God’s Plan for a Blessed Nation: Principle #6:

The Natural Tendency of Government

A Stand in the Gap Today Transcript

August 9, 2021

Host: Sam Rohrer

Co-hosts: Dr. Gary Dull, Dr. Keith Wiebe

Click HERE for PDF version.

Segment 1:

Sam Rohrer:

Hello, and welcome to Stand in the Gap Today. And number six, this is the number six Monday in our 10 principles to National Renewal series. I’m Sam Rohrer, and I’m going to be joined today by Dr. Keith Wiebe and Dr. Gary Dull, both on our Stand in the Gap media team. And you recognize both of them. Here’s my question here to start it out. When it comes to government, have you ever wondered why it always tends to get bigger and bigger, and to take more and more taxes out of your wallet, and to have more and more dominance in our lives, even though we’re supposed to have a “limited government?” Ever wonder why there are three branches of government instead of just one, or why it’s important to have a constitution as our highest civil law instead of ever changing laws? Ever wonder why we are seeing such an aggressive growth of federal government in our lives, in the last several administrations, but then particularly placed on steroids here in 2021?

Sam Rohrer:

Well, there are reasons, and there is a solution to this. Unfortunately, most Americans are confused as to why? Why in particular the federal government is now threatening our very constitutional freedoms, violating our rights to employment, education, travel, even worship, and then threatening persecution of those who say yes to upholding God given individual health, freedom rights and saying no to government coercion of experimental COVID injections and surveillance, state health passports, right? Again, there are reasons for these challenging days and there is a solution for how to fix it, but we have to look in the right place, and that right place is God’s word. So in order to provide true solutions, we launched this series on Wednesday, June 30, and continuing every Monday, since July the 12th, we’ve been sharing one more in a series of 10 essential principles lifted from the pages of scripture, but identified and adopted by our founders, particularly called out by William Penn here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Sam Rohrer:

Now this roadmap for renewal, or 10 principles to national renewal, is also in a simplest form, we describe it as God’s plan for a blessed nation. And this title is the name of a book, Stand in the Gap Media, and APN is producing that, contains the essence of this plan, all of these steps. And for a gift of $15 or more, we’ll be glad to send you this attractive booklet with these 10 principles in a simple to read format that I know that you’ll love to have and to give to other family members and to friends, it’s packed full of information that we’re presenting in these programs. And it’s designed along with these radio programs accessible on our StandintheGap.Radio.com website and also our app, but also appearing on our Stand in the Gap TV programs. All you need to do is ask for the booklet any of those places, God’s plan for a blessed nation.

Sam Rohrer:

With that I want to get right into our program today with Gary and Keith. And Keith and Gary, when I was looking back over what we’ve done here, the three of us were the initial team, the three of us together, that launched the series back on June 30. When we laid down the foundational principle, number one, which was the necessity of integrity and virtue, both of which are linked directly to truth with virtue, as we talked about, being the voluntary obedience to truth. But again, as we said, truth, being defined by God who is the author of truth. It’s all essential what I just said there. But since then with different combinations of team members, we’ve identified principle two, understand the nature and the role of God. Principle three, the nature and the role of man. Principle four, understanding the purpose for government. And then last week, principle five, the purpose for law.

Sam Rohrer:

And that brings us naturally and logically and sequentially to principle number six today. The natural tendency of government. And like the building of a house, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve talked about, we’re comparing to this, a foundation, as you know, is required. Once you get the foundation in place, then you can put up the walls, a superstructure can be added. Ultimately you got to put a roof on to keep out the weather. And we’re going to conclude in our series with that roof, which we’re calling it the covering of necessary prayer. And I’ll tell you that’s where we’re going to end up, because without that it doesn’t work either, but every one of these steps have to be in place, nothing can be left out, and they have to be put in order.

Sam Rohrer:

Our founders recognized the house comparison and they quoted often from Psalm 127:1, “Except the Lord build the house: they labor in vain that build it, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” Keith, let me go to you right off. It’s a long introduction I’m trying to put together, but I want you to go here because many in the past talked about the tendency of government. Matter of fact, there was one fellow people would recognize when you’d give some of the quotes, it was a guy named Lord Acton. He made some famous quotes. Share a couple of those quotes that has bearing on this subject today, would you.

Keith Wiebe:

He certainly did Sam and the men of the past had such tremendous insight that we need to pay attention to today. Lord Acton made this, and I’m quoting, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men,” he said, “Are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority. Still more, when you super add the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” And then two more by him that are so relevant for today, “Despotic power is always accompanied by the corruption of morality.” Boy, are we seeing that today. And then finally he said, “Authority that does not exist for liberty is not authority, but force.” Sam, couldn’t be more relevant than to the day in which we live.

Sam Rohrer:

Lord Anton, you’re right, Keith. And Gary, you only have just a little bit left here, but in simple terms, why does absolute power corrupt absolutely?

Gary Dull:

Well, it simply goes back to the nature of mankind, Sam, and I think of what is written in Ephesians chapter two, where it speaks to the fact that mankind, apart from Jesus Christ, is dead in trespasses and sins. And it says there that they walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, which is the devil, the spirit that now waketh within the children of disobedience. And so you see by virtue, the very nature of mankind is being corrupt, we find that when a man gets into power, apart from dependence upon the Lord Jesus and following biblical principles, that power can very easily become corrupted.

Sam Rohrer:

Gary, you summed it all up. And ladies and gentlemen, that is the basis. And that ties into what we’ve covered, principle number three, the nature of man, sinful, evil, not tending to good, always tending to greater controlling corruption. Our founders recognize it. When we come back in the next section and segment after that, we’re going to identify the two leading tendencies of a government. And I’ll tell you the first one we’re going to go to is government always tends to consolidate power is not the truth. We’ll talk about that in the next segment when we come back.

Segment 2:

Sam Rohrer:

If you’re just joining us today on Stand in the Gap today., I’m Sam Rohrer. Today, accompanied by Dr. Gary Dull and Dr. Keith Wiebe. And we are in, well, number six in a series of programs that we’re entitling 10 principles to national renewal. And we’ve been dealing with these every Monday. And if you’re just picking us up for the first time and you say, this is interesting. I want you to go back and listen to, and you can access all of the previous programs, search for it on our Standinthegapradio.com site, or off your app. And you just look for principal, you can see principle number one, and then two, three, four, and then today we are dealing with number six, the natural tendency of government. Now, government, which by definition means authority, government possesses power.

Sam Rohrer:

In Romans 13, God says, that in his delegation of authority to all levels of government, self, family, civil, and church, that he has divinely ranked these authorities under Jesus Christ, which is really the definitions, contained within the definition of ordained in verse one, or powers ordained of God. And it’s also inherent within the word, be subject to these powers that also conveys the idea of divine ranking and how we respond. We need to understand how these are ranked under God’s delegation of authority, but in Romans 13:4, God refers to the power of civil government as having the power of the sword. That’s the word it used. They have the sword. Meaning they have the ability to enforce the law, their will, if it’s a good law, that’s good, but if it’s a bad law, it becomes bad, but they have the power.

Sam Rohrer:

And we know from other passages of scripture that the ability to prosecute people, to persecute people, to imprison people, and even take the life as in capital punishment, is given to civil authority. It’s all wrapped up in that sword. And so the scripture says, be careful how you respond, because they have that power given to them by God. Now, this great authority and power in the hands of mankind, and without specific limitations and personal choices to the contrary, meaning a leaning towards God, or adopting the view of God, without that, government always tends to the consolidation of power. And that is the first as our founders indicated the tendency of government, first one is a tends to consolidate power. Gary, the pattern of mankind from the beginning has been one of rebellion against God’s authority, and a denial of his purpose for delegated governmental authority as I just described briefly. Can you share a biblical illustration of rebellion by government leaders and really something that provides a lesson for us now all time?

Gary Dull:

We have Sam, all we need to do is go back to Genesis chapter 10 and 11, and look at Nimrod in what he did there, or what he attempted to do there, in building that Tower of Babel. When you read back in the old Testament, you see that Nimrod was a definite governmental leader in reality. He was strong. He was a leader that is filled with pride. In fact, in Genesis chapter 10 in verse eight, it says that he was a mighty one in the earth. And that might, that he had, of course, built his pride. He was a wicked man. I don’t think that Nimrod ever had any sense of obeying God as a governmental leader, which is what he was. In reality, Sam, he was the force behind building the Tower of Babel, which was the forerunner of Babylon, which was, of course, the enemy of Judah back in 596, 586 and 606, that, of course, took them into captivity.

Gary Dull:

But much of the religious and civil function that is godless today actually can be traced back to Nimrod and his evil government that he established as well as there at the Tower of Babel. And here’s the point, Sam, that when God wanted humanity to scatter after the flood as is recorded there in Genesis chapter nine in verse one, Nimrod rebelled. He wanted to stop God’s plan of scattering. And not of pride, he built his own system, he built his own government, which was really anti-God. He refused to move on and do what God wanted them to do. And, of course, Nimrod was just completely against the plan of God totally. He wanted to run a government that was Nimrod-centered rather than God-centered. And of course, because of that, he really disavowed anybody else, I would guess.

Gary Dull:

But here’s the point. When Nimrod established a government that created a Tower of Babel, we know the rest of the story. God came down and destroyed that tower so that the people would begin to scatter. And here’s the lesson that we learned from that, that when human government disobeys God’s government, God’s judgment is going to fall on that human government. And we’re very close to seeing that happen today, I believe, here in the United States of America.

Sam Rohrer:

Gary, great application. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll talk about that more in the next segment, but God made it very clear, you do what I say, I’ll give you blessing. You don’t do what I say and rebel, you’re going to get just the exact opposite. And in the case of Babel, God displayed his anger at the rebellion. Keith, now Gary’s identified that direct command. You can build, add onto it any way you want there, but connect this command tendency to consolidate power here, put these together with what we’ve talked about in principle number two, about the nature and the role of God, and then principle number three, the nature of man, which has to do with the fall and the sinful nature of man, because all of these work together and why we get to a point where a government tends to consolidate power.

Keith Wiebe:

Well, Sam, the nature of man is to do exactly what Nimrod did, to disobey the commandment of God, to seek for his own embellishments, his own sovereignty. You mentioned William Penn just a little minute ago in the first segment, Penn had a tremendous document that served as a foundation for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, talked about the great end of all government. And he said it is to support power in reference with the people, and to secure the people from the utmost, or from the abuse of that power. Recognizing that when you put people in power, their natural tendency is to consolidate that power. Their natural tendency is to pull that power back into themselves so that they actually end up enslaving the people.

Keith Wiebe:

And Penn went on to say people would be free by just obedience, as long as the magistrate, he called them, those that rule over them, are honorable. And so there’s a balance. So we’ll talk more about that balance later in the program, but there’s a balance that has to exist with people who are in authority, but recognizing that their authority is not absolute, their authority is not even ultimate there, but stewards of the authority that is God given to them. And therefore, Paul, he says that the law was given because of transgression because he knew there would be people who would ultimately abuse that power.

Sam Rohrer:

Excellent. Keith, and that makes me think of, again, the passage in Romans 13, we’ve talked about this in a couple of the other previous programs, but Romans 13 talks about those who are in positions of authority, civil authority, but all authority, individual, family, church. It’s the same application. The principle is that they are ministers of God, which means, ladies and gentlemen, as we described earlier, it means we get the word deacon from, or servant. So if those in positions of authority, understand that they’re there because God is the ultimate authority and God has delegated the structure of this thing called government. And then they say, all right, my job is to carry out the wishes of my higher authority, ultimately Jesus Christ and God, the father, if they do that, well, then the whole approach to execution of authority becomes very decentralized because it is executing out what God’s plan is. But if they throw God off, well, then what is the result?

Sam Rohrer:

The result is you consolidate power, because you want more and more in that lust for power, like Nimrod, like Gary explained, Nimrod and those of those days, they’d never get enough. And it makes me think of a couple of other quotes from William Penn I pulled out, he said this. He said, but next to the power of necessity, to the best of our skill, and he’s talking about after they put together a frame of government here, this whole experiment and freedom, he said to the best of our skill, we’ve composed the frame and the laws of this government to the great end of all government, that is, to support power in reverence with the people, not reverence with the people of the people toward God, in reverence of the people toward the delegated authorities of a government. They said, and to secure the people from the utmost of power, meaning to secure the people and keep them away from this consolidated thrust of ungodly consolidated tyrannical power.

Sam Rohrer:

And he said that they may be free by their just obedience and their magistrates. And Keith just quoted this just honorable magistrates, those in office, for the just administration of those laws for the purpose, because he said for Liberty, without obedience, obedience to truth obedience, to God’s system, obedience to God’s truth, Liberty without obedience, he says is confusion. And obedience without liberty is slavery. And that was the whole point. You want a tyrannical government. Then you throw God off, you throw out obedience to truth. And that’s what you’re going to end up with. Now when we come back, we’re going to take on the second point that, believe it or not, there is another element of government that seeks to consolidate power, but it also seeks to replace God. We’ll talk about that next.

Sam Rohrer:

We are continuing today. This is number six in our series of 10 principles to national renewal. The one today is we’re talking about the natural tendency of government. I started the program by asking the question, you wonder why government gets bigger and bigger? Why taxes only go higher and higher? Why bureaucrats and petty dictators on levels of particularly the federal government just love to tell everybody what they can or cannot do, where they can or cannot go, how they can or cannot live. Was that by accident? No, unfortunately it’s not by accident. And our founders who laid down the principles of our limited government, this Republic that we have, this constitutional Republic, this holy experiment in freedom that William Penn talked about, or the shining city on a hill, or as Governor John Winthrop called it back in 1630, it was all the same thing, they said, how do you get off from an oppressive king who wants to take your children, take your land, and tell you what to do, and tell you what you can’t do?

Sam Rohrer:

We all, because from the beginning of time, you’ve always had those in positions of authority who have attempted to tell other people what to do and how to live, that’s called tyranny, that’s called dictatorships. That’s the exact opposite of the freedom and the liberty that comes from God and the result of God’s blessings when we do what he says. So that brings us in the series of principles along the line of once, the purpose of government and the purpose of law, which we spoke about last week, that you then say, all right, well, then what do we have to watch out for in this new holy experiment? Well, it is the tendency of government. Last segment we talked about the tendency of government is to consolidate power, become bigger and bigger, centralize the government. Our founders were very concerned about that. Weren’t they? But what are we seeing happening today?

Sam Rohrer:

Greater consolidation, a federal government, trying to tell even the states and every individual what to do. It’s exactly what our founders warned about.

Segment 3:

Sam Rohrer:

Now from creation, God made mankind in his image and able to know and worship him. We talked about that in principle number two. With the advent of the fall and sin entering the world as principle, number three, mankind fell into a depraved state with a heart of rebellion against God and his authority and his plan for mankind. Penn viewed the role of government under God, the need for just law to support the intensive God. And as he said, for mankind to act in positions of government, he talked about having after they’ve once repented of their sins, he used those words and accepted Jesus Christ by faith. He said those words, because only then could they legitimately carry out the purposes of government.

Sam Rohrer:

Praise those who do well. Punish those who do evil. He said this in part, and I quote this a little bit again from Penn, he said, so government seems to me, he said to be a part of religion itself, sacred and its institution and end, where if government does not directly remove the cause of evil, sin, he’s talking about it crushes the effects of evil. That’s punishing those who do evil. And as such, he said, it’s a nomination government, it’s an extension of the same divine power who God, he said, is both author and the object of pure religion. He said had Adam never fell, that divine relationship and purpose would have continued among men on earth. In other words, had Adam and Eve not sinned in the garden, you would have had a perfect relationship of mankind living in harmony with the God who created them, walking in the fellowship and the presence of God.

Sam Rohrer:

He said, but sin came in and it disturbed all of that… He said until the coming of the blessed second Adam, the Lord from heaven. We like talking about when he comes back and rules with a rod of iron in the millennium kingdom. Now, Keith, I’d like for you to go to a little detail here from scripture to history, if you have it, but that’s okay, go to scripture, of how we know that a government led by people in rebellion to God actually seeks to usurp that fundamental, sacred relationship of God and mankind where mankind, Adam and Eve, walked in harmony and worship with God, how government tends to get in there and usurp the worship of God and literally try to make themselves God.

Keith Wiebe:

Sam, the Prophet Isaiah warned us in the opening chapters of the old Testament book the by the same name that we must be careful lest we come to a place where we call evil good, and good evil. Now not only is that happening in our day, we can look back into scripture and see, in some examples, for example, the young man Josiah became king. He was a good man. He went through the law of God. And as a result of what he saw there instituted a number of needed governmental reforms. Hezekiah was a good king until the last few years of his reign. And in the last few years of his reign he drifted into looking out for himself at his old legacy, made some very bad decisions. Coming down through history. We have the Roman government during the New Testament era.

Keith Wiebe:

One of my favorite historical examples is the emperor Caligula. He actually made Incitatus a Roman Senator. The problem was Incitatus was his horse that he made him a Roman Senator. Now, perhaps the horse made better sense than some of the other senators. I don’t know, history doesn’t seem to address that. Well, we come down to the modern day and we have the clear usurping of what is the providential role of God in government, and that’s being usurped by government. We need go no farther than look at what government has done, where life is concerned, and therefore the scourge of abortion. Where marriage is concerned, and therefore the Supreme court Obergefell decision about same-sex marriage, where gender is concerned. God made them male and female and all of the gender confusion that exists today and see very easily where scripture’s place has been usurped by man taking the place of God.

Sam Rohrer:

Keith, that is excellent because in reality, you talked about the Caesars, they actually said, “I am God,” others just, it’s general role becomes God and seeks worship, I think of Psalm chapter two, and I want to go to Gary. It says the heathen rage. Why do they do that? The Kings of the earth, government, rulers, and the rulers take counsel together and against the Lord. And they basically challenge God himself. And what you cited, any government that stands up and says, we’re going to take and what God has declared to be true to be evil. We’re going to kill the babies and call it legal. We’re going to redefine marriage and call it legal. We’re going to redefine gender and call it legal. They are actually usurping the authority of God himself. Gary, I want to have you go back now to the illustration of Babel and Nimrod that you started with last segment, because they not only consolidated political and social power in that rebelling against God, they actually threw in there an element of worship, did they not? Take and compare that then to now.

Gary Dull:

They worshiped themselves because of their pride. And I think that what we see in the day of Nimrod with him and his cohorts is the fact that they did, even as it says there in Romans chapter one, where they worshiped and served the creature more than the creator. In other words, they had an anti-God, an anti-Christ concept of living, an anti-God an anti-Christ concept of governing. And in reality, what Nimrod and his cohorts did was to establish an early effort of globalism, which means that everything was to be one, no borders, one government and so forth. Instead of the distinction that God had concerning the different nations, even back in those days as is outlined for us in Acts chapter 17, verse 26, God did not like that concept back in Nimrod’s day, and he destroyed it. And God does not like that concept now. And any government that establishes itself against God is going to be destroyed by God in time, as was even seen there in the Roman empire.

Sam Rohrer:

Gary, in reality, throughout scripture, Babylon is referred to as this global governance, it’s always a description against an anti-God approach to authority. Isn’t it? And that comes right from Babel. And you made that distinction. Well, we ultimately have a one world government coming down this way led by the anti-Christ. There’s a connection there, isn’t there?

Gary Dull:

Yes. And, of course, when you read through the book of the revelation, in particularly Revelation, chapter 17, 18 and 19, you see that, one world government that once again reaches back into what I call old Babylonianism is going to be destroyed by God, because it’s not a part of God’s plan.

Sam Rohrer:

So ladies and gentlemen, the point being here, what our founders viewed from a historical perspective and from a biblical perspective, where they specifically went through this, when they were laying down, and had the opportunity to form a new nation, what became the United States of America. They said there are certain factors that you cannot deny. Here’s what God said, and God lays out. And here is what men who have done what God said. Here’s the result. And here is the example of when men have rebelled against God and they named all of these things that went before them. They said, all right, you have to understand who God is. You have to understand the nature of sin. You’ve got to understand that the purpose for government, the nature of the purpose for law. And then you got to bring in this question of the natural tendency of a government, and later one of the principles towards the end, we’re going to deal with, you have to put certain things in place to help government and sinful man, not to consolidate power, or to seek and usurp the worship of God.

Sam Rohrer:

They knew it all. We need to, if we’re going to ever see a sustaining, a renewing of this free nation. When we come back, we’re going to then come back and visit the cause and the solution to all these things.

Segment 4:

Sam Rohrer:

As we’ve stated in the program, this principle, principle number six, is the tendency of government. Important to know. Now all of these things that we’re citing in these 10 principles are like building blocks of a house, the foundation of virtue and integrity, the necessity of understanding who God is, the nature and the role of God as creator, as designer, as sustainer. And then as we walk down through, everyone builds upon the other. And that brings us now to natural tendency of government. And it ties in directly to all of the others. And it actually will set the stage for, as we talk about principle number seven next week, but just a short revisit here.

Sam Rohrer:

Government, in this capacity here, like every aspect of man’s thinking and actions, including government and governmental policy, it’s important to understand that nothing happens by accident. God’s made us creatures of choice. We get to choose. And from the beginning, Adam and Eve chose what to do about what God said. And it resulted in sin. We’ve talked about that in principle number three, and it impacted all of what we know, but throughout all of this, you see, God laid out a plan and creation, sin got in and it disturbed it all. And God still has a plan for how society is to function.

Sam Rohrer:

He promises blessings, as I referred to earlier, many blessings if obedience is observed and he promises the most severe cursings and judgment, yet God does that. He brings judgment because he’s a holy God. And because sin cannot go unpunished, and God says he will bring cursing and judgment against any nation that spurns his commandments. I cite again, the passage from Deuteronomy chapter eight, verses one and two, and then verse 15, listen to this again, because this will go right into it as we have Gary, talk about the cause, and then Keith will come back with a solution as wrapped this up.

Sam Rohrer:

But this passage says, again, if you hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord, your God, to observe and do all his commandments, which I command you this day, listen to this. Then I will set you high above all nations of the earth, and all these blessings, and enumerates them right after this, in this section, all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, literally like a horse and rider chasing down a pedestrian. You can’t outrun it. Literally it will overwhelm you with blessings, but then he says, but it shall come to pass if you will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord, your God, to observe his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day, that all these curses, these judgments of which then he lays out about 50 verses or so. All of these shall come upon you and they shall overtake you. You literally won’t be able to withstand these judgments.

Sam Rohrer:

That’s how God operates. So we either have a choice in what he says or rebel. Gary, take this couple of minutes right here now as we bring this to conclusion, revisit the cause, if you can, as we’ve identified. We’ve talked about some of it through here, but again, here answer this. What’s the cause for government at any level to naturally seek to consolidate power and to want to seek to become literally encouraged mankind to become dependent on government instead of God, literally to worship government, instead of God, just put that together. How do we get in this position? What’s the cause?

Gary Dull:

Well, I don’t think that it’s difficult or even complicated to understand Sam, when you turn to Romans chapter 13, you find that the basic purpose of government is to stand against that, which is evil, and support that, which is good. One of the problems with people in government is that they have no knowledge of God, they have no knowledge of who he is, what he expects and how he operates. They really have no idea of God’s purpose for government. And I might just go on and say that without a doubt, they have no desire to understand God’s purpose for government because many, and of course we do know, Sam, that there are people in government who know the Lord and loved the Lord, but I’m talking here in general terms today, as it relates to the individual governments of the world.

Gary Dull:

There is no desire to seek God’s direction and to govern according to biblical truth, simply because of the sin and the pride, and the fact that there is no respect in the hearts and the minds of those who are in leadership. They don’t want God. They don’t want God’s way. They don’t want to govern according to God’s way. And consequently, today we have a government that is anti-God. And what we need to do is to pray that we will be able to see men and women put in positions of government who understand that government really is to represent God on earth, and to be the ministers of God on earth, not to do that which is right in their own eyes based upon selfish pride and no respect for God.

Sam Rohrer:

You describe an attitude, Gary, of servant hood and being under authority to one who is above, and that is Jesus Christ. And he’s above every person, including every person in position of authority. Keith, we could take now just a couple of minutes, because it’s about all we have left. And Gary has outlined the cause. Please detail again now the solution, what’s the solution to this individually and nationally.

Keith Wiebe:

Well, again, Sam, if we come to the scripture, the solution is straightforward. It’s simple. This is not complicated. It begins on a personal level with God’s plan of redemption for us to acknowledge in ourselves, we are sinful. And we do not understand God’s ways and to fear God that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and then to keep his commandments. That’s on a personal level, live and walk into obedience to him. William Penn made several references to that walk of obedience. Nationally it then becomes a nation who fears God and keeps his commandments. And even among those people who may not be followers of Christ, they at least have a respect, as Benjamin Franklin said it, there’s a God in heaven who oversees the affairs of men, and then a nation that implements in the building of their house. You referenced Psalm 127, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Keith Wiebe:

In the building of that house implement these 10 principles for national renewal that we’re talking about in this series. The problem is clear in scripture. Gary laid it out, but Sam praise God. The solution is equally clear from God’s word.

Sam Rohrer:

And ladies and gentlemen, that’s where we want to leave you today. We have challenges. We’d better face up to it. Our freedom is being threatened by those in positions of authority who have rejected God like Psalm two says they raised their fists against the God of heaven. And God says, I’m going to read the end of that chapter of Psalm two. “The Lord says, he’ll break these people, these nations with a rod of iron he’ll dash them in pieces like a Potter’s vessel. Be wise. Now therefore, says, oh, ye Kings, be instructed you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son fall on your knees before Jesus Christ, the authority lest he be angry with his righteous anger. And you perish from the way when his wrath, his judgment is kindled, but a little.

Sam Rohrer:

That’s the difference ladies and gentlemen between blessing and experiencing the judgment of God. We either bow before him in humility and repentance, or we rebel. We either want blessing and we get it by obedience, or we reject him as a people and put in positions, people who also think like us, and then God brings judgment. That’s what he says. That is the tendency of government. Ladies and gentlemen pursue the truth. Embrace the truth. Stand in the gap for truth. These principle we’re putting out is the truth. They work. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.