(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Alright, look at verse number 12 in your Bible, Romans chapter 7 verse 12, Romans 7 verse 12. And this is where the sermon title comes from, where the Bible reads, Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Holy and just and good. So the context of Romans chapter 7 and several of the chapters in Romans is basically not just about salvation but about living a godly life. And the Bible says once you put yourself in bondage to or the way you choose to walk, you're going to end up being in bondage that way. So if you choose to live for God, you're going to be in bondage to wanting to live for God. Which is a good thing. But if you choose to walk out of the flesh and serve the flesh and fulfill your lust, what takes place is you are in bondage to that sin and to those wrong choices. An easy example of this is people that smoke cigarettes. People that smoke cigarettes, pretty much all of them want to quit. They would love it if they didn't have that bondage to smoke cigarettes, but they do have that bondage because they walk down that path. And look, living for God and serving God and praying about it, it can help get rid of that bondage. But what I'm trying to tell you is if you choose to fulfill your desires, you're going to end up being in bondage to it. Where you want to quit but you can't want to quit. When it comes to God's commandments, some people look at them and say, man, they're not good, okay? God's commandments are bad because it sends people to hell because they've broken God's rules and there's all these rules to follow. But the Bible says His commandments are good. His commandments, in fact, in verse number 12, it says in the commandment, holy. And the first point is simply this. God's commandments, God's rules are holy. Turn to Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. If I were to list one characteristic of God, I would say God is a holy God. See, most people in the world, they would say love. And God is love. The Bible says that. God is loving, but did you know the Bible speaks about Him being holy over and over and over again? And the reason why people go to hell forever is because God is holy, okay? His laws are holy. His rules are holy. All of God's rules are holy. Notice this in Revelation 4 verse 8. Revelation 4 verse 8. Revelation chapter 4 verse 8. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about them, and they were full of eyes within, and they rested not day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. Now look, God is love. God is loving. But they don't stand there and say, love, love, loving, loving, loving, Lord God Almighty. No, they say holy. Why? Because our God is a holy God, okay? You wonder why we preach sermons about so much stuff, about fixing your life, because we're preaching what the Bible says, and our God is a holy God. He's a righteous God. Turn to your Bible in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. And it makes sense. If God is holy, guess what? His rules are holy, and He expects us to be holy. That simple. Notice what it says in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. It says in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 15, But as He which hath called you is holy, referring to God, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Now the word conversation there is not simply referring to what you say. It's not saying usapam, okay? What it's saying is your entire life. Not just what you say, but what you do, the things you watch, the things you hear, the word conversation in the Bible is not just what comes out of your mouth. It's more than that, okay? Your whole manner of conversation, okay? But what it says is God is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. See, if God was not holy, He can't really ask us to be holy. But since God is holy, He can have strong rules and commandments for us because we're supposed to be like Him. Turn to Proverbs 24. Right in the middle of your Bible is the book of Psalms. The book right after that is the book of Proverbs. You look at one of the major religions in the world. Hinduism is the third biggest religion in the world. And if you've ever read or heard about what the Hindu gods did or believed, because they believe in one god that manifests himself in different ways, but their gods get drunk, their gods do drugs, their gods get gender changes, their gods sleep with men, women, animals in their scriptures. I mean, their gods are like the most wicked reprobates you can imagine. So look, you can't really ask people to be holy when the gods you worship are these wicked devils that are committing wicked sins. But look, God, the true God, the living God, is holy. God is a holy God. And you know what? He says, be ye holy. Why? For I am holy. Because God is holy, we're expected to be holy. You say, brother, stop. I'm saved and on my way to heaven. Hey, praise the Lord for that. That's great. But because God is holy, he expects you to be holy. Look, when you have a child, when you have children, you're going to have commandments and rules for your children. If I was getting drunk and just doing all kinds of wicked things and I was a drug dealer, it would be kind of hard to look at my son and say, you know what, son, I expect you to never drink, never do drugs, read the Bible for an hour a day. It's like, because if I'm his father and I'm living a wicked life, you know what, he's going to end up living a wicked life. That's the way it's going to work. But see, God, the God we worship, is holy. So he can and he does expect us to be holy and obey all of his rules. Proverbs 24 verse 9. And see, what takes place, and it's kind of funny about this, because the world and false religions will tell you you have to work your way to heaven. Every religion in the world, right? I mean, everybody out there thinks you've got to work your way to heaven. And it's funny because they don't live very godly lives. When you look at people that say you've got to live a good life to get to heaven, it's like, then why don't you live a good life? It's like, you never get insurance, you never read the Bible, you're getting drunk every night, it's like, but you've got to be good to go to heaven. What we see take place is that when people think you have to work your way to heaven, instead of upping their standards, they just lower the standards of life. So now they don't consider anything sin. You say, why? Because it's impossible to be perfect. So what they do is they lower the standards. So basically, you could talk about anything and say, well, it's not wrong to drink 20 beers in a night as long as you don't drink 21, right? It's not wrong to do drugs as long as you don't sell those drugs. I mean, it's not wrong to smoke one pack of cigarettes a day, it's wrong to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day. It's not wrong to have children out of a wet box as long as you actually forgive them. They lower the standards of right and wrong. Now, if you think about this, what the Bible says in Proverbs 24, verse 9, the thought of foolishness is sin, and this corner is an abomination to men. The thought of foolishness is sin. So according to the Bible, just thinking about getting drunk is a sin. Not getting drunk, just thinking about getting drunk. Just thinking about smoking cigarettes. If you say, I'm thinking about, I might want to smoke a cigarette, that's a sin, the Bible says. The thought of foolishness is sin. Just the thought, I wish I had more money, I wish I had so-and-so's house, I wish I had a better job, I wish I had this and that. It's like, yeah, what's wrong, according to the Bible? Your cabbages. And the Bible says just thinking something bad is wrong. Doesn't the world teach you? I mean, this is what you hear oftentimes in offices. You know, guys will look at women all the time they're not married to, and they'll say, well, it's not wrong if you just fuck. Don't you hear that? It's not wrong as long as you just look, as long as you don't do anything. Well, what does the Bible say about that? See, the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin. Matthew 5, turn to Matthew 5. You say, why? Because God's commandments are holy. God's standards are a little bit higher than man's standards. Man will say, it's okay as long as you don't do it. The Bible says it's wrong even to think about it. You don't have to just do it. It's wrong to think about it in the Bible. Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 verse 27. He had heard that it was said by them the whole time, thou shalt not commit adultery. This is Jesus Christ. Don't people say Jesus was so loving, and he just got rid of all the rules, and it's just love, love, love, and that's it? Well, let's see what the Bible says. Matthew 5 verse 28, the words of Jesus Christ. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. See, according to the Bible, just lusting in your heart, just thinking it in your mind, the Bible says that's adultery of the heart. That's not what the world's going to tell you. That's not what other relations tell you. You know why? Because their commandments aren't holy. But one of the attributes of God is that he's a holy God, and what it says in Matthew 5 is if you just lust in your heart, you've committed adultery in your heart. And let me explain something to you. Nobody commits adultery in action unless it starts first in the heart. Nobody just wakes up one day, and they're reading the Bible for an hour a day, and they're praying, and their mind and their heart are perfect and clean, and then all of a sudden they just happen to commit adultery. No, it starts because you allow it in the heart. And people allow these things inside of their hearts, and then one day they wonder, how did I end up down this road? It's like, I never expected to be a drug addict out on the street. I never expected or planned to cheat on my wife or whatever. But you know, it starts in the heart. And if people would realize God's commandments are holy and stop those things when it enters into the heart, they wouldn't go down that road of destroying their lives. Turn to James 3. James 3. James 3. So look, the truth is, God's commandments are more holy than the world's standards. The world's standards are pretty low. The world's standards says, you know what, as long as you go to church once every three months and pray for five minutes a month, you're good to go. The Bible standard is, read God's word every single day. Ask yourself that. Do you read the Bible every day? See, oh man, I don't know where my Bible is anymore. It's like, let me pull it out from underneath the couch. Man, there's so much dust. Is this mold? It's like, man, when did this happen? It's like, that's the reality with most Christians. Isn't it true? I mean, it's like, most people, they never read the Bible. The Bible says, read the Bible every single day. Read therein all the days of their life. You say, why? It's God's standards. God's commandments are holy. God expects you to live a righteous life. And look, the Bible says that no matter how much you do for God, you should still, at the end of the day, count yourself as an unpopular servant. Why? Because you're just doing what God commanded you to do. You're not going to the Bible beyond by reading the Bible every day. You say, man, I read the Bible every day. God must be so happy. It's like, man, I'm so good. God's so happy with me. No, you're just doing what he told you to do. Okay? It's like, you choose not to read the Bible. You're just disobeying God. He's going to be mad at you. But when you just do what God says, that's what God expects you to do. Okay? So look, God's standards, God's commandments, they're holy. James chapter 3. James 3, verse 13. Who is a wise man and dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. And so, in verse 13, this kind of shows you the word conversations, not just through sovereign. It's not just what you say. You say, why? Because it says, show his works with meekness of wisdom. Okay? That's not saying, I read the Bible two hours a day, everybody. I'm showing you my works. And then I pray 20 minutes every morning. You know, I, whatever. No, that's not what it's saying. It's saying your lifestyle, the way you live your life, people should see your works. And you should be meek. Okay? Meekness of wisdom, the Bible says. So it's saying, basically, your lifestyle probably will hide. Okay? Verse 14. But if you have bitter ending and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. The Bible says it's wrong to have ending-ness for strife, fighting inside of your hearts. Okay? Now, most people would say, as long as you don't get into a fight in public, you're good to go. Right? It's like, I haven't punched anyone this week. You know, I'm doing good. Right? Now, the Bible says if you have strife in your hearts, it's wrong. And the reality is that when people allow these things to enter into their heart, they kind of wonder why, a couple of years down the road, man, how did I end up out of church, out of soul and out of living for God? It started because you were bitter and envious and tight in your heart. And it destroyed your life. The Bible says it's wrong if it's just inside of your heart. Verse 15. This wisdom descended not from above but is earthly, sensual, devil. See, in verse 15, this wisdom, this attitude that you can have envious and strife inside of your hearts as long as you don't do this, this didn't come from God's mouth. I mean, when you read the book of Proverbs, the book of wisdom, show me the part where God says it's okay to be a bitter, angry, you know, upset person inside your heart as long as you don't do anything. Do you see that in the book of Proverbs? The Bible says to clean up your hearts. Okay? And so the Bible says this does not come from above. Verse 16, for where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. It starts in the heart and leads to every evil work. Okay? Turn to 2 Samuel 6. 2 Samuel chapter 6. 2 Samuel chapter 6. See, here's the reality. If you haven't been to church much or you haven't been to a church much that preaches everything in the Bible, you need to understand when you go to church that just preaches what the Bible says, you're going to find out very quickly God is holy. I mean, whenever people read the Bible for the first time, cover to cover. Okay? Because, look, most Christians have never read the Bible cover to cover. Now, hopefully that wouldn't be said of you, but let me say this. If you've never read the Bible cover to cover, fix that. Fix it. Start reading the Bible ten minutes every day or fifteen minutes or twenty minutes, whatever you have to start with. But don't tell me you have time for an hour on Facebook and you never read the Bible. Don't tell me you have two hours of gossiping and you never have time to read God's Word. Set aside your schedule, set aside the distractions of the world to spend a little bit of time in the Bible and finish the Bible cover to cover for the first time. And I'm going to give you a challenge if you have not read the Bible cover to cover. And here's the challenge. I challenge you to read the entire Bible and I'm convinced you're going to walk away and say, man, God is so much fuller than I realize. It's like, I can't believe God's judgment. I mean, man, people are being killed by God and God's angry and his wrath is coming down on people. You're going to be shocked. You say, why? Because every preacher out there is saying, man, God's just so alone. He's all just love, love, love. And then you read the Bible and you're like, wow, I didn't realize the aspect of him being holy. Now I get the song of holy, holy, holy. Right? It's like, I used to just sing the song of, oh, that's what it means to be holy. Yeah, you know, God is holy. And when you read the Bible, that's the number one thing you realize that you didn't believe. And I'm going to give you an example. Second Samuel chapter six, second Samuel chapter six. And once you realize something, whenever God has a commandment for a rule, it does not matter how much you disagree with it or you think it's too harsh or you just feel it's wrong and not loving, you're wrong and God is right. It does not matter how much it doesn't make sense to you. What matters is what does the Bible say? God is always right. OK, now here's an example. When you read this story, you're going to be like, you know, why did God do this? I mean, God seems wrong. God's not wrong. God is always right. Second Samuel six, verse three. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, dragged the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God. And Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments. They did fur wood even on harps and on salt trees and on timbrels and on cornets and on cymbals. Now, they are carrying this cart. But what you need to understand is God gave very, very specific rules of what to do when you carry the cart. Very specific rules. You have to understand that when you did your Bible reading and you were in Exodus and your mind wandered for 40 minutes, that there's actually some important information there that people are supposed to arrive on. When you're in Leviticus and Numbers and you're like, oh man, that's where you run into problems because he's giving you commandments and you need to just read what he says. And look, the Bible is a very interesting book. I love the Bible, but the reality is some parts are a little bit more interesting than others. The story of David and Goliath is a little bit more interesting than the latter half of Exodus after the whole battle with Pharaoh. But we need to know what that says. God gave specific rules. Notice what it says in verse 6. And when they came to Nahshon's depression court, Azam put forth his hand in the mark of God and took hold of it for the oxen shook it. So the oxen shake and he basically reaches out to grab it because he doesn't want it to fall. So he grabs a hold of it because the oxen are shaking and you say, yeah, that's what I would have done. Well, notice what it says in verse 7. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and God smote him there for his heir and there he died by the mark of God. God killed him. He said, what in the world? I mean, God's being too harsh. God is never wrong. God is right, you're wrong, I'm wrong. God is not wrong. Now look, when you say, brother, would you have killed him? No, I wouldn't. I'm not as holy as God. And God gave specific rules and I'm sure he just wasn't thinking or didn't take them too seriously. He didn't realize that God would kill him for it, but you know what the reality is? God did kill him. He smote him there and he died. God struck him dead. See, that seems very minor. You know what? God is very holy. And God is always right. And look, when God gives you rules, you need to just do it. Turn to Romans 7. Now look, obviously some things are worse than others. Obviously telling the little white lie is not as bad as perfect. Obviously God's going to come down harsh on you for something that's a bad sin. You know, sometimes you look at stories like this and when I read that story, I think it just doesn't seem like that big of a deal. I mean, if you're honest, you can say the same thing. When you're reading that, inside of it, to you it doesn't fully make sense why God did that. It's like, man, that seems too harsh. Or Moses did not enter the Promised Land. It's like, man, he had to put up with those people for 40 years, he smites the rock twice and that's it for him? That seems too harsh. Yeah, you know what? It seems too harsh for me, but I'm wrong. God's right. God is holy and he determines the rules and he determines the judgments. And you have to understand that you need to live your life according to what God says. Romans 7 verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law is sin, thou shalt not covet. So the Bible speaks here about coveting or lusting after something. And you know, Paul says, I had not known sin, but by the law. What he's saying is, now look, every child knows at a young age that, you know, it's just built into them that harming another human being is wrong. If you just punch someone or hurt them or kill someone, obviously they know that's wrong. An example is, you know, I was having a small little pillow fight with my son yesterday. And my daughter saw it and she just starts crying and she's so upset because she feels like I'm hurting. Okay, we're smiling. No, we're smiling. Nothing wrong. But it's just built inside of a baby that they just know, hey, that's wrong. You just harmed someone and hurt her and stuff like that. Look, at a young age, in your conscience, you know lying is wrong. You know murder is wrong. You know those things are wrong. But look, not every single thing in the Bible is just inside of your conscience. You know it's right. You know it's wrong. And what Paul states is this, when it comes to coveting, that's not really something where you have to be like, man, it's wrong for me to wish I had somebody else's house. Right? And he doesn't feel wrong. Obviously murder, of course it's wrong. Obviously lying and stealing, but it's like, man, just how many times? I just wish I had a better house. That's wrong. Yeah, that's a sin. But see, you wouldn't know that except the Bible says it. See, God's commandments are holy and He teaches you right and wrong. And look, if you don't read the Bible, you're just not going to know what God's rules are. You're not going to know what His commandments are. There's more than ten commandments. There's a list of ten commandments, and then you add another ten, and another ten, and another twenty, and another thirty, and forty, and fifty, and sixty-seven. There's hundreds and hundreds. I don't know how many there are. I haven't taken the time to count them. But there's a lot of rules God has. Not just ten commandments. There's a lot more than that. And God expects you to move behind by them. Look at verse number twelve again. Romans seven verse twelve. So number one, God's commandments are holy. But then it also says this in Romans seven verse twelve. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just. Just means they're appropriate, correct, right. God's commandments are just. Now turn to Ezekiel chapter eighteen. See, you look at some of the commandments of God, and you look at the punishments, and you're like, man, that seems really harsh. It doesn't seem right. It doesn't feel right. It seems like God is being too harsh. God is just. He's one hundred percent fair. He's a just judge. He's fair, and He has the right balance of right and wrong and the judgment. God is always just. His commandments are just. Ezekiel chapter eighteen verse twenty-four. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness. Ezekiel chapter eighteen verse twenty-four. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and commiteth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All this righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned. It is trespass that he hath trespassed, and it is sin that he hath sinned, and them shall be done. We're going to do a Bible memorization on just this verse, okay. It's going to be like a ten week challenge, okay. But in Ezekiel chapter eighteen verse twenty-four, what it's basically saying is this. That somebody can be someone who is abiding by the law and doing what's right. But if I just went out and committed murder tomorrow, I couldn't say, well wait, I read the Bible so much though. I mean I've been sowing for so many years and God's mad at me because I just committed one murder. I only robbed one bank. I only stole one iPhone. You know, nothing to riot in D.C. or New York or whatever to create the stuff you're doing in the U.S. It's like I've only done this one time and God's angry with me. It's like yeah, you know what, it's great that you do those good things, but you're punished for the wrong that you do. And if you break God's rules, you're going to be punished for it. Look, the good does not outweigh the bad. Try that in court. You know, if you end up going to court for being some wicked person and committing some terrible sin, let's say you commit murder, and your defense is, I spend so much time being the homeless. I help so many old ladies across the street. And just for one murder, it's like yeah, you're guilty. You're punished for the wrong that you do. It doesn't matter how much good you did, you're guilty of God's rules. But notice what the reaction is in verse 25. This is the reaction of normal people when they see God's rules. Yet he say, the way of the Lord is not equal, meaning not fair. Here now on the house of Israel is not my way equal or not your way is unequal. And see, man looks at the rules of God and their reaction is, it's not equal. It's not fair. It doesn't seem right. It's like I think that 2x should equal 8, not 6. It's like, well, x equals 3. Oh, that's the problem, my friend. It equals 6. It's like they look at it, it's not equal. It's not fair. It's not right. I mean, this punishment is too harsh for this sin. And people look at God's commandments, and they look at his rules, and they look at how God wants you to live your life, and they say that's not fair. That's not right. And they say, you know what? It's not equal. It's not fair. What God says is not my way equal. You're the one who's not righteous. You're the one who's not fair. You're the one who doesn't know what you're talking about. See, the world looks at the rules of God, and they have their opinion. The Bible says there's a way we've seen it right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And it does not matter if it seems right to you. What matters is what God says. Verse number 26. When a righteous man turned away from his righteousness, and committed iniquity, and died in them, for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. So the example I gave, you know, in the perfect Old Testament law, we'll see in a little bit, there was the death penalty for certain sins, like murder, for example, an eye for an eye. And look, you know what? It doesn't matter how much good you did before, you're going to be put to death for that crime. Verse 27. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considerth and turneth away from all transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. And so look, you can get right with God, but there is a point where God will punish you for what you do that's wrong. People hear this though, and in verse 29, yet sayeth the house of Israel, the way of the Lord is not equal. The way of the Lord is not equal. This is the reaction of Christians today. You preach against certain sins and certain things that are wrong, and people say, well that's just not right. You're not loving. It's like you're not loving enough. It's like it doesn't matter what seems right to you. What matters is what does God say? And let me tell you something, the problem is that very few Christians have read the Bible. And let me tell you something, when you see the rules of the Bible and God's punishment, most Christians think God's unfair. They think it's wrong. They think it's terrible. A great example of this, I remember reading an article about Islam, you know, Muslims. And obviously we're Christians, we've rejected Islam, it's a false religion, it's a wicked religion, it has all kinds of problems. But I was reading an article one time, it was about a year ago, and they were going through all these things in Islam that are too extreme and wrong. And look, as they're going through this list of things and saying this is wicked, see how this is an evil religion, I was like, I actually agree with most of those things. Because it was talking about the death penalty for certain sins and certain crimes, and I was like, yeah, the Bible says the same thing as that. And it's like Christians that are saying it. They're looking at the death penalty for committing murder or for being a pedophile, and they say, man, that's too harsh. I mean, that's so evil of Islam to have that rule. It's like, did you read what the Bible said? God has the same rule for that. God is the death penalty on kidnapping. And people say, oh, that's too harsh. It's like, you know, you're wrong. God is holy, and God is just, and his commandments are holy and just. Verse 29, you have to say it in the House of Israel, the way of the Lord is not equal. Oh, House of Israel are not my ways equal, are not your ways unequal. It does not matter what seems right to you. What matters is what does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? And it doesn't matter if it feels wrong, and here's the truth. We come from different backgrounds. You were raised in different homes. You were raised in different religions. You were raised with different beliefs, different parents teaching you different roles. And based on how you're raised and your culture and things like that, people will look at situations differently just because of how they're raised. And at the end of the day, we all have to change our mind when we're wrong and just say, you know what, the Bible's right to, and I'm wrong. It doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter whether or not you have the two greatest parents in the world that love you and spend time with you. They raised you as an independent fundamental Baptist, or whether or not you have parents that didn't love you and didn't care about you. What matters is what does the Bible say? And God is right, you're wrong, and I'm wrong. Verse 30, therefore I will judge you, oh House of Israel, everyone according to his ways say the word God. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your root. And God says, you know what, I'm going to judge you, my ways are equal, I'm just, I'm fair, and you better just do what's right or I'm going to come down and reign in your grave. Go to Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 20. Everybody's favorite chapter in the Bible. Leviticus chapter 20. And look, I'm about to tell you some first truths and some things that people would say are unequal or unfair or wrong in the Bible. And we're going to look at what the Bible says. Once again, God is right, you're wrong, I'm wrong. The Bible's always right. And I'm going to look at certain things that the Bible said deserve the death penalty. And look, God is always right and man is wrong. And on verse number 9, all the kids are going to be afraid when I read this verse, but I'll explain in another context. But it says in verse 9, for everyone that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He hath cursed his father or his mother, his blood shall be upon him. Let me read that again. These are God's words. For everyone that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Now some of you out there, your first reaction is, that's not right. Are you right or is God right? Are your ways equal or are God's ways equal? Who's right? You are God. This is what God said. If you curse father or mother, it says he shall surely be put to death. And here's what's funny about this. After it says he shall surely be put to death, the next statement, it's kind of like these people would criticize this and say that's wrong. And it's like God's justification is he hath cursed his father or his mother. It's like do you not realize how big of a sin that is to curse your parents? I mean in today's world, you see kids that slap their parents in public. Have you seen that before? I've seen kids, and look it's worse in America, but it's coming to the Philippines as well. Kids just disrespect their parents. I've seen little kids slap their parents on the face in public. And it's like good night. If I did that as a kid, that would have been like a 20 minute spanking. It would have been like 40 lashes plus 50. It's like I can't imagine even thinking about doing something like that to my parents. But we live in a day where it's just like you can just scream at your parents, curse them out, yell at them and everything like that. And the other problem is parents aren't disciplining their kids. Say how do you fix that? You fix that by spanking your kids. You fix that by spanking your kids. You say well how do you do that? Well I don't have time to go into it. That's what the Bible says. It says to spank your children in the book of Proverbs. And it's like people wonder why their kids are acting. All kids act crazy from time to time, but God gave us a magic formula to fix it. It's called a spanking. Look, our son Zephaniah, and you say man he seems so nice. He's so cute. He's so fun. And look, I love my son. I spend time with my son every day, but I also spank him every single day. And it's not intentional. If he just obeys what I say, then he's not going to get it. But kids do disobey. Look, obviously my son Sue, our daughter's never been spanked. She's too young at this point. She'll get there one day though. But I want you to understand, when your kids disrespect you and just don't obey you, it's like yeah you're supposed to spank them. Look, God gave an appropriate place. We're not talking about injuring your kids. We're not talking about punching them or something wicked like that. We're talking about there's a certain place in the body that God gave, and that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to spank your children if they act up. And you know what the result is? The result is they're going to start to act better. That's the magic formula that the world cannot figure out. What's funny about this is the world will tell you spanking is wrong. It's going to scar your children. You should never do it. And you look at the children in this world. It's like people used to just follow what the Bible said. And look, all kids act up. But let me explain something. Especially there's new parents here, people that are married that are going to be parents. If you deal with those matters privately, you're not going to have to deal with them publicly as much. You can either allow yourself to be embarrassed in public by your child every single day, every single hour. Or when that situation comes up, you can deal with it in your house. And let me tell you something. If you never deal with it in your house, you're just going to have your kid acting crazy all the time in public. And you're not going to be able to control them at all. I don't claim to be a perfect parent. I'm not saying I'm a perfect parent. I'm not saying my son is just like the greatest child that ever acts up. He still acts up. But what I'm trying to tell you is that spanking is a part of the process of training them. Now you don't just spank because if all you do is you're like the military and you just spank and punish and never spend time with them, that's wrong too. Here's what you do. When you have to spank a child, you spank them and you hug them, you say you love them, and you try the best you can to explain why they got spanked. Now I'm not saying my son accidentally knocks a glass of juice over and it's a complete accident. I'm saying when they just willfully disobey me. When they hear what you say and they just do not listen. You say, that's just so harsh, I would never spank my child. You say, why do you do that? Here's the reason why I do that. Because when my son's playing with electrical sockets, if I don't do anything as a parent, what's going to happen? Look kids, they look at this and they'll take a pin at a young age and this is going to happen to your kids. They're going to try to slam it in there. Go ahead and not teach your kid why that's wrong. Good luck, okay? Your life will kill themselves. It's like kids at a young age, they do not understand. They are too young to understand. And you as a parent, spank them when they get wrong, and they disobey you, but then you hug them, you kiss them, you tell them you love them, and then you explain. And you know the magic thing that happens? After like 20 seconds, they forget about it. They're not mad at you. But look, that is the secret. Now what is said when they kiss 20, is that someone's cursing their parents. As he gives more information than other parts of the Bible, we're talking about someone who's just a rebellious child and wicked. Someone who would be willing to punch their parents or slap them, and any child who's willing to slap their parents, I can't even imagine doing something like that. That tells you that parent never spanked that child, never disciplined that child, and that child is going to grow up learning no responsibility and authority, and that child is going to be in prison one day. You say, why? If they don't learn to obey you as a child, when it's your job to teach them, they are going to grow up and be wicked people. When you look at people that commit murders and drug dealers and do all these wicked things, usually they come from broken homes. They come where they don't have authority, father and mother, teaching them right and wrong, and the result is they grow up and they're bad. Why? They were never taught right and wrong. It's our job as parents, and what's taking place in verse 9, you're looking at a child that's probably a reprobate person. That's what it's basically saying. A child that's so wicked that would do something like this, and it's just like what the Bible says to death do. You say, well that doesn't seem fair. Who's right? You're a god. God's right, you're wrong. Everybody's so silent now. It's like, oh my goodness. That's so harsh. Look, obviously kids act up. I'm not saying they act up. It's like we're going to stone you to death. Now, the other thing I want you to mention is this. We do not live under this law in this day. That's not what our government is deciding. So, I would never kill my child, nor would I want to. Obviously, I love my children. What I'm saying is we don't live under that government that has those rules. So, this is not saying that you as a parent, you would just do this and just kill your child. That's not what it's saying. The Bible has a system where basically you give them to the judges and that's what would take place in our interest to show value to a wicked child. Look, the laws I'm showing you, none of those laws are in our country. So look, we don't take the matters into our own hands, nor would you want to with your child. You love your children. And look, you have to realize, a parent that would be willing to have their child come to death, that has to be a really bad child. Because the love a parent has for a child doesn't run out. It's like even if your child does everything wrong, it's like there's always no people with that child who come back, you love them, you help them, you care about them. So, we're talking about a child who's basically a wicked psychopath at a young age. Look, the Bible talks about child reprobation, Genesis 19, and that's what you're dealing with at this point. So look, is this fair? Is this just? It is just because you have to realize this child is going to grow up and be a murderer. The one mentioned in Leviticus 21, verse 9. This child is going to grow up and be a drug dealer. This child is going to grow up and be a very wicked person. And so the Bible says this is just because basically it's too late to do the spanking instrument. That child's not going to listen. Verse number 10. And the man that committed adultery with another man's wife, even he that committed adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulterous shall surely be put to death. Let me read that again. Leviticus 20, verse 10. committed adultery with another man's wife even he that committed adultery with his neighbor's wife the adulterer and adulteress shall surely be put to death now let me just say this before i explain this that there are lots of people in this room and i have no idea what's happening in their life and you know what it's very possible people in this room could have committed this sin and the past is the past you don't have to bring it up to me we don't want to bring it up and make me feel bad or whatever what you did in the past is the past and that's not the law of this country you won't be put to death for it but what i'm telling you is that in god's perfect law this would be the law during the millennial reign of jesus christ the governments are making the rules god is making the rules you say what are his laws gonna be leviticus what you mean leviticus that's what's gonna be the laws these are going to be the laws of the country those are going to be the laws under god's perfect system and here's what happens if you have a law that gives the death penalty for adultery you know what takes place people don't commit adultery right why because if i commit this wicked sin i would put the death for it and so people don't even want to think about doing something like that why they realize how terrible the sin it is say man is it really that bad turn to some of the psalm in chapter eight so i'm gonna solve in chapter eight and you know people try because the bible says divorce is wrong divorce of remarriage it speaks against divorce and people say well what about if adultery takes place well here's what i want you to understand in god's perfect system you would not have a situation of a spouse that's committing adultery and you have to stick with them because they would be 45 and what the result is is people would not commit that wicked sin i promise you when this is the law of the country the amount of adultery is gonna you know drastically drop okay and it said in america okay i don't know if these statistics are true i can't prove this but that over 75 percent of people commit adultery on your spouse united states i don't know what the statistics are here but over 75 percent if you really think it would be 75 percent if the laws of god were put in action i think people would think about it before they decided to commit such a big sin there's a reason why over half of marriages end in divorce from the u.s it's like yeah you find out your spouse is cheating on you with ten different people of course you're gonna be pretty angry about that okay well those who says the song of solomon chapter 8 verse 6 and then this is the love book right i mean i'm preaching to you a loving sermon hearing it song of solomon chapter 8 this is the book on perfect marriage and perfect love what does the bible say verse 6 set me as a seal upon my heart as a seal upon my arm that sounds real sweet right a lot of people newly married maybe about to get married set me as a seal upon my heart as a seal upon my arm her love is strong as death jealousy is cruel as the grave the coals they're on the pools of fire which happens to be in that plane what is that saying no sword says jealousy is cruel as the grave now jealousy and envy are two different words in the bible in our modern day language people just say jealous for both situations but jealousy and envy are different okay envy is what you want something that does not belong to you okay it's like you know i wish i had that car you're mad at somebody for having something that you want i wish i had a job i wish that i was the president i wish i had that destiny envious jealousy is when you're basically angry about something or you want something that does belong to you right okay when you get married you know people say well you know husbands and wives shouldn't be jealous yes they should yes they should when you get married my wife belongs to me i belong to my wife yeah my wife should be upset if i'm hanging out with other women i should be upset if my wife is texting other men why because of the fact she does belong to me i do belong to her jealousy is not a bad thing in the bible and i can prove that because the bible says god is a jealous god he's not an indian sky he's a jealous guy there's a difference between those words our modern day languages change the meaning of that look jealousy is a good thing in the bible because it's something that you want that does belong to you but it's being taken away what the bible is saying here is that jealousy is cruel as the grave it's basically explaining if somebody were to to cheat on you because it says 70 is the seal upon my heart is the seal upon my heart so imagine a guy that cheats on his wife do you know what the reaction of that woman is hey love is strong as death jealousy is cruel as the grave it means she might kill you or the person you're cheating with and that is the reality in life is it not people find out their spouse is cheating on them and guess what sometimes they kill them why well it's biblical love is strong as death that's what it's saying jealousy is cruel as the grave it's saying that if you love that person so much that you'll be so angry you would be willing to go perhaps okay so look he said brother stocky god's law seemed too harsh well that is what's in the heart of men and women it says in psalm psalm chapter 8 verse 6 that if your spouse were to cheat on you then yeah you know what you could be so angry that you would want them dead you would hate them okay look any person if a guy finds his wife cheating on him inside of that guy he's not just going to be like okay i forgive you what's your name you know nice to meet you and it's okay no we're fine no big deal no it's he's gonna be angry it's not right it's like the natural reaction of a guy that will catch his wife doing that is probably that guy in the conscious is that not true say man that's harsh well that's what the bible says in psalm psalm chapter 8 verse 6 those aren't my words those are god's words and here's the thing about this if you live in a perfect government and god's systems which are not only holy but just you wouldn't deal with that situation for one your spouse wouldn't even think about cheating on you and if they did you know what the law is for that in the world they would be put to death you say man that seems too harsh no no no no god's right you're wrong now we don't live in this today i mean in every country pretty much adultery is fine it's not punishment but this is god's laws and god's rules leviticus chapter 20 this way is everybody's favorite chapter everybody loves this chapter right leviticus chapter 20 verse 13 and i'm only showing you a couple and the ones i'm showing you are intentionally controversial these are the things people would say oh man the ways of god are not equal i'm intentionally showing you the ones where it feels wrong with you it feels too much okay there's a lot of things that have the death penalty pedophilia has the death penalty now doesn't that make sense somebody that would go out there and molest a bunch of children should be put to death it's like you know we could end the catholic church tomorrow if we put in god's laws because every catholic priest would be dead tomorrow right well it's like you know what he's after yeah that's fair you know why because if that were to happen to a child their minds would be permanently warped and destroyed okay they would just be totally destroyed by that and that's what you see in society because kids are getting molested and they grow up and they hate god and they're mad at god and they blame god for it and it's like it's not god's fault because god had the the solution to it but unfortunately our countries are too lovely oh love love love no judgment no god's laws are just the holy and just leviticus 20 verse 13 if a man also lied with mankind and lying here is not it's not saying you tell a lie to them you know what what it's saying is you're physically like it's referring to a homosexual okay that's what's saying men lie with man the bible's the street but look up that word bible as he lied with a woman so instead of being with a woman that he's married to he's with another man both of them have committed an abomination they shall surely be put to death their blood should be upon them so according to the bible under god's rules what is the punishment for homosexuality yeah those are not my words i mean you all gave the interpretation i didn't even tell you the interpretation you told me instead you say how did you figure that out because god's black and white he says they shall surely be put to death now once again we don't live in that government so that's not what we're going to do okay we abide by the government and it is what it is but after god's system he would have a government and authority and people give that position and they wouldn't be snowed again the bible says say man that seems so harsh you know it seems i mean homosexuals are such nice people look according to the bible and i don't have time to go into it homosexuals are pedophiles and that's what the bible says okay and that seems harsh to you and the reason why it seems harsh to you is because you watched abs too much in fact some of you right now you're saying man this seemed harsh to me a month ago now it's kind of making sense what you're saying yeah because you're not watching my funny all the time you're not watching aps anymore and it seems so harsh a month ago now you're like oh man okay it makes sense but because you were being brainwashed by the world every single day you don't realize it's so that is why church is an unbrainwashing session because the world brainwashing what's right and wrong and they're lying to you they're telling you things that aren't true but i encourage you those that think i'm being too harsh right now go to youtube and look up commercials from just 50 years ago 50 years ago maybe who in here has seen that commercial from the u.s whereas from like the police where they warn people anybody a few people some channel we'll put them on our channel tomorrow but it's the police basically warning children about what to do when you see a homosexual right and they say get away from them and it's like you know you never know when someone might be sexually say why because it was known that they were pedophiles you say how is that known because when you read the bible that's what you read and people used to read god was saying brother i think you're being too harsh let me say this if you're in here and you think that seems too harsh it makes sense to me you think it's too harsh because the first time i heard this i thought man yeah it sounds really tough and that's why you need to start reading the bible to decide what you read i always encourage people when i say things you read the bible for yourself and determine if i'm right or wrong and if you read genesis chapter 19 and judges chapter 19 genesis 19 and judges 19 all you got to do is please remember it's the road chapter 19 genesis 19 first book of the bible and judges 19 which is what the sixth book of the bible and let me tell you something in both genesis 19 and judges 19 those are in my opinion i think those are the only two stories of you know homosexuals in the bible and in both instances they're molesting so come to your own conclusion what that's important to genesis 19 judges 19 say that's too harsh well here's the thing what did verse 13 say and you interpret it yourself you're welcome to interpret how you like these are god's goals and look there's a way of seeing the threat of the man from the in there of the ways of death promises turn to you say but those people seem so nice everybody acts nice everybody seems nice people think that cap and priests are nice i mean it's like oh holy father he's so godly he's so nice is that true though they act nice everybody acts nice nobody walks up and says hey you know what i'm a murderer hey you know what i'm a pedophile no you know what they do they act nice even if they are a wicked person they don't walk up and just tell and say i'm a really wicked person no they act nice they act friendly everybody does that okay so look you have to just believe by faith what the bible says read the bible find out for yourself so god's commandments are holy god's commandments are just and you know what it said god's commandments are good his commandments are good first timothy one verse eight but we know that the law is good we know that the law is good that includes every command every commandment is good if a man uses law for me see if you're abiding by what the bible says it's good for you right you know i don't get upset about the vedicus 2013 because i'm not sodomites why would i get offended about it it doesn't affect my life it's like i'm not committing adultery on my wife so why do i get offended by it when i'm not doing that sin i mean if you're doing what god says you don't have to get offended by it god's commands are good for you if you're doing what the bible says now look if you're kidnapping people though then yeah god's commandments aren't good for you because the bible says you get the death penalty for that but look i'm not kidnapping so god's commandments are good for me because you know what it actually protects us as people from wicked people and god's commandments were put in place they protect people that are actually abiding by what the bible says they protect us unfortunately that's not the world we live in so we're not protected because the fact that governments don't do what the bible says it said we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man what does that mean the law is not made for a righteous man what i'm saying is this look if you're not last speaking god's name you don't really need thou shall not take the name of the word that god made because you're not doing it anyway it's put there in place for the bad people that are breaking god's rules okay now none of us are probably we do things that are wrong but i want you to understand that look the law is made for people that are doing wicked things and wrong things and look you don't accidentally get put to death in god's standards and god's rules it's when you choose to do something wicked okay if you're just living a godly life and going to church and reading the bible you don't all of a sudden just get put to death by god okay god's definitely going to be put for very wicked sins and unfortunately in today's world since we don't follow the bible people don't think these sins are that big of a deal okay knowing this the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and for vain for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for man slaves notice how it said murderers of fathers can you imagine killing your father can you imagine that can you imagine killing your mom murders and mothers do you guys how wicked that would be someone who would do that and i don't know if that's strictly saying your own mom or your own father but just imagine that someone would be willing to kill the parent or kill anybody i mean you gotta be a pretty bad person to just decide i'm gonna murder someone and it's like yeah you know god's commanders are good because they protect us from wicked people like that it says murderers of fathers murderers of mothers for man slaves those are people that are murderers man slaves for our foremongers what's a hormone a foremonger is a guy that just sits around with hundreds of women okay someone who just sits around and just doesn't think anything wrong about it they just sleep with woman after woman after woman yeah god's the law is for that person because without god's law people like that would be wicked evil people for foremongers for them that could follow themselves with mankind for men stealers for liars for perjured persons and if there'd be any other thing that is contrary to sound off turn to john chapel as you turn to john three let me just read do not my words do good to him that walk it uprightly do not my words too good to him that walk it uprightly what it's saying is do not my words person who's praying and reading the bible and going to church and trying to do what's right god's rules are good for us god's commandments are good because i want you to understand as someone who's trying to live for god when you try to live for god and you find out something god tells you to do it's good for you to obey that it will help you fix your life will make you in a better mood and his commandments are good but if you choose to just say i don't care what the bible said well then the bible's bad for you i mean if you want to go out there and be a murderer then yeah it's much better living today where you're allowed to kill people and not want to go to death but look if you're doing what's right in your godly person then god's words do good to you they're good for you they don't harm you they're great for you if you're not committing adultery you don't have to worry about the punishment for adultery right i mean if you're not a sodomite you don't have to worry about that punishment if you're not kidnapping people then you don't have to worry that god has a death penalty for that i mean people literally kidnap children and then they molest those children and then they spend two years in jail around the world in various countries it's like they kidnap someone they molested that child and they only get a couple years in jail are not our ways unequal right i mean is that fair is that righteous our ways are wrong god's ways are right let me say this sometimes you read things in the bible and it might not feel right to you there have been the many things i read in the bible i mean i've been saved since i was 18 i'm 35 now i've read through the bible many many times and there have been many times i read something in the bible and i was like it doesn't feel right to me but then six months down the road eight months down the road a year down the road i was like it makes sense now i understand why god says that and you have to understand that when you're new to the christian thing or here in friction or read the bible you're gonna read a lot of things you don't agree why because our world is not holy but god is holy and you're seeing his laws and his rules and you must be willing to adjust to what god says not what you want now this is not what most people do most people they hear preaching they don't like even if it's right from the bible they say i'll just join the cci i'll just i'll just join victor i'll just join one of the other baptist churches down the road it's just like you know i'll just skip this church it's just like you know that church all i have to do is get my first words offering and they say i'm the greatest thing ever it's like here it's like man i gotta start reading the bible i gotta stop committing adultery gotta stop doing these wicked things it's like you know what when you're trying to do what's right god's good because god's rules are good john 3 verse 19 and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for everyone that doeth evil hated the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved say brother slightly why is it that i like this church you say i love this church i love the preaching and yet few people out there like a church like this they don't like to be at a church that's that's you know you know why they don't like it and you do because you want to live for god that's what he's saying because you want to be in the light okay where basically your sins and your character are shown when you hear the sermons and you decide you know what i want to live for god the reason why you like a church like this is you want to know the truth but most people want to hide in darkness they're like little bees little coppers right you turn on the light and just crawl away to try to go in some dark place yeah that's how most people are that's why they go to churches they don't preach anything why they want to hide in darkness because what the bible says is this why do they do that at the end of verse 19 because their deeds were evil because their deeds were evil because they want to do what's wrong look if you're committing adultery you don't want to go to a church that's preaching what the bible says right i mean if you're committing wicked sins if you're a drug dealer you you probably won't like this church i mean if you're someone who's committing wicked sins and you're a bad person you're not going to like this church if you're someone who loves your sins and is not willing to change you will not like this church but if you're trying to do what's right notice what it says in verse 21 like he that doeth the truth cometh the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are rotten god what it's saying there is when you're trying to do what's right you want to know what the truth is you want to know if you're doing what's right you like this church because you say brother second i'm feeling a lot of things that you've preached on before since i've been at this church but the reason why you like this church is you want to know what god wants you to right and you want to just abide by it you want to be in the light you say i want to know what god says and look i have changed turn to colossians 2 colossians 2 look when i got saved at the age of 18 i started going to church at 19 somebody invited me said brother second what kind of a person were you when you were 19 were you the same way you are today i wasn't anything with my family at all okay i've changed a lot okay i think of the story the bible and it's one of my favorite stories and it's kind of a chapter that's like a boring chapter for most of it until you get to the end it's in exodus 34 two chapters after exodus 32 and moses gets instructions from god and i don't have time to show this to you you can check it out read essence 34 moses gets instructions from god and the instructions are very simple which is very basic i want you to do this i want you to do this and he comes to the mount to talk to god very simple instructions to do but you have to think of moses being you know an old man at that time carrying the tablets it's like it's it's hard to climb a mountain when you're a young person much less when you're older and everything like that so god's instructions are very simple but they're difficult to do they're very easy to understand but they're hard to actually do if that makes sense i mean we know that bible says read the bible every day that's not hard to understand right read the bible every day but is that easy to always read the bible we're tired we have all these distractions no it's not pray without ceasing it's easy to understand what that means just always be praying throughout the day pray every day pray throughout the day but is that easy to do no it's not god's instructions are very easy to understand it's classic life but what what's great about that chapter is moses gets to the top he's with god for 40 days and if you remember when he gets done with that conversation for 40 days all of a sudden when he sees erin and everybody they're scared to come night in the mindset which means near they're scared to get close to him the reason why is moses had physically changed okay once he got close to god what the symbolism to us is is that when you get close to god you start reading the bible start going to church look you're not going to change you're not going to get taller your skin color's not going to change like man i was i was in filipino yesterday now whatever you know my skin color's changed no that's not what i'm saying what but here's why it's a place when you get close to god you change spiritually you change who you are now physically you don't change but the person you are changes you say brother why is it that when i got right with god all my old friends don't want to talk to me anymore the reason why is because you changed they didn't change i said why is it my friends don't like me anymore because you changed they didn't change when you get close to god the people around you aren't changing you're the one who's changing and you don't realize it because moses says he did not realize that he had actually changed physically and when you get close to god you're not going to realize it but all of a sudden the people around you're like man you hold the bible all the time now you're always reading the bible and going to church you're always talking about the bible you're always so much into the bible now instead of all these other things and the result is your old friends likes you when you were worldly they don't like you anymore and here's the thing we love this church i mean don't we have great people in this church i mean isn't this a great church i love this church i love the people this church i can't wait till everybody can come back this is a room filled with people that love god okay and they love the new you but your old friends they like you okay and so once you understand that when you get close to god you are going to change and that's a good thing because god's commandments are good when i got saved when i was 18 years old i was a typical freshman in college okay i grew up my parents were strict so i didn't drink i didn't party and things like that but it's not like i was just reading the bible for two hours every day and going to church you know i was playing video games watching tv doing whatever but everything else right and you know i remember i got saved and here's the thing about salvation when you get saved what we talked about last week your body doesn't change i didn't just start reading the bible for three hours and praying for three hours no you know that's a slow process of getting close to god but look you know i've changed a lot over the last 17 years i don't listen to rock music i don't listen to country music i don't watch tv i don't do those things before you say why because of the fact i changed over time and when you get close to god what you understand the result is going to be you're going to have an option when you're hearing what god says you can decide to do what the bible says or say i don't want to do what god says and when you do what the bible says you know what the commandments of god are good for you because your body what the bible says and here's the result you will change you will be a different person maybe a year ago you you couldn't have read the bible all the time memorized the bible but now as you grow spiritually you're going to want to do those things you're going to love a church like this you're going to love living for god and we are filled full of the real people that love god and the reason why is because god has holy commandments his commandments are just and there and his commandments are good they will change your life if you do the best thing i could do as a spiritual leader here is just motivate you to read the bible every day for yourself and as the same person that reads the bible every day for yourself god will work on your thoughts i'll try to motivate you to read the bible but i cannot force you to go home and put away facebook to read the bible but if you read the bible every day you will change now i wanted to talk about one other thing because there's a lot of confusion here when it comes to god's commandments because as i talk about the death penalty for those maybe this will help explain a little bit more because a lot of people wonder about well when jesus rose again when jesus came on the scene and he rose again do we follow every single rule that was in the old testament the exact same some people say every single thing in the old testament we still follow today other people say nothing in the old testament we follow just what jesus spoke about in the new testament well neither one of those is correct okay what i want you to understand is there's something known as a moral law basically thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not commit adultery things like that basic moral law of right and wrong and those things have never changed and they never will change i'll show that to you in a second but i do want you to understand there are certain laws and rules in the old testament that were given only for a time because they're a picture of jesus christ and when jesus rose again we don't follow this anymore the greatest example that is the sabbath day you might not realize this but we do not follow the sabbath day that that commandment the fourth commandment look it's done away you say why the bible says that jesus is arrest and see when you get saved you enter into that rest and the sabbath day was picturing jesus christ because when you're saved you enter into that rest so look we don't follow the sabbath day you're welcome to work on saturday or this book saturday would be the sabbath okay in the old testament you're welcome to work on that day if you want to do whatever nobody and then look none of us do follow the sabbath day because it's not like we're just abiding by everything the old testament said we're basically you know you're just at home or whatever everybody works to some degree even it's not your second good job look the sabbath day we don't follow there's a lot of cleanliness laws that atheists like to mock at they see something in the bible they say oh that's stupid you can't wear clothing anymore and two fabrics and things like that and they want to mock these things but look god's commandments are there for a reason and you know here's some of those commandments they were a picture of jesus christ and when jesus rose again you know what people go back to you today and look i i do not like shrimp i don't like shrimp i don't like the taste of it my wife it's like our favorite food it's like our biggest fight we have at home you know whether or not shrimp is and my wife cooks shrimp and then the smell happens i'm not sure it's like you guys know what i said i say it's the cockroach that's what i call that that's my opinion but here's the thing in the old testament that's something you weren't supposed to eat but today you're welcome to eat that you're welcome to eat a hamburger you're welcome to eat bacon you say man should we follow what the old testament says and not eat bacon look you're welcome to eat it now because that unclean versus clean animals they were a picture of jesus christ okay and and the bible talks about that changing but the moral laws not changed colossians chapter 2 verse 13 colossians 2 verse 13 and one of these days i'll preach a whole sermon on that to show this to you but let me show you just this one passage colossians 2 verse 13 and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh have been quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses now quickened in colossians 2 verse 13 means made alive okay you have been clicking together with him blotting out verse 14 blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way bailing into his cross the bible speaks about their certain coordinates it's going to tell you what that's referring to verse 15 and having the spoiled principalities and powers he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it verse 16 let no man therefore judge you in need okay what does that say it means you're welcome to eat whatever you want eat whatever food you want you can eat the unclean animals don't let somebody judge for me i mean you know people say why you're not allowed to eat pork you're welcome to eat pork raise the word for that right i do love pork okay you're welcome to eat pork if you want don't let anyone judge you you're welcome to eat whatever you want Catholics follow their lens and they're always able to eat certain things no you're able to eat pork you're able to make and you're able to eat meat let no man therefore judge you in needs or in drink or in respect of the holy day or of the new moon or of the sabbath day so the bible speaks about a holy day or what you would call a holiday basically or of the new movement or of the sabbath days there are certain days in the old testament when god said i don't want you to work and he gave a reason to quit but in today's world you're welcome to work on those days if you want now if you choose to say i don't want to work you know my sunday i'm not going to do any work at all hey praise the lord for that you're welcome to do that but you know i've worked jobs where i went to church in the morning then i right after service i left and then i worked for like six hours and i immediately drove to church for the evening service i've done that i've worked on sunday in between services and look you're welcome to you know whatever after church you're welcome to leave and work or whatever you want to do it's up to you it's your choice there's nothing wrong with working okay don't let anyone judge you of a holy day or the new moon or of the sabbath days verse 17 why is it this is done away which are a shadow of things to come but the body isn't christ okay a shadow of things to come look you're out in the sun and you're gonna have a shadow the shadow is not you but it looks like it's a picture it's kind of an image of it right this shadow of things to come and look there are certain things in the old testament that were a shadow or a picture of jesus christ you think of the story of abraham and isaac great example there's things that were a picture of jesus christ and they were meant to try to show people that jesus is the savior but now that he's risen again that's done because jesus already is the food okay but here's what i want you to understand when jesus rose again it means that you don't have to call the sabbath day anymore anymore but here's the thing it's still wrong to kidnap say roach snucky since jesus rose again there is no law so it's okay to kidnap little kids it's okay to get pedophile now i mean the bible says it's wrong to you know uh you lie with your relative with your aunt it's like yeah it's still wrong to do that today it's still wrong to do the same thing guess what it was wrong to murder the old testament but when jesus rose again hey it's okay to kill no it's still wrong why the moral law did not change and here's what what kind of doesn't make sense to you because what i explained in the last 10 minutes is very important to understand the bible i need to preach a whole sermon on that but most churches do not understand most churches do not understand that when jesus rose again the moral law did not change and you hear christians that will bring up the verses i mentioned with the death penalty and they'll say a man that's so harsh to have a death penalty what i mentioned earlier about christians mocking what the muslims have a death penalty for like adultery things like that and it would mock that and say that's wrong and it's just like in god's law he had that as a law and people say well that shouldn't be the death penalty i mean i mean that's what god said though even if you think that was done away with that doesn't change how god felt about him i mean even if today if i was wrong so i'm not but even if i was wrong in god's laws we weren't supposed to follow and they were just for the jews or whatever that's still how god felt about those sins though god felt like you know what the death penalty became the death penalty for those wicked sins god did not change he says the same yesterday today and forever he does not change so look god's commandments are holy there's no question about that they're more holy than man's commands look god's commandments are just they're fair they're right and here's the thing you know what if you're doing what's right they're good if you're walking up right all of god's laws are good every single part of the bible is for your benefit if you're doing what's right you shouldn't give anything by anything why because you're trying to do what's right this goes no more prayer dear heavenly father thank you for having me here today and you've seen what your word says about your commandments and your laws and rules being holy and just and good when it comes to service like this and the lives of them god we have a lot of change we need to make including myself god if we see things in the bible that maybe we did not know before or we hear things christ we did not know or we see verses in the new life where we don't necessarily realize something was wrong before we maybe have a conviction for something that we didn't in the past and help us just to all be willing to change when we see that we all need to spend our entire lives trying to draw closer to god and realize that we've not yet arrived when we have more work to do to get close to god the greatest thing is you staying