
Verse 3 shows what we usually do. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust (splinter) in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank (or log or beam) in your own eye?”
Verse 4 : ‘How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
You may remember the illustration of this that I have used before, and so has Pastor Wayne. There was a young preacher in a country church that peached sermons to encourage his people to do greater things for God. There was a deacon who did little and seemed to care less. It caused the pastor great concern. On several occasions the preacher would tell him exactly what he thought, but the deacon never got the point. He always thought he was talking about someone else. One Sunday, the preacher made it plainer in his message to whom he was talking about. After the service the deacon said, Preacher you sure told them today..” The next Sunday it rained so hard that no one was at the church except this one deacon. The pastor thought that he would now know about whom he was talking about. The sermon went straight to the deacon who was the only one there. Following the service, the deacon told the pastor; “Preacher you sure told them if they had been here.”
We ae so like that! We never see our own faults or sin, we never recognize the beam in our own eye. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is in the Bible. After David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then had her husband sent to the front lines of the battle so that he would be killed and he was. II Sam. 12:1-7. David just couldn’t see that the prophet Nathan was talking about him. Nathan told David this story:
There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing, but had a little lamb he had worked hard to buy. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate, and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing a lamb from his own flock for food, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and served it to his guests.
David was furious. As surely as the Lord lives, he vowed any man who would do such a thing desires to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity. Then Nathan said to David—YOU ARE THAT MAN. Verse 13 says; Then David confessed to Nathan’,” I have sinned against the Lord.” Then Nathan said; Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. So we have the danger of being judgmental and not seeing our own faults and sins, the plank in our eye, but seeing the speck in someone else’s eye.
The second danger is;
- THE DANGER OF BEING UNDISCRIMINATING
After warning us against being judgmental, Jesus warns us against being undiscriminating, especially in our choice of people to whom we present the wonderful riches of the gospel. He says; “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. –If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”
the dogs Jesus is referring to is not the nice cuddly or domesticated house pets with wagging tails and affectionate natures. They are semi-wild hounds (pariah dogs), vagabonds and mongrels that roamed the streets and hills, tongues hanging form their mouths and burrs clinging to their filthy coats of fir, as they rummage for food in savage packs in the city’s rubbish dumps. The pigs were not only an unclean animal for the Jews, but were probably derived from the European wild boar and was capable of certain violence. The two animals together serve as a model of people who are savage, vicious and hold an abomination. These two are brought together in a negative context again in II Peter 2:22 …”of them (that is, certain people), the proverbs are true, ‘a dog returns to it’s vomit, and a sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.’” The reference is to the fact that unbelievers, whose nature has never been renewed, possess physical or animal life, but not spiritual or eternal life, and unless they respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to accept the good news of the gospel, they will respond as in the picture that Jesus sketches—of a man holding a bag of precious pearls, confronting a pack of hulking hounds and some wild pigs. When he throws a few pearls to them, they pounce on them thinking they are food, but when they discover they are hard, and tastless, they turn on the man and tear him to pieces. Jesus applied the same principle to the ministry of the twelve when he gave them his charge before sending them out on their first mission. He warned them that in every town and house they entered, although some people would be receptive or “worthy”, others would be unreceptive or unworthy. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words; “shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.” The important thing to understand here is that this Eastern saying means to “shake off the animosity and bitter feelings which arose between another and you as you leave, so that you may go on your way with your heart full of peace and joy, as a Godly person should. You must never take with you the dust of hatred and resentment; shake it off and leave it behind so you may continue with a pure heart.
Have a spirit of discernment and don’t be judgmental. Take a look at the log in your own eye, before you criticize anyone without discerning their motives or attitudes. And finally use that gift of discernment to determine who is open to receiving the gospel.