REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE SUNDAY 16 DECEMBER 2018 EVENING SERVICE. (All quotations from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise) Sing beforehand: Psalm 32:4+5. I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. Beloved, grace and peace be unto you, from He who is and was and will come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first to rise from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. Song of praise: Psalm 48:1+4. Prayer Doxology: Worship: Confession: Supplication (for pardon of sins): Thanksgiving: Intercession (for the need of the congregation, the church, authorities, sinful world and appeal to the promises of God) General supplication: Illumination of the Holy Spirit (necessary for the ministry of the Word): Psalm 25:2+5. Scripture reading: Matthew 7:1-6 and Romans 14:1-12. Scripture text: Matthew 7:5: Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Theme: In what way may I admonish someone else? Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, these words of our Lord Jesus have become a proverb among us do not judge another so that you may not be judged. Or how readily do we not say to someone else: First remove the plank from your eye before you want to remove the speck from my eye? Behind each of these two manners of speaking there are, to my mind, two thoughts. When it is said: do not judge another so that you may not be judged, the truth of what Jesus teaches us here can be summarized we may not judge other people. The other thought behind these words we hear when someone says: How can I speak to someone about his sins when I myself am a sinner? When we so quickly say: First remove the plank from your eye before you want to remove the speck from my eye, we act as if no one has anything to say about our sins. He must take care of himself, I 1
will take care of myself! To put it briefly, we misuse Jesus' words because we often are afraid to admonish another about his sins, or, because we are afraid that someone will admonish us about our sins. If, then, we may not distort the Lord's words to suit ourselves, what did Jesus mean when He spoke these words? From six verses in Matthew 7 four matters stand out: two ways in which we may not speak to fellow believers; how we must correct someone; who must not be admonished further. Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged. (Matthew 7:1-2) Jesus is still busy with the constitution of the kingdom of God. Whoever perseveres in living according to what Jesus teaches us here, may be assured that the Lord's rule is vesting itself in his life. Jesus speaks here to people who follow Him. We may therefore accept that He does not mean that there should not be earthly judges and earthly courts. God instituted judges and courts and authorities to curb the flood of sin. We also cannot say that Jesus with these words forbids us to be critical in any way. We cannot rely on these words to close our eyes to the wrongs in this life. Neither may we rely on them to refuse to distinguish between right and wrong, truth and untruth and good and bad. If we were to close our eyes to what is wrong, and no longer distinguish between good and bad, we would be dishonest and not display the image of God. We may, therefore, be sure that the Lord does nor forbid courts and judges or a critical distinguishing. But, what do these words judge not then mean? In one word captiousness, fault-finding. Believers must still distinguish between good and bad but they may not place themselves as judges above others and find faults everywhere. When you are captious, always looking for faults in people, you have become an unpleasant person. A fault-finder does not intend to help someone but to judge him severely. A fault-finder is negative and destructive in his behaviour towards people. He enjoys pointing out their faults and condemn them. He never has anything positive to say about others and according to him you can expect only the worst from them. And if someone does really make a mistake, he exploits it. He goes on about it because he wants to humiliate and destroy the person. What is worse, brothers, sisters and children, is that a fault-finder not only sniffs out mistakes, but that he also puts himself up as judge over the one who erred. He claims for himself the authority and right to judge another. When we do this, we put ourselves and our fellow believers in wrong positions. For we all are in the service of the Lord Jesus. He is our Owner, for with His precious blood, He redeemed us for His Father. To all believers Jesus gave the Holy Spirit as guarantee that they all belong to Him. If all believers equally belong to Jesus and He is their Owner, where do we then find the right to judge the property of the Lord? Every believer stands alone before the Lord and He judges each one Himself, we do not need to judge one another. When Jesus forbids us to play the judge over others, He tells us that we may not play God over others. We cannot read other people's hearts and we are unable to read their motives. These are 2
hidden to us and only our heavenly Father can see what is hidden. We must not want to be judges of other people but we should know that we, together with all people, shall be judged by Jesus when He returns to this world as Judge. To summarize the teaching in the first two verses: We may not judge people hard and cold and clinically, for nothing is simply black and white. Jesus does not mean that we should stop being human. We have received a mind that is guided by the Holy Spirit to know how to distinguish between right and wrong, which distinguishes us from the animals. But we must let go of that ambition to be like God, we may not judge the property of our heavenly Owner. In verses 3 and 4 the Lord Jesus uses a comical image to show how hypocritical someone, a Christian as well, can be. In the first half of Matthew 6 Jesus showed us that we may not be hypocritical to God in our charity, prayer and fasting. With this comical image in verses 3-4 the Lord tells us not to be hypocritical towards our neighbour. The words of Jesus are not intended to shield us from being rebuked by others. The Lord Jesus paints a picture for us that makes us laugh. Here is someone with a speck in his eye that irritates him. In front of him is someone trying to remove that speck but a whole plank is in his eye! When we see this picture we laugh at it. But Jesus does not simply paint us a picture, He speaks to us. He says to us, why do you notice the speck in your brother's eye, but fail to see the plank in your own? That is what people often do. We quickly see very clearly the sin in another person's life, but our own violence and hate towards God and our neighbour we never notice. By nature we are not only faultfinders but we also exaggerate other people's sins and minimise our own sins as if we did nothing wrong. When we compare ourselves to others, we see only the beautiful and good in our lives and only the bad and horrible things in the lives of others. We take pleasure in justifying ourselves by quickly pointing out the other person's sins as if our sins do not exist. We are people who have a mind, that is why we can distinguish between right and wrong, but we are not God, therefore we may not judge another person. We are people, but not without sin, therefore we may not act as if we are without sin when we correct someone. We cannot perform a delicate operation on another's eye when we cannot see clearly. We cannot do as if we are without sin and only other people are sinners. In teaching us the right way to admonish, Jesus is direct. He says: Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Jesus does not say that believers may not admonish one another at all. Although we may not be captious or hypocritical, we are not exempted from our Christian duty towards others. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 18 how we must deal with someone who has sinned. We must speak to him about his sin. The same duty is expressed here. We must admonish one another, but, when may we do so? Only when I have removed the plank from my own eye, may I dare to remove the speck from my brother's eye. Only when I have judged myself, not before other people, but in the light of what the Lord expects of us. I must look at my life critically and test it against the Word of the Lord. The believer who examines his life critically, will be guided by the Holy Spirit to see what is wrong in it. 3
But the Holy Spirit does not leave it at that. With the same Word with which He let us see the blemish in our life, He also leads us to the One who cures us of that blemish, to Jesus Christ. When we have discovered the sin in our own life, and have confessed it before God, we may in the Name of Jesus Christ pray for forgiveness. Whoever examined his life so critically and sincerely and remorsefully confessed his sins, may be sure that God will forgive him for the sake of Jesus Christ. Only now, when you have experienced the Lord's mercy about your own sin, can you in a disposition of gentleness and love admonish your brother about his sin. Now you will not be like a damning judge, also not like a hypocrite who does as if he is without sin. No, you will be like someone who knows that for your brother there also is forgiveness to be found with the Lord. Then you do it because you want to preserve your brother and not to curse him into eternal damnation. May the Holy Spirit guide us to admonish one another in love because we know the grace of the Lord and know how great it is. To encourage us and to warn us, Jesus closes with the words of verse 6: Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. We know from the Bible that dogs and pigs were in the eyes of the Jews unclean animals. Jesus now says that there are people who are like dogs and swine. Jews called the unbelieving heathens dogs. Who are these people who are like that and what does the Holy Spirit mean by holy things and pearls? Let us start with the easier part. Holy things are things that belong to the Lord. Pearls refer, with reference to the parables about the kingdom of God in Matthew 13, to the Word of the Lord and His rule over people's lives. Holy things and pearls therefore are the Word of the Lord. Having said that, it does not mean that we may not proclaim the Word of the Lord to the heathen. No, that cannot be the meaning. As from the Old Testament the Lord makes it clear that we must proclaim His Word and Name to all people. Matthew closes with the command to go to all nations and make them disciples of Jesus. The people who are like dogs and swine are not simple unbelievers. They are not people who have never come to belief. To find out who these people are, we let us be guided by the Holy Spirit to seek the answer in another passage in the Word. Peter writes in his second epistle about the false teachers and their false teaching. He then closes the second chapter with these words: For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to return from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire. (2 Peter 2:20-22) We can, therefore, confidently infer that the people who are like dogs and swine, are the people who came to know the truth of our Lord Jesus and who have had sufficient instruction from the Word to be convinced of the truth. But instead of subjecting themselves to the Lord, they hardened their heart and rejected the Lord and His Word. 4
When you go to admonish such a person gently and lovingly, because you know the Lord's greatness and mercy, he will turn on you and tear you in pieces or he will trample what you say in the ground. Jesus encourages us with His words so that we will not be overwhelmed when this happens to us, but so that we may know that this may happen. His words are an admonition to us as well. When we continue to approach these people with the Holy Gospel, we will only invite them to increase their sin before the Lord when they further vilify the Lord and His Word. We must not cheapen the gospel and the Lord's love so that it becomes something for these people to trample underfoot. At the same time it is difficult to decide to give up on these people. May the Lord grant us the wisdom so that in every situation we may take the decision that glorifies the Lord best. Let us take these words of Jesus to heart. None of us has the right to judge another, that is the Lord's work. We may also not ever be hypocritical and admonish someone as if we were without sin. No, if we really want to help someone, we must allow the Holy Spirit to reveal our own sin to us with the Word of the Lord so that we can transfer the experience of forgiveness in our admonition. But remember, there can also be people who harden themselves to the Lord and will never take any notice of His Word. Amen! Closing prayer Closing song: Psalm 34:1+6. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and evermore. Rev Coenraad Vrey Reformed Church Bellville Date: 16-12-2018. Translator: Willem de Haan. 5