Four Heavyweights: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Matthew 23:23, and Luke, Luke the account in Luke adds another part to it. It says, “You’ve omitted the weightier matters of the law.” Number one, something is omitted. Okay. Number two, the thing that is omitted is a weightier thing. It’s an important thing. It’s the difficult thing. The reason you omit it is because it’s difficult to exercise, so you omit it all. All right. You leave it aside, you put it aside, you see, you just lay it aside and you work on the little simple things like “Jesus loves me.” And it tells us the source of these difficult, important matters of the law. The word matter isn’t in the original, it’s added for

▶ 1:05 clarity. So the source is the law. Say the word “law.” Okay, we’re going to be focusing in on that word today. Then He gives us what these weightier, important things of the law are. Now let me tell you something I learned as a young Christian: that preachers and people and myself was making the Bible way too difficult. You know, “Oh God, I read, I don’t understand.” I mean, “Oh God,” how many have said that statement, “Oh God, I read it and I don’t know a thing I’m reading about. Boy, how do you, boy, this thing is weird. I, good Lord.” Yeah, the ones that didn’t raise your hand are lying. That’s why a lot of us don’t read the book, we don’t know how to read the book. But if you look for the weightier matters, and instead of all the nonsense that your churches have told you to look for, and the Second Coming and all this stuff, if you look for the weightier things, you will start understanding the Bible. Could that be an

▶ 2:14 amen? You get the priorities down. Love your neighbor as yourself. You start looking in the Bible for ways to love your neighbor, to do nothing to harm them, you’re going to get big understanding out of the Bible. And so this Bible is not as difficult to understand as people think, and Satan puts in your mind to think so. If you focus on the weightier matters, and the first word is what? Judgment. The weightier matters of the law is judgment. What’s America telling us not to do today? Judge. Yeah, and it’s a weightier, it’s important, it is an important law of God. Judgment. Okay, judgment, in the definition, judgment is the decision for or against anything. Right? That’s what’s important. Anything. What? Right. You can be against it, you can be for it, but you’re making a decision, you’re making a judgment. Matthew 23:15,

▶ 3:15 he talks to the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious Jews who believed in God, and He says, “You go out and make converts, and you convert people to your religion, you convert people to yourself, your own beliefs, and you make them two times more the child of hell than you are.” Number one, religious people can go to hell. Number two, if they’re converting people to their church, if they’re converting people to their beliefs, they are making them two times worse the children of hell than they are. When I go out witnessing, I never mention the church. I take them right to the cross, I take them to Christ. “Hey, I’m Jehovah’s Witness.” You know, you know, “You want to come down?” And I don’t care who you are. From [unclear] Jesus is the Savior.

▶ 4:10 Jesus is the only one that can change people’s lives, and we better be bringing them to Jesus. Can I hear an amen? Hallelujah. And so when I witness, I go right for the jugular. I go right to the sin. You need Jesus. You’re going to hell, and that’s it. Hallelujah. And if they say they’re a Christian, I say, “Prove it. Tell me what do you believe. When did you get saved? When did you get baptized?” “Well, I haven’t got baptized yet.” “Well, the Bible says repent, be baptized. What’s the problem here?” Are you there? They say they belong to some church. I don’t care what church you belong to. What do you believe? Are you a follower of Christ? Now He also, in John 8:1, when the woman was set up in the act of adultery, these people set her up and they wanted Jesus to obey the law and stone her, and He spoke to

▶ 5:19 them: “Any of you without sin, go ahead and cast the first stone.” Then He wrote on the ground. Of course, he’s writing the word, what do you think he’s writing? And then they were convicted in their heart, one by one, and left. You see, and Jesus made a decision not to stone her, and He had a right to, He was without sin, He had a right to stone her, but He made a judgment not to stone her. “Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.” And that’s the message to you. Yes, you deserve to die. Yes, you deserve to go to hell. But I won’t condemn you. You repent and sin no more. Everybody forgets the end part of that. He told that woman not to do that again. See, to change, to stop. All right. So Jesus made decisions, and we’re to make decisions. All right, number two: mercy. Mercy is a lot like

▶ 6:23 love, is an outward expression of compassion to a person afflicted. Okay, in Mark 6:34 Jesus was moved with compassion and began to give them money so they could be richer. It’s amazing how the American church justifies itself for not following Christ if they just give some money to some street people or whatever. Jesus had compassion and taught them, and this is what this church has got to get. We got to get a compassion for people that moves us to get the word of God out, and we’re not doing it. In Matthew 9:36 Jesus had compassion on them because they were harassed and troubled like sheep without a shepherd. Do you realize how many people believe in God and Jesus is not their shepherd? And the Bible only says Jesus is the Shepherd, “The Lord is my shepherd.”

▶ 7:29 Yes. In John 10, Jesus is the Shepherd that stands by the door. He’s the door of the sheep [unclear]. He’s the Shepherd, the sheep know His voice, and yet we are content with people not knowing Jesus, and some churches take Jesus out of the equation and just make Him another person. And He’s the Shepherd that feeds and leads and corrects and heals the sheep. So compassion is very important, isn’t it? But see, you got to put work into it. That’s why we omit it. That’s why we put it aside, you know. “Let me, prosperity, bless me.” Hallelujah. These are weightier things. These are difficult things to obey. Matthew 14:14, He had compassion on them and healed their sick. Church, I [unclear] have believed in what they used to call divine healing. God can heal, and God’s not through healing people physically. Moved with compassion, he loosed and forgave his servant the debt. Now, folks, this is Jesus the Lord talking about an earthly lord, illustrating

▶ 8:48 Himself. He not only, Jesus wants to forgive you. What else does He want to do? Loose you, free you, liberate you. You’re a drug addict, He wants to liberate you. You’re an alcoholic, He wants to liberate you, not just forgive you and leave you in that sin and you go through some dumb 12-step program. The Holy Ghost comes and heals, He delivers, and they’ve got us from the power of the Holy Ghost to 12 and seven step programs and all this stuff. It isn’t working for the secular world. But you see, we’ll pray one time, and if it doesn’t work, then we go through the 12 procedure. You pray until He moves. Could that be an amen? Luke 10:36, talking about the neighbor. Now here, last week we talked about them misinterpreting scripture, and hear it again, you can get in the Hebrew and the Greek and you’ll find a neighbor definition is the one near you. Okay, God used the word, but now here He defines what a neighbor is, and when He says love your neighbor as yourself, now you’re going to know who you’re supposed to love as yourself, because Jesus is going to define it right here in this

▶ 10:06 parable. This Jew from Jericho was traveling on the road and thieves beat him up and took his money and left him half dead. A priest came along and walked around. He might have had compassion, he might have been concerned and cared for the guy, but he did nothing. A Levite came by, he walked around. “Oh my gosh, that poor guy. Oh my goodness.” Maybe they had duties in the temple, maybe they couldn’t defile themselves, whatever the reason, they didn’t move on their compassion. And see, you might be really compassionate about someone going to hell and someone’s health and what, but if you’re not moved to do something about it, well, what good is

▶ 11:03 it? That was a good statement. Did you get that? You know, we can talk about the world going to hell and how bad things are in America, but when we are moved with compassion, we’re going to do something about it. Then this Samaritan comes along. The Samaritan, the Jews won’t even have anything to do with them. I love Jesus’s allegory, you know. Here comes this Samaritan. Jews hate Samaritans, they won’t eat with them, they won’t talk with them, they have nothing to do with them, and I don’t want to explain why, but it doesn’t matter. We got black and white problems and Asian and white problems and black and Mexican problems and all this stuff, the rich and the poor problems in America, and God will take one of those people you hate and come with a solution. That’s the way He [unclear]. I love His, His [unclear].

▶ 11:57 So here comes this Samaritan. Now this Jew who hates Samaritans, he didn’t say, “Don’t touch me, get away from me.” No, he accepted the action of the compassion. The guy bound up his wounds, put salve on his wounds, took him and put him in an inn, paid for the price of the hotel and the food until the guy was on his own two feet. And so then Jesus said, “Which was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?” And they answered, “The one that showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said, “You got it right. Go and do likewise.” So who am I to love as myself? People that have compassion on me, compassion on others. You see, I love my enemy in a different way. We’re to love our enemies, but it’s a totally different way. If my enemy’s donkey falls into the ditch, I’m going to help him to get it out. If his car breaks down, I stop and I help him, I take him home, but I don’t have to invite him in my house, mingle with my kids and influence my kid for evil. I don’t have to do that. But the one that’s compassionate, I have got to love like

▶ 13:27 myself. Now if you don’t get anything today, that was hot stuff. Love, in the Greek, in the Hebrew, it means to be affectionate for something, but it’s also connected with good will. Here it is again. See, compassion had an expression, love has an expression. You might have an affection for something or someone, but love expresses it in good will. Hallelujah. See, if I love my wife, I won’t be going out on her and hanging out at Joe’s bar, and if I love my kids, I’m not going to break their arms spanking them and doing ridiculous things. I’m going to be good to them, I’m going to discipline them, I’m going to be firm with them, I want them to grow up to be wholesome

▶ 14:21 people. But I have to be an example, and so I got to show good will. Romans 10:13, “Love does no harm to his neighbor, therefore love fulfills the law.” You see how simple it is to understand the Bible? You can understand the whole law, the first five books of the Bible, by simply understanding don’t do anything that hurts others or yourself. That’s it. That sums it up. That’s what the Bible says. All of a sudden the Bible’s not complicated at all. 1 Corinthians 13:4, “Love is patient, love is kind, love isn’t jealous, love isn’t proud, love doesn’t brag about itself, love is not rude, love does not demand its own way, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of

▶ 15:15 wrongs.” See, that’s a more defined explanation than the Roman one where it said no harm to his neighbor. Now he’s telling you how not to harm your neighbor. Be patient with your children, be patient with your husband, be patient with yourself. See, don’t be rude. Don’t say things that are rude, don’t act in a way that’s rude and ill-mannered. Be kind, speak kind words, act kindly. See it. Don’t be jealous. Good Lord, jealousy drives you to it. Jealousy is a torment. Proud. Oh man, we’re so proud, we won’t even raise our hands when the Bible says, “I will that men everywhere lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting.” Not me, that’s pride.

▶ 16:16 Hallelujah. And I never go through the week without people boasting about themselves. Honestly, they just, and they boast about themselves to make the other look dumb. It just drives me crazy. And I look at that person, I said, “Can’t you see you’re as stupid as they are, and you’re doing things that are wrong as they are, just in a different area? Can’t you see past your,” no. I want to just let them have it, but I’m nice and patient and just look at them, and hallelujah, until the door of opportunity comes, when they invite me to speak, then here it comes, folks. You ask for it, I’m going to like it. Are you there? Am I talking to the right folks this morning?

▶ 17:11 Yeah, we are a cocky bunch of believers. You see, we think we’re so much better than the Muslims and the Jews. We just walk around cocky. We forget that we’re nothing without Jesus Christ. Nothing. And if there’s anything in us, He gets the credit, not us. Amen. Get that superiority mentality. It doesn’t demand its own way. What ruins marriages in Christian marriages? Well, one of the things is finances. They go into debt and buy stupid things, cars they can’t afford, hobbies that they don’t need. They need a, you know, you can’t live like Mom and Dad who has put 20 years into this. When you start out, you got to live like you [unclear] a tent in the backyard.

▶ 18:13 Somewhere. You buy a car you can afford, you buy clothes you can afford. If it’s Salvation Army, then that’s what you do, and don’t brag about it. “I buy my clothes at Salvation, big deal.” Who cares? Are you saying it’s your superior because you get your clothes from the Salvation Army and they go to Macy’s and pay the [unclear]? Oh, get off of it. But that’s the attitude behind your statement. You think you’re something special. Not easily angered. Why do you get annoyed so easy? Because you’re not getting your own way. You’re proud and you brag about how great you are. You defend yourself by bringing out your good things, the few that they are. You know, it might only be one or two, but boy, you let everybody know

▶ 19:12 it. You see, this is why they’re weightier matters. They’re important matters. They’re difficult. Why? Because you have a responsibility to make decisions, judgments that are right. Faith just simply means persuasion. You’re persuaded, convinced of moral truths in the Bible. It is connected with what’s right. You’re supposed to be convinced of right and then make judgments for what’s right. Okay, Romans 4:21, Abraham’s faith, what God had promised, he was what? Able to perform. I think it’s the NIV says that he had power to perform, and I like that. What God promises, He has the power to back it up and give it to

▶ 20:05 you. But you got to keep seeking. He that seeks, and keeps on seeking, he that asks and keeps on asking, he that knocks and keeps on knocking, Jesus said keeps on, they get the answers. 1 Corinthians 2:5, “Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” So you have knowledge, so you get some understanding today on Monday, if you do not apply it and you do not seek for the power of God working in your life, what good is the knowledge? What good is the understanding? What good is the education if there’s no application? You can go to a church where there’s great teaching and you’re sleeping through the thing and you wouldn’t dare get the tape and pray about it for five days through the week and get it into you.

▶ 20:59 You’re too busy sleeping and playing sports and, you know, we’re really busy watching TV. You know, we’re busy. Oh yeah. Golfing. Yeah. Now, understanding God’s law. You ready to get understanding of God’s law? Because it’s the weightier matters of the law that we’re omitting. So let’s understand God’s law. Okay, there’s three areas of God’s law. Leviticus 26, I could have used quite a few scriptures to explain this, I chose this one. Leviticus 26:3, “Walk in My statutes.” Number one, in God’s laws there are statutes. Usually this word is connected with religious ceremonies, rituals and so forth. Okay, and number two, “keep My commandments.” This is the civil laws. This is the Ten Commandments that God has. The third area, I’m going to call them spiritual laws, okay, divine laws, laws that bring me into a relationship and connection with God.

▶ 22:06 Okay, now I didn’t get into the fourth one, practical laws. God gives us a lot of practical laws, like save your money, don’t spend it all up, work so you can provide for your home. Those are practical laws. Can I hear an amen? Yeah. Deuteronomy 4:29, He says you’re going to go into captivity, you’re going to disobey Me, you’re going to go into captivity, but in that captivity, if you seek the Lord your God. See, number one, we seek Him. That’s why we come to church. You see, we seek Him. We’re seeking for Him, not a social thing. Number two, if you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him. That’s important. Seeking is only good if I find Him. If you turn, repent. See, if you turn, you change your ways, the thing that got you into this [unclear]. If you repent from them, turn from them, and be obedient, He will not forsake or destroy you. You see, these things were in the Old Testament. Leviticus 26:40, “If they shall confess their iniquity, I will remember My covenant.” So we confess, we repent, we believe, and we obey. These are principles of seeking

▶ 23:37 Him. Hallelujah. And church, this is the key to find your God. These are the laws that cause God to come to you personally and teach you personally and know you personally. They were in the Old Testament, they’re in the New Testament. We think the New Testament brought it in. It didn’t. These things were back in the Old Testament all over the place. Are you with me? Understanding the law, the statutes of God. Okay, all right, let’s take a look in Leviticus 19:19. “You shall keep My statutes.” Remember, these are what? Ritual, ceremonial things mainly that he’s talking about. “Do not let your cattle breed with a different kind.” A cattle and a horse does not bring a, uh, horse-cow. It brings nothing. There’s no results, because they’re a different kind. All right. “Nor sow your field with mingled seed.” You know, you can sow your field with mingled seed and nothing

▶ 24:45 happens. All right, scientifically nothing happens. My dad sowed corn, and when the corn sprouted up through the ground, he put a bean seed underneath the earth, and as the corn grew, the bean grew, and it was a vine bean, and it grew right around the corn stalk, so he didn’t have to go and stake his beans and waste garden space for beans. There’s nothing wrong with mingling seeds, and wearing a garment mingled with linen and wool, nothing will happen. You won’t get static electricity or anything if you wear a blend of linen and wool. Nothing will happen. So what is he talking

▶ 25:33 about? Well, He tells us in the next chapter, 26th verse, “You shall be holy unto Me.” He’s giving them illustrations of how important it is to embrace what is right and discard what is wrong. That’s all. And it was to remind them to live rightly. That’s all it was. Verse 20, “Whoever lies carnally with a bond woman,” a servant, a woman in servanthood. This is a servant that’s in servanthood, that’s not a slave. She voluntarily gave herself seven years to serve this household because she got into debt and couldn’t pay it, or her parents died and she can’t provide for herself. So the Bible says you can only do this [unclear] years, and at [unclear] years you go free, or you freely just serve that household. And this bond woman is engaged to a

▶ 26:42 husband. She’s been promised to a husband. Wow. Now, and she’s not redeemed. In other words, her price of her debt has not been paid. Her fiancé hasn’t paid it, and she can’t pay it. “They shall not be put to death.” You see, because the other law says if two people commit sexual immorality, they’re both to die, not just her but they’re both to die, and she violated that law. But the difference here is she is a bond woman. She is a servant that has to pay off a debt, and if they stone her, she can’t pay off the debt. Am I getting through?

▶ 27:42 Yeah. So she shall be scourged, she shall be corrected, chastened, disciplined. All right. And he was also beaten because the law says both of them are wrong. So see, they shall not be put to death because she was not what? Free. She’s got a debt to pay. “He shall bring his trespass,” but they both got to bring a trespass offering, sin offering, fault, guilt, unto the Lord. See, now he jumps from this to this. All right, now watch. Are you ready? Watch this. Hebrews 10:1, “The law having a” what? “Shadow of” what? “Good things to come.” A shadow, an example, an illustration. He’s talking about what? The statutes, those ceremonial laws, those ritual laws that God told them to keep were nothing but an example and a shadow, an illustration of the good thing God was pointing toward. Now all of a sudden the Old Testament comes

▶ 29:02 alive. Because when I believe something in the New, I can go back to the Old Testament and have an explanation for it. Hebrews 8:5, “who serve to” what? “Examples and shadow of heavenly things.” So they are examples. Now let’s go to this bond woman. Now we understand. You see, we’re in debt because of sin, isn’t that right? New Testament, it’s a debt we cannot pay. She could work off her debt. You can’t work off the debt you owe to give you freedom and eternal life. See, this is where Hebrews 2:8 comes in: “For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of itself, not of works, lest any man should boast.” See, our debt can’t be worked off. You can’t pray enough, you can’t give enough,

▶ 30:08 money, you can’t be good enough to pay this debt. There’s no work she could work hers off in seven years. We can’t work this debt off, but we are slaves of the kingdom of darkness and Satan, and we have a debt to pay that is impossible to work off. Joining a church will not pay the debt. Are you with me now? Now it’s making sense? Yes. And we are betrothed to who? Jesus. See, “I’ve espoused you unto one husband, even the Lord Jesus Christ.” The whole world has, in God’s eyes, been engaged to marry Jesus, but they’re in bondage to sin, they’re in bondage to the kingdom of darkness, they’re in bondage to Satan, the king of that kingdom, and there’s no work that will set them

▶ 31:18 free. And then Jesus comes along and dies for us and redeems us. He purchases us. That’s why we say salvation is free. It is a gift of God. Jesus paid the price for you. I don’t care who you are and the sin you’re in, He bought you, and you don’t have to die. Now. Amen. And see, the illustration was in the Old Testament, but you read over this and never connected it at all. You just thought it was another boring story. Okay, we go to Jesus for our sin offering, don’t we? Our guilt offering. My guilt goes, my sin goes. See, we go to

▶ 32:13 Him. Hallelujah. Isn’t that a good illustration? Yeah. See, now you understand Ephesians 2:8. Now the spiritual laws of God. All right, we’re going to go to Jonah for the spiritual law. Jonah 3:4-10, “Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Nineveh is a city back in the old days, located in about northern Iraq over there in the Middle East, and it had a population of 120,000. They excavated it, and you know, they measured it and all that, and it held about 120,000 people. That’s a lot of people. That’s bigger than [unclear], it’s over two times bigger than [unclear] here. Here comes Jonah, unwilling prophet. He didn’t want to do it, just like us. “Well, I don’t want to witness.” Okay, God’s going to throw you in the, well, going to throw you in the ocean. You’re going to do something to get your attention, you know, get spit out of that mentality.

▶ 33:20 So here comes the unwilling prophet: “Yet 40 days and Nineveh is going to be overthrown and destroyed.” Yet 40 days. 40 days, folks. 40 days. 40 days, God’s going to destroy you. Hallelujah. Short message, but effective. And unwilling. How many just hate witnessing? A lot of you lying, you’re sitting there like, “If I...” How many witnessed this week? Uh-huh. See, one, two. If I raise my hand, yeah, I mean witness, you told somebody about Christ. They’re saying, “I’m not talking about inviting to church,” but you witness. You see, and you wouldn’t raise your hand, that you hate w— you do. You don’t like it. You’re an unwilling prophet, and if God used Jonah, He can what? Use

▶ 34:16 you. Now look at the result. So all the people, 120,000, believed God, proclaimed a fast. By the decree of the king of Nineveh, the government said, “We all got to repent, we got to seek God, we got to hope that God will change this thing. Everybody fast, everybody pray to God, Jehovah, not gods, not an idol that they were serving, to God Jehovah, and turn from their evil ways and violence.” The king, the government passed a decree, and everybody obeyed or they’d have been in jail. Wouldn’t that be a novelty in America? “Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away His fierce anger, that we perish not?” God saw their

▶ 35:10 what? What? What? Works. See, prayer is a work, fasting is a work, believing is a work, repenting is a work. God saw their works. These spiritual laws that they obeyed, and God repented and turned from that. They repented and turned from their way, and God repented, and He said He would not do to them what He said He was going to do to them and destroy them. Hallelujah. Now you young ones, you need to understand, Nineveh is a real city. When I was a kid, they said there was a time when they said it wasn’t a real city. Then they discovered it, and then they found out it was exactly like it was recorded in Jonah. And then they found the Nineveh cuneiform stone that talked about the

▶ 36:12 flood. This cuneiform was written 2,000 years before Christ was born, and it talked about the flood and a man making a boat and bringing animals into it. How many of you never heard of that? Yeah, the public school is not going to teach you that, and the colleges aren’t going to teach you that, and if they do teach you, they’re going to say, “Well, the Bible’s just mimicking the story of Nineveh.” They didn’t come up with it, they’re just copying it. See, they always got to distort things. But yeah, it talks about a flood. Babylon also has cuneiform that talks about the flood, same way. Somebody built a boat, animals came into it, blah blah blah, you know, the earth was flooded with a flood, and it was in the year of one of their kings, 1635, and they were still talking about that flood all

▶ 37:10 right. Uh, the flood happened about 300 years before this recording, the actual flood happened about 2300 and some years BC. What I’m trying to tell you is, these artifacts, these diggings keep confirming the Bible truths. That these people say the Bible isn’t real and it’s not authentic, it is real and it is authentic, and we have natural proof as well as spiritual proof that it works. Now Nineveh was saved from destruction by what? Works. Spiritual laws that Jonah preached. How did they know to pray to God Jehovah? Jonah told them. He didn’t just say, “In 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed.” He said, “You people, there’s a way out, and this is why I didn’t want to come here, because I know God’s merciful and He changed His mind and I look like a lousy

▶ 38:19 prophet.” That’s the truth. You read Jonah, that’s the truth. But he told them, you got to pray to God, you got to repent and turn, you got to believe what he said, you see, you got to confess your sins and fast, and God will turn. And sure enough, God did, and they got the pattern from Jonah’s preaching. Are the people we know getting the pattern from our preaching? See, these spiritual laws are important. And if they prayed for 10 days 24/7, they only went to eat, they only went to wash their clothes and take a bath and, you know, take care of matters in the house and came right back. They prayed 24/7 for 10 days, and then the Holy Ghost

▶ 39:21 came. Moses waited 7 days, I believe it was, in the mountain top for God showed up. He went up there and God wasn’t around, and he waited and he waited and he waited, then God showed up. So we got to pray and keep praying, worship and keep worshiping Him, seeking and keep seeking. Is that a truth? Yeah. We don’t give up and quit. Now, civil laws are very simple to understand. When there’s a controversy, Deuteronomy 25:1, “between men, and they come to the judgment, that the judges judge them, they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.” That’s what the civil laws are there for. All right, there’s got to be a correction of the people. 2 Samuel 23:3, “He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.” The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil and hate evil. You see, Noah hated unrighteousness.

▶ 40:28 Exodus 18:21, “able men,” pick out able men, “such as fear God, men of truth.” Boy, Congress needs this verse in a banner hanging down where everybody can read it. They lie to us. Gosh, they lie to us. It just drives me crazy that these people think that I’m that stupid that they can lie to me like that. “They hate covetousness,” greed. “They place such over them to be rulers.” Deuteronomy 16:18, “Judge the people with just judgment.” Don’t bend judgment, don’t favor people. Right is right for all people, wrong is wrong for all people. “Don’t respect persons.” You don’t pick a group out and treat them differently than you treat anybody else.

▶ 41:29 “And don’t take a gift,” which is a bribe. Good Lord, we got nothing but bribes in Congress and in state legislatures and in churches. You know, preachers will preach whatever the congregation wants them to, just so they keep giving money. “Keep giving your money, I won’t do anything to rock your boat.” That’s a bribe. “All Israel heard of the judgment which Solomon had,” in 1 Kings 3:28, “and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.” And what happened is there were two women that had babies the same night. One baby died in the middle of the night because the woman rolled over and suffocated it. She got up in the middle of the night, realized her baby was dead, and exchanged

▶ 42:31 babies. So the next morning this other girl, this other mother, wakes up and she goes, “This isn’t my baby. You got my baby.” There was no one there but the two. She says, she says. So they bring her to Solomon, and Solomon says, “Okay, I’ve heard the story,” and he tells his court guard, “Bring me the baby.” So the court guard goes and takes this baby from the mother who wasn’t its mother, and Solomon said, “Take your sword and divide the child in two and give each one half.” And the woman whose baby, the mother, wasn’t said, “Yeah, yeah, that’s fair.” And the other woman said, “Nope, oh no, give her the baby, don’t divide that baby.” And Solomon says, “Hey, give the baby to this woman. The baby, she is his mother,” because she loved that baby even if it meant giving the baby up. And that’s what people heard and said Solomon is a just

▶ 43:44 judge and had wisdom in judgment. Are we lacking that in America? Yeah. We brag about our Constitution, but, folks, these judges, they do not judge just judges at all. Romans 6:14, “For you are not under law but under grace.” How many has heard that scripture over and over and over? I’m the only one? How many’s heard that? Yeah, over and over and over. They take it right out of the paragraph, the whole statement. You see, “For sin shall not have dominion over you” is the introductory subject. Why won’t sin have a dominion over you? ’Cause you’re not under law but under grace.

▶ 44:36 Oh, how many heard that? “I’m saved by grace.” How many heard that? I hear it all the time. “Well, if you’re saved by grace, then you’re free from sin.” Why are you smoking? Why are you drinking? Why are you going out on your wife? See, grace, when I’m under grace’s control, grace is power. Sin don’t have control over me is what he’s saying. Amen. But they don’t even bother reading the first part of the sentence or the last part: “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? God forbid” is the next part of that verse. Now, what law am I not under? He says I’m not under the law. We just gave you civil laws, spiritual laws,

▶ 45:35 and. What? Yeah. Civil laws. What law am I not under for salvation? Now, for control of sin, for freedom of sin, you see. Now let’s go to verse 22, Romans 6:22. “You’re made free from sin.” See, not under the law but under grace makes me what? Free from sin. “I become servants to God.” I serve God, I give up the reins of my life and I give the control of my life to Jesus. See, grace, that’s what grace does. “You have your fruit unto holiness.” My fruit.

▶ 46:30 See, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good” what? Works “and glorify your Father in heaven.” So when I do good things, it’s because of this grace that I’m under the control of. Now that’s good preaching, folks. You getting it? Is this what Paul spent almost all the Romans on, trying to explain how to be free from sin and not have sin not have dominion over you? Okay, and then the end, the result, the goal is everlasting life. See, these are the results of being under grace. Hallelujah. So what law am I not under? Shall we continue? Are you interested?

▶ 47:25 Chapter 8:2, two chapters over: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Did you check that out? He brings in a new law, a spiritual law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Am I not under that law? If I’m not under that law, then I am not free from the law of sin and death. And see, they say we’re not under any law, spiritual, shadow laws or civil

▶ 48:21 laws. Then you’re not under the law of the Spirit. See that Spirit again, you see that word Spirit. See, this is why us Spirit-filled people, fundamentalists and evangelicals, preach, “You must be born again.” Why? Because the Spirit gets involved with our salvation. See, we experience something. The Spirit of God comes and works a work in us at salvation, being born again, old things passed away, new creatures, and yeah, we’re growing, but we get born again, and being born again is very important. And evangelicals push it, fundamentalists push it, Spirit-filled churches push it. The Catholic Church and some other ones is about the only ones that don’t. But it’s Bible to be born again and born of the Spirit. And so the Spirit is active in your life. So this law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus, the grace I’m under,

▶ 49:27 has set me free from the law of sin and death. So what law am I not under? The law of sin and death. That’s the law I’m not under. Do I still, do I have a right to break a civil law and commit adultery and steal and kill? No. Am I still under those laws? Yeah, but not for freedom of sin. Those laws won’t free me. Am I still under the laws, the spiritual laws, to pray and fast and go to church and worship and all that? Am I still under those laws? Yeah, but those laws will not free me from sin. I can pray 24/7, 365 days a year, and there’s no spiritual law there that will, it’s this spiritual

▶ 50:24 law, that Jesus died for me, as we learned in the parable of the bond woman. He paid the price for me, and that law sets me free from sin and the destruction in hell that it will bring. That’s the law I’m not under. Are you there? Isn’t that good? Yeah. But see, now that I’m free, I got time to grow. I got room to grow. I got time to learn about Christ and grow in Christ and start possessing the things of God. Why? ’Cause I’m free from worrying about where I’m going when I die. I’m free from sin. Sin don’t have control. Yes, my flesh still wants to do things, but it doesn’t control me. Yeah, Satan still tempts me, but he doesn’t control me. I’m under the control of grace that came through Jesus Christ. I’m under the control of being a servant to Jesus Christ.

▶ 51:27 Hallelujah. Man, I don’t know about you, but that’s exciting stuff. 8:3, “For what the law could not do.” Now he’s talking about the civil laws and the shadow laws, what the law could not do, God sending His own Son, “condemns sin in the flesh.” Now remember, God told Adam and Eve if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the day they ate of it they would what? Die. But when God showed up, who did He condemn? Satan. Instead of Adam and Eve, He gave Adam and Eve a chance to repent. He shed the blood, and He gave them a chance to repent and turn, and He condemned Satan and said, “Satan, I’m going to destroy your power, I’m going to destroy your authority.” And so Jesus comes, and instead of condemning you for your lies and your murders and your sexual immoralities and your anger and all your temper fits, He comes and what? Destroys sin in your life. He wants to preserve

▶ 52:45 you. Amen. That’s just what Paul is trying to explain in Romans, and I tell you, it took me several years to figure out what Paul was talking about in Romans. It was hard to understand. I mean, yeah, it was hard to understand what Paul was saying. So what law are we not under? The law of sin and death. Is spiritual law still good? Civil laws still good? Yeah. As a statement on your sheet that says civil, shadow, or spiritual laws were never intended to accomplish what the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus accomplished. They were never intended for that. So what was the spiritual laws and the civil laws and the shadow

▶ 53:45 laws? What were they for? Good question. See, 1 Timothy 1:8, “The law is” what? Good. See, the shadow laws are good, the civil law is good, the spiritual laws are good, “if one uses it” what? “Lawfully.” That means we got to use it properly, that we agree to its design and rules, we agree to what it’s for. And the law of the Spirit and life in Christ Jesus sets me free from the law of sin and death. That’s what it’s for. But I need other laws for other things. Folks, this is good

▶ 54:44 stuff. “The law was not made,” talking about the civil law, “for the righteous but for” what? Sinners, lawless people, adulterers, murderers, thieves. The law was made for them. You see, Galatians 3:24, “The law was our” what? “Schoolmaster to bring us to” who? Christ. Spiritual laws, praying, fasting, assembling together, worshiping, will they bring me to Christ? Yes. So am I under those laws? Yeah, because I need Jesus, I need the Holy Spirit, and so I got to use them. Civil laws, if I go out and violate the law and I steal somebody’s car, they put me in jail and I pay the price for it, and being in that situation, it can what? Bring me to Christ, because the law can’t judge them. Punishing me doesn’t get rid of my

▶ 55:51 guilt, it doesn’t get rid of the pain. So it can drive me to where Jesus, who can forgive and cleanse me of sin. Hallelujah. And shadow laws, they are there to explain the spiritual things. Matthew 23:23, these weightier matters, “all you have done and not leave the lightweight ones undone.” We can’t go, “Well, I’m keeping faith and judgment and mercy and love, so, you know, I don’t have to worry about tithing and offering and controlling my tongue.” We got to keep the lightweight ones, we got to keep the heavyweight ones. Could that be an amen?