All right, John chapter 7. The title of the message this
morning is Judge Righteous Judgment. Now, there's a decision to be
made, which way to follow in this matter of salvation. You
know, there's always been a religious division among men that's as
old as Cain and Abel. And those divisions are caused
for this reason. Who Christ is. How salvation
is obtained. And everybody you meet has an
opinion about this subject. How salvation is obtained. How
eternal life is obtained. Who the Lord Jesus Christ is.
There are many opinions. How do you tell which one is
right? One of them is right. The rest are wrong. How do you
tell which one is right? Well, the right way is the way
that God says is right, isn't it? This is the whole message. The right way is the way God
says is right. That's judging righteous judgment
that our Lord talks about in verse 24. Judging righteous judgment
is simply this. Agreeing with God. Agreeing with
what God says. Now we see this division begin
in verse 12 of our text. And there was much murmuring
among the people concerning him. For some said he's a good man.
Others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people, howbeit no man spake
openly of him for fear of the Jews." See, the issue is Christ. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is he just a good man? Is he an example or, you know,
some sort of good prophet? Or is he the only perfect and
righteous man who ever lived? Because he's no mere man, he's
the God-man. Or, I mean, that's what he said
he is. Or is he a deceiver? Now there's only two choices
here. There's no middle ground. The work of salvation is either
done entirely by the Lord Jesus Christ by himself as a gracious,
merciful act for his people, or salvation is done as a cooperative
effort between Christ and the sinner. Which is it? I don't ask you this question
as a hypothetical question. Everyone must decide. Which way
they're following? Which way do you choose? Which
way do you want? Which way are you following as
a hope of eternal life? I want you to answer this question
now. In your heart, I want you to answer this question. Are
you relying on Christ alone? Or are you relying on your works
of the law? It's one or the other. You're
either an outright legalist who tries your best to follow the
law and keep the Ten Commandments and thinks that that saves you.
That's relying on your law keeping as a way of salvation. Even if
you think your salvation, man, it has something to do with what
Christ did. It has something to do with what he did. But I
have to contribute too. I have to do, you know, people
have their favorite thing to add, whatever it is. You have
to add something to it to make it work. Well, now, if that's
what you think, and that's what a lot of people do think, then
that's following the law. Because salvation doesn't...
depend entirely on crisis of something that you have to contribute
to. So that's you following the law. Or you may fall in this
category. I just, you know, do my best
and do unto others and all those, you know, kinds of things. And
you'll turn all right in the end as long as you're basically
a good person. Well, that is putting all of your hope of salvation
in what you do. Law keeping. Or do you see yourself
as unable to do the first thing that would please God. Because
you're a dead sinner. Do you see yourself lost in Adam?
Dead in Adam? Dead in your own trespasses and
sins? So that, if you're going to be saved, Christ must do all
the saving. Do you see? I hope that's why
you see yourself. When I say relying on Christ, are you relying
on Christ? If you're relying on Christ,
this is what that means. That if Christ does not do all
the saving, then you'll be eternally damned. That's relying on Christ. It's one or the other. Now, there's
no middle ground. Now, look at verse 14. About
the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
Now, our Lord went up to Jerusalem in the middle of the feast. He
went to the temple and publicly taught. Now, wouldn't you like
to have been there? And we don't know what his subject
was. We don't have his outline. If I did, I'd have borrowed it,
believe me. I'm above borrowing an outline from somebody that's
a good one. But I think it's safe to assume this. Our Lord
taught the scriptures. And I bet you, he taught the
scriptures specifically concerning this Feast of the Tabernacles.
And he gave the people the spiritual meaning of what they're doing.
You see, at this Feast, they offered more sacrifices. than
any of the other feasts that they observed over the course
of the year. They offered more sacrifices here. Will you reckon
our Lord told them what those sacrifices mean? He gave them
the spiritual meaning of those sacrifices. And the people were
excited. They said, I see what he's saying. I see that. I've never heard.
How come nobody ever told me this before? He gave them the
real meaning of what they're doing. Can you imagine the difference? from what they heard and what
they expected to hear. They went to the temple that
morning. They probably expected the Pharisees just to give them
a dry reading. That's what they did. They read
the Old Testament scriptures. It was dry. It was dead. But they heard the Lord teaching,
giving spiritual truths. I mean, what a difference between
the gracious teaching of our Lord explaining what those sacrifices
pictured compared to the legal demands that the Pharisees just
kept heaping on the backs of the people. You've got some idea
how refreshing that was to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, your grace and mercy through the blood of a sacrifice.
They just they'd never heard anything like this before. So
verse 15, the Jews marveled, saying, how about this man letters
having never learned? They marveled at our Lord. They
marveled at his subject matter. He spoke like he knew what he
was talking about. He did. So they thought, well,
who taught him that? He learned that from any of our
teachers. And this is the reason they gave this accusation. He
didn't learn that from any of our teachers, so he can't be
trusted. Because if we didn't teach him,
how can you trust him if we didn't teach him? You know, we're the
ones with the, you know, degrees and the... How can you trust
him if we didn't teach him? And they used this charge as
a reason not to believe Jesus of Nazareth. But if you look
in Deuteronomy 18, I tell you, that's the reason to believe
him. That's the very reason to believe him, because no man taught
him these truths. His message is from God himself.
In Deuteronomy 18, verse 18, This is a promise of the coming
Messiah. I'll raise them up a prophet. You notice that capital P? That's
speaking of a person. I'll raise them up a prophet.
The prophet. For among their brethren, like
unto thee. And I'll put my words in his
mouth. And he shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. He'll speak not what men teach
him. He'll speak the words God put in his mouth. He'll speak
what God commanded him to preach. See, these Pharisees said this
is the reason not to believe him. But that's the reason to
believe him, isn't it? They didn't teach him. His message
is from God. And that's what our Lord tells
them in verse 16. Jesus answered them and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but my doctrine is his that sent
me. Now, his doctrine, his teaching, well, it was his, wasn't it?
Because he's God. It's his doctrine because Christ
is the author of it. Christ is the subject of it.
Christ is the glory of it. His doctrine is His because the
teaching of the gospel, the teaching of scripture, it's all about
Him. It's about His redemptive work,
His life, His death, His resurrection. His doctrine is His because all
the treasures of the gospel are hidden where? In Christ. So it
is His doctrine. All the teaching of the gospel
points to Christ. That's what all these Old Testament
scriptures. Our Lord expounded. on the Old Testament scriptures,
showing them how all those scriptures pointed to one place, to one
person, to Him. He's our all in all. And we don't
have a gospel to preach without Christ. He is the sum and substance
of the gospel. So, His doctrine is His. But
our Lord's not speaking here as God. He's not speaking as
the Son of God. He's speaking as the Servant
of God. And as the Servant of God, as the Prophet of God, His
doctrine, his teaching wasn't his. It was the teaching of the
Father who sent him. No man taught him his gospel
or his doctrine. He didn't invent it himself.
God gave it to him. And that's what he gave to the
people. And if you look in Galatians chapter 1, every servant of God
receives our message the exact same way. It's the message that
God gives us. In Galatians 1 verse 11. But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it. But how? By the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's how we come to know the
gospel. By the revelation of Jesus Christ. And that message,
that doctrine is one doctrine. You notice our Lord didn't say
my doctrines. He didn't start talking about
the doctrines plural of grace, did he? He said, my doctrine.
And there's a reason for that. Doctrines, plural, in scripture,
every time the word is used, refers to false doctrine, false
gospels. They refer to the lies of men.
And we'll read you just a few of them. Matthew 15, verse 9. But in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Doctrines aren't the
commandment of God. Doctrines are the commandments
of men. The commandment of God is one
doctrine. 1 Timothy 4.1, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. Doctrines are the commandments
of men and the doctrines, the teaching of devils. Hebrews 13.9,
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. They haven't
profited anybody. Doctrines are commandments of
men, doctrines of devils, and strange doctrines. They have
no profit. But the doctrine is true. There's just one whole truth.
And you take away one pillar of that truth, and you take away
the whole truth. It's one whole truth. False doctrine. is determined, is identified
more by what it doesn't say than what it does say. False doctrine
is seen in what it leaves out a whole lot more than by what
it does say. Look at Matthew chapter 23. If
someone can say a whole string of true things and not preach
the truth, can't they? Because of what they leave out. Matthew 23, verse 23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint, and
anise, and cumin, and you have omitted the weightier matters
of the law. You have omitted judgment, mercy,
and faith. These ought ye to have done.
Not leave the other undone. That is true. But you are false
doctors. You are hypocrites. You are false
teachers because of what you have left out. You have left
out judgment, mercy, and faith. False prophets will say a lot
of good things. They'll say many true things. They'll even say
true things about Jesus. But they won't go far enough.
And that's what makes them false prophets. They'll say he's good
and he's kind and what would Jesus do? You ought to follow
his example. And they stop there. And that makes their message
a false message. The Lord Jesus Christ is not just a good man.
He's the only good man. And when we say he's the only
good man, what does that say about you and me? If he's the
only good man, that says you and I are bad. He's the only
good one. Everybody else is bad. Everybody
else is completely sinful. So what does that mean if Christ
is the only good man? Salvation can only be found in
him. Salvation is found in his blood, the blood we talked about
in the red of the tabernacle. Salvation is found in his righteousness. The only way you and I can ever
be righteous is in him. He's the only good man. False
prophets don't say that, do they? And that's what makes their message
false, what they leave out. You can identify by what they
leave out of their message. The truth is one truth. The truth is one doctrine. Look
at 2 John, verse 9. The truth is one doctrine. Well, what is it? Well, God's
Word tells us. If you're not left to guess,
God's Word tells us. What is the doctrine? 2 John, verse 9. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. The doctrine is the doctrine of Christ, isn't it? It's the
doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is that doctrine? The doctrine
of Christ is the doctrine of who Christ is. He's the God-man. Come to this earth, two natures
in one person so that he can satisfy God and he can be the
representative of sinful men. Look back at 1 John chapter 4. See, this is the dividing line
between doctrines and doctrine. The doctrine of Christ. Who is
he? Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits."
These are preachers. You try them, whether they're
of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Now, hereby, here's how you know the spirit of God. Every spirit,
every preacher that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And
this is that spirit of Antichrist. Whereof ye have heard that it
should come, and even now already is it in the world." Now, what
does it mean that God come in the flesh? It's not just that
Jesus appeared in the flesh. God appeared in the flesh for
this reason, to accomplish the salvation of His elect by being
their representative, by being their substitute. It's what did
He accomplish when He came in the flesh? Who is He? come to
be the sacrifice and substitute for His people. The doctrine
of Christ is what Christ did. What did He do when He appeared
in the flesh? He accomplished the salvation of sin. He accomplished the salvation
of His people. Salvation is a finished work.
That's what He did when He came to earth. He accomplished the
salvation of His people. He accomplished perfect righteousness
that He imputes to His people. What did he do? He came and he
accomplished the sacrifice for sins. That's why we don't offer
sacrifices anymore. All those Old Testament priests
did is offer sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. Well,
we still offer sacrifices. Because Christ offered the one
sacrifice that put sin away forever. That's what he did. The doctrine
of Christ is why Christ did what he did. Why did he do that? Did
he come to make salvation possible? Did He come to give you a chance
to decide for salvation? Or did He accomplish the salvation
of His people so that God could be just and justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus? That's why He came. So God could
be just and justifier. Now listen, before God can do
anything for any sinner, God must do something for Himself. He must be satisfied. God must
put sin away and he must glorify his every attribute before he
can do anything for a sinner. Christ came to satisfy the Father
so that his people could be brought back and enable the Father to
be just and justifier. The doctrine of Christ is where
he is now. Now, everybody will tell you,
well, he's in heaven. Why is he in heaven? Why is he
there? Because his sacrifice got the
job done. If his sacrifice did not accomplish
the salvation of his people, Dale would still be in the tomb.
But he's risen and gone back to the Father because his sacrifice
accomplished the salvation of his people. And at this moment,
he's on the throne of heaven, ruling and reigning. He's not
there wringing his hands, wondering if somebody will accept him or
reject him. Oh, won't somebody accept me today? No. He's ruling
and reigning. He knows his elect. And he knows they'll all come
to him. He's accomplishing his purpose
of redemption on the throne of heaven. And he'll sit there on
that throne till the appointed day. He comes back to this earth
as king. The first time he came as a sacrifice.
The first time he came as a lamb. He's returning as the King where
He'll judge the world in righteousness. He'll destroy eternally every
enemy. And He'll bring His people home
to be with Him eternally, to behold His face eternally. That's the doctrine of Christ. Who is He? What did He do? Why did He do it? And where is
He now? See, I told you, I'm not above robbing an outline.
You've heard that outline many times. Well, here's all these
doctrines. the doctrines of men, and the
doctrine of Christ. How can I tell? Well, it can
be subtle. Now, how do I tell? Here's how
you tell. Look back in our text, verse
17. It's very simple. Who gets the glory? John 7, verse
17. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. Now, our Lord says, if any man
will do his will. You know he doesn't mean if any man will
perfectly do God's will, or if any man will perfectly obey God's
law. This is what he means. If you have a heart that's set
on knowing God, if your heart is set on knowing God's will
and you won't be satisfied until you know it, then you can know
if a preacher is sent by God or not. Because God will reveal
that to you. If you really want to know the
truth, you won't be deceived. But here's the question. Are
you willing to bow to it? Are you willing to be saved on
God's terms? Are you willing to accept the
truth about what God says about who you are and who He is? Are you willing to bow to that
and beg Him for mercy? That's the question. If so, our
Lord says you won't be deceived because God will reveal the truth
to you and He'll reveal it in you. But now listen, God must
do the revealing. You'll never bow to this unless
God reveals His Son to you. The doctrine of Christ is divine
doctrine, right? He said God the Father gave it
to him, so it's by definition divine doctrine. Well, then it
can't be understood with the natural mind. It can't be believed
through the natural mind. I mean, I can work really hard
trying to make this simple so you can understand it with the
natural mind, but you'll never believe it with the natural mind
because it's divine doctrine. God must reveal it to you. The
doctrine of Christ is the gospel that saves sinners. You can only
understand it by divine revelation. The gospel can only be believed
through divine, God-given faith. And God gives that faith to everybody
who seeks it. Now, there's a division. Here's
the two ways of salvation. There's law and grace. There's
law and Christ. You can't know the forgiveness
of sins. through the law. The law doesn't
tell you anything about forgiving sin. You can't know grace through
the law. The law doesn't tell you anything
about grace. The only way you can know the forgiveness of sins
is in Christ. The only way you can know about
grace, saving grace, is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
only way we'll know Him is if the Holy Spirit reveals Him to
our hearts. This is why our Lord says in verse 18, and here's
how you tell the difference. He is speaketh of himself, speaketh
his own glory. But he that seeketh his glory
that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in
him. Here's how you identify a false prophet. Just remember,
who gets the glory? That's the question to ask. Who
gets the glory? That's how you can identify a
true prophet and a false prophet. False prophets always, without
exception, talk about themselves. Now, it's not just talking about
themselves. I mean, that's so easy to see
when they're constantly talking about themselves. Holly and I
were watching a special on TV the other day. She didn't really
know Jim and Baker and Tammy Faye. And they're showing clips
of their old TV program they had. And she looked at me and
said, people fell for that? Oh, by the droves. Now, why,
I don't know. Because what do they talk about?
Themselves. Well, that's easy to see. But
what they talk about is this. Not just themselves. The flesh,
they talk about people like them. They give the flesh something
to do to contribute to salvation in some way, whether it be large
or small, they glorify the flesh in salvation. They tell you salvation
is something that you have to finalize somehow. You know, you've
got to walk an aisle, make a decision or do something. You know, if
you don't decide to accept Jesus, he can't say this. Jesus has
done everything he can do. Now it's up to you. See, that's
glorifying the flesh and it can be so subtle. That's not too
subtle. I mean, you can pick that off pretty easy, but I'm
telling you, it can be subtle. You're saved if you know this,
you know, whatever, you know, fill in the blank. There's their
pet doctrine. Then you're saved. And brethren, that's glorifying
the flesh. That's something the flesh must know in order to be
saved. That's not salvation that God's
word describes. That's self-promoting. It's promoting
the flesh. And that can't be salvation because
knowledge is not revelation. Revelation is knowing a person,
knowing Christ, not a thing. Now, God's preacher, on the other
hand, has a very singular message. God's servants preach Christ. Now, saying we have a singular
message doesn't mean we harp on one doctrine over and over
and over again. Harping on a person or harping, preaching to the
Lord Jesus Christ God's servants will only preach Christ. And
they'll do it for the glory of God. And they'll tell you the
truth. God's servants will tell you
the truth no matter what it costs them. God's servants will not
change their message in order to keep you coming. They won't
change your message in order to keep you giving something
in the offering plate. God's servants won't change their
message depending on who's listening. Because God's servants know this.
The truth is the truth no matter where you are. Or who's listening? I'm going to go to Mexico in
January. I haven't exactly determined how to preach through an interpreter
yet, but I can tell you what I'm going to preach. The exact
same thing I preached to you here. Exactly. Because it doesn't
matter whether you're Americans or whether you're Mexicans. The
truth's the truth. No matter. No matter. And if
you hear doctrines, you hear teaching, you hear preaching
that humbles the flesh, and glorifies God, good chance it's true doctrine. Look at 1 Corinthians 1. Good
chance it's true doctrine if it humbles the flesh and glorifies
God. Verse 28, or I'm sorry, verse
29. Now this is verse 28. And base things of the world,
and things which are despised, those are the things God's Yea,
in things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are,
for this reason, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God," listen to the glory he gets, "'who of God is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord.'" That's true doctrine. Doctrine that puts flesh in the
dust and glorifies God. That's how you tell. Now, there's
a division between these doctrines of men and the doctrines of Christ.
Now, you decide. You decide this. Which way are
you in? Everybody's in a way. Which way
are you in? You make a righteous judgment
about which way is the true way. Look at verse 19, back in our
text. Now, our Lord says, did not Moses give you the law? And
let none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?"
Now, God's the lawgiver, but the law was delivered by Moses. That's why they call it the Law
of Moses. And somehow they kind of seem to get this thing twisted. It was Moses' law. No, it's God's
law. Moses delivered it. And these Pharisees and religious
leaders, you know, they claimed to love the law, didn't they?
They claimed to know it. They claimed to keep it. But
boy, our Lord turns the tables on them. He turns the law against
them. See, they claimed nobody should listen to the Lord because
they hadn't taught Him the law. Nobody should listen to Him because
they hadn't taught Him what to say. He says, you've got the
letter of the law, so why don't you obey it? Right at this moment,
He reveals their heart. He reveals their secret desires.
You're trying to kill me. And that's a violation of the
sixth commandment. See, they had the law. They knew good and
well it was wrong to try to kill somebody. But what were they
trying to do? Take our Lord Jesus and kill Him. They knew the law,
but the law couldn't give them a heart that loved the law-giver,
could it? They knew the law. I mean, anybody can read it and
understand what that says. Thou shalt not kill. Everybody
understands what that means. But the law can't give you the
ability to keep the law, can it? It can't give you the ability
not to want to at least kill somebody, can it? It can't give
you that ability. The only thing that doctrines
of men can produce is hypocrites. They just pretend to you that
they've kept the law. But in their heart, they haven't.
Verse 20, the people answered and said, well, that's the devil.
You're crazy. He's going to about to kill you. Now, these people
seem like they're just the ordinary people, the country folk who
come to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles. And they
were deceived. They really thought I was trying
to kill you. What are you talking about? You
know why they thought that? Their religious leaders had deceived
them with their religious veneer. That outward keeping of the law
fooled them into thinking, well, they're trying to kill you. They
were fooled. Now, don't you be fooled. You
judge righteous judgment. Don't you be fooled by others.
But more importantly, don't be deceived by your own heart. Judge
righteous judgment. about the Lord Jesus Christ,
and here is an example of the difference between the doctrines
of men and the doctrine of Christ. Jesus answered and said unto
them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore
gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but it
is of the fathers. And ye on the sabbath day circumcise
a man. Now if a man on the sabbath day
receives circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken,
are ye angry at me? because I've made a man every
whit hole on the Sabbath day. Now, the one work our Lord is
talking about is healing the impotent man on the Sabbath day.
Remember, he told him, take up your bed and walk. Well, these
Pharisees, they had the letter of the law. They're offended
by that. They said, you broke the Sabbath
rest. That's the doctrines of men. This man's healed after
38 years of laying on a mat and they're mad. That's the doctrines
of men. And our Lord compares what he
did on the Sabbath day to circumcising a baby on the Sabbath day, which
they commonly did. Now, circumcision, he points
out to them, this is not the law of Moses. It's older than
Moses. It was given to Abraham, and it was reaffirmed or confirmed
by Moses. But even though circumcision
requires work, they would still circumcise a child on the Sabbath
day. Now, suppose doing work on the Sabbath day, but if a
child's eight days of life happened to fall on the Sabbath day, they
would circumcise that baby. They would do the work of circumcision
and then they would do the work to heal the wound that they caused
on the Sabbath day. And that wasn't breaking the
Sabbath because this is a work of necessity that fell upon the
Sabbath day. All right. Our Lord didn't just
do work of necessity on the Sabbath day, did he? He didn't cause
a wound on the Sabbath day. He healed a man on the Sabbath
day. And our Lord didn't just heal
a small wound on the Sabbath day. He made a man every whit
hole, body and soul. This wasn't just a work of necessity.
It was a work of mercy, healing a man on the Sabbath day. And
the Pharisees, it's so perverted through judgment. They hated
the work of mercy. They hated it. That's the doctrines
of men. They hate mercy. You see the
difference? The doctrines of men use the
law to wound on the Sabbath. The doctrine of Christ heals
all of our wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that cover
us from the top of our head to the sole of our foot. The doctrines
of men allow you to try to heal a small wound on the Sabbath
day. The doctrine of Christ makes a sinner every whit hole. The doctrines of men use the
law to pronounce other men are guilty. The doctrine of Christ
makes guilty sinners righteous. The doctrines of men, men take
those things and use them to judge others and condemn others
to death. The doctrine of Christ gives guilty sinners eternal
life. The doctrines of men fill men
with fear. You know, their fear of the law.
It's like I've never been good enough. I haven't done enough.
They're full of fear and full of fear of men. What if they
find out what I think, what I am? What if I mess up and they see
me? Full of fear. The doctrine of
Christ removes all fear. What if I sin? You will, but
there's no condemnation in it because Christ has suffered the
condemnation for you. There's no judgment left in it
because Christ has been judged for you, so there's nothing to
be afraid of. The doctrine of Christ removes
all fear. The doctrines of men put enormous burdens on men. The doctrine of Christ gives
rest, gives the fulfillment of this Sabbath day that they're
so bent out of shape about. Christ gives rest. A work of necessity was allowed
on the Sabbath day, so You know, they said that wouldn't violate
the Sabbath rest. Let me ask you a question. In
the work of redemption and necessity, what's more necessary to your
soul? What do you need more than mercy,
than the work of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ? Nothing
could be more necessary than that. Now. Each of us, each of
you, judge righteous judgment and you decide. Which side of
this great divide that you're on? And I can tell you how to
decide. Look at verse 24. Judge not according
to the appearance, but judge a righteous judgment. Now our
Lord says, judge not according to the appearance. That doesn't
mean you mothers with you've got your small children out.
You see the snarling dog, his barren teeth, it's drooling and
foaming at the mouth. And you think, well, I can't
keep my children away from that dog because I'm not supposed to judge by
the appearance. Or you see this wild looking strange man, he's
acting all wild and crazy, and you're with his children, so
I can't, you know, kind of shield my children because I'm not supposed
to judge by appearance. Please, let's know what that
means. Be wise. Use the mind God gave you. Be
wise. Somebody said God gave you one body and a mind to protect
it. You know, just be wise. What
this means is this. Don't judge spiritual truth by
appearance. Don't judge spiritual truth by
only what you can perceive and understand with your natural
mind. Somebody told me one time, I
can't believe the gospel you preach because I can't understand
it. That's not righteous judgment. That's judging by appearance
what you can understand and perceive with your natural mind. Judge
every truth according to the light of God's Word. And in the
light of this Word, You can always see truth in error. You can perceive
truth in error every time in the light of God's Word. The
Scripture never teaches us not to make a judgment. Judge not
that you not be judged. The Scripture never teaches us
not to make a judgment about false prophets. It doesn't. Matter of fact, it tells us to
make that judgment. And it tells us how to make that judgment.
And you make that judgment by this single criteria. Does their
message agree with God's word? If it does, it's true doctrine.
If it doesn't, it's the doctrines of devils. It's that simple.
Judge by what God says in his word. You make a judgment about
who God is. Everybody here has a judgment
in their mind about who God is. Well, make that judgment by who
he says he is in his word. You make a judgment. Everybody's
got a judgment. Everybody's got a way in their
mind that they've decided how sinners can be saved. Well, if
you judge righteous judgment, you decide how sinners can be
saved based on what God says in His Word. How does God say
He saves sinners? That's the way. Well, then I'll
follow that. That's righteous judgment. You
see, what we really think about any subject doesn't matter. The
only thing that matters It's what does God's Word say? Somebody
says, well, I'm just going to believe what my family always
believed. Well, that's not righteous judgment. What does God's Word
say? Then that's what I'm going to
believe. Whether I understand it or not, I'm going to believe
that. What we think about God, what we think about ourselves
and other men, matters nothing. The only thing that matters is
what does God's Word say? And I can give you a perfect
example of it. The Pharisee and the public went to the temple
to pray. Now, you look at those two fellows and wonder who I
want to be my neighbor. We judge that by outward appearance.
That Pharisee, oh, he kept the law. He can tell you everything
he did. That publican, he hadn't done anything right. Oh, what
a wretch. He's an outcast from society. But what did our Lord
say? That Pharisee was concerned with
the outward appearance. So you judge him based on his
outward appearance. The publican wasn't concerned
with outward appearance. He smote on his breast. Here's
the root of the problem. My heart. God be merciful to
me the sinner who went down to this house justified. What does
God's Word say? God's Word says that publican
did. That's where justification is found. That's judging righteous
judgment. It agrees with God's Word. See,
I know who God is. And I know who I am in the light
of God's Word. Well, then it's obvious. Just
read it. Just read God's Word. Then it's obvious. If I'm going
to be saved, I must be saved by what God does for me. I've
got to be saved by Christ alone without any contribution from
me. That's righteous judgment, because that agrees with God's
Word. And there won't be any division
among believers over that issue. None whatsoever. Every believer
agrees completely on this issue. I'm saved by Christ alone, because
God has brought our minds into subjection to his word. That's righteous judgment. All
right, well, the Lord will bless that to you. Let's bow in prayer.
Our Father, how we beg of thee that you would bless your word
to our hearts. Father, we beg of Thee that You
give us faith, God-given faith to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us a heart that loves Your
Word, that reads Your Word, that clings to Your Word. If we have
any hope outside of the hope for sinners that's revealed in
Your Word, Father, we pray, strip it from us. Cause us to cling
to the Lord Jesus Christ that's revealed in your Word. How thankful
we are that you've given us your Word. So many generations did
not have it, but you've given your Word to us to hold in our
laps, to read. Father, we pray that as we read,
as we preach through thy Word, that you give us faith to believe,
a heart that clings to the Lord Jesus Christ for he alone is
worthy of all of our trust, all of our praise, all of our love,
all of our adoration. Of course, in his precious name
we pray.