Now let's go back to John chapter
7 there where Brother Mark read. What I'm going to do today is
begin a series of a few messages on the subject righteous judgment. In verse 24 there of John 7,
the Lord commanded those who were listening to him, judge
not according to the appearance In other words, we have that
saying, things are not always as they appear. We say, don't
judge a book by its cover, that kind of thing. He says, judge
not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. And the question comes, well,
how in the world is it possible for sinners like us to judge
righteous judgment? Now let me just tell you where
I'm going to go. I'm going to read through this
and I want to show you some emphases in the context here that I believe
lead us to understand without fail what he's talking about.
And basically what's going on here is what he's commanding
us is that when we judge things, when we assess things, things
that we see as evil, things that we see as good, how in the world
can we as sinners make such judgments? Because knowing what we are,
even believers now, we know the natural man, scripture says in
1 Corinthians 2, he cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them, for
they are spiritually discerned. And this judgment has to do with
discernment. How do I know what I should listen
to and follow and what I should not listen to and follow? And
that's where we're going to go to. He says, judge not according
to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. And what
I'm going to show you in several messages, and I'm going to deal
with the whatabouts. You know, anytime you deal with
a subject, everybody's got, well, what about this verse? Or what
about that verse? That's the whatabouts. I'm gonna deal with
the whatabouts. Of course, you know, when we talk about judgment,
the biggest whatabout is Matthew 7, 1, isn't it? Judge not that
you be not judged. And of course, the Lord is not
forbidding all judgment there. He's forbidding self-righteous
judgment. He's forbidding judgment based
on a lie. That's what He's forbidding there.
But first of all, I would point out to you the reality of the
obvious, and that is this. Number one, we can't help but
judge. That's right. We all judge. Somebody says,
well, I don't judge. Yes, you do. I mean, right now,
I often tell people, right now, you're making a judgment, whether
or not I'm telling you the truth or telling you a lie. Isn't that
correct? And that's what you should be doing. Test the preachers. 1st John 4. It's what the scripture
says. Don't believe everything you
hear. Now how are you going to do that unless you make a judgment
on what you're hearing? Even in the same passage of Matthew
7 when he says judge not then he also says beware of false
preachers. Now how are you going to beware
of them unless you judge them to be false? The problem with
man is that we always by nature In our darkness and deception,
we judge based on a wrong standard. But what Christ is talking about
in John 7 is this. Righteous judgment is judgment
that is solely based upon God's judgment. In other words, this
didn't come from me, but it came from God. This is God's Word.
We live in a day of such widespread religious deception, and you
know when I say that, it's almost like I'm saying, well they didn't
used to live like this, but it's always been this way, hadn't
it? Ever since the fall of man, we've lived in a day of widespread
religious deception. That it is necessary and imperative
that God's true children do four things. Number one, examine ourselves
whether we'd be in the faith. That ought to be a constant thing
with us. That's not doubting our salvation
now. That's not sinning. We sometimes
have doubt. But what we're to do to examine
ourselves whether we'd be in the faith, prove your own selves,
he says there, that's 2 Corinthians 13, 5. Prove your own selves
lest you be reprobate. In other words, I want to know
that my hope is sure. Don't you? I claim to be saved. Saved from sin. I claim to be
saved from the wrath of God. I claim to be a Christian. I
want to know for sure what the Bible says. Now, and I'm really
not interested in your opinion on that. And you shouldn't really
be interested in mine. You ought to be interested in
what God's Word says. We ought to be diligent to live
to the honor of Christ and his word. We ought to be responsible,
able witnesses of the truth. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and do what? Glorify your
father which is in heaven. And that's what that's talking
about is the light of the gospel, the light of Christ. And so we
ought to be really diligent to live to his honor. Now, understand
though, now living to his honor is not what some Pharisee says.
Somebody says, well, you know, Christians wouldn't do this,
wouldn't do that. He don't even know what a Christian would do.
No, he's a Pharisee. So understand that. And incidentally,
what did Christ say of the Pharisees? You know, he says, judge not
according to the appearance. Remember what he said of the Pharisees
in Matthew 23? He says, you do indeed outwardly appear righteous
unto men. But inwardly, you're full of
dead men's bones. The third thing we need to do
is stick to the Word of God, as revealed in the Bible. Opinions, human philosophies,
human assessments mean nothing in this thing of a right relationship.
It's what God's, thus saith the Lord. That's what the prophets
always said. Thus saith the Lord. Isaiah 8.
What is it, verse 20? To the law and to the testimony.
If they speak not according to this word, it's because there's
no light in them. Stick to the word of God. What does God's
word say? I have a lot of people who will
call and write or send an email and they'll say, well, we disagree
with you. We believe such and such. And
I'll write them back and say, well, the problem you've got
is that what you believe is not in the Bible. And I can prove
that. And then the fourth thing we
need is discernment based on the Word of God. Now that's what
this righteous judgment is about. Let me read you this passage
in Hebrews 5, and I'm going to go right back to John 7 here.
But the writer of Hebrews, the inspired writer of Hebrews, some
believe it's the Apostle Paul, others disagree, it doesn't matter,
this is God's Word, all right? He says in verse 13, he says,
for everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of
righteousness. That's the gospel, that's the
Bible. He's a babe, he's a child. And what he's talking about is
a bad state of mind that these who claim to be believers had
gotten into where they were staying, they weren't growing in grace
and in knowledge of Christ. They weren't growing in the word.
And they were unskillful in the word. I've heard people who I
believe to be brothers or sisters in Christ who say when they get
into a discussion with a false Christian that they come away
ashamed because the false Christian knows the Bible better than they
do. That's who Paul's talking about here. You'd be unskillful. But he says in verse 14, he says,
but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, that
means mature, complete, Even those who by reason of use, using
it over and over again, just like exercising the muscles,
have their senses exercised to do what? To discern both good
and evil. We need to know the difference
between good and evil, but here's the thing. We need to know the
difference between good and evil as God measures it. We need to know the difference
between a false gospel and a true gospel. You remember the Galatian
church? How false preachers crept into
that church and gained a foothold? Because they weren't discerning
based on God's Word. So, go back to John 7 now. Judge
not according to the appearance. That means don't judge by experiences. Well, let me tell you what happened
to me, or let me tell you what dream I had, or let me tell you
what we did in that... No, sir. Don't judge by experience. Judge the experience by God's
Word. What does God say? Because it
doesn't matter what you've experienced or how you felt. Don't judge
by feelings. Who wrote that poem, Feelings
Come, Feelings Go, Feelings Can Be Deceiving? And it's right. Your feelings, you know what
the Bible says about the natural heart of man, don't you? Jeremiah
17.9, the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately
wicked, who can know it? And you know what it says right
after that? God says, I try the rains. In other words, the only
judgment that counts here is not the judgment of my deceptive
heart, natural heart, the only judgment that counts is what
God says. I mean, this is important. And as I mentioned, judge not
according to... The Pharisees appeared outwardly righteous. Now, when it comes to matters
of righteous judgment, we know the natural man has no spiritual
life. He's dead in trespasses and sins.
That's the result of our fall in Adam. We fell in Adam into
sin and depravity, death. And we're born dead in trespasses
and sins. The scripture says that, doesn't
it? Those who are saved have been quickened. Remember he says
in Ephesians 2.1, and you hath he quickened, made alive, who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Then he describes us by nature
and how we're ignorant by nature. So the natural man, he has no
judgment in the things of God. Now he may be a great judge in
the stock market, He may be a great judge in his job or in his family,
but he or she cannot judge things properly and righteously when
it comes to a right relationship with God. In order for that to
take place, the gospel as it is in Christ Jesus must be clearly
revealed and sealed upon our hearts and minds by the Holy
Spirit. Remember back over there in Isaiah 42 that I read at the
beginning? Christ will come, my servant,
God's elect. You know Christ is called God's
elect, the chosen servant of Jehovah. He said, I put my spirit
upon him and he shall bring what to the Gentiles? Judgment. How's he going to bring judgment
to the Gentiles? Through the gospel. Here's the gospel, here's
the right gospel. Not everybody, it may shock you,
but not everybody who claims to preach the gospel preaches
the gospel. There's a lot of false gospels
out there, folks. He says there in verse four,
he shall not fail nor be discouraged. That's Christ. In verse 3 he
says, he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. You know everything
is to be judged by the gospel. Now when we talk about righteous
judgment, let me say this, it's not that we who are saved, believers,
we who are spiritual, remember over in 1 Corinthians 2 when
he says the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, For they are, he says, they are foolishness unto him,
that's 1 Corinthians 2, 14. Neither can he know them, he
can't judge properly. Because they're spiritually discerned,
spiritually judged. He goes on to say in verse 15,
but he that is spiritual, now who is spiritual? That's the
sinner saved by grace. That's a justified person. washed
in the blood of Christ. There is a fountain filled with
blood, grown from Emmanuel's veins, God with us. Sinners plunge
beneath that flood. What does it say? Lose all their
guilty state. And out of that comes the life
of a believer, spiritual life. And it says, but he that is spiritual
judgeth or discerneth all things, Yet he himself is judged of no
man. What he's talking about is all things concerning a right
relationship with God. But the world doesn't know us.
And then 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? Does that mean we think like
him perfectly? No, sir. We're still in a warfare
and a struggle with the flesh, aren't we? And it contaminates
everything we think and do. That's why we are in continual
need of the blood of Jesus Christ to wash away our sins. How do
we have the mind of Christ? We have his word. And that word
is written, given to us by the grace of God, and it's written
on our hearts. So it's not that when he talks
about righteousness, it's not that we who are spiritual are
the supreme judge of everything. Christ is the supreme judge.
Isn't He? All judgment has been given to
the Son. And it's not that we who are spiritual have a perfect
understanding in every case of all people or as if we, somebody
says, or as if we can see into the hearts of every person in
every case. Now listen to me. Now, let me
give you an example of what I'm talking about. Here's a person
who is sitting under a false gospel, listening to, supporting, promoting
a false gospel. Do we know his heart? Yes, we
do. How do you know it? His heart's
in that false gospel. That's deception. Now, do we
say that self-righteously? Oh, no. You know where I'd be
but for the grace of God? I'd still be preaching a false
gospel, pointing sinners on the broad road that leads to destruction.
A person comes to you and says, well, now, I'm an atheist. Do
you know his heart? He just told you his heart. Void
of life. You see what I'm saying? But
now here we are sitting under the true gospel. Does that mean
that I can judge every heart in here? Do you really? No. There
are some instances in the New Testament, for example, where
those who claim to believe the gospel for years on end and then
they left it and renounced it and apostatized from it and the
people, true people of God were shocked. Am I making myself clear on this? If a person claims to believe
the truth, confesses Christ, and unites with us, are we to
receive that person as a brother or sister? Yes. Brother or sister
in Christ? Yes. No doubt. But it's not that we
as spiritual have a perfect understanding in every case. We know that unbelievers
are lost in their sins. And even an unbeliever that's
lost in their sins, we can't judge them as being non-elect
as if, well, they're not elect. No. They may be a lost sheep
who's not been brought into the fold yet. And so we take every
opportunity we can to pray for them, to preach the gospel to
them. What if you had run into Saul of Tarsus before the Damascus
Road experience? How would you judge him? Well,
I know this about him, he's a lost man. Could I say, well, he's gonna,
you know, there's one old preacher that said he's gonna split hell
wide open? I don't know that. It may be at some time in his
life God will face him and bring him down off of his pride, like
he did me, like he did you, and lead him to Christ by the power
of the Holy Spirit, the true Christ revealed in his word.
People who profess the true gospel, but who come to Christ by the
power of God, who abide in the doctrine of Christ. We're going
to deal with that later on in a message. But with that in mind,
I want you to go to John 7. Let me just take a few moments.
Let's just look at this passage. John 7, verse 1. Here's the Lord
walking in Galilee. It says, after these things.
Now these things had to do with the fact we're going to see later
on. He had healed an impotent man. And he did it on the Sabbath. He had preached unto them that
he's the bread of life. You know, this is right after
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast away. He said,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. All of that. He said, I'm the bread of life.
Well, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee. For He would
not walk in Judea. That's Judea. And the reason
is because the Jews sought to kill Him. There's the natural
hatred of the natural man against the true Christ. Why did they
hate Him? Well, go back to John chapter
3, verse 18. Here's a great time to compare
scripture with scripture. Why did they hate him? You know,
people actually think, you know, that they hated him because he
was going around saying, now you all stop doing this and start
doing that, you know. He'd be at a party and he'd be
the only one not drinking and stuff like that. That's not why
they hated him. The only party we see that he
was at, he made the wine. That's not excusing drinking
and drunkenness and all that. No, no. But I'm just telling
you the truth here now. That's not why people hated him.
He tells us why they hated him. Look at verse 18. He's talking
to Nicodemus here and he says, He that believeth on him is not
condemned. In other words, if you want to be a justified sinner,
what's the evidence of that? You believe on Christ. He said,
But he that believeth not is condemned already. We're born
in that state. People are born in that state.
He said, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Now what deeds
do you suppose he's talking about? Well, who's he talking to? Nicodemus. What's he talking about? He's
talking about salvation and the necessity of the new birth. He's
talking about the religious efforts of man to make himself worthy,
recommended, and righteous before God. The gospel of God's grace
in Christ, salvation for sinners based upon His righteousness
imputed, exposes every effort of human beings to make themselves
righteous before God as evil. Evil not because they're insincere,
not because they're immoral in the sight of men, evil because
they deny the God of the Bible. They deny God's grace, they deny
His glory, they deny His Son. Paul said it this way, if righteousness
come by the law, by works, Christ died in vain. He goes on, verse
20, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh
to the light lest his deeds should be exposed, reproved. But then
he says, he that doeth truth. Isn't that an interesting way
to put that? Doing truth. What is it to do truth? It's
to walk in the light of the gospel. It's to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and repent of our works, our dead works. He comes to the
light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God.
They're the work of God. We are his workmanship, Paul
wrote in Ephesians 2.10. Created in Christ Jesus unto,
not because of, unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in. Go back to John 7. Now that's
why they hated him. That's why they sought to kill
him. He also, he told them that the old covenant was abolished
and fulfilled in him. And they hated him for that.
Verse 2, the Jews' Feast of the Tabernacles was at hand. You
know the Feast of the Tabernacles. Remember they had the Passover,
50 days later they had the Feast of Pentecost, and then several
months later they had the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast
of Tents. Passover was a picture of Christ, the Lamb of God, our
Passover Lamb. Pentecost was the picture of
the new beginning of the Church. And the feast of tents, the feast
of tabernacles was a feast that pictured the full glory of Christ
and the salvation of his people and how we rest in him. We're
not citizens of this world, we're citizens of the world to come.
He says in verse 3, his brethren therefore said unto him, depart
hence and go into Judea that thy disciples also may see the
works that thou doest. Now who are his brethren here?
Now the context determines the meaning. His brethren. Remember, it's recorded in Matthew
chapter 12, I believe, and one other place, where his mother,
Mary, his human mother, and his brothers came. He was ministering,
and they came, and his brothers went and said, your mama out
here wants to see you. Remember what Christ said? He
said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? He identified,
they that do the will of my Father. Who are they? They who believe
in Him, rest in Him, trust Him for all righteousness and eternal
life. Well, these brothers here, they
said, well, let's go into Judea and let everybody see the works
you do. They're talking about the miracles. Well, look at what
he says in verse 4. They say, For there is no man
that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be
known openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. Verse 5 says, For neither did
his brethren believe in him. Who are his brethren? He's talking
about the half-brothers of Jesus of Nazareth, talking about the
children, the sons, that Mary and Joseph had through their
union with each other. Now, you know, a lot of people
don't want to believe that Mary had any other children, but she
did. She had other children. Joseph
was their father. She had the one child, Jesus,
but Joseph was not his father. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin. But after that, Joseph and Mary had other children.
These are his half-brothers, and they didn't believe in him.
And here's what they're doing. They're saying, all right, you
know, this may be out of jealousy. I don't know. I'm not going to
try to climb into their minds. But here's what's happening.
He's doing all these miracles. He says, all right, if you're
really who you say you are, go to Judea and show yourself openly.
Go to Jerusalem. Let's see how this thing works
out, you know. Let's see if you're really who
they say you are. But verse six, then Jesus said unto them, my
time is not yet come, but your time is always ready. My time
to go there is not yet come. His times were appointed. He
said, but you go on down. You can go on anytime. Look at
what he says in verse 7. The world cannot hate you, but
me it had. The world doesn't hate you. You're
of the world. You remember he said over in John chapter 15
when he talked about the world hateth me. Don't be amazed that
the world hates you, but it hates me. He said if you were of the
world, the world would love its own. In other words, if you agree
with the world, if you live with the world, religiously or however,
they'll love you. They'll receive you. But he says,
but me it hateth. Now why did it hate him? Look
at the next line. Because I testify of it that
the works thereof are evil. That's why. It wasn't because
he did miracles. Everybody loved that. Multitudes
followed him over that. And it wasn't because he fed
them with loaves and fishes. He said, they hate me because
of what I say of it. Here's my testimony. There's
only one way of salvation. There's only one way of righteousness. Where is that? It's not in your
works. It's not in the fact that you're
a physical descendant of Abraham. It's not in the fact that you're
circumcised. It's not in the fact that you're
trying to keep the law of Moses. If that's what you think, that's
evil. in the sight of God. Though esteemed
highly among men, it's evil in the sight of God. There's only
one way, and here's what he says later on. He says, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. The grace of God in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. No other way. Every other way
is evil. That's what I testify. You see, this is based upon what
He preached. It's not based upon how He looked.
It's not based upon how kind He was. It's not based upon His
miracle. It's based upon His Word that
exposed their deeds, my deeds, your deeds, as evil. Verse 8, Go ye up to the feast,
this feast. I go not up yet, this feast,
for my time is not yet come. Verse 9, when he had said these
things, when he had said these words, you see it's all based
upon what he's saying here. He says, unto them he abodes
still in Galilee. So he stayed a little longer
in Galilee, but it says in verse 10, when his brethren were gone
up, then went he also up to the feast. unto the feast, not openly,
but as it were in secret." In other words, he wasn't making
an open, he wasn't trying to hide things, but there was a
time for everything. And so he was not ready to show
himself openly, but it says in verse 11, then the Jews sought
him at the feast and said, where is he? Verse 12, there was much
murmuring among the people concerning him, for some said he did, he's
a good man, others said nay, but he deceived the people. What's
going on here? unrighteous judgment of Jesus
of Nazareth. Some say he's a good man. They
didn't believe him to be the Messiah, God in human flesh. He's just a good man. Never hurt
anybody, always spoke kindly to everybody, except for one
time when he was in that temple and he drove out the money changers. Nay, he said he deceiveth the
people. Verse 13, how be it no man spake openly of him for fear
of the Jews. The Jews especially hated him.
Look at verse 14, now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went
up into the temple and what did he do? He taught, he preached,
that's what he's doing. He's preaching the word. Didn't
say he did a miracle, now he did miracles now. But that's
not what he did when he went to the temple. Man, you'd have
thought when he finally got to that temple, he'd have really
put on a show. Maybe raised some dead people,
healed some sick people, fed a lot of hungry people. You'd
think he did all that. No. You know what he did? He
taught. He preached the gospel of God's
grace in himself. The God-man. Righteousness by
him, by no other. And it says here, verse 15, and
the Jews marveled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having
never learned? You know what he did when he
taught? He referred back to the Old Testament scriptures that
they had. That's what that means. How in the world? How in the
world can this guy do this, not being, he didn't go to the school
of Gamaliel, he didn't go to the school of Shemael, he didn't
go to this rabbi and that rabbi, he didn't have a PhD, PhD, twiddle-dee-dee,
whatever, he didn't have any of that. And yet He knows the Scriptures. How in the world can this happen?
They were amazed. And look what He says, verse 16, Jesus answered
them and said, My doctrine. Now, somebody said, well, I don't
preach doctrine, I preach Christ. Well, Christ preached Christ,
but He preached doctrine too. How do you know that? He said
it, My doctrine. My doctrine, my teaching is not mine, but
His that sent me." Now, a lot of people use verses like this
to try to deny the deity of Christ, but that's not what this verse
is teaching. You've got to compare scripture with scripture. What
he is showing is that the teaching that he has given originated
from God. and not from them and not from
himself as they see him just as a good man. Now listen, if
you find a person who could honestly be called a good man and the
scripture says they don't exist by nature, it doesn't matter
how good he is. If his doctrine is not from God,
it's no good. You see, we all know people,
and my heart goes out to them too, as far as people who are
deceived. You say, oh, he's such a good
man, or she's such a good woman. She prays, she does this, she
tries, she gives. My friend, if they don't believe
and teach the gospel, what does that mean? It's all for naught. If they do miracles, It's all
for naught. And that's what Christ is saying.
My doctrine is of God. Verse 17, if any man will do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine. You want to do the
will of God? Oh, I'm just trying to find the
will of God for my life. You're just stepping out in providence
and we're groping in the dark. We'll know it after it happens.
But if you want to know the will, learn the doctrine of Christ. The teachings of the Word of
God. Whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Now
they look to him as just a good man, a powerful man. Where did
this teaching come from? It came from God. Verse 18. 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. Now if we seek the glory of God,
Which I believe, if we're preaching the gospel, believing the gospel,
pointing sinners to Christ, I believe that's what we're doing. God
forbid that I should glory, boast, or have confidence except in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want you to look to me.
I don't want you to draw attention to me. I want you to look to
Christ. He's the issue. He's it. He's
everything. He says if you do that, there's
no unrighteousness in you. Now does that mean in my character
and in my conduct and in my mind, there's no unrighteousness? Absolutely
not. If that were so, I wouldn't have
the struggles that I do every day with myself. There are times
I'm my own worst enemy. Do you know that? But here's what he's saying.
If we preach Christ, if we preach the gospel, that is not an unrighteous
thing. I'm telling you this, if you're
going to stand before God righteous in God's sight, you cannot stand
there in your works, in your sincerity, in your decisions,
in your church membership, in anything but Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And that's a righteous thing.
That's not of me. I didn't come up with that. That
came from God. He says in verse 19, did not
Moses give you the law, the word? And yet none of you keepeth the
law. They claim to, but they didn't. Why go you about to kill
me? The people answered and said, thou hast the devil. Now understand
now, he's just preaching the word of God. And what do they
say of him? He has a devil. You're not telling us what we
want to hear. Thou hast the devil. Who goeth about to kill thee?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and
you all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you
circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers.
And you on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath
day receives circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be
broken, Are you angry at me because I've made a man every whit hole
on the Sabbath day? Now he's referring back to where
he healed that impotent man on the Sabbath day and they said
he's breaking the law. Christ did not break the law.
First of all, their view of the law was a perversion. Their judgment
of the law was a perversion. You see, Christ healed an impotent
man on the Sabbath. The Sabbath never forbade acts
of mercy or acts of necessity on the Sabbath. He never did. If your ox is in a ditch, get
it out. But they had perverted it to
the traditions of men, and he says, well now, you circumcised
a man on the Sabbath, and you say that's okay. You see, their
judgment was clouded. And this is what he said, judge
not according to the appearance. Judge righteous. You need to
get back to the Word of God. You need to find judgment based
on His Word alone. And his judgment always begins
with the gospel of how God justifies the ungodly, how God saves sinners
by His grace. There's no other way. Every other
way is evil. Now that's a judgment, but it's based upon what God
says, not on what I say or my opinion. It's what God says.
You understand that? That's righteous judgment.