Do Not Judge and You Will Not Be Judged
First B Jackson
2021-11-22

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are you? Welcome. Welcome.

It's good to see you. Hey. Would you stand up with me, and we'll we'll sing together. We'll worship in song, and just shot right up. From Ezra.

Here's a here's a verse from Ezra to kinda lead us off into into worship. Ezra three eleven, it says, with praise and thanks, the people sang this song to the Lord. He is so good. His faithful love endures forever. Do you agree with that?

Then let's sing of it. There's a song in my soul.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Few announcements this morning and y'all will be just as surprised as I am. Here we are. Monday nights at first b.

I'm not surprised by that one.

No. We are on tomorrow, and we're John 13, and it's where Jesus washes his disciples' feet, and then he says, do as I have done. Love serves. That's the message tomorrow. But feel free to join us.

There is I'm gonna announce that one. There is Natawana tomorrow, but there is Monday night, and we'll have pulled pork and... Yeah. Whoever comes will enjoy. Fantastic.

Thank you. That's great. So, Noah Wanna tomorrow night. And congratulations though to the Sparks. Look at this.

Can somebody explain this to me? Hey, take a mic right back there if you would, Nick.

Yeah. Why not? We set this up. Why not use it? So congratulations to the Ioana Sparks.

We had the... They were winners of the long line night. So they had to bring in as much food as possible, and then they measured it out by feet. And so they won by having 56 feet of food donated to the Good Samaritan Mission, and some folks actually took it over there to have them enjoy it. So thank you for bringing the food.

Thanks for... Way to go, Sparks. That's great. 56

feet of food. That's wonderful. Donated a good Samaritan. That's great. Sounds lovely.

There's a offering box in the back but it's also a prayer request box. It serves double duty. So, if you would like to, you may drop in a prayer request. It's now back there in the lobby. If you would like to, we have had 110 boxes came in for Operation Christmas Child.

They had a big packing party Wednesday night. I'm I might, if I seem a little bit out of out of sorts, I left last week right after the sermon and went home to Georgia for a funeral and I know a lot of y'all were praying for us but it just was a little bit kinda jarring to get back. I got back Friday afternoon but where I went to church on Wednesday night, they had their boxes up on the stage. They had had their packing party later... Earlier in the evening.

It really is impressive to see so many people cooperating over so much of this part of the world to send those to the rest of the world. So thank you for doing that, for donating those boxes of goodies. There's a snowmobile retreat coming up, the twenty eighth through the January 30. The cost is $100 per person. That'll be up at Old Faithful Christian Ranch and Richard Largie is the contact on that.

There's his information. If you forget it, you can call the church office and we'll get you hooked up with the right folks. There is a hymn singing this afternoon. So, an old fashioned hymn singing where we're gonna get back together at one hundred thirty this afternoon. So, this service is nine to tenish and then there's the connect hour, and then there's eleven to twelve.

And we're giving everybody a chance to go grab something to eat and come back if you'd like. We'll sit. We'll actually take the handbooks and go through and do request, and we'll do as many of them until all of us tired, okay? You can leave before it's over. You can come in after it starts.

It's pretty casual but there's a hymn singing today at 01:30 right here in the sanctuary and we might try to pick out a few parts. Anything else? Angel Tree. The Angel Tree. So, Tanya, my wife, Tanya, is the one who usually kinda coordinates this.

She's not in town right now but she is still listening out. She still is coordinating. Erin Anderson is helping her with this. You might have seen the the boards out there and some tags already put up. Please, please, if you would, take one of those tags.

Y'all know how this works. You take a tag and just kinda bring back the gift wrapped but also listed as to what it is. And if you have any other questions, she told me to do this, put her phone up... She said, put my phone number up there and tell them to text me. So where she is in the aftermath of the funeral and with family, she might not always be able to answer a call, but she will get back to you if you'll text her.

So please text with any inquiries. And would you go back to it for just a second? I'm gonna read it out loud. She said, let everybody see it. (956) 357-3676 is her number and feel free to put that in your phone and keep it because she is not just in charge of this during the year but she also has a lot of other ministry that goes on.

So, if you wanna hold on to that phone number, that's Tanya's and she will be glad to answer any questions and help. It's an amazing blessing to be able to kinda administrate this and help. Connect hours happening today between services. That's about 10:00 or so maybe. And I think that's it.

Is that it, Blake? Yeah. He usually does this. Y'all don't see that but I do. This is applause in sign language by the way.

He's happy that announcements are over and so am I. Would y'all stand up and join us? I'm glad to announce them and I'm glad they're over too. Let's praise God together.

God, we sing it because it is true. For your greatness, for your goodness. Thank you, Ephesians. All we've gotta do is just look around this glorious morning, and we see your handiwork. Thank you.

Thank you. God, would you open up our hearts, open up our minds, open up our mouths here as we sing, that there would be a joyful joyful sound, joyful praise unto you. Amen.

In this life, will find. We will be yearning. And in this life, we will find. The world won't satisfy. In this light, we will find we will be ALT.

In this life, we will find the road won't satisfy. In this life, we'll more when we drain from you. Drain from you. We will thirst no more. Thirst no more when we drain from you.

So I think about... Where does that song come from? So from John four when Jesus meets the woman at the well. You remember this? And she's she's she's dejected.

She's she's sad. She's without hope. And Jesus says, whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water that I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Isn't that good news?

Jesus is the well that does not run dry. So good. You wanna hear some good news? It's from Psalm 23, and you've heard it before, but would you hear it again? It says, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil.

Our fear doesn't have a chance. Why? Because God is with us. His rod, his staff, they comfort me. God, I pray that you would comfort those who are hurting right now, who are down and out, who may even be feeling hopeless.

God, I pray that your light would shine in the darkness because that is what you are. You are the light of the world. And when we follow you, we don't have to walk in darkness because we'll have the light that leads to eternal life. Thank you, God, that you came as light into this dark world. Thank you, God, that you are hope and that you are love.

We rest in these promises this morning. Amen. You can have a seat for a minute. This is the worship through giving part of the service. And in the spirit of thanksgiving, this...

Who's looking forward to thanksgiving this

week?

Right? And stuffing ourselves silly

and just...

It's so good. This little psalm stood out to me this week. It says, you have given me a greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine. A greater joy than even all this great food and drink we're gonna we're gonna have this week. God provides a deep down greater joy than even that.

Ray, would you pray?

God, thank you for this for this morning. I thank you for the... This holiday season that we're coming up on, the the Thanksgiving and Christmas, Lord, that we would be celebrating you and that we'd be celebrating the family of God. I pray that you would, give each of us, Lord, a sense of comfort and joy, that we would have good tidings to share throughout this whole season that we wouldn't be, frustrated and upset, and swept into a battle that's unnecessary. May we, lord, be just constantly looking to you, to receive, that water from that well that does not run dry.

I pray, lord, that you will, give us the direction that you would have us go, that you would, impress it upon us, lord, in a way that's undeniable so that we would have the confidence to go forward and the strength that you give, to reflect your glory, lord, to reflect your light. May we be merciful like you're merciful. May we be gracious like you're gracious. May we constantly be pointing people ahead and towards the future rather than backwards into the past. Would you lead us from the place, lord, that we know and have become familiar with and take us to the place that you would show us.

May we live expectantly. Lord, would you use these offerings to offer hope to those who are destitute and to offer love to those who feel unloved. Lord God almighty, would you do your will and your way among us this morning and into your glorious future. Amen.

Worst in them. Even when the jury and the judge say you got a right to hold a grudge. It's the whisper in your ears. Say it and

Amen. And it is time for children's church downstairs. And the middle school and high school guys and gals too. So, I mentioned it briefly during the sermon last week that I had a cousin that passed. At the time, I did not know a whole lot about the circumstances, what was going on, but he was a dedicated believer in Jesus.

His name was Seth. I knew that. I mean, I know I know him. But Seth Chapman, Reggie, and Elise are his parents, and and we went to Rosemont Baptist Church about 25 miles from where I grew up. That's where they've been going to church since the boys were little.

And man, I I don't realize because I'm usually on this end of a funeral. I don't realize how how helpful it could be, and it was really helpful for me. I'm thankful for that. Thank you all for your prayers for me and for Tanya and for the family. It was a it was quite a quite a week.

Seth was a part of a ministry called Wave at his college, and there were... It's a two hour drive from where he was going to school, there and were probably close to a 100 kids that came down, 20 ish college kids that came down for his funeral, and the family, extended family, was pretty big. We're all big too. So it's like a 140 of us huge people. And and then the rest of the church was completely full, the standing room only.

And it was just soothing and comforting for us to be able to look back at Reggie and Elise's house to Seth's Bible laid open with notes all in the margin about his, where he puts his hope, where he puts his faith. It's been an emotional week for me. I woke up this morning after having planned a sermon that was a little longer than this to just shorten it down, and it is impactful because Jesus said it. Okay? It is an impactful passage, and it's in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.

There's a... The way we think and the way that they were thinking and and preaching and proclaiming in the day are somewhat different. We tend to build towards a crescendo or a climax somewhere near the end and then drop off into an invitation. That's that's the Baptist way that I grew up in. What they typically did a lot of times was they had a a chiasmus or a chiastic construction of what they're saying.

So what they started with is what they ended with, and then kinda backwards until what was right in the middle. And in Luke, this is right in the middle, And it's just a couple or three verses, but they're they're pretty hefty. So I'm gonna share them, and they've been sitting in my lap for a few weeks. And I'm gonna share them, and I'm gonna put them in your lap. Okay?

But it's on judgment and condemnation, forgiveness, and generosity. And I say that because there are four imperatives in this passage that we're gonna do. And they're imperatives. They mean that's a command. It's from Jesus, a command.

Now, imperatives don't always come with a promise or with a correlation. Sometimes it just says do it, and it doesn't say why. But this one, it says do it, and it says why throughout. I may also read a couple of commentaries on this because I think that what they wrote is beautiful. But I'm going to build up to this because I think it's important to give it the proper place.

So I'm going to read everything that I preached last week just to get you in the frame to hear this middle section. So, you remember the week before, he had chosen the 12, named them, and they were the officials. Now, there are 12 of em. They're used to having 12 tribes of Israel. Everybody was used to that old covenant is 12 tribes.

When Carl gets to this footwash and he's building up to him declaring the new covenant to his closest disciples. In John 13, this is the 12 and Jesus. Then Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, and there was a large crowd of his disciples. The 12, the greater crowd of disciples, and a great multitude of people from all over Judea and Jerusalem. Certainly, pharisees, scribes were present.

And the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, so probably a lot of Gentiles there too, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Message and miracle. And those who were troubled by unclean spirits were also being cured. And all of the people were trying to touch him because power was coming from him and he was healing them all. By the way, if you want to go back and listen, we have stopped using Facebook as much.

We're using YouTube now. So if you want to go back and hear last week's sermon, go to first b Jackson, livestream, and it's on YouTube and you'll find it. But he raised his eyes, not his eyebrows. He raised his eyes toward his disciples and he began saying to them, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. I know how the world sees things.

And the world tends to see prosperity as a mark of a seal of approval from whoever the almighty is. But Jesus is saying something that is different. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

Blessed are you when the people hate you, and when they exclude you, and when they insult you, and when they scorn you, and your name is evil on account of the son of man. But woe to you who are rich for your receiving your comfort in full and woe to you who are well fed now for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now for you will mourn and you will weep and woe to you when all the people speak well to you for their fathers used to treat the false prophets the same way. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who are abusive to you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also. And whoever takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you.

And whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. This is powerful. Powerful considering all of that. Jesus says, treat people the same way that you want them to treat you. Do you want for people to treat you graciously?

Yes. Would you rather someone treat you with mercy? When you mess up, would you rather be treated with mercy? Yes. Then be gracious to people and be merciful to people.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Everybody does that, even sinners. Love those who... If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Everybody does that.

Even sinners do the same. If you lend to those who... From whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But I say to you, he says it again, Love your enemies.

Love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil people. And I tell you what, I I mentioned it last week. That motivation, that last clause has helped me all week this week or all for the last few weeks is just thinking, he is. God is kind to ungrateful and evil people.

And I know that sometimes because we know God is all powerful when bad things happen, we think it's retribution and we think that that's... But that's not true. That's not God's retribution on us. God himself is kind even to ungrateful and evil people. So be merciful just as your father is merciful.

And I added heavenly last week, but it it does not in the text. Okay? Be merciful just as your... And I said heavenly father because a lot of us have painful associations with our earthly fathers. Be merciful just as your heavenly father is merciful.

I added that. I'll take it back away. And the capital f is an interpretive decision. I think a good one because I think that's what Jesus is saying. This is about God the father.

But the truth of the matter is, the be merciful or be showing mercy, that's an imperative. And it's an imperative, a command to say, be what you are. There should be a family resemblance. If God is your father, there should be a family resemblance that people recognize. So starting off from there, Be merciful just as your father is merciful, and do not judge, and you will not be judged.

Do not judge and you will not be judged. Now certainly, we're supposed to be discerning about what is sinful and wrong, and we're supposed to be considering what is right and what is good and what is evil. We're supposed to be considering that. But as to the person, do not judge them. Why?

Because you're not the judge. There is but one judge, the one who judges rightly. Jesus himself was continually entrusting himself to the one who judges rightly. When he said, I came to seek and to save those who are lost. He doesn't point and say, you're lost.

He just says, I came to seek and to save the ones who are lost. Now, certainly, he knew. We don't know. We don't know. We don't we don't know the intention of someone's heart.

We don't understand the motivation and why they are the way they are. Pascal... One of Pascal's favorite books is, Frankenstein. She just likes it. The Mary Shelley's Modern Prometheus Frankenstein.

And there's a line in there that she kind of highlighted and singled out, and it says, I am malicious because I am miserable. Isn't that a good line? We always say hurt people hurt people. Right? Hurt people hurt people.

But you don't understand what people are going through. And this is saying right there, don't don't judge them. Don't be hasty with judgment. Don't pass judgment. And then it says, and you will not be judged.

So it's an imperative. Do not judge. You don't understand everything that's going on. You can see evil, yes. But when you see it, try your best not to judge it.

Jesus came this whole first time. He says, he didn't come to judge. He says that. I did not come to judge. Now there is a judgment coming and we all know it.

But he came to seek and to save those who are lost. If you begin with judgment, you drive a wedge in between you and whoever else you're trying to correct. If you're trying to correct them. You may just be trying to do this next thing. And do not condemn, and you'll not be condemned.

Wow. Condemnation on judgment. Withhold judgment. Leave room for God. Do not judge, and you will be not judged.

And do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Now, if you're looking back up there to be merciful just as your father is merciful, do you believe that God is merciful? He's merciful. He is. Now I'm thinking of a different places in John, couple other places when the pharisees were speaking to Jesus and they said, you're...

They kinda accuse him. And he says, no. You're of your father, the devil. He just flatly says it because their... God is not their father.

Does does that make sense to you? If you're condemning, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you're condemning a brother or sister in Christ, I mean, you're doing the devil's work. Does that make sense to you? There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Well, there's plenty of condemnation for those who are outside of Christ. Well, there's condemnation and there's judgment coming, but you're not the one to judge and you're not the one to condemn. And so Jesus says, don't do it. Do not condemn, and you'll be not condemned. Now, part of that is with the...

Well, it'll get to that. Let me just wait for the text to get to it. Do not condemn and you will be not condemned. Pardon, forgive. Set free, release.

Pardon and you will be pardoned. Now we know from, Lord, teach us how to pray. Forgive us our trespasses just as we forgive those who trespass against us. So if you want to be forgiven, be forgiving. And it's an imperative, straight up imperative.

Be forgiving. Be setting people free. If they've wronged you, like the previous text said, if they've taken something from you, forgive them for that. Don't even chase after it. If they've treated you poorly, forgive them for that.

At some point, you've treated someone poorly. If you recognize that God has mercifully forgiven you, then you mercifully forgive them. Pardon just as you want to be pardoned. It says pardon and you will be pardoned. Give.

This goes beyond just forgiving and it gives... It gets to generosity. It says, be giving, like it's a continuous action thing. Be giving. Be generous.

Be giving. And it will be given to you. Now right there, you can say, oh, prosperity gospel folks will take this and go, it's what God says. Put in that seed money and it'll come back to you. Right?

Drop it in those plates and you just can't wait to see what God does next. The next thing says, give and it will be given to you for they they will pour into your lap. It's not just God that gives to the generous ones. If you are generous with people, people will be generous to you. That's a...

Now God will be too. Don't get me wrong. God recognizes generosity and he recognizes and he does give back. It's not always in the same way that we give no matter what. Some preachers may say, They will pour into your lap a good measure.

A good measure that's shaken down, pressed together, and running over. You take a bushel basket and you shake it, shake it, shake it with the grain until it settles out, and twist it, let it come down, and keep on adding in, shaking and getting a good measure. And then the lap right here, I think of that'd be the worst place to put a whole bunch of grain, honestly. Like in my lap? How am I going to do this?

I can barely eat at one of those little wedding things, you know? But in the day, they wore these long robes and they were kind of loose fitting, they call them gelabas today. And those things is part of what you would catch your measure in. And you can carry a whole lot in burlap sack, right? And if you can hold it up, it says they'll pour it into your lap, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

That's a that's an image of abundance. And it's an image of abundance for those who withhold judgment, and they don't condemn, and they forgive, and they're generous. That's that's good. And it ends this section right here by, For by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. So, how many of you all, as little kids, had a wise sage parent that when you were fighting over the last little bit of cake, you know, there's a little cake, and it's left over and it's like, Oh, I want that cake.

I can barely stand it. Or some goodie. And then you've got a little brother. And we kind of argued over, Oh, he got a bigger piece than I did. The wise parent says, One of you cut it and the other one picks.

Right? One of you cut it and then with the same measure that you measure, it will be measured to you like, I know that if I cut this over half, he's going to choose the big half. And so it's out of own self preservation in a way that you say, Okay, I'm going to cut it right down the middle and be just right so that we share equally. That's wise parent. That's a wise parent move because people are already looking out for their self interest.

Are we not already looking out for our self interest? Okay. If you're to treat others just as you want to be treated, then you look out for their interests too. And if they've done something miserably horrible, and they have, I promise, some of you. What was the line in the song?

Forgiveness that we just sang? It said, yep, it always goes to those who don't deserve. Forgiveness goes to the people who don't deserve it. It's not to say what they did was not wrong. It's to say what they did was wrong, and I'm choosing out of love not to hold it against them.

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Now, with a polarized society as far apart as we are, do we really measure with the same measure for both sides? Do we? I want to.

I hope to. I pray that I can. If we can live in a place where we say, you know what? I'm not going to judge the motivations of the other side. I'm gonna trust that God can speak to them the same way he can speak to me, and they may be out acting out of their convictions.

I'm gonna leave that to God to decide. He's the judge. I'm not. Can we not condemn the other side from whatever perspective you're on. I don't I don't care.

I I don't care which side you're on. Can we not condemn other people for what they are acting on and believing to be true? Because God ultimately will judge that. He's gonna either mercifully forgive it because they're humble before him, or he's gonna justly condemn it because they're proud before him. Can we forgive them?

Yeah. We can. We will walk in joy and comfort knowing that we have nothing against anyone. Oh, that's a light burden. It's heavy to carry around a lot of sins against you, and you can do it.

First Corinthians 13 says, love keeps no record of wrongs. And to live generously. People say sometimes generous to a fault. Overly generous, too generous. I I think I'd rather on that side than being stingy.

Right? I wanna read something right here. The inclination to discover and severely condemn the faults, real or imaginary of others, while passing lightly over one's frequently even more lamentable violations of God's holy law was very common among the people at this time, especially among the pharisees. It's common always and everywhere. According to the words of Jesus here in Luke six thirty seven, you will not have judgment passed on yourselves.

The habitual self righteous fault finder must remember that he himself can expect to be adversely criticized and condemned, and this not only by men, but also and especially by God Almighty. Isn't that something? Love your enemies. It doesn't say like them. It does say love them.

Love is when you're looking out for their best interest. Treat others as you would have them treat you. It implies that one should always be strict with himself and lenient with his neighbor for that is exactly the rule one wants their neighbor to obey. Got one more. Note the present imperatives.

All of these are in the present and the active, and so it's a continual action thing. It is do not be judging. It's continuous action. That makes sense? It's something you go about.

It's not just about instance for instance. Well, I didn't judge him for that, but when he did this, now I tell you what. I can't let that kind of thing go. I gotta stand up and say something. When Peter talks about resisting the devil, he calls him the adversary.

The adversary is the prosecuting attorney. Now if we put together a couple of different things here, this is the way Jesus says we should be, and Paul says Paul says, all of us have sinned. There's no one righteous, no not one, no doubt about it. You have faults too. If we were to continually point out each other's faults, we would just fight and fight and fight, and we get further and further apart.

If we begin to overlook and begin to forgive and begin to say, you know what? I'm not sure why they did that. I wouldn't have done that. But God help them. Pray for them.

Love your enemies. Pray for them that persecute you. I don't understand it, Lord. Show me how I can help that situation because love looks out for the best interest of the other. Show me if I can help.

You might not be the one to help that situation. Show me, Lord, how I can help. I don't understand it. I certainly don't want to condemn them, and I don't want for you to condemn them, Lord. I forgive them for what they've done to me.

Show me how I can bless them, Lord, and then give generously. And it says it'll be given generously, poured into your lap, shaken down, all of that. I've gone ten minutes long several times recently. I'm going ten minutes short today. I'm letting that sit in your lap.

Okay? Would you all stand with us? I'm gonna invite the band back up. Jesus will give three images of this next week, but I just want you to sit on it. I want you to mull it over.

I want you to think about it. I want you to think about offenses that you are currently holding against someone. Because if you're holding an offense against someone, you have judged it wrong. You have condemned it, and you say, there's nothing they can do to make this right. Well, there's something you can do to make this right.

Forgive them. And then ask God how you may bless anyone who has offended you really. Okay? Don't judge. Don't condemn.

Do forgive and give generously. Amen. James three seventeen says this, but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. It is then peace loving and it is considerate. It's submissive.

It is full of mercy and it's full of good fruit. It is impartial and sincere. Lord, would you give us the good discernment this week that we would be able to see what is good and what is evil for ourselves. Next week, we're gonna look at the three images, the blind leading the blind and someone retrying to remove a speck out of a brother's eye while the moat is still in his own and then these two builders. Lord God almighty, may we see rightly.

Would you help us to get that moat out of our own eye, lord? Would you show us our blind spots? May we be gracious and forgiving and merciful and loving to one another and may we be drawn into your courtroom, lord, as witnesses, not as lawyers, and certainly not as the judge. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.