The Hypocrisy of a Critical Spirit

There is a well-known phrase that has a number of forms, but you have probably heard it before. Those who can…do; those who cannot, teaches.

We all chuckle a little bit about that for a number of reasons. You might see that dynamic in your own life…and rationalize it.

You might be able to encourage your children to play the piano, and even point out something, even though you never took a musical lesson in your life…and being honest, when you sing…you couldn’t hit the pitch if it stood in front of you (and I’m including myself in that one).

You might see a CEO company who can barely turn on his cell phone running a powerful Tech company that he doesn’t even understand how most of the stuff works.

You might have had a sports coach who couldn’t hit a jump shot to save his life, but in high school he could tell you everything that you did wrong.

In sports, that normally draws the attention of the commentators, but in other areas of life, it’s not so quant.

Imagine if you had a professor at Purdue who taught surgery for animals, but had never wielded a scalpel.

Imagine if you had a drivers ed teacher who never drover a car

Imagine if you had a fitness trainer that never had been to the gym.

At some point, we would all say…you have to be the real deal in order to speak on certain topics. You life and practice have to line up for you to be an authority…you can’t teach kids to drive if you don’t know how to drive!

To claim that you are able to be able to do so is wrong. I’m not sure what word comes to your mind when you think about such a person…but the word that comes to my mind is a hypocrite.

And it is in that vein that I would like us to examine Matt. 7:1-6 and consider…

The Hypocrisy of a Critical Spirit

As you are turning there, let me, by way of reminder, refresh us on where we have been thus far in our series.

Our yearly theme has been Growing in Gospel Gratitude

We started off our series on Handling Criticism by examining Numbers 16 with pastor Aucoin.

When Criticism Comes from a Rebellious Heart—Numbers 16

We studied the story of when Korah complained and rebelled against Moses, God’s appointed leader. What we saw that when we have a rebellious heart, we reject God’s position for us, we end up gathering others to our cause, and ultimately reject God’s word.

Then Pastor Viars shared with us from Numbers 11

Understanding the Critic’s Heart—Numbers 11

This event took place before the rebellion of Korah, but the theme of criticism and rebellion was so common for the people of God during the wilderness wanderings, that many of the narratives will show up with it.

We saw that there were some internal dynamics that show up in the heart of a critic, such as he fact that often, they don’t learn important spiritual lessons, the fail to curb greedy desires, and often have a heart that is unwilling to follow God joyfully in the future.

Finally, then, we heard from Pastor Nitzschke on Romans 16

How to Handle a Divisive Person—Romans 16

He talked to us about the dangers of a divisive person, and what we should do when we encounter a person that we believe is just that.

So today we are looking at…

The Hypocrisy of a Critical Spirit—Matthew 7

And what I hope we will see with our time is….

3 Reasons to carefully evaluate our hearts before criticizing others.

Open up your Bibles and Follow along with me as I read.

[READ MT 7:1-6]

The first thing that I think we all would agree with, but that our text shows us is…

I. It is possible to sin by being judgmental

You and I live our lives in a constant state of making judgments.

You are making judgements ever right now as I make statements about judgments…

Look, you can’t even stop it if you tried 😊

OK, all joking aside, we live in a state of constantly judging the world and those around us. You may not like to say that, but it is 100% true.

You have to make judgments on where to shop for your groceries…on what vehicle to purchase, on what movies to watch…On what cloths to wear…you get the point.

You are constantly having to make judgments in life…and in doing that…the reality is it is possible to sin in that process…

Meaning, our act of judgment can not only come to the wrong conclusion, but be done in the wrong manner.

The ends do not justify the means when it comes to decision making…when it comes to being judgmental.

The passage assumes that there is some conflict or sin that is between two persons who are following Christ. This is not a situation where one part is fully innocent and one part is fully guilty. The passage tells us that we are living in a place where there would be sin on both sides of the equation to some degree.

Now, not ever point that we make will revolve around sin, but more broadly about the problem of being judgmental.

And what we see from our text is that our process of judgment doing 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, we all struggle to make judgements with our own standards and call them God’s. We want to argue with everyone that what we are doing…well…that was basically given to us as special revelation from the Lord.

In reality, many times the way in which we judge the world, and judge others around us is not using the standard that God uses, but one that we have created.

This wrong way of evaluating can crop up in all kinds of areas of life, but some of the most common ways that it does would be things like

• Education choices for families

• Choices in entertainment and free time use

• Books that we read

• Use of finances

• Or even the news media sources that we use.

Now, that might not be your list…but that might be something for you to consider doing today…where do I tend to evaluate others…and in my doing that…I’m really using my own standard and not God’s standard.

This temptation has been around since the people of God have roamed the earth…in speaking of how God was going to pick a king after Saul…God speaks to Samuel

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.”

If you spent time, even today, looking for how you supplant God’s standard for yours…we also need to recognize 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…

Now, there is a key word in Verse 5 that Christ calls them…and if Christ is calling folks names…something he doesn’t normally do…I tend to think we should not only pay attention, but know what it means.

What is a Hypocrite? It means “actor,” probably as one who interprets a poet, depicting by his whole conduct the role assigned

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1985), 1235.

Do you see the picture that is being painted? Christ is not flattering someone by calling them an actor…he is charging them.

The point is, that so many times, when we are looking at the failings and short falls of others, we rarely if ever consider how our own failings may factor or to any of this.

Let me illustrate with an example.

As a parent I have three basic jobs to do: (1) Ensure that my children are safe and alive. I need to make sure that they have food, clothes, etc. (2) My job is to teach them how to live in this world. How horrible it is when we see parents who did not train and equip their children for the real world. (3) To share the gospel of Christ with them…and make Christianity look really good to them.

That is the basic job description of a parent. It sounds easy…implementation is not so great.

I wish I could tell you that I have never in anger, or sarcasm said to my children…how do you not understand how to do xyz. But, that would not be true.

And when my little kids report back that they don’t understand, or fail at a task…do you think my first inclination is…gee, I wonder if I have communicated, taught, and/or explained this properly to the mind of a seven-year-old?

I can tell you…my natural inclination with every person I meet is to assume, I DID IT RIGHT…WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?

What our passage is communicating to us is that our judgment process becomes sinful when we assume, that is our default is to jump to…well surely I am right…there could never be something wrong with me.

Rather, we should assume that when something goes wrong…I wonder how I mucked this up.

So, let’s say that I attempt to finish this sermon and ask you after…what did you get out of it…and you communicate that you got nothing out of it.

I can assume that either you are a complete fool and what is wrong with you…or I can consider, OK, is there something that I DID…not focusing on you…what did I do.

I can ask questions, I can examine my notes, I can pray that God would reveal…but what I should not do is assume that YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

But the text also communicates to us that we are sinful in our judgments when we…

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

Have you ever had an interaction with a customer service rep…and you did some small thing wrong…while the company messed up massively, but they blamed you for it all?

You might be even conjuring up that bad experience right now asking if we can have a sermon on how to handle anger…but that injustice that you sense…consider that is what God sees when you maximize the short comings of others and minimize your own.

God is not pleased when you and I do this.

In marriage counseling, we have a little saying, I AM MY OWN WORST MARRIAGE PROBLEM. If we viewed so many other areas of life that way…we would be able to avoid sinful judgementalism.

We love to down play our own involvement…we love to draw attention to the failings of others and point to them as the primary cause

However, Christ is clear…that type of thinking is dangerously sinful

Here is a bit of a challenge for you this week…the next time you find someone that you find that you are judging…and yes, you will be doing that in the next seven days…ask yourself…am I maximizing my own failings or theirs? Whose faults and I minimizing? Mine or theirs?

For married folks…this will be so powerful in your marriage. Just imagine the next marriage conflict that you have…oh baby…that was all my fault…no baby…that was all my fault…no, now baby…that was all my fault…DEAR! I INSIST! IT WAS MY FAULT.

OK, well, we probably don’t want to let it get that bad…but you get my point. Try that in marriage, and your marriage will be changed forever.

Lastly, our judgment becomes sinful when we…

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 5:10¹⁰ 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…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 poor criterion, you might pretend like your failings don’t exists, or you might maximize their failings and 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 in doing so…

II. It is possible to suffer in significant ways

If we understand that our judgments might be sinful, one of the reasons we might consider not acting that way is that we will suffer…well how? Firstly…

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

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

Now, let’s just pause and consider how that will impact us in a number of ways…let’s go back to the situation where you say to yourself…wow, that was a horrible sermon.

Then, the criterion you come up with are not God’s standards:

• It wasn’t funny

• He didn’t keep my attention

• He didn’t have clever sermon points…

These things might be true, but they are most certainly not God’s standard for preaching.

Then, this takes it a step further to show us that…the same unfair standard that you use…it is going to be used against you…but that does not mean that you are still not going to be under God’s standard as well.

So, let’s say you are judging this sermon by those criterion…many times God in his irony will allow you to be judged that way…and what you will find is…you don’t measure up to your own standards.

But perhaps even more haunting is

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.

Christ 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 are probably 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!’

And what was the result?

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

One of my professors asked this questions…what is worse than being a sinner? Being proud that you are not one.

How could that man function that way? He was blind to his own failing.

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 is we are ….

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.

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.

As mentioned, the passage assumes that there actually is something wrong with your brother. That there is sin, but again, that you are not able to serve them because you have not examined your own heart.

If we are judging them the right way, and if we are not applying God’s standards, but we are applying our own, then we will not be able to actually serve them by removing the speck that is in their eye.

We will not be able to serve them as they actually have sin.

Lastly, then, we need to consider

III. It is possible to criticize consistent with Gospel Truth

You have probably seen memes and all sorts of pictures trying to tell you and others not to “judge”

[please insert picture located here ] https://aclayjar.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/SoM-Do-Not-Judge.jpg

We are studying the same passage, but coming to very different conclusions…but because we are not saying, that you are not to spend any time judging…but rather the question is how will you judge.

The first way that you are called to judge is by

By using God’s standards

This is the opposite of how we started off this message, warning against using your own, or some man made criterion to judge.

The reality is you and I are able to use God’s standards to do the important work of judging in a gospel-centered way.

But 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 we do no have the Spirit living inside of you.

For those who have trusted in the D/B/R of Christ, at the moment of Salvation, a lot of things happened, and one of them is that the Holy Spirit came and took up residence inside of you.

If you have not trusted in Christ, then more important than being concerned if you are a judgmentally wrong person or not, is that you need to come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

You need to see that there is a person who is going to Judge you…the God of Heaven who is elsewhere called the Judge of the Living and the Dead.

He will judge you on one criterion…do you have the imputed righteousness of Christ placed on your account. If you don’t, then you will be judged by your own deeds…and those deeds, having fallen woefully short…you will be sentenced to spend an eternity in Hell.

If you have trusted in Christ’s death on the Cross, then his good deeds, his righteousness will be imputed to your account…and you will be judged through him…not yourself. Thus, spending eternity in Heaven with God.

That is God’s standard for judgement when it comes to eternity, and that is the standard that we all must use when we consider if we are going to Heaven.

Andy by using God’s standard for salvation, we can use that standard in all areas of life.

Second, it will require knowing your Bible really well. If you want to judge according to God’s standard, then you will need to well…get to know that standard pretty well. You can’t expect to judge well if you don’t know that standard.

Many of us, if we were honest, would say that we don’t know that standard as well as we ought to. When you consider all the important judgments that you make each and every day…do you believe that there is room in your life for growing in knowing God’s standard?

If we are a people that claim to believe in the sufficiency of the Scriptures…that it contains all that we need for life and godliness…do we live like that each day?

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

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

Is there evidence that as you seek to “judge matters” 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.

The third thing that is needed if we are to judge by God’s standards is that we need to the community--we need the people of God for aid.

No man is an island. We need each other in so many ways to know God’s word and to know by what standard we are to judge.

So, it is a good time to ask: are there some obvious steps in my life that I have skipped so that I can be a person who decerns and judges rightly?

That might be:

• Church attendance

• Church membership

• Small group

• Point man/women Bible study.

My point is, if you call this place home…and you don’t have a spiritual community that you are apart of on a regular basis, and that is outside this group…I do not believe that you are going to be able to fully discern God’s judgements in vacuum.

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

We also can judge rightly, in a gospel centered way by…

By ensuring that we look to ourselves first. (v5)

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 method. We need to first look to our own hearts before we look to others.

You have probably heard the old saying, “The cobblers’ children have no shoe’s”

Of course it is a bit of a joke…we get around to serving others before our own…but when it comes to tending the garden of heart spiritual hearts…that is not how it can be.

You cannot provide the care you are called to until you ensure that you look to your own hear.

Were you angry this week when someone did something? Before you spoke…did you look to your own heart to examine where sin was first?

Were you sad and hurt this week by someone? Did you look for where you might have unnoticed pride growing in your heart?

Did you snap at someone, respond coldly, and so on? Before you did anything…did you seek to look at your own heart?

Our relationships would be much improved if we simply would practice this crucial step.

You might be judging by God’s standard…you might know what God wants according to his word, but if you are not first looking to your own heart…you will be like a man attempting to perform open heart surgery who refused to put on his glasses or contacts.

You will only kill and do damage to your patient.

Thirdly, we can judge in a gospel-centered way when we see to communicate

By criticizing to seek potential growth and benefits of others

What should be our aim when we judge and criticize? It should be to help that person grow to become more like Christ. Our goal is their sanctification…

Lastly, when it…

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

You may have been confused by this last part

Matthew 7:6 ⁶ “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

But here is what he is saying elsewhere….

It is clear that Jesus does not exclude every kind of judgment…It would have been unthinkable for a Jew to have thrown to those dogs a piece of holy meat that had been consecrated as a sacrifice in the Temple…Jesus’ point is that certain truths and blessings of our faith are not to be shared with people who are totally antagonistic to the things of God. Such people are spiritual dogs and swine, who have no appreciation for that which is holy and righteous. They will take that which is holy, the pearls (the rarest and most valuable of jewels; see Matt. 13:45–46) of God’s Word, as foolishness and as an insult. A wild animal whose primary concern is scavenging for food will hardly appreciate being thrown a pearl. He will resent its not being something to eat and possibly attack the one who throws it.

John F. MacArthur Jr., Matthew, vol. 1, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 437–438.

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 enact our understanding of the Bible on folks…we are Baptists, we believe in individual soul liberty. We are hear 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 results in significant judgement on our own lives…