Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome back to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
So nice to see you all here for our Sunday night service.
Find your seats now.
Grab a song, but go to Hymn 257.
We'll begin this evening.
Hymn 257.
257.
Look and live.
Hymn 257.
Once you find your place, let's sing it out together
on that first verse.
Hymn 257.
Sing it out together on that first verse.
Hymn 257.
I have a message from the Lord.
Hymn 257.
Sing it out together now.
I have a message from the Lord.
Hallelujah.
The message unto you.
Amen.
Taste the glory in His Word.
Hallelujah.
It is only that you love and live.
Look and live.
Hallelujah.
My brother,
Look to Jesus
now and live.
Taste the glory
in His Word.
Hallelujah.
It is only that you love and live.
Amen.
I have a message full of love.
Hallelujah.
I have a message unto you.
Amen.
Taste the message from the Lord.
Hallelujah.
Jesus said it
and I know it is true.
Look and live.
Look to Jesus
now and live.
Taste the glory
in His Word.
Hallelujah.
It is only that you love
and live.
Life is offered
unto you.
Hallelujah.
The eternal life
this home shall have.
If you only
look to Him,
look to God.
Look to Jesus who you
can't see.
Look and live.
My brother,
Look to Jesus
now and live.
Taste the glory
in His Word.
Hallelujah.
It is only that you love
and live.
I can tell you how I feel
Hallelujah.
Look to Jesus
when He made me whole.
Just believe in
His name.
Hallelujah.
I trust Him
and He saved my soul.
Look and live.
My brother,
Look to Jesus
now and live.
Taste the glory in His Word.
Hallelujah.
It is only that you love
and live.
263
Verily, verily
Hymn number 263
Sing it out together in that verse now
Oh what a Savior that He died for me
Hymn number 263
Sing it out together now
Oh what a Savior
that He died for me
What a combination
He had made me free
He that believeth
on the Son of
and He
at everlasting
time
Verily, verily
I say unto you
Verily, verily
message ever new
He that believeth
on the Son takes truth
at everlasting
time
All my
iniquities on Him were
lame
all who believeth in
Him was lame
all who believeth on Him
the Lord has said
at everlasting
time
Verily, verily
I say unto you
Verily, verily
message ever new
He that believeth
on the Son takes truth
at everlasting
time
All my
iniquities on Him were
lame
all who believeth
on Him
the Lord has said
at everlasting
time
Verily, verily
I say unto you
Verily, verily
message ever new
He that believeth
on the Son takes truth
at everlasting
time
And on the last
though all unworthy
and I will not down
for in the coming
He will not cast out
He that believeth
on the good can shout
at everlasting
time
Verily, verily
I say unto you
Verily, verily
I say unto you
Verily, verily
message ever new
He that believeth
on the Son takes truth
at everlasting
time
Alright at this time we'll go through our announcements together
if you don't have a bulletin slip up your hand nice and high
we'll get to you with one
on the inside we have our service time
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service
Sunday nights at 6
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study
this week will be in 2 Chronicles chapter number
24
we've got the soul winning times listed there below
as well as salvation and baptisms
congratulations to the Jeffrey
family on baby
Abigail born on October
14th please
pray for Mrs. Jeffrey's speedy
recovery and then we're taking
the yearbook portraits and
there are only a few more weeks left on this so if you
haven't already be sure that you get
signed up right away because
November 3rd is the deadline for that
and you want to make sure to get those
high quality portraits taken
for free everything at our
church is always free
that's how we operate
one of the reasons that we operate that way is
because we don't want to make the Father's house a house
of merchandise that was something
that made Jesus very upset
when sales were going on
at the house of God but not only that
you know for me
making everything free at
church allows everyone to be
included and no one's
left out because they can't afford to
participate in so you know oh I can't go to
that church activity because I can't pay the entrance
fee or whatever and then uh people
can't participate when they're struggling financially
so we just make everything free
and God has always blessed
us financially we've always had an abundance
of money we've never
uh run out of money as a church and so
we're thankful for that God has
uh blessed us indeed
uh the chili cook-off October
31st is uh Thursday
and it's next Thursday
and it is from
4.30 to 7.30 right here at the
church building the chili cook-off
is just a fun time of fellowship we don't
celebrate Halloween there are no costumes
or anything like that it's an alternative
uh to just have a wholesome
time with church friends
and family and we
will have the chili cook-off where people bring
a chili to enter it into the contest
so as many people as
want to can bring a chili and enter
it we'll take the first 20
chilis and they also have to come in by
five o'clock and then we will also
provide side dishes
and we provide some good side
dishes okay these are the side dishes
cornbread
bean dip and
spiced apple
cider okay and any one
of those three things is enough
to get excited about all three of them is
almost it almost overwhelms the system
to even think about it
let alone all of the exotic
chilis that are going to be coming in
all the different chilis to try
so it's a it's really a
culinary tour de force
so you got the chilis you got the bean dip
you got the cornbread you got the cider
and a good time of fellowship
and so again that
is October 31st
on the back we've got the missions conference
this is a big one
November 6th through 10th be sure to go
over all those details and
think about what you want to participate in
and we're going to have a lot of fun things
going on during that week that's
about it for announcements let's
go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days
going back to Thursday anything to report
from Thursday
okay anything else
from Thursday gotcha
okay and then how about
Friday
okay
got it
is that
are you telling me about soul winning or is there a problem
with my microphone because you're
what's that
four for today alright excellent
thank you put that down
uh
anything else from
Friday okay how about Saturday
okay got you and then
okay
alright got it
anything else from
Saturday and then what about
today Sunday
okay
gotcha gotcha
okay got it
alright
was that a three okay
how many fingers am I holding up
alright
alright anything else from
today okay got it
anybody else that I'm missing
yeah it's man it's getting
hard to see out there
alright
alright I see a child
with their hand up but I don't see anyone else
alright very good keep
up the great work on soul winning and with
that let's sing our next song come lead us
alright you should find the insert in front of your hymnal with
Psalm 11 if you don't have an
insert you can raise your hand
and we'll sing it on that verse together
oh
thank you singing let's take your
salt mix down to him number 60
hymn number 60 face to face
with Christ my Savior
hymn number 60
we'll sing it out on that verse now
hymn number 60
holy
place to face
in all his glory
I shall see
him by and by
but rejoice
in his presence
when our limits
breathe in pain
when
the drunken waves are
straightened
and the dark
things shall be
plain
face to face
I shall behold him
far
beyond the starry sky
face to face
in all his glory
I shall see
him by and by
face
to face
a blissful moment
face
to face
to see and love
face
to face
with my redeemer
Jesus Christ
who loves me so
face
to face
I shall behold him
far
beyond the starry sky
face to face
in all his glory
I shall see
him by
and by
alright at this time we'll pass our offering plates
around as the plates go around
let's turn our Bibles to Romans chapter 13
Romans chapter number 13
as we always do we'll read the entire chapter
beginning in verse number 1
follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads
Romans chapter 13
beginning in verse number 1
Romans chapter 13 the Bible reads
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers
for there is no power but of God
the powers that be are ordained of God
whosoever therefore
resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance
of God and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation
for rulers are not a terror to good
works but to the evil
wilt thou then not be afraid of the power
do that which is good and thou shall have
praise of the same for he is
the minister of God to thee for good
but if thou do that which is evil be
afraid for he beareth not the sword in
vain for he is the minister of God
a revenger to execute wrath
upon him that doeth evil
wherefore ye must needs be subject not only
for wrath but also for conscience sake
for for this cause pay ye
tribute also for they are God's ministers
attending continually upon this very
thing render therefore to
all their dues tribute to whom tribute
is due custom to whom custom
fear to whom fear
honor to whom honor oh no
man anything but to love one another
for he that loveth another hath fulfilled
the law for this
thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt
not kill thou shalt not steal
thou shalt not bear false witness
thou shalt not covet and if there be
any other commandment it is briefly
comprehended in this saying namely
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self
love worketh no ill
to his neighbor therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law and that knowing
the time that now it is high time to
awake out of sleep for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed
the night is far spent the day is
at hand let us therefore cast off
the works of darkness and let us put on
the armor of light let us walk honestly
as in the day not in rioting and
drunkenness not in chambering and
wantonness not in strife and envy
but put ye on the lord jesus christ
and make not provision for the flesh to
fulfill the lust thereof
you got this opportunity to come to church please just help us to be
attentive to your word and learn something
here tonight you stand pray amen
man the title of my
sermon this evening is outside your
jurisdiction outside
your jurisdiction you probably have heard
this word jurisdiction before
and i looked it up in the dictionary
it has four different definitions in
the dictionary let me go ahead and go through these with
you number one the right
power or authority to
administer justice by
hearing and determining
controversies right so it's really
the right to judge
in a particular situation
definition number two power
authority or control
definition number three the extent or
range of judicial law
enforcement or other
authority number four the
territory over which authority
is exercised and if we look at
all four of these definitions
they're pretty much just saying the same
thing four different ways it's really just
one definition of the
word and most of us are familiar
with this from a law enforcement
perspective right so you
know we're in the city of tempe we're
in the tempe police department's
jurisdiction if we're
over committing crimes in chandler
or phoenix we're outside of
their jurisdiction if we go from one county
to another or one
state to another we're going to be dealing
with different law enforcement
because they each have a certain
territory within which
they are supposed to be exercising
their authority exercising
justice and sometimes they'll
even be chasing someone
and then they stop chasing them
because they don't want to go over into some
other jurisdiction where they're not
really supposed to be
operating well the bible
also has this concept
of jurisdiction
meaning that we as human
beings don't just necessarily
have the right to pass
judgment on everyone
or in every situation or in every
area there are these different
realms of authority that
god has given for example
i'm the pastor of the church
that does not give me authority
in your home right to come into
your home and tell you how to
run your house or something that's
not within the realm of
my authority i have authority in the church
as the bishop of the local
church but i don't for
example have authority over
the city of tempe or
things that go on outside of the church to
start enforcing laws or passing
judgment on things that are happening
out there right and conversely
also you are
the head of your household you can't
necessarily go to your neighbor's house
and start telling them what to do and how
to run their house you are in charge
of your house not theirs
the government of course has
a certain realm of authority
where they are there to punish evil
doers people like thieves
and murderers and rapists
and things like that they punish
those people who are breaking the
law who are criminals right
but do we want the civil government
running the church
do we want them coming in and saying
this is how the music is going to be
this is how the preaching is going to be that's
outside of their jurisdiction they
have no right to judge
what's happening within the church right
the church we don't want the
church running the government either
you say i don't know that sounds pretty good
no it doesn't because it's not going to be the church
that you think that's running the government
it's going to be a church you don't want that's running
the government it's going to be the Roman Catholic Church
or something like that and of course
the church needs to stay in its own lane
the government needs to stay in their lane
the family needs to stay in their lane
there is jurisdiction
that is taught in the Bible now flip over
if you would to Romans chapter number 14
you're there in chapter 13
look at chapter 14 verse 4
and the Bible reads
who art thou
that judgest
another man's servant another way of saying
this is who do you think you are
judging another
man's servant that's
none of your business okay
he is responsible to his own authority
to his own master not
to you to his own master
he standeth or falleth
yea he shall be holding up
for God is able to make
him sin who art thou that
judges another man's servant he said
so point number 1 tonight is that
judgment needs to be carried out
by the proper authorities
right it's not right
for us to judge another man's
servant he is responsible
to his own master and
so we need to have the right authority
doing the judging jump down to verse
9 if you would it says for to this end
Christ both died and
rose and revived that he might
be Lord both of the dead and living
but why dost thou judge
thy brother or why dost thou
set it not thy brother
for we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ
so what the Bible is saying here is that our brother
who is our peer
who is our equal not under our
authority but rather just someone
that we are uh peers
with it says you know
Christ is gonna judge that and
we shouldn't judge our brother
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
let us not therefore
judge one another anymore
but judge this rather
that no man put a stumbling block
or an occasion to fall in his brother's way
what's he saying judge yourself
right worry about yourself
that you're not causing your
brethren to stumble and stop
judging another man's servant
to run other people's lives
in areas where you have
no actual authority or jurisdiction
stay out of it that's number one
judgment needs to be carried out
by proper authorities
okay number two
criminal matters need to be
judged by the criminal justice
system go if you would to chapter
13 you see we as
Christians are supposed to follow
the law of the land we live in the
United States of America and
there is a criminal justice system
that is appointed
to deal with criminal matters
now of course the criminal justice
system is not necessarily
right or righteous
or following the Bible
in some ways they do follow the Bible
in other ways they don't follow the Bible
it's a human institution some
countries are going to have a better
criminal justice system than others
but at the end of the day that
is what is there
and God has ordained that
we allow the criminal justice
system to do its
job and so if there are
people who are criminals
and they need to be dealt with in a serious
way we need to allow
the criminal justice system to do
that we can go back into
the Old Testament and see that
God appointed literal
judges and officers you don't have to
turn there but I'll read this for you from Deuteronomy 16
18 judges and officers
shalt thou make thee in all
thy gates which the Lord thy God
giveth thee throughout thy tribes
and they shall judge the people
with just judgment and so
we have human authorities
judges and justices
and officers that are set up
to pass judgment in
criminal matters
chapter 25 of Deuteronomy if there be a
controversy between men
and I want you to pay special attention to that word
controversy if there be a controversy
between men and they come
unto judgment that the judges may
justify or excuse me
that the judges may judge them
then they shall justify the righteous and
condemn the wicked
and it shall be if the wicked man
be worthy to be beaten that the judges
shall cause him to lie down and be beaten
before his face according to his fault
by a certain number
and so again if there's a controversy between men
they come to judgment
the judges are there
to judge them and to punish
the guilty and to justify
the righteous okay
now the reason I point out the word controversy
is because judging
takes place when there's a controversy
see judgment
isn't really necessary when things are just
obvious and clear you know
for example if I'm at the store
with someone and I
see them shoplifting
and I say to them
hey you just
stole from this store
that's wrong you need to go give that back
that's not me judging
them because
there's no question about that there's no question
that the Bible says thou shalt not
steal and you just stole
that okay you're wrong
okay so when it comes
to judging we're talking about
things that are controversial where we're
trying to figure out who done it
or we're trying to figure out who's
right in a situation where there
are gray areas and where
different people are saying different things
or different people's opinions are in
play and there are people
human beings in the
justice system that have to make those judgment calls
police officers
judges they're not necessarily
always going to be doing it right
but that's their job
and when it comes to serious
crime it needs to be dealt
with by the criminal justice system
let's look at the Bible here in Romans 13
verse 1 it says let every soul be
subject unto the higher powers
for there is no power but of
God the powers that be
are ordained of God and so
God has
ordained that in this world there be authority
why do children have
to obey their parents because
God said so why do wives
have to obey their husbands because God said
so why are we supposed to
obey the magistrates and the governors
and the civil authorities because
God said so right
all kinds of philosophers
have thought about this over the years and you know
where do kings or
magistrates or governments where do they
derive their power and
of course in the French enlightenment you have this
idea of the social contract
that they derive their power from the consent
of the governed right
that there's a social contract where we give
all the power to the government
it's of the people
by the people for the people and
obviously those ideas have heavily influenced
our system here in the United
States of America and obviously
you know there's a lot of merit in those
ideas there are a lot of good things there but
at the end of the day though the problem with that
philosophy though is that it leaves out
the fact that God is the ultimate
ruler and that God has
actually ordained that there
be authority and that
authority emanates from God
and so the powers that be are
ordained of God there's no power
but of God meaning that all
legitimate authority ultimately
emanates from God parents
have legitimate authority because
God said children obey your parents
wives
submit yourselves to your own husbands
servants be obedient to your masters
according to the flesh right
fear God honor the king
right obey magistrates
these things are in the
Bible and that's why we
believe that we need to do them
because ultimately by obeying
your parents your husband the
magistrate the governor your boss
at work you're ultimately obeying
God because there's no power
but of God the powers that be
are ordained of God does everyone understand what I mean by
that now look at the next
verse it says whosoever
therefore verse 2
resisted the power resisted
the ordinance of God and
they that resist shall receive to themselves
damnation and notice that the key
thing here in verse 2 is not
the person it's the
power okay
so you could have a person
that you don't like a person
that you don't agree with but at the end of the day
you need to respect the power
you need to not resist
the power so you say well
my mom's this my dad's this
the governor's this but at the end of the day
though there's a certain respect that you need to have
for the power powers
that be ordained of God hey my boss at work
is this that and the other hey you need to obey
your boss at work why cause he's the
boss you know it's it's funny
we were talking about this this morning after church
I guess someone was pulling
out an old clip of my preaching
where I was saying
you know you shouldn't constantly
be you know trying to prove
to your children that you're right
or constantly trying to prove to your wife
that you're right all the time because then you're
sending a message to her that basically
she should obey you because you're right
or that your children should obey
you because you're right and at the
end of the day that's really not why your children
should obey you or why your wife should obey you
they should obey you because you're the
boss because
otherwise they might get this attitude that says
well as soon as I don't think you're right
I don't have to obey you anymore
that's why you have to keep proving to me that you're
right all the time no the reason
why we obey authority
is because the authority has been appointed by
God that's why
now look obviously
we want to explain things to our followers
we want to teach the people that
are under us we want to teach them what's
right and wrong we want them to understand
why we do the things that we do but at
the end of the day though there's a time
and a place to just say cause I
said so
and we don't have to sit
there and explain everything to everybody
every time sometimes it's just
cause I said so
okay and you know what
everybody used to know that
everybody used to believe that everybody
used to say that probably
everybody in my generation and older was told
that by their parents like
on the order of 5,000 times
cause kids are why
why why cause I said so
how many times have we
heard that we've all heard it
now there's a time
and a place to explain and to teach
and so forth but there's also
a time and a place to just say well
that's just how it is and let's
move on no time
to sit here and prove it to you and
explain it to you every single time
and again like I said it sends the wrong message
you know uh
and somebody said that these were the people
that were posting this clip were posting it in a negative
way I was thinking like well I almost
want to post that clip because it you know
to me I'm just like
amen sounds great
that's why I said it
that's why I uploaded it to the internet
that's why I preached it from the pulpit
cause it's true
but you know it says in uh
Romans chapter 13
verse uh 2
whosoever therefore resisted the power
resisted the ordinance of God and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation
now of course when we see the word damnation
in our vernacular this has come
to be synonymous with going to hell
or something like that and of course that's
not what is meant here in the Bible
the word damnation simply means
condemnation it's just another
synonym and
if you think about the word con damnation
if you took the con off you would just have
damnation which is like
damnation and so these words are
used interchangeably maybe you could
use make an argument that maybe damnation's
a stronger word but at the end of the day
that's what it means we're not talking about
necessarily going to hell here okay
we're just talking about you're going to
be condemned you're in
sin you're wrong if
you're resisting authority
in your life that's what the Bible says
verse 3 says this for rulers are not
a terror to good works but to the evil
wilt thou then not be afraid
of the power do that which is good
and thou shalt have praise of the same
now of course this is not going to
necessarily work 100% of the time
but this is a generality
just like the book of Proverbs speaks
in generalities and the general
truth here is that in general
if you do good
you will be praised by authority
even an unjust authority
even an unreasonable authority
even a froward authority if you
do well in general
you will still be praised by that
authority because even if you look
at a guy like Nebuchadnezzar or something
you know who's really prideful
and arrogant and haughty
and so forth there are plenty of
prophecies that describe him as that
but at the same time
guys like Daniel and Shadrach
and Meshach and Abednego you know were able
to climb the ranks in his organization
just by doing a good job
right in general
if you do that which is good you
will have praise of your authority
okay and then you don't have to be afraid
of the punishment
do that which is good and thou shalt have
praise of the same for he is the minister
of God to thee for good but if thou do that
which is evil be afraid now
let me just stop right here and tell you
that Romans 13
is giving us great principles
on authority and
power in general
but the actual
immediate most relevant
context is talking about
the criminal justice system
okay so obviously these
principles go for all authorities
in our lives okay and so we don't
want to be these people who only
can take a
scripture in context
only and not understand that the Bible
often has a broader application for the
truths that it teaches but
it is good to sometimes home in
on that in context
actual relevant meaning and that's
what we're doing right now in the sermon because remember
point one was that judgment needs to be carried out
by the proper authorities but point number
two was that criminal matters
are to be judged by the criminal
justice system how do I
know that this passage is most
primarily speaking about the criminal
justice system because it says
he beareth not the sword
in vain right
the sword here is talking about
a literal sword talking
about actually literally
killing people okay
today it would be the gun
or the gas chamber or the
noose or the lethal injection
or the rifle or whatever
but the idea is a
deadly implement and so
when the Bible says here if
thou do that which is evil be
afraid verse four for he
beareth not the sword in vain
for he is the minister of God
a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil
we are most specifically
talking about the criminal justice
system okay
now like I said
it's a great teaching on authority in general
that's backed up elsewhere in
scripture that all authorities are
ordained by God and that we need to obey the authorities
in our lives but the specific
context here is the criminal
justice system and so the Bible is saying that
that criminal justice system is ordained by God
it is a revenger
to execute wrath upon him
that doeth evil now what's interesting about
this wording here is that if we say the Old Testament
we have this thing called
the revenger of blood right
and in the Old Testament
the system is much different
than what we have in our American
criminal justice system you don't
have a police force
in the Old Testament it's more
like a citizen's arrest that happens
and there are judges and there
are proper channels through which things
go but the revenger
of blood is often just a family member
or some kind of a bounty hunter
type that just goes and just kills the
person that has committed
murder or whatever
but in our modern day
in the day of the Romans
where the Apostle Paul is writing to the Romans
you know it's not like that there isn't
just a guy who's the revenger of
blood that we read about in the Old Testament
instead we have this criminal
justice system that has
officers and magistrates
and police and judges and things
and what he's saying is that that is
a revenger
so in the Old Testament we have the revenger of blood
but in the New Testament we are
just you know following the
laws of the land that we live in because we're not living
in the Old Testament nation of Israel
and so the policemen, the judge,
the courts, the criminal justice system
is a revenger
to execute wrath upon him that doeth
evil right they're going to punish people for stealing
they're going to punish people for murdering
they're going to punish rapists and
so forth and so he
in that sense is the minister of
God meaning that God
has appointed that there be
a criminal justice system again human
human authority is never going to be perfect
no father is a perfect
father no husband is a perfect husband
no boss at work is a perfect boss
no pastor is a perfect pastor right
everybody's imperfect and of course the criminal
justice system is very
imperfect because of the fact
that it's not even claiming to be Christian
or follow the Bible so it's going to be
even further from the
standard of God's word than say a
Christian father, a Christian husband
a Christian pastor
a Christian employer right
and just like heathen fathers
and heathen husbands and heathen
employers are going to be further from a biblical
standard but at the end of the day
though the Bible does not say
obey authority when they're right
obey authority when you
like them obey authority because
you've decided that they're doing a good job
no it's just that the powers that be ordained of God
and you need to just
obey
wherefore you must needs be
subject not only for wrath but also for conscience
sake so he's saying there are two reasons
to obey authority number one
if you don't obey they're going to punish you
right and so you fear that
punishment of your immediate
authority right whatever that authority
is let's say it's your boss at work
you know he's not going to flog you
but he can dock your pay
he can give you a demotion he can
take away money from you or he can fire you
right there are repercussions
that are going to happen when you
you disobey your parents you're getting a spanking
right and so the idea here
is that there are two reasons
to obey authority number one because of
the wrath of that authority you don't want to
incur the wrath of an authority figure
you don't want to incur the wrath of the criminal justice
system right you don't want the DA
going after you you don't want the cops
after you right
so you need to be subject to those things
not only for wrath but also
for conscience sake the second
reason to obey authority is because
it's the right thing to do and you want to have
a good conscience before God
so number one you don't want the punishment
on this earth
from them specifically and number two
you don't want God upset with you
you want to have a good conscience toward God
for this cause pay ye tribute
also for they are God's ministers
attending continually upon
this very thing render therefore
to all their dues tribute to whom
tribute is due custom to custom
fear to whom fear honor to whom honor
and this is why we as Christians pay our taxes
okay we pay our taxes
now we don't necessarily
like the high taxes
that we sometimes have to pay
we don't necessarily like where our tax dollars
are going but at the end of the day
Jesus Christ was clear when he said
render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's
and to God the things that are God's
and so we pay tribute
we pay taxes multiple scriptures on that
I did a whole sermon on that and so
we should pay that now while we're in Romans 13
before we move on to the next point let me say
this that we are to obey the
higher power that's
the first thing that God says in verse 1
let every soul be subject to the higher
powers now higher
power
is a comparative degree there
it doesn't say the highest power or the high
power higher okay
so that means that if we have two authorities
that come into conflict
we obey the higher power
and I've never been in the military
but I'm assuming that this is
true and I believe that this is true
that when you're in the military if you get conflicting
information from two of your superiors
you're probably going to go with the higher
ranking guy what he's telling you to do am I right
about that you know
because he outranks him and so his
orders mean more than the lower guy
on the command and so at the end of the
day the highest power is God
therefore
if the civil government
or the criminal justice system is telling us
to do something that is sinful
or telling us not to obey
the bible or that we're not allowed to obey the bible
we ought to obey God
rather than men that's what the bible says
okay if your
husband is outright
telling you to do something sinful
then you should not
do it you should obey God
if your parents are telling you to do something
that is outright sinful
then you need to obey God
okay so nobody's telling you to
do something wicked and just blindly
follow authority and if they tell you to
murder you'll murder and nobody's saying
that okay because you're subject
to the higher power now
even in the united states we have
this idea because the highest law of our
land is the constitution of the united states
any law that violates the first amendment
is null and void
the supreme court has ruled on that
exact point and
they have said that any law that is
repugnant to the constitution of the united
states is null and void and does not have to
be obeyed because
the higher power is the
constitution okay some
local city can have some
ordinance that's unconstitutional you don't have to
obey it okay that's the way the law works
but
here's the thing
99% of the time
99.9% of the time
you are able to
both obey God
and your human authority and to
bring those into
harmony
some people would maybe try to
use this as an excuse to disobey
their husband
or their parents or their
you know whatever
to say oh they're telling
me to sin or something like that
but 99% of the time
this is bogus
and it's just an excuse because
almost every single time you're able to
bring these into harmony and obey
both your parents and God
both the boss at work and God
now sometimes you're going to be in situations though
where there is a conflict right
for example
your boss at work wants you to cheat
or steal or something like that right
and you're going to be in those situations
and those can be tough to deal with
but what we should do in that situation
is strive to try
to please both if at all possible
right if you're at work if there's
a way to make the boss happy
and make God happy
because obviously God doesn't want us to cheat
and steal and lie and commit fraud
so you got to find a way to keep both of those
or for example let's say the boss at work
is asking you to do things that are illegal
you know and so you've got the states
authority and you've got your boss and you know
you always want to try to bring these
things into line
any way that you possibly can okay
and the vast majority of the time
you can figure out how to
you can be like Daniel and figure out
Daniel chapter 1 where
they want him to do something that's sinful
and he figures out a way to make them happy and make
God happy at the same time and you get to
Daniel chapter 3 and you kind of
just have an irreconcilable difference here
you know you got to bow down to this idol and they just say
we're not going to do it so in Daniel 1
we have something that can be reconciled
in Daniel 3 it can't be
reconciled right that's life
okay but when it comes
to your parents or your husband it's very
rare that you can't reconcile
these things but look if your husband's telling you
hey you need to have an abortion
that's murder you're not going to
do that that's not right
you know we ought to obey God rather than
men so ultimately we
want to always obey the higher power
in any given situation
and ultimately that leads to God
at the top of that chain of command
and so we should not
disobey the Bible but again
sometimes people
you know want to try to create a conflict
where no conflict actually exists
right and claim
that oh I'm just obeying
God or I'm obeying the Bible and look
when I say that we
ought to obey God rather than men here's what I'm not saying
oh your husband's sinful therefore
don't obey him that's not what I'm saying
I'm saying if your husband is commanding
you to do something sinful
you don't need to do that sinful thing
but if he's sinning
that's not your problem
you're not the boss of him
if he's a sinful dude well
sorry that you married such a sinful dude
but at the end of the day he's going to answer to
God for those things you're not his mommy
you're not his parent you're not his boss
it's not your problem
so number
one was that you know
judgment needs to be carried out by the
proper authorities number two criminal
matters are to be judged by the criminal
justice system
okay now if you would flip over to Job
chapter 31
Job chapter 31
Job chapter number 31
here's the thing though is that
as I mentioned earlier
the criminal justice system will sometimes
fall short and not
do their job properly they're not
necessarily following the Bible
they won't necessarily carry out judgment
on things that they should be carrying out
judgment on and
so this is why I
get to point three which says that
civil matters not criminal matters
but civil matters
or areas that the government
does not enforce
are to be judged by the local church
they're to be judged by the local church
okay look at Job
chapter 31 verse 9 the Bible
reads if my heart have been deceived
by a woman
or if I've laid weight at
my neighbor's door now what's he
talking about here Job saying look
if I was hanging out at
my neighbor's door
because I'm committing adultery with his wife
it's a poetic way of explaining this
but he's talking about if he's
being with
another man's wife
then let
my wife grind unto another
and let others bow down upon her
because remember Job is being accused
of being a sinful guy
nobody can really point out exactly
what sin he committed
but they're saying in general that he's
committed sin and that he's been
wicked and so Job is defending
himself and saying I didn't do this
I didn't do that and one of the things he's
saying is he's saying I didn't commit adultery
and he's
pronouncing this curse and saying
you know if I did commit adultery
if I was deceived by a woman
and hanging around at my neighbor's door
like that then he says well then
in that case let others
let my wife grind unto
another and let others bow down upon her
he said well then my you know let
that come back around on me and let someone else
commit adultery with my wife
but he's saying
that never happened
then he says in verse 11 for this is
a heinous crime
right and so adultery
is super wicked according to the word
of God amen
and so he says it's a heinous
crime
yea it is an iniquity
to be punished by the judges
ok so again adultery
is not just sin according to the Bible
adultery is also
a crime
it is a heinous crime
and it should be dealt with by
the criminal justice system
amen I mean that's what the Bible says
and of course Leviticus chapter 20
verse 10 says the exact same thing
and so this is an area where our
government falls short we were just talking about this
today after the service and uh
you mentioned that in Arizona
uh adultery is technically illegal
and it's a misdemeanor
you know which is kind of funny because it's this
huge crime in the Bible what is the Bible
called a heinous crime
and in the Bible it's punished by death
but in Arizona it's not even a felony
it's just a misdemeanor
and I wonder how many of these even get prosecuted
you know I
I would guess probably zero
but who knows
so this is an area where our
government comes short don't they
they're not gonna necessarily
deal with everything that needs to be dealt with
there are certain things that are serious
crimes but the government's
not gonna deal with them
and so this is where
basically the church would step in
and pass judgment on
things that the government is not taking
care of okay not only that
but when it comes to civil
matters if you would flip over to 1st
Corinthians chapter 6
if there is a civil dispute
not a criminal matter but a
civil dispute between
church members that needs
to be dealt with by the local church
we should not sue them
in the civil courts
of Arizona
right it's not right
for Christians to sue one another
okay and this is taught
in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 now
some people misinterpret this
because the Bible says not to go to law with
your brother and then they'll say
oh well you can't ever
you can't ever
call the police on
you know your brother in Christ because
that's going to law with your brother but
of course this is talking about a context of a
civil matter now I will say
this you know I don't believe
it's right to call the police
on people unless they've done
something that is worthy of death
something really serious okay
for example you know the Bible says
that if it's just a matter of
being stolen from or being defrauded
he's saying you'd be better off to just suffer
yourself to be defrauded of money
than to sit there and go to court
and try to fight to get your money back or
whatever if you get ripped off
and so forth we should not go to law but
here's the thing if someone commits murder
if someone commits
kidnapping if someone commits
rape if someone commits child
molestation can these
things be judged by the church
no why because the
church does not have a sword
to bear right
the criminal justice
system bears not the sword
in vain here's the
thing about that the pastor has no sword
the church has
no sword so let's say
someone is brought
to us as a murderer
or a rapist or a child
molester or a kidnapper you know what
these are things that the Bible says should be punished
by death these are serious things and
so we can't carry out the punishments that
are necessary on that person and so we should
call the authorities and so
yeah so over the years
we have turned people like that over to the authorities
right when someone was a child molester
if someone you know
we haven't really dealt with any murderers or anything
but the thing is
if people have committed sins that are
punishable by the death penalty then
of course we're going to call the authorities
we've had people steal from us
and we have let it go before
people who stole and we knew
they stole we knew who they were we just
let it go or and you're like oh
you know going to go down there and steal
from Faithful Ward but here's the thing about
that you know
obviously we've
you know we would judge that person and
say hey you need to pay us back or we
would deal with it in house though because we don't necessarily
want to just turn them over
to the criminal justice system
to be punished and
have their life ruined in that way
but here's the thing people who are kidnappers
murderers rapists child molesters we don't mind
ruining their lives because they
are worthy of death according to the Bible it's a sin
unto death and they should be dealt with
harshly and so if anything
the police are not going to be harsh enough with those
kind of people okay so we
we need to understand you know and again
what am I talking about this evening you
know I'm preaching the Bible here
I'm looking through the Bible
and I'm talking about the
jurisdiction of who has the
right to judge in situations
number one judgment needs to be carried out by the
proper authorities it's not our right to just judge
everybody and judge every situation
right no criminal
matters need to be judged by the criminal justice
system okay moral
issues that the
criminal justice system doesn't deal with are
dealt with by the local church the
local church needs to step in and pass
judgment and protect you
and fight for you when it comes
to moral wrongs that are happening
in your life and
I'm not talking about little things I'm
talking about big things like serious
things like adultery
you know fornication
drunkenness somebody
stealing money from you ripping you off
in some way business
disputes and so forth that are of a serious matter
look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 6
civil matters
are to be judged by the local church look at verse
1 of 1 Corinthians 6 dare any
of you having a matter against another
go to law before the unjust
and not before the saints do
you not know that the saints shall judge the world
and if the world shall be judged by
you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest
matters know ye not
that we shall judge angels
how much more things that pertain to this life
if then you have judgments of things
pertaining to this life set them
to judge who are least esteemed in the church
I speak this to your shame now
what does he mean there set them to
judge who are least esteemed
in the church it seems kind of like a weird
thing to say like hey take the
the lowest ranking the people
that you think are kind of bozos
and put
them in charge of judging what he's doing here is
he's using sarcasm
and what he means by this is
that you'd probably be better
off being judged by even
the least esteemed people in the church
than by the world out there
because even the least esteemed people in the church
are probably going to have more
righteous ideas about judgment
than the worldly sinful
criminal justice system or civil courts
and so he says
is it so verse
five that there's not a wise man among you
know not one that shall be able to
judge between his brethren but brother
goeth to law with brother and that before the
unbelievers now therefore there is
utterly a fault among you because
you go to law one with another why do you
not rather take wrong why do you not rather
suffer yourselves to be defrauded
nay you do wrong and defraud and that your
brethren and the idea here is that if
somebody rips you off financially in the
church you don't need to go sue them in court
you need to take it before the local church
and have the church judge
the situation right so
does the church have authority to judge
I mean we just read
eight verses here that are clearly
saying hey the saints are going to
judge the world how much more
does that do the saints have the right to judge
things that pertain to this life the
church has the right
to pass judgment in certain
situations and of course
we know Matthew 18 talks about
people that have a conflict
and coming before the church and the
church passing judgment on
the guilty okay
and people who refuse to hear the judgment
of the church they are ex-communicated
right they are
put out of fellowship they're kicked out
of the local church and the Bible
says that they should be treated like a heathen or
a publican and we should have nothing to do with
them because they're not listening
to the judgment of the church
church passes a judgment it stands
whatever the church binds on earth
is bound in heaven
whatever the church looses on earth is loosed
in heaven and so therefore
God has given authority to the
church to judge in civil disputes
right if we have a matter against another
we have it
judged by the local church
if it's something criminal
if it's something that involves the sword
where we need some we need heads
to roll then
we go to the criminal justice system
does everybody understand I mean look if there's
minor things but they're serious enough that
we need to deal with them the church deals with them
if they're a type
of thing that's a capital crime take
it to the police take it to law enforcement
right let them deal with it
turn it over to them
and so
those things are judged by the local church just back up
it's interesting the context because
we obviously have these chapter
divisions in our bible
but they're not always
a hard break okay so
chapter 6 verse 1
dare any of you having a matter against
another go to law before the unjust and not
before the saints but just back
up two verses to verse 12 and look what the
bible says in chapter 5 verse 12
for what have I to do
to judge them also that are without
do not ye judge them that are within
but them that are without
God judgeth therefore put away
from among yourselves that wicked person
right so the church judges
the people in the church
and if the person refuses to
submit to that judgment well then they're
thrown out and then God's going to judge
them they're no longer our problem
anymore God will punish that person
we move on with our lives we don't
worry about it now if you
would flip over in your bible to James
chapter 4 James chapter number
4 I gotta hurry for sake of time here
number 1 judgment needs to be carried
out by the proper authorities number 2
criminal matters are to be judged
by the criminal justice system number
3 civil matters or
moral areas that the government does
not enforce those are to be
judged by the local church
and then number 4
is this your peers
are not under your jurisdiction
your peers are not under
your jurisdiction and this goes back to point
1 where we saw that
we don't have the right to judge another man's servant
ok and
so we need to make sure that we're not
going outside of our jurisdiction look at
James chapter 4 verse 11
speak not evil one of another
brethren he that speaketh
evil of his brother and judgeth
his brother speaketh
evil of the law and judgeth the
law but if thou judge
the law thou art not a doer
of the law but a judge
there's one lawgiver who is able to save
and to destroy who art thou
that judges another
notice how similar the language is here
with Romans chapter 14
you know who are you that judges
another man's servant who are you
that judges another
now what does this mean because
verse 11 has
perplexed a lot of people over the years
you know sometimes it perplexed me over
the years and I know a lot of people
have thought about this and
struggled to interpret this but it actually
makes perfect sense to me now
when it says he that speaketh
evil of his brother verse 11 and
judgeth his brother speaketh evil
of the law and judgeth
the law how is it
that a person who is
judging their brother is speaking evil of the law
and judging the law because of the fact
that when we judge other people
we tend to be judging them
for things that are not spelled out
explicitly in the Bible
it's like I said earlier with
this explanation about hey I'm with my
buddy and he shoplifts
and I say hey man
you need to go put that back you just stole
that thou shalt not steal it's not really me
judging him because there's
no judgment that needs to be passed
it's just clear it's obvious
it's not controversial but you see
the judgmental types
the busybodies of this world
the people who want to go
outside their jurisdiction and
judge another man's servant and
judge their brother here's
the thing they are typically
judging them about things that
the Bible does not explicitly
say and therefore
what they are saying is that
God's law is insufficient
God's law
is not good enough because we all
know that this
is wrong we all know this is a sin
we all know this is bad something that's not
addressed in scripture at all
but we all know it's bad amen
and the
idea here is that by judging
your brother and saying well I don't care what
the Bible says I don't care
what the criminal justice system says
I don't care what the church says
I don't care what anybody says
he's wrong she's
wrong they're wrong doesn't matter
what the Bible says doesn't
matter what the civil government
they're just wrong because
I said so
and it should just be obvious to anyone
that I'm right
in fact it's amazing that we even have to talk
about this
and so what you're doing
in essence is you are speaking evil
of the law and judging the law because you're
basically saying God's law
is inefficient it is
not effective it does not have what we need
the criminal justice system isn't doing
it and God's word isn't doing
it and the church isn't doing it
so I'm going to pass judgment about
things that aren't even in the Bible
I'm just going to impose my opinion
on my brother in Christ and talk
crap about him which is the modern
vernacular of speak evil of
talk and smack
I'm going to talk smack about him
and speak evil of him well at the end of the
day you know you're speaking evil
of the law and you're judging the law and if you judge
the law you're not a doer of the law but a judge
so being
this kind of virtue signaling
morality police
that's imposing all this morality
that's not in the Bible it does not
make you a godly righteous person
it doesn't make you a follower
of God's law and by the way
when we talk about the law
we could be talking about the Old Testament law
or we could be talking about
Christ's commandments in the New Testament if you want
we could talk about all the New Testament
commandments and things and
so for you to sit there and say
well you know I don't care
what those things say
this guy's
just wrong because I said so and you're
judging him and passing a
judgment upon him well you're
not a doer of the law it doesn't make you moral
or righteous or whatever
and you know we could come up with all kinds
of examples about this of people
just kind of imposing an
extra morality that's not
in the Bible you know for example just think about
Christ and the Pharisees right and what are the
Pharisees say oh you didn't wash your hands before
you ate oh your disciples
are walking through the field
on the Sabbath day and they're eating the ears of corn
as they walk through the field on the Sabbath day right
these are things that are not in the Bible
and they think that they're judging
the disciples but what are they really doing
they're actually judging the law
because the law never teaches those things never addresses
those things but they're saying well it doesn't
matter they're wrong it's wrong
it's a sin because I said so
even though it's not in the Bible
and so they end up
judging the law not being a doer
of the law but a judge
and then they're basically imposing
all kinds of things
and look we could look throughout history
and we could give you tons of other examples for example
in the previous generation there
was a rule in independent fundamental
Baptist churches that men needed to be clean
shaven and I've
been in churches where no one was allowed to get
behind the pulpit if they had
any facial hair whatsoever
I've even heard pastors
get up and preach against
having facial hair as a man
now this is obviously absurd
because the biblical characters
almost all of them had facial hair
including Jesus Christ
so this is bizarre but
this is just the way things work
people get these kind of man-made traditions
and they impose these rules
and these ideas that are not
in the Bible so getting up and being strict
and saying oh well skirt down to
the knee that's not enough you got to go down to the ankles
you know you you got to
have a clean shaven face
as a man or what you know just kind of
making things up that
aren't biblical this doesn't make you godly
okay getting up and saying hey
you know you can't eat
these particular foods
these foods are off limits these
meats are off limits you know that
doesn't make you godly it makes you
adding to the word of god and it makes
you a judge of the law and
a critic of the law rather than
a doer of the law and
so we don't want to impose rules
upon people that are not biblical
there's one law
giver who is able
to save and to destroy who are
you right who art thou that
judges another okay
so therefore when you have people
talking smack about other people
saying this guy's a bad
husband this guy's a bad father
do you have a chapter and
verse on that well the bible says love your wives
and I just you know in my opinion that's not what
he's doing
you know and just just kind of
just making up your own rules as
you go along that you're not a
doer of the law you're a judge
because at the end of the day let's
face it many of god's commands have
a lot of room for interpretation
don't they
lots of room for interpretation
a lot of god's commandments are just kind
of just generally telling you what to do
and it's up to you
to figure out how to do that
you know I think we can all agree
that
you know god wants us to live
a healthy life
that god want you know our bodies the temple
and that we should
take care of our bodies or something you know
we could show you scriptures that say
you know that your body
is the temple of the holy ghost glorify
god in your body and in your spirit which
are god's cleanse yourself from all filthiness
of the flesh and the spirit and so forth
and so you know we could all
get up and say well you know god
doesn't want us to just destroy our bodies
and that's why virtually all
of us would agree that we shouldn't be smoking cigarettes
right
like virtually all of us would say hey you
shouldn't be smoking cigarettes because
it's just clearly bad for you right
now people in the past may not have known that
and so if we went back a hundred
years or two hundred years or three hundred years
a lot of people might be smoking
a pipe or smoking
a cigarette and they don't even know
that it's that bad or they don't even think it's bad
for them at all right
and so you know these people aren't wicked
or sinning against god but
you know if you know if you're in
2024 and it's like we know how bad
for you this is and you're doing it anyway
you're being an idiot
right I mean it's just pretty obvious
but at the same time you know
I'm not gonna go to if I see someone smoking a cigarette
I'm not gonna go to them and say
you're wicked you're sinning against
god or you know because at the end of the day
it's like dude that's you know
they're choosing to do that stupidity
I can't really condemn smoking cigarettes
in the same way I can condemn stealing
okay
but that being said I think
in 2024 virtually all of us
can agree that god does not
want us smoking cigarettes
it's just so that's one of these things that's really
clear and obvious right but then you know the
McDonald's drive through isn't really quite as
clear is it
is it because some people
would say hey that's really bad
for you other people are like dude who cares
like it's not a big deal
it's fine 80-20 rule
whatever
you know that that's just a gray area
right when we start talking about
eating healthy or eating
junk food or something you know what
people have their different ideas some people
sugar is just of Satan
I've had people just tell me that sugar
is demonic it's like it's like
it's like taking drugs
you're like a drug addict if you're a
sugar addict chocoholic or
whatever
but again these are these are areas where
people have differences of opinion
because you just have kind of a vague
idea of take care of your
body the servants of the lord should
be clean your body's the temple
of the holy ghost you know to him
that know it to do good and do it
not to him it is sin these are just more
vague principles and so therefore
everybody's got to kind of figure this
out in their own way
right
I mean look the Bible tells us
to discipline our children
the Bible says you know thou
shall beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul
from hell withhold not correction from the child
chasing thy son while there's hope
let not thy soul spare for his crying
but here's the thing there are going to be a lot of different interpretations
about exactly
how that's carried out and all kinds of preachers
myself included have gotten
up and said this is what I think
is a good way to do that here
are the things that I would do
these are the implements that I would use
these are the methods that I would use
but at the end of the day I can't really
authoritatively get up and say do it
exactly like this
and this guy's wrong because he's doing
a different look I've seen people
over the years discipline their kids
in ways that I personally did not
approve of and you want to know what I did
nothing
I just thought to myself
that's weird I'm not going to do that
that's stupid
but you know what I didn't do
I didn't judge another man's servant I didn't pass
judgment on my brother in Christ because it's not my place
you know I've got up and
taught biblical principles I've tried
to apply those principles to our
lives but at the end of the day if someone
does it different than me I who am I
to sit there look I've seen people treat
their wives
disrespectfully in my opinion I thought they were being
very rude and disrespectful to their wife
and I didn't like the way that they talked to their wife
but I didn't say hey you can't talk to your
wife that way it's like dude that's his wife
I can't sit there and tell
bro how to talk to his wife
you see
what I'm saying I can look at that and say
hey I don't like the way he's talking to I don't think
he's being respectful I don't think he's being kind
I don't think that's right but again
a statement like be kind
give honor to
the wife those are things that are open to
interpretation and open to judgment
and we should all strive to do
the best that we can to follow
the Bible in those areas and do the right
thing according to what we read in
scripture and and you know what
that's what the vast majority of
Christians are doing they're trying to be the
best husband that they can be they're trying to be
the best wife that they can be they're trying
to be the best parent that they can be
and here's the thing at the end of the day though
those decisions are made by
us and not by other people
and
look you what if I told you
that you don't have to right every
wrong in the world what if I told
you that some things are just outside of your jurisdiction
just like the Tempe police
they're not going to go over to Queen Creek and
start arresting people they're not going to
go into Nevada and start arresting people
well here's the thing I'm not going to go
and start involving myself in someone
else's marriage someone else's
child rearing that's their business
you have all these virtue signaling
pastors right now grandstanding
and say well if I find out
that this guy does this and
his marriage or whatever then I'm going to
you know it's like really because that sounds like
you just want to get involved in other people's business
why don't you just stay out of other people's
lives and why don't you do
your job and stay in your lane
and if something's criminal to
the point where it's seriously then why don't
you call the police you want to know why
because here's the thing about the police
the police and the criminal
justice system for all their flaws
and for all their inadequacies
is still way better than YouTube
and it's still way better than a bunch of gossiping
church women and
it's still way better than a bunch of pastors
wives and a bunch of
Facebook groups and Twitter
and everything else okay
at the end of the day the
police and the criminal justice system
at least they actually want to see real
evidence at least they have a statute
of limitations and at least when
they have witnesses testifying
against you those witnesses get
cross examined
and they get caught in lies
and typically when they're
caught in multiple lies they
won't even be allowed to testify in court
the jury's not even allowed to hear them
it's not even just that the
that the defense will make them look
stupid on the stand it's that the defense
will make a motion that their testimony
not even be allowed to come into
the trial at all because
they're an unreliable witness
but when it
comes to the court of public opinion
when it comes to YouTube and social
media and gossips
and busybodies well there's no
cross examination
there's no actual vetting of witnesses
no it's just
everybody gets to give their opinion
and everybody gets to pile on
and judge things that they have no
actual knowledge about
and no actual jurisdiction
over go if you would to first Corinthians
chapter four first Corinthians
chapter number four
and so
what we need to do is to realize
that certain things are just
not our problem and not our business
for example in my neighborhood
I might see children
doing things that I don't
approve of
but I don't have the right to go over there and put
a stop to those things
right? I mean
I could see children in the neighborhood
doing things that I think are wrong
doing things that I think are sinful
doing things that aren't safe
maybe I could go to that parent
because there's nothing wrong with going
to an authority figure and
talking to the right person but what I'm
not going to do is go to some other neighbor and say
hey what's up with what
these people are letting their kids do
you know I might go
to the parent and say hey your kids playing
in the street I'm worried and if they just
say hey mind your own business I'll say okay
no problem
you know I'm not going to sit
there and say hey it's cold outside
your kid needs a jacket
put your kid
in a jacket
now if my kids
outside and I think they need a jacket
I'm going to tell them to put on a jacket
but I'm not going to demand
and I say that because I was
out yesterday and I
was running in the rain
I like running in the rain because you know
your body generates a lot of heat when you're running
and so the rain cools you
down the cold weather so I
it was downright cold outside
and I was running in the rain
it was nice wasn't it
wasn't it nice to finally have a couple cold days
finally in October and so I was
out there running and I saw a
child out there that was
you know wearing very little clothing
and I was thinking man that kid's got to
be freezing
because I'm running and I'm barely
kind of keeping my body heat but I'm not
going to sit there hey you know you're abusing your kid
out here you know blah blah blah it's just like dude
mind your own business you busy
body but we live
in a society where everybody's just
always wanting to get up in everybody else's
business and tell everybody what to do
and right every wrong and fix everything
and it is something that
the Bible is warning us about
stop judging your brother
realize that there's one
law giver he makes the rules
and if it's not violating
rules in the Bible mind
your own okay
and let other people
and if it's something vague you know every
husband every father every
boss at work is going to interpret those
things for himself
you know I mean even as
a pastor there are certain things that I interpret
you know what does it mean to be a drunkard
you know we all know we're supposed to throw the drunkard out
of the church but what does that even mean
to be a drunkard if somebody drinks one beer
are they a drunkard
I would say no
okay now I'm against drinking one beer
I am a teetotaler
I don't think we should drink any alcohol at all
but as someone who drinks one beer
a drunkard so where do we draw the line right
isn't there going to have to be a human judgment
that takes place who makes that judgment
right who makes that judgment
we as the church have to make that kind of a
judgment right and if the church decides
if the church says
hey we don't think this guy's a drunkard
so we're not going to throw him out
we think that he's drinking in
moderation we don't agree with it we don't approve
of it but guess what we don't
believe he's a drunk then at the end of the day you have
to accept that
and you can't just sit there and say well I'm
going to go around and talk crap about this guy
for drinking a beer I'm going to go tell everybody
and gossip about him and do all this
tail bearing because I don't agree with
the church's decision on what constitutes
drunkenness I say
he's a drunk but at the end of the day
somebody's got to make a decision
at the end of the day and once
that decision is made
we have to respect that some
decisions that are just simple
everyday decisions are just made by the leadership
of the church sometimes we'll get the whole church
together and talk about an issue and say hey
this is the situation what do we do
here what do we think and we speak
our minds and we come to a consensus
but either way at the end of the day
you know people make decisions
about things you know I have rules in my home
you have rules in your home and
our rules are not going to be the same
I'm not going to enforce my rules in your
home you're not going to enforce your rules
in my home
it's outside your jurisdiction
the rules in Tempe are different than the rules
in Phoenix
you know you can have some
some places in the city you can have
a goat in your house others you're not allowed
to have a goat
some cities you can only
have four adult dogs
other cities you can have as many adult dogs
as you want
hey you know what those aren't moral
issues addressed in scripture
so we need to leave those things to the proper
authorities
and I don't care if the law says you can have
five dogs I'm saying you can only have
four you know
you can't do that
I got to hurry up I'm out of time
1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3
it says this
why do you say I know nothing by myself
because at the end of the day everything
we know about right and wrong comes from the Bible
not just our own opinions and our own thoughts
yet
am I not hereby justified but
he that judgeth me is the Lord
and so the fifth point is that in
many areas a man's authority
may only be God
sometimes you're going to reach the
top of a certain chain of command and then it's
just God right so you got
kings and governors and magistrates
but here's the thing when it comes to a monarchy
the king is at the top
of that chain so who does the king answer to
only God
in the home you got the husband
you got the wife you got the children who does
the husband answer to when it comes to the matters
within his home only God
pastor of the church
well yeah you got the pastor but who does the
pastor answer to oh well the denominational
headquarters the pope the bishop
what no the pastor answers
only to God
now does that mean I have no authority in my life
that's not what that means because here's the thing
if I go take a class somewhere
then that teacher in that class
is my authority
if I go to work a secular job
my boss at work is my authority
even if I'm the pastor of the church
does everybody understand
and if the city of Tempe
has laws and if the state of Arizona
has laws and if the United States
have laws and they don't conflict
with the Bible or tell me to do something sinful
then I have to obey those authorities
in my life too
but in some areas
there is no higher authority
except God for you
for me it depends on what area
if we're talking about
you know what if there's a woman
who has kids and let's say her husband
is dead and she's a widow
she's the final authority
in that house who does she answer to
God
right who does the husband answer to
God
well yeah but we need somebody to
reign in Pastor Anderson you know
and straighten him out on his preaching
only God my friend
because we're an independent Baptist church
so I don't have an archbishop
or a pope that's going to reign in my preaching
I just don't
there are certain areas that's why
the apostle Paul is saying look
he that judges me is the Lord
and it says in verse 5
therefore judge nothing before the time
the Lord come who both will bring to light
the hidden things of darkness
and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts and then shall every man
have praise of God what's the Bible saying here
look there are going to be certain things
where we don't know exactly
what's right we don't really know who's
right we don't really know what the
situation is and so the best
thing to do is to just stay
out of it the best thing to
do is just to say
you know what let's just let God deal with that
and eventually everything's
going to come out into the light because what does the
Bible say judge nothing before
the time until the Lord comes
who both will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness so we don't have to judge our brother
all the time and judge our peers
and judge our fellows
because at the end of the day God's going to judge
everything so
just let it go
and then the last point is this
judging things that are outside your jurisdiction
makes you a busy
body the
Bible talks about people being a busy body
in other men's matters
the Bible says he that passeth
by and meddles with strife
belonging not to him is like
one that taketh a dog by the ears
it talks about women
who do not have children
and do not have enough housework to
do what they end up doing is
they become idol
tattlers and busy
bodies that's why
they need to marry bare children
and guide the house because that's going to keep them busy
with righteous things so
that they're not just these idol tattling busy
bodies
also men the Bible says the
same thing about men so
what it says about women is that they need to
marry bare children and guide the house so that they
don't become this idol tattling busy body
and you say well pastor Anderson
I just think that you had too many
kids you had 12 kids you just
had too many kids well you know what my wife's
not idol she's not a tattler
and she's not a busy body but I'm
seeing a lot of wives with few
children who are idol
tattling busy bodies
and by the way
I feel like my wife does an excellent job
housekeeping my
house is clean the meals are
good things run
well
oh
it's so funny when you go over to
someone's house and their house is an
absolute pigsty
I mean you're being you're over there
as a guest you think that they would have
at least maybe they did clean up
maybe it was even worse before you got there
but you go over to someone's
house and it's an absolute
hoarder house
it's an absolute pigsty
it's an absolute mess there's
sometimes animal feces on the ground
and just junk everywhere
and just filthy trashed
messed up
not kept well and then these are the people
that are saying you had too many kids Pastor
Anderson
your wife's
too busy
well your wife ain't busy enough based on
your living room
and so the Bible
doesn't just say this about women though
and I'll be done with this uh it
does the same thing about men because it says
this we hear that
there are some which walk among you
disorderly working not
at all but are busybodies that's talking about
men who aren't working enough
he says men
that are not working at all
and so therefore they are
disorderly and they're busybodies so what's the Bible
saying women who don't have enough
to do might be tempted to
become busybodies
men who don't have enough to do
might be tempted to become busybodies it's not just a female
problem it could be men or women
if they're not staying
busy doing the right things
and they become a busybody
in other men's matters
live your
own life okay now
uh let me close the Bible and be done with
the sermon and let me just give one
other little public service announcement
while we're on the subject of being a busybody
you know we've had some people
leave our church recently obviously we still
have a great crowd I think most
fundamental Baptist churches in America would love
to have this crowd on a Sunday night
this is a great crowd
okay
you know and this is after we've lost
some people but here's the thing about that
is that we've lost some people
we've had some people leave the church and that's okay
okay
because look people are going to come
people are going to go and there's nothing
wrong with leaving Faithful
Word Baptist Church it's not a sin
to leave Faithful Word Baptist Church
Amen? The Bible does not command
you to go to Faithful Word Baptist Church the Bible
commands you to go to church
but it does not specify Faithful Word Baptist
Church and there are lots of
Bible believing churches
in this area where people
are walking with God and they love the Lord
and God loves them and they
love God and they're
serving God in their own way and winning souls
to Christ Amen? We're not the
only right church we're not some kind of weird
cult or something that thinks that we have
some special revelation that no one else
has okay there are all kinds of
scriptural churches in this area
for you to go to and the door swings both
ways and you want to go somewhere but
let me say this though is that
people who leave
our church during a
fight like this usually leave the
church the wrong way and are sinful
about the way that they leave
now look if
you and I'm thinking about our current
situation and I'm thinking about
the things that have been going on
and
when I think about this I feel like
there's really only one right way to leave
our church right now in my
opinion okay and that
would be for someone to say well I
think that Pastor Anderson's a bad
guy and that means
he's been a bad guy the whole time
because nothing has changed about
my personal life or my
family life in the last 15 years
and so whatever you
think I did that was so bad this
crap is supposedly stuff that happened
10 or 15 years ago
and so therefore you would
have to believe that I've always been
bad and that my
teachings have always been wrong
my preaching has always been wrong and that I've been leading
you down a dark path this whole time so
in that case if that's your logic that says
well Pastor Anderson's a bad guy
he's not qualified
to pastor and he's not a right
preacher and the things that he's teaching aren't
biblical and they aren't right or
he's teaching the right things but his personal
life is all wrong you'd have to believe
that it had always been that way
and so the only
logical thing that would make
sense for you to do would be
to leave the church and never listen to me
again stop and think
about it I mean that's the only thing that would make
sense would be to just say you know what
I regret following Pastor
Anderson now
that I find out what he's really like if
you believe all this crap that people are saying about
me and by the way I'm not a bad guy
but I'm just saying
you know the logic of the people that are leaving
is that supposedly I'm a bad guy
and that supposedly
in that case I must have always been
a bad guy because I'm standing up here right now and just
telling you that whatever
whatever I'm being accused
of you know
you know it's not like I just
started you know doing something
or changed I just all of a sudden I became
this disciplinarian in my home
in the last couple of years
nothing's changed my friend
so bottom line is this
if I'm supposedly
bad then you know what if I
were you and I actually thought that you know
what I would do I would leave Faith
Ward Baptist Church I would go
find a totally different church with a different
philosophy and I
would follow that church's
philosophy and just
to the T and I would I would completely
just walk away from Faith Ward
and everything about Faith Ward
and say you know what I'm going to go follow someone else
and do something different and just go a totally
different direction that would actually make sense
but you know
what people want to do they want to leave our church
and then they want to get on the phone
and
tell everybody in the church
uh that I'm a bad person and
talk all this crap and then they want to listen to
every sermon and then they want to be
Facebook friends with Isaac
so that they can quote
get the updates
listen to me if you left Faith Ward
why would you want to get the updates
see if I left Faith Ward
I'd be done with Faith Ward
everybody listening
if I left Faith Ward Baptist Church
I would say you know what I'm done with Faith Ward Baptist Church
I'm going to go join another church like
let me give an example here's another great church
in our area Valley Baptist Church
out in East Mesa that's a great church
look if I were going to leave Faith Ward
and say hey I'm going to Valley
then you know what I would do I would go to Valley
I would listen to the preaching from Valley
I would follow the program at Valley
I would follow their
philosophy because I
I would say well there's something wrong with Faith Ward
I'm going to go to this other church and follow their philosophy instead
that would actually make sense not saying
it would be right but it would make sense
amen
the only right way to leave
Faith Ward Baptist Church would be to say
well I'm leaving now and so
I'm not going to follow
for the updates and get all the drama
and listen to every
sermon and whatever but you know what people
want to do they want to leave our church
they want to go to some other church
complain about that church
talk
about all the things that they don't like about that
church I mean people have literally left our church recently
and then they call up people at our church
to talk about the stupid things at their new church
who's gotten a call from somebody
that told them about something stupid
at a church that they visited or at a new church
yeah look at all these look at several hands
where people literally they
quit Faith Ward they go to the new
church and they're already talking crap
about the new church
day one
oh man you know you know what
it is it's just this prideful arrogant
haughty I'm better
I'm better than Pastor Anderson I'm better than
Faith Ward I'm better than my new church
so that what they
want to do they want to go to the new church
and then they want
to stand in judgment of that
new church criticize
it hold their nose and go
there and then they go home
and turn on the sermon from Faith
Ward that's what's really going
on
folks if you're going to listen to the
sermon from Faith Ward why don't you just
be here and listen to the sermon from Faith Ward
and not be a stinking hypocrite
because that's exactly what you are
you are a hypocrite
if you quit this church because
look it's either one of two things
either I am a
right man of God then
why did you walk out on me in my
time of need
if I'm right with God if I'm preaching
the word of God if I've been serving
God for the last 18 years
then why did you leave me
when I needed you
why did you forsake me
why did you walk out on me
why didn't you stand with me in my time of need
in my hour of affliction
in my evil day
why did you forsake me
okay but if I'm a bad guy
then you should have left
if I'm a bad guy then you should
never listen to me again
do you see what I'm saying folks
look either I'm ungodly
or I'm right
which one is it my friend
and don't say well
you used to be good
really
really because nothing has changed since
2010
I know that's true
my wife knows that's true
my kids know that's true
God knows that's true
nothing has changed in my house
and then people are
just saying well Pastor Anderson is bad
now then he's always been bad
and if he's bad why are you listening to him
why do you love the preaching
you know why you love the preaching
cause it's spirit filled preaching
cause it's biblical preaching
cause it's right preaching
and then they hypocritically quit on me
bail out on me
walk out on me and then they go listen to my preaching
and want to still benefit
from my hours and hours
and hours and thousands of hours
of study and then they want to call someone
up on the phone and say
Pastor Anderson studies too much
and he neglected his family
that's not true
you know what I'm one of the most involved husbands
honey look
go ask my wife if she ever wants
to hang out with me for the last
decade
has there ever been a time when you said
honey I need more time with you
and I'm just like nope sorry don't have the time
I always say yes
am I right?
hey my wife wants to spend time with me
I say hey
I'm here let's go
now look if let's say that I had told her no
and said hey I'm sorry I'm busy I have to work
I have to study
that still would have been okay
but yet I can stand up
here right now and tell you that that
never happens in my house
even though I'd be well within my
rights to just say sorry honey I'm busy I got to
work I got some you know I typically would just
drop everything move mountains and spend time with
her whenever she wants to spend time with me I love my wife
I like spending time with her and so I always
make that a priority
it's not a drag
for me to take her out to go
places with her to hang out with her I like it
it's fun for me
I don't have to just
drop everything whenever but you know what I typically
do because I want to
and you know what even my
own children that have blasphemed
me and criticized me and slandered
me said quote
my dad was always really busy
but he always made a huge
effort to involve us in his work
and to spend time with us
right
even my own enemies
being witnesses
and then you got
bozo church members calling people up and saying
well pastor Anderson didn't spend enough time
with his family that's the problem
how do you know that
did you live with
somebody who's been sleeping in my bed
somebody's been eating out of my porridge
somebody's been sitting in my chair
how do you know that you don't know
that you are a lying
slanderous railer and the
sad thing is you're probably listening to the sermon right now
because you can't stop listening
you just can't get
enough
look my friend
I can tell you
right now that there are either two
options here this isn't
complicated there isn't fifty different options
here there are two options
either I am a spirit
filled man of God that God is using
or I'm not or I'm
just this horrible person that
people are making me out to be right now
well you know what fine you believe whatever
you want but if you're going to believe
that I'm that horrible person that's being
described then you should never listen
to me again you should have never listened
to me in the first place and you
should get as far away from
why would you want to follow it unless you're just a busybody
because it doesn't once you've left
it doesn't concern you
why would you need to follow the drama
why do you need to call up church members
and gossip and talk crap
about me right and tell
Pastor Anderson studies too much
well it's funny because you like
the teaching that comes from guess what you're not going to believe this
the teaching that I do
three times a week is a product of my
study
right
you know and then my daughter
criticized me by saying oh
my dad lived such a sad life
it's so depressing because he
literally just sits and
studies all day
but what if I told you I
love studying
what if I told you I love reading the Bible
and that for me sitting and reading
40 chapters in the Bible in a foreign
language is actually a beautiful day for me
oh it's such a sad life
not really
I like it
but you know what here's the thing
let's say I did let's say that that were a sad
thing for me to spend
so many hours reading my Bible
and so many hours studying foreign
languages and reading the Bible in foreign languages
so I can understand
the Bible well and so that I can preach the
gospel to people in other languages and go on
mission strips and give the gospel in other languages
right
so let's say that I did that well you know what
then you're benefiting from the
study because I actually know what I'm
talking about because I did that study so I'm
actually able to teach accurate things
but then it's like
oh well I want to keep listening to the preaching
to get the information but
oh yeah you studied too much
you're a hypocrite and a phony
if you think I studied too much
if you think much learning has made me mad
and you want to send me to the nut house then you should
never listen to another one of my sermons again
and you should not
have anything to do with these people
because you know what these people here
they all love me
and they love our church and they believe the same
stuff I believe we all love
each other here we're all friends here
we're all serving God together but you
want the product you want to hear the
preaching you want to hang around with this
group of people well you know what if I'm
supposedly a bad guy then I've taken you down a
dark path and you should just really just
do something totally different go down
to valley Baptist put your
kids in the Christian school
and be a blessing to that church but you know
what a lot of these people are going to be a pain in the butt
at the new church
they're already talking crap about it from day one
hey if you leave our church
and you go somewhere else you
should be a good church member at that church
you should follow the leadership
at that church not just sitting
there picking it apart like all the reasons
why faithful words better
what the
what the heck you love faithful
word
and then going home and
listening to the faithful word sermon to get fed
you're a
phony and a hypocrite if that's what you do
amen
there's two options my friend you either believe in
faithful word you either believe in Pastor
Anderson you either believe in the ministry
that we have here and the work that we've done over the last
20 years or you don't and if
you don't believe in it and go somewhere
else then why would you keep listening
and why would you still
want to say well faithful word's better
in this area this area this area
this area this area this area this area
just that one area
and you know I like what brother Alex
wrote that Alex
the write up that brother Alex Larson did
where he said it's funny you'll leave
faithful word because you disagree on one or two
things and that aren't even mentioned
in the bible and you'll go to a church
where you disagree on
10 things that are
expressly said in the bible
like how does that make sense
because you know what no one's
ever going to agree with everything I don't expect
everyone to agree if I ask for a raise of hands
right now who can think of something that they disagree with Pastor
Anderson on every hand I didn't ask
for it I said if I did
but I'm saying probably almost
every hand would go up
every hand would go up and say I can think of stuff
I don't agree with
but you know what we're mature enough to understand
that no one's going to be perfect
the pastor's not going to be perfect
the preaching's not going to be perfect
this is the place where the action is
this is the place where bible
teaching is happening and it's clear
and it's accurate how do you know
did you just take my word for it?
no because you have a bible in your lap and you have the
Holy Spirit inside of you and you know
that what I'm saying is biblical
that's why you're here
there's no faith
required to say
hey you know Pastor Anderson
is actually preaching the bible because you have a bible
physically in front of you
you can actually check it for yourself
but again
if I'm not
then go somewhere else
but you know what you know what's going to happen if you go somewhere else
you're just going to trade one set of
problems for another
that's what's going on I mean you're going to
you're going to you're going to finally
get away from all the things that you
don't like about faith forward and you're going to trade
one set of problems for another and you're going out of the
frying pan into the fire is what you're doing
that's my
opinion right
that's why I think that people would be wise
to stay with Faith
Forward Baptist Church I started
this church for a reason because I believe that there's
a need for this kind of church and again
I'm not criticizing other churches in our area
there are some wonderful other churches in our
area and I
look if you left here and said
I'm done with Faith Forward and you
went and joined one of these other churches and you
bought into their program and stopped listening
to me and bought into their program
and stopped obsessing over
me and my you know
situation if you went there you know you
your Christian life's not over
but you know what you're going to find? Problems
everywhere you go you're going to find problems
and you just keep running away from
your problems or just church
hopping and you know what
and by the way when it comes to this
particular issue that
I'm under attack for the way that I run my
home the way that I run my marriage
and the way that I run my child ring I'm right anyway
I'm not even wrong
I'm 100% right and if I could go
back and do it again differently I'd do it the same
but if you think I'm wrong
then you know then if
you think I'm wrong and it's something minor then
just then who cares you know what hey
nobody's perfect but if you think
I'm wrong and it's a major and I'm just
this evil bad person then you're
an idiot to keep listening to me
why would you listen
to someone who's that bad of a person
you're going to get
tainted you're going to get poisoned by that
either make the tree good
and his fruit good or make the
tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt trees
known by his fruit let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer
Father we thank you so much for your
word Lord we thank you so much for our
church and Lord we pray that you would
just give us wisdom Lord
when it comes to this thing of justice and
judgment and this concept of jurisdiction
Lord help us not to just judge our
brother and just judge
our peers and just step
out of our lane and start bossing
other people or imposing unbiblical
rules and standards and judging
situations that we have no knowledge of
and talking about things that we
can't possibly know or understand
Lord help us to realize that there's
a God in heaven that's going to judge these
things and that you will
avenge
the wrongdoings that are in this world
and Lord if the criminal
justice system and the
church won't do anything about something
it's probably because there's nothing there
and so therefore Lord
help us to also leave it alone
and not become
a busy body in other men's
matters and in Jesus name we pray Amen
Lord
and he will surely
give you rest
by trusting
in his word
only
trust him
only trust him
now
he will save you
he will save
you now
for Jesus
shed his precious
blood with blessings
to be stoned
launch now
into the crimson
flood that
washes white as
snow
only trust
him only trust
him now
he
will save you
he will save you
now
yes Jesus is
the truth
the way that leads you
into rest
we leave
in him without
delay and you
are fully
blessed
only trust him
now
he will save
you he will save
you now
come then
and join this holy
family and launch
to glory
Lord
to dwell in that selfless
still then
where joys and
glory go forth
only trust
him only trust
him now
he
will save you
he will save you
now
come then
join this holy
family and launch
to glory
now
come then
join this holy
family and launch
to glory
now
come then
join this holy
family
now
come then