FEAST OF TABERNACLES – 2006 Day Six

 Judge Righteous Judgment #3

Fred R. Coulter 10-12-06

Greetings brethren and welcome to day #6 of the Feast of Tabernacles and we are going to continue on. This will be the last one we are going to cover on Judge Righteous Judgment. And of course, it is not only judging in a formal setting, it also has to do with making decisions and everything like that because all of these things are judgments in our lives. Now, let’s understand something that’s very important. God, the Father is the source of all true, righteous judgment and He has committed judgment into Jesus’ hands, as He said. And then Jesus said, “I am not able to do anything of My own.” But if He judges, His judgment is just because He is not seeking His will but the will of the Father that has sent Him. And He also said in John 9 verse 39 that He came into the world to judge the world, so that judgment is going to be when Christ returns. However, as we’ve seen God judges all the nations, judges individuals, through His laws, through His commandments and they are living laws and commandments so if you sin then the penalty automatically comes upon you. And, that’s just the way that God has set it up so that it would be.

Now, let’s understand something that’s very important here, before we get into seeing the twelve things which cause judgment to be unrighteous. Sin destroys judgment. We can see this in the whole life of Solomon. What did he do? He asked God for wisdom to judge Israel, didn’t he? Yes. Not only did He give him judgment but He gave him wisdom and He also gave him riches. And, what happened when he came to the full in all of those things? Solomon did evil in the sight of God as you find there in 1 Kings 11 and turned from God and worshiped and served other gods.

Now, let’s look at some Proverbs here concerning judgment. Let’s come to Proverbs 28 and see what is says concerning how judgment is perverted. Proverbs 28 verse 5. Evil men do not understand judgment. Now that’s very clear. You can see that affecting the world in all aspects of life, from the lower rung of life to the higher rung of life. Even to the Supreme Court and the Justices that we have and so forth. We also know, that when judgment is turned upside down that they call evil, good and good, evil and they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter and then they come after the righteous one to destroy him but God is going to judge them for the way that they live their lives and so forth.

Now, let’s look at some things here as we come on, just put in your notes there. Now, we’re going to start here in just a minute, but put in your notes. It’s actually in the booklet, ‘Judge Righteous Judgment’ on page 15, which then is Isaiah 59 and it shows just like it is today. None calls for justice, there is no judgment, there is no justice, it’s far from and when that happens truth falls into the street. And then the one who wants to do right and do judgment, live God’s way, he or she makes himself a prey, that is a victim. And God saw all of this because there was no judgment.

Now, let’s look at a couple of other Proverbs here to see to make proper judgments. Look at this, Proverbs 29. Now, here are some Proverbs that tell us clearly about judging. Proverbs 29 verse 4 The king by judgment establishes the land, but he that receives gifts overthrows it. So, that is self evident and you see that is happening in the world today.

Now, let’s come to page 17 and let’s look at ‘Twelve Common Pitfalls and Errors in Judgment’. Now, we’ve already given a lot of background coming up to this point so we should be able to go through these in pretty good order here. Now, we must always be aware when any major, basic error in judgment occurs righteous judgment becomes impossible. So, let’s see what we need to do and realize that in our lives, we need to regulate and judge our lives according to God’s way, His judgments, His laws, His commandments and His truths. Let’s go through these twelve points.

Number 1: Being Opinionated and Closed Minded

This is easy because everyone has opinions and especially today. And look what happens when you get personal opinions and things in there and it can be brought out in such things as: the communists are the cause of all our troubles. Or a religious person might say: ‘Well, I don’t care what the Bible says, I am going to heaven.’ Or someone would say: ‘I know this person is always a trouble maker.’ Or someone might say: ‘Well, I won’t listen to you until you get rid of your bad attitude’, but maybe, that attitude toward that person is causing the bad attitude. And Proverb 26 verse 12 says ‘See a man wise in his own conceit, there is more hope for him than a fool.’ So if you are closed minded and if you are opinionated, how can you possibly come to a judgment or righteous judgment? Now, right along with this is the next point.

Number 2: Being One-Sided—Unwilling to Listen to Every Aspect of the Situation

I have personally had an experience like this where a minister told me, “You can not say anything to justify yourself and even if I am wrong, you still can’t say anything to justify yourself because of what I have heard from others that has convinced me that I am totally right.” Well, you see what happens with that you must not be one-sided and unwilling to listen to every aspect of the situation.

Number 3 is a real Achilles heal and you see this played out on television all the time. If you believe that the one that comes first is just. Now, all of these news programs that bring in law cases that are happening and so forth and so on. The one who is first seems right. Now, let’s come to Proverbs 18 verse 17. Now, you have to realize this, in particularly if there is any gossip or talk or hearsay in it, realize this Proverbs 18 verse17 He that is first in his own cause, seems just, seems right, seems good but his neighbor comes and searches him, in other words he is going to bring some other facts to show that whatever the person says who comes first and isn’t that the way it is today, get out and get it in the headline first, get it in the television first, and you’ll never be able to change it, because people listen to who comes first. Well, then what happens with that? See, that ties in with the Proverbs…Every of a man seems right in his own eyes. And here is another thing that happens too. Everyone who comes first minimizes his own faults and his own mistakes. This is a living principle when you watch news.

Number 4: Failing to Get ALL of the Facts

Very important in any situation that you are dealing with. What are the facts? How did it happen? What is taking place? What occurred? Now this is especially true for ministers if they are dealing in divorce and remarriage situations. Get all the facts because the one who comes first and especially the bleeding heart and all emotions you see. Then you get yourself in trouble. And you can make a wrong decision. Now, we can see this also, in the things that take place in government. They don’t want you to know all the facts so they can get in everything that they want to get in and not tell you what is in there. See. So, when you fail to get the facts, and it also includes overlooking certain facts and minimizing certain facts or overemphasizing other facts and in general failing to discern what is truth and what is fiction. So this leads to the next one that is very difficult indeed.

Number 5: Being a “Respecter of Persons”—Showing Partiality

Proverbs 24 verse 23 says ‘It is not good to have respect in judgment’.

Now, showing partiality falls into three categories.

A)    Liking or not liking that individual because he is your friend and you can overlook it or because you don’t like the look on the face of that person or you don’t care for him or her, therefore you won’t listen to them. That means that favoritism is fatal to judgment. Always is. We have seen that time and time and time again. So as we go along you will see that these are tied together one after another and all fit together.

B)     Following the majority. That reminds me of all these polls that they run on television. Mostly the polls are rigged because they ask the question in a way that they get the answer they desire or they don’t bring out all the facts in their poll or if they want to get a Democrat in trouble they go to a Republican territory and ask, ‘What do you think about it?’ Or if they want to get a Republican in trouble they go to a Democratic area and ask, ‘What do you think about it?’ And whatever the majority is. See. The majority many, many times if not mostly all the time are not right. Where would the Church of God be today if we followed the majority? Well, just look what happened to one of the larger churches of God when they decided to follow the majority. See, the majority are not always right. The majority can be deceived. So, following them is just like following along in a herd whether cattle or sheep. Just going along with it and when people do that, when they follow the majority and go against God’s righteous judgment then they are placing their judgment ahead of God’s righteous judgment. The other side of the coin is…

C)    Excusing the minority, because he has been oppressed, because he has had things happen to him in the past so therefore we excuse it. How many vicious criminals have been let loose on society because judges favored the minority? Now, it doesn’t matter, the minority, even though they have suffered, can not be compensated in the same way by making all of the minority then having all majority rights. And you can see all the problems that come along with that. Now Proverbs 18 and verse 5 says, ‘It’s not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgment.’ Proverbs 17 verse 15 says, ‘He that justifies the wicked and he that condemns the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord.’ So you have both. You are not going to condemn the just and you are not going to justify the wicked and this leads to a great deal of problems. Look at all the difficulties and problems we have in society today because of these very things. Now let’s come to the next one…

Number 6: Allowing Gifts to Blind the Eyes

Exodus 23 verse 8 says, very clear, this is instruction to judges. And this should be to everyone who is serving people, whether it be in politics, whether it be in the ministry, whether it be in just a small organization or not, it doesn’t make any difference. ‘And you shall take no gift, for the gift blinds the eyes and perverts the words of the righteous.’ Then it says in Proverbs 17 verse 23, ‘A wicked man takes a gift out of his bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.’ It’s called corruption. And look how corrupt politics have become. Look how corrupt it is from top to bottom, because of this very thing. This is the whole thrust of lobbying. You come to the legislators to lobby and you give donations to their campaign fund and they pass laws which will benefit the one who has given the money. And look how obtrusive some of these laws and things have come. Remember, just this summer, about the bridge to nowhere, up in Alaska? One hundred and seventy million dollars for a bridge to nowhere. Well, they finally struck that down. And how about the Congressmen who have been indicted for taking bribes? And how about judges who take bribes? And you know, the thing is as it says, ‘a gift destroys the heart.’ So this is what happens in judgment. See, all of these things mount up. Now, if you have every one of these things in one single person or one single group of judges, you are going to have a hard time getting any judgment that is correct. And I think that in many cases that’s the way too many of the courthouses are today. Now, sometimes it is planned for a long way down the road, just get a little here and a little there and build it up and then sooner or later they are going to call in the gift. “Well, you remember, don’t you, when I did such and such?” Well?

Number 7: Rendering a Judgment Before Really Hearing the Matter

That is so easy to do. This ties right in with the one that comes first seems just in his cause. Isn’t that true? If you hear something, and you make a judgment, right away and have made up your mind, see, boy, that’s something. And it also comes in the way of attitude of being a know-it-all. And the Proverb says and labels exactly what this is. Proverbs 18 and verse 13, ‘He that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame unto him.’ Just plain stupid. And how many times, now, when we are going through this, I want you to think about your own life, your own decisions, your own judgments that you have to make. What’s important in this, not only learning how to become judges, when we reign and rule with Christ but it’s important that you learn how to make decisions in your own life, everyday. And how to do it. And how to handle it. You see. So, when that happens, rendering a judgment before really hearing the matter is absolute, as it says here, folly and shame and causes all kinds of problems. You know, it’s like saying this, ‘don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is already made up.’ You know, ‘I don’t need to hear that, I already know.’ Well, how do you know, if you haven’t heard anything?’ See. Now, another one.

Number 8: Looking on Outward Circumstances and Appearances

Now this is very important. See, because first impressions are often the lasting ones. And so, whenever there’s a case that goes to court the prosecution wants, the one he wants to put in jail, or sentenced to life, or sentenced to death. They want to make him look scruffy, mean. They want him to look the very worst they possibly can. Now, the defense attorney, on the other hand, wants to clean him up, shave him, or in the case of a woman, dress her up, comb her hair, make her look acceptable. So when she comes into court, she will set a first impression. Now, first impressions can be wrong. And here’s another thing that is true in judging people. If the man or the woman is good looking, then it is hard to convict them. But if they are plain or simple or look like they don’t have much common sense, it is easy to condemn them and overlook them. Now, two famous, well actually three, you have Perry Mason of old, Matlock of not quite so old and then you also have the other one with, Columbo. All three of these designed their whole show around this very thing. Outward appearances and first circumstances and impressions. And you go through and you find out what you may think about it in the first part of the program comes out entirely different in the last part of the program. And the things that you think are wrong, are not wrong, in the same sense, that you think that they are and so, in many cases, even the evidence that is presented which looks factual may not be factual when everything is all put together and all the facts are there. So when you look on the outward appearance, you see, then you are violating what Jesus said. Jesus said, ‘judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.’ So, in dealing in anything, don’t just look at the outward circumstances and the appearances. Now, even little kids know about this. They try to appear righteous when they get caught in something; they like to try and appear as innocent as possible and so forth. Now, number 9, this is a hard one to really get into to know. And that is this…

Number 9: Not Knowing the Intentions of the Parties Involved

You don’t know why. So, many times, someone will come for advice or seeking counsel on a particular matter and give a reason, quote reason, but that is often not the real reason at all. Sometimes, this is done to gain personal favor or over someone else. Or, often in the case of a husband and wife problems. And I’ll tell you the courts have turned everything upside down with husband and wife problems and the way that they have treated the men and gotten rid of the father out of the house and given everything to the woman. Just everything upside down. When women come and cry and I’ve seen women cry and just turn it on. I know a woman I was counseling one time, she started crying and I said, ‘well I know all about that,’ and immediately she quit crying. But, if I would have let her continue crying, see because, how can you turn down a crying, offended woman? Well, she may or may not be right. You don’t know what the intention is. Now, when you are dealing with people, especially if you are dealing with people, as we have seen happen in the church. Someone comes in and they want to curry favor and you don’t know the motive of the person involved, until they are promoted. Think about how false doctrine came into the church by those who were in high positions. See. In many cases, was that there motive when they first started, when they first came? How did they get up into these higher positions, as we have seen? Unless they satisfied by giving a different kind of intention or a different kind of purpose as to what they were doing. And then, low and behold, out comes the other. Now, this is strictly true with spies. You know, all spy stories, all spy novels are based on this, you make yourself, you don’t know the intentions, you don’t give the true reality of what you are doing and also you don’t give the appearance. So, you must know the intentions of the parties involved. Now, let’s just, as I have here in the booklet, in Acts 5, we have about Ananias and Sapphira. So what did they do? They said, ‘oh, yes, we are going to sell our property and we will give all.’ That was the pledge. So, apparently, they got far more money than they anticipated. Then they decided, instead of saying, ‘look we said we would give all and here is more than we ever expected.’ No, they came in and they said, ‘well, now, yes we did sell it for thus and such.’ And remember what happened when God inspired the apostle Peter to say, ‘why did satan put this in your heart to do this?’ Now, it shows God’s judgment upon that kind of thing. When there are double minded people serving two purposes, themselves and making out like they are doing something else. So, Ananias and Sapphira is a perfect case in that. You also have this too. Outward appearance ties in with it. And just like with Ananias and Sapphira they were trying to hide their sins. So, if you don’t know the intentions of the parties involved then you have to do diligence to find out. You can do this by asking questions. You can do this by double checking with other people. You can do this by prayer, by asking God to give you insight, so you can see and understand what the intentions are.

Number 10: Doing What is Expedient

This is a great political ploy. Doing what is expedient. The reason people do that is there is so much pressure coming on that you have got to have an immediate solution to the situation. See. And it can be so great that you don’t consider the long term consequences. Now, a good example: Remember what happened during Katrina? ‘Oh, we got to get this money to these people right away. Oh, yes, we have to overlook our normal standards of checks and balances, when we get it out so that there won’t be fraud.’ So, what happened? They gave out all of these debit cards and people bought all kinds of luxury items. People even faked names, faked addresses. Some were even from New Orleans. And guess what it cost the government? Because they said, ‘oh yes, we have to hurry and get it there, oh yes, the victims are suffering and oh yes, Bush is wrong, he caused the hurricane.’ Well, if you go back and examine the facts after it is over you will see, everything was done to get it in there but the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of the city held back the government from doing it. And so now they said, ‘hurry up and get it.’ So, guess what they wasted? $1.3 billion. And so they had other restrictions which were put on the mobile homes that they bought for people to live in temporarily. And they had such restrictions on it, a year after the hurricane, most of the mobile homes are still sitting in the lot where they were parked. So, you see, doing what is expedient and then tie that in with slowness in judgment, we will see here a little later on. So, we’ve seen this from the pulpit too. It’s expedient to make a person’s sins public from the pulpit so that all the rest will hear and fear. Now, I tell you what, they don’t realize the long term consequences that happen with that. And then, too many times, the minister, instead of teaching people how to live their lives, teaching them how to make proper judgments, he does what is expedient, he condemns them and puts them into fear and causes a whole lot of problems that way. And we have seen that many, many times within the churches ourselves. And, of course this also happens within our own lives, we do something expedient and then it doesn’t work out right. Proverbs 29 verse 20 says, ‘See a man hasty in his words (that’s expedient), there is more hope for him than a fool.’ So, when you just do something that is expedient, just to lift the pressure off of you and you don’t consider the long term consequences then it is going to come back and bite you again. It can be foolish and dangerous.

Number 11: Getting One’s Personal Vanity Involved

Now, vanity is an extension of self. And, involves coloring everything and everyone with his own ideas and personal point of view. And his own human self-centeredness then we tend to picture ourselves as ideal and desirable, and have a strong tendency to remake others in our own image. Now, God doesn’t want that. He wants us made in the image of Christ, that’s why His laws are true and fair and everything like that. So you can’t do that. Maybe someone has a different way of doing something that you do and it might even be better. So don’t get your vanity involved by saying, ‘Well, we have always done it this way.’ Well, where would we be if that was said concerning the automobile? ‘Well, we’ve used horses and mules and jackasses for thousands of years, if it was good enough for all them, it’s good enough for us now.’ See. Good example you can take almost anything like that and just apply it. Don’t get your own vanity involved. In other words, it also comes down to a matter of humility, we will see a little later on. And remember this, every way of a man is clean in his own eyes, and if it’s only from his own vain, self-centered point of view, you know that he has got to be right, and no one is going to change his mind. No one is going to get him to examine all the facts. And what happens with this, here’s Proverbs 28 and verse 16, ‘The prince that wants or lacks understanding is also a great oppressor.’ And that is exactly what happens when people get their own vanity involved and they want it their way. And they want it now. And they want it to be in the manner, in the time, in the way that they want it and they won’t listen to anything else. Now, you never, never, never want to come before a person like that for any kind of judgment. And you never want to become that kind of person yourself.

Number 12: Applying an Over-Generalized Solution

So these are great pronouncements and lofty solutions which kind of skim the surface of the problem. Now, they can apply in some cases, but judgments with specific solutions are usually needed. Now, a person can say if they are having a problem they give a generalizing, ‘You need to overcome.’ Well, hey, everybody needs to overcome, everybody. You know, I need to overcome; you need to overcome and so forth. But, what is missing doesn’t tell a person what to overcome. It doesn’t tell them how to overcome. It doesn’t tell them why to overcome. You see. And then, another one would be, ‘you need to pray more.’ Well, that may be true, I am sure all of us need to pray more. But that doesn’t tell you how to pray, the attitude to pray, it doesn’t give them instructions on what they need to do, so over-generalization, you see why specifics and details are needed, just don’t work. For example, if you get something to put together, say you go to the hardware store, or you go to another store and you buy something that needs to be put together. You look at the outside of it and you make up your mind, you immediately know you can put it together, ha-ha-ha, you know what is going to happen, you are going to find that you didn’t put it together right. So, remember this don’t have over-generalization solutions. Here is something to remember, when all else fails, read the instructions, and especially God’s instruction book. So these are the twelve common pitfalls and errors and faults that block righteous judgment.

Now we will go ahead and give our seventeen on how to do righteous judgment. So this will take us a little bit longer. So here is the key to render a fair, righteous and loving judgment is one of the most pleasing things to God, that we can do. In fact, it is the essential heart and core of how we are learning to become kings and priests under Christ, in the coming Kingdom of God. So, what we need to do, that’s why in our lives, we have trials and difficulties come along, because we need to make judgments, we need to make decisions, we need to find out what we need to do in a right and a proper way. And so you see because by righteous judgment, the land is established. Also, by righteous judgment, the Church of God is established. If there is righteous judgment all the way through, with all the ministers and elders and the brethren are taught righteous judgment then it is going to help people solve their own problems, to know how to live their lives. Now, Proverbs 21 and verse 3 says, ‘to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.’ Now, Proverbs 20 and verse 8 it says, ‘A king that sits on the throne of judgment, scatters away all evil with his eyes.’ And then it says, Proverbs 21 and verse 15, which is the motto of this booklet, ‘It is joy to the just to do judgment.’ So this is why it is imperative, we need to learn how to judge righteous judgments. Everything we do in our lives has to do with decisions and judgments. Some have more consequences than the other, but learning to judge righteous judgment is vitally important for us so that we become the kind of kings and priests that Christ wants us to become.

Now, let’s continue on with this, let’s start with number one of the seventeen ways to make righteous judgment.

Number 1: Remember, the Judgment is God’s and Not Yours, whenever it comes to a serious matter. That is the important thing, same way in our lives. We need to live our lives according to God’s laws, according to God’s commandments and statutes and judgments, according to faith and love and hope, all of these things are all involved in it. See. But when there is a judgment to be made and it involves other people, remember the judgment is not yours, it is God’s. Now, here in 2Chronicles 19 and verse 6, which we have quoted right in here, since we have it quoted right here in the booklet, you won’t have to turn to it in your Bible. Here it was given by the king to the judges, ‘Take heed what you do, for you judge not for man but for the Lord.’ Now, just think for a minute how much blessed this nation would be if they did that. Just think about it, if you do unrighteousness in judgment instead of justice in judgment. Take for example the judgment Roe vs. Wade, the judge who did that, I forget the name of the judge who did that, but I remember the occasion for it. His daughter was the one who persuaded him to write that abortion is okay because she needed one. Now, the way that judgment is written it is so bad but look at the results of it. It is so terrible; there is not even any foundation in the Constitution or the laws of the land to warrant abortion. But yet, just in America, forty-four million unborn have been killed in the holocaust because they forgot that the judgment wasn’t theirs. You can take that judgment and you can probably line up everything on how not to make righteous judgments and you’ll probably find most of those violations in the judgment of Roe vs. Wade.

Now here is another very important thing we need to understand. Number 2, in making righteous judgment, you need to Know Yourself. Don’t give into your weaknesses, you see. And Get Sin Out of Your Life, because before you can fairly and objectively judge others, you must be able to accurately and realistically judge yourself before God. You have to know your own strength; you have to know your own weaknesses. And that is just a matter of being mature and spiritually honest on your part. See. Now, 1Corinthians 11 and verse 31 says, ‘For if we would judge ourselves.’ That is knowing yourself. ‘We should not be judged of God.’ So if we are judging ourselves and repenting and getting sins out of our lives, then God will not have to judge us. So, that is a very key, important thing. So you must know yourself so you can avoid, as much as possible, the mistake of reading yourself into any judgment. So, if you have certain weaknesses, you must takes steps to be certain that these weaknesses do not cause you to render a poor decision or judgment. For example, if you tend to be forceful and domineering, you must be sure to avoid forcing your personal will into the decision. You see, remember, God is molding people into the image of Jesus Christ. Not in the image of the one who is making the judgment, you see. So, we need to really focus in on that, going hand in hand with knowing yourself, that is getting sin out of your life since the ability to make sound judgments and decisions is directly related to your level of loving God and righteousness toward Him, you need to be on constant guard against sin. Actively be putting sin out of your life, through the grace and love of God, by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, here is a very important statement, it is impossible to live in sin and make a righteous judgment. It is an impossibility.

Let’s fast forwarded this and turn it to the other side, please.