This morning I want to preach about the justice system or what could often be called the criminal
injustice system and I want to preach about the subject of justice in the Bible.
Now by way of introduction I'm going to start out by just teaching through some Scriptures
including 1 Corinthians 6 and then I'm going to get into five principles of justice in
the Bible that we need to never forget.
The Bible talks about how important it is for us as Christians to be able to judge,
to know how to judge, to be capable of judging.
Judging has become a bad word today amongst Christians, you know, don't judge.
But in reality God not only commands us to judge but he'll even rebuke those who are
not able to judge righteous judgment.
So I'm going to give you five principles on that but let's start out by just examining
this passage in 1 Corinthians 6.
Looking at verse number one the Bible reads, Dare any of you, having a matter against another,
go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?
Now right away he's rebuking them for going to law against their brother.
Basically going and turning their brother in to the police and we're talking about a
brother in Christ, a fellow Christian, turning them into the police or suing them in a court
of law because of some kind of a disagreement and the word used here is defrauded so, you
know, this could be a financial type disagreement or whatever the case may be.
But he says, Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust
and not before the saints?
So I want to point out that there are two types of people mentioned here.
The saints, which are all saved Christians, this is another proof of that.
The saints and the unjust, the unrighteous, those who have not been declared righteous
in the sight of God by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look at verse number two it says, Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?
How much more things that pertain to this life.
So the Bible's referring to the fact that in the future there's going to be the millennial
reign of Jesus Christ and at that time we will judge the earth.
We will judge angels.
We will rule and reign with Christ, the Bible says.
So it says in verse number four, If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this
life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
I speak to your shame.
What he's saying here is that you'd be better off having the least esteemed person in church,
the person that you respect at church the least, being your judge, than to go to the
world for judgment, than to go to the criminal justice system of this world.
That's a pretty strong statement, isn't it?
He's saying don't go before the unjust.
He's saying you'd be better off with the least esteemed person of the church than with the
world system.
I speak to your shame, verse five, is it so 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.
So notice, now the unjust are called the unbelievers and it's in contrast to the saints who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look what the Bible says next.
Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, verse seven, 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 ye do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren.
Now this must have been a very serious issue that God wanted us to know about for him to
repeat this so many times.
He doesn't just give one scripture, just one verse that says hey, don't go to law before
the unjust with a brother and then move on.
No, just verse after verse he's saying you're going to law before the unjust.
You're going to law before unbelievers.
There's utterly a fault among you.
How dare you go to law with your brother before the, I mean he says it over and over and over
again.
He really emphasizes this.
Then in verse nine, and it's funny because verses nine through 11 are often just quoted
independently of this passage as if they have nothing to do with verses one through eight.
But in reality this all goes together, it's all the same thought.
He says know ye not in verse three and here he says in verse nine, know ye not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now let me stop right there and remind you that the words righteous and just are both
interchangeable in the Bible.
They're used interchangeably.
For example, it talks about God delivering just lot from Sodom.
It doesn't mean only lot, it means just lot and then it says that righteous man in the
next breath.
So just and righteous are used throughout the Bible.
You could test that and you'll see that I'm telling the truth that those are both interchangeable
in the Bible.
So this is the same group we just talked about, the unrighteous, the unbelievers, the unjust.
Now what did he just finish saying about the saints?
They're going to judge the earth.
That's why they're qualified to judge things that pertain to this life.
But look what the Bible says in verse nine, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God in contrast to the righteous that will inherit the kingdom
of God.
He says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Be not deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abuses of
themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners
shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
So what's he saying in this passage, verses one through 11?
He's saying the righteous, the saved, the saints, they are qualified to judge, right?
And then he says the unjust are not qualified to judge.
They are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.
And then he lists off all these describing words about what the unjust are like.
And he's saying if you go to judgment before the world, if you go to law against your brother,
these are the type of people that you're putting as your judge.
And then he turns around and says and such were some of you, meaning even if you were
that bad of a person in the past, the difference is that you've been washed.
You've been sanctified.
You've been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, meaning
that's why you are better as a judge than the world.
Now obviously no judge is going to be a perfect judge, but God's saying that you'd be better
off with the least esteemed of God's people judging you than to let this heathen world
judge you.
I mean this passage is pretty clear on that, isn't it?
Who's not going to inherit it?
That's why they can't judge you.
It's the people that are a bunch of fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abuse of
themselves mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners.
Does that sound like the type of person that you would want up at the bench judging you
if you have a dispute with someone or if someone has possibly committed a crime?
Sounds terrible, doesn't it?
But yet today amongst I would say 90 some percent of evangelical Christians, maybe even
99 percent.
And amongst independent Baptists there's this attitude that our criminal justice system
can do no wrong.
That's the prevailing attitude in churches today.
And they'll even parade police officers and parade judges and parade all the people who
work in the justice system across the platform on a Sunday morning and praise them as being
wonderful public servants.
Is that what the Bible said?
No that's not what the Bible said.
And by the way, God's house is not a place to promote politicians and sheriffs and police
chiefs and fire chiefs.
It's a place where Christ alone should be exalted.
It shouldn't just be a platform to just lift up our community leaders.
Oh you're talking about these bunch of effeminate, adulterous, thieving, covetous revilers.
I mean that's what the Bible, a bunch of drunks.
I mean I sat in an independent fundamental Baptist church and literally they brought
in the local police chief and clapped and honored him and handed him awards.
He got up on a Sunday morning in an independent fundamental Baptist church and he said, you
know back a while back I was in a terrible car accident in my squad car and the car flipped
over and I was really in danger of losing my life.
But he said, but if I would have died I know I would have gone to heaven because I've lived
a really good life.
And he said, and I read this prayer every night.
He unfolds a paper and reads a Catholic prayer on Sunday morning.
That has no place in God's house.
You know we're not supposed to be a respecter of persons either so should we be exalting
people in the house of God just because they have some worldly status or some worldly position?
So in church I don't care if someone is a king or a queen or a president or a mayor
or a governor.
You know they don't sit in any better seat than a homeless person who walks in because
God's not a respecter of persons and in the house of God the playing field is level.
You know they say the ground is level at the feet of the cross.
So to sit there and have this attitude that churches have taught people of oh the criminal
justice system is a wonderful institution and we should be exalting and honoring it.
No the Bible says don't even use it.
Stay away from it.
How dare you?
They're unjust.
They're unrighteous.
They're wicked.
It's a wicked system.
Now a lot of people are probably already offended by this sermon.
And you have to understand though I'm preaching the Bible here.
I didn't just make this up.
I mean you have the Bible in your lap.
I hope you came to church with a Bible and I hope you're looking at it right now and
seeing that that's what the Bible is mentioning here.
Now go to Romans chapter 3 and let's learn more about the unregenerate man.
Let's learn more about the unsaved man.
Now you say well Pastor Anderson you're saying that every you're saying that every judge
and every police officer and of course I'm not because there are some who are saved.
But let me ask you this.
Do you think most of them are saved or most of them are unsaved?
So the bottom line is that we can't just have this attitude that says well the justice system
can do no wrong and man if somebody got arrested they're probably guilty and if they were declared
guilty then they must be guilty.
And just putting all this faith in that system when God tells us what the heart of the unregenerate
man, the unsaved man is like.
How can we just ignore that and just say oh well even though they're unsaved, even
though they reject Jesus Christ, they're good people.
They love us.
They're there to serve.
It's kind of a disconnect with the reality of what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Look what the Bible says in Romans 3, 10.
And it's funny because Christians know these verses that I'm pointing to especially in
Romans 3.
But then all of a sudden when we're talking about a public servant like a police officer
or a judge or a prosecutor, you know these people are all of a sudden this doesn't apply
to them because they suddenly become a saint even without believing in Jesus.
They become a saint in people's minds just by putting on that uniform or putting on that
robe.
What does the Bible say in Romans chapter 3 verse 10?
As it is written there's none righteous, no not one.
And obviously this is talking about outside of Jesus Christ because it talks about in
the next chapter in the context of the book of Romans how basically we have the righteousness
of Jesus Christ imputed unto us and we are declared righteous in the sight of God.
We're justified.
We're made righteous.
And that's what 1 Corinthians 6 talked about too, didn't it?
It said, you know, such were some of you but you're washed, you're sanctified, you're justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God.
Look at these verses.
As it is written verse 10, there's none righteous, no not one.
There's none that understand it.
There's none that seeketh after God.
They're all gone out of the way.
They're together become unprofitable.
There's none that do with good, no not one.
Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they've used deceit.
The poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Now we know that what things so ever the law sayeth that sayeth to them who are under the
law that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin but now the righteousness of God.
Without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
In the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them
that believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory
of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So here we see a dichotomy between the unredeemed and the redeemed.
The one who's been redeemed, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God
is something that they partake in.
Not only are they declared righteous in the sense that now they're saved from their sins
and on their way to heaven, but not only that when you get saved the Holy Spirit dwells
within you and you become a partaker of the divine nature.
Meaning that basically God's Spirit can help you to live a godly and a righteous and a
clean life.
He also creates in you a brand new creature, the Bible says, if any man be in Christ he's
a new creature.
Behold things are passed away, behold all things are become new.
Now we know of course that the flesh is still there and therefore if we walk in the flesh
we will fulfill the lust of the flesh.
But if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh and we can walk in newness
of life.
But does the unregenerate man even have the Holy Spirit living inside of him?
Does he even have a new nature?
No he's just the flesh, that's it.
He's unredeemed, he's unregenerate.
This passage is crystal clear, Romans 3-10 through Romans 3-24 tells us what the unregenerate
man is like and what regenerate man or redeem man or save man can become righteous and live
a godly life.
Obviously like I said, none of us is perfect, we are all going to continue to sin because
we still have the flesh and that battle is going on between the Spirit and the flesh.
The Bible said you'd still be better off having them that are least esteemed in the church
judge you than those which are out in the world, the unsaved, unbelieving, unjust, quote
unquote justice system of this world.
You flip over to Romans chapter 8, I kind of already touched on this anyway.
But let me just say this, there are other motives to become a police officer or a judge
or a prosecutor or a district attorney, there are other motives besides just serving the
public good.
And for you to just think like most people think, oh well these people are public servants,
I mean they love us and they're risking their lives for us because they care so much.
And here's what I've heard too, you know most cops and most judges are good people and it's
just a few bad apples.
Most of them are good, righteous, upstanding, godly people and it's actually the opposite.
There's a few really good cops or judges that are saved people, that are honest people,
people that have integrity, but you know what, the majority of them are just like everybody
else in the world because this world is a bad place, I mean look at all the bad things
that go on in the world.
Why?
Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?
Because within out of the heart of man come, you know, adulteries, fornications, pride,
blasphemy, foolishness, an evil eye, covetousness, these are the type of things that man has
within, I have within me, you have within you, we are sinners.
But the difference is that those of us who follow the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in newness
of life have a changed life through the power of the Holy Spirit and being in church and
reading the Bible and so forth.
But honestly, people in this world who are atheists, people in this world who are non-believers,
they don't live a godly life according to God's standards.
I don't care what anybody says, that's what the Bible says and I've seen it ring true
in my life.
So to sit there and just think that they all have these altruistic motives and look, there
could even be an unsaved guy who, you know, okay, he actually is a police officer because
he wants to help people and he wants to make a difference.
I'm sure there's that too, but again, the exception proves the rule.
Here's a big reason to become a police officer, you get paid really well and that's what everybody
just seems to just completely push out of their mind.
And I can tell you this, when I've talked to people who were thinking about becoming
a police officer or became a police officer, you know, that was a big factor for becoming
a police officer.
I remember there was a time when someone came to me, someone close to me came to me and
said, you should become a police officer.
This is when I was younger.
And they started showing me the benefits, the money, and I'll be honest with you, I
was young and naive and I thought, maybe I should become a police officer, I mean, this
looks great.
You know, here you are, you're working at jobs where you're not making a lot of money
and it's like, whoa, you know, all you got to do is be, you know, physically fit, you
know, and not be too smart, not too dumb, you know, you got to be in the, you know,
to get the right score on the intelligence, you know, I was thinking like, man, you know,
maybe I should do that, you know, I'm just saying that the temptation is there, the thought
is there because of money.
But that, no, no, no, no, no.
And people try to say it's the most dangerous job.
Okay, get a list of the most dangerous jobs, it's not on there.
And when police officers die in the line of duty, yeah, most of the time it's a car accident,
but even when they do die in the line of duty, it's rare compared to how many taxi cab drivers
die.
Truck drivers, you want to know the most dangerous ten jobs?
Look it up, truck drivers, taxi cab drivers, people who fly those small little airplanes
because commercial airplanes almost never crash, but little tiny airplanes crash all
the time.
Okay, electrician is in the top ten, a logger, someone who works in the lumber industry,
people who work in the meat packing industry, these are people where their spouse is thinking
they might not come home every night because those are actually really dangerous jobs,
you know.
But what I'm saying is that there is another motive to become a police officer.
Let me just give you, here's a story from our local area here, and you know, I'm not
just going to get up on a Sunday morning and just read a whole bunch of news stories to
you because I could just bring stacks of them, but I want to teach the Bible.
So far we've taught 1 Corinthians 6, we've taught Romans 3, it's real clear, okay.
But let me just give you one story as an example.
This is from the Chandler Police Department.
Assistant Chandler Police Chief David Lind would tell Chief Sherry Kyler he had things
to do.
So this is the assistant police chief in Chandler.
He would tell the head police chief that he had things to do or errands to run.
Then for months he would leave his office in the middle of work days to meet the wife
of a motorcycle buddy at a nearby hotel for adultery, according to an internal investigation.
So this guy just for months, you know, virtually every day is just, hey, okay, I've got to
go do some errands, I've got some things to do.
On the clock!
And he's going and committing adultery.
Two-fold adultery.
He's married and she's married and just committing wicked adultery inside of God.
On the clock.
That's what we're paying for.
A 13-page internal investigation report obtained through a public records request details how
the assistant chief socialized with the woman and yada, yada, yada.
On April 22nd, the husband called the police chief to complain about Lind's conduct and
a subsequent investigation led to Lind's two-week suspension without pay for unbecoming conduct.
He returned to work, you know, the next week.
And records show that the woman refused to be interviewed, hinting that Lind may have
used his high-ranking position to pursue the affair.
I'll use abuse of power as my general blanket statement.
So here's a cop who's using his position as the police chief or assistant police chief
in order to seduce a woman.
Okay.
And there have been other stories about prosecutors and judges and police officers who do the
same thing.
They'll use that position.
They'll abuse that power to seduce women because they're using their position as an authority
figure.
Now I believe that that's against the law, but if not, it should be where you're in a
position of power and you're using it to troll for adultery.
Now this guy was a former Tempe police officer who retired from that department two years
ago when the story was written.
Lind was hired as assistant Chandler chief in December of 2008.
His annual salary is $146,071 a year.
So this guy is retired from the Tempe police department, so he's getting paid like 80%
of what he was paid over there, whatever he was paid.
They get 80% like for the rest of their life.
And then he's now getting $146,000 at his new job as assistant police chief, $146,000
to go to the motel every day and hook up with someone else's wife, okay.
So this guy's getting paid over $200,000 a year and he's committing adultery on the
clock.
So can you see maybe another motive for this guy besides public service?
Lind is the second Chandler police officer this year to come under fire for adultery
during work hours.
I'm using the word adultery.
They use other euphemistic words that I refuse to use.
In February, Lieutenant Sean Hawkins resigned in the middle of an investigation after a
fellow employee accused him of terrorizing her and threatening to expose the salacious
details of their relationship that included adultery while at the police station.
Sean Hancock, president of the Chandler Law Enforcement Association said the police union
is in contract negotiations and does not attend to make this an issue of Lind's discipline.
He took his punishment, he's dealt with it, as far as we're concerned it's over.
Except that the Bible has a little different punishment for that, death.
But their punishment is two weeks unpaid.
He makes $200,000 a year, he could probably afford to skip two weeks of pay.
This guy isn't exactly living paycheck to paycheck, is he?
So you can see that there could be another motive for people to become a police officer
than just altruistic, I want to help people, I want to serve the public.
Now you say, well that's rare, you're just bringing up the one rare exception.
But what did the Bible say?
The Bible said that the unjust, this is what they're like, which is why we shouldn't go
to them for justice, okay?
Romans chapter 8 says in verse 5, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh.
But they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be.
Now this is the Bible here.
It can't be brought into subjection to the laws of God.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh but
in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his, but if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
So again, the saved person has two natures, the flesh and the spirit.
Now I'm going to get into the five principles of justice that I want to teach this morning,
but first I want to say look, I'm not, I don't want you to think, you know, oh Pastor Anderson
just hates all police and he hates all judges and he's just, no that's not true at all.
Okay?
Because like I said, the exception proves the rule.
There could be an example that you could bring forth of a guy who is a judge or a prosecutor
or a district attorney or a police officer and you say, well this guy is a good guy.
There could be exceptions like that, but the exception proves the rule, which is why I
would never call the police on someone or turn someone over to the police, my brother
in Christ, my sister in Christ, unless literally that person had done something that was worthy
of death.
I mean if the person had committed something worthy of death, well then at that point,
I don't care what happens to them because, you know, they need to be charged.
So for example, if somebody molests a child, if somebody commits rape, if somebody commits
murder, if somebody does something along those lines, or adultery even though they won't
punish it or whatever, you know, that's the only type of person that I would turn over
to the police.
But you know what?
If somebody stole something from me, I would not report them to the police.
I would not, if somebody at this church, so don't just go stealing from me now, okay?
But I'm just telling you, if someone in this church stole from me, I would not, because
you know what?
I don't believe that it's just to lock that person in a cage.
It's a cruel and unusual punishment.
It's not a biblical punishment.
The biblical punishment is that they repay what they've stolen either twice as much,
fourfold or fivefold, depending on the situation.
That's another sermon where I've explained that from the law.
Yeah, what do you steal?
Exactly.
If someone, you know, if someone, you know, hits my car in the parking lot, or someone,
you know, vandalizes within the church, or someone steals from me, or someone, you know,
punches me in the face, I'm not going to turn that person over to the police.
Because of the fact that it's not right.
Because the Bible says that we should not go to law before the unjust, it should be
judged within the church.
Now, obviously this doesn't go, like I said, for capital crimes.
If somebody is molesting someone, yeah, I would turn them over to the police in a heartbeat.
Of course.
It's only a wicked person that would try to cover that up.
If they're actually, if they're actually guilty.
You know, first I would make sure that there's the witnesses and everything, but that's also
coming up in the sermon.
So again, I'm not saying that all police are bad.
I'm just saying that in general, God says this is what they're like, therefore don't
invoke them against one another within the church.
It's a very clear teaching of scripture.
And by the way, just so you know that I'm not just anti-every, you know, government
worker.
My, first of all, my grandfather was a police lieutenant with the LAPD, and my uncle, Bill,
was a sheriff's deputy with Los Angeles County.
So there you go.
So it's, you know, I have family that was in the police department, and honestly, I
loved them and, you know, didn't necessarily agree with everything that my grandpa did
as a police officer.
But of course, you know, I think that in general, their motives were, especially my uncle Bill.
You know, my uncle Bill was kind of the cop that you would hope to get if you get pulled
over or if you get into trouble, because, you know, when you talk to him, he's always,
and by the way, he's a saved Christian, my uncle Bill.
Grandfather was not, but he got saved later in life, thank God.
My uncle Bill was a born-again child of God, you know, got saved at a Baptist church, and
he was a real nice guy, and he was kind of that exception in the sense that, you know,
he really did care about helping people, and he would let people off the hook if it was
for something stupid, and he was actually going after the real criminals.
In fact, he was involved in a situation where, you know, he was almost killed, he was like
this close to being killed, because he was wrestling with one of these militant Nation
of Islam soldiers or something, but anyway, he's wrestling with the guy, and the guy got
his gun and took his gun and was about to shoot my uncle, and my uncle yelled to his
partner, shoot him, you know, so then the partner shot him, because he was about to
shoot my uncle Bill, and, you know, that was kind of a thing where it was used as a training
situation for other police officers and everything like that.
Well, after that, they told him, because he was receiving all these commendations and
everything, they told him, they said, you can have whatever job you want, you can be,
you know, driving down Malibu Beach in a quad, making sure people don't have beer in their
ice chest or, you know, whatever the job, and he remained working the night shift in
the worst ghetto of Los Angeles, that's what he did, the night shift, worst ghetto, because
he said, I want to fight real crime, I don't want to write tickets, I don't want to sit
there and just harass people and cruise down the beach on a quad or whatever.
So I mean, you know, I do think that his heart was in the right place in general.
In fact, there's a funny story that my mom always likes to tell.
One time he was called out to a domestic dispute, and basically, you know, these people are
screaming, it was basically three black women and three black men in a house and they're
all screaming at each other and fighting and yelling.
So what happened was, they called the police out, the neighbors called the police out,
so he shows up with his partner and they walk into the place and there's all, you know,
so they said, okay, we got to get to the bottom of this.
So you know, the typical procedure was, you know, separate them and try to, you know,
tone things out.
So basically, his partner takes all the men and takes them like into the kitchen, okay.
And then Uncle Bill remains in the living room with these three ladies and they're all
mad and everything, you know.
But he just tells them, he tells them, you know, just quiet down, just, you know, let's
just relax for a minute, let's just not, just don't say anything, let's just wait.
He's talking to these guys and he'll deal with it, you know, in there and then we'll
talk.
So they're kind of just standing there silently and he basically, my uncle just starts going
like this.
And they're kind of looking at him like, what are you doing?
And you have to picture my uncle, he's like six foot five or six foot six, he's huge.
He's a boxer and he's a big, but he's a really gentle guy, but he's just huge, all right.
So he's really intimidating, he's really scary.
I remember as a kid just being scared of him because he was just massive.
So he's just standing there, you know, and these ladies are like, what is he doing, you
know.
And he just starts singing, literally.
And I don't know the song real well, but it's something about, there is a place, ain't nobody
crying.
It was like, I'll take you there.
I don't know the song, but he starts doing this and pretty soon he starts just singing
the song and pretty soon the other three ladies all join in and they're all singing
different parts and they just start singing, they're all singing.
And then pretty soon the guys come out of the kitchen, they're like, well, let's go.
Pretty soon everybody's singing and clapping and laughing and then the cops just leave
and it was fine.
It was like something you'd see out of a movie or something, you know what I mean.
So I'm just saying, I mean, you know, at least he's going in there and he's not just kind
of kill them all, let God sort them out mentality, but, you know, he's coming in and he was actually
just trying to keep the peace.
So people in the neighborhood really liked him and stuff because they felt like he was
giving him a fair shake, yada, yada, yada.
So don't go out of here and say, oh, Pastor Anderson is just this anarchist that just
hates all police and he, you know, blah, blah, blah, and he's just for the criminals and
whatever.
Look, the bottom line is, I'm teaching this morning what the Bible says.
I have some personal agenda, some personal vendetta here.
The Bible teaches that most of these people are very corrupt, they've done abominable
works, their throat's an open sepulcher, their feet are swift to shed blood, their mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness, the poison of asps is under their list, and look, this
goes for cops too, okay, especially cops because of the fact that a lot of people are drawn
to that job, not because they want to help things out and make things better, but because
of money, and the love of money is the root of all evil, and also because they have an
ego, pride, arrogance, put on the uniform, put on the badge, I got picked on in junior
high and I'm going to make sure that, you know, I pay back everybody for how they treated
me, yada, yada, yada.
I don't want to spend the whole sermon on that, but that's all by way of introduction,
it's the truth.
If you study the Bible, you know what I'm saying is true.
First Corinthians 6, Romans 3, etcetera, etcetera.
But look at, if you would, John chapter 18, I'm going to give you some principles of
justice and I'm just going to go quickly through these in light of what I just explained
to you, right?
In light of the fact that God says, whatever you do, don't go to law before the unjust
because they're wicked, they're effeminate, they're adulterous, they're thieves, all
these different, they're drunks, all these different things.
That's what they're like.
Don't go to them, you know, judge things within the church.
So in light of that, principle number one is that police and government officials are
not saints that are above the law.
You can't just automatically believe them, but yet today, I've sat and watched where
in a jury selection process, the judge asked the jury, would you automatically assume that
a policeman is telling the truth and would you give more weight to his testimony than
that of someone else?
And they said, oh, of course.
I mean, we're taught to trust our police officers, they're public servants, they love us.
And I mean, that's what most people, they'll just automatically be, therefore, if a policeman
says this person did it or this evidence there, they'll just automatically believe it as gospel.
That is not biblical according to the Bible, which leads me to number two.
So number one is to realize that police and government officials are not saints that are
above the law or above sin, despite what your Baptist church has been telling you your
whole life parading them across the platform.
But number two, important principle, just because someone is arrested does not mean
that they're automatically guilty.
But this is how we think in our society today.
Now if we're going to judge in the church and if we're going to say, well, we don't
want to go to the unjust, we want to judge in the church, we need to know some basic
principles of justice.
And that number one is the government officials and police officers are not saints that are
above lying.
But number two, it's that just because someone is accused or just because someone is arrested,
that doesn't make them guilty.
Look at John chapter 18 and see this mentality in the Bible.
Verse 28, Then led they, Jesus, from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment, and it was early,
and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that
they might eat the Passover.
Pilate then went out unto them and said, What accusation bring ye against this man?
You got to love this answer from the Jews here in verse 30.
They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered
him up unto thee.
So they asked, well, what's the charge?
What is he being charged with?
Look if he weren't a bad guy, we wouldn't have arrested him.
What's the charge?
Why does that matter?
So you see the mentality here of just, well, if he's been arrested, if you're being brought
before the judge, if you go to court, you're already presumed guilty by most people.
Now in America, we supposedly have the presumption of innocence.
You're supposed to be innocent until you're proven guilty.
But de facto in people's minds these days, we just think that you're presumed guilty
and you have to prove your innocence, which is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches.
Go to Deuteronomy 19.
Why is this important?
Because the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3.1, this know also that in the last days, perilous
times shall come and he lists off the different things about these perilous times and he says
it'll be a time in verse 3 of false accusers.
The Bible says that in the last days, one of the characteristics of the last days is
false accusers.
Also what does the Bible say in Matthew 24 about the last days?
The brother will deliver up the brother to death.
The father of the child, the children will rise up against their parents and cause them
to be put to death, Matthew 24.
So there is an end times phenomenon, the Bible says, where people are false accusers.
It's not just perilous times meaning, oh, you walk down the street and it's dangerous.
No, it could be perilous times of being accused of crimes that you didn't commit, thrown into
prison or worse because of crimes that you didn't even commit.
False accusers are out there.
How do we prevent people from being falsely condemned?
I mean, look, don't you think that a person who serves God is going to be falsely accused
when the Bible says ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution?
Don't you think a big part of that is false accusations?
I'll say this, every pastor of every church I've ever gone to was falsely accused at some
point or multiple times.
Why?
Because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
We're living in a time of false accusers.
You know, I was just talking to Brother Paul about how my pastor back from Sacramento,
he got accused of the most ridiculous, bizarre thing ever.
He was accused and the county was talking about, we're investigating and we might bring
animal cruelty charges because my pastor was accused of ritually torturing and killing
rabbits on a boy's picnic.
He wasn't even there.
He wasn't even at the activity.
It was an activity where basically one of the men in the church raised rabbits for food
and so he actually was teaching the boys, it was like, you know, like a thing where
they're learning about hiking, they're learning survival skills, they're learning camping
and basically this guy from the church had these rabbits and he taught them how to kill
the rabbits, slaughter them, butcher them and eat the meat.
But it became, no, no, no, pastor, I'm not going to say his name, but anyway, that my
pastor, Pastor Nichols, okay, but anyway, they accused him falsely that he was there
torturing these animals and I stood up for him.
You know, it was after I was already pastoring, but I stood up for him and I, you know, I
told everybody I could, look, this is a lie, this is a fraud and I said even if he did,
even if he did, you know, torture and kill rabbits, who cares?
Like is that really what you're so worried about?
But he didn't anyway.
They were just making food and he wasn't even there.
But I'm saying it's one thing after another where you get falsely accused and you know
what, even if you're not a pastor, just if you're a Christian, there's a good chance
that you're going to receive false accusations leveled against you at some point in your
life whether that be at your job, your school, in your family, in the church, whatever.
This is part of life.
Like in Deuteronomy chapter 19, the Bible reads in verse 15, 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.
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 you do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother, so shalt thou
put the evil away from among you.
Now, this is a pretty strong punishment.
It says that if you falsely accuse someone, your punishment is whatever their punishment
would have been.
So if you accuse someone of murder and you falsely accuse them and you testify falsely,
you know, you go in there and you give your oath or affirmation and you say, I'm going
to tell the whole truth, and then you sit there and lie under oath in order to get that
person convicted and it's found out that you're a false witness, the Bible says that you would
be put to death.
Or whatever, or let's say it was about stealing and the punishment was to pay $2,000.
Well, now you pay the $2,000, whatever the punishment was.
Look what the Bible says.
Verse 19, that shall you do unto him, then shall you do unto him as he had thought to
have done unto his brother, so shalt thou 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.
He's saying it'll scare people to where they won't commit false witness.
They won't bear false witness against their neighbor.
And then I shall not pity, but life shall go for life.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
What's he saying?
He's saying, look, if someone lies about evidence, if someone lies about evidence and says, hey,
I found this evidence or this is what I saw, in order to falsely accuse someone of murder,
that person should be killed.
He said, life shall go for life.
Don't pity.
Because you might think, well, he didn't kill anybody.
All he did was plant evidence.
All that officer did was just plant evidence or all that guy did was just lie under oath.
He's not worthy of death, but what does the Bible say?
Don't pity.
Life has to go for life.
Why?
Because he said others need to hear and fear.
Otherwise the false accusations are going to be rampant.
There's going to be a constant planting of evidence.
There's going to be a constant lying under oath.
Why?
Because that's the nature of man.
And so God says, in order to prevent people from being condemned unjustly, you have to
make sure that it's not just one guy whose testimony you're believing.
At the mouth of one witness, it has to be two or three witnesses and if one is found
to be a false witness, they shall be punished with whatever the punishment was.
If our justice system followed this, that means if they were going to give a guy 20
years in prison and, you know, it's found that actually this guy lied under oath, the
guy was innocent, they lied, he goes to prison for 20 years.
Not oh, he gets a two-week suspension, oh, he got a reprimand.
I mean that's the kind of things that will be today or it's just a misdemeanor.
He perjury, committed perjury.
No, no, no, it should be whatever the punishment was that he's trying to put on someone else.
That's what the Bible clearly says.
I want you to keep your finger here in Deuteronomy 19 and let me show you a similar passage in
1 Timothy chapter 5 that's connected to the Deuteronomy 19 passage.
Okay, keep one finger in Deuteronomy 19 and look at 1 Timothy 5, 19.
Now it's easy to remember, the way I always remember where to find these verses is that
1 Timothy 5, 19 goes with Deuteronomy 19.
Okay, so that's a good way to just remember in case you ever need to show someone this
or demonstrate this principle to someone.
1 Timothy 5, 19 goes with Deuteronomy 19, okay.
It says in 1 Timothy 5, 19, 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 the elder, of course, the pastor, it's saying against the pastor, because why?
God knows that pastors get accused of stuff all the time because people hate them because
they're preaching the truth and rebuking and making a lot of people angry.
Does anybody think there's anybody who hates me?
Google my name.
Actually, please don't Google my name.
But if you do Google my name, you're going to find that there's all kinds of people foaming
at the mouth at how much they hate.
I mean, there have been over 100 people out there with signs and protesting and hating
me.
I mean, I've gotten so many death threats, I can't even count.
People attack me and harass me in so many weird ways.
Like every day almost for certain periods of months, I'll get a different magazine in
the mail every day.
I'm like, I didn't subscribe to ESPN magazine or Field and Stream or World News and Report,
Time magazine, Life magazine, and then other weirder magazines.
And I'm thinking, wow, I must have a really poor testimony to the mailman when pornographic
magazines are showing up in the mail here, along with Life, along with ESPN, along with
every other magazine I've sent.
Because there are people out there who think it's funny to just sign me up for every magazine
I've sent to where I'm getting a different magazine every day.
And then the bill comes.
And it's like, well, you chose the pay later option, because I guess these magazine companies
are so stupid, I guess you can just go on there and just click, oh, just bill me.
They spell my name wrong, and they spell the address wrong, and it comes out to me, and
then they keep sending the bill.
Every time I get the bill, I just tear them up and throw them away, because I never booked
the thing.
I throw away the magazines, I throw away the bill.
But one time I opened one of the bills, just to see how can they just send you a bill when
they don't have your credit card, they don't have anything.
It's not online.
I open up a bill, and this is literally what the bill said.
We can understand how you might get busy and forget to pay bills and stuff.
But it said, you know, when you book a magazine like this, there's really no excuse for not
buying.
I'm like, what in the world are you even supposed to say?
I will say this, sometimes when a hiking magazine shows up, sometimes I'll sit down and be like,
this is kind of a cool magazine.
You know, I got like a runner's world or something.
I was like, oh, you know, I'm actually interested in some of this stuff on the running front.
But I'm saying, look, I've had people send me just envelopes spilling with white powder
out of them, like an anthrax scare.
You open it up, and there's a note where they cut out letters from a newspaper, like on
a movie or something, telling me how they're going to kill me at this date and this time.
One time my wife got called in to the Postmaster General of Phoenix or whatever.
They're like, look, we need to talk to you.
We've got some mail, and this is really serious.
They sit down.
I couldn't make it.
I was out of town or something.
So they bring her in, and they show her this note that's talking about how they're going
to come kill us on this certain date and time.
My wife says to the guy, well, at least we've got about another month and a half.
And the guy's like, why are you joking about this?
This isn't funny.
And she tried to tell them, we're used to it.
We're going out for years.
I mean, we've had people commit felonies against us where they would forward our mail to somewhere,
just to some random.
That's a felony.
I mean, you'll go to federal prison for mail tampering, for forwarding someone's mail without
their consent.
Now we're always giving gifts to our mailman and stuff, like, hey, buddy, remember, we
never forward our mail.
So they really take care of us, because we treat them right.
Treat your mailman and your garbage man right, is what I've learned.
It's true.
I learned that from my boss back in Chicago.
He taught me, he said, buy a Christmas gift for your garbage man and a Christmas gift
for your mailman, and you'll always get your mail.
Everything will work out great.
It's the best investment you'll ever make, he said.
Your alley will always be cleaned up, your garbage will always be picked up, no problem.
So the bottom line is, there are tons of people hating on Christians.
That's just reality.
So what does it say?
Look at the comparison between Deuteronomy 19 and 1 Timothy 5.19.
It says in Deuteronomy 19, verse 19, then shall you do unto him as he had thought to
have done unto his brother, so shalt thou put away the evil from among you, and those
which remain shall hear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among
you.
What's the evil?
The false witness.
He says they'll hear and fear.
We'll look at 1 Timothy 5.19.
Against an elder receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses, then that
sin rebuke before all that others also may fear.
This is what that's saying.
If a person makes a false accusation, a sinful witness against a pastor, that person should
be publicly rebuked before the entire church that others would also fear.
If they accuse the pastor of anything that he didn't do, it should be publicly rebuked
so that others would fear to be humiliated.
As they sought to humiliate the pastor, they shall be publicly humiliated.
And if actually, if you compare the two scriptures, they use the same wording about others hearing
and fearing and so forth.
So I gotta hurry up, I'm almost out of time here.
Number one, we said police and government officials are not saints that are above, except
the ones who are saints, which is a minority, meaning that they're Christians, they're saved.
They're not saints, they're not above the law, they're not sinless, you can't just automatically
believe them.
Number two, just because someone gets arrested doesn't mean that they're automatically guilty.
Just because someone is accused of something doesn't mean they're automatically guilty.
Number three, two or three witnesses are necessary to condemn someone.
You can't just go one person's word.
If it's their word against yours, if it's just two people only, there's no physical
evidence, there's no video recording or pictures or, you know.
And even those things sometimes have to be taken with a grain of salt in the day we're
living in when you can fabricate video and picture and everything.
But you know, you can't just take one person's testimony and just condemn someone.
It's at the mouth of two or three witnesses.
So if there's a doubt where it's, well, it's just your word against theirs, then you rule
not guilty.
Hello?
When in doubt, it's not guilty.
And that's the way our justice system is supposed to work.
You're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt,
saying not just a doubt like, well, I guess, I mean, it's possible that they might not
have done it if aliens landed or whatever.
But honestly, it's beyond a reasonable doubt, where any reasonable person would say, you
know what, this person did it, period.
But if you're like, man, I don't know.
I just don't know if they did it.
And this is also good preaching for you to hear if you're ever going on a jury, by the
way.
If you're on a jury and you're sitting there like, man, I just don't know.
I don't know if they did it, then it's not guilty.
Let God deal with that person.
But you can't just sit there and just condemn people when it's really questionable.
Now, obviously, if the evidence shows that they're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt where
you're 99% sure, okay.
But if you're 80% sure, it's not guilty.
Now, in a civil proceeding, it's a preponderance of evidence, meaning if people are suing each
other and you're on the jury, you go with the preponderance of evidence, meaning if
you're 51% sure this person's right and 49% sure this person's right, you rule in favor
of this person.
Just whatever tips pass the 50-50 mark.
But that's not the way it works in a criminal trial, friend.
Just because you're like, yeah, I'm a little, I'm thinking that you probably did it more
than not did it.
No, that's not enough to condemn someone.
It has to be beyond reasonable doubt or you're 99% sure that that person did it.
It's a totally different standard.
Because we're not just talking about money here, we're talking about someone being put
to death possibly or locked in a cage for many years.
So two or three witnesses are necessary to condemn.
Principle number four is that a confession does not always mean that a person is guilty.
And this is where you'll lose people on this, okay.
But go to 2 Samuel chapter 1.
This is true though.
And a lot of people right now, even in this room, might be thinking to themselves, okay,
Pastor Anderson just went off the cliff here.
He just went too far.
A confession doesn't mean you're guilty.
Hello, they confessed to it.
Of course they did it.
This is what 99% of people think, don't they?
99% of people, oh, he got arrested, for sure did it.
Yeah, the police only arrest you when they're sure you did it anyway.
Or oh, oh, he confessed?
Well then, of course he pled guilty or confessed.
Of course he did it then.
Well, let me give you an example in the Bible of somebody confessing to a crime that they
didn't commit and being killed as a result.
Second Samuel chapter 1 verse 5, and David said unto the young man that told him, How
knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead?
And the young man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa, behold
Saul leaned upon his spear.
And lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.
And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called unto me, and I answered, Here am I.
And he said unto me, Who art thou?
And I answered him, I am an Amalekite.
He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me, for anguish is come
upon me, because my life is yet whole in me.
So I stood upon him and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that
he was fallen.
And I took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was on his arm, and
have brought them hither unto my Lord.
Then David took hold on his clothes and rent them, and likewise all the men that were with
him.
And they mourned and wept and fasted until even, for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and
for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel, because they were fallen by the
sword.
And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou?
And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.
And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy
the Lord's anointed?
And David called one of the young men and said, Go near and fall upon him, and he smote
him that he died.
And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head, for thy mouth hath testified against
thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed.
Now here's the thing about this.
He didn't do it.
He did not slay the Lord's anointed, because of the fact that we have the story of Saul's
death in 1 Samuel chapter 31, just right on the same page probably in your Bible there.
And we have the same story repeated from a second witness in the book of 1 Chronicles.
So we have both 1 Samuel and 1 Chronicles consistently telling us a different story,
where he asks the armor bearer to kill him, and he doesn't.
Look at the end of verse 4.
I just want to point out one thing at the end of verse 4.
Therefore, this is chapter 31 of 1 Samuel, verse 4, Therefore Saul took a sword and fell
upon it.
Now it says that he died.
That's how he died.
The Bible says, So Saul died, in verse 6.
And in 1 Chronicles, it doesn't even bring up anything about this Amalekite telling this
fake story and being killed.
So it's, and I'm not going to go into it for sake of time, but I've preached it in my sermon
on 2 Samuel chapter 1, where I went into great detail and proved it beyond any shadow of
a doubt.
Number one, this guy's got the wrong weapon.
Oh, Saul fell on a spear.
Both of God's testimonies both say that it was a sword, not a spear, and those are two
very different weapons.
So this guy gets the weapon wrong, and he's contradicting two other scriptures.
He's lying.
Now you say, well, why would the guy lie?
Why would the guy confess that?
Because he thought he was going to get a reward.
Later in the book of 2 Samuel, David said, the guy who told me that he killed Saul thought
he was going to receive a reward.
So he lied and said, oh yeah, I killed that guy.
He wanted to receive a reward.
So then David puts him to death.
You say, well, that's a silly example.
That has nothing to do with examples.
It is the example of someone being put to death for a crime that they didn't commit
that they confessed to.
You say, yeah, but why would people confess to murder today if they didn't do it?
Well, here's why.
Because they get put in an interrogation room, and if you would, turn to Acts chapter 22,
and they get literally tortured and psychologically abused and pushed to the point where they
make a fake confession, and it happens all the time.
Now part of the way that they'll do this is they'll say, look, and by the way, did you
know that police interrogators are allowed to lie to the people that they're interrogating?
And it's considered standard procedure.
And when people say, hey, wait a minute, they lied to me, that's standard procedure.
I find no wrongdoing here, the judge will say.
They're allowed to do that.
It's true.
Look it up.
So this is what they'll do.
They'll say to them, look, we already have all the evidence.
Your buddy already said that you did it.
We have all the evidence, but here's the thing.
If you confess, we'll give you a plea bargain.
You're going to be found guilty anyway, because we already have all the evidence.
If you won't confess, you're going to be getting the death penalty.
But if you do confess, you'll get 18 years, you could be out in nine years, at least you
could still get out and live a normal life again, as opposed to being killed.
And they will intimidate, they will torture, and you say, well, it's not torture.
People think that literally, they think in order to be tortured, you have to be tied
to an anthill and have honey poured on you or something.
But some torture methods are very subtle, like just not letting someone sleep.
Or you've heard of the Chinese water torture, it's just like a drop of water hitting their
forehead.
But it'll torture you eventually and drive you insane.
They're all different methods of torture, like just badgering someone and just keep
manipulating them, messing with their mind, then they'll do the good cop, bad cop, where
one guy's like, we know you did it, you're lying, you're lying, you're lying, you did
it, you did it.
Tell us how you, so why did you do it anyway?
You're like, I didn't do it.
But why did you do it?
And they'll just keep messing with you.
What was the weapon?
Was it this place?
Which part of the house did you kill them in?
Just on and on and on, just badger, badger, badger.
And then another cop will come in and be real calm and be like, look, do you need a hug
right now?
Listen man, I'm just trying to help you.
Look, you're not going to get into any trouble, but just tell us what happened.
They'll do this to like, look, people will do this to like a five year old.
The CPS will do this to a little kid.
And that's why if the CPS ever wants to interrogate your child alone, never let them do it.
You know, and that's what, you know, lawyers will tell you too.
You know, you need to call a lawyer and, and whatever, because they'll, they'll take your
kid aside and be like, so show me where they touched you inappropriately.
And it's just like a fight, there's like, they just like make stuff up because they're
kids and they met and they, they'll tell them a fake story like 20 times and then the little
kid will just not be able to separate the reality and stuff.
So there are all kinds of ways that people make false confessions.
Usually it's a plea bargain.
Hey, if you plead guilty, we'll give you a better deal, we'll get you off the hook.
Or if you confess that you and so and so did it and you, and you actually testify against
so and so in court, you'll get a, you'll get a break.
You'll get out sooner.
So they manipulate, they, and by the way, the police don't really use like classic torture
methods, they more just use like badgering, mind control, games of, of lying and deception.
But it, you know, when you start talking about the military and you start talking about,
you know, the, the CIA and you start talking about foreign governments and things, you
start talking about the Soviet Union, for example, I mean, they would literally torture
people.
And people will confess to anything under torture.
It's pretty much been shown, it's been proven because you, you'll just do anything to make
the torture stop.
So you'll just tell them whatever.
I mean, what, what, okay, if I sign this confession, you'll stop torturing me, where do I sign?
Who's got the pen?
Because people can only take so much.
So, you know, just because someone makes a confession doesn't mean a person's guilty.
Confessions are often made through abusive interrogation techniques.
Look if you would at Acts 22 verse 21.
That's why you'll have people confess and then later deny it.
Look at Acts 22, 21, and he said unto me, depart, for I will send thee far unto the
Gentiles.
This is Paul preaching about how Christ wanted to send him to preach to the Gentiles.
Well, Jews didn't like that.
And the, the Jews here in verse 22, they gave him audience unto this word and then lifted
up their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that
he should live.
And as they cried out and cast off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the chief captain
commanded him to be brought into the castle and bade that he should be examined by scourging.
Now that's quite an interrogation.
The chief captain doesn't even know what he's being accused of.
He doesn't even know what the crime is.
So he says, okay, let's examine this guy by scourging.
Tell us what you did.
I mean, does that sound like a fair process?
Examine him by scourging, that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.
You know, I'm trying to figure, why are these people so mad at you?
Why are they crying against you?
I don't know.
I mean, it sounds like a, look, does this seem like this is the only time they did this?
Oh, okay, go ahead and examine him by scourging.
And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, is it lawful
for you to scourge a man that is Roman and uncondemned?
When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, take heed
what thou doest, for this man's a Roman.
Then the chief captain came and said to him, tell me, art thou a Roman?
Because if not, I'm going to do whatever I want with you.
Because if you're not an American citizen, I'm going to beat the snot out of you and
figure out what you did, boy.
You're going to tell me what you did, boy.
You're going to talk to me, son.
Oh, you're going to talk to me, boy.
Look, there are some sadistic cops out there, it's true.
I mean, you've seen the videos that pop up on YouTube, cop kicks a person in the face
for no reason, you know, cop tasers people randomly, you know, I mean, it's all out there.
Then the chief captain said, tell me, aren't thou a Roman?
He said, yeah.
And the chief captain answered, it's actually pronounced yay, right, and the chief captain
answered, with a great psalm obtained I this freedom, and Paul said, but I was free born.
Then straightway they departed from him, which should have examined him, and the chief captain
also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman and because he had bound him.
You know, when the government fears the people, there's liberty.
When the people fear the government, there's tyranny.
I think it was Thomas Jefferson that said that.
So the bottom line is here that this idea, first of all, it's unbiblical to say, oh,
certain people have rights because they're a citizen.
You know, our Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution says, cruel and unusual
punishment shall not be inflicted.
It doesn't say upon American citizens.
No, actually, our rights come from God.
We're endowed by the Creator with certain inelitable rights.
It doesn't say we're endowed by government when we become a citizen.
No, no one should be tortured without a trial or without, or for any reason, no one should
be tortured, period.
That's not one of God's punishments.
Okay, I got to hurry up.
Last point quickly, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, number 5, forgiveness should be extended
to a person after they're punished.
So if we want to have justice, number 1, realize, hey, just because they're accused, it doesn't
mean they're guilty.
Police are not above making things up or lying, judges aren't above lying and being corrupt,
and on the take, or being Freemasons.
I mean, my dad walked into a courtroom one time in a civil liability and it was Judge
Wapner.
Remember Judge Wapner from the People's Court?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Who knows who Judge Wapner is?
Okay.
My dad lived in LA and that's where all TV shows come from, right?
So he, this is before the People's Court was on TV and my dad was trying to get paid from
a guy that had ripped him off and he went to small claims court and Judge Wapner was
the judge.
And the guy that my dad was against, the defendant, threw up a Masonic hand sign to the judge
and the judge ruled against him even though all the evidence was in my dad's favor because
he's a Freemason.
You're going to tell me that judges that are Mormons and Freemasons or Jews or whatever,
they're not going to stick up for each other and protect each other?
Also there's this thing of kind of a good old boy club of all cops and all judges where
they'll cover each other because next time it's going to be them when they're committing
adultery on the clock.
So they all cover each other.
In fact, they'll even extend the same protection to firefighters.
Now I have nothing against firefighters.
In fact, I wish that the police would be more like firefighters where I'll call you if I
need you.
You know what I mean?
Like because the fire department doesn't go patrolling for fires, right?
It's like if I need you, I'll call you.
That'd be great if the police would be more like the fire department.
But it did kind of make us mad one time because one time we were somewhere and we were parked
and we forgot to feed the meter, right?
And there were like three of our vehicles and we went over the meter.
And one of the cars that was with us had a fire department, you know, hey, I'm a fire
department wife or whatever.
And we got ticketed and they didn't, right next to each other doing the exact same thing
because it's like this kind of good old boy club.
And I've had cops pull me over and I was wearing my fire alarm shirt.
They thought I was a, oh, you're a firefighter and they started putting, I'm just like, yes
I am.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, I didn't do that.
But they're kind of like, and I'm like, oh no, I'm a fire alarm tech.
Oh, we'll throw the book at you then if you're an electrician.
For a second, I thought you were one of us, you know.
Number three, look, if we're going to judge in the church two or three witnesses, my friend,
there needs to be evidence, not just one person's word, okay.
And then fourth, a confession doesn't mean that they're guilty because many times confessions
are by lying to people, forced confessions, torture, brutal interrogations, et cetera.
And then number five, a real important principle, if a person is condemned and found guilty,
once they receive the biblical punishment, whatever the biblical punishment is for that
person, they should be forgiven and it should be forgotten once they receive the biblical
punishment.
You say, well, what about pedophiles?
They should be dead.
So this is a non-issue.
I'm saying once they've received the biblical punishment for stealing or whatever else,
forgiven and forgotten, what does the Bible say in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 6, sufficient
to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many so that contrary wise you
ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed
up with over much sorrow.
Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him.
So this idea of people carrying around a criminal record for the rest of their life and not
being able to get a job, the Bible says, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let
him labor.
Let him labor.
Working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that
needed.
Oh, well, you can't work here because when you were 18, you smoked pot or vandalized
or stole something.
Let people live things down.
That's part of justice.
Let people live it down.
When they've done the time for the crime, it's over.
Whatever the biblical punishment, if they've done it, let it go and be forgiven.
You know what?
If you're not forgiving, you're not Christlike.
You know, people, yeah, there needs to be a punishment, but then we need to forgive
and confirm our love toward people once they've been punished and restore such a one in the
spirit of meekness.
If they're found to be stealing or lying or whatever, you know, let it go.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word and I know that there are possibly some
people who would hear this sermon and be offended and say, well, I'm never coming back.
Well, Lord, I'm glad that those people heard it while they were here then since they're
never coming back.
I'm glad they heard this important truth from your word because we need every person in
America who is going on a jury or every church member in America to learn these principles
of justice and just because our country has a criminal injustice system, God forbid that
we as your people would ever be unjust and as soon as we hear a rumor about somebody
or a false accusation about somebody or as soon as we, you know, get just the testimony
of one vindictive person, help us not to just jump on, oh, they're guilty.
Lord, help us to judge righteous judgment, not judge according to the appearance and
help us to search the scripture for even more principles on justice than what we're given
this morning.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.