Let's look at verse 49 again
in Luke chapter 24. This is right before the ascension.
These are the last words we hear of before he ascended back into
glory. He had been on earth 40 days
after the resurrection, instructing his disciples. And these are
his last words. And behold, I send the promise
of my father upon you. Now we know from Acts chapter
one, verses four and five, that this is the promise of the baptism
and the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is a special promise. And he doesn't give them any
instructions with regarding what you need to do to get it. He
didn't say you need to read the Bible more, you need to pray
more, you need to suppress sin more, you need to be more holy,
you need to be more obedient, and then you'll have this filling
of the Holy Spirit. He says nothing like that. He
simply says, wait at Jerusalem. Wait at Jerusalem until you be
endued. clothed with power from on high. I've entitled this message, Endued
with Power. And what took place when this
promise was fulfilled? You can read about it in Acts
chapter 2. They had been waiting in Jerusalem.
for the filling, for the baptism, for the power, for the promise
of the Father, the power of the Spirit of God to come upon them.
And when he came upon them, they got up and they started preaching
the gospel. And they preach the gospel in
17 different languages that are mentioned. They were given the
gift of tongues to speak the gospel in other languages. And in this first gospel message,
and we don't read where this ever happened, and I don't know
if it's ever happening again. I'd like for it to. And who's
to say it won't, but we don't read of it ever happening again.
When Peter preached, 3,000 people. were brought to a saving knowledge
and a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine that?
And we read of these people's prayer in Acts chapter four,
just a couple of days later. It's so beautiful. We've been
looking at that for the last couple of weeks, but when our
Lord finished preaching and this group before Pentecost,
there were 120 believers. 120. But after this promise of the
Father, the gospel was to be spread all over the world. And I know this book is called
the Acts of the Apostles, but it could also be called the Acts
of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. Now, the Lord
is giving them his final commission to preach the
gospel to every man alive on this planet. Go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now you think
of what a daunting task that must have been to think of doing
that. You're to leave everything You're
to go into all the world, every country, every nation, wherever
it might be, and preach the gospel to every creature. That is your
marching orders. Now you think of what a daunting
task they must have been faced with. And not only that, furthermore,
it was a message that men would actually be antagonistic toward.
You are telling a message to men that's going to make them
hate you. He said, you will be hated of all men for my sake
in preaching this message. It's a message that men are not
going to like. You're going to be telling them
that God is absolutely sovereign and you're in his hands and he
can do with you whatever he's pleased to do. You're going to
tell them that they're dead in sins and can't save themselves.
They're completely depraved. You're going to be telling them
that God elected a people and Christ came to save those people.
This is a message that men do not like. It's an authoritative
message. You know, when you bring this message, you're going to
say, believe this and be saved. Don't believe it and be damned.
That's the way you're going to be bringing this message. And
people don't like to hear anything like that. They don't like to
hear that there's a divine authority behind this and I must believe
to be saved. You're going to hear that God's
grace actually saves and you're going to be telling men to hate
themselves. You're going to be telling men
to deny themselves. You're going to be telling men
that if they save their life, they're going to lose it. But
if you lose your life for Christ's sake, you're going to find it.
You're going to be telling men to deny themselves, take up their
cross, and follow me, and to forsake all you have for him.
Now, for one thing, spreading this message, and for another
thing, bringing a message is going to bring about the enmity
of men. How can that be done? Well, humanly speaking, it's
impossible, isn't it? But he says, you wait for the promise
of my father, the filling of God, the Holy Spirit. That's
the only way this can be successful. The omnipotent Spirit of God
will endure. You will clothe you with power. so that you can perform this
mighty act. And it's amazing how the gospel
was spread. Without the use of the internet,
without telephones, without radios and TVs, they went out everywhere
preaching the gospel. And within 300 years, the whole
world pretty much had heard the gospel. And it's because they
were clothed with this power. Now, I want us to consider just
what this promise is. Turn back to John chapter 14. This is where the Lord first
makes this promise, the promise of his father. Verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments,
John chapter 14 verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments
and I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him. For he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. Now, before I get into what that
means, I need to spend just a couple of minutes talking about an error
that has come out of this verse of Scripture that many people
have received. It's called dispensationalism. People look at this verse of
scripture and they think Old Testament believers didn't have
the Holy Spirit the way New Testament believers did. But in this, probably
most of you haven't even been exposed to this, but some of
you have, they believe that there's different dispensations. There
was the dispensation before the fall, but Adam fell, so that
didn't work, so then God tried the law. And the law didn't work,
so God tried the gospel. And you have something like seven
different dispensations. And in this belief, and it's
ridiculous, it's ridiculous, but in this belief, they believe
that saints didn't have the same experience of the Holy Spirit
in the Old Testament that we do in the New Testament. And
they take this verse, you know, He dwells with you. They had
the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, but they didn't have the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit. Because when He comes, now you're
going to have Him dwelling in you, as opposed to simply being
with you. Now, you've got to look at one scripture
in light of other scriptures. And if that's so, the Old Testament
saints were saved differently than we are. Maybe they weren't
as depraved back then, and it was okay for them to just have
the Spirit with them. And New Testament believers are so sinful,
I guess, that they need to be born of the Spirit. But that
whole idea is ridiculous. Abel. Abel, why did he believe? Because he was born of God. He
believed the same gospel you and I do. By faith, Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice. And the reason he believed is
because he was born of God. Cain offered the fruit of his
works. Why? He wasn't born again. He
had no understanding and no concept of the character of God, and
he thought he could come into God's presence in his works.
But when you're born of God, you know that the only way you
can approach God is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You wouldn't dare come any other way. That's part of being born
again. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11 for
just a moment. Keep your finger there in John
14 and turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Verse one, now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it
the elders obtained a good report. These Old Testament believers,
they believe the same gospel you and I believe. They look
to him who is to come, we look to him who has come, but we have
the same object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Verse Three, through faith, we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so
that the things which are seen were not made of things which
do appear. By faith, the same faith you possess if you're a
believer, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
as of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith,
even it was translated that he should not see death, and he
was not found because God had translated him. For before his
translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. And I've
read so many sermons on this. Enoch walked with God. He pleased
God so much, God just brought him into heaven. We'll read verse six. But without
faith, it's impossible to please him. The only way Enoch could please
God is as he's found in Christ. And he looks to Christ only as
everything in his salvation. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. Now, this promise of the Spirit
that he's speaking of doesn't really have anything
to do with being born again. It's talking about this supernatural
gift, this undoing of power that he was giving them for the spread
of the gospel. Like I said, before Christ's
ascension, 120 believers in all the world. After his ascension
and the undoing of the Holy Spirit, thousands of people were brought
to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with
me to Acts chapter one. Verse four, and being assembled
together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which
saith he, you've heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Not many
days hence, within just a few days. Now look in chapter 2.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind. And it filled all
the houses where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues, like as a fire it set upon each of them. And
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." And we
read of 17 different languages that the gospel was preached,
and everybody heard the gospel in their own language. Now, we
know what they were saying, too. Look in verse 11. He talks about
the last two of the 17 languages, Creech and Arabians. We do hear
them speak in our tongues, and here is their subject. Here is
their preaching. The wonderful works of God. That's what they were preaching.
People think that tongues are some kind of heavy language that
you don't understand, but your spirit is edified and God understands. Tongues are the ability to preach
the gospel in other languages. That's what is meant by that.
And somebody says, well, can people still do it? No. Because
those gifts have ceased. How do you know that? Because
Acts chapter 8 says when they saw that by the laying on of
the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given. It was only
the apostles that could transform these gifts. And people who claim
to have the gifts are phonies. Because this died out with the
apostles. Now that we have the full canon
of scripture, it's not even needed in the first place. I've actually
thought, boy, it would be nice to be able to perform miracles,
wouldn't it? What if I could heal people? Why, this place
would be packed out. What if I could raise the dead? What if I could do what the apostles
did? But evidently, while we think
that'd be good, evidently it's not because this gift is no longer
needed and it's not a part of gospel preaching. It's the preaching
of the gospel, the wonderful works of God. You go on reading
here in Acts chapter 2. They thought, well, these people
are drunk. And Peter says in verse 15, for
these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing it's but the
third hour of the day, but this is that which was spoken by the
prophet Joel. And he goes on to just this amazing
message from the Old Testament scriptures that how did he learn
all this? How did he come to this understanding of the scriptures
and preach so boldly like this? Because of the indwelling and
the infilling and the filling of God the Holy Spirit. Look at the next day, they healed
a man, Peter and John. They healed a man that was born
lame. He was raised up, got up jumping up and down. And they
were arrested for that. I think that's amazing. If you
think about it, it was because they did it in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, but they were arrested for that. And so the people really
admired Peter and John at this time, and the priests were afraid
that they'd get in trouble. So they went ahead and let them
go. And the church prays, but look here in verse 29 of chapter
four. And now Lord behold their threatenings and grant unto thy
servants that with all boldness, They may speak thy word by stretching
forth thy hand to heal and the signs and wonders might be done
by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. Now let's
go back to John 14. Verse 16, and I will pray the
father and he shall give you another comforter. I love the
way God, the Holy spirit is called the comforter. What a blessed
name for the spirit of God. I need to be comforted. I need
the comforts of the gospel. I look what he says in verse
17, even the spirit of truth. There's another name for the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. He only works through the truth. That's it. I love that passage
of Scripture in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, but we're bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. God the Holy Spirit always
works through the truth. He doesn't use error. Why should
he? Why should he? Well, because nobody preaches.
Well, he'll raise up somebody to preach. That's not a problem
with God the Holy Spirit. He does not use error. I've heard people say concerning
preachers, they preach error. That which is contrary to the
Scriptures, but every now and then again, they'll say something
that's true. Well, can God use that? Well,
He could if He wanted to, but He doesn't. He only uses the
truth. How can they preach except they
be what? Sent. That's the only way. He only uses the truth of the
character of God, the truth regarding man and his sinfulness, the truth
of salvation, being of the Lord Christ, being all in salvation.
He is the spirit of truth. Even the spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive because it knoweth him not, but you know
him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. He is called
the comforter. This one who uses the truth,
he's called the comforter. And wherever you have the Holy
Spirit, you have the truth and you have the comfort of the gospel. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and say unto her that her warfare, listen to these words, her warfare
is accomplished. Paul just read Romans chapter
seven of that warfare that's going on. You know what? You're
still already won. That's true. Oh, I'm so thankful
for Romans seven. There is a warfare. But it is
over. It's over. How come? Tell her
her iniquity is pardoned. She's received the Lord's hand
double for all her sins. Now, when you have the feeling
of the Holy Spirit, you have the truth and you have the comfort
of the gospel. Look in verse 26 of chapter 14. but the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach
you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I've said unto you. Now, like I said, Peter preaches
this amazing message in Acts chapter 2 with such an understanding
of the Scriptures. He quotes three different Psalms
to bring the Gospel out of that. You look at the understanding
of the early church in Acts chapter 4. That prayer where we see what
they really believed after they'd only been converted two or three
days. How do you count for this? The Holy Spirit. It says, whom the father will send in
my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to
your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Turn to John chapter
16, verse seven. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It's expedient. It's absolutely
necessary for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. Yes, it's the father who sends
him, but I do too. This is his equality with the
father. He's going to send the comforter for this filling of
the Holy Spirit for the preaching of the gospel. Verse eight. And when he is come, he will
reprove. Convince is what my marginal
reading says. Convict. When he has come, this
is what he's going to do. And this is what any true gospel
preacher preaches. It's always his message. When
he has come, he will reprove, convict, convince the world. Now, somebody says, what's meant
by the world? Well, Same thing the Lord meant when he said God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. I love that verse of scripture.
People use that to say well Christ died for everybody and God loves
everybody and wants everybody to be saved. Scripture doesn't
say that. It says God so loved the world that whosoever believed
on him He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now God
the Holy Spirit is gonna come to the world, just whatever John
3 16 means, same thing, you know it doesn't mean all men without
exception, because all men without exception do not have any conviction
of sin, of righteousness and judgment. But God the Holy Spirit
is gonna come with this threefold conviction. And if God the Holy
Spirit ever convinces me or you of anything, if He gives us a
new heart to believe, Here's what it is. When he has come,
he will reprove, convince, convict the world of these three things,
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now, when God the
Holy Spirit deals with somebody, this is true Holy Spirit conviction. There's so much that's said,
or that's been said, I think erroneously about Holy Spirit
conviction. You know, if you have Holy Spirit conviction,
you'll experience this, and you'll get all these feelings and experiences
you'll have. Here's Holy Spirit conviction.
The other stuff is human conviction. You remember when those fellas
had brought the woman taken in adultery and set her before the
Lord and the Lord said, he that's without sin among you, let him
first cast a stone at her. Scripture says they being convicted
by their own consciences, they left the Lord. Now human conviction
will make you leave him. God the Holy Spirit conviction
will make it come to him every time and here is this threefold
conviction the Lord gives us three words sin righteousness
and judgment we don't have to guess about what he meant by
this look what he says in verse nine of sin because they believe
not on me You have never been convicted of sin by the Holy
Spirit until you find out that you do not believe. You've never believed until you
found out that you do not believe, that you cannot believe, and
that faith is out of your reach. As long as you think you can
believe, You've never been convicted of
the Holy Spirit. Because when the Holy Spirit convicts someone
of sin, they're convinced of this fact that they can't come
up with faith. Now, whenever you find out that
free will is a myth, it's just not true, and you can't come
up with faith, you know what you're going to do? You're going
to ask the Lord to give it to you. You're going to be convinced
that you're an unbeliever. Have you ever been an unbeliever?
Somebody says I've been saved all my life. That's way too long.
Have you ever been an unbeliever? That is when God the Holy Spirit
has convicted you when you find out you're an unbeliever, that
you do not believe, that you cannot believe, that you don't
even know what it means to believe. And when you reach that, that's
when God is teaching you. And that's when you're going
to ask the Lord to give you faith. And that's when you're really
going to believe. You know, at this point, when you believe, you're going
to find yourself believing, and you're going to know for sure
that it didn't come from you. It's what He gave you. You know
that. If you have faith, you know you have it because He gave
it to you, don't you? You just know that. I don't have
to convince anybody of that. And that's what God the Holy
Spirit conviction is. You're convinced of this thing
of not believing. Now somebody says, well, I feel
guilty about all the horrible things I did. Well, you ought
to feel guilty about all the horrible things you've done. But that's
not Holy Spirit conviction. This is Holy Spirit conviction.
Now let's read in verse 10. of righteousness, because I go
to my Father, and you see me no more. Now, when God the Holy
Spirit convicts somebody and convinces somebody, not only
are they convinced of this thing of sin, and if you're convinced
of sin, that means you believe you're totally depraved. You
really believe that about yourself, and that you can't even have
faith and come up with it unless God gives it to you. And that's
when you'll ask for it. That's when you'll ask for mercy.
That's when you'll ask for God to do something for you, because
you can't do anything for yourself. and you become convinced that
the only righteousness there is is the righteousness of Jesus
Christ that He brought back to the Father. You know that. You say with Paul, Oh, that I
may win Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. I don't want to have anything
to do with that. But that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God. by faith. You really believe that the only
righteousness there is is the righteousness of Jesus Christ
the Lord and your personal righteousness is His righteousness. That one
that He brought back to the Father and we see no more. My righteousness
right now is seated at the right hand of the Father. Perfectly
accepted. And you believe that when you're
convinced of God the Holy Spirit. You become, for lack of a better
word, a fanatic about His righteousness. When it speaks of being persecuted
for righteousness sake, that's being persecuted for his righteousness
sake. Not being persecuted because
you did something good. They'll put you in a paper and
praise you for that. But no, you're persecuted when you say
his righteousness is the only righteousness there is. He'll
convince the world of sin. He'll convince the world of righteousness.
And he'll convince the world of judgment. Now you understand,
what does he say? Verse 11, judgment because the
prince of this world is judged. You understand when God the Holy
Spirit has taught you, when he's convicted you, you understand
that all judgment took place on Calvary Street. The devil
was defeated. God's elect were justified. All unbelievers were condemned. Now, judgment's already taken
place. The handing out of the sentences
hadn't yet taken place, but judgment has already occurred. He says in verse 12, I have many
things to say unto you, but you can't bear them now. One of the
things in the Bible conference John Chapman said that just tickled
me so much and he said, the Lord didn't reveal that to me because
if he did, I wouldn't understand it anyway. And I thought, yeah,
I understand that. And the Lord says to his disciples,
there's some things right now that you can't take. You can't
bear them now. How be it when he, the spirit
of truth is come. He will guide you into all truth. How much truth? All truth. All truth. God the Holy Spirit
only uses the truth. He does not guide into error.
Now let me give you one illustration. I was listening to a man preach.
He was one of these Reformed theologians, and he was talking
about a figure from the past whose name was Charles Finney.
Maybe some of you have heard of him, but Charles Finney is
the man who introduced the altar call and the mourner's bench.
And he just, there wasn't anything like that until he started preaching
and he introduced all these new things and he was free will.
He didn't believe grace. And this reformed theologian
said, he's the arch heretic and he is behind every problem we
have today. Charles Finney. And then he said,
there's not a hair's bit of difference between him and Billy Graham.
Billy Graham preaches the same things. He uses the same methods
that Charles Finney did. And while I was listening, you
could almost feel a hush. And then he said, now, I'm not
saying that God doesn't greatly use Billy Graham. He uses him
greatly. But you know, there's much been
done to him. But that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
No, God does not use error. He only uses His truth, the Spirit
of truth. That's who God the Holy Spirit
is. Verse 13, how be it when He, the Spirit of truth, has
come? He will guide you into all truth. That doesn't mean
He won't use a man to do it. Do you understand what you're
reading? How can I accept some man should guide me? Same word.
But it's still God, the Holy Spirit doing it using that instrumentality. He will guide you into all truth
for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear
that shall he speak. You know, a preacher that's always
talking about God, the Holy Spirit doesn't have the Holy Spirit.
He shall not speak of himself. What he shall hear, that shall
he speak. And he'll show you things to
come. You know, I know the future. I know the future. On judgment
day, God's going to separate the sheep from the goats. The
sheep are those Christ died for, those who believe. And the goats
are those who are not sheep, who did not believe. Then shall
the king say to the sheep, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
To the goats he'll say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire made for the devil and his angels. I know the future. Every
believer does. He's told us. Every believer
will be accepted, perfect before God. Every unbeliever will be
cast off. We know the future. We really
do. look what he says in verse 14.
He shall glorify me. That's the office of the Holy
Spirit. He shall glorify me. Now when you're hearing a preacher,
does he give Christ all the glory that he has called the Holy Spirit?
Does he give any glory to man at all? then he does not have
the Holy Spirit. He shall glorify me. Our Lord
tells us what God the Holy Spirit is going to do. He's going to
give Christ all the glory in salvation. He shall glorify me
for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you. You know,
anything that you've been taught, God the Holy Spirit took it and
taught you. That's why you know. That's why
you understand. That's why you believe. It's the work of God
the Holy Spirit in you. And he uses the preaching of
the gospel. He's telling these men, you're going to be endued
and clothed with power to spread the gospel and tell the truth
and continue to do it. And it's God the Holy Spirit
working to teach you. He's taught you. What a blessed
teacher to know that he has taught you. That's why you believe.
He taught you. He shall glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that
the father hath are mine. I love the Lord's talking about
the equality of the son with the father. Is the father sovereign?
That's mine. Is the father altogether infinite? I am too. Is the father altogether
glorious? I am too. Is the father Independent,
having no needs, I am too. Is the Father immutable? I am
too. Is the Father merciful? I am
too. Everything that the Father has
is mine. I love that scripture. Unto the
Son he saith, God saith, unto the Son he saith, thy throne,
O God. That's how the father addressed
the son. Thy throne, O God, is forever. The scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. All things that the father hath
are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you a little while and you shall not see me. I'm
going back to the father. And again, a little while you
shall see me because I go. to the Father. Now, when he tells
them, you will be endued with power from on high. You know,
people think, oh, I want spiritual power. I want spiritual power. Have you ever understood that
the power is in the message? Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the, what? Power of God. unto salvation to everyone that
believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The power
is in the message and this is the message that God the Holy
Spirit blesses and this is how the gospel was spread. Now we're going to observe the
Lord's table and I wanted to make this comment before we observe
the Lord's table because I want to observe the Lord's table with
the proper spirit. You know, the Lord said to eat
or drink unworthily is to be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord. That's a scary thing. I want to eat and drink worthily,
don't you? Our Lord said this due in remembrance
of me. Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. And while you're turning there,
I think of what the Lord said in John Chapter 7, I think it's
verse 24, judge not according to appearance. Boy, it's hard
to do, isn't it? Judge not according to appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Well, how do you go about doing
that? Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous
judgment. We're going to find the answer
to that in 1 Corinthians 11. But let me first give two things,
two judgments that we should never make. The first one is judging God. Sitting in judgment upon God. Disagreeing with God. I don't think this is fair. I
don't think this is right. How could God let this happen?
How could God let that happen? Since when do you have the ability
to sit in judgment on God and say concerning what he did, that's
not fair. That's not right. I don't agree
with that. Don't be God's judge. That's a place you and I better
not go. Don't be God's judge. Whatever he does is right. Shall
not, oh I hope we can hold on to this at all times, shall not
the judge of the earth do right. Now another judgment you and
I should never make, if we never ought to judge anybody
else, it's hypocrisy. Every judgment
I make concerning anybody, The fact of the matter is, I'm guilty
of doing the same things I'm judging them for. That's what
the Bible says. Thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou that judgest. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. Isn't it amazing how self-righteous
and haughty we are when we judge people? It ought not be done. The Lord said, you've got so
many logs in your eyes, you don't have any ability to pull the
splinter out of your brother's eyes. I treasure what Gene Rutledge,
I heard him say this so many times, I've got far too many
sins of my own to be worrying about somebody else's. A judgment
mean you ought not ever make is to judge anybody. You just
don't know the facts. You don't know the facts and
you're not qualified. You believe that? You're not qualified to
judge anybody. Here is righteous judgment. Look
in first Corinthians chapter 11. Verse 27, wherefore, whosoever
shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a
man examine, who? Himself. I think it's amazing that people
have used the Lord's table to Discipline. Your life's not right. You shouldn't take the Lord's
table. Examine, well, how holy are you? How good are you? How
you doing? You don't need to be examining
anybody else. You don't even need to be thinking about anybody
else. Let a man examine himself, and
if he doesn't come up to the standard he thinks he should,
he better not eat. No, it says, let a man examine
himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. You see, there's no reason for
a believer ever to not take the Lord's table. Well, I'm afraid
I'm not worthy. Unworthiness is the requirement.
There's never a reason for a believer to not take the Lord's table.
Well, I committed this sin. I better not take it this week.
I've been Whatever, better not. Let a man examine himself, and
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many
are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would
judge ourselves. Now there's the good judgment.
If we would judge ourselves. guilty as charged. Let every mouth be stopped and
all the world become guilty before God. If we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. Now, if we would judge ourselves,
you know what we would do? We would know that the only hope
we have is the precious blood of Christ, His broken body, and
His perfect righteousness as our all in salvation. That's
what people do, judge themselves. I'm guilty, and the only hope
I have is what He did, and that is what we rejoice in when we
observe the Lord's table. Let's pray. Lord, we Ask that you would give
us the grace to not judge you and not judge one another, but judge ourselves and look
to Christ only. Oh Lord, enable us to do this
in remembrance of thee. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.