Grace is found in God's commands, not as a means to earn favor, but as a guide for holy living that reflects His mercy. The sermon emphasizes that believers will not face penal judgment for their sins, as Christ bore that condemnation on the cross, but they will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to account for their lives. The core lesson is to avoid hypocritical judgment of others, focusing instead on self-examination and extending mercy, mirroring the grace God has shown us. The application calls for diligent, humble, and sincere work for the Lord, manifesting His mercy to the world.
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We're turning in our Bibles to the Sermon on the Mount, the portion in Matthew chapter seven, and we begin our reading at verse one. This is the second year that we've been meeting at my home on a Monday night. A few young men come along and we study the word of God together. And recently I've been having the young men bring a word, bring a short sermon, a message. And then we said and criticized each other on what was brought. A few weeks ago, our brother Neil Roberts brought a good message, and he had a lot of good material. And I've asked him to bring that message tonight.
Some of you know that I've been down with that twenty-four-hour flu. It really wakes you up. And I believe Neil will do a lot better tonight than I will. So... Since I wasn't able to make that great banquet last night when you all honored Vicki and Neil, I'll let Neil make up for it by speaking to us tonight. Come on out and hear him. I believe he has a message for you. He thrilled my soul and he thrilled the souls of those who were gathered the other Monday night in my basement, and I think it'll bless you. Verse one, Matthew seven, judge not.
that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye? But considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye? And behold the beam is in thine own eye. Thy hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, And then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye. Now may the Lord bless his word. Let us pray together. Father, in the name of thy dear son, we bow before you.
We thank you again for the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. That precious blood that has brought us the forgiveness of sin. Thy word declares, in whom we have redemption through his blood. even the forgiveness of sins, and that righteousness of thine imputed to us who believe, enabling us to stand in thy presence justified from all things, from whom men could never be justified, through law obedience. And we thank you this morning for all that you've been pleased to give us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray that we may be able to behold grace today.
grace found in thy commands. That we may see these commandments of thine as those which minister grace to the souls of your people for their eternal good and for the manifesting of thy mercy toward others. And we'll thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. To be preserved from sin is good. but to be impelled to practical holiness is still better. It is not sufficient that the branches of the vine be kept from blight and from pests, but the vine must bear fruit.
And so it is with us as a people of God. It isn't enough to have a garden that's clean a weed, but the garden must bring forth some good, healthy vegetables. And the Word of God tells us, be not overcome of evil. That's only the first part of a verse. The latter part says, but overcome evil with good. The Word of God here in our portion that we read this morning, it tells us, judge not that you be not judged. The judging not doesn't mean that we're not to have discernment. It doesn't mean that we're not to be, that we cannot be deceived. It tells us not to be deceived.
In other words, we're to be able to distinguish between wolves in sheep's clothing. We're to know false prophets, and we are to be good fruit examiner. By their fruit, you shall know them. On the other hand, our text wants us not to be deceived by appearances, and the admonition of our Lord is one of grace in this passage. For in verse two, we spend two large days on those words, judge not, that ye be not judged. But when we come to verse two, he gives us an order for judging. He says, For with what judgment you meet, it shall be measured to you again.
In other words, however we judge others, we shall be judged. And this passage wants to reveal to us something of the way in which God judges. The second chapter of Romans gives to us the standards of God's judgment, how God is going to judge men in the day of judgment. But you and I must understand God's judgments if we're going to apply that which God the Lord commands in this passage. You and I, who are believers in Jesus Christ, will never be judged penally for our sins.
This is a glorious truth. The penalty of my sins has been judged on another at the place called Calvary. This is what the cross was all about. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. When our Lord was on the cross on Calvary's hill, the sword of divine justice smote him. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. With his stripes we are healed. And because my substitute was stricken for me, he bore all the judgment, the penal judgment, for my sins.
He bore it all. We sing occasionally at the Lord's Supper. Him number one hundred twenty in the Black Worship Him book. The second stanza says this, All my sins were laid upon him. Jesus bore them on the tree. God who knew them laid them on him. And believing I am free. And I love the last stanza of Wesley's great hymn. No condemnation now I dread. Jesus my all in thee I find alive in him my living head and clothed in righteousness divine. bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown to Christ my own.
Romans eight verse one, that verse that must have been on Wesley's mind when he wrote, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. The reason there is no condemnation is because our blessed Lord bore the condemnation that was due unto us when he died on the cross on Calvary's Hill. This is what causes the heart of the child of God to sing, blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. When our Lord died on the cross, he suffered the just one for the unjust one that he might bring us to God.
That was his purpose in dying. And that's the meaning of John chapter five, verse twenty four, that great text. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me half everlasting life. And I love that word half, you know. H-A-T-H. Half everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation or come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. That's why Wesley could write, No condemnation, now I dread. You see, for he saw the truth. that the person who's in Christ has passed from death unto life.
So I'll never meet the judgment for my sin. For if one of my sins were not judged in the person of Christ, I would spend eternity in hell. For just one. How many sins did it take to plunge the whole human race into depravity? Just one. Disobedience. Never forget that. Oh, what a gospel we have to proclaim. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there isn't another Savior. He's the only one. And God attested to his work by raising him from the dead. The sin question has been settled.
That's why Romans ten and nine says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord. and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with a heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with a mouth, confession is made unto salvation. That's why a person who's been saved, who realizes the truth that God dealt with my sins at the cross, I will never meet them again. They are gone forever. That person. is not a shame to talk about the Savior. We have someone to talk about, and we have something to talk about other than the weather or the basketball game or something else. What a blessing to know that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ.
The penal aspect of my sins are gone. But our Lord is speaking to believers here in Matthew seven. He's not preaching to the world. He's speaking to his own. And we studied that when we got way back in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter five. And he says to us, Judge not, that you be not judged. For the way in which you judge others, you're going to be judged. When? At that place called the judgment seat of Christ. Well...
I'll never meet the judgment of my sins. My sins have been dealt with once and for all and forever. But how I lived as a child of God, I'm going to meet at the judgment seat of Christ. And things that I haven't put right will then be made right. It will be made right. Make no mistake about it. You see, these verses warn us that no Christian is beyond the law of God. There is one above whose eye is ever upon us, whose ear is listening to every word that we speak.
The Word of God says that we're going to give an account in that day for every idle word. we're going to give an account in that day. That is the reason that our judgment of others will provide materials for judging us in that day. So what is our Lord doing here? He's manifesting His grace. He's very gracious to us. He says to us in this text, you're my child. Now I don't want you to go around sitting on the judgment seat and passing judgment and trying to pluck out moats out of your brother's eye when they're big railroad ties in your own eye.
What he's saying to us here is, in a coming day, we all are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. That is Paul's great argument. In the fourteenth of Romans, you remember. He says, Who art thou that judges another man's servant? Why do you judge your brother? For we must all appear. before the judgment seat of Christ. And our Lord is talking in this text about that day. Now the Christian stands in a radically indifferent relation to God than the man in the world. Both the sinner and the saint, both of them are the subjects of God's righteous judgment.
Yes, he will. And God will not wink at the sins of his saints. God will not overlook the sins of his saints. He does not condemn sin in the sinner and then condone it in the saint. God does not operate that way. Now while the child of God will not be punished penally, he will never endure the judgment of a lost eternity in a place called hell, as a sinner will. He will never be punished for the penal consequences of sin. Our Lord endured that as our substitute on the cross.
But sins committed after he became a believer. Sins not repented of or confessed. Sins that have never been made right. Oh yes. Those things that have not been put right in this life will be dealt with. For it says, however you lead out to others. It's going to come back to you. God's throne, friends, is founded upon justice and judgment. In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter eleven, we read that because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, the hearts of the sons of men continually are bent to do wickedness.
And the longer judgment delays, the more vile the sinner becomes. in going his own way. But God's throne is established with justice and with judgment. The ineffable holiness of God form the uniform dealings of God toward all men. God is holy. God never overlooked one sin. All will be dealt with. My friends, There is no respect of persons with God. In all of God's dealings in grace and righteousness, His grace is outstandingly manifested.
For the Scripture says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves. And the salvation that we have is a proof of Christ, having satisfied every demand of the holy justice of God. in our behalf now while God is the God of all grace God's grace reigns through righteousness Romans chapter five verse twenty one now while it is blessedly true friends that we read in first Peter that grace will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ oh yes there's going to be abundant grace there But if sins are not brought up, then what need should there be that we find mercy of the Lord in that day?
See, when Paul wrote of Anisophorus and his household, as he wrote to Timothy in second Timothy chapter one, he said he often refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my chain. And he said, may he find mercy of the Lord in that day. See, Paul wasn't around that man all his life. He didn't know a lot of things about him this, of course. A lot of things he did know. You see, he knew he was not ashamed of the fact that Paul was a prisoner. He wasn't ashamed of the fact that Paul was in prison. He looked him up. But Paul also realized what's in the heart of every man. And there's a tendency to do things and forget about them and never make them right.
And go on as though everything's all right. else what would be the need friends of first John one nine if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness see Paul urged Timothy to do what to persevere in the work turn to second Timothy chapter four second Timothy chapter four verse one second Timothy four verse one where we read these words, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom.
Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. What is he telling Timothy? He says, Timothy, I want you to preach the word when it suits and when it doesn't suit. In season and out of season. I want you to approve, rebuke, exhort, and above all else, doctrine. Teach. Teach the word. And he charges Timothy in the presence of God who is going to judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Now the question comes up.
How will men be judged in that day? When believers stand before the judgment seat of Christ. How will we be judged? Well, James chapter two gives us an insight, and I think is a commentary on the verses our Lord has in the seventh of Matthew. In Matthew seven, he says, Be careful when you pronounce judgments on others. Be careful. While God expects us to discern, he says, Be careful how you judge. For how you judge others? you yourself will be judged. The book of James chapter two. The epistle of James chapter two.
And we'll begin our reading at verse thirteen. Here he's speaking about being judged by the law of liberty. That perfect law of liberty. In verse thirteen he says, For he shall have judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy. And mercy rejoices against judgment. What is he really saying here? He's really saying this. Those who have judged, those who have dealt unmercifully with others shall be treated likewise by God in that day. And they who have acted leniently and lovingly shall then receive the fulfillment of the promise.
What promise? The one that God used in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount to describe his people. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. They shall obtain mercy. Having dealt mercifully is not the cause of receiving mercy, friends. It's the evidence that they will receive it because they have dealt this way toward their fellow men, toward other believers in the family of God. Well, you see, James goes on, and in chapter three and verse one, he says, My brethren, be not many masters.
And another translation has it. Don't be many teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. In other words, a teacher is one who sets himself up to a large extent, and he proclaims truth. He teaches. And anyone who sets themselves up is a judgerous censure. Shall we see the greater condemnation? In other words, we need to be careful in pronouncing judgment upon others. My brethren, be ye not many teachers. Or I know of places where men would just desire above all else to be able to teach.
To have a platform. James says, be careful. Be slow. Be sure that you're called of God. Well, after our Lord tells us to be careful in our teaching, for as we measure it out to others, it will be measured unto us again. Remember the story of David when he had to flee Jerusalem? Remember old cursing Shemiah that came out? And he cursed David and threw stones at him when he was on his way to Mahamniah? As the son Absalom had usurped the kingdom. And someone said to David, let me go, take his head off.
Oh no, David said, don't do that. God permitted him to do it. If God had dealt with me like that, deal with him in mercy. The time came where God brought David back to the kingdom. God brought it back to him. And God took care of Shemiah in his own way. My friends, there are a lot of things we don't need to do. And one of them is on lawful judging of others. Judge not that ye be not judged. For the way in which you judge another, you shall be judged yourself. Now, the moat and the beam, our Lord says, Why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye?
The moat is a tiny speck. You really have to search for it. You really have to search for a moat. You see. Why do you behold the moat that's in your brother's eyes? And you don't see the beam. A big log in your own eye. Oh, the Pharisees were so great at this. They could see. And it's like they looked for the knack. Our Lord talked about the knack and the camel. They swallowed a camel. And they tried to purge out the knack. You see it. And it's so easy. And that word beholdest is an interesting word in the Greek. That word beholdest means why do you continually go around looking for something that you can censor in another?
You know, a person who likes to pass judgment can usually find something to judge if you go scrutinizing everybody. And you can find something that you can pick on. And that's what our Lord is talking about. He says, why are you beholding the moat that's in your brother's eye? And you have nothing to say about the way in which you're living yourself. The moat and the beam. Why behold a star? You see, the person who fixes his gaze on the fault of another, you have to look close to see a moat. And while you're looking for the moat, You overlook all the other good things in that brother. Isn't that true?
Or you can focus on that one thing that you don't like, what you might call a moat, and you miss all the good things that the brother has to say. Now that's a desperate state for a soul to be in. In the unregenerate, those who have never been born of God, they're blind to their own terrible condition. And yet many times they're quick to perceive the faults and the failings of others. Let me give you an illustration. Occasionally I stop for coffee and drink a cup of coffee with some fellows and often have a time to witness concerning faith in Christ.
When Jim Baker and Jim Swagger fell, Boy, I got it the moment I walked through the door. They were on me, and I was ready for them. And one of the things I said to them, I'll never, I said to them, you know, it's a shame. But there's a doctor in this town who belongs to one of the big churches in the city. He spent some time in prison for embezzlement. I said, but I don't read that the, and some of these fathers go to the big churches, you see. I said, and my Bible that tells me that you have to put a man out of the fellowship for immorality, the same Bible says you have to put him out for embezzling.
The same text, the same passage, First Corinthians five. I don't read that they did that. It's so easy, friends. And in the unregenerate, they have been blinded. to their own terrible condition. A person who has never been born of God is in a terrible condition. The Word of God says he's lost. The Word of God says he's under the condemnation of God. And it's a terrible condition to be in. Our text here talks about the degrees of sin. It talks about a moat. And it talks about a beam. The beam is a lot bigger than a moat.
And God... deals with the degrees of sin. You see, and people can appear to be very solicitous over another, and they can care for what they call the finer point. They can correct the slightest faults, and all their activity is nothing but hypocrisy. Our Lord in our text says, you hypocrite, deal with a beam in your own eye before you try to cast out the moat out of your brothers. Friends, what does our text say? Our text is telling us you are God's people, that we should be, as the Beatitudes said, merciful toward others.
Ephesians four, verse thirty-one says, Be ye kind, tenderhearted toward one another, forgiving one another, for God hath for Christ's sake forgiven you. And that's what should regulate our lives. On the other hand, we should be talking about the mercy of God to the lost. People are lost, friends, who have not been saved. Lost. And if a person is lost, it doesn't matter how religious they are, they're still lost. And there's only one message that will ever deliver them from their terrible condition.
It's the gospel. I had a preacher friend a number of years ago who preached in the Methodist Church in York County, Pennsylvania. He's a red-haired man, and he was a fine gospel preacher. He said in the past five years in this church to which he was sent, twenty-seven church members got saved. Twenty-seven. They were members of the church, but they were not members of Christ. And it's to be a member of Christ that's important. And only those who are members of Christ can sing with Westlake. No condemnation, now I dread.
Jesus, my all, and thee I find. That's the only person who can say, there is therefore now no condemnation. And that's the only person who can really, and in reality, show mercy toward another under extreme circumstances. As ye measure to others, it shall be measured to you again. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. So it behooves us, my friends, to be diligent in doing the Lord's work now, humbly, and sincerely for His glory.
God has not taken Himself off the judgment throne and put neither you nor me on it. He's there and He'll ever remain there. And He expects us to manifest what He gave to us when He saved us. The mercy of the Lord. And may God enable us to be showers of mercy for His name's sake. I'd like to sing a hymn in closing. The first and last verses. Three hundred thirty-one in our hymn book. How wondrous a Savior is God's blessed Son.
How great and eternal the work he has done. God's glory maintained by his death on the tree while mercy flows freely to you and to me. And then the last stanza. The moments are fleeting. Haste then why delay. Secure God's salvation while still tis today. Eternity's ages. Thy soul has the face in blackness of darkness or riches of grace. Are you saved? Where will you spend eternity? If you're saved, then you can show mercy to others. Blessed are the merciful for they.