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30 in the book of Genesis. So for the first four sermons that I did, I focused my sermons on the person. Reuben, the person, not as much what happened later with the tribe, but Simeon, the person, Levi, the person, Judah, the person. Well, now we're getting into a lot of the sons of Jacob where the Bible doesn't really tell us anything specifically about the person in their lifetime. And so I'm going to be focused more on the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Naphtali in these sermons. But let's just start out and see the little tiny bit that the Bible does say about the person, at least his birth. Go to Genesis chapter 30 and look at verse number three. This is when Rachel is frustrated because Jacob has two wives, Rachel and Leah, because he really just wanted to marry Rachel. But then his father-in-law tricked him into accidentally marrying Leah. And so then he says, okay, well, you can have Rachel too. So then he ends up with two wives. Well, obviously this is a recipe for disaster and these two wives are very competitive and fighting with each other and really even hateful to each other at times. And what happens is that Leah is blessed with the four children that I've already preached about at the last four services. And Rachel is barren. She's not having any children. And so she says to Jacob, you know, give me children or else I die. And he says, you know, I'm not in the place of God who has withheld you from having children. And so she says, okay, well, here's what you're going to do. Look at verse three. She said, behold, my maid Bilhah, go in under her and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah, her handmaid to wife. And Jacob went in under her and Bilhah conceived and bear Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God have judged me and hath also heard my voice and have given me a son. Therefore called she his name, Dan. Of course, that's her talking because this isn't God's idea. This isn't God judging her. If God really gave her a son, she'd be having a son. Right. But they do this sketchy thing where he basically just in essence adds a third wife by taking Bilhah and having a child with her. But because Rachel owns Bilhah, you know, it's basically her kid now to raise and whatever. So that's where we get Dan. Bilhah ends up having two sons, Dan and Naphtali. Okay. Now she called his name Dan. The word Dan simply means judge. And this is why she says, well, God has judged me and therefore I'm going to call his name Dan. So that's significant about Dan. Now go to Genesis 49, where we just read Genesis chapter number 49. And so again, the Bible doesn't give us specific stories about the person, Dan, but there are a lot of stories that involve the tribe of Dan. And in Genesis 49, there's something really interesting about the tribe of Dan because he gives a blessing for Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah. And if you look at each of those, even though he might say multiple things about the person, it all kind of goes together and flows together. Whereas with Dan, it's like you just have two totally separate statements that don't really have anything to do with each other. Okay. So look at chapter 49 verse 16. It says, Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. That makes sense just with his name, meaning judge. Okay. Also the most famous judge in the Bible. If we think of the book of Judges and kind of think of the quintessential judge, it would be Samson. And Samson is of the tribe of Dan. And so that's a foreshadowing of that. But then in verse 17, we have this totally different statement that doesn't seem to go with verse 16. It says, Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward. Now the first statement sounds pretty positive, doesn't it? Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. This sounds like an honor, a privilege, a good position, a blessing from God. But being referred to as a serpent doesn't sound so good, does it? Because all the way back in Genesis chapter three, the serpent is associated with Satan, with the devil. Okay. And so when he says, Dan shall be a serpent, this is obviously negative in that sense. Now there are other sons of Jacob here that are associated with animals in this passage, right? Like Judah was associated with a lion and then Benjamin was associated with a wolf. And then you have Isaacar is a strong ass couching down between two birds. Naphtali is a hind let loose. So you have about five different animals listed there, but with the serpent, an adder in the path, biting the horse heels so that his rider falls backward. A serpent biting a horse's heel and making the rider fall off doesn't sound good. It sounds like they're a stumbling block. They're harmful. They're hurting him. And then what else is really interesting is that we have kind of just this random utterance in verse 18, right after that, where he says, I've waited for thy salvation, Oh Lord. You know, what does that have to do with anything, right? Because this is Jacob not saying, Dan this or Dan that, but he's basically just interjecting something from himself, from his own heart saying, I've waited for thy salvation, Oh Lord. So what do we make of these three strange verses that kind of almost just seem like three separate random thoughts. We just kind of grabbed three random verses and threw them together. But we know that everything in the Bible is the way it is for a reason. There's nothing incidental, coincidental, or accidental in the Bible. It's all there for a reason. So let me break this down for you. The first thing I want to break down is where verse 18 is coming from. I believe that where verse 18 is coming from is that Jacob's memory is jogged of the promise of a coming savior, a coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, that will come someday. He didn't know that name, of course, but he knew that someday there would be the Messiah. There would be the one who would come as a savior for mankind. And I believe that his memory of that coming savior was jogged by verse 17. And the reason why is that the first promise of the coming savior is found in Genesis 3.15. Okay. If you want to keep your finger there in Genesis 49, flip back to Genesis 3.15, so you can see this. And remember in Genesis 49 verse 17, it said, Dan shall be a serpent, by the way, an adder in the path. And an adder is just a kind of snake, right? That biteth the horse heels. So it's specifically a serpent that bites a heel, if you notice that. Well, look what the Bible says in Genesis 3.15. This is the promise of a coming savior that will defeat Satan on behalf of mankind. And the Bible says in Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between thee and the woman. And he's talking to the serpent. I'm going to put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head. So the seed of the serpent will bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. Okay. So basically this is brought up in the New Testament a few times about how Satan will be bruised under our feet shortly. And so the serpent's head is going to be bruised by the savior's heel, but he's going to bruise the savior's heel. So I don't want to get too complicated here, but if you could follow carefully, if you think about like stepping on a serpent's head, right? As it's biting you or harming you. So you end up getting hurt on your heel. You end up getting a bruise and some discoloration there turns a little purple or something, but the serpent's dead. You crushed the serpent. You completely destroyed the serpent and suffered a mild injury in the process. Does everybody understand? And so this is the equivalent of what happened when Satan and his minions crucified the Lord of glory and they killed the Lord Jesus Christ. Basically to the Lord of the universe, he had the power to lay down his life. He had the power to take it back up again. He had the power to rise from the dead. And so in the scheme of things, this is just a bruise to his heel in a sense. Whereas Christ's death, burial and resurrection on the cross completely crushes the serpent and completely destroys Satan, Satan's power. And that's why the Bible says for this purpose was the son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. And so this Genesis 3.15 all the way at the very beginning of human history, it's just Adam and Eve. There's not even Cain and Abel yet. And already there's this promise that one day of the seed of the woman, and that's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is born of a woman. Jesus Christ is born as a human being. He's the son of man. Of the seed of the woman would rise up one that would conquer and destroy Satan's power and bruise his head. And in the process, his heel would be bruised. So here's the thing. We have Jacob prophesying and predicting that Dan is going to be a serpent and he's going to be a servant that would bite the horse heels in the way and cause the rider to fall off backwards. And then that jogs his mind to another serpent biting another heel. And so that's where this kind of just random utterance, I've waited for thy salvation, oh, Lord. And you know what's so cool about that is that it shows that even people in the Old Testament, even though we might not see the Old Testament just constantly talking about the coming Savior, the Savior is always being foreshadowed constantly. Tons of foreshadowing. It's on every page of the Old Testament. But this also shows that Jacob, the person at his time in history is thinking about and looking forward to coming salvation from the Lord in the form of that seed of the woman that someday is going to bruise the serpent's head. He had that on his mind. He's thinking about, you know, the gospel was preached to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You know, they're thinking about this. They're aware of it. And that's where I believe verse 18 is coming from. And so, you know, now it starts to make a little bit of sense, right? So now let's understand what's going on with verses 16 and 17. Now we said before that verse 17, by associating him with the serpent is like associating him with like the devil or Satan. This is not good. But especially now that we've looked at verse 18, that's a really strong connection with the serpent or Satan or the devil now, right? So this is not good. This is wickedness. But then how do we square that with verse 16, which seems so positive? Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Here's what you have to understand. They're actually quite literally two completely separate tribes of Dan in two totally separate locations. And so that's also what's being foreshadowed here when we have these two totally different prophecies about what Dan is going to be like, what Dan's going to happen. It's because there's two Dans, okay? Now, if you have one of those Bibles that has maps in the back, sometimes you'll see a map of the 12 tribes of Israel. Usually if they have maps in the back, that's one that they typically include. So if you have one, you could glance at it right now. But if you don't have one, don't worry about it because I'm going to describe it to you anyway. But here's the thing. When you read the book of Joshua and the land is being broken up and distributed among the 12 tribes, Dan's portion is actually down by Judah. It's like to the west of Benjamin and Judah. It's not far from Jerusalem. It's not far from Judah, which eventually is going to become the spiritual capital and sort of the hub of righteous godly Israelites. It's that southern kingdom of Judah, whereas the northern kingdom becomes a lot more wicked. But here's what you have to understand. In the book of Judges, when the children of Israel are inheriting their land, there were five tribes that inherited their land sooner. And then there were seven that had sort of slacked on inheriting their land. Dan was one of the tribes that had slacked a little bit in inheriting their land. In fact, they're the seventh one of the seven slackers. They're the slacker of the slackers. But then not only that, when they go to finally take their portion, which is near Judah, it's west of Judah, west of Benjamin, and it's right near the land of the Philistines. So if you have the map, great. Otherwise, maybe you can kind of picture that. If you've looked at modern maps, you know there's that Gaza Strip in modern day Israel, and that Gaza Strip is the land of the Philistines. Okay. And so you've got this section that Dan was supposed to conquer. Well, what happens is they, according to the Bible, were not able to drive out the inhabitants of the mountains. And so they struggled. And so they ended up not inheriting as much as they were supposed to inherit. They inherited a lot less. And again, not able, obviously through the Lord, they would have been able because God gave them the victory and everything was possible. But that's through their own disobedience, slackness, lack of faith, lack of vision, whatever. But bottom line, they failed to inherit what they needed to inherit. So then later on in the book of Judges, when we get to chapter 18 of the book of Judges, they are saying, we don't have enough space. We don't have enough land. So 600 troops from the tribe of Dan, they go to the far north of Israel and they end up conquering a town up there that's basically just a peaceful town, not really causing any problems for anybody, just a mellow peaceful town. So they just go in and just slaughter the town and just take over. And then that's where they end up settling. Instead of fighting the difficult battle, what God had given them, what God had provided for them and what God had commanded, this is going to be your lot. This is where you're going to live, drive out the inhabitants, defeat the Canaanites. They failed to do the difficult job that God gave. So then they just go find some other easy thing that they can take over. And that town in the far north that they end up taking over becomes known as Dan. The name of the town is Dan. So you've got the actual tribe of Dan down south, the legitimate Dan, basically the one that God had provided for them and where they were supposed to take over. But then you have this other Dan that they got for themselves in the far north. Now that Dan in the far north is very significant and it is constantly mentioned in the Bible. You'll often hear this phrase from Dan even to Beersheba. When they want to talk about all of Israel, they talk about from Dan to Beersheba. Why? Because Dan is the far north extremity, Beersheba is in the far south. And Beersheba is around the tribe of Judah and Simeon and that southern region. And so Dan becomes the far extreme north. So you hear it mentioned a lot because of that. But another reason why it's constantly mentioned is that after Solomon, when the kingdom splits into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom, and you've got Israel in the north and Judah in the south, and you have Jeroboam as king in the north and Rehoboam as king in the south, well, Jeroboam ends up forsaking the Lord and instead setting up two golden calves for the people to worship. And he says, these be thy gods, O Israel. And he sets up this alternate religion because he doesn't want them worshiping the Lord down in Jerusalem at the actual temple of God. He sets up this false religion involving these golden calves and he puts one in Bethel and he puts one in Dan. And so Dan is a hub of idolatry and false religion in Israel. But even before Jeroboam did that, because you wonder why pick Dan, you can tell why he picked Bethel. Bethel in Hebrew means house of God. And so therefore he was trying to say, well, this is where God's house is supposed to be. It's even in the name. It's right there in the name, house of God. And so he sets that up instead of Jerusalem. Why Dan? Well, again, if you study that story in Judges chapter 18, the Bible tells us that they're started out even way back in the time of the judges, even before Saul and David and Solomon and Jeroboam. Before any of that, there's already an idolatrous cult started in Dan, all the way back in Judges 18. And not only that, but this idolatrous cult that started in Judges 18, the Bible says continued all the way until the captivity of the land. So it was an unbroken idolatrous cult. So even in the days of Saul, David, Solomon, there's still idolatry going on in Dan nonstop, on the outskirts of the kingdom, there's idolatry going on, constantly an unbroken chain. So this is super wicked. You can see why God would look at this idolatrous capital, really the first part of Israel to just go long-term into idolatrous apostasy. And you could see why he would say Dan is a serpent. He's a stumbling block. He's causing people to fall because he's bringing idolatry into the land of Israel. It becomes this idolatrous cult center in the far north of Israel, all the way until the captivity of the land. That makes sense. And then that makes sense that Jeremiah, or excuse me, Jeroboam would pick Dan as the second place to put a golden calf because they are already been idolatrous anyway. I mean, this is going to be easy for them because they can just roll right into this because that's the way that they are anyway. And by the way, along these lines, when you go to the book Revelation and you have the 144,000 and there's 12,000 from each tribe, guess which tribe is not mentioned? Dan. So out of the 144,000, there's one tribe that doesn't have 12,000 to represent. And it's Dan. Instead, you get 12,000 from Joseph on the Ephraim side and 12,000 from Joseph on the Manasseh side. So Joseph gets a double portion. Dan gets nothing. I believe that probably the reason why Dan is not represented in that 144,000 is that maybe God just couldn't even find 12,000 righteous men from the tribe of Dan throughout their history because they went into idolatry so soon. When God is talking about the 144,000 in the book of Revelation of the 12 tribes, and he's talking about how they're godly men and they're virgins and they're godly and all these different things. And so throughout the history of the nation of Israel, you should have no trouble finding 12,000 representatives from each tribe because of course the 144,000 are on this earth after the resurrection takes place. After that, Christ comes in the clouds and the dead and Christ rise first and the resurrection takes place. So they're resurrected Old Testament saints from these 12,000 tribes. But you probably couldn't even find 12,000 guys to fit the bill from Dan's whole history because they went into idolatry first before anyone else. They went apostate before anyone else. So it all kind of makes sense. So there's two Dans. There's the Dan that's down south. That area is called Dan. And then up north, you've got that idolatrous Dan that's founded in Judges 18. And literally the day they found it, they set up the idolatry. I mean, on the way up, they start this idolatrous cult. They get there. Jonathan is the name of the guy that they grab and he's going to be their high priest and everything. And they start a false religion the day they start the town and the town is called Dan. So you've got the tribe of Dan here and then you got the tribe of Dan down here. So it's two Dans. And so that's why it makes sense that he's going to say, okay, Dan is going to judge. And then it's like, okay, Dan's a serpent. It makes sense, right? So where's Samson from? Samson is kind of the quintessential judge in the book of Judges. Well, of course, he's from the Dan that's down south. If we study the Bible in the book of Judges, you don't have to turn there. But for example, it says in Judges 13, too, there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites and it's Samson's father. Then at the end of the chapter, it says the spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. And again, Zorah and Eshtaol, where are they? They're right down there between the Philistines and Judah, which makes sense because who is Samson constantly getting involved with? He's constantly dealing with the Philistines, right? He's constantly falling in love with Philistine women. He's constantly getting in fights with Philistines. He wants to destroy the Philistines. He ends up dying with the Philistines. And where is Dan? Dan is right next to the land of the Philistines. Some of it even kind of overlaps with the land of the Philistines. That's where that contention is coming from. And so that's, if you would, the good Dan or the Dan that's getting the good blessing in chapter 49 versus the wicked Dan in the far north. And so God's spirit we see is at work in Dan. He said the spirit of the Lord is moving Samson in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. But then what does it say about that Dan? It keeps saying about them, oh, there's no king in Israel in those days. You know, every man did that, which is right in his own eyes, as opposed to being spirit led down here in this Dan, there's doing what's right in your own eyes, idolatry, apostasy up here in the other Dan, the northern Dan. Okay. Now stop and think about this. The word Dan means judge. And if you think about it, there are really two kinds of judges, aren't there? Go, if you would, to Acts chapter 7. There are two kinds of judges. Because what are we preaching about this morning? Two Dans, right? The good Dan, the Dan that is appointed by God. God's spirit is moving. God's spirit is a part of it. And then you've got this idolatrous, self-willed, wicked Dan in the far north. Well, there are actually two kinds of judges, aren't there? Because there's one judge that's a deliverer, and then there's another type of judge that is an accuser, right? If you think about, if we say that someone's judgmental, that's not a compliment, is it? If we say that someone's judgmental, what are we saying? We're saying that there's someone who is an accuser. They want to pick you apart. They're trying to just tear you down to lift themselves up. That's what we would say about a judgmental person. That's bad. But then we would also talk about someone who's very judicious, someone who has good judgment, someone who exercises a good judgment. So you see how this could go. It could cut both ways. Just like the tribe of Dan went two ways, judgment itself cuts both ways. Being a judge cuts both ways. Look what the Bible says in Acts chapter number 7 in verse 22. It says, And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would what? Deliver them. So here, he steps in and gets involved in a situation because he is acting as a deliverer. He's making a judgment call about who's right and who's wrong. And he delivers the innocent here. Okay. That's what Moses is doing. And he thought they'd understand I'm here as a deliverer. But it says they understood not. And it says in verse 26, And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, your brethren, why do you wrong to one another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away. This is the guy that's in the wrong, of course. He thrust him away saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? So he's like, Man, who are you to judge me? Right? Who made you a ruler and a judge? So remember those words, ruler and a judge, jump down to verse 35. This Moses whom they refused saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a judge? A ruler and a deliverer. Notice how God swaps out the word judge with deliver. So the guy says, Who made you a ruler and a judge? And then God says he was sent to be a ruler and a deliverer. Why? Because the right kind of judge is a deliverer. Okay, so that's why when we study the Book of Judges, think about the judges, right? You've got guys like Othniel and Ehud and Barak. You've got Deborah. You've got Samson. You've got Gideon. You've got all these different guys, right? Those are the most famous examples. These people end up delivering Israel in some way, right? They're oppressed. They're afflicted. They're enslaved. And then the judge is the guy who delivers them. The judge is a deliverer. Now there's a bad kind of judge that's an accuser, a slanderer, someone who's just trying to tear people down. And then there's a good kind of judge that is a deliverer. Now you say, and if you would flip over to Matthew chapter seven, you say, Well, you know, why would a judge be a deliverer? Like what do those two things have to do with each other? Well, first of all, if one person is doing wrong to another, they can be brought before a judge to get some justice, to deliver the innocent and to condemn the guilty, right? So you can see how a judge could be a deliverer in that regard. But what you have to understand is that the reason why the children of Israel were in bondage in the first place is because of their sin, because of their wickedness. And so in order to deliver them, first he had to judge them. Why? He has to get them right with God. It wasn't just a matter of, Hey, I can swing a sword and I'm a good warrior and I know how to organize people. And so I'm going to free us from the Philistines. No, because in order to get free from the Philistines or the Midianites or the Canaanites, the prerequisite was you got to get right with God. You got to cry out to the Lord. You got to humble yourself. You got to turn from your wicked ways. Then, then you could be delivered. And so it required some judgment first. Judgment has to begin at the house of God, the Bible says. And so God appointed a man, not just for his military skill. No, because he can get up and bring the people back to God and judge the people so that they can be delivered. So there's the kind of judge that's just there to accuse you, slander you and tear you down. And then there's the kind of judge that's actually trying to help you. He's trying to deliver you and he's trying to get you right with God so that you can be blessed by God. Now think about it. What is Satan called? Satan is called the accuser of the brethren. So isn't it interesting that Dan is associated with a serpent. The serpent is the great accuser. His name means judge. And we got two Dans and we got two kinds of judges. We got the kind of judge that's there to tear you down and the kind of judge that's there to build you up. Now this is the number one most famous verse in the Bible among backslidden Christians or atheists and agnostics. Matthew 7, 1, except they didn't memorize the whole verse. They confused it with Jesus wept, so they thought it was only two words long. And so they, you know, judge not. Didn't Jesus tell us not to judge? Right. This is the rallying cry of sodomites and weirdos everywhere. This is the rallying cry of backslidden Christians, Christians that are living in fornication, Christians that are living in drunkenness, you know, judge not, don't judge me. This is the rallying cry of every woman who wants to dress like a hoochie mama and a hooker is, hey, only God can judge me, judge not. We've all heard it a million times, haven't we? But there's more to this scripture than that. It says, judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider us not the beam that is in thine own eye. This is the bad kind of judgment. Jesus is not saying just don't judge period. He's talking about a specific kind of wrong judgment. And he's talking about how hypocritical people who have a great big beam in their own eye will often judge others basically to try to lift themselves up by tearing other people down to take attention away from the beam in their own eye. They'll look over there at that mote in my brother's eye, and they'll try to point out the flaws in other people to make themselves look better. They're an accuser. They're a slanderer. They're hypocritical. This is the wrong kind of judge, right? Because we said there are two kinds. There's a good kind that's a deliverer, and then there's this kind. Now, the foolishness is to say, oh, well, we should never judge. All judging is bad. Folks, there's a whole book called Judges in the Bible. Are you going to tell me God doesn't want us to judge? Why did he say judgment must begin at the house of God? You know, why did he tell us to judge in many other scriptures? And so there are two types of judgment here, okay? The wrong example is a hypocrite. He's got a great big beam in his own eye, pointing out the flaws in others, and so on. Verse four, or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, 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 the Bible telling us leave the mote in your brother's eye? Don't judge. Just never get involved. Never say anything. Never point out anything. No. He says, remove the mote from your brother's eye. But first, get the beam out of your own eye. Now, look, any of you that have worked in trades and construction and things, you've probably gotten a splinter or even worse, a metal shaving in your eye before. Many of us have been there. I've had it happen many times, and it's miserable. It's torture. Sometimes you'll spend hours with that splinter in your eye because you're drilling a hole. Even if you're wearing the safety glasses, it'll creep in there, and sometimes you're not wearing the safety glasses. But anyway, that stuff will come flying in there, and you get it stuck, and you're washing it, and you're turning it inside out and trying to get rid of it. It's torture. And if someone could remove that for you, they'd be doing you a huge favor. You would not hate that person. You would not be upset at that person. If they had the ability to remove the mote from your eye, you want them to do it because it's horrible having that mote in your eye. It's bad. It's damaging. It's detrimental. It's going to fester. It's going to get worse. It could get infected. You want it gone. I took my son to the doctor one time because he got that metal filing, and he couldn't get it out. A day later, still there, and we took him to a doctor that removed, literally removed the mote from his eye. And you think we're just like, oh man, this doctor's so judgmental. I can't believe this guy. Who does he think he is? He's got a great big beam in his eye. He didn't have a beam in his eye, friend. When we walked in, we saw the doctor. The doctor had nothing in his eye. The doctor's eye was fine. He saw clearly, and he removed the mote from my son's eye. He's a blessing. He's a deliverer. He delivered him from that pain. He delivered him from that injury. So Jesus is not saying don't ever judge. He's saying, well, judge not that you be not judged, because whatever judgment you judge, you're going to be judged by that same metric. And so you better not be a hypocrite. You better make sure that your heart is right, that you're right, that you have the beam out of your own eye. And we can think of examples of the beam in the eye all day long. How about this? People who don't like the way we go soul winning, but they don't do any soul winning. So they have this great big beam in their eye of just disobeying the Great Commission, not preaching the gospel, not loving people enough to win them to Christ or preach the gospel to them. And then they're just like, well, the way that you do soul winning, it's like, whoa, you're trying to take this little speck out of our eye, because our soul winning is not perfect. Well, it beats your soul winning, which doesn't exist, which is a great big beam in your eye. I mean, or what about this? How about people who they pick apart every church. They find something wrong. Oh, all the churches in my area are 501c3. All the churches in my area are this or that, or, oh, my church is pre-trib, or I can't go to any church in my area. And then they have this beam in their eye that they don't even go to church. So you have people sitting at home, not going to church anywhere, not attending church at all, never showing up for church beam in your eye and you're like, well, this church supports Israel and their pre-trib and you know, whatever. I don't like the way they handled COVID or what, you know, so they're picking apart churches, but they don't even go to church. Well, I submit to you, those people that are actually going to church are more right with God, going to a church that has problems, going to a church that's wrong on some things. Then people just don't go to church at all because they're too busy removing the moat from every church in their area. And they've got this big beam called not going to church. And we can go on and on with examples of the type of hypocrisy that people have where they don't judge a righteous judgment. They slander and pick apart. They have a great big beam in their own eye and they want to fix every little thing and pick apart everyone else. And, you know, I mean, there are all kinds of people just in a comment section on YouTube. They don't even show up for church, but they're quick to correct pastors. You know, it's like, you don't even go to church. You know, and it's like, you're going to pick apart this guy and that guy. Okay. That's what we're talking about. First cast out the beam out of my own eye and then, Oh, just leave, leave that speck in and your brother's eye, leave that moat in his eye. Let just let the Lord deal with it. Just, just let the Holy spirit know. He says, then you can see clearly and you can actually help other people. You can actually remove the moat out of your brother's eye. And then he follows it up with this verse, give not that which is Holy unto the dogs, neither cashier pearls before swine. And, and here's the thing about that is you can only help people that want to be helped. And so, you know, don't even bother trying to remove the moat from the dog's eye or the pig's eye. They're just going to trample you under their feet. Your pearls of wisdom, where you're trying to actually help people are not going to be accepted or respected by the dogs and swine of this world. So, you know, if people don't want our judgment, people don't want to hear it. Well, then we just shake off the dust of our feet and move on. It's really no skin off our back. Go, if you would, to John chapter seven, John chapter number seven. And so we've got two Danes, don't we? Two Danes, two judges, two styles of judgment represented by these two aspects of the tribe of Dan. One of them represents Satan, the accuser of the brethren, which accuses them before God day and night. Yeah. And Satan's a big, big hypocrite, isn't he? You know, another great picture of Satan in the Bible is Amnon's friend, Jonadab in scripture. So Amnon has a friend, Jonadab, it's Jonadab's idea for Amnon to violate Tamar. Right? I mean, this is Jonadab gives Amnon the idea. He tells him, Hey, pretend that you're sick and then she'll come in and bring you food. And then you can do whatever, you know, and he basically explains to Amnon how to commit that awful sin, how to violate Tamar. But then after Amnon violates Tamar, that same person, Jonadab goes and tells David, Oh yeah, here's what happened. And he's the one who's just loudly proclaiming Amnon sin. It's a perfect picture of the devil because the devil does two things. You know what the devil does? He's constantly tempting us to sin. He wants us to sin. He's constantly putting wicked things in front of us and trying to cause us to stumble and fall backward off the horse. Right? He's constantly tempting us. But then once we do commit the sin, he's like, look what you did. And then he wants to make us feel guilty. He wants to make us feel like we're trash. Then he'll come to us and tell us there's not even any use even continuing serving God because you're such a loser. You're such a failure. Don't even go to church. Don't even serve God. You're too wicked. You're not worth it. You know, so isn't it interesting how he does these two contradictory roles? On the one hand, Satan is trying to embolden us to sin. And then on the other hand, he's trying to make us feel bad about it. And, and he's accusing us before God, day and night, just like he accused Job before God as a false accusation. Many times he accuses us of things that are true. You know, he just had a hard time finding anything wrong with Job, but some of us make it easier for him than others, you know, to be able to accuse us. But I guarantee you he's accusing us before God day and night. He's the accuser of the brethren. He'll bring true accusations. I'm sure he'll bring false accusations, but he'll point out the sins that he is probably the one that he tempted people to do in the first place. What a big hypocrite, right? So again, Matthew 7 is talking about a hypocrite accuser, a hypocrite judge, a slanderer, and that's what Satan is. Look at John chapter seven, verse 21. Here's another great scripture on judgment. It says, Jesus answered and said unto them, verse 21, I've done one work and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it's of Moses, but of the fathers and ye on the Sabbath day, circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day received circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken. Are you angry at me because I've made a man, every whit hole on the Sabbath day, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Now look, these people that are accusing Jesus, their heart is not in the right place. They are motivated by envy. And so they're trying to pick him apart. Instead of looking at the big picture, Jesus is doing all these miracles. He's preaching the word of God. Multitudes of people are getting right with God. Multitudes of people are getting saved, getting baptized and their lives are being changed. And so he's this great positive influence. Jesus is doing this great work. And instead of looking at all the good things that Jesus is doing, they're like, oh, you violated the Sabbath by healing someone. I mean, he's doing a miracle of healing someone who's been afflicted and suffering for years and years. He heals them on the Sabbath. And it's not like Jesus had to work that hard to heal them. Anyway, he pretty much just says like, hey, take up your bed and walk or stretch out your hand or, you know, it's, it's, it's not even work. It's not even what the Bible would define as working on the Sabbath, but yet in many cases, they're just there to just jump on him for not doing things according to the perfect way that they think that they should be done and whatever. They don't care about people. They don't care about the people that are being healed, how much better off they are, how much healthier they are. They don't care about all the people getting right with God. And the Bible specifically says that they envied Jesus because nobody's coming to hear them preach. People aren't getting excited about their preaching. People aren't getting excited about their ministry. And so, because they're envious, they're ready to jump in and either point out something that's legitimately wrong, but that's not a big deal, or they're ready to jump in and point out something that's not even wrong at all. Now, of course, in Jesus' case, nothing was legitimately wrong because it couldn't be, because Jesus is perfect. So they're making stuff up, but let's say among, you know, godly preachers and godly men of God. Yeah. If you hang around with a pastor long enough, you're going to find something wrong about him. If you hang around him long enough, you're going to catch him sinning. You know, we get up every week and tell people, hey, we're all sinners. And guess what? That includes the pastor as well. And so the people that you're close to, the people that you live with, the people that you spend a lot of time with, you're going to eventually catch them doing something or making a mistake or having a bad attitude, losing their temper over something stupid, committing some sin, doing something wrong. You know, if I get up and preach three times a week for an hour each, I'm going to say something wrong. I'm going to say something stupid. I'm going to make a mistake. It's just because we're human, we're going to sin. And there are people out there who are ready. They don't have the right motives. They don't love. They don't want to help anyone. They're just there to jump on those things because they are envious. And it's a wrong motivation behind it. And it's usually hypocritical because usually they're a way bigger failure in general and maybe even in that same area that they're judging. And they're super backslidden, totally not right with God or a complete failure of a preacher, complete loser. But then it's like, they're ready to just, ah, gotcha. That's a wrong kind of judgment. We don't want to have that attitude. Go to Romans chapter 14. We want to be careful judging other Christians that our motives are sound and that we're there to do something righteous. It's done out of love and out of the right motive, not out of envy, not out of spite or maliciousness or revenge or envy. Those are the wrong kind of motives for judging. And that's a sinful judgment. Even if the person that we're judging is actually guilty, okay, if we're going after them, then we've got a beam in our eye called envy. We got a beam in our eye called maliciousness, a beam in our eye called vindictiveness. And we're trying to remove the moat that is perhaps legitimately in their eye, but we've got a bigger problem because of our malicious, wicked motivations and attitudes. Now, look, there is definitely some legitimate judging though. For example, correcting someone in love. If we see a fellow Christian going down a dark path, hey, if we're a family member or a friend or we have some kind of a connection with that person, it can often be appropriate. It can often be helpful to confront that person. Now, you may be accused of being judgmental and a hypocrite and called all these names, but you know what? It's okay to be accused of that as long as it's not true. Don't let it be true. Hey, we're all going to be falsely accused as Christians, but don't let it be true. You know your heart. God knows your heart. Make sure that you have the right spirit. But if I had a friend or a family member that faithfully attended church and all of a sudden they're just not going to church for a month, wouldn't it be appropriate for me to take that person aside and say, hey, you need to get in church. You've been out of church for a month. You're backslidden. Time to get in church, buddy. You could be nice about it. You could be loving about it. You could be kind about it. And if you really care, you probably will be. But you know what? Sometimes people need to be told things that are uncomfortable or negative because they need to be corrected. And you know what? We live in a generation where nobody wants to be corrected. They can't stand even the mildest correction. They freak out. The pastor preaches about something that applies to them. He doesn't mention them. He doesn't point them out. But because it applies to them, they freak out and get angry. Folks, we need to be able to take correction. And we need to be able to gently, lovingly correct other people when it's necessary. And so, hey, taking somebody aside and saying, look, you haven't been in church in a month. What are you doing? And then they might say something along the lines of, well, you know, I'm just really focused on work right now. You know, it just works real hectic. Hey, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Hey, you know, that might hurt to hear that, but that's what that person needs to hear. That's the truth, right? Somebody's living in fornication. They often will need to be taken aside. If they're a mature Christian, they're living in fornication. Hey, they need to be taken aside and say, you're not right with God. This is sin. This is very wicked in the sight of God. And you know, that person can huff and puff and get angry and call you a hypocrite and call you judgmental and tell you that you're wrong. But you know what? You know that you're right. Because if you actually have your heart in the right place and you're looking out for that person and you go to that person and confront them with that, you know what? You're doing right. You're acting as a deliverer. Now they may be like that guy in act seven that shoves you away, but you know what though? You're there as a deliverer, not as an accuser, not as a slanderer, but you're there to tell them you're wrong. What about when David was confronted with thou art the man? You know, he's confronted with sin. He's being corrected rightly. Oh, Nathan is so judgmental. He's such a hypocrite. Yeah. You know, well, Nathan, so Nathan, have you ever looked at a woman to lost after her in your heart, Nathan? You know, and I'm sure Nathan probably had because Nathan is a human being, but guess what? Nathan didn't commit adultery with someone else's wife. Nathan didn't murder somebody's husband. Okay. And so we see that, yeah, people are going to falsely accuse you of things, but let it not be true. You know, whether you're this kind of Dan or that kind of Dan, whether you're this kind of judge or that kind of a judge. Look at Romans chapter 14, verse one. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 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. Let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God has received him. Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another. Another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. And so what's God saying here? Do not pick apart other people who view little things differently. They're not core doctrines. They're not the main articles of the faith that are, you know, that our whole Christian faith rests upon. We're not talking about the Trinity. We're not talking about salvation by grace. We're not talking about the pillars of our belief. You know, somebody's got some bogus goofball diet. You know, don't hate that person. There's no reason to go around talking smack about, hey, yeah, someone's a vegetarian. What a freak. Who cares? You know what I mean? And look, I'm not going to be a vegetarian. I think imposing vegetarianism on others is sinful. But if somebody just decides that they want to go vegan or eat a vegetarian diet, hey, I don't agree with it. I'm not for it. But you know what? God bless that person. So what? It's not my problem. I'm not worried about it. It's not a big deal. I'm not just going to go around talking smack about that person. Take that person down a notch. Where, you know, one man esteemeth one day above another. Another esteemeth every day alike. You know, some people believe that Sunday is the Lord's day and should be respected in a way different than the other six days. And they don't want to do any work on that day. And they might have other rules like you can't play sports on that day. Or, you know, you can't do this. You can't go shopping on that day. We can't go to any businesses on that day. You know, other people get in the car after church on Sunday morning and they drive down and they go to a business that's open and they go to a restaurant and they buy stuff at the store and they might even work a shift between the Sunday morning and Sunday night service. Probably not going to work at the Spokane schedule, but you know, Hey, even as a pastor, I've gone to work between Sunday morning and Sunday night church and done fire alarm service calls between the services. No, I don't miss a church for work for any reason, but I did squeeze in some work on Sundays before, and I don't have those rules about not playing sports. I'll go out to eat at a restaurant on Sunday. I don't just limit myself to Chick-fil-A or whatever. You know, I'll go and eat at places on Sunday. I'll go shopping on Sunday. I have no such conviction. I don't believe that the scripture teaches any such thing as a New Testament Sabbath. Now, some people do think that. I don't agree with them, but you know what? Hey, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Give people some liberty to do things a little differently, have some different beliefs. It's not the end of the world. You know, obviously Paul tells us what he thinks. He says, one man, believe it that he may eat all things. Another who's weak, he deserves. Okay. So we can see where Paul's coming down on this argument. Okay. He's looking at the guy who eats vegetables and vegetarian diet as he weak. All right. And he's saying where he stands, but he's saying, you know, let's not judge that guy. Let's not stress about that guy. Let's not attack that guy. We don't need to fight that guy. Don't judge another man's servant. Let him stand or fall before his own master. And the Bible says he's able to stand. I mean, you know, there could be some vegetarian Sunday Sabbath keeping guy who's getting a lot of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, because he's a great Christian. He's just wrong on a couple of things. We're all wrong on some things. It's no big deal. Right? So God is saying here that our fellow Christians, it's not our place to stand in judgment of them and condemn them and accuse them. Okay. But again, we need to balance this with the whole body of scripture. So we know there are some legitimate judgments correcting people we love. What about church discipline? You know, the Bible is clear on church discipline. People that are called a brother and they're living in fornication, drunkenness, idolatry, whatever, certain sins, he says they're to be disciplined from the church. They're to be kicked out of the church. First Corinthians chapter five, the Bible talks about confronting people, judging people, taking two or three witnesses and confronting someone in certain situations. It's out there. It's biblical. Also, how about warning about false teachers? You know, if we get up and preach and warn about false teachers, we're not being judgmental or accuser of the brother and you're just like Satan. You're accusing the brother. No, no, no. Because it's biblical to warn about false prophets and false teaching. It's all throughout scripture. The apostle Paul is constantly naming the names of Christian teachers, but they're heretics, they're false prophets, they're wolves in sheep's clothing, but they're claiming the name of Christ. Guys like Alexander, Hymenaeus, Phygelus, Hermogenes. How do we even know these names? Because they're being rebuked by the apostle Paul publicly by name for being false teachers and false prophets. So there's a time to get up and rebuke heresy, rebuke false teaching, rebuke false prophets. God teaches us that in scripture. So no, that's not the wrong kind of judgment. And again, what's the motive? You know, the motive should be, I want to protect my people from being influenced by this wickedness. I don't want my people going home and listening to something wicked. Okay. Now look, I love the fact that my church members at Faithful Word Baptist Church listen to a whole bunch of other preachers because of the power of the internet. It's such a blessing. They can download sermons by other pastors, Pastor Hymenaeus, Pastor Thompson, whoever, and they can download sermons from Pastor Dave Berzins or whoever. And they listen to this stuff and it edifies them, it builds them in their faith. They can supplement the preaching that I'm giving them with getting some other preaching. You know, right now, while I'm gone, my church is hearing a bunch of preaching from eight other pastors that are coming in and preaching. And I guarantee you that they're going to get some things that I never would have given them. You say, well, what if one of these pastors preaches something that you don't agree with? I don't care. As long as it's not heresy, as long as it's not something that's, that's wicked or, or, or just super out there, you know, if these guys get up and preach something that's different than what I believe, I don't care. Okay. Because of the fact that I don't expect anyone to be perfect. I'm not, maybe they're even right. And I'm wrong on that particular point. Who knows, you know, if it's something minor, what's the big deal, right? You know, I've had my staff get up and preach before and they preach things that I didn't quite agree with at times and guest preachers get up and preach things. I, you know, I was just talking to one of my preacher friends and we were talking about the sermon that he was going to preach when he's at faithful word. And he brought up a particular point and I said, I don't believe that for one second. I don't agree with that at all. No way. And he's like, Oh, that was going to be part of my sermon that I preached at your church. He's all, I'm going to remove that point. And I told him, I said, you don't even have to remove that point if you don't want to, because I said, I'm not afraid of my church members hearing another point of view because that's not heresy. It's not some important article of the faith. It's just a difference in interpretation. So, Hey, you know, you can preach that if you want. It doesn't, he's like, no, no, I'll remove it. Obviously, you know, I don't want to preach it, but, but do you see what I'm saying? Like, I'm not worried about it. Okay. Cause I'm not trying to pick apart good men of God and find all the little disagreements and things that are wrong. Okay. Does everybody see what I'm saying? You know, so what's the motive. Look, I want my people listening to sound biblical teaching and preaching, but I'm going to warn them about toxic individuals or preaching. That's going to damage their faith, damage their walk with God. So, Hey, if my people go home and they're listening to other independent fundamental Baptist preach, Amen. Even if it's from the old IFB, even if it's from guys that I'm not into, Hey, Amen. You know, if it's doctrinally sound stuff in general, but you think I want my people going home and listening to TD Jakes, who is a oneness guy. You think I want them going home and listening to Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen and Rick Warren. And look, these are big name guys that are everywhere all over the internet. I mean, every, I can't go on YouTube without it being like, might I suggest a sermon from John MacArthur? You know, look, I don't want my people listening to John MacArthur. Now here's the thing. I'm not afraid of my people who are actually stable, mature Christians listening to a MacArthur sermon because they're going to see through it so fast. They're going to know it's garbage. They're going to just chew it up and sped it out. So I'm not, I'm not worried about that, but I wouldn't want new believers or people that are, you know, new in the faith. I don't want them listening to John MacArthur, Joel Osteen and TD Jakes and guys like that, these false prophets out there, you know, and even in the independent fundamental Baptist world, there are some serious heretics that I would say, this person is garbage. Stay away from the people who are denying the Trinity or people like Sam Gipp, who are teaching like a hyper dispensationalism and heresy. You know, there are certain things that are so bad, so toxic. I don't want them getting into Peter Ruckman or something where it says hyper dispensation is damnable heresy saying, Oh, people used to be saved by works. They're going to be saved by works in the future. That's heresy. And so I would say like, get away from that. And so if I get up and I'm rebuking that and warning people, Hey, this guy's teaching heresy about the divinity of Christ, or Hey, this guy is teaching this other garbage false doctrine. You know, obviously I'm going to warn about people that have shown themselves to be Judas Iscariots, people that I believe are reprobates people that I believe are not even safe. You know, you say, well, you know, you hit Adam Phantom pretty hard. Yeah. He's a reprobate. I believe he's a Judas Iscariot. We actually interacted with him. Unlike the bozos on the internet watching from the sidelines. We actually talked to him in person. We had him lying to our face. We had several witnesses to his wickedness. I'm convinced he's a Judas. I'm convinced he's a reprobate infiltrator. And so, yeah, Hey, I have no problem getting up and rebuking that to warn people, to fight a righteous battle. And I know that my heart is right. Preaching that sermon, go back and listen to it. You know, that's a, that's a sermon that everybody should hear. It's the son of Bikrai was the name of the sermon. And that's not trying to be some play on words. Okay. That's what the guy's name is in the Bible. Okay. Sheba, the son of Bikrai. Okay. You, you can pronounce it different if you want, but anyway, the point is that, you know, I'm getting up, I'm warning people, Hey, I know that I did it for the right reason. And I'm going to do it again. Why? Because it's my job as a pastor to guard the flock from the wolves. But there's a big difference between that righteous judgment of Samson going against the Philistines versus a wrong judgment of Satan, just being an accuser of the brethren, because he wants to tear other people down, take the attention off himself and his own wickedness, big difference between those two things. And so we don't want to just be against judgment and just throw out the baby with the bathwater. We want to judge righteous judgment. That's what Jesus said in John 7 24. And so preaching is judging in a sense. A preacher is a judge. A pastor is a judge. Judgment must begin at the house of God. And it's a preacher's job to point out the false prophets, to warn people when there's someone who caused a dissension in the church and splits the church and the pastor has to call that person out. It's not that he's just, Hey, look everybody over there. Let's all just talk smack about that guy. No, no, no. We're warning people. We don't want other people to go down that same dark path. We love people. And at the end of the day, we know what our motives are. We know where our heart is and other people can lie about us and accuse us nuts to them. You know, I'm constantly telling this to my kids. Don't worry so much about what other people say about you and think about you. Don't get so worked up because I always tell, this is what I tell my kids. I say, you know, there's probably every hour of the day, somebody's cursing me somewhere. If you think about it, just because there are so many people that are constantly mad at me and hating on me and, and, and just because of the internet and because this stuff is just out there and these videos are constantly floating around, you know, there's probably not even an hour that like, probably like right now, if we just like pause for a little moment, like somebody right now, somewhere is like, Hey, watch out for Steven Anderson and telling some lie about me that never even happened. Or, or just blankety blank, that guy, pastor Steve Anderson, you know, what if I was worried about every time somebody didn't like what I did, or, you know, I'd be a really miserable person. Wouldn't I? I don't care. Who cares? You know, there are going to be people out there that are accusing us of the wrong kind of judgment, but I'm not going to, this is what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say, oh, you know, people are calling me judgmental all the time and they keep accusing me of being prideful and, and, and being a slanderer. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to stop judging. I'm just going to stop being a deliverer. I'm just going to stop preaching, you know, and then there now, are you happy folks? I'm not going to do that. You know, that's what, that's kind of what Moses did, you know, and what did he do? He ended up just kind of sitting around for 40 years, but then God had to go drag him back and say, no, you need to be a ruler. You need to be a judge. You need to be a deliverer. Get back to Egypt and do it. And so my friend, we need to understand that just as there are two Dan's, the serpent Dan and the good judge Dan, there are two kinds of judges and we need to be the right kind of judge. Don't just stop judging, but judge a righteous judgment and make sure your heart is right and that you're always loving other people, speaking the truth in love, trying to lift other people up, not lift yourself up and put others down to make yourself, no, no, lift other people up. And when I have to tell somebody you're backslidden, you're not right with God, or this preacher is a wicked preacher, this guy's a Judas Iscariot, or we have to throw this guy out of the church. Hey, it's done out of a heart of love for the people. You know, we're known as being hateful people sometimes, aren't we? You know, the world would say, you know, it's a hate group. You hate almost, but really it's just our love for children. It's our love for God. It's our love for Christ. The hatred isn't just because we're just looking for some target. We just have all this hate and it's like, just point me at a target so I can just just explode in hate. No, really what it is, is that we see people that we love being harmed. We see Christ's kingdom being harmed. We see children being harmed. We see our society being harmed and it's love that motivates us to actually jump in there and say those hateful things. Yeah, we hate sin. We hate the devil. We hate queers. Get over it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. It seems like a good place to end. All right. Lord, we thank you so much for church this morning, Lord, and a great group of people here, Lord, that we could fellowship with. And I pray that you would help us to be like the good side of Dan and not the bad side of Dan. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.