Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today I want to ask you again, what is the doctrine of the lesser magistrate and why is it the key to biblical resistance to tyranny, even if it must employ force? And this is part two of that series. Christians generally have one of two responses to the challenge of tyranny when it comes upon them, and neither one is really adequate. Number one, Christians meekly submit like sheep, invoking Romans 13 verse 1 out of context.

And that verse says, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Now, we can spend more time on that, but so often Christians meekly submit without thinking past the context. Or else, some Christians then are tempted as well to strike out in individual frustration, with violence perhaps, that makes no constructive change but only gives the gospel a bad taste in the mouth of every one.

Well, the doctrine of the lesser magistrate is the golden mean in the struggle against tyranny, in that it both acknowledges the claims of legitimate government authority, but also refuses to submit to the illegitimate claims of tyranny. The doctrine of the lesser magistrate is a principle well understood and practiced in our history, including and especially by our founding fathers. But where is it today? Oh, hardly anyone has heard of it, even though no generation is more in need of it than ours today. And we began by looking at Reverend Matthew Trujella's book, The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates.

We began unpacking that book, a very good book, very pertinent for today. And the title once again was The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates. And the subtitle was A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government. That is the rather lengthy subtitle, but very appropriate. And Matthew Trujella has distilled essential elements of this historical teaching.

And we covered the first three sections last week. And that first section was What is the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate? And we saw that he defines it as when the superior or higher civil authority makes unjust or immoral laws or decrees. The lesser, lower-ranking authority has both the right and the duty to refuse obedience to that superior authority. If necessary, the lesser authorities even have the right and obligation to actively resist the superior authority.

That is Matthew Trujella's definition of what is the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate. We also covered a second principle, number two. And this was very important. It establishes biblical grounds. The second principle is the roots of the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate is rooted in the biblical doctrine of interposition.

Interposition. And he defines interposition, once again, as when the superior or higher civil authority makes unjust or immoral laws or decrees, the lesser, lower-ranking authority has both the right and the duty to refuse obedience to that superior authority. If necessary, the lesser authorities have the right and obligation to actively resist that authority and interpose themselves between the tyranny and the people. The idea of interposing oneself between the tyranny and the people. And then the third principle we looked at, crucial to understanding the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, is that all authority is delegated authority.

No person is an authority unto his or herself. This is crucial since all tyranny, at the end of the day, posits self as the ultimate authority. But the Bible teaches the opposite. There is no authority except from God, Paul tells us, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God, unquote. Consequently, even though a tyrant may acknowledge no higher authority than himself, he is not a law to himself, and he must be reminded of his subjection unto God.

Well then, whose responsibility is that? That brings us to principle number four, which we want to expand upon here today. Principle number four from the book, The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates, A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government. That's the title of Matthew Trujillo's important book on this topic. And principle number four is that the lesser magistrate is bound by duty to resist tyranny.

The lesser magistrate is bound by duty to resist tyranny. Trujillo defines duty as this. He says, duty is that which a person owes to another, or by which a person is bound to another, by any natural, moral, or lawful obligation to perform. Duty is an action required by one's position, or by moral or lawful considerations, unquote. The lesser magistrate is bound by duty to resist tyranny.

The lesser magistrate is, by definition, endued with less power and authority than the greater magistrate. For example, a federal attorney general is entrusted with greater scope of power than a federal district attorney, or a state governor is more powerful than a lieutenant governor. But that the lesser magistrate is less powerful than a greater magistrate does not mean he is powerless to resist tyranny. No. In this regard, the lesser magistrate's duty is threefold.

A, the lesser magistrates are to oppose and resist measures from the higher authority that contravene the law, or the word of God. B, the lesser magistrates are to protect the person, liberty, and property of those who reside in the jurisdiction from all unjust or immoral laws or actions from the higher authority. And C, the lesser magistrates are not to implement any measures of the higher authority that violate the Constitution, and if necessary, resist them. Oh, the lesser magistrate is bound by duty to resist tyranny, dear listener.

And it must be clearly understood by all that there is no excuse for not resisting tyranny by the lesser magistrate. No. No excusing oneself by saying, I was only following orders, or I'm only doing my job. I don't have the authority to stop this. All kinds of excuses like this do not pass the smell test.

No. Every man has a functioning conscience, and God requires us to serve it, not to sear it. Mark Twain puts it this way. Haley nails it. Mark Twain says, a man's first duty is to his own conscience and honor.

The party and country come second to that, and never first. Oh, Mark Twain reflecting on a true statesman rather than just a mere politician. Yes, true statesman. Mark Twain says, a man's first duty is to his own conscience and honor. The party and country come second to that, and never first.

Oh, you will be held accountable, lesser magistrate, for your actions or your inaction. You have a duty to serve your God-given conscience, your constituents, and the Constitution you swore to uphold. Where is the voice of the lesser magistrate today? Where is his voice? It has been effectively silenced in our own day.

Men fear for their career path if they resist those above them. Men fear that they will be shamed or canceled if they resist the latest woke trend. The vast sea of government officials and bureaucrats and hirelings have been bought and paid for. With the shackles come the shackles, don't they? And the horde of government zombies can be heard rattling around in their shackles today.

As I asked one such government zombie in our congregation, what will you not do for a paycheck and a pension? It used to be that our forefathers did have a sense of duty that made them do hard things. George Washington said, do your duty, I'm sorry, no, Stonewall Jackson, one of my favorite characters in history, not very politically correct today. But General Stonewall Jackson said, do your duty and leave the rest to providence. That's my favorite saying on duty.

Do your duty and leave the rest to providence. George Washington said, human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. And Rochelle E. Goodrich said, love grows and wanes, but honor, duty, and commitment. Those things are constant and stable. They define who you are.

Honor, duty, and commitment define who you are, dear lesser magistrate. And it is time then for all magistrates to learn about and return to this ancient sense of duty and for the public to demand it of their magistrates to serve and then to have their conscience pricked towards duty when the public elects and appoints them. Well, fifthly, the fifth point here under the doctrine of the lesser magistrate is, number five, the objective standard for the law is God's law in the Bible. The objective standard for law is God's law in the Bible.

Why, William Blackstone in his commentaries on law, William Blackstone, the English jurist in his commentaries on the law, says that the Bible is binding over all the globe and in all countries and at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this. And such of them as are valid derive all their force and authority immediately or immediately from this original. The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law and they are found only in the holy scriptures. William Blackstone in his commentaries on the law.

Unfortunately though, that point of view is no longer permissible, is it? Perhaps not even expressible in legal circles today. But its truth still stands. God has not changed and its standards have not changed either. Any society that refuses to keep God's law as the supreme standard and touchstone for its civil society will eventually founder upon the shoals of tyranny.

Since God does not change and his law does not change, we have therefore an objective standard by which to measure civil law and justice and tyranny. Perceptively, Matthew Truhella writes on this point, he says, if there is no objective standard to judge the purpose and limits of the state, then the state can do whatever it pleases because the people do not know differently. If a citizen does not know the purpose, functions, and limitations of the state, then the state can do whatever it wants to do because the citizenry don't realize anything improper is being done.

Perceptively noted by Matthew Truhella in his book on the lesser magistrates. And nowhere is this more evident really than in the contemporary blurring of gender distinctions. For example, the objective biblical standard for gender is that there are two genders, male and female. Genesis chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 put it this way, when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them man when they were created, unquote.

Male and female he created them. All subsequent civil law was based upon this distinction. Every legal form had a box for male or female. Every bathroom and locker room had rules separating male and female. Every marriage sanctioned by both church and civil authorities joined man and woman exclusively.

And all cultural conventions, from dress codes to yes ma'am and yes sir, in our language, reflected this foundational biblical distinction. Male and female, he created them, and he blessed them, and named them man when they were created. Oh, dear listener, all of that has gone out the window today, and we find big male gorillas in women's locker rooms and competing in women's sports, and the numbers of genders being multiplied such that the cumbersome acronym for them has to have a plus sign after it, right? LGBTQ plus.

And there are even civil penalties for misgendering some poor snowflake who gets offended at being called dude when he identifies himself as a woman or a unicorn or a kitten. And much of your tax dollar is being granted to parents who want to transition their children to other genders, or maybe for a teen confused about him or herself in puberty, undergoing surgeries. And meanwhile, the glue that holds society together, the family, is fracturing and collapsing. And I tend to think that's on purpose, too. Much of this gender confusion is meant to destroy and fracture the family.

When there is no objective standard, that's the bottom line here, when there is no objective standard for civil society, all becomes subjective on the part of the state, and can therefore change at the whim of the state, can't it? If the state becomes the measure of truth and law, then what it says, even if it contradicts what it dictated before, becomes law. If one day, for example, it is good and just to challenge the integrity of an election, when it is a Democrat, we've seen this in the past, when there's a Democrat on the ballot who loses, then why? It's good and just to challenge the integrity of an election.

We've seen this with the failed campaigns of Stacey Abrams or Al Gore or John Kerry in the past, then it was okay to challenge the integrity of an election. But then, if it's good, then the next day and illegal to challenge the integrity of an election when a Republican is on the ballot, and of course, this has happened recently with Kerry Lake in Arizona, a fraudulent election if ever there was one, and of course, the recent presidential election where Donald Trump had it stolen from underneath him. It is now illegal and unethical to challenge and unpatriotic to challenge the integrity of those elections.

Well, if the state plays it this way, then so be it. It is the state that speaks and all must obey. In fact, it will be so conditioned, you will be so conditioned that you will come to accept whatever the state dictates as the truth and every measure promulgated by the state as law. This is already beginning to transpire, and the state is already conditioning us for this state of mind.

When the lesser magistrate upholds, however, the objective standard of God's law and the Constitution, his disobedience to the higher magistrate is not subjective, because the lesser magistrate is upholding an objective standard by which all things may be tested. And, of course, it is supremely objective in that it appeals to the unchanging standards of God's law. We must return to this, the unchanging standards of God's law. And, consequently, the lesser magistrate can and must be supported by the people.

Well, the sixth point that we want to make here under the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, the sixth point is there are intrinsic reasons why the resistance offered by the lesser magistrate is wise and proper. There are intrinsic reasons within the very nature of the lesser magistrate. There are intrinsic reasons why the resistance offered by the lesser magistrate is wise and proper. Lesser magistrates constitute lawful authority by virtue of their office, dear listener. And this stands in stark contrast to the actions of incoherent mobs, as we saw after the death of George Floyd, or stands in stark contrast to individual acts of terror.

And the lesser magistrate stands in stark contrast to radical groups that are accountable to no one but themselves and their quaint creeds and manifestos. The resistance offered by the lesser magistrate, in contrast, is quite wise and proper. Wise and proper. And these reasons are intrinsic to their office as magistrates, and I articulate a few of them here for you. A, lawful magistrates already possess lawful God-given authority, which they may invoke.

B, lesser magistrates have been supported by many in their successful bid to achieve office. Therefore, they have an established power base of popular support already in place. C, lesser magistrates have constitutional precedent and law on their side. There is some heritage and history to which they can appeal. D, lesser magistrates already have access to a public forum by which they may address grievances and articulate them for the general public.

E, lesser magistrates are ideally positioned to teach, instruct, and guide citizens in times of growing tyranny. People respond to honorable, authoritative, and informed leadership, don't they? I sure do. When done biblically and constitutionally, people will rally behind the lesser magistrates. F, lesser magistrates can strike terror into the hearts of tyrants.

That we hope to do in the near future. Lesser magistrates can strike terror into the hearts of tyrants. Tyrants rely on being unopposed and unresisted, don't they? When they are exposed for who they are by honest magistrates acting out of integrity and service to their oath of office, they react in consternation and frustration, the tyrants do. The tyrant attempts to put the clamps of tyranny even tighter, perhaps exposing themselves for who they are.

We see that happening in our own day. And G, lesser magistrates have the best chance of resolving injustice without upheaval and bloodshed. Very important. Lesser magistrates have the best chance of resolving injustice without upheaval and bloodshed. A tyrannical government is less anxious to push their oppression if they know that the opposition has the proper leadership and order of lesser magistrates.

The odds for peaceful resolution of tyranny increase. They're not guaranteed, but they increase when the lesser magistrate stands firm. And then H, finally H, God's will is for a just and righteous government to order his creation. That is God's will, and he will be behind the lesser magistrate because that is his will. Oh, Deuteronomy tells us, for example, justice and only justice you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

God's kingdom and its principles, too, will eventually triumph. And I maintain will eventually triumph on this side of his return. Oh, the Bible tells us he will judge the people with righteousness and the poor with justice. Yes. So, even though the lesser magistrate may not see it in his own lifetime, his work for God's kingdom and the defeat of tyranny will bear fruit.

That is God's promise because it is his will. Oh, God has established order and government, dear listener, that he might rule immediately through his servants, the magistrates. That's the point of Romans 13. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And those that exist have been instituted by God.

That is, those magistrates, those governing authorities, their office has been created by him. Not everyone who manages to obtain offices is there by God's approval, perhaps in God's providence, but not necessarily by God's approval, because governing authorities indeed are established by God. And in order to keep the higher magistrate honest, that is true to God's principles, God has made provision through the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. And that's proven throughout the history of redemption. Dear listener, our solution to the ever-expanding clutch of tyranny around our throat is before us.

We don't have to beg, pretty please, dear dictator, take your boot off our neck. No, those who resort to that modus operandi will only find the tyranny growing stronger. We don't either have to quietly, meekly submit to unlimited tyranny as so many Christians do today. There are so many Christian pastors out there who are Holocaust pastors telling their people, just go to the trains, you're going to a better place, right? Yeah, going to the camps, metaphorically speaking.

Oh, just go to the showers. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Going to the showers, metaphorically speaking. No, do not be a Holocaust pastor by telling your people to submit to unlimited tyranny. Out of a distorted understanding of Romans 13.1, let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there's no authority except from God and those that exist that have been instituted by God. That verse has been distorted and misused and taken out of context in order that Holocaust pastors might just go ahead and guide their people to the train stations and the showers. No, do not be a Holocaust pastor and lead your people thusly. And on the other side of the coin, neither do we have to strike out in impotent rage against tyranny, like isolated terrorists who blow up buildings and shoot individual leaders. No, we don't have to resort to random violence and terror.

No, there is a responsible avenue to take towards defeating tyranny in a biblical fashion. And that avenue is the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. Now, we're not finished in more fully extrapolating what this means. This doctrine is important enough that we're going to spend more time on it. This doctrine of the lesser magistrate has been centuries in the making and it's fine tuning as well.

Many fine women and men have gone before us, indeed inculcating the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. And we need to examine that it might bear fruit in our own day. Most Americans have no idea what it is or what it means. And to many, it matters not a wit. Oh, dear listener, the doctrine of the lesser magistrate means that we need to catch up.

The situation means that we need to catch up to history and start making application. Those who are in positions of authority absolutely need to seize this doctrine, understand it, and run with it. And those of us who are the constituents of magistrates who seek to bravely resist the tyrannical magistrate of the state that we see in the United States of America now, we who seek to bravely resist must support those who resist in the lesser magistrate positions who do resist the tyrannical magistrate. And we must actively, vocally support those lesser magistrates, dear listener. Vote for them.

Give financially to them. Campaign for their election and reelection. Dear listeners, support the enthusiastic, exhort the recalcitrant, and defeat the enemy. Oh, indeed, dear listener, there is a godly biblical response to tyranny, and it is the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and we invite you to join us for worship on Sunday morning.

We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. We invite you to cross our threshold. You'll find a warm and friendly response, and we hope that you'll find opportunity then to worship in spirit and in truth with us. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Call us for more information or feedback at 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.