The Gospel Of Matthew Chapter 7 Part 2 Confession Brings Cleansing From God

We must learn to leave judgment of sinners to the hand of God while we share the gospel.

Matthew 7:1-2  Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2)  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 

In our last lesson we saw in detail what Jesus meant when He said "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

Jesus' applied this truth to the Pharisees and to all who judge and condemn others without dealing with their own sins.

Remember, the Lord previously exposed how the Pharisees perverted God's law by teaching it was right to get revenge on your enemies.

Christ's teaching here is very similar and addresses this wrong spirit of retaliation that we all must deal with.

Jesus gave a warning about judging other people with a censorious spirit before He supplied a vivid illustration of this truth. 

All people will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to be judged. 

Those who are born again will have their service and motivation judged with the potential of receiving or losing a reward (See Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:9-16; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

This connects with whether or not we loved God and our neighbors as the scripture teaches us to do.

The believers judgment takes place when the resurrection of life happens. 

All Christ rejectors will be judged later at the resurrection of damnation (See John 5:24-29; Revelation 20).

A wicked king learned the hard way that judging others harshly brought harsh judgment to him.

Judges 1:7  And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. 

The book of Judges is a historical narrative that tells us what happened after Joshua died.

There was still much of the land God promised to Israel that had to be conquered and the first campaign was against the Canaanites.

After defeating them the Hebrews took their king named Adonibezek and cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

Notice the Spirit inspired record of what Adonibezek said about his punishment.

He said that he had defeated 70 kings and cut off their thumbs and big toe so that they had to look for scraps of food under his table.

The king acknowledged "As I have done, so God hath repaid me" and this is a historical example of what Jesus means when He says "with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

Jehovah is the impartial judge of all humanity and He will judge us by how we judge others.

Psalm 18:25-27  With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; 26)  With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. 27)  For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks. 

King David wrote many of the Psalms including this one.

He stated important truths about the character of God with regard to judging people and this very much connects with Christ's teaching in Matthew's gospel.

God will be merciful to those who are merciful to others but to those who are froward, or harsh in their judgment of others, He will be against them.

Obadiah 1:15  For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. 

Jehovah hears the words of unbelievers uttered against His redeemed people and He will bring their words back upon their heads in judging their sin.

The principle of divine judgment that is integral to understanding Jesus' teaching is this: "As thou hast done it shall be done unto thee."

Jesus condemned the severely critical spirit of judgment in the Pharisees for this very reason.

They were in danger of God's judgment unless they swiftly amended their ways by confessing their own sins.

Jesus alluded to our tendency to rush into judgment instead of having a forgiving spirit.

Matthew 6:14-15  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15)  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

In the Lord's prayer, Jesus previously gave us the divine principle about judging others harshly.

If we are forgiving to those who have sinned against us then our Father will forgive our trespasses. 

However, if we refuse to forgive those who have wronged us then our Father will not forgive us.

The issue of forgiveness is an indicator of whether or not a person is truly born again.

Those who have been forgiven for their sins by the Father should be the ones most ready to forgive others when they do wrong against us. 

Remove the massive beam from your own eye before trying to extract a small grain from another persons eye. 

Matthew 7:3-4  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4)  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 

This was a common proverb among the Jews. 

It expressed a truth and Jesus did not hesitate to adopt it to convey His own verdict about judging others. 

It refers to the way in which people will judge us, as well as to the rule by which God will judge us.

A "mote" refers to any light substance like dry chaff, fine pieces of grass or grain, or even a particle of sand. 

Most of us know that when any fine particle is lodged in our eye it can cause much irritation or pain. 

A mote is placed in contrast to the word "beam" which is a large piece of timber used in ship building.

The meaning is of this proverb is that we are quick to judge small offences in others, and will ignore much larger flaws in ourselves. 

Having a beam in one's eye pictures a person ignoring his own sins such as those committed by the Pharisees. 

They were proud, arrogant, self conceited with wrongly placed confidence in their own righteousness.

They overlooked their own hypocrisy, covetousness, and iniquity when they loudly pronounced judgment on the lesser evils of others.

I am overwhelmed by how relevant Jesus' teaching is when applied to a corrupt modern culture. 

Social media is polluted by providing everyone with a platform from which many ignorant or foolish people trumpet their opinions and views as if they are facts instead of opinion.

Christians must remember that nothing else matters except what God thinks and what God says.

We must exercise great care to avoid becoming part of a putrefying swamp of distortions, lies and deceptions propagated on social media platforms.

Romans 2:1-3  Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 2)  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. 3)  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 

Jesus spoke to His church through His apostles and in this case, Paul has strong words against judging others.

Paul used the words "Thou art inexcusable, O man" because he spoke to both Jews and Gentiles.

He said that when people judge others with a censorious spirit, they bring condemnation upon themselves because they often are guilty of doing the same things that they condemn others for doing.

We must leave all judgment of others to God for vengeance belongs to Him.

He is the righteous, impartial judge who will render to every man according to our deeds.

All of us are flawed and marred by the fall of man into sin. 

Therefore, we lack a righteous moral capacity for judging others.

We must confine our judgment to examining ourselves and asking God to search our hearts so that we might confess and forsake our sins. 

Jesus condemned the hypocrisy of judging others faults while overlooking your own faults.

Matthew 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. 

Christ directs us to the proper way of forming an opinion of others, and for reproving or correcting them. 

We must first amend our own faults, which is pictured as casting the beam out of our eye.

Only then can we come alongside an erring brother in love, seeking to help him or her see their error that they might repent and be cleansed. 

There will be no hypocrisy in our conduct when we have confessed our own sins and the Lord may use us to help bring a brother or sister back into the fold of His church. 

We will be able to see clearly others because the beam, the sin that obscured our sight, will be removed. 

Godly sorrow yields true repentance, cleansing, restoration and refreshment from God. 

Psalm 51:9-13  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10)  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11)  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12)  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13)  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 

This psalm is King David's confession of his sin regarding Bathsheba and her husband, Uriah the Hittite.

David was brought by God to a point of brokenness whereon he confessed with bitter tears the wickedness of his sin.

Notice this section of Psalm 51.

David pleads for the mercy of God such that He will hide His face from David's sins and that He would blot out all the king's iniquities.

Next, David pleaded with Jehovah that He would create a clean heart in him and renew a right spirit within his heart, so that David could once again worship God and enjoy sweet fellowship with his Creator.

David's psalm describes true repentance, confession and a deeply contrite spirit.

Then, David pleaded that God would not cast him away and that God would not take away His Spirit from David, the king.

After that, David begged the LORD to restore the joy of his salvation and that he would be held upright by the Spirit of God.

Finally, David anticipated that God would grant him all his requests and the king promised God that he would teach transgressors the holy ways of God.

He wanted to lead souls to Jehovah for the same mercy, grace, cleansing and restoration that he received. 

This is at the heart of Jesus' teaching about not judging others while we overlook our own sins. 

Be careful in sharing gospel truth or God's law with habitual sinners. 

Matthew 7:6  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. 

Dogs were unclean creatures and by the law the price of one might not be brought into the house of the Lord, for a vow, See Deuteronomy 23:18).

Dogs were not admitted into pagan temples because they were regarded by all as polluted animals.

They were fed only unclean things such as flesh torn by beasts because nothing that was holy was to be given them (See Exodus 22:31).

Here the phrase is used in a metaphorical sense and means not delivering the holy word of God to vile blasphemers.

Gospel truth is compared to pearls (See Matthew 13:45-46), and its beautiful truths must not be given to notoriously vile and sinful men, who are compared to dogs.

Such men will turn and viciously attack those who shared the gospel with violent words or actions.

Proverbs 9:7-8  He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. 8)  Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. 

King Solomon admonished his sons to avoid correcting a hardened sinner with God's truth because they will experience shame and a blot upon their integrity.

Instead, rebuke, or share the gospel with a wise man, one who is not a violent, habitual sinner for they may hear it and respond.

May the Lord be glorified by our response to Christ's teaching.

May we seek to be those people who consistently confess our sins and faults so that we may be used of God to help restore others to His kingdom rule.

May we exercise great care in what we say and how we say it, so that we do not bring any condemnation upon ourselves as the Pharisees did.

May we plead as David did, confessing sin, seeking cleansing, forgiveness and mercy from God.

Bob