In his sermon 'Dealing With Sin,' Jason Dohm explores the teachings of Jesus on judgment, as found in Matthew 7. The sermon emphasizes the importance of self-examination before addressing the sins of others, warning against the dangers of unrighteous judgment and hypocrisy. Dohm highlights the need for a bias towards mercy and forgiveness, and explains that while believers should help each other with sin in a spirit of gentleness, they must approach unbelievers differently. The sermon warns against giving holy things to those who cannot appreciate them, drawing a distinction between brothers and non-brothers in the faith. Ultimately, it underscores the significance of love as the measuring stick in all interactions, urging believers to be discerning and to prioritize their own spiritual growth while being mindful of how they address the faults of others.

Judge not that you be not judged, for with that judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And what do you look at, the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck out of your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye do not give what is holy to the dogs nor cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them underneath their feet and you and tear you into pieces.

Please bow with me. Oh Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth. Lord, we thank you for your Word. Lord, we ask that You soften our hearts and allow your word to address things in our own lives, Lord. To address the sin in our own lives.

For us to look at those things and consider those. Lord, we ask that you turn all of the things of this week away from us out of our minds so that we can think clearly on your word. Lord we thank you for your son Jesus in his name amen. So last week, Last week, Jesus spoke to us about a very common snare for all Christians. And that is worldliness.

That is that we find ourselves very comfortable here. And we'd find ourselves very at home as if our citizenship was here and not in heaven. And we'd begin to fix our affections on things that are in the earth. And we would find ourselves, by degree, one degree at a time, diverted from the things of the kingdom of God and beginning to love things that are here. And that God has put here for our enjoyment, but God has not put us here to love those things, to fix our affections on them.

So we begin to love them, and then we begin to pile them up. That's the progression always. The things that we love, we obtain as much as we can. We accumulate it. We store it up.

So Jesus comes and says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, but he exhorts us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven because in heaven the moths don't eat. The rust doesn't corrupt, but it's a treasure that will stand the test of time. Then he went to talk about our eyes. And the point of that was that if we don't glorify God as God and we don't live a thankful life before Him, then what we find happening is that our eyes are darkened. And we actually lose the ability to perceive things rightly.

And so as we begin to love the things of the world, as we begin to worship the creation and not the creator, as we begin to value the creature instead of the one who made the creature, then our ability to perceive things rightly fades away. We become darkened. And Jesus says, if the light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? And then he says that no one can serve two masters. You can't serve God and mammon.

You cannot serve God and the things that pertain to riches. And the reason is that they're both so demanding. They're both lousy at sharing. God does not want to share. He doesn't do well with sharing, and neither does mammon, neither do riches.

And they both desire to consume us. And so it isn't an option to serve both of those. You can work for two employers, but you can't be the slave to two masters, because either you'll love the one and hate the other, or you'll be loyal to the one and you'll despise the other. And then the chapter ends so beautifully. Jesus is saying that if God would be our master, He wants us to know what kind of master we have.

And he argues that God is a good master, that God is a generous master. He's a faithful master. He's a promise-keeping master. And this all culminates in verse 33, where Jesus says, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. So we don't need to worry.

God is very willing to provide the things that we need. And He's very able to provide the things that we need. And so don't worry about tomorrow's troubles because there will be troubles there tomorrow for sure, but there will also be a God that has grace enough for the troubles. So we shouldn't pre-worry for tomorrow's troubles, But we should just trust God because he has the grace. He'll be there tomorrow, just like he was today, just like he was yesterday.

And he'll have grace for us, and he'll be able to provide for us. This week, we're moving on to two more prohibitions. Jesus is going to forbid two more things. He's going to give us two more do nots. And he brings to us two wrong ways to deal with sin.

That's primarily what this text is about. There's right ways to deal with sin, and there's wrong ways to deal with sin. And we're going to get two profiles in wrong ways to deal with sin. And Jesus is continuing to identify pitfalls, snares that are very common in the Christian life, and say, watch out for that. Keep your leg clear of that.

And We get two of those this week. The first is unrighteous judgment of our brothers. That is a snare. It exists in the human heart, and we have to be careful or we'll be trapped by it, the unrighteous judgment of our brothers. And the second thing is giving holy things to those who will just trample on them.

There are things that we have that are part of the kingdom of God, and they're pearls. They're holy things. And there are some that if you give those over to them, they'll just trample on them. They'll just turn on you and tear you to bits. And so those are the things that we'll be going into detail on this morning.

So let's read again the first five verses here, because they hang together. And I know it's the majority of our text, but I don't see a point in splitting these up because they're one topic. Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye.

Hypocrit. First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. When we read these words, it's impossible not to gravitate to the abuse of this passage. That's instantly what we think of, And is it any wonder? There are so many people in the world who can only quote one Bible verse from Genesis Revelation.

And this is it. It is always at the ready on their tongue. Judge not that you be not judged. And there's a very good reason for that. They do not want the word of God to be brought to bear on what they say, what they do, what they prioritize.

And so this is at the ready. This is their ready defense. Judge not, because they don't want anyone drawing conclusions about what they see in their own life. And they want to limit everything to this one phrase and make it all in there as if the Bible says nothing else, but this one phrase. You can't consider anything before or anything after.

It's just a defense mechanism. And not only does that fail the test from the Genesis to Revelation, just looking across scripture to see what scripture says on the topic. But you can't even get out of the immediate context without understanding with great clarity exactly what it is that Jesus means by that. And it's normally not how people invoke it at all. That's not what's meant.

So let's consider a couple of things about the immediate context. First, when you get down to verse 5, just a couple of verses later, you see, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So Jesus doesn't end with, judge not, period. They would actually like to just put the period right there. He actually ends with you removing the speck from your brother's eye.

But there are some interim steps that he would come into us. In verse 6, there's instructions about dogs and pigs. Well, this is not barnyard advice. These aren't dogs and pigs. These are people that are being described in a certain way.

And if you haven't noticed, there's not a dogs and pigs registry. You're going to have to decide. You're going to have to judge who the dogs and the pigs are. It requires judgment right here in the same text. When we get a little further into this chapter, we're going to see in verses 15 through 20, Jesus will say, beware of false prophets.

But on the heels of that, he says, they're disguised. They're in sheep's clothing, but you'll know them by their fruit. You're going to have to discern who the false prophets are. You're going to have to make a judgment about who the false prophets are. So the immediate context doesn't support an interpretation that would suspend all decisions about what people are saying or doing.

When we get further on into Matthew, just to pile it up here, Matthew 18 verses 15 through 20 is a whole section on procedures for how we deal with sin. In identifying sin in a brother and then going and speaking to the brother about that sin. In John 7, 24, Jesus says, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. So Jesus actually commands us in another part of the Gospel of John to judge with righteous judgment. In 1 Corinthians 5.3, Paul says this, for I indeed as absent in body but present in spirit have already judged as though I were present him who has done this deed.

So in Corinth, there was sin that needed to be confronted. It needed to actually be judged. And Paul says, I've already done it. I already made the judgment. So we see this one abuse of the verse, which is that we would say that Jesus is suspending all discernment with respect to people's words and conduct.

So it's off limits to decide that something might not be right about something that someone else says or someone else does. And then we have the other abuse, which is if you just take this by itself, you say, I can avoid judgment by simply not judging yourself. Judge not lest you be judged. So as long as I just don't judge anybody, then No judgment will ever come to me. Well, the Bible clearly contradicts that as well.

Ecclesiastes 12, 14, for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. This is not a way to dodge all judgment. If you just suspend judgment on everybody else, you'll never be judged. No, that is not what scripture teaches. And so those are the common abuses of the passage.

And we won't spend much time there because you know them. But it's important because these are ready words on the lips of those who desire not to have the word of God brought to bear on them. So what is Jesus actually talking about, if that's not what he's talking about? What is he actually prohibiting? What is he actually forbidding?

What is he actually warning us against? There is a very similar passage in Luke 6, where the same teaching is given, but Jesus expands it in Luke 6. And Many people think that Luke 6 is another rendition of the Sermon on the Mount. I actually don't think so. Jesus was an itinerant preacher.

He probably preached hundreds of similar sermons, some that were more expanded on topics and some that were less expanded. And if you follow itinerant preachers now, like Paul Washer, he'll have many different versions of the same sermon. And some are more comprehensive than others. I think that's what we see with Luke 6. But in Luke 6, when Jesus is addressing the same topic, we see this in Luke 6, 36 and 37.

Jesus says, therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. So in this expanded teaching in Luke 6 on the same topic, condemn not is added to judge not.

Judge not that you be not judged. Condemn not that you be not condemned. And these two things, judgment and condemnation, are sandwiched between be merciful and forgive. So we have bookends here. We have an expanded view of what it means to judge.

It's actually standing in condemnation of. And then it's between the concepts of what Jesus is saying to do. Do Be merciful. Do forgive. Don't judge.

Don't condemn. And so we get the expanded view here. And there's a way in which Christians ought to relate to their brothers and sisters in Christ. And there should be a bias towards mercy. There should be a bias towards forgiveness.

We should have a bent, but it's not the bent that we would find in the natural man. And Jesus is coming and contradicting the bent that you find naturally in your heart towards judgment, towards condemnation. Jesus says, nope, none of that. Your bench should actually be in another direction. Your bench, your bias should be towards mercy and towards forgiveness.

And so we have a role to play with our brother, but fundamentally, our role is not to be his judge. God is actually the judge. And we may have a duty when we see our brother in sin, but it isn't to stand in condemnation as the judge. That seat, the judge's seat, is already taken. Applications are not being accepted for the position of judge.

That seat is already taken. And you're not it. And I'm not it. And so we may have a duty when we see our brother in sin, but it's not to go and be his judge and stand in condemnation. To approach our brother in pride with a haughty spirit as a judge is to forget God.

It's actually to forget ourselves as well, but it's to forget God. It's to paint a picture where God needs our help to come and disciple His servant. Turn in your Bibles to Romans 14. Romans 14 is a great commentary on what Jesus is saying in Matthew 7. Romans 14.

The whole chapter applies, but we're going to zero in on just a few verses here in Romans 14. Romans 14, We'll start with verses 3 and 4. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat. And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you to judge another man's servant?

To his own master, he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. Now skip down to verse 10. We'll continue on in verse 10. But why do you judge your brother?

Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, as I live says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in your brother's way." So when we see our brother in sin, we have to ask, am I despising my brother? Is the motivation in my heart here love, or am I actually despising?

Am I actually showing contempt for my brother? Is that what's in my heart? Is despising him in my heart? Is contempt in my heart? Or am I being driven by love?

If so, if you find yourself despising your brother because of his faults, because of his sins, then you've forgotten who the master is. And it's not just your brother's master. You've forgotten who your brother's master is, but you've forgotten who your master is as well. You're serving the same master. And so to see yourself in the right position, you're saying, I'm a fellow servant.

We have the same master. And I may have a duty to come alongside my brother, but it's not to stand over him as if I am his master, and now I'm in charge of his discipleship program. Have you found that God has us all on the discipleship program? We're all somewhere on the continuum. And he brings us along at different speeds, in different categories, at different times.

And if we're going to start despising everybody who hasn't been brought along to exactly the same point than we have. They're going to find the list of people that we despise and that we show contempt for. Always growing, growing, growing. But mature Christians, that's not how they act. They know who their own master is, and they know who their brother's master is.

And they know that God is able to make their brother stand. In Luke 9, Jesus is headed towards Jerusalem, and he's sending an advance party to make preparations. And he was going to stay at the Samaritan city. But they say no thanks. They're not going to receive him.

So here's the account, Luke 9.53. But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as Elijah did? But he turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village." The spirit of judgment that is being condemned by Jesus in Matthew 7 is this spirit that when they see a fault in their brother, when they see the ways of God contradicted, they're ready to call down fire like Elijah did.

Now, God, now, can I call down the fire now? Then Jesus just rebukes them and say, you don't even know what spirit you're of. You're not to have that kind of spirit, because that is not the spirit of Jesus Christ. He actually did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And so when we're considering our brother, we should consider what the spirit of Jesus Christ, that he came to save, not to destroy.

We are actually to be the tender-hearted, concerned brother, not the nitpicking, fault-finding judge. That is what Jesus is teaching here. Galatians 6.1 says this. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, Restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted." So here's the polar opposite. Galatians 6.1 stands in direct opposition, direct contrast to the type of judgment that Jesus is condemning.

In Matthew 7-1, Jesus is talking about a fault-finding, nitpicking, arrogant judge. And in Galatians 6-1, Paul is talking about a mature brother who, out of his love for this brother that he sees has been overtaken in sin, comes to him in a spirit of gentleness and he's considering himself. He's considering how frail he is in himself. And so he's not coming in pride, but he's actually coming very, very cautiously knowing that he is prone to all the same things, all the same sins that he might see to his brother. As always, love is the measuring stick.

Love is the measuring stick for this. That's the difference between the judge, the nitpicking judge, and the mature brother who comes in a spirit of gentleness. Love is the distinction. So we may have a duty to go to our brother, and the Bible says in many instances we do have a duty. Matthew 7 says we have a duty to go help our brother with the speck in his eye.

But going about that duty is the question in hand, isn't it? Now just listen to 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. And listen to the words of it. I'm going to skip around a little bit, but I'll tell you where I am. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 1.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." Skipping down to verse 4. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Does not behave rudely.

Does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Thinks no evil. Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Bears all things.

Believes all things. Hopes all things. Endures all things. This is the standard when we go to our brother in sin. 1 Corinthians 13 defines this for it.

Are we kind to our brother when we go to him and he's in sin? Or are we puffed up? Or are we behaving rudely? Are we thinking no evil of our brother but giving him the benefit of the doubt? Or are we standing in judgment on his motives?

We're never to stand in judgment on his motives because We can't know that. That's why I believe it's 1 Corinthians 5, 4, or 4, 5, one or the other. Paul says, don't judge before the time. The time is coming when all the things that have been secret, all the motivations of the heart will be revealed. But you don't know those things.

And so don't judge prematurely. And 1 Corinthians 13 would help us with that. We're to believe all things. We're to hope all things, thinking the best of our brother. How many times have you Thought you understood something rightly, but when you got your facts straight, you found out it was a very different picture than when you first thought that you ought to go to your brother.

This happens many, many times. And 1 Corinthians 13 will keep us safe here, because we won't be puffed up, We won't be behaving rudely, but we'll be kind. We'll be hoping all things, and we'll be thinking the best of our brother. The man who understands 1 Corinthians 13 and goes to his brother accordingly in the spirit that you find in the love chapter is the man that goes to his brother, not as a judge, but as a friend, as a real brother who will come alongside, as one who's mature in a spirit of gentleness like Galatians 6.1 says and will be a friend to him and not a judge. Now in verse 2, back to Matthew 7.

Wow, that was a lot on verse 1. I barely came up for air. I'm going to breathe for a minute. In verse 2, Jesus addresses the standard that we use. He talks about the standard that we use.

And this one just ought to punch us right in the gut. Have you never found yourself excusing yourself for your own faults, for your own sins? Oh, the mitigating circumstances. Oh, the nuances. If you only knew the details, You'd be able to justify me like I'm able to justify myself.

But when it comes to your brother, you're just not interested in the story. Don't bring your weak excuses to me for why you did what you did. And you're ready to nail your brother to the wall, but somehow you're always able to slip out. You're able to wiggle out of it for yourself. When you consider your own words, your own conduct, your own thought, there's always a good reason that would make the sin a little bit less or actually make it not even a sin at all.

If people only knew, they would understand there wasn't even sin. Or at least it wasn't a big sin. And yet when it comes to our brother, we're not interested in the story. We don't want to know the circumstances because he did wrong and it's time to dole it out now. And this is what's in our heart.

And we may become a little more sophisticated, a little more suppressed about this, but do you not still find this in your heart, brothers and sisters? You might have gotten a little more polite about it, but isn't it still in there? Second Samuel 12, verses 1 through 10, Nathan tells David a little story. It's a story about a rich man and a poor man, a rich man who has many, has an abundance of flocks and herds, and a poor man who has nothing except one little lamb. But he loves the little lamb.

It's really kind of the household pet. It's grown up with his children, and he thinks of it like a daughter. Well, a traveler comes into town. And the rich man, instead of taking from all his flocks, takes the household pet of the poor man to feed the traveler, to show hospitality to the traveler. And David, when he hears this story, the rage is rising up.

The injustice of this is rising up in the heart of David. And he ends up saying, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this will surely die. And Nathan looks him right in the eye and says, you are the man. David, this is your story. David, this is what you've done.

How blind when you hear a story about a rich man and a poor man and about flocks and your circumstances just put in another context so that you can actually begin to see it properly. You find yourself to have been so blind. And it's hard to imagine a more stark case of this than what we see in 2 Samuel 12. David was so blind, but David's not alone. Jesus is tipping off that all of this frailty is in our own hearts.

This is what Jesus is saying in Matthew 7. This is in your heart, so be on the lookout for this. You could be snared by this. You could be trapped by this. So be warned.

Jesus has us in this text on purpose. And We're the Pharisee in the story. I keep finding myself coming to the text week after week. Yeah, Jesus is getting after those Pharisees again. And then as the week progresses, I begin to see a little more about exactly how this comes right into my own kitchen.

And these things look a lot more familiar to me at the end of the week than they do at the beginning of the week. And we ought to examine our hearts to see what there is like that. Is it possible that you could have the same blindness that David had? That you could be thinking so wrongly about a set of circumstances that if they were just tweaked and given to you as a story in another way, that you would want a pound of flesh for things that you yourself have been doing. So when we think our brother is in sin, first we ought to ask, am I using the right standard?

Is the Word of God the standard for this? Or Am I getting a little smarter than the Word of God? Am I adding things to the Word of God? And then secondly, where am I according to the standard that I'm applying here? Where am I relative to the standard that I'm applying?

And realize that the standard you're using will be measured back to you. As the world says, what goes around comes around. That's what Jesus is saying here. If you want to be an uncompromising, unbending, unmerciful, unforgiving judge to your brother, you should expect that from God and everyone else. Unkind, unbending, unmerciful, uncompromising.

If you sow mercy, you will obtain mercy. We've already been there, right? That's the Beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. But if you sow unbending condemnation, that's also what you'll reap.

And you say, Is that from God or from other people? And the answer to that is probably yes. It's not specified in the text. But if you're getting it from other people, it's probably from God as well. God has a way to do that.

God has a way to bring these things to our attention through word pictures that we can really understand by allowing us to eat some of what we've sown. James 2, 13 says this very thing, For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. We're back to the bias that Jesus is calling to. A bias towards mercy.

Does this mean we just let sin run in the church? No, that's not what Jesus is saying. But He is saying if you want to be an uncompromising judge, you should consider whether you want your judge to be uncompromising, whether you want everyone around you to treat you in exactly the same fashion. In verses 3 through 5, Matthew 7, 3 through 5, Jesus continues on this theme of hypocrisy and judging. And the picture is actually quite hilarious.

It's a person with a plank in their own eye, a log in their own eye, a board in their own eye, offering help, such needed help, such crucial help to their brother that just has a speck in their own eye. And we had some laughs about this in our own home this week just thinking about what this is like. Can they even reach beyond the board that's sticking out of their own eye to even get at the speck in their brother's eye? And when you actually think about what Jesus is describing here, it's rather hilarious that Someone with a log in their own eye would presume to offer their services to someone with a spec in theirs. It's inappropriate.

It's a total loss of perspective. Here's a question. How close do you have to be to see a speck in your brother's eye? I started wondering that this week. I mean, are you looking at your brother, are you examining your brother from six inches out, or what?

A speck in your brother's eye and you're ready for surgery. This is micro examination of your brother. Matthew 23, 24, Jesus talks about those who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Don't want any of those gnats getting through. Meanwhile, they're swallowing camels.

And that's exactly what Jesus is describing in Matthew 7. So concerned about the speck, but you have a log. And this is nitpicking. It's not nitpicking across the board. It's just nitpicking with your brother If you were nitpicking across the board, you'd have found your log a long time ago.

Here's what J.C. Ryle says, What our Lord means to condemn is a censorious and false-finding spirit, a readiness to blame others for trifling offenses or matters of indifference, a habit of passing harsh, rash, and hasty judgments, a disposition to magnify the errors and infirmities of our neighbors and make the worst of them. This is what our Lord forbids. And this is exactly what Jesus is forbidding. The magnification of our brother's errors, while we ignore our own that are actually more significant, or at least that we can actually have first hand something to do with or about.

Jesus insists on an order of operations. Self-examination first. That's what's being taught in this passage. Self-examination first. Start on your face before God to see what things that you've done that you shouldn't have done, that you ought to address in your own life.

This is where All of this should start. The title of the sermon is Dealing with Sin. And what Jesus is saying is, yes, sin ought to be dealt with, but it ought to be dealt with first on your face before God to see what there is between you and him so that you can deal with your own sins in your own life. And then you can begin down the progression. But it always starts on our face before God.

And this helps us to go to our brother in the right spirit, doesn't it? If we've been on our face before God pleading with God to show us the areas where we have not honored Him as we ought to have honored Him, where we have not pleased Him, then when it comes time to go to our brother, we're in the right spirit. Because God has humbled us. Believe me, If you spend enough time, if you spend much time, if you spend only a little time on your face before God, wanting to know your shortcomings, you will come out of that session very humble. You'll have the gentle spirit of Galatians 1, with which you can go to your brother." Matthew Henry says this, Whatever such a one may pretend, it is certain that he is no enemy to sin.

If he were, he would be an enemy to his own sin. And therefore, he is not worthy of praise. Nay, it appears that he is an enemy to his brother, and therefore worthy of blame. Now, we're just coming out of Matthew chapter 6. And we saw in Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

So the person who is seeking first the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God begins with himself and won't be the man with the plank in his own eye picking at the specks in his brother's eye. He won't be that man because he's seeking first the righteousness of God for his own life. So Henry's right. Whatever that person may pretend, he's not the enemy of sin, because if he was the enemy of sin, he would have dealt with the log. The Expositors Bible Commentary says this.

In the brotherhood of Jesus' disciples, censorious critics are unhelpful. But when a brother in a meek and self-judging spirit removes the log in his own eye, he still has the responsibility of helping his brother remove his spec. The text doesn't justify the spec. The text doesn't say, don't worry about the spec. It's not even worth the trouble.

The text just says order of operations. Self-examination first. And then, when in a spirit of meekness, you've dealt with your own sin, you can go to your brother and you can help him with the spec. The spec does matter. The spec does need to be addressed.

Your brother might need someone to come along side him to help him with his speck. But not before you've examined your own heart so that you can come in a spirit of meekness, in a spirit of gentleness. It isn't removing the speck from your brother's eye that is condemned. It's the unrighteous, proud, unbending judgment. Now, verse 6.

Verse 6. Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. We should start here by defining the terms. This is a confusing passage, but if you just start by defining the terms, what is what in this text, then it gets a lot less confusing. First it talks about what is holy and pearls.

Those two things go together in this verse. What is holy and the pearls? Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine." And these are the things of God, these holy things, these pearls. They're God's things. They're the precious things of the kingdom of God.

And then it speaks of dogs and swine. And the dogs and swine are just the defiled, the unclean. Swine is identified all throughout the Old Testament as unclean. And the people of God are supposed to make a distinction. Now, this was ceremonial law, so it's been wiped away.

So we don't have to make the same distinctions. But God was teaching something through swine in the Old Testament, very distinct. He wanted a distinction made between the clean and the unclean. So what we're dealing here with Matthew 7 is the unclean. And so in the Old Testament, they were never allowed to eat swine because it was unclean.

It was identified as unclean. And they were never allowed to sacrifice it because it wasn't worthy to be sacrificed. It was unclean. Now in verses 3 through 5, we've been dealing with brothers. And this is set in contrast to what we've been dealing with.

The brothers you handle in this way. You go to them in a spirit of gentleness to address their sin. But these aren't brothers in verse 6. They're dogs and they're swine And these aren't very flattering labels, are they? Anybody want to be labeled a dog or a swine?

Revelations 22, 14 and 15 says this. Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie." And this is what we see in 1 Corinthians 6, that Jesus talks about the Corinthians having been washed, but then he talks about murderers and adulterers, the sexually immoral. And he says, such were some of you, but you were washed. And so a distinction is being made between those who have been washed, your brothers who have been addressed in the chapter up to this point.

And then it's a shift to those who are unwashed, those who are defiled, Those who are still unclean because they haven't yet been washed. Here is the teaching of verse 6. There's a fundamental difference between brothers and non-brothers, between those who have been washed and those who haven't been washed, between those who believe and have repented and entered into the kingdom of God and those who don't believe and have not repented and are not part of the kingdom of God. In Malachi 3, the prophet looks forward to a time where this distinction would be honored again, Malachi 318. Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

And this is a theme in the Old Testament, that there is to be a distinction between the clean and the unclean. That's what the swine were always about, and all the other animals that have been identified as unclean. So there's a difference with regard to how you approach the holy things, the pearls, the treasures of the kingdom of God. You handle them with one way, with your brothers. You handle them in another way with those who are not your brothers, or at least not yet your brothers.

Proverbs 9, verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So wisdom is at least part of these pearls that are being described, these holy things. The wisdom of God.

Now there's worldly wisdom, but then there's godly wisdom. And they're not the same thing. Don't we know that? And To get worldly wisdom, you can study the Greek philosophers. You can go lots of places to get the worldly wisdom.

But to get heavenly wisdom, to get godly wisdom, there's a precursor. There's a prerequisite course here, there. And it's the fear of the Lord, 101. And you can't go on to the other studies without the fear of the Lord. Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

So for Those who don't know the Holy One yet, don't fear the Lord yet. Godly wisdom, there's no framework for them to hang things on that you're giving them. You have these pearls, but they have no way to value these pearls or even to understand these pearls. Romans 8, 6, and 7, Paul says, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Those who are outside the faith cannot be subject to the law of God. The law of God is at least part of these pearls that are being described. So do you understand that your unbelieving neighbors, your unbelieving friends, they cannot be subject to the law of God? 1 Corinthians 2, 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.

Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The pearls, the holy things are spiritually discerned. You cannot act the same way to an unbeliever as you act towards a believer in these matters. Because they're not the same. They're fundamentally different. They're as different as your brother is from a swine or a dog.

If you fail to treat brothers differently than unbelievers with respect to the things of the kingdom, you can expect those things to be trampled. You can expect to be turned on. You can expect to be torn to bits. So what does that mean? That's easy enough to prove from the text, because the texts are there.

What exactly does that mean? What should we do? What shouldn't we do? Well, we'll start with Mark 16, 15. And Jesus said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Preach the gospel to every creature. What swine and dogs need more than anything is the gospel. And so we're to preach the gospel to every creature. There's no prohibition of preaching the gospel here in Matthew 6, verse 7, at least not on the first level. We're actually going to take this in multiple levels.

On the first level, the gospel is exactly what swine and pigs need. And if you're dealing with a swine or a pig, you're dealing with an unbelieving person, an unclean person, an unwashed person. And the very thing that they need is to become clean, is to become washed. And the only way to do that is through the proclamation of the gospel. But you can't just come to a swine or to a dog and address the speck in the eye?

No. Now, if that speck is sin, that might be directed to the gospel. So it's not that they're completely disconnected, not that there's nothing to do with the speck in the eye, but it's not the same with the brother. With a brother, you're going, and it's part of his sanctification. It's part of growing increasingly into the image of God, from being transformed from glory to glory, becoming more like Christ.

It can't be that for the unbeliever. So you go picking around the eye of a swine or a dog, Better watch your fingers. The fundamental problem for a swine or a dog is not the speck in their eye. They're a swine or a dog. And it's their identity that is the problem.

You have to deal with the identity before you can deal with things like specific sins in the life. Now, I'm not saying ignore the sins. I'm just saying if you deal with it the same way that you deal with a brother, then you're ignoring the counsel of Matthew 7, verse 6. They must be born again, so you give them the gospel. But think of this.

If you treat it, if you treat the speck in the eye with an unbeliever as if they were your brother, consider that you actually might be strengthening their sense of self-righteousness. Clean up, clean up, get that speck out of your eye. And all the while they're becoming more self-righteousness and they're further away from God than ever. They're more inoculated against the gospel than ever, because they see, I'm being cleaned up, I'm being sanctified, because maybe some things externally are being addressed. And you're actually hardening them against God.

Here's what the Bible says about correcting a scoffer. Proverbs 9, 7 through 8. He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself. And he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer lest he hate you.

Rebuke a wise man and he will love you." You see the distinction between the clean and the unclean right here in Proverbs 9. What about Proverbs 23 verse 9? Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. You might take those two verses and say, well, that's just a subcategory of the unclean. Really?

The unclean aren't wicked. The unclean aren't fools. The fool says in his heart there is no God. The fool is the one who won't bow down and worship the one true God. I don't think it is a subset.

I think what is being taught in the Proverbs is exactly what Jesus is bringing us back to in Matthew 7. Here's what the Bible says about correcting a brother. Psalm 141 verse 5. Let the righteous strike me. It shall be a kindness.

And let him rebuke me. It shall be as excellent oil. Let my head not refuse it. This is how our brother deals with the rebuke. He says bring on the striking because it'll be a kindness.

It'll be like an excellent oil. Proverbs 25, verse 12. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise rebuke to an obedient ear. It's like jewelry. A wise rebuke to an obedient ear.

That's a brother. That's a mature brother. That's a brother who knows how to come in a spirit of gentleness, a wise rebuke. And an obedient ear is a brother, a brother who's able to accept counsel. And when that happens, you have a wise rebuke, and you have an obedient ear, you get jewelry.

You get more pearls, not pearls trampled on. So by all means, preach the gospel. But for those who harden themselves against the gospel, we are to do what Jesus is commanding in this text, not to continue to roll out the pearls to be trampled on by the unclean. Jesus did this. Paul did this.

Matthew 10, 14. And whoever will not receive nor hear your words when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet." Matthew 15, 12 through 14. When his disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? But he answered and said, every plant which my Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone.

They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. The counsel of Jesus to the disciples in this instance, when they had repeatedly stiff-necked, stiff-neckedly, with a stiff neck, rejected the gospel, his counsel was, let them alone. Acts 13. This is Paul, Acts 13.45.

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. In contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so The Lord has commanded us, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.

Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." Now don't get this wrong. Don't think that if the gospel isn't immediately received, then you're just to let them alone. That's not what's being taught in the circumstances with Jesus or in the circumstances with Paul. But it's when the gospel is aggressively opposed and repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly rejected.

Not, I don't see it. I'm not sure. I've got to think about that more. That's not what's being talked about here. We're talking about violent opposition to the gospel.

That's where you have warrant to let them alone and stop rolling out the pearls to be trampled on by the swine. Acts 18, verse 6. Acts 18, 6. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am clean.

From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. This passage is about dealing with sin. And primarily, it's about dealing with our own sin, our own bent to stand as a condemning judge, rather than being full of mercy and forgiveness. We ought to have a bias. And it's not the bias to be a condemning judge.

It's a bias to be full of mercy, a bias to be full of forgiveness. And so Jesus recognizes this in our hearts. We're bent in the wrong direction. And so he's coming with a warning to us to say, don't be like the Pharisees. Don't be the Pharisee in this story.

You've got to be bent in the wrong direction. So you better watch out for this. And it's our sin that ought to be examined first. The order of operations is all important in this text, that we begin in our faces before God, examining ourselves before we turn to the speck in our brother's eye. We ought to help our brothers with their sin.

We ought to come alongside as those who are mature in a spirit of gentleness to help each other with our sin. Don't we need that in our own lives? Do we just want to be left by our brothers to just do whatever seems right in our own eyes? And never mind the blind spots that everybody else in the room knows about, but you, like David in 2 Samuel 12, know we want faithful brothers, better friends than anyone in the world ever has who will actually come and tell you, as a brother, the things that you're blind to or that you've refused to address in your own life. We need that.

And as for unbeliever sins and dealing with those who have not yet been washed by the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to make a distinction. We have to be careful. Janet was in the driveway a couple of weeks ago, and she was talking homeschool with a Christian neighbor. And the lines of argumentation, not that it was argumentative, the lines of reasoning, biblical reasoning, were one way because this is a Christian neighbor. We have a high degree of confidence that these are truly brethren.

And then another neighbor who comes up that we have a high degree of confidence is not a Christian. And The conversation changes at that point. And it's not that you can't. It's a topic that's off limits. It's just a topic that has to be addressed differently.

Because there's no fear of the Lord there. There's no knowledge of the Holy One there. So if you make the same arguments to the unbeliever that you've made to the believer, what you can expect is that those pearls would just be trampled on. So when we spend two years in Deuteronomy, you might not be discussing the fine points of the law of God with your neighbor, unless that discussion is bringing him to the Gospel so that his identity can be changed. Because otherwise, you might just be hardening him to the Gospel.

Let's pray. Father, we know that you want us to deal with sin in ourselves, in our brothers, and to those who don't know you yet. God, I pray that you'd make us a discerning people, a people who really understand what you're desiring to teach us in Matthew 7. God I pray that you would make us those who would be so gentle with our brothers and sisters because we have been on our face before you. To seek out the ways in which we have not honored you.

God I thank you that you give us brothers and sisters that can help us, that can come alongside us in a spirit of gentleness to help us with those things that have been like a ball and chain to us, maybe for many years. Things that we've been unable to successfully address by ourselves, and so we need the people of God to be around us. May that be the culture we have here, God. I pray that it would be so, that you would put this within our hearts to help one another in humility and mercy. But that our progress would be evident to all because we do care about these things.

We don't think that the speck is nothing. God, I pray for our neighbors who are not yet washed that you would help us to understand how this passage would counsel us. God, we pray that our being moved beside them or into their lives would be an indication that you desire to watch them. That you desire their identities to be changed so that the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of the Holy One could start them on a track where they would actually acquire godly wisdom, having had their sins forgiven. Maybe so, God.

Make us a mighty voice for your ways in this community. Help us to raise the standard in our community without casting holy things before Those who have not yet been washed. God, we need so much discernment here. Help us. In Jesus' name, amen.