to steadfast baptist church let's open up our hymnals and start in 162 to god be the glory page
162 to god be the glory safer to god safely this night you have blessed the person minds to use
this name i pray second song page 412 one word christian soldiers 400 christian soldiers this
church if you didn't get you a bulletin woman's chapter 10 verse 8 inside is their service in
soul winning times they were having a special service at two else should likely go back on the
right is the list of our expecting ladies please be in prayer for them if you did not get your
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if there's an issue or an error please let us know our trip to the philippines with our
missionaries please just pray that their trip will go smoothly and they'll be able to get out of here
on time and then on the back is our prayer list that's pretty much all i really have as far as
announcements we'll just go ahead and go straight to our next psalm psalm 15 so it's in our special
binders psalm 15 psalm 15 in your special binders psalm 15 you can open up your bibles to numbers
chapter 35 numbers chapter number chapter 35 the bible says the lord spake unto moses in the plains
of moab by jordan near jericho saying command the children of israel that they give unto the levites
of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in and ye shall give also unto the levites
suburbs for the cities round about them,
and the cities shall they have to dwell in,
and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle,
for their goods, and for all their beasts.
And the suburbs of the cities,
which ye shall give unto the Levites,
shall reach from the wall of the city
and outward a thousand cubits round about.
And ye shall measure from without the city
on the east side, two thousand cubits,
and on the south side, two thousand cubits,
and on the west side, two thousand cubits,
and on the north side, two thousand cubits.
And the cities shall be in the midst.
This shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.
And among the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites,
there shall be six cities for refuge,
which ye shall appoint for the manslayer
that he may flee thither.
And to them ye shall add forty and two cities.
So all the cities which ye shall give to the Levites
shall be forty and eight cities.
Them shall ye give with their suburbs.
And the cities which ye shall give shall be
of the possession of the children of Israel.
From them that have many ye shall give many,
but from them that have few ye shall give few.
Every one shall give of his cities unto the Levites
according to his inheritance which he inheriteth.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them,
When ye become over Jordan into the land of Canaan,
then ye shall appoint you cities
to be cities for refuge for you,
that the slayer may flee thither,
which killeth any person at unawares.
And they shall be unto you cities for refuge
from the avenger, that the manslayer die not
until he stand before the congregation in judgment.
And of these cities which ye shall give,
six cities shall ye have for refuge.
Ye shall give three cities on this side Jordan,
and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan,
which shall be cities of refuge.
These six cities shall be a refuge,
both for the children of Israel and for the stranger,
and for the sojourner among them,
that every one that killeth any person unawares
may flee thither.
And if ye smite him with an instrument of iron
so that he die, he is a murderer,
the murderer shall surely be put to death.
And if ye smite him with throwing a stone
wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer,
the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Or if ye smite him with a hand weapon of wood
wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer,
the murderer shall surely be put to death.
The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer.
When he meeteth him, he shall slay him.
But if ye thrust him of hatred,
or hurl at him by laying of weight, that he die,
or an enmity smite him with his hand, that he die,
he that smote him shall surely be put to death,
for he is a murderer.
The revenger of blood shall slay the murderer
when he meeteth him.
But if ye thrust him suddenly without enmity,
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 harm,
then 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.
But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border
of the city of his refuge, whither he was 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 in 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
to cause him to die.
Moreover, ye shall take no satisfaction for the life
of a murderer, which is guilty of death.
But he shall be surely put to death.
And ye 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 ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are.
For blood defileth the land.
And the land cannot be cleansed of the blood
that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit
wherein I dwell.
For I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you again for this day.
Thank you for another opportunity to be at church.
Please bless the remainder of this service.
Please bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches your word.
Fill him with your Holy Spirit.
Please help us to become better Christians.
In Jesus' name, amen.
- Men, we're going through our doctrinal sermon series
and we have come to a new section
that's about the death penalty specifically.
And so that's the title of the evening sermon
is the death penalty.
And it's brought up repeatedly here
in the book of Numbers chapter 35.
I want to quickly read our doctrinal statement
on this particular issue
and then kind of dive into this chapter a little bit.
But the Bible says here in Numbers 35
that the murderer will be put to death.
And it's not just murderers.
So there are other examples and we'll go through those.
But our doctrinal statement is derived
from this passage and a few others.
In our doctrinal statement it says everyone is a sinner,
but certain sins should be punished
with the death penalty by the government,
such as murder, which is mentioned here in Numbers 35-16,
rape, Deuteronomy 22-25, homosexuality,
which is Leviticus 20 verse 13,
bestiality, Leviticus 20 verse 15,
adultery, Deuteronomy 22 verses 24,
witchcraft, Leviticus 20 verse 27,
striking or cursing your parents,
Deuteronomy 21, 18 through 21,
and any other capital punishment
outlined in the Old Testament,
which is not expressly done away with
in the New Testament, i.e. the Sabbath.
So I didn't spell out in our doctoral statement
literally every single reason for the death penalty,
but I brought up a handful of ones
that are probably more so in line with the idea
that our culture and our society
doesn't really agree with these,
and I think that they should be enforced
and brought up and discussed,
and I do believe in the capital punishments
outlined in the Old Testament.
Progressive Christianity today would say,
oh, in the New Testament, we don't do this.
Some people would say that does not apply
or we're misunderstanding the Old Testament,
and there's a lot of arguments against this,
but the Bible couldn't be clearer
that murderers should be put to death.
It says here, look at verse 16 again,
and if he smite him with an instrument of iron
so that he die, 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 die, he is a murderer.
The murderer shall surely be put to death,
or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood,
wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer,
and the murderer shall surely be put to death.
Of course, it's bringing up several different situations,
but of course, the implication is,
it doesn't really matter how he did it.
If someone kills another person, they're a murderer,
and then notice again, the Bible doesn't say
he shall be put to death.
It says he shall surely be put to death.
Notice it's putting an emphasis on this particular statute
of putting someone to death.
Now, it does bring up a scenario where someone killed him
or killed someone on accident,
and it wasn't necessarily on purpose.
Look at verse 22, "But if he thrust him suddenly
"without enmity, or have cast upon him anything
"without lying 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 harm,
"then the congregation shall judge between the slayer
"and the avenger of blood according to these judgments."
So it's basically saying, like,
if you didn't use a weapon
that is clearly used to kill someone,
if you didn't hate the guy in times past,
if you were not his enemy in times past,
so there's no suspicion as to why
you would have potentially killed this person,
'cause you could have someone that's your enemy,
and they quite accidentally kill you,
but it's like, no, no, we can tell,
you were obviously, you didn't like this guy,
you were trying to make it look like an accident,
but it was legit.
So it's saying, look, this has to be a legit accident,
where someone accidentally kills someone.
In modern vernacular, we might call this manslaughter,
as opposed to other statutes,
when we talk about someone being killed.
Sometimes you call it involuntary manslaughter,
the idea that you accidentally kill someone,
which is still a crime,
it's still, there's gonna be punishment,
it's just perhaps not worthy of the death penalty specifically.
Think about the logic of this,
why would the Bible go in such detail
to talk about when or when not
you should implement the death penalty
for certain types of murder,
if it's just like, oh, none of it matters,
death penalty doesn't even exist,
no, all sins are equal,
just we're all sinners.
I mean, what's the absurdity of the Bible
just having all this different detail,
all these different scenarios,
all these different situations,
and differentiating between them,
if all sins equal,
if every single scenario has the exact same punishment.
Now, obviously, we have different punishments
because these are different crimes.
Even in our society today,
while we have lesser punishments than the Bible requires,
we still differentiate
between an involuntary man of slaughter
and just a first degree homicide
where you're purposely killing someone,
intentionally killing someone.
We differentiate between these things.
Why?
Because it's just obvious, it's super clear.
And people that don't want to take the nuance
to understand this are really just detrimental
to society as a whole.
Society as a whole should understand these nuances
and realize why we have the laws that we do
and want to have laws like this.
If you keep reading in this chapter,
notice what it says again in verse 30,
"Who so killeth any person?
The murderer shall be put to death
by the mouth of witnesses,
but one witness shall not testify against any person
to cause him to die.
Moreover, he shall take no satisfaction
for the life of a murderer,
which is guilty of death,
but he shall be surely put to death."
So, you know, the death penalty is an extreme punishment.
It's a severe punishment.
And so the Bible is saying
we should never allow at least one person's testimony
to cause someone to be put to death.
You need more than at least one witness
because this is a very extreme, severe situation.
So, of course, there are, you know, catch,
there's a way for God to try and keep the innocent
from being put to death unlawfully.
But obviously, in any system, there can always be abuse.
There can always be a situation
where some innocent person is maligned.
We see this actually brought up in the Bible
where there's a certain man
who doesn't wanna sell his vineyard, Naboth's vineyard,
and he ends up getting falsely accused.
And then, of course, he is slain.
Two sons of Belial lie about him,
say that he blasphemed God,
say that he blasphemed the kings, all lies,
and they use that to basically just cause him to be killed.
But even when you read the text,
it's kind of clear that they didn't really
go through the true legal proceedings.
It's kind of a kangaroo court.
Everybody's kind of conspiring against him anyways.
But in general, if you implement these kind of policies
like God's Word says,
you're gonna have the least amount of collateral damage.
You're gonna have the least amount of innocent victims.
If you're not punishing murderers,
you're gonna increase murder.
You're gonna incentivize murder.
You're gonna have more people killing.
If you just put everyone to death
based on one witness testimony,
then you have too many innocent people being put to death.
So the Bible just kind of has this perfect balance of,
hey, you need to put murderers to death,
but also you need to make sure
you have clear and concise evidence,
more than at least one witness.
And this is gonna limit the number of innocent people
that are gonna be victims in this particular scenario.
If you go in either direction,
you're gonna increase the number of innocent victims
that will exist.
And people that try to argue against this stuff,
really just have a bad spirit, have a bad attitude,
and don't understand society as a whole.
It's very clear here that he should surely be put to death.
Verse 31 even says this moreover,
you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer,
which is guilty of death,
but he shall surely be put to death.
Notice again, the Bible is just emphasizing this.
What do these verses mean
if the death penalty doesn't even exist?
Of course the death penalty is supposed to exist.
And of course here the Bible is saying,
hey, if someone commits murder,
even if we like the guy,
even if he was a really good running back,
you know, the Jews,
hey, we don't take any satisfaction
in the life of a murderer.
You know, these people should be put to death.
Now in his defense,
I think then his wife like committed adultery
against him or something.
So obviously if you had adultery laws, correct,
maybe Jews wouldn't have taken the law on his own hands.
That's a different sermon for a different time.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 22,
go to Deuteronomy chapter 22.
Let's look at some other examples
that are mentioned, at least in the Bible specifically,
about people being put to death, murder.
And again, the Bible describes basically a first degree,
probably even second and third degree,
based on how our laws are.
It's basically like almost any fault at all.
If you kill someone, you would be put to death.
If it's complete accident,
if it's something where it's kind of out of control,
bad luck, bad happenstance,
then the Bible describes that if you were to kill someone,
you could flee to the city of refuge.
However, you had to actually make it there
before the revenger of blood caught you.
Because if the revenger of blood caught you,
they could still kill you,
even though you had this special provision.
And if they caught you without the city of refuge,
they could kill you.
And it kind of just pictures like salvation itself,
that we're almost all like this guy
that's accidentally killed someone,
'cause it's like the picture of we're all sinners.
And the thing is, if you don't get saved
before the devil comes and gets you,
well, you're gonna go to hell.
And of course, what saves you is going to that city
where the priest is,
and what gives you the redemption is his death.
So the Jesus Christ's death is what covers our sin
in the same way that the death of the priest
allowed that person that committed accidental homicide
to return back to society.
And so there's a lot of overlaps,
a lot of parallels there that the Bible uses.
Deuteronomy 22, look at verse 25.
The Bible says, but if a man find a betrothed damsel
in the field and the man force her and lie with her,
then the man only that lay with her shall die.
Says, but under the damsel thou shalt do nothing,
there is in the damsel no worthy,
or there's no sin worthy of death.
For as when a man riseth against his neighbor
and slayeth him, even so is this matter.
For he found her in the field and the betrothed damsel cried
and there was none to save her.
So in the sense of a woman being forced,
screaming and you know, yelling for help,
there's no opportunity for her to be rescued
or delivered from the situation.
And a man does this, that man would be put to death.
The Bible even says it's like murder.
It's very similar.
It says, as when a man rises against his neighbor
and slayeth him, even so is this matter.
So it's basically saying that this would be equivalent
on par with murder itself, that this would be the law.
Go to Leviticus chapter 20, Leviticus chapter 20.
Now some people would say, oh well, the Bible is like
pro-rape because the Bible says you have to marry a rapist.
Well, that's like the NIV, okay?
The King James Bible does not say that whatsoever.
The Bible says that rape is equivalent to murder
and that murderers should be put to death
and rapists should be put to death.
We live in a society and a culture today though
where many people are not being put to death for rape.
And then of course we also have the flip side
where some people are being accused of rape
and it's not what the Bible describes as rape either,
where it's not a man just finding a woman
that's screaming and crying
and being forced against her will.
It's just they regret the fact that the guy
that they hooked up with at a party isn't rich or something.
And so then now it's rape.
It's like, that's not really rape.
Okay, so obviously we kind of have a screwed up society
on these particular issues.
And then because rape is such a serious offense,
sometimes we will get the book thrown at them
when it's probably not what should have happened.
And then on the flip side,
people that should have the book,
have the stones thrown at them,
are not receiving the stones thrown at them.
And so of course, the further you get away
from the word of God,
the more confusion you have in society.
Leviticus chapter 20 says in verse 13,
"If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman,
both of them have committed an abomination.
They shall surely be put to death.
Their blood shall be upon them."
So of course the Bible describes a fag or a lesbian
that they should just be put to death.
Of course Romans 1 emphasizes the women
being on the same level as men
and how they're worthy of death.
So a lot of older laws would actually cite Leviticus 20, 13
and Romans 1 in the capital law punishment section
just to emphasize that this is the law.
Now I've preached this before
and obviously we got a lot of attention as a church.
This is what people often accuse me of.
It's like, "Why do you emphasize that one?"
It's like, "Where were you when I preached
against murderers being put to death?"
Or "rapist" or "adultery" or all that.
It's not like I don't preach the other stuff.
It's just that the "rape community"
doesn't come and protest our church.
The "murder community" doesn't come and protest our church
because there's a difference between the death penalty
and being a reprobate.
And so, not everybody that's guilty
of the death penalty is a reprobate,
but there is an overlap between those
that are guilty of sodomy and being a reprobate,
and those people are filled with Satan,
and so that's why they come and protest churches.
And again, you know, it's crazy to me,
you know, it seems like some people are like more offended
at the reprobate doctrine
than the death penalty part of the doctrine,
but at the end of the day, you know,
I feel like every Christian,
regardless of how they feel about the reprobate doctrine,
should at least be able to just say,
"Yeah, they deserve the death penalty."
But they don't even want to say that,
because you'll be like,
"Hey, they should be put to death."
And they're like,
"Yeah, but that's because you think they're reprobate."
No, it doesn't matter if they're reprobate or not.
I think rapists should get the death penalty.
I think murderers should get the death penalty.
You know, the death penalty is
irregardless of the reprobate doctrine itself.
This is just a crime, a capital punishment.
It's a crime against nature,
as many people have said in the past,
and I totally agree with that.
And of course, the Bible is describing it's disgusting,
it's filthy.
Some people would say, "Oh, this is a private thing."
It's never private though.
And of course, they go up and dance on the streets
and they have their little pride parades.
And of course, they're trying to include children
and taking advantage of children.
All the stories about these people, they're never private.
There's no such thing as this, you know, Mr. So-and-so
and his friend or whatever.
And they're just so nice and it's a modern family.
No, no, no, they're adopting children.
No, in real life.
And of course, they're not really adopting them.
They're doing what it says in Genesis chapter number 19
and Judges chapter 19, what they're really like
is that they're predators and rapists.
We already established that rapists should be put to death.
And so it's disgusting, it's unnatural, it's vile,
it's disgusting, it should be put to death.
This whole chapter is just basically a whole group
of people that should be put to death.
Look at verse 15, it says, and if a man lie with beast,
he shall surely be put to death,
and ye shall slay the beast.
So of course, bestiality should be put to death.
Look at verse 27 here in this particular chapter.
If a man also, or woman that hath a familiar spirit,
or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death,
they shall stone them with stones,
their blood shall be upon them.
So a man that's a wizard,
or a woman that hath a familiar spirit,
they're supposed to be put to death.
So you have people practicing witchcraft,
their put to death,
you have individuals and bestiality,
sodomy, all this kind of stuff.
I wanna go to Deuteronomy again,
go back to Deuteronomy chapter 21,
and I wanna look at another few laws here.
So I'm just going through the ones
in our doctoral statement.
Of course, the Bible brings up other things
like an incest and other stuff like this.
I'm not gonna necessarily belabor you
with all of those particular ones,
but there's about 15 or so,
15 to 18, depending on exactly how you classify,
how much overlap, how much nuance you give.
Anywhere from about a dozen to about 20
would be about how many capital law punishments
exist in the Bible, depending on how you classify them,
categorize them, if you clump them together,
or if you separate certain ones.
But in general, it's not that many, okay?
Let's read a couple more, Deuteronomy 21,
look at verse number 18.
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son,
which will not obey the voice of his father
or the voice of his mother, and that when they have
chastised him, will not hearken unto them,
then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him
and bring him out unto the elders of his city
and under the gate of his place,
and they shall say unto the elders of his city,
this our son is stubborn and rebellious,
he will not obey our voice, he's a glutton and a drunkard,
and all the men of his city shall stone him with stones
that he die.
So shall they put evil away from among you,
and all Israel shall hear in fear.
Again, some people really get nervous about,
or become squeamish about this particular statute.
But honestly, if you think about this logically,
if a young man will not just completely refuse
to listen to their mom or dad,
when they're punished, they're not gonna obey them.
How is this person gonna be a productive member of society?
How is he gonna obey his boss?
How is he gonna obey law enforcement?
And of course, this is what you'd probably see
is a lot of the Antifa type individuals
who are just so detrimental to society.
They don't want jobs.
They're just there to get paid by bad people
to harass law enforcement, to commit crimes,
to cause uproarers in society and in our city.
And you know, those people should be put to death.
If someone's just gonna be a drunkard and a glutton
and refuse to respect all authority,
the Bible says that we should reinforce
the parental authority and have that child put to death.
And I mean, it's like some people just don't get it.
I mean, if you had a son who you're disciplining
and they're committing crimes
and you can't get them to stop.
I mean, you're punishing them like the Bible says.
They won't stop.
They're gonna just drink alcohol.
They're gonna get tattoos.
They're gonna go out and just be just a complete derelict.
They have no respect for authority.
Why would you even want that person in society?
Of course, the Bible is saying
that society should actually put that person to death.
Yet, many people get all nervous about this.
And of course, I got a lot of heat one time
'cause I said, put the lazy gamers to death.
And I wasn't saying like,
just because you play video games,
you should be put to death.
But there's probably a correlation
between some kids getting like super addicted,
just like video games and drugs and alcohol and whatever,
just being lazy and not wanting to work
and just disrespecting their parents
and their dangerous society.
There was a story, I think one of our friends, Pastor Oz,
had recently shared and put out
that some kid got mad about video games
and went and just like stabbed his brother
and killed his brother.
I've heard of another story.
A dad was frustrated with his son
for playing too much video games,
was wasting his life, causing problems.
So the dad took his video games away
and the son killed his parents, killed his dad.
I mean, it's just, you're such a bad person, Pastor Oz.
You're saying put the lazy gamer to death.
Yeah, but if you don't, he might put his parents to death.
And is it really, really a dad deserves
to be slaughtered by his own son
for wanting to take away video games from his kid?
He's trying to help his kid.
He actually loves his kid
and he's trying to help him
to actually be a functioning member of society
to get a job and to help himself and to become a man
and to not just waste his life and then he gets slaughtered.
Why?
Because there's a rebellious spirit there
that needs to be squashed.
And if discipline can't squash it, the Bible says,
well, this person needs to be crushed by the law.
And of course, that's a very unpopular idea,
but you know, I believe the Bible.
You can believe whatever you want.
I believe the word of God.
Deuteronomy 22, verse 25.
But if a man, oh, we already read the one, sorry.
I think that's pretty much all the ones I'm gonna cover
as far as, oh, no, there's one more.
I'm sorry, Deuteronomy 22, verse 24.
That's the one I wanted.
Deuteronomy 22, verse 24.
Let's use verse 23 as well for context.
It says, "If a damsel that is a virgin
"be betrothed unto her husband,
"and a man find her in the city and lie with her,
"then you shall bring both of them out
"under the gate of that city,
"and she'll stone them with stones that they die,
"the damsel because she cried not,
"being in the city and the man
"because he hath humbled his neighbor's wife,
"so thou shalt put away evil from among you."
So the Bible also describes the death penalty for adultery.
Of course, this would be extremely and wildly unpopular
and has been historically even just because of the fact
that so many people commit adultery.
But biblically speaking, this is what you should have.
And of course, not doing this
causes a lot of problems in society.
A man that has been defrauded by another man,
another man taking another man's wife
is a very dangerous society.
The Bible talks about it in the book of Proverbs
that he's not gonna rest content,
that jealousy is the rage of a man
and it's just gonna cause just all kinds of issues.
And so, while people may not like adultery
having the death penalty,
I believe that's what we should have.
Now, I wanna go backwards,
go to Genesis chapter nine for a moment,
go to Genesis chapter nine.
Some people would say, "Oh, well, that's the law.
The law has been done away with."
Okay, yes, but the death penalty itself
was implemented prior to the law itself.
Prior to the law of Moses being implemented
or being given to the children of Israel,
the death penalty already existed prior to this.
In Genesis chapter number nine, look at verse number six.
This is when they get off of the ark, Noah and his family.
It says in Genesis nine, verse number six,
"Whoso shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,
for in the image of God made he man."
So according to the Bible, you kill somebody,
you deserve the death penalty.
This was prior to the law itself.
So it's not like the death penalty is limited to the law,
the death penalty applied prior to the law even being given.
Yet so many people today, again,
will be very against the death penalty as a concept.
They say it's unbiblical, they'll say it's unchristian.
This is just a bad attitude.
Now, I just wanna for a second take a break
and just talk about historically the death penalty
for a moment.
In America, early colonial America,
Christians were coming over to flee a lot of persecution
that came from the Catholic Church
and even the Anglican Church.
And so, they were trying to flee
a lot of heavy oppression from England,
also even from Europe as by and large.
And whenever they came here,
they were still granted the opportunity to pass laws.
When they passed laws,
they had to be in line with England's laws,
but as long as it was basically within their boundaries,
they could do whatever they want.
And most of the colonialists,
what they wanna do is they wanted to pass laws
that were based on the word of God.
And so, I've referenced this a lot,
but this is just an example.
It's not limited to this particular colony,
but in Connecticut specifically in 1673,
they passed laws of capital punishments.
And it's virtually every single thing
that we have in our Bible except one,
and that one would be adultery.
And I have, you can look at it if you want,
you can look it online for free too,
but they have listed 15 statutes for idolatry.
And of course their idolatry statute
is listed as saying this,
if any man or woman after legal conviction
shall have or worship any other God
but the Lord God, he shall be put to death.
That was the law in America.
Also blasphemy, witchcraft.
Now I wanna list what this law actually says.
It says if any man or woman be a witch,
that is hath or consulted with a familiar spirit,
they shall be put to death.
So if you're consulting with familiar spirits,
you're gonna be put to death.
Just because someone involves themselves
in some of these sins
doesn't actually make them a reprobate.
Because think about King Saul.
Didn't King Saul go and consult with a witch
and actually entice or participate in familiar spirits?
And yet he's not a reprobate.
So even saved people can get involved in wicked practices
and capital type crime things.
Murder, obviously people like Moses commits murder
at one point in the Bible.
Saul is obviously participating in murder.
So David is implicated in murder
and the murder of another man.
And so you can have men that are saved commit capital crimes,
but they should still be put to death.
In this particular thing, it says murder, bestiality,
sodomy, incest, rape, man stealing,
which we would think of as kidnapping, false witness.
And again, this is a false witness
where you're lying about someone to be put to death
and you're testifying falsely that they should be.
Conspiracy, which is like treason against the government.
Wilful firing of dwelling houses.
Now again, this is the idea of like having someone
in a house and you're lighting on fire,
trying to kill them in the house, okay?
So that's also mentioned.
And then children cursing or smiting their parents.
And then it has, that's number 14.
Then number 15 is a stubborn and rebellious son.
So they actually break that out into two different laws
saying like, look, have you ever struck
or cursed your parents?
Death penalty.
Or if you fit in the category,
you've never struck them or cursed them,
but you're just simply a stubborn and rebellious son
that won't harken to them?
Also a death penalty.
The only one they didn't have was adultery.
Now, that doesn't mean that adultery was unpunished.
It just had its own section.
There's a whole section dedicated to adultery.
I just wanna read it, it's kinda funny.
Now again, I personally believe adultery
should just be put to death, but this is what they said.
It is ordered by this court and the authority thereof
that whosoever shall commit adultery with a married woman
or one betrothed to another man,
both of them shall be severely punished
by whipping on the naked body
and stigmatized or burnt on the forehead
with the letter A, a hot iron.
And he shall wear, he or she shall wear a halter
about his neck or her neck on the outside of their garments
during his or her abode in this colony.
So as it may be visible and as often as he or she
shall be found without their halters,
warners foresaid, they shall upon information
and proof of the same made before any assistant
or commissioner be by them ordered to be whipped.
So basically you commit adultery, you get whipped,
you get branded with a hot A on your forehead,
then you have to wear this special garment
that says you're an adulterer,
and if you ever get caught in public
not wearing that garment, then you get whipped again.
Okay, so it doesn't seem like
they were treating adultery lightly,
albeit death penalty is more applicable
as far as following the word of God.
The only thing I could argue,
maybe because the colonies were smaller in size
and they're worried about population,
maybe that's why they made this law this way,
to try and keep people alive
and to keep their population growth or something.
But nevertheless, I mean, this is a pretty extreme punishment.
I mean, this is a pretty extreme situation.
And of course, you know, it's not like in America,
you commit adultery and then you can divorce your spouse
and you get paid alimony
and you can rip them off all the way to the end.
No, you get punished severely
in this particular situation.
And of course, that's just to give you an idea
of what our society was built on.
So like, why was America great?
Well, we actually punished crime,
and we actually took things pretty seriously,
and we tried to be pretty biblical,
albeit not perfect, but pretty close to.
And people say like, oh, can you imagine
what our country would be like
if we did these kind of things?
Well, that's what actually gave us
the great country we live in.
You know, societies that are behaving themselves
like we are now are not thriving, are not being successful.
We're deteriorating at the seams, we're not thriving.
It's like, oh, man, can you imagine what it'd be like
if we went back to that?
Yeah, it'd be good.
It'd be great.
Now, some people would think like,
oh, this seems really extreme
to have the death penalty for these things.
Yet, in England in the 1600s,
so in the same timeline when these were the laws,
in England there was about 50 death penalty laws.
So there was way more in England
that were not trying to follow the Bible.
In fact, some of the death penalty laws
in the 1600s in England were grand larceny.
So if you took theft of more than 12 pence or more,
you'd be put to death.
If you're counterfeiting coins, you'd be put to death.
If you forged documents, you would be put to death.
So they had the death penalty for all kinds of stuff.
Actually, by the time of the 1800s,
it actually got even worse.
And they have what's called the bloody code
where they had anywhere from 200 to 225 laws
for the death penalty specifically.
So in England, you would be put to death
for offenses against the state.
That's a scary wording.
You just offended the state death, whatever that means.
Offenses against public health.
Just think about how COVID went down
and how extreme we thought that was.
In England, you did something
that was against the public health, death penalty.
Tax evasion, death penalty.
Blackmail, death penalty.
Bankruptcy, death penalty.
Insurance fraud related to a ship.
So you sink a ship, it's like a Titanic type scenario.
You sink the ship, collect the insurance money,
death penalty.
Pickpocketing or shoplifting
over the amount of a shilling.
Now again, we have no idea, it's not easy
for us to understand this.
Based on me just looking it up.
So me looking it up, a shilling would be anywhere
from like $5, $10 today.
So you pickpocket someone for more than $5, $10, death.
This is what it was like in England.
Sheep stealing, death.
Cutting down trees, death.
Wrecking a fish pond, death.
If you're out at night with blackface on, death.
This is because of poaching.
People would do this to conceal who they were
as they're going out at night.
Obviously, look, I'm not for these things, okay?
I'm not saying like, do these things or these are good.
But think about the extremity
of the death penalty being applied.
This is really what happened.
Stealing from a shipwreck.
So someone had a shipwreck,
you take goods from it, death penalty.
Here's one, this is one to be the most extreme.
You break into a garden or orchard
to steal some of the fruit, death penalty.
I mean, that is pretty crazy, pretty extreme.
In fact, I looked up, I asked like, what, you know,
obviously this is the law of like what's on the books.
Then there's like what they did, okay?
And they said like, in many cases,
they wouldn't necessarily go to these extremities.
But in some cases, there was some situations
where it really did get to that pretty extreme.
There was a woman named Mary Jones.
So Mary Jones in 1771, she's a 19 year old married woman
with a newborn child.
She shoplifted a piece of fabric
that was worth two shillings and six pence
and she was hanged and killed for it.
She was executed for stealing a piece of fabric.
In 1741, Elizabeth Hardy, 19 year old,
also stole something worth 13 shillings
and six pence, executed.
Now again, to give you an idea,
the piece of fabric would have been an estimated
about $20 worth of material in today's money.
The other situation would be about maybe $100
worth of shoplifting material.
So a 19 year old newborn mother that's married
deals a little piece of fabric death penalty.
So you know, some people might sit here and think like,
oh, how dare you preach the law or death penalty
for certain things.
We have to understand that, you know,
we sit in a situation in a country where we kind of
on one extreme where the death penalty
is almost not applied at all.
And people think that's extreme.
You can live in another society where they're putting people
to death for all kinds of just any kind of shoplifting
and you can't even finish it in the state.
And by saying you should never put that person to death,
they think that's extreme.
Why? Because the Bible is the right balance.
The Bible is, you know, appropriate.
Whereas you could always get to other extremes.
The Bible is not actually extreme.
What's extreme is putting people to death for shoplifting.
What's extreme is not putting murderers and rapists to death.
That's extreme.
Putting murderers and rapists to death, normal.
Making a pickpocket pay back the money they stole, normal.
So we have to understand that the Bible's normal.
The Bible's right.
The Bible's always gonna slice down the middle.
And I bring these examples up because, you know,
if I don't, people are so ignorant of history
and societies and situations that they might think like,
"Oh man, the Bible's so extreme.
It just talks about killing people."
It's just like, "Yeah, but that's just life."
And we're not even talking about communist countries.
We're not talking about the Islamic State.
You know, Muslim countries have extreme things
for death penalty.
You talk about communists.
You know, if you listen to K-pop in North Korea,
they'll put you to death.
It's real.
They are a very, I mean, communist countries,
it's death penalty for almost anything.
You say something negative about the leader, death.
Hey, in England today and certain parts of Europe today,
you can go to jail or go to prison for making a meme.
And then people think that what we're saying is,
look, anytime you get away from what the Bible says
and criminal law based on the Bible,
it gets weird, confusing, frustrating,
causes major, major problems.
So we should have no problem
with believing the Old Testament law.
Now go over to Mark chapter number seven,
Mark chapter number seven,
people say, oh yeah, but Jesus got rid of the death penalty.
Well, let's just see what Jesus actually said in the Bible
before we quote him.
And if you're gonna say Jesus said something,
you should have chapter and verse
and it should be in red letters.
Now again, if you wanna say the Bible says this,
and so this is what Jesus believes or Jesus teach,
I'm for it.
But at the end of the day,
if you're gonna be like, Jesus says,
give me some red letter quotes somewhere.
Mark chapter seven, verse 10, the Bible says,
for Moses said, honor thy father and thy mother,
and whoso curseth father and mother, let him die the death.
But ye say, if a man shall say to his father and mother
and his Corbin, that is to say a gift
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me,
he shall be free.
And ye suffer him no more to do aught
for his father as mother, making the word of God
of none effect through your tradition
which ye have delivered and many such like things do ye.
So notice that the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he chooses to pick out one of the capital crimes
to mention from the Old Testament law,
I would argue he probably picks out the most controversial
and seems to use it for the purposes
of rebuking the Pharisees in a positive sense.
If Jesus got rid of the death penalty,
why wouldn't he just say,
well, the Old Testament law said a child
that curses or strikes a parent should be put to death.
But I say, don't worry about it anymore.
It's cool, no problem.
It's actually a good idea to curse and strike your parents.
That's not even on the table.
He's using this.
What did Jesus say, quote, he said, let him die the death.
That's what he said, quote.
He's talking about, he's quoting the Bible,
using it in context and rebuking the Pharisees,
saying you guys don't honor your parents,
even though Moses said these people deserve
the death penalty.
And so I have no reason to believe Jesus Christ
got rid of the death penalty.
Plus, what would be the benefit?
People were saved by grace in the Old Testament.
It's not like they weren't.
Why would Jesus Christ get rid
of this particular capital law punishment?
What do these rebellious kids add to society
in the New Testament that they weren't adding
in the Old Testament?
Like in the Old Testament, rebellious kids,
they were too much of a problem.
But in the New Testament, now they're great.
Now they're wonderful.
Now they don't cause any problems or something.
You know, that just doesn't make any sense.
Nor, and then why would I say, oh, now murder's back,
you know, on the table too.
You can commit murder, no death penalty.
And frankly speaking, in society,
a lot of times if you commit a grievous enough crime,
you'll get life in prison.
You ask many of these people,
they'll ask for the death penalty.
I mean, how is being locked in a cage,
even worse, solitary confinement,
even much more merciful than the death penalty anyways?
I mean, if you were to say, hey, Pastor Shelley,
I'm gonna lock you in solitary confinement
for the rest of your life,
and you can never have human contact ever again,
or we're just gonna kill you and be like,
I probably just wanna be killed.
Now, obviously you may want the solitary confinement
on the hope that it's gonna be overturned,
you could get out.
But if you just knew for a fact on the table,
you're gonna literally be locked in a cage
and you can never get out
and you have no human contact until you die,
or we're just gonna send you to heaven early.
It's just like, let's go to heaven.
I mean, even the apostle Paul said,
and he wasn't in a jail cell,
that at many times in his life,
he had a desire to depart and be with Christ,
which is far better,
let alone being actually locked in a cage.
And many people that are locked in a cage,
they will hurt themselves on purpose
just to feel like they're still alive
because they get so confused and so frustrated.
I mean, being alone is one of the most
evil punishments imaginable.
Even in our founding documents,
we talk about how we shouldn't enact
cruel and unusual punishments on people.
Let me tell you something,
talking to someone in a cage for the rest of their life
is a cruel and unusual punishment.
And it adds nothing to society.
What does that even add to society?
I mean, think about it logically.
If you're, supposedly prison is to reform people.
I mean, that's kind of, it's like a correctional facility,
they even call it the correctional facility.
How are you correcting someone by putting them in jail
for the rest of their life?
There is no correction.
It's just a holding tank for no real reason,
for no real purpose.
It's just for taxpayers to continue to waste money
on some guy living some miserable life that he hates.
Why wouldn't we just have that?
You know, if they've committed that grievous of a crime,
just put him to death.
And even if he was innocent,
even if he was innocent,
I guarantee the innocent person
would still rather just be killed,
just get his head chopped off or something,
just be John the Baptist,
than to just rot in a cell by himself
with no human interaction for the rest of his life.
Now again, obviously if you're in prison
and you can talk to other people
and get people saved and whatever,
hey, just do the best that you can.
Even some godly people were thrown in prison
for a period of time.
We have Joseph thrown in prison and other individuals.
But just be like the count of Monte Cristo
and find a treasure map and escape and do whatever.
No, I'm just kidding.
But obviously I'm not saying
that we should ever desire death,
but sometimes death isn't even the worst punishment.
And what is the Bible saying?
The stubborn rebellious son should be put to death.
I'm not gonna read them for a second time.
Go to Acts chapter 25, but I'm not gonna be turned there.
I'll just read.
Exodus 21 verse 17 says this,
"And he that cursed his father his mother
"shall surely be put to death."
Leviticus 20 verse nine,
"For everyone that cursed his father his mother
"shall be surely put to death.
"He hath cursed his father his mother,
"his blood shall be upon him."
Proverbs 20 verse 20,
"Hersel cursed his father his mother,
"his lamp shall be put out and obscure darkness."
Why would the Bible just say this over and over and over
and be brought up in the book of Proverbs
and the Lord Jesus Christ quoting it in the New Testament?
And then it's just, oh, New Testament,
it's all done away with, stupid.
Progressive Christianity is garbage
and they refuse to actually address what the Bible says
and they're afraid to believe what the Bible says.
You know what, we shouldn't be afraid
of what the Bible says, we should be afraid of God.
Now Acts chapter 25, here's another proof text
of why the New Testament did not get rid
of the death penalty.
How about the Apostle Paul's opinion, verse 11?
"For if I be an offender of committed anything worthy
of death, Jesus Christ of the New Testament got rid
of the death penalty, so I don't have to."
No, no, no, what he says, "I refuse not to die."
Notice, even the Apostle Paul himself said,
"Hey, if I commit a crime worthy of death, put me to death."
Why would he say that if he believes the New Testament
just gotten rid of the death penalty?
Why wouldn't he say, "Hey, if I've committed a sin
worthy of death, we're in the New Testament, buddy."
It's just like, "Hey, you know, if I want to eat bacon,
I can 'cause we're in the New Testament."
Doesn't the Bible say that?
Doesn't it say in 1 Timothy chapter number four
that nothing is to be refused
if it received with Thanksgiving, right?
Everything's sanctified by the word of God in prayer?
Isn't there changes to the law
being mentioned by the apostle Paul?
Doesn't the apostle Paul rebuke Peter
for not eating with the Gentiles,
recognizing we're in the New Testament?
So then why would the apostle Paul not here say,
"Oh, well, in the New Testament, no death penalty."
Didn't y'all get the message?
Didn't you learn what Jesus said?
No, because Jesus never says that the death penalty's gone.
And again, the death penalty is brought up in Genesis.
It's bitched, obviously, tons of times in the law.
It's mentioned in Proverbs.
It's mentioned in Romans.
It's mentioned by Jesus Christ himself
as he quotes the Old Testament law.
You know, there's no mention of Jesus saying,
the Old Testament law is gone.
The Old Testament law of death penalty no longer applies.
Never mentioned, never happens.
Let's go to Romans chapter 13, in fact.
And let's see this.
Romans chapter one brings up the fact
that reprobates, the sodomites that are mentioned there
are worthy of death.
But look at Romans chapter 13, verse one.
Let every soul be subject under the higher powers
where there is no power but of God,
the powers that be are ordained of God,
whosoever therefore resisted the power
resisted the ordinance of God,
and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.
Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same.
For he is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid.
For he beareth not the sword in vain,
for he is the minister of God,
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
How could this even possibly make sense
if in the New Testament,
the death penalty has been washed away
that the Apostle Paul would say,
no, the guy killing someone,
putting someone to death is the minister of God.
How can that even be possible?
How can it be possible if the death penalty
is no longer in effect, doesn't apply,
shouldn't be used, that the Apostle Paul is saying,
no, the guy killing people by the ordinance of the law,
by the ordinance of the government
is not even just the ordinance of the government,
it's ordained of God, and he's the minister of God,
and they'll be like, oh, by the way, no longer applies.
That's how foolish people have to be
in ignoring the text and ignoring
what the clear scripture says.
And this is why Christians did not believe that.
That's why the Christians that founded our nation
had a capital law section.
That's why Christians for thousands of years
believed in the death penalty.
It's only now, it's only now in the modern era
in a super modern, cultural, just Marxist ideology
that says, "Oh, we shouldn't have the death penalty."
Which is kind of funny,
like communists often are very anti-death penalty,
but again, only on paper, okay?
They're against the death penalty.
So they'll say, "We're gonna just put you in prison
"for the rest of your life.
"Now the prison's not gonna have any food or water
"and we're going to beat you until you die,
"but we're against the death penalty.
"We will not put you to death."
So it's like in the communist party,
they're gonna kill you in prison for sure,
but they're against the death penalty
because again, they have this weird ideology,
this weird idea.
They'll slay you in the streets,
they'll hang you high, they'll have street justice,
they'll do anything, they'll kill tons and tons of people,
but then they'll be like,
"But we're against the death penalty."
You know, it's just like, "What?"
You know, they're like, "Hey, we shouldn't kill animals,
"but we'll just murder our children.
"We're pro-abortion, right?
"I'll go to the grocery store
"and I'll pour blood on a steak
"sitting there in the grocery store,
"but then I'll go home and murder my child," right?
That's the kind of logic that these liberals,
these type of people have.
And then you see Christians repeating their same arguments.
See Christians saying the same things
that these satanic, evil, wicked people are saying,
and of course they're usually anti-government.
So I looked up just a couple articles and stuff
of just like what are these people saying?
Like how in the world could anybody come to these conclusions?
What are their arguments for this?
And typically one of their arguments
is the woman caught in adultery.
Let's go to John chapter number eight.
Now what's so ironic about this
is that typically the people that are anti-death penalty
are also pro-modern versions of the Bible.
And the people that are pro-modern versions of the Bible,
they'll say, well, the death penalty has been put away,
no longer applies,
because of the story of the woman caught in adultery.
And then when you ask them, you're like, oh, really?
Well, in your Bible,
it says that that's not a legitimate part of scripture.
And they're like, right,
it's not a legitimate part of scripture.
So isn't it funny that the same people
that will tell you John chapter eight,
they'll actually say John chapter seven,
verse 53 to 8/11 is not a legitimate scripture
and shouldn't be in the Bible.
And then when they say, well,
the death penalty shouldn't apply,
they'll bring up that passage to say,
it's because of this passage.
Isn't that convenient?
I mean, how is that even possible?
How is it?
Because they have no logic again.
I'm gonna just read for you
what the internet says about this.
It says the story of the woman caught in adultery,
John chapter seven, verse 53,
and then chapter eight through 11,
featuring, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,"
is widely considered by scholars as a later edition
not present in the earliest
and most reliable Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of John.
It was likely an early oral tradition
inserted into the text by later scribes.
You ask modern versions, you ask modern Bibles,
they'll say it's not even Bible.
Then you say, why do you not believe in the death penalty?
They'll bring up the story.
That's how stupid they are.
But let's actually read just a few verses in this
and see what Jesus said.
Let's see if Jesus said,
"You know what, the death penalty doesn't apply."
Now, they have a woman that's caught in adultery.
They bring him to Jesus.
Says in verse number six,
"This they said, tempting him,
that they might have to accuse him."
Say, or let's actually read verse five.
Now, "Moses and the law commanded us
that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou?"
So he's saying, "Hey, the law of Moses is clear.
This person should be put to death.
What do you say?"
They were saying this 'cause they wanted to test him.
But Jesus stooped down and with his finger
rolled on the ground as though he had heard them not.
So he just kind of ignores them at first.
Verse seven, "So when they continued asking him,
he lifted up himself and said unto them,
he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone on her."
Now this is what I think is funny.
What did Jesus say to the woman kind of adultery?
Kill her.
Did he not?
I mean, did he say she does not deserve the death penalty?
Did he say the death penalty doesn't apply anymore?
Oh, in the New Testament, we don't have the death penalty.
Or did he put this clever response there to say hey, we should execute her but only those
who are not guilty, those who have no sin.
So then he kind of can answer the question, does he contradict the law of Moses?
No, he still says for her to put to death.
But then he puts a provision on there where none of them are going to feel comfortable
actually implementing this.
And of course they don't want to because they know it's a trap anyways.
So if we go to John chapter 18, fast forward, you'll kind of understand why they were trapping
him here or how they were trapping him here.
Since the Jews were actually under Roman authority at the time, not all of the laws that they
lived by could they actually practice.
So in John chapter 18 it says in verse number 29, "Pilate then went out unto them and said,
What accusation bring ye against this man?
They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered
him up unto thee.
Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law.
The Jews therefore said unto them, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death."
Notice that Pilate is telling the Jews, hey, judge him according to your law.
So the Jews could actually do their laws and their customs as they see fit.
As long as it didn't cross over a boundary for the Roman law.
But at the time there's obviously this boundary that's being crossed over, Roman law's not
allowing them to do this, therefore they can't put someone to death.
So that was the trap.
The trap was, oh let's try to get Jesus to say put her to death, and then we'll go and
tell the Romans, this guy's trying to put people to death contrary to Roman law, and
they could get him in trouble with the Romans for violating Roman law.
But Jesus was able to cleverly perceive their crap, answer the question where he didn't
contradict the law of Moses, and he didn't get in trouble with the Roman authorities,
and he's able to basically, you know, resolve that matter.
But if you go back, go back to that story, John chapter number eight, obviously at some
point all the men realize, hey, none of us is perfect, we can't stone this woman.
So Jesus was left alone, the woman standing in the midst, it says in verse 10, "And when
Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where
are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord, and Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin
no more."
So he's telling her not to sin, not to commit adultery, obviously he didn't actually stone
her, but it wasn't his, you know, he can't stone her, you know, he doesn't have the authority
from the Roman perspective, he doesn't have the authority, he wasn't the first person
to catch her in the act, he's not, he doesn't have all the witnesses there, so of course
it doesn't happen.
Now, this specific death penalty sin is probably a little bit different than some of the others
in some sense because for the most part, most of the death penalty sins that we see in the
Bible, we never really see any redemption in the Bible.
And we're not seeing like rapists being redeemed later in the Bible.
We don't see bestiality and witchcraft and all this other crazy nonsense.
Like those people usually are just never any kind of redemption.
Whereas we do see adultery being redeemed in a sense in the Bible.
You have Hosea's wife.
You have David committing murder and adultery and he's forgiven by God and they're still
used by God.
And even in our modern society, obviously adultery is not punished with the death penalty.
So if someone were, you know, guilty of this sin, while I do believe that should be the
law of the land, it's not going to happen.
So what should people do in that particular scenario?
Well, they should go and sin no more.
They should repent, get it right, you know, not keep continue doing this kind of evil
wicked sin.
We see an example mentioned in the book of Revelation where there's a woman Jezebel that's
teaching servants to commit fornication.
And it even brings up not just fornication, it says in all they that commit adultery with
her he's going to throw them into the same bed and basically kill them with death.
Kill her and her children with death and all them that commit adultery with her.
So obviously God could still just decide to cause you to die for committing adultery even
though the government will not actually implement such a law currently.
But at the end of the day we do see some level of redemption for those individuals and I
think that's why you can kind of see this is the example being brought up and hey if
you have breath in your lungs I believe God wants to use you.
You know you should be embarrassed and ashamed for committing adultery.
That's a wicked evil sin.
You should never do it again and maybe your life should be different.
You should have maybe a different standard of accountability now because you've shown
a serious breach of trust.
But I do believe that God can still use you.
I do believe that you can still serve in your local church.
I do believe that you can still do things for the Lord Jesus Christ and so if you have
breath in your lungs, serve God and do the best that you can, don't be someone that just
continues down that dark path but try to redeem yourself and try to get back to the things
of God.
But obviously apart from that one, I don't even think we really want any of these other
people in our church ever.
This is kind of again like an exception type one.
People that are committing murder, I'm not like, please come into our church.
Rapists are not allowed, bestiality is never allowed, sodomy is never allowed.
People get mad, they'll be like, oh, so how are you going to reach the sodomy?
How are you going to reach the faggot?
I'm like, I'm not.
A pedophile?
Never welcome in our church ever.
Okay.
You know, these type of things, a witch, I don't want witches in my church.
I don't want this kind of stuff in our church.
And obviously there can be some, you know, discretion on a few of these, but for the most
part when it comes to the capital law of punishment, these are just people that we should just
stay away from in general.
We don't want anything to do with, we should stay away from.
And it's weird how some preachers, they just seem to want to reach these people, like this
is their ministry.
It's like, are they a wolf?
You know, why, why are you so interested in bringing those kind of people in your church
and wanting to be around those people?
And plus, since we don't have capital punishment laws, sometimes you're going to run into these
people going soul winning.
And you know, my advice is when someone is not interested or showing you like they're
trying to close the door, let them, because statistically speaking, there is a lot of
horrific people in our society.
And if you are, especially if you're a young lady or a woman and you're out soul winning,
you feel uncomfortable around someone, just leave, just walk away.
You don't have to, you know, just have this desire to just see every convicted felon saved
or whatever.
Okay.
You know, we all have our different role in life.
And I'm not trying to say don't preach the gospel, people, but I'm just saying God gave
you intuition for a reason.
And I believe everyone should use that.
You know, young women, if some guy's inviting you into your apartment, just say no, say
I'm fine here.
You ever feel uncomfortable, leave, you know, someone's following you, alert people immediately.
You know, there's dangerous people in our society and we should stay away from them.
One argument some people would say against our view on the death penalty, they say, hey,
you're cherry picking only certain death penalty laws, and I'm like, nope, and the only one
we accept would be the Sabbath, but obviously we do believe the Sabbath was fulfilled in
the Lord Jesus Christ and so therefore it's not something that we would apply in the New
Testament, but look, all this other stuff is obviously things that we would still agree
with.
They'd say, oh, well, you're saying that if homosexuals should be put to death that,
you know, murderers and rapists and sodomites should be put to death, and I'm like, yes.
Oh, what about children striking their parents?
Yes.
But this is what they'll do.
They'll twist.
They'll be like, oh, so you think disobedient kids should be put to death?
I'm like, no, that's everyone.
And of course, that's what they try to do.
They try to create this false narrative of like, oh, well, you think just disobedient.
No, no.
The stubborn, rebellious son that's a glutton and a drunkard and striking, he's cursing
his parents.
That's not everybody.
Not everybody's that person.
I'm going to have you go to Matthew chapter number five.
That's the last place I'm going to have you turn.
I'm just going to read a few more of these arguments that they bring up.
They'll say, oh, well, Jesus taught that we shouldn't retaliate against other individuals.
And that's kind of where we're going in Matthew chapter number five, where they're like, hey,
you're supposed to turn the other cheek.
It's kind of hard to turn the other cheek when they killed you.
Now how do you apply that to murder when you're dead?
You can't really turn the other cheek.
It's silly that they want to take some passage like this and make that be the passage.
Look at Matthew chapter five, verse 38, "You have heard that it's been said, 'An eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
But I say to you, that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right
cheek, turn to him the other also."
So they're saying, oh, see, death penalty no longer applies.
Turn the other cheek.
But again, is this someone trying to kill you?
If someone's trying to kill you, I believe you should be able to defend yourself and
you should actually be able to protect you and your family.
So we would want to apply all the Bible equally.
But again, what is this saying?
If someone's just kind of pushing you around, if someone slaps you one time, if someone's
just kind of messing with you or someone's trying to pick a fight with you, it's just
saying, just leave them alone, just to let them be in the wrong.
Don't retaliate every single time.
Obviously, if you're in extreme danger, you should get away from that person.
You should protect yourself.
You should defend yourself.
Obviously, in the same vein, it's saying that if someone sues you, give them extra
stuff.
If you go on a walk, you give them extra.
Verse 42, "Give to him that asketh thee, and for whom that would borrow of thee, turn
that not away."
That's the principle.
The principle is not talking about how the death penalty no longer applies.
It's just saying, "Hey, you should be kind to people, and you don't have to always reciprocate
evil.
With evil, you could reciprocate good for evil in some cases, and be kind to people,
and do good unto people."
Again, there's a difference between justice and mercy, but you can't have mercy without
justice anyways.
Justice is eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
That's what the law should be.
The law is justice.
Mercy is saying, you know what, we're not going to always give people what they deserve.
They're not always going to get justice because of the sense that we want to be merciful and
kind and compassionate.
Just like we don't get what we deserve going to hell, Jesus Christ gives us mercy and
we get to go to heaven.
So of course, without justice though, mercy cannot be applied.
If I don't deserve hell, why would I need to be saved from hell?
I actually deserve hell, that's why I need mercy.
Some people would say, "Oh well, the Old Testament had these particular laws, but that's just
for back then, that's just for ancient Israel, that doesn't apply to modern society."
Again, I've already brought up, what about all the Christians for the first several hundred
years of America?
Why did they believe it?
And then why were they successful?
What laws are we going to have then?
Just no law?
Which law do you pick?
They'll say, "Oh, what about the sacredness of life?"
But see, you're not thinking about the innocent victims.
What about the people that are being killed?
What about the people that are being raped?
What about all the innocent children that are being harmed in these processes?
They say, "Well, what about a call for mercy because Christians are supposed to advocate
for mercy over punishment and everyone deserves a chance for redemption."
Does everybody really deserve a chance?
The Bible's Old Testament law is clear that you should take no enjoyment or no satisfaction
in the life of a murderer.
He shall surely be put to death.
That's how God words it.
Sometimes there is going to be mercy, sometimes there is going to be grace in certain situations,
but at the end of the day, I would think that that should be the exception, not the rule.
And in order to even have that as a rule, you have to have the punishment exist.
You can't say, "Let's give mercy to the murderers if they don't deserve the death penalty,"
because then they don't even need the mercy.
You actually have to have the death penalty, so then in some super rare cases, you say,
"You know what?
This person did do it, and we are just going to turn the other way."
Like this guy who is famous for an airport shooting, his son was molested by some predator,
and then they were traveling him, they were taking him to some court hearing, and he's
just hiding by a phone booth or something, he's just kind of like hiding, pretending
like he's on the phone, and then he just kills the guy.
Well then the court just was like, "Not guilty," because they were just like, "Yeah, we agree.
Pedophiles will be put to death."
There was another article that I saw and it said, "Five reasons why Jesus people ought
to oppose the death penalty."
Anytime it says Jesus people, you should already know it's an idiot, all right?
Number one, they said, "Well, the Bible makes the Biblical case in support of capital punishment
based on the Old Testament," and that's a poor way to do Christian theology.
Why?
You know, again, it's just bad to believe the Old Testament, apparently.
Number two, "Jesus overturned the Old Testament law."
This is just, wow, now I just totally agree.
No, he never said that.
Number three, "During his ministry, Jesus publicly thwarted an execution."
They weren't going to execute her.
They might have been the ones guilty committing adultery with her, because we don't even
know where the guy was.
You know, it could have been one of the Pharisees that was involved in this.
They weren't going to try and execute her.
That's stupid.
Number four, "Jesus teaches it is better to show mercy and compassion than to obey the
law."
False.
And then they try to bring up the Sabbath.
Look, obviously Jesus broke the Sabbath.
That's what the Bible says.
But people have to understand that breaking the Sabbath wasn't necessarily against the
law, because the priest broke the Sabbath.
By technical definition, it's just that you could break the Sabbath when you were doing
good.
Because that's why Jesus even asked the question, "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?"
And then he was mad at them when they wouldn't answer yes, because it's a rhetorical question.
It's like, obviously it's still lawful to "break the Sabbath" in order to accommodate
this particular request.
And so again, this is a misunderstanding.
It's not that Jesus isn't "obeying the law."
He's actually obeying the spirit of the law.
Number five, they say the application of the death penalty in America is unjustly used
and applied.
So the reason why we shouldn't have it is because it's unjustly applied.
And they bring up an example of someone named Dwayne Buck.
And this is what they said, quote, "He's literally sentenced to death for being black."
Now who in here thinks that anybody is being put to death in America or sentenced to being
put to death in America for being black?
Does anybody believe that?
Now I looked it up.
He killed two different people and almost killed a third person.
Okay, so he was convicted of double homicide.
He pled guilty to these things, but somewhere in the court proceedings, some lawyer asked
some person, like, you know, if they thought he was likely to do this again, and this person
said, "I think based on race, he's more likely to offend again."
So because of that, you know, racially targeted comment, the Supreme Court overturned his
case and didn't put him to death.
And again, he wasn't being put to death for being black, folks.
It was for a double homicide and an attempted murder for a third person.
That's why he was on, you know, he was being prosecuted and was sentenced to the death
penalty.
But then it was overturned.
And again, liberals love to take this talking point and say like, "Oh, people are being
put to death for being black."
Okay, false.
It doesn't happen.
It's not a legit narrative.
And again, if that was the narrative, then of course that would be inappropriate.
If we were only putting murderers to death that are black, that would be wicked too.
We should put white people to death that also commit murder.
Hey, I'm against Antifa just as much as BLM.
And so we should be against both groups.
And of course I looked at this person, the person's name is Benjamin Corey, who's a
Mennonite and some Anabaptist, which of course is not safe.
So what's the point of preaching a sermon like this?
Well, number one, we should just believe what the Bible teaches.
We need to understand these doctrines.
And we should be pro-death penalty, even though our country is not very pro-death penalty
anymore.
Also, we should encourage these laws to still be in the books.
Another example is that the Bible does show mercy to the repentant adulterers like David,
Hosea's wife, the woman caught in adultery.
But we should still take those sins seriously, even though our laws do not punish them.
We should avoid and beware of people that have committed these grievous sins.
Pedophiles, murderers, blasphemers, rapists, children who have cursed their parents.
You know, instead of celebrating children who curse their parents, we should want nothing
to do with these people.
We should look at it as a grievous sin.
We should not encourage them or help them or support them or give them money from the
church.
I mean, that's insane.
Also, we should understand the reprobate doctrine is a separate issue, even though for some
it would overlap.
Obviously, when it comes to the sodomite, it's an overlapping issue.
But not always.
We want to have these separate.
And we have to realize that in some cases, like Saul was guilty of witchcraft, Solomon
was guilty of idolatry, Moses was guilty of murder.
So in some cases, there could be someone who saved, that got involved in these bad sins.
But look, bestiality and sodomy is always the sons of Belial, okay?
And so we understand there's some overlap, there's some distinction, and we want to make
sure we realize those.
But I believe that we should be pro-death penalty according to what the law says.
And I wish we would bring these back.
And of course, we're not going to bring them back by nobody preaching about it, so hey,
we'll preach about it, we'll say it, we'll believe it.
And the only other thing I would say is in our doctoral statement, I do spell out, I
say look, anybody guilty of a 1 Corinthians 5 issue would be church disciplined, including
any of the death penalty sins.
So even though 1 Corinthians 5 doesn't bring up a lot of these death penalty sins, it's
probably because it was pretty obvious.
And typically in society, you weren't wondering if the murderer was going to stay in your
church because he was dealt by the law, like he was being put in prison or executed by
the law.
We weren't wondering if it's okay for him to come to church or not, you know, the rapist
and all this other stuff.
So again, anybody guilty of a death penalty sin would have to, you know, be excommunicated
and if possible, in some scenarios, repentant before they could be restored that would not
be tolerated in our church whatsoever.
So we want to take these things seriously.
We want to understand what God's law says.
And we want to realize, hey, if it wasn't for the death penalty, we wouldn't have the
gospel because the Lord Jesus Christ was executed, of course, unlawfully, an innocent lamb, but
He took our place so that we could have salvation.
So we should be pro-death penalty.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this great doctrine and helping us to understand
how society should behave itself and that there are boundaries, there are rules that
you take life seriously.
I pray that we would love the innocent, that we would love people and that we wouldn't
want or wish harm upon them, that would be willing to put evil away from among us.
And even in a society where we live in a culture, in a country that doesn't necessarily implement
all these laws correctly, I pray you'd help give us the wisdom and the intuition to still
stay away from dangerous individuals, predators, evil people, that you'd give us the courage
to withdraw ourselves from these individuals and keep them away from our children, away
from our family, so that we would protect ourselves.
And I thank you so much that your son was willing to take the ultimate penalty for us
through the death penalty so that we could have life, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.