FEAST OF TABERNACLES 2006 – DAY FIVE

JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT #2

Fred R. Coulter, October 11, 2006

Greetings brethren, welcome to day #5 of the Feast of Tabernacles 2006. This will be #2 in Judge Righteous Judgment and as we saw, God is going to give judgment to all the saints all during the millennium. And we also know that Jesus told the twelve apostles that they would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And so the way that it appears from the Bible is that David would be king over Israel and then all the apostles will work with King David. Quite a tremendous relationship and understanding that we need to realize isn’t it? Yes.

So let’s continue on – When Not to Judge – now that’s important. There is a time to judge; there is a time not to judge, and we’ll talk about a lot of things concerning judgment because it covers an awful lot of ground. So let’s understand something here that is very important for us to realize:

1. Ask the question: Is it your business? If it is not your business, then don’t judge.

2. Now is it within the realm of your authority? If it is not in the realm of your authority, then don’t judge. And then as we covered last time, don’t turn around and talk about it to other people, because this really causes a lot of problems. And what happens then you end up with a lot of gossip and talking, and putting a brother or sister in a bad light. Now why would you want to do that, you see?

Now we need to realize as we are going to cover here where it says, “Love covers a multitude of sins” now what does that mean? First of all, God is love Who forgives sins. Does that not cover sins? Yes. We are to love each other as Christ has loved us, is that not true? Yes. So when there are sins that we are aware of, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we make it our business and go to the person and have a discussion with them. The best thing you can do as we will see here in just a minute, is to pray about it. And that is showing the utmost love. Don’t go talking to other people about it.

Now let’s look at another thing – When Not to Judge, which is when it is a personal preference. Now what we’re covering is in this booklet that you have for the feast, Judge Righteous Judgment, and I am basically following the outline that is there although I am not reading directly from it. Later today and tomorrow I’ll be reading directly from it, but let’s come to Romans 14 and let’s understand something concerning personal choice, personal conviction. Now they had a problem in the early church that we don’t have a problem with today, and that is there were a lot of people who were vegetarians because they chose to be vegetarians. There were other people who chose to be vegetarians because they didn’t want to get their meat from the temples where they were slaughtered, and so you had this problem intermixed with the problem in Rome. Then the third problem that we find here in Romans 14 is this, is that certain ones who ate meat would eat it on certain days.

Now the King James Version of the translation of Romans 14 is completely and absolutely wrong in its basic assumptions. This does not have to do with the esteeming of one day above another day for a day of worship, but it has to do with esteeming a day on which to eat meat or not. So let’s go through this, Romans 14 and we are going to get a very important principle that we need to understand. Number one: let’s begin in Romans 14:1: “Receive the one who is weak in the faith, but not for divisive arguments” and this is what the whole situation comes about. There are personal preferences that a person may have which you may not agree with, which you may think are really silly, but it’s not your business. And if it is a personal preference before God, and God accepts them, then rejoice in it – don’t start arguing.

Now let’s read through very quickly here, verse 2: “Now on the one hand, one believes he may eat all things that are lawful;” now the King James says, “may eat all things”. Of course you know we are not to eat unclean foods, so this means that are lawful. “…But on the other hand, another one, who is weak, eats only vegetables” (Romans 14:1-2).

Now there is nothing wrong with being a vegetarian. As matter of fact, those who find out that they have cancer had better get on a raw vegetables and fruit diet exclusively, immediately. Now you can look up any site on the Internet and find out about that. You can go to Dr. Lorraine Day’s website and she’ll tell you about that.

Now here is what happens; people tend to look down on each other, verse 3: “The one who eats meat should not despise the one who does not eat it. And the one who does not eat meat should not condemn the one who eats it, for God has received him.” God has received both, so this is to eat meat or not to eat meat; it has nothing to do with a day of worship. Verse 4: “Who are you to be judging another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he shall be made to stand because God is able to make him stand. Again, on the one hand, someone may prefer one day above another day…” that’s for eating meat, because that’s the whole context of Romans 14. “…But on the other hand, another may hold every day to be alike. Eat meat everyday or not eat meat at all on any day. Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind.” So this is a matter of personal choice because – verse 6 makes it clear: “The one who regards the day in his eating is regarding it to the Lord; and the one who does not regard the day is not regarding it to the Lord. The one who eats meat is eating it to the Lord because he gives thanks to God; and the one who does not eat meat is abstaining to the Lord, and is giving thanks…” (Romans 14:3-6) and that is for the vegetables that he eats.

Verse 7: “For no one among us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we should live unto the Lord; and if we die, we should die unto the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. It is for this purpose…” verse 9 “that Christ both died and rose and is living again, so that He might be Lord over both the dead and the living. Why then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Always remember that. Verse 11: “Because it is written, For as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Now that’s another important thing to understand. We are all going to come before the judgment seat of God and give an account to God.

Verse 13: “Therefore, we should no longer judge one another,” there are times not to judge, and if it is a personal preference, and if it is not sin, then rejoice in it, and if it personally causes you some second thoughts or something, work around it. Be happy. Be friendly; be kind, be good to the person and don’t try to convince them one way or the other or try to change their mind. “Therefore, we should no longer judge one another, but judge this instead: Do not put an occasion of stumbling or a cause of offense before your brother.” Don’t cause needless problems with self-righteous, super-hypocritical judging and condemning. Don’t do that.

Verse 14: “I understand and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is common of itself” now this is an important thing to understand, because this is an intermixture of what some of the Jews were doing. Because Jews had a classification of things that were called common, and common amounted to this, if a Gentile handled the food, or made the bread with the supervision of a Jew, it was common, but edible. Now even the clean things, such as bread, lawful meat, vegetables, and things like this, if a Gentile handled it, and a Jew was not supervising, then even that which is declared in the Word of God as clean, was counted by the Jew as unclean. Now this is why he is saying what he is saying. Now the King James says, “unclean”. That is a completely improper translation. It should be common. “I understand and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is common of itself, except to the one who regards anything to be common – to that one it is common.” So some of these become a matter of choice, verse 15: “But if because of meat, your brother is offended (whether to eat meat or whether to not eat) you’re no longer walking according to love.” And that’s the whole key – when not to judge, be walking in love. “With your meat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be evil spoken of” (Romans 14:7-16).

And here is the key, verse 17: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking; rather, it is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” and we see in the New Testament that that is a higher level of conduct than just the small little things of preferences that people have. “Because the one who serves Christ in these things is well pleasing to God and acceptable among men. So then we should pursue the things of peace and …edify one another.” Now notice verse 20. This is an important verse, which in some cases has been misapplied. “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of meat.” Now remember this, the greatest work of God that He is doing is that in each individual, to create Christ in him. So don’t destroy that by causing problems and difficulties. Now he says this, “…All things that are lawful are indeed pure;” and that’s what it means. You can’t have something that God calls unclean and make it lawful by saying that you don’t believe that unclean applies today. “…But it is an evil thing for someone to cause an occasion of stumbling through his eating. It is better…” now you see, you get the whole context here and you understand this has to do with eating meat, has to do with eating vegetables, has to do with drinking wine, has to do with not drinking wine, has to do with these choices of conscience or preference that a person decides for him or herself, and has nothing to do with righteousness, has nothing to do with sin, and so therefore we should not judge them.

Now verse 21: “It is better not to eat meat,” that’s what we’re talking about, “or drink wine, or anything else by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not of faith;” so you see, if someone eats and really doesn’t have faith in doing so then he is condemning himself because, here is a principle, “for everything that is not of faith is sin” (Romans 7:17-23). And so what you do, you sin against your brother.

Now let’s take it one step further. Since you’re in an area of not judging, what do you do when you see someone sin? How do you handle that? How should that be? Let’s come to 1 John 5. Now let’s see a very important principle here in 1 John the fifth chapter, let’s understand it because if we see somebody sinning, now we have to make a judgment concerning it, and we have to make a right judgment, and we have to make this judgment in accordance with love and mercy as well. Because, see, if we don’t do this, if we judge a person’s heart, then we are judging God, and if we are judging God, then what we are doing, we are putting ourselves in the seat of God and we end up like Job, and remember what God had to say to Job. He said, “Job, who are you to disannul My judgments?” [Paraphrased]. You know, “Who are you to say you are more righteous than Me?”

So let’s come here to 1 John 5 and let’s see what we have here concerning what to do if someone sins. And the answer is, 1) Pray about it. Very important, verse 14: “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” Now is it God’s will that a person understand what the sin is and be able to repent? Of course it is. Verse 15: “And if we know that He hears us, whatever we may ask, we know that we have the requests of Him that we ask of Him.” Verse 16: “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin that is not unto death,” Now what is a sin not unto death? That is a sin that is a forgivable sin. Now here is what you’re to do. “…He shall ask,” that is go pray for that individual. So the first thing that you do before anything else, you see, is put it in God’s hands. Ask Him to intervene; if you see the sin, does not God see the sin? Of course, and so what are you doing? You’re showing love to the individual by praying for the individual, by asking God to intervene and change the mind of that individual. After all isn’t God more capable of changing the mind of an individual than any of us? Of course – and what does this do then? This helps you show your love for that person by praying for that person and asking God to intervene and help him or her to overcome the sin which is not a sin unto death. And He says that, “… He will give him life for those who do not sin unto death. There is a sin unto death; concerning that sin, I do not say that he should make any supplication to God” (1 John 5:14-16). Now if you want to know about the Unpardonable Sin, we have that in the new book, Occult Holidays or God’s Holy Days – Which?

Now verse 17: “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.” So we pray and ask God, God Who knows the hearts of all men and women, “Please open the mind of this person to see what they need to do. Work our circumstances in their lives so they will come to understand what they need to do.”

Now just to give you an example that just happened recently, there was a woman and her daughter and the women is quite elderly, she is about 84 or 85, and she hasn’t heard or seen from her son for three or four years, and both of them have been praying, “Oh God please cause my son to call. Please have him get in touch with us.” And lo and behold, just the other day, bolt-out-of-the-blue, guess who called – the son did. Now that is a perfect example of how that with persistent prayer, with patience and understanding, putting it in God’s hands, God is able to deal with the situation, and to cause the circumstances to change.

Now let’s understand something else here, verse 18, when we see it occur let’s realize that all of us sin and come short of the glory of God, we all want our sins forgiven, so pray for that individual to have his sins forgiven. And then you have something else, then you show yourself to be merciful and when you need mercy God’s going to give it to you. Remember this: if you show mercy, you’re going to receive mercy. If you show no mercy, don’t think you’re going to get any. See because God judges righteous judgment. So let’s keep that in mind. Now let’s read here, verse 18, so that we get our bearings and know what we are talking about. “We know that anyone who is begotten by God does not practice sin; for the one who has been begotten by God keeps himself by the power of God, and the wicked one does not touch him” (1 John 5:17-18). So that’s what’s important to understand and to realize in this.

So the first thing you do is pray for the individual. How long should you pray for the individual? How long do you think it may take? Well, let me give you another example which I may have covered before, but this is well worth bringing out. I remember when I first started pastoring in Boise, Idaho in 1965, a man came up to me real serious and he said, “I don’t think I ought to take the Passover” and I said, “Well, why is that?” And he said, “Well, I haven’t quit smoking yet.” And I said, “That’s the very reason you need to take the Passover so you can have the strength from God’s Holy Spirit to overcome.” So the next year a little before Passover, he came up to me again, and he said, “I don’t think I should take the Passover.” And I said, “Well, why? Have you quit smoking yet?” And he said, “Well, I’ve cut down, but I haven’t quit.” And I said, “Well, you take the Passover again this year and let’s see how you do.” So he came up to me the third Passover and he said, “I have quit”. Now that took well over two years, so you see, let’s not bring in the vanity-filled, self-centered immediately solve every problem all at once, because that’s the modern way of thinking. Let’s have God’s way of thinking. Does God give time? Does God give space? Does God give repentance? Yes, He does. And isn’t that what God is interested in? Yes. So while you’re praying for someone you have seen sin a sin not unto death – that they repent, also ask God to forgive you your sins. And who knows, maybe someone is praying for you because they may have seen you sin a sin not unto death and so they are praying for you. Now that’s how love covers a multitude of sins, and that’s how you are not to judge and when not to judge.

Now let’s take this one step further and see what we need to do if that doesn’t work. Now remember this brethren, just think how backbiting and divisive that the whole church would become if we all ended up correcting each other, backbiting each other, talking about each other, and that’s a great sin in the greater churches of God. Now there are some things based on false doctrine that we need to be aware of. Now that’s a different story. Let’s understand that. And many of the things that people get all upset about are really small, little problems, and I liken it to a fly on the wall. Now I tell the most destructive way to kill a fly on the wall is this: you get a 105mm Howitzer and you aim perfectly and you kill the fly – you do, but you blow up the whole house! And many times a wagging, fiery tongue going through the congregation does that, and so we don’t want to do that.

Now as Jesus said, we are to judge righteous judgment. He said, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

Now when it gets to a point where it is a personal problem, when it gets to a point that it is really a difficult situation, then Christ gives us the steps on what we should do. We have prayed about it first, we put it in God’s hands, we asked God to work it out, and if it continues to persist then you may need to go to the brother or sister privately. Now let’s come to Matthew 18. Let’s pick it up here in verse 15. And God wants this done as rescuing because he gives the parable of the man who has a hundred sheep and one has gone astray, and he goes out to find it until he recovers it and brings it back and rejoices over it – because God doesn’t want to lose anyone. So when it comes down to Matthew 18, and I’ve seen Matthew 18 worked in a right way, and I’ve seen Matthew 18 worked in a very self-righteous way to get at people and to exercise power over them. No. Matthew 18 is one of these things that you only do when it’s a really difficult problem. Let’s see what Jesus said. Now I know a lot of people cannot resist the temptation of talking to other people about it first, and a lot of people have used another scripture to talk about it first with another person, by saying, “…in a multitude of counsel there is wisdom.” Well, if it is a personal problem between you and the individual, do not involve anybody else, and do not spread it abroad. And even in this, ask God for the proper opportunity that you can bring it up to the individual.

Now let’s see what Jesus said. Matthew 18:15: “So then, if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault between you and him alone.” That’s how to do it. “If he is willing to hear you, you have gained your brother.” And that’s what it is. Now it doesn’t tell us that we’re only to do this once and say, “All right! I’ve come to you once! Now I’m coming back with two more! And we are going to nail you hide, Clyde, to the wall!” (Laughter) No. God doesn’t want us operating that way, see. You may have to go to him several times. Maybe he or she doesn’t see the fault right away. Maybe it’s one of those things that they are completely unaware of, and some times when you first bring it up, maybe they will even bristle a little bit, so you need to be prepared for that too. And if you go to your brother or sister because of a fault, you go alone. You pray about it first.

Now then, after you have done that maybe two or three times, maybe four times who knows how many times it will take? Verse 16: “But if he will not listen, take with you one or two others, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” So this is a very serious matter. So you see, it’s only serious matters that come to this level.

Now the two or three of you should also work with the individual privately, quietly, patiently, more than once, how many ever times it takes – see He doesn’t limit the number of times to go. I’ve have people say, “Well, I’ve taken two or three others, now I’m going to take it to the church and writes a letter to the whole mailing list! Is that love? Is that covering sin? Is that trying to work it out? No! That’s creating strife. That’s creating division. That’s creating unrighteous judgment. So if it’s a very serious problem, you may have to take the same two or three with you, and still keep it private, still keep it confidential, still keep it between you and the individual and the one or two others that go with you.

Now then, when it comes to that point, and I have learned this, I have learned that the proper way to disfellowship a person which we will come to here in just a minute, we’ll cover it in just a minute, is to let them, him or her, disfellowship themselves by seeing the problem and if they are unwilling to change, saying, “Well, I’m going to step aside for a while.” And you know what? That works the best because in every case God wants the door to be left open upon repentance, as we will see in just a little bit. Verse 17: “And if he fails to listen to them, tell it to the church.” Now that means the local congregation. Now if it’s a big congregation then the whole congregation doesn’t have to get involved. The church may be able to appoint those to sit on a committee to go over it, and select the right ones, as we’ll see here in just a little bit, to make a judgment. Then you tell it to the church and the church makes a decision and then He says, “…If he fails to listen to the church, let him be to you as the heathen and the tax collector.”

Now verse 18, now you need to understand that the power of judgment given here is exactly the same power of judgment that God gave to the judges of ancient Israel and we will cover that a little bit later, qualifications for a judge and so forth. Verse 18: “Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you on earth shall agree concerning any matter that they request, it shall be done for them by My Father Who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” In other words, Christ is there helping solve the problem. And when you make a decision, it is binding and will be upheld in heaven, but it has to be based on the Word of God, the laws of God, the commandments of God, with love, with concern, with understanding, and as we are going to see here, repentance. The whole key in every one of these things is repentance and change.

Now when we put this out as a series, we’re going to add to it the tape, Are you God’s Policeman?, if you remember that one, because too many people rather than focusing on their own problems, see, because it brings us back to Matthew 7 doesn’t? Yes. First, you are to get the beam out of your own eye so you can see to get the sliver out of your brother’s eye. We are not to make it our business to go around judging the brethren. It causes strife and division.

Now I’ve only had one occurrence in all the years in Christian Biblical Church of God where it came to the third step – actually two. And in both cases, because of the situation, the individuals involved disfellowshipped themselves. Now there may come a time of forceful disfellowshipment as we’ll see here in just a little bit, but the whole purpose in everything is repentance. Verse 21: “Then Peter came to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Until seven times?” You know, keep a little notebook, that’s once, that’s two, that’s three, that’s four up to seven. All right, I have forgiven you seven times, that’s it! (laughter.)

Now let me ask you a question. Do you have a long-term problem that you have been working on? Do you have a weakness that keeps coming back upon you? Every one of us do – I do, you do, and everyone else does don’t we? What do we do? We go to God and ask Him to forgive us; do we believe that He has forgiven us? Of course we do. So you see Jesus didn’t want Peter to get away with just seven. So he answered, verse 22: “Jesus said to him, I do not say to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18: 15-22). Four Hundred, Ninety times – now that’s an awful lot. If it’s once a day every day, guess what? That’s a year and a quarter. Now is that merciful? Is that longsuffering? Is that kind? Yes, indeed. Then He gives the parable which is very important in judgment you see, (I’ll let you read it – the one who was thrown in jail for just a few pence after he was forgiven) which is this, if you want God to forgive you for your sins, you must forgive others for their sins.

Now then, what are we dealing with? We are dealing with the New Testament judgment from God are we not? Yes we are. Now let’s get the sum of this. Matthew 18:32: “Then his lord called him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt, because you implored me.” See we all want our sins forgiven, but we just don’t want to forgive this person his or her little sin, see? And we become all self-righteous, and we become all super-critical you see. No. Notice what He says, verse 33, very important. This is a New Testament judgment given by Jesus Christ to help us understand how to judge righteous judgment in love and mercy and understanding. Verse 33: “Were you not also obligated to have compassion on your fellow servant, even as I had compassion on you? And in anger, his lord delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that he owed to him” (verse 34). This is also another very important thing in judging, that if you do not forgive when they have repented, God is not going to forgive you. And He is going to take all your forgiven sins and put them back on you. Because that’s what he did here with this one servant who wouldn’t forgive. “And in anger, his lord delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that he owed to him. Likewise shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you…” now circle that “…each of you does not forgive his brother’s offenses from the heart” (Matthew 18:32-35). That’s an important part of judgment – when there is repentance, there is mercy and forgiveness.

Let’s come to 1 Corinthians the fifth chapter now and let’s see another situation that was really difficult and Paul had to make the judgment, because the brethren didn’t make the judgment. Now you know this was the case of the man who was committing incest with his step-mother and when they came to the church they were all saying, “Oh my, we are all broad-minded, you know, we’ll accept this.” And he said, “No!” He said, “When you’re gathered together…” now notice because they didn’t make the judgment, he said, 1 Corinthians 5: 2: “You are puffed up and did not grieve instead, so that he who did this deed might be taken out of your midst.” So there is a time of enforced disfellowshipment because of grievous sin and no repentance. Now as we know, this is all done to help that person repent. And we find in 2 Corinthians that he did. So here’s what he said, verse 3: “For I indeed, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged concerning him…” because he knew what needed to be done “…who has so shamelessly committed this evil deed as if I were present: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” now that sounds exactly like Matthew 18 doesn’t it? Yes. “When you make a decision, Christ is there in the midst of it. Paul was making a decision of judgment because the congregation did not do it properly. He says, verse 5, “To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:2-5). And even disfellowshipment is to bring a person to repentance so that they can be saved.

Now let’s understand something about disfellowshipment – the wrong use of it. Many times it’s used because a minister does not like the person, does not like the questioning, does not like the things that someone is doing, and also you have political disfellowshipment. I was a victim of that when I left one of the major churches of God and all of those are wrong disfellowshipments, but here it shows the right disfellowshipment you see, what to do.

Then he says, Chapter Six, he starts talking about why it was so important for them to make this judgment. 1 Corinthians 6. So he asked them since they didn’t do this and it was a congregational thing that they should have followed and following Matthew 18, isn’t that true? Yes. So he says, verse 1: “Does anyone among you who has a matter against another dare to go to a court of law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” So here we have a situation that they were running off getting lawyers, going to court, judgment and all of this sort of thing. And I can tell you this, if there is one thing we have learned in the churches of God in the experiences that we have been through, if we go to court, brother against brother, sister against sister, church against church, we are a stench in God’s nostrils; because God wants us to make the right and proper judgment and settle the matter between ourselves.