To Judge or Not To Judge?

Introduction

Sometimes as a pastor, or even just a fellow believer, I am amazed at how often Scripture is misquoted and mishandled to further people’s personal ideas or agendas. It really isn’t anything new, it has happened all throughout history. In fact if you caught the message from last week you could have surmised that besides Jesus coming to die for our sins and restoring right relationship with God, He spent a lot of time correcting false doctrines and total misconceptions of God.

Here we are 2000 years removed from the teachings of Christ and the Apostles that spread the message and what is our status as a Church collectively? We are more divided now than they ever were in Jesus’ day!!! We are far weaker spiritually in many cases, and in others totally deceived into thinking we are ok when biblically speaking we are not!

You may have noticed that in the past few weeks I have been preaching particularly strong messages. There is a very simple explanation; judgment starts in the house of God. I am not referring to the building that we meet in under normal circumstances. But we absolutely need judgment in the Church today and I want to tell you why.

Psalm 94:1–15 ESV

O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.” Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge— the Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath. Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked. For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage; for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.

Judgment is going to happen

We have heard and know the famous quote from Jesus

Matthew 7:1–2 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Yet what I find in the word of God is that you cannot take one verse and make a theme song for your life because it fits your agenda. There was a very specific reason Jesus was talking the way He was about judgment in that verse but I will get to that in a bit.

For the child of God, we are to expect and embrace judgment from God. This thinking is far removed from our pulpits these days but I will verify to you that it is true.

John 7:24 ESV

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

Is John the Beloved contradicting Jesus? Who in the world does he think he is? How did he sneak these words into the Gospel. Oh wait a minute, no that’s Jesus saying this to religious folks…you might recognize the red letters in your Bible!

Indeed we are a couple of generations deep in a movement that has swept the Church world that abhors or hates judgment. But we need to be careful that we understand EVERYTHING the Word of God has to say before we walk away feeling justified in our behaviors or thinking.

These are two different types of judgment that are being spoken about. The one type of judgment that we need to avoid is the one Jesus warns us about.

Matthew 7:1–6 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Judgment happens every day in some context, some is good and some is not. Discernment is a type of judgment is it not? But if it comes from the Holy Spirit, is it not righteous judgment?

2 Thessalonians 1:5 ESV

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—

This is referring to a legal decision made by God, not necessarily condemnation from God. Remember, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8). The problem in the Church today is that although many call themselves by the name of Christ, they are not truly His.

Why We Need Judgment

I am personally fed up with preachers that falsely preach nothing but self help messages or five steps to your best life. The world has laughed us to scorn over so many foolish spectacles that Christianity has allowed over the years.

Ezekiel 44:5–14 ESV

And the Lord said to me, “Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I shall tell you concerning all the statutes of the temple of the Lord and all its laws. And mark well the entrance to the temple and all the exits from the sanctuary. And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations, in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary. “Thus says the Lord God: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. But the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols when Israel went astray, shall bear their punishment. They shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple and ministering in the temple. They shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before the people, to minister to them. Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have sworn concerning them, declares the Lord God, and they shall bear their punishment. They shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my holy things and the things that are most holy, but they shall bear their shame and the abominations that they have committed. Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, to do all its service and all that is to be done in it.

These that have rejected the judgment of God have profaned His Holy Name in His Church!! They have become Gospel hardened. They have heard the message over and over again but instead of becoming softened by it, their rejection of the truth has actually made their hearts impregnable even to the Holy Spirit of God!!

They spend their time judging others as Jesus spoke of earlier, yet refuse to receive correction themselves.

Ezekiel 44:15–20 ESV

“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the Lord God. They shall enter my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge. When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen garments. They shall have nothing of wool on them, while they minister at the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and linen undergarments around their waists. They shall not bind themselves with anything that causes sweat. And when they go out into the outer court to the people, they shall put off the garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers. And they shall put on other garments, lest they transmit holiness to the people with their garments. They shall not shave their heads or let their locks grow long; they shall surely trim the hair of their heads.