0:00 So, let's turn to Matthew's gospel in chapter 5. Let me just revise what we did. Uh we've >> [clears throat] >> first looked at the nine right attitudes that a Christian 0:18 disciple should have in Matthew 5 and verse 3 to 12. And then from Matthew 5:17 onwards, we've been looking at the nine wrong attitudes. One was anger, the other was sexually sinful ways of thinking, then lying, 0:37 taking revenge, hatred, seeking the honor of men, love of money, and the last one we saw was anxiety. Anxiety is also a wrong attitude to have because it is almost like saying, "My father doesn't care for me. I can't or I can't trust him." 0:57 And so, that that the seriousness of there is we're insulting God by saying we are his children. Earthly fathers take care of their children, but our heavenly father doesn't take care of us. It's an insult to God to be anxious 1:10 about some situation. So, we want to move on and look at the ninth and the last wrong attitude. And that is judging other people. Now, it's interesting that it comes at this particular point, 1:29 you know, after having preached this high standard all the way from Matthew 5:3. The great danger is when we see this high standard, immediately we can start judging others. Does he live by this? Does he live by this? All these 1:46 nine have these nine right attitudes? Do they have these wrong attitudes? And that can be in our mind. And that's why immediately after he establishes this high standard in Matthew 5 and 6, 2:03 he says, "Now, that is not meant for you to examine other people to see whether they are living according to Matthew 5 and 6. It's for you to examine yourself." When he said, "Don't judge others," it means you spend your time judging 2:19 yourself. And if you judge others, the Lord says, "You will be judged." And not only that, by the same standard by which you judge others, you will be judged. The same standard of measure. And today we don't realize this because 2:36 the day of judgment is not yet come. But the Bible says that one day Jesus will come to judge everyone who ever lived on this earth. And in that day, everybody will discover that by the standard by which they judged other people, 2:55 God says, "I'll judge you by the same standard." Now, isn't that fair? If the Lord turns around in the day of judgment and says, "I watched your life throughout your time on earth, and I saw by what standard you were judging other people. 3:11 So, don't you think it's right now that I judge you also by that same standard?" And you can't say no. So, it is safe not to judge other people. It's very clear. Do not judge, otherwise you'll be judged. The other place where it says, So, in 3:29 other words, if you don't judge, you won't be judged. And the other place where it says the same thing is 1 Corinthians in chapter 11. It's one of my favorite verses because I've held on to it for many years. 1 Corinthians 11 3:45 is talking about the final day of judgment when all of us will go one by one up to the Lord. And in that day if you don't want to be judged by the Lord, that means you don't want to be the Lord to come down hard on you. 4:01 It's very simple rule, verse 31. We judge ourselves rightly. It's a promise. Take 1 Corinthians 11:31 as a promise and God will keep his word. Listen to this promise. If you judge yourself rightly now, 4:21 here is God's promise. You will not be judged in the final day. I've taken it as a promise from God. I said, "Lord, I will do my part of what you have told me to do. I will judge myself rightly means according to the light I have. I mean, a 4:37 year from now I'll get more light on myself. My standard of judging myself will be stricter. Today my standard of judging myself is stricter than what it was two or three years ago because I have more light. And if you're 4:50 growing in grace, you'll have more and more light on yourself. And you will keep judging yourself. Now, I said, "Lord, you have promised that you will not judge me. I don't want to be judged in the final day. It's terrible to be judged by God in the 5:04 final day. That's worse than any high court or supreme court judge passing a jail. I mean, people are afraid to be judged in a supreme court which severely I tell you it's a million times worse to be judged by God with perfect standards. 5:18 And here's a wonderful promise that you will not be judged. Why is it people don't take it? Say, "Lord, I want that." And the condition is so simple. We judge ourselves rightly. Not just judge ourselves. We judge 5:36 ourselves rightly. Now, imagine if every single one of you listening to me take that from today onwards. Lord, I am not going to judge other people. I'll have opinions about other people. That's different. We can't go around this world like 5:52 zombies having no opinion. If you don't have opinion, we'll get we'll be deceived by people left, right, and center. We have to have opinions. I have opinions about many people and I avoid certain people because I have an opinion 6:04 about them and I know they'll cheat me or deceive me. So, we can't live on this earth as zombies. We must have opinions about people, but we don't judge them. Judgement means just like condemn them. Oh, that guy is useless or 6:17 God's going to judge him. That's not my business. Even in the church, for example, an elder must have opinions about everybody in the church. Otherwise, he's not fit to be an elder. A father and mother must have opinions 6:31 about their children. Otherwise, they won't be able to help them. If your child is lazy and you say, "I'm not going to judge." Well, then you're a useless parent then. So, to have an opinion does not mean you're judging someone. If you have a 6:43 responsibility, that's the other thing I want to say. The sphere in which you have responsibility, that's the sphere in which you can you must have an opinion and sometimes you have to pass judgement in the sense that you 7:00 have to take some action there. For example, I'll give you an example. If you're a father, you have absolutely no responsibility for that guy's children. I mean, if he's getting into danger, you can warn his father or if he's 7:13 um doing something bad, if you have if you have a good relationship with his parents, go and tell them. But otherwise, leave them alone. I'm not called to correct all the children in the world. Um 99% of children, I just leave them 7:27 alone. But my own children, I have to correct them from the earliest possible time. And for that, I have to uh have an opinion. And that is my sphere. So, we must remember that God has drawn a circle around all of us. 7:45 And we must see whether this person about whom I'm having an opinion or whom I'm going to correct, is that person in my circle? An elder has got a circle of the whole all the members of this church, not the visitors. I mean, if there are people 8:00 who are not members of this church, but visitors, well, the elders have no right to correct them unless they misbehave in the meeting, in which case we have to correct them. Otherwise, we have no responsibility. They go astray, they go 8:12 astray. But once you become a member of the church, don't get offended if the elder comes and corrects you. Because you're within that circle. You've chosen to be a member of the church. And so, that's a principle we must 8:26 remember whenever you're passing a judgment on someone or an opinion, ask yourself this one question first, is that person within my circle? The world is full of people who are passing opinions on political leaders and all types of things. 8:42 To tell you honestly, I really don't have time for all that. Because I say, what do I know about that political leader? I'll tell you, what I read in some newspaper, which may be tremendously biased on his side or against him. 8:58 So, I'm getting a biased opinion and I'm as a servant of God, I'm passing an opinion. Crazy. Even a judge in the High Court listens to both sides. So, if you want to pass an opinion about all these political people, read those 9:13 who support him and those who criticize him, then have an opinion. But we don't have to waste our time in that. So, that's just a few guidelines. The other thing is, if you judge others, it says in Matthew 7:2, you will be judged by the same standard 9:30 by which you judge others. It'll be measured to you. So, we have to be very careful. It's far far better to recognize that's outside my circle. Let me leave him alone. So, let's recognize the circle God has drawn around us. Parents very important. 9:50 You don't have to have an opinion about other people's children. If you can help them, go and help them. If they are doing something seriously wrong and if you have a good relationship with the child's parents, go and tell them. 10:03 Otherwise, what can you do? If they're in danger, go and warn the parents your child is in danger. That's okay. But your child is a bad child. That's not my business to tell somebody unless I know that parent of that child very well. 10:17 So, we need to recognize these simple rules. And very often when we find some fault with somebody else's child, for example, we can sit in a church and have opinions about various children here. That person's son and that person's 10:33 daughter. Okay, you can have your opinion, but when you pass that opinion on to other people, that's when it becomes a judgment. I have an opinion about many people in many CFC churches who I have a responsibility for them. They're all my 10:47 children. Many of you came here to this church. I think about 80% of the people sitting in this church came through contact with me first on either on through a church or through the website or YouTube or something. So, I say in that 11:01 sense, I have a responsibility because you came here through initially through contact with me or knowing something about me. So, I have a responsibility, but I want to exercise that as in a spiritual way. But otherwise, I don't have a 11:15 responsibility for other people who are just visiting. Please keep this in mind. It's a very simple principle, but sometimes we miss it. And also, sometimes we can be The other point here is we can be very hard on other people. 11:28 You look at a speck in your brother's eye and there's a huge log in your own eye. Now, what is the log in my eye? The log is a judgmental critical attitude towards that person. That's the log. And so the Lord says, "Get rid of that 11:46 log." If you have a judgmental critical attitude towards another person, what you see in that other person is not something you can help him about. If you want to help him, you are really I mean people have faults around and if 12:02 you love the person enough to help him, first of all, get rid of that log. And the log is what? A judgmental attitude. Get rid of that and the Lord says you'll be able to see clearly what is wrong with that person and you 12:15 can help him. It's like, you know, with if you see somebody doing something wrong, it's like teachers seeing that a student is doing the arithmetic the mathematics problem wrong, the teacher who loves that student will go and correct it. So, 12:32 we need to correct people if we have a responsibility for that person. If that person is within our circle, you don't want to see somebody going wrong and not correct them. I mean, if you see um someone doing an arithmetic problem 12:48 wrong and you know that person well enough, you'll go and correct them. Hey, that's not right. It's not the right way of doing it. So, it's not that we never correct other people, but always ask yourself, what is your relationship with 12:58 that person? Then, otherwise, you can ruin a relationship being a busybody in other people's matters. So, the first thing is get rid of the log from my eye. That means I don't have a judgmental attitude. I have a loving attitude. What's the 13:13 opposite opposite of a judgmental attitude? What is meaning of get rid of the log from my eye? He doesn't say get rid of the log of from your eye and forget it. No, see what he says. Get rid of the log from your eye, verse 13:29 three. Why? Then you must help that person get the speck out of his eye. So, he's not saying if you see something wrong with another person, just forget it. Let him go to hell, or let him keep on going on the wrong path and ruin 13:44 himself. No. Then you don't love him. >> [clears throat] >> If you love a person, you'll want that person even some something wrong with him, you'll want to help him, but you can't help him if you have a judgmental attitude. That's the point. 13:58 So, at the end of this end of the passage, he doesn't say just forget it. It's none of your business. He says, "It is your business if he's your brother, and he's got a speck in his eye. It is your business to help him to get 14:11 rid of it." So, first get rid of your judgmental attitude, then you can see clearly, verse five, to get the speck out of your brother's eye. It's a very important principle that you can't Otherwise, I can't see clearly. 14:27 So, what I learned there is if I don't love a person in Christ, my eyes are not clear. I I'm prejudiced, and you see that very often if you look at the various opinions we will have of different people. You'll find if you love people, you're 14:46 more merciful in your opinions of that person. But, if you don't love a person, you're very hard in your opinion of that person, then you can't help them. So, there's a lot of truth in that, and please remember the verse I quoted in 1 14:59 Corinthians 11, because that applies to the final judgment. And I've always encouraged people, judge yourself. Now, personally, I judge myself every single day. God is my witness that I do that, because I'll tell you why I need to do that, 15:18 because I've not yet become like Christ. The day I can stop judging myself is the day I feel I've become completely like Krishna. So, when you don't judge yourself every day, you are saying indirectly, I've already become like Christ. Why do I need to 15:37 judge myself? Well, I haven't become like Christ. So, I need to judge myself every day and say, "Lord, is there anything I wrong I did?" In fact, it's a very good habit before you when you go to bed at night to ask yourself or just take 15:51 don't even take 5 minutes. Just start take 2 minutes when you go to bed at night. Just like I say, when you wake up in the morning, take a few minutes to talk to your heavenly Father first before you get out of bed. The same way I say, when you go to bed 16:05 at night, take at least 2 minutes to ask yourself one question. Is there anything I did wrong today that I'm getting convicted of right now? Maybe the way you spoke to your husband or wife or to somebody else. Just judge yourself and cleanse yourself 16:23 with the blood of Christ at that time. If you develop these habits of beginning your day with God and ending your day seeking your heart, your life can make gradual progress more and more and more and more and more. So, that's why we need to judge 16:36 ourselves. Okay, then there's a bit of advice concerning preaching the truth John Matthew chapter 7 verse 6. It says, "Don't give what is holy to the dogs." And the meaning of that is, you know, the other 16:55 next part will explain [clears throat] it more clearly. Don't throw your pearls before swine. The meaning is, if a person has not come to the place of appreciating and longing for spiritual truth, don't waste your time talking to 17:09 that person. I met people who uh don't have a value for spiritual things. Well, I don't waste my time talking to them about something they don't value. They think they they'll think I'm just being interfering in their life. Don't I 17:25 don't throw a pearl. I'm not calling that person a swine. But, the principle is the same. I don't give something which a person doesn't appreciate or value. Because truth is very valuable. And I won't give it. You won't 17:41 Like you won't throw money in the streets. We don't give truth to people who don't want to value it. So, before you correct people or share something, ask yourself, is this person going to value it or not? And then the Lord goes on to the matter 17:58 of prayer. This is something he said many, many times. Ask and you will be given. You seek and you will find. Knock and it'll be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who seeks finds. And everyone to him who knocks, it will be opened. 18:15 Now, you can't just stop with those statements. If you take one part of scripture alone, everyone who asks receives. Is that true? Have you got everything you asked the Lord for? You remember that even the devil even quoted a scripture to Jesus. 18:33 And Jesus replied said, "Yeah, that's true. But, it's also written here." So, when you say, "Lord, you said that everyone who asks receives." Yes. But, it's also written you must ask in faith. It's also written that your heart must 18:45 be clear and have a clear conscience before you can even get an answer from God. So, these statements you must not take one statement by itself in scripture. Every statement in scripture is very often balanced by some other statement 18:57 somewhere else. You ask and you receive if your conscience is clear, if you love that person, and if you ask in faith. There are certain conditions. And that's what he means that if you ask with those conditions, then God's desire 19:10 is always to give. And also if you're asking for the glory of God, you know, it says we must seek the glory of God in everything. So, some of these statements of Jesus, you can't take it by itself. Remember what as I said earlier, 19:26 even the devil quoted a scripture which Jesus balanced with another scripture. But, the point he's making here is to say you need not feel that you can't ask God for anything. He wants to encourage us to have freedom 19:42 to ask and seek and knock. And then he says, "Why do you have Here's Here's the illustrations he uses for us to have faith. When you come to God asking him, compare yourself like a son going to his 20:02 father asking for bread. So, when I go to God in prayer, I must I'm I want to think of myself as going a son asking the father for bread. He says, "Will a father give him a stone? No. Then, how how will God ever not give you 20:21 something which is not good for you? Or, if you ask for a fish, will he give him a snake? No. And if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, verse 11, how much more your father will give in heaven will give what is good to those 20:38 who ask him? Now, when I read that statement, if you being evil, you know what I understand from that? I understand it like this, the best father on earth, I don't know who that is. I'm certainly not the best. I'm sure there are 20:56 lots of fathers who are much better than me. But, the best father on earth Do you get it? Is evil compared to God. That's the point of that? That if you can find the best father anywhere in the world, how good he is to his children, God is 21:15 so much better than him that this father will look like evil. Why does Jesus say that? To show us God's tremendous love for us. But do you know a good father will sometimes say no to his children? Supposing your little boy comes and says, "Dad, give me $500." 21:34 He's only 10 years old. What do you say? You'd say, "No, son. I'm not going to give it to you." Is that because of lack of love? No, it's wisdom. So, remember that when you think of God saying no to you. You We ask God for so 21:49 many things, fantastic things, and God says no. Or he doesn't answer, which means he doesn't want to give us that. Then remember the story that a good father will not give If it's something going to harm you, he won't give it to 22:02 you. Even if it is good, he may He may say, "I'll give it to you later." It's like the illustration I've used of the traffic lights. I love that illustration in terms of God answering prayer. Red light, green light, and a yellow light. Yellow or 22:17 orange or whatever you call it. The red means God says no. I'm just not going to give it to you. Green means, "Yeah, you can have it right now." Orange or yellow means wait. You're not yet ready to get it. So, every prayer 22:34 is answered. But some I sometimes pray, "Every prayer of mine is answered." To me, that's just like saying the traffic lights are always working. God's traffic lights are always working. And every prayer I I pray, I get an 22:47 answer. The answer is either red, yellow, or green. You can't say it was not answered. If it is red, and God didn't answer it, doesn't mean he I mean, God didn't give it to you. It doesn't mean he didn't answer. He answered. The answer was no. 23:00 Or if he doesn't give it to you immediately and says, "Wait." Again, he's answered. The answer is, "Wait." So, we should never say, "God never answered my prayer." That's a wrong statement. I have to say God has answered every 23:13 single prayer of mine in my whole life, from the time I became a believer. Sometimes his answer was, "No." Sometimes his answer was, "Wait." And sometimes his answer was, "Yeah, take it right away. Give it to you." So, keep that in mind when you think of 23:30 um asking God. Jesus is encouraging faith, but also to recognize that a heavenly father has got wisdom to know what to give us and when to give us. Then we look at this last thing before we stop for the day, verse 12. 23:48 In everything, treat people the way you want them to treat you. For this is the message of the entire Old Testament. See, those days they didn't have a New Testament. But [snorts] all those Jewish people had an Old Testament, Genesis to Malachi. 24:06 Or we can say that was the Bible in those days. So, we can read it like this, the entire message of the Bible in relation to human relationships is this simple rule, treat people the way you want them to treat you. Now, apply that to different situations. 24:26 If you're going in a wrong way and you don't know it, would you like somebody to come and correct you gently? Yes. Otherwise, I'll waste my time going the wrong way. So, when you see someone else going in a wrong way, you have a responsibility to correct 24:43 them. But if that person has no confidence in you, you can't help him. That's just one example I'm taking. Treat people the way you want them to treat you. And if you are wrong 25:01 and someone comes to correct you, how would you like them to correct you? In a hard way? Saying you're good-for-nothing? No. You'd like the correction, but you'd like them to present the correction gently. Do it exactly like that to others. 25:20 Sometimes parents can be very hard on their children. I mean, I I've been hard on my children, too. I'm not I'm I was not a perfect father. I made mistakes like all of us. But we must seek to improve. That when we correct our children, they 25:36 must know that we desire the best for them. We must not make them feel small. Like I've often used the example of here's a little child who's playing with some building bricks, maybe a 5-6 year old, using building blocks to build 25:53 something. And you [clears throat] know that he doesn't know how to do it even if he looks at the picture how to do it, he doesn't know it. And you say, "Hey, can I help you?" And you know how 6-year-old kids are, "No, I know enough, Dad. I 26:06 don't want to hear your help." And he spends 1 hour there, messes up the whole thing, and then comes and say, "Dad, can you help me?" What will you tell him? Never use these words, "I told you so." Those are one of the worst words any 26:25 parent can tell their child. That's the expert. That will dishearten that child. It's better to say, "Never mind, my son. Let's do it together." You'll make a friend with your child instead of humiliating that child by saying, "I told you so." And many 26:44 fathers do that. "I told you. I told you to ask me before. You ask yourself whether you haven't spoken to your children like that. Mercy, mercy is very very important. Treat others the way you want to be treated. When you've made a messed up something, you 27:02 don't want somebody come to telling you, "Hey, I told you you shouldn't do this." You don't want your boss in the office talking like that. Wouldn't you be happier if your boss come and said, "Hey, let's do it another way. That may be better." 27:14 Treat your children the same way. Treat a somebody who's under your authority, a younger brother in the same way. Yeah. So, next week will be our last session. Let's Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you'll help us to 27:32 be gripped by these truths and to live by these principles that you taught us. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.
