But if you have your Bibles with you go ahead and grab them if you will and turn with me to John chapter 7 John chapter 7 today will be in verses 10 through 24 John 7 verses 10 through 24. This is the word of the Lord. I But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews saw him at the feast and said, where is he? And there was much complaining among the people concerning him. Some said he is good. Others said, no, on the contrary, he deceives the people. However, no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews. Now about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man know letters, having never studied? Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The people answered him and said, You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you? Jesus answered and said to them, I did one work and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcised a man on the Sabbath. If a man received circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your wonderful word here, for your bold authority. God, we thank you, Jesus Christ, that you were a righteous preacher, that you judge righteously. Lord, that you can not only see the appearance, but you see straight to our heart. God, and even though on our own we are marred with sin, you cover us in your blood. God, I pray right now that your spirit would fall afresh on this congregation. Lord, I pray for divine unction to be given to me to speak your words. God, help me not to say anything that is just me presenting myself as Jesus talks about here, Lord, but let me preach only on your authority and what is in your word. God, let me just get out of the way of what your spirit wishes to do here. God, for everyone here that is hearing, I pray that they would hear directly from you, not only with their ears, but in their heart of hearts. that your word would penetrate to the core of their being. Lord, we know your word is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, that it is what brings life to us. Bring life to us now, Lord. Revive us again through the ministry of your word. Lord, draw us to a fuller and better understanding of who you are and what your will is for us. We ask your blessing in Christ's name, and amen. You may be seated. During our sermon today, there'll be two major points that I want to draw out. The first is this, to understand Christ, you must submit to Christ. To understand Christ, you must first submit to Christ. That's the first point. And then the second is just simply the last verse of our text stated again. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. And there'll be a number of other things that I'll highlight as we're working through this text today, but those are kind of the main anchor points that I want us to emphasize. With that in mind, I want us to dive right in. Our text for today opens with the same few verses that we closed with last week. And the first thing I want us to notice here is that Jesus, remember, he refused to go up to the Feast of Tabernacles publicly with his brothers. Instead, he chose to go in secret. He knew that if he went openly, as he will later do at his triumphal entry, where he will ride very openly, publicly and victoriously into Jerusalem. He knew that if he did that now, he would draw out those who sought to kill him. And his time for death had not yet come. Nevertheless, even though he did not want to go publicly to the feast, Jesus was at each and every moment of his life, fully obedient to the law of God. And one of the requirements for Old Covenant Israel that God had laid down in His law was that every male had to present himself before the Lord three times per year. That means wherever you lived in the world, you had to go to Jerusalem if you were an adult male and present yourself before your king and worship him. The times were at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that's Passover, at the Feast of Weeks, and then what we're looking at today at the Feast of Tabernacles, sometimes in some translations called the Feast of Booths. So Jesus does go to the feast in Jerusalem. It's not that he breaks the law of God in any way, but he goes quietly and secretly. And while he's secretly entering town at that same time, the Jews are searching for him. They are looking high and low. They are interrogating people. They are on the hunt for Christ. Now, the Feast of Tabernacles lasted for eight days, and it was a really big festival, not only religiously, but also culturally. It was something very important for the Jewish identity as a people. This feast was a great celebration of God's provision of the harvest in the fall of the grapes and the olives. Also, this feast was specifically given by God to remind his people of their wilderness wanderings. where their fathers dwelt in tabernacles, which is just another word for tents, where their fathers dwelt in these tents for 40 years. So in remembrance of this time that God preserved their fathers in the wilderness, not only were the Jews required to come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, to give their tithes, but they were also required to dwell in tabernacles for seven of those days. So just imagine this great scene. Thousands upon thousands of Jews are descending upon Jerusalem all at once. And they're not staying at the houses of their relatives or their friends like they might do on other feast days. They're not finding the nearest inn to sleep in. They're not looking for rooms to rent. They are actually setting up temporary shelters all throughout town. Tents are popping up just absolutely everywhere. It would have been an amazing sight to behold. And it would have been, no doubt, overwhelming for Jerusalem. This was something that you just saw and you thought, what in the world is happening if you weren't a Jew? God's kingdom, like an olive tree, had been given centuries upon centuries to grow since this feast was first inaugurated. And His kingdom had expanded enormously. So there was a great, great multitude of people here. But sadly, this olive tree of God's covenant people was very sick, and it was in great need of pruning. Most of the branches bore no fruit at all. So while the town was overwhelmed with the celebration, they were not overwhelmed with the aroma of pure worship being offered to God. In fact, I'm imagining that this festival brought a great amount of immorality into Jerusalem at this time. The fruits of the spirit were not bursting out of this olive tree, out of every tent opening. This was probably not a time of great holiness for the city of God. There were many people in God's kingdom, that's no doubt. But most of these were not of lasting and eternal kingdom stock. And sadly, Some of the worst of these false sons of the kingdom were the leaders in Israel. They were the ones in charge, the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests. These were the ones who should have been the holiest of all of God's children. They should have been examples to the flock. But instead of that, they are searching for the Messiah with murderous intent in their hearts. Instead of coming together to worship, they are on a manhunt for the God who redeemed them. I doubt they were, because remember, they do have murderous intent. I doubt that these Jewish leaders were kindly and patiently asking around, oh, do you happen to know where Jesus is? Have you maybe seen Jesus wandering around lately? No, in my mind, I think that they were storming into these makeshift shelters, maybe destroying some of them. They were throwing open tent flaps, tossing mattresses, dragging off people for interrogation, doing anything they can to find Jesus. And the search is causing a great bit of whispered conversations to be had among the people that had come to Jerusalem. Although some of these Jewish pilgrims had certainly never seen Jesus themselves and probably never even heard his preaching, many of them seem to have an opinion of him. Surely word of his teaching and his miracles had spread far and wide since his baptism. In town after town, people have been hearing about this wonder-working, traveling rabbi who heals the sick and teaches God's word. And even if some of the Jews who had journeyed in Jerusalem had not heard of Christ, if this was all brand new information to them, they certainly heard of him once they arrived for the feast. Obviously, the crazed search for the Messiah is stoking everyone's curiosity. Jesus's celebrity is growing with each and every day as these Jews are on the hunt. Verse 12 of John 7 tells us that some of the people in Jerusalem, they're saying, whispered, that Jesus is good. He's a good teacher. This is a good man, a good prophet. Others, however, are thinking, no, no, he's a deceiver. He leads people away from the right path. But no one even wants to say anything, even anything bad publicly and out loud for fear of drawing the attention of the angry and powerful rulers down on themselves. So they just whisper their thoughts to each other. A thousand hushed conversations about Jesus are happening right under the noses of those who are searching for him. And all the while, Jesus is there. He's there. They're looking high and low everywhere. And Jesus is there meditating on the Lord's goodness and glory, biding his time until the moment is right for him to reveal himself. And somewhere around the fourth day or so of this great festival, Jesus steps out onto the public scene. Now, why this fourth day or fifth day maybe was the right time to begin preaching publicly and why prior to that would have been premature and unwise, it's not entirely clear to us. We don't know why it was important for him to go up secretly at first, but then to reveal himself publicly a few days later. I have a few ideas. Perhaps the search parties had died down a little bit by now, and he could more easily make it up to the pulpit to teach. Or perhaps they were still going on, and the Jews were still with ravenous intent seeking him out, but the minds of the people were now prepared to receive Christ. They were now prepared, after all this hustle and bustle, to hear from the Messiah who was making such a stir. Because his enemies had stirred up a great deal of interest in him. I'm reminded of that saying that no publicity is bad publicity. If someone is talking about Jesus, that is a good thing because they're talking about Jesus. And that'll get people to begin thinking about who Jesus is and what he came here to do. So because of this witch hunt that the Jews have been on, people are hungry to know about the true Jesus. They want to hear the truth and to see and hear from him himself. Whatever the exact reasons are for Jesus stepping into the spotlight right now, we can be confident though, that Jesus planned every detail of his ministry with prudence and with precision. He never did anything half-cocked. He never did anything on accident. He never did anything late or early. Everything was done just according to God's plan. Jesus never wasted a moment. He never miscalculated his actions. He never misinterpreted the plans of others. So verses 14 and 15 of our text tell us that at about the middle of the feast, that's when Jesus went up in the temple and taught. And as he taught, God's word says that the Jews marveled. They were amazed at this man. And they were thinking, how does this man preach in this way? How does this man, God's word tell us, no letters, having never studied. Jesus doesn't reveal himself by letting the Jewish leaders discover him as he's reclining in someone's tent, or as he's offering his tithe, or as he's walking down the street having a conversation with one of his disciples. No, Christ reveals himself by walking into the temple court, standing up and thundering out the word of God. And as he's teaching, the Jews gathered around him. And I imagine the crowd kept growing as he was preaching and just kept getting bigger and bigger. And they marveled. They were amazed. They were astonished. They were filled with wonder. but also we could say that they were probably some of them surprised and maybe some of them perplexed and confused. It was not only the powerful and stirring doctrine which Jesus preached, but it was the fact that Jesus was the one preaching it. As he's expounding these great truths of God, they're standing around just open mouthed and thinking to themselves, how does this man know letters having never studied? Now, this is a very wooden translation that the new King James that I'm reading from has given us here. How does this man know letters? Letters is literally what the Greek word there, grammata, means. It's where we get our English word grammar. But most modern translations smooth this out a little bit more for our 21st century ears and say something like, how has this man become so learned without being educated? What this great crowd of people is saying is, how is this poor carpenter's son, how is this blue collar guy from some little town who never went to school, how is he the one that's preaching here with such authority? How is he showing up all of our great scholars? Today, men ordinarily go to seminary before they can be ordained. or called to the pastorate. Most denominations restrict the pastorate to those who have degrees from a seminary or divinity school. And it wasn't very different in Jesus's day. Young Jewish men who were to become rabbis had to study under another rabbi before they could be one themselves. This was a formalized, rigorous process. This was not for the faint of heart. Paul gives us a little insight into this when he says that he was educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of the law of the fathers. Paul's saying, you don't think I have a pedigree worthy of teaching the Word of God? I've studied under the strictest of teachers. Gamaliel was a very famous, in fact, an influential rabbi that we know more about from other parts of the Bible and from other secular and Jewish literature of the time. He trained many, many young men to be rabbis. He, in fact, Gamaliel, was the grandson of another very famous rabbi. One of the most famous rabbis ever to live named Hillel, whose name you still run into today as Jewish student groups on college campuses are called Hillel. In fact, there's a Hillel club just down the road at App State. So indirectly, these people who are teaching at this time have an enormous amount of influence in the Jewish community. But Jesus did not study with Hillel. He did not sit at the feet of Gamaliel. In fact, he never went to the first century equivalent of seminary at all. And if he didn't go to seminary, they wonder, how could he be such a good and knowledgeable creature? I've gone to seminary, and I know many people have gone to seminary, and I would say that a seminary education does not a preacher make. Some of the greatest preachers that the world has ever seen never went to seminary or Bible college. I mean, really, some of the greatest ones, you know their names. Charles Spurgeon never went to seminary. He's called the prince of preachers. He founded a Bible college and never went to one himself. Some of the early Methodist preachers who saw countless souls saved and transformed in the evangelical revival, both in Britain and America, never went to seminary. Some of them were poor simpletons. Billy Graham, the most famous preacher ever to come from the state of North Carolina, and probably the most well-known preacher in the whole world in the 20th century, never went to seminary. Martin Lloyd-Jones, one of the most influential pastors of the 20th century, especially within our Reformed tradition, never went to seminary. Now the difference between any of those people, like say for instance, the difference between Lloyd Jones and the average graduate coming out at that same time from Westminster Theological Seminary was significant. But that difference between Lloyd-Jones and your average Master of Divinity grad was nothing compared to the difference between Jesus and the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests of his day. This was a type of teaching that no one living had ever encountered, except for to some extent from John the Baptist, who was the forerunner. Aside from John the Baptist, no one preached like Jesus. No one had the clarity of doctrine. No one had the thunderous authority that Jesus had. And these people were amazed. Well, what was this difference? It was doctrine, yes, it was authority. Why was Jesus, we might ask, such a much more powerful preacher though, than these men who received the formal training? Is the formal training of no use? And how did he get such knowledge when he hadn't gone to school? This is not an unreasonable question that the Jews are asking. You haven't had an education, how do you know so much? Well, of course, Jesus is unique because he's God in the flesh. But that's not how he answered the question of the Jews here when they're asking about how he is preaching the way he is. When they're marveling at his teaching, this is what he says, John chapter seven and verse 16 and following. Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine. but his who sent me. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning his doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true and no unrighteousness is in him. That really leads us to our first main point that I mentioned to you at the beginning of our sermon. To know Christ, you must first submit to Christ. Now, before we get to that main point, really, I do wanna make a few very quick observations and applications here. When you are listening to a pastor preach, be very wary if he preaches his own doctrine and if he speaks from himself. What do I mean by that? That's what Jesus warns us of, pastors who preach their own doctrine and speak from themselves. First, if a pastor is preaching a man-centered doctrine rather than a God-centered doctrine, then be very wary. If the pulpit is a place where it's proclaimed that our great hope for the world is said to be in man, if men and women are seen as ultimate, if humans are not regarded as being great sinners in need of salvation, then that pastor is not preaching the true doctrine of the Bible and he should be avoided. Second, if a pastor is preaching a new and novel doctrine that none of our fathers of the faith preached, be very wary. If a pastor says something that everyone else disagrees with all throughout church history, I don't mean everyone in the congregation or every one of his pastor friends. I mean, expand that scope. If Augustine and Chrysostom and Martin Luther and John Calvin and John Knox and J.C. Ryle and John Murray all miss this point, be very careful. if someone else starts exclaiming something new. If a doctrine has only seen the light of day inside your own head, that light is not very bright, and it is incredibly likely that you are wrong. So be very careful there if he's preaching new and novel doctrine. And then third, if a pastor is preaching himself, be very wary. If anyone had a right to preach himself, it was Christ. But he says, I'm seeking the Father's glory, and I'm preaching the doctrine that the Father gave to me. By preaching himself, I mean if a pastor is making himself the hero of every illustration, if he's up at the pulpit talking about who he is and not who God is, if he's seeking to build his kingdom and power and influence and office and wealth and not God's kingdom, if he's doing any of these things, then be very wary. All that is what preaching your own doctrine and speaking from yourself means. And preaching like that was very common in Jesus's day. Most of the preachers here are not true sons of God by faith. So they're up there just preaching themselves, building their own kingdom, working hard to make converts, no doubt. But Jesus said they're making converts of hell, not converts for heaven. Many of Israel's leaders, many of the scribes, many of the preachers were false sons of the kingdom who could not care less about the truth of God's Word. Jesus is different. Now back to that main point here. To know Christ, you must first submit to Christ. Jesus says here that if anyone is willing to do God's will, then he will be able to discern whether his teaching is from God or not. If your heart truly desires to obey God as he has revealed himself and to obey his will in his word, then God will give you the supernatural ability to understand his will and his word. You will recognize the teaching of Christ as authoritative and true. And you will also be able to tell if a preacher is just up at the pulpit preaching himself or if he's really speaking on behalf of God. If you have a will to obey God, not if you obey God perfectly, not if you obey God in your own power, not if you are totally without sin, that's not what I mean, but God's word here says that if you have a will within yourself to obey God, then he will give you wisdom and discernment to understand his word. What is the key that unlocks the mysteries of the Bible and theology? What is the key to spiritual discernment? It's not seminary. Jesus didn't go to seminary. All the other preachers did. He didn't. It's not being academically gifted. It's not knowing how to read Greek and Hebrew. Like there's some secret buried in the original languages that just never came over into English. All those things can be great. They can be helpful. It's not like we're at King's Cross saying you don't need to exercise your mind or get an education. That's not what we're saying at all. But they're not the key that we're looking for. The key to understanding the Bible, to making sense of the good news that God became a man to die for your sins and rise again imperishable from the grave. The key to understand difficult doctrines like the Trinity or like predestination. The key to all of this is not a gifted mind. The key is a softened heart. The key is trusting in Christ. The key is, as Jesus says, a desire to do the will of God. Well, someone might say, that sounds like three keys. How many keys do I need to unlock this, James? Which is it? It's not three keys, it's one key. That's one key, a softened heart, faith in Christ, a desire to do God's will. That's all one thing. You don't get one without getting the others. You can't just say, I have faith in Christ, but no desire to do his will. And you can't truly have a desire to do God's will without a new heart. These all go together, faith in Christ, a softened heart, a desire to do God's will. That's one key. Many people that are not Christians claim, we heard this just the other day on our evangelism app, they claim that the reason they're not Christians is because of something they cannot understand, something they've read or more likely heard about the Bible or about Christianity they cannot understand. It could be anything. anything. I can't understand how God could be one and three at the same time. Or I can't understand why God seems so violent in the Old Testament. Yet in the New Testament, he seems so kind. Or I can't understand how you say that God is loving, but you also say there's a place called hell. So I can understand it. Therefore, I can't be a Christian. My intellect won't let me as if they've somehow got the higher ground in this. I'm too smart for your religion. But the problem is that these people that say things like that, they cannot understand these things because they have no desire to submit themselves completely to the will of God. They think, well, of course I'm not going to seek to obey someone I cannot understand. When all along they cannot understand because they will not seek to obey. They have it flipped around. I need to understand everything before I can obey. When Christ says, no, no, no, if you want to understand anything, you have to start with obedience, start with a desire to obey God, and then he'll unlock things for you. The apostle Paul says that the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So we might ask, well, how can we understand these things then? Jesus, how can we understand them, Paul? How can we become spiritual men instead of natural men? Jesus here talks about obedience. So if I obey all of God's commandments, then will I understand better and be able to discern between true and false doctrine more easily? Will I then be a spiritual man and not a natural man? Well, it's true that God requires obedience to His commands. That is something God requires of all men. Everyone has to obey the law of God. And it's also very true that when you obey God's commands, you will receive blessing. Not just blessing in eternity. The Bible is clear. If you obey God's commands, you will be blessed in this life. That's written in large letters all throughout the pages of scripture. But it's also true that you can't obey your way into spiritual life. That is impossible because the summary of the law is to love God and love your neighbor. On those two things, Jesus says, hang all the law and the prophets, and you cannot love God unless he has first given you a new heart. So you can't obey your way into a new heart. In fact, the only way you can obey at all, if God gives you the new heart. Unless God has reached down from heaven and taken your old, dead heart of stone out and given you a clean, new, soft heart, you cannot do a single thing that is truly righteous or truly obedient at its core. So how do you become a spiritual man then, if not by obeying God's law? Is there any role that we have in becoming spiritual men, or do we just have to sit around and wait and hope that God will give us this new birth? Here's the answer. You do not have to just wait around. You do not need to wait for some miraculous, earth-shaking intervention. What you need to do is humble yourself before God and cry out for mercy. Ask Him to open your heart. Tell Jesus that you believe in Him and that you trust Him, that you are grateful that He died for you, and that you believe with all your heart that He rose from the dead. Put all your eggs into the basket of Christ's love and faithfulness, and your eyes will start to open. For some people, it's like a light bulb that goes from off to on. Just like that, off to on. They automatically, when they're converted, hate all the sins they used to struggle with. They understand the Bible and theology on day one. They have absolute assurance of salvation. That does happen sometimes with people. And it's amazing. But I think for the vast majority of the people, that is not the case. Even though when God gives you the new birth, it does happen in a single moment. You don't like slowly go from death to life. There is death and there is life. That is a binary reality. But even though that happens in a single moment, your lived experience of the effects of your salvation are like a slow growing tree. You look at a tree, you don't see that it's growing. You look at it day after day, you don't see that it's grown at all, usually. And that's what the experience of our salvation is often like. When Jesus healed some people, He declared them healed and bam, just like that, they were completely whole in an instant. He said, rise, get up and walk. The lame man rises, gets up and walks. Not a trace of sickness, blindness, anything left in some of these people. Just like that, they are healed and whole. But that wasn't the case for others. Listen to this account of Christ healing a blind man from Mark chapter eight. Then Jesus came to Bethsaida and they brought him a blind man and begged him to touch him. So Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, I see men like trees walking. Then Jesus put his hands on his eyes again and made him look up and he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Step-by-step, this man was delivered from blindness. It did not happen instantly. Now the healing did happen in a pretty short stretch of time, but Jesus's physical miracles always point us to spiritual realities that go far beyond the miracle itself. The miracles, remember, are just signs. That's a word John uses often. They are signs. They point the way and alert us to something greater. And specifically in Christ's healings, we are taught that Jesus can restore that which was broken. He can mend together that which looked unfixable. He can heal that which was sick and wounded. And he can even bring to life people who were dead. But here with this blind man, we see that this healing and restoration and transformation does not always happen at once. Maybe you were converted to Christ and you go from being blind to spiritual things to kind of being able to see and understand them, but not all that well. Before you're saved, you just really don't get the Bible. You open it up and it just doesn't make sense to you. It's just like someone speaking a different language. You go to church and the sermons confuse you. You feel like you're missing something that everyone else is getting. And then Christ saves you. He gives you that new heart and you open up the Bible, you go to church and you're kind of getting it. You think it makes sense. You feel like you're starting to pick some things up, but you're also kind of confused about a lot of things. And you're just not sure what's going on. And you wonder, was any of that real that I experienced? Or is it just some emotional experience that I made up in my head? Did God really do a work on my heart? Because I don't feel like I'm where everyone else is on this spiritual train. I somehow got in the caboose and everyone else is riding up front. Brother or sister, if that is your experience, or if that was your experience, do not be disheartened. You just might be like the man who went from being totally blind to being able to see people walking around, but your eyes are still so bad that it looks like trees are moving in front of you. You open your eyes and you see something for the first time, but it's unintelligible in a sense. It's like a whole forest is moving around. Yes, you can see, but you're certainly not going to be driving a car. You're not going to be leading anyone else anywhere. Your sight isn't good enough yet. It may be a long time before God opens to you the mysteries you want to figure out. It may be a long time before you finally achieve victory over some sin in your life, but press on. Keep seeking to obey. Jesus highlights the desire to obey more than the obedience itself here. Keep striving for understanding. Keep desiring to do the will of God. Keep making use of the ordinary means of grace that God has laid out for you. Read his word. If you want to understand God in His ways, read His Word every day. And the more you read with those new eyes, they start to get better and better at seeing and understanding the words on the page. Your eyes are gonna get better with practice, just like a muscle. If you don't work the muscle out, it's not gonna do very well. It's gonna atrophy. It's just gonna be useless. But if you work out that muscle, you might not see a change day after day, but over a long period of time, you're going to notice a change. Read God's word. Go to church. If you haven't been baptized, be baptized. Talk with your brothers and sisters about the things of Christ. Confess your sins to one another. That's probably the most overlooked means of grace we have before us. Do you want freedom from besetting sin? Talk to a dear brother or sister in Christ and say, I'm just gonna be honest, this is what I'm struggling with. And I'm embarrassed to even tell you, but can you pray with me and help me get through this battle? Pray for them and ask them to pray for you. Go to the Lord's table. Make use of these means of grace that God has given you to get your eyes closer and closer to seeing Him and His word truly. And slowly but surely, that key to discerning God's will and God's word will unlock more and more and more for you. And one day you'll look back on your life 20 or 30 years from now, and you'll say with John Newton, that famous slave trader turned pastor, I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not what I used to be. And by God's grace, I am what I am. John Newton said, I'm not anywhere near where I thought I would be at this point. I still see so much sin within me. Other people might even see that I'm changed and glorious. They don't know the thoughts that I think at night. But by the grace of God, I look back and I think I'm not where I was. Your eyes will get better over time. Your heart will grow stronger over time. The more you seek to obey God's word, the more you will obey God's word. And the more you obey God's word, the more you'll want to obey God's word. And it's just not a vicious cycle, but a wonderful, glorious cycle propelling you on to eternity. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know, we learn, that Christ's doctrine is true. Ask yourself, do you will to do his will? That means, do you have a desire within you to do God's will? If you don't, then just cry out to God for mercy. And if you do will to do his will, still cry out to God and ask that he would create in your heart a greater will to do his will. God, let me desire to do your will tomorrow more than I do today. God, make me able to do your will. Don't leave me in just desiring. Give me victory over this sin. For without you, Lord, I am nothing. Now we come to our final point of our message today. And this is just verse 24 itself. That's the point. John 7, 24 says this, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Jesus here in verse 24 is correcting the unbelieving Jews for their misjudgment about his apparent Sabbath breaking. Remember all the way back in John chapter five, that's what he's referring to here. Jesus healed a lame man on the Sabbath and the Jews sought to kill him for this righteous deed. They claimed that because he worked on the Sabbath, therefore he was breaking the Sabbath. But Jesus tells them that they only think this, they're only so foolishly mistaken because they are judging by mere outward appearance and not by righteousness. Whenever we judge something, whenever we make a judgment, we have to ask ourselves the question, by what standard? What is the only standard that will give us righteous judgment? It is the Word of God. The Word of God. And Jesus illustrates and explains this truth by pointing out to these Jews, you will gladly do work on the Sabbath. You will gladly circumcise a man on the Sabbath and not even bat an eye at it and you'll think you're doing a good thing. And you are doing a good thing. Clearly, these Jews have a category for doing things on the Sabbath that aren't breaking the Sabbath. But because they don't understand the weightier matters of the law, because they don't understand the acts of mercy are actually a fulfillment of the Sabbath command, not a violation of it, they get confused and they go astray here in a major way. And this all comes back to the first point. It's all because of the first point. They don't understand God's word and they don't understand true doctrine because they don't have right hearts before God. That's why they're elevating ceremony over mercy. They don't have the right heart. So obviously they can't judge with righteous judgment. They weren't willing to do His will. They weren't judging according to God's standard. They were judging by mere surface level appearances. They see a man doing something on the Sabbath that's not religious in the tightly defined sense. And it's not rest, laying down, taking a nap, sitting in your house. And therefore they think, well, obviously he's breaking the law. And they're wrong. Now with our modern, overly sensitive, self-absorbed, self-righteous culture, We actually really like, even in the broader culture, even unbelievers, we like to emphasize that first part of verse 24. That's something that even a hardened unbeliever believes the Bible is true there. See what Jesus says, do not judge. Our culture loves that slogan. I think, I don't know if this is true, and I don't know how you would measure it, but I heard someone say that 20 years ago, the most famous Bible verse, the most memorized and known Bible verse was John 3.16. Praise God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Wonderful, wonderful. But now, apparently, once again, I don't know how you measure this, the most well-known Bible verse is judge not lest you be judged. What a condemnation on our culture. It went from casting ourselves upon Christ and receiving his mercy and forgiveness to elevating ourselves as ones who cannot be judged. You don't even need forgiveness. You can't judge me. But that's not what Jesus says here. Jesus doesn't say merely do not judge. That's the end of the story. He says, do not judge according to appearance. or as your parents might've taught you growing up, don't judge a book by its cover. But then he adds this, but do judge with righteous judgment. We are called and commanded by God to make righteous judgments. God doesn't say, don't judge by appearance. If you happen to fall into judging, it's okay as long as it's righteous. No, he says, don't judge by appearance. In fact, judge in this other way. It is so common today if you even bring up another person's sin to be told, you're being judgmental. Why are you judging me? Or the most confusing statement that I've heard, only God can judge me. That is way worse. Because however I'm gonna judge you is gonna be less severe than the perfect, holy, infinite lawgiver God. That's worse. But brothers and sisters, we are called by God to make righteous judgments in accord with His will. The Apostle Paul says that all of Scripture is breathed out by God. And he says the reason that God gave us Scripture is that it would be profitable for us for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. It seems like some of those every good works would include reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Sounds like we need to make righteous judgments with the word of God. God gave us a perfect standard with which to correct and reprove ourselves, This isn't just looking at someone else's sin. To correct ourselves and others. So we're supposed to judge. But we are not supposed to judge hypocritically, self-righteously, or by mere outward appearance. We are to judge by the word of God. We can only understand How to judge by the Word of God, though, if we are spiritual men and women, if we have received the new birth and are walking with God. Paul says this in Galatians. He says, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Gentle, spiritual, humble, but righteous judgment nonetheless. Now it's also true, Proverbs 19 tells us, that it is a glorious thing to overlook a transgression, especially a transgression against yourself. If someone offends you, you don't need to be rushing to John 7. Time to judge with righteous judgment. I'm getting my hammer of God's word out to bash my brother and sister because he committed a minor sin against me. That's not how this works. It is a good and wise and glorious thing and almost always a preferred thing to look over minor transgressions, especially ones committed against yourself. It should be your default posture when someone does wrong to you, not to jump on them with judgment, but to just be humble and remind yourself, I'm a sinner first and sinned against only second. The Apostle Peter even says that love covers a multitude of sins. And he's talking about, in context, the relationship we have with each other. Love covers a multitude of sins. So we don't comb through our brother's lives with a fine-toothed razor. And we don't point out all the little sins that our brothers and sisters commit, but we shouldn't be afraid to make righteous, biblical judgments about things either. In fact, I think our culture needs a lot more righteous judgment. It's a good thing and a loving thing to call sin, sin. That is a good and righteous and loving thing. And it is a good thing to call righteousness, righteousness. to praise righteousness and obedience wherever we see it, to point it out and say, this is God honoring. This is in accord with God's word. No one should have called Jesus a Sabbath breaker. Instead, they should have praised him and glorified him for fulfilling the Sabbath by healing a man and making him whole. but the natural man can only judge based on appearances. And even believers, if we are not careful, you and I, brother and sister, we will slip back into that judgment based on appearances. We will slip into judgment based on preferences. Well, I don't like that. It doesn't matter what you like. What is the standard? It is the word of God. So judge with righteous judgment, beginning with yourself and then outward to others. Make these judgments. I'll close with this. no matter where you are on your spiritual journey. no matter what type of home life you have, no matter how old you are, no matter what your goals are for your life, no matter how you're feeling today, or this week, or this year, when you go home today, or when you get ready for bed tonight, open your Bible and ask that God would give you those clear eyes to see His will, ask that He would give you a heart that truly desires to do His will, and ask for Him to give you the courage to make righteous judgments about yourselves, about others, about society around us, and fearlessly obey God no matter what. Let's bow our heads in prayer. God, we thank you that you are a righteous and just judge. We thank you that you have clearly explained to us, God, that even when we don't understand, even when there's mystery, God, that you will give us a peace which surpasses understanding if we would just submit to you. If we would trust you, Lord, and know that you are wise and powerful and that all things work together for good to those who are called by you, those who are called according to your purpose, Lord, that you work everything for our good. God, give us the strength to trust you, Lord. And also, please, Lord, Give us increased understanding. Let us be able to know what true doctrine is. Let us be able to understand your word. When we get confused in our own natural sinful minds about what your word is telling us, God, please let us press on, give us strength to press on and open our eyes more and more clearly each day. God, give us freedom from those besetting sins all around us. We know that sometimes our eyes aren't brought to perfect vision instantaneously, but we pray, Lord, You would haste the day when we understand You better and we look more like You. God, help us in this world that often looks dark and lost, in this world that is rebelling against You. Help us to make righteous judgments. Help us to stand up in the public square and declare that Your law is good, that departure from it is wicked, God, and that the true judge of the heavens and the earth will come for those who are disobedient to his will. God, we ask your continued blessing on our service of worship today. In Christ's name, amen.