Ideal Vs Real (levels of righteousness) - Pastor Jonathan Shelley | Stedfast Baptist Church

And then I want to look back at verse 11.

The Bible says, Jesus answered,

thou couldst have no power at all against me,

except it were given thee from above,

therefore he that delivered me onto thee

hath the greater sin.

Now this phrase here in John chapter 19 of great or sin

John 19 · chapter mention

illustrates that not everything is of the same level.

And so, you know, in the Bible,

not only are there bigger sins and lesser sins,

there's also things that are the best thing to do,

and then maybe the second best thing to do.

There's not necessarily just everything's

on the exact same level.

There's the perfect idea of what you should do,

then there's maybe the next best option.

There's things that are legal.

There's things that are illegal.

There's things that are sin.

There's things that are worthy of a crime.

There's different layers when it comes to

understanding what's actually happening in the Bible

and how the Bible classifies different actions.

And it's important as a preacher and as a pastor

to preach the entire Bible,

which will illustrate for the most part,

every scenario and every response and every action

that we can possibly really know about in this life.

You know, life is complicated.

There's so many different things that can possibly happen.

There's an infinite number of possibilities and scenarios

that we can find ourselves in.

But the Bible ends up having boundaries and frameworks

to allow us to understand the decisions that we're making,

how God views them.

Does God view what we're doing as the best decision

that I could make, as an acceptable decision,

as a legal decision, as an illegal decision, as a sin,

as arguably here, a greater sin.

And so the Bible very clearly articulates

that there are distinctions in these categories.

And it's important as preachers

to not only preach ideally what should happen,

but to also preach about all these other scenarios

and all these other situations that we find ourselves in.

And so my sermon this morning is just called

Ideal versus Real.

And I've been wanting to preach on this topic

for a long time, but I feel like,

you know, this is a good opportunity for us

to just go through all kinds of different situations

and we could really talk about anything.

But I did kind of make a chart

that I'm gonna kind of reference throughout the sermon.

And then this is kind of basically,

this is gonna be what the sermon is about.

But it's just to illustrate the point.

Now, before we get to the chart,

I just wanna prove what I just said even more, okay?

Let's go to 1st John chapter number five for a moment.

Go to 1st John chapter five.

But Jesus Christ being betrayed by Judas Iscariot

is a greater sin than you telling a white lie.

You know, it's one thing to tell someone a lie.

It's another thing to lie about someone in court

and get them killed.

It's one thing to steal someone's wallet.

It's another thing to steal their wife.

It's one thing to look with lust.

It's another thing to commit physical adultery.

And we should never collapse all these categories into one

and act as if there is no difference.

Now, going to hell, if you say,

what does it take to go to hell?

Any sin.

It could be a little sin or a big sin

can cause you to deserve hell.

But we don't wanna then collapse those categories

and say all sin is equal.

I hear this all the time and it's not true.

Who hears this at the door that all sin is equal?

Yeah, unfortunately, that's not a true statement.

The only thing that's kind of true about it

is that all sin will take you to hell.

I say all sin is punished with the penalty of hell.

But here's the thing, the Bible even says within hell

there's certain layers or levels of hell

and that some people are gonna be suffering worse

and that would be in relation to how bad they were.

So even though you could say all sin is equal

that's not even true.

The child molesting rapist is gonna be

in a worse part of hell than the guy

that just decided to be prideful

and go to church and believe in his works.

You know, that guy is not gonna go

to the exact same place of hell.

But it's still hell, nevertheless.

So, you know, even the best part of hell

is still hell, okay?

But at the end of the day,

the Bible talks about a greater damnation.

The Bible talks about the lowest parts of hell.

So there is a worse aspect of hell in a sense,

just like there's technically a better place in heaven.

Not even heaven.

Everything is completely equal.

We're not all gonna have the exact same status,

the exact same brilliance in our glory.

We're not gonna have the exact same position.

We're not gonna have the exact same inheritance,

you know, as far as our personal,

whatever we get in heaven.

Obviously, we all are together, collective.

We are the inheritors with Christ,

but it's indicated in the Bible

that we have our own dwelling places.

We have our own something that we're ruling over

and that's gonna be dependent on

how much you serve God, what you did,

you know, in this life.

And so we have to understand that there are layers.

Now, look at 1st John chapter five

and I wanna look at a verse here

that's talking about sin.

Look at verse 16 of a man see his brother sin of 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 he should pray for it.

How could you read this verse

and then say all sins equal?

The Bible is saying, in some cases,

there's sins that you should ask God

for him to help this person

and to give grace unto this person

and then there's some sins unto death.

Don't even pray about it.

Don't even ask about it.

So again, we're showing that there is a distinction in sin.

There's a greater sin here.

It's the sin unto death.

There's a sin not unto death.

These are two different kinds of sins, aren't they?

Both are sin, both are bad.

We wanna make sure that we're categorizing things correctly.

Go to 1st Corinthians chapter number six.

Now let's talk about the flip side.

Not everything that is not a sin is equal either.

There are things that you can do that are lawful.

There are things that you can do that are legal.

And when I say legal,

I wanna make it clear for the rest of the sermon,

I'm talking about lawful according to God's law,

not man's law.

I know we live in America,

but that doesn't mean that anything to me, okay?

According to the Bible, we also live in God's universe

and that's the law that really matters, okay?

That's the highest law.

That's the law that I really care about the most.

And so when we talk about something being legal

according to God's law,

that doesn't mean that's the exact step

that God wants you to take

or that's the best or the perfect will of God, okay?

Sometimes God wants you to do something beyond

just what's legal or justice or eye for eye in a sense.

And here's another example.

This 1st Corinthians 6, look at verse 12.

All things are lawful unto me,

but all things are not expedient.

All things are lawful for me,

but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Meats for the belly and belly for meats,

but God shall destroy both it and them.

Now the body is not for fornication,

but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.

Now here in verse 12,

he just is kind of giving a blanket generic statement.

I think that the most immediate application

of this particular verse is verse 13

where he says meats for the belly.

Saying like technically I can eat any meat

and that's true.

According to the Bible in the New Testament,

you can eat any food, any meat,

but he brings up in other places in Corinthians

and other places in the Bible

that if it was meat sacrificed in the idols

and he's aware of it, he's not gonna eat that.

Okay, so that wouldn't be expedient.

That wouldn't be appropriate.

That wouldn't be right.

And in a sense it would even be possibly

a fellowship between the devils,

but he could eat meat sacrificed in the idols

if he didn't know about it.

If he has completely unaware,

it's not gonna harm him

because it's technically lawful for him

and how is God gonna judge him

for thanking him for this meat

and ignorantly eating it,

those quote sacrificed idols.

He's saying is the idol anything?

No, everything is the Lord's.

So in that case, God's not gonna judge him.

So what is it meaning?

It's saying yeah, I can technically eat

anything that I want.

I can have anything that I want.

But does that mean it's expedient?

Now again, what is expedient?

Prudent, wise,

a good idea.

You know, especially in America,

we have such an abundance of food

that we almost have an opportunity

to eat virtually anything that we want.

Like pretty much anything that's available

on the market, you could possibly have.

Now I've heard of cuisines that are pretty exotic.

I don't know if you can get it in America.

You know, this thing called belute.

Who knows what I'm talking about?

Okay, belute.

Is that available in America?

Does anybody know?

Like, maybe, obviously you could just grab an egg

and eat it, I get it.

But I'm just saying like,

I don't think restaurants are really serving this up

in America typically or other places and stuff like that.

Now again, let's talk about belute for a second, okay?

And I'm not an expert on this particular subject,

but it's basically like an unhatched bird in an egg,

okay, in a sense.

It's an undeveloped bird and egg.

If I'm saying it wrong, then correct me later.

But that's more or less what I understand it to be, okay?

Now, people will just eat this, okay?

And I find it not something I would ever try, okay?

So you're like, oh, Pasasilo, you gonna try this?

No, I'm good.

I don't have to try everything, okay?

But here's the thing, it's not sinful.

It's all things are lawful under me.

Now here's the question though, is it expedient?

That's the real question, okay?

And the thing is, what if it's like,

hey, I'm gonna only eat belute for the rest of my life?

Like, I don't know that that's really the best idea.

You know, let's get a more extreme.

How about the guy that did the supersize me?

Who's ever heard of the supersize me?

I don't even know how real it is.

People say it's fake.

But the idea is this guy was gonna eat McDonald's

for like 30 days straight, nothing but McDonald's.

It's like, is that legal?

Like according to God's law, is that a sin technically?

I don't think it's a sin,

but I just think that's a pretty unwise decision.

It's probably not an expedient decision.

It's like, hey, you could be vegan if you want,

but that might have consequences.

If you decide to not eat any meat or any protein,

like that could cause you to have a physical problem.

If you go only carnivore, some people go only carnivore

and that causes them problems.

God gave us both proteins and he gave us also

vegetables and nutrients.

Seems like having a well-balanced diet

is usually the most expedient.

Albeit you can do whatever you want.

You could decide I'm only eating raisins

for the rest of my life.

Or I'm only gonna have bananas

or I'm gonna only eat carrots.

My dad went through a phase where he's like

basically only eating carrots.

Like juicing carrots and only eating carrots

and he's like gonna carrot fast

and then he started turning orange.

It was kind of weird, all right?

But you know, and again,

then because of severe health issues he was having,

he changed his diet.

Okay, he was like that's not a good idea

and it's not a good idea, okay?

But again, was it a sin?

You know again, obviously there's some passages

in the Bible that says we're supposed to take care

of our body and our body's a temple

and so yeah, obviously just doing things

that are very harmful to the body

you could argue is now venturing into sin.

But for the most part, I mean you can eat

whatever you want.

You can kind of just do whatever you want

in a lot of categories

but it doesn't mean it's always the best decision.

You know, eating healthy food and exercising,

these things are the best ideas for you.

You know, do you have to be the most buff

and in shape person to be right with God?

No, but is it expedient to be lazy and eat poor

and not take care of yourself?

No, that's not really very expedient.

So there's a difference between the best decision

and acceptable decisions

and things that are technically not a sin.

But that doesn't mean that every single decision

is the right decision as far as the best,

the most optimal, the thing that God would really have you do

as the ideal.

There's the ideal and then there's the real, okay?

And we're gonna talk about that more depth

but I'm just trying to prove my point

that the apostle Paul is clearly saying

there are things on the table that I could do

and it would not be a sin

but that doesn't mean it's the best decision.

It's not necessarily expedient, okay?

Let's go to some more passages.

Let's go to Matthew chapter five for a moment

which is actually really virtually a quote from Deuteronomy

but in Deuteronomy it says to be perfect, okay?

God just instructs us to be perfect

and what does that mean?

Doing everything absolutely right.

So if we could identify anywhere in the Bible

that this is exactly God's perfect will

then we should always do that.

God gives us an instruction

and commands us to do what's perfect.

Look at Matthew chapter five verse 48.

Be therefore perfect even as your father

which in heaven is perfect.

Now again Matthew five is really famous

and we're gonna use portions of this

in our sermon this morning

but Matthew five is really famous

for going beyond what would be lawful,

what would be legal, what the law prescribes

and doing what's the most perfect form of righteousness.

Basically the highest level of righteousness

which would be argued as the perfect will of God

and then we're commanded and instructed to be perfect.

But the good news is is no one will ever be perfect

and so grace covers our sin,

grace covers our imperfections,

hey grace even covers our less expedient decisions

in a sense and so no one's gonna be perfect

but our expectation is to be perfect.

I always use this illustration to mean it's very clear

my children are expected to follow

every single one of my rules.

I never give rules or instructions to my kids

and I'm thinking this is optional.

Like clean your room.

This is an optional idea.

Clean your room on time or eat your dinner

or brush your teeth or don't hit your brother.

This is, it's always expected.

They should always follow every rule perfectly

but you know what I also expect that every single day

they will not follow my rules okay.

So there's the ideal and then there's the real

and just like my children transgress every day

we, if we were honest with ourselves

are probably transgressing God's law every single day.

So we should do both.

We should number one,

preach what the ideal perfect will of God is

as pastors and preachers and as Christians.

We should tell people what we should do

but then we should also talk about reality

because none of us are gonna ever do that

so then what do we do when we find ourselves

in a situation where we didn't follow

the perfect will of God?

Where we're not in the ideal situation

where we're not experiencing something that's perfect.

As preachers and pastors

we can't only ever preach perfection.

We can't only ever preach what's ideal.

We should also preach what's real

and this is where people get mad

because you know there are gonna be things that

there's gonna be situations,

there's gonna be circumstances

where I am never gonna be in that situation.

I'm never gonna be in this problem

but I'm still gonna preach it because other people are.

It's just like, hey what about people

that are divorced five times?

It's like well I'm never gonna be divorced five times

but I'll tell you what I would do

I'll tell you what the Bible says

in that particular scenario.

It's like hey what would you do

if you find yourself in this weird scenario

and it's just like well I'm never gonna be

in that scenario but I'll tell you what I should do.

I'll tell you what the Bible says.

So as pastors and preachers

we should preach about what you would do

in a situation when it happens.

You're not recommending it,

you're not even necessarily suggesting it.

You're saying this is where people really are though.

Okay and we shouldn't be sitting here

and just saying well I'm perfect

and my wife's perfect and my family's perfect

and so I'm just gonna talk about that.

Well that's not very relatable

because for the rest of us,

well none of us are perfect.

You know now are we commanded to be perfect?

Sure.

Are we told to be perfect?

Yes.

But are we perfect?

No.

Go to Galatians chapter three

it's one more verse I'm gonna go before

I really get through the sermon

but I'm trying to just prove beyond a shadow of a doubt

the Bible makes it clear there are levels of righteousness

and there's levels of sin.

There's the perfect will of God,

there's what's ideal

and then there's reality.

There's what people are gonna actually do.

And of course why would God

even fill the entire Old Testament

with all these instructions of what you do when you sin

if no one was gonna sin?

Why didn't God just say don't sin?

Now he's like hey when you sin offer this offering

and do this trespass offering

and you know go here

and it's just like he's given like all these different

scenarios and all these different situations

and all these different circumstances

and the various ramifications

and what you have to do to rectify

because that's reality.

Galatians chapter three verse 19

the Bible says wherefore then served the law

it was added because of transgressions.

So what's the point of the law?

It's to explain what you do when you're screwed up

when you've caused all these problems.

I wanna go to one other place

go to Leviticus chapter five

I thought of this as well.

Leviticus chapter number five.

Let's talk about the different options you have.

You know and sometimes when people screw up

they'll say hey how do I fix it?

And it's like well here's the best thing to do to fix it.

Then it's like I don't know if I wanna do that

what other options is like well I guess

you know here's the second best option

here and then like here's like a third best option

but it's like well what should I do?

You should do the first best option you know

but what if you can't?

Well you know God thinks that way as well.

Look at Leviticus chapter five

look at verse number five

and it shall be when he should be guilty

in one of those things

and one of these things

that he should confess that he had sinned in that thing

and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord

for a sin which he had sinned

a female from the flock a lamb

or a kid of the goats for a sin offering

and the priest shall make an atonement

for him concerning his sin.

So when you sin in this trespass

what are you supposed to do?

You're supposed to offer a lamb as a sacrifice.

Okay and then it says look at verse seven

and if you'd be not able to bring a lamb

it's like the next breath

it's like what if I can't bring a lamb?

What if I just don't, what if that's not an option?

Then he shall bring for his trespass

which he has committed two turtle doves

or two young pigeons out of the Lord

for a sin offering and the other for a burn offering.

So it's saying hey if you don't have a lamb

well then offer two turtle doves.

Look at verse 11.

But if you'd be not able to bring two turtle doves

notice how God is like not just saying

hey just bring a lamb case closed

it's like hey if you can't bring a lamb

bring two turtle doves.

What if I can't bring two turtles?

All right let's address that.

Verse 11.

But if you're not able to bring two turtle doves

or two young pigeons then he at sin

shall bring for his offering the 10th part

of an Eiffel fine flour for a sin offering.

He shall put no oil upon it

neither shall he put any frankincense there

on for it as a sin offering.

So it's like ideal lamb offering.

You know I don't know what the market price is anymore

but let's just try to put this

in like modern day numbers okay.

It's like a lamb I mean a whole lamb

a perfect spotless lamb

this could probably be several hundred dollars

you know in a modern day context.

I have no idea.

I knew like a whole cow used to be

like two or $3,000 or something.

I have no idea anymore inflation

just messes with numbers and me anymore

but it's like I would venture to believe

that a lamb could be 500, 600, $700 okay.

How about two birds?

That's probably you know less.

I don't know.

Let's just say like 50 bucks right.

It's like hey if you trespass

you better give $700 to the Lord.

It's like but if you can't give 50

and then it's like then it's like

just give a 10th part of flour okay.

Like a bag of flour is like I don't know

if you get an organic one

it might be seven bucks or something.

I don't know if you get non-organic

it might be like $3 or something.

Let's say you went for the fancy flour.

Only a 10th part.

I mean it's like hey you either give $700

or $50 or a dollar.

You know it's just like

if you can't afford 50 then just give a dollar you know.

But it's like because again

because to God it's not like

oh $700 is like more important to God

than a dollar or whatever.

But it's like he wants it to be some recompense.

He wants it to be some punishment

and a sense for this particular sin.

And so it's like what's ideal?

Ideal give a lamb.

And why?

Because the lamb is the picture

the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us.

And that is the ultimate picture of the sacrifice

because he's the lamb of God

and it's taking the things of God seriously

and reverently and it's really important that we do this.

But you know what?

God's like I get it.

You can't really fix your situation perfectly

and you're not in circumstances.

You probably have more than one thing going on in your life

since you can't even afford a lamb.

But he's like if you wanna get right

the door's still open.

And so it's like God is really about the heart

at the end of the day.

But that doesn't mean that we should excuse ourselves

and not always go for the best option

and try to do what's right.

So we need to preach all of it don't we?

There's gonna be some people

that find themselves in a situation

where all they can do is give a buck.

Where all they can do is give a 10th part

of an epho of fine flour.

And it's like you know what?

Well that's what that guy should do.

And we don't wanna ignore this guy

and be like well I'm gonna give a lamb.

My family would give a lamb.

Well good for you that you would give a lamb.

But not everybody can give a lamb.

What about the other guy?

Well he gives two turtle doves.

What about the other guy?

He gives a 10th part of a fine flour.

So we wanna make sure that we understand

not everybody is gonna be able to do the same things

or have the same situation.

And we want to preach from a biblical perspective

what everybody should be doing.

Not just what you're gonna do.

You Mr. Perfect, okay?

Go over to Matthew chapter 19 now.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Let's go to Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

So I created a chart and it may not make sense

by just looking at it.

Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense,

but I basically want to categorize things

this morning, levels of righteousness.

And we wanna talk about,

I'm just using all kinds of different scenarios

to help us understand what we're talking about.

But as I've described,

I believe there's what we would call

the perfect will of God.

And this is what we've seen.

He said be therefore perfect

even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.

We should always do what God wants us to do

is perfection.

When we talked about these sacrifices,

the lamb is the perfect sacrifice for that situation,

right?

Then two turtle doves would be next.

Then a fine flour.

Hey, it's still lawful.

It's still legal.

It's still with the law prescribed.

But it wasn't really the best, was it?

The lamb was the best.

The two turtle doves was next.

And then barely scraping by at the bare minimum

at the lowest level of just what is absolutely lawful

is the what?

The 10th part of an Epha, okay?

And then I put a category in here of what's disputed.

There's gonna be some things in the Bible,

some situations, some scenarios

that we don't really know exactly

because there's not really a Bible verse about it

or it's not a subject that's really discussed directly.

We can point to maybe some verses

that kind of give an idea or a sense

and good Christian people

are on both sides of this issue, okay?

That's how I would describe this.

Good Christian people.

I'm not saying, hey, atheists will dispute this verse.

I'm not saying freaks and trainees

are disputing this verse.

I'm saying like good Christian people

are on both sides of this issue, okay?

Then you have what's just clearly identified

as sin in the Bible.

Now again, this is actually a part in the Bible

because it talks about doubtful disputations.

So it's not like I'm coming up with this idea

that there's some things that are disputed.

No, the Bible literally says there's gonna be some things

that good Christian people on both sides

have doubtful disputations.

There's some things in the Bible that are clearly sin.

There's some things in the Bible that are clearly legal.

Then there's some things that are doubtful disputation.

And we wanna make sure that we're always identifying

these categories and placing things correctly.

There's things that are not only a sin,

but they also then cross another boundary,

another line of church discipline.

Not every sin is church discipline,

but there are some sins that cross a threshold

and now it's crossed into a church discipline issue.

Then there are some sins that not only

are they church discipline, they're just illegal.

This is something that is a crime according to God's law.

This should be punished in some way.

Then there are some crimes that cross a threshold

where the punishment is the death penalty.

This is a death penalty, a capital crime.

And this is where I personally interpret

what we read earlier in 1 John chapter number five,

that if a man sin, there's a sin not under death

and there's a sin under death.

I do not say you should pray for it.

Basically saying like, if we lived in a righteous society

that had generally God's laws, okay,

and someone's guilty of murder,

we shouldn't be like, God,

will you please allow this guy to get off with murder?

It's like, no, we're gonna just bring him to the magistrate

and he deserves to be put to death.

But it's like this guy stole or something

or this guy got drunk or something

and made a big mistake or whatever.

It's like, hey, we could pray that God

be graces that person and be merciful to that person

and not necessarily give them what they deserve, okay?

Then lastly, not every death penalty sin

is reprobate, but there are some that cross all the way down

to the very bottom of the barrel

and it's just a reprobate sin, okay?

So we have these different layers.

Now, it's possible, I didn't think of everything.

It's possible that there's other layers

or other nuance or whatever.

I just, I've spent a lot of time on this chart.

I've tried to do my best.

I think this is a very good representation

of how we would classify things in the Bible

and understand different scenarios

and how we should respond.

So then what I did is I basically took like

some categories that are loosely related

and kind of went down to try and talk about them, okay?

So let's talk about relationship statuses

because everybody's got a different relationship status, okay?

We're gonna determine the relationship, okay?

Isn't that the DTR talk

or whatever ladies talk about or whatever?

How does God view different relationship statuses, okay?

Well, in my chart, at the very top,

I have virgins who are faithfully married.

That's about the best you could ever get, right?

Isn't that ideal?

What if I just get up

and that's the only relationship status I ever talk about?

Well, you need to be virgin

and faithfully married to that virgin and that's it.

How many people in America do you think

fall into that category?

Well, according to online statistics,

it's like something like 97% or 98%

of men commit fornication before getting married.

Women, I think it's slightly less, okay?

Then of that group,

how many of those people have been completely faithful

in that marriage, okay?

I mean we're talking about a pretty small subset

and you know what's really sad

is you know what's making a big percentage of that?

People like Mormons

and some of these other groups as well.

So it's not even necessarily fundamental Baptist.

And let's just be honest about a church like ours.

A church like ours, a lot of people

were not even raised a fundamental Baptist

or in a godly home.

We've reached them through just going out there

and so they've had a past, okay?

So should we only ever preach this

and never talk about any other scenario

or any other situation, never address it?

No, no, we shouldn't only talk about

hey, me and my wife are virgin

and we're perfectly faithful

and that's the only thing I'm gonna bring up or address.

No, there's other scenarios in the Bible, okay?

How about people that are non-virgin and faithfully married?

Well, that would be kind of the next best situation.

Of people in this world of their relationship status,

we want to preach that we want all of our young people

to be like this.

We want every one of our kids to be virgins

who are faithfully married, isn't that what we want?

But hey, what if they screwed up?

Well, then we want them to still get married

and be faithful, right?

That's the next layer.

They were non-virgin, but hey, at least they were faithful.

And then it's like, okay, well, what's technically legal

but not even close to perfect or next

as far as relationship status?

That'll be someone that was divorced lawfully,

which is an interesting category,

but look at Matthew chapter 19.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

And this is kind of an interesting clause that's brought up

but in Matthew chapter 19, let's read in verse number four

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

and he answered his son of them,

have you not read that he which made them

at the beginning made them male and female?

He said, for this college shall a man leave his father

and mother and shall cleave to his wife

and they twain shall be one flesh,

wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh,

with the regarded twain together, let not man put asunder.

So the question was, could you divorce for any reason?

And Jesus is saying, well, God's put you together,

so let's not put him asunder.

The answer is just like, no, you shouldn't get divorced.

Not only should it be not for any reason,

it should just be never, like just never divorce, right?

So what's ideal, what's perfect?

God would say that a couple that gets married

would never divorce for any reason.

That's perfect, okay?

What is actually lawful though, they bring this up

and they say then, they say, and why did Moses

then command to give a riding a divorceman

and to put her away?

He said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness

of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives,

but from the beginning it was not so.

And I say unto you, whose service shall put away

his wife except to be for fornication

and shall marry another committed adultery

and his will marry her which is put away,

death committed adultery.

So let's think about what he said.

What is Jesus's view of should you divorce?

Never, that's perfect, okay?

Then he said, because of the hardness of your hearts,

meaning you're not gonna do what's perfect,

he gave one provision that's technically lawful

to put away a wife for the cause of fornication.

Which again, is a little bit confusing

in our modern understanding because we have

no fault divorce.

In the Bible, the only reason you could divorce

is if she said she was a virgin and she's not

and then you can put her away after you have that discovery

which is basically like an annulment more so

than what we have as a divorce today.

So it's more like an annulment, if anything.

And it's saying if you got that divorce,

that type of putting away, the biblical version

which is more like an annulment

and then you got remarried, there would be no sin.

So it's lawful, it's lawful to have been married

temporarily, found out that it was a fraud marriage

and then get remarried, that is technically lawful.

That's legal.

But is that perfect?

Is that ideal?

Is that what God wants?

Is that what God advocates for?

No, God's perfect will is to never divorce for any reason.

So as your pastor, that's what I preach.

That's what I recommend.

That's what I counsel people.

I'm never saying, well, I know this is legal.

So just do it.

It's like, well, yeah, it is legal

but this is what you should do.

Now again, if someone said, well, is it a sin

for me to put this person away

if they lied about being a virgin

and I caught them on my wedding night,

can I perform this type of a putting away right now?

Then I would say, well, that's technically lawful.

That is not a sin, but that is not what God wants for you.

God doesn't want you to have a heart and heart

towards that person.

God wants you to actually stay with this person

and remain married.

That's the perfect will of God.

Okay.

So we're understanding there's a difference here

and think about it with Mary and Joseph.

Joseph being a just man was gonna put her away privately.

Now here's the thing.

Justice is getting what you deserve.

Justice is another word that we typically associate

with the law or what's legal.

Joseph's gonna give her what's legal.

Joseph's gonna give her what's just,

eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,

putting away for what she did.

But what's the perfect will of God

is to stay married to the person.

Now again, that was with his understanding

that she'd actually done something wrong.

She didn't even do anything wrong.

So he doesn't have to put her away

because he has the understanding.

But if he had done what was just,

you could put them away.

If you're gonna do what's merciful, well, again.

And praise God that God is not a God only legality

because if we got what we deserve,

where would we go when we die?

Hell, that's what we deserve.

That's legal.

That's what's justice.

But you know what?

God in his perfect will had Jesus die on the cross,

pay all of our sins so that we could go to heaven

and we could have an experience mercy.

So mercy triumphs over justice.

Mercy triumphs over the law and what we deserve.

So what's the best decision?

Never get divorced for any reason.

What's technically lawful is for the case of fornication.

So what else though, if you do get divorced though,

and it's not for that particular exception,

then it's a sin.

Okay?

It's wrong.

It's not lawful.

It's not legal.

If you divorced your spouse

and it's not that specific fornication clause,

then it would be a sin.

Okay?

I put in this category of disputed

because some people would argue,

what about this scenario of a rapper bait?

And this is why it's somewhat time to dispute it

a little bit too,

is because in first Corinthians chapter number seven,

you have this provision of an unbeliever

departs from you, you're no longer under bondage.

Now I would interpret that as being,

they divorce you basically.

You have an unbeliever that doesn't want to be married

to you, refuses to stay married to you

and they personally put you away,

then you don't have to necessarily fight that.

Okay?

You don't have to necessarily go to bat

against that per se.

But this is where it's disputed.

I still say, even if you were married to a rapper bait,

just stay married to them.

You don't have to necessarily live with them.

You don't have to necessarily be around them.

But what's the point of getting a divorce

is just so that you can then marry someone else

or so that they can marry someone else

and that's a sin.

So why even put that on the table?

Okay.

Plus all you're gonna do is just give a lot

of your assets to lawyers and stuff like that.

Like, it's not like, oh, I get half the assets.

Well, all the assets are yours when you're still married.

Okay, so I personally don't think that you should.

I'm not gonna throw stones at people

that divorced an actual rapper bait

and actual child molesting pedophile

or something like that.

But good people on both sides of this issue.

All right?

But if you divorce and it's not fornication,

it's not that specific revision, then it's a sin.

Now, what about church discipline?

I have your fornication.

Now, I'm not gonna prove every one of these

for sake of time.

First Corinthians chapter number five says

if someone's committing fornication,

they are gonna be church disciplined, okay?

There is another thing though that I wanted to bring up.

Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 21,

Deuteronomy 21 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy chapter 21.

Deuteronomy 21 · chapter mention

The Bible brings up the idea of two wives.

Okay.

Now, this is where atheists and people that hate the Bible

will try to like throw stones like,

oh, the Bible's saying you can have multiple wives.

No, it's not saying you can have multiple wives.

Okay.

It's addressing a situation where someone has multiple wives.

It's not saying here's God's perfect will, have two wives.

Okay.

First of all, the math doesn't really work.

Have you ever noticed that there's like 50% men

and 50% women generally speaking?

How is it that everybody's gonna have quote, two wives?

You know, if that was true,

then you would have like some other ratio

that God would be performing.

But Deuteronomy, look at chapter 21 verse 15.

If a man have two wives,

does that sound like God's just saying have two wives?

Or is he saying if?

If a man happened to have two wives,

one beloved and another hated,

and they have born him children,

both the beloved and the hated,

and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated,

then it shall be when he maketh his sons inherit

that which he hath,

that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn

before the son of the hated,

which is indeed the firstborn.

But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated

for the firstborn by giving him a double portion

of all that he hath,

for he is the beginning of his strength,

the right of the firstborn is his.

So according to the Bible,

you have to still follow God's law,

even when you didn't follow God's law.

Okay, now I wanna prove this.

Go if you would to Mark chapter number 10.

I wanted to show you that there's two wives,

but I believe that this is a sin.

Having two wives is a sin.

Go to Mark chapter number 10,

and I'm gonna prove this to you.

But the Bible says in verse number 11,

and he saith unto them,

whosoever shall put away his wife

and marry another committed adultery against her.

Now think about this.

If you're married and then you divorce your wife,

so you're no longer married to her,

then you get remarried.

The Bible says you're committing adultery

against that wife that's been divorced.

How much more would that be the case

if she was still your wife?

Okay, it would be silly to think like,

well, it's adultery if you divorced her,

but if you stay married to the first wife,

it's now magically not adultery against her?

Now obviously the Bible is helping you realize

it was adultery to add another woman into your life

and have a second wife, okay?

So this is just another clear text to illustrate

that all the polygamous relationships

in the Old Testament were a sin,

let alone the fact that every single situation

is a train wreck, every single situation

seems like a bad idea,

and there's just horrible consequences to it.

And you know, we live in America

where we don't even have the ability to do that,

but even if we did live in a society

that allowed for polygamy

or allowed for this type of a situation,

it would still be a sin.

It's still wrong.

It's not something that you should do.

Now notice a couple categories, okay?

Notice legal, notice illegal, and then notice sin.

Can you sin and it be legal?

Yeah, that's how some of these categories work.

So technically it could be legal

somewhere in the world to marry another person,

and yet it's still a sin, okay?

Just like committing fornication in America,

by and large it's legal, but that's still a sin, okay?

So we wanna make sure that we have these categories

kind of in our view of understanding

how we would differentiate.

Now I do believe there's a type of fornication

that crosses a criminal boundary,

and that will be fornication with a virgin specifically.

Go if you would to Exodus chapter 22.

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

Go if you would to Exodus chapter 22.

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

So again, fornication would be anything before marriage,

that will get you church discipline,

according to 1 Corinthians chapter number five.

So that would be not only a sin,

it's a sin that you could be church's one.

We don't kick people out for sinning though.

Then none of us could show up.

And again, this is what people get mad, they say,

oh, I can't come to your church because I'm a drunkard.

So then everyone shouldn't be able to go to church

because everybody's a sinner.

It's just like, no, you're collapsing categories again.

No, your sin is not welcome in church.

Not that I'm not a sinner,

it's just that this particular behavior

and attitude and lifestyle is not welcome in the church

because it affects other people negatively.

And a little 11, 11's the whole lump.

So we wanna make sure that,

oh, you're saying that my sin's worse than yours.

Yes?

Oh, I thought all sin was equal.

No, see, there's so many false doctrines

that we're destroying this morning, okay?

All sin is equal is bad

because it collapses all these categories.

You know, I'll say, oh, this person committed murder.

They deserve the death penalty.

Well, no, no, no, because the Bible says

for the wage is as soon as death, man.

So we all deserve the death penalty.

Wrong.

We don't wanna collapse all these categories.

If that was true, then God wouldn't have said

what he said in the Old Testament.

He would have just said, every time someone sins,

cap them, you know?

But he didn't because this is not what the Bible teaches.

The reason why he has different punishments

is because there's different layers of sin.

There's different levels, okay?

So we wanna make sure we understand all these categories.

So, you know, instead of being offended

at the person saying your sin is worse,

why don't you just realize your sin is worse

and think, man, maybe I need to get ahold of myself

because I'm screwing up?

Yeah.

Yep.

It's like there's a difference between driving five miles

per hour over the speed limit

and driving 50 miles per hour over the speed limit.

Now, are they both a transgression?

Yes, will they both get a ticket?

Yes, but in many cases, you'll get a worse penalty,

a worse ticket, if you're going that much faster

over the speed limit.

And in fact, by going five over the speed limit in Dallas,

you probably won't even get a ticket.

Yeah, yeah.

But that doesn't mean it wasn't a sin.

That doesn't mean it wasn't a crime, okay?

In the same way that's like,

you could commit fornication in America

and no one's gonna come and do anything to you about it.

That doesn't mean it wasn't a sin.

And so some people that are not very Christian

or don't care about Christianity,

they think if it's legal, it's not a sin.

If it's illegal, it is a sin.

It's like, no, we don't care about America's laws.

We care about God's laws, okay?

And we're not asking for the magistrate.

We're not asking for America to police all sin.

We want America to police this, you know?

Can we just start here?

Like just do this at the bare minimum.

Let alone like this category, okay?

We'll get to there in a minute,

but this is following in this category.

So we've been going down and talking about relationships.

You know, virgins that are faithfully married,

that's perfect.

People that have not been virgin,

but they get married, they're faithful,

that's the next best situation.

Someone that had an annulment,

they can still get remarried,

and it's not the best, but hey, you know what?

It was still not even a sin.

People that got divorced or some rap or something,

I'm not throwing stones at you.

I kind of think you shouldn't have done it, but whatever.

You got divorced and it wasn't for a legitimate,

lawful clause of fornication, that was a sin.

Sorry, and I'm gonna preach against that idea

and say that was a sin.

You are committing fornication,

you'll be kicked out of this church.

If you're living together and you're not married,

you will not be welcome in the church.

Now again, if you're living together,

like let's say we go out and get someone saved,

and they're living together and they show up at church,

I'm not kicking them out.

They're not even a member of our church

to get kicked out yet.

I can't kick you out because you're not even a member.

Okay, so obviously that person

is probably never gonna come back.

Why do we have to worry about kicking them out?

Okay, how about let's wait until they become a member

before we even worry about kicking them out?

Okay, and I get asked this question a lot.

They're like, hey, this person,

I gotta say it's so winning a sinful,

can we bring him in?

It's like, sure, but they're not a member.

Okay, we're gonna church discipline people

that are members of the church.

Now, if you've been a member of this church for 10 years

and you get caught, yeah, there's no cooling down.

You're gonna be taken to task immediately

because you're already a member,

you should have already known

you're gonna be taken to task, right?

Hey, what would be an illegal thing

that we're bringing up?

Well, is if you commit fornication with a virgin.

Exodus chapter 22, look at verse number 16.

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

And if a man enticed a maid that is not betrothed

and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.

If her father utterly refused to give her unto him,

he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

So according to the Bible,

if a man were to lie with a virgin,

then he is obligated if they get caught to marry her.

But even if the father says,

no, I don't want you to get married.

Let's say that's the reason,

the only reason you don't get married

is because the father says no,

he could still exact the dowry from you

because you've defrauded him,

you've defrauded her of this financial reward for that.

And so he would have to pay this penalty.

So if the guy's not paying,

he could take him to the magistrate,

take him to the judges,

and the judges would say, you have to pay the dowry.

And so there's a criminality element,

there's an illegal element, you have to pay this, okay?

Now, if she was not a maid,

well, there's no criminal element per se.

But there would be a criminal element

to taking someone's virginity and not marrying them.

It's like, oh, I got caught committing fornication

with this person, what am I supposed to do?

You're supposed to marry them biblically.

That's what the Bible says.

If you get caught,

then you're supposed to betroth them,

you're supposed to get married.

The only exception would be if the father utterly refuses.

I would say based on the whole of scripture,

we have to understand that this context

is marrying someone within the tribes of Israel.

So obviously they're in view of someone

that's in the same tribe,

which is a spiritual application of someone that's saved.

So I'd say the only other exception would be

that they're saved, okay?

So if you get caught committing fornication

and they're not saved and you can't get them saved,

I would never say you should marry that person, okay?

But if you can get them saved or they are saved,

the only reason you shouldn't do it

is because the father is utterly refusing.

That's what the Bible says.

Now some people don't like that.

Some people don't wanna believe what I'm saying.

I'm just telling you what the Bible says.

That's the perfect scenario.

You get caught committing fornication, marry them, okay?

What's next?

Pay the dowry, okay?

Well, that would be like legal, pay the dowry, all right?

What would be a sin would be not marrying this person, okay?

Just not even seeking that kind of a marriage would be a sin.

I wanna go to another category, Leviticus chapter 21.

Leviticus 21 · chapter mention

There's a specific kind of fornication

that actually results in the death penalty,

according to the Bible.

Look at Leviticus chapter 21, look at verse number nine.

Leviticus 21 · chapter mention

And the daughter of any priest,

if she profane herself by playing the horror,

she profaneth her father, she shall be burnt with fire.

So a whore of a priest, you know,

the daughter that commits fornication as a priest's daughter,

that results in the death penalty.

That's a serious punishment for that type of fornication, okay?

Now, you know, we don't necessarily have

a modern day example of that,

but you should take it really serious.

Hey, if your dad is a man of God,

you better not go out and play the whore

because God takes that really serious

to make him look bad what you're doing.

And again, it doesn't really like,

obviously as fathers, we should do our best

to protect our daughters, but at the end of the day,

you know what, you can only do so much

and at the end of the day,

she's responsible for that action

and she's put the death.

The priest doesn't put the death.

The priest, you know, looks bad obviously.

It makes him profane.

People are gonna talk negatively about him

as a result of that, but you know what?

She's the one that's punished.

We don't punish parents for the sin of the child.

Go to Deuteronomy 22, go to Deuteronomy 22.

So how do we classify all these different relationships?

Well, we just let the Bible tell us where they are.

And we don't wanna pretend like they're all the same.

We don't wanna pretend like every relationship status,

every relationship is gonna be the exact same.

They're not.

Deuteronomy 22, look at verse 25.

The Bible says, but if a man find a betrothed damsel

in the field and the man force her and lie with her,

then the man only that lay with her shall die.

Now I'm not gonna read the whole,

there's two more verses on this,

but again, notice the death penalty

for force of a betrothed woman.

Okay, again, the modern versions

will twist some of these passages

and start saying like,

oh, well, you actually have to marry her

if you get raped, it's like,

that's not what the Bible says.

That's not what the King James Bible says.

We don't wanna collapse these weird ideas.

Look, the Bible basically teaches,

rape is met with the death penalty, okay?

Specifically, it's bringing up a betrothed woman,

but we could probably extrapolate beyond that.

Lastly, we have the reprobate category.

I don't even feel like I need to prove this point,

but Leviticus 2013 says if a man lie with mankind,

is he lie with a woman?

Hey, we're gonna stone him to death, all right?

It's that simple, he's put the death.

That's not only death penalty, it's also reprobate.

You could commit murder, not a reprobate,

but you commit sodomy, well, it's both, okay?

And we wanna make sure we understand those categories.

And again, I would say that what's interesting,

and you can think whatever you want,

but this is why I think it's interesting, okay?

If we were to look at an old IMB church,

they basically get mad at us

for each one of these layers,

and each layer gets them a little bit more mad, okay?

It's like, no one in the old IMB

has mad at us for preaching this.

No one gets mad at us for saying be a virgin

and be faithful to your wife.

I mean, who's getting mad at us for that?

I'm saying old IMB, I'm not talking about the world.

I'm talking about other Christians.

Think about with me for just a second.

Maybe you've never been to another Baptist church,

maybe you've never been to another Southern Baptist church

or another fundamental Baptist church,

but those that have been there,

like who's ever been to another church like that,

ever before, okay?

All right, they don't get mad at us for that, do they?

They don't even get mad at us for saying,

hey, you screwed up, but you got married, you're faithful.

Good job.

Now they start getting a little mad at us

when we start saying that divorce

is only lawful for fornication, though, don't they?

Some of them will get mad at us for that,

and they'll say, no, no,

we also think there's other scenarios.

We also think abandonment,

and we also think abuse,

and we also think adultery,

they just create all these other categories,

and they get mad at our stance on this issue, okay?

They get mad on our stance on church discipline, even.

I mean, there's a lot of churches

that will not exercise church discipline

the way that we do,

and they get mad about it for railing.

I mean, you bring up railing?

They get mad and lose their mind about that,

and they act like,

how dare you excommunicate someone for railing?

We say certain things are illegal, you know?

They'll get mad.

How about just our view on the death penalty?

They really lose their mind on us getting up

and saying Leviticus 2013.

They'll get mad at us for saying certain people

should be put to death.

And then the thing that just really

irritates the fire out of them

is saying that fags are reprobate, isn't it?

Isn't it kind of interesting that as you go down

this list, it's like they kind of get mad,

really upset, frustrated, and lose their mind, okay?

But it's like, that's what the Bible teaches.

Sorry, you don't like these categories.

Now again, I'm sure there's some people

that would agree with us,

but I'm just telling you,

people love to collapse these categories

because they don't wanna deal with these issues.

And of course, when you deal with all these scenarios

and all these issues,

people get mad because they'll be like,

well, I have a cousin that's in this category.

Sorry.

Well, I'm in this category,

or I'm in this category,

or I did this, or I did, you know?

And so they get all mad about all these things,

and that's why they wanna collapse them.

And they wanna just collapse everything,

or they only want everybody ever to preach this

so we don't really shine any light

on all these other categories and all these other levels, okay?

But look, we should preach everything in the Bible

and not just what you wanna hear.

Go to Matthew chapter five,

go to Matthew chapter number five.

The law was added for transgressions.

Wherefore serve of the law?

It was added because of transgressions.

So we're gonna explain to you what is the greater sin.

We're gonna explain to you what is lawful

but not expedient.

We're gonna tell you what's perfect and what's not.

We're gonna tell you what gets kicked out of church

and what doesn't.

We're gonna tell you what should be legal

and what should not be legal.

We're gonna tell you what should be put to death

and what should not be put to death.

Ah, well, we live in America.

I don't care.

You know, it doesn't matter what nation we live in,

the nations aren't important to God.

You know what matters to God?

God's law.

And God is mad at a nation that constantly says,

well, this is what we do.

Well, God's like, well, you should do what I do.

Should do what I want.

That's what matters.

Not whatever the law is.

Now again, do we consider the law?

Sure.

Is it something that we should also preach?

Yes.

But you know what?

It doesn't triumph God's law.

So we should preach what God wants first.

Matthew chapter five, look at verse 38.

You have heard that it has been said

in I for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

but I say in you that you resist not evil

but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek

turn to him the other also.

So again, notice in verse 39,

the context or the essence is what?

That you resist not evil.

Now again, evil can mean two things in the Bible.

It can mean wicked, morally wrong,

or it can mean physical harm, injury.

When it's saying here resist not evil,

it's not saying do wicked now.

Don't resist morally wrong stuff.

It's saying don't resist injury.

Don't resist physical harm, okay?

That's what it's saying.

Now I brought up the situation in this chart, okay?

Of being slapped, all right?

Now let's just see.

Is being slapped an ideal situation?

No, okay?

But let's just say someone slaps you, okay?

What would be, according to the Bible, the best response?

What is Jesus saying you should do?

If someone slaps you,

is there someone who wanna volunteer

and also no one's kidding?

I mean, I'm saying someone walks up

and just slaps you on the cheek, right?

What do you do according to the Bible?

What is the perfect will of God?

What does the Bible say?

It literally says to turn the other cheek

and offer the other cheek to be slapped.

I didn't write the Bible.

That's what Jesus said.

He said don't resist evil.

He didn't say hide.

He didn't say cover your face.

He didn't say run away.

He said offer the other cheek.

Now at least Jesus is a little compassionate.

He's like you don't have to get tapped twice

in the same spot, right?

He's like offer him a fresh wound.

Offer him a fresh spot or whatever.

But as he's saying, he didn't even say

don't allow it to happen again.

He said hey, let it even happen again.

Don't resist not evil.

Turn to him the other cheek also, okay?

What would this mean?

Again, obviously we have to take the literal interpretation.

We could take application from this.

What if someone came to you and said I need $20?

I'll pay you back.

And you give them $20 and they don't pay you back.

And then they come to you the next day and say hey man,

can I get $20?

What is it, oh you would give them another $20.

That's turning into the left cheek, isn't it?

It's saying well, I already know he's not gonna pay me back.

He didn't pay me back the first $20, right?

I already suffered injury in this particular context

but I'm willing to suffer injury again.

Hey, I'm friends with this person

and this person did me harm, this person did me wrong.

I'm never gonna be their friend again.

I'm not gonna hang out with them again.

No, it says hey, allow them to harm you even again.

That's what the Bible is saying, okay?

But we can't also just ignore

what would you do if someone literally slapped you.

You would just say all right,

well I'll even allow them to slap me again.

Hey, I got another cheek if that's what is required,

if that's what necessary, right?

So ideally this would be that.

What would be another step?

This is not the perfect will of God.

I think it's totally reasonable

if someone slaps you to just say hey,

please don't slap me again.

Doesn't that seem like a reasonable response?

But is that the perfect will of God?

The perfect will of God is to turn him the other cheek.

I think there's a lot of other stages in between here

but I'm just trying to give you a suggestion.

I would say even just saying don't slap me

is reasonable.

What would be the justice,

what would be the legal ramification?

Well, that's what he's saying here.

Did you notice in verse number 38?

You have heard that it's been said in eye for an eye.

That's the just response.

And if you go to the Old Testament,

that's what it teaches.

If someone slapped me,

what is the lawful legal response

to slap them back in the same way?

Right?

Slap for a slap.

That would be the right response

from a justice only perspective.

But is that the best decision?

No.

It would be better to just said,

please don't slap me.

It would have been even better to offer the other cheek.

Okay.

So let's just say someone slaps you,

turn the other cheek.

Next best, just tell them not to do it.

What's technically not a sin would be to reciprocate.

Now go to Ephesians chapter four.

Go to Ephesians chapter four.

What would be crossing into boundaries

of sin though?

Well, what if someone slaps you

and instead of turning to the other cheek,

what if you decide to get bitter towards that person

and hate that person

and wish evil upon that person?

Well, look at Ephesians chapter four

and look at verse 31.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor

and evil speaking be put away from you

with all malice and be kind one to another,

tenderhearted, forgiving one another,

even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

What is the right thing to do is to turn the other cheek,

which would mean what?

You're not gonna be bitter.

You're gonna let it go.

You're forgiving them, right?

But what would be a sin?

Holding onto that bitterness,

being unforgiving in that particular situation

and having a negative attitude towards it.

So bitterness, hatred,

or probably an escalation

having a punishment that's beyond, right?

They slap you, so you knife them,

or you beat them down, right?

You go like 10 times harder.

It's like, if you slap me,

well, then I'm gonna kick you in the groin.

It's just like, whoa, that's an escalation.

That wouldn't be justified.

It's not justified to escalate

and go above what they did to you.

That would be unjust.

That would be a sin.

And if you physically injure them,

their eye or whatever,

now you cross the legal boundary.

Now that's illegal

and you would have to receive the same punishment.

That's why you don't wanna escalate.

You know, when someone slaps you,

you don't wanna then punch them

because then they kick you

and then now it just keeps escalating,

because it's just a vicious cycle.

But if you do escalate,

lawfully they get to match

whatever your escalation is.

So if they slap you,

you poke out their eye,

they lawfully get to poke out your eye.

You know, that's why you don't wanna go down this road.

That's not the best response.

What was the best response?

Turn the other cheek.

De-escalation, resist not evil.

And of course, Jesus, didn't he take a lot of evil?

Didn't he get smitten

when the Pharisees are accusing him of blasphemy?

He's sitting there,

they're asking him,

art thou the son of the blessed?

And he says, I am.

And then they're smiting him,

they're hitting him.

Should Jesus have just sat there

and punched back or hit back

or ran away or whatever

or told him to stop?

You know what he did?

He turned on the other cheek, didn't he?

That's how Jesus was.

That's how we would be.

And then obviously,

if someone slaps you and you kill them,

well, now you deserve the death penalty.

Because that's not a justified reason to kill someone.

Now, if you are in fear of your life,

you can defend yourself

and if you end up killing them in the process,

then it's justified and you're not worthy of death.

But let me tell you something.

If someone slaps you,

you will be found guilty of murder, okay?

Especially in God's law

and you would be put to death

for that particular scenario, okay?

So again, I'm just trying to help

with these different situations.

Well, but what if it's your husband that slaps you?

Well, why does that change what we just learned?

Right?

If your husband slapped you,

is that right?

I don't think so.

I mean, again,

we have to understand the context,

but I'm just gonna say, let's just say it was wrong.

Let's just say for sake of argument,

what the scenario brought into the case was totally wrong.

Okay?

And I'll just be honest,

I've never slapped my wife ever, okay?

Honor, you know, face cheek, all right?

That's good.

It's a joke, folks, okay?

Don't get too nervous, all right?

I've never harmed my wife, all right?

The worst punishment is tickling, okay?

But I'm just saying, what if,

because I don't have to only preach ideal,

what about the people that live in the real world?

You don't think there's never been a husband

that slapped his wife, whether it be just or unjust

or whatever your personal opinion is about that?

Well, you know what?

What would the wife do if she was gonna follow God's

perfect will if she would turn to him the other cheek?

Maybe she could say stop, right?

Technically, according to God's law,

she could just slap him back, okay?

And we're talking about an unwarranted,

unjustified slap or something.

We'll be a sin escalating beyond that, though.

And see, here's where it gets really testy

and people lose their mind, they get really mad,

is it's like, well, I think she should call the cops

and get him arrested.

Bro, that's way harsher than a slap, okay?

And so, that would be, in my opinion,

doing him evil, doing him wrong,

and look, you bring the cops into your life situation,

it's not gonna get better, okay?

You wanna bring the cops in a situation

that's a life or death situation that's extreme.

That makes sense, okay?

And no one's really arguing against this.

No one's thinking that I'm being chased around

with a ax or a chainsaw,

and please don't call the cops or something, okay?

No one's saying that, no one's ever argued for that,

but again, we're saying, hey, there are people

in a church like ours where they could even do

some bad things, okay?

Now, there's not people in our church

chasing each other around with chainsaws and stuff.

So you understand our context, our situation,

our world situation.

Oh, but what are you talking,

what about these people that are doing

these crazy, weird things that would never happen?

Look, there've already been church discipline

in those people, okay?

Like, I'm not worried, what about this drug dealer

that's getting drunk every night and beating up his wife?

He's gonna be thrown out of church

because he's getting drunk!

What are you talking about?

Okay, these weird scenarios that people dream up.

But again, I will defend this guy and say,

hey, what will be the perfect will,

even if it was wrong?

Hey, turn him the other cheek.

Ask him to stop.

Slap him back, you know?

Call the cops on him?

You know, hell no!

Don't do that, okay?

And again, that's my,

I'm just trying to help you understand

these categories, these situations.

People lose their mind.

People get mad at me.

I don't care if you get mad at me.

You know, that doesn't bother me.

Go over to Colossians chapter three.

For sake of time, I'm just gonna,

I'm just gonna kinda quickly go through a few of these.

But what if your wife disobeys you, husbands?

What would be the best thing you could possibly do

if your wife disobeys you?

Well, the Bible says to sanctify her,

to wash her with the water of the word.

You know what I think the best thing is?

It's just tell her that she's wrong.

Just a verbal correction

or just tell her what the Bible says

or say, hey, please don't do that, right?

Wouldn't that be the best thing to do

if your wife disobeys you?

What would be, you know, next would be,

well, maybe you have to escalate

to having some kind of a consequence for that.

Right, it'd be ideal that you just tell her,

don't do that, and then she just obeys, right?

But maybe you have to escalate

to some level of consequence.

Obviously, highly disputed,

and I'm not gonna preach about it,

but highly disputed is CDD.

Now if you don't know what that is,

look it up at your own risk, all right?

I'm not saying I advocate for that as disputed, okay?

But you know what would be wrong?

It's for the husband to be bitter against his wife.

That would be a sin.

It would be a sin to be bitter against your wife.

And Colossians chapter number three,

look at verse number 19.

Husbands love your wives

and be not bitter against them.

Bitter implies there was a transgression.

There was a transgression.

Instead of harboring that and hanging on to that,

you should let it go.

Best is usually, just tell them at least.

Now again, we should, as husbands realize,

our wives are never gonna be perfect.

They're never gonna obey us 100%.

But you know what, for the most part,

you know, women in a church like ours

are the cream of the crop of society.

You know, hopefully in 99% of situations,

I mean, the verbal corrections always is gonna be,

only thing that's necessary in theory, okay?

Doesn't mean that she won't continue to screw up

or do wrong or whatever or not be perfect.

But it's just like,

you probably don't even need to go down these other roads.

But you know what, there are some people

in some messed up situations

and there are some pretty rebellious wives

and you know what, I'm not gonna usurp

the authority of the man and say,

if he has consequences for his wife

or has to go to a little bit more,

a different measure that he's wrong.

And I can defend him.

Do I need to do that?

No, have I ever done that?

No, but you know what, at the end of the day,

I'm not gonna get mad at guys for having to implement

some kind of a consequence for their wife

or some level of discipline, whatever that be.

And again, when I use that word,

I'm saying like telling her no,

hey, taking away her social media account,

taking away her phone,

you know, whatever kind of thing that you would do.

There's all kinds of things that people implement

at their own judgment level, their own perspective.

And you know what?

I believe the husband is ever right to do that.

If my wife was messaging other men on social media,

you better believe that account's getting deleted

by hook or by crook, you know.

Something's gonna happen.

Something about to happen, you know what I mean?

Like I'm not gonna just sit there and be like, nay.

Okay?

Cause I just, you know, I'm jealous for my wife, you know.

I'm not gonna allow that to happen.

That's a bad idea.

Just like if my kids did, it would be the same.

Okay.

Obviously, if you physically injure your wife,

that would be illegal because the Bible says

if you're knocking out an eye, a tooth,

whatever, those are crimes.

If you kill your wife, it's a crime.

You should be put to death, all right?

Children, if they disobey Ephesians chapter six,

look at Ephesians chapter six, we're pretty close to there.

What would be the best thing?

Tell them to obey and they do it, right?

Ephesians chapter number six, look at verse number four,

and your father's provoked not your children to wrath,

but bring them up in the nurture

and admonition of the Lord.

What's the perfect ideal situation?

Your child disobeys, you say, hey, don't do that.

And they're like, yes, sir, and they don't do it,

right?

But you know what, that's perfect.

That's not gonna always be the case

that they then obey and get it right.

Sometimes you have to do something else

that the Bible says, it's called

bring out the rod of correction.

Go to Proverbs 23, go to Proverbs 23.

And the Bible says, as a commandment,

thou shalt beat him with the rod.

Look what it says, Proverbs 23, verse number 13,

withhold not correction from the child

for thou beatest him with the rod, he should not die.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod

and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

The Bible says that we're supposed to punish them.

So perfectly we can say, don't do it, and they just obeyed.

But sometimes we have to escalate to a physical punishment,

okay, and a physical discipline,

which would be a beating with the rod.

You could even have consequences.

And in Deuteronomy 21, what's legal

is if your son is a stubborn or rebellious son

and will not harken under the voice of the father

and mother, and after you chastise them severely,

you could put them to death.

Now do we wanna start there?

No, we start with admonishment.

If that works, we're good.

If it doesn't work, hey,

now we're moving on to beating with the rod, okay?

Then we could even have consequences.

Then it's like, hey, well, according to God's law,

you could put them to death.

We'll be wrong.

We'll be an actual sin would be not spanking all the time.

That's the real sin.

Spanking is like here.

Not spanking is here, okay?

Don't get those confused.

It's like, oh, this parrot spanks, he's a bad parrot.

No, the bad parrot doesn't spank.

Right, right, right, right, yep.

Okay.

Now if you cause physical injury,

that would again cross this legal boundary.

We're not saying we're gonna cause permanent damage

or cause some kind of physical injury.

That would be wrong.

You murder your kids, Lindsey Clancy.

You put to death.

That's right.

Okay?

So what is, it's like, hey, tell your kids no.

Spank them if you have to.

If we live in a righteous society,

put the really bad ones to death

that won't listen to it, okay?

Who's the bad parrot?

The ones that won't spank and discipline their kids.

And then obviously if they're injuring them,

that's a penalty, that's a crime.

If they're killing them, we put them to death.

But we have such a backward society

that we're giving millions of dollars to this person, okay?

We're giving millions of dollars to this person

and we're demonizing and making documentaries

hating this person.

It's insane.

It's an insane world we live in.

I'm out of time.

But you could read the rest on your own,

some fun reading.

But again, first Corinthians seven says,

hey, when it comes to a marriage relationship,

you're supposed to show due benevolence to each other.

Ideally, in a marriage, the door's always open.

It's water burger, it's 24 seven, okay?

In and out closes, did you know that?

It's not perfect, water burger's 24 seven, okay?

That's perfect.

What would be next in line?

Would be sometimes you have to use,

it's a required level of romance or something

for the door to be opened.

It's like, well, I'm for a romance 100% of the time,

but you know what, the door should always be open too.

It shouldn't require it, but hey,

if my wife required it, I'm gonna show it, okay?

And is that perfect?

No.

How about if that was a problem in my marriage,

make it a bargain, like hey, I'll rub your back

or we'll go out to dinner or whatever.

Now again, America, some women will use this

as a weapon against their husband, wrong, okay?

Don't do that, but I'm just saying,

if I was in this situation, that's what I would try.

Then there's duty over reluctance,

hey, if it's been six months or a year

and a guy just based in St. Adam,

care if you're that interested,

meaning to do this because it's our marital duty,

I'm not gonna throw the guy in jail, okay?

Some people wanna throw that guy in jail

and they're insane.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

In the words of Cassandra McMurtry,

if you have a marriage certificate,

you already got consent, all right?

So there you go.

Hey, what would be a sin, ever telling them no?

Or not doing it, or committing some kind of an adultery

in your heart, right?

But if you commit physical adultery, definitely.

You know, and again, I don't need to necessarily

go to the other one, but you could read it,

but hey, what's the point of the sermon?

The point of the sermon is we should realize

that not everybody's in an ideal situation

and not everybody's gonna do the ideal thing.

So as a pastor, I'm gonna preach all these categories

and I hope by this preaching this sermon,

let this seek in a little bit

so that when you're preaching you can try to think like,

oh, where is pastor putting this?

Hey, where is the Bible putting this?

Where would I put this?

And you know, we want, hopefully that all lines up, okay?

I get that there could be some things that are disputed.

And hey, if you think that I made a mistake,

come show me, I'm not saying that this is perfect.

I tried to do my best.

I spent a lot of time trying to make sure

that my categories were, you know,

my placement was pretty accurate for the most part.

But you know, hey, that's the goal.

That's why we're coming to church.

We're trying to figure out what does God

want me to do in my life?

Hey, what do I do in this sinful situation?

What do I do to make up for this situation?

That's why we go to church.

So we're trying to figure out these things together.

And we that live here, let's say you live here,

don't sit here and get mad about the pastor

talking about this guy or this guy or this situation.

We all need the word of God

and we all need our situations addressed.

And I'm so happy for you and your perfect marriage