Bear me away on your snowy wings, to my eternal home.
Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings, to my eternal home.
I know I'm near the holy range of friends and kindred dears.
For I hear the waves on Jordan's base, the crossing must be near.
Oh, come, angel band, come and around me stand.
Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings, to my eternal home.
I've almost reached my heavenly home, my spirit loudly sings.
I've only once beholded come, I hear the noise of wings.
Oh, come, angel band, come and around me stand.
Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings, to my eternal home.
Oh, bear my lonely heart to Him who bled and died for me,
whose blood now cleanses from all sin and gives me victory.
Oh, come, angel band, come and around me stand.
Oh, bear me away on your snowy wings, to my eternal home.
Heavenly Father, we come before you. We thank you for allowing us to gather here on this Sunday morning.
We thank you for allowing us to sing together.
I pray that you please bless the singing of the church and the preaching of your word as well.
Have our hearts be open to the preaching of it, and we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Number 61 is next. We'll never say goodbye, number 61.
Number 61.
We say goodbye in parting with the ones here below.
We always hope to meet again as on our way we go.
But oft our hearts are grieving for those we never meet.
We'll say goodbye in sorrow till we meet at Jesus' feet.
We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder.
We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there.
Our children need the wholeness for our school or wedding bells.
Our country's coalitions feel they take them far as well.
Our wedding bells are happy and God's way always right.
And absent ones will greet them in the city always bright.
We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder.
We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there.
We greet and part with dear ones. We say hello, goodbye.
As letters line our fellowship, we miss them so we try
to feel them always near us and follow them with prayer.
The parting days are ended when we meet them in the air.
We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder.
We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there.
Oh, happy, glad homecoming with Jesus in the sky.
For sometimes He is far away, though always if we try.
We find Him near to help us. His Spirit dwells within.
But only perfect union when we have been entered in.
We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder.
We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there.
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 we're in Ezekiel 23.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
Notice the change there on the regional soul winning group for Chandler.
And then across the page, the 2021 year-end giving statements are available
and can be requested by emailing the church.
Please pray for the St. Croix missions trip.
Some of the people are already out there.
A lot are arriving today and tomorrow, so pray that they have a safe trip.
Everybody gets the negative COVID test because they can't travel without that to the island.
And that they have just a lot of people saved out there.
And we just wanted to announce that we finished knocking every single door in globes.
That was a great achievement of our small town soul winning program.
And so we've got more trips coming up.
And the information for those is usually over here.
We'll have different sign ups and things.
But the next one is coming up on January 29th.
On the back there's a weekly singing class held every Sunday at 5 p.m. at the church building.
Keep praying for our expectant ladies that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
The music emphasis night is on February 3rd at 7 p.m.
Sign up over here if you plan on coming.
And that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song.
All right, you should find an insert in the front of your hymnals with Psalm 67.
Psalm 67, if you don't have one, please raise your hand.
And we'll sing it on that first verse.
Psalm 67.
God be first, the one who was and blessed us, and caused the space to shine upon us.
And thy name may be known upon earth, thy saving help among all nations.
Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
For thou shalt judge the people, righteously and go'er.
The nations upon earth, the nations upon earth, see thine.
Let the people praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Then shall the earth yield her increase.
And God in our own God shall bless us.
God shall bless us at all the ends.
Of the earth shall fear him.
Let the people praise thee, O God.
Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Amen. Your song looks up.
Please go to hymn number 54.
Number 54, oh that will be glory. Number 54.
Really watch me when we get to that chorus.
Number 54, when all my labors and trials are o'er. Number 54.
When all my labors and trials are o'er,
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore,
Will earthly angels be glory for me?
Oh that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me,
When by his grace I shall look on his face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.
When by the gift of his infinite grace,
I am afforded in heaven a place,
Just to be there and to look on his face,
Will earthly angels be glory for me?
Oh that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me,
When by his grace I shall look on his face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.
Friends will be there I have looked long ago,
Joy like a river around me the flow,
And just a smile from my Savior I know,
Will earthly angels be glory for me?
Oh that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me,
When by his grace I shall look on his face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.
Alright this time we'll pass the offering plates around.
As the plates go around let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 99.
Psalm 99 as we always do.
We'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number one.
Fall along silently with brother Dan as he reads.
Psalm 99 starting in verse number one.
In Psalm 99 the Bible reads,
The Lord reigneth. Let the people tremble.
He sitteth between the cherubims. Let the earth be moved.
The Lord is great in Zion, and he is high above all the people.
Let them praise thy great and terrible name, for it is holy.
The king's strength also loveth judgment.
Thou dost establish equity. Thou executeest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool, for he is holy.
Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name.
They called upon the Lord, and he answered them.
He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar.
They kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.
Thou answerest them, O Lord our God.
Thou wast a God that forgaveth them, though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions.
Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy.
Brother Aaron, will you pray?
Father in heaven, I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson with the power of the Holy Ghost
as he preaches your word, and help us your children learn and do your word.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Principles of justice.
The Bible reads in verse 2 there, the Lord is great in Zion, and he is high above all the people.
Let them praise thy great and terrible name, for it is holy.
The king's strength also loveth judgment.
Thou dost establish equity. Thou executeest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
Now throughout the Bible, God places a huge emphasis on this subject of justice.
I mean, just in preparing for this sermon, even just looking up, even just verbs, words that just,
justice, righteousness, judgment, even just like scanning through hundreds and hundreds of verses
that mention these terms, it was hard to even pick which ones to put in the sermon,
just because there are so many times that this is brought up, just hundreds and hundreds of times throughout Scripture.
Not to mention all of the laws and punishments and things that regard justice.
Justice is literally one of the biggest subjects in the entire Bible.
And another thing that we should realize is that the words justice and righteousness
are pretty much synonymous in the Bible.
In fact, most foreign languages that I have studied do not have separate words for justice and righteousness.
And in most languages, it's the same word.
Like you think in Spanish of Justicia or in German, Gerächtigkeit or whatever.
You could go down the list of languages where often it's the exact same word.
And the King James Bible will sometimes use these interchangeably,
talking about just lot and then calling him a righteous man in the next breath.
And so justice is a very important subject in the Word of God.
Let me just read for you a few verses.
And again, there were literally hundreds to choose from just for the intro to the sermon.
And so I'm just going to pick a few.
Proverbs 21, 3.
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
The Bible says in 2 Samuel 8, 15,
And David reigned over all Israel, and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.
This is part of why he was a great king, why he was a man after God's own heart.
He executed judgment and justice.
Isaiah 16, 5,
And in mercy shall the throne be established, and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David,
judging and seeking judgment and hasting righteousness.
How about Micah 6, 8?
He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee?
The first thing mentioned, to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.
Psalm 106, verse 3.
Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.
So over and over again, the scripture emphasizes this idea of justice, judgment, equity, righteousness, being fair, and judging rightly.
So I'm going to give you some principles of justice this morning,
starting, number one, with one of the most important principles of justice.
And if you would, flip over to Deuteronomy, chapter number 16.
Deuteronomy 16.
But while you're turning there, the Bible reads in Leviticus 19, 15,
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment.
Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
And so the first point that I want to make as far as a principle of justice is that the same rules of justice apply to everyone.
The key thing about justice is that it needs to be applied across the board, no respect of persons, no partiality, the same rules for everyone.
The Bible says don't respect the person of the poor, don't honor the person of the mighty, in righteousness judge your neighbor.
Look down at your Bible there, which Deuteronomy chapter did I have you turn to?
16.
Deuteronomy 16, verse 18 says this.
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.
Thou shalt not rest judgment.
Rest means to twist, sort of like you think of wrestling, right?
Thou shalt not rest judgment.
Thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift for a gift that blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous.
That which is altogether just shalt thou follow that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
So he says do not respect persons.
Don't let a gift that you've received somehow influence you like, well, this person has given me a gift or this person has been generous to me in the past or I like them, they're my friend, I get along with them.
So I'm going to go easier on them than I would go on someone else.
Or if it's a dispute between two people, I'm going to rule in favor of the person that I like.
This is wicked.
It's unjust.
It's unrighteous.
It's ungodly.
And the Bible says we must judge righteously, justly, be fair.
And so the first principle of justice is that the same rules of justice apply to everyone, okay?
Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter number one.
Deuteronomy chapter number one.
Often in our modern world, the symbol for justice is a woman holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other hand, and this woman is blindfolded.
And the reason that the woman is blindfolded is that it symbolizes the fact that justice is supposed to be blind, meaning that it doesn't regard who is involved.
It doesn't really matter who.
It just blindly carries out what is fair, what is right.
The scales have to do with the fact that the punishment is supposed to match the crime, and the sword has to do with the fact that the punishment is often death, you know, when justice is carried out, up to and including death, which is carried out by the sword.
And by the way, lest you think this is not an important subject, here's what Jesus said in Matthew 23, verse 23.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment.
What's the first thing when Jesus says, you Pharisees, you guys are hung up on all the wrong things, you guys are worried about tithing on your mint, anise and cumin, you've omitted the weightier matters of the law, the more important, the more serious matters of the law is what the Pharisees neglected.
The very first thing is judgment. That's a weightier matter of the law.
So if you want to say, hey, we need to emphasize the right things, one of the things we need to emphasize is justice, judgment.
That's what the Bible says.
Judgment, mercy and faith, those are considered the weightier matters of the law according to Jesus.
Judgment, mercy and faith.
So when we're looking up these judgments and justice scriptures, we're looking at what Jesus considered some of the heaviest, most important matters in the Bible.
It says in verse number 16 of Deuteronomy chapter 1,
And I charged your judges at that time saying, hear the causes between your brethren and judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him.
You shall not respect persons in judgment, but you shall hear the small as well as the great, should not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it.
So in the scripture we see that everyone gets a voice when it comes to justice.
We shouldn't be partial toward people that are rich or people that are poor.
We shouldn't be biased against them.
But also it says you should not be afraid of the face of man.
And you know what?
Today we have a situation where a lot of times judges and juries are scared of what the public reaction is going to be to whatever judgment they hand down.
And then that affects their judgment.
You think of the O.J. Simpson trial who was obviously guilty, who pretty much admitted that he's guilty, and he wrote a whole book about if I did it, here's how I would have done it.
You know, just hypothetical.
He did interviews explaining exactly how he carried out the murders.
Why was he released when there was this mountain of evidence against him?
It's because it just became a racial thing and it became a thing about black versus white.
And that's not something that should ever come into play when we're talking about justice.
The white man and the black man should get the same justice.
It shouldn't matter what color the perpetrator is.
It shouldn't matter what color the victims are.
The same rules should apply to everyone.
So the Bible talks a lot about not respecting persons rich versus poor.
Okay?
A rich guy like O.J. Simpson hires a bunch of lawyers and gets off the hook when any normal person would have been convicted for that crime.
Because he's famous, he's an athlete, he's a Hollywood guy, he gets off the hook because he can afford multimillion dollar attorneys to lie and cheat and steal and get them off the hook.
Okay?
But that is not right.
We should treat everyone the same.
The black person should not be treated worse than the white person, but they also shouldn't be treated better because justice is not supposed to respect anybody's person.
Money should not come into issue.
Race should not come into the issue.
You know, our friendships or gifts that we've received should not come into the issue.
And we shouldn't be afraid of the face of man.
You know, it doesn't matter what people think about the judgment.
Make the right judgment even if people hate you for it.
You do what's right in the sight of God.
Justice is a serious, weighty matter according to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now if you would flip over to 1 Timothy chapter 5.
1 Timothy chapter number 5.
So the first principle of justice we're talking about is that the same rules of justice apply to everyone.
We shouldn't be influenced by who is involved.
And I've said this before, often when I'm judging matters in the church, I will often in my mind as an exercise swap out the person in my mind.
Let's say if it's someone that I kind of don't like that's involved, I'll swap in someone that I do like.
And say, okay, how would I judge this matter if it were a friend that I do like?
Or vice versa.
If it's someone that I like, I swap it out.
What if this were someone that I didn't like?
And you know what? That's a good way to just check ourselves and make sure that we're not respecting persons in judgment.
That we're being fair.
That we're treating everyone the same way when it comes to serious matters like justice.
Okay.
While you turn to 1 Timothy 5, let me read for you a bunch more verses on this.
The Bible says in Proverbs 24, 23, it is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
He that saith unto the wicked, thou art righteous, him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him.
Proverbs 28, 21, to have respect of persons is not good.
Romans 2, 11, there's no respect of persons with God.
Colossians 3, 25, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there's no respect of persons.
And so if somebody does something wrong, they need to be punished.
It doesn't matter how famous they are.
It doesn't matter who they are.
The same rules should apply to everyone.
James 2, 1, my brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 1, 17, if you call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear.
And lastly this on this first point, 1 Timothy 5, 21, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
Right?
So no partiality, don't prefer one above another, execute judgment fairly.
So that leads me to my second point.
People are innocent until they are proven guilty.
So number one, the same rules of justice apply to everyone.
And number two, people are innocent until they are proven guilty.
Now back up just a little bit.
We're there in 1 Timothy 5, 21.
Back up to verse 19.
It says against an elder received not an accusation but before two or three witnesses.
And so what is the Bible saying here?
It's saying that if there are not two to three witnesses, another way of putting that would be if there's not hard evidence, then don't receive that accusation, meaning consider that accusation to not have any merit, meaning consider the person to be innocent until the proof comes.
So just getting an accusation, someone being accused without two or three witnesses, you know, that's something that should be rejected out of hand.
Why?
Because people are innocent until they're proven guilty.
It shouldn't be like, well, there's one witness, one person's word, one person's making an accusation.
Well, you know, I'm not even going to receive that accusation because of the fact that people are innocent until proven guilty and one person's word is not proof.
One person just saying something, one person making an accusation doesn't constitute proof according to the Word of God.
Okay.
Against an elder received not an accusation but before two or three witnesses.
Then that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
Now turn to Deuteronomy chapter 19.
You can keep your finger there in 1 Timothy 5.
But go back to Deuteronomy 19.
And while you're turning there, let me say this.
You know, the Bible says against an elder received not an accusation but before two or three witnesses.
And you know what? That means that if there's a pastor that I don't like, if there's a pastor that I think is a horrible person, if there's a pastor who's preaching his garbage, if there's a pastor whose doctrine is garbage, let me tell you something.
I will not receive an accusation against them but before two or three witnesses.
Because you remember point number one?
Point number one is that the same rules apply to everyone.
The same rules of justice apply to everyone and we should not respect persons in judgment.
And you know, there are way too many people out there that if it's a preacher they don't like, if it's a pastor they don't like, they hear one accusation and just it's fact unto them.
Boom! They just accept it like that.
And you know what? That is wicked.
That is wrong. That is unrighteous.
And you know what? I don't care who it is.
And people have come to me with wild accusations against pastors that I absolutely despise.
I mean guys that I despise, guys that I think are horrible.
But you know what? When those kind of accusations come and they're just railing accusations and they don't have any proof behind them, they're not confirmed by two or three witnesses, I reject them out of hand.
I tell the person, hey, you know what? Don't come at me with that because that sounds like a false accusation to me because there's no proof and I reject it out of hand.
And not only do I not believe it, not only do I not repeat it, but I will typically even tell the person who's bringing it to me unless they're an actual witness themselves.
Because obviously if an actual witness tells you something, well then, you know, that's legitimate except that still at that point it's not enough to act because you need the second witness.
But at least if somebody's bringing first-hand information, yeah, somebody's got to be that first witness and then somebody's got to be that second witness. I get that.
But when the first witness comes and they're actually a legitimate witness, then I'll take what they're saying but I'm not going to act on that.
I'm not going to just believe it. I'm just going to basically file it away waiting for the second witness.
And if there's no second witness, then nothing happens. Does everybody understand?
If the first eyewitness comes, it gets filed away but nothing happens, okay?
I don't receive that as, oh yeah, this is something that I need to deal with or this is something that's true or this is something that is real. No.
And you say, well, I just don't, I don't care what you think, the Bible says.
And today we have too many people that are just these armchair judges, well, I just think this or, you know, I just kind of, my gut is telling me this.
I don't care what your gut is telling you. I don't care what your opinion is. I care what the Word of God says and the Word of God says.
Two or three witnesses, that's what it says. Done. End of story.
But when someone comes to me and they're not actually the witness, they're just repeating an accusation that's out there and it's an accusation that is not supported by two or three witnesses,
that is not supported by evidence, then I would not only not receive that accusation but I will actually correct that person and rebuke that person and say,
hey, you shouldn't be repeating this because there's no evidence for this. Why are you repeating this accusation that's unfounded?
Well, but this one person said. Oh, one person said?
Well, you know, everybody's saying, okay, who's everybody? Oh, well, and then it turns out they can't even name two people.
Sometimes they can't even name one person. It's just kind of everybody's saying it but then you go around and talk to everybody and everybody's just repeating each other
and it turns out there's no substance. There's no meat on the bone. It's speculation.
You know, a lot of people just guess and make up things and I'm going to get to that later in the sermon.
But people are innocent until they are proven guilty. This principle is found in the Word of God.
Look down at your Bible there in Deuteronomy 19-15.
And look, as I go through these principles of justice, some of this might seem counterintuitive to you.
Some of this you might think, well, that's not how I see it.
But again, you need to stop and ask yourself, you know, is the Word of God the final authority on justice or are we the final authority?
You know, we need to follow what the Word of God says.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 19-15, one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth.
Now, you know, sometimes the Bible is so repetitive it almost cracks me up.
Any, you know, any iniquity, any sin, any sin that he sinneth.
So three times in a row he's like, any sin, any iniquity, any sin, any, what about any sin, what about any sin?
Does everybody see that?
Now, in 1 Timothy chapter 5, it was specifically about pastors.
Against an elder received not an accusation but before two or three witnesses. Elder is synonymous with pastor.
But here we see, back in Deuteronomy, that this is not something that only applies to pastors, but rather it applies to everyone.
Even people that are not pastors, one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth.
At the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established.
Pretty clear, isn't it?
It's one of those weightier matters of the law.
Verse 16, if a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong,
then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days,
and the judges shall make diligent inquisition.
And behold, if the witness be a false witness and have testified falsely against his brother,
then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother.
So shall ye put the evil away from among you, and those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
And then I shall not pity, but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Okay, now let's stop and talk about this for a moment here.
Okay, against an elder, receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses.
One witness does not rise up against a man for any iniquity.
So these principles are not just about pastors, even though that's the subject of 1 Timothy 5.
We go back to Deuteronomy and find this is just a universal principle that actually applies to anybody.
Now, let me ask you this.
So if we have two witnesses coming to us and bringing an accusation.
So now we have two actual witnesses, three actual witnesses.
Does that mean that the person is guilty?
Is that just an automatic guilty verdict?
Well, two witnesses.
Now, remember in the Old Testament, the story about Naboth's vineyard?
Two false witnesses rose up and testified against Naboth and he was executed wrongfully.
How about the Lord Jesus Christ?
There were false witnesses that were rising up and testifying against Jesus
and Jesus was convicted on the testimony of false witnesses.
Now, the Bible does say that their witnesses did not agree with one another or whatever,
but the point is, though, they were false witnesses rising up.
So it's possible that the witness is a false witness.
So if there's not even two or three witnesses, then basically the accusation is rejected out of hand.
It's rejected out of hand.
If there are two to three witnesses, then diligent inquisition is made.
Diligent inquiry is made.
A diligent search is made to figure out what is the truth here.
Is this person guilty?
Is this person or innocent?
So witnesses don't automatically make guilt.
They make grounds to investigate and see whether these people are telling the truth.
And if they're telling the truth, then yeah, he's guilty.
If they're not telling the truth, then he's not guilty.
Okay, that's the whole purpose of having a trial.
You know, you go to court and you have witnesses saying a lot of things,
but it's the jury's job to decide whether these witnesses are credible,
whether what they're saying is legitimate, who's telling the truth,
what are the facts of the case, what do the facts bear out,
and is the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
So diligent inquisition is made to see if someone is a false witness.
Now, God takes this thing of bearing witness very seriously
to where the punishment for false witnesses seems extreme,
which is why he says in verse 21,
Thine eyes shall not pity.
Because it's going to seem a little extreme,
meaning that if someone falsely claims that they witnessed a murder
and they falsely claim that they witnessed first-degree murder
and that person turns out to be innocent and they lied
and it was a false witness,
then let's say it was going to be death penalty for that murderer,
then the false witness gets the death penalty.
Everybody understand?
If somebody lies and, oh, I saw him steal that $5,000 item,
you know, and the punishment is going to be that he has to pay back
double that or four times that,
well, then the false witness now has to pay double that or four times that.
Whatever the punishment was for the crime,
if you accuse someone of something falsely, you lie,
you claim you saw something that you didn't see,
you claim to have this evidence that you don't have,
whatever you had thought to do to them,
whatever the punishment was going to be for them if they were found guilty,
that punishment is carried out on you,
and the Bible says, don't think that this is overkill.
Thine eyes shall not pity, life shall go for life.
He's saying even up to the death penalty, do it.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
I mean, whatever it is, apple for apple,
whatever that person is falsely accusing someone of,
they get that punishment.
So basically the bigger the false accusation,
the worse the punishment, okay?
Now again, what does it mean to bear false witness?
Bearing false witness is basically claiming that you witnessed something
that you did not witness,
claiming to have something or falsifying evidence.
Okay, so for example, a police officer plants evidence on the scene.
Whatever the punishment is for that crime that that person is charged with,
that policeman should get that punishment.
So he plants a weapon on somebody, plants drugs on somebody, plants whatever.
You know what, the Bible says that's bearing false witness right there.
Because another point I want to make here, there's so much to say about this,
but in our modern world, a lot of the evidence that we have today
because of our technology is physical evidence.
And I do think that physical evidence can be a witness.
You know, it doesn't necessarily have to be eye witnesses that saw it
because there could also be, to bolster what an eye witness saw,
there could also be, you know, physical evidence.
You know, there could be blood that DNA tested
or there could be physical evidence, video, photo.
But again, you can't just blindly believe a video.
You can't blindly believe a photo because there are all kinds of fake photos
and fake videos and deep fakes and all these different things.
Those things can be falsified.
So again, diligent inquisition needs to be made.
But obviously, you know, if I got a surveillance camera
and basically you got evidence of the person there
and you see their face and they're doing it,
obviously that counts as evidence.
You know, that would count as a witness there.
Now again, can things be falsified?
Can things be misunderstood?
Can we misunderstand what we see on a video or in a picture?
Of course, but it's enough to open the case
because physical pieces of evidence in today's world,
they can count as a witness in that sense, okay?
And then we test the witnesses.
Just as we would test a human witness, we could test physical evidence,
we could test, you know, video, picture, whatever,
and see if it jives with the rest of the evidence,
with the rest of the data, see if it's enough to remove all doubt
or at least a reasonable doubt, okay?
So if somebody's falsifying video, falsifying pictures
to try to convict someone,
then they're bearing false witness against their neighbor
and should receive the just punishment for that.
It's very serious.
People are innocent until proven guilty
and we shouldn't even receive an accusation
but before two or three witnesses.
And when the witnesses are brought forth,
then we need to do an investigation
and see what the facts are and see what the truth is.
And then if we find someone to be a false witness,
the punishment is severe.
Now why does the punishment need to be so severe?
Even up to and including putting a false witness to death
if they're accusing someone of a capital offense.
Well the Bible says in verse 20,
and those which remain shall hear and fear
and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
He's saying that people should be scared of giving false testimony,
scared of planting evidence,
scared of bearing false witness
because the punishment can be so severe.
They'd be better off if they didn't see it.
If you didn't see anything, just stay out of it.
Just shut up.
And there are some people that just want attention.
It's like, oh yeah, I was there.
I saw that.
They just want to be on the news for 10 seconds or something
claiming that they saw something happen
and they're just looking for attention or whatever.
This is what the Bible is teaching us here.
Now let's compare Deuteronomy 19 with 1 Timothy 5.
Look at Deuteronomy 19.
Those which remain shall hear and fear
and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
Keep your finger there.
Go to 1 Timothy 5.
1 Timothy 5, 19 says,
against an elder receive not an accusation
but before two or three witnesses,
them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
So in Deuteronomy 19,
what was the reason for a severe punishment on a false witness
so that others would hear and fear and not do any more such evil?
That's what's going on in 1 Timothy 5.
Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
This is not just saying anytime anybody sins, rebuke them publicly.
Now, folks, that would take up all three services,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night,
just publicly rebuking every sin of everybody in the congregation.
Okay?
That doesn't make any sense, does it?
Or you say, well, no, no, no, it's saying elders that sin.
So anytime a pastor sins, he should be publicly rebuked.
Well, then, again, we're just going to probably just fill entire services
just with my sins, you know, because I'm a human being.
If every sin that I commit, every mistake I've ever made
needs to be publicly rebuked, you know, it's like, all right,
Pastor Anderson, turn in your list of sins for the week, you know,
or everybody write down anything that you observe
Pastor Anderson doing that wasn't right.
That's not what this is saying, folks.
The them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear
specifically talking about a certain sin.
It's talking about the false witnesses.
In the Old Testament, if a false witness rose up
and accused somebody of murder and claimed that they saw something,
they get put to death.
In the New Testament, we're not putting people to death.
In the New Testament, I can't in the local church find somebody $20,000.
I can be like, all right, I'm pastor of the church and, you know,
you're being fined 10 grand.
All right, put this guy to death.
All right, you know, I can't really, you know, in the New Testament church,
that's not really how things work, is it?
So in the New Testament, the false witness gets publicly rebuked
in front of everybody and that's humiliating
and that way others will fear them that sin rebuke before all
that others also may fear.
It's not just saying rebuke every sin before everybody
so that other people can fear.
Now, there are obviously certain serious sins that do get dealt with publicly
in front of the congregation,
but it's rare because it's very serious sins.
It's the type of things that get people thrown out of church
and things like that.
But, you know, most of the time, love covers a multitude of sins
and it's more charitable to just pass over a transgression
and we don't just broadcast people's sins publicly.
It's absurd, okay?
Look, if one of my pastor friends, you know, committed something
that was serious enough to disqualify them from being a pastor,
then, you know what, that needs to be dealt with publicly.
If they did something so serious that it would disqualify them
from being a pastor, like, for example, you know,
a pastor that we were friends with many years ago got caught doing what?
You know, going to casinos and gambling and being with prostitutes
and doing all these horrible things that are obviously
way beyond the pale, totally disqualifying this man
from ever being a pastor ever again, doing these horrible things, okay?
When someone is cheating on their wife and sleeping with other women
or other woman, singular even, even one time, I mean, as a pastor,
that's beyond the pale for a pastor to be having sex with another woman
besides his wife, okay?
And so that's like instant disqualification.
That kind of stuff needs to be dealt with publicly.
You know, or let's say it's secretly found out that the pastor is a drug addict
or a drunkard or something, you know, that's the kind of thing
where you'd have to bring that out and say, look, this is serious.
This is disqualifying.
This man, you know, must step down or whatever.
I get that, okay?
But if it's something minor, you know, then that person should be corrected
and dealt with for that sin that they committed.
Obviously, if any of us sin, you know, someone might take us aside
and correct us and tell us we're wrong and tell us what we need to fix, admonish us.
Sometimes we confess our faults one to another
and we might rebuke one another or correct one another.
But, you know, I don't know about you.
I don't want every sin that I've ever committed
or ever will commit to be broadcast publicly.
Do you?
Because every single person is a sinner and it would be embarrassing
and humiliating for everyone's sins to be broadcast publicly.
Now, are there serious things that need to be dealt with publicly?
Yes, but the vast majority of sins that we commit do not fall into that category
because they're much more minor than that.
You know, and if you think about it, we all sin every day,
even if it's just that we didn't do something that we should have done
or even if we just thought something stupid
because the thought of foolishness is sin, okay?
Now, another point I want to make quickly before I move on
because right now we're talking about people being innocent until proven guilty
and we're talking about two or three witnesses and false witnesses.
Let me say this.
A person giving their opinion is not bearing false witness.
Giving your opinion is not bearing false witness.
Bearing false witness is falsifying evidence.
Bearing false witness saying, I was there and this is what happened
and you're making it up or you're exaggerating it or twisting it
or not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
that's being a false witness is when you claim that something took place
that didn't take place.
You're bringing false evidence, false accusations.
That's being a false witness.
Giving your opinion is not bearing false witness, okay?
So let's say, for example, I say, you know what?
I watched the O.J. trial and I didn't, by the way.
Every senior citizen at the time watched every second of it,
is the way I remember it.
But, you know, I just remember anytime you go to an old person's house,
the O.J. trial was playing at their house back then.
They just loved it.
But, you know, I didn't watch it but let's make believe for a second.
Okay, I watched the O.J. trial and I say O.J. is guilty.
I saw the evidence and I believe O.J. is guilty.
And then O.J. turned out to be innocent.
Did I bear false witness by giving my opinion about the evidence?
No.
I mean, if the evidence is there, oh, this pastor made this quote
and everybody heard him say it.
There's a recording of him saying it.
Everybody heard it.
We all heard the same thing.
And I say, well, I don't think that pastor saved based on that quote.
Am I bearing false witness against him?
No, I'm giving my opinion.
I'm giving my judgment based on the evidence.
Bearing false witness would be if I claimed he said something
that he didn't actually say.
If I said, here's a quote from Pastor So-and-so
and I doctored the quote and made it worse,
you know, then that could be bearing false witness.
But just examining the facts and having an opinion
or saying I think this person's guilty,
I believe that this person did this based on the evidence,
that's not bearing false witness.
Now, if I'm repeating unfounded accusations
and repeating things that aren't based on evidence,
then I could be guilty of bearing false witness.
And that leads me to my third point.
The first point was, number one,
the same rules of justice apply to everyone.
It doesn't matter whether I like this person or not.
And let me tell you something.
The old IFB is often very guilty of just hurling accusations
at people like myself just because they don't like me.
If you just tell them something bad about me,
they're just like, yep, must be true,
because they don't like me.
But that isn't right.
Even if they hate my ever-loving guts,
they should still demand evidence for any accusation
made against me or anyone else.
Amen?
I mean, it should be the same person.
Look, if somebody came to me and,
oh, here's all the dirt on Sam Gipp
or some preacher I don't like,
oh, man, John MacArthur's guilty of X, Y, and Z.
You know, start naming the worst preachers in America
that I despise the most, right?
Who are they?
John MacArthur, Sam Gipp, you know, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren.
I mean, go down the list of pastors that I don't like.
Or what about people that we've thrown out of the church
or people that were heretics that we had to
rebuke Tyler Baker or something?
You know, if somebody came to me with an accusation
against these type of people,
without two or three witnesses, I'm not going to receive it.
I'm not going to receive it unless there's facts to back it up.
It doesn't matter whether I like them or don't like them.
I wouldn't just be like, well, yeah, I mean,
that sounds typical of somebody like him.
Well, I mean, that sounds like something he would do.
Yeah, it doesn't surprise me at all.
There's got to be evidence.
Okay, so people are innocent until, so number one,
the same rules apply to everybody.
We should think the same way when it comes to justice
about everybody.
Number two, people are innocent until they're proven guilty.
And number three, here's an important principle,
false accusations are common.
False accusations are common.
Number one, the same rules apply to everybody.
Number two, people are innocent until proven guilty.
Number three, false accusations are common.
False witnesses are common.
Do not get this idea that, well, every once in a while
somebody gets falsely accused.
Rarely will evidence be planted.
Rarely will someone make up an accusation.
Folks, false accusations are common.
Let me give you some biblical evidence,
but first let's start out with the Ten Commandments.
Okay, now you'll often hear people claim
that one of the Ten Commandments is thou shalt not lie.
That's not one of the Ten Commandments.
It just isn't.
You'll hear people all the time say,
yeah, Ten Commandments, thou shalt not lie.
There is no commandment in the Ten Commandments
called thou shalt not lie.
Now, there's plenty of scripture telling us not to lie.
There are all kinds of verses telling us
that we need to tell the truth, don't lie.
I'm not saying the Bible doesn't say not to lie.
I'm saying that that's not one of the Ten Commandments.
What the Ten Commandments actually say is
thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Now, the Ten Commandments are an abbreviated form
of the Old Covenant or God's law or, you know,
the moral code of the Old Testament or what have you.
Really not even the moral code because it's really
just the entire covenant is summed up
because the Bible calls it the tables of the covenant
in 1 Corinthians chapter, no, no, no.
2 Corinthians chapter 3, it talks about the Ten Commandments
as being sort of indicative of the entire Old Testament law.
So it's like a brief thing.
It's not the whole law.
Obviously, the Bible in the Old Testament
has hundreds of commandments,
hundreds and hundreds of commandments.
The Ten Commandments aren't the only list.
But what are they?
They're just a basic abbreviated list
of the most important basic requirements
of God's covenant with Israel
that he made with them on Mount Sinai.
And so it just has basic super important teachings,
no other gods before me, you know,
don't make a graven image,
thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
remember the Sabbath to keep it holy,
honor thy father and thy mother.
And then we get into the second half of the Ten Commandments,
we get into the very famous thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,
thou shalt not covet, okay?
Why does this get its own commandment in the Ten Commandments?
I mean stealing, it's pretty obvious
why thou shalt not steal is one of the Ten Commandments.
Why do you think that is?
Out of hundreds of Old Testament Commandments,
why single that one out and put it in the Ten?
Because it's common.
What about thou shalt not kill?
It's common.
It's a big one, it's common, it's out there,
it's happening every single day.
It's happening, you know, twice a day in Chicago.
It's happening at abortion clinics 3,000 times a day.
So, you know, it's happening constantly.
It's very common.
It's a basic thing.
Thou shalt not covet is happening every second of every day
a million times all over the world.
Coveting is when you, you know,
desire things that belong to other people, okay?
You know, thou, honor thy father and mother,
I mean these are like really important basic things
that are constantly applicable in our lives
in one way or another.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Obviously, committing adultery is common,
okay, unfortunately.
But what does the Bible say?
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
This is in there is, you know,
couldn't God if he wanted to have just,
he could have saved a little room on the stone tablet
and just said thou shalt not lie.
It would have, you know what I mean?
It would have taken up less space on the tablet.
Maybe Moses wouldn't have had to carry such a heavy tablet
because thou shalt not lie would have been shorter and easier,
but is that what God chose to put in the Ten Commandments?
Thou shalt not lie?
No, what he chose to put is,
thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
You know what that tells me is that bearing false witness
against your neighbor is probably something
that comes up a lot.
It's probably common, it's probably important,
or else why would it be in this abbreviated list,
you know, just the cliff's notes of the old covenant,
ten things, and one of them is,
thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
And let me point this out too.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
You know, I like the term bearing witness
because to bear something means to carry something.
So even if you're not the origin of the false witness,
if you're repeating something unsubstantiated,
if you're repeating something without evidence,
you end up bearing false witness
by repeating and redounding lies told by others.
You know, like what if somebody put out some slanderous video
and then I'm just going to mirror this?
You have borne false witness.
Your channel is bearing false witness
because you decided to mirror something
that you know is slanderous.
Well, I'm just putting it out there, people can decide.
You know, let me tell you something.
False accusations can be damaging to people
even when they're found innocent,
even when people go to court
and all the evidence shows that they're 100% innocent
because it puts these seeds of doubt in people's mind
because most people don't know what I'm preaching this morning.
They don't follow the principles that I'm preaching this morning.
And look, I'm getting up and preaching on principles of justice.
I guarantee you that there are a lot of people in this room
who need to hear this sermon this morning.
That's right.
And I guarantee you that there are tons of people
in our church that have warped views on justice,
even in our church.
I mean, I haven't seen anything like that,
but just knowing human beings, knowing human nature,
I'd be willing to bet just conversations that I have with people
that this kind of preaching needs to happen
because it's possible for us to be influenced by the world
or just not to think these things through.
And so, you know, this idea of,
well, let's just put every accusation out there.
Let's just put every accusation out there and let people decide.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Because if it's not substantiated, don't receive it.
You know, don't receive means don't download
in order to upload
because then you're bearing false witness now.
If you're going to download a false witness
and then redound it on some other channel, well, guess what?
You're bearing false witness now.
Bearing false witness is common.
That's why there's so much scripture on it.
That's why it's in the Ten Commandments
because people constantly lie
and make false accusations against other people.
It happens all the time.
Now, you'd think we would have all learned this
in junior high and high school.
I mean, when we were in junior high and high school,
let me ask you this,
were there false accusations made about people?
There were rumors because teenagers are infamous for gossiping.
And so when you're a junior high or high school student,
there's all kinds of rumors and gossip
and wild-eyed stories going around that turn out to be lies.
So really, did you really become an adult
without figuring out that false witness is common?
Did you actually make it to adulthood
without realizing that people making false accusations
or giving false testimony
or lying about what they saw or observed,
you really haven't noticed that and you're an adult?
Because I remember seeing that my entire life
in school and beyond.
So it's common.
How about this?
I didn't have you turn anywhere, did I?
Go ahead and turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 5.
Why don't you turn to Matthew 5?
The Bible says in Exodus 23, 1,
Thou shalt not raise a false report,
put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
And you know, if you're being an unjust or an unrighteous witness,
you're wicked.
You're joining with the wicked.
You're participating in wickedness.
I don't care if it's like,
well, we know the guy's guilty, so let's falsify evidence.
That is garbage.
It's wicked.
Now look, I've received an accusation before
against someone from one witness
and you know what?
My gut told me it was true.
My gut said, yeah, this sounds credible.
My gut tells me this is true.
But you know what I did?
You know how I acted on that?
Not at all because it was from one witness
with no substantiating evidence.
And so in that case, you know what I'll do?
I'll just pray.
Lord, if this person's guilty,
bring another piece of evidence to light.
Bring the witness to light, Lord.
But you know what I'm not going to do?
I'm not going to go seeking out a second witness.
The Bible doesn't say if one witness rises up,
go find another one.
Keep looking until you find that second piece of evidence.
No, no, when someone comes to me
and they bring me something that's just one person's word
against someone else, he said, she said,
one person's word against someone else's word
and there's no other evidence,
I reject it out of hand and say,
I'm not going to do anything about this.
I'm going to do nothing.
I will not deal with it because it's totally unsubstantiated.
Now if I feel that there's something there,
then I would often pray and say, Lord,
I'm following your word.
I'm following what you've said is just
and if you want this person to get nailed,
then bring forth, then please allow.
And oftentimes then the other witness
or the other evidence will materialize.
But I'm not going to go out looking for it
because that's unjust for me to start investigating someone
with no warrant.
You know, going out and seeking dirt on someone
or seeking witnesses.
Because you know, you can go around asking,
so I mean you saw this, right?
Have you seen anything like that?
Well, you know, there are a lot of bozos
that are just easily impressionable.
You don't want to start putting people's ideas,
putting ideas in people's heads.
And then by going around and asking and stuff,
now you're raising all kinds of doubts about a person
and the next thing you know,
just the gossip mill starts running
and you can really mess up somebody's reputation
based on nothing.
Because I'm telling you constantly,
and look, this is not just theory for me.
I mean, I deal with stuff like this as a pastor.
I know my staff deals with this.
I know Brother Segura deals with it,
Brother Corbin Restle, where people come to us
and accuse people of things to us.
Am I right, Brother Chris?
People come and they accuse people to us.
And you know, we have conversations
and when we have conversations with one another
as the staff, you know, these are the principles
that we're pulling out.
And we're pulling this out and saying,
look, you know, here's how we're gonna handle this
because here's what the Bible says, okay?
Well, I think just to be safe,
we should just believe every accusation
or at least investigate every accusation.
You know what, you go be safe,
you and the devil can go be safe.
I'm gonna follow what the word of God says.
Well, just be safe.
You know what, I find that safety is of the Lord.
I find that the safest thing
is to do exactly what the Bible says
and not to think that I'm smarter than God.
That's what I think is safe, okay?
Well, just to be safe, let's take a different approach
than what the Bible says.
No, thank you.
So don't put forth your hand with the wicked
to be an unrighteous witness.
Deuteronomy 5, 20.
Neither shalt there bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Proverbs 6, 19.
A false witness that speaketh lies
and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Proverbs 12, 17.
He that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness
but a false witness deceit.
Proverbs 14, 5.
A faithful witness will not lie
but a false witness will utter lies.
Proverbs 19, 5.
A false witness shall not be unpunished
and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
Proverbs 19, 9.
A false witness shall not be unpunished
and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
Proverbs 21, 28.
A false witness shall perish
but the man that heareth speaketh constantly.
What does that mean, the man that heareth speaketh constantly?
It doesn't mean that he just never stops talking.
Okay?
When the Bible says the man that heareth speaketh constantly,
it's saying the person who was actually there,
the person who actually heard or saw something,
their story is not going to keep changing.
Their story remains constant,
meaning that it remains consistent, okay?
That's why sometimes when you get interrogated by the police,
they'll just be like, all right, let's start from the beginning
and tell me the whole story again.
And you're like, I already told this story.
No, no, no, let's back up and just get the whole story again.
What are they doing?
They want to see if it's different the second time.
They want to see what changes.
They want to see if it's consistent.
Proverbs 25, 18.
The man that beareth false witness against his neighbor
is a maul and a sword and a sharp arrow.
Matthew 15, 19.
Jesus Christ said,
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
Jesus is just giving a rundown of a bunch of super common sins
and what rolls off his tongue?
You know, murder, adultery, theft, false witness.
So let me ask you this.
Are false accusations common?
Is false witness common?
Matthew chapter 5 is where I had you turn.
This is a passage commonly known as the beatitudes.
And the word beatitudes,
it's simply a fancy word for these blessed are statements.
You know, blessed are the meek, blessed are the porn spirit.
Because the Latin word for blessed is beatus.
So the beatitudes are blessed, blessed, blessed.
This list of things.
A lot of people put this on the wall in their home, right?
It's like the type of thing that would be embroidered, framed.
The list of the beatitudes.
I've seen it in many homes.
What's interesting is that these are in the third person.
Third person meaning someone other than you.
Like blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor,
blessed are they that hunger and thirst and so forth.
But then all of a sudden he changes gears in verse 11
and he says blessed are you.
You see that?
See that gear change?
First it was like blessed are these people, blessed are these people, blessed are these people.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you.
Notice when.
Not if.
When.
Blessed are ye when this happens.
Okay?
This is not a maybe.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
They're doing what?
They're bearing false witness.
They are saying all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
So in the past prophets were falsely accused of all evil throughout history.
So let me ask you this.
Are pastors today likely to be lied about or are they for sure going to be lied about?
Take it to the bank.
There is zero doubt pastors will be lied about.
Fact.
It's not maybe.
It's not it happens a lot.
It's not so much.
No, no, no.
It's just hey you're blessed when this happens.
Here are some other situations that might apply to you but when this happens to you
here's how to handle it because that's what they did to all the prophets which were before
you and that's what they're going to do to you.
They will say all manner of evil against you falsely for Christ sake.
Now when this happens we're to rejoice and be exceeding glad because it's a reward in
heaven.
If people target us because of our Christian life and say all manner of evil against us
falsely because we're serving Christ they've decided to attack us in that way this earns
us rewards in heaven is what the Bible says.
So we should actually rejoice when people and look I tell myself this a lot you know
when somebody lies about me online or says something about me that isn't true you know
I always stop and I think about this passage and say you know what praise the Lord.
Thank God because it's just more rewards.
I didn't have to do anything.
I didn't have to even before I got to bed today I was already earning rewards.
You know it's like I'm laying in bed I haven't even got up yet and somebody's you know talking
smack about me on the other side of the world and it's like the rewards are already like
cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.
I haven't even gotten up.
Out of bed I've already earned reward in heaven, treasure in heaven.
They say well Pastor Anderson you know is somebody lying about you right now?
Nobody's lying about me that I know of but you know I'm sure you know we could if we
go looking for it we'll probably find it but you know obviously over the years yeah I mean
over the years people have told all kinds of crazy lies about our church and I mean
you know especially the media I mean the media just lies through their teeth.
They lie even about things that aren't even like like they're not even justifiable at
all like like where they would come and they would they would literally stand outside our
church and count how many people walk through the door, ask me what the attendance was,
I told them what the attendance was, they're like yeah that's what we counted too and then
later that night on the news they claimed that there was 40 percent as many people as
what we agreed on was the attendance.
Or how about Pastor Jimenez pastoring a church where there was a certain Sunday morning
service with over 200 in attendance and they reported that 85 people showed up.
Like it's like come on and I walked I went up face to face to that reporter because it
had her name on the article so and so the article by so and so so and so I walked up
to her and said you're a liar I said you were there you know there were over 200 people
there why did you say it was about 80 people?
I said this is a lie she said I know but I didn't write that.
I said but this is a lie yes I know but I'm not the one who wrote that.
Okay it's got your name on it.
You know it could be another lie that she's telling or maybe they just have some editor
down at the newspaper that just gets the you know they get the rough draft from the reporter
and because at first I just thought she's just a liar but then I got as I've learned
as I've learned more about the media now I realize there's probably somebody she's
probably telling the truth there's probably somebody at the base that just goes 250 nope
take thy bill quickly and write four score you know let's just change that to 80 real
quick because that sounds like there's too many people listening to the word of God and
actually having a brain in their head let's make it out like it's some tiny fringe group
let's say it was 80 people and you know 65 of them were Pastor Jimenez's relatives because
we know how these Hispanics have a big extended family you know it was like a quinceanera
down there and they had every uncle and tio and tia and primo and prima and you know third
cousin twice removed folks people lie all the time that's a silly example but I'm telling
you people have told all kinds of crazy lies I mean I've been accused of supposedly like
murdering my enemies like I don't know if that if I was supposedly did it myself or
hired someone or something but like I you know Pete there are people out there who believe
that and repeat that and Clint you know so one of my enemies dies or something and it's
like oh Pastor Anderson you know he took care of them you know it's like maybe the Lord
took care of them you know you stop and think about that but you know I mean I've been accused
of being a Jesuit okay I guess I'm the only Jesuit priest who has 11 kids that are legitimate
I'm sure a lot of I'm sure a lot of Catholic priests have 11 kids but you know not on the
books though mine are on the books because I'm married okay I'm actually the father of
legitimate children but I'm saying I've you know you get all these crazy accusations or
or you know just just just the last couple weeks you know this thing was going around
on TikTok which I don't recommend that website at all but what I'm saying is or app or whatever
it is that app you know there was a thing going viral on TikTok of me throwing someone
out of the church and because they were because what it was was it was like a crazy I mean
this guy he had some kind of drug induced psychosis or whatever he thought that he was
Michael the Archangel he said he was Michael the Archangel and during you know we're in
the middle of dealing with like a serious fight in our church we're battling to to to
to get rid of the people that were denying the Trinity and we're standing up for the
Trinity we're standing up for the truth and this bozo in the middle of my sermon walks
up and he's got a piece of paper in his hand and and he's walking toward me and I'm just
like what what are you doing what's going on because I mean think about you know somebody's
just walking if somebody what if somebody's got him to start walking up to me right now
it'd be like can I help you this guy comes up to me he's just like I'm just like what
what are you doing what are you doing and he's just like you know I just he said I just
wanted to see if I could get this prayer read I wanted to see if I could just get this prayer
read I look at it and it was it didn't take I'm kind of a I'm not usually a speed reader
but it didn't take long to figure out what kind of weird crap was on this paper that
wasn't something that I wanted read in a Baptist Church some Roman Catholic sounding weird
mumbo-jumbo I looked at it said get out of here get this book could I get a little grace
no get out I'm preaching you're bringing me some Catholic prayer to read it's garbage
it's garbage the guy it turned out had told people he's Michael the Archangel he was literally
insane the guy had never been to our church before showed up and you know what I've noticed
around here is that when it rains it pours whenever something crazy is going on in our
church whenever we're fighting a battle a bunch of other stuff it's like the devil just
starts being like all right kick him while he's down you know send in the psycho send
in the you know the crazies so typically like these things will come in threes or something
on a Sunday morning when something crazy is going on so I'm like drag this bozo out you
know and then of course the famous you know brother say Gora comes in with the sunglasses
and the black gloves and drags the guy out but you know what people didn't realize he's
wearing sunglasses because he had injured his eye he actually was drilling a hole and
a hole and he got shavings in his eye you know who's ever had that happen before I've
had that happen so he'd got some his eyes I was all bloodshot and red and look nasty
so yes sunglasses on but it kind of just added to the effect you know he's got like the black
gloves sunglasses you know he just drags the guy out so it made for a real dramatic video
and for the record I'm glad it's going viral you know I'm glad it's going viral on on whatever
the social media but but here's what's funny about that though people take that and they
just tell all kinds of lies and false accusations like no one's allowed to ask Pastor Anderson
a question they just get thrown out if a member wants prayer they get thrown out because everybody
misquoted it as that the guy said you know would you pray for me or could I get some
prayer that's not what he said he said I'd like to have this prayer read he wanted to
read his psychotic ramblings before the service now who here comes to church on Sunday morning
because you want a guy in the parking lot who says he's Michael the archangels you know
what he wrote in his mental institution with his crayons you want him to read that on Sunday
morning is that what you're here to hear because I thought you came to hear preaching from
a Baptist pastor not the ramblings of a lunatic okay and people have said all kinds of things
like you know somebody just wants prayer they get thrown out you know anybody who asks
a question gets or not this is one of pastor this is how pastor Anderson treats his members
this is how he treats his flock this is how he treats persons the guy had never been here
the guy had been in the building for all of 10 minutes in his life when he marched up
here with his with his you know manifesto or whatever that was okay so I'm saying you
know people are gonna people are gonna tell all kinds of and then the story gets exaggerated
even more and people go around or what about that how about this lie I'm and maybe these
are obsolete but it's nobody's really lied about me lately I guess but you know yeah
I I pray shouldn't say things like that anyway well I'm not superstitious but what was the
one I was oh yeah here's it here's another popular lie about me did you know the pastor
Anderson is a millionaire this has been told repeatedly okay Sam Gipp said that I'm a
multi-millionaire and then that local pastor would look out mountain guy what's that guy's
mic is that all okay let's just let's just call it Mike okay so we're you know the pastor
can we call pastor Mike okay you know this lookout mountain guys like he's worth five
million dollars you know five million dollars so I was wondering like where is this lie
coming from because I don't have five million dollars I don't have one million dollars I
don't have a half million dollars you know I don't have any money I mean I own a home
that has a mortgage but that my only asset is my home that's mortgaged and the one vehicle
that my wife and I share so I'm like where is this coming from and and at the time when
this lie was being told I was living in a 1300 square foot house with 13 people me my
wife and our 11 children now since then we've gotten into a more reasonable size house and
our oldest sons have moved out but like I'm saying at the time it's like hello has anybody
been to my house like do I look like a millionaire to you but I was like where does this come
from I googled it and it was like there were all these websites giving the net worth of
celebrities okay and I was listed on all these websites pastor Stephen Anderson and this
was the funny thing it said hair color unknown eye color unknown now does this sound like
a credible website it sounds like they know me pretty well they could have just watched
a YouTube video and figured out my hair color okay but it's like you know height unknown
weight unknown and then it was like you know net worth estimated net worth and what it
was it's just some stupid junk site that just guesses at people's net worth and basically
the smallest bracket the smallest bracket was like one to five million that was just
because they just figure I guess if you're a celebrity you at least have a million bucks
so it was like the lowest bracket was one to five and I was in that bracket so then
he looks at that he looks at this obviously fake website one to five million which is
just default because it was the lowest amount they didn't have one for you know $78 or something
you know or whatever but anyway and then and then basically he just goes with the high
end of that five and then just states it as fact is George he's worth five million dollars
I said five million dollars folks he's bearing false witness and he's super wicked it's not
a small thing well it's not a big deal yeah it is he's a lying piece of trash oops did
I just say that Mike whoever you are just go ahead Google Mike yeah you'll see no I'm
just kidding anyway I'm out of time I'm over time I have a little more here but preachers
are for sure going to get lied about every but not only that every Christian is going
to get lied about man woman boy and girl false accusations abound so always remember number
one the same rules of justice apply to everyone give everyone the benefit of the doubt number
two is that we should always consider people innocent until they're proven guilty and number
three false accusations are common they're guaranteed for pastors and they're common
in general inspired simple word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word
Lord and I pray that every single person would take this sermon seriously and and not just
walk out of here with an attitude that says well I think or here's my opinion Lord help
us all to search the scriptures and get our views on justice from the Bible and in Jesus
name we pray amen amen take your song books please and go to him number 65 number 65 just
over in the glory land number 65 let's sing it out together on that first verse number
65 I have a home prepared where the Saints abide number 65 let's sing it out on this
first verse together
the glory
I am on my way
there to see God's praise
I
wanna
and say they're forever
the happy angel
the mighty
with the
I will shout
over in the glory
the mighty host
morning or dismissed
the