Judgment of Others

How does it feel to be around people who do not live their lives very well? How does it feel to be around people who don't know how to dress right? They don't know how to talk right? They really don't know how to organize their lives. They don't even know how to eat like they should. Isn't it annoying to be around people who don't spend their money wisely? Who spend their time on frivolous things? Who are not diligent? Who are very self-centered? Isn't that just a terrible thing? Flipping the coin, how does it feel to be around someone who scrutinizes everything you do? They don't think that you know how to live life. They think that how you talk, how you look, is annoying or obnoxious. They think that somehow they are there to give you some sort of stellar guidance. You don't even know how to spend your money, what to save, what to do, how to use your personal time. They don't think that you eat right, and they don't think that you are very spiritually adept. These two instances are things that you and I actually are part of at any given time, either on the receiving end, which maybe we realize more often than we do when we are on the giving end. But what does the Bible say about being judgmental? What are we to judge, if anything? And under what circumstances are we to judge? Today I want to talk about the topic of passing judgment on others. What about passing judgment on others? What about critiquing others? What does the Bible say? What does God expect from us? Many, if not most, humans have a certain critical outlook. From their perspective, through the eyes that they look out from, they have a critical outlook that slices and dices what is around them, who is around them. Some people have the mentality that they alone have the knowledge of how to live, how to govern, how to do almost anything. They drive down the street. Look at these dumb people. They don't know what color to paint their houses. Look at the trash in their yards. Look at the cars that they drive. Look how they dress. Look at the government. Look at the officials. Look at the rules. Sometimes this can be aimed at the church. If people only would do it the way I see it, having the superior knowledge, the superior dress, the superior understanding, the superior health, the superior mind, then the world would be a better place. So looking out through rather critical eyes, they kind of peer down their nose at others. They are so good that they are almost the little goody two-shoots. They are perfect in almost everything from their perspective. Everybody else is like, oh no. They're going to speak, they're going to talk, they're going to look, they're going to act, they're going to live. My burden is great in life. Now, you might say, oh yeah, that's an extreme. And yes, I present it as an extreme, but is that ever you? Is that ever me? We're going to take a hard look today at being judgmental of others and judgmental about certain situations and circumstances that really aren't our business. There are people who are critics of policy, critics of demeanor, and more importantly, critics of motive. You ever had a person say to you, I know what you were thinking. I could see it right on your face. I knew exactly what you were thinking. And you say, oh no, I was thinking, oh no, you weren't. No, you weren't. You were thinking, you were, I could see, I know what you were thinking.

You know? We as humans can really get full of ourselves sometimes to think that we really are the judge. We are the one that is smarter, more knowledgeable. We are just. We look out through this lens at others from a higher perspective. Today I'm a little bit elevated on this taller than normal stage. And you see, we can be on this little stage of our own in life, elevated above others, and feel superior, more righteous, more wise. We can see others as weak, defective. You can see the whole world around us as defective. And obviously, there are mistakes in other people. There are mistakes in the world. There are mistakes in administrations. There are mistakes in me, and there are mistakes in you. But when we begin to focus on these things and find fault in others so that we can feel superior, that is not godly. That is not godly. Consider some scriptures, basic principles in the Bible, such as, love your neighbor as yourself. Is looking at others and criticizing them and judging them and being judgmental about what they do and how they live life, is that loving your neighbor as yourself?

See that she respects her husband. See that the husband gives honor to the wife as the more wonderful, honorable, finer vessel. Is being critical and judgmental of somebody that you're married to fulfilling those things of respect and honor? What about the scripture that says, with preference, preferring one another, deferring the honor and honoring one another, preferring what someone else would say, humbling the self and looking up to others? Is being judgmental and going around with this, that person doesn't dress, live right, think right, act right? It's really not fulfilling these scriptures, is it? And that's the point of the sermon today, is to bring our thinking in line with God's mind, which is revealed through this book, through His Word. Now, you might think that this topic of being judgmental is one of those little things, I probably found this thing and it's a good little subject, we can talk about it today. But what I'm going to show you today from the Bible very clearly is, if you are judgmental of others, or if I am judgmental of others, we will not be in the kingdom of God. We will not be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, which the Passover represents. We put ourselves in a category that's aligned with Satan and aligned with those who are unrepentant sinners. So let's realize that this topic today is a very, very important one. Very important one. And let's each realize that this topic is about me, personally. It's not about someone else. I wish they were here today to hear this message. Well, guess what? You are here today!

Let's begin with what Jesus Christ teaches us in Matthew 7, verse 1. Matthew 7, verse 1. You know, right in the early part of his ministry, he jumps right into this particular topic. And he says, judge not that you be not judged. Now, all my life I've looked at this through the self-centered eyes of, I want to be in the kingdom, and so I better not judge others, or otherwise God will judge me. Okay, we've got that lesson. Is that what he's saying? Is that what he's saying? Let's notice what he's saying. Judge not that you be not judged.

Don't be judgmental so that others won't be judgmental of you. Notice he didn't say who to judge or what to judge, or who will not be judging you. It's just a principle he puts out. He is our friend. He loves us, and he's giving us a principle of life that applies to all relationships. Don't be judging others, and others won't be judging you. That's a great principle. Let's just take it on the surface for its face value for just a moment. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged.

If you are a real judgmental, picky person that's nosing around in other people's areas, other people are going to be picky and nosy about things in your areas, in your private life. It's a principle that goes two ways. He gave this principle in another way where he said, he gave the golden root, do unto others as you would have them do to you. This is a principle. You judge others, they'll judge you. You don't judge others, they won't judge you. Principle here. Going on.

He says, with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. So the amount of judgmentalness, the degree that you are judgmental, you'll find comes washing back in on you as well. Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? You know, we could ask this question for a minute.

Why are we as humans judgmental? We might say, well, this is a good thing. I'm about righteousness and I hate evil, so I'm finding evil in everybody else and everything else. We'll deal with that in a minute, too. But what it really is about, it's about our selfish human nature, which we're to repent of. When we are judgmental of others and critical of others, it's because we have what is called low self-esteem. Now, everybody has it, and we all mask it in different ways. The person who is so worried and so afraid and so unable to sort of make a decision is worried about how they will be perceived.

And they can hardly make a mistake. They just want to be so careful, they want to be liked, and their self-esteem is so low that it shows. But then you have the other person, and this guy is big and he's tough and he's loud and he says, this is the way it's going to be, and if you don't do that, I'm going to smack you around and, you know, just gets his way.

Why is he so big and tough? Well, as a pastor, I've counseled a lot of these big tough guys, and I found out that inside is massive low self-esteem. And to mask that, they sort of push themselves off as being domineering and dominant and bigger and brighter and more vocal and make everything go their way, but inside, they're just, you know, kind of small and afraid that they don't measure up. And they'll say, I'm just not as good as anybody else in life. Well, guess what, men and women?

We're all like that. And some of you ladies probably don't feel like you're the most beautiful person in the world, and therefore, at times in your life, you'll have to criticize somebody else. And the guys just don't feel like they're the brightest bulb in the box sometimes, and so they have to criticize somebody else. And so we end up criticizing everybody else. And why? Because we feel small. Everybody else is taller. So if we just chop their feet and legs off a little bit, we get up taller.

See? And up here, we feel better. We feel more superior. So as soon as somebody pokes his head up, you've got to shoot him down. You're going to have the most wonderful person come in the room. They're dressed nice. They have the nice speech. They have everything going for them. They're wise, you know. They're loving. They're giving. What do we do as humans?

We find something, some little comment. Well, you know, that person, you know, what that is. Get them down. Get them down. And so the principle here is not a godly principle of being judgmental of others. It is actually criticizing and reducing them in our mind, instead of honoring them and praising them. Being comfortable with that. You know, a person who doesn't have low self-esteem is the one who really doesn't care what other people think. They're going about their life.

They're doing fine. You don't generally see them or hear from them. And what other people say doesn't bother them. They're fairly well lined out and they're doing pretty well, you know, as far as they're concerned. And sometimes we don't see too many of those. Too many times we're not that individual. But God wants us to be that individual. He wants us to be strong and courageous in Him. He wants us to be strong in the might of the Lord.

He wants us to be reassured, sound, Christians who are loving and giving and serving. So what's with this judgmentalism of other people? Well, notice as we go along. How can you say to your brother, let me remove that speck from your eye. Why do you see this speck in your brother's eye? Because we're looking for specs. See, when we're judgmental, we're always looking. You adhere to church. Where are the problems? Where are the defects? Look at that person. Look what they're wearing. Oh, look at that. Oh, look at him.

Look at her. Whatever. I'm feeling okay. Why are we going around looking for a speck in your brother's eye? Now notice what's wrong here, the last part of verse 3. But do not consider the plank in your own eye. We go around looking for the trivia. People come up to, Mr. Elliot, do you see how short that girl's skirt is? You know, Mr. Elliot, do you see what this guy did or said?

You know, we can look for the small specs in other people. And I'm not saying that, you know, they're not problems. But we can go around looking for them. But what's the problem here? The problem is we're not considering our own sin, the plank that's in our own eye. We're not genuinely repenting. We're not looking within at that which we have responsibility for, which is me. I'm not responsible for whatever somebody else is doing with their hair or with their voice or with their food or, you know, whether they're working 10 minutes over on Friday night.

Those things are not my business or your business. So why are we looking for those things? Because we would be judging others in order to take the focus off of our own self. Here we find out we have sins, and by saying I'm against sin, so I'm pointing it out in everybody else, but not looking for it in our self is hypocritical.

Verse 4, how can you say to your brother, let me remove the spec from your eye and look, a plank is in your own eye. Verse 5, hypocrite. If you're looking for sin, you're a hypocrite because you're not looking for sin. You're looking to critique and criticize, you see. If you're looking for sin, you've got to look within. Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye. In other words, be involved in putting sin out of your life. What the Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures every year.

What the Feast of the First Fruits Harvest pictures of the bride who's cleaned herself up. If you really are about sin, dig it out, mine it, overcome it, get rid of it in yourself. That's what this is about. Otherwise, we're a hypocrite. We're saying we don't like sin, but we're protecting our own. Sin, me, you've got to be kidding. I don't have sin. I'm the judge.

In Luke 6, verse 36, it just says, judge not and you shall not be judged by anybody. Condemn not and you shall not be condemned by anybody. Forgive and you will be forgiven by everybody. There's a principle Christ gives us. The Great One who comes and forgives is telling us this principle. Don't condemn, don't criticize, be forgiving. Be like me is what Jesus is saying to us. The principle is that everybody makes mistakes. I make mistakes, you make mistakes. Forgive so that God, so that men, so that your mate, so that your friends, so that everybody can forgive you. Think warmly of others so that everybody can think warmly of you. Be appreciative of others so that everybody can appreciate you.

It's like the old statement, cast your bread upon the waters and it'll come back to you after some days. So what you are, what you send out is going to come rolling back in on you after some days. What do you want rolling in on you? Jesus says, make it good stuff. Make it good stuff. This happened to Jesus back in Luke 6 and verse 7. Luke 6 and verse 7, we find there were individuals who were trying to be critical of Him. So the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him closely whether He would heal on the Sabbath. Ooh, look, why were they watching Him? Ooh, they were watching Him because they were judgmental. That they might find an accusation against Him. If we go around with judgmental eyes, we will be like those hypocrites. Supposedly standing for the law, which is to love your brother, but looking to put down our brothers and sisters. We mustn't do this. We mustn't do this. Paul said he was examined by the Corinthians. We all probably feel examined at times when the little scrutinizing microscope of the judgmental individual comes upon us. And it's not pleasant.

There are potential consequences of both being judgmental and having the judgment of others come upon us. Let's notice some consequences. You might not have thought of these. Judgmental people can cause those whom they pass judgment on to become men pleasers. And not genuine Christian. Let's look over in Ephesians 6, verses 6-7 and see an example of this. Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 6. We're to have a sincerity of heart in Christ, the previous verse tells us. Not with eye service as men pleasers.

Not as men pleasers. But going on, doing the will of God from the heart. If somebody is telling you, you know, you really ought to dress like this. You really ought to speak like that. What you ought to do in your life, you ought to do this when you get up in the morning. And you ought to eat that. I'm going to sit here and watch you eat. You really ought to put this much of your money that you earn in the bank. And you really ought to spend your money on these things over here. Not on the foolish things that you normally do. You ought to comb your hair a certain way. You ought to wear these certain clothes. Now, a person who feels this pressure on them will eventually maybe conform. They'll put on the clothes, they'll put the money in the bank, they'll buy the right things, they'll eat the right things. But are they doing it from the heart? No. Has it changed their life at all? No. They're speaking the right words, but are the words their words? No. They're a man pleaser, a wife pleaser, a husband pleaser, a parent pleaser, whatever kind of a pleaser. But this is not a genuine person. This is not, as it says here, doing the will of God from the heart, being a godly person from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Because when the person who is the critic leaves, this man pleaser is going to revert right back to wearing the same old clothes, spending the money the same way. They're only doing it because they feel pressured or compelled to change and have some other habit. Another thing is, the one who is being judged and picked over and criticized can become angry. They can become discouraged. They can quit. I've seen this happen many times, where people just feel so much pressure and so much negativity and so much criticism, no matter what they do, no matter how much they improve, there's always more room to improve, and they finally just give up. Some people will commit suicide. Others will get angry. Others will just disassociate, break off relationships. We notice in a previous verse here, in verse 4, one example of this exists right within families, within parenting. And you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. As parents, we can just keep leaning on the kid and say, you didn't do that right, you don't do that right, you never do anything right. You ever heard this word, never? Anybody here who has ever been a child? You never do this, you always do this. You always, always, never, always, you're never good enough, no matter what. And a child can react in various ways, and sometimes it can be wrathful. I remember when I was a teenager in Pasadena, right on the Ambassador College campus, we had some employees living in neighboring houses. I remember walking down the street one day, and my next-door neighbors had a teenage son. He was about 17 at the time. And there they were on the front yard, on the front lawn, and the father and the son were going at it with fists. Because the son was a little bit... he didn't keep the rules so well, let's say. But they were duking it out on the front lawn with fists. You know, fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath.

Parents have a responsibility to children, but at a certain age, a certain time in life, that responsibility transforms and transfers to them. And what they do with the rest of their life really becomes their own responsibility. We don't have to grow old, still picking away and chipping at the children and cutting them down and belittling them. It just does not make for a good relationship. And the third thing, the person who is judging, for some reason, the one who is so judged, that is so right and so able to judge and see all this fault, is not able to receive correction.

And they're easily offended. Are you like that sometime? Am I like that sometime? We feel like we're cruising through life and we're so good and we're so gifted, so talented, so able to pick out all the flaws in life, and someone says, you have a flaw? What? Me? How dare you tell me I have a flaw? I can't believe that I heard the word flaw associated with me! You know, the old thing is there are some who can dish it out but can't take it.

Well, that's the human mind who feels superior to others. They're the ones who are not able to receive that which they give out. And so, no matter what the circumstances for being judgmental to other people, whether you're the receiver or whether you're the giver, the end result is not good. It is not godly, it's not from God.

In fact, when criticizing others, we're actually nosing into God's business, to His realm, to His jurisdiction, His responsibility, and that is offensive to Him. The Apostle Paul brings us out in Romans 14, beginning in verse 4. Romans 14, 4. Notice how bluntly he puts this. Who are you to judge another servant? I could say, John Elliott, who are you to judge Mary Elliott, your wife? Like she's some sort of possession of mine. Like she's a puppet that I can pull the strings or chop her down or slice and dice or criticize her.

She's not my servant, she's God's servant. She is a king and a priest in the baking. She is the friend of God, who is anybody, whether it's a parent to a child, a child to a parent, a spouse to a mate, or brother to sister, or us to someone in the world. Who are we to judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will make him to stand, for God is able to make him stand. Here we are being critical of other people and sort of snickering, maybe, or putting them down, where God is not expecting them to fail.

God's expecting them to succeed. God expects every one of you here to succeed. He's with us, he's for us. He says, I'll never leave or forsake you. I'm there with you. The Holy Spirit is there to help you. Jesus Christ and the Father come through the Spirit to be in us to help us. So who is this that's giving us the criticism?

Who is this that's pulling us down? What kind of spirit and mind is that from? See, these are some things we need to identify with and understand when we're part of that mentality that it's not of God. In verse 6, the righteous judgment of God will render to each one according to his deeds. That's not your business or mine. Eternal life to those who by patient continuous in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality.

So that's what we should be hoping for, not only for ourselves but for everybody in helping one another down that road towards the kingdom of God. In verse 12, so then let each of us shall give account of himself to God. Mary doesn't have to give account of herself to me. I don't have to give my account of myself to you. You don't have to give account of yourself to anybody else. We all do this to God. And eventually we will definitely be judged ultimately by God, not by each other. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.

Being judgmental is the stumbling block. It's the cause that many get discouraged, and their own low self-esteem gets wounded deeply. And it's very difficult for them to overcome that. This process of repentance that we're in will gradually get us out of those mentalities, at least to a degree.

We can help each other along the way. In Romans chapter 2 and verse 1, we find a similar principle that the Apostle Paul brings out. He says, therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, who judge. Wow! But wait a minute. I thought I was doing a good deed. I thought I was pointing out all the problems in the world. I thought I was fixing everybody, or at least critiquing them, or at least recognizing how in a perfect world everybody else would be, since I'm perfect.

I guess that's the mentality we have when we do that. But here he says, you are inexcusable for doing that. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. Why? For you who judge practice the same things. Oops. You've got to be kidding.

You mean all those little weaknesses or all those little defects that I see in everybody else I have too? That's what he says. You who judge practice the same things. We are all imperfect. We are all weak. We all could do things better. But that's our individual responsibilities. And when we choose to say, well, I don't have any of that myself, but I'm going to reach out and find imperfection everywhere else, we are not repenting, are we?

We're guilty of the same things. We're judging the same things, but we're overlooking our own mistakes or choosing not to see them. You know, there's an old principle that says, you can see best the flaws in other people that you have yourself. You may not know that you have them yourself. How often does a person come up to you and say, I just can't stand that other person? They are just so domineering.

You can't even hardly speak around them because they control the conversation. They're so strong willed. They have an opinion about everything. And you just chuckle inside because the person who's saying this, that's just them to a T. And they just can't stand being around somebody who's just like them. And so it is. You know, what you condemn others for, Paul says, you practice the same things. I just wonder sometimes if that which irritates us about somebody else isn't really the thing that irritates other people about us. Because oftentimes those are the things that we either see and we are working on and we hate and abhor, or they're just part of our character that we want to roll over somebody else.

And when they're trying to roll over us with the same weakness, it just, there's a clash going on. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Notice it's not the judgment of us. It's the judgment of God. God looks at the heart. God judges rightly. Those who practice evil, God is judging using truth. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same that you will escape the judgment of God, if you're condemning and putting them down and disqualifying them, do you think you who do the exact same things and have weaknesses yourself will somehow be qualified by God and accepted by God?

Well, I know you're a sinner, but you sure saw a lot of sin in other people, so you get an A-plus for that.

No? There's no real benefit to that, is there? There certainly is none. In James 4, verse 11, we're told, Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. Why? Because the law is about loving your brother. So if we say the right thing to do is to harm other people by being judgmental, nose into their life, critique them, put them down, make them feel bad, at least in our mind, reduce them down, feel superior, the opposite of humility, that's good. Then we're judging the law that it's bad, because we should be humbling ourselves, like washing our brother or sister's feet at the Passover. That's the mentality that we should have, giving ourselves, daily sacrificing ourselves, our time, our money, our life, our prayers for others.

So we cannot have a different mentality than what God tells us to have, otherwise we're judging the law, we're against God. If you are a judge of the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge, a critic, a critic of the law. There is, verse 12, one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge one another?

It puts it very plainly, keep our nose out of it. God the Father, Jesus Christ, they're the judges. They can do it perfectly, very well, they don't need your or my help. We have our own internal work to do and our own internal perspective to have, and certainly that does not include slicing and dicing anybody else. Now you might think, how does he come up with this topic and where did it come from? Well, let me tell you a little story. I was thinking about, as I often do, who will God have in the kingdom and will I be one of them? In Psalm chapter 15, he tells us, let's go back to Psalm chapter 15. Psalm chapter 15 addresses those who will be in the kingdom of God. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your holy hill? He begins to give some character traits, some personal ethics of a spiritual nature that will be in those who will be in the kingdom. In verse 3, he says, He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend. Doesn't take up a reproach against his friend. What does that mean? I don't use reproach, the term reproach, a lot in my vocabulary. So I decide I'm going to look up the Greek, actually the Hebrew meaning of this word, reproach. And here's what it says. From Brown Driver Briggs, the word is chirpa. Reproach means it has something to do with the condition of shame or disgrace.

Something about shame or disgrace towards a friend, towards a neighbor. Strongs is a little more murky. It says, contumelie. Now there's a word for you. Contumelie I had not used ever in my life, on purpose at least, to my knowledge. Contumelie. And that's because contumelie is a very old English word. It dates back to the year about the year 1350.

Contumelie though explains what this is. From dictionary.com, contumelie is a noun that means contempt in words or actions. Contemptuous or humiliating treatment. A humiliating insult. Abuse, scorn, disdain. In other words, judgmental. Slicing up. Critiquing. Criticizing your neighbor. One who criticizes his neighbor will not dwell on God's holy hill. One who is putting them down is scornful of them. Seize them through eyes of disgrace. That is not going to be there. Now, so far you might have gathered from this message that what we ought to be is really nice people who don't have any wrong thoughts, who hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil. We just go through life and live and let live. Right? I'm okay and you're okay and we're all going to roll into the kingdom together until you read the next verse. Verse 4. In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord? You talk about judging. You've got a judge who vile people are so that you can despise what they do and who fear God and are righteous so you can honor them. God's not just going to let us off the hook by closing down our minds and our perceptions and our love for what is good and what is evil. No, we're going to have to sharpen a little bit here and do things in a godly way instead of a carnal way.

Jesus Christ gave us an example in John 3, verse 17. Do you think Jesus Christ came into the world and only saw good people? He patted everybody on the back. He wants us to be like him, so how did he do it? In John 3, verse 17, Jesus made this statement, For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. He didn't come here to pick at all the flaws to condemn them to judge the world at this time. No, because, he says here, he who does not believe is condemned already. People make mistakes.

Notice, because he has not believed... Oh, I'm sorry, I'm already a verse ahead. Let's go back. But he didn't come to condemn the world. Verse 17, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. But that the world through him might be saved. He came to a sinning world so that he could save it.

That was his mentality. We might see sin, and we should be able to observe sin, so that we can help people be saved from it. Going on to verse 18. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. People's decisions, their internal responsibilities are theirs, whether they're condemned or not condemned. That's up to them. Jesus Christ did not come to condemn at that time, to judge at that time. He came to save.

He didn't see necessarily a world full of sinners. Remember what he did with Jerusalem? He didn't get up on the mountain and say, looking down over Jerusalem, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you sinners! You make me so angry I've got to smack you with a thunderbolt. No, he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you sinners! How I would love to have wrapped my arms around you! How would I have loved to help you?

How would I, you know, if you had been receptive? He was emotional about wanting to love and serve people who made mistakes. That's the difference between being judgmental and making a judgment about what is right and what is wrong. The faithful are not condemned. The faithful are not condemned.

It says here, verse 17, that the world through him might be saved. We have to have faith. We have to have works along with that faith. We're never going to be perfect. But God's approach is to encourage, to encourage. When is it right to judge another? Is it right to say, Oh, look at the faults and the problems and all these people and bring accusations, maybe take them to the minister? Or maybe just your friends. You know what?

I've got to tell you what Josephine's been doing. Not that I know a Josephine, but Josephine, yeah. I'm telling you this so we can pray about her. Right? We can help her. Or I just want to tell you how obnoxious you are and how you've been blowing it in life so that you can grow.

You know? That's not... Satan is the accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12.10. Satan is the one who comes around and picks and accuses, tries to find fault, tries to let others know, including God. Because he's the ultimate one with a low self-esteem. He wants to be bigger than he is and he feels outshined by God. Now, when is it right to judge another? Well, there's an important difference between judging and being judgmental. Judgmental means to make judgments about value, importance, about objectivity.

Being a judge means to discern, to get all the facts and discern something, to come to an objective decision. That's discernment. The Bible tells us that we are to judge certain things. Jesus Christ said to judge the fruit of teachers. Many false prophets are going to come in the end time and they'll deceive many. I'm warning you, by their fruits you will know them. You have to judge them by their fruits. Not by what they say because they'll be preaching truth.

But judge by the fruits. What's in their hearts? They want to devour you. They want to eat you up. They want to use you somehow. Judge the fruits. What else? Jesus said in John 17, 24, Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

You're not off the hook if you just think, well, I'm not going to judge anybody anymore. I'm not going to be looking or thinking. Jesus says you judge with righteous judgment. We have to judge potential leaders.

It says in Titus 1, 7, A bishop must be blameless, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not greedy for money. Verse 8, Hospitable, a lover of what is good, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught. What, is he going to write you a list and send it to you in the mail so you'll know?

No! You have to perceive these things. You have to make judgments. You have to judge the fruits. You have to look at the actions. One minister to another potential minister. This is what Paul is teaching Titus. That's what we're to use when we look at the fruits.

What about helping a brother or a child in love? We see a fault. What do we do with that? Well, it says over in Galatians 6, verses 1-5, Galatians 6, verse 1, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any sin, in any trespass, so here you perceive that someone has been taken over by a sin, they're sinning. What do you do with that? Pat them on the back. Ignore them. You who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

First of all, you have to judge that there is a sin involved, don't you? And now you restore someone in a spirit, it says of gentleness. The word there is meekness, priorities. That means abject humility that I'm no good, I don't know what's good, but God does. And I've found there's a lot of problems in my life, and look, I see there's a problem in another person's life. How can I help that person?

Maybe I could go up to that person and just tell them, you know what, I've found a problem in my life, and explain that problem, and how that problem is manifest, and then ask them to pray for me and walk away.

That might be the best way to do it. Never even mention that they might have the problem. Or maybe just share with them, you know, I've had this problem, I've battled with it. You know, if you ever see something like that in you, or if you ever need any help, or if you see a way you can help me, let me know. You know, you find this camaraderie that we, as sinning humans, need each other. And sometimes we can help each other in a spirit of meekness.

Verse 2, bear one another's burdens. Don't throw fiery darts or critiques, but bear one another's burdens. Help them with it, and so fulfill the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? Love your neighbor as yourself. Love one another. If anyone thinks himself to be something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. But we think that somehow we're the right one, and we can judge and perceive, you know, what's wrong with the church, what's wrong with authority, what's wrong with our mate, what's wrong with our town, what's wrong with our friends.

We deceive ourselves. Let each one of you examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and naught in another. For each one shall bear his own load. We need to hate sin. It says in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 6, We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, notice this. It's kind of a strong statement. It's not like you can just sort of close up and go home and say, oh, I'm just going to not see evil and hear evil.

We command you, brethren, in the name of God. That's what Paul says. Wow! It's a pretty strong command. That you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly. Do you have to judge? You bet you do. And if somebody in their life is not just making a mistake or has a weakness, but I mean they have their church personality, their Sabbath life, and then they have that other life.

They have that weekday life, and that weekday life is all about some really corrupt stuff. Withdraw yourself from that brother or sister. You know Paul talks about an individual in 1 Corinthians who was having relations with his father's wife. I mean, come on! He's got the church Sabbath routine down, but over here everybody knows he's living some lie. Withdraw yourself. They put him out of the church. Individually, there are times when we must make these determinations. We must judge a situation, and if the individual won't change, we must withdraw ourself.

That's what the Bible says. So the lesson is, hate sin. Hate it in yourself first. That's our major focus, our only responsibility, really, the big one. And then protect it from spreading. Withdraw yourself. Don't let it get on you. Put a person out of the church. Don't let that spread. Whatever, whatever. Love the sinner, hate the sin. That's the focus. So again, what should we be doing? We should be paying attention to our own state.

Remember what Paul said before Passover we should do? Examine yourself. He didn't say, go to church and examine everyone. See who's in the faith. Examine yourself and see if you are in the faith. None of us match up to perfection, that of Jesus Christ or God the Father.

We all have our faults. We all need the mirror of God's Word as we look at ourselves. Turn that mirror in our own direction. James says in James 1 verse 22, Be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Just hear it and then judge others. Let's see, okay, I've been reading the Bible today.

How do you measure up there? No? Nobody goes on in verse 25. He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, loving your neighbor as yourself, loving God with all your heart, soul and mind, he will be blessed in what he does.

So I hope today we've been able to see that judgmentalism is a self-centered thing. It really is of the mind of Satan. It reduces the playing field, as it were, for the self, for the self-image. But judging in our own state what is righteousness and what is sin is a necessity so that we can hate sin and get rid of it.

And judging what is true leadership, judging what is truth, proving what is right and hanging on to that which is right, those require judgments. And even judging in other people where a glaring sin is showing that one is disingenuous when it comes to the faith, these matters can be important. They should be rare, but they can be important. We can help a brother, or we can avoid that becoming a problem in ourselves or other people.

In conclusion, turn with me to James 5, 8, 9. James 5, 8. You also be patient. We need to be patient with each other. We need to be patient going on until the coming of the Lord. We are to be patient. Establish your hearts. God really needs to know something about you and me. He needs to know who we genuinely are.

He doesn't need to know what we can be congealed into by somebody who is judgmental. He needs to know what we're really about. So establish your hearts. Establish them. For the coming of the Lord is at hand. He has to judge you. He has to judge me. At the end of our life or at His coming, He has to make a decision.

Who are we? What are we? Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Lest you be judged and condemned by God. We're not to grumble. We're not to critique. We're not to criticize. We're not to put down. We're not to condemn one another. Lest that happens to us when the great judge comes. For the coming of the Lord is at hand. He just said. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. So as we look forward to the kingdom of God, it's crucial for us to understand that judgmentalism has no place in the mind of a Christian.

It's not okay for us to feel superior. It's not okay for us to be little others. It's not okay for us to look down and be fault-finding and everybody else except me. With a child of God, we should be asking God for daily repentance for ourselves. And when we pray, Father, forgive me as I forgive others, that means not just, well, I don't really see anything. You know, I'm pretty good. I sure see a lot of problems in others, but I don't really see anything in me.

But just in case there is something, forgive it, will you please? No, it means forgive me. Forgive me and be able to name the things that are wrong in you because you're busy about finding sin and putting it out of your life. We each need to be able to do that and not be attuned to finding mistakes and errors in others. So let's get rid of judgmentalism, but yet let's bring in righteous judgment to protect, to defend that which is good, which is truth, which is right, which needs to stay.

And along the way, let's be there for each other as a friend, as a support, not as a group that criticizes each other, but a group that loves one another, that stitches itself stronger and stronger together by the love which every part does it share.

If we can do that, then we truly are a part of the body of Christ, and we truly will be ready to judge as kings and priests with Jesus Christ in the world tomorrow.