JUDGING: FIRST DONE AT HOME October 26, 2016

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1 JUDGING: FIRST DONE AT HOME October 26, 2016 Back in August, Pastor Jonathan asked me if I would teach tonight while Pastor Gino is in Israel. First of all, what an honor it is to stand up here behind this podium that I have watched so many great teachers teach from! I questioned Pastor Jonathon's judgment in even thinking of me to teach from here. It was on March 5, 2008, just 8 ½ years ago, that I left this sanctuary after listening to Pastor Gino for the first time. He was teaching from Isaiah 53. I know I left here a different man for sure...but never did I picture myself standing up here teaching. It wasn't something I had even given a thought about when I started my walk with the Lord. But, one of the things we learn is that our plans are usually much different than what God has planned for us! Amen! Quickly He put men like Pastor Manny Hays, Pastor Bob O'Fee and Pastor Sam Park in my life...and of course Pastor Gino. All these men were there to gently push me to places I felt a little uncomfortable in being, and then began giving me more and more responsibilities, both within and outside our church. Manny and Bob first put me up to teach at our Men's Breakfast and then to teach at several of the Men's Retreats. I was also asked to teach at the Centurion Law Enforcement Fellowship meetings by my fellow law enforcement Chaplain M.C. Williams. I kept asking myself, Who am I to be teaching the Bible! Then Pastor Sam started asking me to teach in his absence on Tuesday nights at TRUTH. There I found myself hooked up to a microphone and being recorded when I taught! When I listened to myself afterwards, I heard every little sniffle, smack of my lips and all my uhs, ahs, buts and basicallys and all those other repeated little words that nervous people make. And now, Pastor Jonathon is pushing me even a little bit further. He's not only recording what I say, but now he's got me teaching and streaming live on the Internet. Now you all can not only hear my little quirks and lip smackings...but you can also see them! Now when I take a drink of water and it dribbles onto the front of my shirt...it's live on the world-wide-web! How in the world did I get here?! Well, it has to be because godly men judged me and they kept judging me throughout my last 8 ½ years here at Calvary South Denver. That brings us to our verses tonight in Matthew 7:1-6 from the Sermon on the Mount. I know Pastor Gino taught these same verses back on Sunday, May 15th, 2015, but as Pastor Gino has told me, people only hear about 30% of what the pastor says and maybe even remember even less than that. Many others have taught on these verses as well and I can tell you this, there is much misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misuse of these verses we are going to talk about tonight.

2 Let's read all 6 verses for some context. 1 Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck from your eye; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 6 "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. I saw this picture on Facebook (Slide Judge Not) during the time I was preparing for this. How did the Holy Spirit know this would be so appropriate for my teaching. Judge not!... I don't know how many of you here write notes in your Bible, or underline and highlight verses you want to remember and are important to you. But one thing we shouldn't do is blackout verses we don't understand or that we don't agree with. But, this is the case here. Those first two words are all that many remember from the entire 6 verses we are going to study tonight and the rest of the verses are ignored or found not to be important. How many times have you heard someone say, Don't judge me! And the next thing they loudly proclaim to you is, It says so in the Bible! That is your first clue that they likely have not read the Bible, or at least not looked a few verse ahead or have forgotten what else their pastor said after Judge not. It is more likely they are simply repeating something that someone else has misconstrued and thus has misinformed them about Let's read again what it does say, in its entirety. Judge not, that you be not judged. This is yet another verse, when taken by itself, and not in context with other Scripture, that can be very misleading. I have said many times that people can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say...if you don't take God s Word in its entirety. If we were to read no further than this verse, or as some do, just the first two words, we could come to the conclusion that we are not to judge and then we will not be judged. But as Christians, we should immediately see something very wrong with that sentence. Let's also not forget who spoke these words. It was Jesus Christ by the way! As Christians, we know that we will be judged don't we. In fact, as Christians we will face several judgments both here on earth and in heaven. So even if we choose not to judge anything...we are assured of being judged. And as we read further and put this verse in context with the verses that follow, it should become very apparent that Jesus is not telling us not to judge. It is quite the opposite. He needs and urges us to judge and He will instruct us how to do it properly.

3 Let's look at those first two words Judge not. The word judge has many definitions, but lets look at the Greek word krino to get the definition we need. As Pastor Jon Courson so correctly said, it means to judge to the place of condemnation. So it is better translated to say, Judge not to the place of condemnation! There is a right way and a wrong way that we are to judge. We are to judge, as best as we can, as Jesus judges us. Impossible you say? You are 100% correct in saying that. It is impossible! As imperfect and sinful human beings, we are most certainly prone to errors aren't we? We are born that way and that fallibility will never change. We are sinners being asked to judge other sinners...and do it like Jesus would! Even the best of us are biased and prejudiced in some area of our lives. We subconsciously judge people and situations we find ourselves in. But judging people and making some judgment of our situational awareness can be both helpful and harmful. As a police officer I was trained in profiling, where we learned to spot drug dealers or terrorists or shady characters. It required us to judge people on their appearance, actions and judge the truthfulness in their answers to our questions, etc. Our judgment can help us make the decision to run away when we sense danger or it can lead us to run to help someone else who we judge may be in trouble. Unconsciously we judge hundreds of times in our everyday life don't we? How many of you have gone to purchase a new or used car? How many of you have pre-judged those used car salesmen? Probably already a bit leery of them aren't you...and maybe for good reason! But are you misjudging without all the available information, or are you judging on rumors and past experiences of others and preconceived reputations they seem to have? Have you a pre-conceived bias about used car salesmen? Do you have a fear of the situation you will find yourself in when buying a car? How many of you smell the milk in the refrigerator...judging on whether it is okay to drink or not? Well, before we are to judge others...we must first examine ourselves! In the book titled 'Studies in the Sermon on the Mount' by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, he repeatedly, and I mean repeatedly, stresses the need for us to self-evaluate, to examine ourselves, to judge ourselves if you will. As Jesus will point out in the upcoming verses, we can be no judge of others before we judge ourselves first. You have all heard the old adage that when you point your finger at someone else, there are 3 other fingers pointing back at you. By the way, finger-pointing is likely a form of condemnation and it is not a proper way to confront someone! But did you hear the story about the two men, one who was very quiet and passive and the other who was quite the opposite. The passive man asks the other man, If you were in charge of the world, how would you change it? Without hesitation he turned to the meek man and said I would change everything! The quiet man then said, But where would you start? And with

4 boldness he answered, I would start with you! Spurgeon said this, I really have no time to judge others, as it is my full time occupation to try the traitors within my own bosom. The judging faculty is best employed at home. We have no right whatsoever to judge others before we judge ourselves do we? And like Spurgeon said, that is a full time job! But judge we must Jesus said! In Matthew Chapter 5, Jesus preached to his disciples and the multitudes who followed him up the mount. He taught what is referred to as The Beatitudes. These were the characteristics of what a Christian is to be. I'm not going to go into each and every one, as each is a separate lesson all its own, but a quick review shows we are told to be: Poor in spirit (humble) We are to mourn (our own sins) We are to be meek (powerful but under control) We are to hunger and thirst for righteousness (continuously) We are to be merciful We are to be pure in heart We are called to be peacemakers who share the Word of God We are to understand we will be prosecuted for Christ's sake We are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world I'm here to tell you, when you study those characteristics, you will find they are first of all very convicting and you will likely find them almost virtually impossible to be compliant with...but for one thing. From our faith in Christ, we are given a most precious gift from God aren't we? It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that lives within every believer. Without the wisdom and guidance of the Spirit, we can be none of those things. Even with the Spirit...these are very difficult characteristics to attain and maintain because of our own human nature. But we are born-again and have the help of the Spirit that dwells within each of us. Just being humble is difficult enough and without being humble, none of those other characteristics are even possible, without the help of the Spirit. If we are so proud we don't think we need God's help to be the Christian Jesus Christ said we must be...you better examine yourself! If we are too prideful to think we can do this on our own...we will fail at every level. And while you are sitting there...are you judging yourself with those characteristics...or are you judging someone else as you go over the list. Please...don't judge others against this list before you judge yourself...you will be all the better for it!

5 One last thing before we move on. I started out by talking about how this verse gets thrown back in our faces, by those who don't like it when their sins are put before them. Many of them have never read the Bible, but they can quote, or misquote this verse and respond You are not to judge me! It says so in the Bible! Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, They say there must be no judging whatsoever, that we must be easy, indulgent and tolerant, and allow almost anything for peace and quiet, and especially unity. As Christians today, we are pushed and provoked by those who celebrate their sins right in front of us aren t we. We are mocked because we don't celebrate with them. GotQuestions.org said that In the minds of these people that think this way that 'tolerate' essentially means to 'celebrate' their sinful immoral activities. As you will see, we are to judge, not only ourselves, but others as well. We are to judge others, but not to condemn them for their sins, but with the goal to restore them in a loving and truthful way. That is how God will judge us and that is how we are to judge. That is the same way we should judge ourselves. We have come to recognize our sins and there is no need to condemn ourselves is there? We can judge ourselves as God judges us. Confession and repentance is our goal to restoration. Then there are some Christians who will also use this verse out of context, believing that they are to be judged only by God. Have they read the next verse? Do they believe that if they don't judge people, that other people won't judge them? As we will see, if we don't judge as we are instructed, we open ourselves up to evil. And be sure, as Christians, you are constantly being judged by others both believers and unbelievers! 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. As I mentioned earlier, we are to judge, but we are to do so with godly discernment. In John 7:24 Jesus said we are to Judge not according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Commentator Warren Wiersbe said, Jesus did not forbid us to judge others, for careful discrimination is essential in the Christian life. But before we judge others, we must judge ourselves. Pastor William Barclay gave these reasons why no man should judge another, pointing out some of our obvious human faults: We never know the whole facts or the whole person. No man knows the strength of another man's temptations. The fact is that if we realized what some people have to go through, so far from condemning them, we would be amazed that they have succeeded in being as good as they are. We likely do not know the entire set of circumstances and our task is not to condemn and to judge by only what we can see or know. We wouldn't want others to judge us in the same way

6 It is impossible for any man to be strictly impartial in his judgment. We are easily swayed by our instinctive and unreasoning reactions to people. The Greeks sometimes held trials in the dark so that judges and jurors would not see the man on trial and be influenced by what they saw instead of the facts of the case. It is not in our human nature to be impartial judges. But it was Jesus who gave us the best reason why we are not to judge others. No man is good enough to judge any other man. Another point to remember from Martyn Lloyd-Jones was when he said, It is allimportant to remember that we are walking under the Father's eye. We are undergoing a process of judgment the whole time, because we are being prepared for the final judgment; and as Christian people, we should do all things with that idea uppermost in our minds, remembering that we shall have to render an account. Judging with righteous judgment requires us to walk a tight rope doesn't it? Romans 3:10 "There is none righteous, no, not one; Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,. Just those two verses alone should remind us we probably are not the ones who should be judging anybody...anybody but ourselves! When we become self-righteous, thinking and thanking God we don't have the same issues (sins) that others around us have, it is past time for yet another self-examination. We are to have regular physical checkups with our doctor on a yearly basis, but we should check our spiritual health at least a couple of times each day. First thing in the morning and last thing at night are a good place to start, but any other time we might feel less than humble is another time for a spiritual checkup! But again, Jesus said judge we must! It protects us from attack. God uses it as a way to restrain evil and sin and the effects those things have on us. We must be able to detect and avoid people who are out to deceive us and mislead us. But in order to protect ourselves from those false prophets and from those who come to deceive us, we must know the Christian doctrine before we can correctly judge them as the enemy of the gospel. Galatians 1:8-9 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. John 1:10 goes even a bit further If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; We must be able to recognize those wolves in sheep's clothing who are out to devour us!

7 I recently bought a new car and it came with Sirius satellite radio. I was looking over the huge channel guide, which is broken down into categories. I first looked for Christian programming. Of the hundreds of channels...only three Christian stations were listed. I was surprised that Joel Olsteen's popular radio program was not listed there! As I continued to look at the listings, I found Joel Olsteen listed under the 'Entertainment' programming, along with Real Doctors..Real People and Talk for Truckers. Guess somebody at Sirius Radio had judged him an entertainer, more than a Christian pastor and Bible teacher! I mentioned early on that we are also not to judge to condemnation. Jesus used the Pharisee's throughout His sermon as examples of who we are not to be. Their condemning attitude was prevalent in the Pharisees and the scribes. Remember in Luke 18:11 where the Pharisee walked into the temple to pray and was next to the tax collector and the Pharisee said, God, I thank You that I am not like other menextortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. As Pastor Gino would say, Remember, remember, remember... There is none righteous, no not one! And remember David, when the prophet Nathan came to him about the rich man who owned many sheep, but when someone had come to visit him, the rich man went to his poor neighbors and took his only sheep to slaughter and serve to his guests. David was outraged and judged him to the point that he said, this man shall surely die. Stealing and killing a sheep didn't have the penalty of death, yet with the anger and fingerpointing, David was judging, not with restoration in mind, but condemning the man to death. But, it was Nathan who pointed out the plank in David's eye, when he pointed out that David was a wealthy and rich King, and had many wives and concubines, yet it was David who stole the only wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers, and who David later ordered Uriah to the battle front where he would be killed in battle, all to cover up his adulterous relationship. David, like many of us don't recognize our own sins, but see even the smallest of sins in others! We'll talk about other ways we are not to judge, but let's move on the next verse. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck from your eye; and look, a plank is in your own eye? First of all, I like the translation that uses the words, splinter and plank, which are both made of the same material...wood and both represent sin. We seem to hear something similar to this more and more often; Christians are so judgmental! This type of thinking has slowly leaked into our society and has now permeated the liberal parts of our society. There s a growing number of people who have been indoctrinated into thinking that people should be allowed to do what they want, when they want and

8 with whoever or whatever they want and we are supposed to be tolerant of their sinful behavior and celebrate it! Well, the Bible clearly states we are not to be tolerant of sin and we certainly are not to celebrate it. Spurgeon said, After we judge ourselves...a lack of judgment is wrong. The saints are not to be judges, but equally they are not to be simpletons. We aren't to walk around blind-folded are we? We are not to act like we don't see or know what is going on around us. Our children are being over-fed tolerance through school, television shows and even commercials. They are taught from a very early age what their parents think is wrong, is no longer wrong today. It has begun to permeate our society and even some liberal leaning churches. Today we need even more discernment than before. We need to constantly do self-examinations to maintain the truths of our faith and we need to consistently and righteously judge ourselves, our own children, our churches and our church leaders don't we? Again, Jesus tells us to do self-examination. We can't be blind to our own sins and at the same time judge someone else's. We easily recognize the sins of others...because they are also our own sins! Are our sins so small in comparison to those of our brothers and sisters, that we simply ignore them? I like the example of the blind eye doctor who was doing an exam on a patient who had come in with something in his eye and the blind eye doctor was attempting to remove it. Both of these people had an eye problem, but only one was able to admit it. Pastor Gino has been teaching in 1Timothy and in Chapter 5:17-25 he spoke how Paul was telling Timothy about how church leaders should be. We have all certainly heard and seen where church leaders have failed and fallen from their sin. We have seen them fall in adultery, drugs and alcohol, theft and embezzlement and any number of sins. We have seen them condemned by those both in and out of the church. But we are to judge them, not in condemnation, but with restoration. We likely don't know the entire story of their sin or the power it had over them do we? But we are not to condemn them to final judgment. That simply isn't our job! And speaking of judgment, we are never to judge the salvation of any man! We are not the judge of any man's salvation. Remember we are all walking under the watchful eye of our Father and we don't know all that God knows. We must also recognize that a man's sin, no matter how utterly horrible it may be to us, is forgivable. Someone's addictions do not keep them from being saved. Someone's adultery or immoral sexual activity does not keep them from being saved. Someone who lacks the appearance of having fruit does not keep them from being saved. Our human perception, as I mentioned before, is not what is important. What is important is that they know the love of God, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of God and the Grace of God, and that God sent His Son to die on the cross for all of man's sins. It is not up to us to judge the seriousness of their sins. It isn't necessary for us to point out their sins or to judge them, but we can and should make it known to them the path to salvation is through their faith

9 and that it is possible by God's grace through their faith in Jesus Christ. They need only know that, to be on the road to restoration and not condemnation. If they truly have faith, the Spirit will then lead them to confess and repent and guide them along the way. We can easily misjudge and make a superficial judgment can't we? Have any of you been misjudged by someone who didn't know all the circumstances before someone pronounced judgment on you? Do you know others who have been hurt by people pronouncing judgment based on conclusions made from rumors and gossip or without any personal knowledge? I'm sure we all know someone like that...maybe even have been the victim of such judgment...and may have actually been the one to rush to judgment on someone else. 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Hypocrite! We often hear that term directed at Christians don't we. Maybe on occasion it is with good reason! The Greek word is hypokrites (who-pock-ra-tace) which is defined as: an interpreter; a stage player and a dissembler, a pretender. It commonly refers to someone who is representing themselves as someone they are not and condemning others. In Greek theater, the actors wore masks, or held masks up to their faces, to portray happiness or sadness or other emotions. We all wear masks at times don't we? We all have at one time or another put on a face that didn't really reflect who we were inside or how we were feeling at the time. We are all actors at times...we are all hypocrites at times aren't we! This sort of hypocrisy may not seem too serious, but I've seen it compared to leaven. Nowhere in the Bible do we see leaven illustrating something good. Jesus warned his disciples and the crowds that followed him in Matthew 16:6 Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducess. Strong s Dictionary defines leaven as a metaphor to mean inveterate mental and moral corruption, viewed in its tendency to infect others. Inveterate is defined as a condition unlikely to change. It not only infects us and will spread to other parts of our bodies, but it can spread to others as well. Ancient bread making utilized leaven to make the bread rise. It only took a little leaven to spread throughout the dough...and to illustrate how little it took, there was always a little bit of leavened dough set aside to mix with the next batch of dough to begin the process anew. A little leaven would go a long ways. Just like hypocrisy, it can rise to another level and spread easily and uncontrollably. Wierbse said, Sin is like leaven: It quietly grows, it corrupts, and it 'puffs up'. Wiersbe added that Making the growth of leaven a picture of the spread of the gospel throughout the world would violate the meaning of this important symbol. Leaven would be a more appropriate symbol for the uncontrolled spreading of false doctrine, false gospel and hypocrisy wouldn't it.

10 Jesus once again used the Pharisees as His example. He called them out, so to speak, on their public prayers, their announcements of blowing a horn before they publically gave alms to the poor, and for their open moaning and groaning during their public appearances during their scheduled weekly fasting times. Yep...they scheduled their times to fast and walked around the temple grounds moaning and groaning to show how godly they were! They paraded their charitable giving, their fasting and their praying in a theatrical display to win over the people. They gave their best performances of being godly men, but Jesus quickly pointed out their lack of understanding of the truth of God and their hypocritical actions. There are plenty of examples within the church of hypocrisy. Again we look back at the problem in churches where priests and other church leaders were long involved in homosexual molestations with young boys. How about the pastor who embezzles money from the church, while every Sunday from the pulpit, he urges his parishioners to tithe until it is a sacrifice for them. Or the pastor, who counsels couples about adultery while he is involved in an adulterous affair. Or the pastor who counsels those with drug and alcohol addictions and then gets arrested for DUI. How will they be judged? With restoration or condemnation? For true Christians it should be the first of restoration...but for many others it will be the latter of condemnation! Paul writes about hypocrites in Romans 1:18-19 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,. Romans 2:1-3 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Once again, we see we are always under the watchful and judgmental eye of God. Will our unrighteous and ungodly judgment of others be the way that God ultimately judges us? I don't think so. God's judgment will be done with all the truthful facts before Him and with love. Not from lies, gossip, rumors and preconceived prejudices and biases that we have to struggle with as we judge others. 6 "Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. This is an interesting verse and it is another example of where our judgment is required. How else are we to know who the dogs and swine are, if we don't judge? We have talked in the past about believers and unbelievers but now we are not talking simply

11 about unbelievers, but what Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes as enemies of the gospel. As we walk among everyone, this verse makes it perfectly clear that it isn't necessarily true that we are to treat everyone the same. Remember righteous judgment is not wrong. Unrighteous judgment is wrong and so is lack of judgment after you judge yourself. Remember we are not to walk about blind-folded and ignorant. In today's world, as I said once before, we need an even bigger dose of discernment. We are sheep being hunted by wolves in sheep's clothing. The dogs mentioned by Jesus are not our little domesticated pets of today. The term dog was frequently thrown out as a derogatory name by the Jews towards the Gentiles, who were considered unclean ceremonially. Here, Jesus uses the term they would understand in return. Dogs were hunters and scavengers common to the area. They were not pets who slept on the bed with you. And don't think of the swine in the verse as a cute little pink piggy. Think of it of a wild boar, a vicious animal that will eat anything! The Good Lord gives us many warnings about the evil and bad in the world. Wasn't it the swine that the demons chose to live in? Wasn't it the dog who returned to it's own vomit and the pig who wallowed in the mire? Both are unclean and unholy in Scripture? But we also see in modern times these terms of dogs and pigs still get used in derogatory manner don't they. What does it mean Do not give what is holy to the dogs? Holy is something unearthly, something that is heavenly, something that is separated to God. It is the truth revealed to believers by God! And it adds, nor cast your pearls to the swine. I like what Pastor David Legge said about this part of the verse. He pointed out that it says, nor cast your pearls to the swine. Jesus made it personal didn't He? He was acknowledging a personal and precious gift you have received from God. It is all of your personal experiences and your personal knowledge that God has given you. God is telling us not to waste them and tells us DO NOT FEED the Dogs and Pigs what is holy! William Barclay said, It is often impossible to talk to some people about Jesus Christ. Their insensitiveness, their moral blindness, their intellectual pride, their cynical mockery, the tarnishing film, make them impervious to words about Christ. But it is always possible to show men Christ; and the weakness of the church lies not in Christian arguments, but in lack of Christian lives. Are we to think that not everyone can't be saved? No! But we know that not everyone will be saved. Pastor David Legge said, We are not to endlessly take the gospel to those who continually scorn it. It's done in respect for that which is holy, not in contempt for that which is unholy! So often people are unwilling to listen to you when you speak about Jesus. It may be a little more difficult for them to ignore you and how you live your life. It will do little good to keep talking to them about God, Jesus and the Bible, but they may well see and judge you in how you live your life. And they will judge you! But they will not want

12 to be judged. They will likely take all of your pearls and trample them and tear you into pieces. As Christians, we often feel like we are being judged under a microscope don't we. But we are to expect that. As Christians, Jesus told us that we will be persecuted for righteousness' sake! Another quick point in how we are not to judge. We often see this done to us, but we are not to judge hypercritically. We aren't to put people under a microscope to find every little splinter of sin in their lives! We are not to go out and look under every rock and bush for something to be critical of. Certainly that is not how we want to be judged is it! How common is the hypercritical judgment during this election cycle. Every stone gets turned over...several times, and every wall is looked behind and every door is opened looking for someone's sin. Every word ever recorded is inspected, scrutinized for something to condemn the other candidates with and to point out every fault. Every rumor and bit of gossip and untruths are used in an attempt to condemn! We are not to be like that. We are not to go out fault-finding! To close, let us use these verses to truly examine ourselves and to grow in our faith and receive further holy blessings from God and more pearls by which we can live by. Remember we must judge ourselves before all others. God has given us all many resources to accomplish this in the proper way. Call upon the Spirit to lead you! The next verse tells us to ask, knock and seek. Those are where all our resources are, so that we are able to righteously judge with godly discernment and love. Remember, remember, remember that we are to judge others as closely as to how God judges us. And I can't stress it enough...examine yourselves first! Our best judging is first done at home!