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own will there's the will of the world there's the will of Satan that is out there and we need to be focused on getting our hearts and our desires set right with the Lord too that we are asking things that would be according to God's will and in association with his will so it says here in verse 15 and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him again it's a really awesome thing to think that hey I could just go to the Lord and ask him for something and pray to him and make my request and have confidence that he'll hear me and then answer me and if we ask according to his will it's basically like it's a done deal that he'll hear us okay and he'll answer in however it's appropriate that God wants to answer us but he'll hear you and he'll hear that request that comes in and when it says he hears he's going to respond right he's going to in kind give you the answer for the prayer that you're asking about that's according to his will so this is the context is asking him and getting things we desire and then we have verse 16 that says if any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death so in conjunction with this concept of asking God for things according to his will and having God hear us and give us an answer to our prayers now we're getting into a territory where you see someone maybe you see your brother in Christ you see someone sin a sin and you want to entreat the Lord for that person you want to ask God something for that person who's in that sin and he says okay well you see someone sin a sin not unto death and we'll get into that in just a minute but he says not unto death you can ask and he'll give him life for them that sin not unto death that God can hear that he'll show mercy and you know this is also a good news to hear this because it shows that praying for other people who might even be in sin can God will hear that and he says hey as long as it's not a sin unto death sure I'll listen I'll hear you and then he goes that verse continues on that last sentence says there is a sin unto death I do not say that he shall pray for it so guidelines what to pray for what not to pray for and he says here specifically okay pray for anything in God's will I'll hear it I'll answer you pray for something you see someone sin you want to pray for that you want to pray for them okay as long as it's not a sin unto death but if it's a sin unto death don't pray for that so now we're getting some ground rules here like there are some things we shouldn't be praying for and you know before I even get to you any further there's an attitude or a mindset in a lot of modern Christianity that is not biblical where that just kind of says that we should always basically like kind of be praying for everyone all the time no matter what like just praying for people's good just like across the board and just if you just pray for everyone's goodness it's just a good thing or whatever and that's not true now even even if you're going to disagree with my definition with my understanding of a sin unto death you have to at least say there's some things that you shouldn't be praying for right because it just says I do not say that he shall pray for it so we have to have some level of boundaries and guidelines and if you disagree with me then you have to come up with what is it that you shouldn't be praying for okay and if you're doing that I'll say okay good you're making some progress here you're not just saying to pray for everyone's good all the time for everything for blessings on everyone that makes no sense whatsoever but in a day when a lot of Christianity wants to just really be more merciful than God is one way of putting it or trying to be holier than God or better than God look you know that's out of bounds I'm all for mercy and forgiveness because I love it I mean we all benefit from that greatly but we still need to stay within the confines of God's word and you know just like the Bible said when King Joshua was rebuked for helping Ahab the king of Israel and he's like shouldest thou help the ungodly and bless those that hate the Lord he says well now there's a curse on you because you're just blessing people that hate God like we shouldn't be doing that now obviously there's verses like we should overcome evil with good amen and we should right pray for the brotherhood pray for you know there's lots of people to pray for in general according to scripture but you got to take the whole thing and say okay yeah in general we should be praying for people but you know what there's still some things that we shouldn't be so the Bible says there in verse 17 now all unrighteousness is sin amen right it's pretty simple all transgression of the law is sin anything that's unrighteous is sin anything that's not right anything that's wrong is a sin is what the Bible is saying here all unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death so there you go you could have someone in sin and it's not a sin unto death and you can pray for that and that's fine but if it's a sin unto death then you don't pray for that verse 18 we know that whosoever is born of God sin is not but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not now I want to just bring up the phraseology or when it says there's a sin unto death it is singular it says there's a sin unto death but the way that it's worded here it's not only referring to say like one sin so we covered on Wednesday in Jeremiah about Jeremiah chapter 6 about the unforgivable sin right that if you commit this sin if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost you don't have forgiveness in this world or in the world to come right there's just no no forgiveness there now does that count as a sin unto death I would say absolutely that's probably a ring or a shoe in to fit into that category you know someone's blasphemed the Holy Ghost don't pray for that and this is a really easy application just say like yeah that just makes perfect sense that person doesn't get forgiveness from God so why are you going to pray to God for that person for anything really simple really straight forward I think everyone can agree with that but when it says a sin unto death I don't think it's only referring to one particular sin and the reason why is because in verse 17 it says all unrighteous in sin and there is a sin not unto death so if there's only one sin that's unto death does that mean there's only one sin that's not unto death you see what I'm saying like it's a singular use for both of them just be like well then I guess there's only two types there's just two sins not even types of see I think it's talking about the type of right there's a type of sin that's unto death and there's a type of sin that's not unto death and it's classifying all sin into two groups the sin unto death a sin not unto death as opposed to there just being two sins that you could commit at all and one of them is unto death and one of them is not it doesn't make sense but you know we got to look at this and you compare it and that's why you compare it in the context say okay because people do get too focused on there is a sin well what is that sin what's the sin unto death right it's not just one sin it's any sin unto death and here's you know when we're looking at this and God knows our nature and God knows our hearts and and I think that we as people often times in general we do want to be really forgiving right and sometimes we can let things go to a fault which is kind of the situation we're in today as a society as a culture where we allow too many things to go unpunished we allow for really grievous sins to not be punished the way they ought to be punished our laws you know reflect that and even many people's hearts reflect that as well that they just you know we've opened up the door too much and it's actually a really really bad idea and a bad thing and we shouldn't be seeking a blessing or good upon someone that notice what it says here too in verse 16 here's one of the other rules if any man see his brother sin a sin it's not something you just hear about or whatever you just kind of know of like you see this person sin a sin that's unto death you may see someone sin a sin you probably see someone sin a sin every day just in general right you're going to see someone lose their cool lose their temper get out of line say things do things whatever that are just not appropriate that's not right against scripture you shouldn't be doing that right you may see that but the vast majority of sins that you see that people do it's not going to be something that God has put the death penalty on it's not a sin unto death right so when you see someone sin a sin it would be a good thing I would say to pray for that person still and even if they sin against you you know here it's not even saying that the transgressions against you particularly it just says you just see someone sin a sin right if I just see someone go out and do something that is a sin and I witness it and I see them do that I might just go to God and be like God you know God help that person maybe I see someone witness someone sin a sin and they get drunk and they're going to go home like God keep that person safe when they get home and keep other people safe please right I mean these are just just any random example you could you could think of you could ask God to pray for you know I want to pray for their safety God please just just help them to get home and they're involved in this sin and obviously we want them to stop that sin and God please help them to overcome that sin or whatever but that's fine when it's not a sin unto death those could all be good examples of a sin that is not unto death but when it's talking about sin unto death the only explanation I could give you for that is just well let's just look at the Bible and see what God says are sins unto death and if you would please just turn to Numbers 35 we're going to spend some time in God's law where he covers sins that are sins unto death and just to explain this a little bit further we're not going to get to Leviticus 20 until much later in the sermon but when we do look at Leviticus 20 it's important to understand there's Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 are very very very similar passages they say almost identical things the key difference between those two chapters is that Leviticus 18 is listing them all off as sins you're transgressing God's law by doing these things but then when you get to Leviticus 20 it's giving you the actual judgment it's giving you the punishment that God has put on each one of those sins and of course in Leviticus 20 the majority of the chapter has a punishment of the death penalty not all of the sins listed in Leviticus 20 are capital crimes they're not all worthy of death but most of them are and that's going to be a chapter we're going to find the majority of sins that are death penalty type sins okay and just to put it just so it's really clear in case it's not clear already I believe a sin unto death is something God has a death penalty on and a sin not unto death is any other sin that does not carry a punishment of the death penalty right so I think it's a real simple explanation I don't think it's too complicated or convoluted but as we dig into God's instruction on his law we can see well why is this even put in here why is it in 1 John why does he reference this as far as who we pray for because God needs his needs justice humankind needs justice we need justice in this world we need judgement and we shouldn't be always seeking for people to not have to face the consequences for their actions yeah on little things sure the smaller things we still need judgement we still need laws but it's it's more appropriate to seek the mercy on the smaller things but on the big things man you have to just let the law play out and have the penalties be put forward just for the good of everybody for the sake of humanity it just needs to happen and we got to make sure we don't get to a point where we have this bleeding heart that is just so wants to like do away with all punishments or something or you know people don't want any type of death penalty or things like that like look God is really clear about this subject the Bible is really clear and I'll say this I understand and I agree we don't have the perfect justice system but you know what there's not a perfect justice system in the world and I hear the arguments some people will say against the death penalty and that's not really the whole focus of this but I just want to cover this real quickly some people will say well hey look if one innocent person dies then we really can't we really shouldn't be having a death penalty and I hear that right and I sympathize and I agree we shouldn't have innocent people being put to death we should have a justice system that's going to prevent that every way possible but in the possibility that that might happen that's not a that's still not a reason to not enforce a death penalty when it's appropriate and God tells us when it's appropriate that's a good we don't have to guess about it we don't have to put in our own philosophy about it God tells us he says what is worthy of death and what's not kind of takes all the hard work out of it and he even tells us how to prosecute well not how to prosecute but how to determine if there's enough evidence to support that you have to have enough witnesses you have to you know you have to be diligent in position it's not just a witch hunt as it were it's not just a lynching it's not just a mob of people that rules it is based on facts and you have the facts put in front of you and someone commits a sin that is worthy of death then they ought to be put to death and we're not trying to find ways out of that that ought to go forward you're in numbers 35 look at verse number 30 the bible says whoso killeth any person the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die moreover verse 31 ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death but he shall be surely put to death the word satisfaction means there's no other payment there's nothing else that you can accept to satisfy the punishment of the murderer that god has deemed deserves the death penalty you can't substitute something else in its place if the guy's rich you can't have them give a whole bunch of money and build a school and build a memorial for the person he killed or anything like you can't take that you can't accept anything you can't accept a payout right of oh well I killed this person but now I'll just pay 20 million dollars to his family to his kids to whatever to try to make up for it god says no god says you know what he shall be surely put to death there's no question about it he says that's what you do there's no satisfaction for the life which is also part of the reason why I think the bible's saying well look a sin that's a sin unto death you don't pray for that because surely they need to be put to death and in the context of prayer is so that they would get out of it right like you're trying to pray for them to not have to face that punishment you say you don't you don't pray for that that's not something you pray for because they need to be put to death verse 32 and you shall take no satisfaction for him that has fled to the city of his refuge that he should come again to dwell in the land until the death of the high priest so you're saying like everything needs to happen so even the person that was guilty of manslaughter that needs to stay as a refugee somewhere else because you know again if you know what I'm talking about in the law someone who killed someone accidentally they can't come back around the family of that person because they're still going to be angry that their relative died so they need to stay in another place another city and the time limit they put on is the death of the high priest once he dies then they can go back it's kind of a reset to go back home but until then I mean it's look that illustrates it's a big deal when blood is shed life is valuable even if it's an accident there are some serious you know you gotta follow this and if you don't follow this you can be put to death rightfully so because losing life and shedding blood is a big deal verse 33 so ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are for blood it defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it God's law the only way that you can satisfy shed blood is shedding more blood someone's a murderer blood has to be shed and look you can say I don't like that you can say that doesn't make sense to me you can say whatever you want to say but anything that you say about that you'd be saying against God this is his book this is his law he's the one who made the rules he's the one who created the earth and the heavens and you and the breath that you breathe and you know he's in charge so whether you like it or not guess who's ruling and guess who gave his law I don't think it's a bad law I think it's great I think we should have a high priority and a high value on blood on shedding of blood and that it really really ought to be an extremely serious thing so serious that yeah you know I mean here's here's how we have to deal with it so serious that yeah no shedding of blood is good but if you're going to go that far and shed the blood then guess what your blood's going to be shed and I'll tell you what it is a deterrent it is a deterrent if someone's risking their own now look you you first of all you will always have bad people people who don't care you're gonna have rep you're gonna have people out there just in general they'll just do whatever and they don't care about any crime any any law any punishment of no regard for anything those people will always exist and the best thing to do with those people is to deal with them appropriately right away and don't let them back out on the streets and just continue to have their their tornado of destruction in people's lives because they don't care about anything and they're just so unruly that that nothing matters to them but for everyone else there's gonna be a little bit more forethought into it you're gonna have even if it's just ingrained I think even crimes of passion will have you'll have more there if if the society and the culture is real strict on say on this murder thing if you're gonna start losing control you still might show more restraint if you're thinking like well I might I might be put to death as a result of this it's really important to have that in the law of the land either way God said to do it he said don't pollute the land because the blood will pollute the land and the only way you're gonna cleanse it then is by making sure that the person who polluted the land their blood is shed you say what do you mean the land the land it's not the literal like earth and the dirt that he cares about he's talking about the land that you live in and that if you're polluting the land he's gonna come in and break judgement if it's not cleansed if it's not made right which again when we get to Leviticus 20 that's the reason why he cast out all of the heathen out of the land that when he brought the Israelites in when he brought Moses and the children of Israel into the land and they were told to destroy everyone destroy the old the young like everything to wipe them all out it's because God's judgement was coming on the land because the people of the land did abominably and there was blood shed and wickedness and all kinds of perversion and stuff going on there and God was just like okay we just need to this just needs to be cleansed this needs to be dealt with judgement is coming and when things get that bad and out of control that's how God judges and that's what he did so when you understand the seriousness of this you go okay yeah I guess if you see a brother sin a sin that's unto death don't pray for that go if you would to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 13 Deuteronomy 13 we'll get some more teaching on this subject about a sin unto death these are sins unto death and how we ought to view them and make sure we don't have too soft of a heart towards the sins unto death and also maybe even just to challenge your own love of God's word and loyalty to the Lord in your own life we're going to read it here in Deuteronomy chapter 13 even if things even if your own family members are guilty of sins unto death what do you do about that? well if you love God we'll see what God says you do about that do you cover up and you hide for them because they're your family now that's that's what the world will tell you to do certainly that's what your flesh is going to tell you to do maybe but let's read what God's law says look at verse number 1 the Bible says if there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and give it thee a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying let us go after other gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so it's telling you and there's other passages that talk about identifying prophets versus false prophets and you know if a prophet says something and it doesn't come to pass well clearly that's not of God alright that's clearly a false prophet but in this situation you're saying you know what if you've got a prophet and he's telling you stuff and it does come to pass so it's like he's saying stuff it's happening before you go thinking like wow this guy is a prophet of God if he's telling you to go worship other gods God's just saying I don't care what he does I don't care what lying signs and wonders that he shows you it doesn't matter you don't follow him because what's happening is you're just being tested so and he tells you oh man that's confusing no it's not because he tells you what to do and he tells you if they're saying this they're false that's how you know if they're saying we need to go worship some other god I don't care what they show you because what's going to happen in the end times there's going to be an antichrist that comes into power who's going to have many lying signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible he'd deceive the very elect oh but God already told us yeah don't follow that guy because he's going to tell you to worship the god of forces he's going to tell you to worship some other god himself he'll claim himself to be god let's keep reading here verse number four you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and cleave unto him and that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your god which brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee now that's a big deal you've got this false prophet coming in and trying to turn people away from the Lord according to the Bible that's a death sentence and understandably so if you've got people turning people away from the only possibility of salvation that they have and turning them to eternal damnation God says yeah those guys they deserve the death penalty that's quiet it's true that's what the word of God says do you think we should live in a theocracy yeah actually I do if it means that God is recognized as being in charge the God of the Bible and we're going to institute his laws of the land yeah I'm good with that I think that's why he gave us his laws so that we could know how to govern ourselves I think it's pretty arrogant to think that we could do a better job than what God instructed on how to form and have and run civil government let's keep reading there's one example of someone that deserves the death penalty verse 6 now it gets more personal if thy brother the son of thy mother or thy son or thy daughter or the wife of thy bosom or thy friend which is as thine own soul entice thee secretly saying let us go and serve other gods which thou hast not known thou nor thy fathers namely of the gods of the people which are round about you nigh unto thee or far off from thee from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth thou shalt not consent unto him nor hearken him oh someone I don't care if it's your wife I don't care if it's your son your daughter your best friend someone that's just the closest person in the world to you if they come to you secretly and they're trying to get you to say hey we should worship these other gods the gods of the of Islam the gods of Buddha the gods of the Hindus man that's where we're really they're going to hear us they're going to answer us they're going to provide us whatever right like someone comes to you with that nonsense according to the Bible first it says don't consent unto him and don't hearken don't listen to him neither shall thine eye pity him don't have pity on that person and this might be the hardest part for our flesh for someone that's close to you is to not pity that person because someone that you really love you don't want to see bad things happen to them right you don't you don't you'd be thinking like man don't say this to me but if they're coming and trying to persuade you to do this god's law says look that's really really really bad to draw you away from the lord to draw you away from the savior thine eye shall neither shall thine eye pity him neither shalt thou spare neither shalt thou conceal him don't hide him don't try to cover it up but thou shalt surely kill him thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterwards the hand of all the people that's hard it's hard it's hard for human beings I think that's hard but you know what makes it less hard? when you love god a lot more than you love everyone else when god's got the number one spot in your life and in your heart and when we recognize and understand how big of a deal it really is leading people away with the lord now in 1 John 5 it says if you see your brother sin is sin right? Deuteronomy 13 what does it say? that if they come to you I mean you are actively involved in knowing this person's sin it's not hearsay so you don't hide him you don't pray for him this is what is the just judgment according to scripture now look we're talking about killing people but I'm not talking about you killing anybody because we're looking at god's law as being the law of the land which it's not okay? we're not operating under this law this authority has been given to our human government to allow and have these laws on the book we don't have this as our government so your responsibility is not to kill someone who tries to lead you away from jesus okay? are we clear on that? good these days you know I know you don't need me to say that but people love to try to make a big issue out of the preaching online and you know if you don't say these things you'll be like oh you're the one you're responsible because someone killed someone someone who's off the rocker just completely goes nuts in psycho and starts killing a bunch of people like okay look but what do we see here? look now that being said this was god's law this is absolutely the law and this was not here as just a guideline of like well I just really want you to understand how bad it is it is there to understand how bad it is but this was the law this is what god expected you to do and this is what you should this would have been the right thing to do according to god's law this is the right thing okay? and this isn't a joke this isn't a well I'm saying this but I don't really mean it no of course of course this is what's meant so what we could do is look at this and take this and take this to heart and take this seriously and be like well look if this is what god would have be done then what does that mean for us and our interactions with people who you know would sin a sin unto death this this is consistent with what we see in 1st John chapter 5 don't conceal them don't spare don't pity understand no that's a really really big deal that's a serious thing verse 10 thou shalt stone him with stones that he die because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the lord thy god look god is our life god is our all god is our everything god lights the path for us god is our savior god is the one you know god provides all good for us and when when you see god as being that is being you know as he should be our everything that puts it into perspective of hey this of what is this person trying to do what are they really trying to take you away from that and it's serious and what happens when a people go after other gods how does god deal with that well the lord is a jealous god the lord is a consuming fire the lord you know the first two commandments are not to have any other gods before him and not to make any idols to worship either as god you know that's who god is that is verse 11 look at verse 11 and all israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you all it takes is for one person to do this and then and then have the actual result like like carried out the sentence and then it would be like whoa yeah I'm in there hey just just like there's places today that if you're caught evangelizing as a christian they're going to kill you not many people going into those places is there I mean it's not it's effective to have that as a law in place that was god's law sounds like you're saying yep I'm saying what this says political theory might disagree with me I don't care box news is definitely going to disagree with me but you know if you're disagreeing with me what am I saying but I'm reading the Bible here did I just come up with this crazy stuff all on my own or am I just reading Deuteronomy chapter 13 because I think I'm just reading the Bible not trying to add to it I'm also not trying to take anything away from it says what it says it's right here we go I want my heart to be right with the Lord and I want to know how I should at least think about and feel about these things even if it's not the law of the land and how what we would be practicing today I want to at least know hey this is this if I have this in my heart you know if this is what is how god puts it ok that's what I need to know verse 12 if thou shalt hearsay in one of thy cities which the Lord thy God hath given thee dwell there saying certain men the children of Belial are gone out from among you and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their cities saying let us go and serve other gods which ye have not known then shalt thou inquire and make search and ask diligently which this happens these types of phrases when it's talking about the death penalty come up a lot in scripture ask diligently make search find out the truth of the matter we don't go and just run off based on rumors right people are saying this stuff ok people are saying this stuff there's these cities going after strange gods hold on a second let's just see what's going on here let's make diligent search and find out is this really happening or what we're hearing is true and behold if it be truth in the things certain that such abomination is wrought among you thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword destroying it utterly and all that is therein and the cattle thereof with the edge of the sword and thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof and shalt burn with fire the city and all the spoil thereof every wit for the Lord thy God and it shall be in heap forever it shall not be built again that's reprobating a city city that's rejected God is saying ok well we're not even going to take any of your stuff your money can die with you and it all gets burned up and destroyed and no one even go back and rebuild that city you just leave that waste as a reminder as to what happens when people just wholly completely go after other gods instead of the Lord and that's a big that's a serious representation of what happens for the soul that goes after other gods and not after the Lord too they're going to end up in a burning fiery furnace now you know we read there in Deuteronomy 13 about not concealing and everything with your family members and you know someone might say well what about in Proverbs and you can turn if you would to Leviticus 20 what about in Proverbs Proverbs 11 13 says a tale bearer reveal a secret but he that is of a faithful spirit can seal it the matter right well yeah if you know someone's secrets you don't tell the secrets but knowing someone's secrets and seeing someone commit a sin that's a capital crime are kind of two different things right like I honestly don't know that I can say that I've witnessed anybody I mean I have to really think about it because I have to think about all the laws and the commands like like commit a sin that would be unto death like actually witness it I've heard about it I've heard about adultery or something but like you you know someone that just you've seen it or you know like been a witness to it like I don't know I mean I've heard a lot of things and people have told me in confidence but seeing someone sin a sin unto death is not an everyday occurrence so Proverbs 11 doesn't apply to that and look the big key is there's the really big deals and then there's a lot of little things right we ought not to be narcs in general right you're not this tattle tale society where everyone's telling on everyone else and did you know this person did this and you know that person did that and you know this and this and this and this and this and that you're like we don't need to be doing that okay we do show the grace on all the little stuff we should be saying okay yeah you know maybe that's not right and everything else but like show the grace but there are lines that need to be drawn like 1 Corinthians 5 right there's a line that's drawn there about who's allowed in the church and who do we fellowship with right there's people that are guilty of certain sins now those aren't all sins unto death right talking about drunkenness and covetousness and things like that where you say hey you know we're gonna break fellowship cause this has risen to a level of a sin that I can't really be hanging out with you anymore not a sin unto death but it's still you know it's bad enough to where we're saying okay we're gonna we have to this has to be made known right but all the rest of the stuff that's not as big of a deal don't need to be going around and having a making sure everybody always knows about every sin that everyone commits there's just a good balance having that faithful spirit that's able to conceal the matter over the small stuff but recognizing and God tells us the Bible tells us when are the big things when should people know about these things versus when should they not yeah if you see someone murder someone else that's a good time to actually like report that right and now look I say this you know I say this kind of jokingly cause it's it should just be a joke because anything else is absurd but you've seen it in churches where people who are guilty of being predators conceal the matter instead of dealing with it appropriately now that I mean that burns me up and that should burn anybody up who's a God loving Christian that can say no we're not we can just sweep this stuff under the rug now if there's some if someone says something you know a preacher says something and they're wrong and they make some mistake and they do something that's just dumb or even you know like someone gets caught maybe you know bad sins like stealing or something but it still doesn't need to just be broadcast and just made public and everything else you can still deal with some of those things internally right it doesn't have to just be some big stain but when you rise to the level of some real serious sins you don't cover that up you deal with it you get rid of it you just go ahead and make it known not that you want to broadcast but at the same time we're not covering anything up with that type of stuff you get the authorities involved you get the justice involved and you pray that God will deal with it if our government isn't going to deal with it pray that God deals with it then that's the prayer that you should have of someone that sends a sin unto death especially in that type of a case you're not praying for their good if someone recently just told me about a situation in which someone was there's like a pedophile getting arrested yeah we're not going to pray that that person gets let free so they can go out and defile more people if I'm going to pray anything it's going to be that God deals with that person because they've already been arrested in the past and nothing really happens and there's no real justice and then this is what you get you get people who are more bold to commit crime instead of going oh wow maybe I should actually stop before I do this and think is this worth my life and there will always be reprobates that think it's worth their life and they think they can get away with it and they're going to do it anyways but all the more reason still to have a solid justice system that can put people to death appropriately so that they don't continue to abuse others Proverbs 25 2 says this it says it is the glory of God to conceal a thing God gets credit and glory for being able to look past things and be able to conceal you know like our transgressions so now like every single one of your sins is just on display for everyone to know and to see like hey thank God for that right that every single infraction that you've ever done isn't just like on a big flashing board just be like okay everyone here you go let's see everything that you've ever done that's a sin God can conceal those things you know it's a glory to him thank God for that but it says but the honor of kings is to search out a matter God can conceal a matter and that's his glory but you know what a king's job is to be a king's job is to seek it out and to make sure that things are dealt with appropriately and that justice is served and it's the same concept that we're reading about here in God's law like look when people commit a sin unto death you gotta seek out that you gotta search out that matter and make sure it's dealt with Leviticus chapter 20 we're gonna read through most of this but I'm not gonna spend too much time on it but we're gonna close on this passage look at verse number 1 the Bible says excuse me and the Lord spake unto Moses saying again thou shalt say to the children of Israel whosoever he be of the children of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel that giveth any of his seed unto Molech he shall surely be put to death the people of the land shall stone him with stones and I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people because he hath given of his seed unto Molech to defile my sanctuary and to profane my holy name and if the people of the land do anyways hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not then I will set my face against that man and against his family and will cut him off and all that go a whoring after him to commit whoredom with Molech from among their people God says you don't turn the blind eye to the people who are sacrificing their children and making them pass through the fire to Molech okay you don't just look the other way and pretend like you don't see that happening because then I'm gonna go after you it's a serious sin you can't just overlook that this needs to be dealt with and the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people and you know honestly having the heart about these things is important because how we deal with for example wizards in pop culture in the world if God says that these people are so bad that they deserve to be put to death how should we be treating that in our lives or in our kids lives and just like is it just not that big of a deal and who cares and oh so what so what it's just a wizard so what well so what Leviticus 26 says something a little bit different than just so what God's not just saying so what he's actually saying hold on a second no this is actually a big deal and if people do this they deserve to be put to death okay shedding of blood this isn't a fine this isn't a smaller infraction he's saying you got witches and wizards and familiar spirits and people going whoring after them death penalty I'll leave you to make the application of that because this is I mean we we have to have our own lines in the sand we're gonna say yeah I am not going to promote something that's so abominable and wicked that God says that you commit this crime you deserve to be put to death and I'm not gonna make light of those things because when you make light of them that's when people want to scale back the punishment and scale back the crime and then you just end up having a really permissive a too permissive society God tells us what to be permissive in and God tells us what not to be permissive in and you know what when it comes to a capital crime there's no room there's no wiggle room for being permissive and just well let's just let this one slide no we don't sanctify yourselves therefore and be holy for I am the Lord your God verse 8 and you shall keep my statutes and do them I am the Lord would sanctify you for everyone that curseth his father his mother shall be surely put to death he hath cursed his father his mother his blood shall be upon him I'm gonna keep reading I I want to expound on all these and preach on all these I've done it in the past people get a bad idea a false idea of what it means for someone cursing their father and their mother I'm not gonna go in it listen to brother Carter's sermon he did a good job he's actually preached on this subject today believe it or not I was listening to on the way in this morning so it's funny how they overlap so he goes more in depth on this I'll point you to his sermon verse number 10 and the man that commit adultery with another man's wife even he that commit adultery with his neighbor's wife the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death it's that serious and again today is it really that serious nope no one no one seems to care or think so is it as serious a God you better believe it is marriage is supposed to be holy supposed to be reflective of the relationship between Christ and the church like Christ says I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee that's how it should be in a marriage too and keeping you only unto them so long as you both shall live that's part of the marriage it's a significant thing to break there God says it's worthy of death verse 11 and the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness both of them shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them and on and on and you know it gets into lying with the beast it gets into lying with close relations and all these other things and just all this perversion it's all just it's all just perversion here in the next few verses that it's kind of mind blowing that people even do these things and have done these things but it's so bad that God just says look these things are all just super wicked and super bad and super abominable and the only solution is the death penalty um jump down to verse 22 the Bible says ye shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my judgments and do them that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein spew you not out so if you don't want the land to spew you out he says all these things I'm giving you about like putting people to death you need to enforce that you need to make sure that's the law you need to make sure these things are illegal you need to make sure that when people commit these things that's the punishment for them and you shall not walk in the manners of the nation which I cast out before you for they committed all these things and therefore I abhorred them the previous nation I hated them because they did all these things maybe we should think and go oh well if God hated that nation enough to completely annihilate them and wipe them out totally and pronounce utter destruction against them maybe we should look at this and just make sure we got that line that just says I am not going to have a bleeding heart for any of these things at all no matter what the crazy world's doing around me this is not some an area where I'm going to let up on and say well yeah you know no there's no room for that and look it doesn't mean that there's no room to receive forgiveness from God there is room to receive forgiveness from God Christ died for murderers Christ died for adulterers Christ died for people that commit sins worthy of death we want them to be saved and go to heaven right but we don't want the laws to become of no effect in our land let God deal with the forgiveness of their soul but on earth we need the judgment because if you just let all this stuff go then the sin and equity is going to abound more and more and more to get out of control it just does and we want to have God's blessing and not his cursing and we don't want God to hate us we want God to love us profound preaching tonight I know I don't want God to hate me okay well then maybe we should pay attention to what he said maybe we should pay attention to what happened in the past verse 24 but I have said unto you ye shall inherit their land and I will give it unto you to possess it a land that floweth with milk and honey I am the Lord your God which have separated you from other people ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean and between unclean fowls and clean and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast or by fowl or by any manner of living thing that creepeth upon the ground which I have separated from you as unclean and ye shall be holy unto me for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine a man also or a woman that the familiar spirit or that is a wizard shall surely be put to death they shall stone them with stones their blood shall be upon them isn't that interesting we already write about the wizard and there they are again listed twice hmm wonder why I'll close on this thought Ecclesiastes 8.11 the Bible says this because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Ecclesiastes 8.11 you make note of that you want to look it up later because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily that's swift justice right people commit break a law they commit a crime you need to have that dealt with you can't have this going on for years and years and decades and people forget about the crime even happening before you bring a sentence against someone who's broken the law and done one of these heinous crimes hey when it's not executed speedily the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil do they think they're going to just get away with it people are a lot more likely to just do more wicked things when the justice system isn't really functioning and it's just not executed speedily you know we're supposed to be guaranteed the right to a speedy trial nothing speedy anymore I don't know I hope obviously we went pretty heavy on God's law the whole point was to illustrate how serious God is about these sins that he says are capital crimes these are not just sins but they're sins unto death and you know in the Bible they're sins that have no punishment there was nothing in God's law by the way of someone that someone would have to pay or give or do for a person that gets drunk but is drunkenness a sin? sure it is but that wasn't a crime sins that we saw in Leviticus 20 and elsewhere that carry a death sentence these are sins unto death they're sins yes but they're sins unto death you don't just say oh it's a sin so we're all sinners so it's all the same no it's not all the same it's not all the same being a sinner damns you to hell but not all sin is equal which by the way when people say that here is just 1 John chapter 5 is another good place for the person wants to tell you all sin is equal to show them no it's not because if it were then what in the world does this mean to not pray for someone who sins a sin unto death if it's all the same then what do you mean that makes no sense it's not all equal there are sins unto death and look let's pray for people let's pray that you know God will bless them let's pray for their good let's pray for our brethren right but if you see a brother commit a sin unto death don't pray for that just don't pray for that and hopefully you never see your brother sin a sin unto death lord that's the case right like I said I'm trying to tax my brain I've seen a lot of weird things in my life I don't think I've seen that I don't want to and if I did I'd push it out of my brain because I don't want to think about that but anyhow let's borrow that word of prayer dear lord we love you thank you so much for teaching us the truth and for especially areas like this God our hearts may not be leading us correct and we need to use the guidance from your word on how we ought to be viewing and feeling about specific sins and crimes lord and that we would have the proper righteous indignation and hatred of evil that while we are sinners lord we can still maintain the proper balance of hating, evil, wickedness, abomination and really understanding how bad it is by getting wisdom from your word and balancing that with the long suffering and the mercy and the graciousness that you give us and that we ought to be providing for others as well dear lord help us to know the lines to honor where you have drawn the boundaries and God just thank you for providing truth to us and giving us this information in Jesus name we pray amen alright we are going to sing one more song before we are dismissed Will can you please lead us turn to song number 183 There is a name I love to hear I love to see His word It sounds like music in my ear The sweetest name on earth Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Because He first loved me It tells me of the Savior's love Time to set me free It tells me of His precious blood Sinners perfectly Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Because He first loved me It tells me my Father is stored for every day and though I tread a darksome pattern the sun will shine all the way Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Because He first loved me It tells of one whose loving heart can fill my deepest love through many sorrow pairs of heart and none can bear below Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love Jesus Oh how I love