Sermon Tone Analysis

*/“Don’t Judge Me!”/*

 

*Text: *Matthew 7.1-5

 

*Thesis: *To note the hypocrisy with which many judge in order to learn how to judge.

*Introduction*:

 

(1)    Consider these silly judgment calls:

-          Here’s how the /Chicago Times/ in 1865 evaluated Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in commenting on it the day after its delivery: “The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat, and dish-watery utterances of a man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as President of the United States.”

-          A six-year-old lad came home with a note from his teacher in which it was suggested that he be taken out of school, as he was “too stupid to learn.”

That boy was Thomas A. Edison.

(2)    Matthew 7.1 is one of the most known and abused scriptures.

(3)    Let us note what the Lord tells us regarding judging:

 

*Discussion*:

 

I.

What Comes Around Goes Around (vv.

1-2):

 

A.

Jesus is not forbidding all judging –

1.

In the context:

a.       V.

6 – Don’t cast pearls before swine

b.      Vv.

15-20 – By their fruits, you will know false teachers

2.      John 7.24 – Don’t judge by mere appearance, make sure it is “righteous judgment”

B.     What He is forbidding –

1.

The readiness to find fault (Don’t make a practice of judging [present imperative])

Consider this poem entitled /Don’t Judge Too Hard/:

 

Pray don’t find fault with a man who limps

Or stumbles along the road,

Unless you have worn the shoes he wears

Or struggle beneath his load.

There may be tacks in his shoes that hurt,

Though hidden away from view,

Or the burden he bears, placed on your back,

Might cause you to stumble, too.

Don’t sneer at the man who is down today,

Unless you have felt the blow

That caused his fall, or felt the shame

That only the fallen know.

You may be strong, but still the blows

That were his, if dealt to you

In the self same way at the self same time,

Might cause you to stagger, too.

Don’t be too harsh with a man who sins,

Or pelt him with words or stones,

Unless you are sure, yea, double sure,

That you have not sins of your own.

For you know, perhaps, if the tempter’s voice

Should whisper as soft to you

As it did to him when he went astray

“Twould cause you to falter, too.”

2.

“To be quick to call others to account is to invite God to call us to account” (Morris 165).

II.

The Pot Calling The Kettle Black (vv.

3-4):

 

A.

“He pictures a person who fixes his gaze on something quite unimportant in someone else and who does not notice what is much more significant in himself” (166).

B.     Although the words may be physically possible to say, the plank and the speck make it utterly impossible for the words to carry conviction.

III.

Getting to the Point (v.

5):

 

-          We are to help, not hurt –