Romans 14, Him that is weak in the
faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
For one believeth that he may eat all
things, another who is weak eateth herbs only.
Let not him that eateth despise him that
eateth not, and let not him who eateth
not judge him who eateth, for God hath
received him.
Who art thou that judges another man's servant?
To his own master he stands or falls.
Yea, he shall be held up, for God
is able to make him stand.
One man esteemeth one day above another, another
esteemeth every day alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his
own mind.
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto
the Lord, and he that regardeth not the
day to the Lord, he doth not regard
it.
He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, and
he that giveth God thanks.
For he giveth God thanks, and he that
eateth not to the Lord, eateth not and
giveth God thanks.
For none of us liveth to himself, and
no man dieth to himself.
For whether we live, we live unto the
Lord, and whether we die, we die unto
the Lord.
Whether we live therefore or die, we are
the Lord's.
For to this end Christ both died and
rose, and revived that he might be Lord
both of the dead and the living.
But why dost thou judge thy brother?
And why dost thou set at naught thy
brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ.
For it is written, As I live, saith
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then every one of us shall give
account of himself to God.
I'd like to read more, even of that
chapter and other chapters, but we're a little
bit short on time.
I of course have strongly touched on this
kind of thing in various messages.
But again, as last week, I never had
a message when I went into more detail.
But I believe more detail is essential.
And I'm speaking of this whole area of
judging others and judgmentalism.
Probably one of the most difficult areas we
face in OM.
Even through the financial crisis, our great crisis
has not been the lack of money, brothers
and sisters.
Our great crisis has been the lack of
love.
And sometimes the lack of courage, that Howard
has just touched on.
Other times the lack of wisdom and discernment.
Other times the lack of spiritual balance.
Other times just the lack of facts, so
that we base our conclusion on wrong information.
Surely in your own contact with people, even
witnessing to people, again and again, people have
based their conclusions, especially against receiving Christ as
their Savior, on wrong information.
Muslims all believe, generally, some of them I'm
sure don't even know about it, that the
New Testament documents had been changed.
So they're making their conclusions about the cross
of Christ and the death of Christ, and
a lot of other things, on wrong information.
As Christians today, I don't know about the
rest of you, but I know for myself,
I feel unbelievably bombarded.
So many books, so many tapes, so many
messages.
In America it's worse than England.
In England at least most of your television
programs are secular.
You may feel bombarded by some of those,
but as a Christian you probably, you know,
have enough discernment to be able to write
off a lot that comes through the TV.
A young Christian, not so.
He's bombarded by television.
Secularism, atheism, humanism.
The greatest films can make certain sins look
like almost a game.
And we are a bombarded people, and I
think of those of us who are in
the world of literature.
I'm still working on that message, the danger
of books.
When I release it, I'm sure it's going
to be published, because it's hot, and a
lot of people haven't written or thought through
the whole problem of books.
Extremist books, books with false doctrines, books that
make 2 plus 2 equals 8.
You know, the great problem we face in
OM today isn't firstly lack of commitment or
lack of vision.
We need more of that.
The great problem we face often in OM
today is false doctrine, false thinking, extremism, and
I'll tell you the top of the ladder,
emotional problems, because we are the emotionally wounded
generation.
And there are people in OM who we
are not going to be able to reach.
They need actually psychiatric help.
That's the last thing a Christian ever wants
to face, is that he needs psychiatric help.
Praise God for Lane Adams in his book,
Why Is It Taking So Long To Get
Better?
Happy to send you a free copy.
Brilliant pastor just with him, going on for
God, who in his ministry is an outstanding
Christian leader, realized he needed psychiatric help.
In reading recently on the subject of schizophrenia
from Mr. Bacchus's book, I'm convinced that some
of the problems we thought people had that
were spiritual were in fact emotional and mental
illnesses.
And I tell you, following some people over
a long term have proven that.
I don't know if you saw on television
last night during the news, for the first
time I think in my life I've been
trying to watch the news.
It's lasted about a week.
Because life is busy and I've not been
able to watch the news much, but I've
been watching the 6 o'clock news.
I don't know if you saw that program
last night about death.
People who are both deaf and blind.
Deaf and blind.
And it's interesting that what's been done among
some of these people, and yet in Britain
very little is being done.
There's no program to train people in Britain,
according to this report, on how to handle
these people.
You have to go to the states or
I think to Holland.
And the government has decided it's not cost
effective.
I love these little words they throw around
when they're in the budget squeeze.
It's not cost effective.
And one British girl on her own finance,
$10,000, went to America, was trained, and
through her expertise in working with these little
children, their little lives are completely changed.
Unbelievable!
I haven't even thought of such people in
years.
I thought of deaf people, thought of blind
people, but I didn't realize or I hadn't
thought in years there are people who are
deaf and blind.
You just think of the complications on that.
I don't want to get down a sidetrack,
but how important it is that as we're
in OM, and we get all these books
and all these challenges, we get some very
strong convictions about so many things that somehow
we don't get tripped into becoming judgmental.
You might survive OM being judgmental, but I
tell you when you get out in the
world, if you're legalistic and judgmental, they often
go together.
If you're narrow-minded and opinionated and all
of that kind of thing, it's unlikely you're
going to win too many people to Jesus
Christ.
I remember a book years ago called Winsome
Witnessing.
I think Moody Press published it.
There are many other books.
There's one out.
I'd love to give every one of you
a free copy by a man named Dick
Innes who I was with last week.
I Hate Witnessing.
What a title!
He's taken surveys among Christians, and he's asked
how many of you really like witnessing?
You really like to go out and share
and talk to people about Jesus Christ?
In some cases, only one hand went up.
It's an area where we in OM have
run away at times from reality.
That's why some of the witnessing that people
have done when they're on OM, though it
was with much noise and much flash, within
two weeks after leaving us, it was all
over.
That's why there's often a difference between where
I am in life and where some of
you are in life, not that I'm better,
but I tell you when you've seen what
I've seen, you're just happy that you're not
in a nuthouse, or at least in the
university of cynics, because you see so many
people who seem to have so much zeal
and so much commitment, and they're even telling
you what to do, and how you need
to get more vision and more fire and
get this in order, and then you watch
them for a few years, and you see
them so quickly run out of steam and
throw the whole thing in the river, especially
the witnessing side.
But let's just move into this thing of
judgmentalism, and let's try to just focus very
quickly on some of the areas where we
easily judge one another, and where I am
just giving a plea for open-mindedness.
How can this be?
I'm a Bible-believing, evangelical, dynamic, dedicated, fundamental,
spirit-filled, whatever, Christians.
A plea for open-mindedness.
Surely this is dangerous, right?
I mean, surely our badge is narrow-mindedness,
right?
In every area of life, to be as
narrow as possible, as stubborn as possible, they
often go together.
Don't listen to anybody else.
Decide that your mind is made up on
these issues, and don't be persuaded, especially by
truth.
You ever met any Christians who sort of
go along that road?
I've met a few.
A few too many.
I'm not asking you to agree 100%
with what I'm saying.
I'm just asking you to consider these areas,
and to realize, we've got a lot of
history behind us on this lesson, how different
Christians have believed differently in these areas.
Very committed Christians.
Some of the men you may even idolize,
who you don't really know that much about.
You haven't got to their biographies yet.
And a lot of the biographies of 20
years ago and more weren't always giving the
total picture.
What are some of the areas where in
OM we easily judge one another?
Let's start with food, since that one's mentioned
here.
It is impossible to tell you how much
confusion, especially in the early days of OM,
we had over food.
You could write a book on it.
Almost to the point where if you ate
less, you were spiritual.
If you ate only plain, ordinary, blah food,
that was a mark of discipleship.
I don't know whether I taught this.
Certainly, some of the things I wrote in
the original leadership manual are just wild.
There's not time to go into this.
In the very early days, there's a difference
between the first couple of years of OM
and from 64 onward.
Already from 64 onward, after the first two
big summers, there was far more balance.
We were already producing memos on getting a
proper diet.
But those two big summer campaigns were somewhat,
in some ways, out of control.
How sad it is when someone is afraid
in OM to buy a chocolate bar or
an ice cream cone or spend a little
extra money without someone judging him or her.
I tell you, that is a sad state
of affairs.
I don't think it happens much anymore, but
it does.
People in Christian world bring heavy theology into
the smallest things.
Have you ever noticed that?
Some little subject, you know, and the guy
is bringing major passages out of the Old
Testament, whole chapters out of the New Testament
to try to put you where he wants
to get you.
And the Word of God, I believe, is
clear that we do not have, on most
of these issues, we do not have simple,
clear, little answers that are going to enable
all of us to easily agree on these
subjects.
We're never going to.
We're never going to agree.
But the area of food, perhaps, is not
so important.
Though it is sad if people who are
a little heavier have insinuations that they eat
too much.
In fact, it could be a metabolism program.
They may be eating less than Joe Skinny.
I can burn up anything I can shovel
in within a couple of hours, told my
doctor told me.
And just to avoid judgmentalism in that area
would be a beautiful step forward in the
Christian life.
It has many subdivisions, those who are pro
-vitamins and those who are anti-vitamins.
But let's move on.
Judgmentalism in the area of clothing.
This became a big thing in O.M.
I remember a man speaking to me in
the Bromley South train platform years ago, really
amazing, really laying heavy on me about the
people in the O.M. bookshop, the dress,
what kind of dress he's been wearing on.
And somebody walked into his assembly without a
tie, in the house of God, without a
tie.
And, you know, these things are very big
with some people.
I often carry my tie in my pocket.
And just the other day I was in
a meeting and I could tell when I
got out of the car, the guy was
looking right at my Adam's apple.
And I could tell he was nervous that
I didn't have a tie.
And I said, don't worry, and I waved
it in my hand.
And of course, when the Jesus revolution took
place and a lot of the people were
following Christ, were dressing like hippies, you remember
the flower people?
I thought it was great, you know, really.
I lean a little bit the other way.
But all the heavy judgmentalism, far more in
the States than here.
And linked with the clothing was the hair.
You couldn't even get in certain Bible colleges
if your sideburns were a certain length.
They still have a lot of hair regulations.
And they get Bible verses.
Look, a heavy gifted communicator can get people
excited about anything.
Anything.
He can find verses.
He can make 2 plus 2 equals 4.
And I will tell you, in one church
in the United States, they more or less
insinuated that all the hippies back in those
days needed to be imprisoned, and there were
some thoughts even liquidated.
That even came out of pulpits.
And this area is something that's still going
on.
You know, in OM we are basically conservative.
We're not out preaching clothing, you know.
We're sharing this kind of message as an
internal thing.
We don't speak about these things.
Generally, when we go out to meetings, we
may touch on something where it's especially linked
with the whole message of love.
But I think we have to realize that
sometimes the way we dress is really an
offense to people.
And I don't know what the simple answer
is.
I guess part of it is to know
what church, what group you belong to.
And if, you know, they have somewhat of
a dress code that you don't agree with,
don't join them.
When you go to that local church, find
out if they have a dress code.
If they want you there dressed properly on
Sunday morning and you're not into that, go
to, you know, there's surely another church down
the road where you can probably even wear
your pajamas.
Seems everything goes these days.
But beware of making too much of little
things.
Though I know sometimes little things grow big.
I think of the judgmentalism that comes in
the area of music.
Nothing is hotter in the Christian scene of
judgmentalism right now than music.
Had another letter this week.
Someone asking me why am I crusading in
favor of contemporary and Christian rock music.
I'm not crusading, you know, this is not
a major thing with me, but I am
crusading against judgmentalism, against writing people off because
of their music.
I don't even like a lot of this
Christian heavy metal music.
In fact, I don't like a lot of
musics of different varieties.
I'm not sure how I decide what I
like or don't like.
But I know one thing that a lot
of these people into these different kinds of
music love the Lord.
What an amazing thing that Sheila Walsh and
her group, who's ever helping her with this,
are back on British television again.
We know probably some people are turned off
by that kind of music.
All they have to do is switch the
channel.
Why would they continue to watch it if
they don't like that kind of music?
It is supposedly all aimed at reaching the
lost.
It's not aimed at trying to just bring
controversy.
This controversy will be with us a long
time.
Do you realize in OM we don't have
any heavy Christian rock music going on anywhere
within OM?
So if someone starts going after us because
they think we're promoting this kind of music,
they don't know what they're talking about.
We have a higher calling.
We have so much to do.
We are trying in OM to choose a
road that will be least offensive, but at
the same time we don't want to judge
other people.
And some of you probably were converted to
Christ through some of these different kinds of
music.
It's interesting when we get uptight about somebody,
we turn the binoculars on that person and
try to get them on something.
Amy Grant overnight became incredibly famous.
Got on the secular stations across the world.
Christians all thought it was great for a
while.
Then they turned the binoculars on her.
She said something a little bit way out,
I don't know, about sex.
That's the last thing you want to mention
anything about if you want to stay out
of trouble.
Whatever you do, don't mention anything about sex
or don't ever use the word sexy.
Imagine using the word sexy among Christians.
But the men never, of course, get accused
of being sexy.
I don't have an easy answer.
I'm not justifying something that Amy Grant maybe
shouldn't have said.
I haven't researched it.
I haven't had the privilege of meeting her.
I only listen to her tapes.
Now I can't even find them.
I must have sold them.
But it is interesting when you're in the
music ministry, how people will come down on
you.
And most of those people never talk to
the person first.
And the Word of God says, if you
have something against a brother or sister, why
don't you go?
And you can pick up the phone and
even get through to these people.
Don't think.
You can.
Or you can write them a letter.
I write letters to Christian leaders when I
sometimes see something that I feel I can't
agree with.
But most of the time these people aren't
confronted, especially by the people who write these
articles.
The articles are just written.
And I tell you, you never hear the
end of it.
And I personally feel that history shows that
God has used a wide range of music.
And I know that even in O.M.
there's division on this issue.
And I give a plea for patience, for
open-mindedness, for avoiding being judgmental, and for
not making 2 plus 2 equal 4.
I think it is ridiculous to think that
the greatest tool of the enemy today is
rock music.
I want to tell you the devil had
plenty of tools even before the New Testament
was written, much less before television came.
The heart of man is deceitful.
Evil and wickedness abounded in the England of
Charles Dickens.
And I don't think they were watching television.
I don't think you could prove that London
was worse today than it was back in
some of those days.
I don't think you could really prove that.
You get some history scholars and talk to
them, rather than some little evangelical fish who's
had a Mickey Mouse course in ethics at
Joe Blow's Bible school down the road.
Another area where we so easily judge one
another is the area of sports.
It's interesting, however, that in general sports are
considered quite healthy among the more traditional middle
class suburban Christians.
Sports are clean.
Another boxer was killed last week, but you
know, sports, good, clean fun for the kids.
But other areas of culture are written off
completely.
I don't know.
I'm still a learner.
I don't think we have much of a
problem in judging people over sports here in
the West, but I can tell you in
India, leaders have been judged for playing games
on their lawn and gossip.
The more powerful force that Satan uses to
me, far beyond any wrongs or extremes in
these areas, and wrongs and extremes are possible
in these areas.
Anything can go into an immoderate situation and
be harmful.
Another area where we, of course, so easily
judge one another is when it comes to
possessions, finance and materialism.
We need a whole message on that, and
maybe I should give that later on.
But oh my, how OM has suffered at
times from people judging one another's lifestyles.
People judging because someone's car was a few
years newer than someone else's car.
I have to confess that at times some
subtle twitch in me has almost reveled in
driving the greatest piece of junk I could
find.
And I tell you, it was not easy
when some years ago I got that Ford
Landliner, that little motor caravan, which was a
lot better than the stuff I had been
driving previously.
Even though it was very old, it was
still...
For OM, I will tell you, I had
comments between here and the Middle East.
And now, of course, I have my own
luxury coach, right?
I tell you, it's been a great experience
to step out of that motor home in
America and somebody think I'm a rock star.
Skinniest one in the world.
But I want to tell you, if we
get caught up in all these things, always
wondering what people are thinking, always wondering what
people are saying, trying to avoid all of
the judgments of people, we won't function.
You'll eventually end up paralyzed.
We all believe differently and we change.
I've changed.
I'm still changing.
If you think I've got beyond the borders
of biblical doctrine, please write me very, very
soon.
Different people live in different size houses.
You know, if we judge one another within
OM on these things, basically, we're all living
fairly close.
Really.
There may be a few exceptions that I
don't know about.
What are we going to do when we
leave?
And we have people in our church who
are living in homes maybe worth a million
dollars.
How are we going to relate to that?
How are we going to walk in the
home?
What group of inconsistencies will we create in
our thinking in which we do engage in
double think in order to survive society and
where it is today?
Do you know one of the reasons people
have trouble re-entering normal society when they
leave OM?
It's this.
They're constantly judging people.
They can't go through one day without judging
someone.
And you know, I just wouldn't want to
function that way.
And so when it comes to finance, materialism,
possessions, we know it's a difficult area.
There are Christian books absolutely contradicting one another
in this area.
And it's just a problem area where we
need a lot of patience, a lot of
wisdom, and a lot of love.
Keep reading.
Keep studying.
Keep listening.
That's so important.
And keep getting to know different kinds of
people.
And you'll discover that there's something far more
important than the house that a man lives
in, a car that he drives, the kind
of suit he has on, the music he's
listening to.
You'll discover his heart.
Such a danger in OM that we judge
by exteriors.
We live in a world of exteriors rather
than getting through to the heart.
Maybe that man is still working for a
beer company.
For some people that would be unthinkable.
How could a Christian...
We all have testimonies of how different Christians
get delivered from these different things, right?
And so when we hear these testimonies of
how a guy got delivered from this or
that, and then we meet another Christian who's
still practicing that and believes that he's a
dedicated Christian, we just freak out, right?
And we fail to realize God is working
in different people in different ways.
And there seem to be some areas...
This one's going to shake you.
Get ready.
There seem to be some areas where God
doesn't care.
God doesn't care.
You attack me on that.
Whether you eat Weetabix or you eat Corn
Flakes, you think that's a big thing with
God this morning.
Now there's another sense where God cares about
everything.
So, you know, read what's on a package
and see whether the Corn Flakes are better
than the Weetabix.
You know, I don't know.
Maybe that's one more paradox.
I'll have to study it more.
The whole area of the arts and culture
has...
Can't we acknowledge as a church that we
had been weak in the area of culture,
the arts.
Dr. Schaefer, when he hit us on this,
you know, we're still shaking.
That this man's so dedicated, so on fire,
so committed, believing the Bible is the Word
of God, much more than anybody, was so
much into the arts and some of the
things he was doing and some of the
things they did at LaBrie.
When we got into that, you know, it
was one of the best things that ever
happened to him.
And when we started circulating Mr. Taylor's book
on discipline and on culture, and my first
reading of that book, The Cult of the
Slob, really, really upset me.
He changed the title.
You know, I sometimes didn't know what was
what.
But I know one thing, that Christians, Christians
can be involved in culture, in the arts.
And mine is a plea for a little
more broad-mindedness, sensitivity.
We are in a city of tremendous culture,
tremendous museums.
A lot of them are free.
Maybe we ought to take a little more
time to expand our horizons in this area.
Of course, the great area where people are
now judging one another is the area of
films, television.
Some believe TV is completely of the devil.
And I saw that little program on the
news last night.
I thought, that is one of the most
powerful pieces of communication people in Britain will
get this week.
And surely people will be stirred through that.
And some people will do something.
Do not think it's just Christians who do
good things.
I will tell you, if it were just
for Christians, the world would just not function.
Somehow, in God's sovereign purposes, it's not that
way.
Our governments and a lot of the things
that have had to take place in the
world, it's not all done by Christians.
That's why there are basic laws of order
and government.
And we're told to esteem government in the
Word of God.
I think that TV can be used mightily
for good.
We have no choice anymore.
Nobody blowing their little horn on the hill
is going to stop the fact that TV
is a major factor in our society.
You can now carry it in your pocket.
You can put it on your wrist.
It's crazy to try to...
No, I don't think they have the TVs
on their wrist yet.
Do they?
But to me, the Christian must find balance.
He must be able to turn it off.
He must be able to engage in intelligent
discussion.
And he should be getting into TV, presenting
the Gospel and communicating that which is good
and that which is healthy.
Beware of judging one another over what film
a person goes to or doesn't go to.
Don't be afraid to have your opinion on
any of these areas.
That's no problem.
Have your opinion.
But be able to keep it as an
opinion or as a conviction.
Have your conviction.
We need convictions on these areas.
But don't judge unlovingly people who believe different,
who practice different, who in their study and
reading have gone down a different road and
have, as I've tried to emphasize over past
weeks, have the ability to compassionately disagree.
You may hear sometime around here, oh, Verwer
doesn't agree with that.
You may be doing something and someone lays
a Verwer trip on you.
Don't worry about that.
Because, though I may disagree with something, generally,
it's not a big thing.
If it were a big thing, probably, you
know, I might write you a note or
come and talk to you.
And how can I possibly do that with
so many people that I relate to?
Let's learn to relax more with one another.
Isn't that a great need around Brahman?
Maybe I'm wrong.
Let's relax.
Somebody says something wild or you've heard he's
just gone and watched Rocky IV or you've
heard that instead of Indian evangelism, the guy
was building a tree hut to watch birds
flying types.
Let's just, let's just relax with one another
a little more.
Let's not shoot mice.
Let's shoot elephants.
Let's save our energy for the big things.
There are many other areas where we get
into judgmentalism.
All strategy in Christian work.
Doctrine, which I'd like to touch on at
some other time, which is one of the
toughest because that's where, of course, we do
believe that we have a very clear set
of biblical principles in the Word of God
that are not movable, not negotiable.
And I'm working on a message, seven, yay,
eight things that OM cannot, must not change.
We're in that, you know, age of change.
Believe me, there are plenty of things in
OM that are not going to change.
They're not going to change.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that you have called
us into spiritual warfare and it's going to
be intense, it's going to be rough, it's
going to be tough.
And we thank you that this means living
life at its fullest.
And it means thinking through a lot of
issues rather than making just sweeping generalizations about
those issues.
And Father, when we think of so many
difficult areas, we sometimes can be overwhelmed.
But Lord, as we take 1 Corinthians 13,
as we take the message of love, and
we get that as the priority in our
life, in practice, in deed, in truth, in
what we say, we believe these other things
will fall into place.
We know, Lord, as a movement, whole teams
could come apart.
Come right apart on some of these issues
and related issues.
Especially as we get upset with one another
and then we overreact and then we read
things into the particular situation that may have
nothing to do with it.
And soon we go away hurt, unforgiving, headed
toward the road of bitterness or cynicism.
And Father, just enable us to be in
the world but not of the world.
And to be able to discern the difference
between things that are part of our culture,
part of life, part of the human factor
that we can be involved in to varying
degrees and things that are clearly sin and
evil and that we must flee from with
all the spiritual running energy we can muster
up.
Lord, we need a whole week for this
subject.
We've just had these 45 minutes.
So help us not to base too much
even on what we've heard this morning.
But enable us to continue to study, to
continue to read, to continue to listen to
people and to continue to search our own
hearts that each one of us would be
persuaded in our own heart on these many,
many different issues.
In Jesus' name, Amen.