Judging. Asking, Doing

If you don't have a Bible and you'd like a hard copy of the Bible, we have some in the entryway of the church, and you are welcome to grab one of those and make it your own.

If you do have one of the church's Bibles, this passage of scripture is on page 812. If you are new to looking at scripture and you're looking for Matthew 7, the big numbers on the page are chapter numbers. We're going to be looking today at verses 1 through 12, and those verse numbers are the small numbers.

Matthew 7, verses 1 through 12.

It says this:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 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.

Do not give to dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

So whatever you wish, what others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.

Would you please pray with me?

Lord, we are grateful for your word. It is absolutely true and perfect. It only leads us in right paths and sets our hearts in right directions of worship. Your word never fails. It never fails to accomplish what you intend. It always goes out from you and never returns void, but brings back with it fruit, accomplishing much.

So we pray that your powerful word would accomplish much today, in our hearts, in our lives, to help us see your goodness, to help us see the glory of Christ on display, to help us understand the gospel at work in us, to convict us of sin, to draw wandering minds and hearts to attentive listening. Holy Spirit, we pray that you would be active to make the word clear to us today. Lord, give us ears to hear. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Perhaps you know the story of Les Misérables, the well-known novel by Victor Hugo. There's much that this story can be known for, but one central theme and thread throughout, as you see many characters come and go, is that of justice. Les Misérables puts before us pictures of justice, even of injustice.

Through many ups and downs, we see the story of Jean Valjean, once a criminal, a wanted fugitive, and Inspector Javert. Jean Valjean runs away from parole and establishes no longer a life of a criminal, but as grace was shown to him, establishes for himself a new life that's productive, that does good to others. He appears to be a changed man. Meanwhile, Inspector Javert makes it his aim to hunt Valjean down over decades, seeking to find him and bring him to justice, believing that there is no possible way that a man like him, a criminal like him, could ever change. Inspector Javert has exacting justice, only seeing things in black and white, not believing that change is possible, not believing that he himself could ever err.

We all want justice, don't we? We want wrongs to be righted in the world around us. You and I want others, when they do wrong, to be held to account. We all have a bit of Inspector Javert in us. We have a tendency in our seeking for justice to look for it everywhere but in our own hearts and lives. We want for ourselves the kind of story of Jean Valjean, a criminal redeemed, just given a moment of hope and everything could turn around. We give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, but for others the possibility of real change seems distant. The possibility of not having pure, 100% justice seems like a dream. We are quick to take others' faults and magnify them, while we take our own faults and we minimize them. What is it in us that drives such imbalanced judgment? Where you and I are stringent towards others, and yet lenient towards ourselves.

Jesus has a word for us here in Matthew 7 about judgment, right judgment versus wrong judgment, and how that plays out in our lives. And this is set against the backdrop of all that Jesus has said so far in the Sermon on the Mount. If you want to think of the Sermon on the Mount in big chapter chunks, think of Matthew 5 and Jesus proclaiming a coming kingdom. And he shows us in the Beatitudes the character of those who are kingdom citizens, and then throughout the rest, the heart of God and God's law for such kingdom citizens. Matthew chapter 6 then proceeds to tell us what it looks like to be a kingdom citizen, to live righteously, and how that reality flows out of one key truth: that God is our Father. If you wanted one key theme that flowed through every sentence of Matthew 7, it would be God's judgment. Not our judgment, but God's judgment. God as judge, as just, as the one who pronounces things right and wrong, as the one who will see later, declares good fruit or bad fruit, false teachers or true teachers, real belief or false belief, eternal life or eternal damnation.

In light of God as judge and all of the truth of the Sermon on the Mount that points us to God's righteousness and how it's meant to be lived out in us, these verses, Matthew 7:1 through 12, show us how God's judgment and his justice is meant to impact all of our relationships, both with brothers and sisters in the church, with those who reject the gospel, towards God and our relationship with him, and really towards anyone we encounter. How does the idea of God and his justice, and that reality of him as Father, impact all of our relationships? That's the question this text answers and what we want to seek to understand and apply to ourselves this morning. What does greater righteousness look like in our relationships?

Look down at verse 1 with me. The first thing we see in this text is that you and I are called to right judgment.

Right Judgment

Living in light of God's justice means that we make right judgments. Specifically, what Jesus is getting at here is right judgments relating toward brothers and sisters in the church, fellow Christians. You need to understand something very clear about verse 1 of Matthew 7. Jesus says, "Judge not that you be not judged," and this is not a blanket statement that says, "Never judge." Jesus is not issuing a prohibition on judgment. You've surely heard this verse taken out of context at some point. "No, no, no, no. Jesus said, 'Don't judge.' You're not allowed to say that to me." Or, "You shouldn't behave that way. Jesus says, 'Judge not, lest ye be judged.'" And you've heard it just wipe away a million concerns. In fact, you and I have probably taken this verse out of context ourselves, towards another brother or sister, or maybe censoring ourselves unnecessarily. So what does "judge not" mean when Jesus says it? What is Jesus trying to get at?

When Jesus says, "Judge not that you be not judged," you should understand that Jesus is ultimately showing you how to judge. The idea of this, though, "Judge not that you be not judged," is teaching you how to judge with a negative example. And with a warning, he says in verse 2, "With the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." This is the idea of talionic justice: what you put out, you will reap back. How you treat someone else, God will treat you. It's not karma, but it is the reality that God is just and therefore will judge you based on your own acts, and his judgment in part will be shaped by your own judgment of others. That seems odd, but Jesus tells us it's true. And this kind of judgment that Jesus condemns is the judgment that comes from someone who thinks they're superior. It's the kind of judgment that's displayed in the following verses. It's the judgment that condemns and criticizes others, looking down on them. "You're lower than me. You're worse than me. I'll let you know it." While you're down and while I feel good, I'll push you down more, further in the dirt.

This is the kind of judgment that Jesus condemns that shows no true love, no true concern for the person receiving the judgment. This is the way that you and I typically think of "judge not lest you be judged." This judgment that Jesus condemns, it only impugns. It only proves you as superior or right. This judgment, as much as it elevates self, also downgrades another. Two aspects there, and there's probably two motives there as well. "I'm feeling lowly, I feel worthless myself, so I might as well make someone else seem lesser." Or, "I feel high and lofty, and so I might as well increase that feeling and make it real clear that others are beneath me." We all know what it feels like to be judged this way, don't we? We all know equally what it is to judge another this way. None of us, in my human experience, can wipe our hands clean here. Maybe you can think of the feeling, to feel so good about yourself that your first go-to is to diminish others. Or perhaps to feel so poor about yourself that you go out of your way to bring others down, to discredit even the good things they do. Finding any fault, any sin perhaps that you can, and putting the magnifying glass there so you feel it less in your own heart.

Jesus says, "Judge not that ye be not judged," and he's telling you, your judgment is not the judgment of condemnation. There is a judge who gets to condemn. There is a judge who will be the one who exacts perfect justice, who declares every right and wrong. Friends, when you are tempted to judge in this way, in the condemnatory way, in the self-inflating way, remember there is a judge that examines your own heart in that moment and will declare on the final day that which is true, even of yourself. Humble yourself before that judge, and let him be the one to condemn ultimately. Him be the one to exact justice. Him be the one who declares ultimately about a person, right or wrong.

And yet, while Jesus is saying, "Don't judge that way," he's not saying that you can't make judgments. This is not a prohibition on calling things out in the world that are wrong, or calling out sin that is present, or calling out ideologies that are obviously opposed to the truth of God's word. This is not a limiter on your action in the public sphere. It's only a limiter in the way in which you interact in public. Are you going to be the one that aims to bring down and elevate self? Or are you doing this out of loving concern for others? If you're going to call out sin in the world or ungodly ideologies, then you should do so with loving concern for those entrapped by them, seeking to protect others, especially the most vulnerable, from such things, not as a way to make you feel morally superior, not as a way so that you're right in somebody else's eyes. Remember, Jesus has warned us against performative righteousness. Our righteousness is before God and him alone, and we will receive a reward from him. So we don't make judgment calls for brownie points.

So there is a way in which we judge. And you can judge things around you in the world, but you should do it with true Christian, Christ-like love and concern. But friends, that is not Jesus' point here. He's simply telling us, "Do not be the one who judges only in condemnation." And in doing this, he provides for us an example, a well-known example of the log-eyed brother and the speck-eyed brother. And in this example, he tells us, "Do judge, and do so within the church, within the kingdom community."

The first way that you and I are meant to judge rightly then, that Jesus makes abundantly clear, is we are to judge rightly in seeing our own sin. Brothers and sisters, this morning, are you making right judgment about the sin in your life? Are you making right judgment about the sin deeply embedded in your heart that many would have to peel back several layers to get to, and so maybe only you and another close to you know it, can see it? Jesus' example here is comical almost. There's a brother with a log, a stick in his eye. Think of Pinocchio's nose, but poking out of somebody's eye. And he's walking around, and every time he turns and he sees another sin, he's probably smacked them in the face with his own. You can picture it. It's like the Three Stooges. It's a picture ultimately of foolish blindness to our own sin, blind to the largest thing so obvious to others, and yet can see the tiniest piece of lint in someone else's eye, the tiny speck of dirt, the tiniest amount of impropriety, the tiniest misstep. We cannot be blind to our own sin. You and I need to understand that we are sinners. That grace today on this side of heaven does not make us perfect. We are not completely sanctified today. And so before we go about thinking about anybody else's sin, the call here is to see your own sin, to humble yourself before the Lord and before others, and acknowledge your sin before God and men. The example here is something everybody else already sees.

Know your sin, confess your sin, don't act like it's not there. Understand that this is not a call just to acknowledge that your sin is present. This is a call, Jesus says here, verse 4, or sorry, verse 5, "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye." Take it out, remove it. Do you remember when Jesus in Matthew 5 spoke of radical amputation, to cut off even a hand or to gouge out an eye because it causes you to sin? Take your sin and deal with it. Confess it, put it to death. Take out a dagger and drive it into its heart. Get the log out of your own eye, no matter the cost. Putting two of Jesus' examples together, "Get the log out of your own eye even if it removes your eye." It's worth it. It's also necessary for you to operate within the church and other brothers and sisters in a way that would honor Christ and be useful with God's grace towards them. Jesus' picture here is a picture that you cannot help others in their sin until you have dealt with your own great sin. Do you want to be a conduit of God's grace to others? It requires regular confession, regular repentance, utmost humility that is not worried about reputation, but is worried about living holy before the Lord. And so Jesus calls us here, in rightly judging our own sin, to spiritual self-awareness.

More than that, Jesus is calling us to a type of living that is informed by grace. There's a picture here of seeing things the right way. If your sin's in the way, you can't see your brother's sin rightly. You're not going to make a right judgment call. It's inhibiting you. But Jesus isn't saying, "Oh, you've sinned so poorly, you can never help another." He's saying, "Yes, repent. Yes, confess. Yes, work towards holiness, and you'll be useful to others," is the implication here. "Then you can see clearly and judge rightly towards your brothers and sisters to take the speck out of their eye," to help them. This is a call to grace-sighted living, a vision shaped by grace in the church that starts with yourself. Friends, believe this. You have not sinned too badly and you are not too far gone to be useful to God. He can redeem any sinner. Paul is a prime example of this, a persecutor of the church. By implication, Paul's a murderer of Christians. And yet, who does Christ redeem, and who do you read in a majority of New Testament epistles? The words of that man Paul. The Christians were initially skeptical of him even. "Paul, the persecutor? Saul? The one who chased us down and locked us up?" Yes, that man. The utmost opponent of the church is the one that Christ can redeem and change and make useful for his purposes. So too you, even when you sin greatly. It is not that you have fallen out of grace, or you have fallen out of your ability to be used by God for good purposes. How then, when you fall and when you stumble, when that log trips you up and it becomes so apparent all of a sudden, what do you do? Friends, you rehearse the gospel. Grace that you believed at once covered all your sin continues to cover every sin today. You remember your own humility before the Lord, that you are the one who's poor in spirit, weak, and humble before God because he is holy. But you remember that you cannot save yourself and therefore you will not sanctify yourself by strong striving, but by the strong hand of the Lord who sent Christ to redeem you, to live a perfect life, to die in your stead, promising full redemption. He declared, "It is finished," even over that sin that stumbles you today. And he rose again so that there would be freedom, victory, new life for you to walk in Christ. Do not lose hope because sin makes your life difficult. Trust Christ. Look to him continually every day for renewed grace and strength, for the ability, by his powerful Spirit, to conquer sin, that you might be a vessel worthy, honorable for the Master's use.

And so you're called to a grace-shaped vision that begins with you. If you don't see yourself as a redeemable sinner, how will you ever think somebody else could arrive there? How will you ever think that brother or sister who stumbles so far could turn around and be used by God? The gospel frees us from pride. It makes us honest. It grants us mercy and grace. Friends, God in the gospel is not surprised at your failing. It's the reason for the good news of Christ. So the gospel strengthens us, the gospel empowers us to kill sin. The gospel is meant to fill you with hope. It produces righteousness, true righteousness in you to walk in. It's part of a glorious plan, the good news of the gospel, to ever make you more like Christ. You have not graduated from it. It's your daily food. If you have showed up this morning and you have not trusted in Christ and you are far off from God and you know it, understand that Christ's grace and the goodness of God in the gospel is available to all, any kind of sinner. If you think you're a sinner with logs sticking out everywhere, Christ can redeem you and save you. You need only to humble yourself before the Lord, to call out to Christ, to fling yourself upon his mercy, his grace, his redeeming power. Christ who died for you and rose again to set you free from sin and death. Friend, only would you need to trust him today.

Living in light of the gospel enables you to deal with the log in your own eye, so that you can become a conduit of grace to others. Fathers, moms, leaders, those who aim to mentor others, those of you who want to be a discipler and help others follow Jesus. If you want to lead, be the lead repenter. Be the one who starts there. When you are in a fight with your spouse, or your marriage is falling apart in shambles, when life does not make sense, when your sin catches up to you, lead with repentance. Start there. And then, Jesus is telling you, then you'd be able to say the things he said you had no place to say. Then you can see the speck rightly, verse 3. Then you can say to your brother, verse 4, "Let me help you take the speck out of your own eye." Then you would no longer be, verse 5, a hypocrite, but someone who is embodying grace in their own life and therefore can bring it into others so that they would be shaped by grace and free of sin themselves. And so this is a call to right judgment that enables you and frees you to help others with their sin. Yes, even to acknowledge others' sin. Jesus is not saying that we turn a blind eye and we don't call out sin in the church. Jesus is saying that when you see yourself clearly in light of the gospel, it gives you capacity to help others fight their sin and to be shaped by the gospel themselves. And to do it in a right manner. Because when we've seen the log in our own eye, we've been humbled, we will no longer be those who are harsh with other brothers and sisters who fall into sin. Rather than, "How dare you," we begin to be the ones who say, "That's not who you are in Christ. It's not who he's made you to be." Rather than saying, "How could you?" we begin to say, "But for the grace of God, there go I." Rather than saying, "Again? I'm getting tired of this," we'd say, "Don't forget that God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse you whenever you come to him in repentance and faith."

Philippians is a prime example for us of what it looks like to embody the grace of Christ, even as we call out sin. Turn to Philippians chapter 4 in your Bible. Philippians chapter 4. Verse 2 is one of those verses where we read a couple names and we think, "I hope I'm not them." How would it be to be inscripturated, your name, with a call to repentance? And yet Paul, writing to the Philippian church, whom he loves, says, "I entreat Euodia, and I entreat Syntyche, to agree in the Lord." Much of what Paul has called for is humility and unity in Christ in the preceding chapters. And here, he calls out two individuals in the church and he says, "Agree in the Lord," like he said in Philippians 2, "Have this mind among yourselves. Be unified in humility before God and in the glorious gospel of Christ." He calls them out and calls them to repentance and calls them to walk in a new way in light of the gospel truth he's given them. But look at the context he does it in. Turn back in your Bible for a moment and look at Philippians 1. Philippians 1:7, this is how Jesus, this is how Paul speaks to all of the Philippians, including Euodia and Syntyche. He says, "It is right for me to feel this way about you." He says, verse 6, "that Jesus is working in you salvation and will bring it to completion. It's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace." He views these individuals in the church as dear to him, near to his heart, bound to him because of the grace of God. Turn over to Philippians 2:12 and see what he says. He says, "Therefore, my beloved." Euodia and Syntyche, those whom Paul is calling to change, he's calling out division in them and calling them to be reconciled. He calls his beloved. Then, in Philippians 2:20, Paul says this: "I'm sending Timothy to you because I have no one like him who's going to be genuinely concerned for your welfare." So Paul is not issuing a call to repentance known to this entire church, and now we're even reading of it today, because he wants what's bad for them, because he wants to drive them down. He's given them the grace of Christ. He's reminded them of God's love for them and his love for them. And it's against that backdrop, and even verse 4, "I love you. I long for you. You are my joy and my crown. I entreat you to agree in the Lord." Change course. Unite with one another. Don't be divided within the church.

When was the last time you called out a brother or sister in sin or mentioned something to your child or your spouse or someone else you're in close proximity with, and before you called them to repentance, you said, "Brother, sister, my joy and crown. My fellow partaker of grace. My beloved." And then reminded them of where they needed to repent. This is a picture in Philippians of what gospel-fueled judgment looks like, of what judgment in the church and in each other's lives of sin should look like in the environment that it should happen in. If we are going to help others with sin, it must be in the context of the grace of God in Christ and of our union and love for one another. Otherwise, we will fall into the trap of being those who issue that condemnatory judgment, the judgment that is primarily, not only, but primarily reserved for God.

What would it look like if we took this passage seriously in the church and we took Philippians and the picture it painted for us there seriously? What kind of church would we look like? What would we begin to grow in all the more? Things that are present, dear friends. Our church would grow in purity because we'd confidently call out sin. Our church would grow in love because we would be endeared towards one another as we approach each other in this way, in this context to call out sin. Our church would be more whole and united as one because we'd be walking in step in the gospel with each other, linked arms. We would be more humble, less judging, more gracious. We will, if we put this into practice in our church, even as there are those who've been here for many years and those there are those here who are just now entering this church, we will become more Christ-like together and be a beautiful picture of what Christ is painting in the power of the gospel.

Dependent Prayer

And so we are to judge rightly. With a view of God as judge and as just, you and I are called to make right judgments, first about ourselves and our own sin, and then even, yes, about brothers and sisters in the church and their sin. There's another way that Christ tells us to make right judgment, however. Look at verse 6. This is not with those in the church, but those outside. "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." Jesus says there are people who you should refrain from giving gospel goodness, gospel truth, gospel proclamation to. The picture of holiness, what is holy, and pearls are gospel treasures, gospel truth that you and I, Matthew 28 tells us, are called to go out and bring. We're to be those who bring the good news to others. Yes and amen, to go throughout all the world to unknown people and proclaim the gospel, to find sinners and call them to repentance in Christ. Friends, we do that to every kind of person. We don't do gospel ministry and gospel proclamation just towards those and with those who are like us. We do it with those who are very different from us, in every way, because Christ can redeem every sinner. But what is pictured here is opponents of the gospel, not just those who are not in step with Christ and have trusted in him and agree with the gospel, or don't agree with the gospel. But these are those who have begun to develop a reviling nature towards the gospel, who are digging their heels in and saying, "I hate everything good that you are saying," and who in turn become vicious towards you. You'll see, "Do not give to dogs what is holy," verse 6. "Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." These people have become known to you as those who deny God in such a way that they vehemently oppose him. Every interaction, every moment is defined by that. And if you continue to preach the gospel towards them, even in love for them, Jesus says that at some point you might begin to waste your time. There's a picture here even of persecution. Understand that these dogs are not Chihuahuas. They're more like coyotes or wolves. The pigs are are not Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. These are wild boars. That's the picture and the words that are used here by Jesus. Vicious opponents who are aiming themselves at attacking God, attacking the church, and attacking yourself. I want you to, I want to caution you here though. This is a right judgment to make at some point. At some point if somebody is so vehemently opposed and antagonistic to the gospel, I should begin to direct my efforts and attention elsewhere. But do not arrive there quickly. This is not a judgment made in haste. This is something we probably should arrive at slowly, not wanting to give up giving the gospel to sinners who need a savior. And yet Jesus says, "They will reject the gospel message, and at some point you're only heaping more judgment upon them." There is here for those who do not know Christ a great warning. When you hear the truth of the gospel, turn to Christ immediately. Don't wait. Don't think tomorrow will be a good day. And friends, this is a reminder for us as well in our repentance. Don't delay. When you are exposed and humbled in your sin, don't wait. Tomorrow's not the day to repent. Today is the day to repent, lest we too become hardened even in our sin and begin to reject the gospel with our lives. So Jesus calls us to right judgment.

But he also calls us in our relationship, not just towards brothers and sisters in the church or gospel opponents to make right judgment. He calls us in our relationship toward God, toward dependent prayer. When we understand God as judge, that's point number two, dependent prayer. When we understand God as judge and as Father, it drives us to him. This is why Jesus says, "Ask, seek, knock," and God will answer your prayer. When we understand that God is holy and just and will not let any wrongdoing pass, we humble ourselves before him. We become poor in spirit. We become those who even mourn over our sin with godly sorrow. We see God as mighty, as powerful, as king, as sovereign. And yet when we come to a true knowledge of the fear of the Lord, we come through Christ, and we begin to see that the God who is just is also our Father, like has been reinforced over and over again in Matthew 6. That this God who must punish sin has redeemed sinners to himself and welcomed them in as his own dear children.

When you see God for all that he is, not just part of who he is, it drives you to cast yourselves on him in greater dependence. And that's what verses 7 through 11 are a picture of: dependent prayer, casting ourselves before the Lord as beggars, as those in great need. Yes, those who have been redeemed in Christ. This is a picture for kingdom citizens, for Christians, those redeemed in Christ but who are ever in need of his grace. And against the backdrop of verses 1 through 5, there's no surprise that we would continually ask and seek and knock for more of God's grace. We are those who need it, because we're not just the speck-eyed brother, we're the log-eyed brother, with obvious sin that can be so hard for us to discern. You and I are meant to have lives of unceasing prayer, like 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says. How do you pray without ceasing? By ever coming to the Lord, knowing you're needy. Seeing God clearly is like looking at a clean mirror and seeing yourself rightly. Seeing God clearly comes through dependent prayer. When you and I try to do things on our own, the mirror starts to get muddy and dirty and warped, and we don't have a clear view of ourselves. But we need it, and so where do we go? We go to God. We seek a clear view of him, the mirror is clean. And in seeing God clearly, we see ourselves clearly as spiritually bankrupt, in need of God's help in every single way, and certainly the most fundamental ways, in need of God's continued grace. You and I are like dependent children. You know how young children are. There's almost not a thing that they can do without grabbing mom or dad's hand, and saying, "Mom, Dad, come help me with this. I need you in this with me. I couldn't walk down that hallway or turn on that light or make it to that room if you're not right by my side." And that is our position as Christians. "Lord, I'm not going to make it a step unless you're with me." And so I'm going to ask, I'm going to seek, I'm going to knock, I'm going to be so persistent, because I need God's help. Friends, go after God in your prayer. There is nothing that you should withdraw in and not bring to God in prayer, and there's no circumstance that you do not need his grace in.

Look here, when you ask and seek and knock, there's this picture, this glorious picture of God offering full attention. "Ask, it will be given. Seek, you will find. Knock, it will be open to you." There's no delay in these passages. And we know that even we good, give good gifts and we're wicked, that God is desirous, who is perfectly righteous and holy, to give us good things that we ask for. God is ever ready and able to answer your prayer for his grace. That prayer doesn't receive a wait or a hold on or, "I'll answer it a different way." "Lord, I need your grace today." "Yes, Christian, you have it." "Ask, it will be given. Seek, you will find. Knock, it will be open." God is not up in heaven preoccupied and busy so that he cannot hear your simple request for help. God's ear is inclined towards his children, ever ready to hear and reply. This is a great expression of God's love for you and his care for you, that he would be ever attentive and answer these prayers so quickly. But what are we praying for when we ask and we seek and we knock? Well, asking is for good things. Jesus says in verse 11, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?" Jesus tells us, "What are you asking for? Good things." What is a good thing? is the question we should ask. A good thing is the thing that God loves to give and gives every time. The things that the Father deems as good throughout the Sermon on the Mount: being pure in heart, being holy, devoted to him, being rid of sin. And Luke 11:13, when Jesus talks about this reality, he even includes the Holy Spirit. Those who ask for spiritual blessing will receive it. Doesn't mean you'll receive it in the way that you might have imagined, but it does mean that God is rich with spiritual blessings and ever dolls them out and directs them towards you. He is not stingy with his grace, not for a moment. And so you're asking for good spiritual gifts. Seeking. What are we to seek and ever find? You'll notice that all these prayers have a sure answer. You will, it will be given, you will find, it will be opened. There's a promise here that informs us with what kinds of prayer these are. Think of Matthew 6:33. We read it last week. "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Seeking, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, hungering for the kingdom of God and most importantly, the righteousness required to enter the kingdom. That's what we're seeking for. Friends, to the humble sinner who comes before the Lord and asks for his righteousness, knowing they have none of their own, coming to him through Christ, ask, seek, and you will find. God will grant this prayer every time. What does it mean to knock? "Knock, and it will be open to you." There's another promise. Well, look at verses 13 and 14 in Matthew 7. "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." What are we knocking on? We are knocking on the narrow gate of eternal life and seeking permission to enter. "Knock, and it will be opened." God will permit those who offer this prayer to enjoy eternal life. Not because these words, if you repeat them, are magic, but because the reality of coming to God and knowing your need means that you are casting yourself on his grace, on his righteousness, on the goodness of Christ. God grants the blessing of righteousness and life, eternal life and kingdom entrance because of his great character. He is gracious. And to those who knock, he grants entrance. This is what the illustration of the earthly father shows us. When you ask God for that objectively good thing, rooted in who he is as just, as Father, he will answer. He will never give you a poor gift. Only good things will come from his hand. So friends, pray these prayers. Pray the kind of prayers because you know yourself in your own need, that continually cast you upon Christ and cast you upon the grace of God. If only you pray these prayers, you will be blessed. Maybe it would be right and appropriate for us to pray these kinds of prayers before we move on to those daily needs. Though you should, as Jesus told us, pray for the daily needs. But come before God and confess your neediness. When you follow these prayers, Jesus' answer, God the Father's answer to you is a resounding, "Yes, you can have it. You need my grace, it's yours. You want my righteousness, here it is in Christ. You're looking for entrance into eternal life, call upon the name of the Lord and it's yours." The righteousness you seek is provided, the gate is open.

Loving Action

And so, when we understand who God is, in both his nature as God as just and as Father, we come to him in dependent prayer. That's one of the ways that the reality of God as judge shapes our lives and our relationship towards God. The final way that our relationships are meant to be shaped in light of God's judgment and his goodness, is that our lives are to be marked by loving action. Yes, we want to be those who make right judgments. Yes, we want to be those who have dependent prayer in our lives. And we want to be those who in everything are marked by loving action. And this is where everything gets real big and broad. Look at verse 12, "So whatever you wish, what others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets." "Whatever you wish that others would do to you." That's a pretty all-encompassing word there. Who is an other? Anyone you encounter. Anyone you cross paths with. This in some sense is a limitless exhortation. It encompasses all of your life and every kind of relationship that you could possibly encounter. And it's only the person who sees that he's a beggar before the Lord and has nothing to offer, and has discovered the grace of God, that will be sufficiently set free from self-centeredness in your character to put others first. To be able to obey this exhortation that encompasses your whole life. Living under the judgment of God is the remedy for self-absorption. That's how this verse flows with everything else. When you are serving the Lord, you will end up being happy serving others. And you will serve the Lord when you are humble before him.

Jesus tells us that to love others as we wish to be loved, to do whatever we would want done to us towards others, is the law in a nutshell. The law and the prophets, all of God's truth towards us. How does God instruct us? Love God and love others. And what does it look like to love others? Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. Grasp this reality. Grasp this kind of living that is less self-focused and more others-focused, and everything else begins to fall into place pretty easily. And yet we are tempted to place limitations on this command, aren't we? "Well, not the other who's like that. Not that neighbor or that coworker or that person on the street." Jesus says, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you, as you even do to yourself." You and I care for ourselves best. We love ourselves best. We meet our own needs best. We're pretty good at knowing what we need and finding a fix for it. How could you begin to direct your attention at others in that kind of way, in that self-loving kind of way where you make sure all your needs are met and you're cared for? When I'm hungry, I'm fed. When I'm clothed, I have clothing. When I'm needy, I find what will fill my want. To do unto others as you would have done unto you, fits well in the backdrop of God's judgment, because to truly do what's best for another person means that you will make a judgment about their spiritual state. If I am going to aim my life and my attention and my energies towards another person, I want to know their spiritual state. I want to meet some temporal good needs. I do. In the same way that if I'm cold, I run and I get a blanket or a jacket. I want to meet those kinds of needs for others. When I'm hungry, I find food. I want to meet those kinds of needs for others: basic, loving, generous needs. But I also want to be concerned in doing unto others about their spiritual state. And that requires that I pick up spiritual glasses and I ask good questions, and I see them as God sees them today, which will both help me rightly judge whether they are under God's condemnation or his grace, and will help me to see with gospel eyes what they can become. And when I see with gospel eyes and gospel judgment, the judgment of God, what people can become, whether it means being reconciled to God or it means growing in grace, I will more wisely and judiciously be able to do unto them with love as I would have done unto myself.

Ultimately, the Christian life is pretty simple: knowing the grace of God, working so powerfully in your own heart, that you are free from the mastery of sin and free from self-love so that you can now serve others and bring blessing to them as the Lord has brought great blessing to you. That's the clear-sightedness that you're called to as you live in light of the judgment of God and you live in light of God as Father. Friends, this is what greater righteousness looks like. Let's pray.

Lord, help us to live out this text of scripture well. Help us to see our sin, Lord. By your grace, we pray that you would expose it, that you would make it known, that you would help us to walk in repentance and be renewed by the goodness of your gospel and of Christ every day. Help us to be ever dependent upon you, knowing that we are needy of your grace and that apart from you we can do nothing. And Lord, help us, even when it's difficult and hard, to embody your love and your care and your grace to all who cross our paths. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Would you please stand as we close in singing? Our final song this morning will be "All Glory Be to Christ."