It certainly is wonderful to be here with all of you today.
We have a wonderful crowd and we're so thankful.
We have, as has been mentioned, we have some visitors that are
among us and we want you to know you are our honored guest.
And we just simply say welcome. I've been very encouraged by the
teachings of Jesus in this masterful sermon he preached so
long ago in Matthew chapter 5-6 and seven.
And as we continue our series on the great Sermon on the Mount,
we now come to Matthew Chapter 7 and verse #1 And I'll just say
at the very outset of this lesson, this verse is one of the
most misunderstood and abused passages in all of the teaching
of Jesus. Many people look at this passage
and they say to justify sinful behavior, sinful actions, or
sinful choices by saying, look, Jesus says I'm not allowed to
judge anybody and that judging is condemned.
Some people in in the attempt to try to justify cultural
relativism, make an appeal to this verse of Scripture because
sometimes people just don't believe that there's actually a
definitive standard of truth anymore.
Even though Jesus says in John 17 and 17 sanctify them by your
truth, Your word is truth. The passage that we are in
reference to is one that we all heard and one that we all know,
and that is this Matthew Chapter 7 and verse #1 Jesus says judge
not that you be not judged. What was Jesus saying here?
Was Jesus condemning all forms of judgment?
Here's the problem when people try to convince themselves that
there's no standard of truth, that standards don't matter and
all of that. The problem with all of that, if
that is true, then everything that we do in our life is
without responsibility and without accountability.
And you know what? Have you ever stopped to
consider? If everything in life is without
responsibility and accountability, then absolutely
nothing in life matters. Nothing matters and everybody
can do anything that they want to do and it really doesn't
matter. And I will not violate my
conscience and you can't say anything to me because after
all, Jesus says don't judge. OK, Let me just say very clearly
here, Jesus when he made that statement was not condemning all
forms of judgment. Please get that.
He is not condemning all forms of judgment.
Give you some examples in this very chapter.
Later on, beginning in verse 15, Jesus said this.
Beware of false teachers. Right after that he said this,
that we have to discriminate between what is right and what
is wrong. Furthermore, the Bible says in
first John chapter 4 and verse 1, John tells us to test the
spirits to see that they are of God.
Some translations say try the spirits.
Who are the spirits? The spirits in reference to the
context of that passage is people that would say that
they're speaking by way of divine inspiration.
In other words, beware of those that are going to be false
teachers and understand who they might be.
Then he said this John says that we have to reject them when we
see them. Second John and chapter second
John and 10. Finally, Paul says to reject any
other gospel than that which we have been given.
That's the Word of God passed down by Apostolic teaching,
Apostolic tradition, which is the word of God in the New
Testament. And we got to reject any other
gospel. You know what that involves
every one of those things. It involves judging.
It involves making judgments. I'm going to make a bold
statement that I made a couple months ago.
I didn't expound upon it. I didn't elaborate on it.
And the reason that I did not is because I knew Matthew Chapter 7
was coming. But understand this, and I
believe is with all my heart, I think this is true.
Everybody makes decisions and judgments every day of your
life, even about people. We all do.
We make judgments even about people every day.
Remember, there's a difference between judging and making and
being judgmental. Somebody might say this too.
If you make a judgment about something or someone, somebody
might say, oh, you're being judgmental.
Not necessarily. What is the difference?
And this is review. What is the difference between
judging and being judgmental? Judging, you remember, is this.
It is making a decision. It is drawing a conclusion.
It is making an assessment that is based on two things, evidence
and fact. That's what it means to judge.
Anything wrong with that? Absolutely not.
What's the difference between judging and being judgmental?
The definition of the word judgmental is this.
It is being overly concerned with judging others.
One denotes an attitude. So judging is an action.
Judgmental is an attitude. What the Lord's going to condemn
is he's going to, he's going to condemn a specific kind of
judging. That all stems from an improper
attitude. That's what it means to be
judgmental. But let me just give you
something. Let me just share something with
you that can happen to us if we are overly concerned with
judging others, which is the definition of being judgmental.
Let me tell you what can happen to us.
It can cause us to meddle in affairs that are not our own.
Seems to me I read something in the word of God about that.
Seems to me that the wise man Solomon of old and Proverbs said
something about that. He said this.
He that meddles in affairs that are not his own is like taking a
dog by the ears. You want to know what that's
like? Go up to a mean old dog, go up
to his ears and get you a hoped. Go ahead.
That's what it's like when you meddle in affairs that are not
your own. I want to share something
personal with you. Many years ago, when I was young
and I'm no longer that, when I was young and I decided I'm a
crack out and preach, I got a lot of tremendous, wonderful
advice from a lot of people, much of which came from older
preachers and I cherished everything they ever said to me.
Some of those preachers that I dearly loved and respected are
no longer with us. Some still are, many aren't.
But you know what? One of the greatest bits of
advice that I was ever given was given to me by a sister in
Christ. And you know who she is?
Her name was Patsy King. You know what Patsy said to me
one day? I was about ready to crack out
and go preach. She said, listen, she was trying
to tell me, beware when you go places that people don't pull
you in and try to draw you into all their stuff.
And then all of a sudden you're getting involved in matters that
are not none of your business. She said to this.
And you know, if you know Patsy, she's just looking.
I love her. She'll look at you right in the
eye and get you told. She'll just get it straight out.
I love it right from the hip. And Patsy said this to me.
She said, Frankie, you go hold your meetings, you preach your
little sermons, you collect your little check and you haul your
freight out of there. Great stuff.
You know, I'm glad for that. But she didn't need to tell me
that because I don't want to do that.
I'm too busy with my own work and my own stuff then to be
involved or force myself into situations that are not none of
my business, like a very famous football coach said one time.
I'm just trying to keep my own house and burn it down to then
to be concerned with other affairs and other things that
are not my business. Remember, judging is an action.
Judgmental is an attitude. That being said, in context,
what is the Lord condemning? He is condemning #1 hypocritical
judgment. Please get that hypocritical
judgment. We'll get to what that actually
is, but that's what he's condemning now.
The Jewish religious elite that made-up the scribes and the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, they were so filled with their
own self righteousness, it led to what?
It led to the unjust condemnation of others.
Hypocritical judgment. Case in point, by the way, the
Pharisee and the public, and I don't have time to go into that.
I'll just make the statement because you all know the story.
When the Pharisee looked down his nose at the at the public
and or the tax collector and when he prayed to God and he
thanked God for all the great things that he was all about, he
was doing often times what we can fall prey to.
And if we're not careful, we can make the awful mistake of doing
this. Please get this because
sometimes we do this, we garnish our own traits and we tarnish
the traits of other people and that's something we need to be
careful about. OK, let's go to the passage and
let's look at the word judge. What does the word judge
actually mean in the passage? The word judge refers to this.
It refers to prejudicial or unfair condemnation.
That's what the Lord was talking about.
I like what JW Mcgarvey said. JW Mcgarvey said it this way.
He said all judging from surmise or from insufficient premises or
from ill will is prohibited. That's what he's talking about,
by the way. What is judging by surmise?
It's assuming something is true without evidence.
It's making a judgment that is not based on evidence.
You know what it also is? It's insufficient premises,
making the determination based on that, too.
How many times has somebody took a little bit of information,
they didn't get down to the bottom of the whole thing, and
then they drew a conclusion about somebody that really
wasn't true and then went out and told everybody about it.
And they drew a conclusion about somebody that was not true
because it was by surmise or insufficient premises.
Seems to me that that wise man Solomon said something about
that too. In Proverbs 18 and 13, it says
he that answers a matter before he hears it is like folly and
shame to him. When we're making judgments,
especially with regards to people, let's do our best to get
to the bottom of it and get all the facts.
But before we make a judgment about somebody that may not be
true, let's not judge by surmise.
All right then Jesus says this in verse 2.
Keep going back to the clicker is not working for with what
judgement you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure
you use, it will be measured to you Again.
Remember, the way we judge is the way God's going to judge us
in a secondary sense too. By the way, if I am unmerciful
in my judgement of others or unfair in my judgement of
others, isn't it true that there's a pretty good chance
when other people judge me, they're going to be unfair too?
It's it's highly possible that's going to happen, or if I judge
in a good way, it's highly possible that people are going
to judge me in the same way. But that's not the context.
That's not the point. The point is the judgement that
really matters is judgement from the Lord.
And that's what Jesus is saying. For with what judgement you
judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you use, it
will be measured back to you again.
OK, remember a couple things Jesus has already said.
He said this. Only the merciful are going to
obtain mercy. Only those that forgive are
going to be forgiven. And James says that judgment is
without mercy to one who shows no mercy.
So here's the point. If we self righteously and
unmercifully judge others, then God's going to hold us to that
very strict standard. OK, got to make a point here.
Got to slip something in. I don't want you to
misunderstand me. This is not saying that if I
wink at the sin of somebody else, God's going to wink at my
sin. That doesn't mean that at all.
You know why? Because God doesn't wink at any
sin. And I can't wink at any sin, and
you can't wink at any sin. We're going to all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. We all have to give an account
for what we do. We're not talking about winking
at sins. What we're talking about is the
way that we are either merciful or unmerciful.
I don't have time to go into this very far, but Matthew
chapter 18, when Jesus gave the parable of the unmerciful
servant, what a powerful passage.
Peter had come to Jesus, and Peter says, Lord, how many times
shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?
Seven times, Peter said, and Jesus says, no, I say to you not
7 times, but 70 * 7. In other words, an infinite
amount of time, right? Then Jesus gives a masterful
parable. He said the Kingdom of heaven is
likened unto a king. What do that is is likened unto
a king who's got all these servants.
And one day he calls in the servants and he calls in their
debts. In other words, I'm going to
settle up with my servants. One servant comes to him and he
owes 10,000 talents a huge amount.
The man comes to the master. The master says you can't pay
me. He says you're going to be sold,
your wife's going to be sold and your kids are going to be sold
and all that you have is going to be sold to satisfy the debt.
The servant falls down before the master and he says have
mercy on me and I will pay you all.
The Bible says the master showed compassion for him and he
forgave the entire debt. Then that servant that was
forgiven a tremendous amount had another fellow servant that owed
him a little amount, 100 denarii.
And he goes to that man and he not only tells him pay me, he
grabs him by the throat and he says pay me what you owe me.
I don't have the money. He said.
He falls down before his fellow servant and he says have mercy
on me and I will pay you all. He said Nope, no mercy at all.
And he threw him into prison because he couldn't pay his
debt. The servants got together and
they went to the master and they told him what happened and the
master was angry and the master went to that unforgiving servant
and he went to him and he said this.
I forgave you a huge amount. You should have extended the
same mercy for your fellow servant and extended him that
same forgiveness. Now I'm going to deliver you to
the the new King James says the torturers, wow.
Until your dead is satisfied. The King James says the
tormentors until your dead is satisfied.
Then Jesus sums it up like this. He said, So you're my heavenly
Father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does
not forgive his brother his trespasses.
I like what Branus said. Branus said this.
I thank him best and most thoughtless, who pardons others
as if he himself sinned every day, yet abstains from sins as
if he pardoned no one. OK, then we get to verse 3.
And by the way, there's so many things I can say.
I got to keep moving. We got a lot to cover.
We got to keep moving. So let's go to verse 3.
Jesus says, and why do you look at the speck that is in your
brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own
eye? I'm going to tell you what
people think this means. Sometimes people think that
Jesus was talking about a tiny thing versus a big thing, a tiny
sin versus a big thing, and that the speck was just some tiny
little insignificant thing. Robertson said it this way.
This word is not referring to a minute piece of dirt, but rather
to a piece of dried wood or other small particle that could
be blown into the eye and cause irritation.
So we're not talking about just a tiny, tiny, tiny little
Chrome. We're talking about something
that still is significant. He's not comparing a tiny sin
with a big sin. Please get this, He's up.
He's comparing a big sin with a gigantic sin.
Got to make a point about big and small because I know, you
know, I believe sin is sin in the eyes of God.
So what makes something a bigger sin or a lesser sin if it's all
sin in the eyes of God? Lying in the eyes of God is just
as so condemning. If we don't make those things
right as murder, what's the difference between what really
we can consider a smaller sin and a bigger sin?
It's not by way of how God looks at it.
It's by way of this because all sin is awful in the eyes of God,
OK, and we all have sin. It's talking about this when you
talk about big or small. Some sins have greater
ramifications than other sins. Some sins have bigger
consequences than other sins. That's what it's talking about.
It's all sin in the eyes of God. And we're going to find out.
By the way, we need to work together and helping each other
rid all that from all of our life.
OK, so first of all, he said about the speck.
Then he says about the word plank.
What does that mean? In the King James, the word
means beam, but the word means plank or square timber, such as
would hold up a house according to Mr. Barnes.
Here's the point. Before we try to hypocritically
propose to extract a smaller yet significant sin in the life of
our brother, clean up your own backyard 1st and rid your own
backyard of those sins that are in your life too.
It is unjust, please get this. And it is unchristian to judge
another harshly while missing the gross errors in our life.
That's the point. It's kind of like this.
It's kind of like a blind ophthalmologist that thinks he's
qualified to remove somebody else's cataracts.
My brother-in-law, Darren, is brilliant and he's blind and
he's brilliant. I would trust him to do all
manner of things. I don't want him working on my
eyes, right? Same principle.
Look at verse 4. Or how can you say to your
brother, let me remove the speck from your eye and look, a plank
is in your eye. JW Mcgarvey said it like this.
He said the Lord's statement must not be construed as
requiring us to get rid of all of our faults before we can
attempt to correct others. He's not saying that for on this
condition none would be qualified for the position of
teachers, but it requires that we shall rid ourselves of a
given fault preparatory to rebuking that fault in another.
Then verse 5. Hypocrite, first remove the
plank from your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove
the speck from your brother's eye.
Verse 4 describes somebody who seemingly ignores the gross sins
in his life but sets out to fix somebody else, right.
I love verse 5 though, because verse 5 gives the process by
which both sinners can be cured because guess what?
Both are sinners and nobody's perfect.
You know what I thought about? I thought about Kylie.
She was a little girl when this happened.
We were having a little Bible study and I had the kids over at
my house and they were little. And we were talking about
sometimes people make mistakes. And from the mouth of babes, the
precious little voice that sat there and said, yeah, because
nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect.
Verse 5 is a matter of two people recognizing that they're
not perfect. It is the manner in which we can
help each other. But the first person going to
the other person, we're going to talk about how we do that.
We're going to get specific later, but when you look at that
idea and that concept, it is a matter of two people recognizing
that neither one is perfect but has love for the other one and a
love for the Lord to get it right.
We're going to talk about those steps, but first we have to look
at the word hypocrite. Why is this hypocritical
judgement? It is hypocritical judgement
when we do this, when we attempt to cure another of the same
disease of sin that we refuse to cure in our self.
And I got to tell you that can be generally, and that can also
be specifically in a general sense where nobody's perfect and
everybody has sins. It applies, OK, But have you
ever stopped to consider that it also applies very specifically?
Isn't it true that sometimes we are harshest on people who are
guilty of the very same things that we are guilty of?
I've seen it happen. Got one example for you?
Number of years ago, there was one brother who was incredibly
harshly in his attitude, judging another brother.
Was he wrong with judging? The brother said absolutely not,
we have to do that. His attitude was incredibly
harsh and without mercy. You know what else it was?
It was also hypocritical. You know why He slammed this
brother for five years and then I found out five years later he
was guilty of the very same sin. That's hypocritical judgement.
Unmerciful hypocritical judgement.
That's what the Lord's condemning.
OK, then Jesus says this. This is what you're going to do
first. First remove the plank from your
own eye. And when you do that, I love it,
then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your
brother's eye. I've heard Matthew Chapter 7
beginning in verse one and going all the way through the specks
and the beams and all of that. I've heard people say what that
means is Jesus says don't judge it all.
We're not allowed to judge. Everybody's got specs,
everybody's got beams, everybody's got their own stuff.
So everybody just worry about yourself and leave everybody
alone. That's not what he said.
Don't you see? The Lord is saying, here's
something very powerful. He's saying we have a
responsibility to each other. First, get the plank out of your
eye so you can what? Help your brother get the speck
out of his eye. Have you ever stopped to
consider the tremendous responsibility we have toward
each other when it comes to sins in our life?
A tremendous responsibility. Let's go to Galatians chapter 6.
Brethren, if any man is overtaken in any trespass, you
who are spiritual restore such an one in a spirit of
gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be
tempted. The word trespass is often
translated fault. So if anyone is overtaken in a
fault, guess what? We're not perfect.
We're going to be overtaken from time to time.
Please understand this. The motive is not to crush him,
demoralize him, make him feel rotten, line him out.
No, there's a motive behind the ACT.
What do you got to do? You got to go to the person.
And who are the ones to do it? Those that are spiritual.
What's that mean? Oh, is that the preacher?
Is that the elder? Is that the Deacon?
That the other church leaders? Is that Christians that have
been members of the church for 50 years?
Is it the people that walk around thinking they got it all
figured out? I want to know, because this is
very practical, who are the ones that are spiritual?
Because it's very important. If somebody's overtaken in any
trespass, somebody's spiritual has got to come to the rescue.
Who's that? What does it mean to be
spiritual? Not somebody that's that's
finally reached some higher level of perfection because
nobody's going to do it. It is simply those that are
walking. Please get this according to the
Spirit or the Word of God. Give you some Bible though
Galatians chapter 5 verse 16. I say them, walk in the spirit
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5 and 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk
in the Spirit. So who are those that are spirit
in the spirit or those that are spiritual are those that aren't
living in the Spirit? Who are those that are living in
the Spirit, those that are walking in the Spirit?
How do you know if you're living in the spirit and walking in the
Spirit? I said this two months ago in
another sermon. Going to be very brief about it,
but I'm going to hit it again. The only way that you really
know and that everybody else really knows, if you're living
in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, it's when you are
manifesting in your life the fruit of the Spirit.
The Bible says by you, their fruits, you shall know them.
I'm not going to go into every one of these like I did last the
last time I did. I'm just going to mention them
briefly. But the fruit of the Spirit is
Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law that is the fruit of the Spirit.
OK. And as I said before, big
debate, is this referring to my human spirit?
Is it referring to the Holy Spirit?
Does it involve my human spirit? Does it involve the Holy Spirit?
Here it is. It's both.
Thayer says the word fruit means nature.
OK, He said the word spirit here means Spirit of God.
Who's that? That's the Holy Spirit, OK?
These things exist independent of me, and they don't become my
fruit in my life by direct operation of the Holy Spirit or
miraculously, something has to happen.
What has to happen when I make the willful choice by my human
spirit to apply the fruit of the Holy Spirit to my life?
That's by choice. And guess what?
Then all these wonderful qualities, which is the nature
of the Holy Spirit, becomes my fruit.
And when that happens, everybody looking at me can know that I'm
a Christian and I can say, oh, I'm not perfect, but what am I?
I'm spiritual. If you're living according to
God's Word, you are spiritual. On the flip side, though, on the
flip side, if we're not obeying the dictates of the Spirit and
we're following the impulses of the flesh, then the flip side of
that is we are carnal. 1st Corinthians 3 and three, you are
carnal for where there are envy, strife, divisions among you, are
you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
OK, so here's Paul's point here. When somebody falls into sin,
when they fall to the human tendencies, somebody spiritual
has to come to the rescue. To do what?
Please get this restore. What's restore mean restore.
How many times did Jesus in his teaching tell us the importance
of the attitude behind the ACT or the motive behind the ACT?
Jesus would make statements like this, you have heard that it had
been said, and then quote something from the Old
Testament, he says. But I say to you, in other
words, even the motive behind the ACT is in question or judged
by God. What's the motive?
The motive for going to your brother that's overtaken in any
trespass or fault. Somebody that is spiritual,
following the dictates of the Spirit, manifesting those things
in his life by willful choice, has to go to restore that
person. What's the word mean?
The word restore means this comes from a Greek word that
means to mend. It carries the idea of repairing
something that is broken or damaged.
I found in my life people are more inclined to listen to
others when they're being taught and not just being told.
People would rather be taught than told.
When you go to restore, you have to have the mindset and the
spirit of teaching them why that they're in error or wrong,
because you love them, because you want to do what you want to
fix that which is broken. I love what it says in Hebrews
chapter 12. Notice, therefore, strengthen
the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make
straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be
dislocated, but rather healed. OK, he says this.
Somebody's spiritual got to come to the rescue for the purpose of
restoration, but you got to do it with the right way, in the
spirit of gentleness. You've heard me say this.
I got a number of Frank isms. I'm old enough now to have a
bunch of Frank isms, and people usually know what they are.
Preachers get these isms. You know, the things that you
say, like Cullen Smith, he always says been there, done
that, saw the video about the T-shirt.
I mean, it's a Cullen ISM and preachers sometimes have isms
that they say all the time. You've heard me say this, I'm
going to say it again. If you have to remove a family
from somebody's forehead, you don't need a hammer.
Paul says. Do it in the spirit of
gentleness. And by the way, that's one of
the fruits of the Spirit. Then he says this considering
yourself, lest you also be tempted.
You know, there's two things involved here.
Number one, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
Number one, please get this. Don't ever think it could never
happen to you. Don't ever have the mindset it
could never happen to you. That's one way you can be
tempted. Paul said consider yourself lest
you're tempted in that way. Don't do that number two way you
can be tempted. Don't feel in a spirit of
arrogance or conceit or condescension or haughtiness,
because you're the one doing the correcting and you think you're
better than that person. Don't do that either.
Consider yourself lest you also be tempted, and do so in the
spirit of gentleness for the purpose of restoration to fix
that which is broken. Wow.
Then he says this. I love this.
Then he says bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ. The word burdens by definition
is heavy loads, hard to carry. And I got to say it is a general
principle as a Christian that we bear one another's burdens in
general. Like I'm going to just give you
some examples like illness, setbacks, catastrophes, loss,
pain, suffering. All of that is true in a general
sense. And Paul deals with that in
First Corinthians 12 where the body of Christ and members
individually, when one suffers, we all suffer.
When one rejoices, we all rejoice.
That is a biblical, biblical principle.
But the context of this bearing one another's burdens is not
talking about that. The context of this word
burdens, which is heavy loads, hard to carry, goes back to
verse one. What is the context of verse
one? If anyone's overtaken in a
trespass or a fault or a sin? So in context, I am responsible
to my brother. After I go to him to restore or
pick him up, I got more to do. I have to bear his burdens,
which are heavy loads that are hard to carry, heavy burdens
that are causing him to sin that's helping him through those
temptations. That's what the passage is
talking about in context. Heavy burdens that are causing
your brother's sin. I'm going to tell you something.
Temptation is a heavy burden and a heavy load, isn't it?
Heavy burden and heavy load. You know what else is really
heavy? Habitual sin.
And many times, many times when we have habitual struggles, they
are the same things that we struggle with over and over and
over again. Everybody's got their own, but
usually it's the habitual things that keep rearing up their head
at us. And just because a person is
restored and forgiven doesn't mean the temptation is gone.
In fact, you know what? Sometimes those temptations come
with such force. They pull us back into those
sinful habits. So what do we got to do?
We go to them and we pick them up.
But then we got to hold them up too.
How do we hold them up? James 5/16 Confess your
trespasses to one another and pray one for another that you
may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of
a righteous man avails much. Obviously, I've referenced this
passage hundreds of times with you, so I'm just going to say
this prayer is first and foremost the effective fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much.
James 516 is talking about habitual struggles.
That's what he's talking about. If I have a habitual struggle,
I'm going to confess that to my brother and he's going to pray
for me In the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails
much. That is first, that is foremost.
That is true. But please, let's not
underestimate the importance of a secondary benefit or a
practical benefit, which is this.
How about accountability? I've just made myself
accountable to my brother, and he's going to work with me and
help me. And you know why?
Why? That's going to be great.
You know, it takes 21 days to remove a habit, maybe sometimes
even longer, and it takes 21 days, they say, to form a new
habit. If I'm working with my brother
and I know not only helped him up, but now I'm holding him up,
he's accountable to me. I'm praying for him.
The longer he goes, the better chance he has to lose that bad
habit and get a better one. Wow, isn't that great stuff from
the Lord. May I suggest something please?
If somebody confides in you, keep it to yourself.
Nobody has the right or the business to know anything that
your brother confided in you regarding something personal in
their life like that. I'm going to tell you something
right now. I knew of a case.
This is awful. Somebody confided in somebody
and asked that person not to repeat it.
The person said they wouldn't repeat it.
Do you know how long it took for that information to travel
across the United States and back to the the place of origin?
Yeah. How long you took?
Two hours. Shame on them.
I'm so thankful that I have some
people in my life. Then if I confided in them, I
know for a fact they'll take it to their grave.
I've told my pal Don L King things that I know he took to
his grave, that he didn't even tell Patsy because he said to
me, I won't even tell Patsy unless you give me permission.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
That's what it's about. If somebody confides in you with
the struggle that they're going through, keep it to yourself.
Oh, such damage can be done. What happens when we bear one
another's burdens? Paul said you fulfill the law of
Christ. What is the law of Christ?
Everything that the Jesus describes and that's all that
matters. No specifically when you do that
you fulfill the law of Christ and the law of Christ is the law
of love. John chapter 13 beginning verse
34 A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I
have loved you, that you also love one another.
By this all will know that you are my disciples, If you have
love one for the other. Galatians 5 and verse 14 For all
the law is fulfilled in one word, even this you shall love
your neighbor as yourself. OK, so in this passage that
we've already talked about burdens here and I'm almost
finished. Burdens here in this passage are
heavy loads that are causing your brother to sin.
OK, what about in verse 5 when the King James Version says that
we all must bear our own burden? Let's look at that passage.
For each one shall bear his own. The new King James says load.
Is there a contradiction? Absolutely not.
What he's saying is here. The word load are things that we
will all give an account for. What it means is this, we need
each other to help each other and to bear one another's
burdens that cause us to sin. You know why?
Because all of us are going to have to stand before God and
bear our own burden. That's why got to work out our
own salvation. By the way, working out your own
salvation doesn't mean I do it my way.
You do it your way, and we all choose our own thing and that's
not what that means. Working out your own salvation
is this. Here's the standard.
It doesn't mean I choose my own standard.
It means here's the standard and I got to work it out on my own.
That's why it's so important. It's so important that young
people understand something vital to their Christianity.
And I say young people because you know why?
Because young people, when they're raised, they brought the
church, they brought the services, they become
Christians. They follow what they've been
taught, they follow what they they've been told, they follow
the example. But you know what?
Something has to happen for every one of those young people
at some point. That faith has to become their
own. That faith has to become their
own faith. Not the faith of their Father,
not the faith of their mother, but their own faith.
That's when it all begins with working out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. But the faith has to be based
upon 1 standard, and that's the word of God, not our own way to
choose. OK?
You've been such a wonderful audience.
So now we come to the three words that sometimes we long to
hear. And that's and in conclusion,
here we go. In conclusion, what did we learn
today? Number one, please get this.
Jesus did not condemn judging of all kinds.
And if somebody would say Jesus said you can't judge, that's not
what he said. What Jesus condemned is
hypocritical, prejudicial, overly harsh judgment and
judgment with the wrong attitude or the wrong motive.
That's what he was condemning. So if that is the case, when we
do make judgments, and we must, the motive behind the ACT has to
be this, to pick up, hold up and build each other up.
That's the point. That's what we got to do.
That's our job. We're in this together.
We never know the hearts and minds of those that are present.
I don't know how it is with you, but maybe you're here today and
you're not a Christian. We never teach from the Word of
God without extending an invitation to somebody that
might be subject to the gospel call.
The steps to become a Christian are very simple.
First of all, you got to hear the Word of God.
Romans 10/17 So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word
of God. After we hear the word of God,
we have a choice. We have to believe with all our
heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.
Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek him. Then what?
I got to repent of my sins. I got to make the determined
resolve in my life. I'm no longer going to live in
the direction that I was living or the direction I was going.
I want to live for God. I'm going to change my life.
It's called repentance. Acts 17 and 30.
Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent. And then what?
Then be willing to confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
The greatest words you will ever said, say then Philip said, if
you believe with all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Upon taking these steps of
obedience, you're now a fit candidate to go to the point of
salvation, and that's to be baptized for the remission of
sins. Mark 1616.
The Lord said this, he who believes and is baptized will be
saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Maybe you've taken these steps of obedience.
Maybe you've drifted. Maybe there are things in your
life that you need to correct. Then just repent of those
things. Confess those things.
We'll pray with you and for you, and God will forgive and
restore. Be one of either class.
Come forward while we stand, while we see.