God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast. God my Father chose his own,
in the person of His Son, and ordained that I should be one
with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. For my price He offered blood
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love. He keep life and peace and grace
to the chosen purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and he brings us to the Lamb by his mighty sovereign
call. God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure, for
God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Oh, how thankful I am for that
covenant of grace. Nothing can break those ties
we just sang about. This covenant has been ordered
in all things and it is sure the Lord Jesus Christ is that
lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. Nothing can alter that. That's
our hope. That's our hope to rest in the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's good to see you
all this morning. It's good to have the Murray
family with us. They were here a few weeks ago when I was away
in Montana and Glad to have you back. The test will be to get
all the first names before they leave today. If you'll open your Bibles with
me for our Bible study to John chapter 7. John chapter 7. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on his word to our hearts, pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
what great hope we have in knowing that your throne is a throne
of grace and that we can come before thy presence in the name
of thy dear son, knowing that the covenant that you ordered
from eternity past has been made sure by his shed blood. We ask Lord that you would bless
your word to our hearts that what you open no man can shut.
Lord, we pray that you would cause Christ to be lifted up
and that we would be drawn to him, that we would find him to
be our all and we would find him to be in all. For we ask
it in His name. Amen. I made reference to this
verse Wednesday night, and I want to spend a little bit more time
on it this morning. You have your Bibles open to
John chapter 7, verse 24. The Lord said, Judge not according
to appearance, but judge righteous judgments. Now Wednesday night
we looked at Matthew chapter 7, where the Lord says, judge
not that you be not judged. How often times we've heard that
verse pulled out of its context and used as a defense for anything
goes. You know, don't judge, don't
judge, the Lord said don't judge. If you read on in Matthew chapter
7, it's clear that the Lord's saying, judge with the same judgment
that you want to be judged by. Now, if your understanding of
the gospel needs to be corrected, you want to be judged by the
Word of God. You want to know the truth about
who Christ is and about how it is that he saves sinners. You want to be judged by that.
And the Lord told us to try the spirits to see whether they be
of God. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the false prophets.
And so we make judgments about the gospel in the same fashion
that we want those judgments to be made to us. We make judgments
about truth and about sin in the same way that we want to
be judged ourselves. And now here, the Lord makes
it clear that there are righteous judgments that believers are
to make. Now, when we come into this world,
we don't understand anything as it really is. We really don't. All that appear, the Lord said,
read it here, judge not according to the appearance. When we come
into this world, we make judgments based on how they appear to us
to be. The problem is that until the
Lord does a work of grace in our hearts, all that appears
to us is wrong. It's wrong. We come into this
world spiritually blind. We don't need to have our eyesight
corrected. We need to be given eyesight.
You remember in Mark chapter eight when the Lord gave sight
to that man that was born blind? And the Lord healed his eyes. And he said to him, he said,
what do you see? And he said, I see men as trees
walking. I see men as trees walking. I'm
having a hard time discerning what it is I'm looking at. And
we know that when the Lord heals, that He heals perfectly. And
so was there something missing in the healing that the Lord
performed on the eyes of this man? And then the scripture says,
the Lord touched him again, and he saw all men clearly. I've read some stories about
people who were born blind and lived all their lives with no
sight at all. And technology was such that
surgery was able to be performed to correct, to give them eyesight.
And when they first opened their eyes, they were absolutely terrified. Most of them opened their eyes
and immediately shut them again. Why? Because everything they
were seeing, was different from what they thought it would be.
They couldn't make sense of it. They couldn't make sense of it.
You see, we come into the world with sight and we are registering
in our minds images so that we have a memory to make reference
to what we see. I've even read that a blind person
who receives their sight can be shown a cube and a sphere
and though they could clearly tell the difference when they
were blind by feeling the two things, by looking at them they
couldn't tell the difference. They didn't know their own loved
ones by looking at their faces unless they could touch them,
unless they could hear their voice. They couldn't discern
the difference between a man's face and a woman's face. Why? Because there was something in
their memory bank that had not yet been developed. They were
looking at something, but it made no sense to them. And, you
know, I thought, well, in a sense, this is the way it's going to
be when we step into glory. John and Paul saw things when
they were caught up into the third heaven that they couldn't
write. They couldn't describe them.
They were inexpressible. They were beyond our comprehension. They were in no way in reference
to the things that we're used to seeing. And the Lord's gonna
have to give us, He's gonna have to make this corruptible mind
incorruptible. He's gonna have to make this
mortal body immortal so that we can receive the things that
are there. Heaven's not going to be an improved
version of this earth. It's going to be beyond anything
that we can possibly comprehend. And His glory and His presence
is going to be beyond anything that we can possibly imagine.
Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into
the imagination of man the things that he has. prepared for us
we just can't we can't receive it and so the man in Mark chapter
8 the Lord touched him again in order to in order to do a
second miracle he had he'd perfectly gave him his eyes there's nothing
wrong with his eyes the first time the Lord touched him he
gave him perfect vision but now he had to have a work done in
his heart, in his mind, if you will, to enable him to understand
what it was that he was looking at. He couldn't discern the difference
between men and trees. He said, I see men like trees
walking. Now I see all men clearly. Now that's the work of grace
that you and I need for the Lord to do in our hearts. Why? Because we're blind. We're blind. And what appears to be one way,
in fact, is not that way at all. It's not that way at all. And
if the Lord doesn't show us righteous judgments, we will judge according
to appearances. And our judgments will not need
to be tweaked. Our judgments will be completely
wrong. The natural man doesn't need
his eyesight corrected. I've got to have my eyesight
corrected with these glasses. I can't read this Bible without
them. That's not our problem. Our problem is that we're blind.
We're blind. And so when the Lord said, judge
not according to appearances, Don't make your judgments based
on the way you think it should be. Or based on the way you thought
it was. Or based on the way that the
natural man perceives it to be. Because it's not that way at
all. It's not that way at all. Judge
righteous judgments. In other words, judge according
to the way God sees it. Because that's the way it is. We've got to begin with the very
nature of God, don't we? We come into this world, the
idle factory of our imagination is already in operation when
we open our eyes for the first time. We're fashioning in our
thoughts an image of God. And it's a perversion. It's not
the way God is at all. We create a God that, first of
all, is dependent upon us. We create a God that... Actually,
in fact, what we do is we set ourselves on the throne of God.
And we call ourselves God. And we fashion a God that needs
us to do something in order for Him to have His way. He's not
sovereign. He's impotent. He's not omnipotent. We fashion a God in our imagination
that's mutable. a God that can change. Our prayers
can change God. Our activities, our decisions,
our will, our works can all change the things of God. We don't believe
what we just sang, that there's a covenant of grace that's ordered
in all things and sure before the foundations of the world.
We don't believe that He changes not. He said, you sons of Jacob. He said, I'm the Lord. I'm the
Lord and I change not. And it's the only reason you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. I'm the same yesterday, today
and forever. But that's not the God of our
imagination. Judge not according to appearances. You thought that
I was altogether as yourself, but judge righteous judgments. Make your judgments about God
according to what God has revealed about himself. I like what I
heard one brother said. He said, if you can get the first
four words of the Bible down, the rest of it, you won't have
any trouble with any rest of it. All the rest of it will make
perfect sense to you if you can get the first four words down.
In the beginning, God. He's not like us. He's holy. Isaiah saw him high and lifted
up and he said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Who
is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity? He's not
like us in any way. In any way. He's worthy of our
worship. Judge not according to appearances. We say, well, didn't God make
us in his image? And so we turn it around and
we think, well, God's in our image. What that means is that
we're the only thing in all of God's creation that has an immortal
soul. An immortal soul. And God breathed
life into you and to me. That's never gonna end. And that
can't be said of anything else that God has made. But he's not
like us. Oh, he's holy. He's sovereign. He's immutable. He's omnipotent. Oh, doesn't God love everybody?
Don't judge according to appearances. Judge righteous judgments. Jacob,
I have loved. Esau, I have hated. He loves
righteousness and he hates iniquity. Only those who are found in Christ. Not having their own righteousness,
which is by the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. God being holy cannot lower his
standards. His eyes are too pure to look
upon sin. Habakkuk makes that clear. And so he can only have
fellowship with that which is as holy as he is. And if we're
found in Christ, then as He is, so are we. Here, oh, don't judge
according to appearances. Whatever you thought about God
all your life, you say, well, you know, the Lord saved me,
and you know, I've always believed in God, and I've always, no. When the Lord saves you, He radically
transforms your view of Him. radically. And do you believe
the same thing now you've always believed? Judge not according to appearances,
but judge righteous judgments. The Lord's given us sight, and
yet things we still look through a glass dimly, don't we? Things
are still not perfectly clear to us. One day, the glass is
going to be made clear. One day we're going to, it does
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear, we shall see him as he is and be made like him. Oh, what a glorious day that's
going to be. Judge, that's the second work
of grace, if you will, isn't it? Like the man that the Lord
had to heal his eyesight. We're going to have an understanding
of what it is we're looking at. We can't judge things as they
appear when it comes to God. And we can't judge things as
they appear when it comes to our selves, when it comes to
man. Now here's the, God has sent
men a strong delusion that they might believe a lie. And in that same passage of scripture
in 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul writes and speaks of a mystery of iniquity. The mystery of iniquity. It's
a mystery because it's hid to the natural man. It's a mystery
because he can't understand it. The natural man, here's his conclusion. Here's his conclusion. The natural
man says, I've got some good things about me and I've got
some bad things about me. And I need, I need God to forgive
me of the bad stuff, but certainly he will accept the good things. He can't, the natural man cannot
understand. that every imagination of his
heart is only evil and that continually. Why? Because he's judging based
on his appearances. He's comparing himself to himself
and he's convinced he's getting better. Or he's comparing himself
to other men and he's convinced that he is better. Why? The Lord
said don't judge by appearances. Judge righteous judgments. What
does God say about man? All said, in me, that is in my
flesh, dwelleth no good thing. He said, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. A sinner is not
a person who's got some bad things in their life. A sinner is a
person who can do nothing but sin. Nothing but sin. It's the only truth, when revealed
to the soul, that makes Christ to be everything for you. And
it's the mystery of iniquity. And it's the delusion that men
have. What is their delusion? Their
delusion is that good people go to heaven and bad people go
to hell. That's the lie. That's what men believe. Everybody
believes that. Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell.
Everybody believes that. I'll just be a little bit better
than I am and I'll get in there. They cannot begin to understand
the righteous judgment of God that says bad people go to heaven
and good people go to hell. They can't enter into that. They
can't see it. Don't judge according to appearances,
but judge righteous judgments. You say, well, that doesn't make
sense to me. If the Lord makes you to be a sinner, it will.
If he makes you to be a sinner, You'll know that the only goodness
that you have to cling to is that one that is good. The one
that is good. Finally, my brethren, whatsoever
things are good, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are righteous, whatsoever things are holy, whatsoever things are
virtuous, if there be any good thing in them, if there be any
good report in them, think on these things. Who is that? Who's
that? It's Christ, isn't it? It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only goodness that we
have to present to God. God's pleased with him. He is. And he's pleased with all that
are found in him. Oh, don't judge according to
appearances. That's what the natural man does. He comes into
this world blind, and he's groping his way through the world, and
he feels things, and he comes to conclusions, and If he was
ever to be able to see, terror would grip his heart and
he would immediately shut his eyes and fall on his face before
God and cry, have mercy upon me, oh God, the sinner. That's the response, isn't it?
That's the response. Man thinks that because he can
make choices when given two or more options in life, and we
make thousands of them every day, we make choices when given
two or more options. And he thinks that because he's
got that capacity of will to make choices, that therefore
that he can choose God when he's good and ready. They can't understand
the righteous judgment. The righteous judgment is what
the Lord said when he said, you did not choose me. I chose you. You will not come to me that
you might have life. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Coming
to Christ is not a choice. Yes, you're given the command
to come to Christ, But until the Lord makes you
willing in the day of his power, you won't come. You don't want
to come. You don't want to come. Man thinks, well, I'll come.
I'll come. I'll get things settled with
God one day. But for now, I'm just going to play it on myself. I'll just take care of myself.
And one day, I'll work things out with God. Don't judge according
to appearances. Don't think that your will...
Truth is, your will is not powerful enough to cure the common cold. How are you going to cure your
sin problem with your will? You can't do it. You can't do
it. But doesn't the Bible say, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Doesn't the Bible say, come Yes,
it does. And what God commands, God must
provide. And so the voice of faith, when
it hears the voice of God say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
the voice of faith says, oh, Lord, bid me to come unto thee.
Lord, give me the grace to believe. Lord, enable me to come. I can't
come unless you do a work of grace in my heart. And that voice
of faith will find out very soon that the work of grace has already
been done. It's already been done. Oh, judge not according to appearances. That's the way the natural man
does. He believes what he sees with his natural eyes. Faith
is believing what God says. And I can promise you what God
says about God is just the opposite of what the natural man believes
to be true. What God says about man is just
the opposite of what man believes to be true. Are you going to
judge according to appearances? Are you going to judge righteous
judgments? What God says about salvation
is just the opposite of what man believes. Man thinks, well,
you know, there's some good things. I can obligate God. I can, you know, God will honor
my works. He'll honor my will. He'll honor
my prayers. He'll, you know, I can present
something. My good intentions, surely He'll
honor that. Surely I've got some contribution
to make. in my salvation. Surely, surely,
it just appears to me, and I've heard people say, well, you know,
it just seems to me, appears to me. What's that worth? What seems to you, if it's contrary
to what God says, well, it'll damn your soul if you believe
it. Seems to me that I could do something. No, you can't. You can't. And the hardest thing for a man
to do is nothing. Nothing is to get the victory by surrendering.
That's that seems so that seems so contrary to everything that
we that we value. And yet, that's how the victories
won. By lying down. Lord, you've got
to do it. You've got to do everything.
You've got to elect me. You've got to choose me. I can't
choose you. You've got to redeem me. I can't
offer you anything that will satisfy your holy justice. The only thing that'll put away
my sin and satisfy the demands of your justice is the shed blood
of the perfect sacrifice. Lord, you've got to present a
righteousness for me. I can't keep your law. I've never
been able to keep one of God's laws one time, not a single one. Lord, you've got to present a
righteousness for me. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. He came in order to satisfy the
law. He said not one jot or the tittle of the law will pass.
He's going to, I did not come to destroy the law, I came to
fulfill it. That's what he came to do. We
need an advocate with the Father to present himself on our behalf. Here's salvation. to rest in
Christ. How does the Hebrews chapter
4 says that we might labor to enter into his rest? That's the
hardest thing in the world to do, isn't it? Well, as a matter
of fact, it's impossible. It's impossible. You can't enter
into his rest apart from the work of grace in the heart. Oh,
but when we do, and when he does, We're able to find hope and liberty,
joy and salvation in what He accomplished for us. Lord, I
can't, you've got to elect me, you've got to redeem me, you've
got to present a righteousness on my behalf, you've got to regenerate
me. I can't come to you. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit. They're spiritually discerned.
The Lord told Nicodemus, the Spirit's like the wind. He listeth
with us soever he wills. Oh, Lord, would you blow life
into my heart? Would you speak truth to me?
Would you do for me what you did for Adam when you breathed
life into his nostrils? Lord, I've got to have you do
that for me because I'm just like my father Adam. I'm just
dust of the earth. You've got to make me willing. You've got to keep me. If you
have hope that the Lord's elected you and that Christ has died
for you and that He's presented Himself as your righteousness
and you've experienced the blessing of the Holy Spirit and regeneration,
then you know, you know that if He doesn't keep you from falling
and to present you faultless, You've come to understand that
you will depart from Him. You will fall from grace. If He doesn't keep you, you're
just as dependent upon Him. More! As you grow in grace and
in the knowledge of Christ, what happens? You become more and
more dependent upon Him than ever before. He's got to do it. Judge not
according to appearances. It appears to me that God loves
everybody. I've got a free will. God wants
everybody to be saved. I just got to do my part. But
judge righteous judgments. What does God say about salvation? Judge not according to appearances
when it comes to sin. All men have a conscience. We
come into this world, God gives men a conscience, that's clear.
And God has written his moral law on the heart of every man. We don't need to tell men, I
don't need to tell you how to live. You know the difference
between right and wrong. If you can present me any scenario
whatsoever to where you don't know the difference between right
and wrong, I challenge you to do that. You can't do it. You know what's right and wrong.
You just need the power to do what's right, don't you? And
that's grace. That's grace. But the natural man, it appears
to him that sin is a behavioral problem. It's just a behavioral
problem. You know, it's just a matter
of doing right and wrong. And if I do what's right, then
I'm not sinning. And if I do what's wrong, then I am sinning.
And if my conscience convicts me, or if I break the law of
God, then I need a savior. I need someone to forgive me. Don't judge according to appearances.
Sin's a whole lot more serious than that. It goes to every fiber
of your being. Yes, we have a behavioral problem,
but it's because we've got a heart problem. Our hearts are deceitful, wicked
above all things. Who can know them? You see, everything we do is
infected with a sin problem. so that we can't present any
righteousness before God. We just can't do it. I've mentioned this before. I
love it. It's so simple. It's so simple. Here's what God says. Here's
the righteous judgment. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now the simple question is, what
in your life falls short of the glory of God? And if God's given
you any understanding at all, you must answer that question
with everything. So in the sight of God, everything
about you and I is sinful. We need a savior. We need one
who never fell short of the glory of God, who is in his person
and in his work the glory of God. What did John say? We beheld his glory. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. He's the one
I need. Don't judge according to appearances,
judge righteous judgments. And I'll close with this. So
many things that men by nature judge according to appearances
and they don't make righteous judgments. But my last point
is, don't do what the natural man does and conclude that this
book, is a rule book for Christian living. Don't conclude that this
book is nothing more than a historical account of Israel and the New
Testament church. Don't conclude that this book
is a theological treatise that you need to study in order to
acquire some knowledge about God. This book in its entirety is
a revelation of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. The Lord said to those Pharisees,
you search the scriptures. Oh, you're very diligent. You're
very religious. You're very committed to studying
the Bible. You search the scriptures because
you think in them you have eternal life. If I can just acquire some
knowledge and memorize some verses, then I'll be able to be saved. And the Lord said, these are
they which testify of me. You've missed the whole meaning
of the Bible. If you don't see Christ in it,
It's all about Him. Yes, this is a history book.
It is His story, isn't it? It's His story. It's all about
Him. Who He is, what He did, and how it is that He's pleased
to save sinners like you and me. All right, let's take a break. Good morning.