This song actually went very well with the Bible Fellowship Hour message that we had. And I know that I'm just speaking to adults here, but if you missed this morning, I would encourage you to take the time to be here for our Bible Fellowship Hour. It's a very important time, a good time of interaction as well, to be looking at the Word of God. We're continuing this morning with looking at subjects that Christians avoid. As we look at our subjects today we're going to be talking about judging. So don't judge me for my lack of judgment. Now several weeks ago we considered the topic of individual soul liberty or to put it more plainly our freedom to determine how we pursue our lives in Christ. We touched on the scriptural principle that we cannot judge how others choose to live their life before the Lord. And that's talking about, again, within the confines of scripture, within following Christ, okay? We also went through this subject of proper and improper judgment about 18 months ago during our Bible fellowship hour. I realize that a number of you were probably teaching children or maybe you couldn't be there for some of that or whatever. But what I'm going to do today is not just reteach this subject. what I want to do is basically give us a more specific focus on this in relation to proper judgment. But I also want to just help us understand that This topic is going to cross some of the other topics that we've been looking at. One of the things we talked about was sin and calling it what it is, of guarding against judging. Yes, that's one of the things we talked about. So these things are intersecting with some of the things that we're looking at and maybe even some future topics. But as we again take a look at this I want to focus on one specific thing but before we do that I want to remind us of what improper judgment looks like. So I want to look at some elements of improper judgment. The first one is hypocrisy. Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 4 gives us What Jesus says about this, He says, Judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? Meaning, that small little thing that drives you crazy, right? But do not consider the plank in your own eye. How can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So what's the first element that we have here? Hypocrisy. It's when we're using a standard that is one that we're not even adhering to or that one that isn't biblical really, okay? So let's be careful about doing that. That is not proper. By the way, it's interesting that in this context, it does assume that the brother will eventually do something if they happen to get their own life straightened out. So, we're going to talk about this a little bit later, but have you ever had someone tell you, judge, that you be not judged? Right? And just kind of throw that out there? Okay. That's partly what we're addressing this morning. Okay. We move on. Subjective criteria. We're going to look at Romans chapter 14 for that. In Romans chapter 14 we're going to read that full portion that we're going to be referring to but then on top of that we're going to highlight a couple of verses and let me read verses 1-7 for you. Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats." Now let me just pause here. This isn't saying that vegetarians are weak spiritually. Although it could be the case, I don't know. But that's not what it's saying. What it's talking about is in relation to the diet when it came to meat offered to idols and different things like that. And so we're not going to be able to get into all those things, but it's not talking strictly what you're eating, but what it's representing. Okay? Who are you to judge the servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day over another, another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord and he who does not observe the day to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, and he gives God thanks. And he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself." And let me just finish this thought here. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died, and rose, and lives again, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother, or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, as it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So basically as we're looking at this and we consider this topic again of subjective criteria, this idea here of putting our own standards on somebody else, whether it be from the perspective of how come they have the freedom to do that, that's not right, or they have freedom to do that, why aren't they doing it? Fill in the blank as far as what the subject matter might be, but that is improper judgment to judge people based upon how they are, again, practicing what they're doing. So there's just straight up hypocrisy. Then there's the subjective criteria that we give where really we're the standard. Or you can even say that some author is the standard, or something that we heard of sometime is the standard. No, it's the Word of God. That's the standard. This Scripture verse, it talks about appearances. In John 7, 24, it says this, "...do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." What's interesting here is Jesus challenged the Pharisees condemning him for healing a man on the Sabbath. Jesus is talking about what the situation looks like as opposed to what it really is. He was describing the letter of the law thinking. We think of appearance as what someone looks like. What he was talking about was the appearance of the situation. It's interesting, he even used the idea of circumcision in the same context. And what he was saying was this, on the Sabbath, there's times when you circumcise. Well, why is that? Because the law said that eight days after the male was born. Well, guess what? There's times when that falls on Saturday, that fell on their Sabbath. So what he's saying is, you're not going to judge that. Well, then why would you be judging me if I'm healing on a Sabbath day? You're giving the letter of the law to something that is not covered under the law. It's by appearance. It looks like you're working. Oh, because I told somebody, you know, for example, I'm not saying this is the one, you know, stretch out your hand and it's going to be made whole. You know, any number of things that Jesus did, he partly did it to test them, right? But what they were doing was they were going by the law. Well, that took some effort. You're sinning. So obviously, that's not what he's talking about. And then there's also this idea of partiality, which sometimes is where we confuse with what Jesus mentioned about appearances. In James 2, verses 1 through 4, it says this, For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say to him, you sit here in the good place, and say to the poor man, you stand there, or sit here at my footstool." How demeaning, right? Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? So you can see at the end of the context James kind of broadens it out going from the example and basically saying there are times when we become judges of people because we don't have the right kind of thinking. We show partiality. Our study could take us into many more specifics, but my emphasis today is not on improper or sinful judgment. My emphasis is on proper biblical, specifically, discernment. Judging and judgment has a negative connotation, right? You're being judgmental. Stop judging me. We use it like that. But in reality, it's neither positive or negative. It depends on how it's being used. If you go to court and there's two people, two parties that have a problem with each other, and once the judge bangs the gavel down, most of the time, you have someone who says, ooh, that was good judgment. And you have someone else that says, that wasn't so good judgment, right? If they were honest, they would say, it probably is good judgment, it's just not in my favor. But do you understand what I'm trying to say? So judging can be for. something that takes place as well. And we might see a little bit of that. But what I want to do is make a case for wise discernment. Now, as I'm doing this, I just need to emphasize here, folks, a couple of things. First off, this really can and should be something that our young people take an important look at. A number of young people, for whatever reason, are not here this morning. That's fine. Just as we were told earlier, you're here for a reason. And so we're going to be going through this. But this idea here of discernment is very important. As we have seen, there are wrong ways to judge. But Jesus specifically pointed out the wrong criteria used to pass judgment. Christ never determined that all judgment is wrong, nor did he ever advocate not using proper judgment. This wasn't the case. Think about this on a practical side. If we follow the foolish philosophy of the world, nothing could be declared sinful. And I think that's kind of the way they want it. So let's establish some proper criteria for good judgment. The English word judge is represented by several words in the Bible's original languages. We're going to look at judge, and we're going to look at discern as far as just general topics. Now, before we get into this, I do got to say this. For some of you, as I'm going through this, I've never preached a message like this before. Some of you are going to be like, oh, yeah, this is really cool because we're looking at the original language and stuff like that. Some of you are like, oh, no. Right? We're going to try to strike a balance here. So here's the point. The scriptures make a point by using different words, and I want you to see that. I don't want you to get lost in it. All right. So work with me and I'll try to work with you. And, you know, we're going to go through this and I think it's going to be beneficial. But I'm just letting you know, we're going to be going through several things, several slides in relation to the Greek and Hebrew words based upon what we're talking about. We're going to start off with the Hebrew because, well, that came first. All right. The word is Shophat. It means to pronounce sentence, often used for the office of judge or passing judgment in the official capacity. It also indicates acting as a judge. All right? Now, even as I go through some of these, I'm kind of taking some of the definitions. Some of them are very broad and used in multiple ways, and I'm narrowing them down for our subject matter because that's the verses we're going to be looking at. All right? So if you happen to do some deeper study and say, well, that Greek word can be used for that too. Yes, it can be. All right, but we're staying with theme here. So what I'm going to do then is give you some verses where this is used, all right, and help you understand. Along the way, we're going to see what's in some of these verses so that we can glean some things about proper judgment. So it's not just a word study. It's bringing something out because of these different words and having a clearer meaning of them. All right. So Deuteronomy 16, 18. And by the way, this first one is more of an exercise to help you understand how we're going. You shall appoint judges. Shofot. And officers in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you according to your tribes, and they shall judge. They'll do the judging thing, right? The people with just judgment. Now that word judgment there is actually a different word, but the point is judges are going to judge. That's the matter of fact look at it. Now, if you see what Psalm 26 one says, and this is a Psalm of David, I'm only adding that, keeping that in the context because it's something that we need to keep in mind. He says, vindicate me. Well, that's a kind of a slightly different word than judge, except that what has to happen if someone is vindicated of something, a judgment has to take place. So that's how this is used. He says, vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord. I shall not slip. Boy, can you say that to God? Can I say that to God? That's really something. So that's another way that this word is used. And then more along the lines of how we're gonna be looking is Proverbs 29.9. If a wise man contends with a foolish man, All right, if a wise man, right, thinking of our definition now, is acting as a judge, in other words, here's this foolish guy doing foolish things. This wise man is trying to let him know you're doing foolish things. Look what it says. Whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace. So whether he gets angry or he laughs at you, nothing comes of it. There's no resolution. He's still going to be a fool. Now, you might say to yourself, that doesn't sound pretty. Well, that's the point of the proverb is that trying to deal with fools is kind of foolish, but it doesn't change what this guy's doing. He's passing judgment on foolishness. You get it? So there's the active word there. So that is the word shafat. The other one is din. I think it's interesting. Set sail, straight course. The idea is just like, and I've not sailed a whole lot, but I have a real little bit. I'm one of those little sunflower or sunfish sailboats, right? Where you set your sail is where the wind's going to hit it and that's the direction you're going to go. Is that how that works? Yes. There's a little rudder involved too, but the sail is very important. Okay. The rudder doesn't do anything unless you got some wind. So basically the idea here is, and again, it also means office of a judge or the action of a judge, but can also mean to contend or to plead. So there's, there's a little bit broader meeting here. Let's see how it's used. His delight, in Isaiah 11, 3, and 4, is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge, that goes back to that word, Shophat, by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears. By the way, this is a Messianic prophecy, all right? So he's not going to judge by the sight of his eyes, nor is he going to decide, right? Or, in other words, to contend or to plead or to make judgments by the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. Is that not what Jesus came to do? He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. That's still to come. We have the same word being used in Proverbs 31, 8 and 9. Open your mouth for the speechless and the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy. So the idea is that you contend, you plead, you get on the side of someone who cannot help themselves, someone who is helpless. Another word that's used, and so part of why I'm saying this is just a little bit of a hint as you go back and look at how the word judge and several other words are used. You can use a simple strong concordance and understand where those things are. There's tools online and different things. Sometimes even your Bible programs on your phones can help you if you tap on a word. And get a little bit deeper in the meaning, because it's not all just the same type of judgment. There are different aspects to it. The next one we're going to look at is the word—and this one's a little harder for me—it's yakah. To be right. Argue, decide, convince, correct, plead, reason with. You can see how this could be used in a lot of different ways. Well, let's go back just to kind of get our bearings here of what we saw many weeks ago in Job, Job 13, verses 3 and 15. But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him, even so I will defend my own ways before Him. In other words, my integrity. So if you remember, Job was saying, I just need to have an audience with God and we can work things out because what's happening to me is not good. It's not right. It's not just. And I will have justice if I can just plead my case before God. So what he's saying here is, I want a good judgment. But I'm going to work that out in a judging fashion, right? We're going to talk through this. We're going to reason with one another. We're going to make a decision. This can happen if I just have an audience with God. Now we know that he received that audience and Job said, I need to stop talking now. Right? We've gone through all that. But look at how Proverbs chapter 20 verse 23 says this. He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue. Understand flattery is not a compliment. Flattery is acting complimentary. It's giving people something they want to hear because you want something out of them. And that's being contrasted with strong correction. Someone, in essence, passing judgment on your life, saying you're out of line somewhere. Interesting, isn't it? So as we think about this, this is a better thing than just to hear nice words from somebody, particularly those that they don't really mean. there's a benefit to it. Now I did mention that there's a lot in here for our young people but there's a lot in here for any and all of us right. So there's one term that we can get from the Okay, sorry, this is discern from the Hebrew. It's the word yadah. It means to know, to comprehend, to perceive. In Ezekiel 44, verse 23, it says this, And the priests shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. So this is, again, something that Isaiah is saying is really a reform that was going to take place, because they weren't doing this. So this also tells us, okay, what are spiritual leaders supposed to be doing? Right? Spiritual leaders are supposed to be working with the people, teaching them, so that what? The people can discern. This is not the priest's responsibility. This is the people's responsibility of discernment, of being able to differentiate between what is not only right and wrong, but what is good, better, and best. Here specifically is talking about worship and clean and unclean and all those other things because they were defiling the Lord's temple and other things. But as we're looking at this, just let that sink in for a minute. There's supposed to be some differentiation, some discerning that takes place. Also here it says, I think I have that in the wrong spot. Let's go to judge in the Greek. Judge in the Greek here is the equivalent of shafat, an official judge or acting as one. So now we're in the Greek, and it's the word krino. And it just simply means judge. Well, how's that used? 1 Corinthians 5, 12, and 13. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside, but those who are outside God judges? Therefore, put away from yourself the evil person." Boy, I'm going to give you a context here in a minute, but I want this to sink in. Right in here, there is a judgment that is taking place. Actually, that Paul is saying should be taking place. This is the Corinthian church. There's some other things that he covered first, but then he got into this whole idea of a man who was having an improper relationship. I'm not going to go any more into that, just to be conservative about that. But the point is this, it was so improper that it wasn't even something the Gentiles did. And so basically, here's this unrepentant man, and in reality, the Corinthians were like, look at our tolerance, isn't it great? And what Paul said was, no, it's not. Now, he makes a differentiation. Our judgment, passing sentence on people, isn't supposed to be happening outside of the church. It's supposed to be happening within, with one another. Now that doesn't mean we're snooping around looking at you, it simply means this was something that was obvious, it was bad, it was harming the church, it was offensive against God and it needed to stop and he didn't want to stop. So Paul said exercise church discipline, but it all had to do with passing judgment. Wait a minute, I thought it says don't judge unless you want to be judged. You see, there's some important judgment that is supposed to take place. I think we went through some of this already, but we're going to keep going here. Discern in the Hebrew is yadah. So let's look at Ezekiel 44 verses 23 and 24. And the priests shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy and cause them to discern between the clean and the unclean. In controversy, they shall stand as judges and shall judge and judge it according to my judgments." That's another word. I just wanted to throw that out to you because that judgments is how it is exercised, right? They shall keep my laws and my statutes and all my appointed meetings, and they shall hallow my Sabbaths. So again, the priests were supposed to teach, this is Ezekiel now saying a similar thing, they were supposed to teach the people to discern between the clean and the unclean. Proverbs 10.32, the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. Again, what is that word, know, here? What is that saying? It's the idea of comprehending, perceiving, being aware of. How are we aware of all these things? We're going to get there in just a minute. We have one more word here, and it's been. To separate mentally. Consider, discern, understand, or understanding, to know, to have skill, or be skillful. When you think of separate mentally, the idea is you can break a situation down, okay? It's kind of like cooking. When they talk about breaking down a chicken, right? It's not talking to the chicken until it breaks, right? You know, blah! You know, that's not what we're talking about here, okay? Breaking down a chicken is taking down all of its parts, right? Making it useful besides just something, a big hunk of meat to roast. Well here, to separate mentally, right? You're breaking down a situation. You're able to decipher, to see what's going on. I want us to look at Proverbs chapter 2 and then we're going to highlight a couple of these verses but Proverbs chapter 2 verses 1 through 9. Proverbs 2, 1 through 9. This is obviously toward the beginning of the book of Proverbs, Solomon is writing primarily to his son, his young son, but again this is a message to all of us. Proverbs 2, beginning in verse 1, says, And lift up your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of the saints. Then you will understand what righteousness and justice, equity, and every good path." So let me highlight just a couple of these verses. Verse 5 of that chapter says, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Right? So in other words, if you acquire wisdom, that's how we do that. Well, where does wisdom come from? It comes from the Word of God. So as we understand the word of God and even how it applies to everyday living, then we're going to be able to understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. We're going to be able to differentiate. We're going to be able to consider and separate mentally all that's going on around a situation and make sure that we are what? We're fearing God first. And we're knowing Him, we're digging through all the other things of life and we're making sure that we are understanding who God is and what He expects of us. Then in verse 9 it says this, Then you will again understand righteousness, justice, equity, and every good path. Think about this. Based upon our understanding of the Word of God, We're going to be able to then take and we're going to be able to dissect life to the point where we can get the best out of it. That's what this is talking about. That's discernment. You know, all of us can improve in our discernment in any given area of life. I don't want to make it sound like it's not from the Lord, but we know that there's elements of our life that don't come directly from God, meaning temptations and the ways of the world. But anything and everything is going to hit us. Life is going to happen. Wouldn't you prefer to engage life with the best discernment possible? Well, ultimately what's underpinning all of this is judgment, judging that is a part of discernment. Interesting, I wanted to show you where these two Hebrew words actually kind of interconnect a little bit here in Hebrews 14, 7 and 8 which tells you that they can be used a little bit interchangeably. says, go from the presence of a foolish man we do not perceive, right? When you figured out, right, in him the lips of knowledge, you figured out, this is a foolish man. Okay? Excuse yourself. Get out of the situation. Why? Well, we read a little bit about earlier, but it's not going to go well. Okay? But then look at what it says next. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit. In other words, they fool themselves. But look at this. This is really important. And again, young people, I really want you to hear this. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand, to be able to dissect and figure out his way, the path you're supposed to be taking. That's the exercising of wisdom, of proper judgment. To be able to take the parts of life and get rid of what you shouldn't be doing, to get rid of what's even the inferior, and focus on what is most important. Do we have to go through what's most important, folks? God's will? Four young people obeying your parents? But for all of us, yes, taking care of our daily responsibilities, all those things as unto the Lord. But how are we going to do that if we let these other inferior things crowd in? And what about the difference between sin and righteousness? Wisdom is going to come to bear and we're going to have the understanding, the ability to set our paths right. Now there's a couple of Greek words that are related to discerning or judging, and they versions, so to speak, of that basic crino, okay, of judge, but they are their own words. So you have diacrino, which means a discerner or judge, and it relates back to that yada or, I can't remember that one. Okay. Anyway, but solid food belongs to those who are full age. Okay. We're talking about not real food here. We're talking about spiritual things. So solid food, Solid spiritual things are for the mature, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern, to do the same thing we just talked about with that Hebrew word, both good and evil. It's going to take some work. It's going to take some effort. It's going to take some mental exercises and, you know, physically potentially even separating yourself from some things or engaging in some other things. Another word that we have is anacrino. To scrutinize, to investigate, to question, discern, examine. Look at what 1 Corinthians 2 tells us, verses 13 through 15. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But 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. But he who is spiritual judges, same word, all things. If we take, again, the same idea, it is to scrutinize, to tear things apart and put them back together again. It's to figure out what's going on. What's this all about? Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. Just to interpret that, what that means is no one can turn around and take and scrutinize our life and find something wrong with it. That's the idea there. The spiritual person is living a consistent life because they're applying judging, good judgment, discernment. They're taking a look at life, and they're saying, hey, I've got to do this right. So they're taking the word of God and the wisdom that God has given to them, and they're interpreting that into their living. And they're making decisions based upon that. Therefore, no one can come along and say, OK, I'm going to now scrutinize you, and I'm going to find something. That doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect. It simply means that you're not going to find inconsistencies as a lifestyle, right? So we've gone through a lot of this stuff here, folks. Before we proceed, we need to briefly connect proper judgment to our basic virtues as believers, particularly dealing with one another. Our judging, our correcting, our advising, anything that we can talk about here when we're talking about with someone else, right? Must have the other person's best spiritual and emotional outcome in mind. In other words, if we're just criticizing or we're picking or we're finding fault in somebody just to do it, that's not for their benefit. That means that it's going to fall under their improper judgment. Even if you're right, it has to be done the right way. In extreme cases, this may require that a person is emotionally crushed before they realize the good outcome. And we have to understand that. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Proper judgment must include love, kindness, and graciousness. But notice, I've already said that proper judgment could have a crushing effect on somebody first, right? Depends on what the issue is. It must be grounded in truth, be impartial, but firm if necessary. Now, that's when we're dealing with other people, right? What we should take away from this is that we always need to check our facts and our heart. Do we know what we need to know in order to make a proper judgment or is my mind or heart right before God? that is consistent with living wisdom, that is consistent with living out the principles of scripture, which then means that what we are deciphering in a given situation is going to be correct. So what can we conclude from this? Just as there is improper judgment there is proper judgment. This type of judgment or discernment is going to help us distinguish between right and wrong as well as good, better, and best. Look at what first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 23 says, all things are lawful for me, might have have a little bit of an echo of our earlier scripture reading, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify or build up. So even though we have a lot of freedom in Christ, the wise discerning person is going to say, wait a minute, what is beneficial and what is going to help build up? That's what I want to focus on. What we need to understand as well is that there is resistance to discernment. There is genuine resistance to discernment. Look at 1 Corinthians 2.14, In other words, someone who has no spiritual life, I'm not talking about having good principles and morals, things like that. I'm talking about the deeper things of the Lord, right? They cannot be spiritually discerning because they're not alive in the spirit. Does that make sense? So because of that, what you might be telling them is absolute ridiculousness to them. Romans 8, 5, and 7. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." Folks, this, and sometimes I have to admit, I don't understand sometimes why Christians get surprised when they take an appropriate, I'll say even a kind and loving stand about something that should be obviously wrong. They take a stand on that and they're surprised that the world doesn't agree with them and that the world is even angry with them. When Jesus himself said, look at how they treated me. Are you going to expect different? Yes, I understand it's a little bit of a paraphrase. You're not going to get different. The carnal, fleshly, worldly mind is against God. When you're representing truth, particularly truth and righteousness in God, in Christ, you're going to get a pushback. So, of course, we should just sit down and shut our mouths, right? Is that what the scriptures are telling us here? No. I want to read for you a quote from Tim Challies. Some of you maybe have heard this gentleman before. I was not aware of this book and I do plan on getting it. but it's from the discipline of spiritual discernment. Because discernment is a good and noble pursuit, it is one that has been opposed on all fronts. Isn't that what noble and good things usually have happen to them, right? It will continue to be opposed by our sinful natures. Hmm, need to keep that one in mind. by satanic forces and by cultural influences. As Christians, we must stand firm against all these forces, trusting in God to equip and sustain us, for while discernment is a difficult calling, it is one with ultimate benefits." I love that. Ultimate, let's just translate that to eternal. their eternal benefits to contending for the truth and contending for the faith. Now, that doesn't mean that we always have to be contentious. And that doesn't mean that we are the world's, you know, judges all the time, right? We're just running around, you know, the shop or the office space, pointing out all the different sins that everybody's doing. That's when we're living our everyday lives, and we are in situations where we need to stand for what is right. So where does this bring us today? Society has put tremendous pressure on Christians to keep our judgmental attitudes to ourselves. Right? The unsaved world in particular bashes Christians with, judge not that you be not judged. It is a blatant misinterpretation and misuse of Christ's teachings. At times, to do nothing is to then in essence join with what they are doing. You are agreeing by default. So let me just remind you of something that I've said on occasion. We are strongly warned against joining in someone's foolishness and we are commanded not to participate in someone else's sin. You know what that's going to take folks? It's going to take judgment. It's going to take discernment. It's going to take making a decision, parsing what's going on and saying, you know what, that's right or that's wrong. That's what it's going to take. And we're going to have to, we don't have to, but you know what I mean when I say this, land on the side of righteousness, on the side of Christ, on the side of his standard, not on the world side. And folks, Romans 12, 1 and 2 tells us that the world is trying to press us into its image. So we have to exercise discernment. Discernment and judgment go together. They're nearly synonymous. Because of this, we're required to make good decisions when dealing with sinfulness. Consider these hard passages, the first one in relation to believers. 2 Thessalonians 3, 6, but we command you, Paul, commanding Thessalonians. By the way, the Thessalonians were known for what? Their love for one another. Brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother. So the assumption is there that they are a believer who walks disorderly and not according to tradition, which he received from us. In other words, if we have an unrepentant brother or sister among us, we're supposed to withdraw from them. When, what? They have just said, this is the lifestyle I'm living. This is what I'm doing. And they're going on in an unrepentant fashion. Obviously, if somewhere along the line, someone says, hey, that's not really where you're supposed to be doing that, right? And they change, or if God does something in their life in some way, devotions or whatever, and we see a change, not only of behavior, but of what they're thinking, Right? Then, of course, we're not going to turn around and attack them. There's no reason to. But we're not supposed to participate and validate their sinfulness. It's wrong, and that's going to take some discernment. Notice we've already couched this in the fact that it can't just be what we think is right and wrong. The standard is God's. And then when we look at Ephesians 5, verse 11, we can think of the world here. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Expose here has actually the idea of convince by both word and action. In other words, by how we're living our lives, by what we say and what we do, We are kind of letting people know what you're doing is not good and is not going in the right direction. It is not going to be beneficial for you. But we're not to have fellowship with what they're doing. Now, I can't get into this, folks. We're running out of time here. There's another part of Corinthians where he says, you know, I wrote to you once and said, you know, separate from those who are sinning. He says, I was talking about those who were in the church, not those outside of the church. So this is talking about not having fellowship with their works. It's not saying that we isolate ourselves from those who are in the world from unbelievers. We insulate ourselves from their sinfulness, but we don't isolate ourselves from them. Big difference. I don't know what you face in school with your friends, in your families, at the office, at the shop, whatever it is. I don't know what you face. I know what I have faced in the past. I know the scripture says that there isn't any temptation that hasn't taken me that hasn't probably taken you. Some type of temptation, right? Lest the eyes pry to life. So if we're all facing the same types of enticements out there, then even though your enticement will be different than mine, we can apply the same scriptural principles and the same exercise of using discernment to say, that's wrong. And even to say, boy, you know what, that's fine, but it's not best. Folks, I don't think we talk about this enough, and that's why I'm talking about it. There's a lot of words there. We went through those exercises to help you understand, boy, God communicates us in a lot of different ways and in different layers, but ultimately it's the same thing. We got to think right. We need to think righteously. As we do that, guess what? We're going to have more and more experience so that we can deal with things better. And let me just say one more quick thing. Some of us might need some help. That's fine. Lean on someone who's more mature than you are. Have a conversation with them. Talk through some things with them. We are in this together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you have given us some important things to consider. Maybe some things that we need to flat out apply now. and maybe some things that we will face in the near future. Regardless of that, Lord, I pray that we will exercise wisdom, that we won't be foolish, and that we'll understand that there really are proper and appropriate and necessary ways that we need to pass judgment, not as some Ultra authority that can't be touched by any of the normal things of the world but humbly understanding that we have been forgiven but we have to agree with you and we have to side with you and we need to decipher our life in a way so that our path is straight and right so that the sail is set in the right direction. We ask all of this in Jesus name, amen.