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

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good morning and welcome. Let's find your seats. Take our song books. Turn to song 413. Song 413. 413. Let's go ahead and sing it out on the first. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. These soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal band. On the second. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. On the last. Yeah. Amen. We want to welcome you to Verity Baptist Church this morning. We're glad you're with us and we have a wonderful service lined up for you today. And we'd like to begin the service, of course, with a word of prayer. So let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for allowing us to gather together today. We thank you for our church family. We pray that you would bless the time that we have set aside for singing, for preaching, also for fellowship. But we ask that you would meet with us this morning, that we would learn something from your word that we would draw closer to you as a result of what we hear today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Turn to song 236. 236. 236. All on the first. There's not a friend like the Holy Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. No one else can heal all our souls, Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will fight till the day is done. There's not a friend like the Holy Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. No friend like Him is so high and lowing. No, not one, no, not one. And yet no friend is so weak and blind. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will fight till the day is done. There's not a friend like the Holy Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. There's not an arrow that He is not near us. No, not one, no, not one. No knife so dark but His love can cheer us. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will fight till the day is done. There's not a friend like the Holy Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. No love nor good on the fourth. Did every saint find his strength forsaken? No, not one, no, not one. Oh, sinner find that He did not take it. No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will fight till the day is done. There's not a friend like the Holy Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. Was there a gift like the Savior given? No, not one, no, not one. No, not one, no, not one. Will He refuse us to go with Heaven? No, not one, no, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will fight till the day is done. There's not a friend like the Holy Jesus. No, not one, no, not one. Amen, all right, well, let's take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements this morning. If you did not receive a bulletin on your way in, just raise your hand, and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up, and we will get one for you. The verse this week, Proverbs 28, 5, evil men understand not judgment, but they that seek the Lord understand all things. And that's a good verse there. We like that. If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time Sunday morning service, 10.30 a.m., We're glad that you are with us on Sunday morning, of course, on the Lord's Day for Church Sunday evening service at 6 p.m. We do invite you to be back tonight for the evening service. The evening service is different than the morning service, different songs that are sung, different sermon that's preached. Just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people under the preaching of the Word of God. And then, of course, our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. We'd love for you to join us on Wednesday night. We are studying the book of Amos on Wednesday nights, and we'll be in Amos chapter number four this Wednesday if you'd like to read ahead and get ready for the Bible study. If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m., and then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 2 p.m. So if you'd like to go soul winning this afternoon, there will be an opportunity for you to be able to do that. If you're a first time guest, if it's your first time here at Ready Baptist Church, we're glad you're with us. We have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building this morning as you go through our main foyer, or if you go out our secondary foyer, you'll see a little table set up, and on that table you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest. This morning there are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have, but the one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. It's very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it. We want to give it to you as a gift. And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card, which is inserted in your bulletin. If you need a pen, just raise your hand, and one of our ushers can bring you by a Ready Baptist Church pen. And we would like to have a record of your attendance. We actually would like to send you a little gift, but we need your info to do that. So please take a moment to fill the card out. And when we're done with the announcements, we're going to sing a song. When we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering. And as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate. If you look at the bulletin there, we of course are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcomed in the church service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All of the rooms have comfortable seating. We have monitor set up so you can watch the service and listen to it. So if you have a child that's being distracted during the service, or if you need some privacy, we would encourage you to use those rooms as needed. If you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you. You can let us know on your communication card. On the back of the card, there's a place for you to check off that you'd like information about baptism. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course Nine Chapters a Day Challenge is over. And if you completed the Nine Chapters a Day Challenge, we need you to let us know. On your communication card, please write on the back. There's a place for you to write your first and last name. Make sure you do it legibly because we're going to get the document created so that we can have everybody's names put on a nice plaque. So we need your name. If you could do it as legibly as possible, we'd appreciate that. And then of course we have the Married Couples Sweetheart Banquet coming up this Friday, February 10th at 6.30 p.m. And we're excited about this. We've got a lot of couples signed up. And this is always just a fun event. It's always a good time, and it's a good time to get to know the other couples in the church and get to maybe make some friends. So we'll have a nice catered dinner that night. There'll be a short sermon, of course, from the Word of God. And then we'll be playing the Not So Newlywed Game. And it's just a fun game. You don't have to stress out about it. There's silly questions, and we'll just see how well you know your spouse. The winning couple gets a $50 gift card to the Cheesecake Factory. And if you'd like to sign up, you need to sign up today. Today is the deadline to sign up because it is catered. So we need to be able to let them know what the number is. So please make sure you do that if you've not yet done that. And then next Sunday is I Love My Church Sunday. You should have one of these cards in your bulletin. And we encourage you to use this card to invite somebody to church next week. Bring somebody with you to I Love My Church Sunday. And we're going to have several special things going on, of course. We're going to have a gift for everybody. Bags of pink vanilla and caramel Valentine's Day popcorn for every family in attendance at the Sunday morning service. The VBC Choir and Orchestra will have special music. And we're going to have a potluck after the Sunday evening service. We want you to be aware of that. Make sure you are here for I Love My Church Sunday. And I want to encourage you to invite somebody to church with you. And then, of course, tonight after the evening service in the Fellowship Hall, we're going to be getting the mailers ready for I Love My Church Sunday. I think there's about 5,000 mailers that need to be prepared. And that sounds like a lot, but you guys knock them out fast. And we've got it set up to the place where all we need to do is put one label on one card and it can get done fast. So if you can help us tonight after the evening service, we would really appreciate the help. And we will be doing that immediately after the evening service tonight in the Fellowship Hall. All the ladies are invited to a baby shower for Miss Ajana Goncharov on Saturday, February 25th at 3 p.m. And Miss Ajana is having a boy and is registered on Amazon. It is a potluck, so if you can, please bring a disc to share. And if you'd like to attend, you can sign up on your communication card. PBC Choir and Orchestra, they're practicing today at 5 p.m. for I Love My Church Sunday. And then Home School Group, they've got a Valentine's Day party coming up. If you're part of our Home School Group, on Tuesday, February 14th at 11 a.m., there's a Valentine's Day party here at the church building. If you'd like to attend, then you can sign up on your communication card. Also, my wife has the handouts for the Valentine's Day party for all the information you need for that. So make sure you see my wife after the service and she has the handouts for those PE classes on Thursday, February 16th. Upcoming cleaning crew, you can check for your name there. There's other things there for you to look at. Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service so that they're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of February. Tomorrow, February 6th, is Ms. Katie Rosenberg's birthday. And on February 7th, we have Joanna Nellitescu and Ms. Courtney Rubin. Laurel Rubin's birthday is on February 10th. And Ms. Lisa Sweeten's birthday is on February 11th. Praise report, money matters, all those things are there for you to look at. I do want to say again, thank you to the entire church family on Wednesday night. For the potluck and the gifts and all the kind words. I really do appreciate your love towards me and my family. And I just want to say thank you again to everybody that participated. I think that's it for all of the announcements. So we're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week, which is the insert in your bulletin. This is a brand new chorus. We have never sang this here. I don't think we've ever sang this here. So we're going to go ahead and sing it out and we're going to learn it together. Now, I need your help. If you know the song, please sing it out. If you don't know it, then let's learn it together. Once I was clothed in the rags of my sin. Sing it out on the first. Once I was clothed in the rags of my sin. Wretched and poor, lost and lonely within. But with wondrous compassion, the king of all kings. Pity and love took me under his wings. Oh yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the king. His royal blood now flows in my veins. And I, who was wretched and poor, now can sing. Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the king. All right, let me just ask who's never heard that song before? It's the first time you've sang it. All right, who does know it? You know it. All right, I can tell. Only one. So let's go ahead and learn it together on the second. Now I'm a child with a heavenly home. My holy father has made me his own. And I'm cleansed by his blood and I'm clothed in his love. And someday I'll sing with the angels above. Oh yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the king. His royal blood now flows in my veins. And I, who was wretched and poor, now can sing. Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the king. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for allowing us to gather together today. Lord, we pray that you'd bless the offering, the gift, and the giver. Lord, we ask that you would meet with us as we take time to look at scripture again, study scripture, learn from scripture. Lord, help us to learn from your word and to draw close to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. If you do not have a Bible, raise your hand and an usher will bring you one. Matthew chapter 7. We will read the entire chapter, as is our custom. Matthew chapter 7. Just keep your hands up and an usher will bring you a Bible. Matthew chapter 7, the Bible reads, Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under your feet, and turn again and rend you. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is a law in the prophets, and to ye in the strait gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruits, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by thy fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and was great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrines, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Let's pray. Lord God Almighty, thank you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity to come together. Please bless, Pastor. Bless the message. Let it bring glory and honor to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, we're there in Matthew, chapter number 7. And, of course, we are in a series on Sunday mornings called Judgment. And we've been learning from the Word of God about the subject of judgment and justice. And, if you remember, we started this series several weeks ago, and I began this series with a sermon entitled The Theology of Judgment. And I really just gave you a doctrinal overview on the subject of judgment. And the big takeaways from that sermon was that I wanted you to be aware of the fact that, when we think of the word judgment, because the word judgment has so many different meanings to so many different people, I wanted you to remember or understand that in the Bible, when we're talking about judgment, there's two words that are used synonymously with the word judgment. One is discernment. The other is justice. And discernment is knowing what is right and what is wrong. Justice is knowing who is right and who is wrong. Then, in the second sermon, I preached, in the second part of the series, I preached a sermon called Developing Discernment. We talked about some guidelines for being able to know what is right and what is wrong and what we should do in our personal lives in certain situations. Then, in the third part, I preached a sermon called Areas of Authority. And I talked about biblical, God-given authority and the areas of authority that we have been given to be careful to judge within our authority areas and to not cross into areas that are not our authority. And then, last week, I preached a sermon called Judgment Calls. And I gave you ten guidelines for justice, ten principles from the Word of God to help us guide in justice. Today, I'm preaching a sermon entitled Judge Not. And, of course, when most Christians think about judgment, this is the verse that they usually think about in Matthew, chapter number seven. I'd like you to look down at verse number one. Jesus says, Judge not that ye be not judged. Judge not that ye be not judged. And this has probably, honestly, overtaken John 3.16 as the most quoted verse in the Bible. I mean, when you think about, especially among liberal Christianity, this is like their favorite book, I mean, their favorite verse. This verse just rolls off their tongue, Judge not that ye be not judged. And liberals like to interpret this verse, Matthew 7.1, Judge not that ye be not judged. They like to interpret this verse as a mandate from the Lord Jesus Christ to never judge anyone for any reason ever. I mean, that's usually the position. When you have a liberal pastor preaching out of Matthew 7.1 or quoting Judge not that ye be not judged, what they're usually using this verse as a proof that Jesus taught that we should never judge anybody ever for any reason. And because the Bible says to judge not. And this is probably the most quoted and the most misquoted and taken out of context and misapplied verse in the Bible. Because people often will try to throw this verse in biblical Christian's faces, right? And especially in a church like ours, which is a Bible-believing, just a biblical church where I preach the Word of God, oftentimes people will email me or they'll post on social media and they'll use this verse, Judge not that ye be not judged. And they use it as a criticism against me for judging. And what I think is funny is that you're criticizing me for judging, but aren't you judging me right now? You're using this verse to say that we're never supposed to judge anybody for any reason, but yet you're using it as a tool to judge me at that very moment, which I think is kind of funny. So I want to speak on the subject of Judge not and what it is that Jesus was teaching here. And I want to begin just by way of introduction by making the statement, and I think it should be clear if you've been with us over the last several weeks, that the Bible clearly teaches us that we are to judge at certain times. The Bible does not, Jesus is not giving a mandate here to never judge anybody for any reason ever, no matter what. That is not what the Bible says. Jesus says, Judge not that ye be not judged, but I want you to notice that is Matthew chapter 7 and verse 1, and you'll notice that there are several verses that follow that. And Jesus explains what he means by Judge not that ye be not judged, and we're not going to come back and look at it, but let's just look at some other verses real quickly just by way of introduction to show you that the Bible does teach that we are to judge at certain times. Now you're there in Matthew chapter 7. Keep your finger there if you like. We're going to come back to Matthew 7, but go to John chapter 7 if you would. John chapter 7, and if you're there in Matthew, you'll go past the book of Mark, past the book of Luke, into the book of John, John chapter number 7, and look at verse number 24. Now here Jesus says the same thing. He uses the same two words, but I want you to notice the entire verse. John chapter 7, verse 24. Jesus says Judge not, Judge not, but notice what he says, according to the appearance, so he says I don't want you to judge, but it's not just a blanket statement. Judge not, never judge anyone for any reason. No, he says Judge not, according to the appearance. When it comes to the appearance, I don't want you to judge, he says, look at what he says in the last part of verse 24, but judge righteous judgment. So Jesus says I don't want you judging according to the appearance, but I do want you to judge righteous judgment. So here we have a verse where Jesus is telling us don't judge in this instance, but do judge if you're going to judge righteously, but judge righteous judgment. Go to 1 Corinthians if you would. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. You're there in John. You're going to pass the book of Acts, Romans, into 1 Corinthians. We've seen some of these verses already, but I just want to remind you 1 Corinthians chapter 6. If you remember 1 Corinthians chapter 6, there's an entire dissertation by the Apostle Paul where he explains that we as Christians are supposed to judge ourselves within the church and he gives all these guidelines for judgment. I'm not going to go through all of the entire passage, but I'll just highlight for you one verse. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 4, Paul says, if then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, I want you to notice what he says. He says, set them to judge. Set them to judge. I want you to consider Paul's wording here in 1 Corinthians 6, set them to judge, versus what the liberals want to say that Jesus said in Matthew 7, judge not. Because here Paul says, set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the church. And he says, you'd be better off grabbing the newest most immature Christian and setting them to judge versus going to the world to be judged. But here he gives the wording in a command. He says, set them to judge. So which one is it? Is it set them to judge or is it judge not, never judge for any reason? And the answer is, there are times when we are not to judge. But when Jesus says, judge not, this is not a mandate that is saying that we are never to judge anyone for any reason at any time. This is not just a blanket mandate, but I do want to show you and I want you to notice, and I purposely held off on this sermon until the fourth sermon in this series because I spent the last, the fifth sermon in this series, I spent the last four weeks showing you from the Bible all sorts of principles regarding judgment and how God expects us to judge and God expects us to judge righteously and to have equity and justice and discernment. And now what I'd like to do this morning is give you areas in which you are not supposed to judge. Because Jesus did say, judge not, but he did not say, judge not ever for any reason. The Bible gives us some specific reasons when we are not to judge because he said in John 7, 24, But judge righteous judgment. Paul said in 1 Corinthians, set them to judge who are at least is deemed in the church. Now go if you would back to Matthew chapter 7 and let me just say this. I'd like to give you four reasons or four instances this morning in which you should judge not. And if you are taking notes on the back of the course of the week, there's a place for you to write down some things. I'd like to give you some biblical reasons why you should not judge. And this is a practice that is even found in our secular justice system. The term used in the secular system is to recuse or to recuse oneself. Recuse means when a judge excuses oneself from a case because of a potential conflict of interest or lack of impartiality. And in our justice system, there are situations and instances where a judge whose job is to judge would say, I'm not going to judge. I'm going to judge not in this instance because of this reason. And biblically, there are some reasons why you may want to recuse yourself or keep yourself from judging. So let me give you four areas in which the Bible teaches us that we are to judge not. Again, judge not is not a blanket statement that means never judge anyone for any reason. But there are some specific reasons that Jesus taught regarding when we should and when we should not judge. Go back to Matthew chapter 7 if you would. Look down at verse number 1 again. Judge not that ye be not judged. Notice verse 2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. The word meet is defined as a measurement or a given amount of a measure. A standard by which something is measured. And here Jesus says, judge not that ye be not judged. And he says, I'm not saying don't ever judge but I am saying that with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Go if you would to Luke. You're there in Matthew 7. And like I said, we're going to be flipping a lot this morning so I hope you're just ready for that. We're going to be in Matthew 7 but go to Luke if you would. Luke chapter 6. In Luke chapter 6 we'll see a parallel passage. Why don't you notice how Luke states it in Matthew. Then you have Mark. Then you have Luke. Luke chapter 6 and verse 37. Luke 6 37 says, judge not. Notice what he says here. And ye shall not be judged. Condemn not and ye shall not be condemned. So forgive and ye shall be forgiven. So according to the Bible, when is a time that maybe we should not judge? And if you're taking notes you can write this down. Number one, we should judge not when you do not want to be judged yourself. That's what Jesus is teaching. He's not saying don't ever judge anybody for any reason but he is saying if you personally do not want to be judged, then you better not judge because he says with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. You're there in Luke. Go to Romans if you would. Romans chapter number 2. You're going to go past the book of John, past the book of Acts, into the book of Romans. Romans chapter number 2. Do me a favor when you get to Romans, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there because we're going to leave Romans and we're going to come back to it and I'd like you to be able to get to it quickly. Romans chapter number 2. See when Jesus says judge not that ye be not judged, he's not saying you better not judge anybody for any reason ever or else people are going to judge you. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is when you judge, when you practice the biblical discipline of judging, which we spent the last four weeks studying from the Bible and showing how to do that properly, when you should do that, how you should do that, why you should do that, what Jesus is saying is keep in mind that when you stand up as a leader or as a ruler and you judge others that you yourself will be judged by the same judgment. For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again. So if you don't want to be judged then you better recuse yourself and judge not. Judge not and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not and ye shall not be condemned. Romans chapter 2. Are you there? Look at verse 1. Notice what Paul says here. He says, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whatsoever, excuse me, whosoever thou art that judges. Notice what he says. He says, You're inexcusable whosoever thou art that judges for, notice this word, wherein. The word wherein means in the place. He says, For wherein thou judges another thou condemnest thyself. So what is the Bible teaching here when Jesus says judge not that ye be not judged? The idea is this, that when you and I stand up as leaders in order to judge we need to realize that the same judgment that we use to judge others, the same measure that we use to measure others, we will be measured by the same measurement, by the same judgment. So if we do not want to be judged then we better not judge and we better recuse ourselves. And what Jesus is saying, he's divinely in an inspired and divine beautiful, using beautiful language, when he says judge not that ye be not judged, what he pretty much is saying is this, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. He's saying look, if you're going to judge people, nothing wrong with judging people, you should judge people, especially in positions of authority, but realize that you better have your ducks in a row. You better have your act together. And by the way, this is why the Bible gives high qualifications for leaders and high qualifications for leadership. Why? Because look, if you're the leader, you better be on top of your game if you're going to judge others. And doesn't this just make sense? Doesn't it make sense that if you're the boss at work and you're going to write people up for being late to work that you yourself should not be late to work? Doesn't it make sense that if you're the boss at work and you're going to discipline people and write somebody up for being late, but then you're always late, doesn't it just make sense that the people that you're writing up are going to say, but you're always late? You know, you take long breaks too. You leave early too. You do this and you do that. Now obviously if it's your boss and he started the business, you should get your heart right and realize that you don't know what he's doing and he spent a lot of time starting that business anyway and he can do whatever he wants. But the idea is this though, that when we sit there and judge others, we ourselves will be judged. Keep your place in Romans. Go to James. James chapter 3. If you start at the end of the Bible and you go backwards, you have Revelation, Jude, 3rd, 2nd and 1st John, 2nd and 1st Peter, then the book of James. James chapter 3. Revelation, Jude, 3rd, 2nd and 1st John, 2nd and 1st Peter, James. James chapter 3. You've got your place in Romans. Do me a favor. Also keep your place in James. Romans and James. And look, in positions of leadership, you need to set the standard and when you're the leader, you need to be trying to be the best you can be, the best example you can be. James chapter 3 and verse 1. James 3 and 1. Keep your place in Romans and also keep your place in James if you would. We're going to come back to both. James 3 and 1. My brethren, notice what James says. He says, Be not many masters. Now a master is a leader. And he says, Be not many masters. And the way that it's worded there might be a little confusing, but what he's saying is, be careful about being a master over many. Remember we learned in previous sermons that God has given some people the ability to judge over tens, others over fifties, others over hundreds, others over thousands. And what James is teaching here, he says, My brethren, be not many masters. He says, Be careful about wanting to be a leader or a master above many or over many. Be not many masters. You say, Why would I want to be careful about not being a master or a leader over many? He says, Knowing that we, this is James who's a pastor of a church, speaking as a leader, says, We shall receive the greater condemnation. Verse 2, For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. We as leaders, and you as a leader, husband, and you as a leader, father, mother, manager, boss, pastor, whatever position you find yourself in, have to realize that yes, you can judge, but you better make sure that you are meeting the standards by which you are judging, because with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And if you don't want to be judged, then you should not judge others. You should recuse yourself. And again, this is one of those things that I think to myself, Do I really have to say this? Do I really have to explain this? But then things happen and you're like, Wow, really? You don't know that? I remember years ago there was a pastor who used to associate with our movement or movement of churches, and he decided to come against us and whatever. But it was interesting because this pastor had a son who had recently made not a great decision. I mean, it wasn't the worst decision, but it really just wasn't the greatest thing for this kid to do. And for some reason, and I don't know why, because when it happened, I thought to myself, Man, is this guy? Sometimes they think like, Are these guys like Saul where God gives them an evil spirit and they start to go crazy? Because this guy decides to get up and preach an entire sermon criticizing all of the kids in the new IFB, and specifically the kids of the pastors in the new IFB. And of course, naturally, the natural response when he preached the sermon is, Well, wait a minute, you're sitting here and criticizing and judging all of these kids who, by the way, are all in church, and didn't your kid X, Y, Z? And then, of course, he was like, I can't believe that you would criticize my kid. Don't you know what the Bible says? If you don't want to be criticized for your kid, you might want to keep your mouth shut. Here's all I'm saying, look, there's nothing wrong with standing up and judging and being an authority, but you better have your act together. And here's all I'm saying, and here's all that Jesus is saying. If I had a kid who wasn't doing that great, I'd keep my mouth quiet about other kids that aren't doing that great. Because the Bible says, Judge not. And by the way, if you have a kid that's doing great, you might want to just keep your mouth quiet anyway, because it's a nice thing to do, and because you don't know what a day will bring forth. But I just think it's funny that right at the right time that it was pretty public knowledge that his kid had made some decisions. He decides, I don't know if he was thinking, oh, I'll deflect the attention from my kid and attack all these other kids, but people are just saying, wait a minute, you're criticizing all these kids, but what about your kid? I can't believe that you guys would talk about my kid. Hey, you know what the Bible says? If you don't want to be condemned, don't condemn. If you don't want to be judged, don't judge. If you don't want to be criticized, don't criticize. And in leadership, this is, by the way, why God gives such stringent qualifications for a pastor. The Bible says about a pastor that he has to be blameless, that he has to be the husband of one wife, that he needs to have his children in subjection, that he needs to have a good report of them which are without. Why? A pastor needs to be on his game because we stand up and we preach three times a week. We preach about how your marriage should be. We preach about how your child-rearing should be. We preach about how your finances should be. We preach about how you should treat people. So we better make sure that we are doing all those things because with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged and with what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. And here's all I'm saying is if you don't want people criticizing you, don't become a leader and don't judge. Because James said, my brethren, be not many masters. You know the bigger the church gets, all it means is there's more people to criticize you? I mean, honestly, and look, I love you all. Thank you. God bless you. Somebody said this to me years ago. They said there's a law of the universe that says for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. He told me there's a law of leadership. The law of leadership is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. And you know what I've learned over the last 12 years of ministry is that I cannot, and look, this isn't some mega church. Our church has about 200 people here on a Sunday morning. And you know what I've learned is that with a church of 200 people, I literally cannot make a decision. I cannot make a choice. I cannot make a judgment call. I cannot make a decision or decide on anything without having somebody criticize me. And the point is this. Sometimes I make a decision. Some people love it. Some people hate it. Then I make another decision. The people who used to love it now hate it. The people who used to hate it now love it. And what I've learned is that I'll never make a decision where everybody's happy. Say, well, what do you do? You stop caring. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Maybe I need to grow in my leadership. I don't know what else to do. I decided a long time ago I can't make everybody happy. So I'm not really concerned to make anybody happy except the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to do what the Bible tells me to do. I'm going to do what the Word of God tells me to do. And if you don't like it, take it up with God. But what we must understand as leaders, see, the other thing is that I can't get all bitter and angry and upset that I'm being criticized about X, Y, and Z because I have to realize that as a leader, I'm going to be criticized. Now, I wish you would have more maturity. I wish you would grow a little bit. I wish you would have enough discernment to think to yourself, maybe I don't have all the details. And maybe what my little gossip friend told me was not the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and maybe they don't know everything that pastor's dealing with, and they don't know everything that pastor knows, and they don't know, and I'm not the leader, so maybe I'm just going to give him the benefit. You know, I wish you had more maturity to maybe have that, but if you're not going to have that, that's okay. I'll just preach about it. Be not many masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. And here's what I'm saying. Are you trying to scare us into becoming leaders? Yes. Because as a leader, you need to be careful what you say, how you say it, when you say it, why you say it, why. Because people are constantly going to criticize you. So, if you don't want to be judged, don't step into a position where you're required to judge. Judge not when you don't want to be judged yourself. When you don't have all the ducks in a row, and you don't, and look, none of us are perfect, all of us can work on ourselves. But Jesus says, don't judge when you yourself do not want to be judged. Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with measure you meet, it shall be measured to you again. Go back to Matthew chapter number seven. Keep your place in Romans, keep your place in James, and go to Matthew chapter seven. And it does require a type of leader. Look, I'm probably criticized on the internet every week of my life. Somebody's criticized me on the internet. I mean, I literally just had a pastor friend, and he was joking, it was a joke, but he sends me this video, a video somebody made about me, calling me a coward. He's like, did you see this? I'm like, did you see the one I made about you? And, you know, they were joking. But the point that I'm making is, you can't just sit up at night, just, what are people saying about me? You've got to just do what the Bible tells you to do, have your heart right with God, know that you're doing what God has called you to do, and let the rest of it, don't listen to it. Because in positions of leadership, you're going to be judged. And with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. So, just realize that if you don't want to be judged, then you should recuse yourself from judging. Let me put it this way, if you don't want to be criticized, then don't criticize. If you don't want to be condemned, then don't condemn. And if you find yourself in a position of leadership where you have to judge, where you have to criticize, where you have to discipline, where you have to condemn, then you better make sure that you've got, to the best of your ability, your act together. And you're ducks in a row. Or keep your mouth shut. So, number one, judge not when you do not want to be judged yourself. Number two, Jesus goes on here in Matthew, chapter seven, and in verse three, he says, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considers not the beam that is in thine own eye? I want you to notice the second reason that Jesus gives for not judging. He says, judge not, if you'd like to write this down, when doing so would be hypocritical. So you yourself should not judge and should recuse yourself from judging, if you do not want to be judged in that situation, about that same measurement. But then Jesus also says, you should also not judge, when doing so would be hypocritical. And notice that Jesus is against hypocritical judgment. Look at it again, verse three, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and considers not the beam that is in thine own eye? The word mote is defined as a very small piece of dust or dirt or a speck. A beam is a long piece of timber used for construction. Think of like a two by four. And what Jesus is saying here, he's saying, why are you beholding the mote or the two by four, you could say, that is in thy brother's eye, but considers not the beam that is in thine own eye? He says, your brother has this very small piece of dust or dirt or a speck in his eye, and you're all concerned and pointing out the dirt in his eye, while you yourself, and obviously Jesus is using hyperbole here, he says, while you yourself have a beam in your own eye. Look at verse four, Matthew chapter seven and verse four. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and beholdest a beam in thine own eye, verse five, thou hypocrite. He says, look, you don't want to judge when judging or doing so would make you a hypocrite, when it would be something that you yourself are guilty of, or you are more guilty than the person that you are judging or criticizing or trying to help. Go back to Romans, if you would, Romans chapter number two. Romans chapter number two. Of course, we have to have construction start while I'm preaching. But I've, I don't know, I guess I've bothered other people, so they're going to bother me, right? Judge not that you be not judged. Romans chapter two, look at verse one. Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges, for wherein thou judges another, thou condemnest thyself. Notice what he says, for thou that judges doest the same thing. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things, and thinkest thou this, O man? Notice verse three. Thou judges them which do such things, and doest thou the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Look at verse 21. Thou therefore which teaches another, teaches thou not thyself. Thou that preaches, a man should not steal. Does thou steal? Thou that sayest, a man should not commit adultery, does thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, does thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through the breaking of the law, dishonourest thou God? Notice verse 24. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. And then he says, as it is written in the next verse, he goes on to quote a verse. But I want you to notice that the Bible is against hypocritical judgment. Why? Well the answer is in verse 24. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you. When you and I stand up and we're hypocrites and we judge others and criticize others and condemn others for sin in their lives, while we have the same sin or worse sins in our lives, we're hypocrites and we cause people to blaspheme the name of God. And people will say things like, I don't like to go to church because it's full of hypocrites. And here's the thing, to a certain extent, that's true. But I always think it's funny when people say, I don't go to church because there's hypocrites there. I think to myself, do you not go to the grocery store? Do you not go to restaurants? You must not go to the dentist because there's hypocrites there too. I mean you must not go to the doctor because when I go to the doctor and a fat doctor walks in, I think to myself, judge not that you be not judged. And all I'm saying is that there are hypocrites everywhere. But what Jesus is teaching is that you and I should be careful not to judge when doing so would make us hypocrites. That we should recuse ourselves and say, you know what, I'm not going to judge in this. Maybe somebody else should judge here because, you know, I'm not going to judge the mote that is in my brother's eye while I have a beam in my own eye. Go back to Matthew chapter 7. And I want you to notice that Jesus is not against judgment in general. Notice Matthew 7 and verse 5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam that is in thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye. Notice Jesus is not against judging in general. He says, look, just make sure that you take care of the beam in your own eye before you try to help your brother. First cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Notice he doesn't say, don't ever try to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye ever for any reason. Don't you know the Bible says judge not? That's not what he says. He says just don't judge when you've got a beam in your own eye, but if you first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. And by the way, usually when you've cast the beam out of your own eye, you are the most qualified to help your brother cast out the mote out of your brother's eye. Don't take this as personal. Well, because of this in my life and in my past. No, sometimes because of the sin that you've gotten victory over in your past. That qualifies you to be able to lovingly and kindly and usually when you've had sin in your own past, you're going to be the most empathetic towards somebody who's maybe struggling with a similar sin. So God is not against judging anyone for any reason ever. No, no, no. He's against hypocritical judgment. But he wants you to cast out the beam out of your own eye and thou shalt be able to clearly cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. And he wants you to be aware of the fact that you should not judge someone if you yourself do not want to be judged and that when you do judge and when you do criticize, you open up yourself for criticism. So here's all I'm saying is, I wouldn't go around talking about how bad everybody else's kids, if your kid's a little devil too. Because you can sit there like, look at what their kid did, and people are like, your kid is like catching the church on fire right now! And sometimes we would be best, sometimes we would do best to mind our own business. Go to Proverbs chapter 26. Proverbs 26. You open up your Bible just right in the center, you're more than likely following the book of Psalms, right after Psalms you have Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 26. So we're talking about times and areas and incidents when we should not judge. Number one, we should judge not when you do not want to be judged yourself. You may say, I don't want anybody criticizing my kids. Okay, great. Just don't criticize anybody's kids. I don't want people to criticize my marriage. Okay, well then don't criticize anybody else's marriage. Make sure you don't put yourself in a position or allow yourself to be put in a position where you have to judge and give discipline in those areas and if you're going to do that, then make sure that you've got your act together. Leaders must have their act together. They're ducks in a row. They must be exceptional if they're going to lead. Not perfect, not without sin, but they should be blameless. Number two, judge not when doing so would be hypocritical. Jesus is against hypocritical judgment. He's not against judgment in general and he's for people getting the sin out of their lives so that they can help others. Number three, now let me just say this. The next two points, the first two points were new material that I've not covered in this series. The next two points, point number three and number four, I'm just going to tell you up front, they're going to be a little bit of review, but the reason I want to review them is because I've got some additional instructions and some things I want to say. Last week I had 10 points. I preached for an hour and 15 minutes and I didn't say everything I wanted to say, so I'm bringing some. So even though it's a little bit of review, the points themselves are review, the applications and the instruction is new, so please don't roll your eyes and go to sleep because you think I've already heard this. Number three, times when not to judge. A little bit of review, but I'm going to give you some additional information. Judge not when it is not within your scope of authority. Judge not when it is not within your scope of authority. We've talked about this, but we are to be careful not to reach out of our authority, our scope of God-given authority to judge others. And here's the question you should be asking yourself. You should ask yourself, by criticizing this, by judging this, by giving my opinion about this situation, you ought to ask yourself this, am I meddling in other people's business? Proverbs 26, are you there? Look at verse 17. He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife, belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. Now I love this verse because I just think it paints this picture. And people who like to meddle in other people's business, I imagine that they envision this verse like some cute little beagle or some tiny little chihuahua. But what you should be considering is a rottweiler or a pit bull. He that passeth by and meddleth with strife not belonging to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. And here's what I'm going to say. If you take a rottweiler by the ears, or you take a pit bull by the ears, or you take a German shepherd by the ears, you're liable to get bit. So before you judge, before you give your opinion, before you insert yourself in a situation, you should ask yourself, am I meddling by giving this opinion, making this criticism, posting this on the internet, making this video, whatever. Am I meddling in other people's business that does not belong to me? When I preached about this a few weeks ago on areas of authority, I talked about the fact that you should consider the fact that we wear different hats. Sometimes you have the hat of authority. Sometimes you have the hat of submission, to submit yourself to the authority. My birthday was just this last week, and I got many gifts, and I appreciate all of you. But one gift that I got that I thought was funny was David Puris gave me this hat as a birthday gift, and it says authority, if you can see it. And pretty much any time I call somebody into my office, I'm going to be wearing this hat, just to remind them. But we need to be careful to ask ourselves, am I wearing the hat of authority in this situation? And if I'm not, and maybe I should keep my mouth shut, we should ask ourselves, am I dealing with a situation that I have the authority over? That I have the God-given authority to get into, to express, to try to fix? Or am I just meddling in somebody else's business? Do you have the hat of authority or not? And if you don't, then you should stay out of it. Because when you don't have the authority, you are meddling in other people's business. And the Bible says, he that passeth by and meddles with strife, belonging not to him, is like one that taketh the dog by the ears. And here's all I will say, is that you're liable to get bid. So you should ask yourself, am I meddling in other people's business? You should also ask yourself, go to Romans chapter 14, should I even have an opinion about this? Before you give your opinion, before you send your tweet, I don't know, I don't know anything about social media. You tweet your tweet or Twitter, I don't know. Before you post your post, I don't know, I really don't know. I wish some of you guys would help me, but you don't want to admit to your social media habits, so that's fine. Before you post it, before you send it, before you email it, before you text it, before you write it, before you make it known, before you say, well, let me just throw in my two cents, you have to ask yourself this question. Should I even have an opinion about this? Should I even have two cents about this? The Bible says in Romans 14, 4, don't you love that phrase? The Bible says, that phrase gives some of you nightmares. You wake up at night in a cold sweat hearing my words. The Bible says, Romans 14, 4, here's what the Bible says, Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. And look, you have to be asking yourself, before you give your opinion, you have to be asking yourself, Should I even have an opinion about this? About them? About that situation? And if you are not their God-given authority, if you're not wearing the hat of authority in that situation, then don't judge. Let their God-given authority judge them. Let their parents deal with it. Let their husband deal with it. Let their boss deal with it. Let their pastor deal with it. Now if they're causing problems for you, I've got a sermon coming on gossip and I'm going to show you what you should do in a situation where somebody under somebody else's authority is causing problems for you. That doesn't mean that you just, spoiler alert, you go to their authority. You don't sit there and judge another man's servant. You don't judge another man's wife. You don't judge another man's kid. You don't judge another man's employees. You don't judge another man's church members. If you are not their God-given authority, then don't judge. Let their God-given authority judge them. Now let me say this, because this is what people, this is the question that people want to ask but they don't ask. Because they know it's a carnal question, so I'm just going to go ahead and answer it for you. If you don't like how their God-given authority is judging them, because that's why you're really criticizing them. You're criticizing them because you don't like how their parents decided to do X, Y, and Z. You don't like how the husband decided to do X, Y, and Z. You don't like how the pastor decided to do X, Y, and Z. So if you don't like how their God-given authority is judging them, you still should stay out of it. You say, why? Because remember point number one, don't judge if you don't want to be judged. You know why I don't go around criticizing other church members and pastors? Because I've got enough people here to keep me busy. I've got enough problems here to stay busy 40, 50 hours a week. I don't need to go insert myself into other people's drama. If you don't like how their God-given authority is judging them, you should still stay out of it and you should remember that God is the ultimate judge, not you. Look at Romans 14, 10. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. I don't like how that father did X, Y, and Z. I don't like how that husband did X, Y, and Z. I don't like how that wife did X, Y, and Z. I don't like how that pastor, I don't like how that manager decided to do with his team. I don't like, and you want to criticize people, but hey, just remember that the ultimate judge is God. Why dost thou judge thy brother? Why dost thou set at naught thy brother? We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. If you want to make your way back to James chapter 5, I ask you to keep your place in James. If you can find it quickly, James 5, 9. Notice what the Bible says. James 5, 9. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Why don't you want to grudge? Look at it. James 5, 9. Why don't you want to grudge against one another? Because when you criticize others, you might be criticized. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Hey, God is the ultimate judge. If you're not their God-given authority, don't judge. Stay out of it. Let their God-given authority judge them. And if you don't like how their God-given authority is judging them, stay out of it and realize that God is the ultimate judge, not you. It's not your job to go through and set everything right and make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to. No, that's not your job. You worry about your own authority and the people that God has put under you and let other people deal with their own problems. You should not judge when it is not within your scope of authority. Grudge not against another. And look, I'm telling you right now, if our church family... And look, I think Verity Baptist Church is the greatest church that's ever existed. I'm probably a little biased, I'm sure, but that's what I honestly believe. Go to Deuteronomy, if you will, Deuteronomy chapter 19. So I'm not saying this like our church is just the worst church ever and we have all this gossip. Look, every church has problems because every church that is a growing church has people. And I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but let me just let you in on a little secret. The more people, the more problems. You say, well, you know, is that a problem? Well, no, because if we didn't have any people, that'd be another problem. So, you know, you just have to realize the more a church grows, the more people you have, the more interactions, you're going to have problems. That's okay, but let me just say this. If people would learn this right here, to not judge when you don't want to be judged, to not criticize when you don't want to be criticized, to not judge when you are being a hypocrite, and to not judge when it's not within your scope of authority, it would solve so many problems in church. So many problems would be solved that people would keep their opinions to themselves. People are often trying, people are telling me all the time, trying to tell me how to pastor and how to do this and why I did this wrong. And I don't say it because I'm a mature Christian, but I want to say to them, you know, I don't go to your job and tell you how to do your job. And when I want your opinion about how to do my job, I'll ask. And you don't like me saying that and that's okay. Some of you are criticizing me right now. Deuteronomy 19. Judge not when you, and you can look, I've always said, if you have some negative thing about our church that you want to make known, we have a system set in place. You can take one of your communication cards, write down whatever you'd like to say, whatever criticism, and there is a bin right out there, and you can insert it into that bin, and that is where we put that criticism. And it's marked and everything. It says trash can. I'm joking. It's the only way that I can deal with this stress. It's my therapy. Number one, judge not when you do not want to be judged yourself. Number two, judge not when doing so would be hypocritical. Number three, judge not when it is not within your scope of authority. Number four, judge not when you do not have two witnesses or evidence. Now again, this is a little bit of review, but I want to give you some additional instruction and things that I didn't get to last week. Deuteronomy 19.15. We saw this last week. One witness shall not rise up against man for any iniquity or for any sin and any sin that he sinneth. At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. Verse 18. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And behold, if the witness be a false witness and have testified falsely against his brother, he goes on to give instructions. I want you to remember that the Bible says that we are not to judge or convict or find guilty or punish or discipline anybody at the testimony of one witness. One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin and any sin that he sinneth. At the mouth of two or three witnesses, the Bible says, at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. The word established does not mean settled. It means set up for an investigation. Verse 18. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. So when one person is accused about something by one person, then we just proceed as though they are innocent because people are innocent until proven guilty. When two witnesses arise, then at that point they're not guilty, but at that point we can begin an investigation to look to see if we can find any evidence or anything that corroborates the witnesses to be able to find this person guilty for what they've done. Let me just give some thoughts regarding this idea of judge not when you do not have two witnesses or evidence. First of all, let me just say this. Physical evidence can serve as a witness. In our modern society, of course, you can have a witness who just rises up and testifies as I saw XYZ. But physical evidence can also be used as a witness and would be biblically considered a witness giving a testimony. So obviously DNA, video footage, pictures, stuff like that, obviously with video footage and pictures because they can be doctored you want to be careful to just rely solely on that. But what I'm saying is physical evidence can also be used as a witness or as a testimony to bring about a diligent inquisition. Now let me just say this because I want to make sure you understand this, okay? In most cases, what the Bible teaches is that when there are not two witnesses, we should proceed as though the individual is innocent. Now in most cases, you should not believe the accusation and give the person the benefit of the doubt. So if somebody sends me an email and says, Pastor Anderson or Pastor Shally or Pastor Mejia did XYZ and they're just the one accuser. Well, I'm just going to say, you know what? I know those men. I know they're godly men. Obviously nobody's perfect but I know that they would not have done XYZ. And until you've got two witnesses or two pieces of evidence that prove that, I'm not going to believe it. I'm going to give the man of God the benefit of the doubt. And I would say that in most cases you should not believe the accusation and give that person the benefit of the doubt. However, in some cases, because let's say somebody brings to you a testimony. Somebody comes to me as a pastor and says, so-and-so church member did XYZ. And let's say that I think to myself like, yeah, I could totally see so-and-so church member doing XYZ. In fact, I've had my suspicions about so-and-so church member and I'm pretty sure that this person is someone that I trust and I know is godly and I feel like they're telling me the truth. What do you do in that instance? There are some cases, if you feel like the one witness that is coming to you is telling you the truth, then you don't have to not believe it. But you can't proceed as though you believe it. In these cases, you can file it away for if and when another witness comes forward. But in these cases, you must proceed as though they are innocent in your thoughts or actions towards them and you cannot proceed as though they are guilty. Do you understand what I just said? Somebody comes to you and says, I'm one witness and I saw, and let's say they accused one of my staff. And I feel like this person is pretty much a liar and a false accuser and they're a bad person. Then I have the right to say, you know what, I don't believe it and I won't believe it and I won't even accept it until you bring two witnesses or there's two pieces of evidence. Once there's two witnesses, then I'll investigate it but until then, I'm going to reject it out of hand. I don't believe it and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. That is totally a scriptural position to take. But what if somebody I trust comes to me and says, hey pastor, look, I thought you should know I'm the only witness as far as I know but I just wanted to make you aware X, Y, and Z. And I think to myself, yeah, I trust this person and I've got my suspicions about that person and I'm pretty sure that they're telling me the truth. What do I do? Well, I don't just go forward as though they're guilty but I can file it away and say, you know what, I'm going to file this away and I'm not going to proceed as though they're guilty. I'm not going to talk to them or do anything about it but if another witness arises or another piece of evidence comes to light, then I will proceed and begin an investigation. Do you see what I'm saying? So even when you like the person or maybe don't like the person, you think the witness is telling the truth, you still cannot act as though they're guilty and you can't proceed as though they're guilty but you don't have to not believe it. But you do have to wait to give a verdict until the trial is done and you can't start the trial until you have two witnesses. So in most cases, you should not believe the accusation and give the benefit of the doubt. In some cases, if you feel like the one witness is telling the truth, then you do not have to not believe it. You can file it away for if and when another witness comes forward or piece of evidence comes to light. And in these cases, you must not proceed as though they're guilty in your thoughts or actions towards them but you don't have to not believe it either. Let me say this. Go to 1 Samuel 16. If you're there in Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 16. Let me give you some additional clarification. What about when it comes to someone under your authority? So someone comes to me and accuses my staff about something or a church member or someone comes to you and accuses your kid about something. When it comes to someone under your authority, your kids, your employees, your church members, etc. You should not judge. And look, when we say judge, we mean to give a judgment. When I say you should not judge, it means that you're declaring you're guilty. You did this. You did this. You should not judge or convict or punish or discipline anyone based on one person's accusation or testimony. You understand what I'm saying? So somebody comes to you and says, I saw your teenage daughter or I saw your teenage son doing X, Y, and Z. Well, you should not necessarily just judge someone based off one accusation and one witness. However, and this is the part that I want you to make sure you understand, that does not mean that you cannot ask them or inquire about the accusation with them as long as they're under your authority and as long as you're not actively seeking evidence against them in order to judge or convict or punish. Because that would be opening up for an investigation. I realize I'm going probably a little too deep here and some of you are just, I don't care about this. But I want to answer these questions because I do this for a living and I don't want people saying, well, you should explain. No, look, if somebody comes to me with one accusation against a church member or a staff member or one of my kids, I'm not going to proceed as though that person is speaking the gospel, everything they say is true, and I'm just going to fire them because of what so-and-so said. I'm not going to do that. I'm not even going to open up an investigation or even start looking for evidence to try to find them guilty until two witnesses or two pieces of evidence make themselves come to light. But I may ask, I may go to them and say, hey, so-and-so said they saw you doing X, Y, and Z. I'm not saying you did it. Do you have any idea why they're saying that? Opening up an investigation in which you are trying to find evidence to find them guilty should only be done after two witnesses or two pieces of evidence come to light. However, if they're under your position of authority, keep that in mind. Because I want to be clear, somebody accused of another pastor, I'm not going to ask them about that. So I'm just accusing you, they're not under my authority. I'm talking about people under my authority, and let me just give you an example. Years ago we had a guy in our church who's just a troublemaker and just an idiot. And they caused all sorts of problems. And somebody actually came to me and gave me a testimony accusing them of something bad. I asked the individual, can I use you as a witness, and they said no. So I said, well, then there's nothing I can do. Because I can't go to anybody, you know, and I just said to them exactly what I'm saying to you right now. Exactly what I said to them is, I will file this away, I will make a note, I tend to believe you, and this person's been a bad person. But if you're not willing to be a testimony, you know, first of all, we need two testimonies, and if I've only got one and they don't want to come forward, then I'm just going to file this away for the next time if someone else. Well, here's the thing, a few weeks later somebody else came to me and said so and so, did X, Y, and Z, said X, Y, and Z. And it was a situation we already dealt with, I already talked to this person about that situation. This person I said, can I use you as a witness, they said absolutely, I don't care. But even at that point, though I had two witnesses, I only had one witness who was willing to go on the record. Do you understand? So what did you do, pastor? I just texted this individual and said, hey, did you say X, Y, and Z? I was told you said X, Y, and Z. I did not open up an investigation, I did not go looking for more witnesses, I did not go looking for more evidence, but they were one of my church members that I'd already spoken to about the situation, so I just asked, so and so saying you did X, Y, and Z, did you say X, Y, and Z? And this person was like a narcissist, arrogant idiot. So you're like, yes, I said it. Well, you're thrown out of the church. Well, the funny thing is that this person kept attacking me on the internet over and over, where are the two witnesses, where are the two witnesses, I never got two witnesses. And I think to myself, I don't need two witnesses, idiot, you confessed to it. I asked you, did you do it, you said yes, I don't need two witnesses, you told me you did it. You told me you did it. You're the witness, moron. So what I'm saying is if somebody tells you, hey, I saw your teenage son smoking weed, you don't need to sit there and say, I'm going to have to hire an investigator and go see if I can find someone. No, no, if you go to your son or your daughter and say, were you smoking weed, and they say yes, punish them. You don't need two pieces of evidence, they're under your authority, you can ask the question. Or you can say, I could see my son doing that, I'm going to file this away, and if there's something else that doesn't seem to jive, then I'll have two pieces. Look, I just want to make sure people understand because I don't want you taking what I say out of context. We do not open up an investigation where we are actively looking for evidence, actively looking for witnesses, actively where we would go to people and say, hey, people have been saying this about X, Y, and Z, have you heard because we were told you were there when that happened. We're not going to start that until two witnesses or two pieces of evidence come to light. But if they're under my authority and one accusation comes, I could biblically reject it out of hand and say, no, I don't buy that, they would never do that, and I don't trust you, and I trust them more than I trust you, come back with two pieces of evidence and then we'll talk. Or I could say, yeah, I could see that, I could see that, but you're only one witness, there's not enough evidence, I'm going to file this away, and if another piece of evidence comes to light or another witness comes to light, then I will deal with it. Or I could say, I'm not going to accuse them, I'm not going to go and say, you did this, but I could ask, hey, you're being accused, somebody said you did X, Y, and Z, did you do it? And if they're like, oh, well, yeah, pastor, you know, I did, then we're going to deal with it. I don't need to open up an investigation, I don't need two witnesses, if they're admitting to it, then we simply deal with it. And look, just be careful about falsely accusing people and about accusations. And let me just say this, because I preach these sermons, and really what I'm trying to do is give you some guidelines to help people. But I'm not trying to give you guidelines to destroy people and to hurt people. I literally, one time, somebody called my wife, I mean, literally somebody called my wife and said, I just saw your husband in a car with a young lady, literally. And my wife said, was she black, with curly black hair? Oh, yeah, well, that's my niece. He literally just left you, she was babysitting, he's dropping her off at home. And I'm thinking to myself, like, man, that's how easy people would want to destroy my ministry. They're not going to call me and say, hey, pastor, I just saw you, oh, yeah, I'm with Rebecca. Look, I'm not giving you all these principles to try to use them as tools to try to hurt people. And look, by the way, everywhere I go, I run into people that are watching me and looking at me. My wife and I go to restaurants, somebody treats us bad, and my wife's like, oh, here we go again. Let me recognize you. We need to have justice, equity. We should treat people right. Let me give you one last thing and we'll finish up. 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16, verse 7. 1 Samuel 16, 7. But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeketh not as man seeketh, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Here's a principle for justice that you need to understand and we'll finish this up. We can justly judge what someone does. We cannot, we do not have the right to judge why someone does what they do. Be very careful about judging somebody's motives. Now, understand that sometimes we can say, I think they're doing this because X, Y, and Z, and that's fine, but we should never judge somebody. We can only judge people based off what they've done, what we know they've done, what we can prove they've done, what the evidence tells us they've done. But you cannot judge why they've done it or the motive behind it. Because the Bible says that the Lord seeeth not as man seeeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Man can only see the outward appearance. I can only judge you based off what I can physically see in this world, but I can't judge your heart. Now, I might have my thoughts and inclination as to why someone's doing what they're doing, but just realize when it comes to actual judgment calls and making judgments and saying, this is the punishment, this is what we're going to do, we can justly judge what someone does. We cannot judge why they've done what they've done. And in some ways, the why, when it comes to justice, is irrelevant. If they did it or if they didn't do it, whether they did it or did not do it for the right or wrong reasons, we can only punish what they have or they have not done. The Bible says, you don't have to turn there, let me just read this for you, Isaiah 11-3, And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he, this is referring to Jesus during the millennial reign, shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity. The Bible says that Jesus will not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. When he judges, he will be able to judge the heart. But you and I, we can't judge people's hearts. So as a pastor, when it comes to making judgment calls, I often tell people, I get it. I agree with you. I think they might have done X, Y, and Z for X, Y, and Z reason, but I'm not God and I cannot judge their heart. I cannot judge why they've done what they've done. I can only judge what they've done. And that is equity. Be careful about having this God complex where you think you're God and you think you know why everybody, you don't know anything. I don't know anything. I don't know their life and their context and the things that they're going through and what they're dealing with. All I can judge is what they've done, what I know they've done, what I can prove they've done. And that's where our judgment should end. This is Father Hudson. Have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. Thank you for these rules of judgment from the word of God. Lord, I pray that you would help us to become mature Christians. Who learn to judge righteously. Who learn to judge equitably. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to be mature in our judgment. And help us, Lord, to have enough wisdom and discernment to know when not to judge. When to recuse ourselves from judgment. Help us to know when to judge and when not to judge. We love you. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen. We're going to have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. We do want to remind you to be back tonight at 6 p.m. We'd love for you to join us at the 6 p.m. service. We call it the most exciting service of the week. And we'd love for you to be here on Sunday night for another opportunity to be at God's house. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. We'll have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song. I was hoping he'd leave the hat up here so I could put it on and tell you to sing. We're in song 143. 143. Blessed assurance 143 on the first. Blessed assurance Jesus is mine For what a poor taste of glory he died There is salvation, purchase of God Born of his Spirit, lost in his blood This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior on heaven and earth This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior on heaven and earth Perfect submission, perfect delight Visions of rapture now burst from my sight He has descended great from above And course of mercy was brought to life This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior on heaven and earth This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior on heaven and earth Sing it out on the last. Perfect submission, colors at rest I am my Savior, in heaven and earth Watching and raging, lifting above And with his goodness, lost in his blood This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior on heaven and earth This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior on heaven and earth Amen. Good singing before we leave here. If anybody has questions about salvation, church membership, or baptism, the pastor will be at the door. He'd love to talk to you or direct you to someone who's trained to talk about that. I ask our brother Joe, would you close a prayer for us? Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your service today, Lord. We ask that we glorify you and to discern your relationships with one another. We ask that you bless this going forward and bring us all back to the same place. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.