John chapter 7. Let's read verses
17 through 31. Our Lord said, If any man will
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God, or I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true. And no unrighteousness is in
him. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth
the law? Why go ye about to kill me? People answered and said,
Thou hast a devil. Who goeth about to kill thee?
Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and
ye all marvel at it. That is, he healed a man. Moses therefore gave unto you
circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers.
And ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath
day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be
broken. Are ye angry at me because I have made a man every whit
hole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance. but judge righteous judgment. Then said some of them of Jerusalem,
is not this he whom they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh
boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know
indeed that this is the very Christ? How then? We know this
man whence he is, but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence
he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple, as he taught, saying,
You both know me, and you know which I am, and I am not come
of myself. But he that sent me is true,
whom ye know not. But I know him, for I am from
him, and he hath sent me. Then they sought to take him,
but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet
come. And many of the people believed
on him and said, ìWhen Christ cometh, will he do more miracles
than these which this man hath done?î Verse 24 is a summary
statement by our Lord, a conclusive statement, a very powerful statement
upon all of this that he was speaking. To them and to us, judge not
according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. That's his conclusive statement
on all of this, on their misapprehensions and their misjudgments and their
not knowing. Because he just said, if you
will do his will, you'll know. Didn't he? He just said that. It all goes together. Now, if
any man will do his will, do what he says, judge righteous
judgment, he'll know the truth. He'll know the truth of any matter.
That's what Paul said, and the apostles expounded more fully
on what our Lord said. Paul said this in 1 Corinthians
2. Listen carefully. He that is spiritual, or that
is, thinks on things above, thinks in a scriptural way, has the
mind of Christ. He that is spiritual judgeth
all things, understandeth all things, has a good understanding.
Yet he himself is judged or understood of no man, but he that is spiritual
understands, judges all things. if we truly judged or reached
our conclusion by righteous judgment. Are you with me? This is by our
Lord. And another place our Lord says,
if you judge yourselves, you won't be judged. How powerful is that? How powerful
is that? I don't want to be judged by
God. Do you? Do you want to be judged by God
with perfect judgment and righteousness? Anybody? Do you want to be judged
for anything and everything you've said and done or thought? Do
you? He said, if you judge yourselves,
you won't be judged. And he said, if you're going
to do any judgment, it better be righteous judgment, for you're
in danger of the judgment. He said, with the same judgment
you mete out, it will be meted to you. He said, he that has judgment
without mercy will receive no mercy. I want to judge right. Most of
the time our judgment is wrong. You know why? Because we're flesh. Because we're fallible. And we look at things, we hear
things, we see things, and most of the time, we're wrong. Most of the time. Our Lord says,
Judge, righteous judgment. The Lord gave this stern and
solemn rebuke and reproof and command. Judge not according
to the appearance, the way it appears to us. The way I see
it, this is the way I see it. This is what I heard. Well, even
if you did, you don't know it all. You don't know. Judge, righteous
judge. Look at Matthew 7, Matthew chapter
7, another passage where the Lord It talks about judgment,
Matthew 7, and you know this. Now, people quote this all the
time. When you say, make any kind of
conclusion about anything, that that's sin, or this is wrong,
and they all say, judge not. That's the first thing they say,
judge not. But our Lord's just saying, judge
righteous judgment, true judgment, not by the appearance, not just
what you hear or see, but righteous judgment, meaning according to
Scripture. It means righteous judgment, the way God judges.
How does God judge? When it talks so much about in
the Scripture, God will judge His people, it means He'll judge
them with equity, He'll judge them with mercy. He'll judge
them with consideration, knowing their frame, with kindness, with
long-suffering, with mercy. Our Lord in Matthew
7 says this, that you be not judged. I remind
you, our Lord is preaching to His disciples. He's not preaching
to the world here, though everyone hears it. He's talking to His
disciples, to them. Judge not that you be not judged. That is, sit not in judgment
against your brother. Verse 2, for with what judgment
you judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. Why beholdest thou the moat?
See, here's how blind our judgment is. Here's how biased our judgment
is. Because we're flesh, we are respecters
of persons. And our Lord in James said, Do
not have the faith of our Lord with respect to persons. We're
flesh and we do it. And we're wrong. He said, Why beholdest thou the
moat a toothpick? in thy brother's eye, but considerest
not the beam, the log in your own eye." Now, he's talking to his disciples.
He's talking to his brethren. At another time, our Lord said
to them and to us, he said, if you then, being evil, You say, I'm not eating. Well, then you're not his disciple.
He's not talking to you. You must be righteous. He hasn't
come to call you. Every one of God's people have
some conception of the evil man within us and what we're capable
of doing and saying at any given moment. And I don't want to be judged
by anything I've ever done, by anybody, certainly not by God. Judge right to judgment, but
if you judge, you're going to be judged completely and justly by this
man, Christ Jesus. Acts 17, Paul said, God has appointed
a day in which He will judge all men in righteousness by that
man whom He hath ordained, that perfect man. We're either going
to be judged standing beside Him, see if we measure up, or
in Him, covered by Him, which will it be? Judge not. You won't be judged. Seriously. Judge righteous judgment. You're going to be judging judge
righteous judgment. And don't forget, you've got
a beam in your eye that clouds your judgment. Verse 3, Why beholdest
thou the moat? Consider it's not the beam in
thine own eye. Or will you say to your brother,
let me help you with your problem. I can straighten you out. Oh
my. Thou, look at what he calls us,
thou hypocrite. Catch the beam out of your own
eye and you'll see clearly and what you'll see is you'll not
look down on your brother, you'll look up. You'll consider them
better than yourself. When you really get a side of
yourself. James, and I don't have time.
I was going to go there, but yeah, we've got to look at this.
James 4. We went through it, but it's
probably forgotten it all. I know I have. James 4. The Lord gave these stern warnings. He talks about lust and fightings
and wars and our members among us and so forth. And what does
it come from? Where does it come from? No, he said, it's in your
members. Then he said, no, it's in you.
It's come from here. Don't blame it anywhere, it's
come from right here. And he says, verse 5 of James
4, Do you think the Scripture saith in vain that the Spirit
that dwelleth in us, this old man, lusteth to envy? But he
giveth for grace. I need a lot of grace. And he
say, if God resisteth the proud, though, the obstinate, the stubborn,
the hard-hearted, the stiff-necked, and he gives grace unto the humble,
better submit to God. Resist the devil. Oh my, he's
a manipulator. He's a roaring lion. We're easy
prey. He uses all of us. Yes, he does.
Yes, he does. His grand design is to cause
strife and division and separate, keep us from hearing the gospel.
Draw nigh to God, He'll draw nigh to you. You know, our relationship
with others depends upon our relationship with God. If we're
not in a close relationship with our God, we'll be self-righteous,
we'll be mean, we'll be judgmental, we won't have any mercy. You
can't be near to God and not be merciful. You can't be conscious of God's
mercy to you, and grace to you, and being in a close relationship
with God, understanding something of the infinite mercy He has
on us every hour of every day, and get mad at, and stay mad
at, and be angry with, and be bitter toward you brother. You
can't do it. But now if you're a far off,
you're going to meet me as a snake. Tell me if it's not so, that
you indulge sinful thoughts and you have bad thoughts and even
actions and so forth. Tell me if it does not immediately
come up in your mind some bitterness or some anger towards somebody
else. Tell me. It does me. Every time. And I
think, just what you did, just what you were thinking, and here
you are self-righteous over somebody else. Look at this, verse 9. Be afflicted
and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourn, your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. He shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another. If you're going to speak evil
of somebody, let it be yourself. I always say this, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? In
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Now my brother, he has some problem,
but he's not as bad as me. He that speaketh evil of his
brother judges his brother. And speaketh evil of the law,
what does the law say? Judge not your brother. He judges the law. If you judge
the law, then you're not a doer of the law, you're a judge. There's
one lawgiver. I don't want to be judged by
one person. God. I do. Because he's merciful. He's merciful. One time David,
the Lord offered David two or three options that David, the
Lord, numbered Israel. The Lord was mad at him, angry
with him. He said, I'll give you three
options. And two of them were to fall
into the hands of men, enemies, and so forth. And the third was
disease that God was going to send. And David said, let me
not fall in the hands of man, but let me fall in the hands
of my God, because He's merciful. He knows me. And in Christ, He
forgives me. Oh, let us be that way. Back in our text, what connection
does this have to what the Lord was dealing with? John 7. Well,
here it is. Here it is. Natural eyesight is blinding
to the spiritual eyesight. It blinds us. It blinds us, he
said. Things are not as they appear.
They're never as they appear. That which is seen, the Lord
says, is temple. That which glitters is not gold.
In fact, it just may be. Something may look good, and
that's Satan's ploy, and it's the most dangerous thing you
can possibly touch. The next hour we're going to
talk about blessings, and the whole world looks at things,
that's a blessing, that's a blessing. No, it may be a curse. But look, you judge according to the appearance.
It's wrong. It's wrong. spiritualized with
faith. Oh, our Lord did, didn't He?
He saw clearly through everybody. He looked on the heart. We can't
do that. We can't do that. We can't look on the heart. Verse 19, the Lord said, Did
not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keep the law? How
you go about to kill me? Now, these are people that were
following Him, professed to believe in him and verse 20 said, they
said, you have a devil. Can you imagine talking to the
Lord of glory like that? Did they believe on him? Later
on in verse 20, they said, when Christ says many believed on
him, did they? Listen to what they said. When
Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than this, this, this?
See, man is in italic. Whoever he is, where he's from.
They didn't believe he was a Christ. John had been on their knees
right then, begging him for mercy, hanging on his every word, not
catching him at his word. He sure wouldn't be calling him
a devil. Well, our Lord said, you both
see me? Isn't it? Look at verse 28. The
Lord cried in the temple and said, You know me? You know which
I am? But you don't know me at all.
You don't know me at all. He said in verse 19, You seek
to kill me. How do you go about to kill me?
They said, you have a devil. Who's going about to kill you?
Well, look at verse 25. They said to him, is not this he whom
they seek to kill? Now, they just said, who's trying
to kill you? Now they said, this is the one
they're trying to kill. Liars. This is why David said,
all men are liars. Didn't he? It has never been more so than
the generation we live in now. The whole world is talking. This is why Paul said, listen
to me brethren, Paul said, let God be true and every man a liar,
including me. Me. We need to be judged by the Word
of God. We need to have the Word of God
absolutely judge us, slay us, convict us, break us, beat us
down. And then we'll look up and we'll
find nothing but mercy and grace and kindness. Judge righteous judgment. Then
we'll judge righteous judgment. We'll really see. with the eye
of faith and understanding. See all things as they are. See
others as they are. See ourselves for what we are.
We'll judge righteous judgment. We'll be like our Lord. We'll
understand. And in understanding, be full
of compassion, be full of mercy, without partiality. Our Lord said, look at this,
now here's the blindness of our eyesight and our fleshly understanding. He said, verse 19, Moses giveth you the
law and none of you keep the law. And then he went on to talk
about circumcision. We look at people, Paul in Romans
7 says the law is spiritual, didn't he? That God looks on the heart.
The law is spiritual. God requires perfection in thought
as well as deed, in action as well as word. Motive, got to
be perfect, got to be perfect. All right, they were all law-keeping,
Sabbath-keeping, good seemingly, moral to the outward eye, they
looked the part. And that's what our Lord called
them, hypocrites, playing a part. But everyone, everyone, if you'd
ask them who the upright, who the holy men that day were, they'd
say the Pharisee. They'd say the Sadducee. Wouldn't
they? To a man, all right? We look
at people like the Amish. We look at people like the German
Baptists. And everyone, the natural eye, everyone says, well, these
are good people. These must be holy people. These
are not worldly people. Look, they're not driving cars. They are just like the Jews of
old. And they're just as lost as the
Jews. They're just as lost as a heathen
in the jungle. If they have a righteousness
and it's not Christ, they're lost. Paul was one of them. Saul of
Tarsus was one of them. And he said, I'm telling from
experience that they're going about to establish a righteousness
and will not submit, have not bowed to the imputed righteousness. They're too proud. They don't
like that. He said, I know. I didn't like
it. But God slew me. God showed me what I really am.
God looked on my heart and showed me something in my heart. And
I found out if I'm not saved by works, in fact, I'm going
to be damned by them. And if He doesn't save me by
His mercy and grace, I won't be saved. And so you know, Paul
was the most merciful and gracious and understanding man to his
fellow self-righteous Pharisees. Should we be our fellow sinners,
our brethren of all people? They're just like that. No, they're
better than that. He said, none of you keep the
law, didn't he? None of you did. Circumcision,
you see, you judge, they were circumcised. They kept the Sabbath. They didn't either one. Circumcision
is not outward, it's inward. It's of the heart. You can be circumcised in the
flesh and be uncircumcised toward God. You can keep the Sabbath
but not even know that Christ is the Sabbath. He said none
of you keep it. None of you keep it. Judge righteous,
Judge righteous. Our Lord said in John 15, I've
got to close. Because I came, they had no cloak
for their sin. In chapter 7, verse 7, the Lord
said, The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify
of it, that the works thereof are evil. This is the first thing
that Christ's coming did. He condemned the world and all
its sin and all its unrighteousness, and those who were condemned,
those who were found guilty, those who were convicted by what
He said, those who confessed to be guilty as charged, He had
mercy on. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Every one of them. No matter
what they've done. That's the best place to be. Always, at all times, before
God, guilt is charged. Have mercy. He said, I will.
I will. He said, have no cloak from your
sin. We don't either. He sees us. Other people can't see us. He
sees us. He knows our thoughts. He knows
our evil thoughts. Oh, thank God for the blood of
Christ. Oh, thank God for His mercy.
And do every morning His compassions that they are not. Oh, thank
God He judges me in Christ Jesus. Thank the Lord. Don't judge me.
Don't judge me. And let me find that out. And
if I do, I'll judge righteous judgment. I'll judge with mercy. I'll judge myself. And maybe
I'll stand in the judgment, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in God's sight. May God have mercy on us all.