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Now the part of the chapter that I want to focus on there in 2 Peter chapter 3 is beginning in verse 16 where the Bible reads, is also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable rest as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. Ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. To grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Now as we look at these three verses we see that in verse 16 the Bible says that there are people who will rest the scriptures unto their own destruction and when the Bible says rest it means twist. Okay even when we think of wrestling you know you think of people twisting and rolling and wrestling. The Bible says that these unlearned and unstable people will rest the scriptures unto their own destruction. Then he says in verse 17 ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. So he's warning that it's possible for Christians to be led astray in some of these wrong interpretations of the Bible that unbelievers are coming up with. So wicked people the Bible talks about in verse 17 the error of the wicked. Wicked people are going to take the Bible and twist it and he says beware Christians you don't want to be led away with the error of the wicked and you don't want to fall from your own steadfastness. Here's the solution grow in grace and in the what knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and forever amen. Also at the beginning of verse 17 he said ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before. So the key is to know these things and to grow in knowledge so that you're not led away by the error of the wicked when they try to twist Bible scriptures to lead you into error and false doctrine. Now go back to Psalm 1 in the Old Testament. Psalm 1 this is just by way of introduction. Psalm 1 and we'll get some similar teaching from Psalm 1. 2 Peter 3 warned us about wicked people twisting the scriptures to their own destruction and then leading away God's people into their errors. In Psalm 1 it says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law that he meditate day and night. And what the Bible again is teaching here is that we should not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. We shouldn't listen to them and let them be our teachers and our guides in this world but rather we should meditate on the word of God day and night and we should go to church and listen to a man of God preach the Bible in the spirit of the Lord and then search the scriptures daily whether those things are so and not be led away with the error of the wicked and listen to ungodly people who will twist the scripture and so on and so forth. Now what I want to preach about tonight is the subject of commonly twisted scriptures in the Bible. I want to go to some scriptures that are commonly twisted and this is probably going to spill over into next Sunday night or just because there are so many that are commonly twisted but I just want to cover some things that in our day are constantly being twisted and if you look at the source of where these twisted interpretations are coming from, they're not even coming from church. They're not even coming from any kind of Baptist or any kind of a Bible believing theology but rather these are the type of scriptures that the gatheists and the phagnostics will bring up. Like for example this morning we have all these protesters out there and, well okay there were only five of them, but there were 86 last week and some of them are holding up signs with Bible verses on them. Now I walked over to them tonight before the service started because they're back tonight holding their signs in the dark where nobody can see them, but I walked up to them and I said, I said, hey, is anybody straight here, you know, anybody? And one guy said, yeah, I am, you know, and I said, well, you know, I said, are you a Christian? And he said, no, no, no, of course not, you know. But here's the thing, but they had signs that had, a couple of them had signs with Bible verses on them. So you see how the ungodly will sometimes try to twist the Bible and use the Bible as a weapon to turn on us and the sad thing is that a lot of Christians will take up the rallying cry of these ignorant, unsaved people where they'll twist scripture and then Christians will be, yeah, that is what the Bible said and then they'll start getting led away in the error of the wicked. Why are they being led away in the error of the wicked? Because they don't have the knowledge of what these verses are really teaching and what they really mean. Because it's amazing how I've heard Christians parrot some of the same teachings that you'll get from, you know, the atheists and the ungodly. Now let's go to John chapter 13, first of all, to start with one that is basically being twisted all the time. And really this is a group of scriptures that all kind of say the same thing. It seems like the one that they quote the most is John 13, 35, but honestly, John 15, a lot of verses in 1 John, they all kind of say the same thing and they're making the same mistake or error in the interpretation of all of these verses. Now let me start out by saying this, all of the verses that we're going to look at tonight that are commonly twisted scriptures are God's word, are true. We love these verses. We love every verse in the Bible. We embrace what these verses teach, but we need to show how these verses are being twisted to mean something that God never intended when he gave us these precious words in these scriptures. Now look at John chapter 13 and the first scripture we want to go over that's a commonly twisted verse is in verse 35, but let's start reading in verse 34. The Bible reads, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. And I saw this scripture on one of the signs this morning of the picketers outside our church. And it's being twisted because they're missing a really key phrase in this scripture and that phrase is found at the end of verse 34 where it says, one another. And then he says it again in verse 35, if ye have love one to another. You say, why is that so important? Well, notice that in verse 34 he said it's a new commandment. Now is teaching love a new commandment that's new to the New Testament? No, because the Old Testament teaches us to love. In fact, the famous quote, love thy neighbor as thyself is a quote from Leviticus chapter 19. So all throughout the Old Testament love is taught. So why is Jesus saying I'm giving you a new commandment? Here's why it's a new commandment. Because he's telling his disciples to love one another and since previously there were no disciples of Christ, since Christ had not physically come to this earth yet, that's why it's a new commandment. Love is not the new commandment, it's loving one another as Christ's disciples that's a new commandment because Christ's disciples are new. And he says here, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another. Now here's what the verse doesn't say, hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love everybody. Think about that. Is that really what that says? No. One another means love each other, the disciples love each other, Christians should love each other, church members should love each other. Go to chapter 15 verse 12 and you'll find this over and over and over again consistently telling us as God's people to love one another and never one time saying love everybody. Look what the Bible says in John 15 verse 12, it says, this is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call ye not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name he may give it you. These things I command you that ye love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had done among them the works which no, if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. Now the Bible's making a really clear-cut distinction here between those who hate the Lord and those who are the disciples of Jesus Christ. He's telling the disciples, love one another, the world and those that are ungodly are going to hate you because they hated me and if they hate me, they hate my Father. And he's drawing a distinction there between those groups of people. Now go to 1 John chapter number 3, 1 John chapter number 3, and I just want to turn to a lot of scriptures and just show you how consistent this teaching is. We don't even have time to look at all of them but I want to hit all the major highlights here. But we see very clearly that the command is to love one another as disciples and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Now should we love those who are unsaved? Well yes we do love the unsaved but there are certain people that are haters of God that God tells us not to love, okay, and you know I'm going to show you that in the Bible. And you say, why? This doesn't sound right. Well let's just listen to what the Bible has to say and then decide what's right. But it says in 1 John chapter 3 verse 10 it says, in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Now let me start out by saying this. In verse 10 we clearly see that not all people are the children of God, are they? Because it says in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil, okay? So is every person a child of God? No. And the Bible says, neither he that loveth not his brother. Does that say neither he that loveth not everybody? But that's how these verses are being used today, my friend. That's how they're being twisted. They say you have to love child molesters. You have to love Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer and Joseph Stalin and you need to love all the worst, most wicked, violent people that are out there that are pedophiles and everything else. And they say you have to love these people and they'll say the Bible says love one another. It's like wait, one another? I mean I'm not, am I a serial rapist and I'm supposed to love my fellow serial rapist? I mean it doesn't even make any sense. The one another there is the disciples, the Christian, okay. So let's keep reading. He says for this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. Notice how he ties in loving your brother in verse 10 with loving one another in verse 11. Verse 12, not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Well not my brother and if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him. My little children, let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth. But notice how consistent it is to just consistently over and over again tell us how important it is to love the children of God, to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. But yet people will use these verses to say, hey, you need to love everybody. I mean, I said, oh, I hate Obama, you know, and this is what they said, the Bible says if you hate your brother, you're a murderer and I'm thinking to myself, in what way, shape or form is Obama my brother? You know, unless I'm the bastard son of Frank Marshall Davis without knowing about it, Obama is not my brother, okay? So it's just ridiculous to say that, you know, just, oh, yeah, well, the Bible says, you know, you're supposed to love one another and love your brother so therefore love, you know, no, I don't. I don't love Obama, you know, and I don't love pedophiles or violent people or haters of the Lord. Anybody who's a hater of God, the Bible says we should not love them. You say, well, I don't believe that. Okay, we're going to get to those verses in a moment. But let's keep going here in 1 John, go to 1 John chapter 4 and look, we're seeing over and over again the same pattern. The Bible's real consistent. Look at chapter 4 verse 7, it says, beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love and this was manifested, the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Here in his love, not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. Look at verse 19. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? This commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. Now keep reading because the chapter continues in verse 1 of chapter 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Now does that say everyone on the planet is born of God? No whosoever believeth that Jesus the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat, who is the one that begat, God loveth him also that is begotten of him. Who is the one that is begotten of him? The child of God. And then it says in verse 2, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. So how do we know if we love God and how do we know if we love our brothers and sisters in Christ? Well the Bible tells us in verse 2, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. See the Bible says that love is the fulfilling of the law. The Bible says for this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So the Bible teaches that in order for us to properly show love for God, we keep his commandments. That's why the Bible says if you love me, keep my commandments. And then in order for us to show love for our neighbor, we do that by keeping God's commandments because if we keep God's commandments, we will be treating our neighbor properly because God commands us concerning our neighbor and so on and so forth. So what we see here consistently over and over again is God telling us to love our brother, to love the children of God, to love one another as disciples of Christ. He even makes it clear because he says the new commandment. Why? Because being a Christian is new because of the fact that before that they did not have Jesus Christ physically dwelling among them. You know the people in the Old Testament, they called upon the name of the Lord and they trusted in the Lord for salvation and they looked forward that one day Messiah would come and so forth, but he had not physically come yet. They didn't have a band of disciples following the Lord Jesus literally like you do in John chapter 13. Now a lot of people will say this, well, but everybody's your brother because we're all God's children. That's a pretty common misconception though. Don't a lot of people think, hey, we're all God's children, all of us are God's children. But first of all, we saw a little bit earlier that it said the children of God and the children of the devil. Now here's the thing. All unsaved people are not children of the devil. Okay. A person that's unsaved is not a child of God, but they also might not be a child of the devil. They're a child of Adam. They're just a man. They're just a human being. Okay. Now the Bible talks about people becoming a child of the devil. For example, it talks about how they can pass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he is found, they make him twofold more the child of hell as themselves. Jesus told the Pharisees, you're of your father, the devil. He said that to the Pharisees. Also throughout the Old Testament, there are certain groups of people that are known as the sons of Belial. Do you remember reading that in the Bible? Some people will pronounce it Belial, sons of Belial, right? When you're reading the Old Testament, the sons of Belial. Well, Belial is simply a name of Satan. It comes from the same root word as Baal. Remember when they would worship Baal? Baal also in Daniel, he's called Bel or Beelzebub, Belial. These are all the same person, Baal, Bel, Belial, Beelzebub, Belial, however you want to pronounce it. So these people in the Old Testament, when the Bible says certain sons of Belial, look up every time it's used with the concordance. These are the children of the devil in the Old Testament. Perfect example is in Judges chapter 19. You don't have to turn there. But in Judges chapter 19, there are a bunch of Sodomites who surround the house and it calls them the sons of Belial that are there to surround the house in Judges 19. Also Eli's two sons were sons of Belial, the Bible says. And they were reprobated. Basically God said that he wanted to slay them and that's why they would not repent. So all throughout the Bible, we have this idea of certain very wicked ungodly people being known as the children of the devil, the children of the wicked one, Cain was one, you know, Balaam, Korah, the men in Judges 19, Eli's sons, the Pharisees and so on and so forth. And that's kind of a whole sermon in and of itself. But I just want to show you that first of all, we know that not everybody is a child of God because we know that the sons of Belial are out there, you know, the sons of the devil, the sons of the wicked one. But also there are just people who are neither a son of God nor a son of Belial and that's the majority of people in the world today. They're not a child of Satan but they're not a child of, now they are a child of disobedience, they're a child of wrath, you know, they're under the curse of God upon the human race for sin but they're not just a son of the devil. But remember, the tares that are amongst the wheat, those are the children of the wicked one, Jesus said. So we know that the children of the devil are out there and the children of God and most people are neither. And those are the people that we're trying to reach with the gospel because we want them to become children of God. And guess what the children of the devil want to do? They want to go out and recruit those people for the devil's side, okay. And that's the struggle that's going on spiritually in this world today. But just to give you some scripture to prove that we're not all God's children as some people have affirmed, turn if you would to John chapter 1, John chapter number 1. And while you're turning to John chapter 1, I'm going to read for you another verse, Galatians 3, 26 says this, For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. So what is it that makes us a child of God according to Galatians 3, 26? Our faith in Christ Jesus. We're all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Look at John 1, 12, But as many as received him, Jesus, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now how can you become a son of God if you already were one? You become a son of God because previously you were not a child of God. But then as many as received Jesus and believed on his name become a son of God, okay. So this proves that not everybody's a child of God. Now go to Acts 17. I have showed that scripture, John 1, 12, and also Galatians 3, 26, to many hundreds of Mormons out soul winning. Because the Mormons are a major religion, you know, they claim to have 14 million members and they say, hey, everybody's a child of God, we're all God's children. In fact, that is one of the most core teachings of Mormonism. In fact, Mormonism is built on that teaching because they believe that there is a multiplicity of God's in the universe. They believe that there are billions of God's and people living on other planets and so forth and they believe that the God of our planet has all this multitude of wives up in heaven and has produced basically all these spirit babies that have come down to this earth and that every single human being on this earth is a spirit baby of Heavenly Father that has been given the privilege of having a human body. You know, it's very strange. In fact, we have a Mormon lady who picks up milk at our house and she said, thank you so much for bringing God's children into this earth. Because we have eight children, so she thinks we're just, you know, all right, heaven, we're ready for another one, you know, keep sending them down. But in reality, according to the Bible, life begins at conception. You know, when my wife and I physically come together and conception takes place, that's where life begins. But Mormonism teaches that life already exists. We were all alive up in heaven once. That's what they teach. And then we came down here and became babies, you know. But it's false. So I've, but listen, the whole basis of Mormonism is this teaching that we're all God's children. We're all the children of Elohim, what they call God. They like to speak foreign languages. But I basically, I show them this verse and I say, well, this right here says we become a son of God when we believe in Jesus. That means people who don't believe in Jesus are not sons of God. And I've only had one person ever be able to answer that. I mean, I've told it to hundreds of Mormons, I say, what do you say to that? Well, I just, I just still believe that we're all God's children. I just still believe, it's like, based, do you have any verse on that? Do you have any scripture on that? And they never have, except one time, one time I had a person say, yup, I've got a scripture for it that we're all God's children. And they took me to Acts 17. And I'm going to show you why this is a scripture that's being twisted by the Mormons today. This is like a twisting within a twisting. But anyway, Acts 17 verse 28 says, for in him we live and move and have our being as certain also of your poets have said, for we also are his offspring. For as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device. And what they'll do is basically say, well see, the Bible says we are God's offspring. Therefore they're going to say we're the children of God, therefore, because if we're his offspring we must be his children. Now, if we actually get the context of what, and I'm going to show you why this is wrong, but if we actually get the context of what he's saying, he's saying that if we're the offspring of God, we ought not to think that God is like unto gold and silver and precious stones graven by man's device. What is he saying? That we as human beings are in the image of God, so therefore we should not think that God is something inferior to us like a statue. We are in the image of God. But they'll say, well offspring means children. But wait a minute, does it? Let's see what the Bible says. Go to Romans 9. Go to Romans 9 and then we're going to go to John chapter 8 next. Romans 9 and John 8, look at Romans 9 verse 7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. So is being the seed of Abraham, does that make you a child of Abraham? Not according to Romans 9, 7. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Let me ask you something, can you honestly look down at Romans 9, 8 and then look up at me and say we're all God's children? When the Bible clearly says that the children of the flesh are not the children of God, the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And then in John chapter 8 we find something very similar. Start reading in verse 32, it says, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. John 8, 33, they answered him, we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin and the servant abideth not in the house forever but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Watch this, I know that you're Abraham's seed. So isn't he acknowledging there that hey, physically you're of Abraham. I know you're Abraham's seed. But he says this, I know that you're Abraham's seed but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham, ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, ye would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I of myself but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech even because you cannot hear my word? You're of your father the devil and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it. And the Bible is real clear here that just being physically the seed of Abraham doesn't make you one of Abraham's children. And just saying, oh well we're all human, we're all human, that makes us all brothers and sisters and we're all human so God's our father because you know, Adam was created in the image of God and since we all descend from Adam, that makes us all children of God. But let me ask you something, is that what the Bible teaches? No. Because we've seen over and over, I think altogether we've seen what about 10 different verses that said that if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not a child of God. In order to become a child of God, you must believe on the name of the only begotten son of God and that name is Jesus. That's how you become a child of God. So all these verses that are being twisted and rested by those who are ungodly, unsaved people basically just trying to throw it in the face of Christians. Well Jesus said to love one another, the brotherhood, our brethren. I mean how many times? And it was consistent, wasn't it? There's nothing to contradict that. You'll never find a verse that says, hey love everybody. Because in fact the Bible says, and I want you to just keep your finger on John 8 because I'm coming right back there. But go back to 2 Chronicles 19 and we could really go to a multitude of scriptures right now. I could take you to a lot of different places. But just a couple quick examples, while you're turning there, Psalm 139 verse 21 says, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. What does it mean perfect? Perfect in the Bible means complete. You know the Bible says you're perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Perfect means complete. What's he saying when he's saying, I hate them with perfect hatred? He's saying I have nothing but hatred for these people. I have complete hatred. That's what he's saying. Complete would be the modern word. I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. Look at 2 Chronicles 19 too. The Bible says, And Jehu the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. So in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let everything be established. And here I've just shown you two clear examples. One of them that said, hey, we hate those who hate the Lord, okay? And then here it says that we should not love those that hate the Lord. And if we do, wrath will be upon us from the Lord. So does God look down and he's just happy when we love those who hate the Lord? Well, he's just happy to see us loving in general. No, that's not what it says, is it? It's hard to confuse you with the facts here, but in 2 Chronicles 19 too, it says, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. And there are plenty of other verses we could go to. I don't want to make the whole sermon about that. But we see how they've twisted the scripture, haven't they, in John 13, 35, to mean something completely other than what God put it there for. Go to John chapter 8 and let's move on to point 2. And I'm only going to get to these two points probably in tonight's sermon of just commonly twisted scriptures. And what are these scriptures? Scriptures that the atheists of this world, just total unbelievers, people who deny scripture will try to use to tell you as a Christian what to believe. And the sad thing is, many Christians are being led away with the error of the wicked. Why would you let an unsaved, ungodly, unbelieving person tell you what Jesus is like? Well Jesus would have done this. And they don't even claim to believe the Bible. But don't they always tell you what Jesus is like? Well you know, Jesus would have done this, and Jesus said this, and Jesus, you know, they don't even believe the Bible, they're not even saved. And a lot of Christians fall for it because of a lack of knowledge. Now this is another really misused scripture in John 8. This is the woman taken in adultery. And basically, unbelievers will use this scripture to basically try to teach that the death penalty is wrong. They'll say no death penalty, and they'll say even Jesus taught against the death penalty right there in John 8. But you know what the sad thing is? Now even Christians are starting to fall for this. And look, this didn't come from Christians, it didn't come from church, it didn't come from Baptists. It came from God-hating people who just wanted to just do away with the standards and teachings of the Bible. So they try to twist scripture. But then the Christians are led away with the error of the wicked in this passage. You see, you know, this passage is something that people will throw at you when they're living in just the worst kinds of sin. Well, he that's without sin among you let him first cast a stone. And this has become a rallying cry for fornicators, adulterers, and just any kind of a wicked sinful person to just justify their sin and just say, hey, no one can judge me, no one can condemn me. You know, I basically should have no consequences for my actions. What's bizarre about this is that people have such a hard time differentiating in their mind between spiritual matters and legal matters because of the fact that we must have laws to govern society. Even if you don't even have any religion, you must realize that there must be law. Now I've talked to people that call themselves anarchists, and they basically don't believe that we should have any laws. They don't believe that we should have any government. And listen to me, these people are wrong. They're wrong. Now a lot of people think that I'm anarchist just because I believe in a very limited government, which is called menarche, all right? So you know, I believe in a very minimal government because of the fact that what God lays out in the Old Testament is very minimal. If you don't think that God's government is minimal, let me just say this. God's law for the Old Testament children of Israel, Genesis through Deuteronomy, is this thick, right? Genesis through Deuteronomy, here's God's law. And a lot of that's not even laws, a lot of it's stories. Most of Genesis is just stories, there's only like what, eleven law, thirteen laws that we found in there? But the laws of just the state of Arizona alone and the city of Tempe alone would fill this entire building. The laws of our federal government would fill this entire block. I mean Obamacare alone is longer than the Bible. That's one law, longer than the entire Bible, Old and New Testament combined. So our government is a very expansive, complicated, large, overarching government. God's government in the Bible is very minimal, but the Bible does not teach anarchy and Jesus did not teach anarchy. Now anarchy would be no laws. Now here's the problem with anarchy. The problem with anarchy is that those who are weak would be taken advantage of by the strong. For example, if you were living in a society that had complete anarchy, and again anarchy, if we break down the root word, archie, think about monarchy, that's the rule of one. The mono there means one, monarchy, all right? Oligarchy means a few are reigning, right? And so forth. So you have the rich reigning or one person reigning or, you know, whatever archie you want to have. But anarchy means no one's ruling. There's no ruler. There's no government. There's no law, okay? Here's the problem with that. Well, then what if basically you have, for example, a little old lady, you know, and a little old lady has some possessions that were left to her by her loving husband. You know, if there's no law and no government and no ruler, you know, what's to stop somebody who's stronger than her from just coming and taking her stuff? Or what's to stop me from just saying, oh, you know, you have a nice house and nice land that I'd like to live in, I'll just kill you and take your stuff. And what's wrong with murder? Now this is the way the animal kingdom works, is it not? Do the animals have kings and rulers and leaders and laws? No. In the animal kingdom, the strongest, you know, are the ones who are going to rule and survive and basically just, they get what they want and everybody else, well, you know, they get the leftovers or they get killed, you know, because it's an anarchist system in the animal kingdom. Everybody understand what I'm saying? Well, we need to have laws for the punishment of evildoers and the word evil means those who harm someone else. In the Bible, if you study the word evil, it's those who are doing harm to others, those who would harm others. Now these laws are to protect us and to protect society so that society does not break down and no one can even feel safe at any time and no one can even guard their family or their possessions because, you know, it's just anything goes, right? Now when Jesus came in and brought in the New Testament, what he was doing, and if you want to say the change between Old and New Testament, that's a whole sermon of itself, but what Jesus did when he brought in the New Testament was that we basically went from the nation of Israel being God's people, a physical nation that was a light to the Gentiles. Now in the New Testament, the believers in Jesus Christ are a holy nation now. So we went from being the physical nation of Israel to a spiritual nation made up of all believers, okay? The other thing is that in the Old Testament, you know, the congregation of the Lord was only opened up to certain people. You know, if you were a bastard, you could not enter into the congregation of the Lord in the Old, under the Old Covenant. Well, you know, now that about one third of children being born are bastards today, you know, that'd be rough if that were the rule. But in the New Testament, God has opened up the congregation to where ethnicity plays no role, circumcision plays no role, you know, who your parents are plays no role. In the New Testament, the congregation of the Lord, the local church, is a house of prayer to all nations. You don't have to get circumcised and join the nation of Israel like you did in the Old Testament in order to be in that congregation. Now listen, salvation has not changed in the sense that salvation was by grace through faith in the Old Testament and it's by grace through faith in the New Testament. The difference in salvation is that now there's a name associated with salvation, the name of Jesus, whereby we must be saved. Whereas in the Old Testament, that name had not yet been revealed, okay? So you could see that there are some things that are different in the New Testament, aren't they? Now there's a major difference in the New Testament that the curtain, the veil to the Holy of Holies was torn when Jesus died on the cross and the Bible says that the Holy Ghost was signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the tabernacle was yet standing. But that now that we have Jesus Christ as our mediator and as our high priest, we can come boldly into the throne of grace. And we don't have that mediator that we had in the Old Testament where they would go to the priest, right, and the priest would make an atonement on the altar for them and so forth. Now we just go directly to the Lord. The Bible says that there's one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. So in the Old Testament, there was the mediator of a Levitical priesthood. But in the New Testament, we as believers are a royal priesthood and Jesus is our high priest after the order of Melchizedek, not after the order of Levi. Also in the New Testament, the Bible says that we may eat all things and that every creature of God is good, whereas in the Old Testament, the Bible said that they were only allowed to eat certain meats. Also there were a lot of ceremonial and ritual laws that they observed in the Old Testament of holidays, New Moon, Sabbath days, whereas in the New Testament, the Bible says those things have been done away in Christ. But here's what has not been done away in Christ. What people will constantly refer to or preachers will often call the moral law. Have you ever heard the moral law of the Old Testament? That's just things that are right and wrong. And they're basically things that don't change. You know, stealing was wrong then, it's wrong now. Jesus Christ didn't come to bring a New Testament where stealing's fine. You know, now here's the thing. People are confusing the spiritual with the legal. Now spiritually in the New Testament, right, we have forgiveness through Jesus. But guess what? People had forgiveness in the Old Testament too. David was forgiven by calling upon the name of the Lord. We're forgiven by calling on the name of Jesus when we get saved. So here's the thing. Forgiveness, yes. But does that mean that we should live in a society without law and order? Should we say, and here's what's so stupid. People will say like, well, you know, don't judge. And I always say, well, you know, there are all these people in Phoenix wearing black robes calling themselves judges. Is that okay? Is that okay? Is it okay that when I got a ticket, I stood before a guy that judged me or should I have just told him, hey, buddy, don't judge. Jesus said not to judge. Because there's a difference between spiritual matters and legal matters, right? I mean, what if somebody steals from me and robs my house and I say, hey, you know, I want to get my stuff back. I'm going to call the police, right? When I called the police, do you think people would just say, excuse me, why are you judging? No one would say that because everyone would agree that you have to punish thieves. Why do you have to punish thieves? So that everybody isn't just stealing and society breaks down and everybody just has to guard their stuff all the time because it's just freely being stolen. Look at the looting today in certain places in our country that starts with an F and ends in Ergason. Look at the looting. You got to have some law and order where you basically have stuff that's yours and you don't just think it's just being taken away and there's no consequences for the people being taken away. Okay, so we need laws. Everybody agree that we need some laws? Who thinks that murder should be against the law? Who thinks murder is fine, just free murder, just allow murder? Because it's the New Testament. It's grace. Wait a minute. Are you trying to bring us under that old Mosaic law, thou shalt not kill? It's free grace, free in Christ, right? Killing, stealing, it's all fine. Okay, who thinks that stealing should be against the law? Right? Yeah. I mean, you say, Pastor Anderson, this is dumb. Why are we even talking about it? Everybody knows that stealing should be against, everybody knows that murder should be against the law. Who thinks it should be against the law for me to just grab a random person off the street and just start beating them? Just assault people. Who thinks that should be against the law? We should have a law against that. Yeah. Okay, who thinks that it should be against the law that I go to court and lie about somebody under oath and say, yup, I saw them commit murder, I saw them steal, I saw them... Who thinks it should be against the law for me to lie about people under oath? Yeah, that would be bearing false witness. Then the Bible says that that should be illegal. Now here's the thing, though. We all agree that there should be law. Who thinks that any of those things should now be legal because we're in the New Testament now? Nobody. Because it wouldn't make any sense. Okay, now, how do we know that murder should be illegal? How do we know that stealing should be... Well, it's just obvious. That's why. Okay, but here's the thing. Some other things are not so obvious, though, right? Because there are other questions where people would disagree, like, for example, who thinks alcohol should be illegal? There are people out there who think it should be illegal, right? And there are Christians out there who believe that. I've heard preachers my whole life say, oh, Billy Sunday was so great with prohibition and making alcohol illegal. Those were the days. A lot of people think that. Okay, who ever thinks that drugs should be illegal? You know, there are a lot of people who think drugs should be illegal, okay? But does everybody think drugs should be illegal? No. See where some things are real obvious, stealing, murder, okay? Other things are less obvious to people, things like sorcery or things like drinking alcohol or things like taking drugs or whatever the case may be, you know, or speeding. You know, who thinks speeding should be illegal? You know, some people do, some people don't. So the question is, how are we going to know what is the right opinion? You know, what's the right answer? Should drinking be illegal or not? Should drugs be illegal or not? Should speeding be illegal or not? Should witchcraft be illegal or not? Should pornography be illegal or not? Should prostitution be illegal or not? Should polygamy be illegal or not? You're going to find people that have different opinions on these things, right? Everybody's going to agree, hey, you know, no murder, no stealing. But the question is, where do we get the answer? And to me, the answer that's just so obvious that I can't understand why people don't get this is that the Bible will give us the answer. Okay, and where is the Bible going to give us the answer? It's not going to be in the New Testament because the New Testament is not about legal systems. Okay? The New Testament is about Jesus and salvation and going to heaven and things like that. But in the Old Testament, we have an example of a country where God made the laws. Don't we have an example of that? The nation of Israel, he brought them out of Egypt and he gave them a law and the Bible tells us over and over again that that law is perfect. Now the only reason that that system failed was because man failed. The children of Israel failed. But God's system that he gave is the perfect system. That's why throughout history, even in our New Testament, Christian people and people who respected the Bible, they actually used the Bible as a guideline for creating laws. And they would go back to, in fact, in the United States of America, you used to, to become a lawyer, study a book called Blackstone's Commentary on the Law, which is basically straight out of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, you know, is where the teachings are coming from and the idea. I mean, it used to be that people who would come up with political and legal theory that were Christians would cite the Bible and reference the Bible. Because look, your opinion's not worth a dime if it doesn't come from the Bible. Well, I just think drugs should be legal. Well no, I think they should be illegal. If you don't have a Bible verse for that, your opinion's not worth a dime. I mean, who are you to decide whether X, Y, or Z should be legal or illegal? And I'm going to get to John 8, but I'm just trying to explain to you the framework of the discussion here so that you'll understand here what we're talking about when it comes to what should be legal and what should not. Now, according to the Bible and according to the biblical law that God gave the children of Israel, one of the things that should be illegal is adultery. Now in America, adultery has historically been illegal for most of our history. Now, probably most people probably don't even know that. But there are a lot of reasons why it's obvious that adultery should be illegal. You know why? Because of the people. Well, I'm a libertarian. I just think free adultery. No, you're not even a libertarian. Because a libertarian believes in people's liberty and their property, okay? Now here's the thing. According to the Bible, I belong to my wife and my wife belongs to me. The Bible says the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife. The wife has not power of her own body but the husband. Now not only that, but when you get married, it's a legally binding contract. I mean, think about it. If I signed a contract with anybody and said, hey, you know, I'm going to hire you and you're going to do this work and I'm going to pay you this much and this is what's expected of you and this is what I'm going to do, all right, let's shake hands, let's sign it off and that's a legally binding contract. Well, when you get married, it's not just you and your wife, just a couple of buddies saying, hey, let's just promise each other that we're going to be faithful to each other until death. That's not even what it is because when you get married, it's actually a legally binding contract where you actually swear that oath in the house of God before God, before the church and even in the presence of the law because if you get a marriage license, that's a legally binding document. You can't just sit there and just say, even into today's law in the United States, you can't just say, well, this isn't my wife. She's not my wife. I changed my mind. What are they going to say? No, that is your wife. You have a contract here, a legally binding contract and you have to go through a process to get out of that contract that's called divorce. But until then, you're legally bound. You must keep to that contract and that agreement is from this day forward, keep me only under her so long as we both shall live till death do us part. That's what you're swearing when you get married. So here's the thing. If I'm married to my wife, we have an oath to each other that we are going to be exclusive one with the other and that we're going to be together until death. That's why this whole thing of just people being able to get divorced wasn't even legal in the United States until recently. You had to go to court and have a reason for getting divorced. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? When was the California was the first state to have what's called the no fault divorce law where nobody has broken the contract or done anything wrong and they'll just give you an easy divorce. I believe it was 1970. I might be wrong on the year. Is that the right year? Yeah. 1970, I believe, but whatever it was, it wasn't that long ago. Some of you were alive when you couldn't get a divorce without going to court and giving a reason. So what I'm saying is that this is a legally, but so here's the thing. My wife, if she marries me, it should not be legal for me to just go out and just be with a bunch of other women physically bringing home who knows what disease for one. And secondly, just not keeping the oath and the contract that I made with her. And it isn't right for her to do the same thing and go out and whatever. So yes, it should be against the law because an adulterer is an evil doer. Now if someone lies with my wife, that is harming me. If someone lies with the woman's husband, that is harmful to her. And you say, well, I don't agree with you. Yeah, but the Bible said it should be against the law. When the Bible gave the punishment of the Old Testament, it said that the adulterer and the adulterous, it doesn't matter whether it's a man or a woman, shall surely be put to death. That's what God gave as, you say, whoa, that's crazy. No, you're crazy and the law of the Lord is perfect. So you know, they say, but people say, oh, no, no, that's ridiculous, that's crazy. Well look at John 8 and here's all they can point to is John 8 and they say, well, in John 8, Jesus did away with all that, they say. Let's see if that's really what happened in John 8. It says in verse 1, Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives, John 8 verse 2, and early in the morning he came again into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? Now the key verse is verse 6 where it gives the motive. This they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. So what is their purpose here? They want to accuse him to somebody, don't they? They're testing him because they want to accuse him. Let's keep reading. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground, and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last, and Jesus was left alone. And the woman standing in the midst, when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. Now a lot of people will twist this passage and say, this is Jesus abolishing the death penalty for any crime, for murder, for adultery, for whatever. Now look, if this is Jesus abolishing the death penalty, why would he abolish the death penalty? Why would that even make any sense to just say now adultery is just something that should just be legal? I mean this is Jesus legalizing adultery. It's funny how it took like almost nineteen hundred years after this for adultery to become legal finally. So for like nineteen hundred years, people didn't think that this was legalizing adultery. So Christian nations for like nineteen hundred some years, they all still had laws against adultery. But in the twentieth century, people finally figured out what this meant. No actually, you know who figured it out for them? A bunch of atheists and unbelievers. You see, I remember even talking to my wife when my wife was unsaved. Because my wife was raised in a left wing, you know, liberal culture in Europe. She was raised in Germany and she wasn't saved. And I remember explaining the death penalty to my wife before she was saved. You know, she had not gotten saved and I was talking to her, this was before we were married obviously, we were talking and I was talking about the death penalty and she said to me, she said, well, in theory, yes, but she said no one could ever carry out the death penalty though because, you know, he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone. She said no one could carry it out though. So how could you carry out the death penalty if no one carried it out? But see, this is an unbeliever talking. Now thank God my wife got saved and, you know, now she has done a 180 on obviously her teachings that she grew up with in the Catholic church and in a liberal country that were contrary to the word of God. The Holy Spirit will do that to you when you get saved, okay? But this is how unsaved people are being taught today. But it's funny how it's creeping into Christian teaching because of the unlearned. And they'll say, oh, this is Jesus abolishing the death penalty. And this is Jesus also making adultery legal now. Okay, but hold on a second. Let's look at the passage and actually understand it. Now first of all, here's the key. Go to John 18. Keep your finger in John 8 and go to John 18. John chapter 18. Because remember, their goal was to tempt him, was to test him. They wanted to catch him in his words. They wanted to get him in trouble. And they wanted to accuse him. So the question is, who did they want to accuse him to? Because they were going to accuse him to somebody. Who was it? Well look what the Bible says in John 18, 31. Funny how the answers are always in the Bible. And funny how the answers are usually in the same book you're studying. Look at John 18 verse 31. It says, then said Pilate unto them, take ye him and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death.