Principles For Disipleship

[0:00] Chapter 6. I feel I have to say, before I read this, please indulge me just a little bit here.

[0:13] ! A man thinks his wife is losing his hearing.! A doctor suggests that he try a simple at-home test.

[0:25] Stand behind her. Ask her a question from different distances and see what she can hear or when she can hear it.

[0:36] So the man goes home, sees his wife in the kitchen facing the stove and asks from the door, What's for dinner? No answer. Ten feet behind her, he repeats, What's for dinner tonight?

[0:52] No answer. Finally, right behind her, he says, What's for dinner tonight? His wife turns around and says, For the third time, chicken!

[1:10] This man is in trouble because he assumed something about his wife that wasn't true. Actions based on assumptions cause problems.

[1:23] Jesus is going to teach about that today. Luke chapter 6. Please follow along as I read Luke 6, verses 37 to 42.

[1:34] Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

[1:47] Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. Will it be poured into your lap? For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

[2:01] He also said to them a parable. Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher.

[2:14] But everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. 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?

[2:27] How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take that speck that is in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?

[2:40] You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck, take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.

[2:54] Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for what's here. And Lord, we were praying for unity a few minutes ago.

[3:07] And Lord, this teaching that you gave your disciples is a very important part of unity in a church. So I pray that your spirit would give us ears to hear your word, even as we read it and explain it.

[3:23] And I pray that not only would we hear your word, but your spirit would convict us of our sins in relation to this, but that he would also lead us to Christ.

[3:37] not leaving us without hope, but leaving us resting in our hope. And I pray that you would lead us and be with us today.

[3:48] In Jesus' name, amen. So we're continuing the situation of Jesus preaching on the plain. Much of the same material is in the Sermon on the Mount.

[4:00] They could be the same. They could be different. But Jesus did share many of the same topics in different places as he encountered different people. But this is after he had been on the mountain praying all night.

[4:14] His disciples had come up, and he chose from among his disciples 12 men who would be his apostles. They continued as his disciples, people who would learn from him and follow him.

[4:25] But they were the group that he would send out as the foundation or starting the church. But his disciples were there, and we don't know how many people were there, but there was a great group of people gathered around Jesus at this time.

[4:41] And we looked before at some of the things that Jesus has said. And he is addressing his disciples. I think that's important. And even as we look at this, it's important to know that he's addressing his disciples.

[4:54] These are not just things he's throwing out to the world. These are things that, as he looks over the people who are choosing to learn from him, choosing to follow him, his heart goes out and desires for them to be unified and to watch for one another in right and proper ways.

[5:16] And so he gives them several principles, and they follow a theme as we go through them. And it's this idea of generating unity and going in the right direction.

[5:29] So let's look at some of the principles that are here that he gives us. And so the first group we can characterize is that disciples, you need to be careful how you treat one another.

[5:44] You need to be careful how you treat one another. And so he gives us two destructive practices that we need to avoid, and then he gives us two positive characteristics that are practices that we need to remember and observe.

[6:02] So let's look at the destructive practices first. And the first one that he mentions is judge not that you be not, and you will not be judged.

[6:13] That's the first half of verse 37. With the exception of John 3.16, this is the verse in the Bible that more people in the world can quote than any other.

[6:30] Judge not that you be not judged. I'm sorry. I've learned it in the King James. I'm not going to say it always the way it is here in the ESV, but you'll understand.

[6:42] You can read and see what's there. People quote this verse to claim that no one has the right to judge anyone about anything. Jesus said it.

[6:55] You hear people sometimes say, it's written in red, therefore you must listen. It's written in black, therefore you must listen. So don't, I'm not making light of Jesus' words, but this is God's word.

[7:10] We need to understand it and listen. But people will throw that at you and say, oh, that was written by, that was said by Jesus. You've got to listen to that. You cannot judge me. You cannot judge me about anything.

[7:21] And they do that to prove that no one has the right to tell them they're wrong. And you see that and you hear that so many places.

[7:34] No one has to tell me, has the right to tell me I'm wrong. But people are taking this verse out of context. Because it is, it is true that the Bible does indeed tell us to judge.

[7:52] In fact, the scripture commands us to judge and evaluate situations in many places. In fact, you can go down into verse 43 and 44 and find that after these statements are made, right away he's telling people to evaluate and to judge, to make discernment in a situation.

[8:13] So there's no way that Jesus is telling people, you have no right to judge me about anything. That's not what he's getting at. 1 Corinthians 6.2 says, or do you not know that saints will judge the world?

[8:30] And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? That was Paul, Jordan, the Corinthians, as they were taking, brothers and sisters to court, to law over some of the things they were offended by.

[8:47] Paul is saying, look, this is not right. We're going to judge the world someday. Isn't it appropriate that you can judge these matters?

[9:00] Or 1 Corinthians 5.9-13, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy, or the swindlers, or idolaters.

[9:14] Since then, you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he's guilty of sexual immorality, or greed, or if he's an idolater, or reviler, or drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such one.

[9:30] And he commands those in Corinth to say, you've got to make a discernment here. You've got to look at the evidence and make a choice.

[9:42] And so, to say that this verse teaches that a person should never ever judge anyone, is first of all to take it out of context, and secondly, to go against much of what's in the rest of scripture, Old and New Testament.

[9:57] God calling people to judge. So, what's Jesus talking about when he tells us here to judge not? It's, it's along the lines of my opening illustration.

[10:14] He's telling us that we should not hypocritically find fault. He's telling us that we're not to assume motives, intentions, or hidden sins.

[10:27] Just like this man assumed that his wife couldn't hear, when all along the real problem was that he couldn't hear. And it got him in trouble.

[10:46] I'm going to, this is a very, very simple illustration. I'm going to use it a couple of places. So, don't forget it. as we illustrate some points, let's say you're out driving, and you're in town, you're not someplace where, you know, you're not known, you're in town, and people know you, and you're even in a familiar neighborhood.

[11:08] Maybe you are passing one of the houses of the people in the church, and as you're going by, they're out in the yard doing something, and it's not that they're bent down and not see you, they're actually standing up, and if you go by, they actually watch you go by.

[11:26] But that's all they do. And you're, you know, letting them know, hey, I'm here, hi, how are you doing? I mean, it's cold, you don't have your windows down, so you're just waving to them.

[11:38] But they just watch you go by. And they do nothing. Some people will say, we'll call her Betty Lou, that was standing in the yard.

[11:54] What's wrong with that Betty Lou? She didn't wave. I think she did it on purpose. Yeah.

[12:05] I'm sure it was on purpose. That's the very thing that Jesus is commanding us not to do. That idea of assuming we know what was going on in Betty Lou's mind.

[12:23] We're not to assume what we do not know about one another. If you're out in a friend's neighborhood and you wave at them and they do not wave back, you do not know why they didn't wave back.

[12:39] You didn't talk to them. There was no sign that they held up and said, I can't talk today, my tongue is so swollen, or my hand is broken, I can't lift it to wave.

[12:50] There was nothing that could indicate to you why they didn't wave. We do not know why a person in that situation, maybe they didn't see you, but you say, but they looked right at me, they followed my car, maybe they didn't recognize your car, and your car had tinted windows and they couldn't see in your car.

[13:07] Yeah, but they know it's my car. Maybe they're sick. Maybe they have a fever and their eyes are blurry and they saw something go by but they couldn't.

[13:19] Maybe they forgot their contacts. Maybe there's just some sad thing that goes on, is going on in their life and they're looking at things but their mind is in that painful situation and sure, they see a car go by and maybe it's even a little familiar but they're just absorbed in their pain, their emotional pain or their physical pain.

[13:43] We just don't know why that person didn't wave. So we should be careful to not assume people's motives or their intentions or maybe it's some hidden sin to assume motives is to sin.

[14:11] It's something that Jesus says we are not to do. Judge not. Jesus calls his disciples to then go on, he goes on to say condemn not.

[14:25] Now that's going a little farther. To condemn is to pronounce someone guilty. And back to our situation with Betty Lou, incorrectly judging, you assume that they did not wave on purpose but incorrectly condemning is where you go further and pronounce someone of some sin only based on your assumption.

[14:52] you go by, you wave at Betty Lou, she looks at your car, turns her head as your car goes by, never waves back at you, you assume what she was thinking and you impinge on her negative motives.

[15:09] Well, she's just stuck up. Or she's thinking about what I said to her last week and I didn't mean it wrong but she thinks wickedly of me.

[15:22] you can begin to do all kinds of things where you begin to lay some sinful motive or sinful act on that person and you have taken a situation that didn't mean anything like that and you've turned that person into a sinner in your mind.

[15:44] Now, what happens? Come, say that was on Saturday. He'd come to church on Sunday and Betty Lou sits on the other end of the pew from you.

[15:59] Whoa, I'm not talking to her. She's stuck up. I'm not talking to her. She hates me or whatever the sin you've conjured up.

[16:12] right there begins to bring about disunity at best disunity. Now, you've gone and called them a sinner and you're acting as a sinner towards them.

[16:33] So, we are not to condemn people based on an unknown or assumed motive. Now, I didn't finish either of the phrases condemn or judge not and condemn not.

[16:50] Both of these phrases have a promised return. He says, when he says judge not, he says, and you will be not judged. When he says condemn not, he says, and you will not be condemned.

[17:03] So, if you assume motives or intentions and condemn them as guilty, it will show in the way you treat people and others will start doing that to you.

[17:20] You're sitting in that pew and you start, I'm not talking to Betty Lou, she's a snob. snob. What's Betty Lou start to think?

[17:33] Well, if she begins to assume things and begins to condemn based on the way you're acting towards her, well, then she might look at you and say, that's a snob.

[17:45] I'm not talking to them either. This kind of judgment and condemnation spreads. It starts when you act towards someone and it often comes back but it doesn't always just come back to you, it goes to other people.

[18:04] We should be careful to be people who don't assume. If we're known to be people who do not assume and do not unjustly condemn the motive others, others, that is also seen.

[18:25] I'm so thankful to have people around me. I wished I could say I am never guilty of assuming motives. If you know me well, I'm just the same as many people.

[18:41] And I'm always thankful for people around who say, David, you can't think like that. You don't know what they were thinking. Yeah, I didn't.

[18:54] I didn't. our actions spread. Our actions have results.

[19:05] And so we need to be careful not to assume motives, not to condemn based on those motives. Because if we get to be people who do not assume motives, and we do not condemn based on those assumed motives, that will be seen by others, and others will see the blessing of being treated that way, and be encouraged not to judge themselves, and be encouraged not to condemn themselves.

[19:34] They will take that 1 Corinthians attitude of love towards people, and not assume evil. And so we need to be careful to be people who are not assuming.

[19:46] now it's not just that this relates to how we act with one another. I think this also is something that is true of God, how he often keeps those who do not judge and condemn from being judged or condemned, but those who do judge and condemn, he disciplines.

[20:10] I'm not going to say that he's going to make people judge and condemn them, but he does know what's going on, and he deals with us. So I picture this, as Jesus has come down, he's chosen his twelve, he has all these disciples, and I picture Jesus coming down with a heart full of love for the people who are following him, and giving them these commands, now we haven't finished all the way through, and just realizing what that will do for his disciples.

[20:45] If we're people who do not assume the motives of people, that's a huge blessing to a church full of disciples. It's a huge blessing.

[20:58] It fosters unity. If we're people who are quick to say, I don't know why that happened, maybe she just had a bad day, maybe someone, maybe an ant bit her, just, oh, that's from the south.

[21:14] We don't have many ants who bite us up here, but if you live in the south, fire ants are awful. Maybe an ant bit her, or something else cost her. That kind of attitude fosters unity, it fosters love.

[21:29] And it's a great environment for disciples of the Lord to grow in. It's also a great testimony for Christ.

[21:39] John 13 35, by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another. And so he's given these two negative commands, do not judge and do not condemn.

[21:59] But he goes further and he gives us some profitable practices. He calls, in verse 38, the first half of 38, he calls his disciples to forgive forgive.

[22:12] That's the idea of releasing people from the debt they're wrong against us caused and restoring the relationship. Someone offends you, when you forgive, you release them from that debt and you restore that relationship.

[22:32] Now, we're people who still sin. And in all of our relations, we hurt other people. We need to be people who are quick to forgive.

[22:49] Now, that's true of people in general that we're all sinners, but it's true of Christ's disciples. We're all sinners. And as disciples of Christ, we have a responsibility to forgive one another.

[23:00] Colossians 3, 13, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must, so also, so you also must forgive.

[23:16] And then Matthew 6, 14 and 15, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your heavenly father forgive your trespasses.

[23:35] And again, a forgiving spirit is not only commanded, but it fosters a forgiving spirit amongst Christ's disciples. Do you see how these things are important to the unity of the church?

[23:51] Judge not, condemn not, forgive. A unified people is a people who forgive one another. Forgive.

[24:02] They let this love cover a multitude of evils. But then he goes on to talk about giving. Giving. And that's in reference to meeting the needs of others.

[24:16] we're a group of people. And some of us have needs and some of us have means. Now in any particular area, those people may, you know, the poorest person may have means for meeting some need you have.

[24:34] The richest person may have means for meeting some need you have. We should be a people who are willing to give, to have a giving mentality.

[24:50] We should have a mentality of wanting to help, brothers and sisters. And when we have that attitude of wanting to give to others, others will want to give to us.

[25:01] It's that same thing. As we reflect Christ, so we will see people grow in that way and reflect Christ back to us.

[25:13] It's part of a relationship in a body of believers. But then Jesus goes on to give a principle, and it's a fun principle.

[25:26] It's a general principle of rewards and returns. Now as he says this, you could say that it just refers to giving, but I think it goes back to all of them, and that's this principle of rewards and returns.

[25:40] so Jesus gives the illustration of buying grain in the market. And it's not like, you know, I grew up on a farm and buying grain meant going to the feed store and buying what somebody had prepackaged, and you loaded that onto your cart or whatever and hauled it to your truck, and that's how you bought your grain.

[26:05] But in this kind of market, it was very interesting, there would be a measure, a standard unit of measure that a seller would have, and you would go to the seller, say he's selling barley or wheat, and you say, I'd like two bushel of wheat.

[26:23] And so this man would take out a bushel, and he would place it on the ground in front of him, he would begin putting scoops of grain into it, and as he got halfway up, he'd take that bushel and shake it.

[26:36] And he'd put a couple more in, he'd shake it again, you know, tap it down, especially if it was a taller container. And some have talked about even they would poke a stick in it to make sure there were no empty pockets, you know, if it was cone-shaped, poke a stick to make sure everything made it all the way to the bottom, shake it, tap it on the floor, on the ground, so that when it was done, it was full, and the last thing he would do was put the last scoop on, when he couldn't get any more to settle, he put off, run off, and now he had an absolutely full container.

[27:14] And what would happen then, it talks about pouring into the lap, a man would be wearing, a woman would be wearing a robe in such a way that with the girdle, the belt around their waist, there would be a flap that they could hold, and they would then pour this grain into that flap as that person was standing there holding the flap, they would pour that grain into that flap, and so he would get the full measure of what he was trying to buy.

[27:49] And so that's the illustration that Jesus has used, and this illustration is meant to point to the blessing of obeying the commands of Jesus here. When we're careful to give the full measure of not condemning, it's a blessing to us.

[28:06] When we're careful to give the full measure of not judging, it's a blessing to us. When we're careful to give the full measure of forgiveness, it's a blessing to us.

[28:22] And when we're careful to give the full measure of meeting one another's needs, it is a blessing to us. But it also works both ways.

[28:37] If you continue to be a judgmental person, assuming the motives of others, well then the full measure of that will be returned to you. If you continue to be the kind of person who condemns, the full measure of that will be.

[28:53] Now, he's getting us to see that this is serious. This is not something we just take nonchalantly. we pay attention to these commands.

[29:07] But the passage plainly teaches that you'll be rewarded according to how you respond to others. Galatians 6 7, do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

[29:23] You'll reap, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing. So it's important for us to look at these commands and say, Lord, these are things I want to do.

[29:36] We're going to fail at them. In a moment of tiredness, we'll assume. In a moment of weakness, we'll condemn. In a moment of strength, we'll assume.

[29:51] We have to be on guard, but we need to be people who make it our business to not assume, to not condemn, to be quick to forgive, and quick to meet the need of a person.

[30:05] Well, Jesus goes on there and says in verses 39 and 40, he tells us about how these disciples need to be careful who they follow. And he uses what they call as a parable, and I'm not doubting it because the word of God says it's a parable.

[30:21] It's not like most of the parables. In fact, so many people as I read this week said it's a parable. It's different, but it's a parable. He says in verse 39, can a blind man lead a blind man?

[30:38] And of course, we get that picture in our mind. Can a blind man lead a blind man? And, you know, we're two blind men, one grabbing the hand of the other. Nowadays, people have walking sticks for, you know, and there's certain things that they, and there's a sense in which, yeah, they could, but if you went out in the country where there were no curbs, no signals at stop signs, and all the things that our society is built into trying to protect those who are blind, a blind man leading a blind man across a marsh would be in trouble.

[31:17] Both of them would be. A blind leader is not a good guide. guide. Someone who cannot see where you need to go is not a good guide.

[31:31] And so Jesus, by means of this parable, and we won't go into it a lot, but by means of this parable, he's telling his disciples, you need to be careful who's leading you.

[31:42] And it's just, as his disciples were gathered around him there, and he was teaching them, there were Pharisees about, who were doing their best to work against Jesus.

[31:54] And they had been the teachers of Israel, and they had led Israel in some pretty bad ways in years around the time that Jesus walked. And so he's telling them, be careful who you let lead you.

[32:09] John 14, 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now, Jesus didn't link this verse to what he's teaching there, but the intent of this verse is to say, I should be the one you are following.

[32:26] Now, if any one of you or I said that statement as boldly as Jesus, some of us would look at you and go, okay, but he's the Son of God, and he is sharing the truth of God's Word and of the Father, and so he is telling them, be careful who you follow.

[32:46] Now, it's not true just in Jesus' day. it's true this day. You and I need to be careful who we follow. Who are you letting teach you?

[33:00] Who do you listen to on the internet? I've been amazed the number of people who've been led astray by preachers they've heard and have no idea of their background, have no idea of their doctrine.

[33:16] different. We need to be people who are careful to follow the right leaders. And then he goes on to make this statement, a disciple is not above his teacher.

[33:30] Okay, so a disciple shouldn't think he knows it all and that he's going to teach his teacher a thing or two, especially as this comes about in relation to Christ, but this student in the system that Jesus is operating at this point, there would be a teacher and then there would be disciples and those disciples would learn from the teacher, they would learn everything he could teach and so the teacher doesn't become like the student, the student becomes like the teacher.

[34:02] When he's fully trained, he becomes like his teacher and Jesus is encouraging us to become like him. Be careful to follow Christ and those whom Christ has trained.

[34:14] so a disciple is not above his teacher. And then he goes back to something, and I'll just admit, there were so many commentators who looked at those two verses and said, we don't quite understand how those apply because what he gets back to in verses 41 and 2 link very well with what has been going on, but they still talk about how a disciple should follow the Lord.

[34:40] So as we get to verses 41 and 42, he says, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eyes but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

[34:53] And Jesus here as he's talking about disciples and their unity and their working together, he's talking about the importance of considering yourself as you desire to help your brother. It's good for us to want to help each other.

[35:08] When we see a brother that has a fault affecting him, we should follow Galatians 6 1, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

[35:23] So we have a responsibility to help our brothers and sisters walk the path that's right, have a responsibility to watch for one another. But the problem comes when we are obsessed with someone's small problem, but we have not dealt with some larger problem in our own lives.

[35:43] Jesus uses this humorous illustration to prove his point. Now a speck is the idea of just a fleck of dirt or maybe a fleck of wood that you would get in your eye if you've ever used a circular saw.

[35:57] It's real easy to get sawdust into your eye and then you're going like this. Now it doesn't incapacitate you, it's uncomfortable, and you may need a little help for a while, but usually it doesn't kill you, usually it's something that's taken care of pretty quickly.

[36:15] So the speck is something just little that gets in your eye. The beam is a word for the beam of a house, a large plank. If you have a deck and you have those poles that go clear to the ground, think that.

[36:31] Something like a four by four, that's what's thought here, a four by four, six by six, not a stick, something substantial. I heard one preacher once talk about, he used the illustration of telephone poles.

[36:46] You can think that if you want. But Jesus creates this illustration where he says, you know, you say you want to help someone and you try and you're all concerned about getting this speck out of their eye and meanwhile, you're turning around with a log hanging out of your eye.

[37:07] You know, you can't even get close to the person. It's meant to be a humorous illustration. It's meant to be a ridiculous situation.

[37:17] No one can get a log in their eye that they would move around with. But Jesus is using this oversized illustration to get the point across. cross.

[37:30] Why do you see the speck in someone else's eye but cannot see the log that is in your own eye? There are often times when we don't see our faults.

[37:45] I've been amazed as I get older at things I learn about myself and thought, I've done that all my life. Never know I did it. Never know I thought that. Never know I said that. and I've not known thoughts.

[37:58] It's not what Jesus is talking about. There have been sins I've been guilty of all my life and I haven't learned until I was 50 or 60 years old that that's not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is talking about stuff that's in us that we know about but we choose to ignore.

[38:19] The idea of knowing that you're guilty of some sin. maybe it is you're a tremendous judger of people and a tremendous condemner of people and everybody knows it and then all of a sudden you walk up to somebody and say let me help you with that little bit of wrong thinking.

[38:40] And in the meanwhile you're clubbing them with this pole that's sticking out of your eye. Why are you fussing about a small thing in someone else's life when you're trying to to ignore or deny a big problem in your own life?

[38:58] Jesus goes on to say it's hypocrisy to try to help others while you refuse to deal with major issues in your own life. In the unity of body that's such a difficult situation where someone is living with something they know about and everyone else knows about it.

[39:19] It's obvious and yet they choose to nitpick in people's lives and say oh let me help you with that little problem and meanwhile they won't deal with what's in their own heart and own life.

[39:34] Their hypocrisy is affecting their spiritual perception. And so Jesus in this illustration and this command says deal with your own fault before trying to help someone.

[39:47] Take the log out of your own eye before you go and nitpick in someone else's life. This is the idea of like the Galatians 6.1 I didn't finish the passage.

[40:00] Considering yourselves lest you also be tempted. Be the kind of person who's careful to want to make sure you're taking care of the things you need.

[40:11] You're working at the things that you're struggling with. Deal with your own fault before trying to help someone. examine your own life. Acknowledge your own failures.

[40:22] Repent of what you're refusing to see. And then help someone. We can't wait until we're sin free before helping one another.

[40:38] But we're in a terrible and dangerous place to try to help others when we're choosing not to see and deal with our own sin. Proverbs 28.13 whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

[40:59] So Christian this morning I want you to see the love and care of Christ for his disciples in what he teaches here. Kind of goes along with the theme of so many things today.

[41:12] This care God has for his people. Jesus is addressing his disciples is speaking to them in ways which would make them prosper as a group.

[41:26] Would make them to be unified as a group. And so I want you to see that he loves his people and he loves his disciples in what is here.

[41:39] What he has taught us here is something good. But I also want you to see that these are things in which he is perfect in.

[41:51] we come to a savior who loves us and cares for us. He has never judged anyone unfairly. He has never condemned anyone unfairly.

[42:08] He freely forgives based on his own sacrifice. He gives abundantly because of his fathomless love and grace.

[42:20] I should say these are in relation to his disciples and those who are his would be his disciples. He has never wanted to help someone with a speck in their eye but had a log in his own eye.

[42:37] He's the perfect guide and he's the teacher we should follow. And in the midst of these commands we all know that it's easy to assume things about people.

[42:51] We know that it's easy to condemn people. We know that it's difficult at times to forgive people. We know that it's difficult at times to give to meet people's needs. We know that it's easy at times to choose to ignore our own sin and yet nitpick at other people's sin.

[43:08] We know that that is something we can do. It's something we probably absolutely every one of us has done. Jesus is the one who could help us.

[43:21] If you're guilty and that should be all of us but if you're guilty of judging, condemning, having trouble forgiving or giving, if you hypocritically try to help others while refusing to acknowledge your own sins, go to him.

[43:37] Repent of the things where you have transgressed. when you confess and repent, he will forgive and he has grace to help in time of need.

[43:50] He'll remind you of himself and what he has done and what he's provided. And friend, do you see, I'm speaking of one who doesn't know Christ, who doesn't know what will happen to him because of the sins he sees in his own heart.

[44:09] Friend, do you see yourself guilty of these sins? Do you remember the recompense that was coming? If you judge, you will be judged.

[44:21] If you condemn, you will be condemned. If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven. If you do not give, it will not be given to you. Do you see yourself as guilty?

[44:35] You need a savior. Someone who can pay the penalty for the sins and offenses against God. From this point, several months later, Jesus went on to Jerusalem where he is eventually arrested, beaten, falsely condemned, hung on a cross, where he died for the sins of his people, placed there by his father.

[45:07] father. But whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So I encourage you if you're here today and you don't know Christ, turn to him, call upon him today.

[45:22] Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for what you've taught here. And I pray that you would bless us as a church with greater and greater unity as we endeavor to be careful not to assume judgment and condemnation.

[45:45] I pray that you would work these things in our lives. Help us be people who are quick to confess and repent. Help us to be people who are quick to run to you for help and grace in these things.

[45:59] And Lord, those among us who don't know you today, I pray that they would come to know the Savior who has given his life for us. We pray in Jesus' name.

[46:09] Amen.