(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right. This is another one of those passages that we're not gonna go through literally verse by verse. We just read the entire passage. But basically we can see, this kind of ties in with last week, and I'll get to that in just a minute, but what we're seeing here, just the real broad overview of this passage, obviously the Levites now are getting their possession. Now we know that they don't get an inheritance and possession the same way that the whole rest of the tribe of Israel, of the tribes of Israel, got their possessions, because they got like land, inheritance, that they were gonna pass out from family to family. What they got though was a place to live, because they have to stay somewhere. And the way that the course of the work of the Levites was, is that they didn't all just reside in Jerusalem or anywhere where God's name was, where the city was gonna be, where the temple was gonna be. They didn't all just live there all at the same time. That'd be too many people. So God gave them cities to dwell in throughout all of Israel. And there's multiple purposes for that as well too. When they weren't doing the work of literally serving God in the tabernacle or in the temple, they would be judging in Israel, in their areas. And I'm gonna prove that to you, and this is actually what the main focus of the sermon's gonna be tonight, because what we see here in chapter number 21, at least one of the things that stood out to me, in chapter 20, we talked about the city of refuge. Remember that? Where the slayer can flee into, and that was gonna be a place where they could find a sanctuary, they could find safety, they could find refuge, and hope that justice then can be done, because they're gonna go to that place, and whoever is gonna bring a claim against them, it's gonna have to be brought before the elders, and they're gonna have to determine what needs to be done, so that things can be done in order. They could go back and have their trial, and then have justice served, and then go back to that city if they really weren't guilty of murder, they can go back into that city of refuge. And it's no coincidence that the Bible's bringing up now in chapter 21, chapter 20 explained the cities of refuge, and it told us where they were gonna be. Chapter 21 explains that it just so happens to be that the six cities of refuge all happen to be six cities that were given by inheritance to the Levites. It's no coincidence that those were the cities that were chosen, as well as the cities that are given to the Levites as their inheritance. Now, one of the things that we see here when we read through chapter one, of course, they get the city, so they dwell in the city and the suburbs. So basically, that whole location, the downtown area and the whole metro area of whatever city they're in, is where they can have houses, they can live, they can reside, they can have their oxen. They don't have these big fields and do their agriculture and farming and stuff. That's not what they had for inheritance or anything like that. They just were able to live and survive. But they're in these cities now, and they dwell there, and that is given to them, so they always have a place to stay. They always have a place to live while they're doing the work of the Lord. Now, I don't know if this necessarily has extra meaning or not, but one of the things I thought was interesting when I was looking at this, it actually mentions only five of the six cities in chapter 21. Even though the sixth city, I think it's Gozan, was the one that doesn't say, or Gezer. Gezer was one of the cities mentioned in chapter number 20, and I'm just kind of throwing this out there for your own, you could look at it or not or to see if there's, I don't know, I'm not sure that there's anything necessarily to it, but five times in chapter 21, it says the name of the city and that that was the city of refuge. But there are six cities of refuge. So one time it doesn't mention it, and it's in chapter 21, it's talking about Gezer with her suburbs, it doesn't mention that that's a city of refuge, but we get that from the previous chapter. So they are all given to the Levites. And it's also interesting too, because there's three main tribes within the children of Levi, the Levites. You have Gershon and Kohath and Merari, right? Those are the three main branches of the Levites, and they're representative of, they get two cities each of the cities of refuge. So they're distributed among the family of the Levites by two per tribe in their location. So that's the way it's distributed. Now, like I said, we're not gonna go through this. I would like you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 17 though, because I'm gonna prove to you why this makes sense and that the Levites really were to be the people who were judging and to help judging the land. And they were the ones that were looked at, I mean, it makes sense. They're the ones that should know God's word really well because they're doing the service of the Lord. They should know the ins and outs of God's law. I mean, their lives in many ways depended on it when they're doing the service of the Lord. If they did things wrong, they could literally lose their life. You would think that if anyone's gonna be studying God's word, it should be the Levites to make sure they're doing everything right when they go into the tabernacle or when they go into the temple that they're not breaking God's commandments. So these are the people that you're gonna be looking to for judgment, but even in God's law, it tells us that the Levites are gonna be the ones to bring judgment and to be able to discern and be able to judge between the people. In Deuteronomy chapter 17, look at verse number eight. The Bible reads, if there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood. So this is talking about, you know, like murder, right? Which is the perfect reason why you have these cities of refuge. So you have this hard situation. It's a really important matter. This is a big deal. It says between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke being matters of controversy within thy gates, then shalt thou arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days and inquire, and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment. So he's saying you get a hard matter. You know, the little things, he's saying you don't have to go to them for everything, right? The simple matters, simple disputes. You ought to be able to just handle that yourselves. But he's saying when you get a bigger problem here, a bigger dispute, blood and blood, stroke and stroke, right? Whatever is going on, some bigger deal. He says bring that unto the Levites. Bring that unto the judge that's gonna be in those days. And they're gonna give you the judgment. And let's continue on here. It says in verse number 10, and thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee, and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee according to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do. Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand nor to the left, and the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the judge, even that man shall die, and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel, and all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously. This is God's authority being given to the Levites, given to these judges to say these are the ones who are gonna judge your matters of law. And God's saying they have the authority and whatever they tell you is a judgment, you better listen to them because they're the ones who I have given the responsibility to be able to make good, proper judgment in these areas. And he's saying in fact, if you decide, if you go to law and you have your case heard before the Levites and you say, well who are these guys anyways? You know, because they get a ruling against you. I'm just gonna go like, I'm not gonna follow that, I'm not gonna listen to their judgment, I'm not gonna obey that. That's the death penalty. That's serious, and it doesn't say only in capital crimes then, no, it doesn't matter what the offense was, if they're going for judgment and they reject the judgment that God has ordained there, he's saying they're gonna be put to death. And that's how he's establishing saying, and that's how much to the degree of the power that they had as far as giving judgment and how it was to be respected, that's how much it was. And it went to, it's interesting, it goes to the priests. It goes to the men of God. Now they're all, you know, God's people. But it's the Levites, not even just the priests, but the Levites, because the priests had specific function of the whole job of the, all of the Levites served God. The priests were the ones that were doing a lot of the sacrifices and doing a lot of that, but the Levites, if you remember, they had other tasks besides just a specific line of errand, where they would take care of the tabernacle and set things up and take things down and do that service to the Lord. And then even into the temple you had men singers, women singers, and their jobs kind of shifted a little bit when the tabernacle was transferred to the temple. But they still had service to the Lord. And basically it's informing us here that the Levites and the judge would be the ones that would make this decision. Turn to Nehemiah chapter number eight. We're gonna see one more example here in the Old Testament of the Levites given this authority. We're gonna start reading verse number one of Nehemiah chapter eight. The Bible says, And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Watergate. And they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month. And he read therein before the street that was before the Watergate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattathiah and Shema and Aniad and Urijah and Elkiad and Maesiah, on his right hand and on his left hand, Padiah and Mishael and Melchiah, and Hashim and Hashbadanim, and Zechariah and Mesholim, and Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, amen, amen, with lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua and Bani and Shurabiah, Jamin, Achaib, Shabbathai, Hodijah, Maesiah, Calita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Paliah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place, so they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. So we see here another instance where it's the Levites that are the ones in charge of interpreting God's law. They're the ones, they're reading God's law, and so they stand up, they give the reading of God's law, and then they're causing the understanding. They're saying, okay, now here's what it means. Here's the application. This is what God said, and now this is the meaning. This is exactly what we see in churches. This is a job that God has given unto pastors, is to take his law, to take his words, to read it. We go through and study God's word, and then also provide the understanding, make the application, make this so that, hey, this is what he's saying, and what this means is that when you do this and when you do that, you're violating God's law here, and this is what God wants you to do. They give that understanding. That's the position that they had, and that's a position of judgment. So what we're gonna cover is this whole judgment that God gives to the people of God, especially those that are serving him. There's a position of judgment that they have. The Levites were judges because they knew God's law. That's why. Now, we live in a society, unfortunately, where people just shudder at the word judge or judgment, and who are you to judge? How often have you heard that? Who do you think you are? What makes you think you can judge? Well, you know, that actually, that attitude is found a couple times in scripture, and you know that every time that attitude is found, it's always a really wicked person who's bringing that up. The first example that comes to mind is in Genesis 19. Genesis 19, verse number nine. You don't have to turn it if you want to. You probably know where I'm going. This, of course, is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 19, and when Lot goes out to the wicked men that were trying to defile and force the angels that came into his house because they're wicked perverts, he goes out to them and tries to plead with them and says, you know, my brother, don't do so wickedly. Don't be so vile as to do this thing, and how do they respond to him? Verse number nine says, and they said, stand back, and they said again, this one fellow came into sojourn, and he will need to be a judge. Now what will deal worse with thee than with them? He's saying, oh, now he's gonna try to be a, now you're gonna judge us. Oh, you're gonna judge us? Now we're gonna do more harm to you. We're gonna do even worse to you than we thought to do unto them. That's their attitude. Who are you to judge? We get the same attitude, and that's from the, I mean, that's from the Sodomites, but isn't that what we get from the Sodomites today? Oh, don't judge me. Don't judge me. It's love. Well, I am gonna judge you, because judge isn't a bad word. Judge is in the Bible. In fact, I'm gonna go home and read the book of Judges because it's of God to judge. Amen. Exodus chapter two, we have another example of someone answering someone who is actually trying to say what's right, because, look, Lot was not your ideal Christian by any means, but what he was saying was right, absolutely right, from God's word that what they were doing was wicked and vile. Okay, that was right. He was making a righteous judgment there. And what we see in Exodus chapter two with Moses, the same thing. Moses was saying what was right to some wicked people, to his own brethren. In verse number 13, the Bible says, and when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together, and he said to him that did the wrong, wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? So he's got two Hebrews, his brethren, and they're fighting. And one guy is clearly in the wrong because he says to the guy that's in the wrong, the wrong wicked doer, saying, hey, why are you hitting him? Why are you fighting him? And look at what his answer is. And he said, who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as thou killest the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, surely this thing is known. So he said, well, who are you to judge? What makes you think you can be a judge? So again, another example, that guy was wicked. Now, it would appear that Moses was being a hypocrite since he killed a guy, and he's telling him, what are you doing hitting him, right? And we're gonna get to that in a little bit. But notice who the person is, though, that hates the judgment. It's the evil doer. It's the wicked person. They don't want the judgment. They don't wanna hear the judgment. So they're gonna say, well, who do you think you are to judge? This same story is referred to in the book of Acts, because Moses was afraid of that, and he left. But I love how this story is referenced, then, in Acts chapter seven, where Stephen is given that great sermon before he's martyred, and just going into this great history of Israel and stuff, and he brings up this story of Moses. And he recounts it, saying, you know, even covering that he said that, you know, who made you a judge? In verse number 27, he says, but he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? So he's basically just recapping what we just read in Exodus. But then jump down to verse number 35, because then he says, 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 deliverer by the hand of the angel, which appeared to him in the bush. So to answer that guy's question, well, who made you a ruler and a judge? Well, God did. God's the one that made Moses the judge. It really was of God. And this is what drives me nuts about this whole, you know, it's irritating. Again, this is a little political, but when I see people who, because there's so much good and truth to like a libertarian type of a mindset of giving a lot of freedom to people and trying to limit the scope of government, but people take that to follow these philosophies of men and get involved and take it to as far as like anarchy. And a lot of, I'll get, you know, there's a lot of misunderstanding of what the word anarchy even means. Typically, when you hear anarchy, what most people are taught to believe is just you just think of people dressed up in black suits and just going and just breaking stuff, right, and just causing chaos. That's not literally what the word means, and that's not the political philosophy behind it either, but the word anarchy means no rulers. So if you have a monarchy, there's one ruler. If you have an oligarchy, there's a few rulers, right? Anarchy means there is no ruler. And that is a political thought that, you know, people come up with as a philosophy of man that thinks that that's the best way to govern and that no one really has the right to exert, to have these extra rights over other people. They'll say, well, we all have the same rights. We're all equal. Well, yeah, that's fine and good in a naturalistic sense. If there is no God, then I can see where you can follow that that would make sense and be a logical argument. But the big problem comes in when you have a God that says I'm giving power to people to execute my law and do my judgment. Because now, when you have God involved, he says, no, I do wanna have a ruler. I wanna have judges. I'm gonna set people with the authority and if you don't listen to their judgment, then you are gonna be put to death. That's the way that God established it. So guess what? God does want rulers and you cannot say that you believe the Bible and you believe the Bible is God's word and hold to an anarchist philosophy politically because then you're saying, well, what God said isn't quite as important or it's not as good of an idea as anarchism is. And Christians need to watch out for that. Don't get sucked into just these vain philosophies. Stick with God's word, it won't steer you wrong ever. God's system of judgment. Now, God did not intend for a monarchy either. But God did set up a system of government that had judges and the judges knew God's law and would be there to have wisdom to execute God's laws and to be there for the punishment of evil doers because evil people need to be punished and someone needs to have the authority to punish those evil people and God ordained certain men to have that authority and it's people who knew the Bible, people who knew God's word. That's who he wanted doing it and it makes perfect sense. Turn, if you would, to Matthew 7. As I was saying, we live in this society where people have been brainwashed into thinking that, you know, because they'll say, oh, well, yeah, you know, it was real judgmental back in the Old Testament and you're just looking at these Old Testament priests and things like that and we're looking at the judgment. Well, we're gonna make the application. We're gonna read the Bible. We're gonna see the biblical concept and truths from the Old Testament and apply them in the New Testament because this concept hasn't changed. But people have been deceived into hearing one part of one verse repeated so often. No, judge not. Doesn't the Bible say not to judge? Doesn't it say you're supposed to judge not? You hear that all the time. You try to say, well, you try to stand up for truth and you say, you know, fornication is wicked, it's wrong. People shouldn't be shacking up together for a, well, who are you to judge? I thought the Bible says not to judge. You say, getting drunk is a sin. It's wicked, it's wrong. People shouldn't be doing it. Oh, yeah, you're a real good judge, huh? I thought the Bible said not to judge and then, of course, the big one is the Sodomites. You say, it's filthy, it's vile, it's disgusting. Anyway, you can't judge. Why don't you look at your own book? It tells you not to judge. Ignoramuses telling you what the Bible says who've never picked it up and read a page of it in their life that it's like to repeat what they've heard because they think it sounds good. And if they have, write it shame on them because they didn't understand the lick of it if they're gonna come and say that. And shame on the Christians who repeat that because they're not reading the Bible for themselves and they're just hearing whatever their pastor that's tickling their ears is gonna tell them. Let's actually look at the passage and see what the Bible says about judging, shall we? Chapter seven, verse number one, this is where people get their concept of not judging because they read the first two words of Matthew chapter seven, verse number one, and then they stop reading and then they just don't wanna know, just, okay, let's go to something else more fun. I don't know. Judge not, oh, there it is, judge not. I guess we can't judge ever. There's no judgment. Let's go home. Okay, how about we actually just read the context and see what he's saying here. Judge not that ye be not judged. Okay, that gives me a little bit more insight. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now it's starting to make a little bit more sense. He's saying, okay, the reason why I'm saying to judge not, he's saying because the same degree or the same severity or whatever judgment that you're gonna give on someone else, you're gonna be held to the same standard. If you're gonna make a judgment, it applies equally to everybody. Makes sense. So it's basically be careful with how you judge because it's gonna come back to you. And then it continues further, verse number three. 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 behold a beam is in thine own eye? And this is where we get, in verse number five, the main purpose of this passage being explained here. What does it boil down to? Thou hypocrite. It's about hypocrisy in judgment because he's saying, because the hypocrite, they're the ones that wanna tell everyone else what to do when they're guilty of all of those things. So if the hypocrite is judging someone, you know, the guy, the pastor that's secretly going home and getting drunk and no one knows about it, but then he's standing up and judging all the people, all you drunkers and everything else, you better watch out because you're guilty of those things. And that judgment's gonna come down on you. That's being a hypocrite. And that's gonna be applied to you. 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. This is talking about, okay, you say mote, you know what a mote is. Mote and beam, even if you don't know what the word mote is, you could probably understand what the Bible's trying to say here. It's using two extreme examples. You know what a beam is. I mean, think about, you have beams in buildings, right? They're just big, long pieces of wood. And it's an exaggeration, obviously, saying, okay, you're trying to help someone that's got a really small speck of whatever in their eye. They've got some small thing. And you've got this huge problem. I mean, you can't see clearly at all because you've got this big old beam sticking out of your face. And you're trying to help that guy? You're judging that guy because he has some small imperfection, some problem that you can barely even see. You can't even see, but you can see that there's, he's having some problems and some issues because he's rubbing his eye and stuff. Oh, here, let me help you out with that. And you walk up to him, you're like, whoa, hold on a second there, buddy. Don't get too close to my eye because you can't see a thing. And that's what he's saying. The hypocrite is the person, they've got their own very serious problems and they're gonna go ahead and try to judge other people and judge their sins and tell them why everything they're doing is wrong. But notice what this says. This doesn't say, well, because that happens, no one can ever make any judgments. So don't ever say that anything that anyone's doing is wrong. Is that what the passage said there? No. What does it actually say to do? It says, first, take care of your problems. Take care of that big problem. Get that big beam out of your eye. And then you could go ahead and help that person out. So who are supposed to be the people that are judging? The ones that don't have the big beam sticking out of their eye. The one who've already prepared themselves and cleaned up their act enough to be able to see clearly. Now they may not be perfect. They're not perfect. But they don't got big old beams sticking out of their eyes. They can see clearly enough to help those, because that's what, you know, ultimately what a judgment's gonna do, it should be to help the person who's guilty of those sins to get right, to get that spec out of their eye, get that mode out of their eye. You need to be told you're wrong in order to correct the problem. Many people have problems they don't even realize they're wrong. It's another good purpose for judgment. And it's especially important when people are going around and calling evil good and good evil. And people are saying that the most vile, wicked things are okay and we should tolerate that and accept that and embrace that and love that. No! We need to exhibit justice and judgment and yes, we're gonna judge between right and wrong. And there was one other passage in the Old Testament that I just realized now that I had left out. It's one where the priest, it's given to the Levites and to the priest to discern for the people and to give them judgment and to tell them between the holy and the profane thing. If you remember that passage I'm talking about, I actually had that in my notes and I'll confess to you, I forgot my notes on my printer at home so I had to rewrite my notes so I started a few minutes late today. But forgive me for my faults, but I remembered everything but the one, that was the one passage I couldn't remember and that's what it was. So I'm gonna have to look that one up again later but that's your homework, you go up and look that verse and verify that what I'm saying is right about that because the Levites had that job as well to tell between the holy and the profane things. But that's what we have today. People don't understand that, that's the job. That is the job within church is to provide that judgment. God is ordained for that to be the case. Yes, even into the New Testament, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number five. This passage has come up multiple times in the past few weeks. Because if that passage that we just read in Matthew chapter seven is telling us just not to judge ever, now you have contradictions on your hand within the scripture. Now you've got a God that can't make up his mind on whether or not we should judge if that's really what that verse is saying. If it's just saying you can't ever judge anybody. 1 Corinthians chapter five verses 12 and 13 say, For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And I'm not gonna go over all 1 Corinthians chapter five, but it's all these people that are doing certain sins that we're supposed to not even associate with, we're not supposed to go out and have a meal with. He's saying if they do these things, put that wicked person away from among you. And he says, what do I have to do with them that are without? Like I don't judge those people that are without, because he says in verse 13, God's gonna judge those people. The people that are not saved, the heathen of the world, they have a judgment and God's gonna judge them and they're gonna burn in hell. He says, but he says, do not ye judge them within? He's talking about within the church, within the body of Christ. He's saying, don't you judge those people? And because you're supposed to, he says, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person because you should be judging. Because you should have nothing to do with them. That is a righteous judgment. Flip over to chapter six, because he continues this same thought. That was at the end of chapter five. Chapter number six in first Corinthians says, dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? He's saying, how dare you? If you have a problem with someone else, some issue arises, you're gonna go take your brother to law, meaning like going to the courthouse that's here, like in their times, the Roman government, like you're gonna go before the Romans and you're gonna have them do justice in your situation. He's saying, what are you thinking? You have a matter against another. You go to law before the unjust, like they're not even just. You're gonna try to get justice from people who are unjust. They don't understand wisdom and God's judgment and what true justice is. He says, and not before the saints. Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matter? He's saying, don't you know the saints, the sanctified, the believers, you're gonna judge the whole world one day. You're gonna be put in that position of authority. You will be the judges and if that's the case, you can't even judge the smallest things. Like really? Verse number three, know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye 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? But brother goeth to law with brother in that before the unbelievers. Now therefore, there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud in that your brethren. And he's rebuking these people, one, for going to law. They have a problem with someone in the church. He's saying, first of all, if someone did you wrong, why don't you just take the wrong? Why don't you just say, whatever, move on and just allow yourself to be defrauded by someone else in church and just say, forget it. But if you're gonna go to, he's like, if it still is a problem, then why are you going before the unjust? You're not gonna get justice from the unjust. Don't go to the heathen. Don't bring your brother in Christ to law before the heathen. And he gives all these reasons why you can do the judgment right there. You can settle the matter within the church. You don't have to go outside to these other people to get justice. Don't you have anyone in church that reads their Bible? Don't you have anyone that understands wisdom? He's saying, that's a shame to you. You don't have somebody that can just say, this is right and this is wrong because God's word says so. Do you have nobody that can do that within your church? Then you got a bigger problem in your church when nobody can do that. You need to start reading God's word. Judging. Yes, a judgment. And it's funny that people only wanna complain about the Christian judgment, right? They don't have a problem with judges that are down at the courthouse, right? If someone does them wrong, what are they gonna do? They're gonna sue them. They're gonna go to court. They're gonna stand before a judge. You don't ever hear these people that say, oh, don't judge me, going to the court and say, oh, don't judge them when they're suing someone else, right? Why you gotta be so judgmental? Why are you judging them? Oh, wait, because you want them to judge them because they did wrong to you. Well, you know what we're judging? You're doing wrong against God. And in Christ's stead, we're gonna stand here and say, that's wrong. That's wicked. And thus saith the Lord, and we are gonna judge. And God's given us the authority, yay, and the obligation to judge. Turn to John chapter number seven. There are other places in 1 Corinthians seven. I didn't have the time to get them all back down here because there's multiple places in the Bible that tell you to judge, where it's literally saying to judge, to judge, to judge. But we're gonna get now out of Jesus Christ's own mouth, the words that were recorded in scripture of what Jesus actually says. Well, let's get it in context. Let's start reading verse number 23. 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 have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? So basically what they're doing is they're trying to condemn Jesus Christ for healing on the Sabbath day. And he's bringing up an example. What he does is he brings an example of how they're hypocrites because they allow for someone to be circumcised. They allow for someone to, in a sense, receive harm. And he's saying like, well you allow for circumcision on the Sabbath, but you're not gonna allow for someone to be made whole? For someone to be healed on the Sabbath day? And he follows that up with that question with verse 24, it says, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Judge righteously. You're not judging a right judgment. So Jesus Christ is literally telling them, judge righteous judgment. You need to judge and you need to judge right. Now I'm not for bad judgment or wrong judgment. You shouldn't be judging if you're judging incorrectly, but it doesn't mean that you can never judge. You judge right all day long. Jesus says judge right. And what Jesus is doing here, if you wanna turn back to, you keep your place or we're gonna go back to John chapter five in just a second, but in Leviticus chapter 19, basically Jesus is just summarizing what Leviticus 19 says in God's law for judging. Leviticus 19, verse number 15, the Bible says, ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. So saying you need to judge righteously, judge righteous judgment. And Leviticus 19 gives us a little bit more detail into how you can judge righteously, saying, don't respect the person of the poor and honor the person of the mighty. He's saying it shouldn't matter whether they're rich or poor, whether they're famous or despised. It doesn't matter who the person is. The judgment is God's judgment. The judgment is according to scripture. It has nothing to do with where they came from or how much influence they have or your friend or relative. The judgment that is righteous, that is right, is strictly according to God's law and God's commandment, and that's the way that you judge. You don't give any type of weight or creed or balance to any person and be a respecter of persons. And again, here's another problem within churches. Yep. It's a big problem within churches that want to sweep things under the rug when their evangelist or pastor or missionary or whoever is caught and found guilty of being a pervert or being a pedophile or doing some wicked acts or being an adulterer and they just want to sweep it under the rug. And they're a respecter of persons, whereas if someone just out in the congregation was found guilty of committing adultery, they're gonna put them up and publicly shame them before everyone else. But oh, oh, oh, when the pastor does it, let's just be hush-hush about this. Let's just move them over into another ministry and let's not talk about it. And let's not make sure that real justice is actually done because it's my buddy that I've known for a long time. And we don't want to bring shame. We don't want to bring embarrassment to our church. Well, if you didn't want to have shame and embarrassment to your church, and your pastor shouldn't have been a pervert or whatever, whatever the case may be, don't be a respecter of person and judgment because if you thought that that was bad enough, whatever was going on, you're making it even worse. You're making God's anger increase by not bringing the judgment that needs to be brought out and dealt with and handled appropriately. You have no integrity. People aren't, you've ruined, you know, it's bad enough to have that type of a mark and a scar from a man who's someone who's in a position of authority to bring that to damage and ruin a testimony of a church. But it's even worse to then cover it up. At least if you're bringing it out, you could have some respect and some integrity and say, well, at least these people still do hold the scripture because they're not, it doesn't matter who it is, they're gonna hold them responsible and judge righteously. And at least then you can still say you're true to God and not just following a man and not just staying true to some man. Last place I return, John chapter five. Again, more words of Jesus Christ. This helps us, will help us to discern how to judge righteously. So we saw in Joshua 21 that basically it's the Levites who were given the cities of refuge because that's where the judgment was gonna be for the manslayer. We also saw then that the Levites were the ones who were given the task of giving the judgment and it makes sense because they knew God's law. We see that then going forward into the New Testament. Nothing has really changed. I mean, the priesthood has changed but this concept of judging and judging righteously, it still falls within God's realm which would be the church, right? Back then it was within the priesthood or the Levites and the job of the Levites to do the judging. Now we saw in 1 Corinthians, hey, can't you guys judge? Can't you judge these matters? Can't you just judge within the church? Don't you have someone that has wisdom and understanding? And of course we need to judge righteously. We don't wanna be hypocrites. We don't wanna be those types of people. So how are we gonna judge righteously? Jesus Christ gives us how? In verse number 30, Jesus says, I can of mine own self do nothing, as I hear I judge and my judgment is just. And he tells us why, because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which hath sent me. Jesus said the reason why my judgment's just is because I'm not just leaving it up to me saying I'm just following exactly what the Father said. His word, his direction, his instruction. If you can follow the word of God to that level and just say it's not what I want to happen, because when you start letting your own feelings or emotions or what you wanna have happen in a judgment influence your judgment, then you're not judging righteously. You have the rich person in church and the poor person in church have a conflict and you're gonna side with the rich guy because you like his money rolling in. You don't want him to be ousted. Now you're judging unrighteously. You're giving favor to someone because it's your own will that you're imposing in that judgment. Instead of just saying, well what does God's will say? What does the word of the Lord say? That's what matters and that's where you get righteous judgment from. That's what we need to strive to make sure, one, you know the law. Know the law as well as the Levites did. Or better, know the law as well as you can. Know God's word so that you can have the wisdom, you could judge righteously, you could discern good from evil, you could know right from wrong and you can make the judgment call and be a judge yourself. I thank God that he's given us men to be judges, to help people understand this is right and this is wrong because not everybody has that wisdom. But I believe it's incumbent upon us as Christians, people who want to espouse God's word and say this book is important, we believe God's word. Well you know what, a large portion of God's word is his law and his law is what gives us our morality. God's grace doesn't give us our morality. God's forgiveness doesn't give us our morality, it's God's law, that's what tells us right from wrong. How are you gonna know to do right or wrong if you don't know what God said is right and wrong? And then how could you ever possibly judge if you don't know those things either? That is why the requirement for kings, and even though God didn't want to have a king, says okay, if you're gonna have a king, if you choose to have a ruler that is a king, instead of a judge that God would raise up if you decided to reject that and have a king, he says the king needs to write down and basically have his own Bible, he needs to write down and literally have his own transcript, his own copy of God's law. And that will guarantee you that he knows it a lot better, at least as well as he ought to, because he's supposed to be reading from it every day and have his own copy for himself personally to be able to do those judgments. That's why Solomon was blessed so much, because what he desired and what he requested of God was the wisdom to judge the people, to rule the people, and to know right from wrong. He says, wow, this is a big task. There's a lot of people here. It's all your people, Lord. You've blessed us, you've multiplied us. This is a big responsibility. Can you just please give me some wisdom to know how to deal with these people, to know how to give a good answer, a right judgment? That's what he wanted with his heart, and God gave it to him. And God blessed him for that, and he blessed him in many ways for that very reason. We ought to strive to want to have that wisdom to know right from wrong, and I guarantee you, even if it's not coming out and judging other people, I guarantee you it's gonna be a blessing in your own life when you can choose right from wrong and make judgment calls on what decision you need to make in your life, and you're choosing the right choice and rejecting what's wrong. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this great wisdom that we could find in scripture. Lord, I pray that you will please help us to make good judgment, help us not to be ashamed of when people might say, oh, who are you to judge? Because we can see from the scripture that you've established in your law that we are to judge and that we need to judge, and even Jesus Christ himself said that we need to judge but judge righteously. We can see that all throughout the Bible that we need to be careful in our judgment, that we need to make sure that the way that we judge, we know that it's gonna come back on us, but Lord, I'll stand sure right now and say that if it's your judgment that I'm judging against anybody, I'll say amen and amen because if I ever happen to do those things, Lord, I'll accept that judgment because it's right and true if it's coming from your word, and I would expect that the same judgment would fall upon me as upon anybody else. Lord, I pray that you will please just help us to have a good testimony and to not be guilty and not be hypocrites in our judgment so that we wouldn't bring a bad name upon you and upon your laws, dear Lord, but help us strive to increasingly get the sin out of our lives that we can have a good testimony and that our judgment would be pure and good and right. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.