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sermon: Using Righteous Judgment

Kim Myers
Given 06-Feb-21; Sermon #1582B; 39 minutes

Description: (show)

You and I need to be politically correct. That is a given, is it not? We should never judge situations. We should never judge the government. We should never judge people in office. We should never judge people that are over us, and we should never tell someone they are wrong. We should never judge one another. Now let us turn to Matthew 7.

Matthew 7:1-2 "Judge not, that you be not judged. [there it is right there] For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you."

It is right there, right out of the Bible. These two verses here in Matthew 7 do not mean what the world and a lot of us think they mean. We interpret them to mean that we should not judge situations, people, or one another. No one should tell us that what we are doing is wrong. But we are ignoring lots of other scriptures that say we are, in fact, to judge. We as God's people should be judging situations, our very corrupt government, people in office, people that are over us, and each other and ourselves, especially ourselves, all the time.

The word judge in the Greek is krino, and it means "to choose to have an opinion" or "to determine." The Bible command that we not judge others does not mean we cannot show discernment. After God says, do not judge, in Matthew 7:1-2, He says, do not judge what is sacred. Do not throw your pearls to the pig, in Matthew 7:6. The Living New Testament in verse 6, God says, "Do not give pearls to swine, they will trample the pearls and turn and attack you."

And then God also tells us to watch out for false prophets in Matthew 7:15-16. And again this will be out of the Amplified,

Matthew 7:15-16 (AMP) Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed as sheep, but inside they are devouring wolves. You will fully recognize them by their fruits. Do people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

So the question is, how do we discern who are the dogs and pigs and false teachers unless we have the ability to judge on doctrines and deeds? You see, God is giving us permission to judge right from wrong and we should be judging right from wrong. But our judging must be righteous judging that is based upon the Word of God, the Bible. That is why daily Bible study is so important to us, so that we can identify sin for what it is based on God's definition of sin, not on ours.

We are often accused of judging or intolerance when we speak out against sin. Have you ever been accused of judging someone or some act? I have, and I think a lot of you have been too.

One year we were at the Feast and there were three or four families of brethren and we went to dinner. I do not even remember the conversation and the subject that night, but I disagreed with what was being said and I made one family very mad. They said right in front of everybody that I was judging them and I mean they were really hot about it. I was not judging them at all. I was telling them what was being said was not biblically correct. But that was all it took, brethren, that was it. And they said I was judging them.

Another time, Debbie and I are invited to dinner with a couple of other families and someone brought up church dress on the Sabbath. (I think I mentioned this once before) and I said, you do not get to go before God any way you like. I reminded them that the priest had to be dressed properly to come before God in the Temple. God picked out their clothes and everything. Proper dress is talked about in Exodus 31:10; 35;19; 39:41; Leviticus 6:10, and also another verses. I explained that night that Moses had to take off his shoes when he came before God at the burning bush because he was standing on holy ground. That is how holy God is. The Israelites at Mount Zion had to wash their clothes and take a bath and refrain from sexual relations with their mates before coming before God, because God is so holy.

But we think God does not care how we dress and come before Him. He just wants us there. That is not true, brethren. God could raise up rocks to take our place if He wanted to. We must do things correctly in everything we do.

Well, one of the ladies at dinner that night thought I was judging her and how she dressed for church. And she said that she wore pants last week to church and she said, I wore pants to church this week and I will wear pants next week. The funny thing was that I had not been to church with her in quite a number of years and I had no idea how she dressed for church. Now, after she said that, she said she was going to go to church dressed as she pleased, then she told her husband, we are leaving. She was really mad at me and she felt that I was judging her and they left. I had to apologize to the host family for breaking up the dinner party early that night. Now this woman thought I was judging her.

We do not like it when we think someone is disagreeing with what we do or say or how we act or how we look and how we dress, so we call them out and we say you are judging us. The world says we cannot do that. We have got to be politically correct. You and I, as God's firstfruits, should be judging situations, our government, people in politics, what is going on in the world, each other, and ourselves, all the time.

Brethren, we should judge but we should never be judgmental. There is a difference between between being judgmental and judging, and Matthew 7:1-2 is really talking about being judgmental.

Do you know how we should judge? We should judge like a football referee. When one team is offsides, the referee makes a judgment call. According to the rule book, the referee is a neutral party. He is not taking sides. He is making a judgment call based on the rule book. We as God's people should be making judgment calls on situations, our government, people in politics, people in Hollywood movies, each other, and ourselves, especially on ourselves, all the time. But our judgment calls must be righteous and right out of the Playbook—God's Word, the Bible.

When we make judgments, they cannot be based on what we think or how we feel or on what is politically correct, on what is acceptable at that time. Our judgments must be backed by Scripture and the Word of God, the Bible. Our judgments must be righteous. Judgments and being judgmental are two entirely different things. Judging and judgment and being judgmental are two entirely different things.

Do you know what being judgmental means? We should never declare someone guilty and passing them a sentence like a judge does in court. That is the difference. One is a referee saying you are out of bounds. The other one is a judge in court making a sentence on you. That is the difference.

We should not judge others motives. Paul cautions us on this.

I Corinthians 4:5 (AMP) So do not make any hasty or premature judgments before the time when the Lord comes [again], for He will both bring to light the secret things that are [now hidden] in darkness and disclose and expose the [secret] aims (motives and purposes) of people's hearts. Then every man will receive his due commendation from God.

This verse is in reference to giving a church leader too much praise. But regardless of the context, the concept of not being judgmental of someone's motives or condemning someone is still very important. Brethren, often we rush to a judgmental call and declare someone to be incredibly evil or amazingly good when we do not even know all the facts.

In judging situations, the government, people in office, people that are over us, each other, and ourselves, we need to remember that we are also sinners and have to repent of our own actions; and we should have compassion on them and pray for them. We should never be judgmental taking the place of a court judge. But that does not mean that we as firstfruits should not have discernment. Judge not does not mean discern not.

I Corinthians 2:15-16 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

God tells us to judge and discern others actions because they can have harmful or bad effects on us. You know, we kind of follow each other, brethren. We are sheep.

Have you ever known an angry person? I have known a number of them. Someone who always seems to be angry and wants to fight about anything and everything all the time. No matter what you say, they get argumentative about it.

Proverbs 22:24 [God is telling us to judge those types of people here] Make no friendship with an angry man and with a furious man do not go.

Let us go to I Corinthians 5, verses 11 and 12. In these two verses, God is telling us not to associate with people or eat with people that do what verse 11 says. And then in verse 12, God tells us, judge one another within the church or Body of Christ on these things.

I Corinthians 5:11-12 (AMP) But now I write to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of [Christian] brother if he is known to be guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater [whose soul is devoted to any object that usurps the place of God], or is a person with a foul tongue [railing, an angry person, abusing, reviling, slandering], or is it drunkard or a swindler or a robber. [No] you must not so much as eat with such a person. What business of mine is it and what right have I to judge outsiders? Is it not those inside of [the church] upon whom you are to pass disciplinary judgment [passing censuring sentence on them as the facts require]?

God is telling us that we need to make calls judgment calls. You and I, as firstfruits of God, cannot be condemning or judgmental with brethren, with each other. God does not want us to be looking for things to discipline each other with or about, but He does want us to judge between good and evil according to His Word. Our judgment must be righteous judgment right from God's Word, the Bible.

In Hebrews God tells us that the spiritually mature are those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern or judge between good and evil.

Hebrews 5:14 (AMP) But solid food is for grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish [make judgment] between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to God's law or human law.

Have you ever been disciplined by a brother within the church? Has that ever happened to you? I have. The last time I was disciplined was at the feast in Nashville, Tennessee. I invited Ronny and Ali Graham to dinner one night. As I thought about dinner later that day, I said to myself, why not invite all of Ronny and Ali's kids to dinner. So I invited Christian and Lacey Hunter and their baby Rosalie. I also invited Josh and Devon Mimms and their family. Then I invited Levi Graham to dinner. At that time. Levi and Summer were not yet married. I thought inviting all of Ronny and Ali's kids would surprise them.

So when I invited Levi I said to him, "Don't tell your parents that all of the rest of you are invited to dinner." I said, "If your parents ask make up some story of where you're going tonight." Do you know what Levi said to me? He said, "I can't lie to my parents." Think about that. Levi was pretty young. This was about five years ago. Here is a young man disciplining me! A young man disciplining an old, fat, and ugly man.

How does that work? Well brethren, truth is truth and it does not matter who says it or where it comes from. Levi made a judgment call that was correct and in line with the Bible and God's Word. When I went back to my room that night I had to repent, I was wrong. But God was not done with me that day. There was more to come.

Ronny and I agreed to meet at the restaurant early that night, at 5:30 because of the kids. They were little and they needed to get home and get their rest. I got ready for dinner and I left my room in plenty of time to be 10 or 15 minutes early for dinner. Well, I was 30 to 45 minutes late for dinner and I was the host! Think about that. I stopped and talked to different brethren for 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there on my way to the car, not thinking about the time. So I was really late for dinner. Not good brethren, not good, not good at all.

So for the second time in one day I was disciplined out of the Word of God, the Bible, this time by Ronny. He told me, when you make plans and set dates and times you should keep them if at all possible. Correct again. He was absolutely right. That night when I got back to my room, I had to repent again. Second time in one day. I had been slapped and disciplined twice in one day by one family, right out of the Word of God, the Bible. I was judged correctly twice in one day, brethren.

I Corinthians 6:2-3 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest manners? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?

You and I cannot brush sin under the rug. Brethren, sin is sin and truth is truth no matter who says it or where it comes from. We as God's people are very displeasing to God when we try to minimize sin. We should constantly be examining our own hearts and our own actions, asking God for help in rooting out sin in our lives. When He reveals it to us, we need to get it out of our lives. We need Him to help us get it out of our lives. When we focus on correcting our own sins and deepening our relationship with God, then we will have an attitude of humility and then we will start to judge others correctly from the Word of God, the Bible.

We as God's firstfruits should care enough about each other to tell each other the truth. We call each other brethren, but if we say something that strikes a chord with another person, we are accused of judging, are we not? Yeah, we are. And we usually make an enemy of that person. When we see someone traveling down a dangerous path, we do them no service when we ignore the problem in the name of not judging. If we truly love that person, we will speak the truth to them in love and in humility.

Galatians 6:1 (Living New Testament) Dear brothers, if a Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help him back onto the right path, remembering that next time it might be you who is in the wrong [and sinning].

Now I am going to tell you a story about one of my best friends. God never called this man. We met when we were 19 years old in the sheet metal apprentice school (and I probably mentioned him before in a sermon or so a split sermon). We sat next to each other in class, twice a week, three hours per night for four years. His name was Pete and he was married and had three kids, just like me. His kids were all about the same age as my kids. We never worked together during our apprenticeship, but when we had become journeymen, I quit the company I was working for because we had a change in company ownership and I did not care for the new owner. At that time I quit stuff and I was kind of full of myself and anyway I quit.

So the union sent me to Western Air and Refrigeration to where Pete had been working from day one of his career. Western Air sent me out in the field to the job that Pete was working on. Now Pete told the boss that he wanted to partner up with me in the sheet metal trade. Most of the time the men work in groups of two. The boss, who was a friend of Pete, said okay because they had been working together for four years the whole time that Pete was an apprentice. Now Pete and I car pooled together to save money because you had to pay parking in downtown L. A. at that time and it was pretty expensive. We would meet at Pete's house every day and when we would come home from work some nights (not every night), I would go into Pete's house. Well Pete's wife, Lita, was always glad to see Pete. She would always give him a big old kiss and tell him she loved him and say things like, I made your favorite cookies, your favorite cake, your favorite dinner.

At the end of that job the building was turned over to the new owners and it became occupied with people (there was a lot of people in there). It had been turned over now and a lot of the people were women. Pete and I were still at the building at that time and we were doing punchless items. We were fixing things that the owners of the building did not like. Well Pete told me one night on the way home that he was having an affair with one of the women who worked in the building. I asked him right off if he was a moron. I said, how stupid can you be, Pete? Have you lost your mind? I told him he had a great wife at home. I told him he had three kids and I said a lot of other things to him.

Well, the dummy was even dumber than I thought. He gave this woman his home phone number and guess what she did. She called Pete's wife Lita and let the cat out of the bag. Oh boy. Well now Pete's sin of adultery was really impacting his life badly. Pete was now miserable. Lita did not divorce Pete but for at least two years she made his life miserable and their marriage was never the same again after that. It also messed up his kids. When Pete and I would get home from work and go into his house there was no more kisses, no more baked goods, and a lot of time, no dinner at all. The relationship had changed dramatically.

Western Air then got a big job in Portland, Oregon and Pete and his family moved to Portland and so did Debbie and I. Guess what my big dumb friend did after he and I moved to Oregon? We were working in downtown Portland in another building. And it was like Groundhog Day all over again, right down to him giving this new woman he was committing adultery with his phone number! And she called his wife again and he told me that, you know, they were having an affair and I said it all over him again. I said, are you a moron, Pete? Are you stupid? What are you thinking? And I said a lot more than that to him. Well the second sin of adultery ended their marriage. And then when Lita divorced Pete he literally cried to me real tears. I mean cried! And she really took Pete to the cleaners financially.

That is what sin does, brethren. It hurts us, and it hurts us tremendously. There is always a price to pay for sin in or out of the church. Pete's divorce cost him a lot and he was extremely down and he and very depressed for more than 10 years and he finally remarried and then things got a little better for him.

Now I told you that story so I could ask all of you a question. That is the only reason I told you this story, so I could ask you this question. The question is this: could I say all that I said to my friend Pete if you were sinning? Would you or would I take discipline from a brother within God's church? Would you allow me to call you a moron? If you were gossiping, lying, breaking the Sabbath, drinking too much, or dressing inappropriately, would you take discipline from a brother within God's church? I am going with no. I am going with no, you would not. I think the person that you talked to would be accused of being very judgmental. Now I could say anything to Pete. He usually did not listen to me, but he never accused me of judging him. We were good friends right up to his death.

I think if I talked to most of us that way we would be highly offended and mad. I would lose friends. Why, brethren, why? We call each other brethren but do we act like brethren. I can say things to my family and they can say things to me and we do not get mad at each other and we do not hate each other. But I cannot say a lot of things to a lot of people in the church. If you were drinking too much and I told you you were drinking too much and you were not even going to inherit the Kingdom of God, because God says that, would you tell me I was judging you? I think you would.

You know, if I said you dressed inappropriately for church or you dress like a freak, would that be okay? No, you would probably hate me. You would say I was judging you if you were a gossip and I said you gossip too much. You know all these things. But God tells us to judge all things, not just each other. But when we as firstfruits speak out against sin we are accused of judging one other. We cannot be judgmental or condemning or unfair. That is true. Our judging must come from God's Word, the Bible. But we should be judging situations, the government, each other, the world, and ourselves especially, every day.

I Thessalonians 5:21 (AMP) But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast.

That is why we must study God's Word, the Bible. So we can know the mind of God and know what is right and what is wrong.

Now we as firstfruits are to gently confront brothers in Christ, erring brothers in Christ. We must do it gently. We are to practice church discipline and we are to speak the truth of God's Word in the Bible in love. We must remember all that.

Ephesians 4:15-16 (LNT) Instead, we will lovingly follow the truth at all times—speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly—and so become more and more in every way like Christ who is the Head of his body, the church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts [see we help] so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good [over many, many years God has taught us what is good and right and what is acceptable. That is why we go to church, brethren]; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly [we must judge correctly from the Word of God, and he says], to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

All of these things that we as humans do that are not right, that are sin with God, we should all be judging. These things are all talked about in the Bible. Do you think we as firstfruits, should not judge things like cruelty? Should we not judge cruelty? Should we not judge covetousness? Should we not judge cursing or giving dishonor? Should we not judge divorce? God hates divorce. Should we not judge drunkards and people that get drunk and drink too much?

Should we not judge filthiness or fornication, heresies, hypocrisies? Should we not judge lies or liars or murderers? And you say, well, most of us have never known a murder. I have known one. I knew a woman that killed her husband, and she was in the church, shot him dead on purpose.

Should we not judge perverseness, pride, anger, rebellion? Should we not judge robbers, scoffers? People are out of control, sodomites, stealing, stupidity, and being worthless? We should, brethren. You and I can and should judge all of these things because God does, and all of them are mentioned in His Word, the Bible, every one of those things.

Now we cannot judge where a person stands with God. We are simply incapable of doing that. Hypocritical judgment is wrong. Harsh, unforgiving judgment is wrong. Self-righteous judgment is wrong. All of these things are judgmental judging. A judgmental person is one who rushes to judgment without reason. A judgmental person feels superior. He can be preachy. He can be self-righteous. He is usually holier than now. He is sanctimonious. He thinks he is very virtuous, and he makes himself feel better by hurting others.

We are not to be critical or fault finding, brethren. That is not our job. But we must judge situations and things and ourselves all the time. We as firstfruits must be judging, but our judging must be out of love. We cannot condone things that are wrong or that go against God's Word and His laws and His commandments. Love is outgoing concern for others, it is trying to help them, to pray for them, to support them through God's Word and His laws and His commandments. God wants us to make righteous judgments right out of the Playbook, right out of the Bible.

We as firstfruits of God should be judging all things all the time. What we should be judging every minute of every day is ourselves, mostly, and where we stand with God in how we live and act according to God's Word and to the Bible. Our judging must be very balanced and it always must be out of love.

Matthew 7:3-5 (LNT) "And why worry about a speck in the eye of a brother when you have a board in your own? Should you say, 'Friend, let me help you get that speck out of your eye,' when you can't even see because of the board in your own? Hypocrite! First get rid of the board. Then you can see to help your brother."

These verses are telling us that we must be careful and very cautious when we judge and our judging must be out of love; and most of our judging must be upon ourselves, not on the brethren.

We all have things in our lives that are wrong according to God's laws. When God shows us what is wrong, we then need to repent and make the necessary changes that we should make in our lives. That is first, brethren.

Let us turn to Luke 12, verses 56 through 57. In verses 45-46 Christ is telling us that we should not judge even the times we are living in correctly. If we were, we would be very concerned and we should be judging ourselves and making changes in our lives. But most of us go along like we have another 100 years before the return of Christ.

Luke 12:56 (LNT) "Hypocrites! You interpret the sky well enough, but you refuse to notice the warnings all around you about the crisis ahead."

We should be judging what is going on, brethren, and we should be making changes in our lives and we should be trying to get as close as we can get to God. But we do not do that. We do not judge ourselves. You know, if we are gossiping, we kind of continue to gossip. You know, if we keep some of the pagan holidays, things like birthdays and New Year's, because a number of people in God's church do, we continue to do that. Those things are just as bad as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. Look them up for yourselves, brethren. See, we do not make changes in our lives.

Luke 12:56-57 (LNT) "Hypocrites! You interpret the sky well enough, but you refuse to notice the warnings all around you about the crisis ahead. Why do you refuse to see for yourselves what is right?"

We as God's people really struggle to judge ourselves correctly. We are now living in very crazy times, brethren, and it is all around us. We talk about it all the time, yet we refuse to judge the world, the situations we are living in, our government, each other, and especially ourselves, correctly, because we have been indoctrinated in political correctness. And that is a tragedy.

Do you know what we all should be doing? We should be judging all things righteously from the Word of God, and the number one thing we should be judging is ourselves. We should never do things that would make a brother stumble or put doubt in his mind. But we do. I see things in the greater churches of God that go on all the time that are contrary to God's Word. And so do you. And that do put doubt in people's minds because we are sheep and God calls us sheep

Romans 14:13 (LNT) So don't criticize each other anymore. Try instead to live in such a way that you will never make your brother stumble by letting him see you doing something he thinks is wrong.

So we have a big responsibility, brethren. Number one, we must judge situations, our government, the world and its ways, each other, and most of all ourselves all the time.

Number two, we should not be judgmental. We have to judge based upon the Bible and out of love.

Number three, we should always set a good and godly example so as not to make our brothers stumble or to have others judging us.

We are living in crazy times, brethren. We know that we should be very hard on ourselves and we should be making major changes in our lives every day. Now, I do not see much good now in the world. See, that is my judgment. I am making a judgment call. Living here in Portland we see a lot of crazy stuff all the time.

So we need to get very close to God, brethren, for what is coming on all of us. And it is time to make changes in our own lives.

KM/aws/drm

The Bereans "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:10-11). This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God.