The Judgment of the Kingdom

The year was 1906, when Ed Johnson, a young African American from Chattanooga, Tennessee, was sentenced to death for sexually assaulting a white woman. However, not everyone was convinced that Johnson was guilty of the crime. Why not? For several reasons. For example, the victim was never able to identify Johnson as the attacker, And their was deep-seeded bias within the all-white jury, as one of the jurors even stood up in the trial and openly threatened violence against Johnson. As a result of all of this, the Supreme Court halted Johnson's execution, because the evidence just didn’t add up.

However, the residents of Chattanooga would hear nothing of it, for their minds were made up! Johnson was guilty, and there was no way THEY would let him get away with it. And so ignoring the Supreme Court’s order, a mob of white men, women, and children took this young man up to the Walnut Street Bridge, tied a noose around his neck and hung him to death as they sprayed his body with bullets. All because they were SO SURE that He had done it! They were positive that he was 100% guilty. And so they took it upon themselves, to be the judge, juror, and executioner.

However, it wasn’t until years later that two white lawyers proved that Ed Johnson was 100% innocent of the crime he had been charged with, and the mob had not only judged him without the authority to do so, but they had judged him wrongly. And when the Supreme court, the highest court in the land, found out what the residents of Chattanooga had done... When they found out how they had blatantly disregarded their orders, killing an innocent man, their anger and punishment came down swiftly and justly against the town’s sheriff, the members of law enforcement, and those other town members who made up the mob, finding them guilty of their crimes of wrongful judgment.

In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says: 1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

In our passage this morning, Jesus is warning us of the dangers of wrongful judgment. He’s warning us of the danger of vigilante justice, and trying to take matters into our own hands, And if we do take matters into our own hands, just like the residents of Chattanooga found out, we will be judged and found guilty.

As we have seen so far in Jesus’ sermon the mount, Jesus is describing Kingdom citizens. He’s telling us what they are like and how they will and should behave. And so beginning a new chapter this morning, we are looking at Matthew 7, verses 1-6, which tell us about how Kingdom Citizens understand judgment of others. And so if you have your Bible’s, turn with me to our passage this morning where we will see the 3 things that Kingdom Citizens understand about judging. And here they are.

Kingdom citizens understand that judging others is:

1. Dangerous (v. 1-2)
2. Hypocritical (v. 3-4)
3. Necessary (v. 5-6)

1. Dangerous (v. 1-2)

Why is judging dangerous? Several reasons. But one is this. Ever heard the expression “Don’t judge a book by its cover?” Yet we often do, don’t we? We often draw conclusions that we have no business drawing, based upon very little information!

Have you ever met a person, and your first impression was like, not even in the ball park of accurate? They ended up basically being the opposite of who you thought they were? And has drawing those wrong conclusions, or “JUDGMENTS” - ever gotten you intro trouble? Has it ever led you into gossip? “Oh that person is ruuuudddeeee! Talk about unfriendly! Man they are stuck up!” And then when you actually have a conversation that’s longer than 30 seconds, you find out they are one of the most friendly people you’ve ever met. Am I the only one who’s ever done that?

One of the reasons we shouldn’t judge is because we often make wrong, short-sighted judgments! We think that our perception is the reality, when it’s just our perception, and our perception is often wrong!

Have you ever one side of the story, and then drew a different conclusion once you heard the other side? Proverbs talks about this.

¹⁷ The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.

Proverbs 18:17 ESV

The truth is, we all make assumptions, and it is often the case that the assumptions we draw are just flat out wrong. Which gets us into trouble. Why? Because wrong judgment has a boomerang effect upon us.

Look at what Jesus tells us in verses 1 and 2: He is saying that we shouldn’t judge others, because if we do, then that’s the measurement we are going to be judged by. So, if you wanna go around and judge people with law, then guess what bub. You’ll be judged by law too! See, that’s what’s the Pharisees were doing, and that’s why Jesus condemns them over and over during His earthly ministry. The Pharisees thought they were righteous in God’s eyes. Why? Because they thought they upheld God’s law. But as Jesus keeps pointing out in the sermon on the mount, they don’t even come close! What does Jesus tell them?

²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:20 ESV

And then if that wasn’t shocking enough, Jesus goes on to show how their standard of righteousness, doesn’t even come CLOSE to matching God’s standard!

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Matthew 5:21-22 ESV

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:27-28 ESV

And the rightful response to this is: “WHO THEN CAN BE RIGHTEOUS!” “WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?” “NONE OF US CAN DO THIS!”

In which Jesus’s response is: “Riiight.” Which is why Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, Matthew 5:17-18 (ESV) that He didn’t come to abolish the law whatsoever! but to FULFILL IT! And so either we fulfill it, or we look to Christ to fulfill what we can never fulfill! Which is called: GRACE! For in Christ lawbreakers like you and I can be JUSTIFIED and make RIGHT before a Holy God! Which leads our hearts to then sing of that marvelous grace that we’ve received!

And do you wanna one of the biggest indicators that you haven’t received that marvelous grace? You don’t give it to others... You don’t measure others by the same standard you claim to be asking God to measure you by.

Do you know we are actually doing when we judge others? We are going back to the law... We are looking to moral obedience as the basis by which God accepts sinners. And do any us really want that? Absolutely not.

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23 ESV

“Now wait a minute pastor, are you saying that if I judge others then I’m gonna somehow lose my salvation and be judged by God?” Come on now, why you even asking me that? You all know what the Bible says about this. Someone who’s been brought form spiritual death to spiritual life, doesn’t have a spiritual heart attack and die. That’s not how this works. We we weren’t saved by our works, which means we definitely don’t STAY saved by our works. We are saved by Christ work, and we stay saved by Christ continued work within us!

⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

So what is Jesus saying here then? There’s one of two judgments that we will fall into: The first one we just mentioned: If you judge everybody by law, that’s a strong indicator you’re still trusting in the law to save you, And if that’s you, then one day you’re gonna find out just how greatly you fall short of God’s law as you stand before the great white throne judgment and are judged and damned to hell by a Holy God.

The second judgment is not the great white throne judgment, but the bema seat judgment. And this is not a judgment of ETERNAL DESTINY, but one of ETERNAL REWARD.

As we read in our Scripture reading earlier from Romans 14: Romans 14:10 (ESV) 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;

There is no question - that’s talking about a judgment of believers, not unbelievers. Also:

¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

Look, this is a grace-preaching church, yet, we must not forget that their are still eternal consequences for this life. This is one of the reasons we are very slow at putting people into positions of authority or teaching. Why? Because as James 3:1 says:

¹ Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

James 3:1 ESV

And so when it comes to eternal judgment, it’s one or other here. If we are trusting in our obedience to the law to save us, then we will be judged by God by that law, and we will fall short of it. However, if we have been saved by grace, and we continue to judge others by the law (instead of grace as we should), then we’re going to face consequences for that in the life to come. But there’s one more area of judgment for those us saved by grace. We also will face consequences in this life.

⁶ For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

Hebrews 12:6 NASB95

In a little bit here, we will be taking the Lord’s supper, and in that passage what does it say about Christians who continue to live in un-confessed, unrepentant sin?

²⁸ Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰ That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹ But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

1 Corinthians 11:28-31 ESV

Let me you a question: What does it take to look at another believer in Christ and judge them? Jesus’ half brother James tells us:

¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

James 4:11-12 ESV

James is telling us that when we self-righteously judge our fellow servants in Christ, we are attempting Divine mutiny! He’s saying we are just like the Chattanooga lynch mob who said: “Ya know what Supreme Court, we don’t give a hoot what you think, we know what justice is here!” When we judge others, we sit upon God’s Divine throne and the sovereign Lord and judge - which we have absolutely NO RIGHT TO DO! For one, because that’s God’s job, but for two, it makes us flaming hypocrites! Which leads us to our second point.

Kingdom citizens understand that judging others is:

2. Hypocritical (v. 3-4)

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

Jesus’s illustration here is pretty comical actually. He’s pointing out the blatant hypocrisy is the self-righteous judgment of one sinner over the next. See, here is what we do. Do you know what the worse sins are? The ones I don’t struggle with...

Yeah, maybe I used struggle with them, but that was a really long time ago. I mean, that was like so last week. And do you know what it takes to start thinking that way? The sin of self-righteousness, which is the only sin, if not repented from, will damn you. Right? Look, don’t get me wrong, as Christians, we are self-righteous sometimes, but if we have never come to recognize our absolute need and dependence upon the grace of God for our righteousness.... Do you see the problem?

The truth is, we are ALL SINNERS who can ONLY be saved by the grace of God.

Do you remember what James and John, the sons of thunder, asked Jesus after a Samaritan village rejected Him? “Lord, do you want us to command down fire from heaven and destroy them?” And how does Jesus respond? He turns and rebukes them for it.

It was like they were saying: “Hey Jesus, can we wipe out the sinners now!?” And Jesus is like: “Yeah… ya know, I don’t think you want that...” “Cuz that includes you too boys!”

You wanna know one of the fastest, if not THE fastest ways to destroy a gospel-believing church? Start getting all judgy and self-righteous towards each other. I’m serious. That will burn this place to the ground faster than gasoline and a match.

Instead of looking at each other as saved saints, start looking at each other as sinners. What do I mean by that? I mean this. Every, single one of us who has been saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ is viewed by God as being as perfect as Christ Himself. I don’t care if you’re the most nominal, weak, pathetic, spiritually smelly, lazy Christian in this church - before God, you are as HOLY, as PERFECTED, as SPOTLESS as God’s perfect Son.

Now, for some of you Christians who are a bit more spiritually mature - does that give you heart burn at all? Do you feel a sense of injustice rising up in you?

How do you view your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you see them as God sees them? Or are you viewing them self-righteously because you have an inflated view of your spiritual maturity?

⁷ For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

1 Corinthians 4:7 NIV

If we aren’t careful, we can start thinking our job is to be each other’s holy spirit. We can start thinking it’s our job to be the church’s “sin detector” and go around and self-righteously blast anything that moves. But do you see how hypocritical that is? We are going around making a huge fuss about a tiny speck in someone else’s eye, with a log in our own! And if anything qualifies as a log when it comes to sin, self-righteous LEGALISM IS IT!

Do you see what they wear to church? Do you see what they eat and drink? Did you see the Bible translation they use?

For the record, I’m not saying you can’t have opinions on those things - we all do. But what I am saying is that if the Bible doesn’t say it, then the Bible doesn’t say it. And even when it does say it, we are never given a license to kill - which is exactly what legalism is!

When it comes to hypercritical, log in the eye, judgy legalists, have you ever noticed they can dish it all day long, but they can’t take it? While they’ll be the first to tell you they have the spiritual gift of rebuke, they will throw the biggest tantrum ever when you point out something in them. And why is that? It’s because their concern isn’t actually for righteousness! Instead, they are simply concerned with building their own ego.

Church, we have to be so careful here. Do you ever find yourself pleased when you hear about the sin of another believer? Do you find yourself happy when someone who’s sinned against you in the past falls? That’s dangerous ground!

How about this? Or - Do you find satisfaction is pointing out the wrong beliefs in others, and even take joy in mocking them?

Look, ya’ll know my spiritual gift is sarcasm, but here’s the thing. While a proper use of sarcasm can be extremely effective at making a point - as Jesus often does. One of the major dangers is that it can open our hearts up to self-righteousness. No longer are we concerned about warning people of that false teacher, instead, we feel good poking them in the eye because it makes us feel morally superior by comparison.

Do we have time for a C. S. Lewis quote this morning? Trick question: We ALWAYS have time for a C. S. Lewis quote. And this one stings a little. Lewis writes: “Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, “Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that”, or... is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything - God and our friends and ourselves included - as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.”

That’s scary stuff, is it not?

Instead of a hateful, hypercritical attitude, what attitude are we to have? The attitude of Christ, which was one of love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV) 4 Love is patient, love is kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Church, is this us? Or, are we going around concerned about specks when the log of legalism is in our eye?

³² Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

A heart that appreciates the grace it has received, will extend that same grace towards others, which then, and only then will allow our judgments to help and not harm one another. For grace-filled judgment is absolutely necessary for a church to be healthy and strong. Which leads us to our final point.

Kingdom citizens understand that judging others is:

3. Necessary (v. 5-6)

5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

This actually makes me a little bit grumpy that we don’t have more time this morning to deal with these last two verses, because verse 6 is an especially difficult one. But whatever, we’ll do the best we can here.

Now, if we had stopped after verse 4 we’d be in some HUGE trouble as a church, because we’d be just like our culture who loves to quote the first part of verse 1: “Hey man don’t judge man!” And the Bible is crystal clear, we have to judge each other, but not with a self-righteous, legalistic, hypercritical spirit, we have to judge each other with grace and love. For example: You all have to hold me accountable as your pastor. If I’m not teaching God’s Word accurately, you need to remove me. And, if I’m not living up to the biblical qualifications for a pastor as given in 1 Timothy 3, it doesn’t matter if you like me or think my kids are cute, God commands you stop me, or leave if you can’t. And to do determine that, what must you do? Judge. The same thing goes for church discipline. But to do all of that, we have to do what verse 5 says, and make sure their isn’t the log of legalism isn’t in our eye. Alright, you get the idea here, right? Verses 5 and 6 is the countermeasure to verses 1-4

Alright, now for the trixy verse - look at verse 6. It’s got dogs, it’s got pearls, it’s got pigs. What’s Jesus talking about here?

See, in the Bible, and there’s a whole lot more too it than this, but pigs and dogs are considered unclean animals. And so what does it take to identify someone who’s unclean? What does it take to identify someone as a dog or a pig? Judgment. Right?

OK, now what are the pearls? I told you this verse was more difficult. If we look at the parable of the pearl of Great Price in Matthew 13, and the context here, it seems like the pearl is speaking of the kingdom immense worth! Right? The kingdom is like a man who found a pearl hidden in a field, and he sold all he had to gain it, which the kids sang about last week for us. So yeah. Pearl = Kingdom Value.

And so Jesus is saying, yes, absolutely do not judge each other with self-righteous, legalistic judgment... But, you have to judge righteous judgment!

And so practically, here is what Jesus is saying: Yes we are to share the truths of the Kingdom, but, it’s not our job to force people to accept it! Do pigs like pearls? Of course not. You can’t eat a pearl... And Pigs only care about food and becoming a fatter pig. And if you start throwing pearls at pigs when all they want is food, they are likely gonna get mad and attack you. And so we need to use discernment, wisdom, and grace in how we approach people. We don’t just give them a canned gospel message. We gracefully judge the person and the situation in order to respond wisely.

Proverbs 26 is a really good example of this:

⁴ Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. ⁵ Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

Proverbs 26:4-5 ESV

That’s not a contradiction, so what’s it saying? It’s saying that sometimes you answer a fool according to their folly, and sometimes you don’t. And the difference is... WISDOM. We don’t argue with people just to win the argument. We don’t argue with them to one-up them so we can fell more intelligent or morally superior. No, we use wisdom and discernment so that we might effectively share the ultimate pearl of them all, which is Christ.

Christ is the ultimate pearl, Christ is the ultimate treasure, And because He is, we don’t dare judge wrongly with a self-righteous, legalistic attitude. And when Christ is our treasure, why would we even need to? I don’t need to convince myself that I’m more righteous than all of you, because that’s not the basis of my righteousness anymore. It’s CHRIST’S PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS! And when Christ is your righteousness, you can finally stop judging others and love them as Christ loved you.

When Ed Johnson stood there on the bridge, with the rope around his neck, moments before they crowd enacted their unjust judgment upon him, he looked the crowd and said: “I am innocent, God bless you all.” Why did he say this? How could He say this?

He could say this because he had been radically saved by the wonderful grace of God, which is a grace that leads us to love and forgive other sinners, because the song of our heart now sings:

“Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!”

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.