Luke 6:37

Luke chapter 6 and verse 37, judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condem not, and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this morning. Years ago, Charles Prince was a minister who proclaimed that poisonous snakes could never harm a true believer. And so in a revival meeting at the Apostolic Church of God, in the Tennessee Mountains, he conducted a snake handling service. Unfortunately, he was bitten by one of the rattlesnakes, and he died. 36 hours later refusing all medical treatment. His friends prayed for him to have a miraculous recovery, but he died a slow agonizing death. Now, you and I would probably look at this and think that this is unbiblical, and certainly it’s a very foolish thing to do. In fact, putting your life in deliberate. danger unnecessarily is certainly tempting the Lord by God. And it is, I believe, sinful behavior. We have no command in scripture for snake handling services. Therefore, the pastor prince, I believe, was very wrong for conducting one. It certainly goes against the regular principle of worship that we must only do what God commands us to do in a worship service, but it’s deceiving people to tell them that poison snakes could never harm a true believer. By his own criteria. If we judged him by his own criteria, he must not be a true believer because he died, but I won’t, I’ll refrain from making such an assessment. Isn’t it true, then you and I look at people’s lives, and I, and I, look at people’s And we make judgments about them all the time. People might say, well, hold on a moment. What about what Christ has just said here in the text that I read? What about this factor where to judge not, and you shall not be judged? What about that passage of Scripture? Are we allowed to make judgments about individuals? Are we allowed to evaluate to evaluate to, Are we allowed to criticize another’s beliefs, like snake handling situation, if it doesn’t match up with the word of God? Exactly what does our Lord mean by this phrase here, judge not? I think it’s important for us to have a proper understanding of this, because there’s a lot of confusion about this passage. Let me begin by saying this. You can easily be misled if you isolate these words from the rest of Scripture. You find people frequently quote this verse. Many people say that judge not must be taken simply, and literally, as it’s stated, you were forbidden to express an opinion about others and make some kind of judgment about others at all. There must be no judging whatsoever. By the way, this is the way the worldling will quote this verse. They may not know too many verses of Scripture, but this is one of the ones they like to use. Because the ruling wants to engage in sinful behavior, whether it be adultery or bearing false witness, or maybe it’s theft or whatever, and then silence you when you point out, this is evil, this is sinful. Judge me not. You have no right to judge me. Jesus said, you know how to judge me. Some of the more liberal denominations use this type of verse to tolerate sin in their assemblies not causing any waves. I’m not allowed to judge. Is this what Jesus meant? Is this how we’re to understand this idea of judge not? It is important for you to understand the correct meaning of, the text. Now since this verse is frequently abused, we need to take the time here to properly explain it. Scripture must always be interpreted by Scripture. We can’t just grab a verse in isolation, which sometimes people do, and then build a whole case on it without considering what else is said in the Scriptures. some statements of scripture are presented in a terse, shortened form, but then elsewhere in the Word of God they’re more amplified, and we have more detail provided. For example, in Deuteronomy 514, we read this about the Sabbath. The seventh day is the Sabbath of Lord thy God. In it, thou shalt not do any work. Now, any work seems to be absolute and final. Nobody should do any kind of work whatsoever on the Sabbath day. And yet, when we read Christ’s account with regard to the Sabbath and the Gospels, we know that works associated with worship, like the sacrificial animals being presented on the altar, in the temple at the time, like works of mercy toward the sick, he would heal on the Sabbath day, and works of necessity. We saw the disciples, you know, plucking grain on the Sabbath day because they were hungry. And while some would condemn them, Jesus does not. So these things could be done on the Sabbath day. And the law itself certainly makes some exceptions if your donkey falls in the ditch and so forth. So that there are things that are allowed. Even though the phrase seems very terse and very quickly state, it seems like it eliminates any work, that’s not the case. Why does Jesus say in John 724, judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment, if you’re absolutely forbidden to make any judgments whatsoever? Why does Jesus say, is teach you to judge people by their fruits if you’re not allowed to make any judgments. Whatsoever. It’s essential that you have your senses exercise to discern, the Greek word, to judge between good and evil. Why should you examine yourself before the Lord’s supper if you’re not even allowed to judge yourself? But the scripture says if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 31. So we have to be careful that we don’t isolate this verse and just say, oh, no judgment whatsoever. That’s not what scripture teaches. And so we have to begin to look at this with a broader perspective so that we get the right meaning to what Jesus is talking about here. Now let me say secondly here. The scripture requires. you to make judgments regarding others. There are three areas I want to talk about briefly. One, you find the Bible requires civil judgments. Look with me at Romans chapter 13 and the first four verses. The scripture says, Let every soul be subject under the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be or ordained of God, who also over therefore resisteth. the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers, that’s what he by powers here, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. will thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the for he is the minister of God to thee for good. but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid for a he vereth the sword in, he vereth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Now, we see here that the Bible indicates to us that judgment has to be executed with regard to the affairs of the state. Judges, magistrates, are ordained by God. for the very purpose, of pronouncing judgment upon individual citizens of the state out of a God-given duty. They’re the ministers of God with regard to this aspect. One of the ways of restraining evil in society is found here in verse 4. 3 is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that do with evil. The punishment of evil doers is one of the ways that God will restrain sinful evil activities. you could easily be involved in this judicial aspect. Suppose you are called upon for jury duty. Here you are. You’re in the court of law. You’re before the judge and the cases are being set. The defense gives their case and the prosecution gives their case. And you are responsible to pronounce someone innocent or guilty. You’re going to have to make a judgment. A person’s life may even hang in your hands if it’s murder case. So you have to sift through the evidence. You have to render a judgment. Since God has established government and it’s for the purpose that we see here in particular to punish the evildoer, shouldn’t you fulfill your duty as a jury as a jury member? So you find the Bible requires civil judgments, and it’s not just about the rulers, because sometimes you and I may be involved in that. Secondly, you find the Bible requires the church to make judgments. Now look with me at 1. Corinthians Chapter 5. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father’s wife. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from you. Verily I say, verily, for I verily as absent in the body, but present in the spirit, have judged already, as though I were present concerning him that have done, has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together in my spirit, with the power of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as you are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrifice for us. Let us keep the feast with old leavened, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you, an epistle, not to company with fornicators. Yet not altogether with fornicators of this world, or with the covetous or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have reached, written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an adulterer or a railer or a drunker or an extortioner with such a one know not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within. But them that are without God judges. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. We see here that the church is required to make moral judgments. Is it not? Here’s a man that’s living in sin, and the church is told to judge this man. And because of his guilt in this case, he needs to be excommunicated from the church. The members of the church exercise judgment when they decide on the credibility of someone’s profession. of faith when applying for membership. Judgment is required in disciplining members. And here’s the discipline in our text. You know, Romans 1670 mark them that which caused divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine in which you have learned and avoid them. When we evaluate men for church offices, elders, and deacons, aren’t we making a judgment about them? Aren’t we evaluating them according to what the scripture says is to be the criteria for that office? Just because many churches are very lax in this area of discipline or judgment, it doesn’t mean that we negate the scriptural exhortation. We have a responsibility. Notice the whole church is responsible to make this judgment with regard to this man. Not just the elders, the church is to make this judgment. Thirdly, not only does the Bible require you to make church judgment, you find the Bible requires you also to make private judgments. Here it is, let’s go down to you, now that you, in particular as the individual, making judgments. Jesus does not say here, judge not at all. He commands us in John 724, judge not according appearance, but judge righteous judgment. How are you going to test the teaching of someone if you don’t make a judgment about them? You know, the scripture says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try judge the spirits whether they be of God. Right? 1 John 401. You have to be, have to make a discerning judgment about those who come to your door and want to have a religious conversation, whether they’re Jehovah witnesses or Mormons, and they’re bringing to you a false doctrine. The scripture says, if any, come on to you and bring not the doctrine, the apostle’s doctrine, this doctrine, receive him not in your house. 2. John 1.10. Don’t you have to make a judgment about this person? Aren’t you required, if your brother sins against you, aren’t you required to go to your brother and say to him, you’ve wronged me. And this is where you’ve wronged. Isn’t that making a judgment with regard to your brother? Between thee and him alone, you go to him, you say, hey, this is wrong. You shouldn’t have done this. It shouldn’t have done it to me or whatever the case may be. So the scripture requires you to make judgments regarding others, civil judgments, church judgments, even individual judgments, personal judgment. So we can’t just come to this verse of Scripture and wipe all this out. This is what the other passage of the scripture teach. So this proves without a doubt that Christ is not forbidding all judgment. Which brings me by my third point. Christ is warning you here not to make unlawful judgments about others. You are not to assume the office of judge in your judgment of others. Now, I want you to look with me to Romans chapter 14 a moment. Romans 14. Look at the first four verses with me. Scripture says, Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not the doubtful disputations. For one believeeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak, eateth herbs, let not him that disliketh. that Edith despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who art thou that judges another man’s servant? Does all mastery standeth or falleth? Yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand. Then jump down to verse 10, if you would. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at naught by brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written as I live, sayeth the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God, so then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Let us not, therefore, judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, let no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. The word judge, is often used in scripture in the sense of assuming the office of a judge, where you would be putting someone on trial, so to speak, pronouncing sentence against them, even condemning them, executing judgment against them. Notice how this fits in right with what Jesus says here in Luke 637. Judge not, and you shall not be judged, condemn not. This idea of condemning puts us in a different situation. We’re talking about acting as like the judge and jury over this person and all their effects of their life. Things that lie in the private area of a person’s life, whether they eat herbs, or whether they eat meat, isn’t that something we should really be worried about in judging the person condemning them for one way or the other? says. That’s what he’s talking about here. Things that are indifferent. There are areas of personal freedom. I shouldn’t condemn somebody. In this passage, he also will talk about certain days, like holy days, and whether we should keep those days or not keep those days, and whether we do or not, as long as we’re doing it under the Lord, he says, don’t, you know, don’t judge the person. If he wants to keep the day, If he doesn’t want to keep the day, fine. You’re just a fellow servant. Ultimately, who is the ultimate judge? It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s going to judge us all. So we must not set ourselves up as the final arbitrator of another’s affairs and condemn him. So we’re not to assume this office to judge in that sense. You’re also not to be self-righteous in your judgment of others. Now look with me at Matthew, 7. Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 to 5. Remember, and we explained that this is the sermon on the Mount. Luke gives us the sermon on the plain. And even though they speak about certain things that are similar, it’s two different sermons. We should keep that in mind. But he says something similar here. He says, judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet, it shall be made. 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 on eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold a beam is the nine o’none? Thou hypocrite. First cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the moat out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out of thy brother’st out of thy brother’s eye. eye. Here we have the idea in our judgment. We’re not to have this attitude of superiority over others, that we’re quick to detect faults in others and blind to those that are in ourselves. People have a tendency to regard others as beneath them. Remember the Pharisee who went to the temple to pray and thank God I’m not as other men are. I’m not like these extortioners and so forth. Not even like this public and next to me. I’m better than other people. Before you judge another, Jesus indicates to us the need to examine yourself. Are you guilty of what you are condemning another one, another person for doing? Therefore, thou are inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgestest, for wherein thou judges another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou, that judges do us the same things. Romans 2 and verse 1. You all know the story, and we’ve were so familiar with it, with King David, and Nathan telling him about the rich man and his poor neighbor, the rich man had many flocks and herds, and the poor man had none. He had this little you lamb, which was pampered by the poor man, and his family and treated as the family pet and, you know, sort of ate at the table with them and so forth. They dearly loved this U-LAM. Now, the rich man had a visitor. He was reluctant to take out of his own flock, so he reached out, stole his neighbor’s little U-Lam, took it off the poor guy, and slaughtered it for the dinner. David, upon hearing this, he’s incensed. He’s really angry. about it. He says, the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die, and he shall restore the lamb four full because he did this thing because he had no pity. David made this judgment totally ignoring his old situation. He had the beam out of his eye. You know, he’s this big beam stuck in his eye. Sticking out. And he misses it. Of course, Nathan says, I’m talking about you, David. I’m talking about you. You took somebody’s life while he’s out there on the battlefield. Of course, he even killed the husband, as we know, as well. How art the man? So you’re not to be self-righteous in your judgment. You need to evaluate yourself, make sure you’re not doing the same thing. The third thing, you’re not to be condemning in your judgment of others. This is similar to what we’ve already looked at. But look at Matthew Chapter 12 in verse 7, if you would. But if he had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless. Now this passage is scripture. The religious leaders have condemned the disciples because they plucked the grain on the Sabbath day because they were hungry. It was a bit of matter of condemning them. Condem not is a further explanation of the type of judgment that Jesus is forbidding. He’s forbidding this type of judgment. Not that they were just wrong, but this is enough to cast them into hell, fire, that they would do such an evil thing. Which Jesus says they’re not even guilty. Condemming by judging a person worthy of death, casting into hell, they were frequently condemning people. like this. This is wrong, Jesus says. Remember the woman that’s taken in adultery? They want to stone her to death. They want to treat her as someone worthy of death and they want to force Jesus’ hand that he would join them and condemn the woman. Jesus prevents this. He says simply, he that it was without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. Shaming all those who had condemned her and violent as a righteous judge and he can make this pronouncement. He says, neither do I condemn thee when no one was left to condemn her. Do you see how quick these Pharisees and religious leaders were to condemn our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the sinless son of God before Pilate who told them, what evil has he done? What’s the charge? So we have to be careful about such a condemning spirit. Jesus clearly forbids this. So you are not to be suspicious in your judgment of others. Judge not according to appearance, John 724, we’re not to assume the worst actions in people’s lives. You know, when 1st Corinthians 13 talks about the various gifts and then he talks about the most important gifts, and he talks about the most important gifts, and he talks about love. of what love is like. Love doesn’t seek its own. Love puts the best things in the best light. It doesn’t quickly condemn people. And that’s the point here. We’re not to be so quick to pronounce guilt. We should look upon people and give them the benefit of the doubt. See if perhaps there’s another way of looking at this before we lower the boom on them. You don’t have to be uncharitable in your judgment of others. That’s what he says in 1 Corinthians 13. And I think it’s important that we realize that 1st Corinthians 3, 5, and 6, love, thinketh no evil, believeeth all things, hopeeth all things. We should judge other with a spirit of mercy, with a spirit of patience. How would we like to be judged? Do you remember when King David sent messengers, diplomats, to comfort King Hainan, who was the king of the Ammonites, after his father Nahash had died. Right after David had become king of Israel. His neighbor here in Amman, the king there died, his son took the place. So he thought, you know what, I’ll send some messengers over and comfort King Hanon, because he lost his fought. And what happened was that King Hainan allowed his nobles, his other princes or counselors, or wherever they were, to persuade him that David’s really spending spies over to check us out, to see where any our weaknesses lie, where they could break through our walls, where they could capture our country, or take our capital city. So they mistreated the messengers. and ended up causing a war in which Ammon, of course, falls before David. All this, because they didn’t put the best construction on what these men were doing. The messengers or David had come innocently. Just to comfort, provide comfort. They didn’t trust them, so they treated them this way and look what happened. Again, this is the wrong approach. So let me close this morning here. Christ is warning warning you not to make unlawful judgment. of others. Don’t assume the office of judge and judging others. You are not to be self-righteous in your judgment of others. You’re not to be condemning in your judgment of others. You’re not to be uncharitable in your judgment of others. And so when he tells you here about judging, we have to put it in this light. I urge you to give some thought to this matter of unlawful judging because we can be guilty of it so easily. Beware of being a tool of Satan and being divisive about unlawful and making unlawful judgments. You know, the Bible talks about not judge, you want to judge the motives of other people. You can’t read the heart. It was Satan that judged the motives of Job but why he was serving God. He’s serving God because you’re taking good care of them. You don’t let me touch his. animals, his family, or any of the wealth that he has. You let me have that aisle. He’ll curse you to your faith. You want to be in that camp? That’s the people that are judging motives, you see. That’s uncharitable judgment. What Jesus says it, be careful about your judgments. Judge not in this manner. It’s not referring to all the judgments because we have to make certain judgments, but not on lawful judgments. And so I suggest to you that this is what the teaching of Scripture is about in this text of Scripture, and we’ll look at it a little bit further. He’ll give the reason why. It’s not just that we’re going to be judged by men. We’re also going to be judged by God. And we’re not going to be just condemned by men. We’re going to be condemned by God if we pursue this course of action. We’ll look at that Lord willing in our next study. word of prayers.