I'd like to focus on is there at the beginning where the Bible talks about judging, and it
says at the beginning there, Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye
judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.
Now judging is something that the Bible talks quite a bit about, in fact there's a whole
book of the Bible called Judges, and if you just simply look up the word judge or judgment
or judging in a concordance, you'll see that it's used a multitude of times.
We couldn't even go over all of them tonight, we couldn't even begin to go over all of them
in tonight's sermon.
But the Bible talks a lot about judging in a negative light, judging that we should not
be doing, and then other judging that we should be doing, and it seems that people often mix
these things up.
And a lot of times when someone tries to correct sin or rebuke sin or reprove sin or speak
out against sin, they're accused of judging or being judgmental as if that is a negative
thing, and they're told do not judge.
And often preaching can fall into this category because preachers are told to reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
So preachers are doing a lot of, or at least should be doing a lot of, pointing the finger
at sin.
And the Bible says that we as preachers should cry aloud, spare not, lift our voices like
a trumpet, and show God's people their sins.
And so therefore when a preacher gets up and preaches against sin and points out sin
in our society and warns us of the dangers of sin and exposes what sins are plaguing
us today, people will often accuse that preacher of being very judgmental and he's doing a
wrong kind of judging.
But before I get into the right kind of judging, let me go through and give you five types
of judging that the Bible tells us not to do.
Let's get that out of the way, the type of judging that's wrong.
And let's start right here in Matthew 7 because this is a perfect example where we're being
told not to judge.
Let's get the context.
It says in verse 1, Judge not that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.
And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?
But consider'st not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and be
wilt a beam is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite.
And that is the key word right here.
The first thing I want to point out is that it's wrong for us to judge when we are being
a hypocrite.
Meaning that we are judging someone for something that we ourselves are guilty of.
And maybe we're not guilty of exactly what they're doing, but we might be guilty of something
very similar and in fact what we're guilty of is often worse than the person we're judging.
Here he compares it to someone who has a beam in their eye.
What is a beam?
A giant piece of wood.
You know, buildings are made with huge beams to bear the load.
Beams are giant pieces of wood, whereas the mote is basically just a little speck of wood
like a splinter or a piece of sawdust.
And he's saying it would be like if someone that was a friend of yours or your brother
had a piece of sawdust in his eye and you have this beam in your eye and you're, oh,
we need to fix that piece of sawdust right away.
You know, we need to get that out of your eye.
Obviously it's ridiculous.
And the Bible even says that because of the beam that is in our own eye, we are not able
to see clearly to cast out the mote that is in our brother's eye because we are blinded
by our own sin, by our own faults.
And then that's why he says, first, verse 5 there, first cast out the beam out of thine
own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Now this is a very often misunderstood passage because people will take this passage and
just say, he's just telling you not to judge, period.
Just never judge, just don't judge.
And often people will just quote the first two words, I mean we have five verses here,
but they'll just quote the first two words, just judge, Jesus said, judge not, period.
But that's not what he said.
He gave us this whole teaching and by the time we get to verse 5, he's telling us to
judge because he says, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then leave the
mote in your brother's eye.
Is that what he says?
No.
He says, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to
cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
So is it wrong to judge when we are not being a hypocrite?
No.
And so here, by the time we get to verse 5, he's telling us to judge.
In verse 1 he's telling us, don't judge if you're guilty yourself.
He says, judge not that ye be not judged, because the same measure that you use to judge
other people is the same measure that you're going to be judged by.
You've probably heard the expression, those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
And you know, we'll often condemn someone, then we'll turn around and do the same thing.
Well don't be surprised if God brings that back around and we're brought into judgment
for the same thing.
The Bible says, for he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy.
And mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
So we're going to reap what we sow if we judge people for things that we're guilty of.
But people often misapply this scripture, judge not that ye be not judged.
For example, you know, let's say I see a man walking down the street in a dress.
And I say, you know, that's perverted.
That's wicked.
You know, that's disgusting.
And then people will say, judge not that ye be not judged.
But here's the thing, I'm willing to be judged by that standard.
I'm not afraid of that.
I'm not afraid of, well, you know what, someday if I walk down the street in a dress, people
are going to say the same thing.
No, because I'm not afraid of that standard because I don't have that beam in my eye.
Therefore, there's nothing hypocritical about saying, hey, that's weird.
That's sinful.
That's an abomination.
That's what the Bible teaches, okay?
So go to Romans 2 if you would, Romans chapter number 2.
So the first type of judging that we see that is wrong is when we judge people and we're
a hypocrite about it.
And let me tell you something, this happens a lot.
There are a lot of people out there who are the most judgmental people that are guilty
themselves.
And so they want to point out everybody else's faults to try to make themselves feel better
about themselves.
And so we do need to beware that we are not a hypocrite in our judgment, that we never
hold people to a higher standard than what we're willing to hold ourselves to, okay?
But it says in Romans chapter 2 verse 1, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou
art that judgest.
For wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same
thing.
So do you see here, in another verse that's negative about judging, it's talking about
being a hypocrite.
It's talking about judging people and you're doing the same thing.
And then it says in verse 2, But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth
against them which commit such things.
So look, the problem isn't that you're condemning someone who's done something, it's the fact
that you're doing it yourself.
And he says in verse 3, And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such
things and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God.
So God's warning us the same way He warned us in Matthew 7.
Look, if you be a hypocrite and judge people for things that you're guilty of, condemn
people for things that you're guilty of doing yourself, God is going to make sure that you
are exposed, God is going to make sure that you are judged by the same measure that you've
been judging others.
God will bring out into the open your hidden sins if you're going to be a hypocrite and
live a double life and publicly say one thing and then privately you're doing something
completely different.
There are people out there, there are preachers like this, there are Judas Iscariots of this
world who are living a double life, there are pastors and people who get busted committing
adultery and all while they're preaching a sermon series on purity.
There's a pastor two miles from here that was preaching a sermon series on purity, next
thing you know the police are raiding him, you know, for all the adultery and abominations
he'd been into with underage girls and he ended up blowing his own brains out.
Why?
But he was a hypocrite, he was a Judas Iscariot, okay?
He's basically saying one thing and living a completely, but you know what, doesn't it
seem like they always get caught eventually?
Because the Bible says be sure your sins will find you out.
And these people that are like that are going to get caught eventually.
God's going to bring them into judgment.
That's what he says.
Don't think that you're going to escape the judgment of God when you're a hypocrite and
you judge other people and don't try to cover up for your own actions by condemning other
people and judging them for things that you're guilty of yourself.
And let me say this, if your standing is a little bit questionable on something, then
you know you should just keep your mouth shut about it.
Let's say you're kind of struggling in a certain area.
For example, I've noticed that people who drink socially are the quickest people to
condemn drunkenness sometimes.
And I know somebody who's a social drinker and man, if you tell him that he's ever gotten
drunk he'll become enraged.
And this same person who just drinks socially will rip on, you know, oh man can you believe
that this pastor drinks?
And can you believe that this church sells beer at that church?
And can you believe that this person is such a drunk and whatever?
As this person gets drunk.
But in their mind, you know, they're only having a couple drinks.
But what I'm saying is, look, if you're drinking and then you're condemning drunkenness, you
know, you're way too close for comfort there.
You see what I'm saying?
And I've seen that phenomenon of people.
Because they're so close to just complete drunkenness that they want to just condemn
drunkenness as much as they can just to prove that that's not them.
But really it is them.
Is everybody listening?
And so look, if you're struggling in a certain area, you need to be careful that you're not
going around trying to be the authority on that area.
You know, if you're one that smokes, okay, and then you're going to go around and tell
everybody about their eating habits are so bad.
You're smoking.
Okay?
And you're condemning other people's eating habits.
Or vice versa.
You know, if you are just severely overweight and then you just, you know, you're just going
to preach on how unhealthy smoking is.
You know, as you're just gorging yourself with fast food and junk food.
What I'm saying is, there's hypocrisy that's out there where we need to, it's not that
we shouldn't be condemning drunkenness or even drinking.
I don't believe in drinking one drop.
I don't even believe in looking at it.
Okay?
But let me say this.
It's not that we should not preach against smoking or not preach against drunkenness
or not preach against, you know, eating junk and garbage, but we need to not be a hypocrite
about it.
You know, and you need to be careful that you get your own house in order first and
you get the beam out of your own eye first before you go out condemning and attacking
sin.
Try to, you know, get yourself in order in that area before you go out and do that because
you don't want to be a hypocrite because God has a lot of really negative things to say
about being a hypocrite.
You say, what's a hypocrite, Pastor Anderson?
A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does another.
That's what a hypocrite is.
A hypocrite is somebody who condemns drunkenness and goes out and gets drunk.
A hypocrite is someone who condemns, you know, impurity and then is being impure.
Okay?
A hypocrite is someone who does differently than what they preach to others.
But number two, go to Romans 14, you're in Romans too, go to Romans 14.
The first type of wrong judging is when we judge as a hypocrite.
The second type of wrong judging is when we judge outside of our jurisdiction.
Now we today have earthly judges, we have worldly judges, right?
And they judge crimes and matters of law, don't they?
I'm talking about just what we would refer to as a judge in our city.
Well these judges have a certain jurisdiction, you know, they have a certain city or county
or state or federal jurisdiction over which they judge and they can't judge things that
are outside of their, they have to judge things that are in their courtroom.
They can't judge things from another state and you know the wrong type of judging is
where we are judging outside of our jurisdiction, outside of the realm that God has given us
to judge.
Look at Romans 14, it says, who art thou that judgest another man's servant?
To his own master he standeth or falleth, yea he shall be holden up for God is able
to make him stand.
So here God tells us don't judge another man's servant.
Now is he telling us here don't judge your own servant?
No because obviously your own servant is within your realm of justice.
For example, and you know the Bible used the word servant, today we'd probably more often
use the word employee.
That would be the closest thing that we would have today as a servant, right?
Someone who works for me.
Now, do you think that it's wrong for me to judge people that work for me?
Because I'm not going to judge them.
You know, whatever work performance they do, I'm just not going to say a word.
Whether they do well or whether they do poorly, I will keep my mouth shut because I don't
want to judge.
No because obviously as an employer I have to judge the worker and workers are constantly
being evaluated for their performance and that might cause them to get a pay raise or
a pay cut or to be fired or to be promoted, but there's constant judgment going on.
The boss is saying hey, you've done wrong, fix it.
That's completely legitimate, but what's not right is for me to judge someone else's servant.
Now for example, there are other areas of authority besides just an employer and an
employee.
How about in the family?
You know, for example, my children, am I supposed to judge my children?
Are they within my jurisdiction?
Are they within my realm of justice?
Right, but are my children supposed to judge me?
Am I supposed to judge my boss at work?
He's not under my judgment.
He's not in my jurisdiction.
I don't need to work.
He answers to someone else.
My boss at work might answer to the owner of the company.
If he needs to be corrected, it's going to need to come from the owner.
It's not going to be me that's going to correct him and judge him and straighten him out.
Often times we're constantly worrying too much about things that have nothing to do
with us.
Instead of me worrying about every wife in the church, whether she's being a good wife
and submissive and obedient to her husband, I really am not going to go around worrying
about that because that's not my problem.
You know, I have one wife and I'm responsible for my one wife, I'm not responsible for anybody
else's wife, therefore I don't sit around critiquing and say, I don't think that she
should have talked to him that way.
I don't think that she should be doing that.
Because you know what?
That's her husband's business.
That's her husband's problem.
And by the way, the Bible does not teach that all women should obey all men.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible does not teach wives be obedient to every man on the planet.
It says wives should be obedient to their own husbands.
So they don't answer to every man in the world, they just answer to their own husband.
Do you see what I'm saying?
You know, as an employee, I answer to my boss, I don't answer to every human being that there
is.
And children, you know, predominantly answer to their own parents.
Now look, obviously someone else's child might be completely out of hand and I might have
to say, hey wait, your child is tearing the building apart or beating up other kids or
something, and it might need to be brought to the attention of the parent, but ideally
you know the parent is probably going to be the one that's going to need to bring discipline
there.
You know, I'm just not going to take your kid and just take my belt off and just spank
your kid.
And if I did, you'd probably be offended.
Because you'd say, wait a minute pastor, why are you spanking my kid?
You know, that's my kid.
I need to deal with that.
Just come tell me and I'll deal with it.
And by the way, if somebody tells you that your kid is a brat, instead of getting, you
know, why don't you correct the problem?
You know, if somebody comes to you and tells you, hey your kid's out of line, hey your
kid's being a brat, hey your kid is tearing the place apart, you know, instead of getting
all offended, how dare you?
You know what you need to do?
You need to start judging your kid.
And you need to just fix the problem instead of getting mad about it, you know.
So when people come to me and tell me that my child has done wrong, I thank them for
bringing it to my attention so I could fix the problem, okay?
But obviously I'm not going to spank someone else's kids.
You know, I'm not going to deal with their problems because we all have our certain area
that we're, for example, I'm the pastor of this church, right?
So obviously there's some judgment that goes into that where I have to decide, okay, you
know, we're going to do this, we're not going to do this.
Here's another word for judging, making decisions sometimes, just deciding what's right and
what's wrong.
I mean, isn't that what a judge does?
They decide who's right, who's wrong, what's right, what's wrong.
You know, as a pastor I have to decide, okay, is this right or is this wrong?
Now look, let's say for example my friend Roger Jimenez, who's a pastor in Sacramento.
Does Pastor Roger Jimenez do everything exactly the same as I do it?
No.
Am I going to sit here and say, well, he needs to change this and he needs to change this
and he needs to change this?
No, because it's none of my business.
You see what I'm saying?
Because I am not going to judge someone else's church, that's their, now look, if they're
just blatantly disregarding the Bible or something, okay, but, and this brings me to my next point
because we're right there in Romans 14, right?
Here we see don't judge outside your jurisdiction, don't judge other people's servants, but look
what else it says.
Not to judge people based on our own opinions and preferences, we should only judge based
on God's clear word.
For example, look at Romans 14 verse 1, let me turn there myself.
Romans chapter 14 verse 1, the Bible reads, him that is weak in the faith receive ye,
but not to what?
Doubtful disputation.
So these are things that you can't really point necessarily to a clear scripture on,
right?
They're a little bit doubtful.
Are there any doubt about thou shalt not steal?
Is there any doubt that stealing is wrong?
Is there any doubt that adultery is wrong?
I mean there are a lot of things that are pretty clear, right?
But then there are other things that are doubtful.
And a lot of those things fall under the realm of opinion or preference, okay, not under
the realm of God's commands.
And the Bible's telling us not to judge people based on our preferences, keep reading, it
says, for one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs.
Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge
him that eateth, for God hath received him.
So here we see that we should not judge those who have a different preference when it comes
to being vegetarian or eating meat.
Now look, the Bible does not teach vegetarianism.
I mean it's that simple.
All throughout the Bible we see God talking about eating meat, commanding the priests
to eat meat, Moses is angry at Aaron when he doesn't eat the meat until he finds out
it was because he wasn't unclean, or he wasn't clean.
We see all throughout the Bible God teaching us that eating meat is a good thing, Jesus
eating meat while he was on this earth.
There's no question about it, and in verse 2 it's crystal clear when he says, him that
is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubt for those mutations, he says, one believeth
that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs.
So isn't God telling us right there who's right and who's wrong in this discussion?
Because is weak something that we should all aspire to be?
No, weak is a negative word, and he says there the one who only eats herbs is weak.
But is it a sin to only eat herbs?
If somebody wants to be a vegetarian, can we really point to them and say, you're living
in sin, brother.
I'm praying for you to get out of the bondage of vegetarianism because you're in gross sin,
you know, it's wicked, it's an abomination, no, because is there really anything wrong
with being a vegetarian?
Nothing at all.
Okay, but is there anything wrong with eating meat?
Not at all.
So therefore do you see why we shouldn't judge people based on things like that and say,
you know what, you know, you're not, you know, meat is murder, and you're, no, it's not.
That's not a biblical teaching.
If that's your opinion, first of all, it's false doctrine, but secondly, you know, it's
just not something that you can prove to me clearly from scripture, that I shouldn't be
eating meat when the Bible teaches the contrary.
So this is just a great example of people just imposing their preferences on others.
Imposing their opinions on others.
Now look, there are a lot of people in this church who probably live different lifestyles
as far as, you know, they eat differently or they do things differently, maybe they
dress differently, you know, and I'm not talking about sin, I'm not talking about things that
the Bible condemns or tells us are good to do, I'm talking about just everybody's different.
Not everybody has to act the same way.
Some people drive a car, some people ride a bike, some people have a cell phone, some
people don't, right?
Some people are vegetarian.
Some people eat all things.
You know, I mean there are all different types of people and for us to just expect everybody
to be just like us is wrong.
We shouldn't expect every church to be just like Faithful Word Baptist.
And literally people from Faithful Word Baptist Church will go to another church that just
does something different.
Not wrong, just different, like, well they do this.
So what?
Who cares?
You know, because they do it a little bit different than we do it.
Obviously the way we do it is the best, but that's not the point, no I'm just kidding.
But anyway, if we thought there was a better way to be doing it, we'd be doing it that
way.
We have our own opinions here.
We have our own preferences here.
But I'm not going to sit there and expect everybody to act like me, eat like me, dress
like me, talk like me, be like me.
You know, that's just wrong when you just judge people for doing things differently
than you.
And they're not doing anything wrong, they're not making a mistake, but they're just not
doing it the way that you think they should be doing it.
Then you know what, that's a wrong type of judgment.
We need to just kind of mind our own business and worry about ourselves and not be so worried
about the way everybody else is doing it.
And you know what?
Different people in this church I'm sure have different beliefs on things.
On what's right and what's wrong.
You know, on things that are doubtful.
And you know, we just need to follow our own conscience and follow the Word of God as we
understand it and not worry about nitpicking other people.
Here's a perfect example, holidays.
You know, certain people feel real strongly about we need to celebrate thus and so holidays.
Other people might have a feeling that says, I believe it's wrong to celebrate that holiday.
But you know what, honestly, the Bible doesn't talk about that and so therefore that's your
opinion and your preference and you shouldn't try to impose it or force it on someone else.
So number one, don't be a hypocrite when you judge.
Number two, don't judge outside your jurisdiction, meaning judging people that you're not responsible
for.
You know, pastors trying to worry about how other churches are being run, you know, husbands
trying to order somebody else's wife around, you know, parents trying to basically decide.
And look, a lot of judging just takes place in the heart.
See a lot of times we just think of it as saying something.
A lot of wrong judging can take place in the heart when we despise, because look what the
Bible says.
Are you still there in Romans 14?
It says, let not him that eateth, verse 3, despise him that eateth not.
Now isn't that something that takes place in the heart?
So should I despise someone for being a vegetarian?
That's in the heart.
You see what I'm saying?
We shouldn't even, that means I shouldn't even look at other people's family and just
say, I don't think that the way he deals with his children is right and I think he needs
to fix, you know, just constantly worrying about the way other people do things, constantly
evaluating other churches, other families, other people, and again, we're not talking
about things that are crystal clear right and wrong in the Bible, we're talking about
our opinions and preferences.
Just constantly think, well here's how I would have handled that.
Here's how I would have done that.
It's better to just learn to mind your own business and do your own thing and just realize,
you know what, that person's different than me.
I can't see being a vegetarian.
I don't understand it, but you know what, I'm not going to hate that person or, well
I'm not going to be friends with them.
It just makes me so mad when we go out to eat and they order, you know, some vegetarian
thing.
It's like, so what?
Get over it.
Accept people for being a little different than you.
You know, people that have a little bit of a different opinion than you.
And look, you might look at somebody and think that they're a geek or a dweeb or a nerdy
person and say that person's so nerdy and dweeby and geeky.
You know what though?
Is it sin to be a dweeb?
I mean is it a sin to be nerdy?
No.
Or you might look at somebody and say, oh that person is such a redneck or something.
Is that a sin?
You know what I mean?
I mean just people that are just different in their mentality or oh I think so and so
is kind of a hippie or something, you know what I mean?
Now look, if they're committing sin, if they're violating God's Word, okay that's a problem.
But when they just have a different style or a different way of life than you that's
a little different than you, you know, and look, there are people in this church that
I'm sure you could look at and despise and think, oh this person's kind of a goofball
or oh this person's kind of a nerd or oh this person's kind of a, you know, whatever.
I mean you could name whatever criticism you want to put out there about anyone male or
female, man, woman, boy or girl.
You know, you could find things to make fun of about me.
You could find things to make fun of about people in this church.
But you know, we're supposed to love one another and not just sit there and nitpick everybody
who's a little different than us.
Just accept people for who they are and not just look down on people because they live
differently than you.
And I'm not talking about sinful things.
I'm just talking about people that have a different way of life than you, okay?
Not everybody is, you know, there are city people, there are rural people, there are
intellectuals, there's more people that are a little simpler, okay?
People that are smarter, people that aren't really that intelligent.
You know, there are people who are cool, there are people who are a little bit dweeby, whatever.
And don't try to figure out who I'm talking about, no I'm just kidding.
But honestly, you know what, I love everybody in our church and I, you know what, I love
people in our church.
I don't just, I only like the people that are just like me.
You know, we ought to branch out a little bit and open our mind a little bit to love
people that aren't exactly like us.
You know, and try to reach out to everybody and not just limit ourselves to a few people
that are in our little clique or our little group that we relate to.
Number four, there's five things, I gave you three.
Number four, go to James chapter four, James chapter four.
Another type of wrong judging is when our judging involves backbiting or talking bad
about people behind their back.
This is a major type of wrong judging, okay?
So we talked about the fact that when we judge we don't want to be a hypocrite.
Number two, we don't want to go outside of our jurisdiction and worry about things that
really are none of our business, that are other people's issues, other people's problems,
that are our problem.
Number three, we don't want to judge people based on our own opinions and preferences,
but rather our judgment should only be based upon God's clear word, not doubtful disputations.
But number four, judging should never involve backbiting or talking bad about someone behind
their back.
Look at James 4-11, it says, speak not evil one of another brethren, for he that speaketh
evil of his brother and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law and judgeth the law.
But if thou judgeth the law, thou art not a doer of the law but a judge.
There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.
Who art thou that judgeth another?
So here we're talking about judging in the sense of finding something wrong with someone
else and then going and passing that on to other people behind their back.
Now the Bible, and I'm going to get to this a little later in the sermon, but the Bible
does tell us how to properly judge and it involves going to that person directly and
telling them what the problem is, to their face.
But even if you're judging a righteous judgment, even if you're right, even if that person
is sinning, even if that person is wrong, and you're going behind their back and telling
a third party that has nothing to do with it, that has no jurisdiction over that, that
is a wrong judging, that is just evil speaking.
You know for example, if I saw your kid being a brat, here's a perfect example, and I just
go tell some other parent that has nothing to do with the situation, can you believe
what a brat so-and-so's kid is?
They must never spank that kid.
I mean they must be so lazy, they must never take the time to teach that kid anything or
discipline that kid, and I'm just passing it on to a third party.
That's always wrong.
Even if what I'm saying is gospel truth, even if they really are lazy, even if they really
are not disciplining their kid, even if they are not teaching it to be good, when I'm just
going and passing that on to some random person who can't do anything about it just
for the sake of talking bad and gossiping, that's wrong.
That's evil speaking, that's the wrong type of judging that God condemns here.
That leads me into my fifth point, which is when we judge by the appearance and assume
the worst.
When we judge by the appearance and assume the worst, and this is what the Bible calls
evil surmising.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter 6, and I touched on this on Sunday morning about a week and a
half ago when I preached about envy, but Jesus said in John 7 24, judge not after the
appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Did you hear that?
He said judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
So basically it's an unrighteous judgment when we're just judging by appearance, and
what I mean by that is that we are looking at a situation from the outside and assuming
the worst.
So what's the opposite of assuming the worst?
Giving people the what?
The benefit of the doubt.
So therefore if I see a situation in the church or outside the church or anywhere, if I see
a situation and there's any doubt about what's going on based on the appearance, I should
always give people the benefit of the doubt and not assume the worst.
And that's what the Bible means by evil surmising, look down at 1 Timothy 6 4, it says he is
proud knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh, and here's
the formula right here, envy, strife, railings, evil surmising.
Now envy is when we look at someone else and we wish that we had what they had, we're jealous
of their success or whatever.
Strife is when we then have enmity or friction with that person, we don't get along with
that person.
Evil surmising is when we talk bad about that person behind their back, and then evil surmising
is when we start to theorize about how they're even worse than we thought.
Because if this is what we see them do, what else are they doing that we don't know about?
So it starts out we envy them, then we start having fights with them, then we start to
talk bad about them to other people, and then we start theorizing.
And so that's an unrighteous judgment when you theorize about people, you assume the
worst, you surmise things about them that may or may not even be true.
So that's the wrong kind of judging.
Now let's look at some righteous judging.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, but 1 Corinthians talks a lot about the right kind of judging.
And so we've seen all the wrong kinds of judging.
Judging people when we're a hypocrite, judging people for stuff that's not even biblical,
it's just our preference, it's not really a sin, we just don't think they should be
doing it.
Or judging people who are not under our authority or under our jurisdiction, we have no reason
to judge.
Judging people by just talking bad about them behind their back instead of taking it directly
to that person.
Or judging by the appearance and assuming the worst, which the Bible calls evil surmising.
But what's the right kind of judging?
Well the Bible tells us many times to judge, because you say well I'm just going to play
it safe by just never judging.
For me there's so many wrong types of judging, I'm going to go the safe route by just never
judging.
But here is the thing, there's some commands to judge.
There are sometimes when God tells us to judge.
So you're not doing the safe route by never judging because sometimes you need to judge.
Obviously parents need to judge their children, obviously employers need to judge their employee,
but here we see some things where God specifically tells us to judge.
Here in 1 Corinthians 5, if you want to flip over to 14, I'm just going to show you some
places where God tells us to judge, keep your finger in 5.
But in 1 Corinthians 14, 29 it says let the prophets, and what's another word for a prophet
in the Bible?
A preacher.
It says let the prophets speak two or three and let the other judge.
So let me ask you this, when you're listening to preaching, should you just not judge?
I'm just going to go to church and listen to preaching and I don't want to judge Pastor
Anderson so I'm just going to just assume that everything he's saying is true.
No because the Bible tells us that while preaching is happening, the listener should be judging.
That means that everything that I say you should be evaluating for whether it's right
or wrong.
Isn't that what a judge does?
They decide who's right, who's wrong, what's right, what's wrong.
Look when you are listening to preaching, you should be searching the Scriptures daily
to see whether these things are so and not just say, well Pastor Anderson said it, he
knows more about the Bible than I do, therefore everything he says is right.
No, your job as the believer is not to turn off your brain when you come to church, it's
to come here and to judge what I say and Paul, the apostle Paul, a preacher, constantly told
people, judge ye what I say.
Judge me, judge what I'm saying.
He says here, you know, when somebody's preaching, judge.
Don't just blindly listen to preaching but rather see, does it line up with the Bible?
Now let me ask you this, can you even do that if you haven't read the Bible?
Now if you haven't read the Bible, you're in no position to judge me because you don't
even know what the rules are.
What you ought to do is go home and search the Scriptures daily, then you will be qualified
to sit and listen to my sermon, judging everything I say.
Because everything I say is not always going to be right.
Now I hope that 99.9% of what I say is right.
And I believe that 99.9% of what I say is right.
Because I work really hard to study my Bible, do my homework, and make sure that the preaching
that I bring is very accurate.
But am I sometimes going to say something that's not right?
Because I'm a human being.
And that's why you need to just be in the habit of judging.
Because maybe everything that Pastor Anderson says is right or 90% or whatever, okay, but
then what happens if I died and somebody else comes in and takes over the church, right?
And what if what they preach is like 85% right, you know, and there's a lot of error, right?
I mean they're preaching a lot of good things, but what if a lot of error is coming across
the board, but you've just gotten in the habit of just believing everything because it was
mostly right, I'm just going to believe, I'm just going to trust.
It's a bad way to listen to preaching.
You need to just evaluate it with the Bible.
And you say, well Pastor Anderson, aren't you afraid people are going to judge you?
No, because see, when you're right, you're not afraid of being judged.
You know, you don't mind.
It's like Paul says, judge.
Judge me.
Bring me into judgment.
Because he knew that what he's saying is right.
Look at chapter 11, 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
Here's a place where God tells us to judge, and this is probably a classic example where
if you judge the judgment that he tells you to judge in 1 Corinthians 11, people are going
to attack you and say it's the wrong kind of judging.
This is a classic example.
This is talking about, and 1 Corinthians 11 is a scripture that covers the subject of
men having short hair and women having long hair, right?
And he says in verse number, you know, I can't teach the whole chapter for the sake of time,
but the whole verses 3 through 16, I mean that's a pretty long scripture there, 14 verses,
just all about the length of your hair.
That men are supposed to have short hair and women are supposed to have long hair.
So that's a pretty serious passage about that.
And you know, just to give it to you in a nutshell, it says in verse 14, does not even
nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him.
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory for her hair is given her for a covering.
And he explains how the woman needs to have long hair and the man needs to have short
hair, but one interesting verse that's in this passage is where he says in verse 13,
judge in yourselves is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered.
So that right there is telling us to judge within ourselves if it rubs us the wrong way
when we see a man praying or prophesying with long hair or a woman praying or prophesying
with short hair.
Doesn't it go against the grain?
Judge in yourselves.
Don't judge that.
But see, here's the thing, that is a clear scriptural boundary that God teaches.
That is a righteous judgment.
If I went to somebody, if I went to a man that had long hair and said, you know what,
you know, the Bible, and I lovingly, kindly, gently said, you know, the Bible teaches that
men are supposed to have short hair.
I'm not saying I went to them and was rude or mean or arrogant, but if I went to them
and just humbly showed them, you know, the Bible does teach that men are supposed to
have short hair.
Okay?
Oh, you're judging me.
The Bible said to judge.
Okay?
Or, or, same thing, and you know, it's a double standard often where everybody thinks it's
fine when women have short hair, but then they condemn men with long hair in churches.
You know what I mean?
Half, half the wives in the church will have short hair, but it's like, oh, they have long
hair on men, you know.
I mean, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
You know, I mean, it's both, it goes both ways.
I mean, women are supposed to have long hair.
You say, well, how long is long?
How short is short?
Look, why don't you quit trying to find out?
You know what I mean, why don't you just, just have it long?
You know, and if you're a man, just have it short.
I mean, it's not that complicated, but anyway, go back to chapter five.
Here's another, I'm just showing you all the places in the book of first Corinthians.
I don't have time to show you all the places in the Bible that tell us to judge, I'm just
showing you in first Corinthians where the Bible tells us to judge, because he told us
to judge the preaching.
He told us to judge that, you know, a man wearing a dress or a man with long hair or,
you know, men who are feminine, judge that.
You know, a woman who's manly and has short hair, judge that.
That's not right.
And we're not being judgmental when we point out that that's not right, or when a preacher
gets up and preaches that that's not right, or when we lovingly correct someone and say,
look, that's not right for you to be effeminate, or for you to have long hair.
You know what I mean?
And you say, oh, you're going to offend that person, you're going to hurt their feelings.
You know what, there are a lot of people that someone brought that to them nicely and they
just fixed it, and they didn't get offended, because the Bible says rebuke a wise man and
he'll love thee.
But look at first Corinthians chapter five, this is when Paul is judging the young man
who's in fornication in the church.
And fornication is a major sin in the Bible.
This is when people are going to bed with someone that they're not married to.
And the Bible says in verse three, for I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have
judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed.
Paul said, I'm not there, but I've already judged this guy.
Oh, well don't judge him.
No, Paul said I've judged him.
He's in fornication, wicked sin, throw him out of the church.
I've already judged.
Jump down to verse 12.
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without, meaning outside the church?
Do not ye judge them that are within?
So he's rebuking them for not judging those that are within the church.
He says, but them that are without God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that
wicked person.
Verse one of the next chapter, keep reading, he stays on judgment.
He says, dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust
and not before the saints?
Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
Now look, if it's always wrong to judge, then why are the saints going to judge the
world?
And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye not unworthy to judge the smallest matter?
Are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to this life.
If ye then have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least
esteemed in the church.
I speak to your shame.
Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, no not one, that shall be able to judge
between his brethren?
So here we see that, you know, God is rebuking or reproving or saying it's shameful when
people are not able to judge.
And when there's no judgment going on in the house of God, and the Bible says judgment
must begin at the house of God.
And so to just sit there and just carte blanche say, we should never judge, don't ever judge,
all judging is wrong.
Is that biblical?
He says we're going to judge angels, we're going to judge the whole world.
If we're qualified to judge angels and the world, why are we not qualified to judge the
matters of this life?
Look, God judges those that are outside the church.
He said, you know, we need to judge those that are within.
They had a guy in their church that was openly living in fornication and nobody said anything
to him about it.
Are you listening?
Nobody said anything about it.
I mean this guy's just living in sin.
He's just living with someone that he's not married to and it's just openly, it was commonly
reported, everybody knew about it, and everybody's like, let's just not judge.
And God said, your church is infected with sin.
Somebody needs to judge this.
Somebody needs to fix this.
Somebody needs to point this out.
Somebody needs to rebuke this guy.
Somebody needs to get this guy and straighten him out or get him out, like the Bible tells
us to.
And then the Bible talks about the fact that we do the opposite of what he says.
Instead of judging ourselves and judging one another, we go to the world to judge.
And by the way, the Bible teaches that it is a sin to sue your brother in Christ or
to turn your brother in Christ over to the authorities when it's something that could
be dealt with another way.
Now obviously if somebody's committing murder or, you know, murder or rape or something,
obviously yeah, okay, then they, you know, will call the police or something.
But you know, when you're basically turning someone in and you're going to law before
the unjust and not before the saints, the Bible says there's utterly a fault among you.
Okay?
That means if someone in the church steals from you, are you listening?
Somebody in the church steals from you, damages your property, you know, backs up into you
in the parking lot or, you know, hurts you in some way.
You know what?
That needs to be dealt with by the church.
That's what the Bible says, that the believers should judge that.
Why?
Because our justice system is corrupt.
And the Bible even tells us that they are unrighteous and unjust and he lists off their
attributes up through verse 9 the type of people that are judges today in the world.
And let me ask you this, is the world's punishment for stealing the same as God's punishment?
So what I'm saying is, you know, you don't want to just bring in the ungodly world all
the time and that's why I don't believe in suing my brother in Christ.
And that's why the Bible says I'd be better off to suffer myself to be defrauded.
And you know what?
If you don't want to be defrauded then don't enter into business dealings with people from
church.
And don't loan out stuff to people at church unless you're ready to kiss them goodbye.
Here is my rule of thumb.
If someone in the church wants to borrow money from me, if someone in the church wants to
borrow some item from me, whether it's my car, whether it's a tool, I never loan anything
to anyone that I'm not ready to kiss goodbye.
Now that doesn't mean I'm saying to whoever I'm loaning it to, you know, don't pay me
back.
I'm ready to kiss goodbye.
Because the Bible says the wicked borroweth and payeth not again.
But I'll say this, I would never loan something to someone where I didn't know that if I never
get it back, I'm okay.
I'll survive and I will still love that person, I will not hate that person.
And if you can't do that, you shouldn't be loaning it out.
And if you can't do that, you shouldn't be entering into business dealings with someone
unless you just decide, okay, what's the worst case scenario?
Am I okay with that?
Then don't do it.
If I loan you my car and you go out and just flip it upside down and just demolish it and
destroy it, and that car is gone, you know what?
It's not going to be the end of the world to me.
Now some of you have seen my car and you're thinking, yeah, I can see why, because your
car is a worthless piece of junk.
Now my car, I just broke this week 350,000 miles on my car.
So I'm ready to kiss goodbye.
Who needs to borrow it?
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, you know, it's got 350,000 miles.
Now look, I have two vehicles.
I have the car, my Hyundai Sonata, that has 350,000 miles on it.
That's my work vehicle that I use that I drive every week.
But then I have another vehicle, which is a Toyota Sienna, which is an 8-seater van.
Don't tell the highway patrol, but I have nine people in my family and I have an 8-seater
van.
Okay?
But anyway, that's what we have.
That's our family vehicle, is that Toyota Sienna.
You know, that's what we pile into.
Now look, I loan out my Hyundai.
Who's borrowed my car before?
Put up your hand if you've borrowed my car.
Okay, only one person.
It used to be when I'd say that, a few hands went up.
They all quit the church.
But anyway, I've loaned out my car to several people in the church over the years and you
know what?
I loan it out because I'm ready to kiss a goodbye.
But let me tell you something, I don't loan out our van.
Because if our van were to get wrecked or destroyed, you know, that would be a serious
problem for us.
Because that's our only transportation for our family, do you see what I'm saying?
So I'm not going to loan out something that's that important and then something happens
to it and then I'm all mad and then I, you know, it's just better not to do that.
You know, and so we need to be careful about not trusting people more than we want to trust
them and giving them too much and then getting mad when things don't work out and then all
of a sudden we want to sue people and, you know, we're constantly trying to get justice
from the world.
And it's funny because the Christians who tell you like, never judge, all judging is
wrong.
But then you'll say like, well what about judges?
Like physical, like earthly judges, oh that's okay.
Say what, so we should never have, we should have no courtrooms?
Don't judge.
Okay, well we should have no courtrooms.
Defend the Supreme Court, disband all appellate courts, get rid of every courtroom and every,
get rid of the whole judicial branch of our government because it's, don't judge.
No they'll say that's ridiculous, we need those judges.
But here the Bible is saying that judging in church is better than that judging.
So the world, see how they have it just backwards like, oh the world's justice is great, their
judging is great, but Christians should never judge.
In reality it's the exact opposite, God's saying Christians can judge a lot better than
these bunch of heathen can judge.
That's what the Bible says.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2, just a few pages back, I'm almost done, but 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 says in verse 15, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself
is judged of no man.
So right there it says that a person who's spiritual judges all things, it doesn't say
a person who's spiritual never judges, right?
Now I have a whole page of notes that I'm going to skip, but turn if you would, let
me just close on this.
Turn if you would to Leviticus 19, you can put one finger in Leviticus 19 and one finger
in Luke 17, those are the two places we're going to go.
Leviticus 19 and Luke 17, let me tell you about the part that I skipped though.
I have a whole page and a half of scriptures here about rebuking people or telling people
that they're in sin, telling people that they're wrong, and I've got a page and a half
of scriptures both about how to do that and about how a person should receive that.
Okay?
Because the Bible talks a lot about the subject of, you know, the fact that if we're the type
of person who gets angry or bristles when someone comes and tells us we're wrong, that
we are a fool.
And this is what Cain's problem was, remember Cain and Abel?
God came to Cain and told Cain, you're wrong.
And instead of Cain just realizing, okay I made a mistake, I've done wrong, let me fix
it.
What does he do?
He goes out and gets angry and kills Abel.
And the Bible tells us why he killed Abel.
It says because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous.
So just because someone who did right told Cain that he was wrong, he gets angry.
And he lashes out against someone who's a righteous person.
So we need to be careful in our lives when someone comes to us and tells us about a sin
in our life.
And I'm not talking about, again, opinions, preferences, go vegan, I'm not talking about
that.
Okay.
But what I am saying is that when someone comes to us and points out a sin in our life,
our knee-jerk reaction shouldn't be just, oh how dare you, you're judging me, oh none
of your business.
Our reaction should be, oh wait a minute, is this something I'm guilty of?
Our reaction should be to examine ourself and see if there's truth in it, see if it's
really true.
And to humbly thank the person and say, you know what, you're right, I do need to fix
that.
That is something I should fix.
Thanks for pointing that out to me.
David was like that.
I mean, David got confronted with a pretty serious sin.
And Nathan rebuked him and said, thou art the man.
And here's what's interesting, there is no hesitation in David.
David just instantly, I mean he's been covering up this sin for weeks or months, right?
He's been lying about it, he's been hiding his sin, he's been just unrepentant about
his sin and Nathan comes and rebukes his sin to his face and the first thing out of David's
mouth is, and how dare you, who do you think you are?
The first thing out of his mouth is, I've sinned.
I have sinned.
He just says, you know what, you're right.
I do need to fix that.
Now I'm not saying that's easy to say that when someone comes to you and corrects you,
but that's what God expects us to do and that's why David was such a greater man than Saul.
Every time you see somebody confronting Saul with sin, he makes excuses every time.
Every time.
Even though eventually he admits he's wrong, at first he's like, well, but you don't understand
the situation I was in, oh, you know, the people, and Saul's sins were more minor than
David's sins.
I think David sinned, personally, in my opinion, David did stuff worse than Saul in my opinion.
But the difference was that when David was confronted with it, he repented.
Saul, on the other hand, wasn't one that could take rebuke.
He had more of a Cain type attitude when he's rebuked and he tries to kill David who's a
righteous man just like Cain tried to kill Abel, you know?
But look at Leviticus 19 verse 17.
The Bible says in Leviticus 19 verse 17, because remember, we're talking about rebuking someone,
correcting someone, or being corrected.
And again, this is what's often wrongfully referred to as you're judging me, you're judging,
when someone tries to correct someone.
It says in Leviticus 19 17, thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him.
So is the Bible telling us in verse 17 there to not rebuke our neighbor or to rebuke our
neighbor?
He tells us to rebuke.
He says don't hate him in your heart, rebuke him and don't suffer sin upon him.
Look at Luke 17 and see where Jesus taught the exact same thing in Luke 17.
Luke 17 verse 3 says this, take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke
him.
Is that consistent with what Leviticus 19 taught?
It says if thy brother, we're in Luke 17 3, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke
him.
And if he repent, forgive him.
Now again, is this saying, you know, rebuke people about things that are none of your
business?
This says if thy brother sin against thee, if thy brother trespass against thee, if someone
does you wrong, you're not wrong to point that out to them and to tell them that they're
wrong.
He says if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.
And if he repent, forgive him.
And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day, turn again
to thee saying I repent, thou shalt forgive him.
And you say who in the world would sin against somebody seven times in one day and, you know,
seven times say they're sorry.
Well, are you married?
Because when you live with someone, I mean if you live with somebody, you might spend
sixteen hours with that person.
You know, and it's possible for you to keep making the same mistake, whether the husband
or the wife, and you know, make a mistake and do wrong and continually.
And you know what, obviously he's using seven, and I'm not saying you're going to do it seven
times in the same day, but he's using the term seven there because he's just trying
to pick a number that we're not going to exceed.
See if he would have said if he did it three times in the day, forgive him.
Well then you'd be like, okay, that's time number four.
You know, and you'd be unforgiving.
So he picks a number that's too high, okay?
And he says that if they sin against you, rebuke him.
Now look, you say what good is it to rebuke someone who sins against you?
Why don't you just keep your mouth shut?
Because oftentimes, keeping your mouth shut is the best option.
Somebody sins against me, sometimes I just don't say anything.
If I'm able to do that, then that's the best option, okay?
If someone does me wrong, or sins against me, and I'm able to just let it go without
saying anything, that's great, but you know what, isn't it true that sometimes someone
does you wrong and you struggle with forgiveness, or you struggle with getting over it?
You know, and this could be in the church, this could be your brothers and sisters, this
could be in a marriage.
I mean think about it, sometimes my wife says something that I don't like, and I just think
to myself, you know what, no big deal, she didn't mean that, I'm not going to worry about
it.
Or sometimes I might say something that she doesn't like and she just thinks, no big deal,
not a problem.
And you know what, sometimes that's the best way to keep peace if it's just something minor.
The Bible says it's good sometimes to pass over a transgression, and that charity will
cover a multitude of sins, right?
And you know what I often tell myself, because I love my wife so much, when my wife does
wrong sometimes, I just tell myself, you know, I just tell myself all the awesome things
that she's done right.
You know what I mean?
Sometimes if she says something that I didn't really like or does something that I really
like, I just think about all the many times recently that she's gone above and beyond
for me, and all the really nice things that she's done, all the really good things that
she's done, and then I just put them side by side and say, you know what, I'm not going
to get upset about such a dumb little thing when she's been so great.
She's done so many good things lately and it's been so great, no big deal.
But here's the thing, sometimes somebody says something to you though and it hurts you,
or they do something to you and it hurts you, and you know what, you can't just get over
it, can you?
You can't just blow it off.
It bugs you, right?
And look, that's why he said in Leviticus 19, don't hate your brother in your heart,
rebuke him.
Because oftentimes when we never rebuke anyone, we can start to be bitter toward people and
get angry at people and hate people, because if somebody does me wrong and I just don't
say anything, oftentimes then it's just bottled up, bitterness, anger, and the Bible says
husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them.
And oftentimes if a husband is wronged by his wife and just doesn't say anything about
it, maybe he might be still brooding about it on the inside and bitter on the inside
and get angry and upset and it could cause a problem, whereas sometimes it's better just
to get things out of the open and say, hey look, here's what you did that was wrong.
Here's what you said that was wrong, that made me upset.
And then if I said that to my wife, what should my wife say?
If I say to my wife, you know, honey, what you said was wrong, what you did was wrong,
what should her response be to that?
I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, you're right.
You know what?
I'm really sorry about that.
And then I should instantly forgive her, because I mean, if she says she's sorry, that's it.
It's over.
Everything's great, right?
But what happens sometimes with people is that they'll go to correct someone and say,
you know what, what you did offended me or what you did hurt me or what you did was wrong.
And then that person will then say, well, you know, blah, blah, blah, and just mouth
off and not take the correction, okay?
You know what, then they're just exacerbating the problem, creating strife.
So we need to both, in order to have a good relationship with people, we need to be able
to give the rebuke and we need to be able to receive the rebuke.
You know, I need to be able to confront someone who's done wrong to me and tell them you've
done wrong, you know, and give them a chance to say that they're sorry.
Give them a chance to make it right.
Sometimes it's easier, though, to just not say anything and just hate them in your heart
or be bitter in your heart or get angry in your heart, and that's not always the best
thing.
So God does not teach in the Bible, never say anything to anyone negative.
Never correct anyone.
Look, when people do you right, if somebody backs into you in the parking lot, you know,
if somebody backed in, let me just say this right now, if somebody backed into my car
in the parking lot tonight, I'm going to just ignore it and pretend like it never happened.
I'm not even going to say anything to you because I don't care, okay?
I already told you the state that my car is in.
And literally, somebody backed into me in the bank parking lot and I said, don't worry
about it, man, just drive away, you know, I'm not worried about it.
But look, if you backed into my car and it, you know, and it meant something to me, right,
and I'm not able to just let it go and get over it, instead of just hating you in my
heart and being bitter and talking back, can you believe that jerk backed into me and just
drove away and didn't say anything?
There'd be nothing in the world wrong.
Let's say it's brother Matt.
I'll use him, you know, because I don't, he's never going to back into my car.
But anyway, if he had a car, he'd do it, but anyway, let's say brother Matt, let's say
brother Matt backs into my car in the parking lot and that man just makes me so mad because
I love my car so much.
Okay, and you know what, there'd be nothing in the world wrong with me saying, Matt, you
backed into my car a week ago.
You didn't say anything, you drove off, Matt.
Why did you do that?
What is the deal?
You know, you've done me wrong.
And at that point, he should say to me, you know what, Pastor Anderson, I'm really sorry,
what can I do to make it right?
Right?
Wouldn't that be the right way to handle it?
Now the best way for me to handle it is just, you know, I see that he backed into my car,
I saw him look both ways and you know, I'm just kidding, but you know, if I can just
pass over the transgression, if I can just ignore it, if I can just let it go, that's
great but you know what, sometimes you can't let things go and sometimes it's unrealistic
to expect people to let everything go all the time.
Sometimes you have to go to that person and look for some restitution and say, hey, let's
fix this, let's get this right.
And sometimes marriages can go bad because there's no communication.
And like, you know, basically months and months will go by where the husband is thinking,
man, my wife is mad at me and I can't even figure out why.
Or months and months will go by and the wife is thinking, man, I can tell my husband's
mad at me and I can't figure out why.
And then years will go by and then finally the husband will say, well you did this, this
and this.
And she's like, I didn't even know that bothered you.
I've been mad about that every day for the last ten years and I'm finally sick of it.
But see, here's the thing, ten years ago you should have just said something ten years
ago and said, hey, I don't like it when you squeeze the toothpaste that way, okay?
You know, or whatever.
It's better to communicate with people.
So look, let me just wrap up the whole sermon by saying this, going around and just saying
that judging is wrong and just throwing that out there, judge not, judge not, judge not,
is ridiculous.
Isn't the subject a little deeper than that in the Bible?
Okay, there's some judgment that needs to happen.
We need to judge people that are responsible to us, whether it's our children, whether
it's our employees, whatever.
We need to judge people that are within our jurisdiction.
We need to judge people that are committing major sins in the church.
We need to judge people that are committing fornication, drunkenness, cross-dressing,
whatever.
That is stuff that needs to be judged.
If someone is living in sin that's damaging their life.
Let's say somebody's about to make a really bad decision, right?
What if somebody in the church, and it's none of my business, has nothing to do with me,
but what if somebody's about to make a really bad decision, like let's say they're about
to divorce their spouse.
You know what?
It would be perfectly right for me to walk up to that person or you to walk up to that
person with your Bible and say, look, I love you, I'm not trying to offend you, but you
know what?
Here's what the Bible says about divorce.
I just want you to know what you're doing.
And look, that's going to make that person mad.
You know?
Maybe there's a man who has long hair and, you know, he's just got long, you know, there'd
be nothing in the world wrong with kindly and gently going to that person and showing
them what the Bible says and just saying, look, you know, this is what the Bible says.
You know, and obviously, you know, you want to do it in the right spirit, but this idea
that just it's always wrong to tell people they've done wrong.
It's always wrong to correct people and to judge them.
It's not biblical.
You know?
It's okay to take the mode out of somebody's eye as long as we're not being a hypocrite.
And then when it comes to our relationships with our family and our spouse and people
in the church, there's nothing wrong with going to people and telling them that they've
done wrong and correcting them and passing judgment on something and saying, you know
what?
Here's what you've done wrong and giving them a chance to repent and get it right.
Okay?
So anyway, I hope that that helps clear it up for you a little bit.
Hopefully you're less confused than you were before and not more confused, but honestly,
we just need to be careful that our heart is in the right place when we're judging.
That we're not just going around talking bad about people, not just going around getting
involved in everybody else's business and worrying about things that don't pertain to
us, but that rather our judgment is based on a love for people that says, I want to
get the mote out of your eye because I know that having a splinter in your eye is painful.
So I love you.
I want to help you.
I was, Paul Wittenberger was out visiting and we were working together on a job and
he got a splinter of wood in his eye.
And I said, let me remove the mote from your eye, Paul.
And literally, we were joking about it because his eye was all red, he's like, oh this is
horrible, it's so bad.
And I was helping him.
I was giving him tips and I gave him a tip, you know, I said turn your eyelid inside out
and do the, you know, and he did it and it worked.
He likes that because it's getting him out of pain.
Do you see that?
Okay.
Well look, if somebody comes to you and corrects you with the word of God, they're trying to
save you pain.
Okay, that, but when we judge, it should, look, if I go to Matt and say you backed into
my car, it should not be just anger or frustration, it should be to try to fix it.
Let's fix our relationship.
I don't want to be bitter toward you, Matt.
I love you, I want to be friends with you, but you've damaged my car.
We need to fix this, you know.
Let's work this out, buddy.
Let's be friends.
Okay.
If that's our attitude, all of it, you say, well I can't remember all five of your points,
Pastor Anderson.
But look, just get the heart right.
It all has a common denominator of having a heart of loving people, caring about people,
being humble, then you can judge rightly.
If you're humble and you love people, then everything will be fine.
Love your neighbor as yourself and everything will be great.
Alright, let's have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your word, and Lord, help us to judge righteous judgment.
Help us not to fall into the trap of all these types of judgment that are not right, but
help us to be people who can kindly and gently and lovingly help other people by judging
them, not harm them by judging them, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.