(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

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