This morning I want to preach about the justice system or what could often be called the criminal injustice system. I want to preach about the subject of justice in the Bible. Now by way of introduction, I'm going to start out by just teaching through some scriptures, including First Corinthians six, and then I'm going to get into five principals of justice in the Bible that we need to never forget. The Bible talks about how important it is for us as Christians to be able to judge, to know how to judge, to be capable of judging. Judging has become a bad word today amongst Christians, "Don't judge." In reality God not only commands us to judge, but he'll even rebuke those who are not able to judge righteous judgement.
I'm going to give you five principals on that. Let's start out by just examining this passage in First Corinthians six beginning in verse number one the Bible reads, "Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints." Now right away he's rebuking them for going to law against their brother, basically going and turning their brother in to the police. We're talking about a brother in Christ, a fellow Christian, turning them into the police or suing them in a court of law because of some kind of a disagreement. The word used here is defrauded. This could be a financial type disagreement or whatever the case may be.
He says, "Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints." I want to point out that there are two types of people mentioned here: the saints, which are all saved Christians this is another proof of that, the saints and the unjust, the unrighteous, those who've not been declared righteous in the sight of God by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look at verse number two it says, "Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? If the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? No you not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life." The Bible's referring to the fact that in the future there's going to be the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and at that time we will judge the Earth. We will judge angels. We will rule and reign with Christ the Bible says.
It says in verse number four, "If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame." What he's saying here is that you'd be better off having the least esteemed person in church, the person that you respect at church the least, being your judge than to go to the world for judgement, than to go to the criminal justice system of this world. Now, that's a pretty strong statement, isn't it? He's saying, "Don't go before the unjust." He's saying, "You'd be better off with the least esteemed person of the church than with the world's system."
"I speak to your shame", verse five, "is it so that there is not a wise man among you, no not one, that shall be able to judge between his brethren? Brother go to law with brother and that before the unbelievers." Notice now the unjust are called the unbelievers. It's in contrast to the saints who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look what the Bible says next, "Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you", verse seven, "because you go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourself to be defrauded? Nay ye do wrong and defraud and that your brethren."
Now, this must have been a very serious issue that God wanted us to know about for him to repeat this so many times. He doesn't just give one scripture, just one verse that says don't go to law before the unjust with a brother and then move on. No just verse after verse he's saying, "You're going to law before the unjust. You're going to law before unbelievers. There's utterly a fault among you. How dare you go to law with your brother." I mean he says it over and over again. He really emphasizes this. It's funny because verses nine through eleven are often just quoted independently of this passage as if they have nothing to do with verses one through eight. In reality this all goes together. It's all the same thought.
He says, "No ye not", in verse three. Here he says in verse nine, "No ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Now, let me stop right there and remind you that the words "righteous" and "just" are both interchangeable in the Bible. They're used interchangeably. For example, it talks about God delivering just Lot from Sodom. It doesn't mean only Lot. It means just Lot. Then it says that righteous man in the next breath, so just and righteous are used throughout the Bible. You could test that, and you'll see that I'm telling the truth that those are both interchangeable in the Bible. This is the same group we just talked about, the unrighteous, the unbelievers, the unjust.
Now, what did he just finish saying about the saints? They're going to judge the Earth that's why they're qualified to judge things that pertain to this life. Look what the Bible says in verse nine, "No ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God", in contrast to the righteous that will inherit the kingdom of God. He says, "No ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God."
What's he saying in this passage verses one three eleven? He's saying the righteous, the saved, the saints, they are qualified to judge. Then he says the unjust are not qualified to judge. They are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. Then he lists off all these describing words about what the unjust are like. He's saying, "If you go to judgement before the world, if you go to law against your brother, these are the type of people that you're putting as your judge." Then he turns around and says, "And such were some of you", meaning even if you were that bad of a person in the past, the difference is that you've been washed. You've been sanctified. You've been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our Lord God. Meaning that's why you are better as a judge than the world.
Now, obviously no judge is going to be a perfect judge. God's saying that you'd be better off with the least esteemed of God's people judging you than to let this heathen world judge you. I mean this passage is pretty clear on that, isn't it? Who's not going to inherit it? That's why they can't judge you. It's the people that are a bunch of fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners does that sound like the type of person that you would want up at the bench judging you if you have a dispute with someone or if someone has possibly committed a crime? Sounds terrible, doesn't it?
Yet today amongst I would say 90% of evangelical Christians and even 99% and amongst independent Baptists there's this attitude that our criminal justice system can do no wrong. That's the prevailing attitude in churches today. They'll even parade police officers and parade judges and parade all the people who work in the justice system across the platform on a Sunday morning and praise them as being wonderful public servants. Is that what the Bible said? No, that's not what the Bible said. By the way God's house is not a place to promote politicians and sheriffs and police chiefs and fire chiefs. It's a place where Christ alone should be exalted. It shouldn't just be a platform to just lift up our community leaders. You're talking about these bunch of effeminate, adulterers, thieving, covetous, revilers, a bunch of drunks?
I mean I sat in an independent fundamental Baptist church and literally they brought in the local police chief and clapped and honored him and handed him awards. He got up on a Sunday morning at an independent fundamental Baptist church. He said, "Back a while back I was in a terrible car accident in my squad car. The car flipped over, and I was really in danger of losing my life." He said, "If I would've died, I know I would've gone to Heaven because I've lived a really good life." He said, "I read this prayer every night." He unfolds a paper and reads a Catholic prayer on Sunday morning. That has no place in God's house. We're not supposed to be a respecter of person's either, so should we be exalting people in the house of God just because they have some worldly status or some worldly position? No.
In church I don't care if someone is a king or a queen or a president or a mayor or a governor. They don't sit in any better seat than a homeless person who walks in because God's not a respecter of persons. In the house of God the playing field is level. They say the ground is level at the feet of the cross. To sit there and have this attitude that churches have taught me of, "The criminal justice system is a wonderful institution. We should be exalting and honoring it", no the Bible says don't even use it. Stay away from it. How dare you. They're unjust. They're unrighteous. They're wicked. It's a wicked system.
Now, a lot of people are probably already offended by this sermon, and you have to understand though I'm preaching the Bible here. I didn't just make this up. I mean you have the Bible in your lap. I hope you came to church with a Bible. I hope you're looking at it right now and seeing that that's what the Bible is mentioning here. Now go to Romans chapter three, and let's learn more about the unregenerate man. Let's learn more about the unsaved man. Now you say, "Well, Pastor Anderson, you're saying that every judge and every police officer ..." No, of course I'm not because there are some who are saved.
Let me ask you this do you think most of them are saved or most of them are unsaved? The bottom line is that we can't just have this attitude that says, "Well, the justice system can do to wrong. If somebody got arrested, they're probably guilty. If they were declared guilty, then they must be guilty", and just putting all this faith in that system when God tells us what the heart of the unregenerate man, the unsaved man, is like. How can we just ignore that and just say, "Even though they're unsaved, even though they reject Jesus Christ, they're good people. They love us. They're there to serve."? It's a disconnect with the reality of what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who could know it?
Look what the Bible says in Romans 3:10. It's funny because Christians know these verses that I'm pointing to, especially in Romans three, but then all of a sudden when we're talking about a public servant, like a police officer or a judge or a prosecutor, these people all of a sudden this doesn't apply to them because they suddenly become a saint even without believing in Jesus. They become a saint in people's minds just by putting on that uniform or putting on that robe. What does the Bible say in Romans chapter three verse ten, "As it is written there's none righteous, no not one." Obviously this is talking about outside of Jesus Christ because it talks about in the next chapter in the context of the book of Romans, how basically we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed onto us. We are declared righteous in the sight of God. We're justified. We're made righteous. That's what First Corinthians six talked about too, didn't it; said, "Such were some of you but you're washed. You're sanctified. You're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."
Look at these verses, "As it is written", verse ten, "there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that understand. There is none that seek after God. They're all gone out of the way. They together become unprofitable. There's none that do good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes."
"Now, we know that what things so ever the law says it says to them who are under the law that every mouth be may stopped and that all the word may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ onto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
Here we see a dichotomy between the unredeemed and the redeemed. The one who's been redeemed the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God, is something that they partake in. Not only are they declared righteousness in the sense that now they're saved from their sins and on their way to Heaven, but not only that when you get saved, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. You become a partaker of the divine nature meaning that basically God's Spirit can help you to live a godly and a righteous and a clean life. He also creates in you a brand new creature. The Bible says, "If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away behold all things are become new."
Now we know of course that the flesh is still there, and, therefore, if we walk in the flesh, we will fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If we walk in the spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We can walk in newness of life. Does the unregenerate man even have the Holy Spirit living inside of him? Does he even have a new nature? No, he's just the flesh. That's it. He's unredeemed. He's unregenerate. This passage is crystal clear. Romans 3:10 through Romans 3:24 tells us what the unregenerate man is like and what regenerate man or redeemed man or saved man can become, righteous and live a godly life. Obviously, like I said, none of us is perfect. We are all going to continue to sin because we still have the flesh and that battles going on between the spirit and the flesh, but the Bible said you'd still be better off having them that are least esteemed in the church judge you than those which are out in the world, the unsaved, unbelieving, unjust justice system of this world.
You can flip over to Romans chapter eight. I already touched on this anyway. Let me just say this. There are other motives to become a police officer or a judge or a prosecutor or a district attorney. There're other motives besides just serving the public good. For you to just think like most people think, "These people are public servants. I mean they love us. They're risking their lives for us because they care so much"... Here's what I've heard too, "Most cops and most judges are good people. It's just a few bad apples. Most of them are good, righteous, upstanding godly people. It's just a few." It's actually the opposite. There's a few really good cops or judges that are saved people, that are honest people, people that have integrity, but the majority of them are just like everybody else in the world because this world is a bad place.
Look at all the bad things that go on in the world. Why, because the heart is deceitful above all thing and desperately wicked who could know it? Because within out of the heart of man come adulteries, fornication, pride, blaspheme, foolishness, an evil eye, covetousness these are the type of things that man has within. I have within me. You have within you. We are sinners. The difference is that those of us who follow the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in newness of life have a changed life through the power of the Holy Spirit and being in church and reading the Bible and so forth. Honestly people in this world who are atheists, people in this world who are nonbelievers, they don't live a godly life according to God's standards. I don't care what anybody says. That's what the Bible says. I've seen it ring true in my life. To sit there and just think that they all have these altruistic motives ...
Look there could even be an unsaved guy who he actually is a police officer because he wants to help people and he wants to make a difference. I'm sure there's that too, but again the exception proves the rule. Here's a big reason to become a police officer. You get paid really well. That's what everybody just seems to just completely push out of their mind. I can tell you this when I've talked to people who were thinking about becoming a police officer or became a police officer, that was a big factor for becoming a police officer.
I remember there was a time when someone came to me, someone close to me came to me and said, "You should become a police officer." This is when I was younger. They started showing me the benefits, the money. I'll be honest with you. I was young and naive. I thought, "Maybe I should become a police officer. This looks great." Here you are you're working at jobs where you're not making a lot of money and it's like, "Whoa." All you got to do is be physically fit and not be too smart, not too dumb, you got to be in the middle to get the right score on the intelligence test. I was thinking like, "Man, maybe I should do that." I'm just saying the temptation is there. The thought is there because of money.
People try to say it's the most dangerous job. Get a list of the most dangerous jobs. It's not on there. When police officers die in the line of duty, most of the time it's a car accident. Even when they do die in the line of duty, it's rare compared to how many taxi cab drivers die, truck drivers. You want to know the most dangerous ten jobs look it up: truck drivers, taxi cab drivers, people who fly those small little airplanes because commercial airplanes almost never crash. Little tiny airplanes crash all the time. Electrician is in the top ten. A logger, someone who works in the lumber industry, people who work in the meat packing industry these are people where their spouse is thinking they might not come home every night because those are actually really dangerous jobs.
What I'm saying is that there is another motive to become a police officer. Here's a story from our local area here. I'm not just going to get up on a Sunday morning and just read a whole bunch of news stories to you because I could just bring stacks of them. I want to teach the Bible. So far we've taught First Corinthians six. We've taught Romans three. It's real clear. Let me just give you one story as an example. This is from the Chandler Police Department, "Assistant Chandler Police Chief David Lind would tell Chief Sheriff Sherry Kiyler he had things to do." This is the assistant police chief in Chandler. "He would tell the head police chief that he he had things to do or errands to run. Then for months he would leave his office in the middle of work days to meet the wife of a motorcycle buddy at a nearby hotel for adultery", according to an internal investigation.
This guy just for months, virtually every day, is just, "I got to go do some errands. I got some things to do", on the clock. He's going and committing adultery, two-fold adultery. He's married and she's married and just committing wicked adultery in the sight of God on the clock. That's what we're paying for. A thirteen page internal investigation report obtained through a public records request details how the assistant chief socialized with the woman. On April 22nd the husband called the police chief to complain about Lind's conduct, and a subsequent investigation led to Lind's two week suspension without pay for unbecoming conduct. He returned to work the next week. Records show that the woman refused to be interviewed hinting that Lind may have used his ranking position to pursue the affair. I'll use abuse of power as my general blanket statement.
Here's a cop who's using his position as the police chief or assistant police chief in order to seduce a woman. There have been other stories about prosecutors and judges and police officers who do the same thing. They'll use that position, they'll abuse that power, to seduce women because they're using their position as an authority figure. Now, I believe that that's against the law, but if not, it should be where you're in a position of power and you're using it to troll for adultery.
Now, this guy is a former Tempe police officer who retired from that department two years ago when the story was written. Lind was hired as assistant Chandler chief in December of 2008. His annual salary is $146,071.00 a year. This guy is retired from the Tempe Police Department here's getting paid 80% of what he was paid over there, whatever he was paid. They get 80% for the rest of their life. Then he's now getting a 146,000 at his new job as assistant police chief, a $146,000.00 to go to the motel every day and hook up with someone else's wife. This guy's getting paid over $200,000.00 a year, and he's committing adultery on the clock. Can you see maybe another motive for this guy besides public service?
Lind is the second Chandler police officer this year to come under fire for adultery during work hours. I'm using the word "adultery". They use other euphemistic words that I refuse to use. In February Lieutenant Shawn Hawkins resigned in the middle of an investigation after a fellow employee accused him of terrorizing her and threatening to expose the salacious details of their relationship that included adultery while at the police station. Shawn Hancock, President of the Chandler Law Enforcement Association, said, "The police union is in contract negotiations and does not intend to make this an issue of Lind's discipline." He's took his punishment. He's dealt with it. As far as we're concerned it's over. Except that the Bible has a little different punishment for that. Death. Their punishment is two weeks unpaid.
He makes 200,000 a year. He could probably afford to skip who weeks of pay. This guy isn't exactly living pay check to pay check, is he? You can see that there could be another motive for people to become a police officer than just altruistic, "I want to help people. I want to serve the public." Now you say, "Well, that's rare. You're just bringing up the one rare exception." What did the Bible say? The Bible said that the unjust this is what they're like which is why we shouldn't go to them for justice. Romans chapter eight says in verse five, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be."
Now, this is the Bible here. It can't be brought under subjection to the laws of God. Then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. "But ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his, but if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness." Again the saved person has two natures: the flesh and the spirit.
Now I'm going to get into the five principals of justice that I want to teach this morning. First I want to say I don't want you to think Pastor Anderson just hates all police. He hates all judges. No, that's not true at all because like I said the exception proves the rule. There could be an example that you could bring forth of a guy who is a judge or a prosecutor or district attorney or a police officer and you say, "Well, this guy is a good guy." There could be exceptions like that, but the exception proves the rule which is why I would never call the police on someone or turn someone over to the police, my brother in Christ, my sister in Christ, unless literally that person had done something that is worthy of death.
If the person had committed something worthy of death, then at that point I don't care what happens to them because they need to be charged. For example if somebody molests a child, if somebody commits rape, if somebody commits murder, if somebody does something along those lines or adultery, even though they won't punish it or whatever, that's the only type of person that I would turn over to the police. You know what if somebody stole something from me, I would not report them to the police. I would not. If somebody at this church, so don't just go stealing from me now ... I'm just telling you if someone in this church stole from me, I would not because you know what I don't believe that it's just to lock that person in a cage. It's a cruel and unusual punishment. It's not a biblical punishment. The biblical punishment is that they repay what they've stolen either twice as much, four fold or five fold depending on the situation. That's another sermon where I've explained that from the law. What do you steal? Exactly.
If someone hits my car in the parking lot or someone vandalizes within the church or someone steals from me or someone punches me in the face, I'm not going to turn that person over the police because of the fact that it's not right because the Bible says that we should not go to law before the unjust. It should be judged within church. Now, obviously, this doesn't go like I said for capital crimes. If someone is molesting someone, I would turn them over to the police in a heartbeat of course. It's only a wicked person that would try to cover that up if they're actually guilt. First, I would make sure that there's the witnesses and everything, but that's also coming up in the sermon.
Again, I'm not saying that all police are bad. I'm just saying that in general God says this is what they're like, therefore, don't invoke them against one another within the church. It's a very clear teaching of scripture. By the way just so you know that I'm not just anti-every government worker, first of all, my grandfather was a police lieutenant with the LAPD, and my Uncle Bill was a sheriff's deputy with Los Angeles County so there you go. I have family that was in the police department. Honestly I love them and didn't necessarily agree with everything that my grandpa did as a police officer, but of course I think that in general their [inaudible 00:28:36], especially my Uncle Bill.
My Uncle Bill was the cop that you would hope to get if you get pulled over, if you get into trouble. By the way he's a saved Christian, my Uncle Bill. Grandfather was not but he got saved later in life thank God. My Uncle Bill was a born-again child of God, got saved at a Baptist church. He's a real nice guy. He was that exception in the sense that he really did care about helping people. He could let people off the hook if it was something stupid. He was actually going after the real criminals. In fact, he was involved in a situation where he was almost killed. He was this close to being killed because he was wrestling with one of these militant nation of Islam soldiers or something. He's wrestling with the guy. The guy got his gun and took his gun and was about to shoot my uncle. My uncle yelled to his partner, "Shot him." Then the partner shot him because he was about to shot my Uncle Bill. That was a thing where it was used as a training situation for other police officers and everything like that.
Well, after that they told him, because he was receiving all these commendations and everything, they told him they said, "You can have whatever job you want. You can be driving down Malibu Beach in a quad making sure people don't have beer in their ice chest", or whatever the job. He remained working the night shift in the worst ghetto of Los Angeles. That's what he did, the night shift worst ghetto, because he said, "I want to fight real crime. I don't want to write tickets. I don't want to sit there and just harass people and cruise down the beach on a quad or whatever." I do think that his heart was the right police in general.
In fact, there's a funny story that my mom always likes to tell. One time he was called out to a domestic dispute and basically these people are screaming. It was basically three black women and three black men in a house and they're all screaming at each other and fighting and yelling. What happened was they called the police out. The neighbors called the police out. He shows up with his partner. They walk into the place. They said, "We got to get to the bottom of this." The typical procedure was separate them and try to tone things down. Basically his partner takes all the men and takes them into the kitchen. Then Uncle Bill remains in the living room with these three ladies, and they're all mad and everything. He just tells them, he tells them, "Just quiet down. Let's just relax for a minute. Don't say anything. Let's just wait. He's talking to these guys. He'll deal with it in there, and then we'll talk."
They're standing there silently, and my uncle just starts going like this ... They're looking at him like, "What are you doing?" You have to picture my uncle. He's like six foot five or six foot six. He's huge. He's a boxer. He's a big muscular ... He's a really gentle guy, but he's just huge. He's really intimidating. He's really scary. I remember as a kid just being scared of him because he's just massive. He's just standing there. These ladies are like, "What is he doing?" He just starts singing, literally he starts. I don't know the song real well. It's something about, "There is a place ain't nobody crying." It was like, "I'll take you there." I don't know the song. He starts doing this.
Pretty soon he starts singing the song. Pretty soon the other three ladies all join in. They're all singing different parts. They just start singing. They're all singing. Then pretty soon the guys come out of the kitchen. They're like, "Whoa, what's going on?" Pretty soon everybody's singing and clapping, laughing, and then the cops just leave. It was fine. It was like something you see out of a movie or something you know what I mean? I'm just saying at least he's going in there and he's not just kind of kill them all let God sort them out mentality. He's coming in, and he was actually just trying to keep the peace. People in the neighborhood really liked him and stuff because they felt like he was giving them a fair shake. Don't go out of here and say, "Pastor Anderson is just this anarchist that just hates all police. He's just for the criminals."
Look the bottom line is I'm teaching this morning what the Bible says. I don't have some personal agenda, some personal vendetta here. The Bible teaches that most of these people are very corrupt. They've done abominable works. Their throats an open sepulcher. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Their mouth is full cursing and bitterness. The poison of asps is under their lips. Look this goes for cops too, especially cops, because of the fact that a lot of people are drawn to that job not because they want to help things out and make things better but because of money, and the love of money is the root of all evil, and also because they have an ego, pride, arrogancy, "Put on the uniform, put on the badge. I got picked on in junior high. I'm going to make sure that I payback everybody for how they treated me."
I don't want to spend the whole sermon on that but that's all by way of introduction. It's the truth. If you study the Bible you know what I'm saying is true, First Corinthians six, Romans three, etc. Look at if you would John chapter eighteen. I'm going to give you some principals of justice. I'm just going to go quickly through these. In light of what I just explained to you, in light of the fact that God says, "Whatever you do don't go to law before the unjust because they're wicked, they're effeminate, they're adulterers, they're thieves, they're drunks", all these different things that's what they're like don't go to them judge things within the church in light of that, principal number one is that police and government officials are not saints that are above the law.
You can't just automatically believe name, but, yet, today I've sat and watched where in a jury selection process the judge asked the jury, "Would you automatically assume that a policeman is telling the truth? Would you give more weight to his testimony than that of someone else?" They said, "Of course. We're taught to trust our police officers. They're public servants. They love us." They'll just automatically believe it. Therefore, if a policeman says, "This person did it" or, "This evidence is there", they'll just automatically believe it as gospel. That is not biblical according to the Bible, which leads me to number two. Number one is to realize that police and government officials are not saints that are above the law or above despite what your Baptist church's been telling you your whole life parading them across the platform.
Number two, important principal just because someone is arrested does not mean that they're automatically guilty. This is how we think in our society today. If we're going to judge in the church and if we're going to say, "Well we don't want to go to the unjust. We want to judge them at church", we need to know some basic principals of justice. Number one is, the government officials and police officers are not saints that are above the line. Number two it says just because someone is accused or just because someone is arrested that doesn't make them guilty. Look at John chapter eighteen and see this mentality in the Bible. Verse twenty-eight, "Then led they, Jesus, from Caiaphas onto to the hall of judgment and it was early. They themselves went not into the judgment hall lest they should be defiled but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out onto them and said, 'What accusation bring ye against this man?'" You got to love this answer from the Jews here in verse thirty. They answered and said onto him, "If he were not a malefactor we would not have delivered them up onto thee."
They asked, "Well, what's the charge? What is he being charged with?" "Look if he weren't a bad guy, we wouldn't have arrested him. What do you mean what's the charge? Why does not matter?" You see the mentality here of just, "Well, if he's been arrested, if you're being brought before the judge, if you go to court, you're already presumed guilty by most people." Now in America we supposedly have the presumption of innocence. You're supposed to be innocent until you're proven guiltily, but de facto in people's minds these days we just think that you're presumed guilty and you have to prove your innocence which is the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches. Go to Deuteronomy nineteen.
Why is this important, because the Bible says in II Timothy 3:1, "This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come", and he lists off the different things about these perilous times. He he says it'll be a time in verse three of, "false accusers." The Bible says that in the last days one of the characteristics of the last days is false accusers. Also what does the Bible say in Matthew twenty-four about the last days? "The brother will deliver up the brother to death, the father the child, the children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death", Matthew twenty-four. There is an end times phenomenon the Bible says where people are false accusers. It's not just perilous times meaning you walk down the street and it's dangerous. No, it could be perilous times of being accused of crimes that you didn't commit, thrown into prison, or worse because of crimes that you didn't even commit. False accusers are out there.
How do we prevent people from being falsely condemned? Look don't you think that a person who serves God is going to be falsely accused when the Bible says, "Ye all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution"? Don't you think a big part of that is false accusations. I'll say this every pastor of every church I've ever gone to was falsely accused at some point or multiple times. Why, because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. We're living in a time of false accusers. I was just talking to Brother Paul about how my pastor back from Sacramento he got accused of the most ridiculous bizarre thing ever. He was accused and the county was talking about, "We're investigating. We might bring animal cruelty charges", because my pastor was accused of ritually torturing and killing rabbits on a boys picnic. He wasn't even there. He wasn't at the activity.
It was an activity where basically one of the men at the church raised rabbits for food. He actually was teaching the boys. It was a thing where they're learning about hiking. They're learning survival skills. They're learning camping. Basically this guy from the church had these rabbits, and he taught them how to kill the rabbits, slaughter them, butcher them, and eat the meat. It became no, no, pastor ... I'm not going to say his name. That my pastor, Pastor Nichols, they accused him falsely that he was there torturing these animals. I stood up for him. It was after I was already pastoring. I stood up for him. I told everybody I could, "Look this is a lie. This is a fraud." I said, "Even if he did, even if he did torture and kill rabbits, who cares? Is that really what you're so worried about?" He didn't anyway. They were just making food. He wasn't even there.
I'm saying it's one thing after another where you get falsely accused. You know what even if you're not a pastor just if you're a Christian, there's a good chance that you're going to receive false accusations leveled against you at some point in your life whether that be at your job, your school, in your family, in the church whatever. This is part of life. Look at Deuteronomy chapter nineteen. The Bible reads in verse fifteen, "One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sineth. At the mouth of two witnesses or at 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. The judges shall make diligent inquisition. Behold if the witness be a false witness and have testified falsely against his brother, then shall you do onto him as he had thought to have done onto his brother so shalt thou put the evil away from among you."
Now, this is a pretty strong punishment. It says that if you falsely accuse someone, your punishment is whatever their punishment would've been. If you accuse someone of murder and you falsely accuse them and you testify falsely ... You go in there and you gave your oath or affirmation and you say, "I'm going of tell the whole truth", and then you sit there and lie under oath in order to get that person convicted and it's found out that you're a false witness, the Bible says that you would be put to death. Let's say it was about stealing and the punishment was to pay $2,000.00, well, now you pay the $2,000.00 whatever the punishment was.
Look what the Bible says verse nineteen, "Then shall you do onto him as he had thought to have done onto his brother so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. Those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you." He's saying it'll scare people to where they won't commit false witness. They won't bear false witness against their neighbor. Watch this. "Thine eyes shall not pity but life shall go for life. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot", what's he saying? He's saying look if someone lies about evidence and say, "I found this evidence or this is what I saw", in order to falsely accuse someone of murder, that person should be killed. He said life shall go for life.
Don't pity because you might think he didn't kill anybody. All he did was plant evidence. All that office did was just plant evidence. All that guy did was just lie under oath. He's not worthy of death. What does the Bible say, "Don't pity. Life has to go for life" why, because he said others need to hear and fear otherwise the false accusations are going to be rampant. There's going to be a constant planting of evidence. There's going to be a constant lying under oath. Why, because that's the nature of man. God says in order to prevent people from being condemned unjustly, you have to make sure that it's not just one guy who's testimony you're believing. At the mouth of one witness that's not enough. It has to be two or three witnesses. If one is found to be a false witness, they shall be punished with whatever the punishment was.
If our justice system followed this, that means if they were going to give a guy twenty years in prison and it's found that actually this guy lied under oath, the guy was innocent they lied, he goes to prison for twenty years not he gets a two week suspension. He got a reprimand. That's the things it'll be today. It's a misdemeanor. He committed perjury. No, no it should be whatever the punishment was that he's trying to put on someone else that's what the Bible clearly says.
Now, I want you to keep your finger here in Deuteronomy nineteen, and let me show you a similar passage in First Timothy chapter five that's connected to the Deuteronomy nineteen passage. Keep one finger in Deuteronomy nineteen, and look at First Timothy 5:19. Now it's easy to remember. The way I always remember where to find these verses is that First Timothy 5:19 goes with Deuteronomy nineteen. That's a good way to just remember in case you ever need to show someone this or demonstrate this principal to someone. First Timothy 5:19 goes with Deuteronomy nineteen.
It says in First Timothy 5:19, "Against an elder receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear." The elder of course is the pastor. It's saying against the pastor because ... Why? God knows that pastors get accused of stuff all the time because people hate them because they're preaching the truth and rebuking and making a lot of people angry. Does anybody think there's anybody who hates me? Google my name. Actually please don't Google my name. If you do Google my name, you're going to find that there's all kinds of people foaming at the mouth at how much they ... There have been over a hundred people out there with signs and protesting and hating me. I've gotten so many death threats I can't even count. People attack me and harass me in so many weird ways.
Every day almost for certain periods of months I'll get a different magazine in the mail every day. I'm like, "I didn't subscribe to ESPN magazine or Field and Stream or World News and Report, Time magazine, Life magazine and then other weirder magazines. I'm thinking, "Wow, I must have a really poor testimony to the mailman when pornographic magazines are showing up in the mail here", along with Life, along with ESPN, along with every other magazine under the sun because there are people out there who think it's funny to just sign me up for every magazine under the sign to where I'm getting a different magazine every day.
Then the bill comes. It's like, "You chose the pay later option." Because these magazine companies are so stupid, you can just go on there and just click, "Just bill me." They spell my name wrong. They spell the address wrong. It comes out to me and then they keep sending the bill. Every time I get the bill I just tear them up and throw them away because I never booked the thing. I throw away the magazines. I throw away the bill. One time I opened one of the bills just to see how can they just send you a bill when they don't have your credit card? They don't have anything. It's done online. I open up a bill and this is literally what the bill said, "We can understand how you might get busy and forget to pay bills and stuff." It said, "When you book a magazine like this, there's really no excuse." I'm like what in the world I didn't book this thing.
I will say this sometimes when a hiking magazine shows up or something sometimes I'll sit down and be like, "This is a cool magazine." I got a Runners World or something. I was like, "I'm actually interested in some of this stuff on the running front." Look I've had people send me just envelops spilling with white powder out of them like an anthrax scare. You open it up, and there's a note where they cut out letters from a newspaper like on a movie or something telling me how they're going to kill me at this date and this time.
One time my wife got called into the post master general of Phoenix or whatever. They're like, "Look we need to talk to you. We've got some mail. This is really serious." They sit down. I couldn't make it. I was out of town or something. They bring her in. They show her this note that's talking about how they're going to come kill us on this certain date and time. My wife says to the guy, "Well, at least we got about another month and a half." The guy is like, "Why are you joking about this? This isn't funny." She's tried to tell him, "We're used to it. It's been going on for years."
I mean we've had people commit felonies against us where they would forward our mail to somewhere. That's a felony. You'll go to federal prison for mail tampering, for forwarding someone's mail without their consent. Now we're always giving gifts to our mailman and stuff like, "Hey, buddy, remember we never forward our mail." They really take care of us because we treat them right. Treat your mailman and your garbage man right is what I've learned. It's true. I learned that from my boss back in Chicago. He taught he. He said, "Buy a Christmas gift for your garbage man and a Christmas gift for your mailman. You'll always get your mail. Everything will work out great. It's the best investment you'll ever make," he said. Your alley will always be cleaned up. Your garbage will always be picked up no problem.
The bottom line is there are tons of people hating on Christians that's just reality. What does it say? Look at the comparison between Deuteronomy nineteen and First Timothy 5:19. It says in Deuteronomy nineteen verse, nineteen, "Then shall you do onto him as he had thought to have done onto his brother so shalt thou put away the evil from among you, and those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you." What's the evil? The false witness. He says, "They'll hear and fear." Well, look at First Timothy chapter 5:19, "Against an elder receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear."
This is what that's saying. If a person makes a false accusation, a sinful witness, against a pastor, that person should be publicly rebuked before the entire church that others would also fear. If they accuse the pastor of anything that he didn't do, it should be publicly rebuked so that others would fear to be humiliated. As they sought to humiliate the pastor, they shall be publicly humiliated. Actually if you compare the two scriptures, they use the same wording about others hearing and fearing and so forth. I got to hurry up I'm almost out of time here.
Number one we said police and government officials are not saints who are above ... except the ones who are saints, which is the minority, meaning that they're Christians. They've saved. They're not saints. They're not above the law. They're not sinless. You can't just automatically believe them. Number two just because someone gets arrested doesn't mean that they're automatically guilty. Just because someone is accused of something doesn't mean they're automatically guilty. Number three, two or three witnesses are necessary to condemn someone. You can't just go one person's word. If it's their word against yours, if it's just two people only, there's no physical evidence, there's no video recording or pictures ... Even those things sometimes have be taken with a grain of salt in the day we're living in when you can fabricate video and picture and everything. You can't just take one person's testimony and just condemn someone. It's at the mouth of two our three witnesses.
If there's a doubt where it's just your words against theirs, then you rule not guilty. Hello. When in doubt, it's not guilty. That's the way our justice system is supposed to work. You're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt, not just a doubt like, "Well, I guess. I mean it's possible that they might have don't it if aliens landed", or whatever. Honestly it's beyond a reasonable doubt where any reasonable person would say, "You know what this person did it. Period." If you're like, "Man, I don't know. I just don't know if they did it" ... This is also good preaching for you to hear if you're ever going on a jury by the way. If you're on a jury and you're sitting there like, "Man, I just don't know. I don't know if they did it", then it's not guilty. Let God deal with that person. You can't just sit there and just condemn people when it's really questionable.
Now, obviously, if the evidence shows that they're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt where you're 99% sure, okay. If you're 80% sure, it's not guilty. Now, in a civil proceeding it's a preponderance of evidence. Meaning if people are suing each other and you're on the jury, you go with the preponderance of evidence. Meaning if you're 51% sure this person's right and 49% sure this person's right, you rule in favor of this person, just whatever tips past the 50/50 mark. That's not the way it works in a criminal trial, friend. Just because you're like, "I'm thinking he probably did it more than not did it", no that's not enough to condemn someone. It has to be beyond reasonable doubt where you're 99% sure that person did it. It's a totally different standard because we're not just talking about money here, we're talking about someone being put to death possibly or locked in a cage for many years. Two or three witnesses are necessary to condemn.
Principal number four is that a confession does not always mean that a person is guilty. This is where you'll lose people on this. Go to II Samuel chapter one. This is true though. A lot of people right now, even in this room, might be thinking to themselves, "Pastor Anderson just went off the cliff here. He just went too far. A confession doesn't mean you're guilty? Hello. They confessed to it. Of course they did it." This is what 99% of people think, don't they? Ninety-nine percent of people, "He got arrested, for sure did it. The police only arrest you when they're sure you did it anyway." "He confessed. He plead guilty or confessed of course he did it then." Well, let me give you an example in the Bible of somebody confessing to a crime that they didn't commit and being killed as a result.
II Samuel chapter one verse five, "David said unto the young man that told him, 'How knowest thou that Saul and that Jonathan his son be dead?' The young man that told him said, 'As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa, behold Saul leaned upon his spear, and lo the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. When he looked behind him, he saw me and called onto me and I answered here am I. He said onto me, 'Who art thou?' I answered him, 'I'm an Amalekite.' He said onto me again, 'Stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish is come upon me because my life is yet whole in me.' I stood upon him and slew him because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen. I took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and have brought them hither onto my Lord. Then David took hold on his clothes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him. They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they were fallen by the sword."
"David said onto the young man that told him, 'Whence art thou?' He answered, 'I'm the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.' David said onto him, 'How was thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?' David called one of the young men and said, 'Go near and fall upon him.' He smote him that he died. David said onto him, 'Thy blood be upon thy head. For thy mouth hath testified against thee saying, 'I have slain the Lord's anointed.'" Now, here's the thing about this he didn't do it. He did not slay the Lord's anointed because of the fact that we have the story of Saul's death in First Samuel chapter thirty-one just right on the same page probably in your Bible there. We have the same story repeated from a second witness in the book of First Chronicles. We have both First Samuel and First Chronicles consistently telling us a different story where he asked the armor bearer to kill him and he doesn't.
Look at end of verse four. I just want to point out one thing at the end of verse four. This is chapter thirty-one of First Samuel verse four, "Therefore, Saul took a sword and fell upon it." Now it says that he died. That's now he died. The Bible says, "So Saul died", in verse six. In First Chronicles it doesn't even bring up anything about this Amalekite telling this fake story and being killed. I'm not going to go into it for sake of time. I've preached it in my sermon on II Samuel chapter one where I went into great detail and proved it beyond any shadow of a doubt. Number one, this guys got the wrong weapon, "Saul fell on a spear." Both of God's testimonies both say that it was a sword not a spear. Those are two very different weapons. This guy gets the weapon wrong, and he's contradicting two other scriptures. He's lying. Now, you say, "Well, why would the guy lie? Why would the guy confess that?", because he thought he was going to get a reward.
Later in the book of II Samuel David said, "The guy who told me that he killed Saul that he was going to receive a reward." He lied and said, "I killed that guy", he wanted to receive a reward. Then David puts him to death. You say, "Well, that's a silly example. That has nothing to do with the example." It is the example of someone being put to death for a crime that they didn't commit that they confessed to. You say, "Yes, but why would people confess to murder today if they didn't do it?" Well, here's why because they get put in an interrogation room. If you would, turn to Acts chapter twenty-two. They get literally tortured and psychologically abused and pushed to the point where they make a fake confession. It happens all the time.
By the way did you know that police interrogators are allowed to lie to the people that they're interrogating? It's considered standard procedure. When people say, "Wait a minute they lied to me", that's standard procedure. "I find no wrong doing here", the judge will say. They're allowed to do that. It's true. Look it up. This is what they'll do. They'll say to them, "Look we already have all the evidence. Your buddy already said that you did it. We have all the evidence. Here's the thing if you confess, we'll give you a plea bargain. You're going to be found guilty anyway because we already have all the evidence. If you won't confess, you're going to be getting the death penalty. If you do confess, you'll get eighteen years. You'll be out in nine years. At least you could still get out and live a normal life again as opposed to being killed."
They will intimidate. They will torture. You say, "Well, it's not torture." People think that literally in order to be tortured you have to be tied to an anthill and have honey poured on you or something. Some torture methods are very subtle like just not letting somebody sleep. You've heard of the Chinese water torture. It's just a drop of water hitting their forehead. It'll torture you eventually and drive you insane.
There're all different methods of torture like just badgering someone and just keep manipulating them, messing with their mind. They'll do the good cop/bad cop where one guys is like, "We know you did it. You're lying. You did it. Just tell us how. Why did you do it anyway?" "I didn't do it." "Why did you do it?" They'll just keep messing with you, "What was the weapon? Where were you? Was it this place? Which part of the house did you kill them in?", just on and on and on, just badger, badger badger. Then another cop will come in and be real calm and be like, "Look, do you need a hug right now? Listen, man, I'm just trying to help you. Look, you're not going to get into any trouble, but just tell us what happened?"
People will do this to a five year old. The CPS will do this to a little kid. That's why if the CPS ever wants to interrogate your child alone, never let them do it. Lawyers will tell you too. You need to call a lawyer because they'll take your kid aside and be like, "Show me where they touched you inappropriately?" They just make stuff up because they're kids. They'll tell them a fake story twenty times, and then the little kid will just not be able to separate the reality. There are all kinds of ways that people make false confessions usually it's a plea bargain. "If you plead guilty, we'll give you a better deal. We'll get you off the hook." "If you confess that you and so and so did it and you actually testify against so and so in court, you'll get a break. You'll get out sooner." They manipulate.
By the way the police don't really use classic torture methods they more just use badgering, mind control games of lying and deception. When you start talking about the military and you start talking about the CIA and you start talking about foreign governments and things you start talking about the Soviet Union for example, they would literally torture people. People will confess to anything under torture. It's pretty much been shown. It's been proven because you'll just do anything to make the torture stop. You'll just tell them whatever. "If I sign this confession you'll stop torturing me? Where do I sign? Who's got the pen", because people can only take so much. Just because someone makes a confession doesn't mean a person's guilty. Confessions are often made through abusive interrogation techniques.
Look if you would in Acts 22:21. That's why you'll have people confess and then later deny it. Look at Acts 22:21, "He said onto me depart for I will send thee far onto the gentiles." This is Paul preaching about how Christ wanted to send him to preach to the gentiles. Well, Jews didn't like that. The Jews here in verse twenty-two, "They gave him audience onto this word and then lifted up their voices and said, 'Away with such a fellow from the Earth for it is not fit that he should live.' As they cried out and cast off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle and bade that he should be examined by scourging." Now that's quite an interrogation.
The chief captain doesn't even know what he's being accused of. He doesn't even know what the crime is. He says, "Let's examine this guy by scourging." "Tell us what you did." I mean does that sound like a fair process? "Examine him by scourging that he might know wherefore they cried so against him." "I'm trying to figure why are these people so mad at you? Why are they crying against you." "I don't know." Look does this seem like this is the only time they did this. "Go and examine him by scourging." "As they bound him with thongs, Paul said onto the centurion that stood by, 'Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is Roman and uncondemned?' When the centurion heard that he went and told the chief captain saying, 'Take heed what thou doest for this man's a Roman.' Then the chief captain came and said onto him, 'Tell me art thou a Roman because if not I'm going to do whatever I want with you?'"
"Because if you're not an American citizen, I'm going to beat the snot out of you and figure what you did, boy. You're going to tell me what you did, boy. You're going to talk to me, son. You're going to talk to me, boy." Look there are some sadistic cops out there. It's true. I mean you've seen the videos that pop up on You Tube, cop kicks a person in the face for no reason, cop tasers people randomly. It's all out there. "Then the chief captain said, 'Tell me art thou Roman?' He said, 'Yes.'" It's actually pronounced yay. "Yeah, man." The chief captain answered, "With a great sum obtained I this freedom." Paul said, "I was freeborn." "Then straightway they departed from him, which should've examined him, and the chief captain also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman and because he had bound him."
"When the government fears the people there's liberty. When the people fear the government, there's tyranny", it was Thomas Jefferson that said that. The bottom line is here that this idea of, first of all, it's unbiblical to say, "Certain people have rights because they're a citizen", our Bill Of Rights in the United States Constitution says, "Cruel and unusual punishment shall not be inflicted." It doesn't say, "Upon American citizens." No. Actually our rights come from God, "We're endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights." It doesn't say, "We're endowed by government when we become a citizen." No. No one should be tortured for any reason. No one should be tortured. Period. That's not one of God's punishments. I got to hurry up.
Last point quickly go to II Corinthians chapter two. Number five, forgiveness should be extended to a person after they're punished. If we want to have justice, number one realize just because they're accused it doesn't mean they're guilty. Police are not above making things up or lying. Judges aren't above lying and being corrupt and on the take or being free Masons. My dad walked into a court room one time in a civil liability and it was Judge Wapner. Remember Judge Wapner from the People's Court? Who knows what I'm talking about? Who knows who judge Wapner is? Well, my dad lived in LA. That's where all TV shows come from. This is before the People's Court was on TV. My dad was trying to get paid from a guy that had ripped him off. He went to small claim's court. Judge Wapner was the judge. The guy that my dad was against, the defendant, threw up a Masonic hand sign to the judge, and the judge ruled against him even though all the evidence was in my dad's favor because he's a free Mason.
You're going to tell me that judges that are Mormons and free Masons or Jews or whatever they're not going to stick up for each other and protect each other? Also there's this thing of a good old boy club of all cops and all judges where they'll cover each other because next time it's going to be them when they're committing adultery on the clock. They all cover each other. In fact, they'll even extend the same protection to firefighters. I have nothing against firefighters. In fact, I wish that the police would be more like firefighters where I'll call you if I need you, you know what I mean, because the fire department doesn't go trolling for fires. It's like if I need you, I'll call you. That'd be great if the police would be more like the fire department.
It did make us mad one time because one time we were somewhere and we were parked and we forgot to feed the meter. There were three of our vehicles and we went over the meter. One of the cars that was with us had a fire department, "Hey, I'm a fire department wife", or whatever and we got ticketed and they didn't, right next to each other doing the exact same thing because it's this good old boy club. I've had cops pull me over and I was wearing my fire alarm shirt, "You're a firefighter." I'm just like, "Yes, I am." No, I'm just kidding. I didn't do that. I'm like, "No. I'm a fire alarm tech." "We'll, throw the book at you then if you're an electrician. For a second I thought you were one of us."
Number three, if we're going to judge in the church, two or three witnesses my, friend, there needs to be evidence not just one person's word. Then fourth a confession doesn't mean that they're guilty because many times confessions are by lying to people, forced confessions, torture, brutal interrogations, etc. Then number five, a real important principal, if a person is condemned and found guilty once they receive the biblical punishment, whatever the biblical punishment is for that crime, they should be forgiven and it should be forgotten once they receive the biblical punishment. You say, "Well, what about pedophiles?" They should be dead. This is a non-issue. I'm saying once they receive the biblical punishment for stealing or whatever else forgiven and forgotten.
What does the Bible say in II Corinthians chapter two verse six, "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many, so that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him." This idea of people carrying around a criminal record for the rest of their life and not being able to get job the Bible says, "Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor. Let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth." You can just sit there, "Well, you can't work here because when you were eighteen you smoked pot or vandalized or stole something." Let people live things down. That's part of justice, let people live it down. When they've done the time for the crime, it's over.
Whatever the biblical punish the if they've done it, let it go and be forgiving. You know what if you're not forgiving, you're not Christ like. There needs to be a punishment, but then we need to forgive and confirm our love toward people once they've been punished and restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. If they're found to be stealing or lying or whatever, let it go.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word. I know that there are possibly some people who would hear this sermon and be offended and say, "Well, I'm never coming back." Well, Lord, I'm glad that those people heard it while they were here then. Since they're never coming back, I'm glad they heard this important truth from your word because we need every person in America who's going on a jury or every church member in America to learn these principals of justice. Just because our country has a criminal injustice system, God forbid that we as your people would ever be unjust. As soon as we hear a rumor about somebody or a false accusation about somebody or as soon as we get just the testimony of one vindictive person, help us not to just jump on, "They're guilty." Lord, help us to judge righteous judgment not judge according to the appearance. Help us to search the scriptures for even more principals on justice than what were given this morning. In Jesus name we pray amen.
