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

Now, in Leviticus chapter 4, what Brother Garrett just read to us, we see the teachings of the burnt offerings and sin offerings associated with sinning through ignorance. And God went on and on in this chapter describing all type of different scenarios of people sinning through ignorance. Whether it be the ruler, whether it be the common man, whether it be the entire congregation that has sinned through ignorance. And what I want to preach about tonight is the difference between sinning through ignorance and sinning willfully or presumptuously violating God's commandments. Now the first thing I want to point out that we see in this chapter is that very clearly, even if you're ignorant about what you've done, God still says that you're guilty whether you're ignorant of it or not. Sinning through ignorance is still a sin and over and over again we see that people are told to offer a sin offering if they sin through ignorance. And he said as soon as it comes to their knowledge, he said they need to offer that offering because they are guilty whether they were ignorant of the fact that they had sinned or not. Go to Psalm 19 if you would, Psalm 19, we'll come back to Leviticus in a moment. Go to Psalm 19, right in the middle of the Bible is the book of Psalms, and in chapter 19 the Bible is talking about the Word of God. It's a famous passage, verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, and it goes on and on about God's Word. Jump down if you would to verse 11 though, talking about God's commandments, talking about his laws and his rules. It says in verse 11, Moreover by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. So the Bible is telling us that God's law is there to warn us, first of all, and in keeping of God's laws there's great reward. But it's a warning that's there. Keep going, it says in verse 12, Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Secret faults would be sinning through ignorance. Secret faults are faults that I don't even know that I have. This is like where David says later in Psalm 139, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. David is saying that he wants God to search and purify him of his secret faults. Sins that he commits through ignorance. Things that he's not even doing on purpose that are wrong. He said, Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. So presumptuous sins are in contrast to secret faults. Presumptuous sins are when you know that you're sinning. You know it's wrong going into it and you say, you know what, I'm going to do this anyway. I know it's wrong. I know I shouldn't be doing it, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. That's a presumptuous sin. He says, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. So what he's saying is that presumptuous sins are a great transgression. Basically presumptuous sins are worse than secret faults, than sinning through ignorance. I mean when you just bold-facedly violate God's word, that is worse than sinning through ignorance. You say, I don't believe you. Go back to Leviticus if you would. You say, I think all sins equal. Well, you know, I've heard that my whole life. I mean that's been taught to me my whole life. Oh, all sins equal. All sins equal in God's eyes. It's just simply not true, okay? Now I've heard it as many times as you have, but that doesn't make it true. The Bible is very clear. Jesus told the Pharisees, he said, You devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. He said unto Pontius Pilate, Thou wouldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from heaven. Therefore he that delivered thee unto me, or me unto thee, hath the greater sin. He told Pilate that the Jews had a greater sin for delivering Jesus unto them than Pilate did in condemning him. The Jews were more guilty than Pilate according to Jesus. They had the greater sin. See all sins not equal. God in the law, which is perfect by the way, the law of the law is perfect, in Genesis through Deuteronomy, God laid out a lot of different crimes and a lot of different punishments. Let me tell you something, all the crimes don't have the same punishment. Some things are punishable by death. Some things are punishable by paying a fine. Some are punishable with a beating, okay? And some of them are not punishable at all. God just tells you that they're wrong, they're sinful, don't do them. But there's not a human punishment. So no, it's not all equal. Let me show you that it's worse to sin presumptuously than to sin through ignorance. Verse 17 of chapter 5, we were in chapter 4, we read the whole chapter. Jump forward to chapter 5 verse 17, and if a soul sin and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he wist it not, wist means to know something, it's saying even if he didn't know it, though he wist it not, yet is he guilty and shall bear his iniquity. So some people think, well as long as I didn't know it was wrong, it wasn't wrong for me. And a lot of people will say this, what's wrong for me is different than what's wrong for you. That might be wrong for you, but it's not wrong for me because the Holy Spirit hasn't spoken to me about that. And I've heard that many times. But let me tell you something, whether or not you know it's wrong, it's wrong. And here's the thing, your lack of knowledge of the Bible is not giving you a free pass to sin and say, well I didn't know, I didn't know that was wrong, I never read that verse. Well that's why God said, by them thy servant is warned. And that's why we need to study the Bible, that's why we need to search the Scriptures to figure out what God wants us to do so that we don't sin through ignorance. Because God still finds us guilty. But let's keep going. It says he shall bring a ram, verse 18, without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation for a trespass offering unto the priest, and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him. So he shall bring a trespass offering, he is certainly trespassed against the Lord. Not maybe, but certainly. Go to Numbers chapter 15, just a few pages to the right in your Bible there, Leviticus Numbers, go to Numbers 15. The Bible reads in Numbers 15, 27, and if any soul sinned through ignorance, then he shall bring a she-goat of the first year for a sin offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly. When he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him. Ye shall have one law for him that sinned through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. 30, but the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, remember that from Psalm 19, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he hath despised the word of the Lord. Now that's pretty strong language, isn't it? He says when you hear God's commandments, and when you hear God's laws, and when you hear God's word, and you just presumptuously just say, you know what, I'm just going to do what I want, I'm just going to violate that, I'm going to break this law. God says that that is tantamount despising his word. And he says you've broken his commandment, and that soul shall be utterly be cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. So do you see a difference there in the way God handles people who sin through ignorance? He says bring a sin offering, bring a trespass offering, it shall be forgiven him. The guy who just goes out and sins willfully and presumptuously and just brazenly, just right in God's face, he says you know what, that is despising of the Lord, that guy needs to be cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. Go if you would now to Hebrews chapter 10. Now in Hebrews chapter 10, this concept of Numbers 15 is referred to in Hebrews chapter 10. And of course the book of Hebrews is a book that ties in a lot of concepts from the Old Testament and brings them into the New Testament, so it's a good book to kind of synthesize the Old Testament and the New Testament and to understand how they go together. Now we're not living under the New Testament, I realize that, we're living under the New Testament, and the Old Testament system was a system whereby they performed animal sacrifices. In the New Testament, we don't perform the animal sacrifices, we no longer go to the tabernacle. The Bible clearly explains in Hebrews chapter 9 that the meats and drinks and carnal ordinances and divers' washings, those were only until the coming of Christ. Now we're in the New Testament, Christ is the lamb that is slain for the sins of the world, he's already paid our sins, that is not something that we participate in. So the sacrifices of Leviticus 4, those no longer apply. If I sin through ignorance, I'm not bringing a ram down to the tabernacle, okay? But the principles of Leviticus still apply. We can still learn the lessons of Leviticus, even though we are not living under the Old Testament, the concepts are still there. You know, when God said that homosexuality was an abomination in the book of Leviticus, and when God said that, you know, cross-dressing is an abomination in Deuteronomy chapter 1, you know, those things haven't changed. It's not that right and wrong has changed, because let me explain to you, I need to get to this a little bit later in the sermon. Right and wrong has never changed, okay? Now there were certain ceremonial things and carnal or fleshly ordinances that were imposed upon them for a specific period of time. The dietary restrictions, the washings, the sacrifices. That's all explained in Hebrews 9 as being stuff that was for a specific time. But as far as morality, as far as right and wrong, as far as the way we're supposed to live our lives, you know, those things have always, you know, it was wrong to, we talked about this morning, in the Old Testament the Bible taught not to lust after a woman in your heart, and then in the New Testament he said that if you lust after a woman in your heart, you've committed adultery with her in your heart. You know, what's right has always been right, what's wrong has always been wrong. And so sin has always been sin. But look at Hebrews 10 verse 25, the Bible says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. So are there some people out there who their manner is to forsake the assembly? That's their style, that's the way they live their life? And he says, don't be that guy. He says, do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and it matters less and less the more time goes by. No, he said, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. That means we need to be in church more now than we've ever needed it. I mean, we need church more in 2012. We need to assemble together more in 2012 than we did 20 years ago. And yet today it seems like people are forsaking church more and more with the advent of the internet, and television, and radio. They feel like, oh I got my church. That's not an assembly. Listening to a sermon is not an assembly. You need to get in a local assembly. And so the Bible says not to forsake that. In verse 26, the verse starts with a conjunction, for, which is tying in with what we just heard. For is a synonym of the word because. And so he says here, for, or because, if we sin willfully. Now isn't that the opposite of sinning through ignorance? Isn't that when you're just presumptuously sinning against the commandment of the Lord? He says, for if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. Now what he's teaching here, he's tying this in with what he said in Numbers 15. In Numbers 15 he said, hey if it's through ignorance, bring down the sacrifice. No big deal. Do it right moving forward. You didn't know any better, it was still a sin, but you know what? I forgive you. Bring the sacrifice, you're good to go. But he said if we sin willfully, he said there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. And in Numbers 15, if they sinned willfully against God's commandment, would bringing a sacrifice down to the tabernacle just take care of it? In Numbers 15. No. He said no, that person should be cut off from amongst the people. Now let me stop by saying this, we're not talking about personal salvation here. When it comes to salvation, when it comes to heaven and hell, that is a free gift that's purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's not something that we earn by living a good life. And I've heard people say this, well if you sin willfully, you're going to lose your salvation. You cannot lose your salvation because the Bible says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The Bible says, verily, verily I say unto thee, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Jesus said, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believeth thou this. And if you believe on Christ, you'll never die. It's not that you're going to get everlasting life, you have everlasting life. John 6.47, verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Present tense. And if it's everlasting today, don't tell me it's going to end tomorrow. That didn't last long. That wasn't everlasting, that was short lived. He said, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. So the Bible is clear, salvation is a free gift, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works, saying blessed are they whose sins are forgiven, whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's what salvation is. That's what Jesus dying on the cross was all about. It was the payment in full for every sin that I've ever done or ever will do, past, present and future, paid in full, done and saved with a D on the end because it's done. It's saved. It's past tense. Done. We're not talking about salvation, but let me tell you something. After you're saved, you have a choice which path you're going to take in this life. Are you going to live the way of the world or are you going to follow the commandments of God and live a life that's pleasing to God? None of us will ever be perfect. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We all are in the flesh. Paul described it in Romans 7, the battle that he had with sin on a daily basis. But what God is talking about here is the judgment that he brings upon his people in this life, okay? In Leviticus, in Numbers, when people committed these major transgressions, they received punishments in this life. They were stone with stone. They died under two or three witnesses. They had repercussions in this life and just because we're saved and we're escaping hell and we will never see the flames of hell, praise God, we still are in danger of punishment and chastisement on this earth. We will reap what we've sown. God will chasten and scourge us when we go off the path and when we commit sin. And so that's what Hebrews 10 is warning us about here, that God's fiery wrath and judgment can come upon us in this life. It's like my children. The Bible says, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. If my son keeps my commandments, he's going to live a blessed life in my home. He's going to have things go well for him in my home. But if my son violates my commandments, he can face some fiery wrath from dad. And when I violated my parents' commandments, I received the fiery wrath of my dad's anger and punishment, okay? And when I did right, I was praised by my parents. And when I did wrong, I was chastened and spanked by my parents. Just as I spanked my children. Just as every Christian who loves God and believes the Bible spanks their children and doesn't follow the world's method of, you know, first try timeouts and when they don't work because they won't, then try drugs. I mean that's pretty much the world's method. First try all these methods we're going to give you that we know don't work, then we'll sell you drugs and laugh all the way to the bank as we make hundreds of billions of dollars. Any questions? That's the world's method. God's method is spare the rod and you hate your son. The Bible says you use the rod, he said withhold not correction from the child for thou beatest him with the rod. He shall not die, thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. If I chasten my children, God will chasten his children. And the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. And some things we do can incur great anger from the Lord. Now if my children sin through ignorance, okay, if my children sin through ignorance, are they still guilty? Yeah, but wait a minute. What if they just brazenly to my face I say, son, do thus and so, and he says, no. Now wouldn't that be pretty extreme? Do you think that that happens very often in my house? Good answer. But, I don't know who that was, but they sound like they were about 1 or 2 years old, so I'm glad they're learning young, they're paying attention to the sermon, they sound like a very young child. Good. So, do you think that there were many times when I was growing up that I just said to my parents, no, I'm not going to do that. Of course not. Because I knew that that would be so bad and I knew that there would be fiery wrath that would devour me as an adversary. So my children don't just repel against me to my face, and if they did, they're going to get some serious discipline. Now if they sin through ignorance, it's going to be more leniency, it's going to be more mercy, it's going to be less of a punishment because they weren't just purposely setting out where I'm saying, do this, and they just say, no. And by the way, this goes to other relationships in life also, because parents are not the only authority figures that exist in this world. For example, the boss at work, the Bible commands us to obey the boss at work. We're supposed to have servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh. Can you imagine at your job, looking at the boss and he tells you to do something and you're just like, no, I'm not going to do that. You know what's going to happen? You're going to be fired. You're not going to stay on that job. You're going to lose that job. You're probably going to get cursed up one side and down the other before you get fired. You might even get a swift kick in the pants, but you're going to lose that job at a minimum when you just brazenly, presumptuously, now look, aren't there times on the job where you sin through ignorance? Oh, whoops, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I messed up, I'm sorry. But not just, I don't care what you say, I'm going to do what I want. Now you can imagine doing that to the boss. You can imagine doing that to the parents. And by the way, here's another thing the Bible says, wives to be obedient to their husbands. And think about this, for a wife to just brazenly disobey her husband to his face and tell him, no, I'm not going to do it that way. Well you know what, again, that's a lot worse than sinning through ignorance. And you know, we could carry this across to all manner of relationships, whether it be between a married couple, whether it be between father and son, whether it be between employer and employee. You know, obviously our common sense tells us, doesn't it, that in any of these relationships, sinning through ignorance, or something that's more of an accident, quote unquote, or something that was not intentional, is not going to be punished as severely as a willful defiance. Right? Isn't that pretty easy to see? Well what we need to do is we need to understand that this same principle carries over to our walk with God. God is going to be very angry with us when we willfully sin against His Word. We wouldn't do it to the boss, we wouldn't do it to our parents, why? Because we know what the result would be, but God's telling us that just as certainly as that result would come from mom and dad, and look, mom and dad aren't going to disown us and kick us out of the family, but they're going to tan our hide. And you know, it's not that we're going to lose our salvation, obviously we have eternal life, it's done and paid for, but He is going to be angry and He's going to punish accordingly when we ignore His commandments and when we willfully sin against His Word. I've got more scripture on this tonight, but let's keep reading this. He said in verse 28, and of course verses 26 and 27 are exactly what we saw in Numbers 15, carried forward into the New Testament, and that's what we need to do. We need to be able to use the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament. That's why God gave us both in a nice leather cover here so you can see how they go together. Not to throw out and say, oh we don't need Leviticus anymore. You better open up Leviticus and read it, and open up Numbers, then go to your New Testament and see what it means, and that's what we're doing. Look what it says in verse 27, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. Indignation is anger. He's saying there's going to be some fiery anger when you defy God to His face. He that despised Moses' law, okay, look at that word. He that despised Moses' law. What did it say in Numbers 15? The exact same thing, I'll read it for you. The Bible said in verse 31, because he had despised the word of the Lord. Did you get that? In Numbers 15, he said if you willfully sin against the commandments, you have despised the word of the Lord. In the New Testament, same thing. He said, he that despised Moses' law, so that's a reference to Numbers 15, 31, died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore or punishment, suppose ye, shall ye be thought worthy, who had trodden underfoot the Son of God, and had counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and had done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that it said vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You see, God's anger is pretty great when we sin willfully, because He is comparing it. He says, you know how I look at it when you sin willfully? When you hear a clear commandment, and when you hear the word of God and just decide to just brazenly disobey it, He's saying, you know what that is to me? He said it's like you're treading underfoot Jesus Christ. Now can you imagine the spectacle, just try to picture this. Imagine you stepping on Jesus. Can you imagine anything more offensive? Anything more blaspheme? I mean, can you imagine Jesus on the ground and you step on him? I mean, would you ever dream of doing something like that? Who would have the boldness to step on Jesus and to be that disrespectful? And God says, that's how I look at it when you step on my word. When you despise my word, when you despise the Spirit of grace, when you despise Moses law, He's saying, it's like you're treading underfoot the Son of God and you're counting the blood of the covenant, wherewith you were sanctified. And so we're talking about people that are saved. Counting the blood of the covenant wherewith you're sanctified an unholy thing, God I didn't mean that. I didn't mean that when I moved in with my girlfriend, God. I wasn't trying to step on Jesus when I moved in with my girlfriend before we were married. I wasn't trying to, but you know what, God said that is what you did. Because you knew that moving in with your girlfriend is fornication, and you knew it's a sin, and you knew it was wrong, and you heard it preach, and you know it's a sin, and you know that that needs to wait until marriage, and He said you stepped on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are blaspheming and despising my word. I mean doesn't that put it in perspective when you just brazenly go against God? Sometimes I've rebuked people's sin, and I'm not talking about in our church or anything, I've said to people that I've known, friends of mine, I saw them going down a wrong path, and I rebuked them and said, you know what, what you're doing is wrong, you need to not do that, you know, you're going to destroy your life, I'm trying to warn you, I'm trying to help you, you know, I'm just telling you the truth that what you're doing is sin. And you know what I've had people say to me, I know it's sin, but I'm going to do it anyway. And you know what, and this is what they said, they said, I know it's sin, but nobody's perfect, everybody's a sinner, and this is what I'm going to do, and you know, I'll face the consequences. Yeah but do you understand the consequences? You know, people say I'll face the consequences, they're not really thinking this through, that there's a difference between messing up, making a mistake, blowing it through ignorance, and when somebody comes to you and warns you, and somebody says, look, here's what the Bible says, here's what you're about to do that's wrong, and God's just flat out point blank telling you don't do it, and you just say, I'm going to do it anyway. That's pretty serious, isn't it? Isn't that a willful, presumptuous sin, and doesn't God punish it more severely, and doesn't it incur God's anger more than our normal slip ups that happen from day to day? I mean look, we all sin every day, the thought of foolishness is sin, but there's a difference between the thought of foolishness, there's a difference between, you know, accidentally looking at something you shouldn't have looked at, I'm not condoning it, I'm not justifying it, it's still a sin. He said you're most certainly guilty in Leviticus 4 and 5, but that's different than when you just say, you know what, I'm going to commit adultery, I'm going to get drunk, even though I know it's wrong, I'm going to go out and steal this. I'm going to do this, and I know it's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway. That's so much worse. Let's go to our next scripture here, let's go to Romans chapter, actually let's go to Luke 12, we'll go to Romans in a moment, let's go to Luke 12 first. Luke chapter 12, I'm going to change up the order here a little bit, Luke 12, Jesus gives a parable in Luke 12 and, you know, you've got to be careful how you interpret parables because the Bible says that the legs of the lame are not equal. So is a parable in the mouth of fools. Did you catch that? The legs of the lame are not equal. One leg is shorter than the other, he's saying. He said so is a parable in the mouth of fools. You see, the Bible is warning us that fools will take a parable and they will match it up with something that it doesn't match up with. And it's like a guy walking with one leg shorter than the other, you know, and he can't walk. God says that's a parable in the mouth of fools. So isn't God warning us that some people will take parables and misinterpret them and misapply them in a way that is not right? The Bible warns us. Now the Bible contains a lot of parables and dark sayings. The Bible also contains a lot of clear statements that are unequivocal. So what do you think we should base what we believe on? Our interpretation of a parable, which could be flawed, or on a clear statement that the Bible made or that Jesus made. We've got to go with the clear statements and base what we believe on the clear statement. Then what we do, we use the clear statement to interpret the parable. Because otherwise if we just go into a parable without any clear scriptural statements to guide us, we can make the parable say pretty much whatever we want it to say. We can apply it to whatever we want. Now this parable that Jesus gives is a parable that is dealing with the nation of Israel versus the Gentiles, and He uses this parable several times about the servant who his lord goes off on a far journey and the servants of the vineyard are evil and they smite the servants and they kill them and they beat them and they get drunk, instead of doing what the master left them behind to do. And basically this is a concept that's brought out in Isaiah chapter 5 and it's brought out in Matthew chapter 21. And basically if you want to take the primary application of this parable, basically what God is explaining is that the children of Israel, they rejected Christ. They were supposed to be His servant. They were the custodians of the vineyard as it were. And of course when God sent His Son, they rejected Him, they slew Him, they beat Him, they threw Him out of the vineyard and they didn't want anything to do with Him. And basically the servants, the nation of Israel, rejected Christ and therefore in Matthew 21 Jesus told them, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit thereof. Now let's read this here in Luke chapter 12 and what I really want to point out, and this parable, the reason I just wanted to tell you about that parable in Matthew 21, it's a little bit of a different parable but it kind of ties in with this parable and that's why I'm bringing it up. And obviously the parable has other applications too. But none of those applications should violate clear scripture. Now what I want to show you in this parable is that sinning willfully or presumptuously is much worse, remember that's what the whole sermon's about, than sinning through ignorance. They're both sin, they're both wrong, ignorance is not an excuse, but sinning willfully is much worse. Look at verse 41, then Peter said unto the Lord, or unto Him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all? And he told some other parables, you know, but he says in verse 42, and the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men servants, and maid servants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, this is the key right here of what I want to talk about, verse 47-48, and that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes, but he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. So what Jesus is dealing with here are a few different things, and obviously when you have a parable, a lot of times these parables are so deep, they have several applications and several means, because a lot of people when they read these, they're only thinking about the second coming of Christ all day long. But you know, a lot of the principles that Jesus is speaking about here apply to his first coming also, because when Jesus showed up, and Jesus makes this very clear in Matthew 21, when Jesus showed up the first time, he likened that unto somebody who had been away in a far country, okay, and had left the vineyard out to husbandmen, and they were not doing with it what they were supposed to be doing with it, and when Jesus showed up, they did not recognize him as the, well they did recognize him as the heir, they said this is the heir, let's kill him. And they rejected Christ, you know when Christ showed up the first time, he was rejected by the Jews. Now, the reason why the Jews had the greater sin, according to Jesus, was because unto them were committed the oracles of God. Think about it, who is more guilty? Who's getting more of a punishment? The Jews who had the word of God, who had Moses and the prophets, or the Romans who probably did not have as much background in Moses or the prophets, you see what I'm saying? And so that's part of what Jesus is saying here. He's saying that the Jews are more guilty, they're going to be beaten with more stripes for rejecting me because he came unto his own and his own received him not. The ones that should have been the first to accept him, the ones that knew the most scripture, the ones that had been given the most privileges and the most knowledge and the most access to the word of God, he's saying the fact that they rejected him, they're going to be beaten with more stripes than the one who did not know as much. But how do we apply this to us as servants of Christ? Because of course the parable is on a few different levels here. You know, as Christ's servants, when we know his will and we don't do it, the Bible says we're going to be beaten with many stripes as opposed to those who did not know the will of God and didn't do it. He said they'll be beaten with few stripes because unto whom much is given of him shall much be required. Now some people might look at that and say, well, ignorance is bliss. You know, I'm just going to stay ignorant because that way I can just get beaten with few stripes. Now here's the thing, I don't know about you, I don't want to be beaten with any stripes. I don't want to just take it to the bank, okay, I'll just cash in on the low beating. You know, I'm just going to be the messed up servant, the failure of a servant of Christ, the one who's just totally displeasing to Jesus, but I'm just going to limit my knowledge so that I get less punishment. That's pretty stupid, isn't it? Wouldn't it make more sense to learn the Bible, figure out what we're supposed to do and then do it? Especially since Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. We should show our love to him by keeping his commandments. But on the flip side of that, with knowledge, the more you read your Bible, God's going to start holding you responsible for more. Now the guy who doesn't read his Bible, he's not responsible for as much, but he's still getting beaten all the time for all the stupid things he's doing through ignorance. He's still messing up his life the whole time because he's so ignorant of what the right path even is. But as we read the Scripture and gain more knowledge, with that knowledge comes a responsibility to uphold and to keep those commandments. And you know, when you're sitting in a church like Faithful Word Baptist Church, you are learning the Bible. It's not that you're coming here and getting some kind of a watered down sermon with a lot of fillers in it, like that Parmesan cheese that you buy at the store, and it says, 100% Parmesan cheese. But what they forgot to tell you is it's not 100% cheese. Now the cheese that's in it is 100% Parmesan. But what they forgot to tell you is all the fillers and flour that they put in to stretch it out. If you buy the off-brand cheapo Parmesan, you put it on your spaghetti, you might as well sprinkle flour on your spaghetti. And you keep sprinkling more, man, I can't even taste this stuff because it's been stretched out with a bunch of filler. And that's why when you buy Parmesan, you've got to make sure that it's 100% Parmesan cheese, no fillers. 100% cheese. I saw another one that said, 100% conquered grapes. But then it said, 25% fruit juice. How does that work? Well, it's only 25% juice, but the part that is grape juice, it's conquered grapes. I don't care what kind of grapes they are, I just wish they were all grapes. You're giving me high fructose corn syrup and water and artificial flavor and I'm only really getting 25% juice, you know, I'm trying to get 100% juice here and it's a deceptive labeling when it says 100% conquered grape juice. Yeah, right. And I like this one, the Minute Maid lemonade. It says, made with real lemons, 0% fruit juice. How does that work? They just have real lemons in the room with them while they make it. It's made with real lemons. Or they probably have like a giant vat of Minute Maid lemonade, like the size of a swimming pool, and they're just like, squeeze one lemon in. Alright, this batch is done. And look, a lot of churches, obviously there's a lot of filler, there's a lot of fluff, a lot of tear-jerking, gut-wrenching illustrations, but they're kind of lean on the Word of God. But let me tell you something, there are plenty of things to criticize about me. There are plenty of things to attack me for, but one of them is not that I don't preach the Bible in my sermons, because I do use the Bible. You know, you do hear the Word in this church, and let me tell you something, God's going to hold you accountable for that. And you're going to be more accountable than the ones who don't know the Word. And when you're coming to church, week after week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and you're reading your Bible every day, hey, God expects you to know what's right and expects you to do it. And when you turn away from that, when you have all this knowledge, and God's blessed you with preaching that's feeding you, and God's blessed you with the whole Bible in your language, the English language, that you can pick up and read every morning. You know what, when God has given you that, He expects you to follow it. And when you don't, He gets angry, because He doesn't like to be defied to His face, and He doesn't like you to despise His Word. Now you may say, I love the Word, but God says, you know, when you just willfully disobey it, that tells me you despise it. He says if you love it, if you love Me, keep My commandments. And so we need to realize that what we know is right, and think about this scripture, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. You see that? It's worse when you sin willfully. Now, go to Romans 5. Let me deal with a little false doctrine here. Some will teach that if you're ignorant, it's not a sin. Now didn't we see pretty clearly in Leviticus 4, Leviticus 5, Numbers 15, Hebrews 10, you know that it is a sin? Even if you sin through ignorance, it's still a sin. Some people will say, well it's not a sin. If you're ignorant, it's not a sin. Well, let's deal with that. We know it's a sin. Now sinning willfully is worse, but they're both wrong. Look at Romans 5, and I'm going to deal with a couple of different false doctrines here as we read this. Romans 5, 12 says this, Wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin? And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. Now two false doctrines are out there. Number one is the false doctrine that says if you sin through ignorance, it's not a sin. Only if you willfully do that which is wrong are you sinning. Now this is in the New Evangelical movement. When I was a teenager, I went to churches that I would classify as New Evangelical churches. Now what I mean by that term is basically they're churches that are basically, they're using the NIV, they've got a rock band, and basically they have this mantra of we're free in Christ, don't try to bring us under bondage, we don't want to hear the do's and don'ts, it's all about our relationship with Christ, our personal relationship, and so don't give us any thou-shouts and thou-shout-nots. Because we're just going through life as the Spirit leads. And if the Spirit doesn't bother me as I watch R-rated videos, I'm going to keep watching them. Now look, this is the mentality that I was in churches that had this mentality in my teenage years, and they said, you know what, stuff that's wrong for me, it might not be wrong for you as long as the Spirit's not dealing with you. And I'm trying to tell them, but what if the Bible just says it's wrong? No, it's, you know, if the Spirit hasn't dealt with them, or if they don't know that the Bible says that, then they're not sinning. Only if they see that the Bible says that and the Holy Spirit reveals it to them, that is just nonsense, isn't it? You know, tell that to the, and obviously I don't agree with the speed limits and all the dumb laws that our government has, but you know, let's say I'm driving down the road and I get pulled over and I just tell the police officer, you know what? I did not know that I was speeding. I did not realize that I had gotten into the three digits on my speed limit. I mean, do you think he's just going to say, oh, okay, well, you know, I just wanted to make sure you weren't purposely going that fast. Because if you were purposely going that fast, that would show that you despise the speed limit. I mean, that's like you're treading the police under your foot right there, you know, like just willfully going against these laws. You were doing it through ignorance, no problem. Now, here's the thing. Obviously that's not going to fly, okay? Because obviously rules are rules. We don't necessarily agree with the rules, but when it comes to God's rules, you better agree with them because they're all right about everything, every time. So just because you don't know a rule doesn't mean you haven't violated that rule and it doesn't mean you're not guilty. Otherwise we could just shut our Bibles and know as little as possible and go through life and we're sin free. That's nonsense. But that's one false doctrine. There's another false doctrine that goes hand in hand with that doctrine, and that's the doctrine of original sin. And you know, you hear that term thrown around, it's a Roman Catholic doctrine, and what the doctrine of original sin teaches is that, you know, God is sending us to hell not for our own sins, but because of Adam's sin. Now isn't that a weird doctrine? And they basically teach that people are all damned because Adam sinned, not because of their own sins. Now that's a false doctrine, it's a Roman Catholic doctrine, it's called the doctrine of original sin. And it means we are held accountable for what Adam sinned. Now that is totally foreign to scripture. The Bible clearly states that the children will not be punished for the sins of the fathers and vice versa. Now repercussions of the sins of our fathers are visited upon us, but we are not held accountable for what our dad does, or did. We weren't even around. Let me prove it to you that that's false, that both of those are false. And this is the scripture that they'll try to use to teach that doctrine. I'm going to show you how this scripture defeats their argument. It says in Romans 5-12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Now those who believe in original sin, they stop reading right there. See one man sinned and death upon everybody. We're all going to hell because of what Adam did. Wrong. Look at the last phrase. For that all have sinned. So why did death pass upon all men? Because we've all sinned. So the Bible says, read it carefully, look down at your Bible, Romans 5-12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for, again meaning because, because that all have sinned. So why did death pass upon all men? Just because Adam sinned? No, it's because Adam brought sin into the world, and the reason that death passed upon all men is because all have sinned. That's why. The reason that we all will die physically one day is because of our own sins. And the reason that the unsaved will spend eternity in hell is because of their own sins. Not Adam's sin, they're not being punished for someone else's sins, they're being punished for their own sin. Because the Roman Catholics have built a whole doctrine on this, and I'm not going to go into all their weird doctrine about how, you know, well when you get saved, that just covers your original sin. But then your sins, you've got to go to the priest and say hail Marys and our fathers, you know, to get rid of these other sins that you do on an ongoing basis. It's a bunch of nonsense. But I've run into Baptists who believe in it, and it's just not biblical. You know, we are punished for our own sins, not Adam's sin. Adam had his sin, he brought sin into the world, he passed down to us the sin nature, but the reason that death passed upon us is because we've all sinned ourselves. Look at the next verse. Here's another often misunderstood verse. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Now people will again, they don't continue to read, they stop reading there and they say, see when there's no law, there's no sin, and I, you know, the Scofield Reference Bible, I don't know why anybody uses it. The first page of the Scofield Reference Bible says, oh, there was a previous civilization before Adam and Eve. What? What are you talking about? But you know, there's all kinds of false doctrine in the Scofield Reference Bible. But in the Scofield Reference Bible, he explains here that, you know, no sins were imputed from Adam all the way to Moses, you know, people's sins weren't being counted against them. Are you serious? And he said the only reason why those people died and went to hell is because of Adam's sin. You know, this original sin doctrine. It's a false doctrine, because if you keep reading, look, he says, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. In theory, sin is not imputed when there is no law. But look at the next verse, nevertheless, in spite of that, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Now look, does that say that they hadn't sinned? No. It just says that they did not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. They did not sin the same type of sin. They sinned a different type of sins. He says, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. Now I might be going a little too deep tonight, but let me show you a scripture that's a little clearer. Go to Romans 7. This will bring it down and make it a little clearer, in case you're confused. What I'm trying to show you in Romans 5 there is that even though the law had not been given by Moses, sin was being imputed unto every person who lived from Adam unto Moses, and death reigned. They were punished for their sins. Let's keep reading. In Romans chapter 7, the Bible says this in verse 7, what shall we say then? This is Romans 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid, nay, I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Watch this. For without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Now you say, what in the world is that talking about? What the Bible is saying here is that there was a time in the Apostle Paul's life when he had never heard the commandments of God whatsoever. The commandments of God were completely unknown to him. And the Bible says at that time, he was alive, okay? That he said, and that sin was dead. But when the commandment came, he said, sin revived and I died, okay? Now what is that saying? Well, if you study the Bible, babies in their mother's womb, for example, they're not living a life of sin, okay? They are unable to understand or process the commands of God. They don't speak English, they cannot understand speech, even when they're born, right? Can a newborn baby understand it if I talk to it? If I try to explain things to the baby the day after it's born, now my latest child is named Steven, if I said, now Steven, we want to go to bed now and we want you to stop crying and go to sleep now, and we don't want you to scream as if we're never going to pick you up again, because we will pick you up again, Steven, and I know you think that you're never going to eat again, and that's why you're screaming bloody murder, you know what I mean? But Steven, honestly, you will be fed again. You will see us again, but we're just taking a break from you right now, okay? Does he understand any of that? Think about what would it take, what would it take for you to scream like a newborn baby screams? I mean, you know how a newborn baby, ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh. I mean, what would have to happen to get you to do that? I mean, you'd have to be pretty scared, you'd have to be pretty, and they are scared, you know, they're, I'm never going to see that breast again, you know, ahh, I'm never going to be fed, I'm never going to, you know, I'm never going to be picked up again. And you know, they don't understand any concept of time, they don't understand that, you know, there's bedtime and mealtime, now over time they learn, they get into the rhythm of things, they learn, okay, I sleep at night, I eat in the daytime, you know, I can sit here and wait and be patient, and when they get older they're a lot easier to deal with, right? Because you can talk to them and reason with them. Now, is a baby purposely sinning and doing wrong? No. The Bible talks about the fact that very late in Rebecca's pregnancy with Jacob and Esau, in her womb, late in the pregnancy the children were fighting with each other in the womb. And if you remember, the Bible says in Romans 9 that the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. So are those children sinning in the womb? Bible says they've not done either good or evil, okay? And this is why we believe that babies are going to go to heaven when they die no matter what. It's clear that if an infant dies, and there's about four clear scriptures in the Old Testament that teach us, that if a baby dies it automatically goes to heaven. You know? And it makes sense because God's not holding them accountable, okay, for what they're doing because there's been zero commandment. They don't even know the rules, okay? Now if a child or a baby or a small infant were to do something wrong, let's say they just do something that is just unequivocally wrong. Let's say for example they steal, okay? Let's say we're in the store and, you know, a one year old just reaches on the shelf, grabs something, shoves it into the car seat. I mean it definitely stole. I mean the Bible does say thou shalt not steal, right? So it has sinned, it has done wrong. But here's the thing, that sin is not being imputed unto that child because that child has no idea, and it's not that it's just ignorant, it's just that it's incapable of even discerning between good and evil, okay? It doesn't even know the commandment, it has no idea. But then there comes a commandment where there comes a time when the commandment comes and sin revives and we die, and we're dead in trespasses and sins, okay? And I'm trying to explain this in a way that makes sense, I'm trying to break this down to you, I hope I'm not going too deep, but it's not that when there's no commandment there's no sin, but look what he says in verse 13. He says in the latter half of the verse that sin by the commandment might become what? Exceeding sinful. So what I'm trying to say is this, if we sin through ignorance, it's sin. A baby, that sin is not being imputed unto them. Because they're too young to understand right and wrong, they're too young to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's not holding them accountable at that very young age of being a newborn or a very small child. When they're too young to understand the language or even know these rules, God's not holding them accountable, but they can still commit sin, okay? But when the commandment comes, sin becomes exceeding sinful. So what I'm saying is this, when we sin through ignorance in our life, it's wrong, it's bad. There are going to be punishments and repercussions, we'll be beaten with few stripes. But nevertheless, we're being beaten. It's not that there's no beating, it's that it's a beating with few stripes. But when the commandment comes, sin becomes exceeding sinful. Do you see how it takes sin to a whole new level when we sin willfully? And so what the Bible's teaching us here in Romans is the same thing that he taught us in the Old Testament, same thing he taught us in Hebrews. That when we just have been taught the truth and God shows us clearly in the Bible, hey, this is what you need to be doing, and then we brazenly refuse to do it, that is worse. Let me give you some examples. Soul winning, preaching the gospel to every creature. When I was growing up, I'd hardly even heard of it. I'd hardly even had that emphasized unto me. But the Bible says, but to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth not, to him it is sin. And it was still sinful, it was still wrong for me not to be aggressively preaching the gospel to every creature. I should have been able to just read that in the Bible and figure that out. But you know, when I got into a soul winning church that emphasized and taught me that, well now I'm held even more accountable. Because now it's right there being shown me biblically, we're supposed to be doing this, we're commanded to be doing this, and if I just say, well no, I don't want to do that. See how I'm sinning willfully? There are a lot of things that you might not have known that they were even wrong. You know, you talk to some people today, you know, for example, you see girls at the mall wearing shorts. And I guarantee you that a lot of those girls, they've never even thought of, this is sin, this is wrong. There are Christian girls that go around in shorts. When you show them the verses in the Bible that say that your thigh is your nakedness, and you show them several scriptures that indicate that they need to have their thighs covered and that their thighs are naked, I've had a lot of people say, wow, I've never heard that before. I've never seen that before. Because does our society teach that your thighs are nakedness? I mean, does our society teach, hey, if you're showing any thigh, you're naked. That's nakedness according to the Bible. Our society doesn't teach that. Even in Christian school when I was growing up, they said make the shorts be fingertip length. That's not to the knee. I mean, fingertip length, unless you're an orangutan, I mean, that's a short pair of shorts. You know what I mean? Unless you're walking around like this, you know, unless you're a knuckle-dragging orangutan, that's some short shorts. But I'll tell you this, a lot of people, they did not know that. So if a girl who doesn't know that commandment, if a teenage girl is going out wearing a short skirt that exposes her thighs, is she sinning? But is that a sin through ignorance, if she doesn't know better, she's never been taught? Yeah, she's sinning through ignorance, right? But what happens when somebody shows her that verse? Exodus 28, 42 for example. And then she says, you know what, I'm going to keep wearing it because I like it. Because I like the way I look in it. Wouldn't that become from sinful to exceeding sinful? Wouldn't that go from, whoops, I messed up, I'm sorry, to, I despise the Word of God. I despise the commandment of God. I don't care what the Bible says. You know, you try to tell people that, you know, fornication's wrong. You know, our society, some people in our society literally do not think that fornication's wrong. We think as long as we love each other, we can go to bed together. But you know what, as soon as they find out that the Scripture says that that has to be kept within marriage and within marriage only, now that sin becomes exceeding sinful. Somebody might think, hey, it's okay to drink, no big deal, the Bible, you know, Jesus turned the water into wine. They don't know that the wine that he made was just grape juice, that he's not making Budweiser, you know, he's not making a Bartles and James wine cooler, okay? But once they realize and see those Scriptures, now it's time to change. And if they just continue in that and say, well, I see that it's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway, it's so much worse. Listen, do not defy God. And you know what I'm talking about. And I'm just throwing out a couple of examples out there, but you know that there are things that you've clearly seen in the Scripture that they're wrong, you need to stop doing them. And stuff that God has commanded you to do, you might not have known that the Bible commands to read the Bible every day. But once you see that in the Scripture, you know, you're accountable for that. And so we need to take it seriously when we know to do right and when we know something's wrong, we better be very careful that we're not willfully sinning against God. The example he brought up in Hebrews 10 is church. You know you're supposed to be in church. And if you just quit church and say, well, I'm just going to worship God in my own home, you know what? God's going to hold you seriously accountable for that. And by the way, you say, oh, why would you even preach that? Nobody in our church would ever do that. Okay, you want a list of all the people who've come to this church, who left our church and didn't go to church anywhere, and they claim, oh, we're doing church at home? And you say, oh, you're talking about so and so. No, no, no. I got a list. I'm not talking about so and so, because guess what? I got a list of people for you like that who quit the church and don't go to church at all and they try to justify it and say, you know, oh, we're just doing it at home. You know what? You know better and God's not stupid. And God's not up in heaven saying, oh, they're sinning through ignorance. They actually think that their little Bible study with their family is a substitute for church and, you know, God bless them. You know, there are some people who think that that's a substitute for church, but let me tell you something. People who've been a member of Faithful Word are not in that category, because I've driven this in, and you are accountable for that, and God is commanding you to not forsake the assembly. And you say, whoa, we can never leave the church? Yeah, leave and go to a different church that's a Bible-believing church, then you're still assembling. But when you just go home and say, I'm going to sit at home and I'm going to listen to sermons online, or I'm going to have my husband preach unto me, that is a church. And you know it's not church, and I know it's not church, and God looks at that and says, do you despise me or what? I told you to go to church, now go to church! I told you what to do, and you're just brazenly, it's like you're just walking up to God and saying, no! I'm not going to do what you told me to do, I'm going to do it my way. I know what the Bible says about how I should dress, I'm not going to do it. I know I'm supposed to be faithful to my wife, I'm not going to do it. I know I'm not supposed to lust after a woman in my heart, or I've committed adultery with her in my heart, but you know what, I'm going to look at this magazine anyway. Because I like to look at these pictures. You know what? That's a willful sin against God when you're doing stuff that you know is wrong. When you know it's wrong, and you do it anyway, and it's premeditated. Even our legal system, doesn't it punish people worse when it's premeditated? That's what I'm talking about. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please just help us to love you and respect you in the way that we should, and not to defy you and despise your word, dear God. Help us not to despise your commandment. And I know that many people will probably say, I don't despise His commandment. But yet, when we sin willfully, you call that despising your word. Help us never to be guilty of that. Please God, cleanse us from secret faults. Help us not to sin through ignorance, but even more so, deliver us from presumptuous sins. We don't want to be guilty of the great transgression. Please just help us in this area.