\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload Audio\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\tText: Psalms 64<\/p>\n
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I. Years ago, I was reading the posts from a discussion<\/p>\n A. As it tends to happen, the topic strayed from the discussion group’s stated\npurpose. The area the discussion strayed into was hotly contested.\n
1. Some people became annoyed that everyone didn’t agree with their view.<\/p>\n 2. Others became angry that the off-topic discussion was allowed to go for so\nlong.\n
B. A few stated their desire to leave the group because it wasn’t encouraging enough.<\/p>\n
C. This grabbed my notice.<\/p>\n
1. A person who is a part of the group complains that it wasn’t encouraging.<\/p>\n
2. That may have been true, but it was also self-condemning.<\/p>\n
3. That person was a part of the group who wasn’t encouraging!<\/p>\n D. It struck me once again how often people complain about others doing the very\nsame thing they are doing.\nII. The Jews of Paul’s day complained heavily about the sinfulness of the Gentiles – Romans\n2:1-8\n A. Paul told them that in condemning the Gentiles they were condemning\nthemselves.\n B. Their judgement of the Gentiles was accurate, but they did not see that the same\njudgement applied to their own lives. – Romans 2:2-3\n C. The Jews were not wrong in condemning the sins of the Gentiles. Their sin was\nthinking they were not a part of the problem – Romans 2:17-24.\n
1. If stealing is wrong, then all thievery is wrong.<\/p>\n
2. If adultery is wrong, then all adultery is wrong.<\/p>\n
D. Paul proved that all had sin – Romans 3:23<\/p>\n
III. The thing is that we are no better today.<\/p>\n A. Oh, we all acknowledge we are sinners, but so often we condemn the sins of\nothers by condemning ourselves.\n 1. How often have you heard someone say that a congregation is not friendly\nenough, that they do not show enough hospitality, or that there is not\nenough love?\n 2. Yet the one making the charge is supposed to be a part of the\ncongregation.\n 3. That means that person is not friendly, isn’t hospitable, and doesn’t show\nlove.\n B. This is why Jesus warned that before making judgment, we must first examine\nourselves – Matthew 7:1-5\n 1. The judgment is not wrong, but understand that if you know something is\nwrong, then God is just in condemning you for doing what you condemn\nin others.\n 2. David illustrates this well in his anger over a story the prophet Nathan\npresented to him – II Samuel 12:1-9\n a. David demonstrated that he understood right and wrong in this\nmatter when he condemned the taking of a poor man’s sheep.\n
b. In his condemnation of another, he condemned himself.<\/p>\n
3. The Jews of Jesus’ day built memorials to the prophets of old<\/p>\n a. By doing so, they showed their belief that the prophets were\nrighteous men bringing the message of God.\n b. Yet, these same prophets were killed by their own ancestors. It\nwasn’t intended, but Jesus said they condemned their fathers as\nmurderers of the righteous – Matthew 23:29-35\n c. They demonstrated that they knew that what was done to the\nprophets of old was wrong.\n
d. Yet these people killed the prophet, John the Baptist.<\/p>\n
e. They opposed the teachings of Jesus<\/p>\n
f. It all showed that they were no different from their ancestors.<\/p>\n
g. Soon they would kill the Son of God and persecute God’s people.<\/p>\n
h. The destruction of Jerusalem was justice and they knew it.<\/p>\n
4. Recall the parable of the talents.<\/p>\n a. The man who only had one talent, hid his master’s money – Luke\n19:20-21\n
b. The master said his own words condemned him – Luke 19:22-23<\/p>\n c. He accurately knew the requirements of his master, but he did not\nact in accordance to that knowledge.\n
IV. The words of the fool snares them<\/p>\n
A. The tongue is hard to control – James 3:2<\/p>\n B. Therefore it is not surprising that the evil will often make mistakes with their\nwords – Proverbs 12:13; 18:7\n
C. Their own tongue is against them – Psalms 64:8<\/p>\n
D. It is done by talk that is not matched by associations or actions – Psalms 50:16-21<\/p>\n
E. They call on the Lord but are not obedient – Luke 6:46-49<\/p>\n
F. You know them by what they produce – Matthew 7:15-20<\/p>\n G. This is why a factious man, one who willfully separates himself from the\nteachings of Christ, is self-condemned – Titus 3:10-11\nV. Near the end of college, my brother Darrell and I took a trip into New England. On a\nWednesday evening we visited a congregation in Bangor, Maine. It was obvious that\nsomething was wrong. People were visibly distraught. Even though we were visitors, no\none shook our hands or bade us welcome. Darrell looked at me and said, “Perhaps we\nshould do something.” I agreed. We went up to people and began introducing ourselves as\nif we were the locals and they were the visitors. We asked them what they did. I asked\nabout jobs in the area and the local industry. Before long the ice was broken and people\nwere chatting away. We found a family who were close friends of a member in our home\ncongregation. We ended up being invited over for lemonade and had a wonderful\nevening.\n
A. Sure, we could have left and rightly said that the congregation wasn’t friendly. <\/p>\n
B. But if we did, we would have also shown ourselves as unfriendly.<\/p>\n C. The responsibility for improvement falls on my shoulders because I recognized\nthe problem.\n
D. To complain and do nothing is to mark myself as a fool.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Download Audio Text: Psalms 64 I. Years ago, I was reading the posts from a discussion A. As it tends to happen, the topic strayed from the discussion group’s stated purpose. The area the discussion strayed into was hotly contested. 1. Some people became annoyed that everyone didn’t agree with their view. 2. Others…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[1039,1677,713],"class_list":["post-61965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-complaints","tag-judging","tag-judging-others"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5096,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/careful-how-you-judge\/","url_meta":{"origin":61965,"position":0},"title":"Careful How You Judge","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67398,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gods-people-in-an-ungodly-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":61965,"position":1},"title":"God’s People in an Ungodly World","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Matthew 7 by Don Bunting One (or Two) Chapter Lessons","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":82031,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/changed-by-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":61965,"position":2},"title":"Changed by God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel Download Audio","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/judging-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":61965,"position":3},"title":"Judging Others","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Some think Matthew 7:1 forbids any judging of others. Actually, it only forbids unfair and hypocritical judging where the one doing the judging has a bigger issue that does not allow him to see clearly how to remove a \"speck\" in his brother's eye. Now, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58455,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-open-door-to-where\/","url_meta":{"origin":61965,"position":4},"title":"An Open Door to Where?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton The presiding bishop of the Episcopal denomination in the United States was in town this weekend. Katharine Jefferts Schori's message throughout the day was an emphasis on an \"open and not dogmatic\" faith. \"'I read the Gospel to say that Jesus invited everybody into His community,'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/openDoor-227x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":48842,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/sin-repentance-and-judging-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":61965,"position":5},"title":"Sin, Repentance, and Judging Others","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Some discussions just seem odd to me. One such oddity goes along these lines (and it seems to happen over and over, especially on social media, so this is not a reference to one particular discussion): Person A: \"People who engage in this activity are in sin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}