Don't Judge Others, Judge Yourself

So, we thought about who is greatest in God's kingdom. I want to tell you something else that I have understood for many years or trying to understand more and more as to how can we be an effective member in a local church in the body of Christ without being a nuisance to others, without being a problem in the church and really being a useful member of the body of Jesus Christ, the local body of Christ. There are many requirements for that. I am thinking of one particular requirement and that is 1 Peter chapter 4. It is very simple really but yet I have discovered through the years that many have not understood it. 1 Peter chapter 4, there are 2 or 3 verses here I want to read, verse 15 onwards. Make sure that none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer or a busybody in other people's matters. Here it is called a troublesome meddler but in the margin of my Bible it says, one who oversees other people's affairs. That's a literal Greek translation. In the margin of my Bible it says, one who tries to oversee other people's affairs. Now when you look at that verse, I don't think anybody here is in danger of becoming a murderer or a thief or an evildoer. There are 4 groups of people mentioned here. Murderer, thief, evildoer. Any of you chance of becoming a murderer or a thief or an evildoer? Close to zero. But being a busybody in other people's affairs, the body of Christ is full of people who are doing that. Passing opinions on other people's affairs has nothing to do with you. Overseeing other people's affairs has nothing to do with you. Why do I have to have an opinion about them? And that is what hinders your own spiritual growth and that's what can make you an absolute first class nuisance in the body of Christ or a nuisance in society. Leave alone the church. When you try to oversee the affairs of other people, you're not appointed to oversee their affairs. But human nature is such that we always want to have an opinion about a whole lot of things we have nothing to do with. And very often our opinion is wrong because we don't know all the factors concerned. I've had numerous people give opinions about my own doctrine and teaching in our church that I've heard through the years. And I know so much of it is totally wrong because they don't know. We never do things like that. So many things. I don't defend myself. I just keep quiet. In the early days when it became known that we believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and people in our church were receiving the gift of tongues and they knew that brother Zach and his wife speak in tongues, they spread a rumor just to prevent people from coming to our church by saying, this is way back in 1975-76, that I was pulling people's tongues and making them speak in tongues. What did I do? Write an article that I didn't do that? No. I won't waste my time replying to such false accusations. I often quote that verse in Matthew 27. When Pilate questioned Jesus, he said nothing. I said, that's my answer. I said, you believe whatever you like. Okay, if you're scared that I'm doing that, you don't want to come to our church, you don't come. All that the Father gives to me will come to me. That I'm sure. Others will be turned off by all these false accusations, etc. The Christian world and these accusations all came from so-called born-again Christians. A busybody in affairs of others when we don't know anything. Do you know why we should not judge others? Let me first of all show you Isaiah chapter 11. We all want to become like Jesus Christ. Well, here is one aspect of Christ I would encourage everybody here to seek to follow. A wonderful example, Isaiah chapter 11. He spoke speaking in verse one about a stem of Jesse, a branch from his roots. Jesse is the father of David and from David seed came Jesus Christ. He's referring to Jesus Christ in verse two. The spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. Seven-fold Holy Spirit like you read in Revelation. The seven-fold Holy Spirit is mentioned here. Spirit of Jehovah, spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. And then out of all those, one particular aspect of the Holy Spirit is picked out in the next verse. The fear of the Lord. Especially, it's the beginning of wisdom. And so in verse three, it says out of all these seven, the last one, the fear of the Lord is picked up and says, Jesus will delight in the fear of the Lord, in reverence for God. And one mark of this reverence for God is he will not judge other people by what he sees. He will not make a decision by what he hears. Who? Imagine if everybody in this church decided, I'm not going to judge from today onwards by what I see or take a decision by what I hear because I may not have known the full truth. There may be other aspects to it which I don't know. It is absolute arrogance to make a decision as soon as I see something or I hear something. I remember many years ago, an incident happened in our one of our conferences in India, which I'll never forget. You see, in India, there are lots and lots of mosquitoes. And mosquitoes can spread malaria and they bite. So in between the sessions, if it's late in the evening, people would sit outside the hall in a garden or in the grass, be full of mosquitoes. So we'd have a little type of coil, which we burn, which releases a certain smell, which drives away the mosquitoes. It's an anti-mosquito coil that lasts for a long time. You just light it and it burns. And there's no fire, but there's a smoke that drives away the mosquitoes. So there were a group of people, young brothers from our church, sitting outside the hall and had this smoke going up there. And there was another young boy there, some distance away. It was dark, you know. He saw these young brothers from CFC church, the smoke going up. So what are they doing? Smoking? CFC brothers smoking cigarettes? And he went and told his mother, Mom, I saw some people after the conference smoking cigarettes. And mom, stupid woman that she was, she's no longer in the church, by the way, I'm not surprised, went and told others. And finally, it's like they say, through the grapevine, it goes person, person, person, and finally it comes to me. So I asked one of my sons, I said, Hey, were you in that little group where some young men were sitting there? He said, Yeah, Dad, we were sitting out there. What's this accusation I hear? He said, We had this thing called a coil. It's called a tortoise coil in India. We were driving away the mosquitoes. Aha. Don't judge by what your eyes see, or like that foolish mother, by what her little boy said, by what your ears hear. There are a lot more explanations to something than you think there is. I hope you'll never forget that because tomorrow what you see may not be smoke, it may be some other thing. But you have a tendency to judge. It's a tremendous lust in the flesh of Adam to pass judgment. I want you to learn a lesson from the judges of the high court. And they call them here different federal courts and appeals court and Supreme Court. Do you know that when a case is brought up before a court, the judge hears it, he doesn't pass a judgment immediately. He hears this side, he hears that side, and it goes on for days. I know cases which go on for years. And then finally, when the judge writes a judgment, it's sometimes 500 pages. I heard this, I heard this, I heard that person that this, this, this, this, and I thought about this, and I thought about that. And here is my conclusion. They don't take it lightly. It's Christians who don't bother about finding out anything. I pass my judgment. What does it prove? Such Christians have zero fear of the Lord. It says about Jesus, because he feared the Lord, he would not judge by what his eyes saw, or make a decision by what his ears heard, because he wanted to pass judgment was for in righteousness. And with fairness, see those two words in verse four, righteousness and fairness. That means the underprivileged poor person, this is mentioned about the underprivileged poor in verse four, should not be taken advantage of. The influential rich people have got power to influence judgment, but the poor, poor person without influence, he can't influence the judgment. And Jesus was concerned that the poor person should not be taken advantage of. There must be fairness and righteousness. It is not that Jesus had no opinion. You read the Gospels, he had a lot of opinions. He says, you Pharisees, you hypocrites, you serpents, you generation of vipers. Of course he had an opinion. But it was after years and years of observing. When he was a 12 year old boy, Jesus went into the synagogue, never said a thing. The next 18 years, he observed, observed, observed, observed, observed, carefully, sought his heavenly father's discernment. And finally, when he was 30 years old, he tells them, you're a brood of vipers, you're hypocrites. And he gave them example after example, example like this judge writing this long judgment. He says, you take advantage of poor widows and turn them out of their houses, and then you come to the church and make long prayers. Many, many examples. He said, that's why I say you're a bunch of hypocrites. And many examples like that. It's a very important quality that we must covet, not to judge, but to have discernment. See in Philippians in chapter 1 and verse 9, Philippians 1 and verse 9, Paul says, I have a prayer for you Philippians. You're a wonderful bunch of people. I want to tell you something. Do you know that the Apostle Paul never took any money from the Corinthians? Even when they gave him, he said, no, I won't take any money from you. In Ephesus, Ephesus is a very good church. He was there for three years, at the end of three years, he says, I did not take a single pie from you, sent from you. I took care of myself. I didn't receive any clothes from you. I didn't receive anything. We provided for, not only for my needs, for Timothy and others who were with me, took care of ourselves. But from the Philippians, when they sent him money, he took it. He was not dependent on them. Paul was not dependent on any man. He earned his own living. But occasionally when people gave him a gift, like people would give Jesus a gift, he would receive it. You read that in Philippians 4, when you sent a gift to me again, again, I received it. And even when I received it, he says, I was not thinking of what I need. I was thinking that God will bless you because you gave something to his servant. So I received it so that you will prosper. Even there, his motive was that they would be blessed, that he would not insult the Philippians. But from the Corinthians, he somehow hesitated. I can't take from these people. A true servant of God like that is like that. He's got discernment. But to the Philippians, this wonderful church, he says, there's something I pray for you, Philippians 1.9. You must love people. Sure. But you must love, must abound in discernment. Don't be fooled by all the people. Don't let your love be so blind that you get fooled by everybody. No, no, no, no. You must have discernment. You don't judge people. That's why I'm trying to give a balance here. You don't judge people, but you discern. And it's very important to know the difference between discerning and judging. If you don't discern, you'll be like a zombie. You know what a zombie is? A man whose brain has been taken out. He just wanders around the earth like a robot and does not think. We're not supposed to be mindless zombies who don't even think. We must think. God has given us a mind to think. We must not be fooled. Jesus said, be harmless as doves. Doves never harm anyone. They're not like eagles. But he said, be wise as as what? Serpents, snakes. Genesis 3 says the serpent was the wisest of all of God's creation. Wiser than everything God created. And Jesus took that example. You know, when the devil wanted to come in the Garden of Eden, he didn't take the lion. He didn't choose the lion. The lion only scares people. He would have run away. He chose a serpent. Beautiful. Serpent is so beautiful and clever. And Jesus used that example and said, be as wise as a serpent, you believers. But don't harm like serpents. No. Be harmless like a dove and be wise as serpents. Be discerning. That means don't go through this world like a zombie, not knowing what's happening. Everybody deceives you. No. I try my best to not let people deceive me about their spirituality. In my younger days, I have been fooled, I must say. And I allowed, but God does something to protect the church. I, you know, I, you know, some of these military institutions, military camps and all, there's a checkpost. And they have a bar that goes up like this. They check your identity. Okay, they lift the bar, you can go. So I think of myself as an elder sometimes like that. People come to the church and I try to discern them and sometimes they have fooled me. And I've lifted the bar and let them go. But they don't realize that there's another checkpost over there where the Holy Spirit is. And he does not lift the checkpost, he sends them back. And they come right out back through me out of the church. Thank God I am not the ultimate protector of the church. Jesus Christ is. So I always tell people, even if you fool me, remember there's another checkpost coming up. You won't get past that one. And I've seen that happen. How God finally exposes them and drives them out of the church. I've actually seen it happen. Judas Iscariot could fool those other 11 disciples for three and a half years, but finally he got exposed. So you may fool some people for some of the time, but not all the time. You can't fool people all the time. You can't fool God and God will preserve his church. But we must grow in discernment. In the beginning we don't have. I must say in the early days I did not have much discernment, but I've sought to grow in discernment and I'm not perfect. But I want to encourage all of you to grow in discernment. Don't be fooled by anybody who comes to you and comes with a story and tells you something. We must be wise in everything. So, but we don't judge. We don't condemn a person. We don't pass a judgment that this is like that, that he's like that. And I'll tell you the reason why. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, it says here, verse 5, here's another verse about judgment. Don't go on passing judgment before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. When has he come yet? The Lord has not come. Can you please wait? You who are itching to pass judgment on somebody, all of you who are itching to give an opinion about your opinion, your very important opinion about somebody, just hang on. God says, I'll give you time to give your opinion. Just wait till I come, Jesus says. After that you can give all your opinions, because then your opinion may change. And I'll tell you why. Because when the Lord comes, he's going to reveal the motive, verse 5, with which this man did something which you thought was evil. And it was not evil. I heard a story of a believer in some church was seen going into a bar, a drinking saloon. Sure enough, some believer saw that and circulated the news. It was discovered later that he had gone into that bar with a number of tracts to witness to people there and to give out the tracts and that's all he did. He didn't touch a bit of alcohol. He just witnessed to people and got thrown out and he came out. But think of those people who judged him, not knowing the full story. You see a believer walking into a bar. You say, ah, I thought he was a spiritual man. There's so much like this, my brothers and sisters, what you see, you cannot believe. And I believe that's one reason why God has allowed the sun to rise in the east and go to the west. To tell you every day, you cannot believe your eyes. And if you had not studied geography, like human beings, thousands of years, they really believe that the sun goes around the earth and it goes like that. I remember hearing that story of those two little boys in the garden and the older boy, 12 years old, told his seven-year-old younger brother, hey, the sun has moved. It was there in the east and now it's here in the west. And the seven-year-old said, no, the sun hasn't moved. It's the earth that's rotating on its axis. And under our feet, the earth is moving. And the older boy said, I believe what I see. And I saw the sun moving. I believe what I feel and I don't feel the earth moving under my feet. And the little boy said, I believe daddy. Who is right? That's what I say when so many people say things. I say, I believe my heavenly daddy. You can believe whatever you see. I see the earth rotating under our feet. You know at what speed the earth rotates? At the equator, it is 1,000 miles an hour. 1,000 miles an hour, the earth is rotating under our feet. You feel it? You say, I felt nothing. Don't believe your feelings. It's happening. It's been happening every day since you were born, but you didn't feel it even for one second. And the sun, you see it moving, moving, moving. It's not moving at all. Don't trust your senses. It says about Jesus, he would not judge by what his eyes saw, his ears heard, because he would say, well, maybe a good motive with which that person did it. I don't know the motive. We have a tremendous temptation. The more spiritual you are, the less you want to give your opinion to people. And I'll tell you, I preached this for nearly 40 years. And in our own CFC churches, I'm sorry to say so many brothers and sisters still judge by their opinion, make a nuisance of themselves everywhere. See, for years, I was only a father. Then, some years ago, I became a grandfather. 13 years ago, our first grandchild was born. And then now we have many grandchildren. And I became a father-in-law over the last 14, 15 years. So when I go to the homes of my children, I see them doing things, which I may think, hey, that's not the way to bring up children. And the Lord tells me, you had your turn to bring up children. Now let them do it their way. Thank you, Lord. And I keep my mouth shut. And I say, that's not the way we did it in our home. The Lord said, you had time to do it in your home. Now let them do it their way. But there's a tremendous lust in the flesh of Adam to express my opinion. I want to stand before God and say, I have never done it in these 15 years in any of my children's homes. And I will never do it till Jesus comes. Because I have learned, don't be a busybody in other people's matters. It's a mark of the devil. It's those who are inspired by the devil. Because the devil is called the accuser of the brothers in Revelation 12, 10. And there's a spirit of accusation when we are giving an opinion to somebody. This is the way I did it. Who said, are you God or something that your way is only the perfect way? No. So I'm telling you what I've, I just decided that. And so I have a wonderful relationship with all my children and with all my daughters-in-law. Every one of them. They love me because I don't interfere in their life. I pray for them before God. Stop. Period. Full stop. And if they ask me for advice, of course I give it. And I've discovered the more I keep myself out of their way, the more they come and ask me for advice. Because I don't interfere. And I say, if there's something wrong, I pray for them. You believe in prayer? I'm not talking, you may not be a father-in-law, but this lust to interfere is there in the flesh. And I tell you this, if you've been in this church and you heard me, I've come to this church for 14 years. We have 14 years, we have had conferences here. Many of you have been here many years. But I'm telling you from my experience of 40 years in India, there are people who have heard me for years and have not changed in this area. And they make a nuisance of themselves everywhere. And I'll tell you why. I want to show you this other verse. In the same 1 Peter 4, where it says, don't be a busybody in other people's matters. It says something more of how we can avoid being a busybody in other people's matters. 1 Peter 4 and it says in verse 17, mark a mark of the people who belong to God's family. I want to be a part of God's family, the household of God it is called here. It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God and it must begin with us first. So the judgment must begin with me first. I must judge myself first. Lord, in what area should I judge myself? Just the things he has mentioned earlier. Verse 15, am I a murderer? Jesus said anger is equal to murder. Do I get angry? He said that in Matthew chapter 5. The Pharisee's sin was murder. In the new covenant equivalent is anger. Like he said in the Pharisee's old covenant standard was adultery. The new covenant equivalent is dirty sexual thoughts. So am I a murderer? In other words, in terms of new covenant, do I get angry with people? Let me judge myself. Judgment must begin, verse 17, with me first. Before I pass opinions on this. Secondly, it says a thief. Now I don't think we steal money. I don't think anybody here steals money. Do you steal a person's reputation, testimony by saying something negative about him so that that person has got a bad opinion? You have stolen his reputation. By the way, you've spoken about that person. You're a thief, as much a thief as the fellow who stole somebody's wallet. You don't see, thief is not only money. I tell preachers, do you steal people's time? I see if you get up in the pulpit and you've made no preparation for what you want to speak, you haven't waited on the Lord, you've not sought God's will, you've not studied the scriptures, and you get and ramble on and ramble on from Genesis to Revelation and waste people's time. You're a thief of their time. Ask yourself, how much is the wages, hourly wages, $15 an hour? Okay, they sat there for 15, they sat there for one hour listening to you rambling, rambling, or even half an hour, seven and a half dollars per person sitting there. You've stolen already $400 from those people that day by wasting half an hour of their time. I say, it's like I remember a board in front of a manager's table. It says, if you have nothing to say, don't say it here. I like that. I like to put it in a pulpit. If you've got nothing to say, don't say it here. If you've got something to say, it will help people, then say it. Otherwise, don't say it. Dear brothers, we can think we're not thieves, evil doer. Don't suffer as a murderer or thief as an evil doer, something that harms another person. You harm somebody's reputation and afterwards discover, oh, I never realized that person did it with a very good motive or what I heard was not absolutely right. I've made mistakes. I remember some years ago, there was a brother who was in charge of the audio equipment in our church in Bangalore. Young brother, very fine young brother, capable person. He was younger than my youngest son, but a very good person. And something went wrong that day, which I felt was a serious mistake. Not just a minor error, but something more serious than that. And I went up to him and I said, you should have been more careful. You should not have done that. And afterwards, I realized he never did it. It was somebody else who did it. Boy, can you imagine how I felt? Somebody had told me that this guy did it and I did not even check it up. So I've not been guiltless. I've been guilty. And I went to him. Immediately, as soon as I heard it, I went to him and I put my arms around and said, brother, I'm really sorry. Really sorry that I judged you without knowing the truth. Please forgive me. I want to be very much more careful next time. So I'll tell you, I have learned by making mistakes. I learned that you don't apologize. Let me ask you, do you apologize when you discover that you judge somebody wrongly? And you told him something and afterwards you discover you were completely wrong. Have you ever gone to that person and say, oh, I'm really sorry? Have you felt a remorse about it? Have you repented before God and gone to that person and say, boy, I'm so sorry, brother. I'm so sorry, sister, that I judged you at the wrong. What an arrogant person I am to think of that. I'm not God. Only God has the right to judge. But I judged you and not thought about the reasons. I didn't even inquire. I didn't make inquiry. I just judged you. You know, there's an Old Testament law which God gave. Let me see if I can find it in the book of Deuteronomy. Yeah, Deuteronomy 13. It's a beautiful verse, which I've quoted to myself many times and to others also. You know, it says here in Deuteronomy 13, you must know this verse very, very important. Verse 12. Deuteronomy 13, verse 12. If you hear, you heard something. Then in one of your cities, some worthless men, verse 13, have gone out and done something wrong, taught something wrong, and gone out and told people to worship idols or something like that. That was it those days. It may be something else today. But you heard something. What must you do? Now listen to this. Count on your fingers. Number one, you must investigate. Number two, search out. Number three, inquire. Number four, inquire thoroughly. Number five, see if it is true. Number six, see if the matter has been established. And number seven, see that it has been done. Then, verse 15, go and strike. He's not saying don't take action. But do these seven things before you take action. Boy, I'm so thankful for scripture that teaches me how to pass judgment. Judge yourselves first. Otherwise, you'll be holding hands with the accuser of the brethren. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 10. The accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. I want you to see what the devil is called. The devil is called the deceiver of the whole world in verse 9. Revelation 12, 9. The whole world he deceives. But he does not accuse them. He does not accuse them because they belong to him. You don't accuse your son and daughter, do you? How many of you have gone around spreading tales about your son or your daughter? Tell me. Your son and daughter are not perfect. But when they do something wrong, you know your son or daughter did something wrong. How many people have you gone and told about it? Hey, do you know what my son did? Do you know what my daughter did? And go to somebody else, do you know what my son did? Do you know what? We never do it. Why don't you speak about your son and daughter like that? Because you love them. Why do you speak about somebody else? Because you don't love them. It's a plain truth. I'm telling you the truth. You just don't love them. You can say you're a Christian. You're a Christian that belongs to a new covenant church. It's all garbage. If you really were a true Christian belonging to a new covenant church, you would stop judging people like that. You would seek to love them more. And it says here the devil deceives the whole world, but he does not accuse them because they belong to him. All the world belongs to him. He deceives them, but he doesn't accuse them. But when it comes to the believers in verse 10, he's called the accuser. He accuses those whom he hates. Do you know that, that you always accuse those you hate? You may say, no, I don't hate. You do hate that person. Otherwise you would not accuse that person. You may say with all this superficial talk about, I love that person, but it's all rubbish. You hate him like the devil hates God's children. So he accuses them. He loves his own worldly people who belong to him, and he deceives them. He doesn't accuse them. But he's called the accuser of the brethren. And it says here, read verse 10, a loud voice, it's salvation and the kingdom of God and the authority of Christ has come because the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down who accuses them before God at day and night. And I'll tell you something, salvation and the kingdom and authority of Christ will come in your life when the spirit of accusation is thrown out from your life and you stop accusing others day and night. Do you want verse 10 to be experienced in your life? That's written about your life. The salvation of God has come to me. The power of God has come to me. The kingdom of God has come into my life. The authority of Christ has come into my life. You want all that? Sure. Get rid of the accusing spirit. That's what that verse says. It's a great verse. I've sought to, I didn't start like that. I started just like all of you, like all human beings, like Adam. It's not me, it's my wife. She is the one who picked the fruit and gave it to me. I was born of that Adam. And I had that same spirit. But I said, Lord, I belong to you now to cleanse myself. I've tried to cleanse myself and cleanse myself and cleanse myself. Like it says in 1 Peter 4, judge myself and judge myself and judge myself with many mistakes little by little by little. I've gradually got rid of that. I don't know whether I'm 100% free, but my aim is 100%. I'm pressing on to perfection in this area. And I'll tell you one wonderful result that has come from it. That when I stop always suspecting the worst about people and try to think, well, there must be a good reason and think something good about that person instead of always thinking that must be, everything's good about me. That's how Adam says, but everything's bad about the other person. Now, if you're like that, you need to be cleansed from that spirit and consider the possibility. There's probably a lot of evil in you and a lot of good in the other person. I think of how Jesus sat at the well in Samaria and looked at this woman, five times divorced and now sleeping with a man who's not even her husband in John chapter 4. And he talks to her. You know what he talks to her about? Worship. He should be talking to her about divorce. He should be talking to her about adultery, but he talks about worship in the spirit. Oh, he had discernment. He didn't think the worst about that woman. He must have thought she's messed up her life. Poor woman, never heard the truth. Living in Samaria where the Jews never went, never got the opportunity to hear the truth. Poor woman, I have compassion on her. Why did she divorce five times? Maybe it's her fault. Maybe she's stubborn. Maybe she's evil, but maybe her husband's caused her problems. Why is she sleeping with a man without getting married? We don't know. How would you look at a woman who you knew has divorced five times and is now sleeping with somebody? Oh, how quick. You had to pass judgment, but he would not judge by what his eyes saw or his ears heard. That's why sinners came to him and he saved them. And maybe brother, sister, that's why sinful people don't come to you. Maybe that's why you've never brought anybody to Christ in your life. Have you brought people to Christ in your life? Holy persons who don't bring anybody to Christ. You know, Jesus said, I did not come to call holy people. I came to call sinners to salvation. God has placed us as witnesses to bring others to him. And we will be able to bring people to him if we stop judging others a little more. Stop passing your opinions about every Tom, Dick and Harry you see and everyone you know. And just mind your own business. Don't be a busybody in other people's matters. God can deal with them. You're not appointed by God as a judge. Yeah, one last verse. James chapter 4. James chapter 4, verse 11. If you fear God, take these words seriously. Right now, take it seriously. Read them in your Bible. Do not speak against one another, brothers. Do not speak against one another. Because when you speak against a brother or judge your brother, you're speaking against the law of God and judging the law of God. But if you judge the law of God, you're not a doer of the law, you're a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge. That's Almighty God. Have you heard that? There is only one judge who is able to save or to destroy. Who do you think you are to judge your neighbor? Who do you think you are to judge that person? Are you Almighty God? That's the question the Holy Spirit is asking you in that verse. Let us follow Jesus' example. Repent of all the years when we have passed opinions and been the accuser of brothers and sisters and find fault with them and speak evil about them behind the back and say, you know this person is like this, this person like this, this person like this, this person like this, and spread evil of that person. And one day at the judgment seat of Christ when the person's entire life is revealed, say, Oh Lord, I never even knew that person did such so much good in secret. And here I was going around judging a saintly child of God who had one or two weaknesses. And now with the light of Christ's judgment seat, I see I have 10 times more weaknesses than that person. If you don't want any regret at the judgment seat of Christ, I would say don't judge, don't condemn, discern. If you feel that someone is not a good person to associate with, don't associate with that person. That's fine. There are many people I don't associate with. There are many people I warn my children, don't associate with those people. But I don't go around talking about them. It's not my business. I don't want to have any regrets at the judgment seat of Christ. Yeah, I forgot there's one more verse I must show you. Two more verses actually. 1 Corinthians 11, very important. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 31. It's a verse that many times it's written in my mind. I wanted to share it and I slipped up my mind till now. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 31. If we judge ourselves rightly, we will not be judged when Christ comes back. I want that. You know, I picture many times in my mind, I picture the judgment seat of Christ. Christ sitting on the throne judging people and one by one the believers coming up and he's exposing their whole life, like on a video screen, all their life from their memory and pointing out the things they did, they did, did, did, did, did. And he asked them, why did you do this? Why did you do that? And here it says, if I have repented of all that I have done, and instead of judging other people, I judge myself. In that day when I stand before the Lord, look at my record and say, okay, Zach, nothing. You're free. Because whatever you did wrong, you judged yourself, repented, and from the time you got light on your life, you stopped judging other people, even though you discerned and avoided people who were not good. I want to hear that. I want to hear, well done, my son. Well done, my daughter. Do you want to hear that from Jesus one day? I want to hear it. It's the greatest longing in my life to hear Jesus tell me at the judgment seat of Christ, well done. You did not go around being a busybody in other people's matters. You did not judge others. You saw so many things wrong and you said, if I can help, I offer help, but I'm not here to interfere in what other people do. Let them run their life the way they do it. I go into some homes where everything is a mess. You know, they don't keep it tidy. It's a mess. And I tell you before God, I do not judge them. I don't say, boy, I don't keep my house like this. No. I say, maybe this poor mother's got a lot more work than I have to do. Maybe she was not brought up in the same type of cleanly disciplined atmosphere I was. Maybe they don't have enough money to spend to throw away the useless things and keep only the good things. I won't judge because I say tidiness is not holiness. Holiness is in the heart. And tidiness depends on, you know, if you have only one child, you can keep the home tidy. If the child is grown up, if you have 10 children, you can mess up the place. We can judge so easily. According to our standards, we have basically, we are unmerciful. So we need to judge ourselves and we will not be judged. And then I want to show you one more verse in James chapter 2. James chapter 2. And verse 13. This is a very important verse. James 2.13. God's judgment of you will be merciless, without mercy, if you have not shown mercy in the way you assessed and judged other people. Please take that seriously. God's judgment of you will be merciless without mercy. In the final day, if you have not shown mercy to other people, God will treat you in that day exactly like you treated other people today. Today, other people are at your mercy and you treat them so hard. One day you will be at God's mercy and He will treat you exactly like you treated other people. I remember that. I say, Lord, even if I am the most selfish person on earth, I selfishly want you to be merciful towards me. And for that reason, at least I'll be merciful to others. It's not the best reason. But that's the second best reason to be merciful to others, that God will be merciful to me in the day of judgment. But the best reason is, that's the way Jesus is. He looks at this woman caught in adultery. He tells the Pharisees, He who is without sin, throw the first stone. That's a law He made. And then He's the only one without sin. And according to His own statement, He should throw the first stone. But He doesn't. He says, I didn't come here to throw stones at people. He is without sin. According to His own word, He has a right to throw stone because He said He was without sin. Cast the first stone. And He did not do it. And here I am, with so many sins still not eliminated from my life. And my pocket is full of stones. Who in the world do I think I am to throw stones at people when there's so many sins in my own life? And the one who was without sin, who had a right to throw stones, never threw one. He said to that woman, I don't condemn you. Go and live a better life from now on. I say, Lord Jesus, make me like you. The passion of my life is to be like you. You never accused anybody. You came to set the captive free. Not to put one more bar in his prison by accusing him. What should I say at the end to everyone sitting here? He who has years to hear, she who has years to hear, let them hear. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, there's such a strong tendency in our nature to judge everyone around us, including the loved ones in our own family. So much of this corruption and evil from Adam has come down in our flesh. And you came to set us free. You came to save us from sin. Your name is Jesus because you're a savior. Save us from this terrible sin of accusing others, judging others. Help us to change our habits, to fear you so that we don't judge by what our eyes see or our ears hear. But with righteousness and fairness like you did all your days on earth, you did it. Help us to be merciful to others just as you've been merciful to us, Lord. Lord, help me be merciful to others just as you've been merciful to me. Hear me when I call. Help me lest I fall into the pit from whence you set me free. Lord, I know that it was thy great mercy that caused me thy salvation to see. Lord, help me to be merciful to others just as you've been merciful to me. Amen.