I just have one verse of scripture
I want to read to you this afternoon. John chapter 7 and verse 24. John chapter 7 and verse 24. Judge not according to the appearance. but judge righteous judgment."
Now, this is a command for us to judge. Judge righteous judgment. That's a command. You and I are
commanded to judge. Wouldn't we be not only in a
pitiful situation, but isn't there times that we'd put ourselves
in a dangerous situation if we fail to judge? If you and I left
our homes this morning without considering what the weather
was like, and we could have left in a tank top and a pair of thin
slacks with our sandals on, we could have put ourselves in danger.
Could we not? And broke down and had to walk
two or three miles? We had to judge that. If someone met you on the street
or at the mall, and he was a perfect stranger to you, and he looked
less than desirable to spend much time with, and he offered
you lunch out of an old paper sack, would you just take it
and eat it? Or would you give it to your children to eat? Well,
you wouldn't, would you? You'd judge. We must judge. If you go tomorrow to a used
car lot and you just walk into the office and say, give me a
used car. I have three thousand dollars
and I'll let you pick it out. I don't need to see it. I'll
take your word for it. Would we do that? Would we go
to buy a house sight unseen? We examine things, don't we?
We consider things. We make judgments. We do that
all the time. Life requires us to do that. Isn't it strange then? that when
we go to judge in spiritual matters, somebody will say, wait a minute,
the Lord says, judge not, that you be not judged. And you know
the scripture says that. In Matthew chapter 7 and verse
1, the Lord Jesus said, judge not and you shall not be judged. But read the context of that. Whoever the Lord was talking
to there, of course, He's talking to all of us because we all have
this self-righteousness remaining in us, we're so legalistic that
we want to judge others and condemn in them what we won't even condemn
in ourselves. We're like that aren't we? The
context of that, he went right on to say, why do you look at
your brother and you find this little speck in his eye? And
you say, let me pull that little speck out of your eye. But the
Lord says, you can't see how to do it. Well, why can't you
see? He said, because you've got this
big log in your own eye. So He says, first, pull this
log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly how
to get that little speck out of your brother's eye. So don't
be so critical. That's what He was saying. Don't
be critical. Don't be judgmental. with your
brothers and sisters in Christ. Next time somebody's fallen into
some awful sin, and you say something to them about it, or next time
there's some awful sin in society, and you say something about it,
and they say, you're not supposed to judge them, go over there
in Matthew chapter 7, and read them the text, and read them
the context. And then maybe go here and say
this, the Lord commands us not to judge by appearance, but to
judge righteous judgment. What does he mean here when he
says, judge not according to appearance? Well, he means by
what we perceive to be. We can be wrong in our perception,
can we not? When we judge only. And he's
not saying here, I doubt seriously if he's saying, you don't never
judge by appearance. We have to judge by appearance.
That's all sometime we got to go by. But don't let that be
the criteria for our judgment. Judge righteous judgment. I think
I told you about the one church member called in the pastor and
said, I think we need to bring charges against old brother so
and so. Because I saw him come out of a honky-tonk last night,
and he's down there and drinking, and we need to bring charges
against him and have him excommunicated. And the pastor said, I know that
he was down there last night. I've already heard about it.
And I know why he was there. The bartender called him to come
down and get his drunken son on. That's what he was doing
down there. So our perception, sometimes
when we judge by appearance, we can deceive ourselves. Therefore,
the Lord says here, judge righteous judgment. Here's what Proverbs
3, 5 says about this. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not to your own understanding. Don't trust in
your own perception of things. Don't always trust what you think
your eye sees. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct your path, your step. How do we judge
righteous judgment? Well, one of the ways is by not
leaning to our own understanding. Not judging by what we perceive. Not judging by our own wisdom.
when we don't trust our own heart. Here's the way we judge righteous
judgment. When we judge all motives and
all thoughts and all words and all deeds in the light of God's
Scripture, that is a righteous judgment. When we measure everything
in the light of God's Word, that's the way we judge righteous judgment. to the law and to the testament. That's a righteous judgment,
isn't it? Judge not the Lord by feeble sense. Why? Because our perception of our
Lord and our perception of His providence may be wrong. So don't judge the Lord by feeble
sense. Don't lean to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge
God. Behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face. I think it was Brother Don Fortner
that made this wonderful statement a few years ago. He said, don't
judge God by his providence, but judge God's providence by
him. Who is he? What's he like? We can't always discern the providence
that we're in, but we can discern our God. We can discern our God. The providence may seem all wrong
and messed up, but God is. God is. Let's begin with this
thing. How do we judge God? Oh, somebody
said we should never judge God. People judge God all the time.
There's nobody here this afternoon that don't stand in judgment
with God, against God, or for God. The fool has said in his
heart, there is no God. That's his opinion of God, is
it not? In Romans 1, we're told that they changed the glory of
God, the incorruptible God, into an image made light unto man. That's their opinion of God.
The fool has an opinion, the atheist has an opinion. Everybody's
got an opinion of God. Even Aaron, when he throwed all
that gold in the fire, and it came out that cag, he said, these
be your gods, O Israel. He wasn't saying literally, this
is the God that brought you out of Egypt. He was saying, this
God is like God. These images are like our God.
Everybody has their perception of God. Everybody has their opinion
of God. How do we judge rightly of God?
We judge righteous judgment. How do we do this? What is God
like? when we judge God by what He
says about Himself. When our thoughts of God correspond
with the Word of God concerning Himself, we judge God rightly. When we know and believe that
there is but one God, that He is eternal, that is, He is from
everlasting to everlasting, and that he's eternally different
than all his creatures, that God is as pure as white light
in his character, he's eternally perfect in all his divine attributes,
that his eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, that he cannot
look upon sin, that he loves righteousness and hates iniquity. That's what the Bible says about
Himself, and when our thoughts agree with the Bible's thoughts
and opinions of God, then we've judged God rightly. That God is just in all His judgments,
and right in all His ways, and He can never be charged with
doing wrong. That He's the Creator, that He's
the Sustainer of all His creatures. And He's appointed a day in which
He'll judge the world in righteousness, even the secrets of men, by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And when our thoughts of God
and our opinions of God in any way disagree or are contrary
to what the Bible says about God, then we've misjudged Him
And we're wrong in our judgments. If I say God is like this, and
my statement and my opinion does not agree with what God says
about Himself, then I've not judged a righteous judgment. I've erred in my judgment of
God. Don't you wish the world would
listen to this? Don't you wish all religions would? You know
why somebody said, I'm so disgusted there's all this division among
religions. There's all this division even
among the professing church. You know why that is? We won't
go to the law and to the testimony. There is not one ounce of division
for those who will go to the law and to the testimony and
make their judgments according to that rule. Now there's not. There's not. How can we disagree
on who God is and what He's like if we go to the Word to find
out and judge righteous judgment? How do we judge a righteous judgment
concerning the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ? We judge according
to the way in which He is revealed in His Word. And what does the
Word say of him? That he is the eternal Son of
God, who was with the Father before time ever was. Father, glorify me with the glory
that I had with you before the world was. Just as the Father
is from everlasting, so the Son is from everlasting. There has
never been a time when the Son of God was not. He's the only
begotten of the Father, and He's the eternal begotten of the Father. Jesus Christ is one with the
Father in His very essence. He is possessed of the same eternal
and divine and perfect attributes that the Father Himself is possessed
with. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is Himself God. And when we've said that, and
when truly that's the conviction of our hearts, then we judge
rightly of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father. In the
beginning was the Word, that's the Son, and the Word was with
God. There He is, the Son of God,
distinct from the Father. He was with the Father. If you're
with somebody, you've got to be distinct from them. Is that
not true? So you go back in eternity, and
there's the Son of God. There is a Son of God. But read
on, and he says this, not only was He with God, He was God. So there He is with the Father,
and there He is, He is God. He's the second person of the
blessed and sacred Trinity. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
one with the Father. Thomas had it right when he said,
My Lord and my God. He judged right judgment, didn't
he? He judged right judgment. And when we judge the Lord Jesus
Christ in His humanity, according to the way the Scriptures reveal
Him, then we've conceived rightly. Somebody has said, if you look
back in church history, I don't know if this is so, but it may
very well be, every mistake, every critical mistake, every
heresy that come into the church was a mistake that was made about
the person of Jesus Christ. In John's day, John confronted
them that they did not believe that Jesus Christ came in the
flesh. When you and I believe concerning
His manhood what the Scripture says of Him, then we judge rightly. That is, that He was conceived
in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Ghost, that He was possessed
of a real body and a real human soul, that is, He was the Son
of Mary. The Son of Man. He was as much
human as she was, sin excepted. And that He did have real flesh
and real bones and He had a real human soul, possessed of a real
human spirit. That the Father sent Him from
Heaven to satisfy the demands of His law and justice and to
bear the penalty. and to atone for sin, and to
make reconciliation to God. And when you and I, with conviction
in our hearts and thoughts, believe that Jesus, the Son of God, accomplished
the work that the Father sent Him to do, and that He raised
from the dead, and He's exalted on God's right hand, and accepted
there in heaven with all authority being given to His person, Then
we judge rightly of the Lord Jesus Christ. We judge rightly
of Him when we judge that there is more merit and worth in His
person to save us than there is sin in ourselves to them. And when we trust Him to save
us, when we against hope believe in hope that the Lord Jesus is
able to save us and to keep us and to present us spotless before
God His Father with exceeding joy, then we have judged rightly
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we judge of Him that He's
a mere creature, if we judge of Him that He's just a great
prophet, and if we judge of Him that He just came to give us
laws to keep, to live by and to be saved by keeping those
laws, we have judged the Lord Jesus Christ wrongly. Wrongly. So what's our judgment of God?
What's our opinion of God? We all have them. We all have
them. We all judge God. Is it a right
judgment? What about the Son of God and
His eternal Sonship? What about Him and His humanity
and His work and what He's done and where He is now and what
He's doing? What's our opinion of the Son
of God? When we judge Him as He's revealed in the Scriptures,
then we've made righteous judgment. What about the Holy Spirit? How do we judge rightly of Him?
We judge rightly of Him when we agree with the Scriptures
that He's the third person of the sacred Trinity. There are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit. And these three are one. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And when we agree with the scriptures
that He has been sent of the Father and sent of the Son to
apply redemption, that is to convict of sin, to teach, to
reveal the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior, and that
He has been sent to enable the elect of God to repent, to believe,
to hope, to pray, to worship, to serve, and to endure. And when we believe that He's
been sent to implant His graces within our hearts, and at the
last day He himself will enter these dead corpses and raise
them to glory in heaven. When we believe this and agree
with this, then we have indeed judged a righteous judgment concerning
the Spirit of God. And if we believe, and our opinion
is, that the Holy Spirit is no more than a mere influence that
he is not a person at all, but a mere influence, that he is
not sovereign, that he does not have a will, he is not able to
accomplish God's eternal purpose. If we do not believe that he
is able to rule in the church of Jesus Christ by his power
and by his word, then we have misjudged the Holy Spirit. And here's where people err concerning
God, concerning Jesus Christ, either in His deity or in His
humanity, and concerning the Holy Spirit. You'd be surprised. I bet all of us would be surprised.
If we went around to some of the churches, false churches,
they would tell us, we've never heard that there be such a Holy
Spirit. Because He's being denied. Is He not, Larry? We have the
Word, but that's all we have. No, we have the Word, the infallible
Word. But I tell you, you and I will
open the pages of this book and read in vain if we don't have
the Spirit to guide us. We need the Word and we need
the Spirit. Our Word came not to you. Our
gospel came not to you in word only, but in power and in the
Holy Ghost. I can stand up here and I can
give you the Word, but if it just comes in word, it will never
profit you or me. It must come in the Holy Ghost. He is as essential as Jesus Christ. Work upon the cross. It is essential
for Him to be among us and work in our midst as it was for God
to purpose salvation from eternity. You and I desperately need Him.
We cannot be saved apart from a tritone God. And we judge Him, we judge God
according to the law and to the testimony. But we don't stop
there. We have to make a judgment about
someone else. And it must be a righteous judgment,
and that is ourselves. How do we make a righteous judgment
concerning man? As you look at yourself, and
as you look at humanity around you, your neighbors, your family,
your co-workers, what is our opinion of ourselves? What is
our conviction of man? Well, listen to this. It doesn't matter what a man
thinks about himself, ultimately. It's what God thinks about us.
Ain't that the truth? We don't judge by appearance. We don't judge by our perception.
We don't judge by our own understanding, but we judge man by the word
of truth. sanctify them through thy truth,
thy word is truth." And here it is. What does God say of man? And He knows us. He knows us. Oh, He told the Pharisees, He
said, I know you, you are they who justify yourselves before
God, but God knows you. Why did we go to the Word of
God to find out what we're like? Because He knows. He knows. And when we judge of ourselves, that God has rightly judged us,
and we accept of His judgment with all our hearts, and His
judgment is this, from our hearts, now listen to this, this is what
God judges of us, from our hearts to our tongues to our hands,
to our feet. From the soles of our feet to
the crowns of our head, we are ruined by sin." That's the way
he judges us in his Word. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags And our iniquities, like a tornado, like a whirlwind,
like a cyclone, has driven us away. It's driven us far from
God. That's what he says. And our
carnal mind is enmity against God. He has not one good thing
to say of fallen man. It is not because he will not,
he cannot. He's a God of truth. Now listen,
God cannot endure for any son of fallen Adam to come before
Him with any confidence in our flesh. He cannot endure that. Flesh is a stink to His nostrils. Away with it, He says. It's like
grass. It's like the flower of the grass
before the withering sun. God can see sin in us when and
where we cannot see it in ourselves. And the only reason our hearts
will not confess our dreadful condition before God and own
what we are is we've been led astray and blinded by our deceitful
hearts. Oh, ignorant, told dear Christians,
Don't tell me that my heart is thus bad." Well, Christian said,
what makes you think that your heart is good? He said, my heart
tells me so. Isn't that where humanity is?
He has so fallen, and his understanding is so darkened by sin, and so
blinded by the devil, he cannot know his own self. If we are to know ourselves and
pass the right judgment upon ourselves and judge righteously,
then we must go see what God says about us. For He knows us. He knows us. And when you and I are in agreement
with God that we must be saved, the Word of Truth says we must
be saved. And we must be saved by the obedience
of another. We must be saved by somebody
outside ourselves. We must be washed by somebody
else's blood. And we must have another's garments
on to cover the shame of our nakedness. And there is but one. And that's the dear and blessed
Son of God. There's no other name under heaven.
And when we believe this about ourselves, then we've judged
ourselves rightly. And when you and I judge that
God will, for the sake of His dear and blessed Son, blot out
all our transgressions, and that He'll be merciful to us for the
sake of the Lord Jesus, and though He chastened us sore, He will
keep us and one day receive us into heaven. When we judge that,
then we judge rightly. We have judged rightly. So there we have God in the Trinity
of His sacred persons. We have ourselves. And one more
thing. How do we judge our relationship
with the Church? How do we judge our relationship
one with another? And this is so important, is
it not? We have several epistles and chapters written upon this
very subject. How do we live together as a
community of believers, as the family of God? How do we judge
how to treat one another? Let me just give you two or three
things. Paul said in Galatians 6, if any man, if any brother,
be overtaken in a fault. Somebody has fallen. A sin, a
temptation has been on his trail. It's come on him slowly and finally
overtook him under wires and there he's fallen. See him laying
there? There's your dear brother. There's
your dear sister. There he lays. He's been overtaken. Something has come up behind
him and caught him and down he goes. How are you and I supposed
to treat him? Restore such a one. In the spirit
of meekness, consider ourselves lest we also be tempted. If a
man thinks himself to be something when he's nothing, if we were
in his shoes, we may have failed before he did. If we think we're
stronger than his, then wait until we get in that situation.
When we're filled with humility and love for our dear fallen
brothers and sisters, and we help them up, and we forgive
them, and we restore them, as the Word of Truth tells us to,
then we've judged our relationship rightly. Love covers a multitude
of sins. Be you kind, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another. As God, for Christ's sake, has
forgiven you. If I sin against you tomorrow
470 times, 490 times, you know what the scripture tells you
to do? Forgive me. If I've offended you, you come
to me, and you say to me, Pastor, you've offended me. And if I
don't humble myself down and acknowledge my offense against
you, then you come to this church. And you say, Bruce Crabtree has
offended me and he refuses to repeat. Then you call me before
this assembly and you examine me according to the charge that's
been brought. That's what we're to do. That's
the way we should judge our relationship one with another. We're not to
go off and pout about it. We're not to spread rumors about
it. We're to fix this thing. according to the Word of Truth. I want you to turn to 2 Thessalonians
3, verse 6. We don't stop here, though. This
is so important. Just what I've said is so important.
But we don't stop here. We don't stop here. We have people in our society
that have no idea what the rules of Christ's kingdom is. When you and I see a fallen brother
and he repents, we forgive him. We restore him. That's the rules
of Christ's kingdom. But you know, in our society
today, the world is telling the church that we should be accepting
of everybody and everything. And they often use this little
catchphrase, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? And then they proceed to tell
us what Jesus would do. What would Jesus do today in
the homosexual debate? Oh, Jesus would be so accepted.
What would Jesus do today in the adultery and the fornication
and the drugs? Oh, Jesus would be so accepted. So how do we judge of this? We
have to go to the Word, don't we? Look here at what Paul says
in 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6. We have to judge with what must
go on in the professing church and how to deal with one another,
and we just did that. But we have to look at this too.
Look what he says in verse 6. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6. Now, we command you, brethren,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves
from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not act to the
traditions which he received of us." Now isn't this strange? We're told here not to be accepting
of a brother who walks contrary according to the Word of God. If he professes to be a brother,
and he's living in open and profane sins, then he says, here, separate
yourself. Withdraw yourself. Don't be partakers
of his sin. Let him be ashamed Let the world
see that the church does not agree. The church does not accept
that behavior. Look what he says in verse 7. Let me just read on verse 7.
For yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behave not
ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's
bread for naught, but wrought with labor we worked with travail
night and day, that we would not be chargeable to any of you.
Not because we have not authority, but to make ourselves an example
unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you,
this we commanded you, that if any man would not work, it's
not that he cannot work, he will not work, you should go ahead
and accept him, and set up your soup kitchen and feed him. Don't
you judge him. He's lazy, sorry, and no good.
Yes, but don't you judge him. You're not allowed to judge.
Judge not. So just treat him and accept him. Jesus would.
Well, here Jesus is speaking. And what does He say? If any
man will not work, neither should he eat. I was down at my sister's the
other day, staying with her and my brother-in-law, and they were
talking about this very thing. to have some people that wouldn't
work. And some of the religious crowd were saying, well, you
shouldn't judge those folks. And I read her this passage.
I read her this passage. We're not accepting, brothers
and sisters, of men's sin. Do you profess Christ? Or if
you don't profess it, for God's sake, go get a job. Don't sit
on your lazy behind and not support yourself and not support your
family. And if the family has the understanding
that they need, they won't support your lazy bottom. Go get a job. That's what preachers should
say. That's what the church should say. We're not filling your tank
full of gas. Go get a job, you lazy scoundrel. Quit your burning. Quit your
bagging. Go to work. The church is not
a social organism. We don't believe in socialism,
do we? You go look up the definition
of socialism. Nobody works unless they want
to. It's a voluntary. We all live and put our money
and our food into one big house, and everybody goes there and
gets what they want, whether they work or not. No, no, no. But I tell you when the Lord
saves a man, when you come into the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, then you become a real man. And you become a real mother. And you work. And you keep house. And you become responsible. That's
what a Christian is. He ain't a lazy, sorry, no good
that sits on his butt and won't get an education. And sits and
watches TV ten hours a day. He ain't that kind of a person. And we don't support that kind
of people. When I had my office down here, one of the reasons
I moved my office from here to home, they aggravated me to death.
I don't know how many people I give Clarence's phone number
to. I deal with this big man. He's one of the deacons. They're
lazy. If you run into somebody that
has need, then you help that person what you can. I tell you,
most of what you and I run into today is irresponsible, lazy,
no-good sorts. They won't support yourself,
and they won't support their kids, and they won't support
anybody else. They're a drain on society. And
those who are like that, the Lord Jesus said here, neither
should he eat. And look what else. Verse 11,
For we hear that there are some which work among you, walk among
you, they're disorderly, they don't work at all, but they're
busybodies. Now them that are such, We command
and exhort by the Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they
work and eat their own bread. Stop eating other people's bread.
Stop bumming money. Stop bumming food off of other
people. Work and get your own money.
Work and eat your own food. That's what he said. Oh Jesus, what would Jesus do?
We just found out what Jesus knew. Oh, He's so accepting. He's so accepting. Oh, this is
one of the things I don't like about the church. You've just
got so narrow, and you're such bigoted, and you judge people,
and you're not accepting the people. That's why you're drilling
away to nothing. That's why the big liberal churches
are growing by leaps and bounds. You folks just won't accept anybody. We'll accept everybody that Christ
accepts, and I tell you, he ain't going to accept nobody in their
sins. I don't care if it's a homosexual or a man whose thoughts is full
of wickedness. I don't care if he's a drunk
or a self-righteous man. Jesus Christ accepts no man in
his sins. He did not come to save us in
our sins. He came to save us from our sins. And you let the vilest man, I
don't care who he is, the vilest homosexual or the vilest self-righteous
solitarious, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and give themselves
up to him, he'll receive them. There was a woman they brought
to him one time and she was taken in a doctor in the very act.
They said, we caught this woman, they were both naked in bed,
making love, making out. We brought her to you to see
if you would throw a stoner to death. The Lord Jesus sent all
those fellows away like a bunch of whipped dogs, did He not?
Convicted in their own conscience. And then He said to that woman,
Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you? No
man, Lord. No man, Lord. Where did she get
that? It must have been the Holy Spirit
teaching her something. No man, Lord. And you know what
He said? Neither do I condemn thee. I justify you. I think that's
what he was saying. I save you. I tell you, if Jesus
don't condemn you, I don't think the Father would condemn you.
But he never stopped there, did he? No. Go and sin no more. He hates the Don't you go back
and crawl back in the bed with that man. Don't you go back to
your fornication. That was damning your soul, and
it will yet damn you if you go back to it. Sin no more. And when the Lord Jesus saves
a person, He does not accept that sin. He saves him from the
sin. Let the Pope alone come to Him. Let the sorry, vile Pope of Rome
come to the Lord Jesus Christ like you've come to him, and
like I've come to him, and you know something? The Lord Jesus
will save you. But I'll tell you what he'll
do. He'll tell him to throw away the keys to that Pope of Will.
Won't he? And don't you ever darken the
doors of Peter's basilica again. And the next man that comes to
bow down before you and kiss your hand, you lift him up and
say, Worship God only. And I'm just a man. He don't accept men and their
sins. He saves us from our sins. And
those who come to Him and give themselves up to Him, and confess
their sin and forsake their sin, they'll have mercy. They'll have
mercy here, and they'll have mercy on them. But those who
think they can profess the name of Jesus Christ, and He will
accept them in their sins, are going to find out someday that
not only is He a Savior, but He's a just God. He's a just God. Oh, brothers
and sisters, aren't you glad for a book that's been left to
us that we can go and say, here's the truth. I'm establishing everything
I believe about God, about the Son of God, about the Holy Spirit,
about myself, about salvation and society. Everything I believe,
I'm establishing from this book. You do that, and you'll never
err in judgment. Everything you do, all your motives,
you can judge by this book. And you'll be judging the right
judgment. God bless His Word.