Would you please turn with me to Matthew 7 - starting at verse 1.  Jesus’ teaching on what it means to get real.

(cartoon:  Facebook in Real Life)

You’ll recall from our study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount - that Jesus began His teaching - back in Matthew 5 - Jesus began by telling His audience that they’re blessed.  They - we - might not always think of ourselves that way.  But the amazing truth is that God has brought the reality of Who He is - His kingdom - what it means to live in a God forgiven - God restored - relationship with Him - God has brought all that down to us.

Jesus has been teaching about what that relationship with God can look like for each one of us.  Jesus helping us to think through what’s really going on inside of us - at the core of our relationship with God. Helping us to think through if what we do in our relationship with God is about us or about God.

Because - bottom line - living the life that God has created us and called us to live - to live that God blessed life - to do that means living life totally surrendered to God - totally trusting God with everything we are in the day to day drama of our lives.

What we’re going to see in Jesus’ teaching this morning is Jesus challenging us to get real in our relationships with others - and even more helpful - how we can get real in our relationships with others.  What that reality can be like for each of us. 

Coming to Matthew 7 - starting at verse 1.  These verses are probably pretty familiar.  So, as we’ve been doing, we’re going to read these out loud together - to freshen our minds - and then we’ll go back and unpack Jesus’ teaching.

Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and 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 no 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 the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own rye, 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  will 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 one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will 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.

Let’s go back and unpack what Jesus is teaching.

Verse 1 is Jesus’ Get Real Principle.  Where Jesus is going in this section of His teaching.  “Judge not, that you be not judged.” 

Let’s be careful.  Jesus’ isn’t saying that we need to stop using our brains in our relationships with other people - to pretend like we don’t notice their faults - to refuse to process the difference between truth and error - good and evil - right and wrong.

There are times when we need to exercise discernment.  There is absolute truth.  There are times we need to speak that truth - even judging - discerning - the actions of others - to speak that truth in love.

Courts of law must enact judgment.  Judgment based on moral absolutes. 

How long could a society survive if its people were tolerant or permissive of standards of behavior or attitudes that were based on arbitrary or a sliding scale of whatever the cultural norm happened to be at the time?

The kind of judgment Jesus is teaching about here is our tendency to impose our standards of righteousness on others.  Our tendency to be fault-finders - to be negative and destructive towards other people - to our benefit and their detriment.  Judging people harshly.  Being judgmental.

What ultimately amounts to a kind of spiritual snobbery.

Let’s be clear.  Its hard to imagine someone setting out to be a spiritual snob.  To be judgmental like Jesus is teaching about.

The Pharisees - in Jesus’ day - were the ultimate example of spiritual snobbery.  But even they didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Hey, let’s all become spiritual snobs.”

The Pharisees were intent on obeying God - on spiritually doing the right thing before God.  They worshipped God.  Studied God’s law.  Spoke out in defense of God.  Desired others to join them in obeying God.  We tend to think of them as spiritual losers.  But in a significant number of ways they were right on.

Problem was they began to think of themselves as the spiritual elite. And others as being somewhat less than that.  They even came down on Jesus - on God - because He didn’t measure up to their standard of righteousness.

Which may be true of us.  We may be well intentioned.  But, it is way too easy for us to fall into the trap of seeing others through the lenses of our version of righteousness.  What we know is the Godly form of music or dress or mannerism or language or service or lifestyle or whatever… 

Which isn’t just limited to who we let into our little religious club.  Jesus is touching on our attitudes towards people we encounter as we move around the greater Merced metroplex just doing the stuff of life.  People who drive slower than us - who take their time a the check out.  Our attitudes towards our spouses - our kids - the people at work or school.  Not that any of us would struggle with any of that.

Let’s be honest.  The implications of what Jesus is teaching touch every relationship we have.

Bottom line - we need to remember that there’s a significant difference between exercising judgment - being discerning - and being judgmental - of imposing our standard of self focused righteousness on others.

The basis of Jesus’ principle - The Why behind the principle comes in verse 2:  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you use it will be measured to you.

David sins with Bathsheba - committing adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite.  Nathan the prophet comes and brings before David - for David’s judgment as the king - Nathan brings a case of a rich man with a lot of sheep who steals the only ewe lamb of a poor man.  David explodes in anger - in judgment:  “The rich man deserves to die.”

Then Nathan utters the words:  “You are the man.”  (2 Samuel 11:1-12:23)

How we judge others is an indictment on ourselves.

The Pharisees brought the woman they’d stalked and caught in “the very act of adultery” - brought the women to Jesus.  Demanded God’s decreed judgment to be enacted upon the woman.  Death by stoning.  Jesus instead exposes their own sin.  Their self-righteous judgment backfires before God.  (John 8:1-11)

What goes around... comes around.  Our self-focused attempts at spiritual snobbery - our judgments - have an unnerving way of coming back at us.  Both in how others see us.  And - way more importantly - how God sees us.

Jesus earlier - back in chapter 5 - Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”  God is merciful to the merciful.  (Matthew 5:7)  Grab the connection with God.

Jesus taught us to pray - to ask God, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”  (Matthew 6:12)  Grab the relationship between our forgiveness and God’s forgiveness.

Jesus taught:  “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  If you don’t, God won’t.”  (Matthew 6:14,15)

Point being that judgment is inseparably connected to God’s mercy and God’s forgiveness and our understanding of God’s mercy towards us - how God applies or could apply His judgment to us.  Forgiveness instead of eternal damnation.

The ultimate judge of our lives is God.  The ultimate standard of righteousness that any of us is accountable to is God’s.  Who’s is it?  Its God’s.  Not ours.  Its His word.  His truth.  His standard.

Jesus’ point about measurement is that the ultimate measurer outerer of justice is God.  Who Himself is merciful towards us.  God holds us to the same standard of measuring in our relationships with others.

The principle is “Judge not, that you be not judged.” 

The why - the reason Jesus says is because God - who is merciful towards us - God holds us accountable for how we judge others.  Judge others harshly.  And God will judge us harshly.

Bottom line:  When we succumb to spiritual snobbery we place ourselves in a position of significantly serious trouble in our relationship with God and others.

Coming to verses 3 to 5 - Jesus’ description of what some have called log in eye disease - verses 3 to 5 are Jesus’ illustration of our problem and what to do about it.

The illustration is familiar.  Yes?

(cartoon)  “Hah Hah.  You just told him that he has a splinter in his eye, and you have a beam in yours.”

Little specks of sawdust in one eye verses logs - or beams - literally joists - in the other eye.  Splinters and planks and hypocrites... oh my.

We can see clearly now - Jesus point.  Yes?  Our tendency to exaggerate the faults of others while minimizing or ignoring our own faults.  To meddle in the little faults of others and not deal with our own major issues. 

There are significant implications in that for us.  The first is how what Jesus is teaching exposes our tendency towards self-deception.

Take our your mental pencils and take a look at this list.  Thinking about each of these items - how would you rate yourself?  Are you above or below average in each of the these areas?

My ability to get along with other people

My honesty

My work ethic

My basic intelligence

My morality

How did rate yourself?  Of course now we’re all on the defensive - thinking we better not score ourselves to high.  Which also proves the point of how we tend to cheat in our favor.

Larry Osborne - in his book Accidental Pharisees - shares this list with this observation:  “Give the list to any gathering of people.  Ask them to rate themselves in each area…  Here’s what you’ll find.  One hundred percent of people will rate themselves as being above average in every category.” (1)

Which is impossible.  Isn’t it?  Average means that - by definition - at least 1/2 of us should be below average.

Some people are way too hard on themselves.  But - let’s be honest - most of us - as we’re spiritually keeping score - most of us tend to cheat.  To let ourselves off way too easy.  To have an incredibly high view of ourselves.

Point being - in what Jesus is getting at here - is that with our tendency towards self-deception it is no wonder we think we’re in the top percent of what’s important - that we are spiritually in a place of judgment over others.

Another significant implication in what Jesus is teaching is our tendency towards comparison.

Let’s be honest.  We need to make comparisons.  Ever have trouble deciding what to eat?  Or where?  Or what movie to watch?

If we didn’t make comparisons how would we make choices?  How would we express preferences?  Comparing is a good thing.

But - spiritually - and relationally - the problem with comparisons is that we have no clue what’s going on inside a person.   Right?

A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup to come out of the bottle - doing that whack in on the bottom thing.  During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone.

“It’s the pastor, Mommy,” the child said to her mother.  Then she added, “Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now.  She’s hitting the bottle.”

We look at the outside and  make our judgment call.  Where people are at spiritually - their commitment to God and His church - His ministry.  How much time people spend reading their Bibles - or hanging with their kids - or how they manage their money - the kind of priorities they set for themselves.

The Pharisees looked stunningly righteous on the outside.  Jesus - God Who knows our hearts - Jesus called them whitewashed tombs - diseased and decaying on the inside.  (Matthew 23:27)

What Jesus is getting at here - the whole log in eye disease thing - is that a ton of our conclusions about people are just flat out wrong.

Jesus’ cure comes in verse 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.

A hypocrite - in the Greek use of the word - is a what?  An actor.  A poser.  Someone who assumes the role of what he or she is not.  Meaning pretending that we’ve got it all together.  Like we have some kind of God given snobby right to judge others.

Most of us probably don’t like being called hypocrites - for all of the above reasons.  But Jesus is honest. 

Someone sent me this a while back:  My son Zachary, 4, came screaming out of the bathroom to tell me he’d dropped his toothbrush in the toilet.  So I fished it out and threw it in the garbage.

Zachary stood there thinking for a moment, then ran to my bathroom and came out with my toothbrush.  He held it up and said with a charming little smile, “We better throw this one out too then, ’cause it fell in the toilet a few days ago.”

Jesus is honest.  To the point.  We need that.  The cure for the common hypocrite suffering from log in eye disease is to get real - grab a dose of reality and deal with our attitude.  Get real about where our lives - where our hearts - are really at.

Verse 6 to 12 are Jesus’ application - the how to get real part of dealing with our disease.  If we're going to talk the talk we better be walking the walk.  How do we do that?

Jesus gives three remedies - applications - that we can process for ourselves.

First remedy - verse 6 - we need to Get Real About The Danger.

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.

Logs, dogs, and hogs.  Jesus is talking about wild mongrel dogs that scavenged through the city dump.  Vicious.  Savage.  Dangerous.  Pigs to the Jews were unclean.  Touch one and we’re defiled.  Dogs and hogs.

If we don’t deal with the logs that are blinding us were in for trouble with the dogs and hogs.  We’re heading for serious trouble.

The flip side of this is straw, sacred, and sand.

Holy is sacred - what is God’s.  What is set apart for God and God alone.  The astounding reality of what it means for us to be God’s holy people.  Created and called to live out His great purposes for our lives.  To serve Him.  To honor Him.  To bring glory to Him.  To live in relationship with Him - now and forever. 

Pearls are valuable.

Remember Jesus’ parable?  Matthew 13:45,46:  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

One of the compelling understandings of that parable is to see Jesus as the merchant.  Jesus - Who gives everything - His life sacrificed for us on the cross - Jesus Who gives everything to purchase the pearl - which is what?  The Church.  Us.

How does a pearl get formed?  The pearl is the only jewel that’s produced by living matter.  A little particle of sand or some other irritating thing gets inside the shell of the oyster - like having a rock in our shoe - constantly irritating.

There’s pain here - agony for the living oyster.  And there’s no way for the oyster to get this thing out.  So it transforms the thing that’s wounding it into a pearl - an item of great beauty and value.

Valueless sand - causing pain to the oyster - that transforms the sand into a valuable pearl.  That’s the Church.  That’s Jesus.  Taking each of us - who have wounded Him - and making us into His Church.

Let’s grab some reality.  What God accomplishes for us in Jesus on the cross.  We are a holy - set apart for God - people.  Made right with God - saved - forgiven - cleansed from sin - by the blood of Jesus - living rightly with God because He makes us to be right before Him the moment we accept what Jesus did for us - in our place on the cross.  Blessed invaluably with life in the Kingdom of God.

When it comes to dogs and hogs - and hypocrisy - focusing on straw and judging others by our standards of righteousness - we take all that God has so incredibly blessed us with - what is priceless - and throw it under the marching feet of humanity to be trampled in the mud and filth of the street.

(cartoon)  “Touch my sign and I’ll kill you.”

That’s how a lot of people see Christians.  Sadly, there are times - maybe way too many times - when that perception of Christians is deserved.  How many people have we come across who’ll have nothing to do with God because they’ve experienced the hypocrisy of God’s people - God’s people acting ungodly - towards them or our siblings in Jesus.

Believers who are living wounded and damaged lives and people who are still on a trajectory to Hell.

Jesus to His listeners - to us - Get Real.  Get serious about the consequences - the danger - to you - to others - to the kingdom and gospel - sobering - huge - if we don’t deal with our snobbery. 

Jesus’ second remedy - application - comes in verses 7 to 11.  We need to Get Real About The Source.   

What Jesus says are actually commands.  “Go ahead and ask.  Go ahead and seek.  Go ahead and knock.  Don’t hesitate.  Just do it.” 

Notice the certainty.  The one asking receives.  The one seeking finds.  The one knocking has the way opened.  Do it and you’ll receive, find, and it’ll be opened to you.

Reason being - the example of fathers - verse 9:  “Which one of you - human fathers - with all our flaws and hang ups and issues - which one of us if our son asks us for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks us for a fish, will give him a serpent?” 

Answer - no one.  No father is going to be that cruel.

Let’s be honest.  Admittedly - some here have had fathers that would be that cruel.  Who were or are just messed up enough to be that maniacal.  But that’s not a choice we’re going to make. 

An human father might.  God never will.

Grab Jesus point.  God - our Heavenly Father - is the go to God.  A the end of chapter 6 - what we looked at last Sunday - Jesus made the point that we can trust God with everything - who we are and all the drama of our lives.

God will and does supply all that we need.  Good things.  God can and will care for us - not only physically - but God has already taken care of every need that we have - especially our need for forgiveness and a restored life with Him in Jesus.

Ask - seek - knock.  Prioritize going to God - and God - way more than any earthly father would or could - God our Heavenly Father has it covered - will supply it - has supplied it.

Are we together with Jesus?  God is the source of everything we need.  Yes?  Doesn’t that level the playing field just a tad?

Who are we to stand in self-righteous judgment of others when everything we have - what we eat and drink and wear - every breath we take - and especially our relationship with God - everything good thing that we have and are is an undeserved merciful work of our gracious Heavenly Father?

Jesus to His listeners - to us - Get Real about Who the source of your life really is.  Maybe take yourself down a notch.  Life is about Who?  God. Not us.

Jesus’ third remedy - application - comes in verse 12.  We need to Get Real About Our Obedience.   

Verse 12:  So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Which is the answer Jesus gave to the theologian - the expert in God’s law.  The theologian’s question?  “Which is the great commandment in the law?”  Answer:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the - what?  all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Matthew 22:34-40)

Do the Golden Rule and we’re obeying the Law and the Prophets in our relationships with others.

Are we together?

Have you ever noticed how the Golden Rule can be incredibly self-serving? 

The things I want others to do for me I need to do for them.  I give so I get.  I love so I’ll be loved.  We know it doesn’t say that.  And none of us would ever think that.  But isn’t it interesting that we sometimes make obeying God about us.  About what we get out of it.

Luke 17 records a parable that Jesus told about an unworthy servant.  Jesus put it this way:  “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’?  No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat.  Then you can eat later.’  And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do?  Of course not.  In the same way, when you obey Me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’” (Luke 17:7-10 TNLT)

Are we tracking with Jesus?  When the servant comes in from the field the master doesn’t jump up and down with joy and throw a celebration - some huge banquet.  He politely thanks him and sends him on to the next task.

Why?  Because obedience is expected.  It’s the norm.

Jesus’ words:  “In the same way, when you obey Me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’” 

Our society today is way too hung up on rewards.  One example:  Our schools hand out awards for kids who just show up for class.  For being on time.  For not cheating on tests.  For not getting into fights.  For studying.  For having a pencil.  Those should be assumed.  It’s the norm - or should be the normal expectation - of what students do.

Obeying God is the norm of what a Christian does.  Not a source of pride - like somehow we’ve done something amazingly spectacular.  Something way beyond - way superior to others.  Something that sets us above the herd.  There’s high fives in heaven because we obeyed God.

Loving others - not judging others - treating others as we would like them to treat us - isn’t about us getting some kind of reward - a merit badge or something.  The Golden Rule is what we do as followers of Jesus.  Not a source of pride.

Putting together Jesus’ how we get real and take steps to get past ourselves and our tendency to judge others - our snobbery - thinking about things to think about as we head out of here:

First:  We’ve got to understand that if we don’t deal with this the consequences are horrendous.  We can’t give ourselves a bye on this.

Second:  When it comes down to it we’ve got to get real about who we are before God.  Life is about God not us.

And third:  Whatever we do for God is God enabled - God empowered - and expected by God as what those who live in His kingdom do.

Peter Kreeft is a Roman Catholic author - apologist - philosopher.  Peter Kreeft suggests this:  “Hypocrisy is not the failure to practice what you preach but the failure to believe it.”

What Jesus is focusing us on is really our heart level response to God.  To get real in our relationships with others means first getting real in our relationship with God.  To take a realistic look at who we are before God - to acknowledge our desperate need for what God offers to us in Jesus and to abandon ourselves to God.

To not only talk the talk.  But - from the heart level - walk the walk.

Heading out of here into the drama of the days of our lives may we be real - real in our understanding of who we are before God - and keep that reality foremost in our minds and hearts in our relationships with others.

_________________________

1. Larry Obsorne in Accidental Pharisees—Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith, Zondervan, 2012