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00:00 to get married. You learn this in the alpha course because I went through the alpha marriage course. It's a great course. They there's a joke they say in
00:06 there after a while in marriage the husband and wife look the same. Today I learned after a while elders look the
00:12 same you know but uh uh I hope not for you Richard you know better looking of
00:17 the two. Peter's not here I can say it. Okay a
00:23 little bit of housekeeping before we we go on. Um
00:28 first on a serious note um this morning we had sister Ming share with us how God
00:35 healed her uh in response to prayer. We had uh sister Allison uh those of you
00:41 who know her she had has this disease for years is it's a terrible disease takes off her eyesight slowly
00:47 degenerates it. uh not only she is ill, her family is ill, those of us who know
00:53 her for many years, how prayer sustains uh those of us who brother Mo is very
00:59 close to me, you know, and I know his uh issues he has struggled with.
01:05 There is a prophetic word I'd like to to share with you this morning and it's regarding the the centrality of prayer.
01:12 The centrality of prayer in the church at home and the centrality of
01:19 prayer during this service it is important it is it is the backbone the
01:25 backbone of this morning service is not the sermon or thing is the prayer now why am I saying that because at the end
01:32 of this morning service we're going to do something we have not done for a long time it's the term outer is called an
01:38 outer call people hear that they go oh going charismatic But I I I I like you to have an open
01:44 mind. It is simply a call to prayer. Nothing more. If we believe in the power
01:49 of prayer, we want to encourage you at the end of the message. Whatever you you're going through, uh whether you're
01:56 ill, you have some emotional issues. Even if you're not a Christian, we will have a team in front here, we want you
02:02 to come and receive prayer. This is a very biblical culture. In the early church, the book of James tells us they
02:09 did it all the time. In fact, you read the book of Acts, you read James, it is
02:15 part of the church culture that that culture has disappeared from us and we want to reclaim that biblical culture.
02:21 So, let me just say very simply, it is a call to prayer. So, the end of this message when the worshippers come up
02:27 there, our psalmist come and pray and you feel the god, the lord prompting you, do come in front to receive prayer.
02:34 Uh god can do wondrous things in your life. That's uh housekeeping number one.
02:40 Housekeeping number two has got to do with the book of Romans and me and Peter have been doing a slight audit of it.
02:45 Now the book of Romans has one problem. It is a book very heavy with jargon. So
02:52 to go through it is difficult. Why? Because it uses big words. Righteousness
02:57 of God, justification by faith, imputed
03:03 righteousness. I remember the first time I heard it, what is imputed? you know then people say oh righteousness reckon
03:09 to you still don't understand so there's a lot of jargon so it is difficult to understand the book of Romans so I I
03:16 want to encourage one thing uh if if you're not careful the messages will fly right past you because this is Paul's
03:23 most famous work and the first eight chapters are critical so I like to just do a little bit encouraging if you have
03:30 time go back and read the first four chapters because they flow you will You
03:35 don't understand them unless you read them continuously because the key chapter is chapter three
03:41 where he introduces the idea of atonement or propitiation as we call it and the idea of justification by faith
03:48 and how that righteousness is imputed to you. These are big words. So you need to go back and do some homework. Either
03:54 that you'll be like that guy you know you fall asleep because uh the book of
03:60 Romans is very heavy in Christian jargon. So I like to encourage you all to do that. Yeah. Uh the other thing I
04:06 want to pick up the book of Romans, the first few chapters, the language is very judicial. Justification is a legal
04:14 language. And this morning we're going to look a little bit of that concerning judgment, God's righteous judgment. So
04:21 let's come before God in prayer. Yeah. God, we Lord, we thank you for your
04:27 grace this morning. We thank you that you are here in our midst. And Lord,
04:33 sometimes we say it in our heads, but in our hearts and in our souls, we do not
04:39 believe you are here. So open us this morning, right now, we ask that you just
04:45 remove any barriers in our hearts to receive your presence, to receive the
04:51 anointing of the spirit. And Lord, we ask even as the message is spoken, it
04:56 will be spoken central to the gospel. Not to the left, not to the right, but
05:02 central to the gospel. For it is the gospel that saves. And oh Lord, in the next uh half an hour or so as I speak,
05:09 remove any sense of self glory. Keep me humble, keep me true to the word, and
05:15 keep me truly teachable. and Lord for the congregation may they have attentive ears may not hear hear users but also
05:23 doers of the word and we say this in Jesus name amen okay let's start off with some nice non-confrontational
05:30 images to get you going okay this is a man called Ellis Cooper okay uh most of
05:38 you will not know him okay he's the godfather of a certain type of music that inspired people like Marilyn Manson
05:45 Slipnot and 9-inch Nails You don't know any of those bands? Never mind. Okay, you haven't missed anything. Okay, but
05:51 in the kind of music where they dress up like this, he uses a python for his
05:58 shows and he has one show called Welcome to My Nightmare. He also has a skeleton and a straight jacket, you know. Now,
06:06 when the average church goer sees this person, what's your first impression?
06:11 I think the average church goer when he sees an image like that he'll say devil
06:17 worshipper probably sacrifices dogs and puppies and drinks
06:23 their blood you know evil immoral probably a drug addict good enough for
06:30 heaven no somewhere like that send him the other way what a horrible demonicl
06:36 looking man this is but at least Cooper of off his makeup looks like this. He
06:44 looks like someone's grand like uncle. You know, he doesn't drink the blood of puppies. In fact, he's an animal lover.
06:52 He's also a very good cook. He cooks very good Christmas pudding. And he
06:57 writes books on golf. He plays with Tiger Woods. In fact, he's extremely good golfer.
07:04 He's a family man with children. And if I didn't show you this picture, I just show you this.
07:11 It's very quick. We judge and condemn ah sinner. We look at this first. We tone
07:19 down. But more so what lot of people may not realize is that Alice Cooper is a
07:25 Christian. He's not only a Christian, he's a Bible study teacher. Can you imagine? Can you imagine turning
07:31 off your Bible study looking like that? Today we're going to talk about hell.
07:37 You know his father was a pastor and if you hear his interviews is very clear on
07:43 the gospel. Now I'm not saying we agree with what he does on stage but today we
07:50 look at a topic which I think very relevant to all of us. It is our
07:56 tendency to judge others. And here's one simple uh uh observation.
08:05 Whenever you and I judge someone next to next to us, your neighbor or someone you see, we would justify that judgment.
08:14 But if someone else judges us and we hear it, we'll always like to say they misjudge us. Am I not right? You think
08:20 about that for a while. So today's text which brother Robert read to us has two
08:26 sections. The first is about how we judge other people. is a very critical text and Jesus picks this up in Matthew
08:34 7. James picks this up in chapter 2. Tremendous text and what happens that is
08:41 linked to a more important point in the flow of Romans is about judgment from God. Remember we are in legal language.
08:48 Yeah. So let me just break the text down for us. The first section which runs
08:54 from verses 1 to 4 talks about a group that judges another group. You therefore
09:02 is a hypothetical group. From there Paul leads us about how God
09:08 will judge everybody and the rest of the chapter deals with Jews and Gentiles.
09:14 Let me just briefly give you the flow. uh chapter 1 and two God deals with
09:21 humankind all sorts of society the really immoral the pious he concludes in
09:28 chapter three that all are sinners this leads him to a profound truth that you
09:35 are not saved by your own works you are saved because of the atonement because
09:41 of what Jesus did on the cross and then he proceeds to give an example using
09:46 Abraham And it's a very profound truth which Martin Luther uh uh really really used
09:52 to bring forth the reformation uh the notion of justification by faith. And
09:58 brother David Adams brought us last week that righteousness is not yours. You're never right enough for God. Your good
10:04 works are never good enough. That righteousness must be reckoned to you.
10:09 And that's the word imputed. It must be put into you. And then later on after
10:15 chapter 4 chapter 5 to8 deals with another topic called sanctification.
10:20 Like I said Romans has a lot of jargon. Yeah. But here's the application we're going to look at this morning. The first
10:27 is how me and you judge other people. Now by that
10:34 inevitably you will see how you judge yourself. you you don't realize it but the way you
10:40 judge other people will reflect how you see yourself you know and then the third
10:47 one this is again all implied how you judge others also will throw
10:53 back how others will judge you and the key what Paul is leading to is how God
11:00 judges us now let me give you a bit of a background on Romans chapter one yeah
11:06 okay and because Peter went to Milan either that he had done it uh today.
11:13 If you haven't really read chapter one, let me just pick up a few verses to give us context. Okay? And look at chapter 1
11:21 uh 21. Let's pick up just a few verses to give us a sense of context.
11:27 Chapter 1 verse 21 says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God not gave thanks to him. But
11:35 their thinkings became futile and the foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became
11:40 fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and birds and animals
11:47 and reptiles. So Paul is talking about idolatry and Peter is going to expand on this next week. Verse 24, chapter one.
11:54 Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of the hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their
12:00 bodies in one another. Now then the rest of the chapter describes a lot of sin. Uh last few verses from verses 29 to 32
12:09 there's a whole smogus board of it. They become filled with every kind of wickedness. Evil, greed, depravity,
12:15 envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, the list goes on and on and on and on. Now how how do we try to appreciate
12:21 this? Uh the way to appreciate is this. You know you see I want to get you into a prayer mood. The problem with Baptist
12:27 Baptist are very emotionless. you know very emotionless
12:33 if you had some of our friends from Ghana here I think they all now in the second service we have prince a few here
12:39 okay prince in the househ okay I think but you see our African friends are much more open with emotions and and there's
12:46 a place for emotions in the church now you try to imagine yourself you're in an afroamerican church okay and I am a
12:52 black preacher okay and the way the sermon will go will be like that out there out There there are the sinners.
13:00 And then the congregation will go, "Yeah, hallelujah. Out there they are the fornicators. Hallelujah." You say,
13:07 "Oh, there they are the adulterers." And you say, "Hallelujah. Out there they are the homosexuals and the perverse.
13:14 Hallelujah. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Out there are the sinners." And then this
13:19 black preacher will turn around and in. And then you'll sit and go, "Uh, yes.
13:26 Bring it on." Yes, you you you imagine the preacher will say yes in here or the moery
13:32 upright, you know. So you wait for it and this black preacher said in here are
13:38 sinners too. And then you so go, "Oh, whoa, whoa,
13:43 whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Preacher. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You got it wrong. You got it wrong. We are PG-13.
13:52 We are family people. We don't do all these kind of bad things. We are pious.
13:59 We are pious. We are pious. Just like the Pharisee.
14:05 That is the point Paul is trying to break up. He says, "You therefore have
14:12 no excuse. You who pass judgment on someone else, forever point you judge
14:19 the other, you are condemning yourself because you who pass judgment
14:26 do the same things. Now there are two parts to Roman society. The first is a
14:34 partygoing society. The Romans invented all the immorality you can think of. But
14:40 the Romans were also a very upright society. Aristotal Plateau, you had here
14:47 these are called Stoic uh uh philosophers. Synica was the teacher to
14:52 Nero. But what all these people did was like the Pharisees. It's not like they
14:58 were not sinners. They hid their sins. And there is two types of sin we want to
15:04 pick up. Okay? the hidden sins and selective sins. And Paul brings up a
15:11 certain human condition that people in church in generally are susceptible to.
15:18 And it is this. Being judgmental leads us to magnify the sins of others and to
15:26 minimize our own sins. And in a very famous text in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus
15:33 says, "Why do you look at a speck of sawdust in your brother's eye? Pay no
15:39 attention to the plank in your own eye." And in comparison is deliberate.
15:45 Now, how do we give this some context?
15:50 Imagine tomorrow you go back to work. And you all have to go back to work. So only imagine, huh?
15:56 You all go back to work. Let's just say you got a project you know and you've been preparing for that presentation
16:03 this this presentation if the board gives it through your career is going to
16:08 fly you know you did the cash flow you did the projection you did your research
16:13 you did your charts you did your return on investment you worked out the banking facilities you you talked about the
16:20 branding the positioning the market catchment the whole thing and you go before a board finally you had your time
16:27 and Then the B say okay 15 minutes okay an go then you present or present then
16:32 there this fellow there let's just say call him Ravi okay this fellow in there at the meeting every time you say
16:39 something he say oh I think your cash flow is wrong hey I think you haven't
16:44 talked to A and P nobody will buy this product hey I think tech support you didn't put this in I think your
16:50 engineering bits is not right after a while you really want to go and whack this guy you know sounds familiar righth
16:57 Sounds familiar. Now this this blows and it blows and it goes to a poom one day
17:04 in office. So your friends ask you what's with you and Rabbi. So you say
17:09 this fellow this fellow always putting me down. This fellow always trying to
17:14 show he's very smart and because he does this I react. No choice. He always
17:20 trying to taro me, you know, always trying to make me look bad. So I react. Understandable, right? because he's
17:26 always tearing me down. That's your version. You go and talk to Ravi, you
17:32 know Ravi will say, "Hey, this other very sensitive, you know, say a little
17:37 bit also cannot take. I'm just trying to be constructive. Of course," and then he's so defensive.
17:44 Of course, I react. Have you noticed? Isn't it common to all of us? What do we do? The other guy's
17:52 wrongdoing is amplified. yours is minimized.
17:58 So we have a tendency to do that all the time. You get a bunch of guys talking, you know, they say, "Ah yeah, this
18:04 government very the corrupted one, you know, we vote them out." This is neutral, hypothetical.
18:11 I'm not suggesting you do that. Hear my rest of my story before you judge me.
18:17 They'll say, "Oh, government corrupt. Don't do this. MCC buildings better be one story so people fall down, won't
18:24 die. All those bad jokes. Then they go back. The accountant say, "Boss, your form
18:30 must go in. Hey, count him a little bit. We can move these funds there. We can do
18:36 a bit of creative accounting." But boss, this against the law. Never mind. They won't catch one. They will come and
18:42 check accounting the guy. Hypocrisy. Am I not right? We do this again and
18:48 again and again. We cannot see our sins but we can see the sins of others. And
18:55 there's the other thing about especially pious people you know when you tell them their sins there is a defense mechanism
19:02 you know if someone points out your sins you know what you like to say you know the sentence what about you
19:09 what about you we throw it back and Paul is bringing this up chapter one is like
19:15 this chapter one is about people who sin and they don't care when they look at a
19:20 girl lastly they look like
19:25 Chapter two. When you look at a girl, they look like that.
19:34 Go because they don't want anyone to see. So Paul talks about hidden sins and
19:42 other sins. And Pastor Rama sent me this. Where's Pastor Rama? I tell it was great. You should receive his SMS. You
19:47 know, he's got some great SMSs. He said, "Christians get very angry towards other
19:53 Christians who sin differently than they do. I understand God's patience with the
19:58 wicked, but I do wonder how he can be so patient with the pious is a great
20:04 statement." Now, this is how you should not use the book of Romans. You know what the tragedy of this
20:10 picture? The guy that has a sign that says no tears or quesoms
20:16 2 4-11. He's using my text absolutely saying nothing about it.
20:23 They're all using the book of Romans. What are they using the book of Romans to? They're using the book of Romans to
20:29 selectively saying homosexuality is an evil sin and God's going to let them
20:35 burn in hell. Now, besides the fact that yes, homosexuality is a sin, this is
20:41 very selective, isn't it? Now, you you you take the Bible and turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. Just flip it down,
20:49 okay? And we look at verse 5.
20:54 Chapter 3:5. And if you can't turn to it, just hear this out. And this is what Paul says. He
20:60 says, "Put to death. Therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual
21:05 immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires." Now, at this point, all this guy says, "Yes, amen. Amen. Burn them
21:12 all in hell. Burn them all in hell." And then Paul says, "And greed," which is
21:18 idolatry. When were the last time you seen someone put up a signboard, no
21:24 tears for greedy people? God hates greedy people. God gave greedy
21:30 people up. Why not? Why selective?
21:36 Because the moment we say this, everyone of us here are probably in that
21:43 same boat. So we pick certain sins we like to push,
21:48 others we don't. You know why? Those sins we don't have a problem with.
21:53 And I want to say this in love. If you are sitting here and you are struggling with homosexuality,
21:59 welcome to FBC because I struggle with greed. So we on the same boat. If I
22:06 don't struggle greed, I struggle with jealousy. If I don't struggle with jealousy, I struggle with hated. If I don't struggle
22:13 hated, I struggle with lying. We are all on the same boat. We should not pick certain sins and make them feel like a
22:19 paria. And this is what Paul is trying to pick up here. You see,
22:27 when you point a finger at that person and the word judgmental, the the center of it is this. you know me
22:36 and this is something we're going to pick some time to look at today. Paul is saying you don't bother about the other guy. You stop this morning here in this
22:44 hall. You stop this morning and you ask yourself how good are you? You think
22:49 you're good. You stop and you pause. There's a book out there by a man called
22:54 David Kinnman. He's famous for the Barana group research. The Ber group is a very wellrespected research group and
23:01 he is a Christian. Now in a study he did in 207 this is what non-Christians think
23:07 of Christians. You know they are judgmental and hypocritical.
23:12 Look at the percentage 87% judgmental. Hypocritical 85. Not much difference.
23:18 Now of course you in the church you say yeah of course m non-Christians always insult us. you know non-Christians, you
23:24 know, we are the righteous, so we are insulted. But what David did was he did
23:30 a survey with Christians. And you know what the statistics are for Christians? 52%.
23:36 You know what I mean? It means one in every two churchgoer thinks the Christian is a hypocrite at all. That's
23:42 quite telling. I mean, and judgmental. Now look at the end of Romans chapter 2.
23:48 Okay, look at verse 24. This is what God says about the Pharisees.
23:54 Romans 2:4, "As it is written, God's name is blasphemed
24:02 among the Gentiles because of you." This morning as churchgoers, we ask
24:07 ourselves, is God's name blasphemed because
24:13 we are hypocritical? We cannot admit and we're blind to our sin. And number two, to get past that,
24:21 we point at other people. You see, being judgmental leads us not
24:27 to righteousness, but to self-righteousness. And the context of Romans 2 is the Jews saw themselves as
24:34 better than everyone else. And churchgoers can have that tendency.
24:40 We think because we serve in church, we come to church, we do certain activities, we are more righteous. And
24:47 I'll tell you this, non-Christians can see, you know, and they will never fail to remember that kind of hypocrisy and
24:55 that judgmentalism. In a very famous story in Luke, in this uh parable, two
25:02 men went to pray. One man said, "Look at me, God. I'm such a righteous man. I put money, I tithe, I
25:10 do this, I do that." He was so full of self-righteousness. He looked at his
25:16 good deeds. He looked at all his good works and then he turned around and he
25:22 did what chapter 2 did. He judged another man who was a tax collector. And
25:29 tax collectors were known to be very corrupt. Tax collectors were people who took money from people. He says, "I
25:36 thank God I'm not like that man." He judged the other person. And what did the tax collector do? He wouldn't even
25:43 come to the temple. So he stood at a distance and he said, "Lord, have mercy on me." And the parable tells us God
25:52 Jesus said he was a tax collector who was pleasing in God's sight. He was
25:58 a tax collector who went home redeemed. Now we all know that story. It's very
26:04 famous. But we can translate that today.
26:09 Two men went to FBC. One man sat at the back so that he can
26:15 run away so nobody see him and another one sat in front
26:20 row next to the big boys. Dr. Richard,
26:27 you're never going to live this out. And this man said, "Look at me. I'm a
26:34 preacher. Lay preacher better than all the pastors.
26:39 Look at me. I lead Bible study. Look at me. I can do outer call. No one
26:44 else can do. Not referring to anyone, of course.
26:50 Then turn around to the back. Thank God I'm not like that sinner sitting at the back.
26:57 Think about it. We all suffer from this. Until you recognize your spiritual
27:04 bankruptcy, you will replace the righteousness of God with self-righteousness.
27:12 You will replace the sanctifying work of the spirit with being sanctimonious. And
27:19 I I will tell you something about this. It is very subtle. Let me tell you something I'm proud of. And I want to
27:26 confess something. I I I'm an architect. I'm very proud of the fact that I don't
27:31 give and take bribes. Now it started off as a biblical understanding. It went to the point where I actually took pride in it and
27:39 subly I started to judge people on that. So whenever I'm with other consultants
27:44 and other people there and they start talking about it, there's this thing that kicks into me. Ah see sinner
27:51 I'm telling you you know. So one day uh I had a project with another Christian
27:56 and uh and he did certain things which I didn't write and this thing kicked in you know so I sent him a very
28:02 self-righteous SMS I'm very good at that very long oh this is wrong unbiblical all of that oh very felt very proud of
28:07 that being here from him after just send me one SMS only one line what about you
28:17 that's all you know I tell you I I I had to stop you know and repent you know so
28:24 after a while gravel text him back say okay I'm a sinner I apologize he also text him back we try to reconcile
28:29 because we're both Christians but but let me just suggest something our pride comes in the cross not in ourselves the
28:36 danger of people who are involved in church and do more it will eat into you if if I do a lot of social work after a
28:43 while I think wow see look at me I visit Ansana flats I do all the drug thing I'm better than you I do Bible study I know
28:51 more than I'm better than you So it is very subtle and the Pharisees just went
28:56 right into it. And what it does then is that judgmentalism leads you to amplifying other people's
29:03 sin. It leads you to self-righteousness and in the end it leads you to not seeing the truth. Now look at what the
29:10 text is saying. We're going to unpack the verses one by one. Look at verse two of Romans 2. He says, "Now we know that
29:17 God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth." What is Paul
29:22 implying? Paul is saying God is judging it on truth. What are you doing? You are
29:28 doing it based on lies. So when you a mere man pass judgment on them and yet
29:33 do the same things. Do you think you will escape God's judgment?
29:39 Now Paul is talking about being blinded to biblical truth. Now I want to take a
29:45 few minutes to explain the point. I show you a picture of Alis Cooper. No matter what I say, some people will say jit,
29:51 you know. Now what the temptation is to take what you don't like and read it into scripture. Instead of letting
29:58 scripture read what you like or don't like, you know, let me give you a classic example.
30:05 Now smoking, this is this is big. If after church I go out there and I
30:11 light the cigarette. Yeah. Come come come I pray over you next week get kicked out of church ready. I mean right
30:18 I think rightfully so. I mean if let's just say that the board of elders say let's come for management meeting
30:25 I think uh boy brigade you know I I think I have problems with Dr. Richard
30:31 you know but but but but putting aside the fact that smoking has a lot of social issues I don't smoke so I can say
30:38 this and I I I don't like smoking and I I I I I admit I have issues with smoking. I I will also confess to you as
30:45 a younger man I was a social smoker. I'll come clean. Okay. But the point is, is smoking itself a sin? And we're
30:53 literally talking about being judgmental because here's my concern. There are people here who struggle with smoking.
30:60 Why am I bringing this up? Because what if you caught him at home, you know, and he was lighting up, you know, you smoke
31:08 going to hell, you know. I be here. Let's unpack this about
31:14 biblical truth. Let's take a few minutes. You see the key text people like to use is 1 Corinthians 6:19 to20
31:20 where he talks about you cannot sin against your body because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now first
31:28 the verse is totally out of context because Paul is talking about sexual immorality
31:33 so you can't use it. But people then say, "Oh no, but smoking is bad for your health." Or so is bakut.
31:43 Correct. All of you sinners, you know.
31:48 So is bakut trans fatty acids in there. Why don't next week globe cafe doctor
31:56 pastor Richard ban all this one tan meat? All we only going to take organic food. I think we empty the church after
32:03 that. Then people say, "Oh, well, smoking is bondage." Well, so is drinking coffee.
32:10 So all coffee drinkers going to hell. You see, it's true. Smoking is not
32:17 something you would encourage people to do. But it is another thing when you
32:22 think and judge a person by that. Why am I spending some time on this? Because I know there are people who struggle with
32:29 smoking and they're in our church. I met one brother something out there and he had a packet in his here and then I
32:35 think afterward he saw looking at him then he started to do this don't lie brother okay like Salem I
32:41 don't know why you buy Salem but your choice but you know we don't want people to do that and we don't want people to
32:47 go back and and if you know I I I I love the Lord I I I I need to take two packs
32:53 I love the Lord I need to take a cigarette Lord then you go into the room lock the door then you smoke so no one sees you then you say oh Lord I'm doing
32:59 it in private I'm I'm a hypocrite. We don't want that to happen. Okay, let me tell you about smoking. Smoking is
33:05 cultural in Ace. Riding your motorbike like that is a sin.
33:10 You know, it's a sin. You cannot straddle your motorbike which is ridiculous. It is a cultural imposition.
33:17 So to Ache, the mayor has a certain definition of sin. What am I trying to
33:23 say? I think the evangelical church has picked up smoking as a cultural issue.
33:28 So to be righteous, you cannot smoke. Which is ridiculous. What's more
33:33 important? A guy puffs up or a guy is a liar. A guy puffs up or a guy has
33:39 jealousy, strife. This is where we tend to judge like the Pharisees from the external and not in the eternal
33:47 internal. Let me just end with this. Long time ago,
33:53 your Bible study heroes, your church heroes were smokers. Charles Peran not
33:59 only smoked, he never repented of it. He loved to smoke. CS Lewis smoked. Chuck
34:05 Carlson, which is foremost on prison ministry, smoked. Do you know that Billy
34:11 Graham smoked? He gave up in his later years. And here are some quotes for you to take
34:17 home. What am I trying to say? The point is we can start to move to judge people
34:22 on all sorts of levels. Whether it's a smoker, whether it's the
34:27 way you dress, whether you come from this, whether you come from Africa, whether you come from so and so. If I
34:35 take the argument just now about me and Ravi, if the argument goes bad, you know what I'll say? Yeah, this Ravi like all
34:42 Indians only know how to talk. Correct or not? Sorry if you're Indian here and
34:49 Ravi will say like any China man only no numbers only
34:55 only look at profit no understanding quality you know Chinese only thing about that you see we'll move into that
35:01 now why is that important why is that critical because this church is a church of many colors just look at your pastors
35:09 we have one indigenous moi we have Indian pastor Rama josha Chinese we we
35:15 have many races here many cultures. We have people from North Carolina. We
35:20 forgive them for that. Although they come from there, you know, Zach's from Pennsylvania, we forgive him for that
35:26 also. Okay. We have Mika from Italy. We forgive you for being Italian. Okay. We
35:31 have Fedrico and Gloria from Filipinos. We forgive you. We've even the king of Sulu will forgive you. Okay.
35:39 In this church, it is very easy to go into a default move and to really have a
35:46 go at all our cultures to our African friends to our so and so. We need to move past that. Either that it leads to
35:54 a very dangerous path because when you're blind to the truth, you think you have nothing to repent. And that's what
36:00 Paul is trying to drive at. Verse four. Do you show contempt for the riches of
36:05 his kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads
36:10 you towards repentance? You see, this is how judgmentalism starts. It starts with a critical
36:17 spirit. It then moves. You know, you're judgmental. You can't see your sin. You discriminate race people. You condemn.
36:25 You get self-righteous. I throw a dart. Everyone in this hall will fit into one
36:31 of them. That is Paul's point. You throw a dart,
36:36 everyone fits into this. The context of this chapter is that the Jews thought
36:42 they were righteous because they had the law and they did some work in the temple. And Paul is turning them around
36:49 to say, "No, all of you are sinners. There is no difference. All have sinned
36:55 and fallen short of the glory of God." That is Paul's point. He takes chapter
37:01 one and chapter two to make one main point. And here's what we're trying to say. If you are here in this hall,
37:07 whether you're a Christian or you're not a Christian, the most dangerous default
37:12 position is to say, I'm good enough for heaven. You see, every religion teaches that. You know what every religion
37:18 teaches? It says, you know, God will judge me by my good deeds. And they will
37:23 then say whether you're a Hindu or Buddhist or Christian or Muslim, every religion teaches you to do good. So when
37:30 I get to heaven, God will look at our good deeds. You know why people say that? Because when they say that, they
37:37 are saying, "I'm good enough for heaven." That is the point.
37:42 You don't see a rapist saying that. You don't see a killer saying that. A
37:47 killer beg for mercy. the average guy here and if you're not a Christian, that's what the devil puts in your mind.
37:54 I'm good enough for heaven. When I get up there, God will look at my good deeds and my bad deeds. And God says, "Your
38:00 good deeds are enough. You go to heaven." And friends, that's a lie of the devil. You cannot be saved by your
38:08 good deeds. How do we go past judgment judgmentalism?
38:13 Let us take a few minutes to wrap up on this. Now when you look at a cross have you noticed something
38:21 when you at the feet of the cross it is leveled you know so whether you're a dat
38:28 or tanser or a poor man or you got a lot of sin or not much sin or whatever it is
38:34 when you stand and look at the cross the ground is level what is that point
38:40 saying the cross reminds us we are all sinners that is Paul's point and one other
38:47 famous story on judgmentalism in John chapter 8 is the woman caught in adultery we all know that story and
38:53 what's so famous about story is because of what Jesus says he who is without sin
38:59 cast the first stone and friends this morning God is asking
39:04 you to take a good hard look at yourself there are sins you are doing no one
39:10 knows but God knows there are sins you are depreciating hating and magnifying
39:16 others. God is saying, "Please bring that up. There are sins you're trying to say, look, my God, my goodness is going to
39:22 cover it." God says, "No, you're a sinner. Before the cross, we are all
39:27 sinners." And when we realize we all sinners, we take a less judgmental stand
39:33 when we throw stones at other people. That's why Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him
39:38 we have redemption through his blood." The forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Look at
39:45 that. The forgiveness of sins comes in what? The richness of God's grace. And
39:50 this morning, God's grace is here. If you're not a Christian, this morning,
39:56 God is calling you to receive forgiveness of sins through the finished work of the cross.
40:03 The other thing is this. The cross teaches you humility when you're judging others. As remember how Christ humbled
40:09 himself to the point of death. You know when you judge someone is not sometimes
40:14 so much what you say is how you say it. You know correct or not. And some don't
40:20 see you know don't say right you catch a guy smoking is just the way you look. Correct. People see it. No. You know
40:28 what we call it? We call it top down. You're looking at a guy like that. So the guy reacts. You see, who are you,
40:34 man? Self-righteous. The cross takes you to bring you down. Why? Because the cross is where Jesus
40:42 suffered humiliation. Now there's a flip side to this. As much as you judge, you
40:50 are being judged. And you know, Chinese are very sensitive to being judgment, you know. But here's what the cross
40:57 teaches you. Whenever you feel you've been misjudged or people say things about you and they hurt and and and and
41:05 you you you walk around you say it's not fair. This is what they say about me. It's not right. Remember how Jesus
41:11 suffered on the cross. The accusations and the mockery. And remember that is
41:16 the cross you and I carry. And the cross entails us to ask for
41:21 forgiveness we have judged others wrongly. And this was something that really made me ponder because I asked
41:28 myself a question. When was the last time I apologized sincerely for judging
41:33 someone wrongly? Seriously, when was the last time you and I did it?
41:39 Cannot think. You know why? Because to Chinese, this is what an apology is.
41:45 There two words not found in a Chinese vocabulary. The first is I am sorry.
41:51 So what what do you say? I'm so I'm
41:58 I'm sorry. Sorry. Ah, sorry. Sorry for what?
42:04 I was wrong. What? What? What? What's it again? I I was I
42:10 Chinese don't apologize. I can judge my own culture.
42:16 Why? Because to Chinese very important faith,
42:25 you see the root of sin is this word. You know the root of sin is pride.
42:32 The root of sin is pride. And everyone of us here suffer from that.
42:39 Looking at the cross, we move to the resurrection. The resurrection reminds us to build up the other party you have
42:45 judged. Some people feel they're caught to the ministry of criticizing. After all, FBC stands for first and best and
42:51 criticizing. So that's our job. We go and criticize you. That's my ministry to tell you
42:58 you're wrong. So ask yourself before you tell a guy is wrong, how many times have
43:04 you encouraged him? If I go up to Dr. Richard, you know, and every day I tar
43:09 him, you know, he will after see me, he'll turn the other way. If every day I love him, this doctor, this pastor, this
43:15 you know and occasionally, hey, you know, Dr. Richard, you know, I I think you are d it's easier to take. Why?
43:23 Because the resurrection reminds you Christ freed himself from the bondage and he is sanctifying us. He is
43:30 victorious from the grave. There is a place however to judge and the cross the
43:37 re the resurrection reminds us Titus tells us that you warn a divisive person sometimes he listens to you sometime he
43:45 doesn't now here's the point the point is it doesn't mean don't judge it is biblical to judge to judge in love
43:53 sometimes people listen sometimes people don't just now we just remembered by the cross sometimes people will take it well
43:60 sometimes people won't but you cannot say I won't judge let God deal with him. That's not showing love. So sometimes
44:07 for me you know when people tell me certain things about myself I don't like. You know my wife used to tell me you know you talk too fast. I said no
44:14 people listen too slow. I serious
44:20 you know you know you your your natural defense mechanism kicks in. No no no no no no. But nowadays I ponder anything I
44:26 hear I ponder. I go back I pray. I say Lord is there is there a kernel of truth in it? So here's something God is
44:31 teaching us. We must be a culture more receptive to taking criticism
44:37 because that shows you that you understand and you've internalized the resurrection and the cross. And here the
44:45 last thing the resurrection reminds us we all works in progress in our spiritual life. I want to end shortly
44:52 with this note. I I I had to talk to a missionary last year and he talked about Malaysian churches and he passed a
44:58 judgment. I still remember this. He said, you know, Malays uh the Malaysian church doesn't dare lay down his life
45:05 for Jesus. Wow. Say, how do you say that? Because he doesn't dare preach the
45:11 gospel to certain people. I'm speaking in certain coded language now.
45:18 Well, I said, well, the law says this, I think we do that. No, no, no, no. You local church people too soft. You dare
45:24 not die for Jesus. Of course, my defense mechanism jumps. You see, I say, "How about you?
45:31 The moment you get deported, you see you go and one of your one of your team diver then I talk to you." You know, you
45:38 get into a fight, you see. Next time I saw him, I I found him very judgmental. I mean, next I saw him. So, let me let
45:45 me show some grace here. Let me show I want to say this. Here's the point. Scripture says
45:51 you should actually die for Jesus. That's very clear. We should take a bullet for Jesus. we should take prison for Jesus. But here's the point. You
45:59 can't force a guy to do that. If someone asked me, you know, um, would
46:05 you die for Jesus? I can say yes, but my whole life I have not suffered. I'm not
46:11 like David Adams. What right have I got to say it? I can say I will pray for it,
46:17 but brother, show me grace while I work towards that. So, what I'm trying to say is this. We are all works in progress.
46:24 It's very easy to throw a stone at each other. We're all working towards our righteousness. We must aim towards that
46:32 final goal. In the meantime, what God wants, God, it has to come naturally. He
46:38 has to come with the spirit. So, let us learn not to be so quick to judge one another. When we look at the
46:43 resurrection and we look at the cross, we're coming up to Easter. What we looking at? We are looking at the
46:50 gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for the salvation
46:56 of everyone who believe. This what pastor David Adams brought us. You see,
47:01 in the end, the gospel is power. Lot of books out there teach you about
47:07 judgmentalism. But until we anchor our life on the cross, we will move forward only by our
47:15 own efforts. You see what Paul is saying is that the
47:20 cross saves you then the cross propels you to do good works. And in the next
47:26 verse in verse six he says God will give to each person according to what he has done. Now this is where we start to
47:32 struggle because most of us sitting here are like that. We listen to a sermon then we feel very bad. You know you feel
47:38 very bad every Sunday and we say okay I better help the church ushering. Okay I
47:43 do ushering. Okay, I got what play I play in a band. Okay, preach. Okay,
47:48 preach once in a month. And why do you do it? The motivation is this. You don't want to go to hell. You want God to
47:54 reward you. You want to be respected. I I I can do a long long long long long list on this. What the text is saying is
48:01 that your motivation should be the gospel. Why? Look at the next verse. Verse seven. To those who by persistence
48:10 in doing good, seek glory, honor, immortality, he will give eternal life.
48:16 And glory, honor, immortality here is God's glory, God's honor, God's immortality. It is not self-seeking
48:23 because verse 8 tells us, but for those who are self-seeking, that's what happens to them. So this is how most of
48:31 us in church react. We become Christians. Yay. Hallelujah. I'm born
48:36 again then go and serve you know w get involved in everything then after everyone starts to judge you hey why you
48:43 do that why you like that why you so like that why your ministry like that
48:49 afterward cannot suic this happens a few cycles after you know
48:54 what happen I go to church you see the church is full of people who
49:01 have a lot of issues which they feel powerless And Paul is leading us to the power of
49:08 the cross. Paul is leading us that the cross saves you and moves you towards a
49:15 relationship with God. How do we do that? The verse here is perseverance. You must persevere. You must persevere
49:23 in seeking out God. You must persevere in seeking out God's honor and immortality.
49:28 Why? Because the cross reminds us that it is level and we are all sinners.
49:37 Let me end with just a self-confession again. Uh
49:44 two months ago, I met a guy I didn't like. We all got people we don't like. He was a Christian.
49:51 You know, when you meet someone you don't like in a shopping center, what do you do? You want to look You want to look at the air con.
49:58 He was to look at the floor but for some reason he was with someone
50:04 else who knew me. I know. So we have unfortunate to look at one another.
50:10 Now my side of the story is that this person hurt me very badly. That's my side. Now the text has been teaching me
50:17 in the end God will judge. This is really you know
50:22 and uh human nature among Christians is such that because of pride no matter how
50:27 you discuss it we are all so proud we will not reconcile our differences
50:33 because we are proud. I put out my hand. He put out his hand we shook. He was a cold shake. Look at
50:41 his eye. Look at his eye. The eye is dead. Now what am I trying to say? I'm trying
50:46 to say this. I'm trying to say that you leave this hall, you will have that issue.
50:52 But as I walked away, I I I I told myself this, you know, I say, Lord, I
50:59 have to pray for that brother as much as he prays for me because we are all work in progress.
51:04 We are all sinners. Who am I to judge him for his sins? I
51:10 may feel a lot of anger towards him, but maybe I don't I don't realize how much I
51:15 have sinned to him. if not to him towards other part other parties I said Lord remove that and you know what is
51:23 not easy and that's why Paul says persevere this morning there's a word for all of
51:29 you do you persevere in your faith if you persevere in your faith if you keep
51:35 at it the Lord will slowly heal your wounds you see Jesus demands your life your
51:42 soul want to invite the worship team
51:48 And this morning's message is really about that because in the end is not so
51:53 much about how we are being judged or how others judge us. Here's a question
51:59 you got to ask yourself. How do you think God judges you? And the
52:04 text is teaching us if you persevere in your faith,
52:09 if you persevere with the cross at the center,
52:14 that pleases God. Because one day we will leave this planet. And when you
52:20 meet God, what are the words you want to hear from God? It should be these words. Well done, good and faithful servant.
52:30 This is a great song we're going to sing. is called
52:35 Lord I give you my heart as the
52:40 bring up the words I want to remind you what we said earlier today
52:48 we want to do prayer and at a certain point of the song we
52:53 are going to invite you to come in fun to receive prayer perhaps you are struggling with being
53:00 judged or you have judged someone wrongly. You're struggling with bitterness. We invite you to come to be
53:07 prayed. Maybe you feel your Christian life is not getting anywhere. Come to be prayed
53:14 to persevere. Maybe you're not well. Come and be prayed. Is just a prayer.
53:21 And as a song as we sing, we want God to soften your heart.
53:27 We ask you you sing these words meditatively and that God will slowly encourage you
53:33 to receive prayer. Shall we stand and sing this?
53:38 [Music]
53:49 Are you Lord? With all my heart
53:57 I worship you.
54:06 All I have within me,
54:12 I give you praise.
54:19 All that I adore is in you,
54:28 Lord. I give you my heart.
54:33 Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul.
54:42 I live for you alone. Every breath that I take,
54:50 every moment I'm awake, [Music] Lord, have your way with me. Have your
54:59 way, oh Lord, with me. Have your way.
55:05 This is my desire.
55:13 I do. Lord, with all my heart,
55:22 I worship you.
55:28 All I have, all I have within me,
55:37 I give you praise.
55:42 [Music] All that I have done
55:48 is in you, church. Give God your heart.
55:57 Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul.
56:06 I live for you alone. Every breath that I take,
56:14 every moment I'm awake,
56:20 have your way in me, Lord. I give you my
56:26 heart. I give you my soul.
56:32 I live for you alone. Every breath that I take,
56:40 every moment I'm awake, Lord, have your way in me.
56:49 And I will live for you, Lord. Hallelujah. I will live for you.
56:57 I will live for you.
57:03 And I will live. [Music]
57:10 And I will live for you,
57:15 church. Let's sing. And I will live. I will live. Sing, church.
57:23 And I will live for you. [Music]
57:29 And I will live
57:36 and I will live for you. Lord, as we come before you now in a time of
57:41 intercession, we call on people to come in front to receive prayer. We ask the counselors to
57:48 come in front now. We ask the counselors and the pastoral team to come in front. and you're
57:54 sitting there and you have any prayer requests, any need whatsoever,
58:00 do not be embarrassed. As brother David Adams told us, I am not
58:07 ashamed of the gospel. Do not be ashamed of coming in front.
58:14 What's more important to be ashamed of what people say or the Lord being
58:19 ashamed of you? If you have any needs, we ask you to come in front to receive
58:25 prayer. Any needs whatsoever, we ask you to come to be prayed over. Lord, we ask
58:32 right now as we intercede at the spirit comes into this hall, we ask you break
58:37 down, oh Lord, any hardening of the hearts. This morning, oh Lord, we have
58:42 heard that how we can be judgmental. We can have bitterness. We can have all
58:48 sorts of emotions in us. Oh Lord, whatever we have, we ask that we
58:54 surrender it before you in prayer. Lord, there may be people among us who are not well and they're sitting there.
59:01 They are afraid to come forward. Lord, we ask you soften their hearts to come to receive prayer. Lord, they here
59:09 people who don't know you. People who have come to church for years but do not
59:15 know the risen savior. where the gospel is not center to their lives. Lord, as
59:20 your holy spirit moves around and anoints, we ask that they come in front.
59:26 Church, we have just sung and I will live for you. Do you mean that Lord? If
59:32 you mean that, come forward. Come forward to receive prayer. come and to be prayed
59:40 [Music] and I will live for you.
59:47 Come to we pray and I will live
59:52 [Music] and I will live for you. Come to be
59:59 prayed. Do not be ashamed. come to be prayed and I will live.
60:08 And I will live for you
60:14 and I will live [Music]
60:21 and I will live for you. Lord, I give you my life.
60:27 [Music] And I will live
60:37 and I will live for you. Come to receive prayer. Do not be
60:42 ashamed. Come to receive prayer. If you're sitting there, come forward to
60:48 receive prayer. And I will live. For you. Do not be ashamed or worry what
60:56 people think. Come and receive prayer. Thank you. Come. Come. Thank you.
61:03 And I will live for come. The Lord is asking you. The spirit moves
61:09 now. And I will live.
61:16 And I will live for you.
61:22 Lord, as a spirit moves here, an anointing takes place. Heal everyone. Heal our hearts. Heal our souls.
61:30 Heal our spirit. Heal our man. That the gospel is power. That we are sinners
61:35 before you. Depart us in peace. And we say this in Jesus name. Amen.
61:42 We're going to open the doors now quietly. If you need to leave, we want you to leave as the music plays softly.
61:48 Stay back to receive prayer. Please depart in an orderly manner for the Holy
61:54 Spirit is in our midst and he is ministering. Depart slowly. If you want to stay back,
62:01 we are here to pray for you. We're here to talk with you. Come because you want
62:08 to live for Jesus.
