In this compelling discussion, Adrian Rogers takes a deep dive into the reasons behind our judgmental spirits. With reference to scripture, he warns how the standards we set for others often return to judge us. Listen in to gain a fresh perspective on how self-righteousness and insecurity fuel the way we judge and learn how, through Christ, we are called to a higher standard of love and mercy.
Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.
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Take God’s Word and turn now to Matthew chapter 7. We’re continuing through the Sermon on the Mount. And today… We come to a very interesting passage of Scripture. We’re going to read Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 through 6 in a moment. The title of my message is a little different today, When Yardsticks Become Boomerangs. You’ll find out why I called it that in just a moment. Let’s look in verse 1. Our Lord says, Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge? ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye. And behold a beam.” is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. NOW SO FAR IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, OUR LORD HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD AND OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THINGS. AND NOW IN CHAPTER 7, HE BEGINS TO TALK ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER PEOPLE. AND HE BEGINS OUT SPEAKING ABOUT, I SUPPOSE, ONE OF THE MOST TREACHEROUS THINGS IN HUMAN NATURE. It is our human nature to put other people before us that we might judge them. And so we want to measure them, adjudicate them guilty, and then in our hearts and minds condemn them. And we all have our measuring rods. We all have our tape measures. We all have our yardsticks by which we measure and then judge other people. But our Lord says that that yardstick will become a boomerang. That is, the very yardstick that you use to judge somebody else with is what you’re going to be judged with. It’s going to come back to you in a deadly way. And turn now to Matthew chapter 7. Let’s look in verse 1. Our Lord says, “…judge not.” that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Your yardstick will become a boomerang. I want to mention three or four reasons why human beings judge other people. First of all, because of our iniquity. Look, if you will, in verse 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considereth not the beam that is in thine own eye? Here’s a man with a saw log in his eye looking for sawdust in somebody else’s eye. Don’t tell me the Lord Jesus didn’t have a sense of humor. Here’s a man trying to practice spiritual ophthalmology and he’s got a plank in his eye. Now, who is the Lord talking to? He’s talking to hypocrites. Now, look in verse 5. Thou hypocrite. Learn this, friend. It is the hypocritical that are hypercritical. You say, well, why do you say hypercritical? Well, I want to ask you a question. Is there sawdust in my eyes? Does anybody here know whether I’ve got a speck in my eye? You don’t know. You know why? You got to get real close and look real hard to see it, right? I mean, in order for you to find out, you’ve got to come up and inspect me. Isn’t that right? You have got to get up close. If you see a speck in my eye, I’ll guarantee you made an extra effort to find it, didn’t you? I mean, you have to look for it. You have to get up and inspect me very carefully. Now, wouldn’t you be ludicrous if you had a big two before in your eye coming up here looking for a speck in my eye? That’s what our Lord Jesus Christ is talking about. You see, listen, it is the hypocritical that are hypercritical. People find what they are looking for. Every church has its own speck hunters. They specialize in specks, moats, examiners of other people. You will get what you are looking for if you wanted somebody to survey the landscape for you. Suppose you got a buzzard and you sent a buzzard out and you said, “‘Mr. Buzzard, go survey the landscape.'” And he would fly over the meadows and the streams and the brooks and the flowers and the fleecy clouds and come back and you would say, Mr. Buzzard, what did you see? He’d say, I saw a dead cow with maggots in it. Because that’s what he’d be looking for. That’s what he’d be looking for. You see, it’s the hypocrite. It’s the hypocrite who sees in others really what is in himself. All we see when we judge others, or what we see generally when we judge others, is a reflection of what is in our own hearts. That’s what our Lord is saying. Here’s a man with a saw log looking for sawdust. I heard about an old grandmother who would go into the house and she would dust and then dust again and then dust again, kept on dusting the furniture and polishing the furniture because she said, it’s dusty. Finally, they took off her glasses and they were covered with dust. What she was seeing was just simply herself. Let me tell you what God says. Turn to Romans chapter 2 for a moment. And look, if you will, in Romans chapter 2. Boy, I’m telling you, if God doesn’t excoriate the judgmental person here, look in verses 1 through 3. Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. Your yardstick becomes a boomerang. For thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things and doest the same, that thou shall escape the judgment of God? In chapter 1, the Apostle Paul of Romans, he’s talking about the pagan, the ungodly, the sins of the flesh. In chapter 2, he’s talking about the religious man and the sins of the spirit. You dress so nicely. You look so nice. You have a Bible. You’re glad to judge the thief, the prostitute, the murderer, the pimp, the drug pusher, the pervert. You wouldn’t do any of those things. But your heart is headquarters for hatred. You reek with pride. You’re stuff full of self-righteousness. And you judge other people. Jesus Christ had far more to say to the Pharisees who were so full of self-righteous pride about their sin than he said to the harlot, the thief, the down and out. You know one of the great dangers? That we’re egomaniacs strutting to hell thinking we’re too good to be damned and we judge other people. We’re full of lust and ambition, pride. Oh, we don’t commit adultery. We don’t steal. But God sees our heart. God sees the wickedness that flows out of our heart. The sin of the flesh can be so easily… Hidden in the heart, but God sees it. You remember the story there in the Gospel of Luke? Two men went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and he prayed, Father, I thank you that I’m not like other men. I tithe, I fast, I attend the worship service, and God, most of all, I thank you that I’m not like this publican. The publicans, they were the tax collectors and the offscaring of society. And Jesus said to the old publican, he’s praying. He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven. He beats himself upon the chest and he says, Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Actually, the Greek says, the sinner. He saw himself as the worst sinner of all. Lord, I thank you that I am not like other men, like this man. And Jesus said, that man went home justified. The other man just went home. I’ll tell you another reason that we judge, not only because of our iniquity, but because of our insecurity. Envy digs the mud that jealousy throws at success. We’re so insecure. We want to judge other people by our standards because if we can get them to look like us, act like us, and do like us, then we feel better. Somehow it makes us feel better. In Greek mythology, there was a chieftain. He was a robber. And his name was Procrustes. And he would go out and capture people and dragged them into his cave. And in his cave, he had an iron bed. Have you ever heard of the iron bed of Procrustes? And he put people on the bed. That’s what he measured them with. If they didn’t fit his bed, if they were not long enough, he would stretch them until they would fit his bed. If they were too long, he would lop off their legs. And he made everybody… fit the bed that he thought was just right. Now we do that. We have the bed that suits us. And we say everybody else has got to be just like me. You better thank God that they’re not. Many times because of our iniquity we judge. Many times because of our insecurity we judge. Many times because of our ignorance we judge. We judge people we don’t know enough. That’s the reason I’m so glad that God is the judge. The Apostle Paul there in 1 Corinthians, there were some people who were judging him. You know the people always like to judge preachers. They think they’ve been called of God to do that, you know. And they were judging the Apostle Paul. And you know what the Apostle Paul said to them? He said, it’s a small thing with me that you judge me. He said, I don’t even judge me. He said, we’ll wait till the Lord comes and makes known the counsels of men’s hearts. Then shall every man have praise of God. What did he mean by that? He said, I don’t even know enough to judge myself. So how on earth are you going to judge me if I can’t even judge me? I’m on the inside looking out. You’re on the outside looking in. And Paul said, I can’t even judge me. How are you going to do it? You see, our ignorance causes us to judge other people. I was reading about a lady. She went into the airport waiting on her plane. She thought she would have some cookies and a cup of tea. So she went into the little shop like they have there and bought her a bag of cookies, went and sat down, had her cup of tea, and she noticed that the man sitting next to her just reached over and opened her bag of cookies and took one out. She thought, now that is some nerve. Well, she said, I’m going to eat my cookies anyway. So she reached in and took a cookie and began to eat it. And he finished the one he ate and reached in and got another one. She didn’t know what to do. She was embarrassed, but she would take one and he would take one. Finally, there was one cookie left. He reached down and broke it in half. And ate it. She was so steamed. She set up all of the gall, the nerve of that guy. Anyway, she gathered her stuff. The plane was called. She got, sat down on the plane, still steamed, opened her purse to get a tissue, and there was her bag of cookies. None of us is wise enough to judge another person. We don’t have all of the facts even when we’re certain that we do. Thank God there is one good enough. one wise enough, one loving enough to judge me and to judge you. And the Bible says, shall not the judge of all heaven and earth do right? Put this verse down in your margin. Romans 14, verse 4. Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand up. I’ll tell you another reason we judge. Not only because of our iniquity and not only because of our insecurity and not only because of our ignorance, but because of our insensitivity. Do you know the Bible says of the Lord Jesus in John the third chapter, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Many times we’re quick to judge and condemn those that God wants to save. Maybe we do know all of the facts. Maybe they do deserve to burn in hell. But I don’t want them to go there. Do you? I cringe every time I hear one individual tell another individual, you go to hell. You go to hell. Who are you to tell someone If you know Jesus Christ, your heart ought to be yearning, burning, loving that they go to heaven. When you tell an individual to go to hell, it makes me believe, dear friend, you probably are headed there. Because what judgment you meet, it’ll be measured to you again. And that yardstick… is going to become a boomerang that’s going to come right back to you. With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Our Lord is full of compassion. We’re so insensitive that we judge. When Jesus Christ saw Zacchaeus, that little man down there in Jericho, climbed a tree that he might see the Lord, that tax gatherer, he was a thief. But Jesus, when he saw him, Jesus didn’t say, Hey, listen. You black-hearted son of the devil, you skin-flint, get down out of that tree. And Jesus said, hey, Zach, come on down, buddy. I want to go have dinner with you today. Jesus loved him. And Jesus did not condemn him. Well, what is our text telling us? We must apply wise discrimination to We must avoid wicked condemnation. We must apply wise discrimination. We’ve got to know the difference between logs and hogs and dogs and wolves in sheep’s clothing. We’ve got to know that. God has given us some standards. God teaches us that we are to choose what is right and refuse what is wrong. But, oh, our hearts are to be filled with mercy and compassion and forgiveness with those who need it. And if not, what is going to happen? Let me show you another verse here, and then I’m almost finished. But turn to the book of James. Look, if you will, in chapter 2 and verse 13. James 2, verse 13. “‘For he shall have judgment without mercy.'” that showed no mercy. But oh, look at the next part of that. And mercy, mercy rejoices against judgment. Don’t you love that? When I stand before God, I’ll tell you what I want. I want mercy. I need mercy. And I don’t want to judge you because if I do, I won’t have any mercy. I want to see every man, every woman, every boy, every girl as God sees them. And God loves them all. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God is a God of love. God does not rejoice in judgment. Yes, judgment will come. The hottest part of hell is reserved for the unmerciful. We look at other people and we say they’re unworthy. Michelangelo, the sculptor in Florence, was walking past the quarry and he saw an ugly piece of marble, misshapen, ugly. They had discarded it. They had thrown it out. It was useless. Michelangelo looked at it a while, and he said, I want that piece of marble. And they said, sir, it’s no good. He said, I want it. He said, there’s an angel in that piece of marble. I can see him, and I’m going to set him free. And out of that piece of marble, Michelangelo made the sculpturing of a beautiful, beautiful angel. Now, we see people sometimes unworthy. unfit, fit only to be discarded. But God doesn’t love us for what we are. He loves us for what we can be. God doesn’t change us so He can love us. He loves us so He can change us. And God sees a saint in you today if you just put yourself in His hands.
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