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

Hey man, Acts chapter 25, I think we'll probably just get through the whole chapter tonight. But I'm going to turn you into a bunch of lawyers tonight. So after you leave tonight, you're going to be pretty much a lawyer and you're like, I'm leaving right now. No, just stay here. It's okay. Look, I know a couple of saved lawyers, okay? Maybe well, I know one saved lawyer, but I'm sure there's more than just one. But anyway, we're going to look at some things in the law tonight and where those things came from in the law. And again, we're going to see Paul doing something fairly intelligent here with his situation, with the high priests and the Jews who are coming after him and the Roman authorities here that are getting in the middle of this situation, kind of stopping the Jews from persecuting Paul here. Let's just get right into it. And we're going to look at some real detailed things in the Bible. And you'll see things in our society and where they came from tonight. But let's look at Acts chapter 25, look at verse number one. So now we have Festus here. Festus is the governor that's taking over for Felix. Where is Paul? Paul's in Caesarea, all right? So Paul is in Caesarea, which is a coastal city, north west of Jerusalem. So it's north of Jerusalem, but whenever they say, you know, they went up to Jerusalem, it's because of, well, let's just read it. Now Festus was coming to the province. After three days, he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. So it says he ascended. The reason it always says ascended or went down to Caesarea is because Caesarea is obviously at sea level, you know, right at the ocean, and Jerusalem is about 2,500 or so. So it's up the hill, right? So he ascended up the hill. And look, if you were walking everywhere, and you weren't driving your SUV around, you know, you would think that way. We have to go up to Jerusalem, you know, we have to climb the hill. You know, I think about like going to Auburn or something from Sacramento, you have to go up the hill there, all right? So they went up to Jerusalem, they ascended, then the high priest. So Festus is this new governor, okay, and he's in Jerusalem right now in verse number two. So right away, the high priest, Ananias, and all his minions, they're just right away just going to the new guy in charge, just trying to get Paul killed here. All right, so look at verse number two, then the high priest, and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him, and desired favor against him that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying weight in the way to kill him. So Paul's in Caesarea, Festus is with the high priest and all the Jews that are after Paul in Jerusalem, and they're saying, go get him, just go bring him here, because why? Because they want to kill him, right? They don't want to have this mob of people that wants to kill him. But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly after. So here you see Festus kind of has the same attitude towards the Jews that Felix did, you know what I mean? He was willing to appease them to a degree, but he just wasn't going to be ordered around by them. Look at verse five. Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able to go down with me, again, go down to the sea, to Caesarea, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him. So what does he do here? He invites them, just like, you know, in the last chapter, he invites them, he's like, hey, if you have to accuse him, you have to come with me to Caesarea, and I'm going to explain to you tonight why that is, all right, and where that came from. And when he had tarried among them more than 10 days, he was still in Jerusalem, he went down unto Caesarea. And the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul to be brought. So the Jews did come. Look at verse seven. And when he was come, the Jews, which came down from Jerusalem, stood round about and laid many grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. Okay, so here, they did come down from Jerusalem, and they did stand before Paul, which is kind of going to be the point of this sermon, but they just said all this stuff, and none of it could be proven. All right, and I'm going to explain that in detail to you tonight as well. While he answered for himself, neither against the law, so Paul's answering for himself now, neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all. So this is what Paul says. He's like, I haven't done any of these things that they say that I have done. Look at verse number nine. But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me? So he's saying, all right, let's go up to Jerusalem, where the high priest is, and everybody's at, and then we'll judge there. So does Paul want to go back to Jerusalem? Paul knows that there's a big conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. And you know, here, Festus is just a politician. He doesn't really care, you know, what's right, but he's just trying to play both sides here. And he asked Paul, you know, just come to Jerusalem. He's like, that way he can appease the people that are, you know, he's in the governorship over, you know, very similar to Pontius Pilate, just trying to, like, be a successful politician. What do you do as a politician? You don't care what's true. You just tell everybody what they want to hear, right? And you hope that these people don't hear you telling, you know, these people what you're telling them, because you're just basically lying to everybody. But you know, he's got a politician on his hands here. But look what Paul says in verse 10, then said Paul, so Paul doesn't want to go to Jerusalem. He knows they're just trying to kill him there. He knows that there's going to be this mob, those 40 men are probably still around. Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. For if I be an offender, or I've committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die. He's appealing to the Roman, you know, Caesar to he's appealing to Caesar, he's feeling to the Roman Supreme Court. Think of it this way. He's like, I appeal to the Supreme Court. He's saying I want to take my case before Caesar. He's you know what he's saying? He's saying I want to be judged under Roman law, versus whatever this thing that exists in Jerusalem is, and I'm going to explain that to you tonight. Look at verse 11. And he says, look, if Caesar finds me guilty, just kill me. He's like, I refuse not to die. He's like, I won't even argue if the Romans find me guilty, but if there be none of these things whereof they accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them, I appeal unto Caesar. So he's appealing to the Romans. Then Festus, when he conferred with the council answer, thou has appealed unto Caesar, unto Caesar thou shalt go. So boom, Paul is playing his Roman citizen card here. He's playing his Roman citizen card. He's like, no, I want to be judged as a Roman citizen at this particular moment, because he sees just the, not to give it away, but he just sees the corruption on the other side. So he's appealing to the Roman citizen side of him. And after certain days, King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus. Now you have this other king coming to visit. When they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying there's a certain man left in bonds by Felix, he kind of tells them the story, about whom when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. So again, notice that the chief priests and the Jews wanted Festus to just pass judgment on Paul when Paul wasn't even there. Notice that's what they wanted to do. To whom I answered, look at verse 16, it is not, and this is why Paul did this, it is not the what? It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die before that which is accused have the accusers face to face and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. Now that verse right there has been quoted in Supreme Court cases in the United States. And I'm going to explain to you why, alright? He says, he's basically saying here it is not the manner of the Romans, he's telling this king, and look, he's kind of making himself sound more noble than he really is, but he's basically saying to King Agrippa, he's like, I knew that the Roman law would never allow someone to be condemned unless what? Unless he gets to see his accuser face to face. Now this is interesting because the title of the sermon tonight is facing your accusers, facing your accusers. In the Bill of Rights, which is the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, the sixth amendment contains this right in Acts that Festus is calling out in Acts chapter 25 in verse number 16. The sixth amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, this doesn't apply to civil law between people, but it applies to criminal law, like someone accusing someone of a crime, alright, where they're going to be punished for it. It guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, a speedy trial, many times they'll say, the right to a lawyer, the right to an impartial jury of your peers, and also the right to know who your accusers are, and the nature of the charges and the evidence presented against you. And this is also where the right to cross-examination comes in. In Wikipedia it says this about, there's a confrontation clause in the sixth amendment that explains this, and it says the confrontation clause has its roots, now this is interesting, has its roots in both English common law, protecting the right of cross-examination, and Roman law, which guaranteed persons accused of a crime the right to look their accusers in the eye. In noting the right's long history, the United States Supreme Court has cited Acts of the Apostles 25, 16, which reports the Roman governor, Portius Festus, discussing the proper treatment of the prisoner Paul. So here they're giving credit, Wikipedia's giving credit to this right to face your accusers and this right of cross-examination, they're giving credit to the Roman law, and they're giving credit to English common law. This is kind of enlightenment thinking right here. Enlightenment thinking is this idea that there's a natural law and common law, and what they do is they completely bypass the Bible. They bypass, you know, they don't give credit to the Bible for these ideas and these things, instead it, oh, it was the Romans. And that's actually what Festus thinks in Acts chapter 25 and verse number 16. He thinks, like, hey, these guys are a bunch of criminals in Jerusalem. He's like, we're the just ones, and the Roman law would never allow that. He's like, King of Rippa, I know that the Roman law would never allow what's happening, what these guys in Jerusalem want, but let's see what the Bible says. Let's see what the Bible talks about when it comes to, you know, the right to face your accusers. Does the Bible talk about this? Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 17. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 17. Does the Bible talk about this? Because, I mean, the Jews, they should know the Bible, right? Look at Deuteronomy chapter 17. You say cross-examination, facing your accusers. I don't know. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 17 and look at verse number 6. First of all, and I've preached on this before, but we'll do a real quick review for five minutes. We're going to talk about witnesses, what they are, are they important, what do they have to do with a criminal accusation. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse number 6, and when you leave Deuteronomy, keep your place there because we're going to go over to Deuteronomy 19 in a few minutes. All right, so let's look at what the Bible says about this process. Look at verse number 6 of Deuteronomy 17. The Bible says this, it says, at the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death. But at the mouth of one witness shall not be put, he shall not be put to death. So the Bible here is saying is if somebody has been accused of a crime that is worthy of death, I mean, think of the crimes, I mean, you know, all matters of perversion, homosexuality, adultery, murder, all different crimes in the Old Testament, there's many different crimes in the Old Testament that, you know, call for capital punishment. The Bible is saying there must be two or three witnesses, okay, that's what the Bible is saying. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 19, but in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1, I'll just read it to you, Paul says this in his letter to the Corinthian church, he says, this is the third time that I am coming to you, and then he says, in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. He's saying if when there's an accusation, he's like, it must be in the mouth of two or three witnesses or what? Or it's not established. And that's the same thing that Deuteronomy chapter 17 says. So one person coming and saying something is not two or three witnesses. So Paul is saying, you know, when I come there, we're gonna establish every word in, you know, there's gonna be witnesses to what happens, basically, because the Bible is basically saying that if there's not two or three witnesses, at least two witnesses, it's not, there's not gonna be a conviction there, all right? I mean, this is where the idea of hearsay comes from. And by the way, a true witness, a true witness, and I've talked about this before, a true witness is someone who actually saw a crime. It is not somebody who thinks they saw something or somebody who's interpreting something to mean something. It's somebody who literally saw someone get stabbed. I saw him with the knife stab, you know, that man in the alley. I saw him and I know it was him. That's what a witness is. It's not someone that heard about it. This is what hearsay is. Have you ever heard of, you know, hearsay? Hearsay is like I heard Bob told me that he saw that guy that looks like that guy in the alley stab that other guy. That's hearsay. That's not a witness, all right? So I can't go and create witnesses. Like, let's say that I saw a crime happen. I can't go and tell four friends that I saw that crime and create four more witnesses. No, I'm the only witness. Whatever those four guys would say would be called hearsay. Because they're just like, they're a third party, they didn't witness anything. All they witness is me telling them what I, what they heard I saw. And that's, you know, have you ever heard like, objection, that's hearsay. You know, that's what that's talking about. It's not a witness, all right? So you can't create witnesses, all right? Witness has to be someone that actually saw it, all right? Now you think about witnesses today, there's many other places, I mean, we're talking the Old Testament, we're talking 2,000 years ago in the New Testament. You think about, there's much technology today that is used as a witness, right? I mean, think about like, okay, there's many crimes that are solved and nobody saw anything. You say, how? Well, DNA is used as a witness. Things like that, you know, fingerprints are used as a witness in many cases. Video, I mean, you know, somebody just saw, you know, somebody was caught on video, you know, stealing something or, you know, murdering somebody or whatever, or, you know, I mean, those are things that are used as, you know, witness, you know, through technology. Also here's another one. My parents, my mom especially, used to watch this show, none of you are going to know what I'm talking about. It was called Murder, She Wrote, like it was back in the 80s and it was like this older lady that was this novel writer or something and like she would solve all these crimes. I was so confused about this as a kid because I'm just like, man, every week this woman's like seeing someone get murdered, what's wrong with this lady? You know, like every week there's a murder and then she solves it or Perry Mason, same thing, right? Perry Mason. All these though, like many of these shows ended with the person that did it, the perpetrator convicting themselves. You know, they're being interrogated under pressure and, you know, the lady, I forget what her name is, but the lady, she's so smart and she's interrogating someone and talking to them and he's like, I didn't stab my girlfriend and she's like, how did you know that she was stabbed? And he's like, ah. You know, it's all the same thing, right? I mean, how did you know that they were in the woods at 10 o'clock that night? I never told you that. He's like, ah. It's pretty much the same plot line for everything, right? But look, there's the Fifth Amendment that actually, you know, protects people from being a witness against themselves. It's called like the right to not self-incriminate. So what do you do? You don't, you have the right to what? To remain silent. You have the right to not, when the lady from Murder, She Wrote starts asking all these like tricky questions, just don't say anything. Stop talking. This is why, by the way, like when I was a kid, like, you know, growing up in the middle of North Dakota or the middle of nowhere, I just thought like you go to the, I mean, the city scared me. The idea of the city when I was a little kid, I'm like, they're just killing people left and right there. Like everybody's just, it's just murder everywhere in the city. Like you must go to these cities and just, there's just dead bodies everywhere. You're going to step over all the dead bodies and just killing people. They don't even care. Like this, this lady, I'm like, this is a dangerous lady. This is what I'm thinking. I'm eight years old. So anyway, witnesses. Witnesses are important. Without witnesses, there is no word. That's what Paul says. That's what Deuteronomy says. Without witnesses, it's, it's invalid. You cannot convict anyone without witnesses. Turn to Matthew chapter 18. Turn to Matthew chapter 18. You're keeping your place in Deuteronomy. Now let's talk about trials. What about, what about trials? Is there trials in the Bible? You know, how does the, you know, what about facing your accuser? What about all these types of things? Does the Bible talk about this? Go to Matthew chapter 18 while keeping your place in Deuteronomy chapter 19. So Matthew chapter 18 is really talking about conflicts between brothers, right? Like if I have a conflict with brother so and so in the church, this is telling us how to handle it, but it's also showing us some, some methodologies, methodologies to how a trial should go, right, and how you should, you should prosecute things to find truth. Look at verse number 15 of Matthew 18. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee. So somebody did, did me wrong in some way. Go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother. So right away we destroy this idea of accusing someone, you know, behind their back or to some other ruler when they're not present. Right away, what are you supposed to do, you know, in an individual situation? Like if, if brother Jeff offended me and I just can't let it go, I just, there's no way I can let it go. The first thing you should do, like by the way, just mini sermon, the first choice is always just let it go. But if I just can't get over it and I'm just like, you know, the guy borrowed three dollars from me and he didn't pay me back and I'm just so upset about this, I should go to him face to face. I shouldn't go and try to create witnesses. I shouldn't go to five other people and be like, brother Jeff took three bucks from me. And go and try to get, you know, get a whole bunch of people against, you know, brother Jeff or whatever. Like people do this. This is what the Jews are doing in Jerusalem against Paul, all right? So I should go to him face to face first thing. Just be like, brother, you know, I have this problem, you know, I mean, you said you didn't like my tie and, you know, I'm offended, you know? And then, you know, 99% of the time it's over at that point. Sorry, I didn't realize it. I didn't realize you liked the tie so much, you know? But 99% of the time that solves it. Basically what I want to get into is the next part of this process. Say like there's two people in the church especially and, you know, like this happens, okay? And one person goes and says, you know, you offended me when I did work on your house and you didn't pay me what you said you were going to pay me or whatever and the other person's just like, I disagree, you know? I don't think that the work that you did deserved what I said I'd pay you. And there's just like this massive problem. So they can't work it out face to face. Then the Bible gives us even further direction. Look at verse number 16. It says, but if you will not hear thee, then look at this. Notice the methodology and how consistent the Bible is here. It says take with thee one or two more that in what? In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. It's like now we kind of need to have a mini trial. We kind of need to figure out what's going on. And look, I've said this many times, if it ever gets to this point where there's two people in the church that need to be, you know, that one or two more needs to be brought in to figure out what's going on, I would like to be one of those as the pastor. So you bring in the pastor and one other person and you sit down with these two that have a conflict and look, these are mediators is what this is. These are witnesses to the conversation that is going to happen. They're not witnesses to anything that happened between these two. They're witnesses to establish the words that are said in this meeting. But if he shall, look in verse number 17, if he shall neglect to hear them, then tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. So if he's just not going to get right, the person who's in the wrong, so you know, you bring in two or three, one of them is the pastor and the pastor's like, well, you clear really said you would pay him, you know, that money and he's not willing to let that go. The best thing would be to just give him the promise contract or whatever and then that person is just like, no, I refuse or whatever. I mean, this is a very simple sin, by the way, that I'm talking about. It's usually things much more serious than, you know, a few dollars. But the point is then like someone could literally be put out of the church for, you know, something like this. But the point I'm trying to make is this is all face to face. The accuser is face to face with the accused, all right? It is a trial situation. There is none of this being accused behind your back. It is face to face, all right? Now go back to Deuteronomy chapter 19. Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 19. We understand witnesses now. We understand what they are. We understand what they aren't, all right? The witnesses are there. They establish words in Matthew chapter 18 and witnesses are someone that actually saw in the case of a criminal accusation a witness in Deuteronomy 17 when somebody who saw it happen, all right? They saw the person do it. But let's look at Deuteronomy 19. Deuteronomy chapter 19. You say, well, you know, Matthew 18 is just talking about individual conflicts. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 19. Let's get into some criminal accusations here in the Bible. The Bible says this, one witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin in any sin that he sinneth. Very consistent. One person can't accuse somebody of saying, at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. Look, it better be seen by two or three people. Now look at verse 16. Now this is where it gets interesting. If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong, then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges which shall be in those days. Are those men apart? Are those men is the man who's accusing, it's just now we have just we have one guy accusing another guy. But guess what? They're together. They're facing one another. The person that's being accused is standing right next to the guy that's accusing him. He's not going to the priests on his own. He's standing, they're both standing before the priests and the judges. Look at verse 18. And the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And behold, if the witness be a false witness and he had testified falsely against his brother, now this is where it gets really interesting. So the first point I want to make about the witnesses is that the Bible calls out specifically that the accuser will be able to, that the accused will be able to face his accuser. Right? The Bible calls it out. It's not just, you know, the Romans don't have an exclusivity on this. The Bible specifically calls it out. That's the first one that the Bible says you get to be face to face with your accuser. But here's the Bible takes it even further. Look at this, verse 19. So here we have a false witness in the case of Deuteronomy 19 and verse number 18, 19, and 20. We have someone that's lying. We have someone that literally came and said, you know, brother so and so is a murderer or a drunk or whatever he's accusing him of. He is accusing him of something serious, something criminal. Then shall you do unto him. If it's found out that he's a false witness, you shall do unto him, meaning the false witness, as he had thought to have done unto his brother. So thou shalt put evil away from among you and those, and those which remain shall hear and what? This is a, this is, this is what we need to realize in this country today. They shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you. So whenever you think that the Old Testament is mean and, and over the top with capital punishment for drunkenness and all the perversion that we see today, remember that people would hear and fear and it wouldn't exist. Who's cruel? Who's cruel? The Bible here is saying that the false witness gets the punishment of whatever he accused the person of, meaning I accused someone of murder and it was capital punishment if they're guilty, meaning they're executed if they're found guilty, but if it was found out that I was lying, I get executed. Where is this today? That's the second point. The second point is that there must be accountability of witnesses for there to be justice in a society. In Exodus 20 verse 16, it's the ninth commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, but the point is I bet you this was a rare thing in ancient Israel. I bet you this was rare because who in the world is going to risk their own life for a lie? Turn to 1 Kings chapter 21. Let's look at what happens when there isn't this accountability of witnesses. You know what you get? You get injustice. You get corruption. You get murder is what you get. Look at 1 Kings chapter 21. I'll just give you one example. You can go through the Bible on this for over an hour. We'll get examples of this. Look at 1 Kings chapter 21. So Ahab goes to Naboth and he wants a piece of land from this guy. And the guy's like, hey, man, it's not for sale. And King Ahab's like, but I want it. I want it. And his wife is maybe the most wicked person in the Bible, the most wicked woman in the Bible. And his wife says to him after he realizes, he's all depressed that he can't have this vineyard. And Jezebel's wife said to him, does that now govern the kingdom of Israel? She's like, aren't you the king? Arise and eat bread. Let thine heart be merry. I'll give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with a seal. She forges letters and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in this city dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters saying, proclaim a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. And set two men, sons of Belial, sons of Belial, what are those? Those are reprobates. Those are sons of Satan. Those are people that are just wicked, evil, given over people. And set two men, sons of Belial, before him to bear witness against him, saying thou didst blaspheme God and the king, and then carry him out and stone him that he may die. And the men of the city, even the elders and the nobles, who were with the inhabitants of the city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which he had sent unto them, they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him, the men of Belial, witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying Naboth did blaspheme God and the king, and they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones and he died. And then Jezebel came and said to Naboth, she says to her husband, Naboth is stoned and is dead. How did she do it? She just got a bunch of false witnesses. She's got some people to bear false witness against him. She got a bunch of people together, and then she had these two false witnesses come in, and look, here's the point. There must be risk to the witnesses. There has to be. For there to be justice, there has to be risk to the witnesses. No risk to the witnesses, no justice. That's just how it is. I mean, a society without this will just be rampant with injustice. And just look around. Just look around at us. I mean, just think of the corruption. Just think of all the people that just file false lawsuits for money. Why do they do that? Because it's just a win. There's no downside. You got all these billboards with all the lawyers? Hey, got in a car accident? Or heard it work? They're basically like, you want to sue your boss? You want to sue anybody? They won't make you pay a dime. You'll go to them, and they'll look at your case. And they'll say, you know what? If I think that I can win this, and I can win a bunch of money, we'll give you a percent, and we'll take a percent. I'm not saying that there's not actual people that have wrong done to them. But the point is, there is no risk to the witness. So what are you going to get? You're going to get rampant corruption. That's why. That's why there's been all these, I don't even know if they suggest it anymore, but they're talking about lawsuit reform all the time. That hey, if somebody sues you, and there was just a frivolous lawsuit, they should have to pay. They should have to pay all your legal fees and all these types of things. Because guess what? Somebody whose brother-in-law is a lawyer could just go around suing everybody for free, and you've got to go, and you've got to defend yourself. You'd have to hire a lawyer and spend all this money on legal fees. Why would they do that? Because there's no risk to them. That's why. So you get rampant false witnesses. Deuteronomy 19 said the reason that we do this, the reason that you're going to take the false witness out and you are going to execute him if he was trying to get somebody executed, is so they hear and fear, and so we have to do it one time, once. The Bible, the Bible uses consequences. The Bible uses consequences to govern in the Old Testament, to govern the nation of Israel. There's no consequences, folks. It's just going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. That's why you can't take a bunch of drug addicts and just go give them a bunch of drugs and give them a bunch of needles and think it's all going to get better. You're going to make it worse. Because taking away consequences hurts people. It's an evil thing to do. You must have consequences. That is the philosophy of the Bible. And look, there has to be consequences for the witness. You say, oh, but, you know, victims, then the victims have to go and they have to testify, you know, and it could be a traumatizing experience for them. Yes, yes, but that's what they have to do. Why? Because we're talking about taking away someone's life, that's why. You can't have somebody just accuse somebody of something where they can be put in prison for the rest of their life, which is not biblical, by the way, where they can be put in prison for the rest of their life or, you know, God forbid, executed and not even be able to face their accuser. It's not biblical. So, yeah, when you're talking about taking someone's life away, the witness has to go face to face and accuse the person face to face and the witness must be held accountable if they are lying. That is the Bible right there. Now, were the Jews doing that? Were the Jews doing that? No, they weren't. No, they weren't. Let's take this to an extreme. Let's take this to an extreme, take a society where, you know, pretty soon, you know, we don't hold witnesses accountable, pretty soon maybe just one witness will just ignore the two or three witnesses out of the Bible, pretty soon maybe we don't even need a witness. You know what you get? You get tyranny is what you get. This is Soviet Russia right here. And many other, you know, tyrannical regimes that literally killed tens of millions of people over the last hundred years. They would just go into cities, they would go into towns with a number. I need to arrest 220 people in this town. This is real, this happened. To the tune of tens of millions of people were killed this way. We need to round up 220 people in this town. And we have a list of accusations here. They didn't know these people. They go in, they round these people up and there's no witness. They just have a quota and they just, you know, sign the confession. You're like, I didn't do anything. So they beat you. And they torture you until you sign the confession. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote a book called the Gulag Archipelago where he went through this. He went through this. And it was interesting to see his rationale because he's saying like there was no witnesses, there was no proof, it was complete lies, it was completely made up. He's saying he would tell the prisoners coming in, he's like, just sign it. Just sign it. Just sign it. Why? Because at least you'll have your body. Sign it before they break your legs and knock your teeth out and cripple you. Sign it so you'll have your body and your physical health and maybe you can get through this. Because he's like, there's no witnesses, there's no accountability of anything, they're just accusing you of something that you had nothing to do with. And he said he would just watch these people just get beaten within an inch of their life and just be like, and then they signed it anyway. But this is the extreme side of just going against, you know, the biblical way. All right, so look, risk to the witness. It stops, look, it makes sure that the witness is sure. It stops false witnesses. It stops corruption and bribery. It stops the Jezebels. It stops the Jezebels. Because if Jezebel's going and saying, hey, I need a couple guys, I'm going to pay a thousand dollars to go accuse Naboth of something so we can stone him to death, you know, they're going to be like, ah, yeah, not risking my life, lady. It stops the Jezebels, too. It stops the false witnesses and it stops the Jezebels. It stops both sides of the corruption. And ultimately it stops tyranny. It stops just complete injustice. Go back to Acts chapter 25. There you go, now you're a lawyer. Acts chapter 25. The point, I mean, what's the whole point I'm trying to make here? The point I'm trying to make is Paul's really smart. Paul's really smart. Paul knew this. Paul knew this. Paul knew what the Bible said. But Paul didn't appeal to the Bible, why? Why didn't Paul appeal to the Bible? I mean, this was biblical, I just proved it to you through a Bible study. This was biblical thousands of years before it was Roman. So why, turn to John chapter 5, I'm sorry, turn to John chapter 5, John chapter 5. So why were the Pharisees and the Sadducees trying to bypass all of this? Because the Jews believe the Old Testament, right? They just don't believe in Jesus, right? That's what people will tell you today. That's what people will tell you today is, oh, the Jews believe the Bible, just not the New Testament. No, Paul knew this. And the reason Paul didn't appeal to the Bible is because the Jews didn't believe the Bible. And he knew that. Look at John chapter 5 and verse number 45. Let's just go to Jesus and see what Jesus says. This will show you why Paul was appealing to the Roman law. Because he knew the Jews didn't believe the Bible. John chapter 5 is Jesus' words and Jesus personally taught Paul in the wilderness. He taught Paul in Arabia for three years. Paul knew this. Look at verse 45 of John chapter 5. Do you not think that I accuse you to the Father? There is one that accuses you, even Moses. Whoa. You know what he's saying there? He's saying, he's saying, the words of Moses accuse you. You know who wrote Deuteronomy? Moses. The Holy Spirit. Moses penned it. For Hegie, look at this. He basically is telling them, you didn't believe Moses. They're sitting there claiming, we're our father Abraham and Moses and the patriarchs. These are the Jews. They're claiming all this heritage. And he said, you never believed him. For Hegie believed, 46, for Hegie believed Moses, he would have believed me. For he wrote of me. But if he believed not his writings, how should he believe my words? You say, why didn't they believe Jesus? Because they didn't believe the word of God. That's why. It's the same thing with today. The Jews don't believe the Bible. A Jew today does not believe the Bible. Look I'm not, you know, I don't hate the Jews, but the Jews need to be saved. And they're not going to get saved unless they believe the Bible. So an individual, I mean there's this Christian weirdism out there that like the Jews are going to get some special treatment or something. No. If you don't, and guess what you can't get, guess what you can't get if you don't believe the Bible. I've seen it a hundred, hundreds of times. You're just like, someone's just not believing it. You're preaching the gospel to me. They're not getting it. They're not believing it. They're getting hung up on everything. And I'm like, you know, you believe this is the word of God, right? Oh no, I think man wrote that. If you don't believe the Bible, you're not going to believe in Jesus. It's impossible. Because Jesus is the Bible. Jesus is the word. This is Jesus. And the word became flesh. So they didn't believe it. So Jesus is literally saying like, you don't believe the word of God, and I am the word of God. That's why you don't believe me. You don't believe in me. Paul knew this. Paul knew that all this, you know, tyranny and mob rule that they were doing in Jerusalem, he knew that that wasn't biblical. But he didn't go and say like, hey, I appeal to the Bible. Because to the Roman, to the Roman, he looked at the Jews and he's like, yeah, they, they, they're all believing the same Bible, they're arguing over doctrine. But no, Paul was the only one that actually believed the word of God. And the Romans wouldn't have got that. So Paul was smart. He's like, no, I prefer Roman justice. He's like, just take me to the Romans. He's like, just take me to the Romans, you know, versus the mob in Jerusalem. So look, folks, it's the Bible. It's the Bible that defined face to face justice from your accuser. It's the Bible that imposes this risk to the witness. And look, it's the Bible that gives us every answer on even how you saw Matthew 19 on how to just perfectly resolve any conflicts we have in our personal lives. And how, you know, if we want to have justice in our, look, if we want to have justice in our society, you know, the only way is just to start looking at this book. It's the only way. Do I think that's going to happen? Well, you know, that's what Paul was doing. The Bible had it first. Again, the Bible had everything correct way before man. Let's bow our heads and have a word of praise.