Judgment is essentially the righteousness of God which condemns the condemned through various ways. It is done by physical, literal execution; killing the wicked that God justly demands to die. It is done by correction, reproof, and instruction, to restrain the people from iniquity committed in ignorance. It is the duty of all righteous men in the OT. They are motivated and fueled to this work by the inward character which is after the heart of God - "goodness, righteousness, and truth" (Eph. 5). A good man cannot look upon evil without seeking its restraint and cessation. They cannot ignore a blind man staggering to the edge of a cliff, oblivious that it is their last step before their fall into the hands of an angry God. Love moves the righteous to make a redemptive noise. Fear terrifies them and responsibility grips them. Knowing they have been born again to be the voice of saving-help to a world in need of it, negligence to speak is not mere diffidence or complacency but it is criminal and soul-consequential. For them it is a sin which can be judged as murder, biblically called bloody hands (Acts 20). Liability of murder is a consequence of their silence, because by their voice God has chosen to save. It is written, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Cor. 1:21). No matter your stature, age, race, economic status, or financial credit - a saved four year old is accountable to God, if, in the sphere of his little influence he leaves the President of the United States of America unconscious and blind to the true gospel of God in Christ. And remember this, only those who savingly know God are enabled to know the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Those who know His Kingdom by sight do have the right to preach it (John 3:3). Witnesses are those who have had an eye/ear spiritual experience with the risen and saving Lord Jesus so as to declare Him to sinners (Heb. 11:27; John 3:11-12).
Reader, you must deeply understand the murder of negligence! Perhaps then you would honor and respect the relentless compulsion you see in those Christians who cannot live silent toward those who don't want to hear. They have denied the civil respect of a person’s self-supposed right to be left alone. In a world of wrong, you must wrong something to be right, and Christians know it is better to wrong a man’s right in order to fulfill God’s right to speak to His creatures. Under the preeminence of God's command and courtroom, they do stand to testify to all who are in their God-given sphere of influence. You say they judge, but it should rather be understood that they do speak the judgment of God which they know through scripture, because it is by scripture they see the danger of God’s judgment upon you. Christ came to save sinners, not leave them alone that they might hasten to hell because they love the devil’s world of sin (2 Cor. 4:4). If God didn’t want to interrupt the course of this world as 7 billion people race to hell, then He would END this world’s existence - having no way to save it, He would no longer suffer it.
What do you think Christ is doing in Christians right now? Do you remember that He is still alive in us? Echoing in their illuminated mind is the eternal significance of souls. God, who is distant and removed from sinners, IS indwelling Christians to tell sinners what they don’t want to hear. They cannot perceive that eternal life and death are consequential ends to how they hear Christ speak through Christians, but Christians know it’s so. They weep, cry, pray, hope, fight, and tremble in this cause of witnessing. They hear their Commander’s frightening word in their conscience, “Hear the word at My mouth and give them warning from Me” (Ezek. 3:17). “Speak unto them and tell them... whether they will hear or whether they will forbear” (Ezek. 3:11). “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul” (Ezek. 3:18-19). And so, the righteous cannot be content to leave the wicked under the illusion of peace and play, when God is speaking from His written word threats, punishments, eternal burnings, and surprising disasters, with no assurance of another day.
As a Doctor contends with a failing heart to bring it to life, Christians contend with dead men with dead consciences to bring them to the Prince of Life. Wise men are not blind men. They see, therefore the eternal significance of time and eternal judgment compel them to CONTEND. "If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest" (Prov. 29:9). An obedient Christian does not leave sinners at rest - neither does God leave a disobedient Christian at rest as much as the Christian is leaving sinners at rest. Do you know this experience of walking with God who is ever-minding eternal judgment? When God arises to speak, He enlivens His Christians to meet the cause without any other sense of relief but to do the deed. As Jeremiah said, “For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in His Name. But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jer. 20:8-9). Paul said, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5). A wise man contendeth with a foolish man (Prov. 29:9), as God contends with a foolish world; therefore, a Christian becomes “a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth” (Jer. 15:10)! What a lamentation! The world is against this unpleasurable good, so it is said, “every one of them doth curse me” (Jer. 15:10). Multitudes maximize our hurt and suffering in this cause, but God speaks soundly: "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment" (Ex. 23:2). “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than God, judge ye” (Acts 4:19). Take heed how you judge, lest God, in Christians, trouble you no more. Then this saying will be true of you, “it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46).
For a Christian, silence is murder, and speaking is guiltless innocence from the inevitable second death coming upon damned souls. We strive to be “free from the blood of all men” (Acts 20) who will enter into the eternal winepress of the wrath of God to be crushed in gnashing pain. Soul-murder, how terrifying it is! Yet even more, if you silence Christians from speaking you unknowingly participate in the soul-murder of all persons who this Christian would have been used to speak to. It is therefore, a soul massacre, a mass murder, even a hellish, whorish, devilish holocaust. If you seek to silence Christians, and implement circumstances where others cannot or will not hear their words, you are not only contrary to your own soul’s eternal well being, but you “are contrary to all men: forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved” (1Thess. 2:15-16). The cry of your sins will reach high heaven if you do such a thing. You will get the attention of God. Even as it is said of these men, they “fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thess. 2:16).
According to God, "The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way" (Ps. 25:9). The meek love judgment even when it is upon themselves. "Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee" (Prov. 9:8), "but a scorner heareth not rebuke" (Prov. 13:1). They, by grace, love what God loves, for "the LORD loveth judgment" (Psa. 37:28). They agree with God, therefore, that "the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment" (Psa. 37:30). "It is a joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity" (Prov. 21:15). When saints obey God and seek the execution of all types of judgment, then righteousness and its light does shine forth to the salvation and eternal preservation of many. As God said, "Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth" (Isa. 16:3). Judgment is the restraint and hindrance of wicked men and wickedness. Likewise, therefore, it is the defense of righteous men and righteousness which contend for the help and salvation of the oppressed, innocent, and needy. God, in His people, "doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment" (Deut. 10:18).
If the righteous in the OT neglected judgment, they were damned. Those who refused its practice were the wicked. "An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity" (Prov. 19:28). "The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them; because they refuse to do judgment" (Prov. 21:7). When God is angry with a nation, whether they were His people or not, the negligence of judgment was part of the weighty sin (Matt. 23:23) which caused wickedness to reach the ears of God, sparking unrelenting wrath to fall. Judgment is a matter of eternity in the OT. Read carefully: "For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry" (Isa. 5:7).
Speaking to His hellbound people, He saith, "Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isa. 1:17). Again He saith, "How is the faithful city become an harlot!" What is their sin to deserve such a name? “It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers" (Isa. 1:21). When men judge themselves and others, the wrath of God is restrained from annihilation. God judges men here on earth so that they will escape His eternal Judgment. If, or when, God brings restoration and salvation, it is expressly stated, "I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness" (Isa. 1:26-27).
So many were, and are, needlessly damned because they excuse the necessity of judgment, bow down to the fear of man, respect men's persons, and hate the hardship that accompanies its execution. Judgment has many adversaries, and its establishment requires many physical executions and deliverances for the oppressed in need. Hell's chief artificer, the Devil, is a sleepless inventor of riotous seditions against saving judgment. Never! Never is the night sky of this world clear, for, streaming through the atmosphere are fire-blazed arrows falling upon the shield-laden and armor-shod righteous. These arrows are strung, aimed, and shot by intelligent supernatural beings of pure wickedness. Heaven's war began with Satan's usurpation of a third of God's holy angels. This third were mistaken to admire Satan, for he was the most beautiful of God's angels. Nevertheless, GOD, the Highest of the high, expelled His one-time friend from Heaven like a lightning strike. Breaking forth like a flood of waters, a third of the angels rushed toward God, and let the reader understand - He did NOT arise from off His Throne. He did not stand up to engage the fight, He did not gasp before their angelic might – No! They could not take Him in the rush of surprise! - for with one glance He “beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). The most beautiful angel turned into a hideous reptile-like creature left to wander in a war he cannot win. His unholy footsteps go to and fro throughout the whole earth to advance the gates of hell upon all men. World War against the human race began with the fall of Adam and never ceases until the extermination of the Adamic seed. Oh that man would awake to see a world at war and the race of most men employed in the Devil’s instrumentality (Eph. 2:2-3)! Oh that man would consider this - that Satan and hell rule in men! Then perhaps they would have some kind of hesitation before they give themselves over to the emotional feelings of hurt, offense, and anger when they hear the word of God, because they would be frightened to think that Satan is working in their thoughts and feelings (1 Cor. 2:16, Rom. 8:5-9, Eph. 2:2-3, John 8:34-47). Sin was first in the Devil before it was in Eve. “He that committeth [is habitually enslaved to] sin is of the Devil; for the Devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8).
Judgment is condemning to the flesh because God condemns flesh, commanding all men to be born of and live in the Holy Spirit. In judgment is wellness and the good Spirit of God for peace, rest, and hope – by death to the flesh (Rom. 8:13). Men do always seem to downgrade the dangers that follow negligence. God reasons for judgment and therefore salvation, saying, "Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?" (Jer. 22:15) "Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually" (Hos. 12:6). "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph" (Amos 5:15). "Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger" (Zeph. 2:3).
Satan's weapons of war for damnation are false doctrines. These are typified to be wine and strong drink which intoxicates men inhibiting them from true judgment and its saving work. God says this: "But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment" (Isa. 28:7). No prophet or speaker on behalf of God, who neglects or perverts judgment, is sent by God. God warns against their doctrines like He warns against drunkenness, "Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted" (Prov. 31:5). False prophets live to make men drunk and damned. They "gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not" (Amos 2:12). In this way they do "turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth" (Amos 5:7). God's call of salvation in the midst of counterfeit Judaism or Christianity was and is, "But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24). "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools" (Ecc. 7:5).
Those who know these things of judgment do tremble in its cause. They are likened to be the only sober men in a world of drunken men who stagger and swing fists of rage against friend or foe, who laugh and cry at nothing here, or something there, and without restraint pour forth every thought of their evil hearts only to forget it all on the morrow and excuse it as innocent, unregretful play. Have you ever met a drunken man who was able to reasonably attend to his God-given conscience? Sober men do know that judgment is the burden of the Lord, and that the Lord is in it. Every time there was a revival of salvation, the leaders of God's people revived judgment and clarified its meaning in truth. “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the Day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:6-8)
In the Revival under Jehoshaphat he charged the priests and judges, "Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment" (2 Chron. 19:6). Those who are saved come to know this truth that the Lord is in judgment. I remember the words of Elihu when he said, "Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away" (Job 32:21-22). This is the sobriety necessary to judge and do the right! We live in a world of roosters caged together - relentless, animal-like mercilessness, bloody fights, and death are all for territory and trailing females devout to their worship. If someone could do the right, he would separate these roosters called men, but only God can save these animal-like creatures by re-creation (2 Cor. 5:7). Salvation is another creature! Tame your animal-like nature and understand; you are in God's world and have no territory or right to be a sinner. You have no right for silence, privacy, free speech, or a long life. God sends Christians where they are uninvited to speak and preach, and they don't take orders from men which contradict God. There is no property to respect. Sinners are set on their own Godless pleasure, that is, happiness as long as they are without God. A sinner’s wish list is to continue without bother from God’s voice spoken through His cross-bound messengers. Men think the Devil is their friend, sin is their pleasure, hell is a far off dilemma, and their present livelihood is securely owned in their power. Shall a man leave lepers to gnaw off their numb feet as they sleep in the night? God has a call against this spiritual catastrophe! “Therefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14). “And at midnight there was A CRY MADE, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him” (Matt. 25:6)!
God extensively taught on judgment: its ways, its balances, and its hindrances (Lev. 19:15, 19:35, Deut. 1:17, 16:19). If you feared the face of man, you were blinded in its correct execution (Deut. 1:17). If you favored some above others by class, financial status, and any category of honor, like familial relations of your own blood, all these things were a perversion of judgment (Lev. 19:15, Deut. 16:19). If you knew and feared that the Lord was in it, you would execute it faithfully.
