sermonette: Judge or Be Judged

Self-Correction
Frank Simkins
Given 14-Oct-00; Sermon #FT00-03s; 25 minutes

Description: (show)

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Feels pretty good to uh. Have your Stepson Ask God to help you. We can all use help. I've been asked sincerely, heartfelt to slow down. I will not comment about how long this takes, but I've been I've been thinking about it working on it for 6 months. So if I do get fast, could you do what Mr. Armstrong used to ask us to do and that's tense up your mind as well as mine being tense. I want to give you what I have. Well, I want to give you a title. And that's judge yourself or be judged. Sounds pretty sober, doesn't it? It is sobering. It's the importance, of course, of judging yourself. Relative to where we are going with our lives, which we've heard quite a bit about. I'm concerned for every one of us, every one of us here. Their influences upon us. And we are and our progeny. are so weak. Because of our backgrounds, the world we live in. And what we are and what we aren't. I do not know if you feel that way, but that's how I see it and now I understand it in the Bible, that we are weak, really weak. And the more we really understand that, of course, the more we look for power, and we've been blessed to know where to look for that power. Now most of you, and I often say you because I do not want to give a general we us all the time, and so that you'll take it personally as I feel I need to. Most of you did not grow up learning what absolute yes and absolute no mean. You did not grow up that way, especially in this land. If anywhere on earth. Also, Everyone in the church, let's focus there, is being influenced by a new religion. It's not really new, but it's become new in this land. To the degree it is now, and it's called tolerance, tolerance. The new tolerance. It's an extremely dangerous departure from the idea of absolutes. Even from the idea of absolutes. Strength and leadership are disappearing from the nations worldwide. Because man turns away from absolutes, and you know who gives the ultimate absolutes. We know here God Himself. Those of us keeping this festival. We are anticipating a radical change from this to unwavering leadership, godly leadership. God knows he has to be unwavering with the forces he's dealing with that we are dealing with. And to prepare for this, we are required to do something that is so uncommon. It's almost totally foreign. And that is to radically deal with ourselves, radically deal with ourselves compared to what you will find around you, and I will. 2000 years ago, the apostle Paul had a focus that said, I'm paraphrasing a bit. If by any means I might attain to the resurrection, determined to tell himself yes and no and to fiercely back it up, I mean fiercely and violently back it up. Doesn't that sound weird in today's society? What if we have leadership over the country that did that? Wow. What if we do that? Wow. The founding fathers of the United States said, quote, our system will not work apart from personal morality. That's a general word for for righteousness, self-control, and all of those things. I rephrase it a little to say, no system will ever work whose people do not rule themselves individually. Can't move to something else. It has to come down to that to ever have a working world or society or church. The Bible speaks to you and to me. In very strong terms about mastering ourselves. A lot of people would not like that word. I've seen it in driving lately and the reactions, wow. Deadly finger given to you. All of that, if you dare even honk the horn at the most idiotic deadly driving could possibly be done, endangering everybody around or try to talk with anybody about it. Yes, I've even done that. Appealingly. In the New King James, First Corinthians 11:31 and 32. This is in connection with the Passover, but it has principle of life forever in it. Or if I Corinthians 11:31 32, New King James, or if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, if we haven't done it ourselves properly, haven't understood, whatever, we are chastened by the Lord. Why? That we may not be condemned with the world. Of course that's God's heart and his interest. I've got a definition among many from the Greekdiaccrino here, and that is this judging yourself to discriminate, implying discriminate against yourself in favor of righteousness. Discriminate against yourself in favor of righteousness. Now there is an idea that has spread even among the church, and I think you all know this is absolutely true. that not only should you Avoid or rightly avoid condemning other people. That's not our job, not yet. But that you should not even discern evil. Even when evil is supremely evident, you shouldn't do that. There is a great reluctance and fear to even think of seeing evil as evil. I hope that doesn't include you. I hope that's weird to you. Now in churchianity it's virtually a doctrine to close the mind. To evaluating whether something is righteous or unrighteous, to close the mind. And yet all unrighteousness is sin. So in reality, you're not to discern sin under what's become virtually a doctrine in religion. Don't judge paves the way for the new tolerance which denies sin. The new tolerance, which is not new, actually denies sin. And in reality, religion commonly teaches, if you do not know this, you can prove it by looking into what people. Think and teach and are like in religion. You've been there, most of you, or a lot of you, but in religion. Uh, In reality, religion teaches that Christians are to fight all discernment of sin. Now who would love us to take on that? Who is it that would deceive us into thinking like that? I think most of all of us know about the existence of the devil who's opposed. And religion teaches patting yourself on the back for your ungodliness. ungodly tolerance of sin. You do not look at works. Christ has done it all for you. You just believe Christ comes in your heart and everything's fine. You know, the Corinthians had let that kind of thing come in, for there was obvious adultery among them patting themselves on the back for their love, their form of love. And of course that God's form of love doesn't include that. Well, conversely to this, one radical Bible teacher said, quote, you need to take yourself to the woodshed. I do not know if anybody goes to the woodshed for paddlings anymore, but you're to do that so that God doesn't have to do it for you. And we just read, God will do it for you if you do not do it yourself. There is no way around it. So, rather than fearing to be judgmental, I propose you should fear to be non-judgmental, especially regarding yourself. Especially regarding yourself in the living Bible, I Corinthians 9:27. We read like an athlete, I punish my body. Paul speaking, treating it roughly. Training it to do what it should, not what it wants to. Isn't that weird in our society? I hope it's not weird among us. I know we can grow in it. Otherwise, Paul said, I fear that after enlisting others for the race, I might, myself might be declared unfit and ordered to stand aside. Now that's what it meant. When Paul judged himself, he had a healthy motivation of fear. Doctor James Dobson, some of you will know about who he is, if not everybody here gave a definition of modern tolerance, opposed to judging. Which takes a course completely opposite of the apostle Paul. Doctor Dobson said, the word tolerance now means a desensitization toward evil. Has that affected any of us, you think? Have we lost the sensitivity toward evil? Have we ever had it the way we need it? I'll leave it to you to answer, deal with it. But the Bible teaches intolerance toward evil in ourselves, intolerance. To paraphrase I Thessalonians 5:21 and 22, I Thessalonians 5:21 to 22, hold on to the good and hate the evil in yourself. Praise yourself for the good, but thank God for that that you can. That's where it begins. Then in the living translation, Romans 6:12. Romans 6:12 reads, Do not let sin control your puny body any longer. Do not give in to sinful desires. That brings on a war at times, doesn't it? That brings on a war. The new King James in Hebrews 5:14. That's Hebrews 5:14 tells you, maturity, growing up in Christ comes from having your senses exercised to judge. Judge between good and evil. Sounds like judging is our business, a great deal of it. And to learn to do that in your own ongoing effort to judge and chasten yourself. How do you conduct yourself, I'd like you to ask, when you aren't at cyber services. That's how you really know how you're doing. On Saturday nights. Thursday afternoons, do you keep a strong rein on yourself, judging, punishing, really mastering, as Paul talked about? Look at those words. Uh, What did I want here, conduct yourself, conduct yourself. What do you do when you conduct yourself? I want to tell you I went to a Merriam-Webster dictionary. And I found to conduct yourself is to guide, to escort, to take yourself firmly by the hand as in charge. And to lead yourself and direct yourself. That's why how you conduct yourself. We do not think of that when you hear, well, how do you conduct yourself this way and that you do not think of what the power of that word is, do you? And what it means, how you deal with yourself. If you do, you studied the word in a way I had not until now. To conduct is to convey in a channel. To show yourself the way, to lead as in mind above body. Synonyms are managed, control, and direct for conduct yourself. Manage is direct handling and manipulating toward the desired result. It sounds like that's pretty active, doesn't it? It is not just how do you act, it's how are you actively conducting yourself. It's a sermon in itself, is not it? All right, meant to control, which is regulate or restrained to keep within bounds. That sounds like you and I have a job of being the master sergeant over ourselves and then direct is constant guiding and regulating. Never letting go of self-control. That's the goal. That's not what we do. We wish we did better, but we can certainly, if we have the goal in mind, work that direction and ask for a power that's unknown in human beings without God's spirit. I feel you and I have a serious problem, an urgent challenge. Both of us, all of us. You do not accurately judge and chasten yourself. Had you already come to that conclusion. I do not either, and it's serious. Because it doesn't grow up in Christ, it doesn't live by every word of God. You and I, this one is really something we too often wait for judgment and chastening to come from somewhere else. We'll drive right or we will quit doing what we are doing if we stop by the patrol. We will not do it as a young person if the parent stops us or the teacher catches us, or you know what I mean. We wait for judgment and chastening to come from elsewhere and likely not when it comes, what do you do? You bristle. Internally, if not externally, which shows your heart really is not in there as it should be on the matter. In the Bible we are plainly told that we are in practice now to judge angels. I think that may have been referred to this morning. How are we going to do that if we can't even deal with ourselves? Are we going to judge angels? Uh, will you hear it said? You finished well, good and faithful master of yourself. That's how you were going to hear it. I mean, it's going to relate to that. Well in closing, I've got a question. And some observations. The question first, of course. Why do so many so strongly avoid judging that someone else is wrong when someone else is obviously wrong, from the least to the president. Why? Why do we do that? We, um, very reluctant to judge wrong on this obvious it is. We, we, we know it is, but you can't really say that. Well during the impeachment hearings relative to habitual sins of the president. Habitual sins. Doctor Laura Schlesinger made a very powerful, scathing comment in her assessment of why so many American people were approving of the man occupying the office of the president no matter how he habitually sits. She said, approximately, that's pretty close. The meaning is here. The reason so many of you are so tolerant of the lifestyle of the current president of the United States and what she worked up. Is that 2/3 of you are guilty of the same things he is guilty of. And you can't bear the thought of judging yourself. That's what she finally said. You can't bear the thought of judging yourself, so you will not judge anybody. Oh. Many people in the church, I'm not striking in the church, I'm in it. Hey, I, I have to wrestle with me. Ask my wife, I'm as tough as any of you to wrestle with. Scottish, Scottish Irish type, you know anything about them? Wow, they have a hard time learning to spell quit. Well, many of the people in the church are very sensitive about judging in any of its meanings, any of its meanings. You've met it, you know it, you may have practiced it, you may have done it up till the time you're hearing me. Being very sensitive about it, and surely this anti-judging bias is partly due to the societal doctrine of the so-called new tolerance. But perhaps the biggest reason for anti-judging bias among us is a strong desire to avoid getting serious about judging yourself, judging ourselves. God commands ongoing repentance, does he not? Could you agree that God commands ongoing repentance? You keep repenting the rest of your life as you learn, and as you see your self doing it again, you hate the sin all the more. Well, he commands that, but you can't even practice repentance apart from judging. Somebody had to judge what's right and wrong, and we've got to understand it and apply it. And so many want to delay judging themselves, so many of us, and to delay delay changing until judgment comes crashing in from the outside. Now I ask you which is tougher. Which is tougher to get tough with yourself or somebody else to get tough with you. Which do you react better to? Which can you put your heart into more immediately? But there is no way out. Let me repeat that. There is no way out of being judged and chastened because of what we are and that the high hill we climb. It is so much better to judge and chasten ourselves than to wait for it to come from. Outside and come crashing down on us to wake us up to get tough on ourselves. Can't a number of you along with me, I wish I could say can't all of you, but I know not everybody's reached that point, that you got to where you determined I'm going to do the right thing and I'm going to do it before I'm told again to do it. I'm going to enjoy being the kind of person to have the fruits of doing it before I'm absolutely pressed on to do it. I'm almost at the end of it. In the New American Standard Version, New American Standard, NAS, Matthew 11:12. Matthew 11:12. We're told And from the days of John the Baptist until now, I'd like to say until 2000 Feast of Tabernacles, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. And the violent and violent men take it by force. Well we've already been talking about the kind of force that has to be involved, and that's force against yourself and ruling yourself, leading yourself. This includes the personal use of force when dealing with yourself. To take the kingdom by force, in your case and mine will include using force on yourself. Oh, I'd like to submit to his final statement here that one evidence of Christ in you. Is your ongoing effort to rule yourself in accordance with God's law and his standards found in the Bible.