The Hypocrisy of a Critical Spirit

Let’s give thanks one more time for the Worship team today – I am grateful for the thoughtful ways in which they serve us through leading in worship. Now I want to make sure you know how I truly think, because what if I started by saying

Pastor Alfonso I that was a nice worship set but well, you came in late on the chorus on the second song, and the rhythm on the acoustic guitar was off. It was so much better when we had drums, lighting if not well-targeted and Cara, you were just a little pitchy on the vocalization during the bridge.

Two questions – how much lovin’ am I getting from the congregation right now? Did He really just criticize the team that way in front of us?

How many on the worship team do you think will be back next week?

Next – consider this – What if that had been Dionnis providing that exact same feedback privately? You see, there are multiple problems here…

There are a lot of different scenarios that we could use to open the door for today’s message…

What about when you are in the gym, and the guy walks in wearing the 1970’s track suit that his mother bought for him, he is about 100 pounds over weight still carrying the cigarette butt he put on the way in because he might want to relight it…and he says to you, you know, you could get really buff if you if lifted this way instead.

Imagine going to the BMV to take your driver’s test and you find out the person giving the test doesn’t even have a car and has never driven themselves.

At some point, I think we would all say that to speak up on certain topics, your life and your own experiences have to line up if you want to be a credible authority.

I am certainly not going to walk into the hospital and tell the surgeon operating on my wife that he or she is holding the scalpel wrong…

In every one of these scenarios, it is not just wrong, but when we correct, when we analyze, when we criticize someone else in areas we have no experience and no authority, Any time we inherently tell others – “Do as I say…not as I do…” How would you describe that person? The first word that comes to mind - Hypocrite

That is why today we will be exploring God’s Word together and looking to understand

The Hypocrisy of a Critical Spirit

The passage we will be unpacking today is from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7…that is on page 5 of the back section of the bible in our chair…

I have no idea why they restarted the page numbers over for the New Testament, but then, who am I to criticize?

As you are turning there – as we turn to the second half of the calendar - let’s refresh where we have been

With our Annual Theme of Growing in Gospel Gratitude, we began the year with our verse by verse exposition of Philippians helping us to find joy through His word.

For the Summer, we are continuing our Series on Handling Criticism. Though we are not going through a single book, I want you to know that we have not changed our philosophy for preaching. This series is not a list of topics we wanted to talk about and then we simply support our opinions with a few well-selected verses. That would not be serving you well, in fact, it would be doing the very opposite of what Matt 7 will show us today. To preach in that manner would put more emphasis on what I think than what God thinks.

[Delete Past Sermon Titles which Josh included]

Instead, even in this series, we chose passages and then we have unpacked the meaning of the passage…

For example –when we started - to address How to handle the divisive person – we looked to Romans 16 which said

Rom 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.

Or when we sought to see how criticism comes from a Rebellious heart, we looked to Numbers 16 to examine Korah’s heart as he complained and rebelled against Moses or even last week as David helped us address criticism against leaders, we looked at what happened when Miriam and Aaron complained against Moses in Numbers 12.

Even with a topics series, the passages are selected and the meaning of the message comes from the text, not from our hearts. If your pastors were doing that, we would be like that guy in the track suit making ourselves out to be the expert and even placing ourselves where only God can reveal the truth.

That would be hypocrisy on my part

So for today – let’s look to Matthew 7 to see what god has to say about

The Hypocrisy of a Critical Spirit

And with the time that we have – let’s unpack

3 Reasons to carefully evaluate our hearts before criticizing others.

[READ MATT 7:1-6]

Pray

Our first lesson for today will be that we must avoid the error that many try to take with this passage – You cannot stop reading after three words and declare you have the meaning – “Do Not judge…” of course we would love to be able to use this this way so that others would stop judging us…but that is not the meaning – more on that later…

The passage is not about “to judge or not to judge,” the passage is about the process that we all go through when we judge because we all do

You and I live our lives in a constant state of making judgments. You're making judgments even right now as I make statements about judgments.

I'm not sure we could stop but even if we tried

you have to make judgments on where you're going to shop for your groceries, on what vehicle you're going to choose to drive, what shows you'll watch on Hulu, and even on the clothes you wore at church today

And since we are constantly having to make judgments in our lives when we do so the reality is that it is possible to sin in that process

The reason that God starts with a “do not” is because …

It is possible to sin by being judgmental

What I mean by this is that our judgment is about more than just whether we come up with the correct conclusion, and this passage is helping us to see that when we do judge, it can be done in the wrong manner

The ends do not justify the means when it comes to decision-making, and we are cautioned here about being judgmental.

Throughout the sermon on the mount, Jesus has been resetting the standards by which we look at the law. Jesus did this by telling us you have heard it said you shall not commit murder but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court or you have heard it said you shall not commit adultery but I say to you that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart

Jesus was helping the people to see that they did not view sin in the same way that God does. And he's doing the same thing in our passage today in helping us to see how our hearts are sinful when we are being judgmental And he's helping us to see a way forward so that we may not sin in our judgment.

And if we think of this as a process, From our text we can see that our process of judgment can be sinful when…

We evaluate by our standards rather than the Lord’s (Verse 1-2)

Matthew 7:1–2 ¹ “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ² “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

Let's be honest here we all struggle in that when we make judgments we do so based on the standards within our own hearts and we declare them righteous, We even declare them to be God's standards If we had received some special revelation from God.

If only you would simply do things the way that I am doing them and believe the way that I think, then everything would be OK.

This wrong way of evaluating can pop up in many different areas of life…

• Parenting
• The choice about where to send kids to school
• The clothes that we wearing – What is the standard for modesty?
• The use of our money
• Do you drink Diet Coke?

As you listen to that list, are you saying to yourself I don't have an issue with judging others on those things?

Here's your first homework assignment for today, take a few minutes in prayer and ask God to help you see the areas of life where you are judging others using your own standards and not His.

And don't be afraid that you'll be condemned if you find something on your list, because this temptation has been around for all time, even for the most godly of men…

think about when God's prophet Samuel was sent to anoint the next king of Israel. After Samuel had considered the first six sons of Jesse, God had to correct him on how he was judging…

1 Samuel 16:7 ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Then after we have taken the time to consider how we put our standards before gods, we must also acknowledge that…

We pretend that own failings are non-existent or not significant

Matthew 7:3–5 ³ “Why do you look at 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,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ⁵ “You hypocrite…

There's something here to see that helps us know how serious Jesus was about this topic. If you look throughout his ministry we don't find that Jesus routinely addressed those around him by calling them names, but I think if he's going to call us that we need to pay attention to what he means.

Hypocrite—one who puts on a mask and feigns himself to be what he is not; a dissembler in religion. Our Lord severely rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16). “The hypocrite’s hope shall perish” (Job 8:13). The Hebrew word here rendered “hypocrite” rather means the “godless” or “profane,” as it is rendered in Jer. 23:11, i.e., polluted with crimes. [Easton’s Bible Dictionary p.341]

Do you see the picture being painted here. Jesus is not seeking to be gentle here. He had just rebuked the religious leaders for their actions that were all about show and placing their own standards upon the people of Israel as compared to glorifying God

The point is that so many times we put ourselves in a position that we do not belong particularly when we look at the failings of others without considering how our own failings factor into what we are thinking.

Let me illustrate with an example.

When I would go up to my son's room to check if he had cleaned it, or go into my daughters rooms to see if they were up to my standards, I love giving them simple phrases to help remember what I was expecting. For the boys it was stacks not gobs, meaning that when I opened they're dresser drawers I wanted to see folded clothes in stacks rather than all the clothes just jammed into the drawer. Or the more recent one with the girls was the phrase feet and furniture, because these were the only things that were authorized to be on the floor and everything else needed to be put away.

Now to my shame, if you came and looked in my room and opened my sock drawer do you think you're gonna find everything in stacks not gobs? Or is it possible that I may have left something sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed that did not belong there.

And yet, when I go into the kids rooms are my words laced with sarcasm? Or am I being harsh in how I'm correcting them to meet my standards

What our text is helping us to see today is that our judgment process becomes sinful when we assume... When are default thinking is that I am the one who is right, and clearly I have never done this wrong… so what's wrong with you people?

Instead, when something goes wrong around us, my initial thinking should be about how I contributed to the problem.

Or when I am considering someone else’s actions or choices, I need to begin by thinking where have I fallen short in the same area or how have I impacted the choices they just made.

Let's say as we're finishing up today and you are leaving I asked you what did you get out of today's sermon. If your response is… nothing.

I can either begin judging you for sleeping we're looking at Facebook on your phone Or I might consider that may be my delivery of this message was unclear causing me to consider myself first before I simply assume that you are the problem.

Another way this text helps us to see the hypocrisy of our critical heart is when in our judgments…

We maximize the failings of others, while minimizing ones own (v3)

This tendency applies to all of us but for sake of time let me just look at the application inside of marriage

without going into individual details, it is not uncommon at the start of marriage counseling to hear phrases like “if only my husband Would…” or “if only my wife would…”

We love to downplay our own involvement in problems. we love to draw attention to the failings of others around us and assign them as the primary cause

However, Jesus is clear here that that type of thinking is dangerously sinful

Again – the practical challenge- the application for this passage, then next time you are judging someone else, measuring them against a standard, assessing their choices…

Ask yourself – am I focused on the failures of the other person? Do they look big when I see my own issues as small?

Husbands and Wives – this can be powerful in your marriage…if you change your thought process to acknowledge that I am my biggest marriage problem…imagine the next issue with your spouse…No Honey, it is my fault…No baby that was my fault…No Honey, it was me…Dear, I insist, it was my fault…

Probably an over-exaggeration – but you get my point.

Guys, try that in your marriage – life-changing…

There is still one piece that we have not emphasized properly – in addition to seeing that the Lord is the one who sets the standard and we have to view our role rightly, we also sin when..

We fail to understand the universality of God’s judgment of mankind

We don’t have time to unpack that very much, but let’s remember that

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

That is significant for us to know…We are not the only ones judging…God is going to judge us…and part of that judgment will be even in how we have judged others.

You might struggle to judge everyone on a number of false standards, you might pretend like your failings don’t exist, or you might maximize their failings to minimize your own, but here is the point…

We need to remember that God will ultimately judge all our words and thoughts when it comes to judging others…and as such, it may impact your life today…because

II. It is possible to suffer in significant ways

Suffer – you might be saying Whoa – Where did that come from?

If we are judging others sinfully, do you think there might be consequences for us in this life in addition to the judgment seat of Christ?

What would that look like? Firstly…

a. A. The same unfair standard you used to judge others will be used against you

Matthew 7:2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

For example – let’s go back to the preaching example – That was a horrible sermon, I got nothing out of it…

In the car ride home, you are talking about it…It wasn’t funny, He lost my attention after the intro, The alliteration of the three points was not catchy enough…

Question – are those God’s standards for preaching? All of those things are probably true, but who decided the standard…

God’s word says that the same unfair standard, well…it will be used to judge you.

Last week when you were assigned a training lecture on the proper way to clean up the assembly line, now your boss is calling you into his office because the conditions have not gotten any better, in fact they are worse and when you go to ask your team why, they refer back to your training calling it boring or that they can’t remember anything you said because you used so many words…

Many times, God in his irony, will allow you to be judged in the same way, and what you will find is, you don't measure up to your own standards

But even more haunting is

B. Being blind to your own failings (v4-5)

When driving somewhere…It is one thing to know you are lost…and you are too proud to admit your are lost…but when you don’t know you are lost…that is even worse.

Jesus tells the story of two men who went to pray in the temple…

Luke 18:10–11 ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

You may be familiar with how the other responded.

Luke 18:13 ¹³ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

So How did Jesus judge them?

Luke 18:14 ¹⁴ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other.”

The tax collector knew he was a sinner, but Jesus’ response begs the question -

What is worse than being a sinner? …Being proud that you are not one.

How could the Pharisee function that way? He was blind to his own sin.

When we judge, and we judge in a sinful way like we talked about…one of the consequences that we face is that we will be blind to our own sin. In being blind to our own sin…we are on a crash course with destruction.

Lastly, one of the severe consequences of sinful criticism is we are ….

C. Unable to actually serve your brother well (v. 5)

Matthew 7:5 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.

As Christians, we are called to serve each other by addressing sin in our relationships. When you see a brother sinning, we are duty-bound to talk to them about it with a goal of restoration with God and with fellow believers

Galatians 6:1¹ Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

To restore gently, our first focus must be on ourselves…

If the log remains, it impairs our view we cannot see clearly and we will likely cause even more harm.

Imagine if I came to you and offered to help wipe a speck of sawdust from your eye – I have this soft cotton swab that will allow me to gently wipe it away…but my eyes are so bothered with dust and other junk that I’ll have to help you with my eyes closed. Anyone want to volunteer for that?

Or as we discussed earlier, if we are judging based on our standards and not God’s, in that case even our attempts to help can cause more harm.

If I am counseling a couple for marriage issues and the husband says, I am not in love with my wife anymore because she doesn’t love me…so I ask a lot of questions and determine he’s right, she doesn’t love him because she doesn’t wait at the front door in his favorite dress on with a cold drink and a back-rub waiting for him and ESPN on the TV when he gets home from work. I have caused more harm than good by reinforcing an unbiblical standard, I corrected the wrong things and placed the whole burden of love upon the wife rather than challenging the husband that love is a demonstration of his obedience to Christ such that his love is patient, kind, and not jealous or seeking his own and holding past issues over his wife as a club waiting to come down…

If I said that is what I want when I get home – that is my sin, the log in my eye that now has caused me to be unable to help a brother and has even caused far greater harm.

The third reason we need to evaluate our own hearts before criticizing others is that

III. It is possible to criticize consistent with Gospel Truth

Let’s come back to the first error I described, where the world wants you to stop reading after 3 words – Do not judge.

Why do we want that standard – because we do not want anyone to tell us when we are sinning.

The implications of that interpretation are catastrophic –

for the believer, it means that we will not grow. If our sin is never revealed to us, we will never grow, our sanctification will be stunted and we will never receive the blessings that come in obedience to God’s standards…

For the unbeliever – it is even worse. If we do not judge – who will help them see their need for a Savior and if they remain blind to their own sin, the consequences are eternal

So instead of hearing “Do not judge” what we need to hear is Judge rightly – It is possible to criticize consistent with gospel truth.

The first step is to do so by

Using God’s Standards

We were warned to put off judging by our own standards – which means there is always a way to renew our thinking and put on the right thinking…in this case, we stop considering ourselves the authority, acknowledge God’s authority in his word and we choose to judge only based on God’s standards.

But even this, the important work of gospel centered judging cannot be done in our own strength – it requires three things

First, it requires the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You can't know God's will, you can't judge the way that he calls for you and I to judge if you do not have the spirit living inside you.

for those who have trusted in the D/B/R oh Christ, at the moment of salvation a lot of things happened. One of them is that the Holy Spirit came to take residence inside of you to teach you and to guide you.

If you have not trusted in Christ then far more important than being concerned about whether or not you are judging correctly is that you need to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ

You need to know that there's a person who's going to judge you, perfectly, the God of heaven who is described as the judge of the living in the dead.

He is the one who will judge you on one criterion alone… have you trusted in the righteousness of Jesus Christ to pay the debt for your sins. Because if you have not, then you will be judged based on your own deeds and righteousness… and your righteousness we will come up woefully short resulting in a guilty verdict and a punishment to spend an eternity in hell.

but it doesn't have to be that way God does not judge you and then decide on whether or not to find you guilty. First he offers his gift of grace such that when we choose to receive it the very blood of Jesus Christ washes our slate clean so that again in his perfect judgment he then receives us into eternal life in heaven with him.

And if it's God standard that judges us for eternity shouldn't it be his standard the judges us even today?

Therefore, If we are going to use God standards, we need to know them well and that means taking the time to study God's word for ourselves.

If we are honest with ourselves, I think we would all admit that we don't know God standard as well as we ought to. That's why I don't think I can properly biblically counsel you, unless we have a copy of God's word to explore together.

then we have to be honest with ourselves about what we believe about God's word.

If we claim to believe in the sufficiency of scripture that it contains all that we need for life and godliness, do others see that in our daily lives?

Is there evidence that as you seek to “judge matters” in your marriage, in your parenting, and in your work place, that you are turning to God’s word each day for that.

My point is simply this, it is possible to judge, in fact demanded that we judge in a gospel-centered way…but we have to know God’s standards.

Then not only do we need the Holy Spirit, but God calls us into community so that we can judge in a gospel-centered way.

As others are viewing your judgments (yes judging your judgments), can they see obvious evidence that you are seeking to know gods word?

Do they see that you are faithfully in church on Sunday?

Do they see that you have chosen to be accountable to the church in membership?

Do they see that you are committing your time throughout the week to things like small group Bible studies.

The people of God were never meant to live in a vacuum

Just as it is possible to criticize consistent with gospel truth by replacing our standard’s with God’s standards, so to So too, we must replace our focus on others with a focus on ourselves…

By ensuring that we look to ourselves first

Matthew 7:5 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.

This part of the text is pretty clear by way of process. We need to look to our own hearts before we choose to criticize others.

Were you angry this week when someone did something? Before you responded.. did you look at your own heart to examine where there might be sin for you first?

Were you sad and hurt this week by someone else? Before you judged their actions, Did you look to where you might have unnoticed pride growing in your heart?

Our lives and relationships will be blessed in unimaginable ways if we simply practice this crucial step.

Because even if you're judging by God’s standard, according to his word, if you are unwilling to look at your own heart first, you will likely do more damage than good.

There are just two last points we need to make about judging in a gospel-centered way…

By criticizing to seek potential growth and benefits of others

If we are criticizing – What is my motivation? Am I simply seeking to tell them they are wrong? Or is my goal to help that person grow to become more like Christ. Our goal is their sanctification…

And the last point –

Gospel centered criticism

Focuses on the household of God, not the world. (7:6)

delete the MacArthur Quote

You may have been waiting all along to see what we would say about the dogs and the swine.

Jesus has been teaching us to judge in a manner that glorifies God and benefits the person with who we share our criticism. But what about the person to whom our judgment and criticism is of no benefit.

To the world, the cross seems as foolishness. To the unbeliever, God’s judgment has no authority.

Paul would say it elsewhere like this

1 Corinthians 5:12 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?

Here is the concluding point for all of us…our job is not to worry about judging the world…our job is to keep our focus on the church.

That does not mean you can’t have thoughts and opinions…but we don’t need to lament every day how the world keeps getting worse and worse.

We surely don’t need to try to force our understanding of the Bible on others…As Baptists, we believe in individual soul liberty. We are here to share the good news with anyone who wants to listen.

Beloved, it is possible to judge, God’s word is clear that we are to judge…but we are to do that according to his standards, looking to ourselves first.

We need to carefully evaluate our hearts before we do it knowing that we can sin by judging when we use our own standards when we minimize our own failings while maximizing the failings of others.

When we judge that way…it can result in significant judgment on our own lives…