Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
John, the gospel of John, chapter 7, and I'm going to deal with
verse 24. John chapter 7, and the subject
is righteous judgment. Righteous judgment. Let me read
John 7 and verse 24. This is the text. where the Lord
speaking to people who were rejecting Him. He was teaching in the temple
in Jerusalem. He dealt with so many subjects.
He healed people. He healed a man on the Sabbath,
and the Pharisees were offended that He would do that. And He
showed them that that was not even breaking the law of Moses,
because the law of Moses never prohibited acts of mercy and
acts of necessity on the Sabbath, even though they were not supposed
to work or do any labor. But it never prohibited acts
of mercy and acts of necessity. So they were, again, he was teaching
them the reality of the law. And it comes down where they
were making judgments. Now that's what was happening
here. But their judgments were wrong. And so he said to them
in John 7, 24, judge not according to the appearance. Don't make
your judgments according to what you see, but judge righteous
judgment. Righteous judgment, now that's
just judgment. And this is one of the most confused
and misunderstood issues of those who profess to believe, to be
Christian. Often you'll hear people say,
well, I don't judge, or I'm not the judge. Well, I understand
this now. When it comes to the ultimate
judgment, what we would call final judgment, the Bible says
that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that,
the judgment. God, through Christ, God the
Father, through God the Son, is the supreme judge of all.
And only God knows the hearts of people. The word of God reaches
to the heart. Back up in John chapter four
and five, we talked about that. How Christ did not commit himself
to certain ones who claimed to believe on him because he knew
their hearts. Well, you and I cannot know a
person's heart other than what we understand from, as we look
at the scriptures, their testimony. For example, if a person comes
to me and says, I don't believe in Christ, I don't believe the
gospel, I don't believe the Bible. Well, if that's the thoughts
of that person's heart, then I can make this judgment. That
person is lost. He's not a believer. He or she's
not a believer. They've not been born again by
the Spirit. Because the testimony, and we'll
see this in just a moment, the testimony of those who are saved
is that we believe in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the
dead, as he is revealed in the scripture. We preach the gospel. You know, the gospel is a judgment.
And I'll get to that in just a moment. But here's the thing. The problem with man's natural
judgment. Now, the Lord has given all people
a conscience by which they can determine what is right and what
is wrong. But the problem is that man by
nature, man as he is naturally born into this world, the conscience
is defiled. and he cannot really know the
difference between right and wrong as it pertains to salvation
and a right relationship with God. He can know, for example,
that it's wrong to kill, it's wrong to steal, it's wrong to
tell lies, it's wrong to hurt other people. That's the natural
conscience. But when it comes to salvation,
When it comes to understanding what it takes to be right with
God, man's conscience is defiled. He always looks to himself, his
own works, his own decisions, as that which will make him right
with God. And that's wrong. In fact, the
judgment of the Bible God's word, righteous judgment, tells us
that those who are seeking salvation by their works, they're lost. And their works are evil. We
read over in John chapter three about the light. If you'll look
at John chapter three and verse 19. Listen to this, it says,
and this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world,
and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. Now these evil deeds, that the
light, which is the gospel, the light of Christ, who is the light,
Christ is the light. He's the truth. And he's revealed
in the gospel as being the light. And in that light, when that
light shines on the deeds of persons, men and women, it exposes
those deeds. If they are deeds aimed at salvation,
aimed at establishing one's own righteousness, they're evil deeds. That's the judgment of the light.
And men love darkness and hate the light. This is man's natural
judgment, see. If I'm lost and unregenerate,
not born again, if I have not had the flood of the light within
my soul, within my heart, my mind, my affections, my will,
I go about thinking that my works aimed at saving myself are good
and acceptable. But the Bible says that which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. Here's
man's judgment, man's natural judgment. My works and efforts
to try to save myself, those are good. That's man's natural
judgment. But here's God's judgment. Those
works aimed at trying to save yourself, trying to make yourself
righteous, they are evil. And they're evil not because
they are immoral in the sight of men, and not because men and
women are maybe insincere. They're evil because they deny
the glory of God. The glory of God is found in
the salvation that God provides freely, fully, unconditionally
to His people, sinners, through the Lord Jesus Christ. And those
who reject Christ and seek salvation by their own works, that's an
evil thing in God's judgment, in God's side. And it becomes
evil in the side of his people when he gives us a right mind,
the mind of judgment. The verse that I quote so often
in this program, 1 Corinthians chapter two, which says this
in verse 14. This is 1 Corinthians 2 and verse
14. And it says, but the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him. The things, the truth, that the
Spirit of God teaches his people. to the natural man, to the unregenerate,
those things he judges to be foolish. And it says in verse
14, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, for they are spiritually discerned, spiritually understood. That means a judgment. He judges that those things are
foolish. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter
one and verse 18, listen to this. It says, for the preaching of
the cross. Now the preaching of the cross
is the preaching of the gospel. Salvation by God's free and sovereign
grace based upon the blood, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. And that preaching of the cross
is to them, that is the natural man, those who are perishing,
it's foolishness. That's his judgment of the gospel. But unto us which are saved,
it's the power of God. You see the difference there.
That's unrighteous judgment, you see. When sinners hear the
gospel and walk away without believing it, they've made a
judgment. Now a lot of people say, well,
I don't judge at all. Look over in Matthew chapter
seven. In Matthew chapter seven, we
have probably what is one of the top misquoted and misunderstood
verses or passages in the whole Bible. And it's Matthew 7, one,
where Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, he makes this statement. He says, judge not that you be
not judged. And so people read that and they
say, well, that forbids all judgment. And it doesn't. The Bible, the
gospel itself, demands judgment. But it demands righteous judgment.
And man by nature doesn't have that. So what is he saying here
in Matthew seven and verse one when he says judge not, that
you be not judged? Well, listen to the rest of it.
Don't get, as one preacher said, versitis. People will quote one
verse. and then build a whole theology
on it, or a whole way of thinking. He says in verse one, Matthew
seven, judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment
you judge, you shall be judged. Whatever kind of judgment you're
using, that's how you'll be judged. And he says, and with what measure
you meet, by what standard you measure, it shall be measured
to you again. In other words, if you're judging
people to be lost or to be evil based upon their works, then
that's the same standard that'll be judged, that you'll be judged
by, by your works. And the Bible teaches that every
person is a sinner, You say, well, I know that person's not
saved because that person is a sinner. Well, so are you. You
say, well, I'm not as bad a sinner as that person. Doesn't matter,
you're a sinner. And the wages of sin is death,
my friend. You say, well, he's gonna get
worse wages than I. Well, it's all death. I don't
wanna die and perish in damnation, whether it's for one sin or a
million. We are all sinners who deserve nothing but death and
hell. But look on at Matthew chapter
seven. He says in verse three, why beholdest
thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest
not the beam that is in thine own eye? You may look at a person
and you may see them do something wrong and you say, well, I know
they're lost. Well, my friend, you don't know
the half of what they're going through and what they're thinking,
but you know yourself. To a point, we really don't even
know ourselves until the Spirit of God reveals it to us. And
even at our best, we're doomed. The best people on earth, what
does the Bible say? That salvation is by grace, it's
not by works of righteousness that we've done? It's not by works, lest anybody
should boast. And he says in verse four, or
how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the motive of
thine own eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Are you
going around trying to fix up other people when you haven't
even fixed up yourself? And the point is, you can't fix
up yourself. Only God can forgive sin. Only
God can take a sinner. and make that sinner righteous
in his sight. And that's by his grace based
upon the imputed righteousness of Christ. And he says in verse
five of Matthew seven, thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of
thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out
the mote in thy brother's eye. What's he saying here? He's simply
saying this, my friend, that Sinners who do not see themselves
as they are, they make a wrong judgment about themselves, have
no right to go around judging everybody else. The Bible teaches
that there are none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. Read it in Romans
chapter three, for example, verses 10 on through the rest of the
chapter. The only thing that the law can
do for me or for you, based upon our best efforts to keep that
law, is to judge us righteously to fall short, to be damned. That's what the Bible says. And so when Christ says judge
righteous judgment, what is he saying here? He's saying don't
judge about what you see, Don't judge by what they do. You can judge, if a person commits
a murder, we can judge that they're a murderer and they ought to
be put in jail and they ought to have the full punishment,
penalty of the law. There's a place for man's judgment
here on earth, civil judgment, the laws of the land, policemen
and judges and magistrates. We have to have those things.
But what I'm talking about, is when it comes to salvation, a
right relationship with God, how sinners are saved, man by
nature always has an unrighteous judgment. And that's the case. Well, first of all, understand
that the gospel itself is a judgment. I want you to look at a passage
of scripture over in the book of Isaiah. This is Isaiah chapter
42. And this is a prophecy of Isaiah
of Christ. It was given 700 years before
Christ actually came. God gave this prophecy to the
prophet Isaiah. And here's what he says in verse
one of Isaiah 42. He says, behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. Now that's
talking about the Messiah. That's talking about Christ.
He says, I have put my spirit upon him and he shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles. Now how's he gonna bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles? The same way that he brought
forth judgment to the Jews. Through his work as the surety,
as the substitute, as the redeemer of God's elect, both Jew and
Gentile, by his obedience unto death on the cross. where he died and was buried
and arose again the third day. He brought forth judgment in
his own death, burial, and resurrection. And that's why the Bible says
when the Spirit of God comes to bring the truth to us in the
new birth, he convicts us of sin because we believe not on
Christ. He shows us the reality of sin
so that we can make a right judgment. What is sin? as far as God is
concerned. Sin is anything, any act, any
thought, any motive, any goal that falls short of the perfection
of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. Do you understand
that? If it's not perfect, it's sin
in God's sight. And God will not accept it. And
so the Spirit of God convicts us not only of sin, because we
believe not on Him. Without Christ, it's all sin.
He convicts us of righteousness, because Christ went unto the
Father. Now, how did Christ go unto the Father? He went by way
of the cross. You've heard that hymn, the way
of the cross leads home, and it does. because Christ went
the way of the cross. But Christ went to the cross
not as a private person. He went there as the representative,
the surety. What is a surety? A surety is
one who takes responsibility to pay the debt of another. Well,
my friend, we fell in Adam into a state of sin and depravity
and death. And that sin brought up a debt,
a debt to God's law and justice that we could not pay. But before
the foundation of the world, God chose a people and He made
Christ their surety, the surety of the covenant, the covenant
of grace. And He put all the sins of all
those people whom He chose upon Christ by way of imputation,
charging, accounting them to Him. And Christ willingly took
those sins upon himself. He said, put it on my account,
I'll repay it. So Christ came as the surety.
He came as the substitute. Christ is God the Son, the second
person of the Trinity. And he's always been the Son
of God, the eternal Son of God, without sin. He has no beginning,
no end. But He became incarnate. Excuse
me. He became man without sin. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Why did He do that? Because of
the sin debt that had been laid upon Him, He had to come and
pay the price. And the price was being under
the judgment of God and to die for the sins of His people on
that cross. He was made a curse for His people. He was made sin for His people. What does that mean? It means
sin was charged to Him, imputed to Him. What sins? All the sins
of God's elect. That's why Romans 8.34 says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justified. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died, yea rather is risen again. seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. So
He had to be a substitute. It behooved Him to be made like
unto His brethren. That means He was indebted to
do that. So He's our surety, our representative. He died as my surety, my representative. He died as my surety. He died
as my substitute. He took my place on the cross,
died in my place. the Lamb of God. And in that
transaction, in that work, He redeemed all the people of God,
chosen before the foundation of the world, whose names were
written in the Lamb's book of life. That is, He paid their
debt in full and ensured their eternal salvation. Now, how did
He do that? By going under the judgment of
God for them. So the Bible says not only does
the spirit convict us of sin and of righteousness but of judgment
Because the prince of this world is cast out the prince of this
world is Satan who is the accuser of the brethren you understand
and so Satan's accusations Will not stick They will not fall upon God's
people because our sins have been imputed to Christ and His
righteousness has been imputed to us, His people. Now, to whom
does that apply? Well, look over at 2 Corinthians
chapter five. Now, this is all in line of this
issue of righteous judgment. You see, as I said, before we're
born again by the Spirit, our judgment is unrighteous. Our
judgment is sinful. Our consciences, our sense of
right and wrong, as it pertains to salvation, as it pertains
to a right relationship with God, not as it pertains to life
here on earth now, but our sense of right and wrong is defiled. But when we're born again by
the Spirit, He changes our judgment. And listen to this, this is in
2 Corinthians chapter five. And it says in verse 14, for
the love of Christ constraineth us. Now what he's saying there
is the love of Christ for his people constrains them, motivates
them, drives them. And he says, because we thus
judge Now here's the judgment now, that if one died for all,
then we're all dead or all have died. If Christ died for all
of his people, God's elect, not all without exception now, he
says, if Christ died for them, then they all died with him.
They've already been judged by God for their sins in the person
and work of Christ. And he says in verse 15 of 2
Corinthians 5, and that he died for all that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which
died for them and rose again. Wherefore, verse 16, henceforth,
from this time on, from the time of our new birth on, know we
no man after the flesh. Our knowledge of persons, when
it comes to salvation, and a right relationship with God is not
after the flesh, what we see. But he says, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Christ walked on this earth in a human body. People judged him
wrongly. But he says, therefore, verse
17, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are new. In
verse 18, he says, all things are of God who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. What he's saying here is this,
our judgments of ourselves and other persons has to be based
upon the gospel. Now, if you come to me and say
you don't believe this gospel, then my judgment of you is that
you're lost and need a salvation and I pray for you. that you'll
believe. But if you tell me you believe
the gospel, then I'm to receive you as a brother or sister in
Christ. Now, I may not know your heart. You may have a false profession,
but this is righteous judgment, judging according to God's standard
revealed in God's word, which is in Christ. How do I stand
before God? How do I stand with you? As I
stand in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
proclaiming his glory. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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today and may the Lord be with you.