5 Keys to Judging Wisely

Thank you, Mrs. Call. That was quite beautiful.

I'm going to move this back a little bit before I bump into it.

There was some time ago, actually several months, I don't remember exactly, but I needed a new set of tires for my car. I'm sure most of you have been through this. So I visited Chillicothe, and I talked to a technician. He called himself a technician. I remember thinking at the time, this all seems a bit too young to really be an expert on tires. But I knew that I certainly was not an expert on tires. I didn't know what to choose, so we had this discussion about different brands and models and what features they had and what my car needed. Eventually, we chose something that seemed to have the right balance of what I wanted and what I could afford.

Good enough. So then came the waiting, which is what I'm getting to. I'm not speaking about tires today. Which reminds me of it. I thought, boy, I should have done a PowerPoint since it's all set up. I could have a nice image of tire discounters up here while I refer to this.

As I remember, getting to the waiting room was the part that inspired part of the sermon or the introduction. Because they say, well, this won't take too long.

Right. Einstein's theories say that time is relative, and I think there must be some quirk of physics that makes time move much more slowly than ever when you're in a tire shop waiting room.

I brought a book to read, and I worked on it. In fact, I finished the book while I was there. It wasn't a very long or heavy book. And even while I was reading, though, I couldn't help but notice the TV that was on in the waiting room. You know how it is when you're in a place like that. You might try to ignore it, but you can't ignore it entirely.

And there's one thing I noticed that I really had no idea of before.

And that's that there are an awful lot of judge shows on the afternoon.

Despite trying to focus on my book, I first kept in the background hearing Judge Brown, then Judge Judy came on right afterwards.

And what was interesting is there were a lot of commercials for yet more judge shows that I didn't get to experience.

Now, I haven't watched these shows. I saw a little bit of this one.

And apparently, a typical judge show—I'm not sure if I'm using the right term. It was a lot easier to type than to say.

But typically, one of these shows consists of several cases where two people come before the judge, and they've got some disagreement or dispute. And it usually involves one of them saying, well, you did this. And everyone says, no, I didn't do this. You did that.

And from what I saw and heard, in almost every case, both parties are very irresponsible.

And often, neither of them seem all that bright.

The most entertaining part of the show is having the judge tell them exactly that, sometimes in very blunt language.

Judge Brown was really good about that. I found that somewhat entertaining.

And I couldn't help, though, to make a connection in my mind that I had something in common with Judge Judy that day.

I had had to make a decision. I had to make a choice based on limited information.

Now, I don't think anybody's ever going to make a show about people choosing tires.

There's not much entertainment in that, and it only affects that particular person.

But all of us go through cases where we have to make these judgments. We have to make choices every day, and we hope we can make a good decision.

We hope we can choose wisely, or judge wisely.

And that leads to another connection.

I guess in this line of business, it's good to make connections. Sometimes they jump a little further.

But it reminded me of a scene from the third Indiana Jones movie.

I'm guessing everybody's seen Indiana Jones.

If you remember, the third one is when Sean Connery is there. Not as James Bond, but as Indiana Jones' dad.

And they're searching for the Holy Grail.

Sorry, pausing there.

When they finally find what is supposedly the mythical cup that belonged to Jesus.

And as far as I know, there's nothing in the Bible that supports this myth at all.

So when I mention the Holy Grail, I'm not making a theological statement at all.

But in the movie, they talk about these great powers and how it can heal people if they drink out of it. So they're all trying to find it.

And it's funny, they finally locate it in a cave in what looks an awful lot like Petra.

Matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that's where they filmed it.

I don't see people nodding. I don't know how many... Some of you. You've seen the movie.

And of course, they discover that there's a cave there, and it's guarded by one of the Knights Templar, who's been kept alive all these years.

But it's not just one cup in a cave. There's dozens of them.

And he doesn't stop anybody that comes in from choosing and taking a cup.

But they have to make the right decision.

As you see in the movie, one of the bad guys gets there first, and he looks around and he takes the most ornate, jewel-encrusted cup he can, and the Knights look at him and he says, Choose carefully, or choose wisely, and he dips and he drinks, and he dies a horrible death.

And the Knight stoically says, He chose poorly.

Then Indiana Jones comes along, and of course he looks, and being smart, he chooses a very simple cup.

He says, This is the cup of a carpenter, and he saves the day.

And the Knight says, You chose wisely.

Besides just remembering a fun movie, and I've been a big fan of Indiana Jones since I was a kid, I want to talk about this today because I want to focus on the subject of making judgments, of making choices.

We need to judge and to choose wisely.

Now, we're used to thinking about ourselves in preparing to be kings and priests, and even if we're not used to it, come feast time, we're told about it.

And we just focused on that at the Feast of Tabernacles, that after Christ returns and establishes His Kingdom, we're going to have jobs to do. And some of you might feel a little reluctant about that.

I often have. I thought, I don't know about being a king.

But when you see in the Bible that it refers to priests as being a teaching position largely, that's not so bad. I thought, yeah, I can handle being in a teaching position, I hope, since that seems to be what I'm doing a lot of.

But as far as being a king, that sounds a lot less appealing.

But then, you think about, look at the way the government's being run today in this country.

Do you think we would do a worse job? Hopefully not.

Now, I don't mean to put down anyone in government right now.

Last week I spoke in Pressensburg about respecting people and authority, so I don't want to go against what I was just teaching.

But I think God is preparing us now and helping us, you know, getting us ready for that type of thing.

I sometimes wonder, will it be much different than directing a summer camp?

And I think at least in the world tomorrow, I won't be sending people to the emergency room.

I'm looking forward to that. Then we'll have the power to heal.

But we should guess that we're going to be in a position to make judgments among things and among people.

We'll have to learn to make wise choices, to judge wisely when we choose among people.

And I'm making this connection partly because in ancient Israel, rulers and judges were often pretty much the same thing.

Before there were kings, there were judges.

And we get the impression that that's the way God liked having it.

And apparently even a woman can judge, so I'm not speaking to just half of us.

If you'll join me turning to Judges 4, let's look at a case of one of the very first judges. Get an idea of some of what judging consists of.

A lot of it's making choices, decisions among people.

Judges 4 and 4.

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

So she was judging.

And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel, on the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel came to her for judgment.

This is intriguing to me. It seems that the people knew that she had wisdom.

It doesn't say that the government was set up and forced them to go to her if they wanted a decision.

It says people came to her for judgment.

They recognized her wisdom, I would say, and probably recognized her relationship to God.

So they came to her and asked her to make judgments, to make choices for them, or to help them.

It doesn't say that she held any type of civil or political office.

Now it does say, though, that she was a prophetess.

The basic definition of the word prophet, or prophetess, is a person that God uses to communicate with people on earth.

So at some point, God must have given her messages and had her communicate to people.

And that's born out in the next verse.

It says, she sent and called for Barak, the son of a...

I'm tired of this... The son of Abinuam of Kadesh and Naphthalai, and said, Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded? Go, deploy troops to Mount Tabor. Take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphthalai and the sons of Zebulun.

And against you I'll deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude of the River Kishon, and I'll deliver them into your hand.

So I wonder if... Sometimes I wonder, because she was a prophetess, God communicated with her. I wonder if he said, go get Barak and make him the general. By the way, no relation to the current president, just the same name. Or did he say, choose a general and tell him to go do the job?

Doesn't say we don't have a listing of God's words. We know that Barak hesitated at first. He in a sense said, well, I'll go if you go with me. He wanted that security blanket, so to speak, of Deborah going with him. And because of that, he didn't have the honor of capturing Sisera, the enemy commander.

Well, whether it was God's choice or if he delegated that to Deborah, you choose a man. There was victory. So at least in a sense, she chose wisely.

Let's turn to the book of Acts. I want to look at another... It's going to be Acts 7. We'll begin in verse 20.

Reference to another of God's servants who would potentially and eventually be in the position of being a judge.

Now, I'm still looking at an Old Testament character, but I thought it easier to look at the way he's described in Acts 7.

This is the sermon of Stephen who would be martyred, but he gives a lot of good history rather concisely. So we're going to see him discuss Moses and his role of judging. Acts 7 and verse 20.

He had considerable exploits in his first 40 years that he was well educated, did accomplish great things. So he was mighty in words and deeds. But for all that, he still needed to learn a bit more about God's ways and about how God would use him.

But it came to his mind in verse 23 when he was about 40 years old. It came to his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptian.

He supposed his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. Of course, to some extent, Moses didn't understand that he wasn't ready yet.

And the next day, he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, tried to reconcile them, saying, Men, you're a brethren. Why do you wrong one another?

But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, Well, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?

Who made you a ruler and a judge?

Again, we see the connection there. To be a ruler, which we know we're called to be in God's kingdom, not absolute ruler, but a ruler working with Jesus Christ, we need to be able to judge.

Interesting, Moses was pushed away. Those who are doing wrong don't want to judge. They want to be able to do what they're doing.

You could say, on behalf of Israel, he rejected Moses at that time. God would change that later, as we see in verse 35.

This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge, is the one that God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. That angel, of course, was the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

Later on in this message, we're going to read some scriptures describing some of how Moses ruled and judged, especially his judgment. We'll come to that later.

But first, let's consider that, in a number of ways, Moses was a type of Jesus Christ. The Bible bears that up in several places, that he was a type or a symbol of Jesus Christ, and the way some things were done.

And one way that he did so was the fact that, as Moses was appointed by God to be a judge in Israel, Jesus Christ is called to be a judge. You'll turn back a few pages to John 5.

John 5 and verse 22, as I said, I want to establish the idea that we do need to make judgments, that it's part of our calling and it's a natural thing.

But, of course, the ultimate judge is none of us. Jesus Christ is the ultimate judge. For it says here in John 5.22, The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son. And these are the words of Jesus Christ. So, it's not that he was being vain or conceited, he just understood his place. He said, the Father is not judging anyone, he's committed all judgment to the Son. This can be borne out in one more scripture, if you'll turn back to 2 Timothy chapter 4.

2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1.

We'll get some idea of when and how this will happen.

Writing, this is the Apostle Paul writing to Timothy. He says, I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom.

Jesus Christ, as I said, is the ultimate judge. All judgment is committed to him. He'll judge the living and the dead. All who have ever lived will come before the judgment of Jesus Christ, the judgment seat.

And there's coming a time of judgment.

But as we understand, this won't be the scenario that is depicted in so many movies, books, TV. So many people tend to think that, okay, at death, a person's soul comes before that judgment seat. And that the way it's portrayed, of course, judgment will be passed, and either they'll spring up to heaven, whether they'll spend forever, or the trap door opens, and they shoot down and meet a fellow in red pajamas with a pitchfork.

Now, that idea is not totally based on nothing. If you turn to Revelation 20, we'll see a passage of Scripture that gives some hint of that. Now, someone who would read that and say, well, that must be the way it happens, isn't putting it together with other Scriptures that we'll look at. But in Revelation 20 in verse 11, again, we'll note the judgment to come.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. Of course, they'll no longer be dead, they'll be resurrected. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

There's two things, it's important that they're judged by their works and according to the things written in the book.

As I said, on the surface, this seems to match that scenario with the trap door. But the Bible gives its truth here a little, there a little. Matter of fact, it's the book of Isaiah that says, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept.

And then later in the book of Isaiah, I'm not going to turn there, but in the 65th chapter, it describes a period of judgment and indicates that that will probably be about a hundred years. Perhaps exactly a hundred years. That's something, I try not to be dogmatic on things that I can't say for certain, but it describes a period of a hundred years that will occur, and before which, a sinner will not be condemned. And if the sinners' judgments are being, or actions are being judged according to the writings in the books, then he must know what the writings of the books are. That's good. That also ties into some of the teachings of Jesus Christ. I wanted to keep this short, so I wasn't going to turn to all these scriptures, but do you remember when Jesus Christ was speaking to the Pharisees, at one point he said, it's going to be more tolerable for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than for this generation. He said the same thing about Tyre and Sidon. It's going to be more tolerable for them, and he indicated because they didn't have the Son of God right here in front of them. Now, for it to be more tolerable, that doesn't match with standing before the throne and spring to heaven or trap door down to hell. It does match with the idea that there will be a judging period, perhaps of a hundred years.

Because otherwise you'd say, okay, you're from Sodom, you're from Nazareth, more tolerable for you than for you, but you're both going in the fire. No, that doesn't make sense. It must mean during the judgment period you'll be a little more tolerable or understanding of one who didn't have any knowledge of the truth, but they all have to come to that knowledge and understanding to be able to avoid going in the fire. That's a whole other story.

We believe that the people who are resurrected will have opportunity with God's Spirit in them, with full understanding. They'll have opportunity to learn the way of life. They'll have opportunity to repent of all past sins, to be forgiven with their sins covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, and they'll have that period of time during which judgment is happening to develop righteous character. Thus, in Revelation 20, when we see this great white throne judgment, what books will be opened along with the book of life? We believe the books of the Bible. They'll be opened, and people will be able to understand them.

Not only will the books be opened, but people's minds will be opened. And they'll be judged by how they learn the truth, and how willingly they adopt the way of life of peace, of give, as we used to often say. You think that's going to be probably a lot of people doing this at once, all around the world.

Now, I'm not saying that God couldn't monitor and judge all these people Himself, but it does appear that a major reason that we're called now, and not at that time in the future, when it might be more tolerable for us than for other people, we're called now because God wants us to prepare to be a part of His government, to perhaps assist in that judging. Matter of fact, that's not just me making a guess. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 6 and read what it says.

1 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 2. Now, this is getting back to what I said earlier. Our role in God's kingdom as kings and priests will definitely involve judging. However, rather than just looking ahead and saying, one day in the distant future, we'll have to do some judging. The Apostle Paul seems to be saying, well, if that's going to be the case, maybe you better start learning how to do it now. Start practicing. Look at that again. He says, If the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

I could add the word now. If you're unworthy to judge the smallest matters now, maybe you ought to change that. Are we unworthy? Let's get worthy. Hmm. It's funny. I don't think I wrote it that way in my notes. I kind of like that. I might adopt that phrase.

Let's get worthy. Although, now that I say it out loud a couple of times, it doesn't sound so good. I'll find another catchphrase. But let's also remember that important-sounding word, judge. We can't let that intimidate us. And then I said, let's keep in mind the phrase of that knight that confronted Indiana Jones.

Instead of saying, let's judge, we could say, let's choose wisely. We could work on doing that. And the Apostle Paul makes a good point. Before we turn to judging the world, we can start practicing now with the smallest matters. That doesn't sound so intimidating to me.

As I said, judging the world sounds a little scary. I don't know that I'm ready to do that. But judging the smallest matters. Yeah, even Frank can do some of that. So I want to change gears a little bit, having set that stage, and hopefully making a good case for why this matters, and look at some of how to judge wisely. How to make those wise choices. And what I have to go over are five keys to judging wisely.

Now, this is not intended to be a comprehensive list. It could be broken down a number of different ways. This is the way I have it. And I intended mostly for one to lead to the other. So we'll move to a more practical application. And my first point is to judge righteously to not condemn. And actually I want to address not condemning first, because some of you might have already had in your mind, what about Matthew 7 and verse 1?

Well, if you're like me, you didn't have in mind. What about Matthew 7 verse 1 you had in mind? What about that scripture somewhere that somebody, I think it was Jesus, said not to judge? Let's turn there.

It is Matthew 7 and verse 1. Because is this a contradiction? Have I been up here telling you something that's heresy because of what Jesus said? Or do we need to have a proper understanding of what He said and why? Because actually the first verse is very simple. Judge not, that you be not judged. And He continues, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. A lot of people over the years have cited this scripture thinking it means that no one can ever point out that they're doing or thinking something wrong.

Now say, don't you judge me? As a matter of fact, I can't remember what TV show it was, but it was some show where it was some poorly educated people doing something utterly ridiculous. And someone pointed out, don't you judge me? It's like, well, there has to be a point where you have to be able to point out when somebody's doing something wrong. And what He means in the sense of saying not to judge someone, the Greek here does mean not to condemn someone. Not to make what we could call the final judgment or passing judgment. Especially if the judgment you decree would be guilty in the worst degree.

Now the Greek, it's the same Greek word. It can mean condemning as in passing judgment, or it can mean evaluating as in making a judgment. And since the Greek could go either way, which in fact the English could go either way. We could say in English, He judged someone and it means He condemned them in the worst degree, or it could just mean He evaluated someone.

And you need the context to decide which is which. Now we read earlier that Jesus Christ said the Father had committed all judgment to Him. In the sense of condemning, that's exactly right. God is the only one who can do that.

And I'm glad. I do not want to have to do that. I never want to be the one that decides if someone's time is up. You know, if you're going in the fire. But let's not confuse that with never making a judgment or an evaluation. As a matter of fact, if we continue here in Matthew 7, let me start in verse 2. Well, we know, judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you'll be judged. With the measure you use, it'll be measured back to you.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and don't consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me get that speck from your eye? And look, there's a plank in your own eye, hypocrite. First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Now, this is a humorous parable. At least, I think Jesus's sense of humor was coming out in this. He's not saying that it's ever wrong to help someone get a speck out of their eye. Sometimes you need that help because you can't do it yourself. But it's important to note that first, you've got to get your own eye cleaned out. Make sure you can see clearly before you start trying to do that for others. And we might take this to mean that before we think much about how we're going to judge angels or judge the world, we ought to start judging ourselves first. Not necessarily, as I said, the ultimate condemnation. That's God's decision, His judgment. So none of us should look and say, I'm so unworthy, I can't live anymore. I'll never be in God's kingdom. No, don't push yourself over that edge. God will make that decision. But we can evaluate ourselves. We can make a judgment and say, yeah, I'm sure not perfect either. And I need to make changes. That would be a good thing to do. Let's turn to 1 Peter 4. See some comment on that. 1 Peter 4, beginning in verse 17. Because whether or not we like it, we are being judged. As I said, that period of time that's going to exist after Christ returns, that'll be for people that don't know God's way now. But for those who do know God's way now, the time of judgment is now. And that's what it says here. 1 Peter 4 and verse 17. The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. If it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good, as do a faithful creator. So it's saying, we're under judgment now, so let's commit ourselves to doing good, because God is faithful. He's not out to condemn us. That's not what he wants. But knowing that we're being judged now probably will help us to have a greater appreciation for God's mercy. Let's face it, we look in the mirror and we say, Boy, I'm glad the time period's not over yet. There's still time for me to improve and do better. And knowing that, thinking about how merciful God is, how patient he is with us, that should help us to be a little more patient and merciful to others. Knowing how much God has waited and helped us along the way, when we're in the position to help others and make evaluations or judgments of them, we should keep that in mind.

I've had a small taste of that again, thinking to my experience at summer camp. As I became a camp director, I tried to remember that I was once a teenager. And looking back in those years, I did some dumb things. I did some dangerous things. And not to say that that makes it okay. Luckily, I survived and learned better. But when I'm at camp, if I see teenagers doing some dumb or dangerous things, instead of saying, you're being condemned, I'm kicking you out of here, I'm more apt to say, okay Frank, you know what you are like, and I might go and say, look, what you're doing is not cool. Come on, you can do better. As I said, knowing God's mercy and patience with me helps me to be more merciful and patient with others. I don't know if they always realize that. But as I said, that's been one of my favorite phrases. The counselor would just be to say, that's not cool. And sometimes that would be enough. Sometimes you'd have to, because they'll look at you and say, what do you know about cool? You're an old man. Okay, well let me tell you what's not going to be tolerated. Sometimes you take the step up. But as we practice judging, judging the smallest matters and judging ourselves, as I said, we don't condemn. That's only for God. But that doesn't mean that we cannot or should not judge. I was saving this for last. Jesus Christ had some instruction on that in John 7. We saw Matthew 7 indicating maybe we shouldn't judge, but John 7 tells us something a little different. And there's where understanding the different meaning of that word is important. John 7 and verse 24. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Okay, don't judge by appearance, but do judge. Judge with righteous judgment. As I said, my point number one was judge righteously, not condemning. I wanted to address the not condemning first because judging righteously means judging by God's standards. How would God do things? What does His word say? And actually, that leads me into the next point. Because I thought rather than all this summed up here, I want to move on to say some of the things that I think will help us to do that. So my second point is judge by the truth. Truth is vital to making any type of judgment. I think, again, of those tires. You know, I listened to that young fellow telling me about these features, and I had no way of testing. I hope he told me the truth. Actually, the tires have been working fine, so it seems that he did. Let's turn, if you will, back to Exodus 18. I mentioned that we would look at some passages that discussed how Moses acted as a judge. Notice that not only did he do that, but he needed to recruit some help. Which, as I said, if Moses was a type of Jesus Christ, just as Moses recruited some help, we can expect that in his kingdom, Jesus Christ will recruit some help. Not because of his own limitations the way Moses did, but perhaps for our sake. Exodus 18, beginning in verse 13. So it was, on the next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood before Moses, from morning until evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw what he did, all that he did for the people, he said, What's this thing you're doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening? Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God, and when they have a difficulty, they come to me.

And I judge between one and another, and I make known the statutes of God and his laws. Okay, so this is a very important thing. We see Moses did indeed become a judge in Israel. And we read earlier that he was a ruler and a judge, so judging and ruling go together. He didn't judge by his own reasoning, though. He said he made known the statutes and laws of God. He was judging righteously by doing that.

And Moses' father-in-law saw that there was a problem. The problem was not at all in the standard of judgment. If you're going by God's statutes and ordinances, that's good. But Moses was just one man, and a lot of judging needed to be done. So Jethro gave him some advice. If we look down to verse 21, he says, And place such over them to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. And then it will be that every great matter they'll bring to you, but every small matter they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they'll bear the burden with you. That makes sense. You need some help.

And that last part reminds me what we learned from Paul's admonition, that we should start practicing judging now, with the smallest matters. Here he said, you know, okay, the big matters go up to the top to Moses, and if necessary, he'll ask God himself. But he said, you're going to appoint some people who can judge small matters. As Moses said, you're going to judge the world, aren't you fit to judge the smallest matters? But even the smallest matters need to be judged by men of truth.

Or I could say men or women of truth. These are complementary things. Men who fear God will be men of truth. That's the complementary things. Men of truth and men who fear God. And John 17, 17 is where Jesus Christ said that God's word is truth. So if we fear God, we're living by his word, that will make us men of truth. When Moses was making known to Israel the statutes and laws of God, he was making known truth. And he was judging by truth.

I know I'm repeating this a lot, but I like to hammer home some points. We must be men and women of truth. That's how we can judge. That's the standard by which we should judge. By doing so, remember the Psalm that we often sing, Oh, how love I thy law. We'll be loving that law and using that as our standard.

So I said, thinking back to that afternoon that I listened first to Judge Brown, later to Judge Judy making judgments, they largely had to rely on common sense and their discernment of whether they thought a person was telling the truth or not. It's hard to know if a person's telling the truth. That's one of the reasons it's important to begin practicing with ourselves, judging yourself. Because when it comes down to it, you can eventually determine if you're telling the truth or not.

We're good at deceiving ourselves, am I right? I've fooled myself a number of times, but eventually it comes out. To the degree that our thoughts and our actions align with the Word of God, we can judge them to be true and good. And over time, as we do that, we'll be better able to start looking at the thoughts and actions, not the thoughts, but the actions and words of other people. Isaiah 8, verse 20, I'm going to quote this, says, "...to the law and the testimony..." If they speak not according to this Word, it's because there's no light in them. "...the law and the testimony..." The words of this book, someone's not speaking according to that, they're way off.

Now, I suspect I've been telling you things you already know, and most of you have known for years, but it's still worth reminding ourselves. God's Word is truth. We need to make our judgments based on truth. And as we become more and more familiar with God's words and skilled at using it, then we'll become more proficient in discerning good and evil, more proficient at making judgments. I want to turn to Hebrews 5 to remind us of this.

I think I used the Scriptures the last time I spoke here in Portsmouth, but I'm going to use it again today. The nice thing about Scriptures, they don't wear out in the using. Hebrews 5 and verse 12. But my Bible is wearing out in the using. I'm in trouble finding Hebrews 5.

This is focusing on the idea of being coming more proficient. God's Word is truth. We want to practice using it. In verse 12, he says, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, ye need some one to teach you again, the first principles of the oracles, or the Word of God. And ye come to need milk and not solid food. Everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. Notice he doesn't say, you shouldn't partake of milk.

We should continue to review the basics. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Exercise your senses by the use of God's Word to discern good and evil. And do I need to say that discernment is a vital element of judging or choosing wisely? If you have that standard of the truth and then you can discern good and evil, discernment is the key to making a judgment. And that fits perfectly with the idea of practicing. Practice judging the smallest matters. And of course, underneath that all, of course, we're judging by the truth.

Judge by God's Word, by His law. Now I want to turn to a principle that's also very important in making judgments, especially if it involves another person. And that is, my third point, judge words and deeds, not intentions. Judge a person's words and deeds, not intentions. That means the things you can see. Don't make assumptions about what's going on in a person's mind, because you could be wrong.

Now this is a biblical principle, but I've heard it more often from the perspective of those who are counseling or working on conflict resolution. Because it means acknowledging that you can't necessarily know what's going on in another person's mind. You can only know what comes out. Now the Bible tells us that. It says, God knows the heart. It could say only God knows the heart. So we encourage people to evaluate and comment on what a person actually says or does. Now, an example I just made up out of the blue, so this doesn't relate to...

certainly doesn't relate to my wife or any other that I know of. But I could see a woman who's upset with her husband, saying, You never liked my family. You never want my mother to come and visit. And the husband would always say, What? And the counselor would say, No, no. Did he say he didn't like your family, or that he doesn't want your mom to visit? No. He said he had an opportunity to go hunting with a friend in Alaska.

And he's spent the last 12 years with your family at Thanksgiving. So he didn't say he didn't like your family. You interpreted it that way. Or, you said you didn't want my mom to visit. Well, no. What he said was, he had promised to take the kids to see a big 4th of July fireworks display. And he knows your mom doesn't like fireworks.

Do you see there's a difference between judging the words and judging intent or action? Now, you never know. As I said, unless you get the right words, it could be the husband didn't like his wife's parents. And didn't want his mother-in-law to come visit for the 4th of July. But you want to go by what actually happens. And I said, I totally made that up, just to try to make an illustration of how you don't want to jump to presumptions about what someone says or does.

Whenever we evaluate someone else, including ourselves, we want to use God's Word by the standard and then go by actions and words, not supposed intentions. There's a biblical term for what I've been calling words and deeds. The Bible uses the term fruit.

It uses fruit for a number of things, but it uses it very well here. Let's go back to Matthew 7, if you will. Matthew 7 and verse 15. I'm not sure that my fictional account was very good, so instead, let's look at what Jesus says. Probably should have done that first, because he always says things better than me.

Matthew 7 and verse 15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. You'll know them by their fruits, by their words and deeds. He doesn't say you'll know them by their intentions or their thoughts, because we can't see their thoughts. But he says, do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit. And so a good person will have good actions and words. He said a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruits is cut down and thrown in the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you'll know them. So in the example I made up, I was trying to show that we can get into trouble by generalizing from what someone says or does if we mistakenly attribute bad intentions. But we also sometimes can do the other way around. We can not attribute what their intentions or their actions actually say. And I thought there of... And here, I know this is going to sound sexist, but I've only seen it from the guy's side.

I know teenage girls often have a boy that they really like, and, Oh, he loves me! And he'll judge by her presumption or desire for him to love her rather than what he's actually saying and doing. And here's where I say, by the law and the testimony, if they don't speak or do according to this word, there's no light in them.

So the girl might want to believe that this teenage boy really loves her, but if what he's doing is trying to get her to a dark place alone and give her alcohol and put his hands on her, he probably doesn't really love her. He probably has more selfish motives. And as I said, if I were a girl, I could probably put a scenario that goes the other way, because it's not that only teenage boys are bad. So teenage boys, I'm not down on you guys. Just I've never been a teenage girl, so it's hard for me to write that perspective.

Never have been and never will be, I'm pretty sure. Well, I will add, though, given enough time, what's in a person's heart eventually will be able to be discerned because it'll come out in words and deeds. If you'll turn over to Matthew 12, we'll see that. It eventually will come out as things that can be seen.

Matthew 12 and verse 33. Matthew 12, 33 says, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit. Okay, that fits with what I said. Let's drop down to verse 35. Skip the insults. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. A lot of good there. It starts with a good treasure of his heart.

Eventually, good things will come out. An evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. Okay, if the person's got evil thoughts, eventually you'll see evil actions and evil words. I say to you, every idle word men may speak, they'll give account of it in the day of judgment.

Okay, judgment is coming. For by your words, you'll be justified, and by your words, you'll be condemned. In the short term, a person may temporarily hide what's inside. You know, people lie. And sometimes they lie to themselves, as I said. But of course, when a lie is discovered, that itself will go a long way to showing what was in that person's mind and heart. Now, it's bad to only look at the negative. Remember, sometimes a person has good thoughts, but they're not attributed. So look for the words and actions, and eventually you'll see the good. I thought it might be worth going to the classic example of this in 1 Kings chapter 3. The case of Saul, or King Solomon, almost Saul, not Saul, King Solomon having to make a judgment between two people.

And they had different things in their mind and hearts, and of course he devised a wise way to get them to say something that would show them, show him what was going on inside. 1 Kings chapter 3. Now, this is a well-known story, but I thought it worthwhile to revisit it in the light of what we're discussing.

And of course, I'm in the wrong book of Kings. I hear pages turning. Some of you were in 2 Kings 2 all bit. Here we go. 1 Kings chapter 3 and verse 16 says, Now two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him. And one woman said, Oh, my Lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. And then it happened... what? And I gave birth while she was in the house. It happened. The third... oh, okay. The third day when I'd given birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were together. No one was in the house except the two of us in the house. Okay, so they both had newborn babies. And this woman's son died in the night because she laid on him. She rolled over and smothered him. So she rose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom and laid her dead son in my bosom. And I rose in the morning to nurse my son and he was dead. But I examined him. Well, it's not my son whom I'd born. Now the other woman gets to speak. He said, No, the living son is my son. The dead one is your son. The first woman said, No, the dead one is your son and the living one is my son. And thus they spoke to the king. So obviously someone was lying. He couldn't look inside their brains, so he couldn't judge by the fruit of what came out of their mouth immediately. But he devised a scenario to see their words would reveal something. So the king said, Well, one says, My son lives and your son is dead. The other said, No, my son is the dead one. Your son is the dead one and mine is the living. The king said, Well, bring me a sword. So they brought a sword before the king and he said, Well, divide the living child in half and give half to each one.

This brings to mind something that happened to my old employee. When I worked for the humanities council, we actually gave out grants. And a lot of times we'd have more applicants than we had money. And my boss often said, when we would divide, say, Well, they were asking for $5,000. They were asking for $3,000. Why don't we cut the baby in half and give them four and give them two? And I never corrected him, but I wanted to say, You know, Solomon didn't actually cut the baby in half. He said, Let's do it, but only to see how they would react. No babies were harmed in the filming of this parable. But he said that, and then the woman whose son was living. Now, both of the women knew who was lying, but no one on the outside could. But now that this challenge comes up, the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son. He said, Oh, my Lord, give her the living child. By no means kill him. The other one said, Well, no, no, don't let him be mine or yours. Cut him in half. Divide him. The king answered and said, Give the first woman the living child. By no means kill it, for she is his mother. And all Israel heard of the judgment, and they feared and said what wisdom he had. So, it's an interesting thought, but he said, I know I can judge, I can't see their minds, but if I give them the right situation, their words will reveal the truth. That matches what Jesus said. The evil treasure that is in an evil man's heart will eventually come out in fruit. Good treasure of a person's heart will eventually come out in good treasure. So that's funny, as I say that, I'm thinking, I should have made my fifth point the last one. No? No, I'm not going to do that. If I switch points, I'll get... I'm going to say, sometimes it takes waiting to see what will come out. But I want to move on to the next point. My fourth point is, judge or discern the spirit of a thing. Judge the spirit of something. Now, I want to point out that to really do this, only a converted Christian can hope to use God's spirit to do this properly. And when I say that, I don't want to make it sound like having the Holy Spirit gives you magical powers, because we don't believe in magic. But we do acknowledge that having God's Holy Spirit in us makes a difference. It can give us insight that we might not otherwise have. If you will, turn to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3, and we'll read verse 24. 1 John 3 and verse 24 says, Now he who keeps his commandments, that is God's commandments, abides in him, and he in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit which he has given us. So we have God's spirit in us. Let's continue in the next chapter. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And by this you'll know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh is God. Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of an antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now is already in the world.

I wanted to read through this third verse because it helps to explain to us that the key in this is not intended to contradict the previous one. We do need to judge based on words and deeds, not say, I can feel the spirit of someone. So we don't want to make an assumption about someone's word and intention, but the spirit that's working with the person will sooner or later be revealed by what the person says.

We need to realize a person either is being motivated by God's Holy Spirit or isn't. Now, if a person doesn't have God's Holy Spirit, I don't want to jump to the conclusion, oh, he's demon-possessed. That's a big jump or a range. But there is, as it says in Ephesians 2, verse 2, a prince of the power of the air. Satan the devil is working to influence people, and they might come under his influence to a greater or lesser degree. So, as I said, a person that's not baptized doesn't necessarily have a demon possession. But they could more or less come under that malignant influence that's in the air that's permeating the world. If you'll turn to 1 Corinthians 2, we'll see a comment on that, a comment on what we should be looking for in discernment. 1 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 14.

It says, The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual, meaning has God's Spirit, judges all things. Well, we're talking about judging. It says, having judging by God's Spirit is important. Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Eternal, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. Paul is saying that some things are spiritually discerned, and that a person without the Holy Spirit won't discern them. They'll seem foolish. And then he says, but we have the mind of Christ, meaning Christ dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit enables us to think differently, to perceive differently, and thus to judge differently, to make wise choices.

And as I said, I hesitate to emphasize this too much, because it could lead us to putting too much emphasis on emotions and feelings, and thinking that's the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Spirit... I should have looked this one up. It says, the Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets. God's Spirit doesn't suddenly lead us to make wild assumptions. You don't get a real happy feeling and assume it's the Holy Spirit.

But there's no way around the plain fact that the Holy Spirit in a Christian's mind does make a difference. And I hesitate to take any examples from my own life, because I'm still young and relatively new in the ministry. But I've had interesting times talking to experienced pastors and their wives, where they'll sometimes mention that dealing with people, they'll say that they sensed a different spirit at work. And they didn't make any judgment based on that, but they would start paying attention to what the person said. And if they sensed, maybe they're being influenced by a different spirit, eventually the words and actions would reveal that, or show that they might have misinterpreted. And I've heard some really long-time ministers of the church talk about coming in contact with demon-possessed people, and say that they quickly discerned that. They said God's Spirit would let them know, hey, there's something here. And as I said, words and actions would quickly confirm that.

I haven't had that experience. As I said, I'm relatively young, and the truth is, I'll be happy to never have that experience. I'm not looking for it. So, as I said, I like to draw on other people's experience.

What is Mr. McCready says, OPE. The best teacher is other people's experience. So I wanted to briefly touch on that, and I want to leave that, move on to a last point. My fifth point is, judge calmly. And this is a principle that does apply to everyone, whether in God's church or not, full of God's Spirit, or just beginning to understand that there is a Spirit. Far too often, human beings, and I say that because we're all human, we've all done this, but too often, human beings let emotions lead us to make unwise decisions.

And often, that becomes, that comes about because of strong emotions. That leads us to make a snap judgment. We call it being caught up in the moment. God says, that's not so smart. Let's turn to Proverbs. There's a couple of scriptures in Proverbs that I think give us good wisdom or guidance in this. Proverbs 14 and verse 29. Proverbs 14 and 29 says, "...he who is slow to wrath has great understanding." Slow to wrath has great understanding. "...he who is impulsive exalts folly." Complementary to that is Proverbs 29 and verse 20.

Do you see a man hasty in his words? There's more hope for a fool than for him. Being hasty in words doesn't lead to good judgment. Now, I do understand that there are some times, and it usually tends to be pretty rare, some circumstances when you have to make a fast decision.

But it's good to not let emotion guide that. And nine times out of ten, it'll be better to wait. Now, there's a phrase that I've heard a number of times, but I always attribute it to Leslie McCullough. And Mr. McCullough was directing the campus at Big Sandy when I was a student there. And I remember, I think it was a student assembly, where he was talking to us students about how we needed to calm down and not rush to things.

And basically he said, if you come to me and you need an answer right away, the answer is no. Then, any occasion, if you have to know right now, then the answer is no. Now, if you give me time to think about it and evaluate, it might be yes. But if you have to know right now, no. And even then, as a young kid, I said, that's kind of smart. I'm going to try to put that in my memory bank. I guess that's why it stuck with me. At Fitz, I've seen a principle for decision-making that a lot of people have said is, if you don't know what to do, often it's best to not do anything.

You're not sure what to do? Wait. Don't do anything until you get a better feel for it. Get more information. Now, that doesn't mean you have to always have absolutely all information, because sometimes it's impossible to get all the information. But get more. Calm down. Get the emotions out of it. And then judge calmly. Let's look at an example in the Bible that's always impressed me. In Acts 5, this is another place I've been going lately, but actually I want to read for the different perspective of what happens with the disciples here.

In Acts 5, of course, the disciples, the apostles, have been out preaching the gospel, and basically bringing condemnation on the Jewish government that had Christ condemned and crucified. And they didn't like that, so they brought them in and imprisoned them and punished them. So let's pick up in verse 27. When they brought them in and set them before the council, the high priest asked them, saying, Didn't we strictly command you to not teach in this name? And look, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us.

Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. I have always loved that. And of course, let's see the reaction down in verse 33. When they heard this, they were furious. They plotted to kill them. Remember, I said, Judge calmly, not in the heat of emotion. So these guys are really angry.

These people just stood up and talked back to them, and they want to kill them. But then a calmer voice prevailed. Now, as I said, we generally look at the disciples and what they did, which was right, and not at the Sanhedrin, but there was a calm voice there. Let's continue reading in verse 34.

What you intend to do regarding these men.

Well, I guess maybe there was still a little fury. But notice the calmer voice prevailed. This is a good example of someone who is calm, leading others to judge and choose, maybe not wisely, but more wisely. The wisest decision would have been, Hey, you guys are teaching the truth. I want to serve Jesus Christ. They weren't called to that, but they did stop and not do the most foolish thing they could have. Now, I will make the point. I've been emphasizing how anger can lead us to make rash and hasty decisions. There are other emotions that can be involved. Various, but I'll just point out fear sometimes. Well, more often is more influential than it could be. And a Christian should never let fear cause them to rush to judgment. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 7 is where it says, God has not given us a spirit of fear. Not fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind.

And a person of a sound mind, especially one with God's Spirit, will be one who reasons calmly. So don't let fear, don't let anger, don't let passion, don't let any of those things lead to rash judgment. We want a calm and wise decision. And I've got in my notes, I've probably repeated this enough, that my main point is clear. We are to judge, and we need to judge and choose wisely. Throughout history, God has given those whom He's put into positions of leadership the responsibility of making judgments. It goes back to Moses, through those who are called judges in the book of Judges. It goes through the kings, eventually to us. We are called to be leaders within God's kingdom, to be kings and priests. And in doing that, we will have to be judges as well. Peter said the time for judgment has come for God's people. And Paul said we need to begin judging now, even if only practicing in the smallest matters. So I hope that these five keys will help us to do that. To remind you there, we need to judge righteously, leaving condemnation for God. We need to judge by the truth, which, remembering God's Word is truth. We need to judge words and deeds, not making assumptions about a person's motivation or their inner thoughts. But also by the power of the Holy Spirit, judge the spirit of a thing. And we need to judge calmly, taking proper time. If we do these things, we'll be able to choose wisely. We'll be able to judge wisely.