Tolerance: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly | Part 2

3:07 The three words I want you to keep in your heart and in your mind as we study the Word of God this morning. The first word is the word discriminate. Now there should be, number one, there should be a time of discrimination. Now discrimination has become an ugly word, but it's not always ugly. If you don't teach your children to discriminate, you have failed as a father or a mother. To discriminate means to see what is good and to see what is bad. So discrimination is simply evaluation, elimination, appropriation. I evaluate. This is good and this is bad. I eliminate. I turn from that which is bad.

3:59 I appropriate. I choose that which is good. Now people say that Jesus said we're not to judge. May I tell you frankly, clearly, plainly, that is not so. Jesus taught us to judge. In the same context where our Lord says, judge not that you be not judged, he said, don't give that which is holy to dogs. don't cast your pearls before swine sounds to me like you have to discriminate and find out where the dogs and hogs are who they are what they are the bible clearly and plainly teaches discrimination and not only is there a time for uh discrimination but there is a time for toleration I'm talking about good old-fashioned toleration.

5:04 Now, when our Lord here says, judge not, that you be not judged, He's talking about a person being intolerant of faults in other people. He's not saying that we deny faults in other people. But what He is saying is, you are forbidden to exercise unmerciful, self-righteous condemnation of another person, hypocritical judgment, especially when you yourself are guilty of doing the same thing. When you judge other people without mercy, not whether or not what they're doing is right or wrong, but when you judge them in a condemning way, in an unmerciful way, what you're doing is usurping the rights and the prerogatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what you're also doing is you are acting like the devil.

6:05 The Bible tells us that it is the devil who is the accuser of the brethren. Don't go around judging other people, condemning other people, examining their motive. There is no one big enough, no one just enough, no one loving enough to judge us but God himself. And surely the judge of all heaven and earth will do right. Now why is it that we tend to have this merciless judgment? Why is it that we tend to be intolerable when we ought to tolerate other people lovingly? Well, one of the reasons, very frankly, is the sin that's in our own hearts and in our lives. That's what Jesus Christ is talking about here. He said, you're looking for a speck of sawdust in your brother's eye, and you've got a saw log in your own eye.

7:04 You are a hypocrite. Now, why do we see fault in other people? It's a form of projection, many times. Because of the sin that's in our own lives, we hope somehow to make ourselves better by condemning somebody else that if we pull them down, we've pulled ourselves up just a little bit. And therefore, a person to see a speck of dust in somebody's eye has to be looking pretty close, wouldn't you agree? Especially if he's got a saw log in his own eye. What he is seeing is what he is looking for, hoping to find. It's amazing what people find. You will get what you look for.

7:58 You remember the little nursery rhyme, Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been? I've been to London to see the queen. Pussycat, pussycat, what saw you there? I spied a little mouse under her chair. And here's Westminster Abbey with the sainted dead and the spires and the glorious accoutrements of that place. And there's the Queen of England and all of her royalty.

8:28 And the cat sees a mouse. Because that's what they're looking for. if you wanted somebody to give you a view of the landscape and report back say fly over the fruited plain and come back don't send a buzzard because a buzzard would come back and his report would not be on the fluffy clouds and the green meadows and the sparkling brooks and the magnificent snow-capped mountains he would come back and he would report and this is what he would say. I saw a dead cow with maggots in it. That's what a buzzer's looking for. You see, there are people who are just simply looking for a speck in somebody else's eye because they have a log in their own eye. And we need to examine ourselves.

9:25 That's the reason the Lord tells us so much that we're to be merciful. because we are the ones that need mercy. They tell a story of grandmother who was always going around dusting, dusting, dusting everything. She thought everything had dust. Finally, somebody said, Grandma, give me your glasses, and looked at them. They were covered with dust.

9:51 And so that's what happens sometimes. Another reason that we are so judgmental is because of our own insecurity. And we think somehow if we pull somebody else down, we can make ourselves better. If we can just make them conform to our opinion of what they ought to be and make them like us, then somehow we feel that we are all right. Procrustes was an ancient chieftain in mythology. And what Procrustes would do is he would capture those who invaded his kingdom, and would bring them into his cave. And there in his cave, he had an iron bedstead. And according to mythology, Procrustes would put his captors on that iron bed.

10:50 Now, if they did not fit the bed exactly, if they were too short, he would put them on the rack and stretch them until they would fit the bed. If they were too long, he would cut part of them off until they would fit the bed.

11:11 Well, Procrusty's bed is still with us today. We have those who measure other people by themselves, and the reason for that is our own insecurity. Not only our iniquity and our insecurity, but I'll tell you another reason. that we failed to love people and be merciful to people, and it is because of our ignorance. We judge people when we don't know enough to judge them. We don't know their hearts. We don't know their problems. We don't know their background. We don't know their temptations. We don't have all the facts. Some years ago I told you a story that's worth repeating right now of a woman. who was waiting for an airplane. So she went to the little concession stand there and bought a bag full of cookies and sat down in the waiting room and another man sat down beside her.

12:11 The cookies were between the two of them, unopened. This man reached over and opened the cookies and took one out and began to eat it. she thought what unmitigated gall and nerve that he would do that. And so she just reached in and got one and ate it herself and gave him a dirty look. He just smiled, reached in and got another. They traded back and forth till there was one cookie left in the bottom.

12:46 And with a smile, he broke it in half took one half and left her the other half. She thought as she got on the airplane, I've never seen a person as arrogant as that man was. But when she opened her purse, there was her bag of cookies unopened. You see, look, sometimes we judge other people because of our sheer ignorance. Now, Romans chapter 14, verse 4 says, Who art thou that judgest another man serving? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand. Another reason that we unmercifully judge other people and fail to tolerate them is because we are insensitive.

13:39 We just don't love as we are. Jesus did not come to condemn. He came to save. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. John chapter 3 verse 17. for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. You see, when you judge other people, that's not what they need.

14:14 They don't need for you to point your finger at them and tell them what they're doing wrong. When Jesus saw Zacchaeus up in that tree, you remember the story of Zacchaeus, climbed a tree, he was a little tax collector, and short of stature, climbed up in a sycamore tree down to Jericho so he could see Jesus pass by. What did Jesus do? Jesus did not point his finger up in that tree and say, Zacchaeus, you black-hearted son of the devil, you thieving, conniving, dishonest tax collector, get down out of that tree. I've got a thing or two I want to tell you about your sin.

14:56 When Jesus said lovingly, Zacchaeus, come down. I want to go to your house with you. I want to eat with you. I want to have fellowship with you. Now, friend, I want to tell you very clearly. If you have a judgmental spirit, you are living dangerously. Put this verse down, James 2, verse 13. For he shall have judgment without mercy that showed no mercy. And mercy rejoiceth against judgment. Put this verse down, Matthew 6, verse 15. For if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither shall your Father forgive you your trespasses. So you need to get out of the FBI, the Fundamentalist Bureau of Investigation.

15:49 Get off the Sin Seeker Committee. and show mercy. There are people in this city who are hurting in the church and out of the church. They don't need your condemnation. They need your mercy. Now, last of all, there is a time for discrimination. There is a fixed standard between right and wrong. Don't let that be blurred. There is also a time for toleration. It is not to deny that there is right. It is not to deny that there is wrong. But it is to say, I myself am a sinner. And I know you are. But I love you. Let me help you. Let me help get this speck out of your eye.

16:43 The Bible doesn't say we're not to get it out. To the contrary, we are to help get it out. but not with a log in our own eye. Now the third thing, and very quickly, there's a time for examination. Examine yourself. That's what our Lord is teaching us here in Matthew chapter 7. Look in verse 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? examine get your heart right with God the person that you need to be the hardest on is you the person that you need to be the most merciful to is me and the person sitting next to you and the people in your family but consider is there a log in your eye today is there sin unconfessed unrepentant of be done with it I'm light years from perfection but there's no sin that I harbor I would be a sheer unmitigated fool to stand up here and try to preach with a heart that's not clean and not pure but daily I examine my heart, my life and ask the Lord to help me to examine, search me oh God and know my heart, try me and know my ways and see if there be some wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

18:19 Now, I want to tell you some good news. I'm finished with the body of the sermon. The Bible says, judge not that you be not judged. Let me talk to you a little bit about judgment. Our judgment was taken by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. Therefore, you and I do not need to endure judgment because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in agony and blood, died for us. And therefore, Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment to those who are in Christ Jesus. Father God, help me today to examine my own heart. Don't let me, dear Lord, be a hypocrite.

19:12 preaching to others trying to get sawdust from their eye when there's a log in mind. Help us, dear Lord, to know how to discriminate between right and wrong and teach our children. Help us, dear Lord, to know how to tolerate those who are not perfect as we are not perfect, but to show love to them, Lord, and to help them and to gently remove the speck that may be in their eye.

19:44 And Heavenly Father, help us all to see ourselves as we really are. If there may be indeed some sin in our own lives that needs to be dealt with. Friend, the most important thing is not to be a church member, not to be a nice person, not to be religious. The most important thing is to have a personal relationship with God. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, to have your sins forgiven, put under the blood of Christ, to have the Holy Spirit in your life to give you comfort and peace and joy, and to know that when you die, you're going straight to heaven. Now, all of this is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

20:37 when you receive him by faith as your Lord and Savior. The Bible calls that condition that I described as being saved. Being saved. And the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. So let me help you to believe on him right now. I didn't say believe about him. Facts about Jesus don't save anyone. To believe on him. You can believe an airplane can fly, but you don't believe on it until you get on it. You don't really trust it until you get on it. May I lead you in a prayer. And pray silently and fervently something like this. Lord Jesus, I need you and I want you. I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you paid for all of my sins on the cross. Thank you for such suffering.

21:34 Thank you for doing that for me. I believe that you were raised from the dead. I believe you can save me and will save me if I trust you. And I do right now at this moment, right now. I receive you into my life as my Lord and Savior. Forgive my sin.

22:00 Cleanse me. Save me. and begin now to make me the person you want me to be. I belong to you and you belong to me. I love you, Jesus. Give me the courage to make this public.