Sermonette: Comparing

#286Bs
Martin G. Collins
Given 22-Apr-97; 15 minutes

About a year ago, I was listening to a conservative talk radio show out of Atlanta about the standards of the youth today. Callers young and old were calling in to give their wisdom or the lack thereof. The subject matter had narrowed down to how the youth evaluate what makes a good or bad person.

And then a girl named Natalie called in, a 17-year-old girl who was from an upper middle class neighborhood. And she was a B+ student, so she was what you might think of as a good student.

According to Natalie's comments, she judges her own life by what others are doing around her. I think you will find it interesting some of the comments that she made as the radio talk show host questioned her about what her values were.

For example, she said she does not sleep around. She only has sex with her boyfriend, but her boyfriend changes from week to week. (You see the reasoning there.) She does not do alcohol except at parties. She said, “I’m not bad, like the others.” (She kept saying that phrase throughout the interview.) She said she only smokes pot about two times during the school week, and occasionally before school in the morning. But not as much as most kids. (Notice the qualification there.) When she goes to school stoned, the teachers know it, but nothing is ever said, according to Natalie. She says that most kids in her high school smoke pot mixed with LSD because they go together so well. (Again you see the reasoning there: According to the others, it goes together so well.) She has tried it but does not smoke it regularly, not like the others. She said that pot definitely affects her memory, definitely. (She repeated that over and over again, so she knew that it was detrimental to her body and her life.) She said there is a lot she cannot remember from it; but everybody does it. But then again, she justified her comments by saying, “But I don’t do it like the others; not as much.”

So she felt that she was a pretty good person. In fact, her next comments show what she thought of herself. She said, “I'm not bad, not like the others. I think I’m a pretty good person. I haven’t killed anybody. I know it’s wrong to do drugs, but it’s the only thing I do wrong.” Keep in mind she is comparing herself to the others that she considers her peers.

And then her last comment, I think is interesting as well: “I’m a pretty good person. I haven’t killed anybody yet.”

So that was her judgment with the values of this world, and the society that she has grown up in. She does not feel that she is a bad person, because she has not committed that one horrible sin, as the world looks at it, killing someone.

Now one of the reasons Natalie is in this shape is that she evaluates her own life and what she thinks right and wrong is because she compares herself with others around her and not with a standard that is higher. She does not know what God's standard is, so she compares herself with others.

Proverbs 14:12 says (and this is a memory scripture. In fact, Richard mentioned it this morning), “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” We know that anything that man thinks of, out of his own reasoning, is contrary to God and just does not set the proper standard. In fact, the standard is so low that there is no good standard in it at all.

If you would turn with me to Romans 2, we will see here what the apostle Paul had to say about comparisons, and judging. Here, the apostle Paul commented on judging others saying that we are inexcusable when we are guilty of the same thing in which we accuse others.

Romans 2:1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

It is interesting that phrase there, “therefore you are inexcusable” in the original Greek is, “through which defenseless you are,” meaning, you have no defense in this at all in judging others for the very same sins that you are committing yourselves. And “you who practice the same things,” is from a Greek word meaning, “to perform repeatedly, or habitually; to do exactly.”

So here Paul is preaching to the Romans and saying that some of them were guilty of comparing themselves, and judging others, for the very same things that they were doing. And their aim, as far as what they were using as a righteous standard, was each other.

Reading on through verses 2 and 3:

Romans 2:2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

Of course, we know that the only standard to evaluate ourselves by is God’s standard of truth.

Romans 2:3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

So we see there, by judging others for the very same things that we do, and comparing ourselves for the same things that we do, we are going to face a judgment by God for that.

If you would turn with me to II Corinthians, we will take a look at where the apostle Paul was telling the Corinthians that they had a problem with comparing themselves with each other.

II Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

Wow! Do we see a lot of self-centeredness there! Apparently the Corinthians to whom Paul was writing commonly compared themselves with each other. They would set up some of their false ministers as the standard of righteousness, and then they would compare themselves to that minister. And of course, if he was a false minister, his standard of righteousness was extremely low. And they would also compare themselves among themselves. They would look at one of the other members in the church, someone that they may have thought that was not quite as good as them, but that they could relate to or that they thought was of a righteous standard, and they would evaluate their own lives, these individuals would, according to what they saw in others.

That gave them a standard so far below God's standard of truth that they were not improving, they were not overcoming; what they were doing was just going backwards, deteriorating in the truth if they had the truth at all.

That is what happens when we compare ourselves with each other, with our peers, or with others in the church. We are comparing ourselves to a standard far below what God wants us to shoot for. He wants us to shoot for the ideal, not what each and every one of us how we live our lives as the standard.

On occasion, even in the church, we will see professing Christians who in their own eyes set themselves up as the standard of righteousness. Like over the years we have seen several individuals who have excelled in this unfortunately; someone like that compares himself to others who appear to him to be less spiritual than himself. His views are the standard of righteousness, his ways of worship are the standard of proper devotion, and his habits and customs are in his own estimate perfect. Every once while someone comes by like this that we see that in their own eyes think that they are the standards of righteousness.

Each and every one of us has a unique situation. Some of us in here grew up in the church. Some of us were raised in the Catholic Church, some in the Methodist Church. Others may have been raised without any religion at all. And we have had different trials that we have had to overcome. We have had different environments that we have grown up in—some in the inner city, some in the country. There is no way that we can fairly, or in a right way judge ourselves by someone else, or compare ourselves to someone else, because each and every individual in this room, and each and every individual in God's church, has had a different set of circumstances that they have grown up in.

So, when we look at an individual, we look at an individual who has developed in a way that God has wanted them to develop in, the areas that He has wanted to develop in them, and we ourselves may be in need of development in another area. And if we look at someone else, and say, “Well, there’s a standard of righteousness to follow,” then we are missing the mark, because it is God who shows us what we are to overcome, and how to repent. Through His Holy Spirit He reveals that to us. So, comparing ourselves among ourselves just does not work. The standard of righteousness is just too low that way. We are cutting ourselves short. It deceitfully provides us with self-justification for the way we are. The result is no change or no growth, and this is judgment according to our own standards. So, when we look at someone else, we should not judge them, but we should not compare ourselves to them either. There just is not a fair comparison that we can make.

There is an example of what I mean by not improving if we compare ourselves with each other: In most sports if you only compete against someone that is of the same ability or skill as you are, then you never really reach a higher level. You always stay within that range, because you are not having to push yourself, or exceed the skills and the abilities that you that you are shooting for as your goal. Well, if we compare ourselves with each other, what happens is we are trying to match what we see in individuals, rather than the standard of God and the righteousness of God. We are falling far short in missing the mark in comparing ourselves with each other.

Turn with me to Psalm 19. We do not see our own sins unless God reveals them to us.

Psalm 19:12-13 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.

We know that secret faults, or hidden faults are those faults and sins that we do not see in ourselves. And if we are constantly comparing ourselves with others, we may never see those faults. It takes the Holy Spirit of God to be able to recognize them, and to be able to cleanse ourselves of them with the help of God. And these presumptuous sins that it is talking about here in verse 13, are willful, or bold sins. They are sins that we go ahead and do, even though we know they are wrong. And in a sense, it is arrogance in sinning when we know that something is wrong and we go ahead and sin. They are even worse than the secret faults and sins that we do not see. The godly man is not only concerned about avoiding willful sins, but he is also concerned with avoiding hidden sins that are committed unknowingly. Many of our sins and character flaws are not known until God reveals them to us through the Holy Spirit.

If you turn with me to Romans 8. You will see here the apostle Paul writing to the Romans from Corinth, talking about being free from the indwelling of sin.

Romans 8:5-9 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you [the church of God] are not in the flesh but in [union with] the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

The natural man, as opposed to the spiritual, is the man who is governed and influenced by his own natural lust. Now if we are comparing ourselves with each other, then we are looking at other people, and their way they do things, rather than the standard of God. And we are shooting at a lower goal than we would be if we are shooting for God's standard.

Now if you remember, Natalie, the girl on the radio, does not have a clue as to the magnitude of the decadency of her life. She is living in such a sinful situation, and comparing herself to others, that she does not have a clue as to how many sins she is committing. She realizes that taking drugs is wrong, but she does not think it is that bad. If she ever kills somebody, she will realize she has done something awful, but she does not see any other fault in her lies. She is a carnal individual without the Holy Spirit who is comparing herself with others.

Now we with God's Holy Spirit should be comparing ourselves with the standards of God, and what we read in His Word, and not with each other.

Turn with me in closing to Psalm 139 to see what David had to say about searching out these faults.

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

MGC/rwu/drm