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

I want to first look at verse number 19 where the Bible read, Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? The people answered and said, Thou hast the devil, who goeth about to kill thee? So you see Jesus, he's rebuking them saying they don't keep the law. He's saying, you're wanting to kill me. And they're like, we're not going about to kill you. But if you go back to verse one, look at what it says at the beginning of this chapter. It says, After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. It was obvious that they were seeking to kill him. And you say, what does it mean there he would not walk in Jewry? That just means he's not walking where the Jews reside, where the Jews live. To be in Jewry would be like to live in Jerusalem or in parts of Judea where the Jews are residing. Not to be in Samaria or Galilee or these other places. Many times Jesus would not go into Jerusalem or Judea, because he did not want to be killed when it wasn't his time to be slain. The Bible says many times that Jesus Christ had a specific timing that he was going to die, and it was not his time yet. People would not lay hands on him because it was not his time. Or we see Jesus wouldn't go to certain events or situations, because he did not want to be killed prematurely. Let's go back to verse 21. So we see he's rebuking them because he says, y'all don't keep the law. And he's like, y'all are trying to kill me. Look at verse 21, Jesus answered and said to them, I have done one work and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers. And ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken. Are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. And the title of my sermon this evening is Judge Righteous Judgment. Now to get the context of what's happening here, is they want to kill Jesus, why? Because he healed a man on the Sabbath. That's the accusation that they're bringing up against him. They're saying he worked on the Sabbath. But Jesus is saying, look, you don't even understand the law. None of you even do the law. And what y'all will do is you will perform circumcision on the Sabbath so that a man could be whole, so that a man could be right. And you say that that's not a work, that that's not violating the law, but me healing a man on the Sabbath is a work that's gonna constitute me violating the law. Now the Bible makes it clear when it talks about the Sabbath, and I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail about the Sabbath, but it says in the Sabbath that we're not doing any servile work. Meaning what? I'm not gonna open up my business and make all of my servants work on the Sabbath. I'm not gonna force them to do labor. We see Jesus Christ would say, hey, if your neighbor's ox or ass fall in a ditch on the Sabbath day, would you not lift him out? It's not like you're premeditating to do any work on the day, and the service that you're doing is to help somebody. What would you be doing to circumcise? You're helping this guy. What would you do to heal somebody? You're helping somebody. And he's saying, look, y'all don't even understand the law. According to you, according to the appearance, by me healing somebody, it looks like to you I broke, violated the law. But if they knew the law, if they judged righteous judgment based on what the Bible says, they would know that it was not wrong to heal on the Sabbath day. Jesus Christ even asked this question at one point in the Gospel. He says, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? And he looks around and nobody says anything. And he gets angry at them. He's saying, are you kidding me? I made the Sabbath so you wouldn't force your servant to go out and work in the field all day every single day of the week, so he could get a rest. But you really think that I made the Sabbath so that you wouldn't help somebody, so that you wouldn't heal a guy on the Sabbath day? He said, look, the Sabbath's not made for man. I mean, the man's not made for Sabbath, but the Sabbath is made for the man. Look, Sabbath was to be a blessing unto people, was to be a rest, but they made it this grievous burden to be born. These people, hey, you can't even lift a finger, no healing on the Sabbath, that's just a violation. These guys don't understand the Bible. They don't know what the Bible says. And we see a lot of people, when they don't know what the Bible says, they get really mixed up on judgment. They really hate judgment, at least they think that they do. They don't actually hate judgment, but they just hate judging righteous judgment, though. What would be a righteous judgment? Righteous judgment is when you take the Bible and you let it judge the situation. You let it judge people. You let it judge yourself. You let it judge all the situations. It's not what you think. It's not what you think it looks like. Because another way to say judge not according to the parents would be what you perceive, what you think the situation is, what you think is right or wrong. It doesn't matter if you think what happened was right or wrong. It only matters what the Bible said. Now, some people will just completely ruin this verse. And there's basically two ways that you can just ruin this verse. The first mistake would say, well, that's saying you should never judge. You just don't do any judging. We should never judge anybody. We should never make any kind of judgments. Well, this is a foolish decision, because judgment, another way to word judgment, would be decision. To use common sense is another synonym with the word judgment. Now, do you really think that Jesus Christ is saying here, don't make decisions. Don't use common sense. That doesn't even make any kind of, that in itself doesn't make any sense. The Bible is clear that, look, we're supposed to judge righteous judgment. And when it says judge not according to the parents, here's the second mistake people will make. This is a very common one, is they will say, well, you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover. You're not supposed to make judgments based on the things, the way they look. The way people look, or the way things would have a physical outward appearance. But that's false, and I'm gonna prove that with lots of Bible verses, that there's plenty of places in the Bible where it says we should make judgments based on the way things look. The Bible says to abstain from all appearance of evil. How in the world can you do that if you don't judge whether or not something looks good or not? You have to make a judgment verse to decide if it looks good or looks evil for you to determine if I'm gonna abstain from it. I'm gonna stay away. But the world today, they love judgment. That's just proven by reality TV shows. That's just proven by American Idol. You know what people love? They love to watch these shows where people will go and they'll compete, and then they have these judges that sit, and they critique the performers. American Idol became one of the most popular TV shows. You know why? Because they had these judges that would say these mean, horrible things about the contestants, and everybody loved it. They thought it was great. Someone would get up and they'd be tone deaf. I mean, they can't even sing, and they're just making a fool of themselves. And this one judge in particular, Simon Cowell, this guy became so popular, nobody even heard of this guy, but he became so popular, why? Because he just told very harsh, truthful things about these people. When they would get up, he wouldn't sugar coat it and say, well, that's a face only a mother could love. You know, he's just telling them wrong. You are terrible at singing, you're awful, you should get another job, and you know what? People love that. People love the raw truth. But somehow there's a disconnect when you use the Bible as your source of authority. When you open up the Bible and you say, hey, this is what God said, this is what Jesus thinks, then everybody starts freaking out. They start, we're not supposed to judge, judge not. No, don't judge according to the parents. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we're supposed to judge righteous judgments. And you know what? We shouldn't take pleasure in what Simon Cowell thinks. Who cares what Simon Cowell thinks? I only care what the Bible thinks. What is the Bible's judgments? Go if you would to Genesis chapter four. Now my first point to prove that it's not about appearance is the fact that the Bible gives us a lot of judgments based on the countenance of a person. Now you say, what's a countenance? A countenance is basically your facial expressions. It's what goes on on the face. And the Bible has a lot to say about a person based on their face. You might not even realize how many verses in the Bible talk about this. But look at Genesis 4, verse 4. And Abel, he also brought of the first things of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain and to his offering, he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth. And his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. We see after the first murder in the Bible, God can discern what's happened just by his face. He can look at Cain and already, hey, this guy's done something wrong. And you know what? There's a lot of ways that you can judge somebody. But one of the ways you can judge people is by the countenance of their face. You can discern, hey, is this person lying to me? Is this person telling me the truth? Is this person a joyful person? Is this person an angry person? We can judge all kinds of things just based on a person's face. Now go, if you would, to Psalms chapter 10. You say, well, that's just a story. That's just, you know, God saying he could discern it. But look, the Bible gives us other ways that we can look at a person just based on their face and make the judgments about them. It says in Matthew 6 verse 16, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. So according to the Bible, if you were too fast, you should not going around loping about it on your face. You should not be going around just, oh, I haven't had any food today. You know, I feel really bad. You know, getting pity on, having people try to pity you. Oh, you're so righteous. Oh, you're so great. You suffer for Christ, don't you? Oh, you're skipping that meal. No, the Bible says don't go around in a sad countenance. If you're fasting, why don't you put a smile on your face and just praise the Lord Jesus Christ and don't get any accolades of men. You don't want to get praise of men, because guess what, if you do, you don't have any reward according to the Bible. So just by someone's countenance on their face, you could lose your reward. And you know, we can judge certain people based on how they present their face. We see a lot of times the most wicked people, they're really good actors. You know, have you ever noticed this? I mean, most of the sodomites, well, they're an only one. And you know what, they're all actors. They love to transfigure their face and get all these emotions. You know what, because it's a game to them. They don't even have emotions. They're usually these just psychopathic type of people that have no real emotion, and they can just put on whatever face they want to, and they use it to manipulate people. And even if they're not an actor, people will use their face and their countenance to manipulate you. And you need to take what the Bible says about the countenance of the face and make righteous judgments, and say, look, this person is always just giving a sad face. They're always trying to get attention on themselves. There's probably something wrong there. Maybe I should avoid that person. Maybe I should rebuke that person even in a case. But look, we can make judgments based on a person's face. Look at Psalms where I had you turn. Look at verse number four. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Go to Proverbs chapter six now. So the Bible says, look, you can tell someone's pride just by their face. You can look at a person's face, and see, this is a prideful person. And you know what? We should not be hanging around with prideful people. With people that think they're so great, they're so puffed up, they just love themselves. We see all the celebrities and the Hollywood stars and all the musicians, what do they do? They have to have these cool, oh yeah. All the football players, all the basketball players, they're like, yeah, I'm so tough, yeah. I mean, look, they're prideful people. You can tell just by the look on their face. All the person doesn't just go around just standing around like, yeah, I'm cool. No, it's offensive, you don't even like it. But you know, kids today, they'll put it on their wall and just stare at it. They'll just stare at that prideful look. You know what it does? It causes them to want to imitate them. It causes them to want to have that type of a face, that type of a mimicry. Psalms 101 verse five says, whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off, and him that hath an high look, and a proud heart will I not suffer. You know, David said, look, the guy that has a high look, I'm not gonna let this guy be around me at all. I'm not gonna suffer him for a second. Get out, you got a prideful look, get out. He's looking at his face, that's what he's looking at. Look at Proverbs chapter six verse 16. These six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto them. A proud look, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that abides in wicked imaginations, feet that be swift of running and mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among his brethren. What's the first thing he mentions? A proud look. Just by the look of someone's face, we can see all kinds of things in the Bible. We see a lot of pride, we see the countenance dropping just to get pity, to get attention. We see with Cain's situation, he done something wrong. Maybe you could tell, I mean, you could probably tell when someone's done something wicked, just by their face. Go if you would to Jeremiah three now. It says in Proverbs 21 verse two, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord ponder at the hearts to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. And high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin. The Bible says if you have a proud look on your face, it's a sin. It's not, well, that's just not the best thing to do. No, it's a sin. If you want to have a proud look, if you want to go around showing off your proud countenance, it's a sin according to the Bible. That's a righteous judgment. Not what you think, not what you perceive is right. Not all the stars on the TV getting up and making all their proud looks. That's not what's right. Don't judge according to the appearance. Judge righteous judgment. Look at the Bible. The Bible says a high look is a sin. So wipe it off your face. Put a smile on your face. Be humble. Proverbs 25 verse 23, the Bible says, the north wind driveth away rain, so does an angry countenance of that biting tongue. Now I like this verse because you know what it's saying? It's saying if you're around a bunch of people and they start gossiping, if they start tattletaling and saying all wicked and manner of evil against another brother or they're speaking all kinds of just flattery or just something wicked, just something they shouldn't be saying, you should be having a scowl on your face toward that person. The Bible's saying when you're around people that are gossiping, you should be giving them like, what are you doing? Why are you, that's gross. Just from your face. And you know what? When someone's giving you some gossip and you're giving them a dirty look, they're gonna stop real quick. They're gonna be like, this guy doesn't really wanna listen. Don't go tell him. He gives you a dirty look when you try and give him some gossip. And the Bible says, look, it's gonna drive back that backbiting tongue. Gossip is wicked. Gossip is evil. And if you wanna combat it, combat it with your face. We see not as a face is always bad. A face can be used for good. A face can put delight on a person. When you smile, it makes other people wanna smile. And you know what? When you put on a scowl, when you put on that reproof with your face, it can cause wickedness and sin and strife to cease. But look at Jeremiah three. Here's a bad example. Look at verse three. Therefore the showers have been withholding and there has been no latter rain and thou has a whore's forehead. Thou refuses to be ashamed. The Bible says that a person can get so hardened in their heart, so they just have so much sin that's just, you know, basically stop them from having any shame. They can't even have any shame. Their conscience is seared with a hot iron. And we see it likens a whore's forehead to these people. Saying what? Even though a whore can walk around naked, even though a whore can do all kinds of filthy acts, she's not even ashamed. Her face doesn't even show that she's ashamed. A normal person, if they were to just stand up here in their underwear in front of everybody, would probably start to blush, would probably get really embarrassed, would be really ashamed. But the Bible's saying, look, the whore, the whore can just stand naked in front of all kinds of people with no shame, with no facial expression. You see a person that commits wicked sin that's just lying and gossiping and stealing and doing a lot of manner of wickedness and their face is just like a stone? It's just like they're dead inside? That's a wicked person. That's a person that's been sinning a lot, that's had a lot of practice at what they've been doing. They deaden themselves to their sin like a whore. Now go if you would to Judges chapter seven. Now I skipped a lot of verses. There is so many verses in the Bible that talk about just the countenance of the face. So we already see just from one point, the Bible's not saying, when it says judge not after the appearance, it's not talking about just a physical appearance. It's not saying you can't judge a book by its cover. That might be a cool little adage, but it's not biblical. It's not what the Bible's trying to teach here. The Bible's saying, look, there's a lot of ways that you can judge somebody by their physical appearance. Now this isn't to discount the fact that just because someone might appear sinful or might appear to have done things wrong or something you don't like, doesn't mean they're just a wicked person. I'm not saying that just because someone has tattoos or had lived a hard life or done something wrong, you see a weird situation, that that's just always an excuse for you to be mean to the person and to be rude. Look, we're supposed to love every single person. We're supposed to always be forgiving. But we need to make sure that we're abstaining from all appearance of evil. And we use the Bible to determine if something is righteous or wicked. Just because you might see a person that's dressed a little different than you and wearing a lot of tattoos, that might make you and your heart be a little queasy. You might think, oh, I don't like that. But is that really, I mean, is the Bible saying like, look, don't go around that person? What if they have a smile on their face? But you see the guy that's clean cut and he's got a lot of money that looks nice, but he's got a proud look on his face. Stay away from that person. We can use physical appearance. We can use the countenance of the face to make righteous judgments about people, people you should stay away from, people that you should have nothing to do with. My second point, though, is you can tell a lot about a person just by their body language. Not just their face, but even the language of their body. You can do a lot of communication without ever saying anything, without ever removing your face. Just by your body language, you can tell a lot about a person or say a lot of things. In Proverbs 29, verse one, the Bible says, he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. The Bible's saying, look, people can also not even have a proud look, they can have a proud neck. They can just, they can stiffen up. You know, you're telling somebody they did something wrong on the job, and a normal person, a lot of times, will have a kind of countenance where they kinda, they hang down low or they're kinda, they're ashamed or they're looking down. But you know, the person that's prideful in their heart when you're approving them, what'd you say about me? What, did you just call me a name? What's going on? They stiffen up, they get all upright, they stiffen their neck. You saying that about my mama? Come on, buddy, let's go! We seem by the body language, you can tell a lot about a person. But you know, when someone's being reproved and they did wrong, a lot of times they'll kinda be like, yeah, I'm sorry, yeah, you know. I'm not saying you have to do this, I'm just saying you can tell this about people and just by their body language, you can get a good idea, is this person being humble or are they being proud? And a proud person will harden his neck. He will make, oh, what'd you say about me? Says in Deuteronomy 31, 27, for I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck. Behold, why I am yet alive with you this day. Ye have been rebellious against the Lord and how much more after my death. Bible likens the children of Israel a lot of times having a stiff neck, is having this hardened neck, why? They just can't be reproved. They can't be told wrong. They just think they're right. They love that they have so much pride in their heart. You see, just by your body language though, God can tell a lot about what's in your heart. You know, the person that has a righteous heart is not gonna be stiffening their neck and hardening their neck constantly. Look at Judges 7, verse four. And the Lord said unto Gideon, the people are yet too many. Bring them down into the water and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. And whosoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people into the water and the Lord said unto Gideon, everyone that lapeth of the water with his tongue as a dog lapeth, him shall thou set by himself. Likewise, everyone that bowed down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lap, putting their hand to their mouth were 300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, by the 300 men that lapped, will I save you and deliver the Midianites into mine hand and let all the other people go, every man unto his place. Now this story is kind of interesting. It always perplex me. But I believe the right way to interpret this passage is if you understand the story, at first they have a whole multitude of people that are gonna go with Gideon to win this battle. And the Lord says, look, you have too many people with you. Even though you're really outnumbered, even though they've got like almost a million soldiers, he's like, if y'all win, you might think it was by your might. You might think that because y'all have enough people and enough soldiers, so you need to send back some people. So they send some people back, but there's still too many. So he's like, all right, let's do another division. By the guys that go and lap water like a dog, those are the people that you're gonna get saved with. What is he saying? He's basically saying, look, the least of the people, the people that lap like a dog, a dog, one of the most filthy, you know, most worthless animals in the Bible, I'm gonna save you by. That's basically what he's trying to make this connotation. He's saying by their body language. These guys, they're just like lapping like a dog. They're not civilized. They're not mighty men. They're just like beasts. He's not gonna save you by them. But you see, God uses humble people that don't really care about all this stuff. He's gonna use the 300 men that lap like a dog and he's gonna save them by their hands. So God gets all the glory. God gets all the might. You even see the mighty men that come unto David, talks about them being like some of the basest men, just being, you know, men that were in trouble, men that were, you know, they're not mighty in the flesh. They're not mighty in man's eyes. They're some of the lowest of the people. But they come unto David, they become the mightiest soldiers. They become men that slay 800 and 300. And when it talks about him, the one guy cleaving unto his sword and slaying 300, he says the Lord brought a great victory that day. Look, God wants to use some of the weakest people so that he gets the glory, he gets the honor, he gets the praise. But we see just by body language, God determined to use these men, didn't he? He said just by how they lapped, that's how I'm gonna use them. Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter number six now. Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible says in verse 11, Now no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceful fruit of the righteousness unto them, which are exercised thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. The Bible says, look, don't go around moping all the time. Don't go around of a sad, you know, body language. You know, lift up your hands. The Bible talks about, you know, holy men lifting up their hands unto the Lord and praying. The Bible makes it clear, hey, you shouldn't just be walking around moping, having your feeble knees. Look, we need to be on the right. We need to be walking with strength. We need to be walking as men. We need to be walking as those that have joy. We need to not be going around moping all the time. You're not gonna get anywhere with having a bad attitude, having a pity party. You know, when you have a pity party, nobody feels sorry for you. Look, just get over it, and then you can move on with your life. When I was younger, I would a lot of times get picked on by my older brother or sister, and I would think it was so, you know, they were so mean and rude to me. So I'd just go hide. I'd go hide and I would cry. You'd feel all bad for myself and sad. While everybody else is laughing and playing a game and enjoying themselves. Look, they weren't sitting at the table like, we can't have a good time because John's not here. We can't enjoy food because John's not in here. No, they're like, look at that brat over there crying. You know, feeling bad for himself. That's how people feel when you have a pity party. They don't, oh, we feel so bad. No, they're just gonna move on with their life. You need to move on with your life too. Have a positive attitude. Have strong body language. Be a man. First Kings chapter two, verse two of the Bible says, I go the way of all the earth. Be thou strong therefore and show thyself a man. David gave instruction in the Psalm and look, you should show yourself a man. I know you're young, but you are gonna lead one of the greatest nations on the earth and you need to be a man when you go out. Don't go out weak. Don't go out hanging down your hands. No, the king was supposed to go out before the people and come in after the people. He's supposed to be a strong leader. He's supposed to show himself a man. But look at first Corinthians chapter six, verse nine. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. The Bible says it is a sin for a man to act like a woman, to act like a girly man, to act like this little feminine fancy fairy just walking around prancing, wearing women's clothes, acting like a fag hag or whatever. The Bible says that's a sin. And he said, look, by your body language, you could be sinning. A man should act like a man. Why don't you show yourself like a man? Don't have a pity party, but even more so than that, don't act like one of these homosexual sodomites. Don't even look like them. Don't even act like them. And you know what, it's a sin to have the same body language that they do, to go around hanging your hand down and having their stupid voice and doing all their junk and their filth. You know what, people often mimic this stuff because they constantly flood it in their eyeballs. They're constantly watching it on TV. They're watching all kinds of movies and shows where all the men aren't like men. They're effeminate. They act like fags and they go around and guess what? Then people start dressing like them. They start acting like them. They start picking up their mannerisms. Have you ever been around a dad and a son and they have the same mannerisms? It's so weird, just the way they sit, just the way they talk, just the way they hold themselves or they hold their Bible or they do things. It's an interesting phenomenon that a lot of times you'll see a father and a son will have all the same type of mannerisms, just the way they hold themselves, maybe the way they shuck their shoulders, the way they wear their shirt. I mean, monkey see monkey do is a real thing. And you know what, if you're looking at a bunch of effeminate faggots, you'll probably pick up a lot of their characteristics. You pick up a lot of their mannerisms. Why don't you show yourself a man? Why don't you get around a man and let him show you how you should act, how you should hold yourself, how you can do a kind of body language that you should have. You know, the police, they have all kinds of charts that they train their police officers in and just by body language, they make all kinds of determinations and decisions and judgments. Oh, but that's wrong. We should never judge according to appearance. I mean, they judge people based on all kinds of stuff. They say, if you're turning away from somebody, it's because you're usually a little bit deceptive. You have something that you kind of have to hide. They'll say, when you're not looking at a person directly, you're kind of looking down or you're shifting, you know, it's also, you're kind of hiding something. If you're looking somebody right in the face, right in the eyes, you don't have anything to hide most of the time. Just by your body language, detectives and law enforcement can tell a lot about a situation very quickly. And they use these methods. And if you study the Bible, we'll see by your body language, by just the countenance of your face, a lot of decisions are made. A lot of righteous judgments are made. Now go, if you would, to Romans chapter three. We can talk about these two points in a lot more detail, but as making a clear look, judging according to a physical appearance is a righteous thing if it comes from the Bible. If it's what God is saying, God is giving us all kinds of ways that based on our body language, our countenance, that we should behave ourselves, how we should act, how we should judge certain situations. It says in Acts chapter 17, my third point, verse 11, it says, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word of all readiness of mind in search of scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Another way that you can do a righteous judgment is by a person's words. Now those that were at Berea were more noble because why? Because they searched whether or not the preacher, what he said, was right. They judged what he said if it was right based on the Bible. They were ready to hear, they wanted to hear the preaching, but they didn't just believe it because he said it. Nope, they went back and they opened up their Bible and they said, is what he said right? Let me see if there's other verses. Let me read that in context. Let me make sure that what he just taught me is biblical. I don't wanna just base my life on what a man told me. I wanna base it on clear scripture from the Bible that the Holy Ghost has showed me as well. And you know what, that's a righteous judgment. That's a righteous way to live your life. And you know what, you can judge that preacher on what he said if he was lighting up with the Bible. If every time you go to the Bible and every time what he said is exactly what the Bible's saying and it keeps lining up, hey, this guy might be a true prophet of God. This guy might be a righteous preacher. But if everything he says is always out of context, it never really fits right, it doesn't make any sense every time you open the scripture that says something opposite of what he said, hey, you better be aware of that guy. You better be afraid of that guy. You should probably stop listening to that guy immediately. Now that's not to say that if you were to really study and hone in on every single word of a pastor that you wouldn't find a mistake here and there. You wouldn't find somebody that said something a little bit different or maybe have a little bit different interpretation. But we need to make sure that what we hear from the pulpit, we're going back and verifying it ourselves. There's only one way to know if you're on God's plan, it's the Bible. This is what I constantly tell people when I go out. I say if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. I said in John chapter, first John chapter five verse four it says, beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God. I say there's only one way you can know if someone's a true prophet or doctor. You say, you know how? They never know. I say, it's the Bible. You need to read the Bible yourself. And I say if you don't know what the Bible says, you can easily be led astray. You can just be carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, by cunning craftiness where they lie and wait to deceive you. Look, the Bible says, hey, this is your source of authority, this is your source of truth, and we need to judge men by their words according to what the Bible says. And if you don't do it, you're in a dangerous situation. I actually had a family member of mine, we were kind of arguing about doctrine, arguing about the pre-trib rapture. And my family member said to me, they said, well look, I know that pre-trib is right, because that's what our pastor preaches. And there is no way that he could be wrong. Everything that he says I know is right. That is a horrible, horrible attitude about any man. I don't care how much respect you have for the guy, this should be your final authority, this should be where it lies. Now of course, if a person's, every time you look what they say is always in the Bible, yeah, maybe you should have a lot of respect for that person's opinion, but guess what? This is where your ultimate authority should always rest. Never on man, man can fail you, man can lie to you, man can do wrong, man can speak in the flesh, this can only speak spiritual things unto you. The word of God. I heard you turn to Romans chapter three, look at verse four. God forbid, yay, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. The Bible says, look, you're gonna be justified or not justified in what you say when you're judged. Look, every man's a liar, we better make sure that what we say is right too. Not that we're just judging other people for their words, we better be careful about the words that come out of our mouth, because guess what? People are gonna judge you based on what you say, whether you like it or not. You could just say, you could say till you're blue in the face, I don't judge anybody, but guess what? Everybody else is gonna judge you. Everyone else is gonna always constantly be judging everything that you do and say and act. We need to be careful to make sure that we fix ourselves first before we judge others. That's one of the caveats to judgment, that we should not be willing to quickly judge others when we won't judge ourselves. We need to apply all these things to ourselves. We need to apply the looks of our face to ourselves. We need to apply the body language to ourselves. We need to apply our words to ourselves. Is what we're speaking the truth? Is what we're speaking always right? Is what we say always lining up with the Bible? You know, that'll also help give you a lot of grace towards other people, because when you start realizing, hey, I've said wrong things, I've said stupid things, I've made a lot of mistakes, maybe I can have some grace through this guy when he says a dumb thing or this person. So we don't wanna get too carried away with judging others that we're not making sure to judge ourselves as most important. Go if you would to Psalms chapter 14. Now the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners. Look, by a person's words, you can judge that person and if they're speaking perverse things, get away from them. Don't have anything to do with them. The Bible says a lying tongue hated those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh rule. Look, you don't wanna be around those that are lying to you. You don't wanna be around those that are flattering you. Flattering, according to the Bible, is always bad. And we need to be careful that we're not flattering other people. The Bible says, go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Saying, look, when you hear a fool speaking over and over, get away from that guy. You don't wanna judge this person by what he's saying. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. I don't wanna hang around with that person. I'll preach him the gospel if he wants to listen. But after that, see ya. I don't have anything to do with this fool. Get away from me. I'm gonna judge you by your words. You know, people will criticize soul winning all day long. They'll say, well, doesn't that make you a judge? Aren't you judging whether or not people are saved? I'm like, yeah. But you know what I'm judging based on? Not if they go to church, not if they look like they're a righteous person based on their lifestyle, not based on anything that they do, based on what they say, based on what comes out of their mouth. Because the Bible says in the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and if someone's saved, guess what's gonna come out of their mouth? Salvation. If someone's not saved, you know what's gonna come out? The voice of a stranger. Oh, I'm a good person. Oh, you know, I live a good life. Oh, I go to church. That's not the words of Christ. That person's not saved. You can tell by their words, by what they believe, and that's the only basis I'm gonna use to base it whether or not someone's saved. They're telling you what they believe. Now, somebody might, with feigned words, give the right answer, and you can tell from a few other ways. There's been one time when I was, actually a couple times where I've been sewing, and a sodomite has given me the right answers to salvation. But the interesting thing is, they couldn't say it with a straight face. They couldn't say it with any kind of sincerity in their voice. They're laughing while they're talking. They're mocking while they're laughing. They're saying, it's just belief. It's like Cinderella. How blasphemous and wicked to compare salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ to Cinderella, a story where the mother has their daughters cut off their feet just to get fame and glory, just to get money, just to demar their own body. Then we talk about, you know, turning a pumpkin into a carriage, and turning rats into men. How wicked and blasphemous. You know, God didn't make rats in God's image. He made man in God's image. Then you have a witch casting spells, and you have all this weird stuff. You have, oh, it's resolved if the shoe fits. Isn't that always in coordination with a criminal? Like, if the shoe fits, is someone's done wrong? We see, look, Cinderella's a wicked story, and that's not the gospel. That has nothing to do with the gospel, and the person that likens that onto Jesus Christ, you can tell it's one that mocked. You see, when Locke came unto his sons-in-law, and he's warning them, he seemed as one that mocked. They can't believe it. They could say, they could repeat the right answer, but they don't understand it. They don't perceive it. So we can use other things, but by someone's words, we can tell whether or not they're saved. The Bible makes that very clear. Look at Psalms chapter 14, verse one. The fool has said in his heart, They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. He's saying the person that's saying this is not a good person. You should not be hanging around the person that's saying there's no God. This person is abominable. This person's not doing good. Now look, hopefully that person will get saved. Hopefully this person will pin up their dead works, and they'll believe on Jesus Christ, but I'm not gonna just hang around with a bunch of atheists all day. People that just hate God, want to deny God, want to blaspheme his name constantly. Now go, if you would, to Luke chapter 20. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 12, O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. He says, look, the Pharisees, they can't say anything good. They're a viper. They're wicked. They have wickedness in the heart, and out of their heart cannot become anything good. The Bible says, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. The Bible says, someone preaching another gospel, this shall be accursed. It doesn't say, oh, they're a little off. Oh, it's just a little bit different. Oh, it's okay. You know, the Methodist down the street saying, repent of your sins. That, he's still a Christian. He still loves God. No, let him be accursed. And I'm gonna judge him by his words. No, on the fact, oh, he's, oh, he voted Republican. Oh, he watches Fox News like I do. Oh, he's really nice like I am. No, let him be accursed by his words. We need to judge righteous judgment. Here's another way we can judge people, how they're dressed. Look at Luke 20, chapter verse 46. Beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes and love greetings in the markets and the highest seats in the synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts. He's saying, look, you see a guy dressed in a long robe? Beware of that person. Just based on his clothing, you can make a judgment about a person. You can look at the Catholic today. You can look at the Episcopal priest today and you can say, I need to be aware of this guy because he loves to walk around in a robe. He loves to walk around in this long robe to show how righteous he is when he's wicked on the inside, when he teaches a false gospel, let him be accursed. Another way, Proverbs chapter seven. Go to Proverbs chapter seven, verse 25. I'll read for you verse 10. It says, and behold, there met him a woman with the entire of a harlot and subtle of heart. The Bible says that you are supposed to stay away from women dressed like hookers, dressed like a harlot, dressed like a whore. And we see today, so many women, they wanna go and show off all their body as they go up and down the street. They're dressed in the attire of a harlot. Maybe they're not a harlot. Maybe they're not a hooker. Maybe they don't sell their body for money. But they're in the attire of a harlot. You shouldn't even be looking in their way. You shouldn't be going and hanging out with these people. These people are gonna lead you astray and destroy your life, young men. Young men do not go around the woman dressed like a hooker, dressed like a whore. And unfortunately in America today, everybody's dressed like a hooker. It seems like everybody's dressed like a whore. You go outside and it's like they're all naked. And you know what nakedness is when you don't cover your thighs even. You don't have to just be bare to be naked according to the Bible. Oh, I have a shirt on, I'm not naked. No, if you're covering your thighs, you're naked. And we see there's so many women today, they have a hoarse forehead when they go out and their little short shorts or their miniskirt or their bikini bottom. And they just think, oh, I'm covered. No, you're not. You've got a hoarse forehead though. Apparently you're not ashamed. But you know what, there was a time in their life when they would have been ashamed. When they were 12, when they were 13, when they were 14, if they had gone out in public to dress like that, they would have been like, ooh, I'm kind of nervous. I'm kind of ashamed. But after doing it day after day after day and their friends do it and they go to school and constantly, eventually they become a young woman who has a hoarse forehead who can go dress to however she wants and she's not ashamed. There was this song in like the 60s or 70s, the itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. It's a song all about a lady who'd be ashamed to wear a bikini on the beach. Now today, how many women will go on topless even? They'll go out just completely bare. We see back in the day, if you didn't cover yourself, it was a shame. We shouldn't let culture determine if it's right. We shouldn't judge according to the appearance. Oh, it just seems right. Everybody's doing it. Everybody's doing it. No, we need to judge righteous judgment. But you know what? People hate that kind of judgment. They want Simon Cowell to tell you how bad that guy will sing, but they don't want the Bible to tell you that she's dressed like a whore, she's dressed like a hooker, and you should stay away from her. You should have nothing to do with her. Look at verse 25. Let not thine heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her past, for she hath cast down many wounded. Yay. Many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. This does not sound like a good place to go. And you know what? Young men struggle with this because when a woman will show them attention, they feel like they're special. They think I'm special. This girl's showing interest in me. She likes me. But the thing about these hookers, about these women dressed in the tire of a harlot, is they'll move on to the next guy as soon as they're done with you. As soon as they use you and abuse you, as soon as they take that purity from you, they'll go on to the next guy. It's not about you. They'll go with any guy. They'll do it with any guy. They'll kiss any guy. You're not special, and the woman that will not cover herself and keep herself special under her husband is a woman that has no respect for herself. She will go with any person. She's not looking at you, oh, this guy is my Prince Charming. It's just a guy with a warm body. He's got a heartbeat. I'll go with him. I'll do well manning with him, and they don't even know that she's gonna use and abuse him, and her way is the way to hell. There's so many guys that will ruin and waste their life because of a girl. They'll throw away their entire life because of a woman dressed in the tire of a harlot, and they won't even have anything to do with church. Well, you know, I could go to church. I could live godly, or I could pursue this whore that's sitting in my living room. I could go to the bar and go lie with whores tonight, and go lie with some cheap woman that has no respect for herself, or I could go to church, who I'm gonna go and just chase after the whores. I don't know one I know about God. I don't know one about Jesus. I don't wanna receive the free gift. I'm too afraid of the light, and they'll just chase the whore all the way to hell, and they'll die, and they'll burn and go to hell just because of a woman, and we need men to hear. You need to stay away from a woman dressed in the tire of a harlot. She will destroy your life. She will ruin your life, whether she realizes it or not. The Bible says that it's true, and I believe the Bible. I've seen this. Women have a strong pull over a man, and the Bible says that we're not supposed to give our strength unto women as men. A man, you have the ability to hold your own strength, but if you put yourself in a certain situation with a woman in the tire of a harlot, you can give your strength unto her. We see Samson. He's the typical person of the Bible, the strongest guy. I mean, this guy's so strong. You know who defeats him? A woman. A woman. He gives all of his strength unto Delilah. Why? Women can take all the strength from you if you give it to them. If you go and chase after the whore, we see Samson constantly struggle with whores. He liked to lie with women, and he let that ruin his life. You know, he got his eyes poked out. He ended his life early in suicide. That's not a way to go. And you know, the verse is true. These whoremongers are just as bad. There's all kinds of guys. They just wanna be with a girl one night, move on, and they can ruin women's lives. They can get them knocked up and have a child and move on and have nothing to do with them and just ruin their lives, have nothing to do with them, just give them no support, make them a very undesirable person because guess what? Guys don't go around looking for single women with children to marry. They don't get excited. It's just the truth. A young man is not looking for a woman that's been knocked up and abandoned by some guy. That's not the first person he's looking for to marry. And we see a woman should not devalue herself, should just go sell her body, dress like a harlot, and go ruin her life. And you know what? We need to make righteous judgments on the way that people look. If everybody would shame the person that's dressed like a harlot, guess what? They would change. They'll put on different clothes. That's the whole point of the song. Betsy, Betsy, teeny, we need, be all popular but not with teeny, it's so stupid. But you know what? If everybody had said you look like a whore, when she walked out, maybe she would have went back in and put on a dress, put on something to cover up all of her nakedness, and she wouldn't be the whore that she is today. She wouldn't be this scandalous person with a whore's forehead. You know, we need preaching like this so the young people will make righteous judgments in their life, and they won't ruin their lives. They'll go to James chapter two. We can tell a lot based on a person's physical appearance. We can use the Bible to make righteous judgments based on people's appearance. But what the Bible's warning against is we shouldn't base it off our own perception, our own determination of right and wrong. We need to use the Bible as our compass. The Bible is the light unto our feet that's gonna tell us whether things are right or wrong. One last point is you can judge a person based on their works. James chapter two, verse 18. Yea, a man may say thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believeth that there is one God? Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble, but wilt thou know, O faith man, that faith without works is dead, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Now this church, it couldn't be clearer that salvation is by faith alone. Going to heaven has nothing to do with how you live your life, nothing about how faithful you are to God, nothing about if you clean up your life, or go to church, or do works. I don't judge whether or not someone's going to heaven based on anything they do with their life. If they go to church, I could care less. What do you believe? Where's your faith at? But you know what? There's another way you can be judged, and that's by your works. He's saying, you see then how the by works a man is justified and not by faith only. You're not going to have any pleasure with God if you don't do the works. God will not be pleased with you if you break his commandments, if you don't follow his rules. If I say, you know, have another son, and he breaks all of my rules, that's going to give me zero pleasure. I am not going to be excited that my son is breaking every single one of my rules, never doing what I say. It's going to be a grief unto me. It's going to be a shame unto me. It's going to be just awful. And according to the Bible, once he gets old enough, I would take him out and stone him if that was the law of the land. And you know what? God does no pleasure in a saved Christian who refuses to follow any of his commandments, who just turns his ear away from hearing the law. You know, the Bible talks about in Hebrews chapter 10 about a person, you know, drawing or falling away from the faith or going away from the faith, and he has no pleasure in his soul. The Bible's just saying, look, a person that does not serve God, God has no pleasure in them, okay? You can be saved and going to heaven and God's not pleased with you. God's not happy with you. But was God pleased with Abraham? Yes, he was following God's commandments. And we offered Isaac, his son, upon the altar, one of the greatest works ever done in the Bible. He's now justified to be called God's friend. Is everybody that's saved God's friend? Unfortunately, no. If you follow my commandments, then are you my friends? The Bible says, look, if you wanna be God's friend, if you wanna have a close relationship with God on this earth, if you really wanna get close to God, draw near to God, guess what? You gotta follow the commandments. You gotta do the works. You gotta go to church. You gotta read your Bible. You gotta pray. You gotta go out scolding. You gotta do all these things. If you wanna draw close to God, if you want God to be pleased with you, you have to follow his commandments. And so if we wanna look at a person who really loves God, who's really the person that has a lot of love towards God, it's the person who follows God's commandments. And we can judge a person how much they love God based on their works. You see a guy that's constantly doing right and following God's commandments? Hey, this guy really loves God. I don't care what he looks like. I don't care what his singing voice sounds like. I don't care about any of these other things. Hey, I don't care if he makes a lot of money. I don't care about his wealth. I don't care about all these other stupid ways to judge people. Hey, he's following God's commandments. He must love the Lord a lot. That's how another way we can judge him. Now I ran out of time. I had a whole bunch of other points. I had like seven points of ways not to judge somebody. Okay, I'll just read them for you real quick just to get an idea. Here's bad ways to judge people. Horoscopes. Oh, he's a Leo. Oh, he's a Virgo. He must be a really cool person. This is not biblical as witchcraft. Here's another horrible way. They're past decisions. Just because someone was a fornicator, was a drunk, did steal, you need to forgive that and forgive them. That's not a biblical way to judge somebody unless it was like a qualification of a pastor or something. Birth order. Another way. They'll say, oh, he's the firstborn. He must be really independent and he must be a really cautious and strong person. Reuben was unstable as water and he was the firstborn. Judge somebody on their wealth. Do you not respect a person's when you judge somebody based on their money? Judge somebody based on their health. We see Job's friends, they were not right to judge Job based on his health or judge somebody on where they grew up, where they live, their race. Look, he's made one blood all nations of the earth for men to dwell in, has he not? I don't believe in race. There's no such thing as race except for running a race. But the Bible, you know, the Jews, they would say the Cretans are always liars. Oh, these one group of people, they're just always lying. They're just wicked people in their heart. That's a bad judgment. That's not a righteous judgment. Look, of every nation in the earth, people are gonna be in heaven, according to the Bible. Are you gonna really say, oh, they're just all wicked. They're all bad. No, we need to not judge according to appearance. We need to judge righteous judgment. Not what you think, not what someone else told you is a good way to judge, not what the doctor said, not what school said, not what Trump said, not what the Bible said, not what society says, what the Bible said, not what Simon Cowell said, what the Bible says, not what you said in your heart. Look, your heart could be wicked. It could be deceitful. Judge righteous judgment based on the Bible. And you know what, there's a lot of ways we can judge people on their physical appearance. We need to make sure to first judge ourselves and use righteous judgment. Let's go to the prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word that we can have righteous judgment, that we can know what is right, that we can be led into truth. I just thank you so much for all that you've given us. I pray that we'd use your Bible to make all of our decisions and our judgments and use common sense. In Jesus' name, I pray.