Wednesday, May 30, 2012

101 Discipleship Course // Lesson 5 // Baptism & Communion "vs" patrick j miron teaching

Addition infor on judging correctly or "right judgement"

7. We Are Reminded That Jesus Said, "Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged"

Yes, here is a clear statement by the Lord Jesus, and it is important. I have written in detail about this in a chapter in The Ruin of a Christian. Here Jesus says there are certain reasons why we are not to judge others. For one thing, we will be judged with the same judgment. It will be measured to us with the same measure. Jesus says that sometimes we see a mote in the brother's eye when we have a beam or plank in our own eye.
And here it seems clear God is speaking about judgment of the heart and motives of a man. And we are told elsewhere. 

"For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (I Sam. 16:7). I cannot tell who is saved and who is lost by watching their actions, because I cannot see their hearts. The other apostles thought Judas was a Christian, no doubt, but he was not. On the other hand, some very probably thought that Pere, when he cursed and swore and denied Jesus and quit the ministry, was probably unsaved. As far as judging motives and the state of the heart, we are commanded, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."


However, in the same chapter the Lord tells us that there are some people we can judge because of certain outward fruits. He said, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits ... " (vs. 15,16).

When a man says, or in a book writes, that he does not believe in the virgin birth of Christ, in His deity, His resurrection, His blood atonement, then we know that man is not saved, according to John 8:23,24, and II John, verse 9.


There are certain fruits by which we can know that a man is not saved. Not drunkenness, for Noah and Lot and other Christians have been drunk. Not murder nor adultery, for David and other Christians have been guilty of those sins. But one who does not accept Christ as what He claims to be, cannot trust Him as a Saviour. So when a man's fruit is open antagonism to the Christian faith, rejection of Christ and the Bible, he is not saved. And on this matter of certain outward fruits in doctrine we can judge whether a man is a believer in Christ or a false prophet. And I have a right and duty not only to judge false prophets but to expose them.

But the Scripture also teaches clearly that there are some matters of Christian action which we are to judge by the Bible. In I Corinthians 6:1-3 Paul was inspired to write:
"Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?"

And in verse 4 he says that we should "set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church." In verse 5 he says, "Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?"
So on matters of action, right and wrong, where the facts are clear, Christians can and are required to judge. We cannot judge the heart but we can judge actions by the Word of God.


In fact, in the preceding chapter, in speaking about the man who lived in sin with his stepmother, Paul said, "I verily ... have judged already," and told them to expel the offender (I Cor. 5:3-5). And then God inspired Paul to lay down certain rules about fellowship and judging or putting away from our fellowship other Christians (I Cor. 5:11-13).

Was Paul wrong to face Peter openly at Corinth when he was leading Barnabas and others astray by dissimulation, refusing to eat with Gentile converts in order to please the Judaizers (Gal. 2:11-14)? No. Concerning people's hearts, we cannot judge and we should be very careful about our opinions, because we want people to be charitable to us, too, about the matters they cannot know and cannot see in our hearts. But about right and wrong, as clearly commanded in the Bible, we have a right to speak, and we have a right to require in Christian fellowship the very things that God requires.

So no preacher is judging heart or disobeying the Scripture when he obeys the plain command to "preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine" (II Tim. 4:2).

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