The Gospel of John

The Righteous Judgment

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 19- 70

Genre:

Track: 019

Dictation Name: RR197L21

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Year:

Let us worship God. Oh Lord open Thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. For Thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart oh God Thou will not despise. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we come into Thy presence mindful that our times are in Thy hands who doest all things well. Thou hast set Thy seal upon us, Thou hast made us Thine own, give us joy therefore knowing that whom the Lord loves He chastens, He disciplines, He prepares for time and eternity for an eternal inheritance of glory. And so we come to Thee to cast our cares upon Thee who carest for us, to rejoice in Thy love and Thy grace, to give thanks unto Thee for all our yesterdays. Knowing they come from Thee and have a glorious purpose in Thine eternal providence. Our God we thank Thee, in Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is John 7:10-24. Our subject: Righteous Judgment. John 7:10-24.

“But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.

11 Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?

12 And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people.

13 Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.

14 Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

15 And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?

16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

20 The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?

21 Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel.

22 Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.

23 If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?

24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

After his brothers went to the Feast of Tabernacles our Lord Himself went to the feast not openly but secretly. The leaders in Jerusalem expecting Jesus to be there tried to locate Him, they wanted to arrest Him secretly and try Him. There was the great public expectation of seeing Him because everyone was supposed to go, every male, to the feast. Jesus had aroused nationwide interest and the curious pilgrims looked for Him some saying He is a good man, while others labeled Him a deceiver. At the same time as this wide spread interest and murmured talk went on all kept their interest quiet for fear of the leaders. These leaders are described by John as the Jews. The reason for this curious designation by John, a Jew and one related to prominent leaders, was a religious one. Our Lord’s followers were Jewish also but John sees the term Jew as a religious description, even as Christian came to be a like term. By following Jesus they were no longer Jews. In the midst of the eighth day or of the eight day festival, in the middle of it, Jesus went to the temple and began to teach openly. By making His appearance so public He forestalled a secret arrest. The people marveled at His teaching asking ‘how did this man gain so much learning since He lacks formal schooling or teaching?’ Our Lord’s answer is of central importance to John’s gospel ‘my doctrine is not mine but His that sent me’. Moreover He said ‘to know God’s doctrine we must do God’s will’. Then we will know whether Christ speaks from God or from ordinary human sources. This knowledge has a moral and religious foundation.

If any man wills to do God’s will, if they seek earnestly and actively to do God’s law they will know God’s requirements. Such knowledge is not simply an intellectual exercise, it requires a harmony of man’s will and life to the law of God. Moreover, if any man seek his own glory rather than the glory of God he is outside of God and there is no truth in him. Those who seek God’s glory are true, our Lord says, and there is no injustice or unrighteousness in them. Now what our Lord says goes against everything in the philosophical and intellectual tradition from Plato to the present. That heritage insists on the ability of man’s reason, whether pure or practical reason to come to a knowledge of truth irrespective of the moral character of the thinker. This means that on every kind of issue the reasoning of a murderer, a homosexual, or a habitual liar or criminal is as good as the reasoning of a moral man. The premise of such thinking is that moral character has no effect on thinking. When you study modern philosophy from Descartes to the present you find that it is the rare person in that tradition who is a man of good character. We’re not told the truth about many of these philosophers who were routinely studied in philosophy courses as the great minds of civilization nor are we told the truth going back to Socrates and Plato about them, because if we were told what contemptible wretches some of these men were we might not think they were such great men after all. It is a tragic fact that one of the men most highly regarded since World War Two was a man of particularly degenerate character. Well, all such thinking denies the fact of the fall. Evidentialists within the church who think they can prove to the ungodly the truth of the faith believe that the ungodly can be converted by rational proofs.

That means they discount the fall and human depravity and insist on a neutral rationality common to all men. But such people claiming to be rational, claiming to be scientific, despise everything they profess. Recently one very prominent scientist spoke of evolution as beyond doubt a proven fact. It violates every law of science we know. It requires billions of miracles. As I’ve pointed out before Darwin himself said there was no way through the theory of evolution of accounting for the eye. Well there was no way of accounting for anything but it is taken as an article of faith. Evidentialists in the church do assume that there is no fall. They may if you ask them about the fall say of course I believe it but when they begin their rational arguments with the ungodly they assume there is no fall. Here is our proofs that demand an answer. They insist on a neutral rationality common to all men and it is this that our Lord rejects totally. Man is not objective reason, he is a fallen, created being who is at war with his maker. There is not a neutral bone in his body and his every atom is a part of his revolt against God. Reason is a tool whereby fallen man denies his fallen being to assert an independence which he claims in order to separate himself from God. This is why our Lord says they that do the will of God shall know the doctrine. Those who believe and obey, they understand.

Ronald A. Wells wrote and I quote:

“The law especially in its commandments expresses the will of God. The law expresses the will of God, they do not obey it any more than they believe in Him, then how can they recognize the origin of His teaching, how can they see the word, they are seeking His death though they deny it.” Unquote.

Our Lord’s words are indictments of all philosophies that begin with man and His judgments, man’s experiences and man’s reasoning. Then in verse nineteen our Lord makes a statement that expresses their faulty and vicious thinking.

“19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?”

What a devastating statement to make to the Pharisees and Sadducees who prided themselves as being the champions and the law keepers. Why do you go about to kill me, He added. They professed to be followers of Moses but the law given by Moses condemns them. Our Lord tells them in Plumber’s paraphrase ‘you are all breakers of the law and yet would put me to death as a breaker of it’. Our Lord here first of all makes public the plan to kill Him and He thereby confounds their plans. Everyone was waiting to see Him wondering what would happen when He appears, so suddenly He appears in a very public place and He says they are going to kill Him, well that forestalled what they planned to do, how could they go ahead with their plan when He had exposed it. So public a statement made it difficult to do anything against Jesus without confirming His charges. Then second the people against Him denied that they sought Jesus’ death.

His statement had left them in an indefensible position. And third they countered also that He was demon possessed. A ridiculous charge against a miracle worker who had done good. The miraculous feeding and other miracles had to be common knowledge. Then our Lord turns to the miracle of healing at the Bethesda pool. According to the Pharisees and the Sadducees a man could be, in fact had to be, circumcised on the Sabbath if that were the eighth day. Why then is a miracle of healing on the Sabbath morally wrong. The law required circumcision according to the common interpretation on the eighth day. Well we know now that the reason for the prohibition of the first week was because there was no ability in the blood for coagulation, it only developed on the eighth day of the child’s life but God knew that of course because He made us. It is interesting that now they will circumcise on the first day by giving a coagulate, injecting a coagulate in the blood stream. But the law required waiting seven days but as it was then interpreted it supposedly invariably required circumcision on the eighth day. If this eighth day fell on the Sabbath the circumcision was still required and it was not required as Sabbath breaking. Let me add that this kind of Phariseeism did invade the church. In fact for a long time it was held that baptism had to be on the eighth day. But this legal nicety is illustrative of Phariseeism. The emphasis was shifted from circumcision into the covenant to a strict requirement that it be done on the eighth day.

Then our Lord says judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment. In terms of the Pharisaic rules the healing at Bethesda was a violation of the Sabbath but circumcision on the Sabbath was not. In such a perspective legalism had replaced morality. The details of the law replaced the spirit of the law. When Paul tells us the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life he has reference to this kind of pharisaic practice. This point is a very important one because too many church men are guilty of the same Phariseeism. To illustrate: Matthew 7:1-2 commonly used with Pharisaic intent by many reads:

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

Now it is a common interpretation on the part of idiots within and without the church that this statement forbids all judgment whereas what it tells us is that if we judge with false non-biblical measures or standards we shall be similarly judged. What is required of us as our text tells us, our Lord tells us, is to judge righteous judgment, just judgment, with God’s law as our measure of judgment. Earlier in verses sixteen following our Lord had made clear that His message and work are from God. The rabbinic method of teaching was to cite authorities for all statements.

Our Lord cited His: God himself. His came from the almighty one, from God, Jesus then uses the example of circumcision on the Sabbath to vindicate healing on the Sabbath. They could not answer Him from the bible; He had clearly confounded them by His use of the Bible so they accuse Him of being demonic. He therefore summons them to stop their evil judgments and to judge righteous judgment. This meant a moral judgment instead of one based on legal technicalities. Today our legal system, our courts, are riddled with Phariseeism. They rely on technicalities, not on the meaning nor the spirit of the law. Our courts are therefore evil and anti-Christian. This came in early in this century. It quickly spread from coast to coast as I recall it, it started here in California in the first decade of this century and it was a bonanza that was quickly seized upon by lawyers and courts because it gave the Pharisees within the profession who had no regard for the spirit of the law, for the meaning of the law a means of playing games with the law. Our Lord condemns this. He makes it clear that we can know the truth, we can know true doctrine, we can know what the law means if we do the will of the law giver, God. At no point do they deal with that argument. They attack here, there and everywhere but never once in any of the gospels do the Pharisees and Sadducees, the scribes and the lawyers come to grips with that argument.

If any man do His will he shall know the doctrine. This is how we grow. This is how we gain power to confound the enemies of God and man: by knowing and doing. By obeying and learning. This is the way and so we can gain a knowledge beyond that of the theologians and the philosophers when in faithfulness to the law of God we believe it, we learn it, we apply it. He that doeth the will of God, he shall know the doctrine. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee that Thou hast shown us what we should do. Make us eager to study Thy word, to believe and to obey that we may know the doctrine that we may have that peace which comes from knowing and being in Thy will. Bless us to this purpose we beseech Thee, in Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question] Does the bible shine any light upon an infant does not have coagulants in the blood for seven days?

[Rushdoony] No it just tells us that fact which has only been really explored and discovered in our lifetime, I believe.

[Question] Then is man’s introducing coagulants earlier than the eighth day thwarting the will of God?

[Rushdoony] Yes!

[Question] There must be some purpose there for the infant not to have any.

[Rushdoony] That’s a very important question and a scary one, why do they do it? Why are they so determined to play God? In a great many ways we try to do that which God does not permit and the consequences we don’t know.

[Question] There are a lot of things, a lot of chemical changes going on in an infant’s body that the necessity of nursing immediately in order to establish the antibodies in the infant’s body and I’m thinking that perhaps during that first initial period that the coagulants in the blood stream might either depress the effect or have some sort of depressing effect on the immune system of the infant.

[Rushdoony] Yes. A few years ago a couple I believe in Texas called me. And they had a problem in that their son was born, they wanted him circumcised but not on the eighth day and they had to go out of town, they had to contact some people who were Jewish and find a Jewish doctor who would be cooperative. Because most regard circumcision as a, oh, a silly thing and were against having it done and regard it as child abuse.

And the few that were ready to do it wanted to give the child a shot immediately and do it. So this is a kind of attitude we encounter. If God said it, let us despise it. Are any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Question] To go along with that I asked my doctor about the ribs in our body, he said that the male has one less rib than the female.

[Rushdoony] I’m not sure about that, I don’t know, the point is what is translated as rib is not literally rib, that’s a mistranslation, it means flank, out of his side.

[Question] He said that the body had, a more…

[Rushdoony] I don’t know enough about it to say anything. Well, let us conclude now with prayer.

Our Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast made Thy way so clear for us. Give us grace to do Thy will that we may grow in our knowledge of the doctrine. Grant us Thy peace, for Thou hast said peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth I give unto you let not your heart be trouble neither let it be afraid. In the world ye shall have much tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Oh Lord our God how great and marvelous Thou art and we praise Thee. We glorify Thy holy name, we thank Thee. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.