The Governments of Man and the Kingdom of God - Peter's Principles for Prevailing Over Problems

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

All right, thanks you guys for being here.

Well, today, kind of interesting passage that we have in Peter.

We're going through Peter, Peter's principles for prevailing over problems.

And we come to one of the thorniest passages about government and submission that you have in Scripture.

This one alongside Romans 13 would be two of the passages that have been debated for 2,000 years.

What exactly they mean?

And I want to just throw out three questions before we look at the passage.

Here's the three questions for you.

Are all man-made governments ultimately set up by God?

Number two, if governments of men are set up by God, is it then right to disobey unjust laws?

Number three, if there are times when Christians should disobey unjust, unrighteous laws, when is that appropriate?

So we're talking about the government of man and the kingdom of God.

So turn in your Bibles now to 1 Peter 2.

We're in 1 Peter 2, and you're going to see verse 13.

And some of you have Bibles like mine that may have the subtitles Submission to Government.

How many have that?

Raise your hand if you have that.

Okay, so obviously the commentators of my Bible, which would be Tyndale, chose to use these subtitles, which that title is under the rubric of, look at verse 18, submission to masters coming up.

And then in chapter 3, submission to husbands.

So obviously, those that were putting subtitles in the Bibles that we have, many of you, maybe half of you, raise your hand, felt the need to kind of lead you in a particular direction, which is not uncommon for this passage to be seen as mainly about submission to government.

So let's read it, and then I'm going to break it down as to what I think it means.

Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.

Underline for the Lord's sake.

That's the operable phrase in the whole passage, in my opinion, for the Lord's sake.

Whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.

So underline punishment of evildoers and underline for the praise of those who do good, for this is the will of God.

Okay, this is the will of God.

What's the will of God?

Is the will of God to submit to government, or is the will of God that ordinances working through a king or a governor are actually there to do good and to punish evil?

Pretty important point, right?

For this is the will of God that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free.

Now underline as free.

As free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

Honor all people, honor, or love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king.

So this passage has been used along with Romans 13 to justify slavery.

In other words, the law of the land says that slavery is okay.

There's no ban against slavery, so we're going to enslave people, we're going to enslave black people.

It was used by the German Lutheran church to justify obeying what Hitler told them to do in the Nazi regime, even though they knew that millions of Jews were being murdered.

It was used during COVID.

So I, when I decided to open up my church, I drank the Kool-Aid for about four weeks and then I figured out a few things.

But the criticism online, social media, which I quit reading during that time, so I want to keep a good attitude, from pastors toward me was using this passage in Romans 13 to justify why they were following what Governor Polis had told them to do.

Now, a little bit of a hermeneutical point that I want to bring up as it relates to this passage, and that is never build a doctrine on one passage.

Okay?

One passage in Scripture can be supported by many times dozens of other passages.

And so if you come to a controversial passage, you need to back it up or your decision about what it means based on several things.

One is the rest of Scripture.

The second is tradition, what is the church taught traditionally?

And then theologically, that perspective.

Now, in this particular case, we have to remember that Jesus was, he was crucified for breaking the law.

So he was crucified for breaking the law.

The early church in the book of Acts is constantly in and out of prison because they're breaking the law.

And then historically we see that Christians were some of the most powerful leaders in bringing reformation in nations that often cause them to have to break the law.

So I believe that the passage is explaining more about what good government looks like than submission to government.

So I would have a different subtitle over this if I was a commentator writing on a particular passage, some kind of a subtitle over it.

So here's what I want to start off with Peter's Principles for Submission to Government.

So Peter's principles for submission to government, I'm just going to give you three quick ones.

Look at verse 13 again.

Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.

Well, the Lord says God's not going to have you submitting to laws that go against his commands.

Okay, that's really important.

Whether to the king as supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him, for, number one, submit to government that punishes evildoers.

He's clearly saying that governments that are ordained by God punish evildoers.

For the praise of those who do good, submit to government that praises do-gooders.

Those who do good get praise in a good government, a government that's for the Lord's sake.

And then look at verse 16, as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice.

So thirdly, I would say that the passage is saying, submit to government that promotes freedom.

So that's a good government, men and women.

A good government praises people who do good, punishes those who do evil, and promotes freedom.

So, some important questions.

What about governments that punish good people?

What about governments that praise evil people?

What about governments that promote bondage instead of freedom?

Should we submit?

So let's look at a few passages, and I keep running out of time in all these sermons.

First service was really bad.

I had pages of stuff that I didn't get to.

I thought I did better in the second service.

This is third service, so I can do whatever I want here, okay?

So I'm gonna actually, I'm actually gonna do a good sermon for this one.

So Isaiah, write this down.

I'm not gonna put it up, you don't need to look it up, you don't have time, but put it, write down Isaiah 10, 1 and 2.

So Isaiah says, Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.

So clearly God curses unjust laws.

He incurses, he actually curses people who do unjust and unrighteous laws.

Jesus told his disciples to defy the law of the Pharisees.

Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him, having come from Jerusalem.

Now, when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, unwashed hands, they found fault.

So they were breaking the ceremonial law of the Pharisees.

For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.

Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?

He answered and said to them, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things you do.

All too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition.

So there are times, men and women, when to traditions of the laws of the land that are against the commands of God, Jesus exemplifies to us, we must stand up against those kind of laws.

And they're and they're growing in the land, for sure.

And I know during COVID, some of you actually lost your jobs because you felt strongly in your conscience that you couldn't do what they were telling you to do.

And you remember me, I was, amen, come on, give me two high fives.

And then I think in almost every case you got better jobs because there's smart people out there that wanted to hire people of conviction.

The early church disobeyed the Roman and the Jewish laws by preaching the gospel openly.

Acts 4.

So they, the governing body of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, called them, that was Peter and John, and commanded them to not speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness that we may speak your word, by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

I mean, that's just one example all through the book of Acts, where the church openly preached the gospel, breaking the laws of the land, breaking the laws of the Romans and the Jews, and went to prison, suffered the consequences, and in some cases were even martyred for their faith.

Eleven of the twelve apostles were martyred because they broke the laws of the land in preaching the gospel.

Here's what's ironic.

The irony is that when Peter wrote 1 Peter, Nero is a dictator, Nero is the emperor of Rome, and Nero killed Peter by crucifying him upside down for breaking the laws of Rome later.

So obviously, he doesn't mean what maybe in a first perusal of that passage seems to say he's talking about good governments.

Praise God that historically Christians defied and fought against unbiblical laws in relation to preaching the gospel, slavery, women's suffrage, and civil rights.

So someone has said, and I think this is accurate because my dad was so involved in the civil rights movement in the late 60s, that when the sheriff of Birmingham put the hydrants, put the fire hoses on the little children that were peacefully marching in the famous Birmingham March and just saw them just scattered and thrown up against walls.

That's when the civil rights movement had won.

Because it was captured on TV and it captured the hearts of our nation that this is wrong and really wrong.

Well, those were believers.

Those were black and some cases white men and women who believed in racial equality.

And we should have all stood for that at the time my dad did.

So when COVID hit, man, I didn't know what was going on.

Just so you guys know, because many of you know my perspective on COVID, Liz and I wore masks and wore gloves before you're supposed to.

So when we started doing the research on what they were saying about COVID, we were like on board, man, all the way.

And then we started looking at other viewpoints, other perspectives, and it began to change our view that we originally had.

So I don't want you to think I'm just rebellious at heart.

But people have asked me, and I and I felt like it was this was a good sermon.

I didn't know this was, you know, I didn't know this passage was coming up.

By the way, this Thursday is a National Day of Prayer.

So isn't it interesting?

We're praying for our country.

There's many opportunities for you to go to National Day of Prayer, prayer meetings on Thursday all across the city.

You might put that in on a Google search so you can see where to go.

We're not doing anything this year.

We're gonna actually use this service to pray for our nation.

But three principles guided me in defining the defying the government during COVID.

Let me give you the first one.

The first is a principle of Scripture.

The principle of Scripture clearly instructed me to stay open.

Hebrews 4, 24 and 25.

Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good deeds, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some.

So we're clearly instructed to not forsake the assembly of ourselves coming together.

So I just felt like that maybe the church was more essential than liquor stores.

I mean, I don't know why, I just thought that.

And that maybe that the church might be more essential than Walmart.

That the church, and I know I'm starting to tread on some ground that may make some of you uncomfortable, but that the church was more essential than Costco.

So we had a meeting here with 87 pastors in the city, and I announced to these guys that we're gonna open up.

I said, I drank the Kool-Aid for four weeks, but I just, my research just doesn't show that this uh this dog doesn't hunt.

And so we're gonna open up, and I had four or five other pastors that were with us, and we did it together, and then about 25 other pastors did it, and we lost people.

We lost people who said, I just think that what you're doing is dangerous, and we're out of here, and I never saw them again.

Now we've picked up about 200, so on draft day we did really good, okay?

Um maybe some how many of any of you come to our church during COVID?

Holy smokes, there you go.

There they are.

All right, number one, principle of scripture.

Number two, the principle of medical science.

The principle of medical science instructed me that the laws were not healthy against COVID.

Now, to say, to come against sheltering in place and against masks was not popular then.

But we did.

And I'll explain in a third principle why it didn't matter to me whether people agreed or not.

But that the statistics were showing that this was like the worst thing that we could do.

That one of the best things you could do is be outside, take zinc, get vitamin D, and I could go on and on.

And so through Pam Holloway and her work with radical resilience, we healed 3,000 people using our protocol.

And we used a lot of illegal substances.

I just want you to know that.

Um they're not illegal now and they weren't illegal before, but they were illegal during this time because Big Pharma wasn't gonna cash in.

That we could save someone's life for about the equivalent of$8.50.

And it was just so much better to have the vaccine and all the stuff that was$3,000 per dose.

So, and by the way, just so you know, um, in 1987, America was the number one in the world in healthcare.

By 2002 until to this day, we're last in industrial nations in healthcare.

We spend more money on health care than the military.

We spend more money on health care than anything else with the worst results.

We lead the world in heart disease, obesity, cancer, diabetes, and autism.

No other nation like us.

We are so pharmaceutically induced, it's unbelievable.

And you guys, if you regularly go to junk food places and fast food places, you're just full of chemicals.

And I would challenge you to just stop that.

Just stop doing that and start learning how to make your own food in a more healthy way.

That's a whole nother, I've already talked about that in the past.

Anyway, so the principle of medical science.

And then here's the third one, and this is so important: the principle of individual freedom.

The principle, you don't have to come to church.

I said to everybody at that time, look, you don't have to come.

If you're immune, compromise, don't come, watch us stream it.

It's great.

We'll do the little separation of the chairs and everything.

I think we did that for like two weeks.

And um, and if you want to wear your mask, there are people wearing masks in our church two years later.

Um, and say, fine, you you, we bless you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Wear your mask.

Wear a suit if you want to.

Look like a spaceman when you go out.

I don't care.

It's your, you know, you're protecting your body, it's fine with us.

But to make, to mandate the church should be closed, or to mandate that you have to get a vaccination, that's so un-American.

That is so wrong.

We've got brains, we can make our own decisions for ourselves.

America is a constitutional republic built on four great documents.

Number one, the Mayflower Compact.

Number two, Declaration of Independence.

Number three, Constitution, and number four, the Bill of Rights.

Truth is embodied in our national heritage from the pilgrims and the Puritans.

And in spite of our faults and failures, and there are many, we're we're legion with the mistakes that we've made.

We still have freedom of speech.

We still have freedom to worship, we still have freedom to assemble.

You can still choose the job that you want to do.

How many of you in this room have at some point in your life started a business or an LLC?

Raise your hand.

I mean, there's no nation like that.

Where we can still do that.

So there's something very unique about our country, and that's why the enemy is after our nation, and that's why there is a rise of totalitarianism in our country that we need to be aware of.

Like Rome in biblical times, totalitarianism was ruling at that time.

It's on the rise here.

I would call it soft totalitarianism.

It's not going to be like Red China, it's not going to be like Soviet Russia.

It's going to be very, very soft.

It's going to be very gradual, working.

Mainly through the universities at first.

And if you have kids that are going to secular, state-run universities, I'm just telling you, be careful.

If they're in STEM, I can understand it, but if you're not in STEM, why go to some of these colleges?

They're just indoctrinating your kids with communism and socialism, so be super, super careful.

Let me give you a definition of what I mean by totalitarianism.

Totalitarianism is a belief that the state is absolute.

A belief in a central government telling the people how to live, what to produce, and where to live.

The state is absolute, and there's no individual freedom of speech, worship, or vocation.

And you say, well, that's not true.

That's not happening in our country.

No, it is, you guys.

And I'm going to explain what I think are some of the signs of that.

Francis Schaefer said it best: if there's no absolute above the state, then the state is absolute.

If there's no God above the state, then the state becomes your God.

That's the way North Korea is right now.

That's the way Red China is today.

So there are intellectuals and elite within our systems that are doing everything they can to move us away from being a democratic republic, move us away from a constitutional republic toward totalitarianism, where the state is Lord and God.

Just like Rome was.

Okay?

So let me give you six signs.

Six signs of what I see are signs of growing soft totalitarianism, totalitarianism.

I had to do a spell check every time I wrote that in my notes.

Number one, an elite few govern.

An elite few govern.

There may be the facade of a Congress or Senate, but the real decisions are made by a select few, of whom, in most cases, they're unelected.

Most of these elite few are unelected by the people, but they're controlling the elected of the people.

Let me give you one example.

So approximately 90% of criminal cases are handled by 2,300 elected district attorneys spread across 3,143 counties in America.

The rest are prosecuted by U.S.

attorneys under the DOJ, Department of Justice.

Until recently, our elected DAs kept their part of the social contract by prosecuting criminals.

Remember our verse.

Prosecuting those who are doing evil.

They are, by the way, our gatekeeper in El Paso County, our DA is a close friend, and he's a great man, and we're blessed to have him in the place that he's at.

The gatekeepers of the criminal justice system are the DAs in all these counties across the country.

But that changed in 2015 with the launching of the billionaire George Soros-funded progressive prosecutor movement.

Progressive prosecutor movement.

This movement is animated by two core beliefs.

Number one, that the entire criminal justice system is systemically racist.

Number two, that the only way to fix it is to completely dismantle it by replacing current DAs with pro-criminal and anti-police district attorneys.

And they've been successful in about 50 to 100 elections over the last few years since 2015.

Now, it's interesting because people are starting to wake up because of what's happened in Chicago, New York, LA, and San Francisco.

So those places have become almost third world because of the lack of police protection.

Here's what's ironic is if you take a vote, if you take a survey of black and Hispanic or just minorities in the inner city, all of them want more police.

All of them want there to be safe places so their kids can go to school and all of this.

So Soros, and there's a lot of debate about what this guy's motivation is.

You know he's barred from his own country, Hungary.

Hungary figured it out.

I mean, we this guy needs to be extricated, sent to some island somewhere, and let him just hang out with his family.

But anyway, the elite few govern, that's number one.

Number two, monopolies.

Monopolies take over the democratic system of exchange of goods, and small businesses gradually get kicked out and can't compete.

A current example, I could give a lot, but one current example would be the military-industrial complex.

I mean, the billions that go into Ukraine war, Israel, all of that, basically there's six companies.

Six companies get all the money.

So you, you know, and I heard I heard Biden say this.

He said, Well, I don't know why you guys are so upset about the money going to Ukraine.

It's really going to American companies.

And that's been true really since World War II, as the military-industrial complex has built itself up to six companies.

And some of you are military contractors working for those companies.

And so, you know, that's a monopoly, man.

That's a big-time monopoly.

Now there'll be Amazon.

I mean, I'd never heard of Amazon trucks and Amazon elite, all that stuff.

I mean, I started seeing all that with Amazon Prime during COVID.

And Amazon just took over whole industries because you could buy and sell online.

Number three, censorship of free speech.

The elite began to censor free speech in order to keep the narrative of the few elite in the forefront of the governed.

So if you saw, like, here's a great example.

So probably for the last year, I've studied almost every work there is out there on the assassination of John F.

Kennedy.

Okay?

And if you still think that Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy, you need to get out more often, man.

But if you if you listen to a podcast or you see a lecture or anything like that, it'll always it'll have this little caveat down at the bottom, and then it gives you the official federal government narrative of how he was shot.

And so they're checking out you with uh fact-checking those particular podcasts.

That was never done before in our country, but now it's there, and then you look at it and you just go, what idiots.

I mean, seriously.

So you see that on everything.

So there's a gradual, it's it's it's really through social media trying to censor free speech.

Number four would be control of elections.

Totalitarian states must control the ballot box.

People, here's the thing: people will never naturally vote to be enslaved.

They will not naturally vote against freedom.

So totalitarian regimes begin to take control of the ballot box with cheating.

Um, enforcers recruited and hired.

So enforcers recruited and hired to keep people in line.

There must be a takeover of the military, the police, and intelligence agencies.

So you can't get the people to be willing to submit without martial law and guns.

And then, sixthly, a new constitution must be enacted that gives clear control to the state over the people.

That requires a new Supreme Court, new judges, and new lawyers.

Would you permit me the permission to give you the government that works?

There's one government that really works, and there's one government that gives us hope, and there's one government that's going to take over.

And that government is found in Isaiah 9:6.

Isaiah 9:6

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.

Men and women, the kingdom of God is advancing.

The kingdom of God is advancing in Red China.

The kingdom of God is advancing in North Korea.

The kingdom of God is advancing in this land, in America.

And we are moving with a kingdom of God revolution.

And that's why we're told to pray: thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

A kingdom of God revolution is the values of God's kingdom coming to earth through the citizens of the kingdom, the church, across the land.

That's what we believe in.

And God is moving with so much power.

I believe the best years in America are ahead of us.

That we're going to go through some dark times right now.

And it feels like difficult times right now, but I'm telling you, if our allegiance stays strong to the kingdom of God, we follow King Jesus, we seek his kingdom first in all that we do, whatever the earthly government, the kingdom of God takes precedence.

And these are exciting times.

Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.