The Dangers of Judgmentalism — James Robison

Now, with the final message of this videotape series, here is James Robison with Judge Not.

The Heavenly Jerusalem and the Unity of Christ's Church

If you have your Bible, I want you to open it, if you would, to the 12th chapter of Hebrews, beginning at verse 18 in Hebrews chapter 12. For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and a whirlwind, and to a blast of trumpet and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them, a reference to the glory and power and fire of God on Sinai before Moses.

For they could not bear the command that if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. Holy, holy is God. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling. But you, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.

That's us. Praise God. He's coming to Zion. His glory is coming to this house built, fitted together. You will have a measure of glory on your life. His glory does not dwell in buildings made by hands, but the fullness of His glory will come upon a people who become the answer to the prayer of Jesus, that they be one as he and the father are one.

Do not believe the traditional deception that says we cannot be one. We not only cannot be, we must be. We shall be. We will in Christ be one with distinctiveness, with diversity, with difference, but oneness in Christ.

We will sit before Him, the one God, receive the one instructor, the Holy Spirit, who will guide us to all truth. And we will refuse, as the people of God who have tuned by you to hear God, we will refuse to follow any truth, because we will pursue the truth with our whole heart, and He will guide us to all truth.

Not a truth, not some truth, but all truth. And we must never, never stop to camp, to fortress, or to fight at a point of truth. Don't do it. Because the moment you do the work of truth, the expression of truth and grace, the love of God will cease to find expression.

Error will reign, deception will follow, and destruction will be the result. You cannot stop at one discovery. The cloud is moving. Follow it. And we're going to learn together, every one of us, that it's going to be glorious, and the Spirit of God is going to fill the house, the church, the people of God, and through the church, the body of Christ, in which the fullness of God now dwells, Christ's own body, in which the fullness will find its free expression, through the church, God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, and Christ will come for a fit bride.

Receiving Christ Through the Gifts of the Church

Verse 24,. And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel, see to it that you do not refuse Him, Jesus, Him, Jesus. Who is speaking?

Him who is speaking. Who is He? Who is He? Who is speaking? Who must we not refuse? Through whom does He speak? One man? No. In Ephesians 4, when He led captivity captive, when He gave gifts to men, He appointed some, say it,.

Some for the purpose,.

Equipping, edifying, building the body in the fullness of Christ. If you're going to receive Jesus speaking, you're going to receive Him through those individuals He set aside and He anointed. And my friend, ask God to give you a discerning ear.

And I want you to know, not any one of those who are anointed have that whole message. And you are going to have to be discerning to hear what God is saying through these men. And you will never be complete, and you will never be found in the holiness and blameless before God, flowing in that freedom and fullness of the Spirit, unless you stop refusing to hear Him who is speaking right now.

Do you believe there are false prophets today? Do you believe that Jesus was right when He said they are as wolves in sheep's clothing? Do you believe they're deceiving? Do you believe that in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, you can discern truth from error?

God said that we are to discern the spirits because there are many false prophets in the earth. Do you believe that you can discern the voice of a false prophet and discern truth? Do you believe that you can discern when truth is coming from a man and error from the same man?

Do you believe that you could receive a blessing from those who may be walking in some measure of deception? Answer that question. Do you believe that you could receive a blessing? Do you believe that you could receive some truth through those who are walking in some measure of deception, who are lacking in some areas of truth?

You can. You not only can, you must. But at the same time you're receiving truth through those individuals, you must, before God, throw down the error without destroying the vessel. And you must learn to pray for them.

Now God is teaching me this because it is a nature within me to destroy what I recognize as wrong. And God says, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will recompense. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Learning From Imperfect Ministers

Now, God has set up anointed men and women. He's speaking through them. Don't refuse what He's saying. I'm going to ask you some things. We're going to get very personal. Do you believe David Wilkerson is an anointed man of God?

If you believe David Wilkerson is an anointed man of God and that David Wilkerson has a message from God and that the church of Jesus Christ must hear what the Spirit of the living God is saying through this man of God to the church, I want you to say, Amen.

Do not refuse what the Spirit is saying through him. He is a prophet of God. He has a message from God. But he does not have the whole message. He has part of it. Do you understand that? Let me ask you something else.

Do you believe that Jerry Falwell is an anointed man of God? He has anointed Jerry Falwell to bring back to the nation and the church a conscience. And you'd best receive the message of God through him.

God chose him. God sent him. Now, hear what the Spirit says through him.

Jerry Falwell is the anointed of God. Don't touch it.

I happen to believe, and I've heard so much criticism of television preachers, I happen to believe that most likely, most of them who are being heard on television are in fact called an anointed of God to deliver a measure of his truth.

You say, I've seen some pretty strange ones on. You can tell the difference. You say, what do I do about some of those? You pray for them. But I'm convinced most of those we're hearing today have something we'd better hear.

I can remember I wasn't real excited over the years about Robert Shuler. I wasn't particularly excited about Kathryn Kuhlman years ago. It bothered me somewhat when Kathryn would come out in her robes and go...

There was something mystical. I watched her on the talk show. She was different, to say the least. She was the Lord's anointed. She did not have all of the message, but as did Jesus, she believed in miracles.

Oh, they tell me it was a sight to go to one of those crusades. You went to one of them, didn't you, Dudley, while you were in seminary? Did you tell your professors you were going? Did you see many of your professors at the meeting?

Not too many. Dudley all told me, he said, I slipped it on forward to your Kathryn Kuhlman. And I hope I remember correctly. If I don't, you correct me. But you saw what I was talking about, the mystical move.

You told me the power of God came in that place. The power of who? The power of God Almighty. Through a woman at that. Well, I also thought Robert Shuler was a little... You know, he would come out there in his robe.

This is the day the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. As I considered Robert Shuler, I said, Lord, I don't even like him. Isn't that good? Isn't that a great Christian testimony? I'm up here preaching.

Let's be like Jesus. I'm sitting there like Robert Shuler. I didn't. I'm sorry. About three years ago, the Lord told me to start blessing him and praying for him. And the Lord said, you listen and see what I'm saying.

I'm saying some things through that man. Brother, I began to hear some things. I heard some words of encouragement. And I'm going to tell you this, the greatest healing testimony I've heard on television.

And I've heard some great ones. And we've had the joy of sharing some wonderful ones. The greatest healing testimony of the miracle power of God I've ever heard came on Robert Shuler's Hour of Power. A man who was totally eaten up with cancer.

And the greatest cancer surgeons in the world said, there's no hope for you. Every part of your inside, all your intestinal area, all your organs are destroyed. And the glory and power of God totally, miraculously healed that man.

You know what? He gave that testimony in Robert Shuler's program. And that man couldn't give that testimony in some of your churches. Some of your churches that take the Bible, and you say we believe the Bible, and that's the reason why we don't like you praising Robert Shuler.

Because we've got the Bible. You remember Peter, Lord, saying some of you read the Bible, and you're full of the Bible, and you're as mean as the devil. I want to tell you that Jesus of this Bible does not make us mean.

Prayer Rather Than Judgment

You say, James, we can hear God through these men. Yes, you can. You say, well, what are we to do if you or any other man makes a mistake? You're to pray us right. Do you believe in the power of prayer?

Do you believe the effectual, fervent prayer of righteous people availeth much? Do you believe that you could pray me right? Could we begin to focus our attention on the needs of these men and pray for them and receive what the Spirit of God is saying through anyone God has set apart?

Would you do it and be made whole and blessed in? I believe God is going to change every one of us more than we could ever imagine. But I do not believe it's going to come through judgmentalism or criticism.

It is going to come through prayer from a broken heart. Throughout the day, I've had a vision of Jesus over and over in my mind, weeping, weeping, weeping, weeping over the church. Weeping that we might be healed and minister life.

For you or for me to offer God less than our heart, we offer Him a polluted, defiled sacrifice. We bring Him the lame, the haught, and the blind. And we offer Him an abomination. Do you know that if you come and I come before God to sing praises to the Lord and our hearts are turned away from God, we are offering Him less than the sacrifice of a heart toward God.

And we are defiling, we are defiling the house of God. Throughout the Bible conference, we have heard an emphasis on the imperative of unity in the spirit of love, an emphasis on forgiveness. We have heard an emphasis on the importance of separating ourselves from sin and walking before God in holiness.

The Sins God Hates: Pride and Self-Righteousness

God spoke to my heart and said, James, we're to hate sin. I believe the church of Jesus Christ is gaining at this moment a more proper and intense hatred for sin than perhaps we have known. I believe that we are recognizing the horror of perversion, of immorality, of worldliness and materialism in many areas of the church.

But God spoke to my heart and said I was to share with you sins that God hates that are so often overlooked. God hates a proud look. God hates for you or for me to say, I thank God I'm not as other men are.

Do you know that if you go back and look at a church that's not in freedom and not in fullness and you look at them and say, I thank God I'm not like they are. As right as you are in not being that way, your attitude is not right.

The attitude of Christ is, God, I would that I could take them under my wings and cover them. God, deliver them from the evil, from the formality and let them be delivered in my name. Is anybody hearing what I'm saying right now?

Do you understand the imperative of praying? I mean really praying? Brother, don't get down on Baptists or Pentecostals or Charismatics. God's not refusing to work in any group because they've got a denominational label or a label some group put on them or they claim.

God is going to work and work through and in any group that will receive what He is saying today. We've got to pray God bring them, bring them to repentance. Bring them now to repentance. God detests self-righteousness.

God detests a Pharisaical attitude. God hates strife and dissension among the brethren. Do you know how much He hates it? He hates it so much, He said that because of dissension, many of you are weak, many of you are sick, many of you are dying, many are dead.

It is destroying us. God says a root of bitterness, unforgiveness defiles many. Jesus Christ said after the model prayer, in that prayer, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

He followed it by saying if you do not forgive men, your Father will not forgive you. It is imperative that we forgive one another. You say if they know they're wrong and we know they're wrong, Jesus hung on the cross, facing those who had spit in His face, driven spikes through His hands.

This is the Son of God, the most wretched deed ever committed against God, divinity, and humanity has occurred. And Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them. They didn't ask for it. They didn't repent. He said, Father, forgive them.

That's the love. We are to forgive those who hurt us. God, we're to encourage that forgiveness. You saw a beautiful ministry here this afternoon to John Wimber on the part of the church. Did you not? He asked us to pray that that bruise inflicted by the slander of the brothers would be healed.

That's where the real heart problem is with John right now. That's where the real pain... It's the same pain I believe the Lord has. And it affects us. We mustn't hurt one another. And we must be granted by God the grace to forgive.

And we must pray for one another that we do forgive. No root of bitterness. For by it many shall be defiled. God hates the fact that Christians have refused, absolutely refused to love one another and have used every possible theological and doctrinal reason to practice hatred and unkindness.

God hates this. We have built not only theological fortresses to bombard others of a different persuasion, but we have literally built theological and religious prisons refusing to let people go free.

We refuse to allow people to cross the line to love one another. To be seen with one another. We do not practice forbearance. This is sin. We're ashamed to be seen not only with sinners but with those with whom we disagree.

Correcting Error Without Destroying People

It's one thing to cut off a rebel and an unrepentant believer. It's another thing to cut off someone who is mistaken however seriously mistaken they are. God is not talking about separating ourselves from the body of Christ that's defeated or deceived.

You don't cut someone off because they're deceived. You reach out to them. You cut off a rebel who will not repent. And you give him up only that the flesh may be destroyed that he may come back in repentance.

And Paul said of the very one that he had decided to give up to the devil for the destruction of his flesh, Paul said in another letter, Now I have forgiven him. Why have I forgiven this one? This one had repented.

Why had Paul forgiven the one that had fallen? He said, I have forgiven him. Lest Satan take advantage of you. Any unforgiveness springing up in the church makes the body of Christ vulnerable. It's the accursed thing in our midst.

I'm telling you when unforgiveness comes up and festers, it's like blood poisoning to the whole body. I want you to know one offense in the church poisons everyone. Get a prophet or an anointed person offended and the whole body is desecrated.

That's why God said in Romans chapter 12 that the prophet and the prophecy must be delivered with love that has no dissimulation, no hypocrisy, no hurt. If I have a prophet's message and you come to me with your hurts to confirm that message, you will defile the heart and help me pervert the message if I receive that bad report.

That's how it defiles. I mean you can't believe the people that are wanting me to take on denominations right now. You can't believe the people that want to move me over here into their camp so we can bombard the other camps.

Every time there's a disagreement between brothers, the devil says choose the brother. This one or that one. No. Choose Christ. He loves both the brother. He wants to bring us together. God didn't call me to merely speak correction to this group or this group but rather to speak a corrective word to the whole church.

I'm not here to endorse any part of it. I'm here to encourage the church. Listen, this is what we're supposed to do. We don't endorse anyone. We embrace and exalt Jesus. We encourage every brother. We seek to edify every brother.

We seek to equip the whole body. And we seek to expose the unfruitful works of darkness while all the while exalting Jesus. Would that work? Sure it'll work. Do not let any any bitterness come up. Do not bury someone who's hurt or wrong.

Listen to this. Paul the apostle thanked God for some who were preaching Christ out of contention and out of selfish ambition because Christ was preached. Are you listening? Paul said, I thank God for those who are preaching Christ out of contention to do me harm really and out of selfish ambition.

And James said, if you have selfish ambition, that's demonic. How in this world could Paul thank God for someone he knew was wrong because Christ was preached? We spend too much time worrying about what's this man going to do?

And these people over here casting out demons and they're doing these works but they're not walking with us. Jesus said, you leave them alone. Come follow me. You know that's how we're going to help one another?

Loving Correction and the Limits of Judgment

Now folks, listen to me. I am not embracing, I am not excusing any sin on the part of any minister or ministry. God Almighty will not do that. I am refusing to be their judge. Do you know that I not only know in the Spirit sins of major ministries and ministers, I not only know in the Spirit, I know first hand.

You say, what are you to do? I am to minister face to face to them the Word of God and the Word of repentance and I am to minister it in love lest I also be caught in such a fault considering that it may in fact be me.

And I want to stand here before God, my conscience being clear before God and all men, I have faithfully ministered that Word to every one of them fearlessly and lovingly and mercifully and I have ministered it to their people and I have ministered it in privacy and I have ministered it in letters to them.

Every one of them before God. And my dear friend, it is God's business to correct them, to expose them and to bring them down if they do not repent. It's not my business to do it. It is my business to pray for them as though it were me.

And that is precisely what is going to occur in our lives to release the purity of God in the church that when the church is being purified, if we lie to the Holy Spirit and we persist in our sin and we refuse to repent, God told me clearly, I am going to repeat with rapidity the Ananias and Sapphira experience.

I am going to destroy those who harden their hearts. I tell you, we are nearing that day. Some of you are saying, Oh, I bet you know some things. Let me tell you something. You don't know how serious it is for those of us who are here tonight.

God is going to bring us down. He is going to bring us down if we do not repent. You have heard truth. God is calling you to separate yourself unto Him in holy living, to be an expression of His life, to walk in the fullness of His Spirit, to eat that Word, Jesus in fellowship, to believe Him and receive Him, to forgive all men.

Holiness, Worship, and Christlike Attitudes

Jesus Christ did not begin the Sermon on the Mount with the beatitudes because your attitudes are of little importance. They are of supreme importance. You cannot deal with the sins properly of lust and hatred and unforgiveness toward one another until you understand that if your attitude is not affected by the mercy and grace of God, your discernment, your eye, your light, your capacity to hear and to act is totally diminished.

Your attitude, these attitudes, that is what He is looking at. God wants to cut away every unwholesome, every unchristlike attitude and expression in our lives.

God wants us to follow Jesus with our whole heart. Don't ask what about this man. God hates immorality. Do you believe that? Impurity. Immorality. He also hates for the church and Christian people to commit adultery with the world and with religious systems.

To let their hearts go after other gods, even theological and religious idols. God told the people who were keeping His commands in the Old Testament and Isaiah 1, I detest your solemn assemblies. I detest your prayer meetings.

I detest your sacrifices. Your hands are defiled with blood. You've not even properly cared for one another. Your heart is not toward me. I hate your worship. God hates worship where our hearts are not toward Him.

God hates form that's called worship. God hates formulas that are called faith. We can't walk in faith if we cut ourselves off from hearing God. You do not hear God if you have given yourself to idols.

Any of them. Things. The world. Religious idols. Whatever they are. God is not excited about worship services, praise services, or preaching services and teaching services and seminars that do not produce Christ-like love one for the other.

Jesus said, this is the measure here and with the world. Know you're my disciples because you love one another. We will be known by our love. We love not in word only but also in deed. Many Christians say they love other Christians and do not practice it.

They say, yeah, I love Him, but they don't want to be seen with Him. One day Dudley Hall read Luke chapter 7 in our chapel service and I rejoiced over the forgiveness of that immoral woman who came in and wept and wiped her tears from his feet with her hair.

I thought that was beautiful. But the most significant thing I saw in Luke chapter 7 was where this took place. Do you know where this encounter took place where this woman came in and received forgiveness from Jesus?

Do you know where Jesus was when that happened? He was reclining at dinner in the house of a Pharisee. Jesus Christ went home to supper, to dinner with an unrepentant, wicked Pharisee. Do you know what keeps the church right now from being a healing factor oftentimes one to the other?

Preachers who have the truth are fearful, made fearful by their own preaching and their own peers and the pressure from their own following. They are fearful of what might happen to their reputation if they are seen on the platform or the premises with another person who has a problem or a sin.

They don't want to risk their reputation with their following. The Lord showed me that so clearly. You talk about freedom and a blessing to me as a Baptist. When God told me three years ago to go to the Kenneth Copeland Believers Convention and welcome them and bless them.

Do you understand that for a Baptist evangelist to go to a Kenneth Copeland Believers Convention is instant suicide? Do you understand that? God said go. Why? I have a word for them through you. I got up and welcomed those people.

I said bless you. I love you. Dudley Hall went with me. When we walked in we saw people seeking Jesus who were all over that place. We did, didn't we Dudley? We walked in and said these people want to seek God.

I got up and just shared a few moments of my heart. I said folks I love you. I want God to heal the body and bless you. I just pray for you. I started to sit down and Kenneth Copeland walked up and grabbed me by the arm and he said don't sit down.

God is all over you. Finish what is on your heart. I finished sharing and I gave that invitation and it is estimated that when the people began to come literally I put that chair that I use as an illustration of a chair of deliverance and there was a woman that ran up that platform grabbed that chair and people began to run to try to get in that chair.

They tell me that nearly 7 ,000 people fell on the floor around that altar to be set free that night in a believer's convention and when I turned to walk from that platform at Kenneth's meeting and bless him for being so receptive as I turned to walk a handsome black musician caught me right back here and he was crying and glowing with the glory of God and he said I'm one of the musicians.

He said after the meeting tonight I was on my way to commit suicide. I was on my way and God set me free right here and I'm alive I'm alive in Jesus and that was just one testimony of many who were freed that night.

Brother, if you think the devil didn't batter me I mean they were already calling me charismatic that's like saying I'm a leper in Baptist circles they were blasting me and God said you go to that Kenneth Copeland believer's convention and you bless those people and I'll bless you through those people.

I'm tired of hearing people criticize Kenneth Copeland. I'm tired of the fact that I've had a tendency to do it at various times in my Christian life. I've never been around Kenneth that he wasn't excited about Jesus and you say don't you know Kenneth misses some things I sure do but so do I.

Allowing Believers to Grow in Faith

Often times when people do begin to love one another and practice love we drive them out. When people begin to seek God with all their heart how many of you have seen people just get so excited about Jesus they just went for God with all their heart and you saw them get into what you not only thought appeared to be sort of foolish but you're quite convinced scripturally was pretty much off the wall.

Have you ever seen anybody get into that? A lot of preachers get in a state of panic because they say what are they doing? You preachers are going to have to trust God with some of your people. He's big enough to handle them a whole lot better than you are.

Give them an opportunity to go for God. They may make a mess the disciples did but you're never going to touch the glory if you're not willing to get out of the boat and look foolish in the eyes of the traditionally safe.

Go for God. Healing is an example of our leaving no room for growth. We have seen the quackery the apparent cultishness and foolishness the devilish the excess all in the name of religious faith as Christian people stand by and watch an innocent person die of a disease that could perhaps have been a little bit alleviated by the simple attention of a trained or skilled physician.

Listen to this. It has broken our heart. It makes headlines every time someone dies while people are praying for them. We make fun of faith and faith healers and the church screams out and it breaks my heart any time we don't seek the help of a trained skilled hand while praying whatever can be done but while we're mocking some people who have just been simply trying to seek God and pray and we get furious because someone died in a prayer meeting we forget that during the same time span millions of people have died in the hospitals surrounded by the most skilled medical hands and no one is assaulting the medical profession.

I want to say something to you you'd better hear. God revealed to me three years ago that he's going to in these last days allow to be released on this earth the fury and intensity of the destructive forces of Satan and pestilence and diseases are going to so intensify that medical all the medical science in the world cannot alleviate or deal with or cure those diseases and that unless we the people of God learn how to pray and get hold of God there will be no hope in the light of the diseases that are coming upon humanity.

We the church of Jesus Christ can learn in Christ to deal effectively with every single disease known to man but we will not do it if we mock one another while we're trying to learn. If we frighten each other every time we have what we consider a failure and others call a failure we will never learn what it is when we didn't get the little boy healed that had the demons and gnashed his teeth and they threw him in the fire and Jesus did heal him.

The disciples failed. If we let the mockery of the world and the mockery of the church keep us from pressing on we will never know the glory of walking by the gate beautiful of the temple and saying to the lame man silver and gold have I none but such as I have in the name of Jesus rise and be healed.

Do not mock one another. Bless one another. Encourage one another. Do you believe it's possible for us to learn how to deal with sickness and disease in an effective manner everywhere? Jesus said we could but we're going to learn it in an atmosphere of loving encouragement and not critical analysis.

May God grant us the grace to extend this encouragement to one another so that we can learn together. That's what God wants to do. There is no room in this move of God no room for looking down at any other person.

We're going to lift them up. You're a part of this move of love. You're a part of this free expression of Christ's love in the earth. Love never fails. His life will be expressed through love and it will be expressed through pure vessels yielded and freed by his power his spirit and filled to walk in that new way.

Judgmentalism as Self-Exaltation

I thank God birthed in my heart during the Bible conference a message that will be one of the most important I'll ever preach and perhaps the body of Christ will hear. And that was just the birthing of it.

I'm continuing to develop the message. It's in my bones now. God has revealed to me that judgmentalism may in fact be the highest possible form of idolatry. For when we choose to judge another we have actually placed ourselves on the throne of God and thereby setting ourselves up as God we judge another.

Let me give you an expression an example of judgmentalism. Imagine you're waiting to talk to the pastor. Suddenly he leaves. You say to friends, well see the preacher doesn't care. He left. He left because he doesn't care.

He doesn't really love us. He's too busy for us. That's judgmentalism. You could have said pastor had to leave. That's truth. But when you judge his motive then you're passing judgment and you're judgmental and you drink that judgment unto yourself.

Be very, very careful. You can speak the word and say the word says but when you say your heart you don't know his heart. Be careful that we not practice judgmentalism. Let's learn to pray for one another.

I thank the Lord for the message that Jim Hilton shared. We must, we must be understanding and loving toward others when we're looking back. Doug White and Jim Hilton both Southern Baptist pastors who've chosen to go on with the Lord rather than to stand in their own possible prejudice.

They're open to the spirit of God. They believe the clouds moving and they're going after it. As two Southern Baptists who have followed in the cloud they'll be a blessing to all as we lead the church into spirit-filled life and see the church restored to New Testament life, power and health.

These are exciting days. I pray you've been blessed for the Bible conference messages and I pray that you will in fact share them with others. Please remember us in your prayers as we continue the ministry of restoration, sharing Jesus with people throughout all the earth.