Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the critical need for Christians to confront the sin of false judgment, urging believers to examine their hearts and recognize the destructive nature of judging others based on outward appearances. He highlights the importance of allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal our own shortcomings before we judge others, as true judgment must stem from a place of humility and self-awareness. The sermon calls for a collective commitment to reject false judgments, which can lead to division and strife within the church, and encourages believers to seek God's grace for purification and unity.

Here this morning, Lord, we are we are amazed at your glory. We are so humbled in your presence, Lord. We are so thankful for the sense of loving urgency that we sense in the spirit, Lord, your desire for a people who will follow you wholly. Who will forsake even as Peter, James and John, everything to follow you, Lord, I thank you for the heart searching ministry of the Holy Spirit. I thank you, Lord, that you know the secrets of our heart, the very thoughts and intentions of our innermost self, Lord, you are aware of that is open to you. And I thank you, Lord, for being so faithful in making known to us, Lord, these things so that everything in us might be pure and without spot, without blame and holy in your presence. Lord, we bless you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We praise you for the ministry of your word. We praise you, Lord, for the story of Joseph and for the fact, the overwhelming fact, the central figure of the whole story, Lord, is that the thing that you have spoken will come to pass. Lordy, though the journey that Joseph had to take was certainly not at all what he anticipated, yet it was part of your plan. And ultimately, Lord, you fulfilled every word that you spoke. Lord, we thank you for the assurance that your word is true, that Jesus Christ has been placed in the heavens as King of kings and Lord of lords. And everything that he has spoken and everything that he has done shall come to pass. No matter what powers of hell rise up against it, no matter what the enemy does, we know that the things that God has purposed in Christ Jesus shall come to pass. Father, now we pray that you will give us hearts to hear, eyes to see. And the strength and ability to obey you, Lord, as we again come under the hearing of your word. Lord, I pray your word will cut deeply as the sharp two edged sword and as it cuts deeply, it might bring the ministry of oil, the healing balm of Gilead to heal us and restore us and to bring to us, Lord, the light and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, we commit this time into your hands and do pray for a revelation of your son to come forth in splendor and glory and majesty. Hallelujah to God. Hallelujah to God. Thank you for the presence of the Lord. We thank you for your presence here this morning. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. God is truly working in our midst. He's truly doing a great, wondrous work in our midst. And we are very privileged to be part of the family of God and to taste of the good things that God is doing in our midst. As you know, we have begun a message from the heart of the Lord entitled Seven Deadly Sins That Every Christian Should Hate. And this message is, as we mentioned last week, wasn't born by an arbitrary decision to go into the scriptures and just choose seven various different sins that seem to be good to preach on and talk about them. But contrary wise, the message was born, it was birthed through much prayer, through much travail, through many of us travailing and sharing in the heart of God and experiencing the Lord's dealings ourself. And so may I say that it is very important as we approach this subject that we not take it lightly, that we not just consider this to be another sermon, nor should we consider this to be something that we would hear and say, oh, I wish brother so and so was here because of brother so and so was here. I really feel this is applicable to him or to her. We mustn't do that, but rather we must draw an imaginary circle and sit within it and say, Lord, I want this word that I hear this morning in my spirit to affect the person sitting in the circle. And if we would all do that, I know that God is faithful and he will minister to us great life and ministry. There'll be correction, there'll be discipline and there'll be scourging. But with that comes maturity and spiritual development. So I'm hoping and praying that God will give us ears to hear that each one of us would take to heart the word. This is the second message of many, many more. We don't know how many, but it doesn't matter. One thing that I want to mention, if you have a pencil, you have the back of the bulletin. Please take notes and search these scriptures out. First of all, I'd like to begin by reading a scripture. And this scripture is found in Luke chapter 17, Luke chapter 17. Let's follow along here for a moment. Luke chapter 17, it's just a verse number 32 and 33. The Bible says in Luke 17, verse 32 and 33, remember Lot's wife, remember Lot's wife. Now, you know, the story about Lot's wife, where God delivered Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah right before he brought judgment upon it. Why did Jesus say, remember Lot's wife? Well, if you remember, what did Lot's wife do as she was running out of the city? She stopped and turned around and looked and there she turned into a pillar of salt. Now, the reason why Jesus said, remember Lot's wife is because what Lot's wife did physically, outwardly by stopping and turning around was an indication of something she was doing in her heart. And that's what the Lord was after. And that's why judgment fell upon her. But Jesus takes that Old Testament story and speaks it to you and I as an emphasis so that you and I would be lovingly reminded that as we accept the call of Christ to follow him, we must remember that we are following him out of something into something. We are being delivered out from something into something. And the Lord doesn't want us while we're delivered out from something into something. He doesn't want our hearts to turn around and look back as if we wish that we had the thing that he's delivering us from. Then it says here, verse number 33, whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. The work of the Holy Spirit, the work of salvation, the work of the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ within the believer, both individually and corporately, is a progressive work of delivering us out from an old kind of life and bringing us into a new life. And if we seek to save the life that we're being delivered from, we may lose out on the fullness of the new life. Whereas, if we seek to come into the fullness of his life, then we will, in fact, lose entirely the old life. And that's what he's after. Now, before we get into the specific sins one by one, seven specific sins that the Holy Spirit is, I believe, addressing in our lives, but he's addressing it in the church in this hour. Before we do that, I would like to point out, just simply by title and scripture reference, and this is why I hope you have pencil and paper, thirteen different aspects of the old life that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is committed to bringing to an end in our life. You see, as Christians, our life is Christ, and therefore, we must continuously be under the discipline and tutoring and scourging and working of the Lord to deliver us from thirteen different aspects of the old life which have no place in our life as Christians. No place. The presence of these seven sins that we are about to look into have stronghold or have expression in our life, because there is yet an inadequate appropriation of all the fullness of Christ to bring to death those things in our life that we should not be having fellowship with. So, these thirteen aspects of our old life are, in fact, what the Bible says is crucified with Christ. In Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. That statement indicates that every true believer who has come into a union with Christ through faith, a living faith imported by God, is, in fact, to see themselves as crucified with Christ. That is, everything in us that has to do with the old sinful way has been crucified and buried with Christ and is no longer to be a part of our life. But by faith and the working of the Holy Spirit and the working of God, we lay that aside and we come into a whole new kind of life, a whole new kind of walk, a whole new kind of thinking, a whole new kind of expression. And that is through the power of the Holy Spirit walking through us. Number one, the first aspect. Now, each one of these aspects of the old life will have to be dealt with in our life. Each one of them. Anticipate the Lord dealing with you if you go on with Him regarding every one of these aspects. Anticipate it. Number one, the will of the flesh. John 1, verse 13. The will of the flesh. The Holy Spirit must move in a sovereign way in our lives personally and in our lives corporately, and He must put an end to the will of the flesh. That is, the thing that we want to do. We are not called to do our own thing. We are called to seek the Lord that we might come to know His will. Number two, the desires of the flesh. Romans 13, verse 14. Galatians 5, verse 16. Under the disciplining, scourging hand of God, each and every one of us individually and our families and collectively as a body must come under the discipline of the Lord so that the desires of our flesh are brought to a position where we can recognize them as having been crucified with Christ. So that they are not the thing that is motivating us to do things. Number three, the mind of the flesh. Romans chapter 8, verse number 6. The Bible says the mind of the flesh is at enmity to God. The mind, the thinking, the reasonings that are born apart from enlightenment by the Word of God, enlightenment by the Spirit of God, are at enmity to the things of God. And so therefore, the mind of the flesh. Now we need revelation on this, I understand. And that the hearing of this is not equal to the partaking of it. But nevertheless, this will be helpful for us. Next is the purposing after the flesh. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 17. Purposing after the flesh. The Holy Spirit will have to deal with us regarding our purposes, regarding our intentions and our plans. As we come unto Him, we find that He will require. He will require that even the things that we purpose must be born from His heart. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 17. Next, confidence in the flesh. Philippians chapter 3, verse 3. Next, filthiness of the flesh. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1. Next, the working of the flesh. Galatians 5, verse 19. Then there's warring after the flesh. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 29. The Lord will teach us that our warfare cannot be carnal. It cannot be after the flesh. But it's got to be mighty through God. Next, walking after the flesh. Romans 8, verse 1. Walking after the flesh. Romans 8, verse 1. Then Paul makes a statement. A fair show in the flesh. Galatians 6, verse 12. A fair show in the flesh. Oh may God, may God increase His working in our life. And place His hand upon all of these areas of the flesh that need to be delivered over to death. That the fullness of Christ might be expressed in vessels emptied of these things. And now lastly, number 13. Judging after the flesh. John 7, verse 24. Jesus said, judge not after the flesh. Hmm. That was supposed to be number 13. John 7, verse 24. The will of the flesh. The desires of the flesh. The mind of the flesh. I just see what I missed. The wisdom of the flesh. The wisdom of the flesh. 1 Corinthians 1, 18-21. 1 Corinthians 1, 18-21. And then we have purpose after the flesh. Confidence after the flesh. Filthiness of the flesh. The working of the flesh. Warring of the flesh. Ah, here's what I missed. Glorying in the flesh. That's correct. That's correct. 1 Corinthians 1, 29. 2 Corinthians 10, 3. Thank you very much. I apologize for reading it incorrectly. It is encouraging that we're following along here. Now, we are familiar with Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. Hebrews 4, 12. Hebrews 4, 12 teaches us perhaps one of the most significant ministries of the Word of God. And certainly the effects of the Word of God as it comes to us through the power of the Holy Spirit will be the ability to distinguish, to decipher, to be able to see these workings in our life individually and corporately and be able by faith to acknowledge the sentence of death upon them and in exchange of them find the spiritual counterpart. For certainly if we are to put down the will of the flesh, then we can come to know the will of the Spirit. And also the desires of the flesh versus the desires of the Spirit. The mind of the flesh, the mind of the Spirit. And so on and so forth. So if God asks us to lay something down, then He's got something of Himself to give in His place. And so Hebrews 4, 12 says, For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder, that is the separating of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And so therefore, the ministry of the Word of God, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the ministry of our High Priest, who takes the two-edged sword and cuts the offerings, and that's the reference here that the writer is referring to when he says the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow. The High Priest had the job of piercing the sacrificial animals, and opening them up, and separating, and taking, and cutting the fat away, and going into the bones, and separating. And the Holy Spirit is using that as a picture to see what Jesus is doing with the Word of God, which is sharper than that two-edged sword that the High Priest used. Because His sword only pierced animal, and went into the natural, but God's Word when it comes to us, pierces into the very depths of our being, searching and revealing the very intents and motives of our heart, seeking to purify us, to make us like Himself. Praise God for that ministry of the Holy Spirit. We need that ministry today. The church needs that ministry today. We need that today. And so, the effects of this ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God will be a complete unveiling of the depths of our being before God. Not unto condemnation, not unto rejection, but unto sanctification and glorification. God wants to cleanse us. He wants to so walk in us, so as to purify the heart. So when God reveals, when the Holy Spirit deals with your heart and your motives, and He exposes things in your life that you see are not right, don't become discouraged, don't despair, don't go into despondency, don't feel that God is setting you up to reject you, but rejoice in that God is working purification in you. And cleansing you, in order that He might see more and more and more on the inside of you, that which is like His own Son, the Lord Jesus. That's encouraging, isn't it? That's so encouraging. So this entire 13 aspects is what God wants to deal with in our life. And listen, the effects of any true revival, the effects of any true revival, will be an exultation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a piercing into the heart and soul of the believers, enabling them to distinguish between what is clean and unclean. Unclean being that which is springing from man, clean being that which is coming from the head, the Lord Jesus Christ. And any revival that lacks that feature is faulty. Any revival that lacks with it the feature, the predominant effect of believers clearly seeing Christ, clearly seeing the difference between what is clean and unclean, what is from God and what is from themselves, and actively pursuing Him for His place and His exultation, there is a weakness inherent within that, and unless it's corrected, it will turn into spiritual deception. So we must always remember that. Okay. We're going to look now at the first sin. John chapter 7, verse number 24. Each one of these sins are currently a major reason why, even among, if I might use the term, the most spiritual part of God's church, these sins are the major reason why, even among the most spiritual ranks of God's people, there still lacks a unity of purpose, a unity of heart, and a unity of mind necessary for the Lord to pour out His glory in a measure like and unto the New Testament acts and even greater. These particular sins oftentimes find inroad an expression among the most spiritual ranks of God's people. Though many sins are dealt with among spiritual people and many things are raw and there's great victories, the eleven of these yet look and they constitute the reason why there is yet weakness that must be dealt with. Okay. Number one. John chapter 7, verse 24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. The sin of false judgment. Chiefly, judgment toward other people. First of all, I want to define judgment as it is meant by the words of Jesus. The word judgment means to divide, to separate, and to make a distinction in order to come to a decision, to pass a sentence and give one's opinion in either a private or public matter. The call of the Holy Spirit in the words of Jesus here, as well as the words throughout the New Testament, is not a call to cease from judgment, but from false judgment. The root of false judgment is found in the words of God to Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter 16. You may turn there if you like. 1 Samuel chapter 16, a very familiar portion of Scripture. Verse number 7. Samuel was sent to anoint King David and he went to the house of Jesse. There he asked Jesse to gather all of his sons together. And Samuel looked at the sons. He looked at their countenance. He looked at the height of their stature. He looked at the comeliness of their facial features. He looked at their clothing. He might have heard their voice, and a few of them probably had a real eloquent voice. And each time Samuel went to one of the sons, he said to himself, this must be the Lord's anointed who stands before me. But as he was ready to take the oil and pour it over the boy's head, God said, no, this isn't it. No, this isn't it. And almost every time the son stood before Samuel, he would make that judgment in his heart and think this must be the one, and God said no. And then finally, these profound words that have reverberated ever since they were spoken to this very hour, were spoken by God. 1 Samuel 16, verse number 7. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. Beloved, the root of false judgment that is invading the church of Jesus Christ in this late hour, is a looking on outward appearances, looking on things that are seen only by the natural eye, and based on that and that alone, we make assumptions and conclusions about individuals that are wrong. The spirit of false judgment must be exposed in our lives. Every single Christian must come to a crisis where they stand before God their Father and in tears, in bitter tears, they cry out and say, God, I have been guilty of falsely judging my brothers and sisters. I have been guilty of judging my wife, my husband, my children. I've been guilty of judging based on appearance alone. Until that crisis occurs in our life, we will go on judging wrongfully, grieving the Holy Spirit of God, and though we will not forfeit God's love, we will not forfeit His continual care for us, we will forfeit the fullness of His heart, because He will not commit it to a people who are engaging in false judgment. This has got to be more than point one in Brother Phil's message. This has got to become a crisis matter in our hearts and lives before God. We have got to see the dreadfulness, the despicableness, the terribleness, the hellishness of making false judgments about people. We have got to stop judging people. Young people, you are not exempt to this message. I know that as teenagers, it's very, very easy to make judgments about other teenagers, to make judgments about friends. He says this, she says this. And there's a very thin line between stating things about people and indicting them and judging them wrongfully. Now, it is my belief, based on the Word of God, that this issue of false judgment is a major problem within the church of Jesus Christ. Again, I emphasize, the call of the Holy Spirit in this portion of Scripture is not to cease from judgment, but it is to cease from false judgment. Now, sometime subsequent to finishing these seven messages, we're going, by the help of God's grace, I'm going to take you through seven virtues that we are to pursue. For example, when we finally get there, the counterpart to this negative, negative, if I might say, word from the Lord, is the positive. If we're not to judge falsely, then we are to judge righteously. And we will look into the heart of God by the power of the Holy Spirit and see what it means to judge righteously in our midst. But that will be for a future time. The fruit of false judgment works havoc within an individual's life, it works havoc within our family's life, and it works havoc within the body of Christ. The effects of false judgment. Satan's breeding ground, again, Satan's breeding ground for division and strife and jealousy and schisms and hard feelings and splitting people right down between one another stems from entertaining false judgments about one another. In other words, if this one sin was ever conquered within a company of people, through the power of grace divine, through the power of God's love and the power of the Spirit of truth, Satan would lose much, if not all, of his ability to divide that company of people. At least in a wrong way. Just this one sin. 1 Corinthians 4 Beginning in verse 1, Let a man so account of us as of ministers of Christ. Paul was being falsely judged by the Corinthians in this particular portion of Scripture. And this is how he handled it. Let a man so account of us as of ministers of Christ. Paul was saying, Stop judging us wrongfully. Stop making Apollos greater than Cephas. Stop making Peter greater than Apollos. Stop falsely judging one another. Paul saying, If you want to pronounce a judgment upon me, pronounce this judgment. He is a servant of Christ entrusted with the mysteries of God, and so are you. Now listen to what he says. Moreover, it is required of a steward that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I judge not my own self. For I am nothing by myself. Yet am I not hereby justified, but He that judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, listen, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise of God. One of the false results of false judgment is that we presume to know the motives and intentions of people's hearts. And in doing so, we set ourselves up in a place that only God can occupy. We don't know the intentions or motives of anyone's heart. We are not to sit in judgment of a person's motive. We are not to judge them based on outward appearances and outward observations. We are to pray that God will wash us from the spirit of suspicion, the spirit of criticism. We must pray that God will deliver us from indicting one another with false judgment. Secondly, 1 Corinthians 3, verse number 3, For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos. Are you not carnal? The second result of false judgment is that it sows strife, envy, and contention among the saints. May God help us to see the dreadfulness of this false judgment. False judgment can be seen by placing a standard upon a person based on your expectations of them, albeit religious or personal tastes, and then judge them as to whether they meet your standard or not. And failure to meet your standard results in you judging them. We can't do that with one another. We cannot expect people or place upon people our own desires for them. We must give brothers and sisters the freedom to be who they are in Christ and support them and encourage them and love them. When we place standards upon people based on our own expectations, albeit religious or personal tastes, and then judge them as to whether they come to our standard or not, we fail to accept them as Christ accepts them, because Christ places no such standard on them. So we're placing a standard upon people when we falsely judge that Christ Himself doesn't place upon them. We are called as Christians to accept one another as Christ has accepted us. We are called to love one another as Christ loves them. Lastly, James. The book of James. It's right after the book of Hebrews. James chapter 4, verse number 11. This is a closing remark on the first sin. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. To judge after the flesh is to speak evil of one another. And here are the words of the Holy Spirit. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judges his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is above to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judges another? May the Holy Spirit grant us mercy over this sin of false judgment. Father, we ask that as we finish this first point, Lord, that You would take Your Holy Spirit and that You would accomplish that which only You can do. Make us to see, Lord, in our lives, where we may be guilty of this sin and very firmly but gently place Your hand upon us and deliver us, Lord, that our eyes might be free from false judgment. Reminded of the words of Jesus, Judge not lest ye be judged. He was referring to false judgment there. And another characteristic that I failed to mention that is here that I don't want to forget is found in Matthew 7 at the root of all false judgment. Matthew 7, verse 3, Why behold thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? But consider not the beam that is in thine own. The root of all false judgment. Listen closely. The root is you want to judge your brother, but you fail to see the mote that is in your own eye. False judgment springs out of an inability to try and judge your brother. We must first have him judge us. Then we'll clearly see this issue of true judgment and be able to rightly judge according to the heart of God. And so, may I say, brothers and sisters, your desire and my desire ought not to sit as a judge of another person, but we ought to pray, O God, judge me. O God, cleanse me. O God, show me my need. O God, cleanse me. Do we have the time, Norman? 1232. Alright. This is all that we have time for this morning. So, I want to give you the second point, but we're not going to preach on it. The second point. The second dreadful sin is the sin of bitterness and unforgiveness. We will look into that, God willing, at another time, and see how dreadfully wicked this sin is and how it can work destruction within our lives. Father, we thank You for Your presence this morning. We thank You, Lord, for doing a good work in our midst. And we commit all the things that were spoken this morning by way of testimony, the Word, and we ask, Holy Spirit, You'll take Your Word, You'll perform the purpose for which You intended it to perform, and that through it, Lord, You will bring us all into a closer walk with You, conform us more into the image of Your Son, free us more into the grace and life that's ours in Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, for all that You're doing and give You praise and honor in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah to God.