Seeing Clearly

 These three commands sit close together in the same sermon, and they seem to pull against each other.

Do not judge. But do not hand holy things to people who will trample them. And watch out for false prophets.

So which is it? Jesus is not confused. He is telling us the difference between condemning people and using our heads.

22. Take the Log Out First

Matthew 7:1-5; John 8:7

Jesus said do not judge others, or you will be judged the same way.

Then he gave the picture everyone remembers. You are worried about a speck of sawdust in your friend's eye while a log is sticking out of your own. Take care of your log first. Then you will see clearly enough to help with the speck.

Read that last part slowly. He does not say never help. He says get your own eyes clear first.

John 8 shows it in real life. A woman was caught in sin and a crowd wanted her stoned. Jesus said the one who had never sinned could throw the first rock. They all walked away, oldest first.

The world says: Someone has to call it out. I am just being honest.

But God's Word says: Look in the mirror before you look out the window.

There is a big difference between condemning a person and caring enough to help them. One puts you above them. The other puts you next to them.

23. Use Some Sense

Matthew 7:6

One short verse, and it surprises people right after the speck and the log.

Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw pearls to pigs. They will not understand the value. They may turn and attack you.

Jesus is not calling anyone an animal. He is making a point about fit. A pig cannot tell a pearl from a pebble. Handing it one is not generous. It is just wasteful, and it might get you hurt.

The world says: Argue with everyone. Win every comment thread.

But God's Word says: Know when to speak and when to stay quiet.

Some people are asking real questions. Sit with them for hours. Some people only want a fight. You are allowed to walk away.

This is not permission to quit on hard people. It is permission to stop forcing something sacred on someone who is only looking to stomp on it.

24. Watch the Fruit

Matthew 7:15-20

Jesus warned about false prophets who come dressed like sheep but are really wolves.

The whole warning depends on the disguise. They look right. They sound right. That is what makes them dangerous.

So Jesus gave a test anyone can use. You can tell a tree by its fruit. Grapes do not grow on thornbushes. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree cannot.

The world says: Look at the crowd size. Look at the results.

But God's Word says: Look at the fruit over time.

Fruit takes a season to show up. That is the whole point. Charm is instant. Character is slow.

Watch how a leader treats people who cannot help him. Watch what happens when he is corrected. Watch whether his private life matches his public one. Give it time, and you will know.

Where This Leaves Us

Here is how the three fit together.

Do not set yourself up as judge over another person's soul. But do use the eyes God gave you. Notice what is real. Notice what is fake. Protect what is holy.

Humble is not the same as gullible. Jesus was never fooled by anyone, and he was the most humble man who ever lived.

Try this week: Before you criticize someone in your head, name one thing in your own life that needs the same attention.

Ask yourself: Am I judging people, or am I discerning fruit? Those are not the same thing, and I probably know which one I am doing.

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The Seven Eyes of the LORD: Omniscient Witness Over Creation (Zechariah 4:10, Rev 4:5,5:6)

 Zechariah 4:10 — The Seven Eyes

In the vision of the golden lampstand, the angel asks Zechariah, "Who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel — they are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout the whole earth."

The seven lamps on the lampstand are the seven eyes. They are not merely watching — they are rejoicing as God's purposes unfold in what looks like insignificant work (a small, struggling return from exile, a modest rebuilding project). God's omniscient gaze is active, engaged, and delighted in faithful obedience even when the world yawns.

Revelation — The Seven Eyes of the Lamb

The Apocalypse picks up the Zechariah thread and makes the identification explicit and stunning.

Revelation 4:5 — Before the throne burn seven torches of fire, identified as "the seven spirits of God." The number seven signals completeness, fullness, perfection.

Revelation 5:6 — The slain-yet-standing Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes, which are "the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." The same seven spirits that illuminate the throne room are sent out as the Lamb's eyes — the Spirit's omniscient, active presence pervading all creation. The Lamb who was slain sees everything.

This is one of Scripture's most compressed theological statements:

• Seven horns = complete sovereign power
• Seven eyes = complete omniscient sight
• Sent into all the earth = nothing is beyond His field of vision

The Lamb is not a passive victim. He is the all-seeing King.

The God Who Sees — Across All of Scripture

He Named Himself "The God Who Sees"

Genesis 16:13 — Hagar, alone and desperate in the wilderness, names God El Roi — "You are the God who sees me." The first person in Scripture to name God did so because she was seen when no one else saw her. This name anchors everything else.

He Surveyed His Own Creation with Pleasure

Genesis 1 — Seven times in the creation account: "God saw that it was good." After man and woman: "God saw everything He had made, and behold, it was very good." The Creator looks at His work with delight. This is not neutral observation — it is pleasure, satisfaction, joy.

He Looks Down Continuously

Psalm 33:13-15 — "The LORD looks down from heaven; He sees all the children of man… He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds." God is not an absentee landlord. He fashioned every heart and watches every deed — not as surveillance, but as the intimate knowledge of a Maker.

Psalm 14:2 / Psalm 53:2 — "The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God." God is actively searching for seekers.

His Eyes Run To and Fro

2 Chronicles 16:9 — "The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is fully committed to Him." This is the same phrase as Zechariah 4:10 — a dynamic, active, searching gaze — but here the purpose is stated: He is looking for whole-hearted faith so He can strengthen it. God is not looking to catch failures. He is scanning the earth for devotion.

Nothing Is Hidden

Hebrews 4:13 — "No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." Total exposure. The "seven eyes" of Revelation aren't metaphorical windows — they represent infinite perceptive penetration.

Job 34:21 — "His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps."

Proverbs 15:3 — "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good." No partiality in His sight.

He Sees Into the Heart

1 Samuel 16:7 — "Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." The seven eyes pierce beneath the surface. He does not observe behavior — He reads motive, will, and love.

Psalm 139:1-4 — "O LORD, you have searched me and known me… you understand my thoughts from afar… even before a word is on my tongue, you know it altogether." Total omniscience, expressed as intimacy, not invasion.

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What He Sees and Does Not Like

The Seven Things He Hates

Proverbs 6:16-19 — Six things the LORD hates, seven are an abomination to Him:

1. Haughty eyes — pride
2. A lying tongue
3. Hands that shed innocent blood
4. A heart that devises wicked plans
5. Feet that run to evil
6. A false witness who lies
7. One who sows discord among brothers

Note that haughty eyes is listed first — the corrupted capacity for seeing turned into contempt.

He Cannot Look at Evil

Habakkuk 1:13 — "Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing." The same seven eyes that search the earth for devotion cannot dwell upon iniquity. Holiness is not squeamishness — it is the nature of pure light in the presence of darkness.

Isaiah 59:2 — "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear." Sin obscures the view — from our side. God is not absent; we have pulled the shade.

What He Sees in Worship

Isaiah 1:11-15 — God says He is sated with burnt offerings and has no delight in solemn assemblies paired with bloodshed and injustice. "I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly." He sees through the ritual to the heart behind it.

Amos 5:21-24 — "I hate, I despise your feasts… But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." He sees hollow worship.

What He Takes Note of That Others Overlook

Malachi 3:16 — "Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed His name." The quiet conversations of the faithful — He records them. What the world ignores, He treasures.

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Summary: The Theology of God's Gaze

Theme	Text	What It Means
Named "The God Who Sees"	Gen 16:13	He sees the unseen and forgotten
Surveyed creation with joy	Gen 1	His sight includes delight
Seven eyes sent into all the earth	Zech 4:10; Rev 5:6	Complete, Spirit-empowered omniscience
Running to find whole hearts	2 Chr 16:9	He looks to strengthen, not expose
Sees hearts, not outward appearance	1 Sam 16:7	No performance fools Him
Cannot look at evil	Hab 1:13	Holiness governs His gaze
Records the faithful conversations	Mal 3:16	He notices what seems insignificant

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The pastoral core: The same eyes that cannot tolerate iniquity are the eyes that scan the earth searching for whole hearts to strengthen. The seven eyes of the Lamb who was slain are not the eyes of a judge waiting to condemn — they are the eyes of the Redeemer who paid to restore sight on both sides of the relationship. He sees us fully, and He still ran to us.

This connects beautifully back to Zechariah: those seven eyes rejoice over Zerubbabel's plumb line. The all-seeing God delights in faithful, ordinary, small-things obedience.

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Language reveals truth that saves lives (sets prisoners free to live righteously) - Luke 4:18

Isaiah 61:1-3;Luke 4:16-21; 2 Cor 1:1-11; 1 Peter 4:19
Jesus came proclaiming liberty, recovery our sight, and granting us freedom. While we suffering greatly we are comforted greatly. Our affliction is for the comfort and salvation of YOU - we don't hide this truth from you - we've despaired even of living another day, and know our time is short. Yet we've trusted in God who raises the dead and he delivered us here and now and will in the future. Jesus taught us to pray and prayer is something we can do right now to receive God's help in our time of need.

Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. - 1 Peter 4:19

Luke 4:18 has some words that aren't in Isaiah 61:1, "recovery of sight to the blind" is nestled in between "To proclaim liberty to captives" and "And freedom to prisoners;"
 - Reminds me of being blind in a dark cold cave. Recovery of sight, description of sunlight, the warmth, and pointing the way out is how freedom is given to prisoners.
 - I was studying "History of color" from great courses. Recovery of sight has to do with language and definition. In cultures that don't have a word for "blue" when asked to draw the sky, they'll use black crayon even while the blue crayon is present.
 - 1 John 3:2 explains sight restoration: "Jesus Christ...we will see him as he really is."
 - Restoring sight to the blind is a huge theme in scriptures: (Matt 11:4-5 (NIV), Isaiah 35:5 (NIV), Isaiah 29:18 (NIV), Isaiah 42:6-7 (NIV), Isaiah 42:16 (NIV),  Psalm 146:8 (NIV),  Isaiah 6:9-10 (NIV),  Isaiah 42:18-20 (NIV),  Isaiah 44:9 (NIV), Isaiah 56:10 (NIV), Isaiah 59:9-10 (NIV)
 - Blessed will see God (Matt 5)

Isaiah 61:3
When we have clear vision, understanding it's a grant or gift, it's physically life-changing. Like oil is physical but gladness is an abstract idea. A mantle of praise is clothing ourselves in praise instead of a "spirit of fainting". All this results in being called "oak of righteousness" the "planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified". In a previous study I saw new context around this scripture:

Lord God is "clothed" in righteousness, bringing justice and salvation for his own

• Isaiah 59:17; The Lord put on righteousness as his armor, wore the helmet of salvation and clothed himself with robe of vengeance and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion (to bring justice)
• Isaiah 61:10; Overwhelming joy in the Lord God! He dressed me with clothing of salvation and a robe of righteousness
• Isaiah 63:1-3 The Lord's clothing stained red, announcing your salvation - the Lord has power to save! (Revelation 19:13)

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Jesus preached repentance as did the early church (Doctrine of Repentance)

In his book "Doctrine of Repentance", Thomas Watson writes to the reader: CHRISTIAN READER,
The two great graces essential to a saint in this life are faith and repentance. These are the two wings by which he flies to heaven. Faith and repentance preserve the spiritual life as heat and radical moisture does the natural...Repentance is a pure Gospel grace. The covenant of works admitted no repentance; there it was, sin and die. Repentance came in by the Gospel. Christ has purchased in His blood that repenting sinners shall be saved. The Law required personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience. It cursed all who could not come up to this: “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal 3:10). It does not say, he that obeys not all things, let him repent, but, let him be cursed. Thus repentance is a doctrine that has been brought to light only by the Gospel.
Listen to this puritan classic here, get the free pdf here, below are my notes from chapters 1-4

Jesus preached repentance as did early church (Matt 4:17;Acts 3:19;8:22;Mark 6:12; Luke 24:47)
Repentance is a foundation grace (Heb 6:1)
Repentance is a grace required under and coming by the Gospel.
Repentance comes by the Word (Acts 2:37; Jer 23:29) and the Spirit (Acts 10:44; Zec 12:10; 1 John 2:20; Acts 8:29)
Infusion of grace breeds repentance
Repentance depends upon a change of heart.
Repentance is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed

Six ingredients of the spiritual medicine of that make true repentance
1. Sight of Sin: prodigal “came to himself” Luke 15:17, we need illumination – the light of life

2. Sorrow for Sin: Look upon whom they have pierced and shall mourn, as for an only son (Zec 12:10). Martyrs shed blood for Christ; penitents shed tears for sin (Luke 7:38). Sorrow is shown with a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17), beating the breast (Luke 18:13), sackcloth, pulling hair (Isaiah 22:12; Ezr 9:3) outward signs of inward sorrow. Sadness for the offense, not for the punishment. Lament not for scandalous sins – but the heart sins, the root, even though it doesn’t blossom.  If there is not some dawning of faith in the soul, it is not the sorrow of humiliation but despair.
a.       Penitential work consists of fasting, penance, pilgrimages, in which there is nothing of spiritual pain. They torture their bodies, but their hearts are not rent. (to rend your heart is to trust God's precision scalpel)

3. Confession of Sin: voluntary (Luke 15:18), feeling of uneasiness or anxiety of the conscience caused by regret for doing wrong or causing pain; contrition; remorse. Confession must be sincere; hypocrite confesses sin but loves it. True confession particularizes sin (not like Nebuchadnezzar –“ had a dream but it’s gone from me” (Dan 2:3,5) – like Israel “we have served Baalim (Judges 10:10).  We must confess our sins with a resolution not to act them over again (Isa 1:16), so we don’t fall into a hardened heart like Pharaoh (Exo 9:27,34).
a.       Confession must be qualified:
    i.       It reproves those that hide their sins – many would rather have sins covered than cured.
    ii.      It reproves those who confess sin but only by halves, not all. If we do not confess all, how should we expect that God will pardon all?
    iii.      It reproves confessions that mince and extenuate sins. Grace makes the worst of evils, but hypocrites make the best of them (i.e. "born that way," "just the way I process")
   iv.      It reproves those who are far from confessing sin, they boldly plead for it. Instead of tears of lament, they use arguments to defend sin.
b.      Let us show ourselves penitents by sincere confession of sin.
  i.      Holy Confession gives glory to God.
  ii.     Confession is a means to humble the soul. A true penitent confesses that he mingles sin with all he does. Therefore anything good seen in him is a reflection of God's work, not his own.
  iii.      Confession gives vent to a troubled heart.
  iv.      Confession purges out sin.
  v.      Confession of sin endears Christ to the soul (Romans 7:25) – that God should appoint His own Son to lay down.
  vi.      His blood for the payment of our debt, how is free grace magnified, and Jesus Christ eternally loved and admired.
  vii.      Confession makes way for pardon (Luke 15:20, 1 John 1:9)
c.       It is reasonable (if one has wrong another) and easy (compare to first covenant)

4. Shame for Sin, blush a holy bashfulness (Eze 43:10; Ezr9:6) “blood of Christ in the face.”
a.       Every sin makes us guilty, much un-thankfulness, naked, put Christ to Shame, instigated of the devil, turns us into beasts, folly.
b.      Our sins are worse than that of a heathen because we sin against more light.

5. Hatred of Sin, Sound repentance begins in the love of God and ends in the hatred of sin.
a.       Set your heart against sin, universally, in all forms. Not just strong aversion but personal enmity.
b.      Real hatred in ourselves and others too (Rev 2:2; John 2:15; Psalm 101:7)
c.       Godly: sin is a thorn in the eye, wicked: it is a crown (Jer 11:15) loving sin is worse than committing it (Heb 10:26)
d.      Sin is the cursed thing (Rom 7:13) as seen by its origin (1 John 3:8), nature (Rom 2:23; 1 Sa 2:30; Eze 16:43; Isa 7:13; Eze 6:9; Heb 6:6) and affliction (sickness, poverty, death). Affliction causes repentance and prevents damnation (Psalm 119:71; 2 ch 33:12; 1 Co 11:32). Affliction reaches the body, but sin poisons the fancy and disorders the affections. Affliction is corrective; sin is destructive.
  i.      Sin is worse than affliction is evident because the greatest judgment God lays upon a man in this life is to let him sin without control. Diagnostics of a depraved psychology and consequences (Romans 1:18-32)
  ii.      Compare sin with hell, and you shall see that sin is worse. Torment has its emphasis in hell, yet nothing there is as bad as sin. Hell is of God’s making, but sin is the devil’s creature.
e.      Sin is the Trojan horse out of which comes a whole army of troubles

6. Turning from Sin, weeping and turning together (Joel 2:12, Eze 14:6; Isa 55:7, Job 11:14).
a.       Dying to sin is the life of repentance, perpetual fast – turn and never go back
b.      Notable change, wrought in the heart – Satan would have Christ prove deity by turning stones into bread, Christ accomplishes a far greater miracle in making stones become flesh,  Christ turns a heart of stone into flesh.
c.       Notable change, wrought in the life. Discernable to others, dark to light (Eph 5:8; Acts 9:21), from jailor to nurse and physician (Acts 16:33)
d.      Turn from sin with the heart; It is odious to make a show of turning from sin while the heart is still in league with it.
e.      Turning from all sin (Isa 55:7), destruction of every lust; he who indulges one sin is a traitorous hypocrite
f.        Turning from sin upon a spiritual ground (right manner from the love of God). When men and their sins are congealed together, the best way to separate them is by the fire of love. (You Can Say No to Sin (Titus 2:11-14)
g.       Turning from sin to God. In True repentance, the heart points directly to God, as the needle to the North Pole. The repenting prodigal not only left the harlots but arose and went to his father. God complained “they return, but not to the most High (Hos 7:16)
h.      Real turning from sin is such a turn as has no return. Forsaking sin is moving off one’s native soil, never more to come back to it. Returning to folly is a fearful sin because it’s against clear light – against the illumination of the Spirit (Psalm 85:8). Returning to sin gives more power to the devil over a man’s life than before (Matt 12:45). Actual turning from sin is divorcing it (Acts 3:26). Turning reproves those who are but “half-turned/almost Christian (Acts 26:28). Cake on one side, dough on the other (Hos 7:8)

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