Matthew (Sermon 25)
Matthew 7:1-6 (part 2)
Matthew 7:1-6 (part 2)
How is that plank??
Matthew 7:1–6 (ESV)
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged."
2 "For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
3 "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"
4 "Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?"
5 "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."
6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you."
Man, does this sound familiar?
So, never has there been a human being born in the world that is not described in these lines. We all do this. We all see the speck in our brother’s eye and sister’s eye, but remain unaware of the plank in our own eye. We are all judgmental and self-righteous by nature, and prone to point the finger, yet never see our own problem.
VS 3 "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"
Why the eye??
· The eye may refer to one’s perception of things—his or her viewpoint.
· How we see or perceive things is, after all, at the heart of this discussion.
· As the old saying goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
· Or, to quote Alexander Pope, “All is yellow to the jaundiced eye"
· The way we see things, the filters of our sins past and present, make us see things a certain way.
Why is this Verse so important??
· First, it helps us see and understand ourselves by Jesus’ infallible understanding of people.
o This way we need not feel embarrassed or singled out.
o We are the way we are because (like it or not) we are like everybody else: fallen men and women.
· Second, this verse helps us not to be surprised that most of our quarrels are within the family of God.
o That is why Jesus said, “How can you say to your brother?”
· Third, Jesus wants to help us avoid being judged.
o How so? For one thing, if we will spend time judging ourselves, we won’t get around to pointing the finger at others!
o This verse can therefore help to keep us from offending our brother or sister by uncalled-for criticism.
· Fourth, this verse shows so candidly how we tend to let small things in the other person upset us.
o It is that “speck of sawdust” that we build out of proportion that gets us annoyed.
o At the same time, it is astonishing how we overlook the big negative things in our own lives—which should upset us more!
· Fifth, a verse like Matthew 7:3 demonstrates so vividly how all of us are filled with self-love.
o It is a perfect illustration of how sinful we all are, with particular reference to self-righteousness.
Remember this!
James 1:19–20 (NIV)
19 "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."
· As we go through this, keep this verse in mind!
Why do we always want to find faults in others?? It’s the plank in your eye!
· The “plank” Jesus is talking about is the Sin in your own life.
· The plank in your eye, “your Sin”, is why you want to point the finger.
· And to hide or escape from your own sin!
What does the Plank in your eye do??
· First, the plank magnifies the specks of dust in others.
o It magnifies their fault or defect.
o And it has blinding power when it comes to having objectivity about ourselves.
o It enables the eye to focus on what we think is wrong in others.
o So the plank in our eye focuses on, and magnifies, the faults in others, making the faults in others appear worse than they are.
o The plank in our own eye will pick up on what gets our goat.
o We may also be reminded of some personal hurt, even if this happens unconsciously.
o It is really our own weakness, but we think it is theirs.
· Second, the plank in our eye is a defense mechanism.
o It is a way of protecting ourselves from pain—what we are really like.
o We ease the pain by showing what is wrong with others.
o Misery loves company. If I am in pain, I will ease that pain by making you feel as miserable as I do. So I point the finger at you.
o The plank in our eye results in an inability to think clearly.
· Third, the plank in my own eye is my self-righteousness.
o It is self-elevating.
o It makes me feel qualified to judge you, to play God for a moment.
o It keeps me from judging myself.
What Jesus wants us to see is that we have a worse problem than they do when we point the finger. Faultfinding is worse than the fault we think we see in the other. That is why Jesus calls their problem a “speck of dust”, and our problem the “plank."
So how do we cure faultfinding?? Always looking at the speck in everyone’s eye??
The first is agreement.
· We must agree with what Jesus is saying.
· In a word: The problem is not with you, but with me.
· The moment I find fault, I become the guilty party.
Question: Do you agree with Jesus? Our faultfinding is worse than their fault?
· That is what we are being taught here. How does this make you feel?
· The truth is, my own fault blinds me to what I am truly like.
Second, we must pay attention to the plank. Jesus asks a question:
Question? Why is this so painful?
· Because we will see ourselves as guilty.
· We are wickedly self-righteous, and we are blind to our fault.
· We want the other person to look worse than we do.
· So we want to expose him or her.
· We want to punish him or her in order to keep our gaze away from our own sin.
Paying attention to the plank in our eye can result in three things:
(1) We can begin to judge ourselves—a full-time job that will keep us occupied and busy, and restrain us from trying to straighten others out.
(2) We should begin to feel ashamed of ourselves. It makes us realize we have no right to meddle in another’s affairs.
(3) We will be granted repentance. Our being sorry for the way we have been results in change. We see that faultfinding is wrong, so we agree to stop it. Then true repentance happens—in our case, admitting we were wrong—and Jesus gives us grace to change our ways.
Self-righteousness is a horrendous sin.
· If we become conscious of the plank in our eye, it should keep us from gazing at the speck of dust in theirs.
· We should know so much of what is wrong with us that we would be too embarrassed to judge another!
· The skeleton in our closet should close down our gaze of another’s faults, not to mention shut our mouths.
I don’t meant to be unfair, but do you ever stop to think how much God knows about you—your past sins and present weaknesses? Do you think about how much has been wrong with you—and how this wrong is perpetuated by pointing the finger at another person? What if—immediately after you pointed the finger—God let that other person see what is absolutely true about you? What if God were suddenly to spill the beans about you?
Consider what you have been forgiven of. You know, too, don’t you, that the whole truth is worse than what they know? But God knows.
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