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Amen. So keep your place there in James chapter 2. We're starting a sermon series on Sunday mornings that I don't normally do, but I thought it was important to talk about some things for the next few weeks on what makes us different. You know, I was thinking about that over the last week or two, and it's interesting because I got into a conversation a couple of days ago, literally two days ago, I had a really long conversation with somebody, a man who was from Iraq. He was originally from Iraq, and he moved to the United States, and this man and I had a conversation for about 40 minutes, and it was just a fascinating conversation. Let me just say this before I even get started with the sermon. You know, if there's been a false narrative, you know, placed to us in the media, it's a false narrative about Muslim people, in my opinion. Now, I understand that, you know, I'm not talking about the religion. Obviously, all false religions need the gospel. That's what they need. But every personal experience that I have had where I've run into somebody from the Middle East or somebody that was Muslim has been very pleasant. They're very nice people. I was talking to this man from Iraq, and we talked about all sorts of different things, and I actually said to him, because he told me he came over to the United States in 2008, and that was a tough time over in Iraq, and I basically said to him, I was like, man, I'm sorry we destroyed your country. I basically said to this guy, and he said, you didn't do it. He said it wasn't you. And it was interesting because he was very pragmatic about the situation that he was in and his family and things like that, and he just said, look, it's just about money and power. That's all it is. And I said, yeah, I mean, that's a good perspective to have. The conversation, I'll talk to you guys about it after church. I love getting different people's perspectives on things, people that have lived in different parts of the world in different situations, seen different things. I feel like that's a good way for us to grow as people, just getting people's perspective on things. But he made a comment. He was obviously Muslim. He knew at this point in the conversation that I was a Christian pastor. That's kind of how I put it to him. And he basically said, he said, you know, he said, I don't understand why people that are religious, our religious books don't teach us to do these things. And I said, well, from the Christian perspective, I came at it and I said, look, one thing you have to understand is that not every, and it's a deep conversation that I was not, I did not have time to get into with him. But I basically tried to explain to him that just because a church has a cross on it doesn't mean they follow the Bible. And that's what I tried to get across to him in this few minutes that I had with him. I said, there's a lot of churches out there, I said, that claim to be Christian, that have crosses on the building that you may look at and say that's a Christian church, but they are not doing what the Bible says. And I said, I said, any Bible-believing Christian was against what happened to your country, you know, or they were lied to and they were believing a lie that, you know, that they were told, basically. And you know, he, I think he kind of got that, but we didn't have, you know, hours and hours and hours to talk to, but very nice man and God in a, you know, just a great conversation. I worked with a guy from Afghanistan for a couple years and I actually got a chance to give this guy the gospel. But again, very, very nice and sincere person. And so all of my experiences that I've met personally with Muslim people from the Middle East have been very good. They're very kind people. Of course, they need the gospel and we should give them the gospel whenever we have the chance to do so. All right, but that, that being said, what's the point of telling you that story? The point of telling you that story is the sermon series coming up in the next couple of few weeks is going to be talking about why we are different. Why, why are we, what is different about us? Why do you come to church here? What is different about this church than the dozens and dozens and dozens of other churches in this area? What's the difference? And the difference really is the same as I told this man from Iraq. The difference is doctrine. The difference is doctrine, not just the gospel, not just the gospel. That eliminates, look, the gospel and the correct gospel would eliminate 90% of, of churches in the area that say that they are Christian. But even that 10% that has the gospel correct, the doctrine is the key. It is things that they are not saying. It is things that they are teaching that is wrong. So it's not only omitting things, but it is literally teaching false doctrine, false doctrine. Look, a church could have the right gospel and this is a perfect example of what we are going to talk about today. They could have the right gospel and teach much false doctrine. And that is why this is important. That's why this place, Fresno, needed a church like this. Because these things don't exist at every or any other churches in this area. So one of the first, what we're going to talk about this morning is in James chapter two. Now James chapter two is one of the most misused chapters in the entire Bible. It is the most misused chapter. People pull one single verse in several cases in James chapter two and teach false doctrine. We're just going to talk about one of those today. So if you're in James chapter two, what we're going to talk about today is, you know, some false doctrine that's taught out of James chapter two. Remember your Bible reading rules. If you read a verse from the Bible and a common, look, a common tactic used by false teachers that teach false doctrine is they'll pick one verse and just run with just one verse. Most of the time, the vast majority of the time, maybe all of the time, that can be solved just by reading a few verses above and a few verses below and you can get the context of that one verse. You can disprove them by the same page in the Bible many times. All right? But James chapter two is, so our number one Bible reading rule, remember, is if you're reading a verse in the Bible or someone is showing you a verse in the Bible that contradicts other places in the Bible where there is clear scriptural doctrine, you are misinterpreting or they are misinterpreting that verse incorrectly. What we're going to talk about this morning is this false doctrine that is taught in liberal Christianity today that all sin is equal. That's what we're going to look at this morning. There's only one verse in the Bible that is used to teach this false doctrine. It is in James chapter two and verse number 10. This is a huge false doctrine that is basically creating these anything goes Christian churches. And there's much falsehood and danger that comes from it that we'll talk about later, but this idea that all sin is equal, all sin is equal in the eyes of God is false. It is not in the Bible, but it is James chapter two and verse number 10 that is used to teach this. Look at James chapter two in verse number 10. So what we'll do this morning is we'll look at James 2 10 and then we'll read James 2 nine through 13 and we'll see what it actually is saying. James 2 10 says, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point. This is a person, first of all, this person here in James 2 10 does not exist. This person does not exist. The Bible here is using, uh, you know, some, an extreme example of somebody that thinks this is like the rich young ruler, somebody that thinks they're perfect and they never sin. The Bible here is saying whosoever shall keep the whole law and offend in one point, meaning this person only sins once in their life. Look what it says. He is guilty of all. See, all sin is equal. That's what people will teach. First of all, it doesn't even say that all sin is equal. That is not what that says. That is not what that says. Now let's go back to James chapter two in verse number nine. Let's get some context and see what it actually says and then we'll go and just, we'll just look at biblical evidence on whether or not all sin is equal or not because look, we can't read a verse and interpret the verse if it contradicts clear scripture. Look at James chapter two and verse number nine. What's going on here? James chapter two and verse number nine. First of all, some context on James chapter two. The whole chapter is about how we, how our actions affect our Christian lives, especially our brothers and sisters. How our works, what do our works mean? As a Christian, do your works matter? The answer is yes, your works do matter. As a saved believer, what you do matters. It matters for you, it matters for your family, it matters for your brothers and sisters in Christ. It doesn't matter for your salvation, but it matters for your life. The Bible in James chapter two is trying to teach Christians to be profitable to one another, to matter for one another. A friend of mine that says, hey, I need some help moving and I'm like, hey, I hope that works out for you. Good luck with that. That is not somebody that's profitable to me. Now, if I'm like, hey, I need some help moving and everyone's like, hey, I'll be there on Saturday or whatever, that's profitable right there. All right? It's talking about being profitable, not just speaking, not just saying things, which is important in the Christian life. Look at James chapter two and verse number nine. Looking at this idea of all sin is equal. The Bible says, but if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. The Bible here is saying, like, what are they doing here? They're treating people better or worse according to how much money they have. That's what they're doing. People are coming into this church and the people that have a lot of money, they're like, hey, you know, they're treated, you know, well, you sit in their best seats and you do all this. And the people that don't have the money, they're just like, yeah, you know, you're lucky we let you come here. So he's just saying, you're sinning. You are committing sin. And then he says in verse 10, for whosoever shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. So they're obviously prideful too. They were prideful and he's saying, look, by what you're doing is actually sin. Verse 11, for he that saith, do not commit adultery said also, do not kill. Now if the law, now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. Notice how he didn't say in verse number 11. So he's basically saying like, hey, if you don't do this sin over here, if you're super judgmental against people that commit adultery because you don't commit adultery, and then you go over here and you kill, he's like, whoever is guilty of the law as this person here. That doesn't mean you committed adultery though. It doesn't mean you committed that sin. Then he says in verse 12, so speak ye and so do that you shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. So two things here. He's saying in the sense, point number one, he's saying in the sense that we all deserve damnation even if we commit one sin is what he's saying. You're guilty of the law. If you sinned, it doesn't matter which sin. You're guilty of the law. And the second thing is he's also reminding us to have mercy on our brothers and sisters in Christ. To just remember that, hey, we're all sinners. We're all sinners. You should have mercy towards your brothers and sisters. That's just a good philosophy to have, and the Bible clearly teaches that. If you're this person that is just completely unmerciful to others, then where you're having problems, God is going to be unmerciful with you, is what that is saying. That is not saying that all sin is equal in the eyes of God. So look, it's easy to disprove from the Bible, and that's what we're going to do in the next few minutes, but it doesn't even make sense to people. It doesn't make sense to your conscience that all sin is equal in the eyes of a God. And look, people have been, we're going to go through this sermon series, and I hope that you realize how crazy some of these things seem. People have been convinced to believe crazy things today. Like stealing a paper clip from work, which is wrong, that's theft, is as bad as going and killing 20 people. But that's what people believe today. It's culty. It's weird. It's weird. It's wicked, is what it is. All sin is not equal. Well you say, well pastor, prove it to me. Go to John chapter 19. John chapter 19. First of all, the Bible clearly teaches that there is, I mean, Jesus himself says that there are some sins that are worse than other sins. Jesus himself teaches this. So the first point is this, there's greater sin in the Bible, which means there's lesser sin in the Bible. Go to John chapter 19, verse number 11. This is Jesus himself speaking in John chapter 19, and he's talking to Pontius Pilate here. And look, Pontius Pilate was clearly not doing the right thing. Pontius Pilate was clearly in the wrong. He was influenced by the Jewish leaders, and he was clearly not doing the right thing by convicting and executing an innocent person, just in that sense. All right, look at John chapter 19, verse number 11. Verse number 11, Jesus answered. You know, Pontius Pilate is basically saying to Jesus, he's like, how come you're not speaking to me? Why aren't you saying anything and answering yourself? Because don't you know that I'm the one, that I'm the one that controls your fate? Basically is what Pontius Pilate is saying to Jesus, and this is how Jesus answers him. He says, thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. He says, therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the what? The greater sin. He doesn't say here, he doesn't say here that, so first of all, that James 2 10, we must be interpreting that wrong. If we believe that you know, all sin is equal, that contradicts what Jesus clearly said to Pontius Pilate right here. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, like he didn't say you're not guilty. He said to Pontius Pilate, yeah, you're sinning, but the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, the chief priests, all these people, he's like, they're committing a greater sin. That means a worse sin, a more serious sin. So obviously, according to Jesus, not all sin is equal. And the Bible doesn't contradict itself, folks. So right away we know, James 2 10, we can just stop right there and go and pray. We're interpreting James, these people are interpreting James chapter 2 and verse number 10 wrong. All false doctrine has an agenda, by the way. All false doctrine and every single one of these doctrines that we're going to talk about in this sermon series has an agenda. And that agenda is ultimately the agenda of Satan, but it is an agenda to destroy the church. And that's what I'm going to show you this morning. Go to Ezekiel chapter 8. Ezekiel chapter 8, look at verse number 13. It's just this idea that all sin is equal, it just contradicts clear verses in the Bible. Jesus said there's a greater sin. Ezekiel chapter 8, look at verse number 13. Ezekiel chapter 8 verse number 13. The Bible says, he said also unto me, turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Again, in verse 15, it says greater abominations, meaning there's things that God hates. Look, abominations are something that God hates. So you pay attention to that word in the Bible. Abomination means God hates it. In verse 15, he's saying, in verse 13 and verse 15, he's saying God hates some of those abominations worse than others. He's saying there's greater abominations. Look, folks, there's greater sin. It's very clear in the Bible. Turn to Matthew chapter 23. Here's the second point. There's different levels of punishment in the Bible. This is from Genesis to Revelation. There's different levels of punishment. We could study the Bible for eight hours on different levels of punishment. This is super clear in the Bible. And look, again, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to even a normal person's conscience that all sins would have the same level of punishment. No society in the history of mankind has ever operated that way. I mean, it's ridiculous to think. I mean, you would have to execute everyone or punish no one. We're heading in the second direction in this country. Look at Matthew chapter 23. Look at verse number 13. Matthew chapter 23, verse number 13. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. He says, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He's saying you're false prophets. You're teaching the wrong thing. He's like, you're not going to go to heaven, and you're stopping other people from going to heaven is what he's saying. You're like, oh, Jesus was, look, you see the explanation points here? Jesus is screaming at these people. He's saying, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He's saying he's yelling at them for devouring widows' houses and for pretense make long prayer. Therefore ye shall receive the what? The greater damnation. Look, anybody that sins and is not saved is going to hell, but there's going to be a greater punishment for different sins in hell. They're going to receive a greater damnation. Same place, same hell, ending up in the lake of fire, but it's going to be worse for some people. And look, this kind of eases your conscience too, because to believe that somebody like, you know, Stalin or somebody that murdered, you know, tens of millions of people is going to just get the same punishment as somebody that just, you know, lived a normal life but just did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that doesn't really fit either. But the Bible here is saying is that everyone's punishment will be just. Everyone's punishment will be just and people, some people will have a greater damnation. False prophets, reprobates, all these people are going to have greater damnations, right? Look at Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12 in verse, actually you go to 1 John chapter 5 and I will just read for you Mark chapter 12. And he said unto them in this doctrine, beware the scribes, you're going to 1 John 5, which love to go in long clothing and love salutations in the marketplaces and the chief seats in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at feasts, which devour, again, devour widows houses and for pretense make long prayers, these shall receive greater damnation. Again, talking about the false prophets of his time, they're going to be punished worse than other people. Look at 1 John chapter 5 verse number 16. The Bible says this, I mean the Bible says that different sins literally have different punishments. 1 John chapter 5 verse 16. If any man see his brother a sin, a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin. That basically matches John 2 10 right there. That's what James chapter 2 and verse number 10 is saying, is that all unrighteousness is sin. That's what James was saying. He's like, hey, self-righteous people, all unrighteousness is sin, is what he's saying to that church. But he says all unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death. Meaning, some sins aren't punished with death, like in the civil law, in the Bible. Look at Exodus chapter 22. Look, even stealing in the Bible, even stealing had different levels of punishment. I mean, the Bible is incredibly detailed in the civil law. It's what certain crimes are punished with. In God's civil law, it's not like everyone is executed no matter what they do. Or just everyone is let off the hook no matter what they do. Even stealing in the Bible is extremely detailed on the situation at hand. Look at Exodus chapter 22 and verse number 1. It's just an example of this. Exodus 22 and verse number 1, the Bible says if a man steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. He's saying here, like, if you steal something, then you have to, he's giving detailed examples of how much you have to pay back. It doesn't matter what you did with it. You killed it and ate it yourself or you sold it. He's like, you need to give five cows for a cow and four sheep for a sheep. And that makes just a lot of sense right there. That makes a lot of sense because taking somebody that steals your car and just locking them up in prison for five years doesn't get your car back. But if somebody had to go and they had to pay you four times your car, look, you're like, oh man, they wouldn't be able to afford that. Then they'd have to go and they'd have to work off that time. They'd have to work for that. Look, you're going to have a lot less car theft in those cases. And it gives restitution to the person that lost property. Look, the Bible just makes so much sense in everything that it does. Now look at verse number two. It says, if a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. That's the first case, right? Now we're going to break it down into a second case here. It's saying basically if a thief comes and is breaking into your house and you kill him, you smite him away, whatever that means, you attack him in a way, he's in your house, that he dies, there will be no blood shed. But look at verse number three. And this reflects laws that we have today, by the way. In verse number three it says, if the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him, for he should make full restitution. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. You're like, oh, sold for his theft. No, that's just. Servitude's a real thing. It's a real thing. You know, that's what some of the modern Bibles, they just replace servitude with slavery. No, servitude, every single person that's in debt has their labor. They can pay that debt back if they have two arms and two legs and they can go out and they can work. And that's what we've just forgotten today, that you still have your labor if you have nothing. That guy on the corner that's 30 years old has got two arms and two legs begging for money, he's got his labor. His pockets are full and he wants your money. He's got his labor but he wants yours. This is the problem. This is the Bible. In verse number three it's saying, if the sun be upon him, meaning it's daylight, you see it, you see what's going on, he's maybe breaking into your car and you see that he's not there to harm you or you can kind of, you understand the situation that he's just a thief? It's saying you should not kill him, is what that's saying. Now, a lot of people, like I preached a couple weeks ago or last week that, you know, California, everyone's down on California, but California's actually pretty good about this one. California has both the castle doctrine and a stand your ground rules or laws. Let me just read for you and I'll tell you how it matches the Bible. It says any person, this is California law in code 198.5 or whatever it is, it says, any person using force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily injury within his or her own residence shall be presumed to have held reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily injury. What that means is verse number two in Exodus chapter 22. It's saying, but the nice thing about not every state has a law like that because what it's saying is if somebody breaks into your house, it doesn't say day or night, but it says it is presumed that you feared for your life. So anybody breaks into your house in California, you know, you have the right to use deadly force in that case unless they can prove that you didn't have fear for your life. So they have to prove that you didn't fear for your life. So they give the presumption or the reasonable doubt is given to the homeowner or the owner of this, you know, that's the castle doctrine right there. You know, California also has, you know, a statement that says, you know, you have no obligation to retreat in situations like that. Meaning somebody breaks into my house, no, I can defend myself at that point. I don't have to run away. There are laws, I mean, you laugh, but there are some laws that say, you know, look, if there's a door anywhere and you could have gotten out of there, you need to get out of there. Literally turning people into cowards that can't stand up for themselves, can't defend their families, basically is what that does. All right. But the point is Exodus chapter 22 and verse number two and verse number three is breaking down specific punishments for a specific crime. All right. Turn to James chapter three and verse number one. So it is very clear throughout the Bible, the book of Leviticus, the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Exodus talks about different crimes. Look, there's a lot of crimes that are punishable by death. Those are crimes like adultery, like murder, like sodomy. All these different things are punishable by death in the Bible. And it is very clear. But other things are not. The Bible gets so detailed, it even talks about manslaughter and somebody that's killed by his neighbor's ox. And it goes into great detail on like, okay, you have an animal that kills somebody else, you're not to be put into death for that. However, we're only to put the animal to death. However, if you don't put the animal to death and it kills somebody else, now you're toast. I mean, the Bible goes into situations talking about manslaughter where if somebody, two men are fighting and a woman is hit and she's hurt when she's pregnant and loses the baby, it goes into all these details of all these different situations as far as manslaughter is concerned, premeditated murder, all these different things, the Bible details out and they're all different punishments according to the sin and the circumstance. So this idea that just, oh yeah, you stole a paperclip from your office or you took a pencil from school, you're, build the gallows, we're going to hang you. It's just, it's ridiculous. But that's what's being taught today. That's what's being taught today. We can go more and more into the Bible on this, but I mean, it's clear from the Bible that not all sin is equal. There are greater sins. It's clear from the Bible that there are different punishments for different sins, even to the point where there is greater damnation for certain people, all right, for people that are greater sinners and commit those greater abominations. They're going to receive a greater damnation. Turn to Matthew chapter seven. So you say, you know, pastor, what's the problem? What's the problem? You know, why don't you just worry about yourself? You know, what's the problem? Why, why is this a big deal? If a church gets up and just preaches, hey, you know, all sin is equal, doesn't that just make people just, you know, ultra merciful and just, you know, just errs on the side of mercy? Well, several things come from this. And the first one that comes from this is this idea that we should never judge. Don't ever judge. Don't ever judge. Are you, are you perfect, brother? Have you ever sinned one time? Don't ever judge that school shooter that went in and shot up the school because you stole a pencil one time. Don't judge. I'm being extreme, but this is what people literally do. All right, look at Matthew chapter seven. So the first thing, first false dangerous teaching that comes from this is this idea that we should never judge, which is so stupid, even on a common sense level, that you should have, who would ever, who would, let's raise our children to have no judgment. Let's hope that we have people that come into this church that have no judgment. You know what that means? It's like they're just like constantly just making wrong decisions and they have literally no thinking, they have no ability to, to string two thoughts together. That's what it means to have no judgment. When I decide, you know, that, you know, I'm, I'm heading down the road, I'm heading down the road and I see somebody swerve into my lane and I decide to slow down. I just, I pass judgment on that situation. I pass judgment. This is dangerous. He's putting me in danger. I'm going to slow down. I'm going to move to the shoulder and stop. I've got my family here. I am passing judgment. Somebody that has no judgment is just like, nobody would want anyone around them that had literally no judgment. Maybe you've met people that have poor judgment. You've never met anyone that has no judgment. I mean, you look at, there's people in your life where you're just going to meet like that just, I had a, I had a friend one time that was like this, just had very poor judgment. Like you just kind of like always, when he should have went right, he always went left, you know, and like he didn't even really mean anything behind it. Just like he was always making the wrong decision. I mean, I wanted to, I remember I took him hunting one time and I was like, you know what, he's never really been in a situation where he's had a good time hunting and I'll take him out and I know a spot and you know, he'll, you know, he'll, you know, have a good time hunting. I know this is a good spot. So I took him out duck hunting and you know, there was, I put him in the best spot of the whole place and like I watched all morning just ducks fly over his spot all morning long for hours. And I'm like, why is there no shooting going on over there? And I walk over to him and we're, you know, in water up to our chest and I walk over to him and he's sleeping on a muskrat mound. He's asleep. And I'm like, okay, this was a fluke. And I'm like, what were you doing? You're like, do you know what happened over your head? They were everywhere. And I took him out the second time, maybe a month later and same thing. I put him in a good spot. Same thing, just geese and ducks and just craziness over his head. No shooting at all. And I'm just like, what's going on? I walk over there and he's got his shotgun apart and it's in pieces. He's got, he's in water up to his waist. He's got pieces of his gun everywhere. And he's like, I took my shotgun apart and all the springs flew out and everything's in the water. And I don't know. I just said, go sit. I said, go sit in the truck. I was just like, go sit in the truck. No judgment, no judgment. But look, you've never met or bad judgment. You've never met anyone with no judgment. That would be a dangerous person to be around. Look at Matthew chapter seven and verse number one. The Bible says, judge not that ye be not judged. See, never judge. First of all, that's not what that says. It says, judge not that ye be not judged. Let's try our little, let's try our, let's exercise our judgment and read a couple more verses here. The Bible says for with what? Judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. Exactly as James 2 10 is saying. He's saying, what mercy you give, you will receive. This is what this is teaching and what measure ye meet. It shall be measured to you again. Exactly what James chapter two and the first part of James chapter two that we read nine through 13 is teaching. And why beholdest that moat that is in thy brother's eye. And it really here, we get to the brass tacks of it right here, but now consider us not the beam that is nine Oh nine. You know what he's really saying here? He's like, Hey, don't be a hypocrite. Don't be a hypocrite before you can help out your brother. You know, you go up to somebody and they got a sliver in their eye and you say, Hey buddy, you got a sliver in your eye and you got a railroad tie in your eye. You got a sliver in your eye and you got a railroad tie in your eye. And your buddy's going to be like, ah, yeah. This is like somebody who's a drunk and going up and telling somebody like, Hey, you know, you should quit drinking. It's like, it's not going to work. You're a hypocrite. It's saying, don't judge in things where you can't judge. John seven 24 says this, judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. The Bible is teaching that we should have righteous judgment. So how would, how would Matthew seven one where it says judge not, and then we just stop reading it. Those two words. How would that make sense? If the Bible says judge righteous judgment in John chapter seven, the Bible would clearly contradict itself. So we have to understand that people are interpreting these things wrong. They're taking one verse and many times they're taking two words. Don't judge. They're even changing the words. They can't even say judge not. They can't even say, you know what it's, it's actually saying, turn to back to James chapter two. Look at what they were doing in James chapter two. Look at verse number four. Actually, let's read verse number one in James chapter two. The Bible is not saying don't ever judge or don't have judgment. That's a ridiculous thought, but that is what is taught from, that is what is brought in after this. All sin is equal. Don't ever judge anybody because all sins the same. My brethren have not faith, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of persons. Again, he's chewing them out for respecting the rich people and not respecting the people that didn't have money for it. They're coming to your assembly, a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and they're come also in a poor man, in viral raiment. And you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing and say unto him, sit thou there in a good place and say to the poor, stand out there or sit under my footstool, given the great spots to the rich people, the bad spots to the poor people. He says, are you not then partial in yourselves and are become judges of evil thoughts? You know what he's saying? He said, that's bad judgment. You are passing on biblical judgment is what he's saying. He's not saying have no judgment. He's saying you should be righteous in your judgment. You should not be evil in your judgment. It's very clear. Go to first Corinthians chapter five. Look folks, just as an example, go to first Corinthians chapter five, first Corinthians chapter five. Judgment is super important in your life. And it's also important for the leadership of the church. Judgment is super important. The Bible says that there are things that should not be allowed in the church. Again, disproving that all sin is equal. There are certain sins that are not supposed to be allowed in the church. That's specific, meaning that some sins will be allowed in the church. Some people could be in the church struggling with certain sins, and they can still be in the church. But these six sins are not allowed in the church. Look at verse 11. It says, but now I have written unto you to not keep company, meaning they can't be here. If any man that is called a brother, meaning they're saved, be a fornicator, meaning they're having a physical relationship with a woman or a man outside of marriage, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such and one know not to eat. How could we tell? How could I tell if a person was one of these things if I had no judgment? Judgment is super important, especially for leaders. The better judgment a leader has, the more righteous judgment that you have leading your family, the better off your family will be. As a matter of fact, turn to 1 Kings chapter 3. Judgment is so important in leadership, it's literally the one thing that Solomon asked for when God said, what do you want? You can have anything. He literally asked for that one thing. And God was super pleased with that ask, proving that God wants leaders and us in general to have judgment, righteous judgment. Look at verse number 9. Solomon says, give therefore. God says, what do you want? You can have anything. He says, give therefore thy servant an understanding heart. Why? To judge thy people. And then he defines judgment. This is such a great verse because not only does it say I want to have a discerning heart, I want to have a heart that's correct, that can figure out good from bad, but then he literally defines in detail what judgment is. What is judgment? Judgment is bad today in liberal churches. They say, oh, you're judgmental. You bet I am. I'm judgmental. I'm judgmental, but I need to be righteous, righteously judgmental. What does that mean? It means, so I can discern, that means tell the difference between good and bad. Find me a church leader that can't tell the difference between good and bad, and I will give you a mess of a liberal church that's probably not even a church, even though they may have the sign church on the building. For who is able to judge is so great a people. Look, a leader. I don't care if it's a pastor of a church or a leader of a family. They need to see a situation. Look, if you're a leader of a family, if you're a dad, if you're a father, you're a husband, you need to be able to, you're going to be doing this multiple times a day if you're doing it correctly. You need to be analyzing situations. Many times your wife is going to come to you with a situation. You're going to come home from work and your wife's going to be like, here's the situation. Analyze that. What you need to do is you need to analyze that situation and then you need to discern between good and bad. What does that mean? It means you need to judge, and that is righteous leadership right there. You need to have the ability to judge. If you don't have the ability to judge, you will lead nothing. As a matter of fact, you will lead people astray. You will lead your family into a pit. I will lead this church into a pit. Jesus will take away the candlestick from this church. It will be a complete disaster if I do not have judgment and you do not have judgment. You have to analyze and judge situations. The Bible tells us how to do that righteously. So look folks, it's an evil person that tells you that all sin is equal and you should never judge. You say, why preach this? Turn to Luke chapter 17. There's two main reasons. First of all, this is a common hang up for people in believing the gospel. It may not be the most common, but this happens all the time out soul winning. It just happened to me a week ago where people are hung up. They are hung up on believing the God of the Bible. Look, they believe the Bible. They just don't know the details of the Bible. They don't know the doctrines of the Bible and they're reluctant to believe the gospel. They're reluctant to trust in Jesus Christ when they believe. I just had a guy just a few days ago tell me, you're telling me, I tell him it's just about trusting on Jesus. That's it. It's when you put your trust in Jesus Christ, when you stop trusting in being good, you stop trusting in Buddha or Mohammed or whatever else you're trusting in and you trust only on Jesus that he died, was buried and rose again for you in that moment you are saved. You say, are you telling me that anybody could just do that? That some school shooter could go in and just shoot up 27 kids and then trust on Jesus and then they would go to heaven. No. The Bible does not teach that. I don't go out and preach the reprobate doctrine as my regular soul winning presentation, but in cases like this it needs to be taught. It needs to be taught because it must be explained. It must be explained that, look folks, people have had horrible things happen to them in their lives. People have had people that they love be hurt in horrible ways and they look, they don't want to believe in a God that would let these things go by as no big deal, but we don't have that God and that's why this doctrine needs to be preached and it needs to be preached correctly. Look at Luke chapter 17 if you turn there. Luke chapter 17 verse number 2. This is Jesus. This is Jesus who people have feminized today and people have made weak today and made this person that never talks anything loud or raises his voice, has long hair, walks around in a dress. This is who Jesus is though. This is the Jesus of the Bible here. Look at verse number 2 of Luke chapter 17. He's talking about somebody that would hurt a child. Jesus said it would be better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck. A millstone is like this big round rock. Like hang this big round rock that those wheels that you turn to sharpen knives and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. He's saying it would be better if he was just drowned. He doesn't say that you should drown him. He's like it would be better because when I get him it's going to be worse than that. In Romans chapter 12 God says vengeance is mine and we just studied this back on the number 7. God's vengeance will be complete. God's vengeance will be whole. There is nothing that we could do on this earth that would come even close to what God will do to somebody like this. That's a promise. That's a promise. This needs to be taught. Turn to Romans chapter 1. This is why the reprobate doctrine is so important. People will go to old IFB churches. They'll leave a good church and they'll go to an old IFB church and they'll be like well they're pre-trib and they'll talk about end time stuff and I'm just like, I'm like okay, you know, but what about the reprobate doctrine? Do they teach that? They're like no. I mean that's a deal breaker right there. You say why? Because a church that doesn't teach the reprobate doctrine, which used to be common 20 or 30 years ago by the way, a church that doesn't teach that will have extremely dangerous people amongst them. It's a deal breaker. Why are we all concerned about end times theology? The reprobate doctrine is literally what's protecting the church. And look, we didn't make this up. It's just what the Bible says and God puts it in there to protect his people. That's why Romans chapter 1, and look I'm not going to preach this whole thing, but look at Romans chapter 1 and verse number 24. Romans chapter 1 is talking about when it's talking about people that are given over by God, given up by God, given over to a reprobate mind, it uses this word over and over again. It uses this form of the word. It's talking about natural and unnatural. It's talking about natural and unnatural. It just keeps pointing this out over and over again. Look at verse number 24 of Romans chapter 1. Look, while serious, while there are many serious sins, adultery is a serious sin, it is not an unnatural sin. It's a different thing. So we must understand that. Look at Romans chapter 1 verse 24. The Bible says, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. You're talking about people that have turned on God, changed God, turned the truth of God into a lie, God gave them up. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen. For this cause, for this reason, God gave them up unto what? Unto vile affections. For even their women did change the what? The natural use into that which is against what? Against nature. And likewise, also the men leaving the what? The natural use of the woman, burned in their own lusts towards one another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. That means not natural. So we see this natural, unnatural, convenient, which means not natural. They can't be saved. God gave them up. He gave them over. And the thing that you need to understand is they were given over to a reprobate mind, meaning a different kind of mind. Meaning this has not happened to everybody. This specific thing. So this idea, this is why they were unnatural, because they were given over to this rejected, reprobate mind. But see, without this, everyone is capable of everything. Everyone's capable of what? Are you perfect, brother? Some serial killer, child molester, what? Have you never? Have you never sinned, brother? No, no, no. Everyone doesn't struggle with unnatural things. Everyone doesn't struggle with homosexuality. That's why it says vile affections. It wouldn't say that. It would just say different affections. It says vile affections because the natural person that hasn't been given over to the unnatural, and it's true, and everyone would admit this if they weren't afraid, is that just all this sodomites and LGBT and all this stuff going on today with the trans, all this stuff. And it's all unnatural. And to most normal people, it's vile. They look at it as vile. I mean, the Bible's true, folks. We've got to listen, and we've got to teach every bit of it. Or the church is in danger. So here's the thing, folks. Not everyone is capable of everything. You and I, we're going to struggle with this flesh our whole lives. I don't struggle with being a serial killer. That's not something that I struggle with or a natural person is going to struggle with. Not everyone struggles with vile affections. Not everyone struggles with that. The natural person that has not been given over to that, they don't struggle with that. So this all sin is equal doctrine is used to justify evil. It's not just a sin, it's what you need to understand and why it is so important to preach it. And to preach it regularly, it's used to allow wicked, dangerous people to remain in a church. I have been in a church where I have heard, I have heard, I knew people that were in that church that when they were growing up in an old IFB church, literally someone that harmed in that way the pastor's children was allowed to stay in the church. Because of this doctrine, this false doctrine of all sin is equal. Because they just, they repented and they asked for forgiveness. But not everyone has that problem. It's an unnatural thing, folks. And look, that will never happen here. That will never happen here. Because I, we will never have those type of people here because I draw those lines. And guess what? I've already had to. And you know what, at the end of the day it's easy to draw those lines as long as you're listening to the Bible. It's like unnatural things, unnatural people will never be allowed here. For this doctrinal reason. They can't be saved. It's a false liberal ideology. And look, it's a church killer. It's a church killer and it's very harmful to just individuals, especially the weakest people in the church. Which is the children and the women in the church. But look, this is Satan's goal. To destroy the church. So every single one of these doctrines that we talk about in the sermon series, you are going to see, you are going to see how it works to progress Satan's goal of destroying a biblical church. But all we have to do, all we have to do is just follow the Bible. And look, it may be uncomfortable. And it may be not what people want to hear today. And it may mean that, you know, we don't have thousands of people in this church because we're not just all, hey, anything goes and come on in and whatever. There's no rules. We're just going to follow the Bible and God promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against us in Matthew chapter 16. It sounds like a pretty good deal to me. And it doesn't matter what is taught and how weird it gets and what Target does or whatever. I mean, first of all, there's been no reason to go to Target for like 30 years. I mean, seriously. Is there a single tool in the whole store? It's ridiculous. There's nothing for a man there. Now there's nothing for any normal natural person there. You know, no one can go to Target. But the point is, we just follow the Bible. The gates of hell will not prevail against us. Jesus promises us that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.