©1999 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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3/21/99
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Judging Pt. 1
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3/21/99 Judging Part 1
The teaching we got into last week
and the discussion that followed
opened up an area of study
that several of you encouraged me
to teach on this week.
It's the whole area of judging and the Christian.
When do we as Christians
have the responsibility
to judge the moral conduct of those around
us?
How do we do it in a way
that is consistent with Scripture
and productive for the relationships
involved?
How do we know
when we should involve ourselves
in the immoral conduct of another person,
and when we should stay out of it?
Is it possible to attack the issue
without attacking the person?
We stumbled into this whole thing
when I mentioned last week
that one of the roles we serve
as God's people in the world
is the role of moral conscience
for human society.
We do this most of all
simply by allowing God to change our personal
moral conduct,
allowing Him to conform us
more and more into the image of Christ.
This changing process within us
begins when we come to Christ
and He places within us
a new heart,
an new inner spirit that loves Him
and longs to be like Him.
A number of months ago
I shared with you a two-line description
of the change that takes place
when we come to Christ.
Before we come to Christ
we think we should be good,
after we come to Christ
we wish we could be good.
God gives us a heart longing
to be different than we've been.
Once that new heart is created by God
within the Christian,
God then leads us through a life-long
process of reshaping our behavior
into greater and greater conformity
with the image of Christ.
If you were to tap into the mind
of any growing Christian
who is cooperating with God
in this changing process,
you would hear him saying to
himself:
"I am not yet what I long to be,
but by His grace
I am no longer what I once was."
And last week I mentioned that
when the society around us
sees the changes our God is making within
us
it reminds that society
that there is moral right and wrong,
there are moral absolutes,
and there is accountability for our choices.
But I went on to mention
that we should never confuse the role
of serving as society's conscience
with the role of serving
as society's policemen.
Which, then, raised the question of how
or if
or when we should exercise
some sort of active moral judgement
about the conduct of those around us.
When do we have the right or the responsibility to
judge another person?
Now, we're not going to get through this in one
week.
And I'll tell you before we go any farther
that a lot of the questions you may have
will not be addressed until next week.
But I want to begin with a statement
I hope will help to create a context
for this whole discussion.
We'll talk a lot more about this statement
when we come back to it next week,
but I want to plant it into our thinking
right from the start
or none of this will make any sense.
And here it is:
I believe we misunderstand
the purpose of Biblical Judgement
for the same reason we misunderstand
the purposes God Himself.
We tend to believe that God's goal
is to eliminate sin in the world.
We may see Him approaching the human race
much like a person would approach a dirty
house.
We approach a dirty house
with the goal of eliminating the dirt.
We scrub and sweep and wipe and vacuum
with the goal of achieving cleanliness.
In the same way
we see God looking at His world
filled with the moral filth
that flows in massive quantities
from the human race
and we see Him holding on to the goal
of somehow cleansing this world
from as much of that filth as possible.
From that perspective
we may even see Him redeeming us
and filling us with His Spirit
so that we will then begin to sin less,
and to act more like we should.
But the truth is
sin never has been and never will be
the focus of the work of God among men.
If it had been
all He would have had to do
is to reach out a squish this little dirt ball we
live on like a bug,
and PRESTO! no more sin.
The focus of God's work is not to eliminate sin,
it is to restore His relationship with us.
Our sin is an issue to Him for only two reasons:
1. It separates us from Him,
2. and it causes tremendous agony
in the lives of the people He loves.
But the crucial thing to recognize
is that through Christ
God was not fighting AGAINST sin,
He was fighting FOR us
and our restoration to Him.
I bring this up because
I believe we begin our thinking about
correct and incorrect Biblical Judgement
by asking the wrong questions.
We want to know WHEN do we have a right to
judge,
and HOW do we go about judging correctly.
But the WHEN and the HOW
will make no sense whatsoever
until we first understand the WHY.
Is it to punish people for their sins?
Is it to make them pay for the wrong things they
have done?
Is it to exert pressure on them in such a way
as to make them behave better in the future?
Is it to prove to them that we are right
and they are wrong?
None of the above!
The purpose of proper Biblical Judgement
is identical with the purpose of God
in His dealings with man -
it is to restore broken relationships
and to free those involved
from the destructive consequences of their
sin.
And here is the crucial point:
The only Biblical reason for exercising
Judgement over another person
is to seek the restoration of them
to a right relationship with us
and with God,
and once those goals have been achieved
the purpose of the judgement has been
accomplished,
and the actions of judgment
should cease.
Now, we'll get into this whole area
a lot more next week,
but I want us to begin by realizing
that the crucial purpose of all true Biblical
Judgement
is not to condemn,
but rather to restore the other person
to a right relationship with ourselves
and with God.
If we do not begin with the purpose of restoration,
the HOWS and the WHENS
will make not sense at all.
And just to let you know
how we're going to structure this,
we're going to divide this study
into two major sections.
We need to begin by laying some Biblical
background
for the different types of Judging
mentioned in Scripture.
There are some types of judging
we are told to strictly avoid.
There are others we are told
we can and, in fact, must do
in order to effectively fulfill our role as
Christians in the world.
So the first part of our study
will be a survey of the 3 distinctly different types
of moral judgements
spoken about in Scripture.
It may seem a little academic,
but it is essential material
for this whole subject.
Then in the second half of the study
we'll talk about some of the more practical issues
-
how do we apply those types of judging in
our daily lives?
But first we'll start with the background knowledge
we need.
Scripture talks to us about
three distinctly different types
of moral judgements.
I'll give them some labels to help us hang onto
them.
The first one I'd mention
we'll call Primary Judging.
James talks about this kind of Judging
in James 4:11-12.
James 4:11 ¶ Do not speak against one
another, brethren. He who speaks against
a brother or judges his brother, speaks
against the law and judges the law; but if
you judge the law, you are not a doer of
the law but a judge of it.
James 4:12 There is only one Lawgiver
and Judge, the One who is able to save and
to destroy; but who are you who judge
your neighbor?
This kind of judging
involves our taking upon ourselves
the role of determining
what is morally right
and morally wrong for another
human being.
It is taking upon ourselves
the role of establishing the moral standard by
which others should be measured.
It is assuming the authority
of determining what things are sin
what things are not.
This kind of judging
is not simply applying the standard
God has already revealed,
but rather it is assuming the authority to
write the standard itself.
Ex. It would be like taking a piece of wood,
placing marks on it wherever you decided they
should go,
numbering each of the marks,
and then from then on using that piece of
wood as the yardstick
by which you measured everything
else.
James makes it clear
that this kind of Primary Judging
is never given into the hands of man.
James tells us that,
whenever we do this,
we are setting ourselves up as the supreme
Judge of the Law itself.
That is a role we are not qualified to fulfill.
James goes on to tell us the obvious,
that there is only One Lawgiver and Judge,
God Himself.
And it might help here, too,
if I remind us that all true Primary Judging
is not simply based on what God has said,
it is based on who God is.
The only correct moral standard
for the created world
is the character of God Himself.
If something is consistent with the Character of God,
then it is moral.
If it is not consistent with the Character of God,
then it is immoral.
Now, obviously, we understand the character of
God through His Written Word,
but it is important for us to remember
that the moral absolutes in Scripture
are not some arbitrary list
God thought up for His creation,
they are simply God's self-portrait of Himself.
Ex. The Bible tells us that
telling a lie is wrong,
it is immoral,
it is a sin.
But the reason it is immoral
is because God Himself is absolute truth.
There is no deceit,
no deception,
no falsehood,
no lie or veiled truth of any kind
within Him.
Ex. The Word tells us that adultery is a sin,
it is an immoral act.
The reason it is immoral
is because God is absolutely
and eternally faithful
in every relationship He enters into,
and when we are unfaithful in our human
relationships
we are acting inconsistent
with the character of God.
All Primary Judging has already been done for
all people for all time by God Himself.
Now, at first glance, that may seem obvious.
Obviously we recognize that we don't have the
authority
to write the Ten Commandments.
The book has already been written,
and it has a copyright on it!
But the truth is
Christians have been dabbling in Primary
Judging
since the day the Church started.
If we hadn't been
there would have been no need
for James to write these words.
And actually,
both Christians and non-Christians
do a lot of Primary Judging.
They just do it from opposite ends.
Non-Christians do most of their Primary Judging
by yanking things off the list of moral boundaries
God has given us.
"Lying isn't always wrong
if it's for a good purpose,
or if you don't get caught."
"Sexual expression is really just a matter of
preference and personal life-style."
"Everyone has the right to live any way they want so
long as they don't infringe upon the rights of others
to do the same."
In our society today
a truly "good man"
is not a man who lives by the moral
standards revealed to us by God,
but rather a man who respects the rights
of others,
who is tolerant,
who is gracious and accepting of all life
styles.
Before we come to Christ
we do a lot of Primary Judging
by yanking things off the list of moral
commands given to us by our Creator.
God meant well, but, He didn't get it quite right.
But after we come to Christ
we tend to continue our Primary Judging
by adding things to the list.
Throughout the history of the Church
all sorts of cultural issues
have been elevated to the position
of moral absolutes
by groups of Christians.
It's a sin to attend a dance.
It's a sin to play cards.
It's a sin to dress this way or that way.
It's a sin to eat this or that.
It's a sin to attend a movie theater.
And on and on.
Now it is certainly true
that some of those things I mentioned
need careful wisdom
in order to handle them correctly.
When we are following
the leadership of our Lord
it is common stuff for His Spirit
to say to us,
"No, this activity isn't good for you,
this form of entertainment is wrong,
I do not want you involved
in this or that."
There will be times when
our God will place His finger upon
some issue in our life
that is perfectly acceptable
to every other Christian,
and to us He will say,
"My child, this has to go. It's defeating you.
Because of your past,
because of your unique personality,
because of the special work I've
given you,
this must be removed from your life."
At those points in our life
the limit He has set for us
is every bit as binding as is "You shall not
commit adultery"
or "you shall not murder".
But the great danger we run into
is taking what He has said to us personally
and then attempting to apply it to the lives of
other Christians as well.
It is at that point
that we then assume
the role of Primary Judge -
by taking a moral boundary
that God has given to us personally
and attempting to elevate it
to a moral universal.
In the end we do far more damage to the truth
than we do good.
So, all of that is to say that we never have the right
to create moral absolutes for others.
God alone has determined
the moral absolutes for man,
and He has done that on the basis
of His own Character.
2. There is, however, another type of judging
mentioned in Scripture,
what we'll call SECONDARY JUDGING.
This is when we take the revealed Primary Moral
Judgements of God
and apply them to ourselves
and to the world around us.
And this, of course,
is the type of judging we have all the questions
about.
How do we do it?
When do we do it?
We'll need a full day on this,
so we'll save most of it for next week.
For this morning I'll just mention
the basic principles governing Secondary
Judging.
1. Secondary Judging always requires
a clear, specific statement in Scripture.
2. In Secondary Judging
our authority is never what we think
or what we feel,
but rather the voice of God Himself
as He has spoken to us in His Word.
Next week we'll look at some examples of this in
Scripture,
and try to better understand
when it's appropriate
and when it's not.
And then just to quickly finish up
this part of the study,
the third type of judging mentioned to us in
Scripture
is what we'll call Personal Judging.
We've already touched on this a little this morning,
but personal judging is just exactly that-
it is PERSONAL.
It is that daily process by which
we allow God's Spirit to apply His truth
to our daily decisions.
There was a time in my life
when God's Spirit told me
it was wrong for me to wear a watch.
It was because of the people I was working with
and my own attitudes toward time
at that point in my life.
But the limit God placed upon me
at that point in my life was for me alone-
I could not turn to my fellow Christian
and say, "You shouldn't wear a watch!"
Paul talks about this kind of judging
in Romans 14:10, 12-13 when he says,
Rom. 14:10 But you, why do you judge
your brother? Or you again, why do you
regard your brother with contempt? For we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of
God.
Rom. 14:12 So then each one of us shall
give account of himself to God.
Rom. 14:13 ¶ Therefore let us not judge
one another anymore, but rather determine
this-- not to put an obstacle or a stumbling
block in a brother's way.
Personal Judgments that grow out of our individual
interaction with God
are absolutely binding on us personally,
but never transferable to another Christian.
And with that we'll have to stop
and go back into this study again next week.