Judging Correctly
- Details
- Sunday Morning Service
- Jeremy Richards
- Copalis Community Church
- 24 August 2025
- Philippians 3:17-19
Definition of love now that only one individual doesn't fit into it, the God of love no longer fits the definition of love in our society. A God who says love is not just an emotional squishy feeling, but has discipline, has rules, has consequences, that God now is described as a God of anger. Strange how society has so completely twisted the definition of love that now even the God of love doesn't even meet their qualifications for love. Strange that they rail and abuse and hate the God of love as not being one who loves. Strange.
Well, we see also in that one of the issues that has been changed is the idea of judgment. Judgment, judging things. We know that there is absolutely an idea of judging. In the Bible it says you shall not judge with the judgment that you use. You will be judged.
Right. In Romans it says that you who judge are guilty of the same things. So we absolutely see there is a biblical idea of not judging in the Bible, right? Absolutely true. That we who have a plank in our own eye are not to judge the one who has a speck in their eye until we get it out.
But is there? Has the world twisted the idea of judgment in such a way that we have lost the ability to do something biblically? Okay, now we are.
Thank you, Oban. We are presented continually that judging is so bad that the thing that is accepted is something called tolerance. Just being okay with whatever anyone else does, having no problem with it, accepting whatever they do as face value and just saying everything is okay with me. There's no problems. Everyone just does what they want and everyone will be happy.
It seems now in this worldly definition of not having a judgmental attitude or tolerance, the only one who doesn't fit into that now is a God who judges behavior. And I want to talk today about judging because it's possible, just like you and I might be swayed away from a behavior biblical idea of love towards accepting an unbiblical idea of love that is not love. It's not love to just let everyone do what they want. Just like it's also not healthy for a doctor just to say whatever you do and there's no problems, just go about your way. That's not.
That's not love. There is a biblical definition of love, but there is also a biblical definition of judging for ourselves, judging biblically. And so that's what we're going to look at today. So we sometimes are swayed away from the ability to judge biblically by accepting the world's definition of judgment and swallowing this thing that they call tolerance that the greatest Thing that they see is to be tolerant of other people. Okay, but let's look at that idea.
So we're in Philippians, chapter 3, verse 17 through 19.
Philippians 3, 17, 19. Is there a biblical judgment examining of other people that we are called as Christians to participate in verse 17. Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern for many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray, Father.
We do want to bring this idea, this passage to you, Lord, that we might gain from it, Lord, spiritually able to discern between right and wrong, to be able to walk circumspectly and experience the benefits of wise walking in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So here we see an idea of Paul calling people to judge others correctly. Others correctly.
So I'm going to go back to Matthew 5 just hopefully to get us to look a little bit more from a biblical perspective. Because we have been told so often, don't judge, judge, that sometimes we don't judge when we should judge and as a result of not judging end up swallowing something we shouldn't. Right. It's like those bottles of pills, right? And I don't know if it was back in the 1980s, there was that green yucky face that you'd put on Mr. Yuck.
Mr. Yuck. And that was to give people without much experience the wisdom, the discernment to not swallow something they shouldn't. Right. Sometimes Christians are not need a Mr. Yuck Pill or Mr. Yuck Pic sticker. Right.
So we can discern there are things in what is called Christianity that is not biblical Christianity that we end up swallowing and then our stomach starts hurting, right? It affects us. Those things which affect us physically are damaging. And so we put a Mr. Yuck sticker on them. Those things that affect us spiritually have even more of an impact on us than physical things.
It's one thing to be sick, it's another thing to be spiritual. Spiritually sick. Okay, so let's start in Matthew, chapter five. Where were we? Five or six?
How about seven? Seven. Sorry about that. Good memory though. All right.
It says judge not that you not be judged. For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the chapter 7, 1 and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye and look a plank is in your own eye.
And so we take the idea, look, hey, we shouldn't judge, right? But is this saying we should not judge? Or is it saying something different? Some of us have gone so far as to accept the world's view of judging judgment and take in an idea of tolerance. Just accept what everyone else is doing and then everyone will be happy.
But is this what it is saying? It says in verse five, hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye and then you will be able to see clearly to remove the plank, the speck from your brother's eye. The goal is not to not judge. The goal is to judge correctly, to have our senses, to have our eyes open, to be able to see clear enough that our judgment is based on what is real, factual, solid, true. The goal is not to not judge, was just to throw up our hands and say, and there's no truth.
No, the goal is to judge the truth correctly. It is so important. Here Jesus continues in the same segment, it says, do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn tear you to pieces. There is such an importance on judging correctly, because if you judge incorrectly, you will take that which is spiritually valuable, spiritually important, spiritually necessary for your Christian walk, and turn it over to people who will rend and tear and destroy what is necessary to you spiritually. Not only is this not saying do not judge, it is saying you must pay careful spiritual attention to how you judge.
Judging is so important of a thing in a Christian's life that you need to be making sure that you do it correctly. The world has twisted and turned us. It spinned us around so many times like an old guy on a merry go round, right? Little kids do fine on merry go rounds, but it takes someone like 50 years old and you put them on. Are they called merry go rounds?
The things that you run along? They don't even have those anymore, right? Boy, old guys, they just get off their like, no, never again once I put my hand to that. But no, no, never, right? The world has twisted us so much that now Christian people are refusing to judge biblically.
O Lord, help us when a Christian people won't stand up and judge biblically. It says beware of false prophets there in 7:15 who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Oh, how is important for a spiritual person to know the difference when people come to them with spiritual ideas? Because not all spiritual ideas or those who come with them have the same intentions. There are those who come looking like a sheep but speak like a dragon.
It says beware of false prophets. If you refuse to judge false prophets, you make yourself susceptible to a false prophet. When you make yourself susceptible for a false prophet, you find yourself destroyed in some way. But inwardly they are ravenous wolves. It says you will know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. We live in a culture that is very difficult to navigate. We tend to think now that people may say that I don't have people I follow, right? It used to be maybe in older days you had certain people you knew, you could see their life, you could gauge how they walked, you could, you could feel the outcome of their decisions, right?
We are much more closely connected with real people and now we have other kinds of people we follow, right? People say, I don't follow anybody. But then in their spare time, right? Who are they following? People brag on Facebook, how many?
What do they have followers? They have. These are people, right? These are actual people like you and me who have something and we call ourselves one of a group of followers. The problem with following people on a phone is you can't see who they are.
They only can show you a portion of their lives and they, they tell you something about themselves through a very small segment. But if you went and lived at their house, you would get a different pict. Everyone hear what I'm saying? It often seems that those actually the people who have the most followers are probably, if you look at their lives closely, are the least likely people that should be followed. You look at the people who are the most popular and you look at the conduct that they engage in.
You look at the fruit that comes from the way they walk and you should be selling yourself, you know, I don't want anything to do with that person's doctrine. I was amazed when Michael Jackson died. The world before he died, going through his trial, right? And the whole world was just, you know, just adulation, right? Almost worshiping this figure and then because of his music, right?
But then the personal details of his lifestyle came out just self medicated to agree to hide the tremendous amount of pain, sexual grossness covering him like a bad wipe that won't come off your bottom, right? Just a horridness of his person. And these people are following him. We don't. Christians.
If we are to gauge and judge correctly, we have to know there are reasons and ways in which we judge people. It is not based on how good they sing or handle a ball. Everyone hear me. Or how well they dress or how thin they are or how strong they are. These are ways in which the world chooses who they follow.
But they do not belong to a Christian. Those are ways which people judge. But that's not the way God's spirit judges.
It says, a good tree every. So every good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. If the fruit is bad, stay away from the tree. But if the tree.
If the fruit is good, it doesn't matter if they're ugly, fat, can't sing, and can't play ball.
The Christian judges differently than the world. Those people are the ones to follow. If their fruit is good, the Christian has to discern. No, it's the fruit that determines the tree. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit, though it may raise itself up like that tree in Babylon, which was Nebuchadnezzar. That tree filled the whole earth, that all the animals rested in its shade, though it may appear to be that one that would last for thousands of generations. And yet that angel came and made a decree for heaven. Three times are going to pass over you that tree. They never could be cut down.
And it was bound with and cut down. It may think, oh, it's a good, beautiful tree. But the Lord has a way of humbling even the greatest and the biggest. Therefore, by your fruits you will know them. Go back to Philippians.
It says, brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk. As you have us for a pattern. Paul is calling out for individuals to follow him as he follows Christ. They had been made participants of his life by being able to observe his lifestyle for sometimes years at end. They got to see see him as he went through some pretty heavy stuff as he was in jail, as he was out of jail, as he provided for the needs of his companions with his own hands, as he worked night and day, as he was in danger, as he was in want and in excess.
They got to see him and see the fruit that came from his life. And here Paul is saying, hey, I am calling you to Follow people who display godly fruits. It says to. I believe Timothy says those who are elders are worthy of double honor for they have served well in the Gospel of Christ. I'm getting that pretty, pretty skewed.
But hopefully you get the point that those people who have walked in a biblical way and borne spiritual fruit in that are worthy to be emulated. We need to choose to switch our mentality to a biblical one. That those who we should emulate or follow, those whose lives we should hold up as a pattern for us to follow after, are ones who display Christian living in our presence. They show us what Christian people are like. I've said it before, but everyone, or most everyone, some little kids maybe, can be good Christians in church, right?
I got a nice shirt on, I had like stuff in my hair. And Stacy came in and she was horrified. She's like, you still have, you know, abs, glue in the back of your head and there's a ducktail in there. You're going to get to the bathroom quick. And John was like, yeah, gotta cover that thing, right?
Everyone looks good in church. I think I'm okay now, right, Chad? Even Chad looks good in church, right? But you go to work and it's a different story, right? But then you go from work to your house.
That's where you see biblical fruit is where a person lives every day. Do they display biblical fruit fruit in their lives, in their marriage? Everyone's such a good person until they get married. And then when they have children, oh my. Everything falls apart, right?
You have us as a pattern. Paul is saying, hey, it's this kind of biblical lifestyle that you should hold up as an example in your life. But unfortunately, you and I are drawn to follow patterns that are not biblical. And so I hope to hopefully what Paul is going to lay out. There are patterns that are not biblical.
There are patterns that are biblical and ones that are not biblical. We're going to look at the non biblical ones here for a minute. In verse 18, it says for many walk of whom I have told, told you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Paul, when he was traveling to Jerusalem, met with the Ephesians elders. And he said, I met with you day and night for three years, weeping, warning you that after my departure, wolves would come in, not sparing the flock, weeping for three years.
Have you ever felt so strongly about something that you pleaded with a person, weeping, please do not engage. Watch yourself. That trap, that temptation, that snare is of such tremendous importance, potential to cause pain that you must avoid it for three years. I think if you and I understood what was at stake, we would identify with Paul here. And we know that John said.
He said, I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth. For me personally with, with children, you know, my heart just overflows with the thought of them putting biblical principles into practice and reaping the fruit that is associated with good seed. It gives me a lot of joy. I thank God and I just look forward to that opportunity of good decisions bringing good fruit in their lives. But there's something that causes me a lot of pain, that brings a lot of hurt to my heart.
In recognizing my own sinful nature and the sinful bent of my children, to see them put into practice things that I am absolutely convinced are going to bring despair and disaster in their lives.
It hurts to think of it was one of our friends told me this last weekend that after his daughter had been married for 12 years, an individual who had given his life to serve the Lord, been a missionary, a pastor, and now said that his daughter came to him and said, we are going to divorce his daughter and his son in law. I just want to just crumple and put my head down and just start weeping. Just start. No, please God, not in my house. No, please spare us that pain that is associated with two people who once said they love each other, now can't even live together because of their own selfishness.
That pain just about makes me want to weep. Here Paul is crying out. You know, I tell you often weeping that there's something that leads you away from a spiritual benefit and instead ensnares you with destruction. And the thought of those wolves coming in and doing that to you causes me to weep. People who by every spiritual rite should be experiencing the perfection perpetual benefit of serving Jesus Christ now are engaged in the muck wrenching, angry, adulterous filth of the world that should cause you and I to weep.
To think of your children who should be growing leaps and bounds generation after generation now ensnared in the ugliness of the world. Shouldn't that cause you and I to weep? To weep. Those individuals who present themselves as angels of light to us are the individuals who lead people away from the benefit of Christ into the horror of serving the angel of light who masquerades as an angel. Let's see what it is.
It's number one for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, first of all, if we are to be spiritually discerning people, to judge correctly between lions and lambs, between one who displays a biblical pattern and those who do not display a biblical pattern, the first thing to look for, that you have to be willing to discern, you cannot skip. Though they may be the most beautiful kind of person, the most photogenic type of person, to be able to speak the best, still you got to be willing to put aside that as nothing to be considered. First of all, if you're to follow a person, if I can leave you with anything today, though you hate me and every other person way, I don't care if I can leave you with one thing, that individual you follow, you have to determine number one, first of all, before anything else, is if they are an enemy of the cross of Christ.
What I'm telling you, I'm not telling you because I want something from you. I'm telling you for your own spiritual benefit. If you find, follow somebody who is an enemy of the cross of Jesus Christ is going to take you some direction, it's going to lead you some way. They come with a perspective that is different than Christ's cross has. They're going, if a man came to a fork in the road, right?
One went one way, one went the other. You can't go both places at the same time. You can't put your car in forward and reverse and expect to go two different places. You can't take the right road and the left road and expect to end up in the same place. Those people who are enemies of the cross of Christ are preaching a different gospel than Christ preaches.
Not trying to be mean. If it's not true, you decide for yourself. But for myself, what I have decided is Christ preaches a different gospel than the world does.
Christ's Gospel is rooted 100%. 100%. It does not leave an opening anywhere for any spiritual power to come through that message except that cross of Jesus Christ, that every spiritual benefit that comes from the Father comes down to us, excuse me, through that sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
So according to Colossians, when that philosophy comes and tempts us, when vain carnality comes and tempts us to lead something. We had a little game and it was called what do you want for your birthday? Right? And the kids were playing. It had a bunch of cards with pictures on it.
And it has private yoga lessons, right? And there was a guy, and he was on one foot and this foot was over the back of his head. And this arm was. I don't even know, Right. And the thought is, is maybe that intensely painful physical manipulation would provide something for you spiritually.
But you and I are tempted continually to leave the cross of Christ and embrace philosophy, embrace carnality, embrace legalism. And we are told that by your works, by doing this. But if it leads us away from Jesus cross, it is not to be trusted. The number one thing before you follow, before you set yourself up as a follower on the phone, does this individual who is leading me embrace the cross of Christ? If they do not, they're taking you somewhere else.
You may not be able to identify right now what kind of philosophy they're using, what kind of carnality they're using, what kind of legalism you're using. But if they don't lift up Christ's cross, they're using one of them to ensnare you.
Number two, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Verse 19, it says, Whose end is destruction? This is not a popularity contest. This is not one who is trying to say, well, everything is equal. There is an end.
That Jesus Christ is intensely jealous of his ministry. When others come in to take away or lead people away from his ministry, there is a repercussion for it. Jesus Christ came and he said, clearly, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And when you have people preaching something different, leading individuals he loves, cares for, died for, into a false hope that leads to eternal destruction.
Jesus is incensed about that individuals who preach a gospel and lead people astray, like he said, it says you travel land and sea to make one proselyte. But when he is one, you make him twice the Son of hell as when you found him. Jesus is extremely hurt by this thing, just as if you would be hurt if someone came into your home and led a child away into sexual slavery. It hurts me to see the individuals in Thailand and Myanmar and sex predators come into these small communities. And they probably promise the parents that they will get a good job for their daughter in the city doing hotel work.
By the second or third night, they have entrapped thousands and thousands and thousands of these beautiful young women into slavery, prostitution. You and I would be hurt and. But how much more? When the Satan uses false prophets to draw people away from the kingdom of God, there is, he says, a reward for the wicked and their end is destruction. If their end is destruction, you and I need to make absolutely certain that we're not following them.
It's such a Strange thing to see. Animals follow one after another, sometimes to their own hurt, running headlong as fast as they can only because the one in front of them is running that way. If only they knew where that path led. If only they could stop in their tracks while they still had some sense and time. It says, whose end is destruction?
Whose God is their belly? These individuals can be notified by what they make their God. Now, I know we're probably thinking about Big Buddha, right? With his shiny belly and overeating. And that is true to some degree, right?
That a lot of times they lead us into a type of carnality that is excessive, but it's not just excessive in eating. It is one that places the carnal desires as those to be served in a person's life. It may be thinness or this or that, but it places carnal desires as the one, as the master or taskmaster in a person's life. We need to ask ourselves sometimes who we serve, right? The one that's leading us to determine how we direct our lives.
Sometimes we have to say to ourselves, you know, sometimes it's my flesh leading me. But these people are known by them serving their own flesh. This has the end in this. Whose glory is their shame? Who set their mind on earthly things?
Those people whose goal is to heap up for themselves as much as possible in this earth are those individuals who are false teachers.
Those individuals have made it their goal to set up for themselves an earthly kingdom, one that is enjoyed here. But that example that we are to follow after to close in verse 20, it says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that you and I, along with Jesus and Timothy, have made that good confession. My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, I would fight for it, I would struggle for it.
I would hold onto it as much as possible. But my kingdom is in heaven. And therefore we wait for that coming of our Savior from heaven that we might receive the reward, number one, of walking with him here, but also when he comes back, that he might welcome us into that kingdom that we have already been walking in here. So I want to just close, just encouragement. I hope that, number one, you and I are being called to be followers.
Whether you agree to it or not, whether you do it in secret. Maybe no one else even saw you on your phone. Maybe when they came in, you took your phone and flipped it upside down and pretended it was off. It really doesn't matter if you're. That we're being called to follow somebody.
We got to question who we're following. And my desire, my think. What is biblical is God takes those individuals who are around us, who we can see, who we can gauge their conduct, and he calls us to emulate and to walk after them. And I believe that the world would be in a lot better place spiritually if we had less people we followed on Facebook and more people we followed close to your house that you could listen to and receive actual wisdom from. That's what we're going to close today.
Let's pray. Oh, Father, we do come to you. Number one, you are the master. Oh, Jesus, there is no one like you. You could search all through the world and never find one like Jesus.
Pure, 100% pure. Never said anything wrong? Always loving and compassionate. Lord, who would.