©1999 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
|
4/11/99
|
Judging Pt. 3
|
...
|
4/11/99 Judging Pt. 3
Our Easter visitors have come and gone
and we can return once again
to being the family of God
and learning and growing together.
We're going to return to our mini-series on Judging
this morning.
How and when and where
is it healthy and right
for us to pass moral judgements
on the actions of those around us?
We've been away from this for two weeks
so let me get our minds back into the study
by restating the basic principles
we've seen so far.
We began be recognizing
three distinctly different types of moral
judgements mentioned in Scripture.
#1. Primary Judging is the process of establishing
universal moral commandments for both ourselves
and for other people.
In our study we have seen
that no human being
has either the ability
or the authority
to act as the Primary Judge
for another human being.
All Primary Moral Judging
has already been done for us
by the only One who has the authority to do
so - God Himself.
And along the way
we took some time to look at
how destructive it is
when Christian groups
add things to
the absolute moral boundaries
given to us by God.
#2. The second type of judging we looked at in our
study
is what we are calling "Secondary Judging".
In secondary judging
we take the Primary Moral Judgments of God
and in certain situations
we apply them to the lives of those
around us.
And so far we have seen
four principles governing
this area of Secondary Judging.
#1. With a few special exceptions,
which we will look at next week,
the instructions we are given
about Secondary judging
are applicable only in our
relationships with other Christians.
We are not the moral policemen of the world,
handing out guilt-tickets
to the non-Christians around us
who fail to measure up to Biblical moral
standards.
For the most part
non-Christians do not sin
because they are ignorant of the truth,
they sin because their hearts
are in rebellion against God
and until their hearts are changed by Him
their moral conduct will not change
significantly.
#2. The second principle of Secondary
Judging - it always requires
a clearly stated moral command from
God.
We are not writing the rules,
we are simply applying them
where the Lord has shown us
it is appropriate.
#3. The only Biblical reason for exercising
Secondary 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.
We are not punishing,
we are not attacking,
we are not seeking to justify ourselves,
we are seeking to heal and restore
a broken relationship.
Once that restoration has been accomplished
the judgmental stance should cease.
#4. And then the fourth principle we saw
was that Secondary Judging
in our relationships within the Body
of Christ
assumes that it is only Christ
working within the other
person
Who can bring the desired
change in their life,
and our actions are simply designed
to support His work within them.
In other words,
we are not attempting to force the other person
into submission through external pressure,
we are attempting to help open their eyes
to the issues God is seeking to address
within them.
3. And then, after talking about Primary Judging,
and Secondary Judging,
we spent a few minutes with the third type of
judging addressed in Scripture,
what we're calling Personal Judging.
Personal Judging
is that special, highly individual process
by which the Spirit of God
takes the broad moral commandments of
God
and applies them
in a very fluid,
active, daily way to our
individual lives.
Jesus illustrated this remarkable work
of the Holy Spirit
in an illustration He offered
to a group of people
who felt He wasn't keeping the rules
He was suppose to.
In Luke 5:37-38 He said,
Luke 5:37 "And no one puts new wine into
old wineskins; otherwise the new wine
will burst the skins, and it will be spilled
out, and the skins will be ruined. But new
wine must be put into fresh wineskins."
The illustration doesn't make much sense to us
without a little background.
In the culture of Jesus' day
wine was often kept in containers
made out of leather.
When those containers were new
they could stretch and flex.
They were ideal containers for new wine
because as the wine fermented
and built up pressure in that fermentation
process
the skins would expand to accommodate the
process.
But when the wineskins got old
they became brittle.
If new wine was placed within them
rather than flexing and expanding
as the wine fermented,
they would crack and split wide open.
In Jesus' illustration
the new wine symbolized His Holy Spirit that
He would place within
every Christian.
The old wineskin
represented the legalistic religious system that
defined faithfulness
on the basis of adherence to
an external list of do's and don'ts.
Jesus was saying simply,
My people must live with a moving,
living,
flexible relationship with my Spirit.
They must be both willing
and able to hear my voice
as I equip them each day
with the attitudes
and the actions
and the boundaries
they will need that day
for effective life with Me.
One day God's Spirit may say,
"Larry, I don't want you to wear a watch. Your
concern over time
and schedules
is hurting your relationship
with the people I've placed you with."
And on another day
He may say, "Wear that watch
and keep a close eye on it -
after 35 or 40 minutes
you'll loose these people."
And as we looked at this area
we saw Scripture giving us
three guidelines
and an over-arching principle.
1. The Personal Judgements given to us by God's
Spirit
are as binding for us individually as are the 10
Commandments.
2. We are not to attempt to enforce our Personal
Judgments on other Christians.
It's closed-circuit communication
between us and our Lord.
3. And finally, we are not to criticize another
Christian's Personal Judgments.
To us they may look ridiculous,
but for them they may be
the protective guard
given to them by their God
that keeps them from self-destruction.
If your house is built on a 4-lane highway
you may be able to stand in the front yard
in complete safety.
But fill that front yard with pre-schoolers
and you had better have
a sturdy fence between them
and that road.
Don't kick holes in the fences
God has given your fellow Christians
for their own protection.
And then the over-all principle:
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.
Now that's a lot of review,
but hopefully it will help us
keep these principles in order.
And then, the last thing I want to do
before we end this series
is to talk a little bit about
the WHEN and the HOW of Secondary
Judging.
In practical terms how do we know
when we should get involved?
And, to the best of my knowledge,
there are 4 situations
in which we have an obligation
to get involved.
#1. The first one is when we are the person who
has committed the sin.
In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus says:
Matt. 5:23 "If therefore you are presenting
your offering at the altar, and there
remember that your brother has something
against you,
Matt. 5:24 leave your offering there before
the altar, and go your way; first be
reconciled to your brother, and then come
and present your offering.
In this situation, of course,
it isn't us judging another person,
it is God's Spirit judging
or convicting us.
And when that happens
God's instructions to us are clear-
acknowledge your sin to the one you've
sinned against
and make it right.
I'm not going to dwell on this
because the principle is very straight forward,
but I will say one thing -
it is amazing how
relationships that seem so complicated
and twisted
and confused
and hopeless
can suddenly be restored and healed
when one person in that relationship stops
justifying
and rationalizing
and defending his behavior
and says to the other,
"What I said to you,
what I did to you was wrong,
will you please forgive me?"
2. The second situation in which
we have a Biblical basis for Secondary Judging
is when we are the one
who has been sinned against.
We are the one who has been cheated.
We are the one who has been lied to.
We are the one who has been gossiped
about.
We are the injured party.
And this is where those principles
we talked about earlier become crucial.
1. Our authority in going to the other person must be
God's clearly revealed moral instructions.
2. We are ready to go
only when our motivation
is a desire to restore the broken relationship.
3. Once the relationship is restored
we forgive,
and we never bring the issue up again.
The Lord laid out the pattern
for applying this type of Secondary Judging
in Matt. 18:15-17.
Matt. 18:15 ¶ "If your brother sins, go and
show him his fault in private; if he listens
to you, you have won your brother.
Matt. 18:16 "But if he does not listen to
you, take one or two more with you, so that
by the mouth of two or three witnesses
every fact may be confirmed.
Matt. 18:17 "If he refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church; and if he refuses to
listen even to the church, let him be to you
as a Gentile and a tax collector.
I know of few passages in Scripture
that are more frequently abused
and misused than this one.
In this passage the Lord lays down
several essential points.
He tells us this is limited to those
within the Body of Christ.
He tells us the purpose of the action
is to seek restoration of the relationship.
And He tells us
we are to keep the sphere of the impact of the
sin
as small as possible -
hopefully only between yourself
and the other person.
And just to help us understand
how easily this passage is misused,
let me describe a common scenario.
You are a Christian,
and another Christian does something to you
that hurts you deeply.
You try to forget about it,
but it eats away at you,
and you find yourself churning over it again
and again.
In desperation
you talk with another Christian that you trust
and share with them what's happened.
They tell you that you have no choice
but to go to the person who has hurt you and
talk with him.
So, you summon up your courage,
go to the one who hurt you
and say to them,
"What happened between us is tearing me up,
I just want us to talk a little bit
about what happened between us
and see if we can work through it."
Q. Does that sound pretty much
like what Christ is saying to us here?
Do you know what gossip is?
Gossip is sharing confidential information
with someone who is neither
part of the problem
nor part of the solution.
If that scenario played out
the way I just described it,
when we sit down with that brother or sister
who hurt us,
the first words out of our mouth
should not be,
"What happened between us is tearing me up,
I just want us to talk a little bit
about what happened between us
and see if we can work through it."
The first words out of our mouth
should be these:
"I need to ask your forgiveness
because I have sinned against you.
I have intentionally attacked your character in front
of another Christian.
Will you please forgive me."
You see,
we are never ready to address
another Christian's sin against us
until we have first addressed our sins
against them.
The most crucial statement
in this entire Matthew passage
is the very first phrase out of the Lord's
mouth,
Matt. 18:15 ¶ "If your brother sins, go and
show him his fault in private;...
If we have mentioned the offense
to anyone else
before we have gone to our brother
then we cannot speak to our brother
about his offense
until we have first talked with him
about our offence against him.
You see,
we are never ready to address
another Christian's sin against us
until we have first addressed our sins
against them.
The only way we can correctly
and effectively apply this passage
is if:
1. we are sinless in our attitudes
and our actions toward the other person,
2. OR if we are willing
to talk with them first
about our sins against them
before we ever seek to address
their sins against us.
The pattern outlined by our Lord here
is powerful
and effective when used correctly.
But I fear we frequently make three major blunders
in its application,
blunders that turn the situation into
a tool for destruction
rather than a tool for healing.
1. We begin the process by telling others about the
person's offense
before we talk with the person themselves.
2. We refuse to begin by acknowledging
our own sins of gossip
or bitterness
or malice
against the other person,
seeking their forgiveness for our sins against them.
3. And our real purpose for going
is not to win our brother,
but rather to force them to admit they were
wrong and get them to change.
OK,
we've looked at the first two situations
in which we have a Biblical basis
for Secondary Judging:
1. When we are the one who has sinned.
2. When we are the one who has been sinned
against.
There are two more we'll look at next week.