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

All right, we're in Matthew chapter 7. Look at your Bibles at verse number 1. It says here, 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'st not the beam that is in thine own eye? For how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye? And behold, the beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. And the title of this sermon this evening is the beam and the mote, the beam and the mote. Now, what is a beam? A beam is simply a large piece of wood, right? A mote would be considered something that's more of a speckle, we would consider to be a splinter, something that's very small. And what Jesus Christ is teaching here is not against judgment, which a lot of people like to say it is, right? In fact, verse number one, judge not the, be not judged, is pretty much every liberal Christian's favorite verse. Because they say, you know, hey, you shouldn't preach against sin, you shouldn't talk about negative things, you shouldn't call people's names out, you should not judge people. Why? Because it says, judge not, lest ye be judged, right? They don't even quote it right. I mean, it's not even a hard verse to memorize. And they can't even quote it right. You know, it doesn't say judge not, lest ye be judged, it says judge not, they be not judged. But knowing that, the entire chapter explains to us, I mean, the vast majority of the chapter focuses on Jesus Christ judging. Who is he judging? People who are reprobates? People who are false teachers? He says, ye shall know them by their fruits. What does that mean? Ye shall judge them. You know, ye shall see the fruits that they produce, referring to those who are religious positions in leadership. You can look at someone who is a pastor and evaluate their church, evaluate their church members, see what they're producing, are they saved? You can look at their ministry and based upon what they're producing, you can come to the conclusion if that person's a false prophet or not. If this person is a wolf or not. You can judge them. And he starts off the chapter by saying, judge not, they be not judged. But guess what? It doesn't stop there. He tells us why not to judge. He says right there in verse number two, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. So what is he saying? The principle that is being taught here is that we should not judge if we're guilty of the same thing we're judging people for. And this is for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. So the same judgment you're dishing out is the same judgment that's going to come upon you that says, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? So this is not a different thought. This is not going into a different topic, a different subject. He's explaining here, why are you going to look at your brother's eye who has this beam or excuse me, this mote? In other words, you're judging, you can look at your brother and see that he has a mote in his eye, but consider is not the beam that is in thine own eye. So it's like don't judge the mote that is in the eye of thine brother if you yourself have a beam in your own eye. You're not considering that you're at fault for something even greater is what that's talking about there. So it's like you're judging the mote, you're judging the speckle, but you're guilty of a greater sin. That's why he's saying in verse number one, judge not that ye be not judged. Why? Because if you are judging the mote, but you're guilty of a beam, then you are what the Bible calls a hypocrite. And it says there, verse four, or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote of thine eye. Hey, let me try to get the sin out of your life. Let me just try to correct you in this area when you can't even see clearly from your own personal life because you have a beam. You have something that's actually misguiding your judgment. You have something that is not allowing you to spiritually see what the spiritual condition of your friend may be who has that mote. Okay. And by the way, this is not justifying the mote. Amen. This is not justifying small sin or bad habits. It's just saying in order for you to help someone with the mote, you got to make sure that you're clear of all beams. Okay. Not perfect. Just clear of the beam. It says there, verse five, thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then thou shall see clear to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. What does that say? Remove the beam and then you can judge. So this is not a just carte blanche, don't judge at any time. This is not saying you should never judge anybody. What it's saying is don't judge someone if you're guilty of that same sin. But here's the solution. Here's the answer. Remove the beam and you can judge. Right? Remove the beam and you can judge your brother and the mote that is found within thy brother's eye because now you can see clearly. Now there's no, now you're not biased. Now you're not being hypocritical. Now you could actually see clearly to help your brother with the mote that is found within their eye. Go to Romans chapter number two, Romans chapter number two. Now today we live in a society that finds judgment very offensive. I would say that's one of the reasons why a lot of the pastors in our movement are disliked by the majority of independent fundamental Baptists. Their preaching is just so judgmental. So judgmental you guys call everyone reprobates, which is not true. You call everyone a false prophet, which is not true. You're just constantly calling people out and you're preaching against sin and it's just you need to keep your own backyard clean. Well, that's probably why the pastors in our movement are actually calling those things out because the backyard is clean. The beam has been removed or there is no beam. So if the backyard is clean, thanks for that reminder, making sure I clean my own backyard because it's clean. Now guess what? I get to judge. Right. Okay. Now look at Romans chapter two and verse 17, but it's interesting that they'll say things like that and then they'll quote Matthew seven verse one and just completely just ignore everything else where Jesus Christ himself is judging. I mean, he's, he's doing what they're condemning us for, you know, why are you calling everyone a false prophet? Well, in Matthew seven, that's what he's doing. He's saying, Hey, these are wolves in sheep's clothing. You know, he's saying that these are workers of iniquity. These are the kind of people that are gonna be going to hell. I mean, he's saying some pretty offensive things. Jesus Christ would probably not be allowed to preach in your average independent fundamental Baptist church. They would probably look at him and say, this is a new IFB guy right here or something, you know, cause all he's doing is just judging. Well, Matthew seven deals primarily with this aspect and this, this spiritual responsibility that we have to judge and judgment is very much an important aspect of the Christian life because what does it mean to judge? It means to decide on something, right? To judge means to decide. And the Christian life is full of decisions that we need to make. There's an entire book called the book of judges, right? I mean, if you have problem with people judging, then you're going to have problems with the book of judges where God specifically ordained a judge to deliver the people to judge the people. God himself has called the judge. Now look at Romans two verse 17 says, behold, thou art called the Jew, problem number one. Thou restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will and approvals the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law and are confident that thou thyself are a guide of the blind, a light of them, which are in darkness and instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore, which teaches another, teaches not thyself. Thou that preaches the man should not steal, this thou steal. Thou that sayest the man should not commit adultery, this thou commit adultery. Thou that abhorsed idols, this thou commit sacrilege. Thou that mayest, excuse me, thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law of dishonorous thou God, for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written. So what do we see here? We see that Paul is using a specific group to show what a hypocrite really is. What is that? What's the Jew? Why? Because he makes his boast of the law. He says he knows God, but as he's teaching others, he's not teaching himself. Now this is not just applicable to the Jews, though it very much is applicable to the Jews. You know, this is applicable to any Christian who they're teaching others, hey, fornication is wrong, but they allow fornicators into their church. Teaching that alcohol is wrong, but they allow drunkards into the church. You know, they believe that divorce is wrong, but yet they allow divorce and don't preach against divorce within their church. You know what that's called? That's called a beam. You're trying to remove the speckles of moats in your congregation, but you're not removing the beam, okay? Now go to, go with me if you would to Philippians chapter one. You shouldn't judge, hey, I don't agree with what you said this morning about judging that local pastor you call Pastor Idiot. I'm judging righteous judgment. And look, I'm not talking about some unsaved, excuse me, I'm not talking about some saved pastor, I'm talking about a full-blown unsaved heretic who has been admonished multiple times in times past and has said, oh, I'm gonna change that and just completely preaches the same exact thing over and over again, even though he claims that he was gonna change that. I'm talking about someone who admonishes their congregation to not study the Bible. His own words. Don't study the Bible. That's wicked. But then he calls himself a Baptist, you know, he rails on the new IFB, he rails on the pastors of the new IFB and what we believe when he's got a stinking beam in his eye, he's gonna take them straight to hell. He's gonna criticize us because we believe in the reprobate doctrine. Yet, here's the thing, he allows fags into his church. You wanna talk about how much, oh yeah, it's so disgusting, it's all this and, you know, so gross and the hairy legs and, you know, that's an abomination unto, this is what he said, that's an abomination unto God, then why are you letting him into your church? If you think it's so disgusting, you know, I guarantee you there's no fags in that congregation when he preached that. You know why? He didn't even need that fag and tuck tail and run the other way and not preach that. Okay? He wants to say all this manner of, which is true, what he was saying about the homos, a little light on his toes to say it, but at the end of the day, he still let him in his church. What is that? That's called a hypocrite. You know, oh, well, I mean, what about you? You preach, do you allow him? No, we don't allow him here. How do you know one's not in here now? Well, I don't know, but if I found out that there was, we'd boot him out, because they're not welcomed in our church. So what we preach aligns with what we do. Amen? If we preach against the homos, we're not going to say, it's an abomination, but you know, there's still a lot in the church. Why would you allow something that's abominable into the church? If you think it's an abomination, this is how, because you don't believe it's an abomination. Because if you really think that something's abominable, you stay as far away from it as you possibly can. If you believe that God hates, even if, okay, let's just take this, if you really think that God hates that sin, you know, love the sinner, hate the sin, then why would you still let it into the church? It makes no sense. You know what that is? That's a hypocrite, speaking out of both sides of his mouth, okay? He's teaching another, yet he himself is guilty of this very act of allowing it into the church, their church. What did I have you turn Philippians? Oh, you shouldn't judge though, you know, judge. No, judgment is a virtue that every Christian needs to learn. Judgment, righteous judgment is a virtue that God commands us to learn. And in fact, you cannot be a mature Christian if you do not learn judgment. Look at Philippians 1, verse 8, for God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, and this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. That's a good prayer, Apostle Paul. He's saying, I'm praying for you that you just become judgmental, right? That's what it means, that you learn how to judge. You grow in knowledge and you grow in all judgment. See, that's not very popular today. You know, oh, you know, you got to be, you just got to be nice to, look, I'm for being nice to everyone, okay? But not at the expense of judging. Because look what it says, verse 10. So it says, knowledge and all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. So in order for us to live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, a life that's without offense, we need to be able to judge. We need to learn how to judge righteous judgment. And by the way, judgment stems from your knowledge of God's word. Because it says there, yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. And we'll get into that just a bit in Hebrews chapter 5, it talks about that, okay? So don't tell me that judgment is wrong. Don't tell me that you should not judge. Hey, you shouldn't judge if you have a beam in your eye. Yeah, you shouldn't judge the mode if you have a beam. You shouldn't be a hypocrite. But if all beams are removed, guess what? Judge. Learn to judge. Learn to make wise decisions. I mean, we're gonna go, every single, if Christians do not like judgment, then they're gonna hate the white throne, or not the white throne, they're gonna hate the judgment seat of Christ. Right? What is the judgment seat of Christ? It's when Christ tells you, you're not getting a reward, you are. Oh, Jesus, why did you judgment like that? You know, well, you didn't do as you were told. You didn't do any works. You don't get anything. Don't judge me. Hey, Jesus, remember what you said? Judge not. That you be not judged. You know? It sounds foolish, but that's exactly the mentality that people have. It's called the judgment seat of Christ, where Jesus Christ is going to judge our works. Okay? Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 2. But Paul, the apostle, was praying, you know, that the people at Philippi would grow in knowledge and in judgment. Why is that? You know why it's important that people grow in knowledge and in judgment? So they're not babes in Christ. So that they can, you know, we don't have to hold their hand through every single situation. You're able to discern. You're able to judge. You can discern between good and evil. You know how to make wise decisions in your personal life without the need of someone who is maybe spiritually older than you. You know, because at the end of the day, no Christian obviously is omnipresent. Therefore, you need to be able to grow in knowledge and have wisdom and judgment and prudence to be able to make proper decisions. Not make stupid decisions, because stupid decisions come with severe consequences. You know? And so, you know, that's our prayer, amen? That Christians in our church would grow in knowledge and in judgment. I want our people to be judgmental. Amen. Judge! Amen. Now, there is an unrighteous judgment, of course, where, you know, there's a type of judgment that just focuses on the negative or just judges a situation with no evidence, you know, or is just hasty in speech as far as judgment. That's not the kind of judgment that you should have. You know, the Bible tells us that he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of what? Of understanding. Amen. You know? And the Bible tells us that someone who actually holds it in until afterwards has knowledge. Right. They have the wisdom to understand when to speak and when not to speak, okay? But at the end of the day, we need to have judgment. Look at 1 Corinthians 2, verse 13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This shows us here that we cannot learn any doctrine, anything spiritual from unsaved people or people, even people who are saved, but they're just carnal. They have the wrong doctrine. We can't learn from them. And even if they have a little bit of truth, we need to be careful, because a little leaven leaven at the whole up. And Satan never comes with the full-blown lie. Satan's ministers never come with the full-blown lie. They have to mix it with truth. You know the hook, no one fishes with just the hook, right? That's not wise. You have to put some meat on there. You have to put the bait on there to get you a hook, line, and sinker. And that's exactly how these people work. But the Bible tells us here that the natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God. So, you know, these people on YouTube land, they want to go, oh, you know, yeah, he's unsaved, but he's just really good on this part. No, he's not. I reject it all if he's not saved, because he doesn't have the Spirit of truth dwelling within him. Don't judge. No, I'm judging. Because if I adhere to someone who has a false gospel, because they're right on something else, supposedly, you know, at that point, I'm not judging righteous judgment. In fact, I'm being simple, and the simple passed on and are punished, the Bible says. Okay? Now, this applies to someone like Eric, for example. Ballesteros. You know, he wants to make these videos and make himself seem as though he's just very wise in the scriptures, and even though he doesn't explain anything, you know, but he's a natural man. And anybody who's tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of Eric, you're a child. Now, I don't think that's anybody in here, in our church, and if you are, just come talk to me after the service, amen? You know, he's not someone, oh, but isn't he a threat? No, he's not a threat. He's already been kicked out. But what if he keeps making videos about you? Let him. You think it holds any weight? You think he's a threat? You think he holds any weight whatsoever, no matter how much he tries to expound on the word of God? I mean, when you're teaming up with Evan, you're not in good company. Bunch of reprobates. Bunch of wicked reprobates who are corrupting the word of God, making it say something that it doesn't say. You understand that? So look, and we're not the Baptist police here, so I'm not going to go around and say, hey, are you listening to Adam Fanon? You're not listening to Adam Fanon, are you? You know? But here's the thing, if you are, then you're an idiot. Let me rephrase that. You're a stupid idiot, if you're listening to Adam Fanon, because he's an unsaved, wicked reprobate. A natural man that receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Well, you know, I heard a sermon where he did something, he said something good, because reprobates copy, save people. You know, I'm sure Joel Osteen has said a couple truths here now and again, because he simply repeats what other people say. Spiritual truths are spiritually discerned. So this requires two things. This requires someone who is saved and someone who is actually spiritual, who's studying the Word of God. They're meditating upon God's Word. They can rightly divide the Word of truth. They've studied to show themselves to prove them to God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. And look, I hope you're not getting tired of that kind of preaching, because you're going to hear it for a while. You know? You're going to hear it for a while against Adam Fanon, against Eric Ballesteros. Oh, but he was my buddy. You know what? You're probably going to get your feelings hurt a couple of times then, because he's a wicked person. I think he made a good point. Then you know what? I stand in doubt of you. I stand in doubt of you, because nothing that that guy says holds any water. It's foolishness, it's vain jangling, it's garbage. Go to Hebrews chapter number five. You know, don't let the Calvinist, the James Weitz of this world intimidate you. Why? Because the things of God are foolishness unto him. He can't know them. They're spiritually discerned. Okay? Look at Hebrews five, verse 12, it says, For when the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belong to them that are full age, even those who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now, not everyone who doesn't understand the word of God is not saved. Sometimes it's just a babe in Christ. And what the Bible tells us is a babe in Christ is in need of milk and not of strong meat. Why is that? Because they haven't exercised their senses. They haven't used the word of righteousness and studied it long enough to know the Bible. To exercise and discern, discern means to judge between good and evil. That's why it's important that if you're a babe in Christ, don't act like you're a know-it-all. Amen? Don't be this babe in Christ acting like you know Genesis to Revelation, because what's going to happen is God's going to humble you. Better to just say, hey, I don't know too much, I'm still learning, I want to remain humble, I want to make sure that I keep growing, I'm learning a lot. That's the better position, because someone who is proud, a babe in Christ who is proud will get the carpet swept from under them. It always happens. So what do you do? You say, what do I do? Well, you need to grow in the word of righteousness, become skillful in the word of righteousness. You say, how do you know if someone knows the Bible here? Well, those who typically keep their mouth shut the most probably are the ones who know the most. I'll be honest with you, because someone who has knowledge spareth his words. Now for me, I can't spare my words, because people are asking me questions throughout the day, and I got to speak for 50 minutes, so I can't spare my words. But if you're the type to just kind of just turn on that faucet and it just keeps running, you just want to keep, you know, just expound upon the knowledge that you have, you know what happens if people start identifying very quickly that you don't know much. That's how you know if someone knows what they're talking about or not. You just listen to them long enough, and you understand this person doesn't really know as much as he thinks or he says he knows. But the person who is silent, the person who is quiet, the person who is just listening actually ends up learning more. Because the Bible says, be swift to hear and slow to speak. That doesn't mean like, what'd you say? And then when you talk, you're just like, whoa, you know. Swift to hear means you're quick to pay attention. Slow to speak means you think before you talk. Should I say that? Should I not? Maybe I shouldn't intercede. Maybe I shouldn't say anything because I'm not very knowledgeable about that subject, et cetera. You know, that's why God gave us two ears and one mouth, amen? Two ears so you can listen and one mouth to speak. And here's a message for the babes in Christ or someone who maybe is a little older than that. You know, if you're asking a question, here's some good advice, listen. You know, sometimes people ask a question and then as you're answering, they answer as well. It was like, oh, did you want to tell me what the answer was or did you really want to know? For someone like that, I just let them talk because that's really what, that's at the end of the day, that's what they want. They just want to talk. Getting kind of quiet in here. Oh, you're being swift to hear. I got you. Okay, good. Good. You're practicing that already. You're already putting it into application. You know, we need to make sure that our senses are exercised to discern both good and evil. That comes with time. It doesn't happen overnight. It comes as you read the word of God over and over and over again that you're learning the Bible, you're learning discernment, you're growing in your knowledge and in your judgment as well. Go to Micah chapter three. Micah chapter three. I'm going to read to you from chapter six and verse eight, it says, he had showed you a man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. So one of the requirements for a Christian is to be just. Well, how are you just? By judging righteously, right? But in order to do that, you have to grow in that judgment. Look at chapter three, verse eight. But truly, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgment. You know, people want to claim that those who judge others are fleshly, you know, they're carnal people. Here it says that when the power of the Spirit is on a person, they grow in judgment. That's why we need to be spirit-filled, amen? A man of might to declare unto Jacob's transgression to Israel his sin. Go with me if you would to, go to 1 Corinthians chapter five. Here's another thing, and I'm just giving principles about judgment. The moat and the beam. You know, when you're emotional, you shouldn't make judgments, okay? Because often, our emotions can cloud our judgment, okay? You know, our emotions, we become biased regarding something because it has affected us in a certain way. We need to make sure that we don't allow our judgments to cloud, our emotions, excuse me, to cloud our judgments, okay? Now when you're emotional, all right, when you get emotional and you have to make a decision, ask for counsel towards someone who is not emotional and is unbiased towards your situation. I know this is boring, but trust me, it'll help you in the future, okay? You're gonna remember, I remember he said something about that. I'm telling you, when you're emotional, have the wisdom to seek counsel and wisdom from someone else who's not emotional and is unbiased towards your situation. Why? Because that person can think clearly, okay? So you're going through a difficult time, you're like, man, I'm just gonna move. I'm just out of here. Okay, is that your emotion speaking? Because if it is, maybe why don't you ask someone if that's a good idea? Someone who's not biased towards your situation. And by the way, someone who's older than you in the Lord. Don't ask a babe in Christ, you know? You need to be able to find someone, and I'm not saying come to me. You can if you want. Go to other people in our church who are older in the Lord, who can make wise decisions, who can help you make that wise decision. Hey, when you're dating, okay? Uh-oh. When you're dating, you know, or when you're about to date, when you're dating, all that, you know, whatever you want to call it, courtship or dating, you know, often emotions, not often all the time, emotions get involved. And when our emotions are involved, we can't make wise decisions. So how do you know that? Because that's how I was when I was dating. You know, you're just like, duh. You're just kind of like, you're not thinking straight, okay? I don't like this. Well, too bad. You got like 40 minutes of me still left. So suck it up. You know? When you're dating, make sure that you don't make unwise decisions. And if you're, not if you're emotionally attached, because you are emotionally attached, find someone that can help you sift through the cloud of your mind of that love that you have so that you don't make dumb decisions, okay? And obviously, part of that is having your parents trust in the judgment of your parents. Look, your parents are there for a reason, amen? God gave you those parents. Listen to your parents. They don't know the Bible as much as I do. They are your parents. God given authority. Yeah, but they're not as spiritual. God they don't need to be spiritual to be your parents. That's profound right there. In fact, they were your parents before they probably ever got saved. Right? Some of them. But the fact remains is that you need to make sure that you give veto power to your parents to say, hey, what do you think I should do? What do you want me to do? What is pleasing unto you? Okay? And respect that decision. Why? Because when you are dating, look, we're gonna have couples dating more and more, amen? And the years go by and then they're gonna get married and establish their own families and that's a great thing. But this is an important principle because sometimes dating couples, they don't make wise decisions. And I'm not thinking of anybody in particular. I'm throwing this out here as a principle that's important in this regard. You know, don't just make a flippant decision without the authority of your parents. You say, well, what if my parents are not really involved? Then you need to find someone to help you kind of make sift of those hard decisions. Someone who's wise throughout those decisions. Well, I'm just afraid they're gonna tell me no. Well, if you chose the right person to judge, then there's probably something behind that that's true. You know? So you need to make sure that you trust the judgment of those who are older than you in the Lord to help you make those certain decisions. Now what do I have here in 1 Corinthians chapter 5? So in regards to judging, what are we talking about here? You know, leaders are to judge the church. This is an element that's very important in the church. A leader is to judge the church. What does that mean? As a leader, the person who is in charge, he's responsible for executing righteousness when it needs to be executed. Look at 1 Corinthians 5 18 says, therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or with idolaters, for them as he needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such in one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within, but then that are without? God judges, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Now we need to learn a balance. What's the balance? That the leadership just can't throw anybody out. Leadership's supposed to throw people out when need be, when they qualify to be thrown out. But they just can't throw anybody out. You know, there's an extreme to both sides of the spectrum. You have one side that is so extreme that they just throw anybody out for believing post-trip re-wrath because they're friends with Pastor Anderson, or whatever it may be, and they just are quick to throw that person out. But then you have the other extreme where that same person will not throw people out for fornication. That's an abuse of authority. That is an abuse of a spiritual position, leadership position, why? Because they're not judging righteously. They're judging someone who doesn't deserve to be thrown out, and they're allowing those who God says, hey, throw this person out to stay in the church. Okay? And look, may we never become a church that tolerates any sin found within First Corinthians chapter five. Fornication, drunkenness, railing, extortion, idolatry, heresy. Well that's not in the Bible. It says, the Bible tells us that a heretic after the first and second admonition, reject. What does that mean? Throw them out. You know, and look, Pastor Anderson obviously is the pastor of this church. I will be ordained Lord willing in August, but as of now, I have the authority to judge someone if I find someone to be a heretic, someone who believes wrongly and has been admonished to throw them out. That is right judgment. But there's pastors out there that say, well, you know, that's not right that you do that. You don't have the authority. What are you talking about? Yet they have the authority to throw out new IFP'ers out of their church? That's wicked. That is a misunderstanding and an abuse of spiritual leadership. You know, and by the way, someone who's been in the Lord for a long time can actually begin to regress and become a babe in Christ again. You know, if they're not studying the Bible, they can actually regress. And you know what? We have a lot of pastors today that are regressing. They're becoming babes in Christ once again. How can you tell based upon their judgments? Based upon the decisions that they make, okay? But a leader does have the authority to judge a church. And look, that's why we got to make sure that as a church, we stay unified around this concept. All the concepts, of course, the doctrines, but this concept in particular, because this is going to happen over the lifetime of our church. And you know what? People will be offended at it. There's people in the church that will be offended, and guess what? They're going to bounce too because they don't like it. But you know what? Good riddance. Oh, man, you just sound a little rough there. Then maybe you should join them too. You know, I love everyone in our church, but if you begin to question the leadership, you know, then why are you even here? You know, why would you sit for an entire hour to listen to my preaching if you don't even like it? So I'm just admonishing you to do something that you probably want to do in your heart anyways. Once you step through these doors, you've already walked out in your heart. So why not physically do the same thing and just leave? You know, we need to make sure that we stay unified or in agreement. And look, if you disagree with the decision that I make, come talk to me and I'll prove you wrong. I'm just kidding. You know, come talk to me and we can talk about it. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to just dish out excommunication. It's just like it's hotcakes or something, you know? But we got to judge righteously. You got to trust the judgment, but you also yourself have to grow in judgment. So when the judgment is issued, you know why? Because that's what the Bible says. It's not like, I don't know why you did that for. That's so mean. I can't believe. You're a babe in Christ and you need to be able to look at the Bible and see that This is a sin punishable by excommunication. Okay. Now that's you today. That's fine. But just grow. I pray for you that you grow in knowledge and in all judgment. Because that's, you know, the throwing out of the heretics has not finished. You know, we're going to continue to do that for a while because, you know, they will come. You know, there are false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privilege shall bring damnable heresies. And you know what? It's only going to get worse. It's only going to get worse. So you better toughen up, toughen up, grow in knowledge and all judgment. Because when it happens, you need to be ready for that. You know, the emotional shock, you can't let that just like slap you in the face. It's going to be an emotional shock when you hear about something like that. But you need to bring, you know, your, you need to have some equilibrium in your spirit and in your mind to know, Hey, this is what the Bible says. We need to go with that. And if I'm going to protect my children, if I'm going to protect, you know, brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so, if the families in our church are going to be protected, we need to cast out the leaven. Okay. But not because someone's pre-trib. Now I don't ever think someone who is pre-trib will attend our church faithfully. I don't think it's going to happen. They're welcome to, but I don't think it's going to happen. Why? Because I preach on that all the time, right? I mean, we, I preach on, I try to be as, have a variety of sermons, but there are certain topics that we hit on fairly frequently so that people can learn. There's new Christians always coming in and they don't know about these things. You know, don't assume that every person that comes to our doors is automatically post-trib, pre-wrath, you know, replacement theology. You may be, but not every person that comes to those doors. So they have to learn those things. But you know, if a person is pre-trib, they're going to come, they're either going to hear it and convert or they're going to leave. But I'm not going to make them leave because I feel threatened. Your presence threatens me, you know? And look, if a person who's listening to, for example, like Charles Lawson, who's a damnable heretic, he's repenting your sins, you don't use, I don't know who it is. Get yourself a copy of the dispensation of heresy back there and you'll find out who it is. Okay. Or just watch it on YouTube. You know, if they come into our church, you know, and they claim to agree with us, I'll let them stay. But you know what? They're probably not going to hack it for very long because eventually one of my hot topics is dispensationalism. And they're going to hear it. So they're either going to like it or lump it, okay? But the leadership has the authority to be able to judge that. And look, I don't take a consensus either. It's like, do you guys agree with me? Are you guys okay with this? Can we throw Eric out? Is that all right, everybody? What do you think? We'll talk about it some other time, you know, it's just like, no, that's not the way it works. Okay. Go to First Timothy chapter five. It says put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And look, you have to understand that this world is filled with wicked people. They do exist. And unfortunately they infiltrate churches. This is what judgment is for. You know, but you go to your average independent fundamental Baptist church, the pastor there has zero judgment. You have a smorgasbord of false doctrine in there, false teachers, infiltrators, wolves in sheep's clothing that are just there and allowed to just sit day, week in, week out. They're in the Sunday school classes. They're allowed to participate in the ministries there. Wicked people. For my own church, there's a guy, I called him out a long time, Dave Burse. This wicked faggot who's allowed to just attend faithfully. I don't know if he still, hopefully he's not there anymore, but when I called him out, he was there. And the only reason I called him out is because he attacked me. So it was like, you, you got on the wrong channel, buddy. You know, and that's not right to do that, but someone who has no judgment will just permit it. They would just tolerate it. Okay. That's why judgment is important. And look, not just judgment in the house of God, judgment in your house. You need to be able to learn how to discern and judge your own household. You need to be able to learn and to discern your family, your wife, your children, your employees, learn how to judge these things. Don't just, you know, be passive about everything. Now I'm getting ahead of myself. Now. Another thing is church members should be judging the leadership as well. You should judge me, amen. Now there are two extremes to this. What's the one extreme where the guy is just so judgmental. He just thinks that the pastor is just an infiltrator as well, even though there's like no signs of it, you know, that's foolishness. Now if you ever think that I'm teaching some sort of heresy or you have a question, let me show you what you're supposed to do. Verse number one, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity. So what is the Bible teaching us here? That you should never rebuke an elder. So in order for you to abstain from rebuking an elder, that means you have to give the elder the benefit of the doubt. You know? And I appreciate the fact that I've made mistakes behind this pulpit, and most of you, if not all of you, have always given me the benefit of the doubt. I'm thankful for that. You know why? Because I want to reciprocate that to you. I don't want to walk around our church thinking that everyone's a reprobate. I don't know, man, this dude, I think so, you know? I think this person is an infiltrator. No, I just rather think that everyone is a good person, they're innocent until proven guilty, and may that be reciprocated with me. Amen? Amen. But, you know, there's certain churches where the pastor is teaching temptable heresy, is allowing wickedness to just run rampant in the church, and what happens? The members don't approach that person at all. That's wicked. Wake up! And look, this is where the old IFB steered wrong on, is like, never question leadership. You look the other way. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. So the leadership can be involved in the most wicked stuff, and it's just like, well, that's the man of God, you know? That's what happened over, this church over here in Wildomar, where there's a so-called man of God, who's molesting all kinds of kids, girls. And then all this garbage is taking place, and what happened? You know, one of the church leaders' wives comes and tells the girls, hey, you need to respect so-and-so, because he's a man of God. He's a man of God. No, he's a man of the devil. No leader is above that. We're to be above reproach, okay? But today, it's just like, well, it's taboo to even approach the leader about anything. Then you're not reading the Bible. You're not growing in judgment. You know, learn how to discern the mote and the beam. Learn how to make judgment. Learn how to have knowledge. Learn your rights! Hey, learn your rights as a church member, amen? Learn your rights as a church member. That if your rights are being violated in the church, if something's not going right, you have the liberty to come talk to the leadership. It's not like we're like divine or something. We're regular human beings that make mistakes, and every leader should be approachable at some point or another if the members feel like there's something that's going wrong, something that's off. You don't just turn a blind eye to that. Of course, there's the extreme where you have that one church member who's just always going to the leader and accusing. Now, that's never happened in our church, okay? But there are churches like that where you have troublemakers in the church that are just harassing the pastor. That's happened in times past even at my old church. That's not right either, okay? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Hey, you need to judge the preaching, right? Keeps me on my P's and Q's to make sure that I preach right, making sure that I preach the right doctrine. Now, what do I mean by judging the preaching? I'm not saying every jot and tittle to make sure I pronounce every word right, every T is crossed, every I is dotted, and just make no mistakes whatsoever. No, there has to be room. You got to give room for grace at times, okay? But what I'm saying is you need to judge the preaching and understand that no leader is above that. You need to be able to listen to what's going on and see if it's right or wrong, okay? 2 Corinthians 10 verse 14 says, Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from my dollar tree. I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. Paul's like, hey, judge what I'm telling you. But you know what the problem is today? No congregation is judging what the pastor is saying. No congregation. When the pastor is allowed to get up behind the pulpit and say, don't study your Bibles, you know, you're a weird church member. You know, a church member should get up afterwards and say, I'm sorry, did I just hear correctly? I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. So I'm going to entreat you as a father. Did you just say I shouldn't study the Bible? Did you just say the entire congregation should not study the Bible? And if you said that, then I just want to let you know that that's actually incorrect. The Bible actually says to study, to show ourselves, to prove them to God, to search the scriptures daily, to see if these things are so. Did you make a mistake? You know, and if he owns up to it, makes a mistake and he says, yeah, I made a mistake. Then that's a different story. But you know, that's that's foolishness when you just allow that preaching to take place in your church. Now, one of two things, either the people in that church are just not saved or the people in that church are just not paying attention whatsoever. And I would think it's probably the latter rather than the first one simply for the fact that I know the people in that church. And I know a lot of them are saved. But when let me say this is, you know, when you're in a church like that, where there's an unsafe pastor preaching the Bible, you're not being fed. And so if you're not being fed, you know, what's going to happen is you're going to tune out most of the time. You're not going to pay attention to what's going on. And therefore, false doctrine is just being fed you, but you're just going over your head, you're not paying attention. But the Bible says that the church members need to take on responsibility to judge what's being said. OK, not to challenge just every idiosyncrasy, every detail, but judge it to see if these things are so. Go to First Corinthians, Chapter six. And look, if a pastor has disqualified himself, the church needs to judge that and confront him about it. If the pastor has not ruled his house well, what does that mean? He has kids living with him, his children who are in open sin that the church knows about, that the children in the church know about. That's commonly reported. The church, if they don't agree what's going on, one of two choices, leave or confront the pastor and say, hey, you've offended us, according to Matthew 18. Because you as a pastor are allowing this sin in the church by allowing your children to be involved in this wickedness. So I'm going to treat you as a father. Repent of that. Can you get your house in order? And if he gets his house in order, they can move on with their lives, forgive them and move on. But if he persists to stay in that sin, then it's like, OK, then you need to be excommunicated. Oh, you can't excommunicate a pastor. Who says? If he has disqualified himself as a pastor, well, he's been there for many years. It doesn't matter. When you're ordained, it's not like this carte blanche ordination is just you're sealed until the day of redemption. Your ordination is not until the day of redemption. It's until you disqualify yourself or you die or whatever, you know. And I'm not saying we need to see more of this, but we kind of do. Where the church recognizes that there's open sin taking place and not just turn a blind eye to it, approach the pastor and say, this is going on. Here are the options. Well, what kind of authority do you have? Well, the Bible says that we should judge that. And you've offended us by allowing the sin. And if this is the case, then you need to step down and move on. OK. Go to 1 Corinthians, you're in 1 Corinthians 6, verse one says, dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Knowing not that we shall judge angels, how much more the things that pertain to this life. So don't tell me people in the church cannot just judge what's going on. That's like I'm you're going to be judging angels. What is he saying there? I'm deputizing you to make righteous judgments. OK, now. Let's read on here, verse four, if then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed. In the church, I speak this to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? You know the answer to that sometimes? Yeah, it's no. Because they're not paying attention. No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren, but brother go to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Now, partly the reason why sin is just allowed in leadership or sin with the leadership's children is because it's not being taught that that's sin or the principle of excommunication is not taught. You understand? So if the pastor is not teaching this, which obviously, if his family is involved in sin, he's just not going to preach on it. OK, and let me just let me just explain something, OK? You know, if a safe person who is obviously a pastor, if a pastor of a church is involved in sin, and I'm not just talking about fornication because a pastor is held to a higher standard. So if a child of that pastor is involved in a violation of scripture, that would cause him to not be above reproach, such as, I don't know, allowing their children to marry divorced people. And just throw it out there. You're disqualified. You're disqualified, you're not a wicked person, you're a wicked person if you feel like you're not disqualified and you don't step down. Look, the argument should not be, is divorce appropriate? No, divorce is wicked, period. And all of God's people said, amen. But the pastor should be held to a higher standard and the pastor's children should be held to a higher standard in that regard as well. OK, and he said, well, what if nothing's being done? Then that person needs to step down because they just shown themselves to not be a good leader. OK, you say, well, you know, are you thinking about anybody in particular? I am thinking about someone in particular. Of course I am. You think I'm just like making up an imaginary character or something? You know, and I want to be careful because I want to be careful. OK, but the fact is, is that these same people want to attack people from our church. They want to they want to strain it and that and swallow a camel. You know, they want to talk about the moat in their eye, but they're not taking care of the beam that's in theirs. They want to get on the moats that's non-existent. They want to make up a moat in the eye of our members. And they're not even taking care of the beam that's in theirs. You know, they're like, they're like this, judging people who have moats, don't even have moats in their eyes. You know, that's wicked. And typically people who want, who have a stinking beam in their eye, trying to remove the moat out of another person's eye, they know what they're doing is wicked. So what they're doing is they're trying to get the attention from off themselves because it's so wicked. And you're like, oh, that's just your opinion. No, people from that church know that it's wicked. People in that church don't agree with that. The people in that church are against what's taking place. But that person is just front and center with the stinking beam in their eye. They're just, give me a piece of wood. I was going to go for the guitar, but I don't want to break it. You know, they're just judging everyone else while they got a beam in their eye. You know, they want to get on the moat of the church members in our church for no reason. And they're just, and everyone knows of the beam. Beams so big, people have to duck when they walk by. You're exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating. I'm talking about things that are commonly reported. This is commonly reported even from the children in the church. And let me just make something very clear. We don't advocate divorce at all. I don't care how screwed up your situation is. Never permissible. Never. Permissible. Okay, look, oh, you're just not sensitive to that. What about people who've gotten divorced? I got people in my church who've been divorced and guess what? They're probably the loudest ameners when I say stuff like that. They're backing me up. You know why? Because they understand how much it can destroy the next generation's life. And you know what? If you didn't want that sin to take place in your church, you probably should have preached on it a little harder. Well, they do preach on it. Obviously not hard enough. You got to put your foot down on that thing so it doesn't spread. We're against divorce, period. We're against divorce and remarriage. You understand that? And look, if you've been a part of that, I don't hate you. I don't think you're a wicked person. If you're a weak and you were involved in that, that's on you. We love you. But guess what? You're going to have to put up with years and decades of preaching against it because we're not for it. I love my children's lives. I want my son. I want my daughter. I want my children to stay with one person for the rest of their life. Divorce can destroy a person's life. Okay. So when the leadership permits it, tolerates it, and then that person who's involved in it, it's criticizing people from our church. Oh, I can't believe you go to a church. Have you come to your senses? How, how, how wrong he is on the Jews? Stupid. Just garbage. What is it? The beam? No, I'm sorry. I haven't regarded that because I can't get over the fact that you have a beam in your eye. You know, I can't look past the beam. You're being, you're being judgmental. Yeah, you better believe I am. You know, and again, the reason I'm being careful is because, you know, there's people there that I love and they have to put up with stuff like that for different reasons outside of their control, outside of my control, they have to be there with that garbage. Okay. But at the end of the day, you know, don't try to judge our people in our church who are godly, God-fearing people who are doing right. They're sowing, they're reading their Bibles, they're trying to live for the Lord, they're faithful to church. Let me get that, let me get that mode out of your eye. When you got two beams, you're just like, you're, you're beaming it. You're beaming it. You know, you got bigger fish to fry. Why don't you take, why don't you consider first the sin that you're allowing into your life that everyone knows about, not just faithful or Baptist church. This is commonly reported, people have already called me, I know about these things, if I know about it, this is, or you're gossiping. The children are coming to that person saying that they're involved in sin. This is, I'm probably like the last one to learn about it. Don't give me that garbage. So what's the principle, the principle there is this, hey, don't be walking around with a beam in your eye, condemning those with motes. Or making up motes that are not even existent, whereas the beam is as clear as day. Okay, go to Matthew 23, we're done. No, go to, go to Ephesians five, I gotta, I gotta skip a lot here. Glad I got that off my chest. Hey, how about judging the mode in marriage? All right, we gotta switch gears now. Okay, judging the mode in marriage, what am I talking about? You know, what I mean by judging the mode in marriage is, you know, don't judge your spouse over the little, little things that you don't agree with, the little things that you don't like about your spouse. Now, those who are dating right now, those who are courting, you know, right now, you don't think there's anything wrong with your spouse. Every, they're just perfect. You're just like, man, I can't think of anything that's wrong. Well, you know, then you get married though, and I'm not saying like, you know, it's just terrible. No, but you know, it's reality. Amen. It's a man and a woman. They're different, like vastly different. Okay. And you live together, and then you start finding out things, and it's just like, man, there's things that you disagree with your spouse on. But you know what, don't be this person who just strains and enacts, swallows a camel with your spouse. You know, I don't like that my husband does this. Is it a moat? You know, you know, what if, what if the moat, what if the eye and the person who that eye belongs to is not even there anymore? Then that moat wouldn't really, you wouldn't even care about that moat anymore. What if the person who, who has that moat in their eye doesn't even, it dies tomorrow. At that point, it wouldn't matter. You know, we need to make sure that we're not just stressing or nagging our spouses over the moats in their eye. You know, there's something called love, and love is unseemly. Love is long suffering. Okay. You know, it vonteth not itself, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13. What is it saying? What it's telling us is, hey, you need to overlook something sometimes in marriage. Oh, but I want this person to be just like this. Well, you're not going to get it. So you might as well appreciate them for who they are. Right? You married them like that. So, you know, don't try to change that person unless, unless they're, unless they want to be changed. They say, hey, I need your assistance in this area of change. Help me then assist them. You know, I'll give you an example of this. Okay. In my personal life, so we can relate a little bit. Okay. You know, I remember when I first got married, you know, I was, I was sort of a vegetable eater before. You know, I ate vegetables, like potatoes and potatoes are vegetables, right? I'm just kidding. My wife and her family, they're like vegetable eaters, like crazy. And I remember when we first got married, you know, I came home and I was hungry. And she's like, I can't cook. I'm like, why not? She's like, we don't have any food. I'm like, we don't? Like, what do we have in the fridge? She's like, chicken and rice. I'm like, that's food. She's like, but I can't just make that. I'm like, why not? She's like, cause I don't have any vegetables. I'm like, we're missing something here. What's the problem? I see zero problems here. And, and I'm not, I'm not kidding you. My wife was dead serious about this. Her, her family did not eat food like chicken and rice or whatever. If there was no vegetables involved. And I was just like perplexed. I was like, just heat up the chicken and the rice. I'm good with that. You know, but then I learned, I learned that from my wife, but you know what? That kind of like annoyed me in the beginning. Like just make the chicken. I'll eat the chicken just by itself. Just give me the chicken. If that's all there is, you know, I'm a meat kind of guy, you know? But you know, I learned the importance of eating vegetables though. So you can, I could have either allowed that to just bother me for years on end. Or just add that to my repertoire of being healthy, eating right. You know, all my meals now come with vegetables. Hey, I don't complain one bit about it. Look, if you don't like eating your vegetables, this is what you do. Do what I did. Okay. I'm going to give you a tip. You eat the vegetables first. And I'm not joking. That's how I eat it. When my wife gives me spinach, I said, don't put anything on it. I don't want dressing on the spinach. I don't want anything on the spinach. I want it like leaves and I'll eat it first. I'll just eat it like a rabbit. And then I can enjoy the rest of my food. Hey, you laugh, but you know what? I eat my vegetables. Amen. With chicken and rice and all the good stuff. Okay. But here, what I'm, this is an illustration to say, you know what? Why don't you look at that so-called moat in your spouse's eye and maybe see it as a benefit to something to help you to add virtue to your life. Because more than likely, it's not a moat. It's just something you're not accustomed to. Okay. And if you're not accustomed to that, you know, there's a reason why God has placed that person in your life. They have a certain virtue that's lacking in your life. And you can add that instead of claiming it to be a moat. Okay. So, you know, we went all over the place. I want to have you turn to Ephesians 533. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Okay. And with that being said, wives, don't, you know, make sure you do not look if you want. No, we're way out of time. Okay. This is already going into a different realm of a sermon that we're going to hit on later on. You know, don't judge the moat in your spouse's eye because more than likely it's not a moat. It's just something that's going to add virtue to your personal life that will help you become a better Christian. So what's the sermon today? The sermon is this, hey, we need to learn how to judge. Judgment is very much important. Paul said, hey, I pray that you grow in knowledge and in all judgment. Okay. To be able to make wise biblical decisions, to discern, to have wisdom, to become successful in our lighter end. Amen. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word that judges us every time we read it, the perfect law of liberty. And I pray, God, that you'd help us to grow in wisdom, not to resist the truth, but to grow in wisdom and understand, Lord, that the Bible is filled with wisdom and guidelines that can help us to make decisions in the future. Help us not to resist the authorities in our lives if they have biblical wisdom, if they're making biblical judgments. And I pray, God, that you'd help us to do so. Lord, we love you so much. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.