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

Okay, we're in Exodus chapter 18 in your Bibles. Look down at your Bibles at verse number 19. It says, Hearken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people to God word that thou mayest bring the causes unto God. And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shall show them the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do. Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all seasons. And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they they shall judge. So shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. And what I want to preach on this evening is the police in light of the Bible, the police in light of the Bible. Now I'm preaching this in light of the current events, obviously, surrounding the killing of George Floyd. Okay. And you know, that event has basically sparked a nationwide protest where people are going out there protesting, you know, exercising their rights. But along with that, you have these violent protesters who are actually just taking occasion to go out and loot and kill, you know, in the name of George Floyd. But what they really want to do is just fulfill their own lust, right? These violent, wicked people that are actually violating the innocent. It has nothing to do with George Floyd. It has everything to do with their own lust, and they want to consume it upon their own lust. Now, the reason I want to preach is because there seems to be a looming cloud of ignorance amongst Christians on both sides of this issue, right? On the one hand, you have so-called Bible-believing Christians supporting this wicked organization of Black Lives Matter. You know, you see them posting this on social media, hashtag Black Lives Matter, hashtag Black Lives Matter. And they're so passive, they're so weak in their stance, they're so weak in their Bible knowledge, they don't even recognize that this organization is a wicked, vile organization that no Christian should ever partake of. You know, people think, well, you know, they have a right, and it's a just organization, and they're fighting against racism. They're fighting against violence and systematic racism. Yeah, but when you go on their website, they're actually promoting sodomy. They're actually promoting feminism. They're actually promoting all dogmas that are polar opposites of the Bible. Wicked. You know, well, you know, we're supporting them not for those things. We're supporting them for the racism. Why don't you support the Bible? You know, the Bible's a good place for a Christian to go to and say, you know what, I don't care about any organization. I don't care about any race. I'll just stick to what the Bible says, because God is no respecter of people. He doesn't favor one race over another, amen? He's willing. He wants all men to be saved and to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let me just let you in on a little secret. Black people go to hell just like Mexicans go to hell, just like white people go to hell, just like Guatemalans go to hell, just like Armenians go to hell, right? I need another, just like Germans go to hell, just like Russians go to hell. Everyone goes to hell equally if they reject Jesus Christ, you know? So the underlying agenda to this Black Lives Matter movement is sodomy, feminism, you know, transgenderism, all this filth and smut, you know, that's really propagating this movement. No Christian should have any part of it. I'm sick and tired of seeing hashtag Black Lives Matter, you know? How about hashtag King James Bible? How about hashtag for God so loved the world, right? But on the other hand, you have this Republican-type Christian that are so pro-Trump, they're so pro-criminal justice system that they believe that police can do no wrong. Well, you know, he should have just followed instructions and man, he should have just listened and, you know, he deserved it. He had drugs in his system. Oh, show me the verse in the Bible where it says that if you have drugs in your system, you're worthy of death, right? You know, show me a verse in the Bible that if you are, you know, high on PCP or meth or whatever it is, that that is a justifiable reason to put you to death. You won't find that in the Bible. And I don't care what he was before, you know, what things George Floyd was involved in, he died unjustly, folks, at the hand of a wicked, corrupt police officer. Well, he got what he deserved. And let me say this, Christians say that stuff. And it's gotten to a point, I even heard this week, you know, there's the video going around of the guy, and I don't know if it was in New York, stealing the horse, you know, from a police horse, and he's just like riding on the horse and stuff. Pretty funny to be, you know, be honest with you. And now, obviously, look, I don't agree with the stealing of it, you know, it's stuff, but it was pretty funny. And here's the thing, it's just like, yeah, if they would have caught that guy, that guy's a sworn, the horse is a sworn officer. So they could have shot that guy in the back of the head. And it's just like, that's an animal. He's a sworn officer. No, he's an animal. That's a horse. You make glue out of those things. That's not a human being. Well, you should have thought twice. Well, you know what, you know, that person who's riding that horse was wrong for stealing the horse. But you know what, that person has a soul. Okay, that horse, you put that thing down, the body goes into the ground, and that's it. But this is the kind of mentality that Christians have today. They need a renewing of their minds, folks. Both of these views are wrong. What people need is a renewing of their mind. The Bible says, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, they put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You see, Christians can often get a lot of junk in their mind. You know, preconceived ideas that are molded by the culture, by the world. What we need is to brainwash ourselves, wash the brain with the word of God so we know how to think and think biblically. Okay. Now, this evening, I want to shed light on the law enforcement agency. You know, are the police and agency that God established? Is the law enforcement agency an institution that God came up with? What does the Bible say about police officers? Now, let me just start off by saying that I'm in no way inciting violence against police officers. And the reason I have to say is because I know there's some snowflake out there who hears police in the light of the Bible, and they hear me screaming, and they're going to say, oh, you're trying to say that all police officers are wicked and bad, and they should be violent towards them. I'm not saying that at all. Why don't you just listen to the whole sermon? This sermon is not about bashing cops. Okay. And painting them with a broad brush as though all, every single one of the police officers are wicked in the United States. That's not true. That's false. Okay. I personally know righteous police officers. And in fact, I have a friend, Pastor Grayson Fritz, who was a former detective. He's a righteous man. He was a righteous man as a detective and as a police officer, and he's a righteous man as a pastor as well. Okay. And let me just say this. I guarantee you, he agrees with me 100% on what I'm going to preach tonight. Now, what we read in Exodus chapter 18 is the story of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, instructing Moses on how to lead the nation of Israel in a systematic order. You know, this, of course, was ordained of God, and God had already instituted his civil law. He'd already given the law, his law to Moses to disperse into the children of Israel, dealing with capital and corporal punishment, you know, execution and restitution, et cetera, and the observance of feast and those type of laws. What Jethro did was he provided a structure on how to systematically carry out these laws in an orderly way. He saw that Moses was basically wearing away because everyone was coming to him saying, hey, what should I do? This guy stole from me. You know, what should I do? This person, you know, my wife committed adultery on me. What should I do? This person kidnapped this person, and I caught him, but they're, you know, they're bringing these things to Moses' attention. And he's basically the judge, so to speak, to tell him, well, this is what the law of God says. But when you have millions of people, I mean, hundreds of people, thousands of people throughout the day asking you this, it starts wearing on him. And so what Jethro did is that he imparted wisdom and said, hey, you need a specific system that will help you to basically distribute wisdom unto the children of Israel via these leaders. Okay. Now go to Deuteronomy chapter one, if you will, Deuteronomy chapter one. Now let me just say this is that the Bible tells us that the law of the Lord is perfect. Amen. And you say, well, that's Old Testament. I love the Old Testament. And in fact, if the Old Testament is just completely done away with, if the Old Testament just no longer has relevance to us today, why did God choose to put it within the Bible? All scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness. People get this false idea that the Old Testament law no longer has any authority in the New Testament. That's false. What they fail to understand is that the Old Testament laws cleaved into two categories, right? You have the moral law and then you have the ceremonial laws. And what the Bible is teaching us is that in the New Testament, what part of the law was done away with in Christ? The ceremonial laws. As the Bible puts it in Hebrew chapter number nine, the meats, drinks and diverse washings, carnal ordinances that were imposed upon them until the time of the reformation, referring to the coming of Christ. And the Bible tells us that when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them, the Bible tells us. And what that's referring to is the fact that he's the fulfillment of those ceremonial laws. However, the moral laws existed before Moses and will exist forevermore because this is God's moral law. And look folks, the death penalty is not something that you only find in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Something you find all the way back to Genesis chapter nine, okay, before the law of Moses was even instituted. So what we see is that they cleave into two parts and people say, well, you know, how can you say you believe in the death penalty? That's Old Testament. That's Old Testament. Well, it's not done away with. You know, if the death penalty in God's eyes is done away with, then guess what? Adultery is not wrong either. Murder is not wrong then, right? Kidnapping, sodomy, pedophilia, all these wicked crimes that the Bible says are worthy of death, those things are no longer crimes in the eyes of God if the moral law no longer exists, but we know that's not true, okay? We know that's not true. The Bible says, I quoted it, I'm gonna read to you in Hebrew chapter nine, verse nine says, which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances and posed on them until the time of reformation. Now look, I've gone into discussions with people over this whole thing and I lead the discussion thinking, this person's probably not even saved. And the vast majority of people who are gonna get offended at this sermon are your Republican, Trump, Fox News Christians who probably are not even saved, okay? And that's why they have a hard time understanding. They have the culture of Christianity, but they're not saved, okay? But you know, I want them to be saved, amen? And I hope that they just see that what we're saying, I'm not trying to usurp authority. I'm not trying to teach anything crazy. This is just a biblical teaching that we see in the Bible. And people have this attitude, you know, the Bible doesn't talk about anything about, you know, not having police and all these, the criminal justice system. Folks, the Bible says that the word of God has everything that pertains to life and godliness. So the word of God has everything that pertains to godliness, like spirituality, you know, how to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, how to pray, how to go sowing, but it also has things pertaining to life, laws, okay? How to practically live in this world, how to be a law abiding citizen. The Bible actually has those instructions. Now, the reason a lot of people think, well, that's not in the Bible is because they probably go to some watered down church that spends the majority of the time in the book of John or something, you know? Or they just pull one verse out and then, you know, they watch a movie or something. I don't know. I've never been to a liberal church, but I'm pretty sure that's something that they do out there, okay? They never touch Leviticus with a 10-foot pole. They won't touch Deuteronomy with a 10-foot pole, you know? The furthest they'll go into the Old Testament is like the book of Psalms. And even then, it'll only be Psalm 23. Let's just be honest, okay? So, we're talking about the police in light of the Bible. Now, let's talk about the three branches of government in the United States of America. Yeah, it's broken up into three. You have the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the executive branch. The legislative branch, these are the people that make the laws. This is what's known as what? Congress, right? Then you have the judicial branch. These are the people that interpret the laws. They determine guilt. These are the judges and jurors, okay? You have the executive branch. These are the people that execute, enforce, and carry out the laws. The president of the United States falls under this category, okay? Vice president, the cabinet, and law enforcement agencies, also known as the police. So, they fall under this third category. Now, these branches were actually patterned after the Bible, okay? All three of these branches were patterned after the Bible, the Old Testament laws. A lot of people don't know that, but it's true, okay? The legislative branches I mentioned are those who basically make the laws, right? You have Congress today. Well, biblically, who is the law giver? It's God. He's the one who says what is right and what is wrong, okay? You know, and no, parking on the wrong side of the street when the street steeper comes is not sinful nor crying. That's a stupid law. Stupid. I hate that law, okay? The Bible says in Isaiah 33, go to James chapter 4, if you would, Isaiah 33 verse 22, for the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our law giver. The Lord is our King. He will save us. Folks, yes, we live in the United States of America, but you know what? There's one law that is even greater than the Constitution, and that is the Bible. And a true Bible-believing Christian recognizes that this is the highest power, no matter what country you're in, because God is the law giver. So yeah, we submit ourselves unto every ordinance of man, absolutely, because that's what the Bible teaches us to do. However, when the ordinance of man goes against the ordinance of God, at that point, we ought to obey God rather than man, according to the Bible. Because at the end of the day, He is the ultimate law giver. Look what it says in James 4 verse 11, speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his brother speaketh evil of the law and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgeth another? So what is this referring to? It's referring to the person who says you teach them, hey, death penalty is biblical. And what do they do? That's not right. What are they doing? They're judging the law. And in turn, they're judging the law giver. They're saying this isn't right. When we proclaim from the housetops that sodomites should be put to death, stone them with stones, and they say, that's evil. Jesus wouldn't do that. You're judging the law. And you're judging the law giver. Who are you? What gives you the right to say that? What gives you the right to judge God and his law? To say that that's wrong. What gives you the right to say all that hateful speech and hateful preaching? What gives you the right to say all that hateful speech and hateful talk towards the law of God? The law of the Lord is perfect, the Bible says. Nothing wicked, nothing impure, nothing dirty or defiled about the law of God. And the person who thinks so, they're judging the law. They're judging the law giver. Now, I don't judge the law of this land. I'll abide by it, but I'll still judge it. I'll say it's stupid. It's stupid. But no one can ever stand in judgment of God's law. And what do you have today? You have Christians who do just that. You talk about what the law says. You talk about the death penalty and who deserves the death penalty. And all of a sudden, you just became Hitler. You just became this warmonger. And it's like, you need to read the Bible. This is what the law giver. Hey, our legislative branch known as God, known as his word is the one who instituted that. Take it up with him. Then you have the judicial branch. These were the judges that were appointed by Moses. These are also the priests because they taught and interpreted the laws of God. So look, folks, the Bible's filled with laws in the Old Testament. And so maybe you would have people who didn't know off the top of their head what the law stated regarding a specific issue or quarrel. So what they would do is that they would go to these judges or they would go to the priests who would teach them. They would interpret the laws for them. Now, what I have here in Deuteronomy 1, I'm gonna read to you again from Exodus 18 verse 21, says, Moreover, thou shall provide out of all the people able men. So these are the qualifications for those judges. Able men, such as fear God, men of truth. I mean, just by those alone, a lot of the judges of this land will be just completely disqualified. Let's just be quite honest, okay? Fearing God, men of truth. Oh, wait, right here. Hating covetousness. And place such over them. So these were to be holy men, men who love the Lord. They feared God. They were able. They have leadership skills. They were men of truth and they hated covetousness. Now, why did they have to hate covetousness? Because within Israel, you would probably have people who would try to pervert judgment by giving gifts, right? They try to bribe the judges, you know, just, hey, just say that I'm innocent or whatever. And it's just like they had to hate covetousness. So they were not given to that. They would make a righteous judgment, a righteous, you know, verdict on that person's, whether they're guilty or innocent, okay? Place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, rulers of tens, and let them judge the people at all seasons. And it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. So shall it be easier for thyself and they shall bear the burden with thee. My phone is always like about to die. People are like watching on Instagram. Sorry about that, folks. So the big matters they would take to Moses, because Moses, you know, this guy knows the law like the back of his hand. The smaller matters they can deal with themselves, okay? Maybe if there was a complicated matter that they couldn't really decipher what really to do, they would bring that to Moses, okay? Now look at Deuteronomy 1. This is like a parallel passage to that in verse 11. It says, the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are and bless you as he hath promised you. How can I myself alone bury your cumbrance and your burden and your strife? Take you wise men and understanding and known among your tribes and I will make them rulers over you. And he answered me and said, the thing which thou has spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men and known and made them heads over you, captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, captains over fifties and captains over tens, officers among your tribe. Look at, skip down to verse 17. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment. What does that mean? Don't show partiality. You should not be partial in your judgment when you judge the people, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great. You should not be afraid of the face of man for the judgment is God's and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will hear it. So he's saying, look, don't be threatened by anybody. If they're starting mad dogging you because you know you're about to pronounce them guilty, don't be afraid of them. Fear God. This is God's judgment. By the way, this is how the church is run. Good template. Go to chapter 17. We're going to read a lot of scriptures tonight because a lot of the scriptures we're going to read tonight just kind of speak for themselves. Okay. Look at Deuteronomy 17 verse eight. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood, between plea and plea, between stroke and stroke, between matters of controversy within thy gates, then shalt thou arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose. And thou shall come into the priest the Levites and unto the judge that shall be in those days and inquire and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment. And thou shall do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee and thou shall observe to do according to all that they inform thee. According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee according to the judgment which they shall tell thee thou shall do thou shall not decline from my from the sentence with which they shall show thee to the right hand nor to the left and the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken to the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the judge even that man shall die and thou shall put away the evil from Israel. This is pretty crazy here. It's good stuff though. He's basically saying, look, if they reject your judgment, they're actually rejecting my judgment. They're judging the law, right? And so if they're rejecting my law, then you know what? They can't be in this land. They can't even be in this earth. They're actually worthy of death because they were rejecting the law of God during this time. Okay? So that's what we see with the judicial branch. Now the last branch is the one we're going to be talking about this evening, the executive branch. Now the executive branch in the Old Testament was a police agency that would go around giving citations and tickets. No, I'm just kidding. It didn't exist. No, it wasn't. Who were the executive branch during this time? The people. The people of the land operated as the executive branch according to the Bible. The police did not exist during this time. Okay? How do we know that? Well, because of the fact that if the executive branch are the people that are supposed to enforce the law and administrate punishment, all we have to do is look into the Bible to see who did that. Because we see laws in the Bible, right? People being put to death, people who are getting beaten, given stripes, you know, being charged in order for them to make restitution for something that they stole. If they committed fornication, they have to pay a dowry. All these things that they have to do, there's someone who had to enforce that. So all we have to do is look in the Bible to see who enforced these laws, who executed these laws, and that's what we know is the executive branch in the Bible. Okay? Go to Leviticus chapter 20. Keep in mind that the punishments in the Bible were different than what you see today, right? I mean, people, they steal something and they go to prison for like 15, 20 years sometimes. They murder someone, they get life in prison where they can just wax worse and worse. They have all these weird punishments for these crimes, and you know what? Do you see the world getting better because of it? Does anybody really get reformed by these punishments? No, they actually get worse. And in fact, the innocent, or should I say the guilty, who maybe want to reform their lives, actually end up getting their lives destroyed because of the criminal justice system. They steal something, they go to prison for a long time, you know, they have that on their record, they have a hard time getting a job even though they're doing right, even though they're living a godly life, maybe they get saved, they get in church, you know, and they just have that looming over them. That's not right to do. This is wrong. You know, the punishments in the Bible were swift, right away, speedily, as the Bible puts it, right? They were just effective and executed speedily. Now, why is it that when someone murdered someone out of passion, they were angry with the person, that they were killed right away? Well, because of the fact that that's how God operates. He operates using closure. Whereas if you elongate something, what happens? People are more upset, you defraud people, people become bitter. It's like, why is this person living? They took my brother's life, they took my mother's life, they took my dad's life. Why is this person allowed to live? Now, there were instances in the Bible where someone killed someone unawares, and God provided a city of refuge for that person to flee into while the other person cooled down, right? So, the revenger would not kill that person because they didn't deserve to die, they just killed them on accident. But whether on accident or not, the revenger of blood is still upset because you took, you know, their family's life. So, God understood this person is just and wanting to kill you, right? And in fact, when it came to the city of refuge, they were to stay in that city until the death of the high priest. If they chose to leave before that and the revenger of blood got them, they would say, well, you shouldn't have left. You know, I provided a city for you to stay in. If you chose to leave before that and the revenger of blood finds you, that's your fault, okay? So, look, God is a God of revenge, folks, even for the people. And in fact, in the Bible, if you took someone's life, that person's family member was justified in taking your life. That's what they call the revenger of blood. His hand was the first one to be upon that person. The punishments in the Bible could actually be broken up into three categories and people say, oh, this is so inhumane. You guys are a bunch of animals. No, the animals are the looters and the people who say, well, we're doing this because in honor of George Floyd, yet they're killing black people. No one ever talks about that. The animals are the ones who are using this whole event as an occasion to go and violate innocent people. Those are the wicked people. God's laws were instituted in order to remove corruption from the land and minimize crime. Why? Because when someone was publicly executed for murdering someone, kidnapping someone, raping someone, it was a public example for everyone to see and the person who was tempted to potentially murder or rape someone is not going to do it. Because I was like, you know, those stones look like they hurt pretty bad. That person looked like he died a horrible, painful death. I'm going to go ahead and behave myself, okay? So what do you have? What we have here is first and foremost, so what are the three categories? Well, restitution was one of them, okay? Restitution was the reparation made by giving a compensation for loss, damage, or injury cost, okay? Go to Exodus 21, if you would. Exodus chapter 21. This was also paying someone back for stolen goods, fornication, or even debt. You know, if you're indebted to someone, you would actually become a bond servant. That was a form of restitution. You would actually work for that person until you could pay off your debt, all right? Hey, also look what it says in Exodus 21 verse 18, and if men strive together, what does that mean? They're fighting, okay? And one smite another with a stone. So they're fighting and then someone grabs, one of the guys grabs a stone and just bam, just hits them, you know, just clocks them over the head. Or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed. What does that mean? Basically, you debilitate this person. That's a pretty hard punch. If you think about it, it's like, man, you got knocked out. But he like damages this person to the point where they're bedridden, is what it's referring to. If he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quiet. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. So what it's saying is this, okay, he's alive, but now you got to pay for the time that he lost where he could have been working and providing for his family. You actually have to make restitution for that and make sure he gets healed as well, okay? By the way, don't we see something like that in the New Testament where the guy gets mugged by, you know, those three spiritual leaders walk by and the stranger comes and he basically takes on the responsibility to take care of this person and even for him to be healed. You know, this isn't just Old Testament, this is in the New Testament as well, okay? Go to Deuteronomy 22. So restitution is made, okay? That's a form of punishment. So instead of putting someone in prison for 20 years for selling marijuana or whatever, for stealing something, you know, God just says, well, if the person stole something, they need to restore that fourfold or whatever it may be, depending on what they steal. And what that person would do is work with his hands that which is necessary and then when you would pay that person back, let's say fourfold, he would come back and say, man, I could have just worked to pay for that thing I stole and I could have had four of these things instead of one. So it teaches him character, okay? So restitution is one of them. Here's another one, corporal punishment. What is what? Beating, stripes. If any man, look at verse 13, if any man take a wife and go in unto her and hate her and give occasion of speech against her and bring up an evil name upon her and say, I took this woman when I came to her and found her not a maid. In other words, he's saying she's not a virgin. Then shall the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate. And the damsel's father shall say to the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife and he hated her. And lo, he had given occasion of speech against her saying, I found not thy daughter a maid. And yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. This is referring to the judges and the elders of that city shall take the man and put him in prison. No, chastise him. What does that mean? They're going to whoop him. You're going to beat him down. It's a great society to live in here. And they shall immerse him in 100 shekels of silver and give them unto the father of the damsel because he has brought up an evil name upon a version of Israel and she shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days. This minimizes dishonesty. Right? And it increases responsibility is what it does. You know, hey, how'd you get that black eye? I don't want to talk about it. Why are you walking with the limp? I got in trouble. Actually, no one would ask that. Everyone would know because he got beat in front of everyone, you know, and that guy lives with that shame. Good. Right. So we can get more into that, but we're going to skip a couple of things here. Go to Exodus chapter 21, Exodus chapter 21. And then you have capital punishment, which is execution, putting someone to death. Okay. This is not popular today in 2020. The legalizing of the, of capital punishment is not popular, but apparently the illegal way to do it is, you know, execution. The Bible teaches capital punishment folks. God, the law giver, our judge, our King, our law giver, instituted the death penalty for specific crimes. Not just sins. We're not talking about just sins. We're talking about crimes. Okay. Murder, of course, being one of them. Verse 12 of Exodus 21, he that smiteth the man so that he, so that he died shall surely be put to death. So you view bludgeon someone to death. You beat them to the point where you actually take their life. You shall die according to the Bible. And if any man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand, then I will point thee a place whether he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shall take him from mine altar that he may die. And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Whoa. You would have some well-behaved children in society today if this was still instituted. How many have known someone who actually raised their hand against their parents? This would be greatly minimized if this was instituted today. Don't hit me or else you might die. This is what the Bible says. He that stealeth the man, kidnapping, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. Human trafficking would go, would decrease greatly if this was instituted, right? He that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. So what is that called? That's called execution, capital punishment. Whoa. We got to look at the spiritual aspect of that. Okay. Here's your spirit. If the guy's not saved, the guy's going to hell. If he's saved, he goes to heaven. But either way, if he commits his crime, he's dying physically. There you go. Oh, man, you could have just won them to the Lord. Give him the gospel right before you put him to death. Nothing wrong with that. But this is dealing with actual crimes, dealing with how to resolve these issues and conflicts, crimes that are worthy of death. This is what the Bible tells us. Okay. Now, who are the people doing this? Go to Leviticus chapter 20. Did I have you go to Leviticus 20 before? No? Go to Leviticus 20 now. Go to Leviticus chapter 20. Who are the people doing this? Was it a police agency? You know, they're patrolling the streets, seeking to maintain and prevent crime, detect it. You know, what are you doing late out at night? You got to be in your house, you know, flashing a flaming torch in your eyes, pulling you over in your horse and buggy. You know, your horse's tail is too long, fix that or whatever, you know. No. Because that's what it means to police. Police means to patrol, right? Basically, they're out looking for trouble. That's basically what they're doing. Okay. Who are the people doing this? Look at Leviticus 20 verse 1. And the Lord's speaking to Moses, saying, Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stone. Oh, that's so savage, stone with stones. Well, I'm sorry, they didn't have an AR-15 back in those days. They didn't have a shotgun. They didn't have bullets back in those days. You know, you had to get something that was readily available in Israel during the desert. And guess what? There's a whole lot of rocks and stones in those days, just easily accessible. Just pick the biggest one that's nearest to you. And that'll do. And in fact, if that doesn't do, just pick up another one. I mean, that's what the Bible says. Oh, why are you being, why are you trying to read the Bible? Read the Bible when they would literally say they would make a heap of stones upon a person that they would stone to death. Think about that. How about Achan, when they literally stoned him to death and they made a heap of stone, a mountain of stones upon his own body. I mean, the guy was probably dead a long time ago. And people were just making a heap of stones upon him. You know why? To make him a public example. Because when you make a public example, you deter crying folks. Go to Leviticus 24. So who are the people doing it? The people of the land. Look at Leviticus 24 verse 13, that the Lord spake unto Moses saying, bring forth him that has curse without the camp and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head and let all the congregation stone him. So at this point, who is the executive branch? Anybody who heard him curse. He's like, well, I heard him. Okay, then you need to partake of this. You're part of the executive branch now. The congregation, you are a part of the executive branch. And in fact, we're not going to get into the rest of the scriptures, but go to Deuteronomy 17. There's a scripture where the Bible literally says that if there's someone who basically tries to get you away from serving the true God, your hand should be upon him first. And he literally says, let not thine eye pity him. He said, even if it's your family, if this person is trying to get you into idolatry to turn your heart from God, oh, that's so wicked. No, it's wicked that you think it's okay to turn away from God like that, to serve other false gods, to serve Molech, to serve all these false idols, right? And he said, let not thine eye pity. I mean, folks, people have a perverted view of God today. God's the one who said that don't, and he looked, look, he's very pitiful to us. Isn't he odd? It's very merciful. So you got to go pretty far for him to even tell you, instruct you, you better not pity. He's the king of pity. He's merciful to us as high as the heavens are from the earth. Yeah, so how can you say let not thine eye pity? He said, I didn't say it. It was him. That was a part of his law. Look at Deuteronomy 17 verse two. If there be found among you within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God in transgressing this covenant and hath gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I commanded thee not. And it be told thee that thou has heard it and inquired diligently and behold, it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel. Then shalt thou bring forth the man or that woman which have committed the wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman and shall stone with stones till they die. Now notice that it says in verse four, inquired diligently, make sure that it's true and make sure that the thing is certain. This is someone's life that we're talking about here. And he's saying, look, you need to make sure this person is guilty of that crime. And if that's the case, this person shall die. Verse six, at the mouth of two witnesses or three, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death, but at the mouth of one witness, he shall not be put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death. Does it say the hands of the police, the hands of this agency? No, the ones who saw him do it. Shall be first upon him to put him to death and afterward, the hands of all the people. It says, look, you're the one who saw it. You're the one who has to put him to death. And then everyone else partakes of that. It's right there, folks. So why do it like that? So thou shall put the evil away from among you. Folks, do we see today in 2020 evil being put away from America? We see it increasing. Iniquity is abounding. The love of many is waxing coal. Evil seducers have waxed worse and worse, according to the Bible. Why is that? Because these things are not instituted, folks. I'm gonna skip the last verse here. Go with me if you would to go to Luke chapter three, if you would. Luke chapter three. I mean, it's pretty simple to see, folks. And we could go on and on and on of all the instances where people will put to death, and you will never find a specific group or an agency who was deputized as their full-time job to go and look for criminals. And again, people say, oh, so, well, you're not gonna call 911 if something happens? Of course I am. You know why? Because I pay taxes. I live in America, okay? You know, if some person's out here causing trouble, you know, I'm gonna call 911. Now, their service is not as fast as God's, the way God put it, you know? If some guy's causing trouble, it's just faster for us to just whoop him. It'll be more effective, right? If some guy comes in here and tries to, like, put his hands on the ladies or something like that, you know, it's a faster thing to just beat them down, teach them a lesson. And I guarantee you, we will reform that person's life. Their lives will be changed. And look, we even get Glenn to give them the gospel thereafter because the guy would probably be humble, just ready, you know? What I'm saying is that we never see police in the Bible, okay? Giving out citations, tickets, pulling people over on suspicion, patrolling cities, towns, and villages. This is a new thing, even in the United States, okay? You know, it's said that the first police force in America is actually prior to it being established as America in the 1700s, 1751 in Philadelphia. But even then, you had sheriffs and deputies, you know, who would seek to enforce laws within towns and cities and such. Everyone else had guns. You know, people had guns to protect their property, their family, and their persons, okay? And they were always justified to take someone's life if that person was trying to take theirs, understand? We never see prison time in the Bible. The only time anything even close to prison is the ward in the Bible, right? In Leviticus 24, you have a person being put into a ward for a specific certain amount of time so that the mind of the Lord can be shown unto them. You know, maybe it was a complicated situation. They need to figure out what to do. What they did is they placed them in a ward for a limited time in order to figure out what are we going to do with these people. Whereas today, you have the prison system where you just put a murderer there for 50 years. Oh, they don't even say 200 years, right? Two life sentences or whatever, you know? It's just like, what in the world? Weird. I'm pretty much done here. What should be our attitude towards the police, okay? Because I just showed you that, according to the Bible, we shouldn't have police. And look, this is the attitude that people get when they hear something like this. Oh, you just hate all police officers. Blue lines don't even matter to you. You're just trying to incite violence. Anytime you preach against the organization, they automatically think you hate the individuals within that organization. Now, let me say this. The LGBTQ, I preach against that organization, and yes, I do hate the people within the organization, okay? Guilty is charged, okay? But hold on a second. I preach against America, but I don't hate every individual within America. I'm just showing you that this is what the Bible teaches in this regard, okay? What should be our attitude towards the police? Well, let's just look at Jesus' example because Jesus came under the Roman Empire. You know, the world was not under a theocracy. It was under the Roman rule. There were Roman soldiers patrolling. They had their form of police as well, okay? They had the urban cohort that operated almost like the police of today, okay? They would go patrol and maintain law and enforce it in those days, you know? So, how did He behave around police officers? Did He go around rebuking them? No, in fact, number one, first of all, let me just say this. Number one, He came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. So, when Jesus came, He didn't say, oh, the law of Moses, we're under grace now. No, He was all for the law, right? But number two, He understood that His kingdom was a different kingdom, right? We never see Him acting violently against the Romans. In fact, we see the opposite. We see Him getting Romans saved. The centurion soldier got saved, amen? We see Him paying taxes to Caesar, right? And telling people to pay taxes. And it boggles my mind when Christians are like, how can you pay taxes? It's like, Jesus told me to do it. What would Jesus do? He said, pay taxes, render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, render to God the things which be God's. And we see Him doing it. Was Jesus just some passive person? No, the thing is, He understood, I'm gonna rule all over you in a couple thousand years anyways. Enjoy what you can. And look, folks, even when they mocked Him, even when they crucified Him, what was His attitude? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. This is their attitude. And look, folks, there's police officers out there that are sincerely doing their job, that they believe they're doing right. They believe that they're righteous or just, okay? They have a sincere heart, okay? And we may not agree with everything that they do. I'm not saying simple things. I'm talking about just the laws that they implement that we may not agree with. But here's the thing, at the end of the day, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do if they have a sincere heart. Now look, there's corrupt police officers out there, for sure. Rampart scandal, if you are old enough to remember that. Corrupt police officers, we just saw that May 25th of this month, or of May, where George Floyd was killed by a corrupt person. He killed that guy, okay? But Jesus' attitude was, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, okay? We never see Him seeking to make an insurrection against the government and bear arms against the government to try to destroy them. No, in fact, He said in John 18 verse 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence. Now, here's a good example here. We see John the Baptist even instructing Roman soldiers, right? Look what it says in Luke 3 verse 12. Then came also the publicans to be baptized and said unto him, master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, exact no more than that which is appointed you. So what is he saying? Don't steal money from people. And the soldiers likewise demanded of him saying, and what shall we do? And he said unto them, do violence to no man. Hey, look at that. There's no new thing under the sun. Neither accuse any falsely. You know, let's just plant these drugs right here. Let's plant this gun, right? And be content with your wages. Don't be corrupt. Be content with the wages that you're given. Don't go around beating people up and taking people's lives unjustly. Don't accuse people, plant drugs or whatever they had back in those days, you know, don't plant shekels, you know, into someone's back, try to accuse them of stealing. Be content with your wages, he says. So on and so forth. So no new thing under the sun. So what's your attitude be when it comes to the police? Well, you know what? Romans 13 still exists, folks. And I know there's people out there. Oh, you're one of those Romans 13 people. Yeah, of course. Cause Romans 13 is in the Bible. You're one of those judges. You're one of those judges of God's law then, huh? Cause Romans 13 does exist. And it's instructing us to be subject unto the higher powers, the powers that be ordained of God. Now folks, if they start instituting laws that are anti-bible and are trying to get us to sin at that point, we negate that. We obey God rather than man. But by default, we're going to just obey these laws. Okay. These curfew laws, for example, right? If it's not causing us to sin, you shouldn't be laid out on that anyway, right? You say, well, I think we should fight every single law. Folks, why don't you just win souls to Christ, serve God, and you can be one of those rulers in the millennial reign and go look for that police officer who pulled you over or whatever. You understand? So what's the sermon for today? The sermon is simply this folks, is that police are not in the Bible. And look, this is not a sermon saying we should just get rid of all police and we need to bear arms. Nothing, I mean, nothing can be further from the truth. This is the world that we live in. What I'm trying to do is show Christians what the Bible says. You do with it whatever you want, but just know this, this is what the Bible says. Okay. And I'm trying to show you that the world that we live in is polar opposite to the word of God. Okay. Stop supporting Black Lives Matter. Stop supporting Antifa. But at the same time, hey, you know, don't think that police can do no wrong and don't think that there's just some sort of godsend either. Okay. This is not in the Bible. It's fire heads and a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and Lord, I'm thankful for some of the police officers, even in our city. I remember when we were going out soul winning and a police officer literally pulled up and stuck his head out the window and basically said, are you guys okay? Stay safe. And he looked out for us. And that's exactly what police officers should be doing, looking out for the soul winners. And I'm thankful for that, but I also know that there's corrupt people out there, Lord, and I pray you protect us from those corrupt police officers. And Lord, help us to adhere to the word of God, to have our minds renewed. When we feel we hear something that rubs us the wrong way and it comes from God's word, may we recognize that we just need to get our brains washed. We need a renewing, a transforming of our mind and help us to side with the word of God, not with popular culture or the dogmas of this country. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.