We continue to work through the Westminster Confession of Faith. We're all the way to Chapter 23 of the Civil Magistrate. And of course, we've done all the theology part, but these issues, in fact, here's a chapter that you will find in all the Reformed confessions, the Second Helvetic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism deals with it, because of the vital importance that Christian people understand the relationship of the civil magistrate to God and also the relationship of the people, of us, two civil leaders. So that's chapter 23 of the Civil Magistrate. We start with the first two paragraphs. God the Supreme Lord and King of all the world has ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people for his own glory and the public good. And to this end he has armed them with the power of the sword for the defense and encouragement of them that are good and for the punishment of evildoers. It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a magistrate, when called thereunto, in the managing whereof, as they ought especially to maintain piety, justice, and peace, according to the wholesome laws of each commonwealth. So for that end, they may lawfully, that's not a not, that's a now, under the New Testament, they may wage war upon just and necessary occasion. Well, there's a lot in that. Well, first of all, the Bible teaches that secular authorities are ordained by God and are under his lordship. There is no square inch where God says, oh, OK, that's the secular region, and God doesn't rule that, the local government does. No, no, God is supreme lord over all things. He's the king over all things, in the civil realm as well as in the church. in the secular realm as well as in the spiritual realm, God is sovereign. He is the supreme Lord and King of the world and this means that civil magistrates are accountable to God. That's a chilling thought when you realize to what extent civil magistrates, surely this is our case in America today, are rejecting of the notion of God, of any duty to God, any fidelity to God's word, any bowing towards God's moral and civil order. People say to me often, do you think God will ever judge America? Well, he does judge nations. whose leaders, of course in our case we can hardly just blame them because we elect them. They are all under God and His authority and they are accountable to God. But that means that God establishes and ordains all civil authority. And of course, one of the key texts is Romans 13, 1, for there is no authority except for God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. It's very helpful to realize that almost certainly when Paul wrote those words, the civil authority under whom he was languishing was the Emperor Nero. And the fact that we have government that we may dislike or may be alarmed about or be being persecuted, God is sovereign in ordaining them all. By the way, that is contrary to the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Every time I hear this now, it's amazing how becoming a Christian and growing your Christian faith causes you to hear things differently. The Declaration of Independence says that all authority is grounded in the consent of the governed. And this is part of how America from the very beginning, as is so often true, there are competing narratives of the founding of America. There is a lot of truth to America was founded as a Christian country. There's also a lot of truth that it was founded not to be a Christian country. And the Declaration of Independence would be an example of that, and I think that it is borne out. that we from the beginning, at least of our last 250 years as a nation, denied that the authority comes from God. We said it comes from the consent of the governed. And that tells you the influence of natural law theory as opposed to biblical theory. As kind of an aside, there's no question, particularly in the writing of the Constitution, that there's a lot of biblical influence. I think that Samuel Rutherford's Lex Rex clearly, which is a reflection on biblical government, is found in there, and yet our nation came short of ascribing to God that authority, and I think that has hurt us. But moreover, God has not ordained a particular form of government. Romans 3.1 to 13.1 does not say God has ordained a representative of democracy, or He's ordained a parliamentarian. No, no, there's a variety of things which God providentially does, but the thing is, when we look at whatever government we're under, We know that God has established that and it's under his ordination. And for that reason, Christians are fundamentally to be respecters and obeyers of the civil magistrate. And that's a good corrective to us, isn't it? I think in so many cases, depending on who's president, we can be really alarmed and really shocked and really unhappy. And of course, because we live in a democracy where you can badmouth your rulers, we do. As Christians, there needs to be a break on that. I remember, oh, this is over a decade ago, with a different president, but one that was not, I don't think he got many votes out of Second Presbyterian Church, for instance. One of our elders prayed a prayer that was pretty gnarly, and at the next session meeting, I made the comment that, you know, we're to pray, we're at least to be, I know, nothing wrong with praying for his conversion. Nothing wrong with praying for the president's or the governor's or the mayor's repentance and conversion, but we need to be respectful about it. Don't pray, you know, that rascally scoundrel, you know, that anti-Christ figure. I mean, that's not what was said. But we are to honor the fact that that, and of course, it's part of the Fifth Commandment, right? The fifth commandment, honor your father and mother, that's kind of the ultimate expression, but the category of obedience is that when God has established authority structures, we are to be respectful of them. So be respectful, y'all. And we are to learn as Christians how to live under authority. Now, by the way, that's very anti-American, isn't it? I have learned as a pastor, Americans are not pro-authority figures. It's a kind of a virtue in some respect, but it's also a vice. But we are to learn how to live under authority, and that includes ungodly authority. Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, 13 to 14, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be the emperor, also Nero at the time, as supreme, or to governors sent by them. So Peter, he's talking about the administration now. It's not like, okay, there's one guy and he's ordained by God. No, the whole governing system is ordained by God. We are to be respecters of it. Even when we're in dissent, we're to have that submissive attitude. Now, there is an exception, of course, when civil rulers when they give commands that either restrict our duty to God or actually call us to sin, we are to engage in respectful civil disobedience. And of course, in a country like ours, we have freedom of speech. You know, South Carolina's got all kinds of Christian advocacy groups. I think of Palmetto Family Council. I support them. They do a great job of lobbying for godly things. in Columbia. One of the blessings of our providential setting is that we are granted liberty to participate actively. We should, and that will be being critical, but it's with a spirit of respect and of submission. And they are accountable to God to do his will for his own glory. The divines are not going to back off. God ordained the civil magistrate that he would be glorified in them and that they would do good. That is their calling. So if I'm ever asked to pray at those type of functions, and I seldom am, that's the way God like me should pray. Lord, would you grant these civil leaders to glorify you and to pursue the public good? I think one of my personal beats about our politicians today, and this is not party dependent, is it's all about getting reelected. And there's often, you see, it's just commonplace at every level of government for what is obviously the common good to be neglected because of the cost of votes. We need to pray that our civil leaders would be animated for the common good. Don't you love it when some politician, maybe you don't even agree with them completely, but at least they're principled and they're trying to pursue the common good and they're willing. I remember there was a governor, a senator years ago, he was a conservative senator, and he said, I am willing to lose the election over this because it's important for the country. And I thought, well, I... Bless that guy for having that attitude. We need to pray for that attitude. God says, by me, kings reign and rulers decree what is just. By me, princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly. Now that means also that as we find ourselves in civil authority, that we're to remember this, that we are accountable to God. It's not an elected position, but if you're a business leader, And you are president of a company, you're CEO, or you're the manager of the division. I know you've got jobs to do and you've got to meet, but we're to glorify God in how we act and treat people, and we're to pursue what is godly and good. That's kind of a reach for civil authority, but certainly this kind of logic applies to parents. As parents, you have been given authority by God. That's why I'm sure it's widespread among us. Our children memorize Ephesians 6.1. Children, obey your parents and the Lord. Why? For this is right. Not because Daddy's bigger than you. But because this is God's ordination. God the Father has placed me over you. He's placed your mother over you. You're to obey your parents because this is God's. He has ordained it this way. But then we are to glorify God and we're to pursue what is good. So that's going to be the principle in all of these matters. He has armed the civil magistrate with the power of the sword. Now a sword, and that's of course quoting from Romans 13 1 to 4, verse 3 I think. Now a sword only has one function. A sword is an implement for killing. And what he's saying is, he has granted them the right to exercise authority, even to the point of taking death. God has given that right to the civil magistrate, Romans 13, three, I think. He is God's servant for good, but if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is a servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Now, if you say it sounds like that justifies capital punishment, it does. It does. Christians say, well, we're opposed to capital punishment. Well, we should not be. And we are to fear to violate the law. And it's, of course, the whole punishment. Now, what's interesting is we're living in a society today where our government is increasingly rejecting the function of punishing wickedness. When that is one of the very primary things that any just government is to do, at kind of a bare minimum, is that you're promoting safety and well-being and you're punishing criminals. And yet we're in a society today where even the notion of punishing is being rejected. Well no, God has called them to do that, to carry out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Now that therefore includes the right of the state to bear arms and to issue arms and to take life judicially. And that includes war. It includes the right of the civil magistrate and the duty to wage just war. Many of you know, when I was converted, I was a combat officer in the United States Army. I was an armored cavalry commander. And that summer, I was in grad school, so people didn't know I was a soldier, although my hair was short. I kept the haircut pretty close, I think. Maybe not totally regulation, but pretty close. And some earnest Christians pulled me aside and said, you know, Rick, you've become a follower of Christ now. I'm like, what is that? You have to leave the army. And I said, why do I have to leave the army? Because you shall not kill. Well, of course, the Sixth Commandment does not say you should not kill. It says you shall not murder. And it uses a Hebrew verb that speaks of unlawful taking of life. No, here is, and Christians who say, we don't believe in military service, They may have the right of conscience, but they're biblically mistaken. The government has the right to wage just war and to call upon its citizenry to do it. Robert Shaw says this, war must be regarded as a great evil, but in the present state of the world, it is sometimes necessary. And if a nation were to adopt and act upon the principle that war is absolutely unlawful, it would soon become a prey to its ambitious neighbors. That is true. Then he goes on and says, but aggressive wars, those undertaken to gratify views of ambition or worldly aggrandizement, cannot be justified. I'll say this as an American citizen, so we participate, we wrote, we engage in the process. The Bible teaches the right of war, but we need to take the just war thing very seriously. We're a pretty militant country, y'all. Like, we bomb a lot of people, now we're droning people. I'm not making any blanket statement, but there will be times when Christians will need to push back and say, I'm not sure this is just war. I'll give an example where I personally have been involved, and that was the government sanction of torture by the Christian Republican administration in power then at Guantanamo Bay and other places. And I wrote and spoke out as a Christian minister that torture is a violation of God's law. In fact, I was invited to speak at Fort Bragg to the Special Forces Command on the topic of the Sixth Commandment and torture. And the reason I was invited was so many of them are Bible-believing Christians. and the regimental commander was a strong Christian, and I let them have it over torture, and they were repentant of it. One of the funny things was, I did a Q&A with the special forces soldiers, and one of them said, I'm really seeing that torture is ungodly, and they're no longer combatants, and it's wrong, and we need to not do that. Pastor, what about assassination? I said, oh, thumbs up on that. That's good. If we're at war with them, just ask them, because we do a lot of that. I'm like, no, you're good. But our country needs a Christian witness in these matters. And I'm afraid, in fact, on the torture issue, I was saddened so many conservative evangelical leaders came out in support of torture just because we're supporting the Republican Party. It's just a broader thing. And we have to be willing to say there is just war. And look, just war theory is kind of a complicated thing I'm not going to cover tonight completely. But we are not to indiscriminately kill people. And we can kill a lot. There are places in the world where, in our lifetimes, the United States has killed a lot of people. And I'm not making any statement about it. Other than that, that should weigh upon us. And we should make sure that our national policies are godly in these things, and I'm not saying they're not, but the torture thing I thought was an example of, when I was a boy in the Vietnam War, I was raised in the 60s, tells you my age, we used to all, and I grew up on army bases, all through my childhood I wore a little copper bracelet with the name of an American POW. And we were indignant when we learned of their torture in the Hanoi Hilton. And it gave my little youthful heart hatred for the North Vietnamese because they were torturing the daddies of kids I knew and the man who's been. And now there's little Middle Eastern kids hating America. And Christians have to be willing to say, look, we know it's not toeing the line, but you have the right of the sword, but it needs to be a godly and just right. A guy wrote a book on the torture issue, and I wrote the foreword to it if you want to see a more developed statement about that. But we certainly realize, and there's biblical examples, of course. I think of Jesus' treatment of the centurions. You get the feeling that Jesus kind of liked the soldiers. Have they understood authority? He never tells any of the converted Christians, neither do the apostles, they need to leave the military. The civil authority exercises the right of the sword. They are to do so, and our civil authority, we should tell them, you have an obligation to punish crime. You have a positive obligation to punish the wicked and the evildoer. Christians may hold office. Now, that was a big deal in the time of the Confession, because you had a lot of these Anabaptist movements, which on the one hand, let me say this generally, in the time of the Reformation, there were people who responded to the medieval era by saying, we reject civil authority completely. And you think of some of the early Mennonite groups, not Menno Simons himself, but he was pretty bad. You think of the Carlsbad and one of the break-off groups under Luther. All through the Reformation times, there were groups saying, we reject the civil state completely and we're Christians and we have no, well, the problem is the New Testament. render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, render unto God the things that belong to God. We have a positive duty to those sorts of things. But also there were others who said that Christians may not serve in a civil office. And the confession comes out very clearly, no, we can, and it's a good thing if we do. You think of Joseph in Egypt. You think of Nehemiah is the Persian governor. Daniel is a satrap. And many of the Christians that show up in the New Testament that are referred to are high government officials who are never told not to. In fact, it's a good thing. Now, what about ministers? Well, I think it's a sad thing if a minister becomes a politician because he's stooping to a lower office. I mean, really, you're set apart for gospel ministry, you should be preaching the word. I do think if a minister is going to take civil office, he will need to resign his ordination. You think of things like in Ireland, Northern Ireland, where Ian Paisley was prime minister or Abraham Kuyper was prime minister. I think, in fact, I know in both cases they resigned their credentials. That ought to be pretty rare, though. We set apart men for gospel ministry to preach the gospel. They should do that. but Christians may serve in civil government. By the way, that also means that you can, there's no problem with you being active in state politics or, you know, in these issues. That's the right of Christians. Oh, paragraph three, civil magistrates may, okay, here's some limitations on civil magistrates. They may not assume themselves the administration of the word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, or in the least interfere in matters of faith. Yet as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest in such a manner that all ecclesiastical persons, that means ordained ministers, whatever shall enjoy the full free and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions without violence or danger. And as Jesus Christ has appointed a regular government and discipline in his church, no law of any commonwealth should interfere with, let or hinder the due exercise thereof among the voluntary members of any denomination of Christians according to their own profession and belief. It is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the person and good name of all their people in such an effectual manner as that no person be suffered, either upon pretense of religion or infidelity, to offer any indignity, violence, abuse, or injury to any other person whatsoever, and to take order that all religious..." And here's the point. "...that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies be held without molestation or disturbance." Okay, that's a lot. Let's open that up. First of all, they may not use church authority. And of course, we're in a society with separation of church and state where we haven't really dealt with that, but there's other places where they have. And so the civil manager does not have the right to come to the church and preach. He can't administer the sacraments. This was a big deal in England, of course. Queen Elizabeth was the... King Charles, when he's crowned, will be the head of the Church of England. That's like a really uncomfortable thing, I would think. But that's kind of a medieval thing, actually, having to do with the breakaway from Rome and the Church of England. But the civil authority has no authority in the church. Now, this is a big deal in Presbyterian history, particularly, in fact, one of the reasons why so many of our families are here, and you may notice there's a lot of Presbyterian churches in the Carolinas, for instance. Well, that's because in the 1590s, what were called the killing times, the 1690s, I'm sorry, In Scotland, King Charles II was demanding to be king of the church and he wanted to make them worship in an unbiblical way. And our forefathers and foremothers refused to do so and were slaughtered in great numbers. And many of them came to America. And one of the places you could go, there weren't that many, if you're a Scots-Irish Presbyterian, was the Carolinas. And that's why we have so many churches here. But I think of Margaret Wilson in the Solway Estuary with the soldiers of the king. They tied her and another woman to a pier and let the water rise slowly. And they said, is the king. Is Charles king of the church? And they were saying, he is king of England and Scotland and that we give him all reverence and honor as king over the civil realm. But Jesus Christ is the only king of his church. What then is the king in the church? He is a sinner to be saved by faith alone like anybody else. And they actually, they drowned them and then revived them and brought them out. Lord, I love Margaret Wilson. and they bring her back out, what do you think now? And she's, bless her heart, she's stammering, the king is a ruler of the civil realm, Christ alone rules his church, and they drowned her. You're going, you're gonna give your life on that principle? We'll see everything hangs on it. Once we say the civil authority has the right to come into the church and to give us our doctrine, to administer the sacraments. And of course, in the Old Testament, all through the Bible, there's a division between the civil ruler and the religious leaders, the priests versus the kings. You think of King Uzziah, one of the better kings, reigned 52 years. And he became proud. And he said, I'm going to go into the temple. I'm going to offer the sacrifice. And he did. And God struck him with leprosy. The only person in the Bible in whom both civil and religious authority is invested is the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom are found the kingship and the priesthood and the prophethood. But there is a division between those two. So they may not assume the doctrine of preaching of the word. I have to tell you, I am offended when conservative, maybe PCA churches bring a politician in and put him in the pulpit. And it happens during election seasons. We got to be, we got to think what we're doing. And you'll see, I don't care if it's Democrat or Republican, or if I like him or not, that guy needs to be in the pew. hearing the word of God, he's not a minister, he's a regular Christian, we should never put a public leader. Now, my church in Florida, we had a regular practice on 4th of July, we would invite the civil leaders in and I would pray for them. I had no problem with doing that. I mean, that was a Romans 13 thing. But they don't administer the sacraments, they don't preach the word, they don't do any of that stuff. The New Testament assigns the rule and government of the church to the elders, to the elders in plurality. You think of Matthew 18, 17 to 18. This is the church discipline passage. If someone sins and the person goes to them and they won't listen, then tell it to the church. And in context, that means the elders of the church. If he neglects to hear the church, the elders of the church, then let him be excommunicated as a Gentile and tax collector. Then he says, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Now, when the confession says they do not exercise the keys of the kingdom, that is the standards of church membership. The keys have to do with the door. And so the standards of church membership are not to be determined or infringed upon by the civil authority. That is the governance of the church by the elders. And we're a confessional church, so the elders, as they're keeping their confessional vows. And Titus, Paul in Titus 1-5, tells him that he's to get order by appointing elders at every town. And the civil magistrate may not impose doctrines upon the church. Now that's going to be interesting in the life of my children. Because so far in America, pretty much, they've been said, well, you know, the whole religious freedom in America largely comes from our civic background of church and state, where they do not require us to teach contrary to it. But with some of these LGBT things going on, some of these impulses, we may get persecuted. I mean, I will tell you, you cannot have a homosexual marriage at Second Presbyterian Church. Well, didn't Congress just pass a law? I listened to Al Mohler on it, and he was saying, I think he's right, that some of these laws being passed right now, they may not be enforced in South Carolina a certain way, but they certainly are moving in the direction, over things like that, of the civil authority saying the church does not have the right to teach that. Now, as soon as you make that argument, they go straight to David Koresh, or to some crazy nut job and say, well, you see, that guy's not allowed to teach, you know, his crazy doctrines. And they're probably right, because, you know, the danger of it all, abusing children, that kind of thing. But see, to them, Our views of sexuality are in the same category. It's going to be a dicey time. And the truth is that we're going to be persecuted, and Christ is going to keep his promises, and we're going to obey his word, and the Holy Spirit will come upon us in power while we're persecuted, and we will be blessed. But we believe that the magistrate does not have the right to usurp the teaching of the Word of God. What's happening in our churches today is cultural accommodation. In our lives, this has been a huge deal, it's a huge deal right now, that churches, while they're not willing to let the civil magistrate impose doctrines upon the church, they sure are willing to have social media do it. And so in our life, you think of the pressure exerted by the culture over gender issues, things like women's ordination, and now over gay rights sorts of things. And the church Many of our brethren are saying, well, we'll give a little, and then they'll be happy. Oh, that is a fool's errand. We don't have the right to give. I mean, I was listening to a very famous, very successful, hugely popular guy. And I was in a room with him. He says, we have to be wise enough to know where to compromise scripture. And yes, I did go to the microphone and say, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True wisdom is that we don't compromise God's Word. We are not wise enough to know what part of good ship Christianity to throw overboard. And I was just talking this week to someone saying, you fail to realize that your petty little compromise is not going to win their favor. They will not stop demanding until Christ is gone. If you think that they're offended by the doctrine of your rejection of evolution, wait till they hear penal substitution or atonement. Then they're really going to be mad. No, no, we must say, I'm sorry, Christ rules his church by his word, and the civil magistrate has no authority. We will never accept it. You think in China, for instance, oh, our dear, valiant Chinese brothers and sisters, where you have the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which is a state church. and it's a corrupted version where the things that the Communist Party wants them to say and now that and so there's a there's a you know why are the house church people so indignant towards the official state church the three for this reason that they've compromised to say that Z and the Communist Party have the right to dictate doctrine to the church it is a matter worth dying over and our brothers and sisters are dying for it right now. So they don't get to rule the church, but they have a duty to protect the church. That's what the divines say. It is the duty of the civil authority to promote the church. They use the language of a nursing father. You kind of go, is that insipient transgenderism? No, actually, it's a quote from Isaiah is what it is. A nursing father, a nursing mother. Isaiah 49.23. Our version says foster fathers, but the Hebrew says nursing. The civil authority has an obligation to God, while to respect the rule of the church in its own government, that they are to promote the church. They're to protect the church. They're to preserve. They're to guard it from attack. The king shall be your foster father. Your queen shall be your nursing mother. That is absolutely right. They are ordained under God. They have a duty to preserve and promote the church, its vitality, its success. They also must preserve the free exercise of religion. And so ministers must be free to exercise their office without violence or danger. Now, if you're in England at the time, that means preaching in front of the king in a way that may make the king uncomfortable. Well, right. I was preaching in Columbia a few years ago and the minister said to me before the early service, you know, Rick, when you look up from the pulpit, and you look to your right, you'll be looking at the governor of South Carolina. And I said, you know, he's just another sinner to me. I mean, I really, I mean, he's a good enough guy, but come on. I'm not, oh, well, what does he want me to say then? Let's not do that. And this is where you have that verse, touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm. They are to be respecters of the word of God, and they will be judged by God if they do not do so. But notice how the divines are very careful that they're not to be the arbiters in in-house disputes among Christians, which is a very interesting thing in 1642. It's without giving preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest. And so the church is not to take a stand on Paedo-Baptist versus Credo-Baptist. You know, they're not to get into denominational squabbles. Now it's interesting because that assumes that they're only to support Christian churches. And there's no question the Muslims and Divines assumed that they would only promote Christian churches. It never crossed their mind that any godly government would promote anything but a Christian church. We, I think that America has, our tradition is a godly and biblical one that the civil majesty must promote but not arbitrate the free exercise of religion. That's like the first amendment. They must not interfere with biblical church discipline. Now we're living in a time when people can sue you. And we practice church discipline. We say that in the members' class. There have been a couple of times when someone was being excommunicated or something like that, where there was kind of a mild legal threat. I will tell you the practice of our session is to be not intimidated by it, just to pray about it. I don't know if our insurance covers it or not. But let me say right now, if you're a member of this church, one of the vows is that you accept the discipline and the authority of the church. And so the government has no right to tell us that we can't do biblical church discipline, and we're not going to be intimidated. Now it's interesting that this is where the American version on another issue differs from the original version. Because the original version had two statements that the 1799 American version omitted. And the first is that the original one calls on the civil government to oversee sound doctrine for the sake of the unity and peace of the church. And there's no doubt that the Reformation was born in cultures that did not practice the separation of church and state. Almost all, of course, the Westminster Assembly was commissioned by Parliament. The Westminster Confession was approved by Parliament. Parliament. And there were some providential things of the Lord that mitigated the damage of that. But the Synod of Dort was convened by the church under the authority, 1618, of the church government. The heretics were exiled. And so they have that, their notion of the civil authority and its role with the church is a lot stronger than we would feel comfortable with. And so the American version removed the statement, we don't want them, they're not competent to determine sound doctrine. I don't hear anything from them about these things. And I'm not looking for them to defend the Doctrine of the Trinity. We'll defend the gospel from heretics. The governor and the, they're not, they just pray for us and that's what they need to do. So I'm glad that we took it out. The other thing in the original Westminster Assembly was it gave the civil authority the right to call and summon synods and councils and to oversee them. An example would be the Westminster Assembly was called by Parliament. We, I think, were right. And their argument is, you think of, and we were doing Second Chronicles, how Hezekiah and Josiah, they were formed worship. Yeah, but they're failing to note the difference between Old Testament Israel and a secular situation today. I think they were wrong about that. Our confession removed that sentence which grants them the right to call councils and synods, and it adds that our ecclesiastical assemblies are to be held without molestation or disturbance. Okay, the last paragraph. It is the duty of people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute or other dues, to obey their lawful commands, to be subject to their authority for conscious sake, Infidelity or difference in religion does not make void the magistrate's just and legal authority, nor free the people from their due obedience to them, from which ecclesiastical persons, ministers, are not exempted, much less that the pope has any power or jurisdiction over them in their dominions or over any of the people, or least of all to deprive them of their dominions or lives, if he shall judge them to be heretics or upon any pretense whatsoever. we're to be obedient, we're to be good citizens, we're to make it our business to follow the law for God's sake, and so that we give a good testimony to the gospel. And we have a duty, we have a specific duty to pray for our civil leaders. So I hope this helps you know how to pray for them. Pray for their conversion, pray for their glorifying God, pray for them to do what is good, to punish the evildoer, to support the church, et cetera. And 1 Timothy 2 specifically tells us to pray, so you should be praying for Joe Biden. You should be praying for the House of Representatives and for the Senate. You should be praying for City Hall, and we do that as a church. We're to honor their persons. If Joe Biden were to come here, he should be treated respectfully by the church. We're to obey their lawful commands, even if we don't like them. They have the right. Not all things we don't like are ungodly. And we are to pay taxes they impose. Yeah, you free in case I get people so if I give taxes to them then they may use it for evil look Jesus knew that they were going to use it for evil when he said render to Caesar and he was talking about money that which belongs to Caesar. It's not our responsibility what they do with our taxes. I'm as an anti-tax a person as you will find in this room. I mean, but I pay them. And the fact that we don't like it, what they're going to do with it, they're accountable to God. We are to pay taxes. The fact that they're non-Christians doesn't matter. And of course you had, Roman Catholicism had then particularly that you don't have to obey a Turkish governor, that kind of thing. No, that's wrong. All authority has been established by God. If he's an unbeliever, we're to obey him. it's supposed to be our attitude. And so the fact that they're ungodly does not mean we may or may not vote for them, but if you have a person who's personally offensive, that's happened more than a few times, well, that doesn't disqualify our duty towards civil authority. And Christians have really stupidly used that. I think it's really shown poor character on our part to say, well, you know, we can lie to you if you're not a Christian. Stop. Stop, we can just, that's not what the Bible, that's not what Romans 13 one's saying. Christian ministers, again Rome taught that clerical persons were exempt from the courts. In medieval Rome you couldn't arrest a priest, well in a reformation you can. And they're right, I have to obey the laws just like you. And our goal is to lead peaceful lives and to advance the cause of the gospel. Now that's where the New Testament direction is going to go. Let's say hypothetically you live under unjust government and they're promoting evil things and society is going crazy. And look, if you have the opportunity like we do to push back in legitimate ways by all means do that. But let's put the gospel first. Let's live respectful, quiet, non-disruptive lives. Let's treat people honorably so that we don't shame the gospel. That's Peter's thing. For this is the will of God, and he's talking about submitting to Nero. that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. When you look at the second century church and like the Apology of Justin Martyr and at the end of the second century the Apology of Tertullian, which were all written to the emperor, all those apologies were why you shouldn't be slaughtering Christians because you're wrong about them. And they kept saying, your best citizens are the Christians, the best soldiers in your army. In fact, one of the things, there is a purge of Christians going on in the army, at least right now. And that ain't good for the country, y'all. I don't know what they're thinking, but Christians have been very good soldiers over the years. And in the early church, they made it very persuasively, your best citizens are the Christians. Why are you slaughtering them? And there ought to be that evidence that we are productive, honorable, good neighbors. That should be going on. What about civil disobedience to tyranny? Well, obviously, we must obey God, not man. And so I have no, the state has no right to order me to do something that is illegal. I think of our, boy, Christian doctors in the years to come. And this whole business that you must perform an abortion. If you're a Christian, I think it is your duty to say no. I could lose my license, yep. You do not have the right to obey an order to murder a baby. And we can multiply the examples. I remember, oh, 15 years ago, I spoke. I did a men's conference at the War College. The chaplain was an evangelical guy. He'd read my men's book. And I did all these Christian brigadier generals and full colonels. And I remember this dinner. This is 15 years ago. I think I was here. so maybe 15 years ago. And I said to these guys, I said, what are you all going to do in the next few years when you're ordered to promote homosexuality? Because the chaplains don't have to do it. They got their ordination, but you don't. You're a tank colonel. And God bless them. They said, we're going to lose our careers is what we're going to do. We've got to be people of truth. We've got to be people of God, who place God first and are willing to suffer for it. That's going to be vital to our witness in the years to come. And we're to do it in a loving way while being good neighbors. We're not, you know, posting up angry signs. We do have a guy in our neighborhood who's the single most unpopular guy in our neighborhood because he's so mean. And he has all this Christian stuff. I just want to go, could you either become nice or take the Christian stuff down? I mean... But we don't have the right to violate God's law. We do not have the right to order us to... And your company may say to you, you have to affirm publicly and promote wickedness. I think of transgenderism today, that kind of thing. I don't see how a Christian can do that. And you go, well, I'm going to pay a terrible cross. Welcome to the Christian faith. But what about tyranny? I'll close with this. What about the American Revolution, which the King George called the Presbyterian Rebellion? Wasn't that disobey? Well, I agree with Calvin's formulation that it is the duty of the lesser magistrate to oppose the tyranny of the higher magistrate. And so if you're in America, you're a colonist in America, this is my, I would not have been a Tory speech. Because when King George is burning coastal towns and doing all that tyranny stuff, the lesser magistrate, which was the Continental Congress, The American Revolution was raised by the Lesser Magistrate, whose duty it is, among other things, to fight the tyranny of the Greater Magistrate. And so, no, I don't think the American people were wrong to rebel against King George because they were doing so under the leadership of the Lesser Magistrate. That's the doctrine. One thing it means is the State House is going to be important in our lifetime. You know, our very interesting constitutional government, which I've been so grateful for all my life, the lesser magistrate vis-a-vis the federal government is Columbia. And I think that's going to be a particularly valuable level for Christians to be engaged in our lifetime. because it is their duty to, and I'm not talking about armed fighting, I'm not promoting a second civil war, I'm just saying it is their job to fight legally again, and God bless Christian lawyers who argue these appellate cases, and these Christian organizations, and my son Matthew's a part of this now, in Washington D.C. that they're arguing cases at the Supreme Court. That is godly and just, that is not tyranny. And we should particularly value godly lesser magistrates when they are willing to protect us from the tyranny of higher magistrates. Well, that was a lot on the civil magistrate. Welcome to the Westminster Confession and the Reformed Faith on this subject. Let's pray. And so, Father, we pray for Joe Biden. And we pray your blessing on him. We pray for faith in Jesus. We pray for Kamala Harris. We pray for Nancy Pelosi. We pray for the AOC and all of them, Lord, that you would work in their lives for good. And we pray for our Republican leaders as well. We thank you for Knox White. We thank you for our governor, Henry McMaster, and our local, our congressmen and congresswomen and senators. And Father, we pray that you would animate them with the spirit of genuine civic duty and good, and we pray that you would turn their hearts to you, that you would have glory. Lord, we know you glorify yourself in judgment every bit as much as you do in redemption. But we pray that you would have mercy on America. We are a rebel, rebel people. You have given us so much, and we have so high-handedly and wickedly flouted you. But Father, would not it be a trophy of your grace? Have mercy on our land, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.