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

All right so this morning I'm gonna be starting off with a series on human government and I'm gonna be going through some various all biblical you know everything what the Bible says about how we ought to run things here on earth because you know the Bible gives us the answers to everything that we need to know the Bible give us instruction and wisdom on how we ought to live how we ought to walk how we ought to do things and if you think about it you know where else would you want to turn to if you think about just human government right how are we governed how is it that what type of laws should we have in place this all fundamentally goes to what's right and what's wrong and what's so bad it needs to be punished you know can you think of anything else that would not you know that that would fall under God's realm and and and God supervision and God's instruction more than just laws I mean you've got the whole test the Old Testament is known as like the law you know I mean definitely the first five books of the Bible the books of Moses are known as the law of God but really when you're thinking about the entire Old Testament you're referring to you know the time of the law and that is the majority of the Bible and what's what's fascinating to me is how many modern-day Christians just completely are ignorant of you know the concept of going to God's Word to determine what our laws should be and how we ought to run our you know the government and the in the you know the place that we live in see people have been brainwashed into thinking that oh no you know they use a separation of church and state saying that you know well you can't tell you know the Bible should have nothing to do with government at all and you should have no you know and and this is just completely separate they need to be completely different no the the purpose of the separation of the church and state was to not force a religion on everybody right not to have a state religion that just forces everyone to believe a certain way that was the concept here and they abuse what that even is about to try to deceive Christians into thinking that oh well the Bible should have no place in government well I beg to differ God's Word should have everything to do with our government with with determining morality with determining judgment and justice and what's right and what's wrong I mean isn't God known as the ultimate judge isn't God the one that determines what's right and wrong well you know what that same God has given us an outline and guidelines on how government human government ought to be run he's given us the instruction and people want to make a cop-out and say oh that was just for Israel that was just for the oh it's easy to say oh that was just for them oh that was just for Israel that was just for that time look the truths and the justice stands today as much as it did for Israel now obviously there are a few areas of the law that have changed and I'm not gonna spend this entire sermon it's a whole nother sermon on our subject of determining what has changed in God's law but I'll tell you what's not changed the moral the morality of like stealing killing rape you know these types of things nothing like that has changed the only things that have changed is in the service to God the things that pertain to the priesthood of Aaron which is offering of animals and sacrifices and meats and drinks and carnal ordinances those types of things have changed no doubt about it because the first thing that the people who hate God's law and hate God's Word are gonna do is say what about eating shellfish what about you know we're in mixed fabric or what you know just stupidity anyone who has any knowledge of the Bible knows that there have been changes made to the law and observance of Holy Days and things like that there are things that are very specific and they are spelled out in the New Testament very clearly that they are changed that there is a difference now and none of them have to do with what we would Institute in a government anyways none of those changes would be enforced today so you know when people try to say oh that was just for them look the priesthood being changed there's made of necessity a change of the law also because when Jesus Christ our high priest came and sacrificed himself and died on the cross and rose again from the dead that changed it's a pretty significant event too by the way to have a change it's not some little thing or some light thing that was like the whole purpose of even you know if you look at the thing about just our existence is what you know Jesus Christ is the focal point in the center of everything that we think about we focus on now if you know the people who want to say oh well that was just for Israel the Bible says in Romans chapter 9 you know for they are not all Israel which are of Israel and that because we are children of the promise because we have faith like faithful Abraham we are children of Abraham we are children of the promise we are spiritually considered Israel in God's eyes so what God gave to his people well we are the people of God by faith so what he's given to them he's given to us it's the same truth it's the same wisdom and this is what we you know as a Bible any Bible believe in Christian right because you got to determine what sort of and when we live in this life you know you do have an impact on how things can be run in government you do have an impact on who you vote for and what you believe and you know and all this stuff and people literally are involved in government and government practices and some people take government jobs and you have influence in these areas well as a Bible Christian you should know what the Bible teaches about these things so you can do what's right out in the world and apply these biblical principles to what's going on in our world and how we're governed and what type of laws we have and what type of laws we should have because they're always coming up for votes and trying to steal all this stuff if you want to know now regardless of your stand on all that and voting and everything else I don't care but you at least need to know what the Bible teaches about these things because there's always going to be people trying to change the laws and change the government change what we have in place and it's never for the better and we need to fight off against that and we're gonna see here we started in Romans chapter 13 and as we get into this just to give you an idea of where we're going I'm gonna start off just with the real basics of what God teaches of just kind of the establishment of a human government and not I want to try not to get too deep into any particular crimes because we're gonna get into very things that should be crimes and how they should be punished in the coming weeks Romans 13 though verse number one the Bible reads let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God now we're starting with this because it's very clear and delineating that any power that's a legitimate power comes from God right anything that we're gonna that we're supposed to recognize as having power or having authority is going to come from God the powers that be ordained of God now that doesn't mean if someone is exerting unrighteous power over someone else that all of that comes from God no there are powers that God is given that God is ordained and those are the ones that we recognize I don't recognize the power that someone usurps to try to put me in subjection and say oh well that's God ordained no no God has ordained powers and we can see what they are we can read them in the Bible and it's not subject to change it is what it is so the powers that be ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation so this is saying if you resist the powers that God has ordained if you are not wanting to accept how God has ordained power to exist in this world then you receive damnation but this is not to say to put it in light of in a very easy way to understand this is not just saying that any political leader in the world just automatically well God's given them the authority and they could just do whatever they want okay I mean if you think about living in Germany in 1930s 1940s right under Hitler's regime and let's say you were a bible-believing Christian but you were someone that that he didn't deem was fit you know to be in society for whatever reason right now I want to get into all the details of everything else with that but if you just think about this so and regardless of how many people were killed it was not righteous okay and you could you could put any dictator you want in there use Hitler you Stalin use whoever you want that was a brutal mass-murdering psychopath okay that doesn't mean that that was ordained by God well you just need to get in the rail car that you just need to get off and go to concentration camps you just need to obey because otherwise you're resisting God that's not what the Bible is teaching us right here well see there's that God has ordained certain powers and we're gonna see because as we continue in context we're gonna see what those powers are and and who the people are and what they're supposed to be doing and what the exact powers are that God has ordained it's not just for man to just have unlimited control over other people God didn't ordain that that power didn't come from God people usurp power and try to take more power than what is righteously given to them that doesn't mean it's right and that doesn't mean it's from God and we need to be able to recognize and distinguish between the two because that's gonna help you determine what you need to obey and what you don't need to obey because you don't need to obey everything that people tell you to do by a perceived power we need to make sure that we're right with God in God's power in in what he has ordained so let's keep reading here to get a better idea of what this is verse number three for rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil and we could stop right here and he's saying rulers the people who God has ordained to be rulers and we're gonna get into that as well and Deuteronomy there's a there's a whole bunch of information here on God ordaining rulers to be set up to help rule and govern a group of people because it's necessary in society to have rulers and God has ordained there to be rulers this is why I'm not an anarchist because an anarchist believes in no rulers that nobody can rule and and you know there's a lot of things that they believe that that line up right as far as liberty and freedom go but you know what they're still fools and they're despising the laws that the powers that be that God is ordained for there to be rulers there needs to be rulers now how you define them is also very important so I said it's not just like oh well Adolf Hitler is just you know a ruler so he's God ordained so you can't resist him that that's ridiculous and it's nonsense but the Bible according to power that God has given for rulers is not to be a terror to good works what does that mean that you shouldn't have anything that's going to prevent you from doing good works how about for one doing the good work of evangelizing and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ God is not ordained there for rulers to have the power to prevent you and stop you and be a terror unto those good works how about the the rule or law that would be against spanking your children disciplining your children God has not given them authority to do those things you know what in those areas those are two examples among many if our government institutes laws that say you can't go door-to-door and you can't preach the gospel and you know you might offend somebody and that might be hate speech or whatever you can't preach the Word of God you can't discipline your child the wheel you can't use a rod you can't use a belt you can't use these things to punish your children you know what I'm gonna do I'm saying that God didn't give you that power nuts to you I'm gonna listen to God I'm gonna listen in the Bible and you don't have that authority over me because God is not ordained that power God is not ordained that authority but he has ordained there to be rulers it's not just well let's just throw all of it out together no because the rules are not terror to the good works but to the evil so they ought to be there to terrorize people who would do evil things bad things hurting other people absolutely it's important to have the rulers for that purpose for the purpose of being able to execute justice and judgment on those who deserve it that is the purpose it's not to micromanage your life it's not to tell you everything that you can and can't do and tell you even what's right and wrong God's already told us what's right and wrong the rules are just here to enforce God's laws is what God has ordained for them to be here for let's keep reading here says wilt thou then not be afraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same with the same of the rulers see the rulers should be righteous and good and praise people who are doing righteous and doing good and condemning those that do evil verse 4 for he is the minister of God to thee for good so the Bible saying that the rulers that then the power under the power of God is ordained they're God's minister they're a servant of God that's who that's who God is ordained as people to be ministers of his for good for the purpose of good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain and there's so many things that I need to get into I want to try to make sure I keep everything logical and established here but one of the things we have to get into at least a little bit while we cover this is like the death penalty and we see right off the bat here when the Bible says he beareth not the sword in vain you know what the swords used for it's used for killing it's not used for anything it's not used to put to poke people into prison it's not used to slap people on the wrist right you don't need a sword for that you could use a rod the sword is used for killing and this is New Testament okay this isn't something that went away in the Old Testament say oh I'm against all forms of capital punishment you're not right not biblically speaking you can be against whatever you're against but you know what the Bible doesn't teach that the Bible teaches in capital punishment for capital crimes and that the minister of God the ruler if you're doing evil you ought to be afraid because God has given them the power to take away life now generally speaking without this power being given nobody has the right or the power to take someone else's life you know as human beings we don't have that power unless you're a minister of God that's been ordained with this power in order to execute judgment and justice in the prescribed way in the proper manner under the right circumstances yes God has given you the ability to do that that even though you may be responsible then for take a ruler here bearing the sword for taking the life of another person it's not in conflict with God's law because God has ordained for that power to exist in order to execute the judgment on people I mean this makes sense it just it just boggles my mind how people can be so dumb and then you know what I don't necessarily think they're that dumb I just think they have such a hatred for God's Word that they're just blinded that they can't see the the illogical conclusions they come to but say well God's Word says that you know you can't kill somebody and if you're if someone's put to death and someone has to kill him that's not what the Bible's talking about when it says not to kill I mean it's talking about in general just you know murder is what it's literally talking about so I'm murder someone taking over his life but executing justice that God has ordained that God has said no this is a punishment this is what you're supposed to do you're not breaking God's law by keeping God's law if that makes sense right there's no there's no contradiction in God's Word so I don't want to spend more time let's keep reading I think I think you guys all get that point very clearly verse number four if I do that which is evil be afraid for he bears not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God there's a word the phrase again minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that do with evil and doing evil is when you're doing harm to someone else I mean you are injury and hurting being injurious to somebody else whether it be taking away their life or do you know doing other things that cause harm verse five wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake because it's right we need to be subject unto these powers that God has given for the ruler to be able to execute justice when it's when it's right not only because we're afraid and we ought to be afraid of God and we ought to be afraid of him that bears the sword not in vain but also just for our own conscience sake because it's right for for this cause verse six for for this cause payee tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing and this is where you get you know tribute would be like taxes where you're paying for the ruler to hold this job because he's a minister of God and this is a just reason an appropriate reason for taxation now if we were to follow God's plan for government this would be almost nothing compared to what we have today I mean this is such a small amount to pay for I mean think about the the cost distributed of having a ruler here and there and so you know even if we have a we're getting this rulers of tens rulers of fifties rulers of hundreds rulers of thousands right it's still such a small amount when you consider you know the cost involved with that compared to how much taxes we have to pay now for all these organizations and bureaus and in all this other nonsense you would think like we have no taxes to pay if we followed God's system so yes there is an appropriate use to be able to pay tribute where God has commanded like you know what this is why you pay tribute it's so that these people can be a minister to God so that they can perform this job function completely someone has to pay for it and that they're doing a public service that is ordained by God by the power of God to do that they are not expected just to do that on their own dime just as much as the minister of God in the church is supposed to be cared for and provided for by the church it's the same concept you're doing a job that's that's you know it's supposed to be 100% focus on service and being in the interest of other people and you're serving everyone else it's it makes sense that you'd be cared for by those people same concept verse 7 render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor so we ought to recognize these things and and do it appropriately now there's a point to be made here and say well God is ordained these certain powers and there are people who are usurping authority right there are those there are those elements in government that are just stealing from you and taking things that are not ordained of God that they have no business and no godly right to take from you and to force you to pay things that's right now I believe you don't have to participate now you don't have to you know pay what God is not authorized for people to be able to take from you I believe that however I don't think it's expedient to always fight those fights and to not pay and we have the example of Jesus Christ with Peter when the the the tax man approached Peter and said hey doth not your master pay tribute and Peter goes yeah right because well as you say the tax man you want to fight him he said of course of course we pay our taxes right and then when he came to Jesus Jesus you know stopped him was like hey Peter you know of whom do you know basically who does the government take taxes from from foreigners strangers or from their own people and he's like well they take the taxes from the strangers from foreigners he's like that are the children free so he was explaining to him that even in that you know that tax man wasn't right to go and try to demand tribute to them because they weren't even tax liable but Jesus said nevertheless lest we offend them here you know go out and catch a fish and you're gonna find the money in the fish's mouth and you know just take that and just pay him like it's better just to say here take the stupid money be gone we're not gonna fight this fight we're not gonna cause a big stink over that and you know possibly get thrown in jail so there's there's wise ways of dealing with things versus just what's right and what's wrong okay so those you know not to confuse the two we definitely are not bound to have to you know submit ourselves to authorities that are not given by God and that's that's that is what the Bible teaches and says and you can take that as you will but there's definitely times and I'm gonna get into this if not this morning another time and being wise with with who you choose to submit to and what you choose to obey for just the sake of not having to deal with all the rest of the consequences and you know everyone's gonna have their own line in the sand that you're gonna draw how much are you gonna submit versus what are you not going to submit to right like I'm not gonna submit for example I'm not gonna submit to this forced vaccinations and someone come into my house and try and inject my kids with poison not gonna happen okay now there's other things I may submit to but that's gonna be one where I've drawn a line say you know because we first of all we don't have to and there's many other things you don't have to submit to you have to submit to someone like if you live in New York telling you you can't drink this much you know coca-cola or you can't sell coca-cola in this size cup God didn't give you the right to tell me what type of cup I can serve a soft drink in like you have no business telling me what that is so but here's the thing you may decide just to go along with it anyways because whatever you don't have time to deal with every little thing but you would be right at least in God you wouldn't be wrong to just disobey and be like we're not doing that because God hasn't ordained that power so hopefully that makes sense turn if you would have Deuteronomy chapter 1 because now we're gonna get into where God has actually just given these laws and these rules and how God set up his government and we're gonna get into this and just get into the nitty-gritty of it but it's important to start off with just understanding the power structure that God has given the same way that God has given power within the family and he's given power unto the father the head of the household to run his house as he sees fit of course submitting to the power of Jesus Christ but that the you know there's there's there's different levels of authority and power within that family but he hasn't given a husband authority in someone else's family right it's just it just it's just a scope and a realm that falls in that area and government has a scope and a realm under its authority as well that is God ordained and just as in you know just within people are you know many people try to go outside of their business and outside of their authority and tell other people what to do and it's really they have no authority to do so people do it all the time people are sinners and it's no surprise that that happens in government as well especially when people don't know the Bible don't care about the Bible hate the Bible what do you know they don't have any reason to go off of God's restriction see God's restraints and restrictions are here to give us freedom and to give us liberty and this is the best way to operate if you want to say well how should we you know an entire nation of people how should we be governed well let's just not worry about the Bible at all I think I think things will turn out just fine if we just ignore God's Word yeah right but see then then the same people that would laugh at that the Christian of Bible believers that would be like well of course that's ludicrous of course we should go to God's Word then you bring up like sodomy right if a man lies with mankind as he lies with a woman you know the Bible says that they too shall be oh that's for day oh we can't do that what are you the Taliban it's like I thought you were a Bible believing Christian I thought you would agree it'd be a good idea to go to God's Word to make the foundation of our laws and our practices I mean it isn't didn't everyone already agree with that yeah but it sounded different when you said it two minutes ago now all of a sudden when you actually start applying it I don't like it anymore it's a hypocrisy that has just taken over Christianity and it's disgusting Deuteronomy chapter 1 look at verse number 13 this is where God is basically helping Moses out because Moses was the judge in the ruler and he was managing everything this whole people all by himself essentially it was too much it's too much for him to do so God is ordained there to be multiple rulers okay multiple people not just Moses Moses was like the the the chief judge but there were other people definitely a verse number 13 about says take you wise men and understanding and known among your tribes and I will make them rulers over you so these are the people first of all that are selected from to be rulers so people who are wise demonstrated to be wise people men of understanding men that know the Bible men that just have wisdom first and foremost not people with connections not people with just a lot of money they need to be wise that's a first thing that he says take wise men because if you don't have wisdom you're gonna rule foolishly and you're gonna make a lot of stupid decisions and stupid judgments you need to have wisdom there's wise men and understanding and known among your tribes hey people know these people right they're known to be wise they're known to have good judgment they're known and when people kind of you know there's certain leaders or rulers rise naturally based on their character who they are their wisdom you start getting a reputation for being someone who's faithful dependable wise understanding and someone that people can turn to as hey this is an upright guy this is a righteous guy after years and years and years of living that way in your community among people you're gonna get known as that reputation you saying you know what these are the people you want to make the rulers these people they've been known they're well known people know this people it's not just some random person but they're known for the right reasons they're not known because they're causing all kinds of trouble and the rabble-rouses right these are people who are known to be wise and men of understanding doesn't I will make them rulers over you and he answered me and said the thing which thou has spoken is good for us to do so I took the chief of your tribes wise men and known and made them heads over you and this is what he had captains over thousands and captains over hundreds and captains over fifties and captains over tens and officers among your tribes this is the level of breakdown of the structure that they had of these people that were going to be rulers and it broke down obviously there's going to be a different realm of authority at the lower you get versus the higher you get but this is the structure that God has commanded verse number 16 and I charged your judges at that time saying here the causes between your brethren and judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him now you're gonna notice that ruler and judge are used pretty much interchangeably when you're going through the law here that it's not like you know because we have a tendency to think of ruler of just like oh man that's like a dictator right well it just naturally comes to mind because the way that we use our language today that just tends to be more what people think of what comes to mind but that's not what the Bible is talking about here I mean think about the Bible talks about them that have the rule over you in the church being the elder the bishop right but how do they rule it's not with rigor and it's not with just forcing people to do it's being a minister and being an example so the same thing you know you could bring it up because it uses the term ruler right how do you rule the house of God if you don't know how to rule your own house how shall you rule the house of God right talk about a bishop it's the same concept of using that term ruler it's someone who in this sense they're a judge they have understanding so when there's a conflict when there's a problem between people you've got these judges of tens for the small matters the real little things right how about like in the home when siblings have a problem between themselves go to dad right or mom go to mom or dad they're gonna be able to settle the matter and obviously those are really really really really little things not a big deal but then as you you know you kind of get it branch out and you have some more conflicts between people then you're gonna be able to go to someone and say hey we need you to judge we need help we need an arbiter here we need somebody to hear out what's going on and make a righteous judgment and it builds and grows and you know to bigger more serious things we're gonna have people kind of making bigger judgment calls over over issues that arise over crimes that are committed whatever right it makes sense so the people that God is ordained to be the rulers are literally just judging based off of God's law this is the only he doesn't say make yourself all these ordinances and statutes and laws no God has given them the laws you don't need to go out and make all kinds of extra laws God's given us what we need this is what we need this is this is what we're gonna bind ourselves with great and the men of understanding can judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him verse 17 you shall not respect persons in judgment but you shall hear the small as well as the great you shall not be afraid of the face of man for the judgment is God's and the cause is too hard for you bring it unto me and I will hear it this is Moses speaking you know like hey if things are just too difficult and you just don't know right you know a lot you're able to discern a lot you're able to judge a lot but then there's something that's just really kind of hard and we say I don't really know what's right in this situation is bring it to me so they have this this this this structure and you know the the United States has has a lot of structure that's based off of biblical principles that follow a similar way of thinking you've got lower courts and middle courts and upper courts right so that way when you have things that become just harder issues and people arguing both sides and it's just like man I don't know I don't really know what's right here it needs to go to a higher level a higher level of authority of judges and supposedly better judges people are supposed to be more knowledgeable wiser you know near the top where Moses was you know extremely wise you're not gonna find people more wise than Moses so that's why he was kind of at the top there judging the hardest of matters but he they didn't need Moses with his with all of his wisdom to judge all the little things you know someone someone stole my bike or whatever right like you don't need Moses to judge that there's a lot of other people that could handle those cases and this is what the Bible prescribes it makes sense flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 16 and as we get into this what you're gonna find maybe even more interesting it's not what we're looking at it's what's not in Scripture because we have a lot of things in our current life that you're just used to because you've had that since you were brought up since you since you were born things have been the way that they are and that seems normal to you just because it's always the way it's been which is why we need to study God's Word to see well what does God's Word say because we need to be able to challenge what we're used to we need to be able to break that conditioning or whatever of whatever you think is normal and just compare everything to God's Word and be willing to say you know what I don't think we do need this yeah that's the way things are as way things have been I don't think we need it and an example I believe I don't think we need the police I don't believe we should have the police you don't see the police anywhere in Scripture we don't need them and just a term policing I mean they would that is a newer thing by the way and I didn't do the the the research I've read on it before I don't remember all the stats of exactly when that was instituted it wasn't that long ago I mean it was within the last hundred years definitely where they were you know because there used to just be sheriffs and deputies right that were law enforcement the policing concept was new of people just constantly looking for trouble they're looking for trouble that's what the police do they're just going around and just trying to find people and when you have that mindset you're always looking at people as being criminals why are you a criminal and that's why you see what we see today you know all these inquisitions so where you're coming from what are you doing and people just fishing trying to get you in trouble when you haven't done anything wrong and you could why you go on YouTube you see video after video after video of you have people being harassed by the police to protect and serve right that sounds great yeah the police have been around my entire life but it doesn't mean that it's biblical or scriptural or right to have this and you can easily see how it's just gotten way out of control and everyone's view you know I don't know and say well well I don't know if you're criminal I mean what if you have a gun what if you have a record what if you know what if you want to hurt me well what if you want to hurt me right where's my protection I don't care about you what about me you tell me to put my gun on the dash we go as you got your gun drawn on me and I'm supposed to just trust you that you're not gonna kill me who are you and what did I do you don't know I'm gonna try that's why I'm trying to figure out we don't need to figure out go away we'll get into that later though that wasn't even in my notes because that's gonna lead me into what happened last week and and that's not even gonna happen today I'm not gonna get in all that so but that's a really good exam because you don't see people policing in the Bible so far all we've seen is judges and you know what that's about all you're gonna see now there are officers too and I do believe that it that would be right and prudent to have people to help you know when people aren't voluntarily gonna come into court to like make people face the charges or what you know you need it just it just need in order to function you need to have this right just like you need to have an executioner but there's a lot of interesting things about the executioners too and who's supposed to be doing executions and we're gonna see we see what that's talking about too prisons another concept too that's just not biblical at all and punishment of having prisons now you could have a jail where people are held maybe temporarily in order to to come before a court that's different than having prison okay prison sentence again that's another new concept but what is it that people even tell their kids now I mean I heard it growing up you might even tell your kids oh you don't want to do that because you'll go to prison or you don't want to go to jail you don't want you know yeah I don't I mean you don't want to go there right but this is just the way of thinking that's been normalized and I get it that's the way the system works right now but it doesn't mean it's right and it doesn't mean we should be supporting that system in fact we should be fighting against it because it's not biblical it's not right it ends up doing more damage and harm to people's families and the people who are supposed to get right you know the Bible teaches that you do wrong you receive the wrong that's righteous according to the punishment that God has ordained that God has given and you don't change that you don't try to lessen the punishment that God gave it all that's too extreme that no hey what makes you think you're a better judge than God but then at the same time you don't just start adding all kinds of other extra crimes and and instituting all these extra punishments that God hasn't ordained like growing a plant now look I'm not at all for people using drugs and doing drugs and growing drugs and the Bible's against you know being unsober being drunken being high okay these are not righteous and godly things but you know what God did not do he didn't ordain any punishment against someone who's growing a plant in her house or ingesting it for that matter it's just it's not one of the things that you see in Scripture it's not something that ought to be punishable by the law while it may be a sin not every sin is against the law and that is an extremely important fact that Bible believers need to understand imagine if every single sin were against the law we'd all be in prison everyone I mean every if you could just say like nope okay you did that oh you did that oh you did that oh you thought that oh you did we're sinners and in order for us to discern well where do you draw the line because how could anybody know where you draw the line without God telling us well here's where you draw the line this is right and just a real simple principle real simple I'm not saying this is 100% absolute but the very general principle is when you start doing harm to other people that's when it becomes a crime okay that's and again we're gonna we need to look at all God's laws but that's the base most basic way to understand it is that when you do evil because that's what evil is what you do harm to someone else that's when it becomes a crime but if you do something on your own you're so you know within the realm of your power and authority and everything it may be wrong it may not be expedient for you may not be right but it doesn't mean it's a crime that needs to be punished by the law Deuteronomy chapter 16 look at verse number 18 about reads judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgment and how you know what's just you got to go to God's Word verse 19 thou shalt not rest judgment rest means like to twist it right thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous this is talking about bribes if you have a judge someone who's supposed to judge in a matter between two people then you can't accept gifts right the one guy who does wrong he comes up and says oh hey buddy because he knows you're the judge why don't you come on out to dinner with me and oh hey look by the way I got you these tickets to this I know you love you know baseball I've got you tickets to the World Series man you did I ever tell you what a good guy you are right people try to flatter the judge why because they want the judge to look at that person partially be partial to them and and and think good of them so that way they could be like oh well this guy is so good you know I'm gonna believe him and not believe this other person or just not care as much about the other person and then rule against the other person that's not being righteous in your judgment you're letting other things influence what's right so the Bible gives you you know gives the people tell us hey that shouldn't that's not allowed that's why again in our country we have laws against bribery that's not allowed that which is all together just shalt thou follow thou that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee flip over to chapter 17 everything you'll see in God's law is to be done decently and in order there is an order to everything so when you read you know when we read things in the Bible it says oh this you know this person's guilty of death right and the big thing that always gets all the attention is the sodomites right the homos oh they're worthy oh and people just automatically think oh so you just think we should be going out and killing them no I think we should be operating under God's law which does not just go about randomly and just anyone who thinks they've seen something just goes out and and and then takes the law into their own hands and becomes their own judge and then executes judge you know judgment that's that's not what the Bible teaches at all so it's not for us just to just start taking every matter in our own hands that's why God is ordained there to be powers and to be people and ministers of God to do that and it's not just everybody it's those are supposed to be wise and understanding right those are the people you put in those positions do drive me 17 look at verse number six this is regarding the death penalty about was as at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death so right off the bat you need to have multiple witnesses you can't just have one person saying oh yeah I saw this person do thus and so and then well that does it put them to death no you need to have witnesses and the witnesses need to agree I mean you need to be able to examine the witnesses and make sure is this true but now you might say well what if two people just lie because that's a very good legitimate concern to have well wait a minute I mean if we're gonna allow someone to be I mean to lose their life and to be put to death because these witnesses you know decided to lie about somebody well God has a provision for that in the Bible also and the the provision for that is that anyone who's a false witness is if you as soon as you find out that that person was a false witness that they lied that they didn't give the truth that didn't tell the truth whatever the punishment even would be because maybe maybe you find it out before the justice is actually executed before the person's put to death or after it doesn't matter either way whatever the judgment is or would be that person suffers the same exact fate now does that mean no one would ever lie no it doesn't no it doesn't but you know what there's always no matter what the laws no matter what the penalty there's always gonna be people that are gonna try to get around a law they're gonna do bad things there's always gonna be people that will you know no system is ever going to be 100% flawless and perfect here that's human government run by us it never will be but what I'm saying is that this is the best the best government you're not gonna get better than this because this is what God said to do so the fact that you have false witnesses you know we call it perjury but see the penalties for perjury aren't what the Bible prescribes in our country it's not the same it's not nearly as severe as it ought to be because if someone's gonna if you're gonna lie about someone that deserves to be put to death you're saying they deserve to be put to death you better think twice before you make that accusation before you bring forth that witness because as soon as someone finds out some more evidence that was maybe hidden and now of a sudden oops turns out I was wrong well now now I'm gonna be put to death and how about this to people who think they saw someone do something and say yep point the finger that's the person who did it you don't really know who that is you might want to think twice before you just come forward because that will make you a false witness you say someone did something didn't do it you know people are real quick with especially with a not you know anonymity and everything oh yeah just tell us who do you know you don't you don't have to face any scrutiny or anything like that just tell us right that's the way the modern criminal justice system tends to work okay yeah they can't see you you can see you know just point them out no big deal now obviously there's still some it's not completely destroyed but we're going that way and but the Bible you know it gives a command hey if there's a if there's a false witness they get whatever it is it doesn't matter what the punishment is that's what they would receive let's keep reading here though because that's I have that scripture in here but we're gonna get to that in just a minute verse 7 the hands of the witnesses shall be first upon them to put them to death this is another interesting thing in God's law is that the executioner in the death penalty are the witnesses so not only do you face the possible you know play if you if you're a false witness but you're gonna be the one putting that person to death now I'm not gonna get in all the reasoning behind this I think it's a good idea especially people who are victims or real close to victims right are the ones that would be like witnesses like hey I witnessed this event and you have to be solid enough in your witness that you're gonna say yeah hey that person did something worthy of death I'm willing to be the executioner because I saw them do it right they deserve to die and that's what God's Word says so I'm gonna do I'll do it yeah and God's Word prescribes for the hands of the witnesses to be first upon to put them to death okay it's one thing like you know think about the the the wars that we have in the politicians that they won't send their own children but they'll send your children over there they'll make these judgment calls and say yep they deserve we need to be fighting over there it's it's a similar concept here though it's saying okay if you're gonna witness against someone then you better be willing to to pull the trigger yourself right you get your hands dirty you get involved with with executing judgment upon them and especially you know in a god-fearing society you're gonna want to make sure you're right about that before you are spilling someone else's blood and not just being able to put it off on some other random anonymous executioner but that you're if you're willing to put your voice forward to it you're also willing to do the dirty work and I think that has the added benefit of people hating with a perfect hatred the crimes that deserve the death penalty it prevents the society at large from being too softened to the point of just being tolerant of everything we need to be intolerant I mean when you're willing to be the executioner you're at the right level of intolerance for what God has prescribed the death penalty for that's the level and talk look and and I would say of all thing you know this is one area that we all could probably do better at just because we've had so much filth and wickedness you know pumped at us into thinking that like well it's not really that bad when these things and we'll get in all the death penalty stuff later another time all the crimes that would be associated with that but we need to have a serious hatred for this stuff to the point of that if this if a person were found guilty of these things that you'd be willing to to carry out that execution verse number eight if there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea between stroke and stroke being matters of controversy within thy gates then shalt thou arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites and unto the judge that shall be in those days and inquire and they shall show you a sentence of judgment so God's love you know God's law well God is ordained yeah you get the priests involved to help you discern to discern and to determine what's right and what's wrong they're not just you know the priests have their own job to do so they're not just the ones doing the judge there's judges for that but when it gets real hard we're like man we need to get someone who's really close to God's law and knows God's law and practices God's you know let's get let's get them involved here we need to determine what's right and what's not right makes perfect sense to me I don't know let's keep reading verse number 10 and thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform me according to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall teach thee thou shalt do thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand nor to the left and the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the priests that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the judge even that man shall die and thou shalt put away evil from Israel and all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously so the people that basically don't care what the judgment is they don't care what the sentence is and say no no we're not gonna do that you know that person's gonna die it's pretty serious and God is ordained here that you know you have respect for the authority and the powers that God's given and say I don't like that judgment well too bad you can't just just presume to do your own thing this is what God is ordained and if you don't like it then you're gonna be you're gonna be next verse chapter number 19 obviously I'm not saying if you don't like it like this and that you there's not a capital crime to not like something but it's the people who are just gonna do something opposite anyways right those that are maybe responsible for doing the judgment or those that that are guilty themselves right they're gonna be put to death chapter 19 I know we're running a little bit long on time here I'm almost done actually I'm gonna skip over chapter 19 go to numbers 35 I'm gonna close on number 35 Deuteronomy 19 is I'll read it for you this is the section of the false witness that's where it's found in Scripture so if you ought to make note of that Deuteronomy 19 I'll read it for you your turn in number 35 Deuteronomy 19 verse 15 the Bible reads one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established if a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord before the priests and the judges which shall be in those days and the judges shall make diligent inquisition and behold if the witness be a false witness and that testified falsely against his brother then shall you do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother so shalt thou put the evil away from among you and those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you and nine I shall not pity but life shall go for life I for I tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot so obviously the Bible is teaching here that that when the matter comes up like this and someone's you know being accused of being a false witness the judges need to make diligent inquisition I mean they need to really search this out and just and get all of this what is true here what's being what's right and when they identify someone as being a false witness then they get the punishment now this is also a part of the Bible where people who just are ignorant the Bible will just quote this oh I fry tooth for tooth this is in regard to a false witness this isn't like always the punishment if someone loses the tooth and you lose the tooth this is saying if if whatever the punishment would be against that person the false witness gets exactly the same and that's why it spells out there's a I fry tooth for tooth whatever it is doesn't matter what it's equal it's 100% whatever they would get is what this person would get and it says thine eyes shall not pity don't feel sorry for the guy and be like well I mean he didn't really do anything he just lied no you can't you can't downplay this the gravity and the seriousness of being a false witness because you were you they're about to put the other person to death or lose her hand or what you know whatever the other judge would be that's why you need to face the same exact thing that's the only way that's right and it's only sense of justice that God has for the false witness amen numbers 35 look at verse number 16 we saw before the the in one example the witnesses that would be the ones carrying out the sentence of the execution of someone who's guilty of death right well there's also a revenger of blood that may or may not be a witness but this is going to be a person who's going to be really close to the what's involved okay so like if someone killed your spouse right you'd be a revenger of blood or your child or your brothers you know like like you would be the revenger of blood because it's something that's so close to you that like yeah you're gonna want to kill that person and in God's law God is ordained for the revenger of blood to kill the person and see that justice is carried out and again I think that's appropriate I mean who am I to go against what God's Word says anyways but I would bet that helps with the healing process because once a person's gone or something's happened to that person like it's done and the only way that you can get some kind of sense of getting over that stuff in many cases is that justice is brought upon that person if justice is brought upon that person by the one who's most close to it that's going to help that person the most I think it's for that person's benefit let's start reading your verse number 16 we're closing this I know I'm going a little bit long this morning but I promise the last place we're gonna look at verse number 16 and if he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he died he is a murderer the murderer shall show you it so I'm gonna get in this maybe a little bit more another time but this just describes people who are determined to be murderers versus people who might do something that's manslaughter manslaughter is something that you didn't intend to kill somebody as an accident right but the person still lost their life so there's still a punishment but it's not the same as you intentionally trying to kill somebody so if you get in a fight with someone though and you pick up an instrument of iron right and you pick up a weapon and you end up killing that person you're a murderer and even if you weren't intending on like you did well I didn't want to kill him if you start using weapons against people the Bible says you're a murderer okay you need to be able to restrain yourself if you don't really want to kill someone then don't pick up these tools don't pick up the baseball bat in the in the crowbar and start bashing someone over the head with you if you're not intending to kill him numbers 35 verse 16 if he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he died he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death and if he smite him with throwing a stone wherewith he may die and he died he is a murderer the murderer shall surely put to death or be smite him with an hand weapon of wood where with he may die and he died he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death look at verse 19 the revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him he shall I'll just lay it. So as soon as he comes across this person, this person's guilty, this person's killed someone, the revenger of blood has the right to then just execute and carry out that justice immediately. As soon as he finds him, as soon as he meets him, he is completely within his right to carry out that judgment. Verse 20, but if he thrust him of hatred or hurled at him by the lying of weight that he died, for in enmity smite him with his hand that he die. He that smote him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer." Again, more stipulations here of someone being a murderer. The revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him. But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, so he didn't hate him, he was an enemy, or have cast upon him anything without laying of weight, or with any stone wherewith a man may die, seeing him not and cast it upon him that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his arm, then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments. So this is where the one guy is saying, look, I didn't mean to kill him. This was an accident, right? God is ordained for a person to be able to flee and to go into a city of refuge, right? For a person who's claiming this was an accident, right? Didn't intend to do it. And the person who did it, and they're like, yeah, they hated him, and everyone knows he hate him, and he went out and he murdered someone, like the revenger of blood can execute the judgment and should execute the judgment and kill that person. But when he says, no, no, no, I didn't do this, this is what happened, it was an accident, then it says the congregation shall judge. Now, I believe this is also where, in our country, we get our concept of having a jury trial, because a congregation is a group of people, right? You just have people congregating together, and they're going to be making the judgment. But I think that the congregation is, it's multiple judges, it's people that you wanna have that still know the law and are able to discern that are gonna make a judgment call. So the congregation shall judge, and I think it's also because it's a serious matter of someone who's killed someone, let's get a few people involved to understand what's going on and make this judgment and determine what is the truth and see what deserves to be done here. So you get the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments, and the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled. And he shall abide in it unto the death of the high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil. And this just goes into what he has to do. Basically, God still separates the person, even if it was by accident, he's gonna separate the person that did the killing, accidentally, from the family of the loved one that was killed, so that they don't have to be meeting each other, because even if it's an accident, I mean, someone killed your family member, someone close to you, that's gonna impact you. And many people are gonna wanna go and kill that person, still, even though they say, well, it was an accident, they might just be thinking, you know, it could be determined accident, they might be thinking, no, it wasn't, you know, because their emotion's involved, because they lost someone close to them, it's a volatile situation, it's best to say, you know what, you just gotta go now, you don't have any other punishment, but you gotta go and live over there. I mean, you've gotta go and be separate now, and go to the city of refuge, you'll be safe there, and just stay there, right? And then, that other person knows, they're in the city of refuge, I can't touch them there. But there's one other aspect of this law that's real interesting, is that if the person who is guilty of manslaughter leaves the city of refuge, and then the revenger of blood comes across him, the revenger of blood can kill him, and not suffer any penalties from the law. Because this is what you were told to do, you were told to stay, you brought that on yourself by leaving, and now getting in this situation where, you know, this guy that hates you because you killed his loved one ends up putting you to death and the Bible says that that person that does that, even though he was only found guilty of manslaughter, is not guilty. And you know what, even if you don't understand, that's God's judgment, that's what God ordained. And that's how serious it is, where he says, you stay separate. The Bible says, verse 26, but if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whether he is fled, and the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood, because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer shall return into the land of his possession. So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations and all your dwellings. 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 that cause him to die. Moreover, you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death, but he shall be surely put to death. Satisfaction means you're not taking any other payment. No other compensation. Nothing else is good enough. You can't have someone go, oh, well, he's guilty of murder and deserves to be put to death, but he's real rich and he's willing to give like a million dollars if you just spare his life. The Bible says no. There's nothing, there's nothing that can be accepted as payment other than he needs to die. And that would be the righteous judgment. This is what God's obeying it. No one's above the law. No one can buy their way out. No one can give anything that you may have that's going to make it okay, because think about that, people just getting away with murder. Think about, oh yeah, it's real hard to think about, right? Because we never see that happen. Whether it be people who think they're above the law because they're part of the law, or whether it be people who are celebrities, OJ Simpson, that are guilty of murder, that get away with murder because they have enough money to be able to do it. But let's see, we'll finish off here. 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 priest. So again, and even with the manslaughter, you can't pay anything. This is a judgment of God. There's nothing else that you can do to escape what God has prescribed. No other caveats, that's it. Verse 33, so you shall not pollute the land, wherein ye are for blood it defileth the land. When someone's murdered, that blood defiles the land. And that is a serious crime, a serious sin, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. God's saying there is no other way around this. When someone's murdered, the blood of the person that did the murder needs to be shed. That is the only way for this to be covered. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell, for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel, saying I dwell with you, and I don't want this land polluted. This land needs to be righteous, which means you have to carry out the judgment that God has ordained in order for God to stay there and dwell among you. And we have way too many murders and innocent blood being shed in our country. I believe at one point God was walking with us and among us because of all the great work that people were doing for the Lord, but with the amount of innocent blood being shed and not having the blood of the murderers being shed, it's defiled our land. And how can you expect to have God walking among you when the land is so polluted and so defiled? The land is gonna spew us out as the land did to the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Prisites and the Jebusites and the Hivites and all the people that were in the land before the children of Israel, because the more wicked we become and the less judgment there is. And that's one of the reasons why there is so much wickedness is because there's not enough judgment. If we had proper judgment, if we had proper justice happening, there would be less wickedness. But people have wanted to throw away God's law, throw out the 10 commandments out of the courthouse, have nothing to do with the Bible, try to rule against the Bible being used, of people being able to use scripture to be able to discern and give judgment and wanna have a completely secular society that has nothing to do with the word of God. Hey, when you turn your back on God, don't be surprised when the consequences come when you reap what you've sown and have a bunch of wickedness and evildoers running rampant. We need to be knowledgeable on the law of God, meditate on the law of God, that we can be a wise people and that we can teach people, no, this is what the Bible says, this is what's right. I don't care what the politician said. Do you really wanna have a bunch of greedy, self-absorbed, people who don't care about anyone else, ruling and making laws for you and decisions for you? I don't. And that's what we've got now. We've got a bunch of greedy people who don't care. I mean, going straight up to the president. Yeah, President Donald Trump, right? So many Bible, oh, President Trump, he's given by God, what a great president. Look, he's wicked. He's greedy and covetous. I don't want someone like that being a judge or a ruler. Come on now. That just shows you how low we've sunk as a society. Oh, but he's done good for the economy. Is that all you care about is money? And that's all to be debated anyways. There's so much manipulation going on, I'm not gonna get into all that. But if we're gonna choose out rulers and judges and how to be judged, they need to be wise, God-fearing people. That's why you're not gonna find the answer in politics because none of the politicians are looking to God's word and have integrity to stand on God's word. Because if you do that today, you're gonna be hated anyways. We need to reach the hearts and minds of the people because the politicians at least will do, for the most part, what their constituents would have them to do. Because they can be bought and sold and to a certain degree, will keep themselves still held accountable. The more people we can reach, teach the truth to, you know, the better off we're gonna be in general as a people. Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for giving us the wisdom and instruction that we need in order to make a good foundation for our laws and for our governance here. God, I pray to you, please help us to be able to teach and instruct others and to be wise ourselves according to your law, dear God, and that we would be able to, even if the world around us and the laws around us are unrighteous, Lord, that we would at least, to the most possible extent, be able to live our own lives in accordance with your law. And I pray that you would please help us to be a good influence on those around us, to be able to spread truth and wisdom that would have a good impact so that the rulers can once again be judges of good things and not gonna hamper the cause of the just and the right, but that would be to the praise of the just and that would be evil only to the evildoers, Lord, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song.