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Sabbath, February 25, 2006 Newark Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Pastor Tom Hughes

“Shoot Your Own Side First”

 

Romans 2:1-2
“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.
2But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.”—NKJV

The Christian Church has been plagued for centuries by the scourge of “judgmentalism.” God has warned us against this in the strongest terms to not set ourselves up as “little” popes in religious matters, making our views on religion the standard by which we judge others. When human beings set their own theories up as the “gospel” and denounce any doctrine or person as heretical who doesn’t agree with their particular viewpoint, you have a recipe for disaster.

There are several points God stresses to us in these two verses. Now there are some people who think, “Oh that one doesn’t apply to me.” You’ll be relieved to know that every single person in this room will find this relevant in their own personal life. There’s nobody here today that this doesn’t apply to—and I’m including myself. As a matter-of-fact, every time I point my preacher finger at you I’ve got three more pointing back at me, so whatever goes for you goes for me three times!

Now the first thing I want to pull out of this verse (Romans 2:1, 2) is:

The first thing God says about judgmental people is that they are inexcusable.

So if a judgmental person were to walk up to me and say, “Excuse me?” I’d say, “No, I can’t, because you’re inexcusable.” There is no excuse for being judgmental. And that’s what the verse says, “Thou art 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.”

If you judge someone harshly, there will be no excuse you can make for your behavior. Because you are a sinner too, just like they are. You are so self-righteous and blind that you don’t even realize your judgmental attitude. There is no excuse for your behavior.

Matthew 7:1, 2
“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.

God will apply the exact standard you apply to others to you. We always judge ourselves by our good intentions, but everyone else by the letter of the law. Every scolding or disapproving look. Every judgmental comment. Every harsh or unkind statement. Every time we hurt or wound another human being by being legalistic, exacting, and worst of all unmerciful, God writes in his book, “Be unmerciful to him as he has been unmerciful to others,” or “Be condemning to her as she has condemned others.” That is written in his book right beside your name, and your action.

Do we really want to stand before God and give an account for every word, and have no excuse for our judgmental, unmerciful attitude?

When we do, God will say to us if we don’t repent, “You are inexcusable, whoever you are who judges another.”

It’s a sad fact but we’re carnal and we have carnal natures, and we have to battle that all the time. When somebody shows you a picture whose is the first face you always look for—your own to see if you’re in the picture. Why do we do that? I’ll let you think about that for a minute. It’s because our whole world revolves around ourselves.

God says we are really not going to want to stand in front of him in the judgment and have to give an account for every word. He makes it clear there is no excuse for judgmental, unmerciful attitudes, and when we do God says if we don’t repent, you are inexcusable. So that’s the first thing.


The second thing God says about judgmental people is that they are condemned.

As we read in Matthew, we are judged with the same standard we set for someone else. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is not one of us that does not sin and that does what’s right according to Ecclesiastes 7:20. It says that every single person has sinned.

Eccl. 7:20
“For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.”

Since we are all lost, when we judge, we condemn ourselves. By exalting ourselves with self-righteousness—when we become elitists and think because of our diet or because of the way we study, or because of what we know we’re a little bit better than maybe those other church members that don’t, or maybe those other denominations that don’t have the same knowledge you might have about some subject—when we puff ourselves up like that we set ourselves up as the perfect standard.

Now God will not accept imperfect obedience. In 1 John 3:11, it says we should love one another; this is the most important thing: that we love one another.

1 John 3:11
“For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”

And yet we see in the bible an example in Cain and Able that God will not accept imperfect obedience or imperfect repentance or an imperfect offering. He rejects our works offerings just as he did the offering of Cain. Cain refused to bring the lamb, and went about trying to offer his own substitute.

Can you imagine how God felt when Cain brought his vegetables and God thought, how can those vegetables compare with my only begotten Son and you bring a tomato and try to compare that to Jesus? You bring a stalk of corn or a head of lettuce and compare that to my only Son? What blasphemy! And so he rejected Cain’s offering.

And what happened when Cain brought that faulty, unacceptable offering? What was the result of Cain’s works trip? He was rejected by God, and did not gain eternal life, and then got so angry with the truly righteous brother that he murdered Able. Why are you so surprised when you preach righteousness by faith that the unrepentant get angry with you? Why be surprised when those who are trying to earn their way to heaven—in the church and out—get angry, and try to persecute those who hear the gospel and accept it?

Why are you so shocked? Did not Cain persecute his righteous brother? It’s always been that way. The unmerciful, the hard hearted, the proud religionist always hates the repentant, inferior sinner. He always resents the fact that the gospel is a free gift. It’s because they are afraid they will not get credit for all their religious hard work. They are superior to their brethren in the church, because they have worked harder at being morally and behaviorally superior. The religious always persecute the truly spiritual. Look at the dark ages! They were very religious people who ran the iron maiden and the rack—very religious but I don’t think they were very spiritual.

Look at these people who will murder women and children, who will blow up beautiful religious shrines over a cartoon! But yet they raise not a word when innocent people have their heads cut off by thugs! They don’t say a word about that. Didn’t the Bible say, though I give my body to be burned, if I have not love I am nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:3, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”


The third thing God says about judgmental people is that they are hypocritical.

God says to them, “You practice the same things.” Now, this is tricky for some to understand. When I condemn someone for stealing, how am I doing the same thing? When the law says if you break one law, you break them all, how is that possible? When you don’t know that they are innocent, but you gossip about them as guilty, are you not stealing their reputation? When you care more about the letter of the law than the spirit of the law, and you put the rules and regulations as more important than the people, are you not misrepresenting the character of God and stealing his reputation?

When you say, Come to the church, and come to Jesus just as you are without one plea, but leave those at the door: Don’t come in here with those. Don’t eat that. Don’t wear that. We want to help people; we want to pull them out of the mud, but we don’t want to get our shirts dirty when were doing it! When they come just as they are, they come just as they are! And you have to put your arms around them and love them no matter how they act or how they live! You might not agree with a sinner’s lifestyle, the problems they are having, the habits they have, or the difficulties they’re having. You might not approve! But you have to love them just the way they are! Amen? Now is that hard to do sometimes? Absolutely! We’re all pretty forgetful about how we used to be! Well for some of us it’s so long ago we can hardly remember! Praise the Lord! You’ve been changed! And I’m happy about that.

God says, don’t condemn people. Don’t judge people. We have no right judging our brothers and sisters, when we don’t know the heart, we don’t understand their motives, we can’t read their minds, and we don’t know the tremendous struggle they’re having! Maybe they do have a bad habit, but they took all their courage and mustered it and sinful though they are they come to Jesus and say “Help me!” and we say, “Well you’d better get cleaned up first!” That’s like saying you have to get cleaned up to take a bath! The purpose of coming to Christ just as you are is so that He can wash you in the blood and clean you up! Sometimes it takes awhile.

Dear adulterer, dear drunkard, dear liar, Dear homosexual, Dear proud; vain Pharisee –don’t clean up first! Come to Jesus just as you are right now! If he wants to change you, He’ll do it! You don’t’ have to change yourself, you can’t anyway! Just come on, brother, you’re welcome here! The ground is level at the foot of the cross and sinners are welcome at Christ’s cross. Don’t you dare put any lifestyle issue between that sinner and that cross! Or I’m fighting you! I’m going to fight you if you do! That cross is an open pathway for anyone!—anyone no matter how wretched they may be—don’t put anything between that sinner and that cross! Don’t tell people they have to change the way they live or dress or what they eat! Let them come! Let them come and stand at the foot of the cross! Let Jesus convert their soul! Let every young person come! Let every sinner come! They’re welcome! Don’t dare, dare put anything between the cross and Jesus Christ and those people—because we’re those people!

Somebody said to Joe Kriner that “the sinners would have to go to the back of the bus.” And Joe said, “Well, who’s gonna drive?” There’s a sermon in that! We have no right to judge them.

When we don’t understand the most elementary principles of love, and mercy, how can we set our views up on anything as the standard by which we are going to hypocritically condemn people?

How dare we treat each other unkind, judge each other harshly and show such a merciless, unforgiving, un-understanding attitude with God’s children or our fellow church members? Why do we get harsh, pushy, and ugly with people? We don’t realize that we wound and we hurt. We don’t realize that our humor sometimes has barbed wire woven into it. We don’t realize sometimes that our words can be like a hammer that can crush the poor, suffering sinner who took everything they could muster to come back and be with their family again and then someone says, “Where have you been? Boy, it’s been a long time since you’ve been here!” And I can see them just wilt and shrivel up because it took everything to come back. “There you are! Good to see ya! Gimme a hug!” sounds a lot better than “Where have you been!” But we don’t think, do we? We don’t mean anything by it. We’re not trying to be mean. But shouldn’t we think?

Is the church a hospital for sinners or a haven for saints? If the church is a hospital where wounded and sick sinners can come for help, once a person accepts Jesus as their Savior and becomes a soldier in God’s army, we should accept them, faults and all, and try to have a kind, merciful attitude. But, too often, when one of our army gets wounded by Satan, and begins to stumble or falter, we say “Shame on them! What their doing is wrong, how can they claim to be a Christian and act like that? If they would have listened to me, they would have never gotten into trouble. Why did they ever let a person like that in here anyway?”

What army in the world, when one of their troops gets wounded, ever walks up and shoots their own soldiers? How much sense would that make? “Hey brother, having a problem with lying, stealing, forgiving people? Well, let me just shoot you. Let me just put you out of your misery!” What army does that? Would they be successful in battle? Of course, not.

Why do Christians shoot their wounded? Because they judge others with an unmerciful, condemning attitude. Little do they realize, they are judging themselves. No wonder Jesus says at the end, “I never knew you.”

In Titus 3:8-11, it says, “…those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.”

And then, in verse 9, it says, But avoid foolish disputations about the law…Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.”

Titus 3:8-11
“This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
9But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.
10Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition,
11knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.”

Hey! If you run into somebody warped and sinning, and self-condemned in the church don’t follow them, don’t judge them, don’t condemn them; just keep your eyes on Jesus and keep moving forward, ‘cause I’ve got news for you: there are always going to be warped people in every church you go to! You might be one of them—you never know! J Don’t let anybody ever discourage you from following Jesus just because you see somebody has a problem in church.

If we believe in God, we need to do good works. We need to be careful to maintain them. Our works reveal whether we are truly committed to Jesus with a living faith, or a dead one. Paul warned us to avoid disputes, and contentions and strivings about the law, because they are unprofitable and useless. He warns about divisive people. It applies to men or women. He says if someone is a divisive guy, admonish him or her and if they won’t listen they’re self-condemned. There will always be these people. Don’t let them ruin you! Don’t let them ruin your faith. Don’t let them drive you out of your church. Keep your eyes on Jesus! Sometimes I think when I baptize people I ought to hand them those little horse blinders like the horses used to wear and tell them just to sit in church with those horse blinders on and look straight ahead! J Don’t look around, ‘cause when you do, you’re liable to see somebody!

Now remember when I said some time ago, “I could say 99 out of 100 of you are hypocrites, and not one of you would be offended because you would all think you were the one that wasn’t?” It’s true! “Don’t judge” applies to the liberals, conservatives, moderates, and the clueless! It applies to everyone.

If you’re a conservative, saying “Oh thank God, I’m not like those worldly liberals! Brother Doug (Bachelor) would never teach me that!” you’re judging. If you a liberal saying “Oh God I thank you that I’m not like those pharisaical conservatives!” you’re judging! Don’t you see, the devil doesn’t care which ditch you drive your car in to wreck, the one on the left or the right, just as long as you’re wrecked. As long as you’ve got your eyes off Jesus and on other people and you’re judging and picking at people because they don’t agree with you.

The most liberal Seventh - day Adventist is very conservative compared to other churches, I’m telling you right now. Because I like to sing happy songs with kids and raise my hands and praise the Lord once in awhile, people call me a liberal. Now only in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church could a guy with a pistol permit, who’s pro-life, who’s voted Republican every time be considered a liberal! Only in the Adventist Church could this happen! And is shows you how we have lost our perspective. When you compare yourself with other Adventists, you might think they’re more liberal than you, but compared with the general population, please! Every person in this room is way more conservative than the average person that’s walking around! Now there are exceptions, of course.

What I’m trying to say is, don’t we have 28 fundamental beliefs? If you look across the church you see someone you don’t care for, and you say, “I wish that fellow would leave. I wish that fellow would get out of this church. I wish that fellow would die!” Oh no, we’d never say that! But if we do, we are being judgmental. But you know what? It says in the Bible that if you hate your brother you’re a murderer.
1 John 3:15
“Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

You say, “Oh I’d never say ‘I hope they die.’” If you hate them, if you’re angry at them, that’s as good as murder because just like Cain, if you were in the right circumstances, you might do it. Hatred, anger, resentment, judging—it’s very dangerous.

Would Jesus do that? I’m talking to everyone now. Who died and made you king? Who said that you could stand at the back of the church and hand out the heretic hats to all the sinners? Didn’t Jesus say the wheat and the tares would grow together until the harvest? When did Jesus give you the authority to drive a person from his flock by being unmerciful and judgmental? When did he say that you could condemn one of his sheep, call them a Pharisee, worldly, or any other unkind expletive?

And don’t tell me some of the minor things that people sometimes argue about is “calling sin by its right name” or being a prophet on the walls of Zion. I don’t want to hear that one.

Some of it is so silly and petty that the angels of God cover their eyes in shame. The Spirit of Prophecy makes it clear that if it’s a choice between the people or the letter of the law, she (E. G. White) says err on the side of the people. Why do we hurt each other and wound each other over petty points and disputes about things that have no eternal consequence—things that are subject to interpretation. As our text says, it’s God who judges. It is God who truly knows how unfit we are to judge anyone.

The 28 fundamental points are the major points that Randy and Kathy accepted when they were baptized into Jesus. This is what we believe. We have to set ourselves up as people who believe in these majors and be very tolerant and kind on the minors. Why must we set ourselves up as infallible, always having to be right, when we could take a merciful, tolerant attitude instead? Now you may say, “Amen Pastor, give it to them!” I want you to take a long look in the mirror when you get home, and say, “Lord, Is It I?” Am I the one who is being divisive, judgmental, and unmerciful? Am I acting like anyone who disagrees with me is someone to “shoot” at? Someone who I can load my shotgun with Bible shells and blast ‘em?

Do we speak the truth but in love? Some of us think speaking the truth is being blunt. Some of us think we’re standing for the truth by getting real picky about a lot of things but you know what the Bible says, “Love covers a multitude of sins.”

1 Peter 4:8
“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.’”

My dear one remember that if you hurt even one of Jesus’ little ones – and it’s always the children and the young people that suffer most from judgmentalism and legalism – and any of you young people or children who have ever been hurt, I apologize to you. If anyone has ever been mean or judgmental with you, I apologize. This church and every one in it loves you and I hope you’ve never had that experience. The Bible says that it would be better for us to swim in the lake with a stone wheel around our neck that to hurt one little one.

Matthew 18:6
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Mark 9:42
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.”

Luke 17:2
“It would be better for him if a millstone was hung around his neck, and he was thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”

So stop judging one another! Admit the church is imperfect, and love and support even those you disagree with. Even those liberal, conservative, “Republicrats” like me that you can’t even fit into a good category. Love one another! That’s the test of a Christian!

I’ll leave you with this poem:

If you should find the perfect church
Without one fault or smear,
For goodness’ sake, don’t join that church,
You'd spoil the atmosphere;

If you should find the perfect church
Where all anxieties cease,
Then pass it by, lest joining it,
You mar the masterpiece.

If you should find the perfect church,
Then don’t you ever dare
To tread upon such holy ground,
You'd be a misfit here.

But since no perfect church exists...
Made of imperfect men,
Then let's cease looking for that church,
And love the one we're in.

Of course it's not a perfect church,
That's simple to discern;
But you and I and all of us
Could cause me tide to turn.

So let's keep working in our church
Until the resurrection,
And then, we each will join God's church
Without an imperfection.


Song: “Shoot Your Own Side First”
(C. Mervyn Maxwell, Professor of History, Andrews University)

Our young recruits came marching by
So proud they almost burst.
Our sergeants raised the battle cry,
“Shoot your own side first!”

The battle smoke crimped every nose,
Our men were wracked with thirst,
But through the ranks the watchword rose
“Shoot your own side first!”

Chorus: “Shoot your own side first!”
“Shoot your own side first!”
Our sergeants raised the battle cry,
“Shoot your own side first!”

The foreign ranks came marching hot –
Our soldiers feared the worst,
But in their panic they ne’er forgot to
“Shoot your own side first!”

The bullets whirred! The cannon roared!
Our men were doubly cursed!
Upon us two times death was poured –
They shot their own side first.

Our men fell wounded, maimed, and dead,
In bright red gore immersed,
But never blame the foreign lead –
“Shoot your own side first!”

“Help! Help!” The dying soldier cried.
“Stop!” the private cursed.
But in our ranks, holes opened wide,
“Shoot your own side first!”

Chorus

‘Tis Christian, man, to notice sin
And twice so if thou durst.
Behold! The fault lies with thy kin, so
“Shoot your own side first!”

The enemy would worship God,
In scripture be well versed.
They’d never sin if we were good, so
“Shoot your own side first!”

Chorus


Let’s stop shooting our wounded! Let’s stop shooting our fellow soldiers! Let’s aim our guns at Satan and his angels! They are the ones that deserve our wrath, not our brothers and sisters. The differences among us are not great. God warns us in our text to not be inexcusable, condemned, or hypocritical. If we stop majoring in minors, and start majoring in majors, we will accomplish far more for God than we ever can by being judgmental or exacting with one another.

How many of you feel like I do that we can grow in this area and we need to be more careful about how we say things to people and the way we treat our brothers and sisters? And how many of you like me would like to say, “God, please help me not to be judgmental. Help me to be more loving and kind, and give me the victory over this problem?”


“Father, in heaven we pray that you would look at each and every one who has raised their hands and forgive us all for being judgmental. Help us to remember that when we speak, our words can wound and hurt others. Open our eyes, and help us to see the harm our self-righteous, judgmental attitudes can cause to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We thank you, Lord for the transforming; merciful, forgiving, loving Christians who are in this church who have been so kind; have reached out to Randy and Kathy, and we thank you for the love that is in this church. We want to come up to higher ground, Father, and become even more loving; much less a critical and judgmental; so, help us to do that. Make this truly a place where the lambs and the new Christians, and the people that come to us for help and encouragement will find love and acceptance here. And we thank you for that in the case of Randy and his dear wife. They told us how there are many in this church who feel that way; and we all want to be that way, Lord. So change us and help us to become even more loving—even kinder, even more like Christ. And our focus will remain on Jesus who saved their soul and brought them forth into a newness of life and baptized them into your church today through His Holy Spirit. We give you the praise, the honor, and the glory in Jesus’ name. Amen, and Amen.


All Scriptural References: New King James Version / New American Standard Bible

Transcription: Wendy J. Riebel

This sermon is also available on cassette tape.

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