Judgment, Mercy, and Faith

Thank you, Mr. Salcedo.

Now we are ready for their main message today.

I commented on the announcements about the very fine theme that we had for the General Conference of Elders. And it has to do with judgment, mercy, and faith.

And I learned a lot about this subject. We had a number of speakers touching what it meant. And it is very important for us as well. This is not a theme just for the ministry. All of us in the membership also need to understand what Christ meant when He said that the weightier matters of the law consisted of judgment, mercy, and faith. We have to apply judgment, mercy, and faith in our own lives, with our families, in our job, and our community. So I'd like to begin giving you a bird's-eye view of this subject.

Now one of the important reasons that God created all of us was to learn to apply judgment, mercy, and faith. We can go to this scripture, which Jesus Christ mentioned in Matthew 23, verses 23 and 24. So we're going to dissect. We are going to examine this scripture under the magnifying glass because there's a lot to it. It is very useful, as Mike Dothut mentioned in his sermonette, about lessons that he learned that he applies now.

These are important lessons that we can apply in our daily lives. So let's go to Matthew 23, 23. Now Christ was rebuking the Pharisees, some of the religious leaders of their day, who were applying judgment, mercy, and faith in a wrong way. They weren't applying God's law as it was originally intended. And so he says in verse 23 of chapter 23, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone, blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. And so things had gotten so bad by the time Jesus came on the scene that Jesus had determined they were not worthy of their positions. They had not learned how to apply judgment, mercy, and faith, and basically had disqualified the great majority of them. Notice what he said in Matthew 21, verse 43. Talking again to the Pharisees, he said, And so those are strong words. He said that you have disqualified yourselves from representing the kingdom of God here on earth, of teaching about God's ways, the keys of the knowledge of God you have not taught in the right way. Why? Because you have not exercised judgment, mercy, and faith.

They had not applied these principles correctly. And so they were given the opportunity, but they fell short of it. They had not made the grade. They had been weighed their works, and they had been found wanting. Just like remember in Daniel chapter 5, verse 27, it mentions there about the kingdom. So at that time, Babylon had been weighed and found wanting. It did not make the grade.

Now, brethren, we don't want this to happen to us. We don't want that type of judgment to fall upon us. And it can't. So we're going to learn the principles of judgment, mercy, and faith, how God shows in His word that they should be applied.

Now, looking at it like the bird's-eye view, you go back to the time of Adam and Eve. They were given an opportunity to apply judgment, mercy, and faith. And they were found wanting as well.

They were to apply these principles in their own lives, but they were cast out of the Garden of Eden because they had not followed God. They had followed Satan and his way. And we know that ever since then, we live in a world that Adam and Eve were thrust out. We were not born in the Garden of Eden. We were born in a fallen world. We live because of the consequences of being thrust out. And so we have a pretty godless world, a world that defies God, a world many times at war, that have not learned to exercise these principles of judgment, mercy, and faith. Now, if you even go back farther than Adam and Eve, you will find that Lucifer and a third of the angels that appear to be all under him, we are not sure, but it said that he took out a third of the angels to follow him. Now, he had been given a marvelous opportunity. Learning from God and the Word how to apply judgment, mercy, and faith, and he rejected that way of judging. He did it his own way. And so he was weighed and found wanting as well. And he was cast out. And to this day, he still thinks his way is the right way. He exercises judgment, mercy, and faith under his own standards, contradicting and contrasting with God's way. But he stubbornly thinks he is right. And look at the havoc and evil that all of this has caused. Now, going forward in time, past Adam and Eve, the Israelites were also given an opportunity to exercise judgment, mercy, and faith. So we can't repeat these. Just remember the initials J.M.F. So just to abbreviate it, judgment, mercy, and faith, J.M.F. They had a chance to apply J.M.F. Notice in Exodus 19, verses 5 and 6. I'll go ahead and read it.

God says, A kingdom of priests and a holy nation, a nation that's going to apply judgment, mercy, and faith as God intended it for this nation to be a light to the world. And God did His part, but we know Israel was weighed and found wanting. They were given the tools to be able to exercise judgment, mercy, and faith. They were given the laws of God, the divine laws.

They were given leaders like Moses, Aaron, Joshua. They were given guidance with the pillar of light and the cloud that was with them, guiding them, that they could consult about how to apply these principles. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 7 and 8. I'll go ahead and read it as well. It says, For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all of this law, which I said before you this day? So God gave it to Moses to pass on to the Israelites. But they were weighed and found wanting.

Now, that doesn't mean they're going to be forever disqualified. They will one day have their opportunity to learn how to apply judgment, mercy, and faith. But now the Church is the one that has been given this opportunity to learn to apply these principles in our lives and the Church as an example to the world. Notice in 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 9. 1 Peter 2, chapters 2, verses 4 through 9. It says, And then verse 9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So these are the people that God is equipping with His Holy Spirit, opening up the understanding of His Word so they can learn to apply judgment, mercy, and faith in their lives. And what is the ultimate end of learning to apply these three principles?

It is the opportunity to do it in His coming kingdom.

You will apply these principles under Jesus Christ. Notice in Revelation 5, 9, and 10. I'm going to read it from the Good News Bible. It's a little clearer. It says, This is why it's the spiritual Israel. We are inserted into that spiritual Israel of God from every tribe, from every language, nation, and race. You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth. So that's the future. But we have to be learning how to apply judgment, mercy, and faith in order to be on the same page as God the Father, as Jesus Christ, as so many men and women of faith.

That did overcome. They did apply these principles. They learned the lessons, just like we need to learn the lessons. Nobody here has already qualified. Nobody here has already crossed that finish line. We're still running that race of faith. And so let's go back to Matthew 23, verses 23 and 24. Now, not looking at it from a bird's-eye point of view or panoramic view, now we're going to focus, get an in-depth view of what these verses truly mean.

So, now, as we read in Matthew 23, verses 23 and 24, where He is railing against the Pharisees, they had this opportunity. They had all these tools, and they didn't know how to apply these principles. They were straining the net, the technical net of the law, and swallowing the spiritual camel of the law. So, yes, they were nitpicking about how you tithe even the smallest little leaves. And the Pharisees made sure, boy, they counted every one of those leaves that they would use for mint or for cumin. They separated it. And yet, they could just insult and offend and belittle people, destroying their faith, humiliating them, being self-righteous like the Pharisee, who thought he was so important because, oh, he had all the technical points of the law down. But he didn't have the spiritual dimension. He did not apply God's love and mercy and faith to the issues.

And so, the first thing we should understand about this scripture is that it isn't totally new in the Bible. Actually, Christ is going back to a scripture in the Old Testament that brings out these three principles. So, let's go to Micah 6, verses 6-8. This is a very familiar scripture, but perhaps you had not connected it to Matthew 23, verse 23, because this is what he is basing his principles on this verse or these verses. Micah 6, verses 6-8.

The most precious thing a person could have is that what God wants? He's saying no. The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly? To apply judgment in that way? To love mercy? To apply mercy? And to walk humbly with your God? Which is the way you walk in faith. You walk humbly before Him. It's a way of life. In Hebrews it brings this out that hope is the destiny, the goal, but faith is walking toward that goal. It has to do with the actions, and we have to be humble in our actions in order to apply God's law properly. In the contemporary English version of this last verse, it goes this way. The Lord God has told us what is right and what He demands. See that justice is done. Let mercy be your first concern and humbly obey your God. That's what Christ was telling the Pharisees that we're not doing. They weren't applying God's law in a balanced way. They were exaggerating one thing and diminishing the other. They weren't applying mercy because they felt that they were better than the others, and the others should suffer punishment because they're not up to snuff. And then they weren't walking humbly before God. There weren't too many humble Pharisees around in those days. They were comparing each other, competing to see who did more righteous acts. So now we have to study these three words because they are the key to the deep meaning behind them. So the first term, judgment, in Hebrew is mishpah. Mishpah. And it means to give a verdict. It can be given, for instance, in a lawsuit, or when somebody has committed a crime, they get caught. Well, then mishpah has to be applied. A judgment has to be made. A verdict. And the judgment should be according to the crime, according to the severity of the damages done. Of course, in Leviticus 21, 22, 23, it talks about the judgments, how to apply when somebody did this or that. And there you see that God applies judgment with mercy and with faith. So you have to apply the corresponding penalty or declare the person innocent or guilty. You have to discern. You have to decide. A verdict has to be given according to the facts of the case. In the Greek, the word judgment is chrisis, but we use for crisis. But in the Greek, chrisis means that you make an evaluation. You have to have a judgment, also a verdict of a case, to discern, evaluate, and give a ruling over something. The second term, mercy, is a beautiful Hebrew word, kesed, which means kindness, loving kindness. Remember many of the Psalms of David in your loving kindness, kesed. It has to do with kindness and love toward the other person, applying mercy, kindness, love, compassion.

In the Greek, it's eleos, which means to show compassion. It's okay. You have judged rightly, but now how do you apply it? You should apply it with mercy, having compassion, having understanding, kindness. You shouldn't just throw the book at the person. And then the third term, faith, sauna in Hebrew, means to humble oneself, to act meekly, not arrogant, before God or man. And the term in Greek for faith is pistis, which means to be one over to what God wants you to do, to humbly follow God. So if you are a person with faith, you are going to humbly follow God's way. You remember Mr. Armstrong wrote in many books how he had been a man of ambition and pretty much self-centered. And when God called him, and he went through quite a number of humblings and humiliations until he realized, I can't do it on my own. I need God, and I need to submit to him. And I just feel like I'm a burnout hunk of junk, he said, and that God has to work in me. Why? Because you have faith now. You humbly walk before God. You don't arrogantly walk before him. Now you say, yes, sir. Remember the here I am servants throughout the Bible. God would choose a certain person, not because of how big they were or how important. But no, it was how they humbly walked before him. As you know, Elisha was one that had, he was a farm boy, and he had, what, ten yoke of oxen, and Elijah came along and said, God has called you and put the mantle on him. Why? Because even being a farmer, he knew how to walk humbly before God. God could use that person. He wasn't going to exalt themselves.

And when God called Noah, Noah replied, here I am, Lord. What do you need done, God? He wasn't chafing, and, oh, don't call me, call someone else, let somebody else do this and that. The here I am servants, ready for keeping God's law, ready for service. So now we can combine these three elements to judge faithfully, to apply mercifully, and to walk humbly. Those are the three elements that combine to know how to apply the weightier matters of the law.

And now we can look at some of the examples. Let's go to Galatians 6, Galatians 6, verses 1-3. Notice Paul understood how to apply this because he constantly was advising them to do so. So what do you do if a person has a certain trespass or sin? You're supposed to come down on him like a ton of bricks? No. It says, verse 1, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Because the Pharisees did not think that they were humans, too. They made mistakes, too. No, they rose up and they were very harsh on people. Very strict. And it says here that in a spirit of gentleness or that cassette, kindness, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. So instead of judging others by their works, we should be judging ourselves by our works. And of course, we always are weighed and found wanting. Why? Because if we compare ourselves to what Jesus Christ did, none of us can exalt themselves. Everybody is found wanting. And so he's saying here that we should examine our own work. We're competing against ourselves. How much better we can be from where we are today. We're not comparing ourselves with other people.

Now, Jesus Christ, of course, is the perfect example of applying justice, mercy, and faith. We have in John 7.

Now, these are some of the principles that I studied into during this conference. These are the things I gleaned from what I learned in John 7, verses 21 through 24. Jesus answered and said to them, talking again. To whom? Well, to the Pharisees and these religious leaders of the time. He says, I did one work, and you all marvel.

Moses therefore gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and you circumcised a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?

Now, he's talking about in John 5, the first couple of verses, talking about this poor man that was there by the pool of Bethesda. Every time the water stirred so that God would perform a miracle, why, since he couldn't get on his crutches and go there, somebody always jumped in first, came out healed. And he had been having this malady or sickness for 38 years, and Jesus Christ had mercy on the man. He had waited long enough, and so Jesus Christ healed them, but it was on the Sabbath day. So instead of everybody rejoicing, wow, look, a person has been healed that has been here for so long. What a marvelous miracle! The leaders were saying, well, it was on the Sabbath. No, this is bad. And so they did not have righteous judgment. They didn't know how to apply the law properly. And that's why Jesus Christ continues on. And he says here, verse 24, Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Understand that it is more blessed that a person is healed. After all, Jesus Christ didn't operate on the man for eight hours to heal him. It took a moment to heal the man. And I know if it was in our case, if somebody was healed on the Sabbath right now, we would rejoice. That's part of doing good on the Sabbath. You're not doing exercise and doing all kinds of heavy loads. No, it's a wonderful manifestation of God's mercy and love. But, oh, they couldn't see it that way. Oh, no, they threw the book at Jesus Christ because, oh, he was supposed to not do that on the Sabbath day. So again, it just shows these narrow-minded leaders. They couldn't... Their concept of God was just of these nitpicky rules all the time. They did not have the discernment to understand that, yes, judgment can be applied with mercy and faith. Christ saw there was a need. He might not be in that area the next day. This was a pressing need, and he intervened for the good of that person. He applied judgment, mercy, and faith, but the Pharisees couldn't see it that way. Notice another example in Matthew 12.

Matthew 12. In verse 1, it seems one of the examples that constantly was going on was about being judged how people kept the Sabbath day. In Matthew 12, verse 1, it says, Imagine it took them just several seconds. And of course, we're not talking about grains of corn, unfortunately. Here, this is grain. This is wheat. Anybody that's lived out there, you know, when the wheat is up and it's nice and fresh and soft, you can eat these kernels. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. Now, God doesn't say in His word that you are hungry and you see a tree. You're not supposed to pull an apple. In those days, they didn't have supermarkets. People had trees. They had grain fields. People lived in an agricultural society. The supermarket were all the crops out there. And so, of course, you had availability of it. And so, the Pharisees, in one of their 1,520 laws governing the Sabbath, at 39 categories, they had one which had to do with threshing grain. And, of course, you shouldn't be out there in the field cutting down the grains of wheat. That's a lot of work. And so, they had absolutely banned any type. You could not touch one of these fruits of the field on the Sabbath day because they said, You're working on the Sabbath. And so, again, swallowing the gnat or straining the gnat and swallowing the camel. And so, Jesus Christ here brings up an example.

Let's see what he says here in Matthew 12.

So, again, the showbread was dedicated to the priests. They were supposed to eat it. Every Sabbath and new batch was placed there. And the old batch was to be eaten by the priests. But here, David and his men were so hungry, and that was the only bread available. And so, they were fainting, and there wasn't any other way out. And so, this was an emergency. This was the ox and the ditch. This was a situation where on the Sabbath, they ate the bread. And he said, Look, there are times, there are emergencies on the Sabbath. And this was one of the cases. And then he goes on.

Verse 5, Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profaned the Sabbath and are blameless? They have to do all kinds of sacrifices on the Sabbath day. It's a tough day for them. They toil. They prepare. They can't relax. Even in our modern times, for the ministers, the Sabbath is a pretty heavy day. You're preparing. You're trying to get everything organized. You don't have time to just relax and just not think of anything important.

You're out there making sure everything gets done and counseling with people and dealing with things. So, we are doing God's work on the Sabbath day. Continuing on, it says here that the priests profaned the Sabbath and are blameless. God understands that. He gave them an exemption. To serve God's people, He would use the priests and the priests would be exempt on that day. God could have used angels. Nobody would have had to work. Robots, metallic creatures that you could design. They would do the sacrifices and everything else so that everybody would relax.

He chose to use the ministry to do this job. And so, again, not everybody is relaxed and not doing any work on the Sabbath. But there are some that are designated for that position. Continuing on, verse 6, it says, Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.

His disciples were not breaking the Sabbath because they were just taking some of the kernels of grain and eating some of them to assuage their hunger. Mothers do that on the Sabbath day. They're going to feed their kids. They're, well, no, we can't do anything until sun down, and we can't have anything to eat unless it's prepared the day before. There are times when there are emergencies, times when you need to feed your family.

And so, again, there are these principles that there are exceptions to the rule. They should never be abused, just like they say about the ox in the ditch. The poor ox fell on the Sabbath day in the ditch. You're not supposed to say, well, I'll wait 24 hours for this poor creature there. It might break a bone or anything. No, you have mercy. You consider your animal and you pull him out. But don't go around using that as an excuse to throw the ox in the ditch every Sabbath. You see, oh, this is an emergency here. There's an emergency there. No, then you're abusing the principle.

But there are exceptions. There are emergencies to be applied. And then he says in verse 8, For the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath, which means that Jesus Christ knows how to apply judgment, mercy, and faith on the Sabbath day. He set it up under God the Father's commands. He is the one that dealt with Israel. God the Father was there, always giving the decisions and guidance, but Christ directly dealt with Israel, where God the Father was indirectly involved.

Sometimes he can come in and do what he needs to do as his role. But overall, he says that everything was created by Christ, and nothing that was created was done without him. John 1, verse 3. And so we come to this principle in Matthew 7, to be very careful about being judgmental, about condemning, because that's not judgment, mercy, and faith. It says in verse 1, Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge you will be judged, and with a measure you use it will be measured back to you.

And what do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? It's easy to apply judgment, mercy, and faith to oneself. Be very good and tolerant, but then with others, very intolerant. You're looking at every little thing that the person's doing, according to you, they're doing wrong. Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye, hypocrite. First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

I'd like to read this in the contemporary English version. It says, Don't condemn others, and God won't condemn you. God will be as hard on you as you are on others. He will treat you exactly as you treat them. You can see the speck in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye. This is the principle of walking humbly before God. You recognize your own errors. You recognize your own failings.

How can you say, My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye when you don't see the log in your own eye? You're nothing but show-offs. First, take the log out of your own eye, then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend's eye.

We all need mercy. We all need God's love. We need to be patient with others. Let's go to another principle along this line, James 4, verses 10 through 12.

James 4, verses 10 through 12. I'm going to read it in the contemporary English version as well.

It says, Be humble in the Lord's presence, and He will honor you. My friends, don't say cruel things about others. If you do, or if you condemn others, you are condemning God's law. And if you condemn the law, you put yourself above the law and refuse to obey either it or God who gave it. God is our judge, and He can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone? So we shouldn't become the judge of others. We're all brothers. We all have failings. We all err on occasion. So let's not rise ourselves like Mr. Perfect, like, oh yes, I do everything perfectly. Now I can condemn others. No, that's not the case. Let's come down, walk mercifully and humbly before God and man.

So now as we have the latter part of this message, let's consider four points in judging or evaluating correctly. Four points in judging or evaluating correctly. What are these points? Number one, first get both sides of the story before coming to a conclusion or a judgment. Before you come to a judgment, make sure you hear both sides of the story, not just one side. There's a chapter in the Bible that warns us about this, and actually there are three scriptures in that same chapter that apply to judgment. That's Proverbs chapter 18. Let's look at Proverbs chapter 18.

It tells us three pitfalls we can fall into if we're not careful. Proverbs chapter 18.

First of all, verse 2.

This is what we do not want to become. Oh, yes, you ask somebody, oh, I know it all. Tell me I know it all. I've got the right reason. I have the right judgment.

And you become a know-it-all. And unless you're asked, we should refrain from having that, that, oh, well, this person, they really consider, they know it better than anyone else. Best things and sliced bread, right? It says in Proverbs 18 verse 2, A fool has no delight in understanding, which means he doesn't delight in going into understanding about the principles involved, about the careful research, before you judge something, make sure you get all the facts. No, a fool doesn't think that. They just have these snap judgments about just about everything.

And it says, what they have delight in is expressing his own view, his own heart. So they just want to spout out this supposed knowledge and wisdom. They're just there waiting for somebody to ask them in that sense. And so, no, we shouldn't be that way. We shouldn't have snap judgments, you know, quick on the trigger and blurred out whatever comes to your mind.

But you think, oh, this is the best thing since the time of Solomon and his wisdom. No, that's not the right way. This goes on to now the second point here in verse 13. He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is a folly and shame to him. So again, jumping the gun, jumping to conclusions. You want to know about this case or this situation or this person? Oh, I'll tell you before you even have studied the matter. You already have the conclusion.

It says the Bible tells us it is folly and shame to him. Just again, very quick on before hearing both sides, before examining carefully, having the multitude of counselors, checking it up with people that you respect, that have good background on it. Just like if I had to do this all the time, people will ask, well, how about this situation? I'm in a legal situation and I've got this problem. And what do you think?

Usually I say, look, I'm not a legal expert. Here we have a person that's a lawyer. Check it out. Go to a lawyer. Go to a person of expertise. Somebody says, oh, this side is hurting me. Oh, it's just killing me. I'm not going to prescribe things to them. It might do them bad. You might get into trouble.

The person might take something, and it was the worst thing they could have taken. Well, that's what my grandma told me I should do. Well, maybe at grandma's day, that was the only thing available. But I think people have learned a lot more since grandma's time. So again, somebody asks about some medical opinion.

Well, I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty and the deep things. I'm going to say, check it out. There are experts out there. Be wise. Check things out with those people that are knowledgeable. It doesn't mean you have to follow their opinion, but certainly they know a lot more. I mean, I haven't taken medical school anatomy classes for a year. I had two daughters that did that.

Actually, three. No, three daughters. The other four took that anatomy classes. They suffered. Well, I'm glad I didn't have to go through that. I saw how much they suffered. But I'll tell you, they know what's going on in a lot of places that I don't know. And I shouldn't pretend to know. So we all have our limits. Now, if you want to know something about the Bible, then, yes, we can come. We don't know it all.

Many times we have to just say, well, I don't know yet. Let me check it up. I'll tell you when I find out. But we have areas of expertise. And that takes us to verse 17 of Proverbs 18. It says, the first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him.

So the first one that brings out the story looks like they're right. Many times it sounds so convincing. You think that has to be the case. This person is innocent. They're the victim. Look at all the things and drama they're going through. Surely that other person is the one that's guilty. Surely that other person is the one responsible until you hear the story from the other side. And many times the other person is the one that had the factual information. And so they say that one of the worst sports you can get into is the sport of jumping to conclusions.

People are experts at that many times, but we shouldn't be. So let's go to the second point.

The four points in judging. Point number two, ask, Am I doing it in a spirit of meekness or harshness?

Am I doing it in a spirit of meekness or harshness? When I deal with a person, is there humility or is this harshness and hardness to it? Notice in 2 Timothy 2, verse 24. 2 Timothy 2, verse 24.

It says, And a servant of the Lord, talking here about a minister, but it applies to everyone, we're all servants of God, right? So this is something we're going to have to do in the kingdom of God someday, if we make it. It says, And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient. Now, is he perfect? No, that's right. But this is the thrust. This is the attitude. Being gentle, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. So the hope is that the person's heart softens, that they listen, that they understand we all want the best for them. Nobody here wants to harm or hurt, but it is for their own good. We're trying to help the person. That is the second point. Ask, am I doing it in a spirit of meekness or harshness? The third point. Ask, is what I'm saying edifying or negative? Is it edifying or negative? In Proverbs 12, verse 18, I'm going to read it from the basic Bible English version. It says, there are some whose uncontrolled talk is like the wounds of a sword, but the tongue of the wise makes one well again. So you see the difference here, where some are just like being cut down. And the other one leaves you edified. Again, I know one of the former pastors here, Denny Luker, boy, he was a master. He could correct you, and you still felt great afterwards. Now, how he did that and everything, I wish I could copy fully, but everybody that I talked with in the past, he could deal with some of the toughest subjects, but he was so loving and patient, understanding that even when that correction came, boy, he made it, mollified it, softened it, and made you feel like, boy, this is not really so much of a correction but it is a help and it's edifying. And I had the privilege of working three years under him until he passed away about two, three years ago. But he was one of these fellows that you could never really get angry at, or when he corrected, it was still so loving and kind. And you just felt, boy, he really gives you a lot of leeway. He really gives you a lot of slack. I appreciated that. But we also have to give leeway and slack to others. That takes us to the fourth point and the last one. We should ask, am I following the golden rule? The golden rule, of course, found in Matthew 7, verse 12, says, It says, Is that the way I want to be judged and corrected? The way I deal with others? Is that the way I would like to be treated by others? Is that the way I pass judgment, the way I would like judgment to be passed on me? Because sometimes it seems like it's just a one-way street. You get the authority, you get to judge, you do everything, but never think, well, what if I was on the other side? How would I feel receiving that? And so again, we're all a work in progress. Nobody bats a thousand, not even Mike Trout. And so we're all in a process of learning.

And so, as we conclude, looking at the future, one day, if we make it into the kingdom, we are going to have the greatest opportunity any human being has been offered to be guided by Jesus Christ, working under Him, working under those that He appointed because they learned. Men like Abraham, men like Noah, men like Moses, men like Nehemiah, the apostles. They learned to exercise judgment, mercy, and faith. So let's conclude with Revelation 20, verse 4. Brethren, this is the goal. This is what we want to reach one day. It says, after Christ has returned to the earth, has put away Satan. It's interesting that Revelation 20, verse 3, Satan is removed from his position, and someone's going to fill that position. So God's government never is filled doubly. You don't fill until there is that space. So Satan and his hordes are removed. And so now, instead of Satan's influence in the world, we're going to have God's influence with His people. And it says, And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. The awesome responsibility and opportunity to have people that you're going to guide, that you're going to judge, that you're going to apply mercy and faith.

Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God. So some gave up their lives. Others, as it says here, for the Word of God, followed and suffered through their lives, but were faithful, who had not worshipped a beast or his image the wrong way of judgment, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. They refused to apply judgment, mercy, and faith in the world's ways. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Lived and reigned. Can you imagine the experience, how much we're going to learn to truly apply judgment, mercy, and faith? Yes, we have wonderful opportunity, but brethren, we have to begin now. Every day is an opportunity, a little grain of sand that falls from that hourglass that we can never retrieve. And I hope that grain of sand says on it, judgment, mercy, and faith.