I hope you enjoy this teaching and are as blessed as I was.
Heather
Part One is here.
Part Two is here
SAY AMEN
Show 149
Judging, Judgment, Justification
Part 3
Taught on: 3/21/10
What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.
Now, we are ministering to you in the area of judging, judgment, and justification. It’s a mouthful. Today is our day of justification, but before we get there we have to just clear up a few things.
The reason this teaching is important is because we are in a time period where the work of satan is now going to be met by the judgment of God. We are in the time period where we are approaching the Great Tribulation. We’ve been in tribulation since Peter stood up and quoted Joel on the day of Pentecost.
Since that day, the devil’s been doing his work, and bringing judgment, pain and sorrow, especially on the Church, but anyone that he can. Now God is going to bring judgment upon the whole earth and all that are in it. But He has special place in His heart for His children. So we’re in the time period where God is beginning to bring judgment on the earth.
We have to understand the things that Jesus said about judging. The World is telling us that Jesus said do not judge. That is a misquote, that is a misunderstanding. He didn’t say don’t judge. The sentence has to be understood that it is a Bible translation. It goes like this. ”Judge not, lest you be judged.” And then Jesus goes on. If we translated that into modern day English as we speak, He was saying, “If you judge, if you judge, be prepared to be judged,” [right] ”in the area that you judge.”
And then He goes on later and He says this. ”Take the beam out of your eye so that you can judge the speck in your brother’s eye.” So God is never telling us, “Don’t judge.” He says the Church must lift itself up and judge itself first. [right] Judgment begins in the house of God. We have to judge each other and be on each other’s case. We have to straighten each other of us out, so that we raise the standard because the world is watching us. And we want to raise the standard and be of a higher standard than the rest of the world. We can only do that if we’re willing to judge ourselves and judge the brethren.
Now, as to judging the world, God says, you don’t have to worry about that. They’re already condemned. God’s gonna judge them and God’s gonna to condemn those that need to be condemned out there. You don’t have to judge the World, they’re already pagans. They’re already sinners. They’re already, you know, unsaved. So we don’t have to judge the world and say, “Ooooh, look at all those bad people out there.” [right] ”Oh, look at them, hmmf.” [laughter]
Listen, you know, the people of the World are going to lie, they’re gonna steal, they’re gonna cheat, they’re going to fornicate, they’re going to commit adultery, they’re going to kill their kids, they’re going to do all of those things. Why are you surprised? [right] They are the world. So you don’t have to bother judging them. What we have to do is accept the responsibility that we must judge the beam in our own eye so that we can take the speck out of our brother’s eye. [amen]
Now what is the judgment we’re supposed to bring? The judgment we’re supposed to bring is that we are not supposed to tolerate unrepented sin in our midst. [that's right] … People in the Church sin. [yes] We lie, we steal, we do lustful things, we make mistakes. But the difference is, if we are saying that Jesus is our Lord, our error should be followed by repentance. [amen] Sorrowful, sincere repentance. [amen] We cannot, must not, refuse to judge sin in our midst, when the person who does it is just continuing to do it.
Let’s say we have a lustful man in the Church. I don’t care what His office or status is. But if he says he’s a born again believer, and we see that he is a plague to the women. [hello] And we see that the women don’t do anything about it. [come on]
Tiger Woods is guilty, but so are 19 other women. [amen, come on now]… Anybody hear what I’m saying here? [yes]
So, if women in the Church make themselves available to a wolf in the Church, they’re just as guilty as he is. [amen] Because they should judge him and say, “Ah, don’t talk to me like that.” [yes] ”Whether you’re a married man or not, don’t talk to me like that.” And before she says it, she needs to examine how she’s dressed and how she’s presenting herself. [amen] … Cause if she looks like she’s selling it or giving it away, [laughter] she is going to draw the very thing that she then, in her unrighteousness is going to condemn? I think not. [amen] … Are we ok? [yes] We’re alright? [yes]
You know, one of these days I’m going to pastor a church where every Sunday I’m going to tell them they’re just wonderful. [laughter] And just appeal to their sensibility. But right now, that’s not what God told me to do. [laughter] Alright? When I get that church, I’ll let you know. But right now we need some Bible truth to help us get straight. [amen] It is our job to keep all of us straight. [yes] Our job to keep what? [keep all of us straight] All of us straight.
When we see a brother or a sister who seems to be out of order or doing something wrong, we are not meddling and being judgmental to say, “Have you checked yourself out? What are you doing here?” … If you see me in the Holiday Inn at three o’clock in the morning, you know, slurped over a martini, talking to two chicks, you should come say, “Pastor Don, what’s up?” [laughter] … “What’s up?” … [amen] I’m not to get offended. I’m supposed to answer that situation. And say, “Yeah, these are two sisters from the Church that have gone off the deep end, and I’m ministering to them on the science of drinking a good martini.” [laughter] … Knock, knock, who’s there? Do you understand what I’m saying?
You’re supposed to come up and say, “Pastor Don, is everything ok? What’s going on?” [that's right]… It might be your great opportunity, the opportunity to do what? Save me. To say, “Pastor Don, are you off course?” And my answer is, “Yeah, man I’ve been hitting on these two chicks since one o’clock in the morning, I’m not getting anywhere, so I’m going to drown it in a martini and I just realized, what am I doing here?” [amen] And then you put your arm around my shoulder and just walk me out to the parking lot and kick my behind. [yes]… With some Holy Ghost love. [amen, laughter] And say, “Let’s go see Mrs. Moore, and get you straightened out.” [amen, laughter, let her kick your butt] … Do you understand? [yes] Am I clear? Am I being clear enough to you?
We have to wrap our arms around each other and don’t wait till someone’s gone off the cliff to tell them they’re off the road. [yes] You know, let’s get into each other’s kindness, but if you’re guilty, here’s what the Bible says. If you’re guilty of that same sin, then you better not sit down [that's right] and decide to talk to me about my two women and a margarita, or whatever it was I said. [martini] Ah, … [laughter] Alright?
Now, are you to judge? Yes, we’re to judge. How are we supposed to judge? We’re supposed to not judge as the world judges, but we’re to judge with the love and the compassion and the mercy of Jesus Christ. We’re to judge the way He would judge. And if Jesus walked in to that bar, He is not going to condemn me to hell. [amen] … He’s going to say, “Pastor Don, what’s going on? What’s hurting? Are you hurting here? What’s going on? Your marriage needs fixing? What’s going on? This is not the place for you to be at a time like this.” He’s going to love me. [yes] He’s going to love me. And He’s not going to run home and call all you all and talk about it. [thank you, amen] Somebody say, “Amen.” [amen] He’s not going to smear my name all over the community and call the Freeman and say, “Pastor Don’s on a slide.” [come on] … [didn't work for Ham] Didn’t work for Ham. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For Ham, won’t work for anybody. So, do you understand that is not what we’re supposed to do.
There is a way, in love, to approach a brother or sister after you have examined yourself. [right] And if you don’t have it totally together, then mum’s the word, and go work on your program. [amen] Amen. Hallelujah. Thank You Jesus. [laughter] Thank you Jesus. Alright, Now, moving right along. You guys with me? [yes]
So Jesus says, that we must first examine ourselves, get the beam out of our eye, so that we then can help our brother. And He warns us about establishing that our charitable works are gaining us anything. Our charitable works aren’t gaining us anything. Our charitable works are what we’re commanded to do because we love the brethren.
So it’s like, you know, should a mother get patted on the back cause she’s a mother? [no] No. That’s her job. It’s what she does. Mothers mother. [amen] Alright? So, you know, we don’t just run over and “Don’t you .. you, you, you’re serving in the Church. Aren’t you wonderful oh high and exalted one.” No! You’re supposed to. Any of you all walk over, walk around the church and see a gum wrapper, you ought to pick it up. House of God should be clean. You should, you see a parking space and you want it, and somebody else is, you know, trying to get around you to get it, … you should let them have it. Just judge that they are worthy to have it and just be nice. [amen] Just be nice. The usher asks you to sit somewhere, put your behind down in the seat. [amen] That’s not something, well he offended me.
We had a brother leave the church because one of the ushers told him, right now we’re filming so you have to sit over here. You know. He’s been back once in six months since that day… He doesn’t know that I know. So when I see him I still treat him with lovingkindness. [amen] How are you all doing? Alright? [amen] Love on ‘em. Love on ‘em. [laughter]
And since it’s difficult for you to get me offended about anything, I got no beam in my eye concerning offense, so I can approach him in an area where he’s struggling and throw my arm around him and say, “Why don’t you come on back? We love you.” [amen] ”Let’s come back and get in church so that you can overcome the spirit of offense.” [amen] Because it comes from arrogance and pride. [amen] You don’t want to be arrogant and pride. [no] …ful. Do you? Do you? [no] Wave your hand at me and say, “I don’t.” [I don't] Alright. Now Lord, bless all the liars in Jesus’ name. [laughter]
Alright. Now, let’s go to Corinthians, First Corinthians Chapter 5. I love you guys. Man, when I grow up, I’m gonna be alright. Let’s cover some old, new ground concerning this topic of judgment and so forth. Now, in Corinthians Chapter 5, God tells us what He’s going to do with all of those beams in our eyes and all of those specks in our eyes and all the difficulty that we have, you know, controlling our own flesh…
In verse 7. Chapter 5, verse 7. ”Therefore purge out the old leaven…” In this case leaven is being used as a picture of sin, is it not? [yes] And He’s saying, purge it out, get rid of it. ”…that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven…” Meaning let’s not celebrate the things of God, let’s not celebrate the holidays of God with sin. He’s talking now in the case of Passover. He’s saying, “…nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Didn’t Jesus say He was the bread of life? [yes] Yeah, but if you’re gonna celebrate it with insincerity, with lies, if you’re not going to deal with your own sin. You know with the ministers and prophets this week, you know, we were dealing with that. That you have to examine your heart. God is checking your purity of your heart, more than your charitable works. He is more concerned about David’s heart than He was about Bathsheba. [yes] Bathsheba thing was bad, but why was it bad? Because it was something wrong in his heart. [that's right]
You know, I used to do an experiment, you know, when I do evangelistic outreaches. I take a cup with dirt in it. And I pour some water in it, and stir it up. It becomes cloudy. And then I answer the question, of how is it we get free of sin. We don’t get free of sin by going, don’t sin, don’t sin, don’t sin, don’t sin, don’t sin, don’t sin. All you’re doing there is reminding yourself that the sin exists and that you might fall prey to it. It’s like don’t overeat, don’t overeat, don’t overeat, don’t overeat. What are you doing? You’re just thinking about eating. [yeah] All the time. Till it becomes an obsession in your mind, and your willpower will break down, saying, don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it. You know, you don’t get free of pornography by going, don’t look at it, don’t look at it, don’t look at it, don’t look at it. No.
We have to change the nature of the person so that the person, the new person, therefore if anyone be in Christ he is a new creature, that new creature doesn’t want to do it anymore.
So I take the glass of dirty water, and no matter how many times you pour that dirty water into another clean cup, it’s still dirty water. [right, that's right] What we have to do is change and the only way to do that in the experiment, just picture it, cup of dirty water, I just start pouring in clean, pure, fresh water. As I pour it in, it begins to overflow. As it overflows, the dirty water comes out and then I drink it, and everybody gets the picture. Did you get the picture? [yes]
Therefore what Christ wants you to know, and me to know, is that fighting against your sin is not what He wants you to go through some mantra or some habit of getting up 14 times a day saying, “I won’t eat the Danish. I won’t eat the Danish. I won’t eat the Danish.” He wants you to become a new creature in Christ. Pour in clean water, pour in good habits, exercise those good habits, by pouring in the clean water. And then the sin just comes out. [hallelujah] Just rinses out. [hallelujah]
Faith comes by [hearing] And hearing [by the Word of God]. So you have to ask yourself what are you hearing? [glory to God] Are you hearing don’t do or are you hearing this is what I do do. [that's right]. This is where I’m going. And that’s the difference in salvation and walking in righteousness and truth. You don’t have to fight against sin. We just have to get more Jesus in. [amen] … That sounded good. We don’t have to fight against sin. Just get more Jesus in. [that's right, hallelujah] That should be a song. I should write that, huh. [yes, amen] Leave you a verse, Julio? (singing) We don’t have to fight against sin. Just get more Jesus in. [laughter] (singing) Don’t have to fight against sin, [clapping to music] Just get more Jesus in. Hallelujah. [laughter]
Alright, go to verse 13. Verse 13, and 12. Let’s do 12. Now I put this in here to remind you that what I said five minutes ago is true. ”For what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? … ” I want to know, if you’re shacking up and fornicating, I want to know, do you know it? … No, no, no don’t get me wrong. I need to know, do you know it?
As a believer, who espouses Christ, do you know what you should be doing in that situation. Are you glossing it over and assuming, Pastor Don’s cool with this, I can do this as long as I want, and everything’s going to work out in my life. I need to know. Do you know? That as long as you do that,(stay in sin) it’s not that I’m mad at you, it’s that you’re not going to be blessed. [amen] You’re going to have more sickness in your house, you’re going to have less funds in your house. Things are just not going to work. I just need to know, as a born again believer. I don’t need to beat you up. I just need to know, do you know that if you’re sleeping around on your wife, guess what? You are not in the Kingdom of God, you will be tormented by demons. Your finances will be tied up. Your health will be tied up. Do you realize what you’re doing? I just need to know, do you know? Or are you just under the assumption that it’s A-ok? If you’re cursing out your husband on a regular basis and bossing him around, I just need to know, do you know that you are out of order? I just need you to know because why? Your children won’t be blessed. The curse will pass down. They will be mean to their husbands when they come. They will divorce. They will separate. They will have a hard time. You will be sick. You will be disenfranchised from the goodness of God. You will be outside the Kingdom of God. I just need to know, do you know? [amen, amen]… That’s my job.
My job isn’t to throw you out of the church, unless you are in the church and refuse to know. [ah] Then I’m coming for you. [amen] With all the authority of the Word of God. For if you stand before me and say, “My sin is ok, it’s justified. I can talk to him any way that I want. I can do anything the way that I want. I can sleep with anybody I want.” If that’s your attitude, then the scripture says, I’m not even supposed to welcome you. I’m not to entertain you. I’m not to do it. I’m not to call you a brethren. I’m to expel you from the house of God. [that's right] You ok? [yeah] I just want to know, do you know? [amen] Husband, if you’re using your wife for a trampoline, I just need to know. Do you know? Cause when she bounces back, hell’s busting loose in your house. [whoot, applause] I just need to know, do you know? … Cause if you don’t know, well glory to God. [laughter]
So look at verse 12. Verse 12. ”For what do I have to do with judging those also who are outside?” The Church’s job is not to judge the world, we already know the world is worldly. That’s not a big deal. And then He says, verse 13. ”But those who are outside,…” who judges? [God] Who judges? [God] ”Therefore” what does He say? ”…put away from yourselves the evil person.”
Well, what’s He saying? He’s saying that if you got somebody in the house of God that’s a thief, and keeps thieving, you can’t keep patting them on the back and tell them it’s ok. At some point he has to be dealt with. [amen] … Alright? It has to be dealt with. It has to be repented. Has to be covered. And say, “Let’s work on it.” … I just expect, you know, I just expect that when you know and you get the truth, you go, “Pastor Don, help me.” Watch this now. ”Help me formulate a plan to fix this situation.” [amen]
You know, a couple of months ago I had a young man come to my office with tears in his eyes. He’s repenting because he has lustful thoughts. He’s about 26 year old kid. And he’s struggling with this thing. Well listen. I have to be honest here. We live in a world that you can’t turn on the television without sex being flaunted in front of you. [amen] You can’t walk by a supermarket thing without seeing sex being flaunted at you. Right? [yes] And we’re blaming the guys, but they’re getting paid to pose like that. [yep] Well, never mind. I’m just saying we need, we need to have some equity here with our understanding. [yes] You know what I mean. If no women would pose naked for Playboy, how many guys would buy it? [none] Thank You Jesus. Thank You Jesus. Hallelujah. I’m just judging here. So let’s go. You’re ready with the program? [yes]
So the young man says to me. ”I have these lustful thoughts,” and whatever. And he’s crying, sincere tears. Really broken. Loves Jesus. Wants to live right and wants to do right. You know. And needeless to say, course I laid hands on him, prayed over him, I cleansed him, and so forth and so on. But my counsel to him was just very simple… Get married. [amen, amen] … Get married. Your body is doing what it’s designed to do. Get married. [that's right] And he said, “Well, I can’t find.” What do you mean you can’t find a wife? [laughter] How can you not find a wife? Tiger can find 19. You only looking for one. [laughter] What do you mean? Get married! [amen] … How many women on earth do you guys know, there’s what, seven billion people. And the women, there’s a little bit more women, so there’s over 3 1/2, there’s 3 3/4 billion women on the planet. And you can’t find one? [laughter] I don’t want to go fishing with you. [laughter]
Now Chapter 6 verse 1. Chapter 6, verse 1. ”Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will…” what? [judge the world] That the saints will what? [judge the world] ”…Judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” [yes, no]
He’s saying Christian, don’t take another Christian to the world to judge a civil issue, or a legal issue. He’s saying, let the Church come. Let the Church put together a mediation board and discuss it in the context of the Gospel. [amen] That’s what He is saying. [yes] He’s saying, you’re going to judge the world, how come you can’t judge an issue in here?
We had a member of the church. She claimed that this man that lived next door to her, another Christian man, scratched her car, and so forth and so on. And she was going to sue him in court. And one Sunday I was preaching on this. This was about 15 years ago. And so she came to me and she said, “Pastor Don, I want the Church to judge this issue. Or else I’m going to take this brother to court. And he’s been scratching my car and I want…” You know, whatever, whatever. So I says, “Ok, you know, I’ll put together a mediation board.” So I put together a mediation board, and we met in that room right there. I was the neutral judge, overheard both sides of the case, had three other members of the church, members in good standing, with some sense.
And I said, judge the issue. They judged the issue and they determined that, well, what we have to do is find out who’s actually scratching the car. And we need to take the car to a professional who knows scratches. So we took it to two different car dealers and the two car dealers both said the same thing… “This man did not scratch your car. Your cat did.” [whooo - laughter] … [oops] … She left the church. [laughter] She left the church. I couldn’t believe it. She left the church. And one of the car guys said, “I’ve done these kind of scratches,” he says, “when the engine of the car is hot the cat wants to be somewhere warm, gets on, and the cats just sometimes will just scratch cause they’re cats.” He says, “Listen, I’ll buff it out for free.” [awwww, how nice] And what did we do? We made contact with another man that we didn’t know was a believer, who was an honest man, and to do it. But now, I’m sure if you see this lady today, she’d tell you I’m a bad guy. [laughter]
I’ll tell you, but, what does it say? It says, can’t we judge matters ourselves? [amen] Can’t we figure out some stuff? … I know a pastor, a pastor of a 3,000 member church, decides he’s going to divorce his wife. He gets up in front of the judge, in the city, and the judge says, “I will not hear your case.” He says, “Why?” He says, “I know what you preached.” [oooh] ”You have no business in my courthouse, a non-believer, divorcing your wife.” He says, “You go back and do your homework, do whatever you have to do, but get out of my court. I’ll not sit and hear your case.” [yes] That correction should have happened in the House of God, not in some. my kashooka da na na na.
Let’s move along. You guys ok? [yes] So, 1 through 11. He says in verse 3. ”Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have jugments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?” In other words, he means get some people with some esteem, some eldership, some deacons, some people that have lived and have some judgment, and then, (clap) judge the case.
