Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the dangers of wrongful judgment and the importance of forgiveness in his sermon. He draws from 1 Samuel 16, illustrating how God sees the heart while humans often judge by outward appearances. Beach encourages the congregation to seek God's guidance in their judgments and to be aware of their own faults before criticizing others. He highlights that true judgment should be redemptive and free from bitterness, urging believers to refrain from speaking evil of one another. The sermon concludes with a call to ask God for clarity and purity in judgment, aligning with the teachings of Jesus.

Two things the Lord put upon my heart. The first was release, and we have dealt with that. God has dealt with it. And now the next subject that we're going to speak on this morning directly relates to unforgiveness. The subject that we're going to delve in now just for a few minutes, if God is willing, is wrong judgment. Wrong judgment. 1st Samuel chapter 16. And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill thine horn with oil, and go. I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. The Lord always shows us a way in our crises, doesn't he? And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt do. Now I want to emphasize this verse. God is speaking now, and this is what God says. Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee. I will show thee. Now remember that. And Samuel did that which the Lord spoke, and came to Bethlehem, and the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, Comest thou peaceably? Boy, Samuel had really developed a reputation, hadn't he? Wonder why the folks trembled when Samuel came walking down the road. Sounded almost like what Ahab did when he saw Elijah. I believe the reason why they trembled is because Samuel walked with the Lord, and he saw things the way they were, and he said, Peaceably I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. And it came to pass when they were come, that he looked on Eliab. Now who's looking here? Samuel is looking. What does Samuel do? Well Samuel's looking, and he says, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh to the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. Then Jesse made Shammal to pass by, and he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this. Again Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The Lord hath not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said to him, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and with all of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Rimeh. We want to look for a short time this morning at wrong judgment, and we want to ask the Lord to help us not judge wrongfully. Wrong judgment snares our soul, corrupts our spirit, and distorts our vision. Wrong judgment. Now I'd like to bring your attention, if I could, back to verse number 3, chapter 16, and call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee. Now the emphasis here is the Lord was going to show Samuel. And now when Samuel, in verse number 6, and it came to pass when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. The difference between your sight and God's sight is very, very distinct. You and I look at what appears. We look on the surface. We make judgments about people, about things, about circumstances, about things that are said based on an outward glance of the situation. And this ought not to be in the Church of God. I believe the Savior wants to free us from making wrong judgment about each other. Now I want to invite you, if I may, to turn your Bibles to James chapter 4. And we're just going to read through these Scriptures, and then just let the Word of God have an impact, and we combine this with forgiveness. And many times we are judging wrong because we have unforgiveness in our heart. So as God frees us from unforgiveness, he will also free us from wrong judgment. James chapter 4, beginning in verse number 11, Speak not evil one of another, brethren. Oh, isn't there a lot of evil speech that proceeds from our mouth against people? Only if the Holy Spirit shines his light, dear friend, can you see and understand the corruptness and the utter sinfulness of evil speech. You will justify your evil speech. You will rationalize your evil speech. You will take pride in your evil speech. You will say that it comes from the Lord, that it is proper judgment. All of these things you will do until one day God sets you down all alone, and it's him and you, and he shines that all- seeing searchlight into the depths of your heart and shows you where your speech is coming from. May I encourage you by the love of God, ask the Lord to shine light on your speech and on your judgments about people in particular. Ask the Lord, be willing to say, I am not acquitted if my conscience doesn't stand up against me. Don't think that you are free from evil speech and judgment just because your conscience doesn't convict you, because Paul said, listen, Paul said to the Corinthians, I stand, and this is Paul writing, he says, I stand totally free from any known accusation that my conscience would bring against me. But Paul went on to another step that a lot of people never enter into. He said, but by that I'm not gonna say I'm free, because the Lord is my ultimate judge. Too many Christians live by their conscience, and oftentimes their conscience is seared in a certain area. That's why they can sin and not feel convicted about it. Well, this doesn't bother me, but it's totally in opposition to the Word of God. They say, well, it doesn't bother me. Well, just because it doesn't bother you doesn't mean it's right. We have to go beyond living in freedom just because our conscience doesn't bother us. But we have to go to the supreme judge. That's Jesus himself. So I wanted to just say this, that friends, you can hear this and it can go in one ear and out the other, and you can walk and say, well, praise the Lord. But if the light shines, and that's what I'm asking, ask the Lord to shine light into your heart, and you'll see how evil and pernicious this sin is. This grieves the Savior. Judgment. Judgment. Judge this, judge that, make a statement about that. Talk to one brother about another brother. Talk to one sister about another sister. These things ought not to be in the church of God. They ought not to be. We need to do like Job did, and just pray for people. And when we have an opportunity, do good for them. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. That means stop judging people. 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 able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judges another? Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Jesus is so pure. He's so free from defilement. He's so lovely. Matthew chapter 7. 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. Now, the next few verses is God's remedy to wrong judgment. And I'm asking the Lord to make this real to our hearts as we're about to close. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considereth not the beam that is in thine own eye? Listen. To behold what's in another, but never consider what may be in you, is a sure sign that your judgment is wrong. Now listen to this. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother? Now we've got the one who feels that it's their ministry to correct people when they see a fault in their life. We have a lot of them in the church today. People who feel they're anointed to correct and expose people's faults. Wrong judgment. Listen. How wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote of thine own eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own. Now here's contemporary language. How can you look at the toothpick in your brother's eye when there's a telephone pole in your own? How can you look at the toothpick in your brother's eye when there's a telephone pole in your own? Usually someone who judges wrongfully can't see the telephone pole in their own eye, but seemingly they can see all of the toothpicks in all of the Christians' eyes. And they're experts on everything but their own walk with God being cleansed. Now here's what the counsel is, thou hypocrite. Boy, I tell you, Jesus didn't play any punches, did he? He just spoke it like it was. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Cast out the beam out of your own eye, then you will clearly see. Now I want to read one more scripture, John, chapter John, or the book of John, verse number 24. John 7, verse number 24, excuse me, thank you, Norman. John 7, verse 24. Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. That's just what the Lord told Samuel. Now listen, make this your prayer. If you want to learn how to judge according to righteous judgment and not judge according to appearance, you need to major on one thing. Cast out the beam in your own eye. And Jesus said, then you will clearly see. You, listen, you cannot see clearly until the beam's been taken out of your own life. And then once the beam is taken out of your life, guess what? Your judgment will be righteous, and it won't be tainted with evil, with criticism, with bitterness, with unforgiveness, with flesh, with harshness, but it'll be the judgment that comes from the Lord Jesus himself. It's pure, and it's right, and it's free from guile, and it's redemptive in its nature. It's building. It wants to lift up and not tear down. So why not ask the Lord to help us clearly see by coming to him and asking him to cast out the moat in our own eye? And then we can be vessels ministering truth by God. Don't speak evil of each other. Don't backbite, don't gossip, don't defile your brother's character in someone else's presence. Don't do it. You're only gonna bring her on yourself. If you can't think of anything good to say about someone, then don't say anything. Don't belittle somebody in someone else's character. That's being a murderer. That's what it is to be a murderer. You murder the person. You assassinate them. Don't judge them. God will take care of them. You just worry about how to have your speech always seasoned with salt that it might minister grace to the hearer. Well, it's 20 to 1. We just want to thank the Lord. Oh, it'll be like Jesus. Amen. Well, and then I tell you, when you're free, the Holy Ghost has freedom to move then. We don't want to be redundant. You're free to go. You want to spend time at the altar? We have service at 630 tonight. If you want to talk, please go in the vestibule so we can get the altar open for prayer. And God bless you. We love you very much. If you have a special love offering this morning, then you're welcome to come and bring it into here. Put it inside one of these here.