Watchman Radio Hour

David Sholt: Welcome to the Watchman Radio hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon, here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Sholt, your announcer. The Watchman Radio hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker, Alex Dodson, to bring you this week's message from God's word.

Alex Dodson: For our scripture reading today, let us turn to the book of Acts. And we will begin reading in verse 27 of chapter 5. The book of Acts, chapter 5 and verse 27. Let us hear the word of God. Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said. And yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men.

Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you have given to us. We thank you that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. And now, oh Father, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Is the government of a nation the highest law of the land? If the government makes a pronouncement or passes a law, should it be obeyed or agreed with without question as the highest authority of the land? It is true that we as Christian citizens should obey those who rule over us and accept their leadership over us.

This is biblical and this is right. However, if our government expresses an opinion or passes a law that is contrary to the law of God, we must submit ourselves to the higher law, which is God's. Today we as a nation are seeking to do what is right in our own eyes. We have become a law unto ourselves. We have taken God's law and put it aside. We have substituted our own law. Our forefathers recognized that there was a higher law. They recognized that our government was under God, not over God. They believed that so they believed that so much that they put in God we trust on our coins, showing that the government who printed those coins recognized the higher law.

Today we as a nation are recognizing. Today as we as a nation are not recognizing that higher law, and we are putting ourselves in great danger of the wrath of God upon us as a people. There is a higher moral law. And if we disregard it as a people, we will face the judgment of a judgment of God for our actions. God brings nations under judgment who disobey his law. The church must be a prophet to the government. We cannot allow our government to pronounce opinions or pass laws contrary to God's law and remain silent.

The apostles were told that what they were doing was wrong. They were forbidden by the Jewish rulers to preach the gospel. They disagreed with their rulers and told them so. And they refused to acknowledge a ruling that disagreed with the higher law of God. Our text for today is Acts 5 and verse 29 which says, Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men. God's law is higher than man's law. The fact is that there is a higher law. What our government and president say must be subject to that higher law.

Even if they don't recognize that higher law, we must let them know when they are wrong. No government can say something is right when the Bible says it's wrong and get away with it. That government must be told they are wrong. We cannot remain silent and be faithful to our calling as the church. We are entrusted with the word of God and must proclaim it to our generation. And that includes the government. All are subjects to God's higher law. No nation is exempt from that law. Let us see in the first place the apostles and the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body, ordered something contrary to God 's law. In Acts 4, beginning in verse 1, it says the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed and the number of men grew to about 5,000.

The next day the rulers, elders, and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas, the high priest, was there and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the other men of the high priest's family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them. By what power or what name did you do this? After Peter and John defended themselves and proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, they the Jewish leaders said asked what are we going to do with these men? Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle and we cannot deny it.

But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name. And then they called them called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. And after further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened.

For the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old. Peter and John knew that the Jewish leaders were wrong in asking them to be silent and not preach the gospel. They knew that there was a higher law which came from God that told them to proclaim the gospel for all to hear. They had no choice but to disagree with the Jewish government over them and to obey that higher law. F. F. Bruce writes, with such a proclamation to make, the apostles could do no other than insist as they had done before that they may must obey God rather than men.

The authority of the Sanhedrin was great, but greater still was the authority of him who had commissioned them to make this good news known. And then Bruce goes on to say they recalled Peter and John and acquainted them with their decision. A complete ban was imposed on any further public mention of the name of Jesus. If they thought that any heed would be paid to this ban, they were quickly disillusioned. Peter and John had probably never heard of Socrates and had certainly never read Plato's apology. But they gave the same sort of answer as Socrates gave when he was offered his release on condition that he gave up the pursuit of truth and wisdom.

He said, I shall obey God rather than you. It is of course the sort of answer that any man or principle will give if he is offered his freedom, provided that he desists from what his conscience knows to be right. But what weighed most of all with the apostles was their personal commitment to God as witnesses to Christ in the gospel. If the point were to put these judges in the abstract whether the command of God or a human commandment should be obeyed in the event of a clash between the two, they would have had no hesitation in affirming that the divine command must be obeyed at all costs.

Right, said Peter and John, we cannot stop telling what we have seen and heard. The apostles put God's law first. They disobeyed the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling body. Now we read in Acts chapter 5 beginning to in verse 27 where it says, having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man 's blood. Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men.

The God of our forefathers raised Jesus from the dead whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.

And then he addressed them, men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared claiming to be somebody and about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed and all his followers were dispersed and it all came to nothing. And after him Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed and all his followers were scattered. And therefore in the present case I advise you, leave these men alone. Let them go for if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.

But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God. His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged and then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. And day after day in the temple courts and from house to house they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. The apostles recognized the higher law.

They refused to disobey it and they defied the pronouncement of the Sanhedrin. John Gill writes, we ought to obey God rather than men. This is said in answer to the charge of disobedience to the orders and commands of the council. Men, civil magistrates, and ecclesiastical rulers ought to be obeyed in things which are not repugnant to the will of God. But in things that are, God is to be obeyed and not men. God had commanded by an angel that the apostles should go to the temple and there preach the doctrines of the gospel. The Sanhedrin had forbidden them to speak and teach in the name of Christ.

Who were now to be obeyed? God and not men. From whence it appears that the apostles were to be justified in disregarding the council and neglecting its orders and which is no way in no ways contrary to that obedience and submission that is to be yielded to those that are in authority in things civil and lawful. We should obey the governing authorities over us as much as is possible. Yet when the pronouncements and laws of the governing authorities are in opposition to God's higher law, we have no choice but to obey God rather than man.

This was the choice the apostles made and they were right. And then let us see in the second place God's moral law. God's moral law is summed up in the Ten Commandments and the Bible. The moral law of God is no secret. It is summed up in the Ten Commandments and expounded upon throughout the Bible. Our forefathers recognized this higher law. They respected the Ten Commandments and the Bible. It's not hard to find the evidence for this in the writings of our founders, in the forefathers of this nation. They recognized a higher law, a law that came from God.

This generation is wrong to cast aside the Ten Commandments as we have done. Our government has cast them out of the schools and public places and combined them to the inside of our church buildings. In essence, our government through its laws and pronouncements has rejected the law of God and is doing what is right in its own eyes. And then let us see that God's moral law is higher and more important than man's laws. And therefore we must at all times put his law first. In the old Geneva Bible, note one on this verse, verse 29 says, we ought to obey no man, but so far forth as obeying him, we may obey God.

Our conscience is bound to the law of God. To disobey that law is wrong. Therefore, where man's law disagrees with God's law, man's law is wrong. John Calvin, the great reformer, writes, but as soon as governors lead us away from obedience to God, seeing that they enter into conflict with God impiously and boldly, they must be put in their place so that God and his authority may stand supreme. Then all the fumes of their office will vanish, for God does not think men worthy of titles of honor and order that they may obscure his own glory.

Therefore, if a father who is not content with his own station tries to take from God the highest honor his father, then he is a man and nothing else. If a king or a prince or a magistrate extols himself so much that he minimizes the honor and authority of God, he is nothing but a man. The same thoughts must also hold true for pastors, for anyone who goes beyond anyone who goes beyond his function because he sets himself up against God must be stripped of the title of his office in case he may strike, oppose, and deceive.

The office of a pastor is honorable, the authority of the church great, but yet not so as to detract from the power of God in headship of Christ. God's moral law must be supreme. We cannot live in a as a nation and defy the laws of God and survive as a nation. When we reject the law of God, we are rejecting God himself. When we do that, we are putting ourselves in a dangerous position. If we as the church remain silent and allow our governing authorities to reject the law of God, then we as the church are wrong because we did not speak up and put and be a prophet to the nation.

And then let us see in the third place our highest allegiance is to God's law. We must obey God's law first. Our supreme allegiance is not to the government, but to God. John Calvin writes, this is the main point of the defense that men must indeed are bound to put God before men. God commands us to bear witness to Christ. Therefore it is in vain for you to order us to be silent. God sets men over us with power in such a way that he keeps his own authority unimpaired. Therefore we must do the will of those who rule over us to the extent that the authority of God is not violated.

When the use of power is legitimate, the comparison between God and man is in opportune. If the government submits itself to God, then the citizen should have no problem in obeying and agreeing with the pronouncement of the government. However, if the government thinks of itself as supreme and does not recognize the supremacy of God and his law, then that government is wrong. If its pronouncements are contrary to the law of God, then it cannot be submitted to or agreed with. God's law is supreme. Governments are not greater than God. A nation that tries to divorce itself from God and his law will be judged.

Psalm 119:126 says it is time for you to act, oh Lord, your law is being broken. When a nation breaks the law of God and shakes its fist in the face of God, it will face the consequences. Matthew Henry writes, they justified themselves in their disobedience to the commands of the great Sanhedrin, great as it was. We ought to obey God rather than men. They do not plead the power they had to work miracles. This spoke sufficiently for them and therefore they humbly decline mentioning it it themselves. But they appeal to a maxim universally own, which even natural conscience subscribes to and which comes home to their case.

God had commanded them to teach in the name of Christ. Therefore they ought to do it. Though the chief priests forbade them, those rulers set up in opposition to God and have a great deal to answer for who punish men for disobedience to them in that which is their duty to God. The church through its preachers as the prophetic role of telling the president or the government when it is out of accord with the law of God. This is exactly what John the Baptist, the prophet of God, did. In Matthew 14 and verse 1 it says, at that time Herod the tetrarch heard about Jesus.

And he said to his attendants, this is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. That is why miraculous powers are at work in him. Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. For John had been saying to him, it's not lawful for you to have her. Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people because they considered him a prophet. John recognized the immorality of Herod's taking his brother Philip's wife. He is a prophet of God told Herod he was wrong.

The church today through its preachers has a prophetic role in this nation to tell the leaders of our nation that they are wrong when they disobey the law of God. In the early days of this nation, the preachers had a powerful voice in the land. And they were prophets to the nation. Daniel Dorchester in his book, Christianity in the United States, pointed out the role of preachers in the American Revolution and their influence on the colonies for years before. He writes from his perspective in 1888 saying, the annual election sermons widely promoted the study of political ethics which had become a prominent feature in New England history in the middle of the last century and laid the foundation for that earnestness which consciousness of right begets and those appeals to principle which distinguished the colonies.

The highest glory of the American Revolution in the estimation of honorable John Quincy Adams was the ripe fruitage of this old custom. It connected with one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. Sermons were preached, religion and politics were closely united and with Bible and bayonets they entered into the struggle of the Revolution. This was the secret of that moral energy which sustained the Republic in its material weakness against superior numbers and discipline and all the power of England. To these sermons the state affixed its imprimatur. And thus they were handed down to future generations with a twofold claim to respect.

But today our nation rejects such sermons if they are preached at all. We're on a fast course to secularize the nation and completely separate it from God and his law. Yet the church does have a prophetic role through its preachers to speak out against immorality in the nation and speak out against the government and its officials who condone immoral acts. The church through its preachers need to follow the example of John the Baptist who had no fear of condemning an immoral act by a government official. He spoke out as a prophet and he was heard though the government rejected his pronouncement and put him to death.

Today we as the church must not be silent when God's law is trampled underfoot in this land. We must speak out. We must let our voice be heard. The apostles could have yielded to the Sanhedrin and been silent. If they had, the church would have died in its infancy and we would not be preaching this sermon today. But they were not silent and they did speak out and they honored God rather than man. Our highest allegiance is to God's law. God's law reigns supreme. God is there and he will not be silent. We must call our nation to repentance for its sins before it's too late.

But what about you today? Have you disobeyed God's moral law? Have you shaken your fist in the face of God? Then you must repent and turn from your sin against God and his law. Turn in sorrow from your sin to Christ. He will forgive you and receive you. Repent at once and come back to the Lord and follow him. Our Father in heaven, we do pray today for our nation. We know that our sins are piled up to heaven. But we pray, oh Lord, that you would yet have mercy upon this land for the sake of our forefathers, for the sake of the remnant that honors you today.

We pray that you would send another great awakening like you did before. We pray that you will pour out your spirit in great convicting power all over this land. We pray that a great morning, a great weeping will go up in the land as people all over the land come under great conviction of sin. And then we pray that the nation as a whole from the top on down will repent and turn back to you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

David Sholt: We hope this week's podcast has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions about Mr. Dodson's message, please write us. You may email us at info@watchmanradio.org. Our mailing address is Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon 97213. That's Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251, Portland, Oregon 97213. You may listen to this broadcast at any time on the internet at www.oneplace.com. In the list of ministries, just select the Watchman Radio hour. This week's program and previous programs are always available there for listening. Our web address is www.watchmanradio.org. That's w a t c h m e n radio .org.

www.watchmanradio.org.