Amen.
Men, this morning I wanna focus on this story
at the beginning of John chapter eight,
the famous story of the woman taken in adultery
that is brought to Jesus.
And this is a really famous story.
And in fact, I would say that it's a beloved story
that has been preached on and talked about
over and over again.
It's probably one of the most famous stories
in the Bible in a lot of ways.
And the funny thing about this
is that the modern so-called textual scholars
and textual critics are actually attacking this passage
and trying to claim that it doesn't belong in the Word of God.
And in fact, if you have any of these modern versions
like the NIV, the Holman Christian Standard Bible,
the ESV, all of these modern versions of the Bible
will take out entire verses out of the New Testament.
They'll typically take out approximately 16 complete verses.
But then another thing they'll do
is they'll put a note around this passage saying,
oh, this probably isn't real.
This probably isn't original.
Some of the oldest, most reliable manuscripts don't have.
This would, of course, a total lie and a fraud
because the two manuscripts that don't have it
are the most unreliable pieces of junk ever discovered
in the history of archeology.
But they'll attack a giant section
at the end of the Gospel of Mark, 12 verses.
And they'll say, oh, this doesn't belong here.
And then they'll take these 12 verses from John 7.53
to John 8.11 and claim, oh, this isn't real, whatever.
But here's the thing about God's Word
is that God's Word is self-authenticating, right?
God's Word proves itself to be God's Word
because the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd
and they know the voice of the shepherd
and they don't know the voice of strangers.
And it's interesting how Christians
have universally loved and accepted these passages
and these stories as the Word of God.
So you expect me to believe that spirit-filled,
spirit-led Christians and preachers
just absolutely love counterfeit scripture?
No, what they actually love
is the actual real Word of God.
And people love the Gospel of John
because it's the Word of God.
They love this story in particular
because it's the Word of God.
Okay, and because the Lord speaks to us
through this passage.
Now here's what's funny about this
is that if you go all the way back to the year 420 AD,
so going back 1600 years,
of course the famous theologian slash philosopher,
Augustine wrote and said that there were people out there
who were removing this passage from the Gospel of John
because they were nervous about the fact
that it seemed like Jesus is going too easy on adultery
or that it could promote loose living
or somehow go soft on sin or something like that.
So it's not like we're just making this up, folks.
The Word of God, there are people out there
that have tampered with it and removed passages
and you can easily see when you're investigating
the crime here of mutilating God's Word,
you can see the motive.
Anytime you're investigating a crime,
well what's the motive?
Here's the motive for removing this story
is that people are misunderstanding the story
and because they misunderstood the story
because they have a wrong interpretation of the story,
they're like, oh, this is teaching anarchy.
This is teaching us to go soft on sin and adultery.
Get rid of it, cut it out.
Folks, cutting things out of the Word of God
is damnable, right?
Remember the curses in Revelation
on those who would add to or remove from God's Word?
Taking this out is heretical and damnable
and here's what's funny too,
is that the modern version crowd, as I said,
NIV, ESV types, the people are putting these Bibles together
don't believe this is authentic
and yet they include it anyway in their Bibles, why?
Because you couldn't sell a Bible
that doesn't have this story in it,
it would freak people out, like where's my story?
Where's my Bible story?
Where is it?
Everybody expects it to be there.
Nobody wants the book of John, chapter eight,
to start with verse number 12, right?
That'd feel weird when you're reading, it just goes eight, 12.
So if it's a big sin to remove from God's Word,
we shouldn't remove, right?
But these bozos are hypocrites
because it's also a big sin to add to God's Word.
So if they believe it's fake,
why do they put it in their Bible?
Because they're big-time hypocrites
because what they're doing is trying to make a buck,
trying to make money
and what they're trying to do
is wean people off of it slowly
by just putting notes like,
yeah, this probably isn't real or whatever.
You wanna know another verse
that they don't believe is real?
The verse where Jesus says father,
forgive them for they know not what they do.
I mean, what a cool verse that everybody loves
and everybody quotes that speaks to our hearts
because it's the Word of God.
They're like, oh, this probably isn't authentic.
Well, nobody asked you egghead fool, nobody cares.
This is the real Word of God.
And again, what's the motive for removing it?
A misunderstanding of it.
Because if we actually get the right understanding,
we would know Jesus is not teaching anarchy.
He's not teaching us to go soft on sin.
And he's not teaching for a criminal justice system
that just forgives everyone and doesn't punish anything.
Those are dumb interpretations,
but unfortunately, that's the interpretation
I seem to hear the most in 2026 America.
You hear a lot of preachers mixing this up
and getting it wrong.
So let's actually look at the story this morning
and let's enjoy this powerful passage in the Word of God
and let's actually get a real interpretation
based on comparing scripture with scripture.
So look if you would at John chapter eight verse one,
it says Jesus went under the Mount of Olives
and early in the morning,
he came again into the temple
and all the people came unto him
and he sat down and taught them.
Now look, Jesus Christ is preaching to huge crowds
and the Jews, especially the Pharisees
and the scribes are super envious.
They cannot stand how popular Jesus is
and how people are coming to hear him
because they want the attention,
they want the glory for themselves.
And the whole book of Acts, they're super envious.
So what they always wanna do is destroy Jesus
and take him down.
We saw last week that they were literally
trying to kill him,
but in the crowds they can't get away with killing him.
So what they wanna do is they wanna make him look stupid.
That's their goal is to embarrass him publicly.
Now there's a theme throughout the gospels
of them trying to kind of catch Jesus
between a rock and a hard place like a catch 22.
Here's a famous example.
They come to Jesus elsewhere and they say to him,
hey, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?
Do we give the tribute or do we not give the tribute?
Here's what they're trying to do.
They're trying to get him to break the law.
They want Jesus to say, oh, don't pay your taxes
and then they can go run to the Romans
and hey, this guy's telling us not to pay our taxes, right?
And then if he says, yes, do pay your taxes
and yes, do give Caesar the taxes,
then they're gonna go to all the like radical,
libertarian factions of the Jews who wanna be free.
Oh, this guy's just pro-Roman.
He's a FEMA pastor.
He's a government shill.
He's just in bed with the Romans.
So it's like they're trying to catch him
in these situations where he can't win
and he always outsmarts them, right?
He's always has this clever answer.
Like he says, okay, give me the tribute money.
Show me the coin.
Okay, whose face is on this coin?
Caesar's face?
Okay, render unto Caesar the things that be Caesar's
and render unto God the things that be God.
Just kinda makes them look dumb.
Or they come to him and try to trick him
and trip him up and they say,
hey, there was this woman and she was married
and she didn't have any kids
and then her husband died
so then she has to marry his brother
and then he dies and then she ends up marrying
all seven brothers in succession.
None of them has any kids.
Last of all, the woman dies also, just this wild scenario.
And then they're like, in the resurrection therefore,
whose wife shall she be?
They all seven had her, hmm?
And of course, Jesus proves the stupidity
of this question because he says,
well, in the resurrection, they neither marry
nor are they given in marriage
but they're like the angels in heaven.
You know, we're not Mormons
where we believe in these eternal marriages
and living on other planets
and producing spirit babies for all eternity.
You know, you only have to do the pregnancies
on this earth, ladies, okay?
And then you're done, you've done your shift,
you've done your time,
you're not gonna be eternally pregnant, okay?
And so they were wrong
and he ends up making the Sadducees look so dumb
because not only does he debunk their dumb objection,
then he says, well, what about when God says,
I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?
God's not the God of the dead, but of the living.
And then it says that after that,
they just dare not ask him any more questions
because every time they try to make him look stupid,
they end up looking stupid.
Every time they try to get him in trouble with the law,
they get in trouble.
And so here's the thing, right here,
we see they're doing the exact same thing,
they're coming to tempt Jesus.
They're jealous that he has the crowds
and so they're trying to tempt him
and put him in a position where he can't win.
With the Romans or the Jews,
somebody's gonna be mad at him.
So look what they do.
It says, the scribes and Pharisees
brought unto him a woman taken in adultery.
And when they had said her in the midst,
they say unto him, Master,
this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.
Now Moses and the law commanded
that such should be stoned.
But what sayest thou?
See, what they're trying to do here
is they're trying to pit Jesus against the word of God.
Because guess what?
It's not Moses that commanded that in the law,
it's God Almighty that commanded that in the law.
Moses did not come up with the law out of his own heart.
He went up to Mount Sinai and God gave him that law.
The Ten Commandments were written in stone
with the very finger of God
and the rest of the law was dictated verbally to Moses
and Moses wrote down as the Lord is dictating it
from the cloudy pillar on the Mount.
And so to sit there and say like,
well, Moses commanded this, but what do you say?
They're trying to get him to contradict the word of God,
to contradict the Bible.
And what has Jesus already preached?
He said, think not that I'm coming
to destroy the law of the prophets.
I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled whosoever therefore shall break
one of these least commandments and shall teach men
so the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven
and whosoever shall do and teach them
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
So Jesus is reiterating and saying,
the law of Moses is God's word.
The Old Testament is God's word.
The Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David the prophet.
The Holy Ghost spake through the burning bush
and through the cloudy pillar and so forth.
And so we know that Jesus is not at odds with the Bible.
Jesus Christ came to preach and to fulfill the word of God
not to negate or criticize or twist the word of God.
So what they're trying to do is they're trying to pit
Jesus against the Bible by saying,
well, Moses said she should be stoned,
but what say is that?
Now, what's the other side of this equation?
Because on the one hand, Jesus could say,
well, I'm gonna say something different
than what the Bible says.
Well, then now he's not consistent with the Bible
and they win because they're gonna be able to space.
See, look, Jesus doesn't even agree with the Bible.
But what if Jesus says, well, if Moses said to stoner,
let's do it, let's stoner right now.
Then they're gonna get him in trouble with the Romans.
How do I know that?
Well, same book of the Bible.
Keep your finger there.
Go to John 18, verse 31.
And you see, God has given us all the context
that we need to understand this story.
It's in the same book of the Bible.
Like in John chapter eight,
if you're wondering what's going on here,
we'll go to chapter 18 and you can see exactly
what's going on in verse 31.
It says, then said Pilate unto them,
this is Pilate speaking to the Jews,
take ye him and judge him according to your law.
The Jews therefore said unto him,
it is not lawful for us to put any man to death.
Does everybody see that?
It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.
So they're trying to put Jesus between a rock and a hard place
by saying, okay, he said that she should be stoned.
What do you say?
He either has to go against the Bible
or he has to go against the Roman government
because the Roman government has said
that it is not lawful for them
to just judge people according to the law
and put them to death.
And really, we can understand this
because in 2026 America,
is it lawful for us to just put adulterers to death
or just put sodomites to death or something?
And I've had people literally come at me
with this exact same challenge
and say, all right Pastor Anderson,
if you believe in the death penalty for sodomites,
then show me all the sodomites that you've killed.
And they think it's some kind of a gotcha,
but it's like, hold on a second.
The Bible clearly teaches us
that we should obey the law of the land.
We are supposed to obey the powers that be.
We're not supposed to be out there
doing vigilante justice
and just enforcing things from the Bible.
It's not our place.
Now, the government,
do we want the government to punish stealing?
Yeah.
Do we want the government to punish murder?
Yeah, we want the government.
I mean, I think everybody,
everybody wants the government to punish murder.
I think everybody wants the government
to punish stealing.
I think we'd all agree on that.
But does that mean that we're gonna go out
and enforce those things ourselves?
I mean, if we know that someone's guilty of murder
and they get off the hook,
are we allowed to just go kill that person?
Can we just be like, doggone it?
I know OJ's guilty, you know, let's go.
That's not our place.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
And it is not our job to be in a physical fight,
to go out and physically harm people
or physically kill anyone,
or to enforce criminal laws ourselves
or to come up with, you know,
what we think the law should be
and go out and do that, you know,
we are supposed to follow the laws of the land,
even if they're unjust.
I mean, there are laws in America that don't make sense,
but it is what it is.
We have to just sit back
and hope that God will take care of things from heaven.
You know, if things aren't fair on this earth,
you know, this is what we're stuck with.
And so it says in verse number,
and you say, well, I think you're just making this up,
you know, well, let me prove to you
that my interpretation's right.
Look down at your Bible there in John chapter eight,
because I just showed you in chapter 18
where it's illegal for them to put anyone to death.
The motive is explained.
I'm not making this up.
It says in verse five,
now Moses in the law commanded us
that such should be stolen,
but what says now?
This, they said, tempting him
that they might have to accuse him.
The whole point of this whole song and dance
is finding a way to accuse Jesus.
Accusing of what?
To accuse him of the Romans,
the Romans saying this guy is a vigilante.
He's taken the law into his own hands.
He commanded for a woman to be stoned to death,
and Roman law forbids that.
Or on the other hand,
they could accuse him to the Jews
and say, well, this guy doesn't believe in Moses.
This guy's contradicting the law of God.
So they're putting him in a position where he can't win,
but thankfully Jesus is too smart for this,
and so he's able to just turn this right around on them.
And so they're tempting him,
they're trying to accuse him,
but Jesus stooped down
and with his finger rode on the ground
as though he heard them not.
So he kind of just ignores them
and stups down and rides on the ground.
And by the way, here's the thing,
sometimes people might come at you with something
that kind of puts you on the spot,
puts you between a rock and a hard place,
puts you in a weird situation.
You know, sometimes it's probably a good idea
to just take a break and to just stop and think
and not feel like you have to answer everything
right away.
You can always stop and think
and get back to someone on a question.
And this is part of what I don't like about debates
and the whole debate culture
is that really a debate is just really just
who can think the fastest?
Who can just think on their feet or whatever?
Because if you think about it,
you could just take your time
and slowly respond to things
and you could have someone maybe make a statement
and then two days later come back
and you'll see these kind of online flame wars
where one person says something
and then the next day somebody says something
and then the next day somebody says something.
You know, that is superior to a debate
because at least people are thinking before they talk.
At least people have a chance to think
and reference things.
Really, I feel like debates are more just about ego
and pride of, hey, look how smart I am.
Look how fast I can think.
Look how I can just make the other guy look stupid
or whatever.
It doesn't really prove what the truth is
because maybe one guy has to slowly pull a book
off the shelf.
You know, I'm picturing that cartoon character
that has the little doggy with the bangs over his eyes
and the glasses.
Isn't there a guy like that?
He moves real slow.
I might be mixing a few 1960s era cartoon characters.
Who knows what I'm talking about though?
Isn't there some really slow guy?
What's he called or who is he?
What's his name?
Droopy Dog.
Droopy Dog?
Yeah, that sounds right.
So seriously, you could have a super smart guy
and he's super right
and maybe he's Droopy Dog or whatever
and he's just, I can just picture him
to slowly going over to the shelf,
pull it off a book,
turning to all the play
and just totally being right
and proving the other guy wrong.
But in a debate, it's just whoever's just kind of,
you know, just got all the little quips
and whatever on the fly.
You know, here's the thing, Jesus Christ,
he doesn't just maybe have the one liner
on the tip of his tongue here,
just you know, just shoot right back.
He does come up with a great one liner.
He does end up shutting him down
but he stops and thinks about it first.
Takes a little time.
And you know what, sometimes it's smart
to say to people, hey, I'm not sure on that.
Let me get back to you.
Let me look that up.
Let me think about that.
Let me sleep on that.
You don't always have to just fire back immediately.
You know, sometimes better to think before you talk.
What does the Bible say?
Slow to speak.
Let a man be swift to hear.
Slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Is this not Jesus being slow to speak?
They're hammering him
and he's just kind of just ignores them
and he's just writing on the dirt
and just thinking things over and thinking about it.
And he ends up having time to come up with a great answer.
There's the thing about Jesus Christ.
Obviously we know Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
Jesus Christ is divine,
but Jesus Christ is also human and has a human brain.
He's actually thinking like a human.
He wasn't just pretending to be a human folks.
He actually became flesh and dwelt among us.
And the Bible even talks about how Jesus
when he was growing up increased in wisdom.
You know, he's learning and going through all the things
that a human being goes through.
And I preached about that in my sermons
on the humanity of Christ
that made a bunch of weird Catholic types heads explode.
But it's still, it's everything I said was true though
and biblical.
So Jesus is thinking about it.
You know, he doesn't just fire off an answer immediately
but he thinks about it.
But then it says in verse seven
when they continued asking him.
So they're not gonna let it go.
They keep badgering him about it.
And so he said unto them,
he that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her.
And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
And so the thing that is so clever about this answer
is that basically he's able to neither contradict
God's law nor to say anything
that's gonna get him in trouble with the Romans
because obviously there's no one there
who's actually sinless who can carry this out.
And at the same time,
he's not saying that God's law is wrong
because of course God's law is not wrong.
And so he says, well, whoever's without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her.
And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it being convicted
by their own conscience went out one by one
beginning at the eldest, even under the last
and Jesus was left alone
and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself
and saw none but the woman he said unto her,
woman, where are those thine accusers?
Have no man condemned thee?
She said, no man, Lord, and Jesus said unto her,
neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.
Now, when we stop and think about
the actual meaning of this passage,
the right interpretation and the right conclusions
that we draw from it,
based on the actual story in the context,
number one, we see that they're trying to trick Jesus
and get him in trouble and get him arrested
and Jesus outsmarts them once again.
It's a fun story about Jesus outsmarting his opponents
one more time, making them look stupid one more time, right?
That's a common theme in the four gospels, okay?
Number two, there's an important lesson here
about the fact that all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
Everybody is a sinner.
And so if we stop and think about all the sins
of our own heart and life,
that should actually cause us to feel guilty
and realize, hey, we have sinned too.
Here's another important lesson from the story
is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
has the power to forgive sins.
Now, everyone does not have this power.
I cannot walk down the street forgiving people
of their sins and absolving them of their sins.
I'm not gonna have a line after the service
where you come confess your sins to me
and I forgive you and I absolve you.
You know, who can forgive sins but God only, right?
So Jesus Christ here has the power to forgive sins
even if people are guilty, even if they do deserve,
I mean, look, this woman was caught
in the very act of adultery and flagrante.
She was caught in the very act.
She's for sure guilty.
She deserves to be put to death,
according to the law of Moses,
according to just all decency and morality
in most societies throughout history.
But here's the thing, even people who are guilty
and do deserve a punishment can be pardoned by Jesus, right?
The murderer can be pardoned by Jesus.
The adulterer can be pardoned by Jesus, right?
The thief and the liar and the blasphemer.
Jesus Christ has the power on earth to forgive sins.
That's what the Bible says.
And so really what this should be pointing us to
is Jesus is our savior.
Jesus, because he was going to die for us
and be buried and rise again the third day
and shed his blood for us,
he has the supernatural ability to forgive sins.
Now, here's the thing, in the United States of America,
you know who has the power to just pardon crimes
and just pardon criminals and just let criminals off the hook,
even if they're super guilty,
even if they're 100% guilty,
even if they deserve a punishment,
you know who can pardon them for absolutely
any reason he wants or no reason at all?
The president of the United States
has the power to pardon people.
Did you know that?
The president today could pardon whoever he wants today.
Now, typically what they do
is they do this on their last day of office.
They don't typically do it while they're in office.
They typically like to do it when they're leaving,
you know, because then if people are mad about it,
it's like, well, tough, nuts to you
because it's over, I'm done anyway, so whatever.
So what they do is they usually wait till the very end
and they have a whole bunch of staff
and a whole bunch of people that will bring them
all the letters and people that have written in
saying why they should get a pardon, right?
And so there are a lot of people
that have been wrongfully put in prison
or maybe they've been rightfully put in prison,
but they've shown that they're super sorry
and they're super repentant
and they've done really good
and they're trying to make things better.
And so, hey, you know, the president
might just cut them some slack.
And so there's a staff that goes through the pleas
for clemency and will give like suggestions
to the president whom he should pardon
and it's up to him ultimately though
who he's gonna pardon.
And then also sometimes they'll pardon
like their buddies and friends
and you know, there's like maybe corrupt things going on
where back room deals are happening
and money's exchanging hands or whatever.
But you know, that's all bad
but the idea of a president pardoning isn't bad.
You know, and I believe that the governor
can pardon people as well.
The governor of the state, I'm not 100% sure about that
but I think governors of states also have abilities
to pardon people as well.
And so here's the thing.
Just because the president pardons one person,
does that mean we're just never gonna punish
a criminal again?
Think about how stupid this is.
I mean, what if somebody commits murder?
The president says, you know what?
We're gonna show mercy on this guy.
In this one particular case, we're gonna make an exception.
We're gonna show mercy.
I'm gonna pardon this guy.
Does that mean well every murderer gets out of prison?
Is that what that means?
You'd say that's absurd, that's stupid, that's crazy.
He's pardoning this one person.
He's not pardoning everybody.
Does everybody understand?
Jesus Christ is pardoning this one person.
That's what actually happened in this story.
This woman is super guilty, deserves the punishment,
and yet Jesus pardons her.
Does he have the power to do that?
As the king of kings, Lord of lords,
son of God, savior of the world?
Yes, absolutely.
And by the way, every time the president
pardons someone, every time the governor pardons someone,
you know, it's a picture of salvation
because we all are going to heaven
because we've been pardoned by the Lord
because we're all sinners, we're all guilty.
We all deserve to go to hell when we die
but we've been pardoned.
Now think about King David in the Old Testament.
Because people will try to say,
no, no, no, what the Bible saying here is
in the New Testament it's all different
and just, you know, it's just an adultery,
free for all, legally speaking.
You know, it's a sin but no more punishment for adultery.
Adultery is just legal now.
This is a stupid interpretation.
To sit there and say, or people will say this,
this is Jesus abolishing the death penalty.
They will literally read this and say,
Jesus is doing away with the death penalty here
and we're going to prove that's false
but this is the kind of bad doctrine that's being taught today
even in independent fundamental Baptist churches
and it's, I think it's stupid and absurd
and you know what, when I was growing up
in the 80s and 90s, only the most liberal churches
would teach this.
Super liberal, like United Methodists,
yeah, you'd expect them to be anti-death penalty
but no fundamental Baptist were against the death penalty.
It's absurd, okay.
But what they'll try to do is try to pit the Old Testament
against the New Testament,
which is exactly what the Pharisees are trying to do.
They're trying to pit Jesus against the Old Testament.
But here's what's actually going on.
If we go back to the Old Testament,
when the law was in full force, what did King David do?
King David committed adultery.
He committed adultery with Bathsheba,
the wife of Uriah and you know what,
he deserved to be put to death for that.
According to the law, the correct punishment
was that David be executed for that crime.
But you know what, the Lord God pardons him in that story
and Nathan the prophet tells him,
you have been pardoned by God, you shall not die.
He didn't say, hey, the death penalty doesn't exist
so you're not gonna die.
He didn't say, hey, we're abolishing the death penalty
so you're not gonna die.
He just said, no, God has put away your sin,
you will not die.
So he actually gives him a presidential pardon.
He gives him a Lordly pardon there, okay?
Because God has the power to do that.
He can forgive whomever he wants.
And so this is what we see,
a beautiful story about Jesus forgiving sin.
Not everybody and their brother forgiving sin,
but Jesus forgiving sin.
I can't go around just, I mean,
otherwise I could just go to the prison
and I could be like, I'm a man of God,
I'm a pastor here, let this guy out.
I'm pardoning him and then I'm gonna pardon this guy over here
and then I'm gonna pardon this guy over here.
They're gonna be like, get out of here,
visiting hours are over bro, get out of here.
I mean, what an absurd interpretation to read this
as Jesus abolishing the death penalty.
Now here's the thing, go if you would
to Romans chapter 13,
Romans chapter number 13 in the New Testament.
And by the way, Jesus already reiterated
the death penalty in Matthew chapter 15
when he said that the scripture said,
whoso curseth father or mother,
let him die the death.
And he criticized the Pharisees for compromising on that.
That's probably why they're even doing this in John chapter
eight is probably a reaction to that.
Because now they say, well, you know,
you're not backing up the law either.
Well, he is though, he just understands
that we gotta follow the law of the land.
Look what the Bible says in Romans chapter 13 verse one,
it says, let every soul be subject
unto the higher powers,
for there is no power but of God,
the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resists at the power,
resists at the ordinance of God,
and they that resist shall receive themselves damnation.
The Bible is saying here,
and damnation is just a strong word for condemnation.
It's not talking about going to hell in this condo.
It's just talking about being condemned.
And he says, look, if you are living
in an area, a certain jurisdiction,
you are supposed to obey the higher powers.
You're supposed to obey the powers that be,
the powers that be are ordained of God.
God has ordained human government
for the punishment of evildoers.
We are not anarchists.
We do not believe that stealing and murder
and rape and pillage should be legal.
We believe that they should be illegal
and that it's the government's job
to punish those people, not our job.
So if somebody commits a murder or a theft or whatever,
you know what we're gonna do?
We're gonna call the police.
We're not just gonna just, all right, guys,
let's load up our guns
and we're gonna go take care of this ourselves.
I'm putting together a posse
and we're gonna go enforce laws here.
No, we have to be subject unto the higher powers.
Why?
Because the Bible says in verse three,
rulers are not a terror to good works,
but to the evil.
Will that then not be afraid of the power?
Do that which is good
and that shall have praise of the same,
for he is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil,
be afraid for he beareth not the what?
The sword.
What kind of punishment is this talking about?
Sword is talking about killing people.
So when the Bible says the powers that be
bear not the sword in vain,
he is saying that they were ordained by God
to execute criminals.
That is what God has ordained, human government.
He has established human government to kill criminals.
So if somebody commits first degree murder, death penalty.
Now when I was a kid,
it wasn't just first degree murder
that got the death penalty.
Many child molesters would get the death penalty.
And not only that, when I was a kid,
there was a problem with kidnapping
and kidnapping was rampant.
And so there was a time in the late 20th century
when kidnapping was punished by the death penalty
in America.
And in fact, my dad was telling me a story the other day
about this guy that they,
I don't remember what his connection was to the story,
but it was like someone that they knew
or their family vaguely knew or something.
But this creepy guy and his mom had warned them,
hey, we need to stay away from this guy.
This guy's a creep.
This guy's a weirdo.
Well, what ended up happening is the guy,
and I hope I'm getting the story right, dad,
but the guy ended up raping a woman.
And normally that would not carry
the death penalty in America, okay?
It should, biblically it does, biblically it should,
but it doesn't.
But here's the thing though,
is that the guy, he not only did that,
but he also kept her locked up in his car
for like an hour or something.
So then they were able to get him on kidnapping
and put him to death.
And this was someone that they knew
getting executed for kidnapping.
Because they're like, well, this falls under kidnapping
because not only did you rape her,
you also wrongfully imprisoned her
for X amount of hours or whatever.
That's kidnapping, that's the death penalty.
Okay, so this is not some crazy idea
that people would be executed
for things other than murder.
Throughout history, throughout American history,
the death penalty has been there.
You go back to those laws of Connecticut
that Pastor Shelley loved so much,
1673 laws of Connecticut,
and they're pretty much executing people
for everything the Bible says.
They're pretty much just following the Bible's
recommendations in the Old Testament on how they do it.
So notice, human government is the minister of God
ordained by God, he bears not the sword in vain,
for he is the minister of God,
a revenger to execute wrath upon him
that doeth evil, wherefore you must need to be subject.
He's saying, look, this guy, I mean, look, I'm a minister.
He said, well, of course, a Baptist pastor is a minister.
You wanna know who else is the minister of God?
The executioner putting people to death
who are evil violators of whether it's first degree
murder, kidnapping, rape, whatever.
That's also, he's, I mean, the executioner
could literally say he should park
in the clergy park and say, I'm a minister.
I'm a minister of God.
I mean, that's what the Bible says.
You know, these people are doing the Lord's work
when they're executing criminals,
but I'm supposed to believe that Jesus
is against the death penalty.
See how crazy this is?
First of all, if Jesus is against the death penalty,
he's basically saying that God's law is wrong.
But then these bogus, confused, illiterate,
old IFP types will come along and here's what they'll say.
They'll say, no, no, no, this is difference
between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
We're under grace, we're not under the law.
Folks, please, being under grace, but not under the law
does not mean we have an anarchy
from a civil perspective.
Otherwise, every time the cops pull me over for speeding,
I could just say, excuse me, we're under grace.
You're trying to bring me under the law right now.
What do you want?
You want circumcision next?
Like, you know, it's the New Testament, brother.
Nobody would agree, and nobody would agree
that stealing should be legal because New Testament.
Think about how stupid it would be.
How can you have a law against stealing
in the New Testament?
This is the New Testament, brother.
And you say, no one would ever say that.
Oh, really?
That's funny, because you know what?
Cities all over America now are saying
that they're not gonna prosecute shoplifting.
They're not gonna prosecute stealing.
You're not allowed to stop people from stealing, right?
And now you have all these businesses
having to lock everything up and put things in,
behind lock and key.
I saw this one business owner.
He labeled every item.
It was like you can't get anybody in trouble
for shoplifting under $75.
So he labeled every single thing in the store $75.
Candy bar, $75.
Can of Coke, $75.
Stick of gum, $75.
But then when you walk up to the register,
he has a coupon for you.
When you actually bring it to the register
and he'll bring it down to its actual price.
With a coupon, you know,
just kind of showing how stupid it is
that you have people that would just think,
hey, we should just let people steal.
And hey, does everybody remember
when the food stamp benefit was held up
for like a month or two?
And you have all these people going to TikTok
and going on whatever social media
and saying like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna shoplift.
Don't you dare try to stop me from stealing.
I gotta feed my kids.
I gotta feed my family.
I'm gonna be stealing.
I'm gonna be shopping.
And then there were all these libtards
that were literally saying,
hey, don't stop people from shoplifting.
It's our duty to look the other way
while poor people shoplift
because they need this stuff.
And then remember, they all freaked out when it was like,
hey, you can't spend food stamps on soda pop and ice cream,
which has zero nutritional value.
It's not keeping you alive.
It's literally called a supplemental nutritional.
I don't remember what the AP stands for.
Snap, right?
Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, thank you.
I was trying to think of something funny
to make it stand for instead, but.
But supplemental nutritious and party in my mouth
is what a lot of these people think it is, right?
Nutrition and a party in my mouth.
That's what the AP said, A party in my mouth.
That's what I think it stands for, right?
But the snap them.
But the point is that everybody would agree
that the New Testament doesn't mean
we don't criminalize stealing.
The New Testament doesn't mean
we don't criminalize murder.
Okay, well now let me just shock everybody
with this wild bombshell,
is that the New Testament doesn't mean
we decriminalize adultery either.
Because adultery is not just a sin.
Adultery is also a crime.
It has been illegal throughout history
in the United States of America for hundreds of years.
Adultery is illegal.
And by the way, if you're in the military,
adultery is still illegal.
If you're in the military and you say,
well I can do whatever I want when I'm on leave
or whatever, you commit adultery while you're in the military,
you'll be court-martialed.
You can be put in prison.
You get tantamount to a felony on your record
for committing adultery.
What kind of a stupid, bizarre doctrine is it that says,
well, because we're free in Christ,
now there's no criminal penalty on adultery
that's absurd.
It's absurd.
And you know what, this is such a modern doctrine.
Because guess what, until the year 2003, 2003 folks,
that's not ancient history.
That's the same dispensation, okay?
And no, I'm not a dispensationalist.
2003 homosexuality was still illegal
in a lot of places in America.
Until 2003.
It was pretty much illegal everywhere until the 1960s.
And I mean, we're not just talking about some law
on the books in some crusty office somewhere.
No, I'm saying the police were literally raiding
these queer establishments in the 1950s,
in the 1960s, in the 1970s.
I mean, they are enforcing this stuff.
They are actually taking these people to court.
They're punishing them.
And they weren't giving them the biblical punishment,
but it was still illegal.
But now you have a bunch of independent,
fundamental Baptists that are so spiritually bankrupt
and theologically bankrupt and so messed up on their doctrine
that they think homosexuality should be legal.
And they're like, well, you can't legislate morality.
Okay, well then you can't legislate against stealing.
If you can't legislate morality,
then you can't legislate against murder.
Why are you trying to impose your morality?
You know, I mean, think about how dumb that is.
Now look, I'm not saying that all sin should be illegal.
You know which sins I think should be illegal?
The ones that are illegal in God's perfect criminal code.
God had a perfect criminal code.
That's what should be illegal.
You know, so yeah, adultery is not just a moral sin.
You know, our favorite new buzzword.
It's also a crime.
It's a crime.
I mean, you're entering into a legal contract.
I'm entering into a legal contract with my wife,
saying that we will keep ourselves
only unto each other so long as you.
Can you see how this will protect both parties
so that I'm not raising some other dude's kid
because my wife is out committing adultery?
I mean, can you see why that would be stealing from me?
Robbing me, ripping me off, right?
So you know, if I'm out there impregnating
some other dude's wife or something like,
this is destructive to society.
It is violating the contract.
It is violating the law.
And just because America has decided
to just make all this weird stuff legal,
doesn't mean that it should be legal.
Just because Jesus pardoned one person
does not mean he's saying, let's have anarchy.
Look, does Jesus pardon a thief?
Yeah, does Jesus pardon a murderer?
Yeah, does Jesus pardon sinners?
Yeah, Jesus Christ came to the world to save sinners,
but that doesn't mean that the government shouldn't exist
or that the government shouldn't punish criminals.
The minister of God to punish criminals.
Homos should be illegal.
Adulteries should be illegal.
Stealing should be illegal.
I mean, I think this is the biggest no-brainer ever.
But what they wanna do hypocritically
is they wanna say, well, yeah,
let's make murder and stealing illegal,
but let's make adultery and homosexuality legal.
Now, why is this hypocritical?
Because it's all the same type of stuff.
In God's, I mean, God's lumping it in the same category.
I mean, it's explained in the same breadth
in so many places, these different things.
But I'll tell you exactly why the disconnect.
Why suddenly, well, yeah, criminalize this,
but don't do that.
Because basically they're basing their doctrine
on exactly what America does.
So like whatever America does
is automatically the perfect government to them.
Whatever the Republican party is saying, that's what it is.
So if the government says it's that way,
but here's the thing, God is more wise than the government.
Like, how can you think that everything
the American government does is perfect and right?
Look, maybe you love the American government,
maybe you love the U.S. Constitution,
maybe you love America, you love Arizona,
and you love the way that they do business, great.
You know what, I like your attitude,
I like how positive you are about the country
that you live in, rah, rah, shish kumbah,
God bless America, pass the apple pie, and the fireworks,
but at the end of the day though, God's law is perfect,
and don't you dare insult God's law
because you think American law is better
than God's law because it isn't.
And some day Jesus Christ is coming again.
And when Jesus Christ comes again,
the Bible says he will rule all nations
with a rod of iron.
He's not gonna come back and be super soft on crime.
He's not gonna, you think Jesus is gonna come back
and say, hey, shoplifting's okay, up to $75.
Rod of iron over here.
You think that's what he's gonna say?
No, he's gonna be punishing criminals.
Now look, do we have to wonder what it's gonna be like?
You know what it's gonna be like?
It's gonna be like the laws that he has in the Bible.
If he says, hey, first degree murder
should be put to death, second degree murder
does not get put to death.
First degree murder gets put to death.
So when Jesus returns, he's not gonna be like,
all right guys, got whole new laws
that you've never heard of.
Everything you've learned from reading
Leviticus, Numbers Deuteronomy, forget all that,
whole new criminal code.
And I'm here with Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson
and John Adams, and we've got it all figured out for you.
And it's a whole new word of God.
The third Testament, Book of Mormon,
other Testament of Jesus Christ.
What kind of stupidity is that?
I know exactly how Jesus Christ is gonna rule and reign
because I already have the mind of Christ right here
out of the Bible telling me what God thinks
is a fair punishment for a crime.
I mean, think about it.
Doesn't the punishment need to fit the crime?
If somebody stole a stick of gum up,
cut off one of their fingers, you'd say, whoa,
that's way too much of a punishment, amen?
If somebody stole a pencil and you permanently maimed them,
that's horrible, that's overkill, that's too much.
I mean, what if somebody stole a car
and they got the death penalty?
Too much.
And by the way, there have been times in history
where cattle wrestling is a hanging offense in these parts.
But is that biblical to kill cattle wrestlers?
To kill someone for stealing a horse?
To kill someone for stealing cows?
No, it is not biblical.
That is going too far in the other direction.
So where do we find the sweet spot
we study the Word of God?
Nobody's trying to bring us back under the Old Testament.
Amen, we're in the New Testament, we're under grace,
we never wanna go back to the old covenant
that God made with the children of Israel
on Mount Sinai, don't wanna be in the Old Testament,
Old Testament's done, we're New Testament,
but all scripture is still profitable for doctrine
and for instruction and righteousness.
And if I were king, I would be governing
based on what God did when he was king.
Amen.
Oh, what a crazy idea, what a wild idea.
But people wanna twist this story to say no death penalty,
adultery should be legal,
and then they'll take it another level
and say homos should be legal also.
Even though until the last generation,
until the boomer generation,
that idea was unhurt, nobody would have said that.
Everybody agreed to criminalize it.
So I guess we finally came into the New Testament
around 1960, 1970.
The Old Testament was really hanging on
for a long time there.
2003, we finally entered the New Testament.
So we've been in the New Testament for about 23 years now.
So don't get too anxious about the second coming of Christ
because according to these people,
the New Testament just started 23 years ago.
Let it cook for a little bit, right?
Finally, we get it.
I mean, can you imagine a pastor
in the year 2003 rejoicing and saying finally,
be in a homo's legal?
We're finally following the Bible.
You'd say this guy is a sick weirdo,
but yet in 2026, you have independent,
fundamental Baptist pastors who believe
that homosexuality should be legal
simply because 23 years have gone by.
I mean, does anybody see how crazy that is, right?
Or how crazy it is to think that marriage
should just have no punishment for violating it
when it's a legally binding contract
and that you can just go out and just ignore it
and just sleep around when you're married
and you potentially risk exposing your mate to diseases
and fathering bastard children and all these things.
I mean, folks, this stuff destroys society
just like the shoplifting and the stealing
and the murder and everything else.
And so I think that as we read the Bible this morning,
I think you see that John chapter eight is a great story.
We don't need to discard the story, Mr. NIV man.
We don't need to discard the story, Mr. ESV man.
What we need to do is just understand it properly, right?
Because it's a beautiful story.
It's a great story.
Jesus once again outsmarting his enemy
fits in with the rest of the New Testament.
Jesus showing clemency, showing pardon, right?
Forgiving the guilty.
And look, can murderers get saved?
Absolutely.
Can adulterers get saved?
Absolutely.
The Lord Jesus Christ is ready to forgive anyone
and everyone who believes on his name.
Anyone who puts their faith and trust in Jesus
will be saved, right?
Nobody is too sinful to where if they came to Jesus,
he'd be like, no, can't do it.
Now is the president telling yes to everyone?
No, the president's saying, nope, can't pardon,
can't do it, can't do it, can't do it.
I mean, look, there are prisoners
who keep writing letters to the president,
writing letters to the president,
writing letters to the governor,
writing to the governor, writing to the president,
writing to the president, writing to the president.
And you know what?
That same criminal who's writing to the president,
getting ignored, you know what all he has to do
is drop on his knees in his jail cell
and write one letter to the Lord.
Lord, dear Mr. President, our Father in heaven, be merciful to me as sinner. I'm putting all
my faith and trust in your shed blood, your death, throne, and resurrection, save me right
now, and the pardon is guaranteed, because Jesus said, him that comeeth to me, I will
in no wise cast out. It reminds me of the song, Wider Than Snow, where he says,
you know, he never said no to anybody who came to him, asking for pardon. Somebody
who comes to him and puts their faith and trust in him, he's never said no. Him that
comeeth to me, I will in no wise, whosoever shall call upon the name of
Lord shall be saved. So, you know, I walk away from John chapter 8 and I'm
thinking about the forgiveness of Christ, his power to forgiveness, his
special power to forgive sins that not everyone has. Only one person has it.
Jesus. So, I'm reading John 8 and I'm just like, wow, this is awesome. Jesus just
has the power to forgive sins. Here's a super guilty person and he just
forgives her and she's super guilty. There's no question and she's doomed and
she should be killed, but bam, he's just able to just forgive and just
pardon. Wow. Isn't it cool that I'm forgiven too? I'm pardoned too. I'm
saved too. I'm glad that it's the easiest presidential pardon that
anybody could ever get. Meanwhile, a bunch of compromised, libtard, bozo, fake
fundamentalists, neo-evangelical pastors with a KJV pretending to be
fundamentalists with their little ultra-modern doctrine of reading it like,
oh, look, the death penalty is unscriptural. Oh, look, adultery should be
legal. And because, you know, everybody loves fags now, I think even
phagotry should be illegal. This is great. I can prove Stephen Anderson, all
those darn Andersonites. It's like, bro, everybody was an Andersonite. When I
was a kid, they just, before there even was an Anderson, I was a themite. I
was a, I was an old IFBite. As if I made any of this up. Don't throw out
the passage. Throw out the dumb interpretation. John 8.1 through 11 is a
beautiful passage. I love it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you so much for the
clarity that you give us, Lord. Please help people to understand the
difference between old and New Testament Lord and that people would
be able to understand your word and understand that we need to stand up
against sin and we should take a hard line against things like murder and
adultery and rape and kidnapping, Lord. We should really take a hard line
against things like stealing and other sins, but at the same time realize that
spiritual forgiveness comes through the Lord Jesus Christ and how we are
super thankful for that part in, Lord. And Lord, sometimes even a
presidential pardon comes in handy or a gubernatorial pardon comes in
handy on this earth, even Lord. But Lord, I pray that you just bless us
now as we go our separate ways and it's in Christ's name. We pray. Amen.