Our Old Testament reading this morning that sort of goes along with our sermon text comes to us from Leviticus chapter 19. Perhaps not the passage that you immediately turn to when you think about your neighbor, but listen to the word of God. Leviticus chapter 19 verses 9 through 18. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to the edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal, You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of the Lord your God. I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind. but you shall fear the Lord your God, I am the Lord. You shall do no injustice in court, you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor, I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." And then our New Testament text, Matthew chapter 7, again Now this is a familiar passage, whereas the Leviticus 19 passage may or may not have been, but Matthew chapter 7 from the Sermon on the Mount, verses 1 through 12. Again, here in the Word of God. Judge not, that you be not judged. For with judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 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? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye? 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. 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. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets." Here ends the reading of the word of God. Don't judge. Probably the two most misused words out of the entire scripture in our age of toleration. Don't judge. Whatever you do, don't judge. Jesus said, don't judge. Now, of course, we're all well aware that that takes the whole statement out of context, that Jesus goes on to say in what way we are to judge. So that not only is that opening prohibition, judge not, not really a prohibition, it's simply Jesus' way, if you will, of introducing us to that whole issue, that whole area of dealing with one another. Most of the letters in the New Testament deal with serious doctrinal issues in the church. Galatians, of course, dealing with the problem of the Judaizers. The Corinthian letters dealing with a whole host of issues. The one real exception is the letter to the Philippians. The Philippian church does not seem to be in the throes of any serious doctrinal difficulty. Paul does warn them against the Judaizers, but that seems almost as an afterthought. I mean, after all, it's a largely Gentile church, but what's the problem in Philippi then? The primary problem in Philippi is you've got disunity in the church. You've got brothers and sisters not getting along with one another. I think it makes the point that doctrinal issues, bad doctrine is certainly contrary to the health of the church, but just as deadly to the church is that inability to follow the second great commandment, love your neighbor, as yourself. And in these 12 verses, although Jesus never refers to the second great commandment in Matthew chapter 7, that's really what he's dealing with. He's dealing with that love your neighbor as yourself. We live again in a day where people hear love your neighbor as yourself and they say, oh, well, you know, I need to love myself first. I love the Lord my God, and then I love myself, and then I love my neighbor. In fact, I was driving to Waynesville last Sunday morning. I was filling the pulpit at one of the PCA churches there, and I heard a podcast on the radio, some Christian group, and these ladies were talking about, you know, they've got a series that they were starting. last week, and I suppose it's ongoing this week and for the next few weeks, but the first one was kind of an introduction and then their series was love God, love Jesus, that kind of made me squint a little bit, love yourself, and love your neighbor. And I think it reflects a confusion in our day about just what does it mean to love our neighbor. Now a lot of people will turn to the Good Samaritan and say, well that's what it means to love our neighbor. Yeah, true, that's part of it. meet the needs of others as you can, as you are able, as you have the resources and they have the need. The Clutas need a pair of crutches. Can anybody meet that need? Anybody have that resource? But we all, I think, recognize that there's more to it than that. I mean, after all, the Samaritan, after he's taken care of the man who was beaten by the robbers, he goes on his way. The two, you know, yes, I realize it's a parable, but in the context of it, the two never meet again. The Samaritan goes on his way, takes care of his business, comes back and pays the innkeeper whatever he owes him, and whoever the wounded man was, he goes to his house and continues with his life. When you think about it, it's kind of a funny definition of neighbor. But Jesus here in Matthew chapter 7 is dealing with the more difficult sort of neighbor. You know, in a certain sense, that guy wounded by the side of the road is an easy neighbor to deal with. He's got an immediate need, You meet that immediate need, and you both go your way, and you never have any further interaction. Jesus is talking about the kind of neighbor who's always there. The kind of neighbor that maybe you would like to get rid of. Maybe you've been praying for that neighbor to move to another town. Or maybe they've been praying for you to move. And Jesus says, look, If you're going to live with one another, particularly in the church, you have to learn some things. You have to learn what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. And first off, don't judge. And he then goes on and explains what he means by that. He says, Judge the way you would be judged, i.e., love your neighbor as yourself. Judge your neighbor the way you would wish your neighbor to judge you. People, it's almost a commonplace. It's almost reduced to the level of bumper sticker theology that we tend to treat ourselves more lightly, we tend to judge ourselves more lightly than we do our neighbor. Jesus says don't do that. And then he uses, you know, we're just too familiar with Sermon on the Mount because the images that Jesus uses ought to just set us back on our heels. Listen to the hyperbole here. How can you say to your brother Let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye. Now you can see perhaps a political cartoon drawn this way with a guy with a big log sticking out of his head. Jesus wants the crowd to respond. He wants the crowd to react and say, oh, is that what it's like? Is that what I'm doing? I'm nitpicking with my neighbor while I'm not paying any attention to my own shortcomings, to my own faults, to my own transgressions. How many times, illustrated another way, how many times when we offend someone and we realize we have offended them and we go to confess to them How often is it this way? I'm sorry, but. I'm sorry I offended you, but I didn't intend it. We want to be forgiven, at the same time we want to let it be known that we don't really bear any guilt. That we don't really have any need to be forgiven because after all we didn't intend whatever offense took place. Jesus says, look, deal with the log in your own eye. You know, the problem often is that we need to learn to love ourselves. The problem is we need to learn to critique ourselves. We need to learn to sit before God and have his word come in and do a thorough cleaning, as David says at the end of Psalm 139. He says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Have you ever thought what a scary prayer that is? God, search me. Show me the log in my own eye that I can then deal with my neighbor, that I can then deal with my brother kindly and gently as I would wish him to deal with me. You hypocrite, Jesus says, take the log out of your own eye first and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Now the fact is that speck might be a log, but we need to get the log out of our own eye first. And Jesus, in laying this before us, I think is making it clear that one way to deal with difficulties in the church, interpersonal difficulties, those kinds of Those kinds of non-doctrinal church fights that become church splits is to first be self-evaluating, and secondly, deal with our brother the way we would wish to be dealt with. In a certain sense, one might say, can't we all just get along? Not that you don't condemn sin, not that you don't exercise discipline in the church when discipline needs to be exercised, but that you do so in a fashion as Paul says in Galatians chapter 6, where he says, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him, notice that, restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Restore him. The fundamental intent of church discipline is restoration. But then notice how Paul continues, in a spirit of gentleness. How often, when someone transgresses, are we quick to jump, quick to condemn? The whole Bo Bergdahl thing, the last week and a half, has been a real education. in how people who haven't got a clue about the full facts of the case are all too ready to condemn. There's no way that most of the people commenting on the Bo Bergdahl situation, that 99% of them don't have all the facts. They don't even have access to all the facts, and yet they're quick to condemn. They're quick to judge. Paul says, in the spirit of gentleness, for the purpose of restoration. And then he adds one warning, keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. None of us is above it. None of us is above transgression. None of us is above needing a brother to come along and say, let me direct you in a better way. So, don't judge. that you be not judged. Judge with righteous judgment. And then in verses 7 through 12, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. You know we live in an individualistic culture and an individualistic age and I suspect that most of us here read that this way. Ask God for things for myself, and he will give them to me. Seek with God for things for myself, and I will find them. Knock at God's door, as it were, looking for things for myself, and it will be opened to you." But notice At the end of the section, verse 12, what Jesus says, so whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. Well, this is the law and the prophets. He winds up the section the way he's begun. Verse 2 of chapter 7, for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. What's that but another way of saying, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And verse 12, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And Jesus is pulling all of this together in that context of how do we love our neighbor, that second great commandment. And the first way that we love our neighbor is we deal with them kindly and gently as we would wish to be dealt with. The second way in which we love our neighbor is that we pray for our neighbor. I think the focus here in Matthew 7 verses 7 through 12 is not on prayer for our own needs, but intercession for others. How much of our prayer time is taken up with our own concerns, our own issues, the needs and difficulties of our own families, and how much is given to concern for others? Over at Second Prez, they publish a list every week called the intercessor of things to pray for in church, and I just often wonder how how seriously that is taken. I know other churches do similar kinds of things. You all may do it here. But how much attention do we give to the concerns of others? How much prayer do we give to the needs of our brother? You know, and again, Jesus uses these illustrations. Which one of you If his son asks him for bread, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asks for fish, we'll give him a serpent. He says, look, you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. You who are evil know how to give good gifts to one another. How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask? Yes. no sin in praying for our own needs. We're commanded to lay our concerns before him. But how much do we pray for our neighbor? Do we love our neighbor enough to pray for him? Do we love that family enough to bring them before the throne of grace? You know, often I suspect most of us are guilty of this. We looked at a family with a, you know, it's a Christian family, but there's clearly issues in the family. And we kind of shake our heads. I don't know. I don't know about them. You know, they say they're Christians and Got no good reason to think they're not, but you know, there's that issue in the family. And we go our way. Do we ever consider that they might need prayer? And often, it's not until we find ourselves in a similar situation that we suddenly realize, oh, I had no idea of what they were going through. I had no appreciation for the difficulty of their situation and now I do. Again, it really builds on that being quick to judge, on that being quick to condemn. Are we as quick to pray as we are to judge? Are we as quick to pray as we are to condemn? Are we as quick to encourage as we are? to condemn. Now you'll notice if you're paying attention that I skipped a verse. Back in verse 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. You're already asking yourself first of all how does that fit with the idea of loving your neighbors yourself. But how does it even fit in the context? How does that connect with either what precedes or what follows? As a matter of fact, in the translation I'm using here, it's marked as an entirely separate paragraph. And many commentators take it as, you know, by the time Jesus gets down to chapter 7, he's just kind of throwing out, if you will, random thoughts. I'd like to suggest that there's something else going on here, that it is in fact connected with loving our neighbors. It is in fact connected with this whole idea of judging. And that's this. We all have neighbors. Some of our neighbors are in the church, some are not. Now, Following Matthew 7, 7 to 12, we ought to be praying for all of them, our neighbors in the church and our neighbors outside of the church, as we know their needs. And of course, for our neighbors outside of the church, we need to pray that they would repent, that God would give them repentance and faith, that they might come to Christ. Whatever else our neighbors outside the church might need, that's their fundamental need. And so we could also pray for opportunities to speak to them of Christ. But let's say God does something particularly special in your life. You have a distinct monetary need and you don't know how you're going to meet it. And a check. comes in the mail, or a money order from some anonymous donor, and it's just the amount that you needed. I suspect that most of us, if we spent a few minutes reflecting on it, could come up with any number of similar occasions in our own lives. When God has provided in a way that was entirely unexpected that met our need or more than met our need, whatever that need might have been, whether it was financial or in some other fashion. And what do we want to do when that kind of thing happens? We want to rejoice. We're like the woman who lost the coin and found it and what did she do? She called her neighbors in, rejoice with me for that coin that I thought I lost has been found. I think Jesus is saying exercise a little judgment here. That woman finding the coin, that's a pearl. You're getting that money just when you needed it from an entirely unexpected source. That's a pearl. But you know who's going to appreciate that? Your neighbors in the church. Because they will come and they will rejoice with you. Your neighbor outside the church. Jesus Identifies them here figuratively as dogs and pigs. They're unclean. They've not been cleansed by Christ. And as a matter of fact, they just don't have any appreciation for your pearls. All of those things, big and small, that Christ has done in your life, they don't have any appreciation for them. You know, you tell them, oh, I got this check in the mail. Hmm, interesting. They won't rejoice with you. They won't thank God with you that the need has been met, that the issue has been taken care of. I don't think that's what Jesus is... When you exercise judgment in dealing with your neighbors, whether they're inside or outside the church, think, you know, in this internet age most of us know the abbreviation TMI. Too much information. And we all have Facebook friends who are TMI. You know? Well, Jesus is saying, you know, back off a little bit. Exercise a little judgment. Judgment is not bad. Exercising some common sense is not bad. Condemning your brother without due consideration And without consideration of your own shortcomings and without the gentleness and kindliness that God would have us deal with Him, yeah, that's wrong. That's to be avoided. But exercising good judgment, that's just common sense. How do we love our neighbors? How do we So often, perhaps, we would wish for a neighbor like the wounded man on the side of the road. Somebody that we can deal with and go on our way. They go on their way and we never have to deal with them again, but God has put us in a church. And some of our neighbors, some of our neighbors drive us to distraction. But whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. As God has been kind to you in Christ, be kind to your brother. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do confess that we often find ourselves, as the man with the log in our eye, As the person who is quick to pray for himself but not for others. Give us grace that we might change. Help us to see the log in our eye that we might take it out and help us to see the need of our brother. That we might pray that you might give him good things. Give good things, we pray, to those in need, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.