I want you to turn in your Bibles
to the book of John, chapter 7. John, chapter 7. My text this
morning is verse 24, where the Lord, speaking to unbelievers,
but also to his disciples, makes this statement. He says, Judge
not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Now the title of this message
and last week's message is Righteous Judgment. Righteous Judgment
or Right Judgment. Last week I went through these
verses to show you the context of this statement. Here were
several people. Among them were the half-brothers
of the Lord. Mary and Joseph's other children. It says in verse 5 of John 7,
neither did his brethren believe in him. They were unbelievers.
He talked to them about the same gospel that he'd been preaching
in his earthly ministry of which he is the embodiment. Christ
is the embodiment of the gospel in both his person and his finished
work. And they were making an assessment
here. They were trying to figure out
who is this person? Who is this? What is the authority
for him to say what he's saying? Because what he said, what he
taught, what he preached was not in line, in step with his
religious culture. In fact, it was totally opposed
to the religious culture of the day, the gospel. Now let me tell
you something. The Apostle Paul, for example. The Apostle Paul
was an evangelist, but he was not in step or in harmony with
the religion of his days, even the Jewish religion. The gospel
today is diametrically opposed to everything that men and women
by nature, even in what they assume or call Christianity,
thinks or believes. And that's why he said in verse
7, look at John 7 and verse 7, the world cannot hate you, but
me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof
are evil. Now what is he talking about? He's talking about man's
efforts to save himself by his works. He's talking about man's
efforts to make himself righteous. Man's efforts to make himself
clean in the sight of God. Those works are evil, he says.
And again, not because they're immoral in the sight of men,
not because they're insincere, but because they deny the Lord
of glory. They deny the God of all grace. They deny everything that glorifies
God. They deny Christ. Remember Paul
wrote in Galatians 2, In verse 21, if righteousness comes by
the law, then Christ died in vain. In other words, here's
a person who's trying to work their way into God's favor. Every
work they perform is a denial of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the righteousness that He established in His obedience unto death.
That's why it's evil. And so look over at verse 16.
What is the issue here? The issue here is not how Jesus
of Nazareth looked. You know, people today, I believe,
have such a wrong idea of the physical humanity of the Lord. They think, you know, well, if
you'd see Him walking down the street, He'd stick out. Maybe
a glow about Him or something like that, or maybe these medieval
pictures of Him, you know, which are not pictures of Christ, by
the way. Nobody knows what he looked like physically. But he'll
have a halo over him or some glow or something, or you could
just see the love beaming out of him. Listen, my former pastor,
he used to talk about that song, Let Others See Jesus in You,
and he'd say they didn't even see Jesus in Jesus. The world
hated him. John 15, marvel not of the world
hateth you, it hateth me before it hated you. Read Isaiah 53,
he had no form or comeliness that would charismatically draw
people. And what they were doing here
is they were judging him. Is this person, he claims to
be the son of God, he claims to be the Messiah, he claims
to be the Savior. Is he really who he says he is?
Listen to what he's teaching. And look at verse 16, Jesus answered
them and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
Now a lot of people use verses like this to deny his deity,
but that's not what this is doing. You got to read it in the context
of the whole Bible. What he's simply saying is the
teaching, the doctrine, the preaching, the message that I'm telling
you is not from just me as a human being. It's from God. Now He
is God in human flesh. He and the Father are one, the
scripture says. But he's making this point. This
is not the doctrine of a man. This is not the doctrine of the
general population. This is the doctrine of God. And then he goes down and says
in verse 24, judge not according to the appearance, but judge
righteous judgment. I told you last week that on
these two messages on righteous judgment, that I was going to
deal with what I call the whatabouts. In other words, you know, when
you pick a particular subject or a particular passage, and
it doesn't necessarily agree with what people normally or
naturally think, they'll say, well, what about this verse or
what about that verse? Well, here's what I want to do.
I want to start off by giving you three passages where judgment
is forbidden. Now what is he talking about?
Judge not. Somebody said, you know, most people will go to
Matthew 7. We'll get there in just a minute.
And they'll say, well, judge not that you be not judged. And
they'll relay that as if the Lord there in the Sermon on the
Mount is forbidding every kind of judgment, all judgment. But
he's not. He's not. We'll get to that in
just a moment. We are, listen, God gave us a mind. He gave us
a conscience. We judge everything. If you walk
out of here today believing what I've told you, then you've judged
that I'm telling you the truth. If you walk out of here today
not believing what I've told you, you've judged that I've
told you a lie. Now, is that right? Somebody
said, well, I'm kind of neutral. I don't care what you say. Well,
you've made a judgment that what I'm preaching is not worth hearing.
We judge everything. Why did you come to church here
today instead of going to some other religious organization?
You've made a judgment. This is where I'm going to hear
the truth. There, I'm not going to hear the truth. Now, upon
what ground, upon what basis, or by what measure are you going
to make that judgment? Well, he says, judge not according
to appearance. You drive by a building. There's
a lot of people there. There's a lot of facilities there.
You say, well, they've got to be telling the truth. Well, that's
appearance. They say the biggest church in
America today is out there in, where is it, San Antonio or somewhere
like that? And the guy didn't tell the truth,
I'm telling you. He's telling lies. Now, there's
a lot of truth in what he says, you know, positive thinking.
We ought to think positively, not about ourselves, but about
Christ. But he's not preaching the gospel. Now, how in the world
can I make a judgment like that? Well, it's not by appearance.
Not by appearance at all. Turn to Matthew chapter 23 with
me. Now, that's obviously here in
Matthew 7, Christ forbids judging according to the appearance,
according to what you see outwardly. That's a wrong kind of judgment.
And that would include judgment based upon emotion, feeling,
or experience. You say, I know it's true because
I felt it. Somebody told me one time, said,
I know it was salvation because it was real. And I told him this,
and I wasn't just trying to be smart. I said, well, hell's real,
but I don't want to experience it. The reality of your experience
has nothing to do with righteous judgment. And let me be careful
to say now, remember I made this point last week, when he says
judge righteous judgment, he's not saying that our judgment
is perfect in every case. But I want to tell you somebody
whose judgment is perfect all the time, and that's God's judgment.
Now hold on to that thought. God's judgment is always right.
Bible says in Romans 2, God judges always according to truth. But
look at Matthew chapter 23, look over it, at verse 28 of Matthew 23. Well, look at verse 27, rather. He
says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
are likened to whited sepulchers. A whited tomb, that's what that
is. Looks pretty outside. You go
up to Washington, D.C. and go through Arlington Cemetery,
it's a beautiful place physically, isn't it? But you start digging
up those graves and throwing those bodies out on the ground,
you're not going to want to be there. It's going to be one of
the ugliest places you've ever been to. Isn't that right? And
that's what he's saying about the Pharisees. You're white as
sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within
full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness, even so you
also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you're full
of hypocrisy and iniquity. Now that's the case. Now, upon
what ground is he basing that judgment? It's what they preached.
They preached a false gospel. You see, it doesn't matter how
religious you appear, how sincere you are. Look over at Romans
chapter 10. If you don't preach Christ, if
you don't believe in Christ as the Lord your righteousness,
as your only hope of salvation, it's all for nothing, isn't it?
Less than nothing. The Apostle Paul, you turn to
Romans 10, the Apostle Paul said that according to the law he
was blameless. Now you know what he meant by
that? He meant that he had an outward appearance of moral purity,
sincerity, religiosity, everything you can name that men and women
by nature admire in an individual. But when he saw the glory of
Jesus Christ on the Damascus road, and his sinfulness and
his iniquity was exposed, what did he say? He said, I counted
all but what? Dung that I may win Christ. All
right? Look at Romans 10 verse 1. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Bear them record, they have a
zeal of God. You see, they had a zeal for religion, a zeal for
God in this sense under the law, but not according to knowledge.
He says, they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish a righteousness of their own, their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Now what is it to be submitted to the righteousness of God?
Look at verse four. For Christ is the end, the finishing,
fulfillment, perfection, completion. That's what that word end means
there. Same word that he used on the cross when he said it's
finished. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. If you're a believer, what do
you see? What do you believe? You believe that Christ is the fulfillment
of all righteousness. My works had nothing to do with
it. My righteousness before God My works had nothing to do with
that. It's totally what Christ did as my surety and substitute
on the cross of Calvary in His obedience unto death in my place. And that's it. And everything
that God does through me by the power of His Spirit is the fruit,
not the cause, of His grace that glorifies and honors Him. So
there's appearance, you see. All right, turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. All right, that's one judgment that the Lord forbids,
judgment based on appearance. And I always go to this, the
parable that the Lord spoke of Lazarus, the rich man and Lazarus.
You look at the rich man and all of his so-called blessings,
And you judge based on appearance, you say, well, he must be doing
something right. He's blessed of God. And there you look at
old Lazarus laying out there on the street, in the gateway,
the dog's licking his sores, begging for bread. And you say,
you must have done something really bad, Lazarus, to get in
this kind of shape. You're cursed of God. It's just
the opposite, isn't it? One was a sinner saved by grace,
O Lazarus, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. The other, though he dwelt sumptuously
here on earth, he was cursed of God. Judge not according to the appearance.
Alright, look at 1 Corinthians 2, look at verse 14. He says, The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. That discern there means judged,
assessed, valued. And what he's talking about here
is judgment based on ignorance and deception. Why is it the
natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God?
Because he's ignorant and he's deceived. That's all of us by
nature, isn't it? Listen, if you're a sinner saved
by grace, if you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you didn't
start out that way. You were born just like me, just
like all of us, dead in trespasses and sins. And then at some point
in time, the Lord, by His power, brought you under the preaching
of the gospel and by the Holy Spirit made it the power of God
unto salvation and gave you the gift of faith and repentance
and love. The new birth. But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, and those
things that he won't receive are identified in verse 12, the
things that are freely given. You see, the natural man is bent
on trying in some way, to some degree, at some stage, of working
his way, earning his way into God's favor. He will not accept
that which is freely given. All salvation, not deserved,
not earned, only in Christ. All conditioned on Christ, not
on me. And why is that? Because by nature
we're ignorant and deceived. We're ignorant of God's way and
we're deceived by our own way. Self-righteousness, self-love.
So judgment is forbidden. Look at verse 15. He says, He
that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged
of no man. When God brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ,
imparts spiritual life and knowledge to us from Christ, we have a
different standard of judgment now. And he says in verse 16,
for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him, but we have the mind of Christ. Now how do we have the
mind of Christ? We have his word. That's the
mind of Christ. And we have a new spirit, a new
heart, new life that loves his word and seeks to obey his word. So there's another judgment that's
forbidden. Judgment based on ignorance and deception. All
right, now turn to Matthew 7. Now here's the, one preacher
said this is the most misquoted verse in the Bible. People say, well, we don't judge.
Well, as I said before, they're lying to themselves because we
judge everything. All of this has to be kept within
its context. listen what he's saying verse
one he says judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment
you judge you shall be judged and with what measure you meet
it shall be measured to you again why beholdest thou the mote that
is a splinter that's in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam
that is in thine own eye or how wilt thou say to thy brother
let me pull out the mote the splinter out of thine eye and
behold a beam is in thine own eye thou hypocrite First cast
out the beam out of thine own eye, then shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the splinter out of thy brother's eye. What kind
of judgment is he talking about? He's talking about self-righteous,
hypocritical judgment. That's forbid. Put it to you this way, maybe
this will sort of cover it all. Have you ever said, I know so-and-so
is lost or so-and-so is going to hell because they are a sinner. You ever said that or thought
that? Because if you did, let me let you in on a little secret
here. You're a sinner too. I'm a sinner. And if God were to ever, at any
time in my life, even if it's while standing behind this If
he were to ever judge me based upon anything I've done or don't
have not done or am doing, you know what I would get? Eternal
damnation. I'm telling you the truth. That's
it. We're all sinners. We all deserve
nothing but death, eternal damnation. That's why salvation, that's
what the scripture said, by grace. Are you saved? Through faith. And that's not of yourselves.
You don't even believe because you rose up above the rest of
those unbelieving monsters. And found something within yourself
that was better than what they have. As if you were less rebellious,
less stubborn. No, sir. If we believe, I'm going
to tell you something. A believer is a miracle of God's
sovereign grace. That's what a believer is. But
now, listen to verse 6 of Matthew 7. He says, judge not. Well,
he's talking about self-righteous, proud, arrogant judgment. But right after that, he says
in verse 6, give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast
you your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under
their feet and turn again and rend you. You know what he's
talking about there? You know what he's talking about? He's talking about
people who absolutely refuse to hear what you have to say
when you preach, teach, witness the gospel. And in order to follow
that command, you've got to make a judgment. Who are these dogs? Who are these swine? I've had
people do that, haven't you? I don't want to hear what you
have to say. I'm not interested. Leave me
alone. That's what he's talking about.
Go on down to verse 15. He says, Beware of false prophets,
false preachers, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ravening wolves. How are you going to beware of
false preachers unless you judge them to be false? How are you going to do that?
Well, you have to be aware of it. You have to make a judgment,
and I'm going to show you that in just a moment. One more scripture
about the whatabouts. Turn to Romans chapter 14. Romans
chapter 14. Now, here's the problem that
Paul was dealing with in Romans 14. You have strong, mature believers
when it comes to Christian liberty. All right? And that had to do
with keeping, you know, the keeping of days, the eating of certain
meats, the drinking of certain drinks. These believers were
mature and strong and knew they had the liberty to partake of
those things, do or not do them, in moderation, according to the
Word of God. But then you had some young or
weak believers who were still bound in their conscience by
the taste not, touch not, handle not syndrome, not for salvation. If it was for salvation, they
wouldn't be believers. But they didn't have that liberty.
They were still bound in their conscience. And what happened
is each one of them, the mature believer and the weak believer,
they were judging each other's salvation. Now they both believed
the gospel. They both looked to Christ alone
for righteousness. But these weak believers were
just convinced in their conscience that if you were a believer,
you wouldn't do certain things, and you wouldn't touch certain
things, you wouldn't taste certain things, and you'd keep certain
days. They were wrong. They were wrong. But these mature believers, they
exercised their liberty. And they were judging each other.
Not on the right ground now, not on the gospel, but on these
matters of liberty. And here's what Paul writes to
them. Look at verse 11. He says, Romans 14, it is written,
As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue
shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall
give an account of himself to God. We're going to have to stand
before God at judgment. And let me say something about
the account there. You know, people say, well, you're
going to stand before God at judgment, and God's going to
flash up a screen behind you, and every evil thought, every
evil... No. Now, unbelievers will be
judged by their works and found guilty. But you know what a believer's
account? We stand in Christ. Oh, that
I may know Him and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law. But Christ is my account. I have His righteousness imputed
to me. It's charged to me. It's counted
to me. I'm washed in His blood. And the works of believers will
only be evidences of the power and grace of God in their lives
as they stand in Christ. And that's it. But go on, verse
13. Let us not therefore judge one
another anymore. But judge this rather, that no
man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's
way. I know and am persuaded by the Lord that there's nothing
unclean of it." You see, what he's talking about is believers
judging other believers. And that's forbidden. Now, how
do you take all of that and put it within the context of the
command of Christ in John 7, 24, when he says, judge righteous
judgment? Well, what is righteous judgment?
Two things. And here they are. Righteous
judgment is the judgment of good and evil, saved and lost included,
as it relates to Christ in the gospel. That's number one. Let me say it again. Judgment,
righteous judgment, is judgment of good and evil. How do I know
what's good and what's evil? Saved and lost. How do I know
who is saved and who's... Now that doesn't mean we can
tell everybody who's saved and everybody who's lost. I dealt
with that last week. I'm not talking about that. But
what is salvation? I got that book. What is salvation?
What is it to be lost? What is a Christian? John said
the world won't know us. 1 John chapter 3. What is a Christian? What is a Christian not? Well
those judgments have to be made first and foremost as they relate
to Jesus Christ as He is identified and distinguished in the gospel. You can call it gospel judgment
if you will. Look at Acts 17. I quote this verse all the time.
It's one of my favorite verses. Paul preaching on Mars Hill and
he confronts them. with the unknown God, a God they
don't know. Here's a person worshiping a
false God. Here's righteous judgment. They
don't know the true God. They don't know the true and
living God. But if you look down there in verse 31 of Acts 17, he talked about how God commands
all men everywhere to repent. On what basis? It says, because
God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, in that
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. It's all about Jesus Christ,
the crucified, the risen Christ. The one in whom we stand washed
clean from all our sins only by His blood and clothed in His
righteousness imputed." Everything in God's sight now. Now I'm not
talking about how men and women in this earth on this plane judge
good and evil. Somebody, they were talking about
a fella down in Orlando this morning who went in and shot
up a bunch of people. That's an evil thing, isn't it? and
even lost people for the most part now know that's evil. But that's not what I'm talking
about. I'm talking about when it comes to a right relationship
with God. I'm talking about when how God
saves sinners. Everything in righteous judgment
must relate to the person and finished work of Jesus Christ
as he's identified and distinguished in the gospel. That's why the
Apostle Paul made this judgment in Galatians chapter 1. He said,
The we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached. Let him be what? Anathema. What does a false gospel of salvation
by the works and the will of men reveal about a person? They're
lost. They're lost. And let me show you just how
much this changes your view of things. When God makes the power,
makes the gospel, the power of God into salvation, shows you
who Jesus Christ is. He's God in human flesh. Now
here comes a person along and they say, well, I'm a Christian,
I believe in Jesus. Well, do you believe He's God?
No, I don't believe He's God. I believe He's just a good man.
Well, here's our righteous judgment. That's a lost man. Am I right? Why do I know that? Because I'm
so high and mighty and I know it? No, because that's what God's
Word says. Here's a person who says, well,
I'm washed clean from all my sins. I saw a movie yesterday
where a bunch of people were getting baptized. And they all
come out and they say, now I'm washed clean of all my sins.
Well, let me tell you something, folks. The waters of baptism
will not wash you clean from all your sins. That's a lie. There's only one thing it'll
accomplish. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. It's got to relate to Him and
what He accomplished on Calvary. How is a sinner righteous before
God? Well, I accepted Jesus as my
personal Savior. Is that what makes you righteous
before God? Well, I walked an aisle and confessed Him before
the congregation. I got in the baptismal pool and
got baptized. I've rededicated. I've tried
to live a good life. I've prayed. Is that what makes
a sinner right? No. Now relate it to the God. Christ and Him alone, His blood,
His righteousness, His death is the only thing that makes
a sinner, any sinner, righteous before God. Nothing else will
do it. It has to relate to Him. We don't
even understand sin, the reality of it, without Christ. And seeing his righteousness
and his obedience unto death. I'll give you an illustration
of it. We were in a bookstore up in Cincinnati, Ohio last week.
Me and a couple other men. And we went over to the religious
section. And there was a lot of books by this fellow, Joe
Osteen. They're real popular. I think the one they had on display
was called Living Your Best Life Now. Do you want to live a good life
now? Sure, I do too. But we're not going to live our
best life now, according to God's word. And the problem with him
is there's no Christ. There's not the true Christ.
There's no gospel. Well, we walked over to another
section. It was the crime section. And they had a big old illustrated
book there on mass murderers. And that's terrible, isn't it?
And I asked one of my buddies there, I said, if you were going
to pick a book that would adequately display the depravity of man,
which one would you pick? This one on mass murders or that
Joe Osteen book? I said the Joe Osteen, and he
did too. Because you see, what did Christ say to the Pharisees
in Matthew 23? He said, you go out to make converts to your
religion, get them under the Mosaic law, get them moral, cleaned
up, your traditions, and you make them two-fold more the child
of hell than you are. So how can you say such stuff
related to Christ? And that brings me to the second
point. Now turn over to Hebrews chapter 5. This is the passage
that Brother Randy read. Number one, righteous judgment
is judgment concerning good and evil, saved and lost, as it relates
to the gospel wherein Christ is revealed as God-man, the Lord
our righteousness. Nothing more, nothing less will
impress God. This is my beloved son. in whom
I am well pleased, hear ye him." In the book of Hebrews, the main
point is that the coming of Jesus Christ is the total fulfillment
and abolishment of the old covenant law. Every part of it. Christ fulfilled the law. And these Hebrew believers were
being coaxed by Jewish unbelievers to leave the gospel, renounce
Christ. Sometimes they would do it subtly.
Sometimes you'd have some come in claiming to believe in Christ,
but they really didn't. And what's happening here in
Hebrews 5, He says, I've got a lot of things to talk to you
about. He mentions Melchizedek, an Old Testament type. Melchizedek
was a real person, but he was a type of Christ. In other words,
he typified the eternal priesthood of Christ, as you said. Not like
Aaron and the other high priests. That was a temporary priesthood. And they were types of Christ,
too. But Melchizedek was a better type because his genealogy was
not recorded. But he says, here's what your
problem is. He says, you're dull of hearing.
Look at verse 12. You're dull of hearing. Verse
12, for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have
need that one teach you again, which be the first principles
of the oracles of God, that's the word of God, and are become
such as have need of milk and not of strong milk. Now there's
nothing wrong with having need of milk. In fact, Peter said,
desire ye the sincere milk of the word. But the reason they
needed milk is because they refused to grow. That's a bad state of
mind. Look at verse 13. For everyone
that useth milk is unskillful in what? In the word of righteousness. For he's obeyed. But strong meat
belongeth to them that are of full age, that is complete or
mature. Even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern, to judge both good and
evil." What does it take for a believer to discern good and
evil? He's got to be skillful in the
word of righteousness. That's number two. Righteous
judgment is judgment based totally on God's Word, the Bible. Righteousness, holiness, salvation,
spirituality, assurance, all these things. The only way we
can make a proper right judgment in these areas is to stick to
the Word of God who judges according to truth. Our opinions don't
matter. Our ideas, our philosophies,
our discussions, they don't matter. What does God's Word say? If
God said it, that settles it. Fella calls me up and he says,
I don't believe in election. I don't believe in predestination.
Well, that's up to you, but that's what God's Word teaches. Another
one says, well, I don't understand it all. I say, well, join the
club. I don't either, but it's there and I'm going to believe
it. How does God save a sinner? Not
but one way. They asked this same Joe Osteen
on TV one time. They said, well, what do you
think about Muslims? and Shintoists and Buddhists
and Hindus. Are they all going to hell? And
you know what he said? He said, well, I'm not their judge. I'm
going to let God judge that. Well, now, it's true that in
the end, in the final judgment, I'm not going to be sitting behind
the judge's bench judging everybody. God is. Christ is the supreme
judge. But I can tell you this right
now. Here's what the Bible says. Here's what God's Word says.
He that believeth not shall be damned. He that believeth and
is baptized, confesses that, shall be saved. That's what the
Scripture says. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not the Son
hath not life. The wrath of God abides on him.
That's what the Word says. Again, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. How do you make those
statements? Based on God's word. Isaiah 820,
to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, what does it say? There's no light in them. That's
righteous judgment. Now, when we go beyond God's
word, judge according to appearance, judge in our ignorance and deception,
judge self-righteous judgment, Then that's unrighteous judgment.
But in God's Word, there is truth. God judges according to truth.
You know, in 1 John 4, 1, we won't turn there. You know what
he says? He says, try the spirits. Test the spirits. That's the
preachers. That's what he's talking about,
isn't it? Test the preachers. Well, how are you going to test
them? Well, he's a real eloquent fellow. Well, I hope he is. But that's not the right judgment.
Well, he dresses nicely, or he has a pulpit presence, or he's
charismatic, or he tells a lot of... That's not the way to test
the preachers. Test them like the noble Bereans
did. You remember when they heard
the apostles? The noble Bereans, what did they do? They searched
the Word to see if these things were true. You know, there's
a reason that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to put that word
noble in there. Noble Bereans. Why was it? Because they searched the Word.
That was their standard. So Christ as related in the Gospel
and the Word of God. That's righteous judgment. All
right.