Judge Yourself That You Be Not Condemned

There is an area in which, in spite of everything, there remains a lack of understanding. I hope understanding in this area increases here this evening. The subject for this meeting is that everything—and this applies to salvation, too—operates according to laws. Just as there are natural laws, there are also spiritual laws, and everyone is equal according to these laws—everyone is treated the same. If we don’t know these laws of life, we can, for example, be in darkness when we pray. We could ask God to do something that is completely contrary to His laws of life.

The fundamental law governing salvation, from the beginning to the very end—from the time that we are just beginners until we are perfected—is the law of humility. This is written about in one of Peter’s letters and in James’ letter, word for word the same. But we have this wretched superficiality: We read quickly over it, and we get a little impression, but we haven’t really seen what is written. It’s possible to read for years in this way and still not understand this law of life. The law reads: “God gives grace to the humble.” Then there is the opposite: “The proud (the high-minded, the puffed-up, those who are wise in their own eyes) “God opposes.” When you are not humble, and yet pray for grace, your prayer is confused. If you had a living faith in this law of life, you would not be able to kneel down and cry out to God for grace. You get grace by humbling yourself. What you could do, in a pinch, is to pray for grace to humble yourself, but you can’t just as a matter of course go around praying incessantly to receive grace just because you are in a predicament and need help. Your condition can be so bad that God is opposing you. Then you are certainly praying in vain, completely in vain.

Since they are even more important, spiritual laws are, of course, at least as certain and unalterable as natural laws. These laws are like one another. You can’t sow potatoes and harvest strawberries, no matter how badly you want to, no matter how much fertilizer you put on, no matter how much rain you get, and no matter how thoroughly you work the ground in order to create ideal growing conditions—it’s just not possible. Neither is it possible to receive grace when you are not humble.

People are humble to one degree or another, and high-minded and proud to one degree or another. The amount of grace you receive cannot exceed the degree of humility that you possess.

The strongest words that we have concerning humility are the words of Jesus: “. . . he who humbles himself will be exalted.” I usually add, whether he wants to be or not. God loves such people. Even if they prayed not to be exalted, they would be exalted anyway. That’s how certain this law is. I think every single person should be able to understand this, regardless of who he is. This matter of humbling yourself, voluntarily, is not a common thing. It’s not possible to do it unless you have a degree of self-acknowledgment. Of course, the thing I have to acknowledge is that I am too high up and because of that, God is resisting me. Then the obvious and liberating thing to do is for me to humble myself. When you humble yourself, you will be looked down upon by all foolish people, and looked up to by all wise people. In any case, quite apart from what either foolish people or wise people think, you will be exalted. In other words, to be afraid of humbling yourself, to cringe at the idea, to have the attitude that it is the worst thing that you can imagine, is, spiritually speaking, insane—completely senseless.

To humble yourself of your own accord is first class. That is what you ought to be in love with, and use every opportunity for. To humble yourself means that it is voluntary, and isn’t done just because other people think that you should do it. This alone is first class. But God is exceedingly gracious and merciful, and therefore it can also go well even when it is second class. Second class in this connection is to be humbled. This is something that God Himself undertakes. It isn’t always that a person can be saved by this means, but there is a possibility. However, there is a condition for being saved when you are going second class, and that is that you completely acknowledge and accept the humbling or humiliation, not just with your mouth, but with your heart. Then you will be exalted.

Now you need to listen very carefully and really sink your teeth into what is said because this is a matter of the laws of life, which are alike for everyone. There’s no exception whatsoever, in anyone’s life. Everyone is dealt with according to these laws, even the unconverted. There are differences among them, too—sinners are not all alike. We have several dreadful examples of this. Hitler, for example, wanted to conquer the whole world; he didn’t have enough living space. It almost looked like it was going to succeed for him, too. It was amazing how much land he conquered, but he ended up alone down in a cellar with Eva Braun. That was an example of pride going before a fall. Before destruction, a man exalts himself. That’s the worst possible thing you can do. Nothing worse than that exists. It is, in the truest and most profound sense of the word, fatal. God tolerates, you almost have to say, everything else, but not that. God resists the proud; He is their opponent. Where will you go then? He, who so intensely desires to save us and exalt us, transform and glorify us, is the opponent of those who exalt themselves.

There are, no doubt, many, even among the friends, who sin against others in daily life and don’t acknowledge anything—they never ask for forgiveness; they don’t even apologize, which should be much easier to do. For such people it is a matter of course to defend themselves “tooth and nail.” They grasp at every straw in an attempt to defend themselves—they use everything that they can find. When you do that, you explain away your own salvation; you are working against your own salvation. The only way to be saved is through self-acknowledgment. There’s absolutely no other way. You have to have self-acknowledgment; you have to humble yourself; you have to abase yourself; you have to judge yourself and not judge anyone else. We have a deadly serious word about this in 1 Corinthians 11:31-32. Develop an interest in these verses! Really sink your teeth into them! These verses express some unalterable laws of life. “But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged.” This is easy to understand: when I have judged myself, the matter is in order, and if anyone else were to judge me, he would be too late. The usual thing is that people defend themselves instead of judging themselves. They excuse themselves instead of judging themselves. “But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened . . . .” What comes next is very serious: “. . . so that we may not be condemned along with the world.” I ask you, is this serious? “. . . condemned along with the world.” Then you are placed in the same class as the ungodly! This is divine love, to the highest degree: When you are not humble, when you don’t have enough sense to judge yourself, God is so gracious, He loves you so much, that He makes sure that you are judged directly by Him—or through men of God. This is the course of last resort. In the judicial system you can appeal a verdict to a higher court. You have neglected to judge yourself, but God loves you and has one last possibility, and that is that you will now be judged. But the big question again is, just as was mentioned before, whether or not you will accept this judgment. If you don’t, you will be condemned along with the world! You can read all you like, but that’s what it says. I would really like to ask: Who has taken such heed to God’s Word that they have noticed this? I’d guess that, practically speaking, no one has. We have a great need of the fear of God! When things aren’t as they ought to be, the solution is always the same: The problem comes from a crying lack of the fear of God. People don’t take God’s Word with a deadly serious attitude, but it is deadly serious.

It’s as simple as “one, two, three.” If we judge ourselves, we won’t be judged. Of course not—there won’t be any reason for it then. But when we have neglected it, God is so gracious that He judges us in order to give us another chance. And if we don’t accept this judgment, this humiliation, this humbling, then we will be condemned together with the world.

When reading God’s Word people often say, “I don’t understand this.” That’s the wrong expression. The right expression is: “I don’t believe this.” You permit yourself not to believe it. It’s written in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God. What are we to believe? We aren’t to believe just anything. No, but we are to believe all of the words of life in the New Testament, everything that Jesus and the other apostles have said. In other words, there are not a lot of different ways to be saved. There is only one way to be saved and that is to acknowledge the truth, be humble, judge yourself, totally abstain from judging and criticizing others, from making demands on others, or from even having strong wishes that the others should be different than they are. All of these things are of the same spirit, just different degrees.

To make forceful demands is devilish, and a strong expectation is the same as mixing yourself up in another’s business instead of minding your own business. Even a slight desire that others should be different than they are is a little bit of a demand. It is all of the same spirit, just with different degrees of strength. This is so clear. You can’t say that you don’t understand what is written. That isn’t possible. There are places where you could say that, but you can’t say that about this, and you can’t say that about what is written in Peter’s and James’ letters either: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” We can’t say that we don’t understand what is written here. However, we can choose not to believe it, or, what is most likely, neglect to understand that it is a law of life which is always in effect for everyone, as long as they live.

To defend and excuse yourself is the greatest folly imaginable; it is to reject salvation. We should always seek the best; we ought to seek what is “first class,” and that is to judge ourselves, humble ourselves, and abase ourselves of our own volition. This is the greatest, most glorious, most rewarding, and most effective thing that we can do in each situation, every moment of our lives.

I sincerely hope that your understanding of the laws of life will increase tremendously this evening, even though you may have had some understanding of them before, which is the case with many here. But it is not so with everyone. Far, far from it! Whatever the case, I hope that your understanding increases tremendously!

We can put it another way. Everything revolves around this one thing: God treats everyone the same, in accordance with these perfect laws of life. If you have nothing to acknowledge, there is nothing to be saved from. Actually, it goes without saying—it’s almost a superfluous comment—that there is no such thing as humbling yourself too much, but there is such a thing as not humbling yourself enough. That is found on every hand. No one has ever humbled himself too much.

We have several brothers who have been among us, who are still alive, who have come into such a state of darkness that they regard humbling themselves completely and fully as the worst thing they can imagine. They choose rather to be outside of the church; they choose rather to perish than to humble themselves. A greater or blacker darkness does not exist. Some of these brothers have heard repeatedly and clearly from me that they can still become perfectly happy, even though they have been so far off, but only in one possible way, and that is to humble themselves to the degree that is acceptable to God. God is the one who decides whether it is acceptable or not. He is the one who gives grace or doesn’t give grace; no human being can do that. He is the only one who can give grace, and He is the only one who can withhold grace. And He does all of this in accordance with His Word. In the worst case, we run the risk of having God as our opponent, and then it isn’t easy to find anyone who can help you. Read these scriptures over and over, again and again so that they abide in the depths of your heart, and remain there for the rest of your life. Then you will get the full benefit and help from these scriptures, and then you can help others—those who will allow themselves to be helped.

I wish the best for each and every one of you! First we have to seek our own salvation and then the salvation of others.

One more time: In the deepest and truest sense, this is what everything revolves around. You can squirm and protest all you like, but it is all in vain.

I wish you all the greatest success! Best wishes for an indescribably glorious future, a tremendously thorough salvation! It is only God who can give grace for that. He likes to give grace for that; He really likes to. That’s what He wants for each and every one, more than anything.