Well, good morning to all of you. Good to see the familiar faces, also good to see the unfamiliar faces, and also to those of you who are listening through the live stream service. Well, let us now open to Luke’s gospel chapter 6. I’m going to read from verse 37 until 42. Verse 37, Luke’s gospel chapter 6: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”. Now let us turn to God in prayer.

“Our Father in heaven, we thank You for this wonderful privilege that we have that we are able to meet in this simple manner together to worship the true and the living God. And Father, indeed we are mindful that we come into the presence of the holy and the righteous God and yet the same God who is holy and mighty is indeed the Father to all those believers. And Father, we are thankful that by Your grace through the Lord Jesus Christ we have been adopted as Your children because in the Lord Jesus Christ our sins have been thoroughly cleansed and forgiven and therefore now we are able to come boldly and freely into Your presence.

Father, we do ask for Your presence to be with us again this morning that You may minister to us out of Your faithfulness to our needs because indeed we are needy people. And therefore, we look up to You for Your blessings upon us, for this, we ask and pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Now in verse 37 it says: “Judge not”. I’m sure many of you may have come across non-Christian friends or even Christian friends who turn to you when you say something perhaps that’s negative or you quote from the Scriptures about certain things, about certain behaviour that you believe is wrong and they will turn around and say: “Judge not”. And they will quote from the Scriptures here and say: Don’t you know the Lord Jesus Christ, your God and your Saviour say judge not? And therefore you shouldn’t judge. You keep your opinion to yourself. If you think that is right, you keep it to yourself. Don’t judge us. 

So this verse in a sense has been misused by people, Christians and non-Christians alike. Now in the context here, this is part of the Sermon on the Mount, a well-known sermon taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore because it is a Sermon on the Mount in the context here, it is not about how you can become a Christian by behaving in a certain way. It is none of that. It is about people who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose sin has been forgiven, and now how do they live their Christian life as a follower of Jesus Christ.

And that is what it is about. What is a Christian life? Is there any difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? If there are, what are these differences? Can we observe these differences in a follower of Jesus Christ and that we can say that yeah, you can say that this is a believer because he has certain behaviour or characteristics? And if these things can be observed in them, and therefore we can also safely say that if they don’t have these marks or this characteristic, then perhaps their faith may be in doubt, maybe even spurious.

But more importantly, how do I know? How do I know that I am a true Christian? Because it is so easy to say that I am a Christian, that I love the Lord Jesus Christ, that I worship Him. I go to church every Sunday, but does that make us a Christian by saying that I go to church every Sunday, by saying that I love the Lord Jesus Christ? How do I really know that I am a Christian? And the Sermon on the Mount in a sense gives us the answer to this question. And today we look here at this particular teaching- verses 37 to 42: Judge not.

And there are four things that we want to look at this morning. Firstly, what it is not or what it doesn’t mean. Secondly, what it is. What does it mean? Third, why should we listen to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ? And fourthly, what are the things that we should judge? What are the things that we should judge? So these are the four main points. So let’s just first consider what it is not.

When somebody says judge not, what it doesn’t mean in the context? What it doesn’t teach actually? So what it is not? Well, it is not to suspend our critical thinking. It is not to suspend our critical thinking. You know if you have a false teacher in the church and leading people astray, what should you do? Should you say: “Well, Jesus said judge not and therefore we don’t judge him. Don’t judge the preacher. Let him continue to teach.”? And you can see what will happen if that happens. If we let him continue to teach, people will be led astray.

Should we take heed of this and say judge not? Does it mean this? It cannot be true. It doesn’t mean this because other part of the teachings of the Scriptures tells us that we are to remove such a person from the church, from the pulpit. You can go back and read up Titus. Paul specifically says that certain people shouldn’t be teaching in the church because they are leading people astray. So it is not to suspend our critical thinking.

Secondly, it is not to be blind to the sins committed by our brethren. It is not to be blind to the sins committed by our brethren. You know, there are certain Christian people who use this verse to justify their sinful living and conduct. You know when they are approached by maybe certain brothers who care for them and concern for them, love them and come to them and say: Brother, I think you need to be careful here because what you are doing, your behaviour is not edifying. It is not right and it’s stumbling other people.

While they turn around, the person turns around and says: You must not judge me. Don’t you know the Lord say judge not? So we are to back off as far as they are concerned. You don’t judge me because Jesus says judge not. Does it mean this? Of course not because other parts of the Scriptures tell us that we are to care for our fellow brethren. For example, let us turn to Galatians chapter 6, and let’s just see what the Apostles have to say when a fellow brethren have fallen into sin.

Galatians 6:1, it says here: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.”. Now Paul here tells us if we care for our brethren when someone (a brother in the church or a sister in the church) has fallen into sin, overtaken by any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness. So you see, if you see a brother or sister in Christ has fallen into sin, you are not to keep quiet and say that it is okay because Jesus said judge not. It doesn’t mean this. So we are not to be blind to the sins committed by our brethren.

Thirdly, it is not to be blind to the sins of the world. It is not to be blind to the sins of the world. You know, the world hated Christ in Jesus’ days and they hated His teaching. And the world is still the same today. They cannot see Christ today, but they keep hearing the teaching of the Scriptures from Christians. And we live in a very open and rebellious world, the world that is rebellious against God’s truth. And when you speak God’s truth, they don’t like to hear that. The moral issues of adultery, divorce, sexual immoral activities, homosexual practices, cheating, lying, greediness, drunkenness, and the list can go on.

Are we to look at all these and keep quiet and don’t give our comment when somebody asks us because they say Jesus said here: Judge not? And when you see somebody who is involved in this kind of activity and they ask our opinion and say: “Oh, I have no comment”, are we supposed to behave like that? And when we open our mouth, they say: Hey, you are a Christian. Don’t you know Jesus said judge not? Keep your opinion to yourself.

Does it mean all this that we are to be blind to the sins of the world and say nothing when we are asked about our opinion? All these are acceptable to the world, and they are saying to our face you cannot judge us. You cannot preach against us. You cannot preach against those things and conduct you think it is sinful. Yes, it may be in the Scriptures, but keep that to yourself. Keep that to yourself. Is that what it means when Jesus said judge not?

The world seems to think that it means this. Of course not. The Apostle Paul said to the church in Corinth. He said people like this who practice all these will not inherit the kingdom of God. We must preach against these immoral sinful things and conduct. But at the same time, we also preach God’s mercy and forgiveness. We want them to know it is wrong in the eyes of God. At the same time, we want them to know too that there is mercy in God and your sins can be forgiven. Your sins can be forgiven. And that is what we must do. When it is sin and we are asked to comment, we say it is a sin. But at the same time, we say there is forgiveness. There is mercy in God.

So what it is not? It doesn’t mean all this. What it is, the second point. What it is then? Well, we are not to be certain types of people. What kind of people that we are not supposed to be? Well, we are not to be self-righteous and censorious. You know a self-righteous and censorious person means that a person looks upon himself as righteous and above others and he judges people unkindly and harshly. A person with such an attitude is often very negative and critical and he is a fault finder.

You know sometimes we say that person has an act to grind against another person or perhaps against me. Everything that I do is wrong and everything that I don’t do is wrong. Whatever that I say is wrong. And even when I keep quiet, it is wrong. Have you come across people like that? I’m sure you have. They have something to grind against you and acts to grind against you. They are fault finders for whatever reason. Maybe you don’t look nice to him. Maybe your hair, you need to change your hairstyle.

Whatever reason, we are not supposed to be like that as Christians, people who sit in judgement over other people believing that he is indeed very competent as a judge. He has the right to judge other people. He is right in his thinking, he is right in everything, and you are wrong in everything. We are not supposed to be like that. Christians are not supposed to be like that. When the Lord says judge not, this is what he means: not to be a self-righteous and censorious person.

Then why should we avoid falling into a person like that or into this kind of trap? Well, firstly because we are not God. We are not God. God alone has the supreme authority to sit on the judgement to judge all of us, Christian and non-Christians. God alone has the perfect righteousness and the perfect knowledge about every one of us. He’s all-knowing and He is a holy Creator. And we must not forget that we are among those who will be judged. None of us will be spared from judgement, even as believers, even as Christians though we are not condemned for our sins.

Why? Because Christ died for our sins. He took our sin and He was condemned and we are spared from eternal damnation, and we are thankful for that as Christians. But we will be judged in terms of whether we are good stewards of God, whether we are His good servants because we are God’s servants. We are God’s stewards and we shall be judged for that. So why should we not adopt those kinds of attitudes- self-righteous, censorious? Because we are not God.

Secondly, we can’t see the motive of other people. It’s related, isn’t it? God is the only one who is all-knowing. You see, we don’t have the x-ray eyes to see the hidden motive in the hearts of man. And it would be very wrong to judge the motive of other people when we have no evidence to sustain or to support our judgement. When we have no evidence to sustain or support our judgement, it will be wrong to judge the motive of another person.

So what is it not (oh sorry, what it is)? We are not to be a certain kind of people- self-righteous, censorious person. Secondly, it means that we are forgiving people. Let’s just look at verse 37: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Mistakenly mentioned: “verse 37”, supposedly: “verse 38”)

We are forgiving people. We are forgiving not because we are very kind- not because we are very kind, therefore we are forgiving. You know by nature we are sinful and we are revengeful people to some measure, greater or lesser degree. But as Christians, we practice forgiveness. We practice forgiveness because we have been forgiven much in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn’t that true? Christ died for our sins on the cross and cleansed us from all our sins and iniquities.

Christ has no reason. He has no reason to forgive us because we deserve eternal damnation because of our sin. We rebel against God every day. God is angry. We’re sinners every day because of our rebellion. But you see Christ, out of His own mercy and kindness He chose to die for His people and to forgive us. God has chosen some sinners to be saved and He gave it to the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ die for them. That is the only reason why our sins are forgiven, not because we are good, not because we are better than others.

And because of our experience of God’s mercy in Christ, we want to be like Christ and to express our gratitude to Him, to please Him. We are thankful. We are thankful to the Lord for all that He has done on the cross for me. Even though I don’t deserve the least of His mercy and kindness, but He has died for my sin. And that is the reason why I learned to be forgiving. We are not perfect yet. There are times we should be forgiving but we are not. Nobody knows, but in our hearts, God knows. But we learn. We learn to be forgiving. And if we are forgiving, people will learn to be forgiving towards us as well.

Look at verse 38. He said: “it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”. And here is the illustration of an agriculture man or maybe in the village, a sundry shop or owner.

You know when you go to the sundry shop, I think today you still have some but not that common. You see you go to the sundry shop, they sell all sorts of things, including rice. And when you buy rice or some kind of grains, the rice is then poured into a I think silver cup or something like a metal cup. And then an honest businessman will actually press down the rice for example and then he shakes it to make sure that the gap in the cup is all filled up with the rice. And then he will give it to you. Good measure, generous measure.

In the village I used to live beside my father’s friend who opened the sundry shop, I can see the difference when I go and buy rice or grain compared to some others. You know with some others, he will just fill up. He doesn’t shake the cup, and then he just uses a ruler to cut off the extra on top. And then he pours it out and gives it to you. But when I go, it’s different. He will make sure that he presses it down, shakes it properly, and then presses it again. I have extra compared to others because my father is a good friend of his.

So you see, that is how a good honest businessman will do. He gives you generously. The point here is this: If you are forgiving towards others, they will be forgiving towards you as well. But of course, this is a general statement. Sometimes people can be hard and unforgiving even though you may be forgiving. In fact, sometimes they slander behind your back even though you are forgiving. But this is just a general statement. If you practice forgiveness, people will learn to be forgiving as well.

Now that leads us to the third point: Why should we listen to the Lord in this particular teaching or in fact all the teachings in the Scripture? Why should we listen to the Lord? Well in verse 40 here in this context, you see: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.”. A disciple is not above his teacher. That is the first reason why we should listen to the Lord’s teaching. A disciple is not above his teacher. 

We must not forget that we are Christ’s disciples. We are Christ’s followers. He is our teacher. He is our Lord. He has authority to teach us and to expect us to obey. And of course, we love to obey Him because of His mercy upon us. Though we may obey imperfectly, but we want to follow Him because we are Christians. We know what it is like to be a non-Christian without hope, without mercy from God. And when we are saved, we want to follow Christ. We love Him. And if we forget the fact that we are Christ’s disciples, then we will indeed go astray and we will become blind teachers.

What happens if you have a blind teacher teaching you? He will misguide you, mislead you, and then both of you will fall into the pit. A person who thinks that he can sit on the judgement seat of God to judge others are like the blind teachers. And in one particular instance, Jesus said to the Pharisees they are like that. They are like that blind teachers leading people blindly. And that is why we shouldn’t- we shouldn’t be self-righteous and censorious but to remember that we are Christ’s disciples. We are to learn from the Lord Jesus Christ.

And another reason in verses 41 to 42 why we should listen is that we are blind to our own sins and fault. Look at verse 41. You see: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank (in some versions it says: “the log”) in your own eye?”. So here is a picture of two men. One of them imagine have a log or a plank in his eyes. Of course, this is an exaggeration or a figure of speech. You can’t put a plank into your eye. You will tear off your eyes and you will be bleeding and you will become blind.

But the picture is that if you have a plank or a log in front of your eyes, what can you see? What can you see? You see nothing right because your eyesight has been blocked by the plank or the log. You know, a log by definition is a part of the tree trunk that has been cut off, huge and heavy. It is called the timber log and it’s from the timber log that you get planks and woods. 

I’m not sure how many of you have seen the huge lorries carrying timber logs. If you haven’t seen, you come and visit me, I take you to Serdang Lama because there is a sawmill there. And sometimes we still see lorries carrying timber logs. You know when you are driving beside the timber log, somehow you look at the timber logs and they’re all secured by iron chains. But somehow you still feel insecure especially when you are driving side by side with the lorry. You think that somehow the chain may just break and then all the logs falling down on you. That kind of fear sometimes we have. You may say illogical, but somehow that is how we feel sometimes.

And imagine you have a timber log in your eyes. What can you see? You see nothing. And another person has a sawdust or a small, tiny dust in his eyes. And here is the irony and the funny part of the story. Imagine the man with the log in his eyes telling another man who has a speck of dust in his eyes and say: “Hey here brother, let me take out the speck for you”, while he himself has a log or plank in his eyes. Would you trust a man like that to come and pick up the dust from your eyes? I don’t think so. He can’t see anything and he may just put his finger and blind you with his finger because he can’t see. 

So if he has a log in his eyes, of course, he cannot see the speck in your eyes because his eyesight has been blocked by the plank. So we get the message? Jesus said to this man: “You hypocrite! First take out the log out of your own eyes, and you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”. The message here is simple. You should begin to examine yourself first. Take out that log from your eyes first, and then you can see clearly, and then you can help your brother with the speck in his eyes.

So we need to examine ourselves first if we want to help other people. In other words, have the right attitude. Have the right attitude towards yourself and towards others. You know Jesus is not against us as Christians to help other Christians, but He wants us to examine ourselves first that we may have the right attitude when we try to help somebody else who are in need because if you are conscious of the log in your eyes, what happens when you try to help others?

You will not be proud and arrogant and be harsh. You will not be harsh towards others because you are conscious of a bigger weakness or fault in yourself. You will be humble, you’ll be gentle when you approach the other person. And just like what we read just now in Galatians 6, you’ll help that person with gentleness- with gentleness and conscious of the fact that if not for the grace of God, you too might be in that position. So you will be humble, you’ll be gentle when you approach that person. 

And fourthly, there are certain things that we should judge. There are times we should exercise judgement, and here there are three areas I want to suggest to you. It is not an exhaustive list, but at least three things- three areas that we should be conscious and aware of. Firstly, when there are false teachers in the church or outside the church. We have the responsibility to expose such people so that other Christians will not be misled. When there are false teachers inside and outside the church, we need to expose such people so that other Christians or even non-believers may not be misguided by these people. It is a concern in other words to protect God’s people.

Just two months ago, I came across a man who I think he abused the WhatsApp group that we have. He begins to teach some things about his own personal opinion. And I wrote to him personally, I say: Can you please stop because if you don’t stop, I will remove you from this group. And he turned around and accused me. Hey pastor, you don’t trust your people? You are like a dictator, you know? So I told him it is not a matter of whether I trust my people. It’s a matter of responsibility that I have as an elder and a pastor to protect God’s people. And I said to him I will remove you if necessary.

We have that responsibility to protect God’s people, to expose false teachers and false teachings which is hard sometimes and especially when you have to deal with friends who are close to you. It’s heartbreaking sometimes. It’s emotionally draining to deal with issues like that. Not many people are aware of this. You should pray for your pastors and your elders. They have a difficult task when they deal with issues like that. And don’t be too quick to judge them and say that they have no love when they deal with issues like that. They have that heavy responsibility. As elders and pastors, we have the responsibility to expose such false teachers so that other people may not be misled.

Secondly, when the church member has committed an open sin, the church must exercise judgement. We don’t have a choice here, really. You can go back and read up First Corinthians chapter 5, or Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. We have responsibility to help a member who is walking astray. We need to help them to come back to the Lord Jesus Christ, and one of the means given to us is church discipline.

Again it is an issue that is difficult to deal with and especially again for church leaders because oftentimes when you exercise church discipline, even Christians sometimes will turn around and say: Well these pastors or this church, they have no love. You know when a person like that they need help and they need love, and here you are this church that disciplines this member of their church. They are a church that is without heart, without love, and especially the pastor who initiated this.

Phew! It’s difficult, isn’t it? But it is a task that we must do as a church, not just a pastor. As a church, we have that responsibility to do that. When the member has committed an open sin, the church must exercise judgement in terms of church discipline. We must spell it out clearly what is right, what is wrong, and how to deal with that. We have the responsibility to do that. If we love that brother or sister, we need to do that.

And third, the third area, we must always judge ourselves. Turn with me to First Corinthians chapter 11. First Corinthians chapter 11, begin with verse 27: “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgement to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, and that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgement. And the rest I will set in order when I come.”.

Paul is saying to believers in the church in Corinth. Obviously, some members of the church have not been, were having wrong attitude and they come to the communion table with the wrong attitude, didn’t care for the poor in the church. And Paul wrote to them and said that you need to examine yourself. Judge yourself. Whenever we take the Lord’s supper, we should examine ourselves. How do we examine ourselves? What areas should we examine ourselves?

Firstly, we examine our relationship with the Lord. Our vertical relationship with the Lord. Are we still walking right with God? Are we still loving Him? Are we still persevering in the path of righteousness? Are we still having that hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God? Are we still using our gifts to serve God? These are some areas I believe we should examine ourselves.

And then our horizontal relationship- our relationship with our fellow brethren. You know communion is a church affair. We come together as fellow believers remembering what the Lord has done for us and to feed on the Lord Jesus Christ so that we may be strengthened and to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. So we need to examine ourselves with our relationship with our fellow brethren as husband and wife, as parents and children, as brothers and sisters in the church, as friends and colleagues outside the church. Are we walking right with God in all these areas? If not, then we ought to come to confess our sins.

You know to examine ourselves, to take the communion doesn’t mean that to make sure that you are perfect before you come to the communion. It is impossible. None of us can be perfect. But we have that attitude that we are conscious that we are coming to the holy God and Saviour who died for our sins and our sins has been forgiven. And God expects us to love one another as His people. Are we loving one another?

And begin with the home, husband and wife. How is our relationship like? Parents and children, friends, colleagues, brothers and sisters in the church? You know sometime in the church a brother sits here and another brother sits there not because they didn’t know one another. They were used to be good friends. They used to be pals, good friends sitting I mean they play together, they eat together, they laugh together, perhaps they stay in the same room together visiting one another. 

But suddenly you see them, they don’t talk to one another. One would sit here; one will sit there. If one stands here, the other will stand at the far end of the room. What happened? We need to examine ourselves, our relationship with one another before we come to the Lord’s supper. So we need to examine ourselves firstly when we come to take the Lord’s supper.

Secondly, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13 (with attention to verse 5, starting from verse 3): “since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.”.

Paul tells the Corinthians to examine yourself, to judge themselves. You see, the Corinthians have been influenced by certain false teachers in the church when Paul was away. And some of them have begun to reject the apostleship and his teaching. And Paul of course was very concerned. Imagine if they turn away from the teaching of Paul. If you turn away from the gospel that’s preached by Paul, what will happen?

You see, these people that they were so influenced and they thought that now they are better than the Apostle Paul. They don’t have to listen to the Apostles’ teaching anymore. And there was this certain pride in them and complacency in their lives. Paul was concerned. Paul wrote to ask them to examine themselves to see whether they were still in the faith. You know we must not fall into this spiritual complacency in our lives, and to avoid that is to listen to what Paul says here, to examine ourselves constantly- to examine ourselves.

What kind of checklist should we have? I think a good checklist will be the Sermon on the Mount. You know let us turn back to Luke chapter 6. You know from chapter 6 verses 20 onwards until 49, this is all about all the teachings contained in the Sermon on the Mount, what a Christian is like. If you like, this is a shorter version of what Matthew has recorded. So here is a good checklist I believe for us.

For example, poor in spirit. We are not to be content with our presence spiritual progress, conscious that we need to grow to know God more, to love Him more, hunger for the righteousness of God. Do we still have that healthy spiritual appetite hungering for God’s words, mourning for our constant spiritual failures and lack of spiritual progress? Are we happy with what we are today in this stage, or is there room for us to grow, to improve? 

Or are we content and say that: “Well, I’ve been a Christian for thirty years. I’m okay. Thirty years, I’m still in a good church. That says something, right? I still in a good church.” Really? Do we mourn and come to God in repentance and say that there’s so much more that I can grow, but I’m not? Help me to see what I have gone wrong. The Sermon on the Mount describes what a Christian is like. It is a good checklist.

And the third area or the third thing we can examine ourselves is our service to the Lord Jesus Christ in the church. It’ll be good to go back and read up the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. At the end of the day, we are all accountable to God. We are to give an account to our Saviour and our Lord who has bestowed upon us gift of gifts to serve Him. You know for the spiritual gifts and all the good things that God has given to us, we are accountable because we are God’s stewards.

None of these things are ours, including our lives. All these are gifts from God. The chair that we sit here, at home our children. Even our children, my grandchildren, all these are gifts from God. They don’t actually belong to us. We are God’s stewards. We are managers managing on God’s behalf for the time being in this life, and we are accountable for all these good things that God has given to us. Are we using our gifts to serve God?

Now I’ve come to the age where I passed sixty. Unthinkable. Sixty. I’m actually more, I wouldn’t want to tell you. But you look at my head, I think you can roughly guess. Sixty already, and I’ve looked at Psalm 90 or 91, Moses says how long do we live? Three scores and ten. By God’s strength, maybe add another ten years. Wow, that’s pretty short. I have maximum ten more years. But actually, it’s less. I passed the mark of sixty.

Wow, let’s say eight more years (I’m giving you hints). Eight more years is very short, isn’t it? Wow. But my point here is this: When you reach sixty, what do you think about yourself in terms of your service in the church? Some will say is retirement, you know. It’s retirement, and that means I lay down everything. I retire. I don’t do anything anymore. Let the younger one take over. Whoa, is that what the Bible says? Retirement?

Yes, we may be older, hopefully, wiser. Hopefully. But we can still serve God with whatever capacity that we still have. We may not be able to run like Woei Chyuen or Woei Shong you know (I mean, Woei Shyong). They are still young. They can run here, run there, full of energy you know. We are slower because we are older, less stamina. But we can still serve God in whatever areas that we can. At least one area I can think of that you can serve: Pray.

Pray for the church. At least one area, but I’m sure there are more things that you can do even when you are sixty or even seventy. There are things, small things that we can do. We need to examine our service to the Lord as long as we live, as long as we still have this breath to live. We need to constantly examine ourselves how we live and how we serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

So these are the four main points that we want to look at this morning. Judge not. What does it mean? What does it not mean? And I pray that this will help us to have a better understanding of our responsibility and perhaps how to respond to Christians and non-Christians alike who misuse these texts and say: Judge not. Of course, we are not to judge the world as if we are self-righteous, but when there are times we need to speak, we must speak kindly but firmly. We will say certain things are wrong because God said it is wrong. It is sinful, but we want them to know there is mercy, there is grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And may the Lord help us to be His people. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we want to thank You indeed for Your grace and mercy upon us, for without Your mercy and Your grace we will still be a people living in darkness without hope because we will be without the Lord Jesus Christ if we have not known You. But Father, we are thankful. We are thankful that You have sent the Lord Jesus Christ to seek out sinners in this world and to save them. And Father, we are thankful for Your grace that has been extended to some of us here.

And Father, we ask indeed that You will help us to learn from Your words and how we may be Your gracious witnesses in this world as Your people, that the people around us and look at us they will be able to see that we are different because of Your grace that is working in us and that they may give praise and thanksgiving to our Saviour. In areas that we have fallen short of Your glory, Father we ask for Your forgiveness, and may You be gracious to guide us and strengthen us. And continue to give us grace that we may persevere in the ways that we ought to go, for this, we ask and pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.