SPECKS & PLANKS
Mt. 7:1-5
INTRODUCTION
A. SKIT [Patient is seated in an optometrist chair. The doctor comes in with a 2X4 board across his eyes.]
1. Doctor: “Hello, I’m Dr. I. C. Faults. You’ve come to the right place. What seems to be the problem?”
2. Patient: “I work in a sawmill and I got a speck of dust in my eye.” Doctor: “Ah! Sawdust! That’s no problem, let me get my tweezers.” Patient: “Great!”
3. Doctor: “Just hold still.” [Doctor begins looking in the patient’s ear.] “Oh! What an unusual eye you have...and such a large pupil...”
4. Patient: “Doctor! That’s not my eye, you’re looking in my ear!” Doctor: “Oh, how silly of me. Of course that’s your ear. Now where have those eyes gotten to?” [He turns the patient’s head down & begins to looking in his hair.]. “You need to clip these eyebrows!”
5. Patient: “Doctor, can’t you even tell where my eyes are? [The patient looks at his plank.] “Say doctor, what is that in YOUR eyes? It’s 2 x 4! Doctor, let me help you get that out.” [Doctor laughs nervously & switches places with the patient, sitting in the chair. The patient pulls the plank off.]
6. Doctor: “Wow! I never knew there was so much to see! This is great! I think I can see good enough to get the speck out of your eye. Let’s switch.” [They switch positions & the doctor looks in his eyes.] “There’s that speck! I’ve got it!”
7. Patient: “Thanks so much, doctor! You do wonders!” Doctor: “What’s really a wonder is how we can help each other if we will!”
B. TEXT
1. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 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? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matt. 7:1-5
C. THESIS & TITLE
1. The Lord Jesus talked about judging ourselves before we judge others, because only then will we have clear enough vision – and humility – to assess other people’s issues are.
2. So we’re looking at when judging is permitted, the dangers of unscriptural judging, and the teachings of the Law of Love. The title of this message is “Specks & Planks.”
I. WHEN SHOULD WE JUDGE?
A. THOSE INSIDE THE CHURCH
1. Matt. 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” (REV. 2:2)
2. 1 Cor. 5:12, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” This verse refers to an official function in the church to ensure that evil people don’t infiltrate the church. It’s NOT about being judgmental.
B. SPIRITUAL GIFTS
1 Cor. 14:29, “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully [KJV – “judge”] what is said.” We have a responsibility to judge the accuracy and genuineness of spiritual gifts.
C. RIGHT & WRONG
1. Luke 12: 57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” Jesus told the “hypocrites” (‘actors’ in vs. 56) that they were, in my terminology, ‘cherry-picking the truth;’ ignoring what they didn’t want to see.
2. Oftentimes people see truth through colored glasses. As Paul told Titus, “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted” (1:15).
3. God said through Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness...” (5:20).
4. Let’s be sure we judge rightly, because we will all have to answer to the ultimate Judge some day.
II. OTHERWISE, WE’RE NOT TO JUDGE
A. IT’S NOT OUR PREROGATIVE
1. James 4:12, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?”
2. Rom. 14:4, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”
3. Rom. 2:1, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”
B. WE DON’T HAVE SUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE
1. Man looks on the outward appearance; we don’t know what’s in the heart.
2. 1 Cor. 4:5, “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.” Don’t pre-judge!
3. Also, we have to give people time to grow up.
C. WE TEND TO BECOME CRITICS
1. Many people feel like it’s their job (as superior) to find faults and declare what’s right.
2. An example is Simon the Pharisee judging the sinful woman (Lk. 7:39). But how wrong he was; she was the one who went away justified, but he didn’t.
3. We make UNCHARITABLE JUDGMENTS
a. We think people have impure motives (David’s brothers thought his were bad, 1 Sam. 17:28.)
b. We assume the bad about people.
c. We want to expose other’s faults.
d. We discuss people’s conduct with our cronies, and repeat slanders against them.
e. It makes us feel superior to look down on other’s inadequacies. Our motive isn’t RESTORATION but CONDEMNATION.
f. Those who judge their brother/sister are doing the work of Satan, “the accuser of the brethren.”
D. ILLUSTRATION
1. A lady in Switzerland bought a small package of greatly aged cheese. She continued to shop from store to store.
2. One clerk had an odor so offensive that she ran out of the store thinking, “How can he keep his job?” In a second store, she encountered another smelly employee!
3. Imagine her embarrassment when, at home, she opened her sack to find it was her – not others – responsible for the odor! [Walter Knights Master Book of New Illus., p. 139]
III. RESULTS OF UNSCRIPTURAL JUDGMENT
A. STUMBLING BLOCKS
1. We may become responsible for people being offended & falling away from Christ.
2. Matt. 16:6-7, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!”
3. How many times have inappropriate rebukes or critical judgments wounded and driven people away from churches? Too many.
4. If a rebuke must be made, Paul outlined the way to do it; “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted” Gal. 6:1.
B. ILLUSTRATION
1. There was a church where a member of the Board fell into sin. The pastor called together the other Board members and asked, “If you had been tempted as our brother was, what would you have done?”
2. One said, “I would never have given into that sin.” A second member said the same. The third member hung his head, and said, “Pastor, if I had been tempted like that, I would probably have fallen lower than he did.”
3. The pastor smiled kindly. “You are the one who will go with me to try to bring our erring brother back to Christ!”
C. WE MAY SABOTAGE OURSELVES
1. Often the person we get crossways with is the very person we’re going to need to help US in a bad time ahead, or to reach OUR KIDS. Don’t let the devil mess up relationships!
2. If we are severe on others, God will show that same severity in judging us (see Mt. 7:1-2).
D. THE RIGHT THING TO DO?
1. The LAW OF LOVE tells us to:
a. Overlook an insult (Rom. 12:16);
b. Believe the good about others (1 Cor. 13:7);
c. Cover other’s faults (James 5:20);
d. Forgive & forget how others offend you.
2. God wants our church to grow, but can He trust us with souls? Let’s covenant to love others and not be their judges.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Sir Percival Lowell was one of the most distinguished early astronomers. In 1877 he heard that an Italian astronomer had seen straight lines crisscrossing the Martian surface. Intrigued, Lowell began studying Mars and spent the rest of his life mapping the channels and canals he saw.
2. He was convinced that the canals were proof of intelligent life on Mars. Lowell’s observations gained wide acceptance. He was so famous that none dared to contradict him.
3. Now we know that’s not so. Space probes have orbited and landed on Mars’ surface. No one has seen a canal. Why? None are there. Then how did Percival map them all?
4. It’s believed that he had a rare eye disease that made him see the blood vessels in his own eyes. The “Martian Canals” were really nothing more than the bulging veins of his own eyeballs. Today this malady is known as “Lowell’s Syndrome.”
5. It’s possible for us to think we see things (faults) in others when it’s our own vision which is distorted and we’re projecting our own problems on them. If we get clear vision from Jesus, then we’ll see others with His eyes!
B. THE CALL
1. Is there anyone that, when you think of them, you get angry or uncomfortable? Could it be that you haven’t forgiven them? Have you been judgmental toward someone lately?
2. Let’s pray that the Lord will take away all the offenses, both from us and from others who may have been offended. “Lord, give us humility of mind to know our own faults, and not to condemn others. Help us demonstrate a spirit of love toward all whom we meet. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
