Civil Government: Magistracy, Authority, and Romans 13: Authority

Spiritual Fornication - Part 2

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Civil Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2014-05-20

Synopsis: John Weaver continues his study on spiritual fornication, focusing on civil and governmental fornication. Using 2 Chronicles 21 and 1 Samuel 8, he argues that rejecting God's law in favor of man's law is spiritual adultery. He explains that all government is covenantal, and when a nation rejects God as king and lawgiver, it embraces a pagan law system, leading to tyranny, oppression, and judgment. He applies these principles to modern America, warning that the same judgment that fell on Israel will come upon any nation that commits governmental fornication.

[John Weaver] Father, we are thankful tonight for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His Word and for His truth. We ask, Father, for Your blessing tonight. Help us to live for Thee. Help us to learn. Help us to consider Thy Word and apply it in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen. Well, let's begin again tonight where we left off last night. So let's open our Bibles, if you would, to 2 Chronicles chapter 21.

[John Weaver] And we're going to be looking at verses 10 through 13 again. In fact, we will look more closely at 2 Chronicles 21.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just tell you some of the information that I'm going to give you tonight. Some of you may be familiar with it, however. You may not be familiar with it from this perspective because we're still talking about spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. You know. When you start thinking About spiritual fornication. And you think scripturally. It involves so many areas of life, it is almost. Unbelievable. I'm only just named three. I'm only going to cover one tonight, but I covered last night. Spiritual fornication and theology and ideology. I want you to see something tonight And I want you to see spiritual fornication in reference to civil and the governmental sphere. What I'm not going to be able to cover is there is also a spiritual fornication in relationship to economics and commercialism. You have to remember that in Revelation chapter 17, there's not only a religious Babylon, but when you get Revelation 18, there's also a commercial Babylon as well.

[John Weaver] And so let's look, if you would, in 2 Chronicles 21, beginning there with verse 10. Remember, this is King Joram that we're speaking of. The Bible says, So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libna revolt from under his hand because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. Movri made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and compels you to thereto. And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the way of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and hast also slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself.

[John Weaver] I pointed out last night that everything begins with a theological and ideological fornication. The truth is absolutely plain. Whenever we err theologically, we're going to be erring in a vast number of arenas. Theological fornication always precedes a change in culture and also a change in our lives and a change in society. So you have to understand that our theology or our lack of theology affects every area of our life.

[John Weaver] We do what we do because we believe what we believe. Or we do what we do because we don't have any theology, we don't understand. The Bible says in John 8, our Lord said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. If you don't know the truth very obviously you are not free. Our Lord also said in Hosea 4, maybe we'll get to look at it a little bit later in verse 6, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

[John Weaver] So when we do not take the Word of God seriously, then we're going to be in serious trouble. Theological fornication always leads to fornication in other areas as well. One such area that we have never really considered in this light is the civil and governmental area. When you look at the Scripture, you're going to find that God considers an ungodly and reprobate civil government as fornication spiritual fornication the Bible tells us in 2nd Kings chapter 18 verse 18 you don't have to turn there I'll show it to you in 2nd Chronicles 21 as well but the Bible tells us in 2nd Kings 18 verse 18 that Joram did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of the house of Ahab Now, you've got to remember that Ahab was the husband of Jezebel, and Ahab was one of the most wicked, vile kings of the northern kingdom. In fact, he's classified as the most wicked. The most wicked king in the southern kingdom was Manasseh, but Ahab is the most wicked king in the northern kingdom.

[John Weaver] Now, the interesting thing about Jehoram is this. He came from a good stock. His father was King Jehoshaphat. There was a great revival that took place under King Jehoshaphat. His grandfather was King Asa. Asa was a godly man. Both Jehoshaphat and Asa not only were godly men, they had godly rules. So the question you have to ask is this. What went wrong? How could such godly men And godly rulers produce such an ungodly and wicked, reprobate son and grandson. Well, if you'll look in 2 Chronicles 21, at verses 5 and 6, you're going to find out exactly where his perversity and depravity came from. Mainly, notice if you would, 2 Chronicles 21, verse 5, Jehoram was 32 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

[John Weaver] Now look, And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab. Why? For he had the daughter of Ahab to wife. And he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord. So Jehoram had married Athaliah, who was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehoram was so wicked and so vile He murdered his own brothers just so that he could solidify his own kingdom. If you look in 2 Chronicles 21, after you look at verse 2, all of his brothers are named.

[John Weaver] The Bible says in verse 3, And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things with fence, it is in Judah. But the kingdom gave he to Joram, because he was his firstborn. Now when Joram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also the princes of the house of Israel. So, interestingly enough, Joram now has murdered his own brothers. as well as many other godly princes as well. Consequently, when Ahaziah died, Ahaziah was the son of Joram and Athaliah. When Ahaziah died, Joram's wife, Athaliah, did a very ungrandmotherly thing. She murdered all of her grandchildren.

[John Weaver] with the exception of one and the only reason she didn't murder him was because he was hidden. Notice if you would, whole 2nd Chronicles, we're coming back there, but look in 2nd Kings chapter 11. 2nd Kings chapter 11. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. 2nd Kings chapter 11 in verse 1. This is what Athaliah did. And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehoshibah, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from the king's sons which were slain, and they hid him Even him and his nurse in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hidden in the house of the Lord for six years, and Athaliah did reign over the land. So Athaliah then murdered all of her grandchildren, except one, and she would have gotten him had he not been hidden from her. Wow.

[John Weaver] You're talking about a wife I would not want and a grandmother I would not care to have. That was Athaliah, that is for sure.

[John Weaver] Now, before we go any further, let me just point out several truths here. First, I could point out this. It does matter who you marry. It does matter who you marry. Because Jorah married wrong, he may have already been depraved and may have already been wicked, but his wife even made him more wicked. The same thing with Jezebel. The Bible says that Jezebel provoked Ahab to more evil. So it does matter who you marry. That is important. But the one that I really want to emphasize right now is just simply this. I want you to understand, godly men do not always produce godly children. Jehoshaphat was a godly man.

[John Weaver] He was the father of Joram. Asa was the grandfather. He was a godly man. And yet here you have Joram who turned out to be an absolute reprobate. I have to tell you about Reverend Isaac Case. Reverend Isaac Case died at the age of 91 on November 3, 1852. Right after the American War for Independence, he actually was really preaching and teaching in Maine, and he was centered around Reedfield, Maine. He started Baptist churches in Reedfield and in Thomaston, Maine, and he was very active in the ministry up until his death at age of 91.

[John Weaver] He baptized, I don't know how many people, a countless number. In those days, you did not count a convert unless he was baptized and added to the church. So he baptized a lot. He started several churches as well. In 1904, Dr. A.R. Crane presented a paper to the Maine Baptist Missionary Convention entitled, The Baptist Ministers in Maine from 1804 to 1904. And he mentioned Isaac Case in this paper as one of the leading Baptist preachers of that era. He also said that he heard Isaac Case preach when he was an old man.

[John Weaver] And he had this to say. He said, Isaac Case, as an old man, not only had a tremendous grasp of Scripture, but had as much power with God as any man that he had ever known, even when he was an old man. But he said there was one thing he could not understand. And that was why Isaac Case's grown son, did not darken the doorway of the church. He said, I could not understand, I know this is a godly man, a man that had power, a man that had preached for years and evidently his son is unconverted, won't even darken the doorway of the church. And so Dr. Crane then asked Case's grown son why he did not attend church. And although Case's son was unconverted. Yet he had a pretty good grasp of theology. Because when Dr. Crane asked him why he did not attend church, he said this.

[John Weaver] Grace is not a hereditary, depravity is. Grace is not a hereditary, depravity is. So he said, I'm depraved. That's what he was saying. And I got it from my father and my mother. Grace is not hereditary, but depravity is. Do you realize all a godly person can do is pray for their children, witness of their children, lead their children, teach their children, but only God can save them. So godly men do not always produce godly children.

[John Weaver] The next truth I want to emphasize right here is this, and it's equally plain. We reap that which we sow.

[John Weaver] Now that is not only true individually, familially, and ecclesiastically, it is also true nationally. No one escapes this principle. God said, be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that sought the flesh of the flesh shall reap corruption. He that sought the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

[John Weaver] Now, what did Joram do? Joram had no mercy upon his own family. He murdered his brothers. And he had no mercy upon the nation because he compelled them into idolatry. He forced them. Undoubtedly, many of them wanted to as well, but he did force them into idolatry. So, basically, he destroyed not only his family and his nation. And if you will look in your Bibles, whole 2 Chronicles, but turn to the book of Hosea chapter 1, right after the book of Daniel, Hosea. Look in Daniel, Hosea, Hosea chapter 1, and I want you to see what God says. When you look in Hosea, You have to remember that Hosea married Gomer, who was an unfaithful wife. And God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer because his marriage was to be a picture of what Israel had done to God. So if you look in Hosea 1 in verse 2, the Bible says, the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said, Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms.

[John Weaver] Why? For the land, or the nation and the people, have committed great whoredom departing from the Lord."

[John Weaver] Now, you're going to have to ask yourself this question, and I hope we're going to answer it tonight. How did Israel depart from the Lord? It was not just theologically and ideologically. That was just the foundation. But skip down, if you would please, to verse 6, because here we're talking about one of the children, and here's what God says concerning the children. or this child particularly, and she conceived again and bear a daughter, and God said unto him, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away." I'm going to destroy them. You destroyed your family. You destroyed the nation. I'm going to destroy you.

[John Weaver] You reap what you sow. That's true nationally, just like it is true individually. The next principle I want to emphasize tonight is that covenants are binding. Covenants are binding. You see, God basically married Israel. Israel was considered as a wife to the Lord. In fact, she was considered as joined to him as a husband. Thus, when she committed idolatry, She was then guilty of spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. It was adultery against Jehovah.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to look back in 2 Chronicles chapter 21 and notice if you would please what the Bible says in verse 11 concerning Joram. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah. and cause the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and compel Judah thereto." So, Joram then, who married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab in Jezebel, not only permitted Baal worship and Asherah worship and all types of idolatry into the land, he compelled, he forced the people into idolatry. Thus, this new governmental religion then was considered spiritual fornication or spiritual adultery.

[John Weaver] By the way, let me just point something out to you. When the Bible talks about groves, you're going to read how Ahab built a grove and Manasseh put groves in the house of the Lord. Anytime you see the word grove in the Bible, in the Old Testament, with the exception of Genesis 22 and verse 31. When the Bible says that Abraham planted a grove, that is a grove of trees. We talk about a pecan grove or a pecan orchard or a peach orchard or a peach grove. When we hear the word grove, we think of a grove of trees. Now that's what Abraham planted in Genesis 22 and verse 31. But any time else when the word grove is used in the entire Old Testament, It's a totally different word, it's the word Asherah, which was a sex goddess, part of Baal worship. So all of these groves are not trees that are being planted by some king, they are idolatry.

[John Weaver] So thus you have, in 2 Chronicles 21, a new governmental religion. Now, stop and think. Do we have a governmental religion today? Oh, yeah. And I'm not just going to call it humanism. Sure, it's humanism, but it is a governmental religion of political correctness. That will become more conveniently known in just a moment.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you something, I just said covenants are binding. When you look at your Bible, you usually see Old Testament, New Testament. Do you realize the word Testament just simply means covenant? Old Covenant, New Covenant. We are still a covenantal people. We're still bound by a covenant. And it is just as easy to violate a covenant today with God as it was in the Old Testament. So, tonight I want you to see civil, and governmental fornication, and I want you to understand it from this perspective. You've got to remember, all government is covenantal in nature. I don't care if we're talking about our family, our church, or our nation. Husbands and wives are engaged in covenants.

[John Weaver] Children are basically covenantally obligated to their parents as well. Parents are covenantally obligated to their children. When you come to the church, you're covenantally obligated to that church. I don't care whether you have a covenant up on the wall or not, that's immaterial. There is a covenant based upon the Word of God. All government is covenantal in nature, including civil government.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn whole 2 Chronicles 21 But turn very quickly to Romans chapter 13. I am not going to preach this chapter. I've done so a multitude of times past, but I want to just show you something just to refresh your mind for just a few minutes before I go further. I want you to notice, if you would, verses 1 and 2, first and foremost, of Romans chapter 13, where God says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. the powers that be that are ordained of God. Now, look what he says. Verse two, whosoever therefore resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive of themselves damnation or condemnation. Now, when he says in verse one, let every soul be subject to the higher powers, the word powers there is exousia, which literally means authorities or jurisdictions or power. He says there is no authority but that which is of God. If anyone has any authority at all, I don't care if you're talking about a husband, I don't care if you're talking about a pastor, I don't care if you're talking about a Congress, anyone who has any authority at all, God established it.

[John Weaver] That's why he said in verse 2, it is the ordinance of God. Now, let me just answer this question for you. I hope you're asking, why then did God establish civil government? Well, look very quickly at verse 4. He's talking about the civil ruler here. In fact, go back to verse 3. He says, For rulers are not adhered to good works, but to the evil. But wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, thou shalt have praise of the same. So we're talking about civil rulers. Now watch in verse 4. For he, the civil ruler, is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid.

[John Weaver] For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

[John Weaver] Now twice in verse 4, the civil ruler or the government is referred to as a minister. The Greek word is deikonos, it's where we get our English word deacon and it just literally means servant. So God ordained civil government to be his deacon or to be his servant. If you look in verse 4 also, the civil ruler is called a revenger. The word revenger is ekdikos in the Greek Ek is a preposition which means out of or from, and tachias is righteousness. Literally, he is to exact God's righteousness. He's to draw out that righteousness. So why did God ordain civil government? Number one, to be His servant. Number two, to be His exactor of righteousness. It is not government that determines right and wrong. It is God that determines right and wrong. It is not government that determines what is just. It is God that determines what is just. Government is to ordain by God to exact His justice and His righteousness. When you look in verse 6, he says this,"...for this cause pay you tribute also, for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing."

[John Weaver] Now, the word ministers there is a different word from deaconess in verse 4. In verse 6, it's the word liturgoi, or liturgos, which is the singular. It is where we get our English word liturgy from. What is a liturgy? A liturgy is a public form of worship. Every church has a liturgy. You say, Brother Weaver, I go to Baptist church. We don't have liturgies. Oh, yes, you do.

[John Weaver] You open in prayer, you sing hymns, you receive an offering, you hear preaching, you have a closing hymn. That's a liturgy. A liturgy is just a public form of worship. So why did God ordain civil government? Number one, to be his deacon, his servant. Number two, to be his exactor of righteousness. And number three, to be his public worship. Wow.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to understand something. Even in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament here, government is shown to be covenantal in nature. So I want you to go back in your Bibles, first of all, to 2 Kings chapter 11. Then we're going to 2 Chronicles 23. So go to 2 Kings chapter 11, and let me show you what Jehoiada the high priest did. 2 Kings chapter 11, and look in verse 17. In fact, when you talk about covenants in relationship to government, actually there are two different ones. They're both related, but they're two different covenants. Notice if you would, 2 Kings chapter 11 and verse 17. The Bible says this, And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people that they should be the Lord's people." Now watch, between the king also and the people. So here's two covenants. John the High Priest made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people that they should be the Lord's people. So in this first covenant, the king agreed to be God's king.

[John Weaver] And the people agreed to be God's people. That's the first covenant. Here's the second covenant. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. Now, in that covenant, the king agreed to rule faithfully and the people agreed to obey him as long as he did. It's just that simple. If you look in 2 Chronicles chapter 23 and verse 16, you'll see the same exact truth. 2 Chronicles 23 and verse 16. The Bible says that Jehoiada made a covenant between him, that is God, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people.

[John Weaver] By the way, when our country was first founded, if you will go back, and I have on my computer at home, and I've preached this in several different sermons, where I quote from the original charters and constitutions, where every colony, which it would now be every state initially, of the 13, all of them covenanted to be God's people. In fact, as liberal as Massachusetts is, originally it says the laws of this colony shall be the laws of God as given through Moses. The judicial laws of Moses are the laws of this colony. You will find we entered, our forefathers did, entered into a covenant with God. Even if you disregard all of the original history, when you look at our Constitution, whether you like it or not, Whether you agree with it or not is immaterial. The truth of the matter is the Constitution is a covenant between the people and the government. Where the government agrees to rule constitutionally and the people agree to obey as long as they do rule constitutionally.

[John Weaver] I'm just now preaching two messages on the essence of rebellion. And in my first message, I show, quoting the Supreme Court, and I'm Juror 16, where no one is obligated to obey an unconstitutional law. Where even the Supreme Court says it is unconstitutional from its inception. You do not have to wait for a court to say, well, this is unconstitutional. No. It is not binding on anyone, any unconstitutional. Why?

[John Weaver] Because the Constitution is a type of covenant. Now, I want you to turn to First Samuel, Chapter 8. I want you to just hold that passage, please. I'm going to tell you something about First Samuel, Chapter 8. And we're going to come back in just a moment and read some scriptures here. Before I do, I want to give you some things to consider before we look at First Samuel, Chapter 8.

[John Weaver] Now that you understand that government is covenantal in nature, you're going to see this even more clearly from this passage. You're going to see, I hope, how Israel got out from under God and his kingdom and got under man and man's kingdom. You're going to see the same thing that happened in America as well.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you this. I'm going to repeat this in just a little bit. I will repeat it. But I want you to understand this. The only way that you can understand 1 Samuel chapter 8 is to see it or to view it as a transition from one law structure to another law structure. You're going to see that whenever there is a change in rulers, there is a change in law. If you can always remember this, a king rules by his law. If the king is changed, The law has changed. OK, now let me give you several things to consider before we look at 1st Samuel Chapter 8. I want you to hold 1st Samuel 8, but go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy Chapter 6 because I want you to see this. The very first thing that you need to consider before we look at 1st Samuel Chapter 8. Is that we must understand that God is one and His law is one. God is one and his law is one so you can say it like this one God.

[John Weaver] One law. Now look in Deuteronomy chapter 6 beginning there with verse four. By the way, verse four is known as the Shema Israel. If you go to any Orthodox synagogue. I'm not asking you or advising you to, but if you went to an Orthodox synagogue, Usually you would hear something like this to my Israel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai our God and all they're saying is this hero Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. That's what that verse says. Look at it hero Israel the Lord our God is one Lord notice since he is one. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy might and these words. Which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, one Lord, one law. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

[John Weaver] And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." God says, I am one. And my law is one, one God, one law. We live in a universe and not in a multiverse. So let me put it like this. God is one, his law is one, and his law is the absolute standard. To which man must conform. Now listen. Israel, if Israel in the Old Testament or New Testament Israel, they could not and we cannot leave God or His law without committing spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. Because God is one and His law is one.

[John Weaver] Now, when someone tries to say, That can't possibly be true, but it is true. You see, the only way that you can deny that statement is by asserting polytheism, which is many gods or some system of evolution. If you try to say, well, God is one, but his law is no longer valid. Oh, well, what happened? Did we change gods? Or did God evolve? Or did God get smarter? What happened? The Bible says in Romans chapter 7 and verse 12 that we know that the law is holy, just, and good. You see, any time you try to say that God and or His law has been replaced, you can't help but either admit to either polytheism or some form of evolutionism. It's just that simple. God said in Malachi 3 and verse 6, I the Lord changed not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

[John Weaver] So in systematic theology books, we read about the immutability of God, the unchangeableness of God. God does not change. You say, but Brother Weaver, in this day and age, we're saved by grace. Well, let me tell you, they were saved by grace in the Old Testament. Anytime anybody's ever been saved, it's been by grace. But you know what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches the proper response to grace is obedience to God's law.

[John Weaver] That's why He said in John 14, verse 21, He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth Me. You get down to verse 24, He that keepeth not My sayings, loveth Me not. When you get to verse John 5 and verse 3, and this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And they're not grievous unto us. The response to grace, even in the New Testaments, is obedience to God's law. So here's the principle. One God, one law. Secondly, you have to understand this, that all law is religious. All law is religious. That even includes man's law. Man's law is religious.

[John Weaver] Now, it may not be the Christian religion, It may be a humanistic religion, but it is religious. We know that God's law is true and accurate, and it is religious in this sense of the word, because it proceeds from God Himself. Man's law is also religious, even though it may not be true or accurate. Well, how can man's law be religious? Because behind every law that man issues is a determination of what is right and wrong, good or bad, fit or unfit, just or unjust. And when a man says, aha, this is a good law, what is he saying? He's giving a religious determination of what he considers to be good. So you cannot have an unreligious law. All law is religious. It may be humanistic, but it's still religious. It could be atheistic, but it's still religious. Humanism is religion. Atheism is religion.

[John Weaver] Cults, isms, and scisms are all religions. No matter who issues a law, it is a religious law. And when you hear some politician come up and say, well, we're unbiased and we're not going to force religion upon anyone, that's exactly what they're doing when they say that. They're forcing their non-religion or their humanistic religion upon someone. Okay? Now, Law, no matter whose law it is, law governs man and society. And law then establishes and declares what is just and right in the eyes of the lawgiver. So if God issues His law, He's the one declaring what is just and right. If the law comes from man, man is the one that is declaring what is just and right. Okay?

[John Weaver] Here's the third thing for you to consider. There can be no disestablishment of religion per se. There can be no disestablishment of religion. If you say, well, we're not going to go by the Ten Commandments, we're not going to go by the Bible. We're going to disestablish that. No, you're not disestablishing religion. You may be kicking out the Christian religion, but you are establishing in itself and instead of humanistic religion, you're just simply trading religions.

[John Weaver] I hope you understand that is basically what has happened in this country. We have changed religion. You see, no society, no culture can exist without a law system, without a system of law. We have to have law. The question is, whose law will we have? Because it is our law system that determines morality.

[John Weaver] Fourth, you need to consider this. The source of one's law is his God. The source of one's law is his God. If you can discover the source of the law of a society, you can discover. Who the God of that society really is, when archaeologists go digging around those ancient ruins, one of the first things they want to discover is their source of law. Because if they can ascertain the source of law, they can figure out who they worshipped and what their God was or who their God was. So if you try to tell me, Brother Weaver, I don't need the Bible. I'm a rational, cool-headed, level-headed, thinking individual, and I can reason things out in my mind. Well, your reason is your God. Your rationality is your God. That's why they called it the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, because men rejected the Word of God and depended upon their reason. You say, well, I don't have to tell or figure out anything, because those nine black robe justices up on the Supreme Court, they declare what law is.

[John Weaver] Oh, well, then they're your gods. The source of your law is basically your God. I'm going to show you that from the Bible in just a moment. So here it is. If we acknowledge God as our God, then His law is in our lives. And if we look to His law as a source for governing our lives, then we're acknowledging Him as our God. If we look to the state, if we look to the federal government, then of course we're acknowledging them as our God. I want you to understand that modern day humanism and modern day political correctness always locates law in the state. And when I say state, I'm talking about not just like the state of South Carolina or the state of Georgia, but the federal government or the state.

[John Weaver] It doesn't matter, statism, it's all referring to basically the same thing. Let me just show you. It was Hegel who said, the state incarnates the divine idea upon the earth. Let me paraphrase that. He said the state is God walking on earth. Well, the German philosopher Johann Fichte said this. The state is the supreme power, ultimate and beyond repeal, absolutely independent. Oh, the state is absolute and beyond repeal.

[John Weaver] Hitler said it like this. The state dominates the nation because it alone represents the nation. Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, said this, the state embraces everything and nothing has value outside of the state. The state creates right. You want to know why we have abortion in this country and why most people think That abortion is not murder and abortion is not sin? Because the state said it's not sin. The state said it's not murder. The state creates right. So ask yourself, how did we arrive at our state of political correctness? How did we arrive at the stage in this country where everything has to be done in favor of government? How did we get to the point in this country where it is now government that determines right and wrong, good and evil, what is just and what is unjust.

[John Weaver] If you've never read anything by Albert J. Nock, I would encourage you to do so. Nock has written a book and one was written more, but one is entitled Our Enemy the State. In fact, there's a Nockean society, N-O-C-K is its last name, Albert J. Nocke. And here's what he said. If you understand statism, if you understand humanism, listen to what he said.

[John Weaver] Now you can understand abortion and everything else in this country. Nocke said, in this view, that is in the statist view, there is no other criterion of right and wrong but the approval or disapproval of the state. There is no criterion of justice between man and man except the interest of the state. If what one man does to another affects the state favorably, it is just, even fraud, arson, theft, and murder.

[John Weaver] If unfavorably, it is unjust." Wow! Do you realize that is the thinking? of the federal government today. That's the thinking of most state governments. Everything has to be done for the state. And if it's done for the state, then it's fine no matter what it is. Well, I want you to consider these things as we look at 1st Samuel chapter 8. I want you to go there and I want you to see literally how civil and governmental fornication developed. It's been before 1st Samuel chapter 8, but this is just a very good, clear illustration of it. So look in 1st Samuel chapter 8 and we're going to begin reading with verse 4. And I want to read through verse 20. All right, look in 1st Samuel chapter 8 verse 4. Think about these things I've just shared with you as we look at this. 1st Samuel 8 verse 4. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways.

[John Weaver] Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in awe that they say unto thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

[John Weaver] According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice, albeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that ask of him a king. And he said, this will be the manner of king that shall reign over you.

[John Weaver] He will take your sons and appoint them for himself and for his chariots to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots. that he will appoint him captains over thousands, captains over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots, and he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, to be cooks, and to be bakers, and he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants, And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. And he will take your men's servants and your maidservants and your goodly shunned men and your asses and put them to his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep, and you shall be his servants.

[John Weaver] And you shall cry out in that day because of your king, which you shall have chosen you. And the Lord will not hear you in that day." Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us. that we also may be like all the nations, and that our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."

[John Weaver] Now, if you examine this passage closely, you're going to find and discover the root of statism and also the root of civil and governmental fornication. I want you to note several things in this passage. First of all, there was a theocratic rejection. Theos is the Greek word for God. Kratos is the Greek word for power. So theocratic just simply means the rule or the reign of God. By virtue of God's power, that's what it means. So there was a theocratic rejection. Look in verse 7.

[John Weaver] And the Lord said in Samuel, hearken to the voice of the people and all that they say to thee. For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Now, when they realized that Samuel was old, and his sons were not walking in his ways, they came and they said, make us a king. Make us a king. Now, I want you to note, if you would please, they didn't ask Samuel, pray and ask the Lord what he would have, or ask the Lord to raise us up another prophet like yourself. No. Didn't say that. They just said we only came. And God said, look, when Samuel prays. He said they're not rejected, they have rejected me. Here's what they're doing in first Samuel, chapter eight, they're trading God for a man. And the reason they were going to trade God for a man was so that they could be like all the other nations.

[John Weaver] Do you realize it was precisely this one thing that made Israel unique? Precisely this one thing. They were the only nation that had God as their King. In fact, hold 1 Samuel 8, but look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. And notice if you would please, Deuteronomy 4, verse 5. We'll start there. Moses says to Israel, Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do so in the land whether you go in to possess it.

[John Weaver] Keep therefore and do them. Now, he's talking about God's law. Look what he says. Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great to have God so not to them as the Lord our God is in all the things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law?

[John Weaver] which I set before you this day." So, that which made Israel unique was they had God's law. Not only did they have God's law, God was their king. He was their sovereign. He was their ruler. And now, when you look back in 1 Samuel chapter 8, what they want to do is to trade God for a man.

[John Weaver] Now, they were willing to sacrifice this uniqueness that they might be like everybody else. Look in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 10 and verse 19. I'm going to show you a further explanation of 1 Samuel 8. Look in 1 Samuel 10 and verse 19. Look what Samuel says to the people. And you have this day rejected your God. who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations, and you have said unto him, Nay, but said, A king over us.

[John Weaver] Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands." Look what he said. You have rejected your God. You don't want God ruling over you. Look in 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12. 1 Samuel 12 and verse 12. He said that when you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king. Now, when you go back to first Samuel, chapter eight and verse seven, God says they've not rejected thee, but they rejected me that I should not reign over them. They did not want me. They wanted a man.

[John Weaver] It must be pointed out clearly and distinctly. This was not just an individual that was rejecting God. It was the entire nation. It was a people. They did not want to acknowledge Him as their King and their Sovereign. May I remind you that when the American War for Independence was being fought, there was a battle cry that our colonists used. And you know what it was? No King, but King Jesus. That's why they cried. No king but King Jesus. We don't want George III. He's not our king. We want King Jesus. It's only King Jesus who's going to rule over us.

[John Weaver] So you have, in 1 Samuel chapter 8, a theocratic rejection. We don't want God. That's exactly what America today has done, just like Israel of old. We've rejected God. Notice if you would, secondly, there was a theonomic rejection.

[John Weaver] Now, again, theos is the word for God in the Greek, nomos is the word for law. So a theonomic rejection is rejection of God's law. When God said in verse seven, the Lord said to Samuel, hearken to the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Let me ask you a question. How does God reign? How does God rule? The answer is, by his law. A king rules by his law.

[John Weaver] I'm going to show you this in the Bible, just momentarily. A king rules by his law. So, when you reject God, you're rejecting his law. It is a theonomic rejection. The law of God has been given to lead us and guide us and direct us. And the law of God reveals God's edicts and God's commands.

[John Weaver] Now, when you and I think of the law, we tend to think of the Ten Commandments, or we think of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. But truthfully, all of the Bible is God's law, because God rules by His law. This is His law. The Bible says in Isaiah 33 and verse 22, for the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, and the Lord is our king, He will save us. So God then is judge, lawgiver, and then king. Now, in reality, you cannot separate God and His law.

[John Weaver] Now I just separated it for you just for your consideration. When I said there was a theocratic rejection, I showed you that.

[John Weaver] Now I'm telling you there's a theonomic rejection, but really and truly they stand or fall together. Because when one rejects God automatically, he rejects his law. Let me show you. I want you to turn, hold 1 Samuel 8, but turn to 2 Kings chapter 17. Second Kings chapter 17. And I would encourage you when you get home tonight to read all of Second Kings 17. You want to really understand how Israel traded God for a man and what happened to them. Here it is. But look, if you would, please, in Second Kings chapter 17.

[John Weaver] Let's begin reading there with verse 7. Second Kings 17, verse 7. And it was so that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods." Now let's stop right there. Look at that very carefully. God has brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods. How do you know What God you fear? How could I look at Kevin? And determine who is God is or what God he fears. How could I look at a Muslim? And tell what God he fears. How could I look at a Hindu or Buddhist? And tell what God he fears?

[John Weaver] Now let me show you. This gets very, very practical. So go back to 2nd Kings 17 and verse 7. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods. How do we know they did? What was the evidence? What was the manifestation? Here it is.

[John Weaver] And walked in the statutes or the laws of the heathen. whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel which they had made." Wait. What did they do? They took God's law and set it aside. They said, we're going to keep Baal's law. We'll keep Asherah's law. We'll keep the laws of the heathen. We will keep the laws of Israel. You have to remember something about the laws of Israel. Every king that the ten northern tribes had, the kings of Israel, every one of them were reprobate and corrupt. Not one was godly. Do you remember Jeroboam I? What is the first thing he did in 1 Kings chapter 12? He made two golden calves, set one of them down to the other Bethel, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel. And every king of Israel worshiped the golden calves.

[John Weaver] And what is Judah doing? Same thing Israel did. I'm going to show you that, too. They're taking the laws of the heathen and are obeying. Well, look, look at it. Let's read it. Verse 8, And walked in the statutes of the laws of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel and the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly. Those things were not right against the Lord their God.

[John Weaver] And they built high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchman to the fifth city, and they set them up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree. And they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen, whom the Lord carried away before them, and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. And they served idols, where the Lord had said of them, You shall not do this thing." Now watch.

[John Weaver] Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, Turn you from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent you by my service to the prophets, notwithstanding they would not hear. but hardened their necks like to the neck of their fathers that did not believe in the Lord their God." Watch verse 15,"...and they rejected the statutes and the covenants that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them. And they followed vanity, that is, idols, and became vain, and went after the heathen that round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even to camps, and made a grove, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and served Baal, and caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantment, and sold themselves to do

[John Weaver] evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him nigger." Do you see what they did when they rejected God? They rejected God's law. But you have to have a law. No society can exist without a law. So they said, well, since we rejected God, God's not our law giver. Baal is. Or the state is. Or Molech is. Or Asherah happens to be our lawgiver. And they lived according to the laws of the heathen.

[John Weaver] Oh, go to verses 18 and 19. See, it was just not the ten northern tribes. The Bible says in verse 18, Therefore the Lord was angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight. And there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. And Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of the spoilers, and cast them out of His sight."

[John Weaver] May I tell you something? If you will read 2 Kings 17, you will find exactly why God sent not only the ten northern tribes into captivity into Assyria, but the two southern tribes into captivity into Babylon. Why? Because they rejected Him and they rejected His law. They committed civil and governmental fornication. They committed Theological, not illogical fornication first. It led to the civil and governmental fornication because they rejected God and His law and they established a pagan, heathenistic law system. And they developed a pagan and heathenistic culture and society. And God says this is why He sent them into captivity.

[John Weaver] Now, let me show you. Another passage, look, if you would, over Samuel eight, we're coming back there. But look at Micah, chapter six toward the end of the Old Testament. I think it's Jonah, Micah, Nahum. If you look in Micah. Yeah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, look in Micah, chapter six, Micah, chapter six. at verses 13 through 16. Now, as I read this, although we're talking about Israel in this passage, would you tend with me just for a moment, and as we read this, think about America. If you want to know where we are and how we got here, I want you to think about our economic condition. I want you to think about our agricultural condition, the drought that's raging, the floods that are raging. Just watch this. Look what God says. Micah chapter 6, beginning there with verse 13. God says, therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.

[John Weaver] A lot of sickness, a lot of desolation. He says in verse 14, thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied. And thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee. thou shalt take hold, but thou shalt not deliver. And that which thou deliverest I will give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap. Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil, and sweet wine, but thou shalt not drink wine."

[John Weaver] Why are all the judgments are coming? for the statutes of Omri are kept." Omri was the father of Ahab. Watch."...for the statutes of the laws of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab. And you walk in their councils, that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people." Why are they being judged?

[John Weaver] Because they are walking under an alien law system. They're not following God's law, they're following man's law. You have to understand that rejection of God's law is a rejection of God himself, for a king rules by his law. Anytime you reject God's law system, it is only so that you may receive an alien law system. You can't live without law. You have to have a law system.

[John Weaver] And when you have a government which was initially established as a Christian government. And now that Christian government is kicked out. You now have a religious. Humanistic. Alien law system. So there is a theocratic rejection. There's a theonomic rejection. I want you to go back to 1 Samuel chapter 8 because I want you to see this as well. There is also involved in this a pastoral or prophetic rejection. Notice in 1 Samuel 8, verse 5. And they said unto him, that is to Samuel, Behold, thou art old.

[John Weaver] My sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. You're an old man, Samuel.

[John Weaver] Now, skip down to verse 8. Look what God tells Samuel, he said, according to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even in this day, where would they have forsaken me and served other gods? So do they also unto thee.

[John Weaver] Now, listen, when an individual, when a family, when a church, when a society, when a nation rejects God and his law, At the same time, they reject all of God's representatives. They reject all of his messengers. If you will study the life of Elijah. Elijah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos. Any of the prophets. The people wouldn't listen to them. Why? Because they don't have any respect for God, there's something they don't have any respect for man. I've preached so many messages and I've had people say, oh, oh, Brother Weaver, if you could just preach that in Congress, they wouldn't listen. You know what? They've rejected God and God's law. So therefore, they're going to reject any message of God.

[John Weaver] Let me show you this. Look in your Bibles to Second Chronicles, Chapter 36. Hold for Samuel 8, we're not through there. Look in Second Chronicles, Chapter 36. This may surprise you, but here it is plain as day. Second Chronicles, Chapter 36, reading in there, verse 15. Second Chronicles, 36, verse 15. Here it is. And the Lord God of their father sent to them, that is to His people, He sent to them by His messengers, rising up three times and sending because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. So whenever God is going to show mercy upon His people, He sends them His preachers. He sends His prophets. So He sent them because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. Look at verse 16. But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

[John Weaver] Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with a sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young men or old men or him that stooped for age. He gave them all into his hand."

[John Weaver] Now go back to verse 16. God sent his prophets. What happened? Verse 16. But they mocked the messengers of God. Notice messengers is plural. More than one. Look at verse 16, but they mocked the messengers of God and despised his singular words, that is, God's words. His messengers. Were speaking his words, and so they were despised God's words. They mocked the messengers of God And of course, misused his prophets, he said, until the wrath of God arose against them till there was no remedy. Why?

[John Weaver] Because of civil and governmental fornication. Our Lord taught the same thing in Matthew 21 verses 33 through 45. You remember what our Lord said in John Chapter 15, he said, If the world hates you, you know that it hated me for it hated you. If they will receive me, they'll receive you. If they don't receive me, they won't receive you. The servant is not greater than his Lord.

[John Weaver] If they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you as well. So obviously, when there is a theocratic and theonomic rejection, there's also going to be a prophetic and pastoral rejection.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to go back to 1 Samuel Chapter 8. I want to ask you this question so I can answer it for you. What are the consequences of civil and governmental fornication? What happens when we reject God's law and God Himself and get an alien law system? God shows us in 1 Samuel chapter 8. First, there's going to be an unbiblical military conscription. Verse 11.

[John Weaver] He said, and this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself and for his chariots and to be his horsemen. And some shall run before his chariots. I wish I had time to preach tonight. On the militia in the Bible. Did you know that there was no standing army in the Bible, in the Old Testament per se, until David? David is one who basically started everything with militia. When our country was first founded, there was no standing army. It was a militia. Do you understand this? A king cannot have a war if the only fighters he has is a citizen's militia and the citizens do not want the war. But if you have a standing army, the king can say, all right, you sir, you're in my army.

[John Weaver] Now you go over to Pakistan or you go over to Afghanistan and you die over there. I'm going to send you over there. I'll take your sons. I'll take your daughters. I'll send them wherever I want to send them. Because now I have a standing army. You ought to study that out. You'll be amazed. And by the way, God judged David for numbering the people. counting them as his army.

[John Weaver] So there will be an unbiblical military scripture. Notice secondly, there will be compulsory labor battalions for the state. Verse 12, and he will appoint him captains over thousands, captains over fifties. He will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his instruments of war and his instruments of his chariots. Verse 16, as well, and He will take your menservants, your maidservants, and your good as young men, and your asses, and put them to His work.

[John Weaver] This is what I've been saying earlier. When you have statism, everything has to be done for the state. Why do you think the federal government is claiming 90% of the land in Nevada? Why do you think now they're after, what is it, 900,000 acres in Texas? Everything has to be done for them. And constitutionally, the federal government cannot even own any land except that one little place where they're existing in the District of Columbia. Well, thirdly, there will be an expropriation of property, land and livestock. Look in verse 14, and He will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive yards, even the best of them and give them to His servants. You know, used to eminent domain, They could only take your property if a road had to be through there or a hospital had to be built. Now they'll take your property, build a recreational.

[John Weaver] Baseball field, if that's what they want. And God says this is the consequence. That we're going to suffer for rejecting him in his law, eminent domain. Fourth, I want you to note. that the state or civil ruler that plays God will demand also a tithe and taxes. Look in verse 15, he said, he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and to his servants. Get down to verse 17. And he will take the tenth of your sheep and you shall be his servants. Wow.

[John Weaver] You know, the average American would be pleased and happy. If our civil rulers only took 10 percent, Do you know that the average American pays over 60% of their income in taxes? This is what is going to happen. Fifth, I want you to note that civil governmental oppression will be so severe. That folks will get so tired of it and fed up with it. Look in verse 18, won't do any good.

[John Weaver] He said, you shall cry out in that day because of your king, which you shall have chosen you. And the Lord will not hear you in that day. God said you didn't want me. You wanted a man. I'm going to let you have him. In fact, you can have him until you are sick of him. It's kind of like when those people bellyached and they wanted meat, they were tired of that man. And God said, all right, I'll send you some quail.

[John Weaver] And you remember what happened? While the meat was in their teeth, God slew the fattest of them. He cut them down. Well, God says, listen. This is the price we pay for rejecting God and His law. Let me answer another question. Why would Israel want to trade God for a man? Why would America want to trade God for a man? Well, there are several reasons given. The first one I would say is this, is because men by nature erroneously think that God's law is bondage. It's not. In fact, God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage. Everybody says the thing, well, God is so, so punctilious and God says, thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that. And listen, I'd rather be somewhere where I can do what I want to do. Oh. What are you saying? You're saying God's law is bondage and my law is freedom. That's what you're saying. No. What you don't understand is man by nature is bound to sin.

[John Weaver] He's a servant of sin. He's a servant and the slave of Satan as well. It's God's law that sets us free. Men erroneously think that God's law is bondage. I know about you, but I'd much rather submit to ten righteous laws than a multitude of laws that I don't even read and can't read and don't even know about and can't even pick up the Federal Register. It's so heavy. You see?

[John Weaver] But here's the real reason. Look in verse 20. Here's a real reason men want. an alien law system. He said that we may also be like all the other nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battle. Men do not wish to be separate and unique first and foremost. Peer pressure. They want to be just like everyone else. But not only that, they don't want any responsibilities. We need as a king, who's going to take care of us? And He's going to fight our battles. We won't have to learn to fight. We won't have to do anything.

[John Weaver] He will provide for us. Do you realize the mentality in this country today? It's, I don't have to work. The government will take care of me. Do you realize a third of this country today is unemployed? and another third work for government. And the only way the government can give you anything is by taking it from someone else. But men erroneously think that somehow government is going to take care of it. Government is going to be their God. It is nothing less than spiritual fornication spiritual adultery in the realm of civil government. It's government as God. It's a denial of God. It's looking to man to give you everything that should come from God. It's looking to man to give you only that which God can provide. It is an enthroning of man and a dethroning of God.

[John Weaver] Let's put two and two together. We are exactly where we are in this country because of theological and ideological fornication and because of civil and governmental fornication. That's exactly where we are.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just ask you a question, I'll close with this, I want you to think about this. I know that this system is going to collapse. I don't know when. You say, how do you know that? Well, I know it's going to collapse because God is immutable. God doesn't change. He judged Israel. He judged Judah. He's going to judge us. We're doing the same thing they did. You can't thumb your nose at God and get away with it. It's just that simple. I know it's going down. We have a fraudulent money system. We're murdering babies left and right. We're doing everything contrary to God and contrary to God. It's coming down. I know that. Don't know when, but I know it's coming down. So here's my question.

[John Weaver] If it came down tomorrow, let's suppose the whole society collapsed tomorrow. And we're left and we're alive. We're the only ones in the community around. And we have to rebuild. Whose law structure would you use to rebuild society? If you try to tell me I would use the best of man's law systems, you're just setting up for another failure and another collapse. One last passage, I want you to turn to Proverbs Chapter 8. I want you to see this. Look in Proverbs Chapter 8. In Proverbs Chapter 8, Jesus Christ is wisdom personified. I want you to see what our Lord says. Proverbs 8, verse 35. Our Lord said, For whoso findeth Me findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord.

[John Weaver] But he that sinneth against Me wrongeth his own soul, all they that hate Me. love death. The only thing that man can produce apart from Jesus Christ is a society of death. That's why George Orwell wrote, if you want a vision of the future, envision a boot stamping in a human face forever. Because all Orwell saw was a society without Jesus Christ. All man can produce is a society of death. Life is in the hands of God, not in the hands of man.

[John Weaver] If we rebuild biblically, we shall live. If we do not, we will die. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for Your love, Your grace, Your mercy. Teach us. Help us to understand spiritual fornication and adultery. and how it permeates not just our individual lives, our family lives, our society, our government, but even our economic system. And may, Father, we learn to be true to Thee in every area of our life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

Spiritual Fornication - Part 2

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	520142213513
Subject	Civil Government
Course	Civil Government: Magistracy, Authority, and Romans 13: Authority
Genre	Sermon
Date	2014-05-20
Dictation Name
Book	Book 015: Spiritual Fornication — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	114

Formatted Transcript

Introduction and Review

Weaver introduces the topic of spiritual fornication in the civil and governmental sphere, reviewing the previous lesson on theological fornication.

Father, we are thankful tonight for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His Word and for His truth. We ask, Father, for Your blessing tonight. Help us to live for Thee. Help us to learn. Help us to consider Thy Word and apply it in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen. Well, let's begin again tonight where we left off last night. So let's open our Bibles, if you would, to 2 Chronicles chapter 21.

And we're going to be looking at verses 10 through 13 again. In fact, we will look more closely at 2 Chronicles 21. Now, let me just tell you some of the information that I'm going to give you tonight. Some of you may be familiar with it, however. You may not be familiar with it from this perspective because we're still talking about spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. You know, when you start thinking about spiritual fornication, and you think scripturally, it involves so many areas of life, it is almost unbelievable. I'm only just named three. I'm only going to cover one tonight, but I covered last night spiritual fornication in theology and ideology. I want you to see something tonight, and I want you to see spiritual fornication in reference to the civil and governmental sphere. What I'm not going to be able to cover is there is also a spiritual fornication in relationship to economics and commercialism. You have to remember that in Revelation chapter 17, there's not only a religious Babylon, but when you get to Revelation 18, there's also a commercial Babylon as well.

The Wickedness of King Jehoram

Jehoram's evil reign is examined, showing how his marriage to Athaliah led him to compel Judah into idolatry, which God calls fornication.

And so let's look, if you would, in 2 Chronicles 21, beginning there with verse 10. Remember, this is King Jehoram that we're speaking of. The Bible says,

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 21:10-13

"So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and compelled Judah thereto."

And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying,

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 21:10-13

"Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the way of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and hast also slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself."

I pointed out last night that everything begins with a theological and ideological fornication. The truth is absolutely plain. Whenever we err theologically, we're going to be erring in a vast number of arenas. Theological fornication always precedes a change in culture and also a change in our lives and a change in society. So you have to understand that our theology or our lack of theology affects every area of our life. We do what we do because we believe what we believe. Or we do what we do because we don't have any theology, we don't understand. The Bible says in John 8, our Lord said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." If you don't know the truth, very obviously you are not free. Our Lord also said in Hosea 4, maybe we'll get to look at it a little bit later, in verse 6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."

So when we do not take the Word of God seriously, then we're going to be in serious trouble. Theological fornication always leads to fornication in other areas as well. One such area that we have never really considered in this light is the civil and governmental area. When you look at the Scripture, you're going to find that God considers an ungodly and reprobate civil government as fornication—spiritual fornication. The Bible tells us in 2 Kings chapter 18 verse 18—you don't have to turn there, I'll show it to you in 2 Chronicles 21 as well—but the Bible tells us in 2 Kings 18 verse 18 that Jehoram did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of the house of Ahab. Now, you've got to remember that Ahab was the husband of Jezebel, and Ahab was one of the most wicked, vile kings of the northern kingdom. In fact, he's classified as the most wicked. The most wicked king in the southern kingdom was Manasseh, but Ahab is the most wicked king in the northern kingdom.

Now, the interesting thing about Jehoram is this. He came from a good stock. His father was King Jehoshaphat. There was a great revival that took place under King Jehoshaphat. His grandfather was King Asa. Asa was a godly man. Both Jehoshaphat and Asa not only were godly men, they had godly rules. So the question you have to ask is this: What went wrong? How could such godly men and godly rulers produce such an ungodly and wicked, reprobate son and grandson? Well, if you'll look in 2 Chronicles 21, at verses 5 and 6, you're going to find out exactly where his perversity and depravity came from. Mainly, notice if you would, 2 Chronicles 21, verse 5, "Jehoram was 32 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem."

Now look, "And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab. Why? For he had the daughter of Ahab to wife. And he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord." So Jehoram had married Athaliah, who was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehoram was so wicked and so vile, he murdered his own brothers just so that he could solidify his own kingdom. If you look in 2 Chronicles 21, after you look at verse 2, all of his brothers are named. The Bible says in verse 3,

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 21:2-4

"And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was his firstborn. Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel."

So, interestingly enough, Jehoram now has murdered his own brothers, as well as many other godly princes as well. Consequently, when Ahaziah died—Ahaziah was the son of Jehoram and Athaliah—when Ahaziah died, Jehoram's wife, Athaliah, did a very ungrandmotherly thing. She murdered all of her grandchildren.

with the exception of one, and the only reason she didn't murder him was because he was hidden. Notice if you would, hold 2 Chronicles, we're coming back there, but look in 2 Kings chapter 11. 2 Kings chapter 11. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. 2 Kings chapter 11 and verse 1. This is what Athaliah did.

Scripture Reading — 2 Kings 11:1-3

"And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Jehoram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land."

So Athaliah then murdered all of her grandchildren, except one, and she would have gotten him had he not been hidden from her. Wow.

You're talking about a wife I would not want and a grandmother I would not care to have. That was Athaliah, that is for sure.

Principles from Jehoram's Life

Weaver draws lessons: the importance of whom you marry, that godly parents do not guarantee godly children, and that we reap what we sow.

Now, before we go any further, let me just point out several truths here. First, I could point out this: It does matter who you marry. It does matter who you marry. Because Jehoram married wrong, he may have already been depraved and may have already been wicked, but his wife even made him more wicked. The same thing with Jezebel. The Bible says that Jezebel provoked Ahab to more evil. So it does matter who you marry. That is important. But the one that I really want to emphasize right now is just simply this: I want you to understand, godly men do not always produce godly children. Jehoshaphat was a godly man.

He was the father of Jehoram. Asa was the grandfather. He was a godly man. And yet here you have Jehoram who turned out to be an absolute reprobate. I have to tell you about Reverend Isaac Case. Reverend Isaac Case died at the age of 91 on November 3, 1852. Right after the American War for Independence, he actually was really preaching and teaching in Maine, and he was centered around Readfield, Maine. He started Baptist churches in Readfield and in Thomaston, Maine, and he was very active in the ministry up until his death at age of 91.

He baptized, I don't know how many people, a countless number. In those days, you did not count a convert unless he was baptized and added to the church. So he baptized a lot. He started several churches as well. In 1904, Dr. A.R. Crane presented a paper to the Maine Baptist Missionary Convention entitled, "The Baptist Ministers in Maine from 1804 to 1904." And he mentioned Isaac Case in this paper as one of the leading Baptist preachers of that era. He also said that he heard Isaac Case preach when he was an old man.

And he had this to say. He said, Isaac Case, as an old man, not only had a tremendous grasp of Scripture, but had as much power with God as any man that he had ever known, even when he was an old man. But he said there was one thing he could not understand. And that was why Isaac Case's grown son did not darken the doorway of the church. He said, "I could not understand, I know this is a godly man, a man that had power, a man that had preached for years and evidently his son is unconverted, won't even darken the doorway of the church." And so Dr. Crane then asked Case's grown son why he did not attend church. And although Case's son was unconverted, yet he had a pretty good grasp of theology. Because when Dr. Crane asked him why he did not attend church, he said this.

"Grace is not hereditary, depravity is." Grace is not hereditary, depravity is. So he said, "I'm depraved." That's what he was saying. And I got it from my father and my mother. Grace is not hereditary, but depravity is. Do you realize all a godly person can do is pray for their children, witness to their children, lead their children, teach their children, but only God can save them. So godly men do not always produce godly children.

The next truth I want to emphasize right here is this, and it's equally plain. We reap that which we sow. Now that is not only true individually, familially, and ecclesiastically, it is also true nationally. No one escapes this principle. God said, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

Now, what did Jehoram do? Jehoram had no mercy upon his own family. He murdered his brothers. And he had no mercy upon the nation because he compelled them into idolatry. He forced them. Undoubtedly, many of them wanted to as well, but he did force them into idolatry. So, basically, he destroyed not only his family and his nation. And if you will look in your Bibles, hold 2 Chronicles, but turn to the book of Hosea chapter 1, right after the book of Daniel, Hosea. Look in Daniel, Hosea, Hosea chapter 1, and I want you to see what God says. When you look in Hosea, you have to remember that Hosea married Gomer, who was an unfaithful wife. And God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer because his marriage was to be a picture of what Israel had done to God. So if you look in Hosea 1 in verse 2, the Bible says, "The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms."

Why? "For the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord." Now, you're going to have to ask yourself this question, and I hope we're going to answer it tonight. How did Israel depart from the Lord? It was not just theologically and ideologically. That was just the foundation. But skip down, if you would please, to verse 6, because here we're talking about one of the children, and here's what God says concerning the children, or this child particularly: "And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away." I'm going to destroy them. You destroyed your family. You destroyed the nation. I'm going to destroy you.

You reap what you sow. That's true nationally, just like it is true individually. The next principle I want to emphasize tonight is that covenants are binding. Covenants are binding. You see, God basically married Israel. Israel was considered as a wife to the Lord. In fact, she was considered as joined to him as a husband. Thus, when she committed idolatry, she was then guilty of spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. It was adultery against Jehovah.

Covenantal Nature of Government

Government is covenantal; God ordained civil rulers as His ministers to exact righteousness. The Constitution is a covenant between people and government.

Now, I want you to look back in 2 Chronicles chapter 21 and notice if you would please what the Bible says in verse 11 concerning Jehoram. "Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto." So, Jehoram then, who married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, not only permitted Baal worship and Asherah worship and all types of idolatry into the land, he compelled, he forced the people into idolatry. Thus, this new governmental religion then was considered spiritual fornication or spiritual adultery. By the way, let me just point something out to you. When the Bible talks about groves, you're going to read how Ahab built a grove and Manasseh put groves in the house of the Lord. Anytime you see the word grove in the Bible, in the Old Testament, with the exception of Genesis 22 and verse 31, when the Bible says that Abraham planted a grove, that is a grove of trees. We talk about a pecan grove or a pecan orchard or a peach orchard or a peach grove. When we hear the word grove, we think of a grove of trees. Now that's what Abraham planted in Genesis 22 and verse 31. But any time else when the word grove is used in the entire Old Testament, it's a totally different word, it's the word Asherah, which was a sex goddess, part of Baal worship. So all of these groves are not trees that are being planted by some king, they are idolatry.

So thus you have, in 2 Chronicles 21, a new governmental religion. Now, stop and think. Do we have a governmental religion today? Oh, yeah. And I'm not just going to call it humanism. Sure, it's humanism, but it is a governmental religion of political correctness. That will become more conveniently known in just a moment.

Now, let me tell you something, I just said covenants are binding. When you look at your Bible, you usually see Old Testament, New Testament. Do you realize the word Testament just simply means covenant? Old Covenant, New Covenant. We are still a covenantal people. We're still bound by a covenant. And it is just as easy to violate a covenant today with God as it was in the Old Testament. So, tonight I want you to see civil and governmental fornication, and I want you to understand it from this perspective. You've got to remember, all government is covenantal in nature. I don't care if we're talking about our family, our church, or our nation. Husbands and wives are engaged in covenants.

Children are basically covenantally obligated to their parents as well. Parents are covenantally obligated to their children. When you come to the church, you're covenantally obligated to that church. I don't care whether you have a covenant up on the wall or not, that's immaterial. There is a covenant based upon the Word of God. All government is covenantal in nature, including civil government.

Now, I want you to turn, hold 2 Chronicles 21, but turn very quickly to Romans chapter 13. I am not going to preach this chapter. I've done so a multitude of times past, but I want to just show you something just to refresh your mind for just a few minutes before I go further. I want you to notice, if you would, verses 1 and 2, first and foremost, of Romans chapter 13, where God says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." Now, look what he says. Verse two, "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation" or condemnation. Now, when he says in verse one, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers," the word powers there is exousia, which literally means authorities or jurisdictions or power. He says there is no authority but that which is of God. If anyone has any authority at all, I don't care if you're talking about a husband, I don't care if you're talking about a pastor, I don't care if you're talking about a Congress, anyone who has any authority at all, God established it.

That's why he said in verse 2, it is the ordinance of God. Now, let me just answer this question for you. I hope you're asking, why then did God establish civil government? Well, look very quickly at verse 4. He's talking about the civil ruler here. In fact, go back to verse 3. He says, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same." So we're talking about civil rulers. Now watch in verse 4. "For he," the civil ruler, "is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid."

"For he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." Now twice in verse 4, the civil ruler or the government is referred to as a minister. The Greek word is diakonos, it's where we get our English word deacon and it just literally means servant. So God ordained civil government to be his deacon or to be his servant. If you look in verse 4 also, the civil ruler is called a revenger. The word revenger is ekdikos in the Greek. Ek is a preposition which means out of or from, and dikaios is righteousness. Literally, he is to exact God's righteousness. He's to draw out that righteousness. So why did God ordain civil government? Number one, to be His servant. Number two, to be His exactor of righteousness. It is not government that determines right and wrong. It is God that determines right and wrong. It is not government that determines what is just. It is God that determines what is just. Government is ordained by God to exact His justice and His righteousness. When you look in verse 6, he says this, "For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing."

Now, the word ministers there is a different word from diakonos in verse 4. In verse 6, it's the word leitourgoi, or leitourgos, which is the singular. It is where we get our English word liturgy from. What is a liturgy? A liturgy is a public form of worship. Every church has a liturgy. You say, "Brother Weaver, I go to Baptist church. We don't have liturgies." Oh, yes, you do.

You open in prayer, you sing hymns, you receive an offering, you hear preaching, you have a closing hymn. That's a liturgy. A liturgy is just a public form of worship. So why did God ordain civil government? Number one, to be his deacon, his servant. Number two, to be his exactor of righteousness. And number three, to be his public worship. Wow.

Now I want you to understand something. Even in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament here, government is shown to be covenantal in nature. So I want you to go back in your Bibles, first of all, to 2 Kings chapter 11. Then we're going to 2 Chronicles 23. So go to 2 Kings chapter 11, and let me show you what Jehoiada the high priest did. 2 Kings chapter 11, and look in verse 17. In fact, when you talk about covenants in relationship to government, actually there are two different ones. They're both related, but they're two different covenants. Notice if you would, 2 Kings chapter 11 and verse 17. The Bible says this, "And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's people." Now watch, "between the king also and the people." So here's two covenants. Jehoiada the high priest made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people that they should be the Lord's people. So in this first covenant, the king agreed to be God's king.

And the people agreed to be God's people. That's the first covenant. Here's the second covenant. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. Now, in that covenant, the king agreed to rule faithfully and the people agreed to obey him as long as he did. It's just that simple. If you look in 2 Chronicles chapter 23 and verse 16, you'll see the same exact truth. 2 Chronicles 23 and verse 16. The Bible says that Jehoiada made a covenant between him, that is God, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people.

By the way, when our country was first founded, if you will go back, and I have on my computer at home, and I've preached this in several different sermons, where I quote from the original charters and constitutions, where every colony, which it would now be every state initially, of the 13, all of them covenanted to be God's people. In fact, as liberal as Massachusetts is, originally it says the laws of this colony shall be the laws of God as given through Moses. The judicial laws of Moses are the laws of this colony. You will find we entered, our forefathers did, entered into a covenant with God. Even if you disregard all of the original history, when you look at our Constitution, whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not is immaterial. The truth of the matter is the Constitution is a covenant between the people and the government. Where the government agrees to rule constitutionally and the people agree to obey as long as they do rule constitutionally.

I'm just now preaching two messages on the essence of rebellion. And in my first message, I show, quoting the Supreme Court, and I'm Juror 16, where no one is obligated to obey an unconstitutional law. Where even the Supreme Court says it is unconstitutional from its inception. You do not have to wait for a court to say, well, this is unconstitutional. No. It is not binding on anyone, any unconstitutional law. Why?

Because the Constitution is a type of covenant. Now, I want you to turn to First Samuel, Chapter 8. I want you to just hold that passage, please. I'm going to tell you something about First Samuel, Chapter 8. And we're going to come back in just a moment and read some scriptures here. Before I do, I want to give you some things to consider before we look at First Samuel, Chapter 8.

Foundational Truths Before 1 Samuel 8

Weaver presents key principles: God is one and His law is one; all law is religious; the source of law is one's god; rejecting God's law is spiritual adultery.

Now that you understand that government is covenantal in nature, you're going to see this even more clearly from this passage. You're going to see, I hope, how Israel got out from under God and his kingdom and got under man and man's kingdom. You're going to see the same thing that happened in America as well. Now, let me tell you this. I'm going to repeat this in just a little bit. I will repeat it. But I want you to understand this. The only way that you can understand 1 Samuel chapter 8 is to see it or to view it as a transition from one law structure to another law structure. You're going to see that whenever there is a change in rulers, there is a change in law. If you can always remember this, a king rules by his law. If the king is changed, the law has changed. OK, now let me give you several things to consider before we look at 1st Samuel Chapter 8. I want you to hold 1st Samuel 8, but go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy Chapter 6 because I want you to see this. The very first thing that you need to consider before we look at 1st Samuel Chapter 8 is that we must understand that God is one and His law is one. God is one and his law is one so you can say it like this: one God.

One law. Now look in Deuteronomy chapter 6 beginning there with verse four. By the way, verse four is known as the Shema Yisrael. If you go to any Orthodox synagogue—I'm not asking you or advising you to, but if you went to an Orthodox synagogue, usually you would hear something like this: "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad." And all they're saying is this:

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord."

Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. That's what that verse says. Look at it:

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord."

Notice since he is one,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart,"

one Lord, one law.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes."

"And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." God says, I am one. And my law is one, one God, one law. We live in a universe and not in a multiverse. So let me put it like this. God is one, his law is one, and his law is the absolute standard to which man must conform. Now listen. Israel, if Israel in the Old Testament or New Testament Israel, they could not and we cannot leave God or His law without committing spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. Because God is one and His law is one.

Now, when someone tries to say, "That can't possibly be true," but it is true. You see, the only way that you can deny that statement is by asserting polytheism, which is many gods or some system of evolution. If you try to say, well, God is one, but his law is no longer valid. Oh, well, what happened? Did we change gods? Or did God evolve? Or did God get smarter? What happened? The Bible says in Romans chapter 7 and verse 12 that we know that the law is holy, just, and good. You see, any time you try to say that God and or His law has been replaced, you can't help but either admit to either polytheism or some form of evolutionism. It's just that simple. God said in Malachi 3 and verse 6, "I the Lord change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."

So in systematic theology books, we read about the immutability of God, the unchangeableness of God. God does not change. You say, but Brother Weaver, in this day and age, we're saved by grace. Well, let me tell you, they were saved by grace in the Old Testament. Anytime anybody's ever been saved, it's been by grace. But you know what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches the proper response to grace is obedience to God's law.

That's why He said in John 14, verse 21, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." You get down to verse 24, "He that keepeth not my sayings, loveth me not." When you get to 1 John 5 and verse 3, "And this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." The response to grace, even in the New Testament, is obedience to God's law. So here's the principle. One God, one law. Secondly, you have to understand this, that all law is religious. All law is religious. That even includes man's law. Man's law is religious.

Now, it may not be the Christian religion, it may be a humanistic religion, but it is religious. We know that God's law is true and accurate, and it is religious in this sense of the word, because it proceeds from God Himself. Man's law is also religious, even though it may not be true or accurate. Well, how can man's law be religious? Because behind every law that man issues is a determination of what is right and wrong, good or bad, fit or unfit, just or unjust. And when a man says, aha, this is a good law, what is he saying? He's giving a religious determination of what he considers to be good. So you cannot have an unreligious law. All law is religious. It may be humanistic, but it's still religious. It could be atheistic, but it's still religious. Humanism is religion. Atheism is religion.

Cults, isms, and schisms are all religions. No matter who issues a law, it is a religious law. And when you hear some politician come up and say, well, we're unbiased and we're not going to force religion upon anyone, that's exactly what they're doing when they say that. They're forcing their non-religion or their humanistic religion upon someone. Okay? Now, law, no matter whose law it is, law governs man and society. And law then establishes and declares what is just and right in the eyes of the lawgiver. So if God issues His law, He's the one declaring what is just and right. If the law comes from man, man is the one that is declaring what is just and right. Okay?

Here's the third thing for you to consider. There can be no disestablishment of religion per se. There can be no disestablishment of religion. If you say, well, we're not going to go by the Ten Commandments, we're not going to go by the Bible. We're going to disestablish that. No, you're not disestablishing religion. You may be kicking out the Christian religion, but you are establishing in itself and instead of humanistic religion, you're just simply trading religions.

I hope you understand that is basically what has happened in this country. We have changed religion. You see, no society, no culture can exist without a law system, without a system of law. We have to have law. The question is, whose law will we have? Because it is our law system that determines morality. Fourth, you need to consider this. The source of one's law is his God. The source of one's law is his God. If you can discover the source of the law of a society, you can discover who the God of that society really is. When archaeologists go digging around those ancient ruins, one of the first things they want to discover is their source of law. Because if they can ascertain the source of law, they can figure out who they worshipped and what their God was or who their God was. So if you try to tell me, "Brother Weaver, I don't need the Bible. I'm a rational, cool-headed, level-headed, thinking individual, and I can reason things out in my mind." Well, your reason is your God. Your rationality is your God. That's why they called it the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, because men rejected the Word of God and depended upon their reason. You say, well, I don't have to tell or figure out anything, because those nine black robe justices up on the Supreme Court, they declare what law is.

Oh, well, then they're your gods. The source of your law is basically your God. I'm going to show you that from the Bible in just a moment. So here it is. If we acknowledge God as our God, then His law is in our lives. And if we look to His law as a source for governing our lives, then we're acknowledging Him as our God. If we look to the state, if we look to the federal government, then of course we're acknowledging them as our God. I want you to understand that modern day humanism and modern day political correctness always locates law in the state. And when I say state, I'm talking about not just like the state of South Carolina or the state of Georgia, but the federal government or the state.

It doesn't matter, statism, it's all referring to basically the same thing. Let me just show you. It was Hegel who said, "The state incarnates the divine idea upon the earth." Let me paraphrase that. He said the state is God walking on earth. Well, the German philosopher Johann Fichte said this: "The state is the supreme power, ultimate and beyond repeal, absolutely independent." Oh, the state is absolute and beyond repeal.

Israel's Rejection of God in 1 Samuel 8

Israel's demand for a king is analyzed as a theocratic and theonomic rejection—trading God and His law for a human ruler and pagan statutes.

Hitler said it like this: "The state dominates the nation because it alone represents the nation." Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, said this: "The state embraces everything and nothing has value outside of the state. The state creates right." You want to know why we have abortion in this country and why most people think that abortion is not murder and abortion is not sin? Because the state said it's not sin. The state said it's not murder. The state creates right. So ask yourself, how did we arrive at our state of political correctness? How did we arrive at the stage in this country where everything has to be done in favor of government? How did we get to the point in this country where it is now government that determines right and wrong, good and evil, what is just and what is unjust.

If you've never read anything by Albert J. Nock, I would encourage you to do so. Nock has written a book—and one was written more, but one is entitled "Our Enemy the State." In fact, there's a Nockian society, N-O-C-K is his last name, Albert J. Nock. And here's what he said. If you understand statism, if you understand humanism, listen to what he said.

Now you can understand abortion and everything else in this country. Nock said, "In this view," that is in the statist view, "there is no other criterion of right and wrong but the approval or disapproval of the state. There is no criterion of justice between man and man except the interest of the state. If what one man does to another affects the state favorably, it is just, even fraud, arson, theft, and murder." "If unfavorably, it is unjust." Wow! Do you realize that is the thinking of the federal government today? That's the thinking of most state governments. Everything has to be done for the state. And if it's done for the state, then it's fine no matter what it is. Well, I want you to consider these things as we look at 1st Samuel chapter 8. I want you to go there and I want you to see literally how civil and governmental fornication developed. It's been before 1st Samuel chapter 8, but this is just a very good, clear illustration of it. So look in 1st Samuel chapter 8 and we're going to begin reading with verse 4. And I want to read through verse 20. All right, look in 1st Samuel chapter 8 verse 4. Think about these things I've just shared with you as we look at this. 1st Samuel 8 verse 4. "Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways."

"Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." "According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you."

"He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants."

"And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." Now, if you examine this passage closely, you're going to find and discover the root of statism and also the root of civil and governmental fornication. I want you to note several things in this passage. First of all, there was a theocratic rejection. Theos is the Greek word for God. Kratos is the Greek word for power. So theocratic just simply means the rule or the reign of God by virtue of God's power, that's what it means. So there was a theocratic rejection. Look in verse 7.

"And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Now, when they realized that Samuel was old, and his sons were not walking in his ways, they came and they said, make us a king. Make us a king. Now, I want you to note, if you would please, they didn't ask Samuel, pray and ask the Lord what he would have, or ask the Lord to raise us up another prophet like yourself. No. Didn't say that. They just said we only came. And God said, look, when Samuel prays, He said they're not rejected, they have rejected me. Here's what they're doing in first Samuel, chapter eight, they're trading God for a man. And the reason they were going to trade God for a man was so that they could be like all the other nations.

Do you realize it was precisely this one thing that made Israel unique? Precisely this one thing. They were the only nation that had God as their King. In fact, hold 1 Samuel 8, but look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. And notice if you would please, Deuteronomy 4, verse 5. We'll start there. Moses says to Israel, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it."

"Keep therefore and do them." Now, he's talking about God's law. Look what he says. "Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law?" "which I set before you this day." So, that which made Israel unique was they had God's law. Not only did they have God's law, God was their king. He was their sovereign. He was their ruler. And now, when you look back in 1 Samuel chapter 8, what they want to do is to trade God for a man.

Now, they were willing to sacrifice this uniqueness that they might be like everybody else. Look in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 10 and verse 19. I'm going to show you a further explanation of 1 Samuel 8. Look in 1 Samuel 10 and verse 19. Look what Samuel says to the people.

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 10:19

"And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us." "Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands."

Look what he said. You have rejected your God. You don't want God ruling over you. Look in 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12. 1 Samuel 12 and verse 12. He said, "And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king." Now, when you go back to first Samuel, chapter eight and verse seven, God says they've not rejected thee, but they rejected me that I should not reign over them. They did not want me. They wanted a man.

It must be pointed out clearly and distinctly. This was not just an individual that was rejecting God. It was the entire nation. It was a people. They did not want to acknowledge Him as their King and their Sovereign. May I remind you that when the American War for Independence was being fought, there was a battle cry that our colonists used. And you know what it was? No King, but King Jesus. That's why they cried. No king but King Jesus. We don't want George III. He's not our king. We want King Jesus. It's only King Jesus who's going to rule over us.

So you have, in 1 Samuel chapter 8, a theocratic rejection. We don't want God. That's exactly what America today has done, just like Israel of old. We've rejected God. Notice if you would, secondly, there was a theonomic rejection.

Now, again, theos is the word for God in the Greek, nomos is the word for law. So a theonomic rejection is rejection of God's law. When God said in verse seven, "The Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Let me ask you a question. How does God reign? How does God rule? The answer is, by his law. A king rules by his law.

I'm going to show you this in the Bible, just momentarily. A king rules by his law. So, when you reject God, you're rejecting his law. It is a theonomic rejection. The law of God has been given to lead us and guide us and direct us. And the law of God reveals God's edicts and God's commands.

Now, when you and I think of the law, we tend to think of the Ten Commandments, or we think of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. But truthfully, all of the Bible is God's law, because God rules by His law. This is His law. The Bible says in Isaiah 33 and verse 22, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us." So God then is judge, lawgiver, and then king. Now, in reality, you cannot separate God and His law.

Now I just separated it for you just for your consideration. When I said there was a theocratic rejection, I showed you that. Now I'm telling you there's a theonomic rejection, but really and truly they stand or fall together. Because when one rejects God automatically, he rejects his law. Let me show you. I want you to turn, hold 1 Samuel 8, but turn to 2 Kings chapter 17. Second Kings chapter 17. And I would encourage you when you get home tonight to read all of Second Kings 17. You want to really understand how Israel traded God for a man and what happened to them. Here it is. But look, if you would, please, in Second Kings chapter 17.

Let's begin reading there with verse 7. Second Kings 17, verse 7. "And it was so, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods." Now let's stop right there. Look at that very carefully. God has brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods. How do you know what God you fear? How could I look at Kevin and determine who his God is or what God he fears? How could I look at a Muslim and tell what God he fears? How could I look at a Hindu or Buddhist and tell what God he fears?

Now let me show you. This gets very, very practical. So go back to 2nd Kings 17 and verse 7. "For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods." How do we know they did? What was the evidence? What was the manifestation? Here it is.

"And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made." Wait. What did they do? They took God's law and set it aside. They said, we're going to keep Baal's law. We'll keep Asherah's law. We'll keep the laws of the heathen. We will keep the laws of Israel. You have to remember something about the laws of Israel. Every king that the ten northern tribes had, the kings of Israel, every one of them were reprobate and corrupt. Not one was godly. Do you remember Jeroboam I? What is the first thing he did in 1 Kings chapter 12? He made two golden calves, set one of them down in Bethel, and said, "These be thy gods, O Israel." And every king of Israel worshiped the golden calves.

And what is Judah doing? Same thing Israel did. I'm going to show you that, too. They're taking the laws of the heathen and are obeying. Well, look, look at it. Let's read it. Verse 8, "And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God."

"And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: And they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing." Now watch. "Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God." Watch verse 15, "And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do

evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger." Do you see what they did when they rejected God? They rejected God's law. But you have to have a law. No society can exist without a law. So they said, well, since we rejected God, God's not our lawgiver. Baal is. Or the state is. Or Molech is. Or Asherah happens to be our lawgiver. And they lived according to the laws of the heathen.

Oh, go to verses 18 and 19. See, it was just not the ten northern tribes. The Bible says in verse 18,

Scripture Reading — 2 Kings 17:7-19

"Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight."

May I tell you something? If you will read 2 Kings 17, you will find exactly why God sent not only the ten northern tribes into captivity into Assyria, but the two southern tribes into captivity into Babylon. Why? Because they rejected Him and they rejected His law. They committed civil and governmental fornication. They committed theological and ideological fornication first. It led to the civil and governmental fornication because they rejected God and His law and they established a pagan, heathenistic law system. And they developed a pagan and heathenistic culture and society. And God says this is why He sent them into captivity.

Now, let me show you another passage. Look, if you would, hold 1 Samuel 8, we're coming back there. But look at Micah, chapter six toward the end of the Old Testament. I think it's Jonah, Micah, Nahum. If you look in Micah. Yeah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, look in Micah, chapter six, Micah, chapter six, at verses 13 through 16. Now, as I read this, although we're talking about Israel in this passage, would you tend with me just for a moment, and as we read this, think about America. If you want to know where we are and how we got here, I want you to think about our economic condition. I want you to think about our agricultural condition, the drought that's raging, the floods that are raging. Just watch this. Look what God says. Micah chapter 6, beginning there with verse 13. God says, "Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins."

A lot of sickness, a lot of desolation. He says in verse 14, "Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine." Why are all the judgments coming? "For the statutes of Omri are kept." Omri was the father of Ahab. Watch. "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people." Why are they being judged?

Because they are walking under an alien law system. They're not following God's law, they're following man's law. You have to understand that rejection of God's law is a rejection of God himself, for a king rules by his law. Anytime you reject God's law system, it is only so that you may receive an alien law system. You can't live without law. You have to have a law system.

Consequences of Governmental Fornication

God warns through Samuel of the results: military conscription, forced labor, property seizure, heavy taxation, and oppression without divine relief.

And when you have a government which was initially established as a Christian government, and now that Christian government is kicked out, you now have a religious, humanistic, alien law system. So there is a theocratic rejection. There's a theonomic rejection. I want you to go back to 1 Samuel chapter 8 because I want you to see this as well. There is also involved in this a pastoral or prophetic rejection. Notice in 1 Samuel 8, verse 5. "And they said unto him," that is to Samuel, "Behold, thou art old."

"Thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." You're an old man, Samuel. Now, skip down to verse 8. Look what God tells Samuel, he said, "According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee." Now, listen, when an individual, when a family, when a church, when a society, when a nation rejects God and his law, at the same time, they reject all of God's representatives. They reject all of his messengers. If you will study the life of Elijah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, any of the prophets, the people wouldn't listen to them. Why? Because they don't have any respect for God, there's something they don't have any respect for man. I've preached so many messages and I've had people say, oh, oh, Brother Weaver, if you could just preach that in Congress, they wouldn't listen. You know what? They've rejected God and God's law. So therefore, they're going to reject any message of God.

Let me show you this. Look in your Bibles to Second Chronicles, Chapter 36. Hold 1 Samuel 8, we're not through there. Look in Second Chronicles, Chapter 36. This may surprise you, but here it is plain as day. Second Chronicles, Chapter 36, reading in there, verse 15. Second Chronicles, 36, verse 15. Here it is.

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 36:15-17

"And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them,"

that is to His people,

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 36:15-17

"by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place."

So whenever God is going to show mercy upon His people, He sends them His preachers. He sends His prophets. So He sent them because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. Look at verse 16.

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 36:15-17

"But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

"Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand." Now go back to verse 16. God sent his prophets. What happened? Verse 16. "But they mocked the messengers of God." Notice messengers is plural. More than one. Look at verse 16, "but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words," singular, that is, God's words. His messengers were speaking his words, and so they despised God's words. They mocked the messengers of God and, of course, misused his prophets, he said, until the wrath of God arose against them till there was no remedy. Why?

Because of civil and governmental fornication. Our Lord taught the same thing in Matthew 21 verses 33 through 45. You remember what our Lord said in John Chapter 15, he said, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If they will receive me, they'll receive you. If they don't receive me, they won't receive you. The servant is not greater than his lord." "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." So obviously, when there is a theocratic and theonomic rejection, there's also going to be a prophetic and pastoral rejection.

Now, I want you to go back to 1 Samuel Chapter 8. I want to ask you this question so I can answer it for you. What are the consequences of civil and governmental fornication? What happens when we reject God's law and God Himself and get an alien law system? God shows us in 1 Samuel chapter 8. First, there's going to be an unbiblical military conscription. Verse 11.

He said, "And this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots." I wish I had time to preach tonight on the militia in the Bible. Did you know that there was no standing army in the Bible, in the Old Testament per se, until David? David is one who basically started everything with militia. When our country was first founded, there was no standing army. It was a militia. Do you understand this? A king cannot have a war if the only fighters he has is a citizen's militia and the citizens do not want the war. But if you have a standing army, the king can say, all right, you sir, you're in my army.

Now you go over to Pakistan or you go over to Afghanistan and you die over there. I'm going to send you over there. I'll take your sons. I'll take your daughters. I'll send them wherever I want to send them. Because now I have a standing army. You ought to study that out. You'll be amazed. And by the way, God judged David for numbering the people, counting them as his army.

So there will be an unbiblical military conscription. Notice secondly, there will be compulsory labor battalions for the state. Verse 12, "And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots." Verse 16, as well, "And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work." This is what I've been saying earlier. When you have statism, everything has to be done for the state. Why do you think the federal government is claiming 90% of the land in Nevada? Why do you think now they're after, what is it, 900,000 acres in Texas? Everything has to be done for them. And constitutionally, the federal government cannot even own any land except that one little place where they're existing in the District of Columbia. Well, thirdly, there will be an expropriation of property, land and livestock. Look in verse 14, "And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants." You know, used to eminent domain, they could only take your property if a road had to be through there or a hospital had to be built. Now they'll take your property, build a recreational

baseball field, if that's what they want. And God says this is the consequence that we're going to suffer for rejecting him and his law, eminent domain. Fourth, I want you to note that the state or civil ruler that plays God will demand also a tithe and taxes. Look in verse 15, he said, "And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants." Get down to verse 17. "And he will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants." Wow. You know, the average American would be pleased and happy if our civil rulers only took 10 percent. Do you know that the average American pays over 60% of their income in taxes? This is what is going to happen. Fifth, I want you to note that civil governmental oppression will be so severe that folks will get so tired of it and fed up with it. Look in verse 18, won't do any good.

He said, "And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day." God said you didn't want me. You wanted a man. I'm going to let you have him. In fact, you can have him until you are sick of him. It's kind of like when those people bellyached and they wanted meat, they were tired of that manna. And God said, all right, I'll send you some quail. And you remember what happened? While the meat was in their teeth, God slew the fattest of them. He cut them down. Well, God says, listen. This is the price we pay for rejecting God and His law. Let me answer another question. Why would Israel want to trade God for a man? Why would America want to trade God for a man? Well, there are several reasons given. The first one I would say is this, is because men by nature erroneously think that God's law is bondage. It's not. In fact, God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage. Everybody says the thing, well, God is so, so punctilious and God says, thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that. And listen, I'd rather be somewhere where I can do what I want to do. Oh. What are you saying? You're saying God's law is bondage and my law is freedom. That's what you're saying. No. What you don't understand is man by nature is bound to sin.

He's a servant of sin. He's a servant and the slave of Satan as well. It's God's law that sets us free. Men erroneously think that God's law is bondage. I know about you, but I'd much rather submit to ten righteous laws than a multitude of laws that I don't even read and can't read and don't even know about and can't even pick up the Federal Register. It's so heavy. You see?

Why Men Reject God's Law

Men falsely view God's law as bondage and desire to be like other nations, seeking a human provider to fight their battles and remove responsibility.

And you remember what happened? While the meat was in their teeth, God slew the fattest of them. He cut them down. Well, God says, listen. This is the price we pay for rejecting God and His law. Let me answer another question. Why would Israel want to trade God for a man? Why would America want to trade God for a man? Well, there are several reasons given. The first one I would say is this, is because men by nature erroneously think that God's law is bondage. It's not. In fact, God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage. Everybody says the thing, well, God is so, so punctilious and God says, thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that. And listen, I'd rather be somewhere where I can do what I want to do. Oh. What are you saying? You're saying God's law is bondage and my law is freedom. That's what you're saying. No. What you don't understand is man by nature is bound to sin.

But here's the real reason. Look in verse 20. Here's a real reason men want an alien law system. He said, "That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." Men do not wish to be separate and unique first and foremost. Peer pressure. They want to be just like everyone else. But not only that, they don't want any responsibilities. We need a king, who's going to take care of us? And He's going to fight our battles. We won't have to learn to fight. We won't have to do anything.

He will provide for us. Do you realize the mentality in this country today? It's, I don't have to work. The government will take care of me. Do you realize a third of this country today is unemployed, and another third work for government. And the only way the government can give you anything is by taking it from someone else. But men erroneously think that somehow government is going to take care of it. Government is going to be their God. It is nothing less than spiritual fornication, spiritual adultery in the realm of civil government. It's government as God. It's a denial of God. It's looking to man to give you everything that should come from God. It's looking to man to give you only that which God can provide. It is an enthroning of man and a dethroning of God.

Application and Warning for America

America's current state is due to theological and governmental fornication; judgment is certain. The only hope is rebuilding on God's law.

Let's put two and two together. We are exactly where we are in this country because of theological and ideological fornication and because of civil and governmental fornication. That's exactly where we are. Now, let me just ask you a question, I'll close with this, I want you to think about this. I know that this system is going to collapse. I don't know when. You say, how do you know that? Well, I know it's going to collapse because God is immutable. God doesn't change. He judged Israel. He judged Judah. He's going to judge us. We're doing the same thing they did. You can't thumb your nose at God and get away with it. It's just that simple. I know it's going down. We have a fraudulent money system. We're murdering babies left and right. We're doing everything contrary to God and contrary to God. It's coming down. I know that. Don't know when, but I know it's coming down. So here's my question.

If it came down tomorrow, let's suppose the whole society collapsed tomorrow. And we're left and we're alive. We're the only ones in the community around. And we have to rebuild. Whose law structure would you use to rebuild society? If you try to tell me I would use the best of man's law systems, you're just setting up for another failure and another collapse. One last passage, I want you to turn to Proverbs Chapter 8. I want you to see this. Look in Proverbs Chapter 8. In Proverbs Chapter 8, Jesus Christ is wisdom personified. I want you to see what our Lord says. Proverbs 8, verse 35. Our Lord said, "For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord."

"But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." The only thing that man can produce apart from Jesus Christ is a society of death. That's why George Orwell wrote, if you want a vision of the future, envision a boot stamping in a human face forever. Because all Orwell saw was a society without Jesus Christ. All man can produce is a society of death. Life is in the hands of God, not in the hands of man. If we rebuild biblically, we shall live. If we do not, we will die. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for Your love, Your grace, Your mercy. Teach us. Help us to understand spiritual fornication and adultery, and how it permeates not just our individual lives, our family lives, our society, our government, but even our economic system. And may, Father, we learn to be true to Thee in every area of our life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Spiritual Fornication in Government

Summary: Rejecting God's rule and law in favor of man's law is spiritual adultery, just as idolatry was in the Old Testament.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'God considers an ungodly and reprobate civil government as fornication—spiritual fornication.'

Covenantal Nature of All Government

Summary: All government, including civil, is based on covenants. God ordained rulers as His ministers to execute righteousness.

Evidence: Weaver explains Romans 13, showing rulers are 'ministers of God' and the Constitution is a covenant.

One God, One Law

Summary: God is one, and His law is one unified standard. To reject His law is to reject Him and commit spiritual adultery.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'God is one and His law is one... they could not and we cannot leave God or His law without committing spiritual fornication.'

The Source of Law Reveals the God

Summary: The law a society follows reveals its true god. Modern statism makes the state the source of law, replacing God.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'The source of one's law is his God. If you can discover the source of the law of a society, you can discover who the God of that society really is.'

Judgment for National Apostasy

Summary: God judges nations that reject Him and His law, as seen in Israel and Judah, and will judge America similarly.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'He judged Israel. He judged Judah. He's going to judge us. We're doing the same thing they did.'

Key Arguments

Theological fornication leads to civil fornication

Summary: Error in theology inevitably leads to error in government and society, as seen in Jehoram's reign.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Theological fornication always precedes a change in culture and also a change in our lives and a change in society.'

Government is God's minister for righteousness

Summary: Romans 13 teaches that civil rulers are ordained by God as deacons and exactors of His righteousness, not autonomous lawmakers.

Evidence: Weaver explains the Greek words diakonos and ekdikos, showing government is to serve God's justice.

Rejecting God's law is rejecting God Himself

Summary: Since a king rules by his law, to reject God's law is to reject His reign, which is spiritual adultery.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'When you reject God, you're rejecting his law... a king rules by his law.'

Statism is a rival religion

Summary: Modern political correctness and statism are religious systems that replace God with the state as the source of law and morality.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Hegel, Fichte, Hitler, and Mussolini to show the state is viewed as divine.

God's law is liberty, man's law is bondage

Summary: Contrary to popular belief, God's law brings freedom, while man's law leads to oppression and tyranny.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage.'

Scripture References

2 Chronicles 21:10-13

Context: Jehoram's idolatry and compulsion of Judah to commit fornication, leading to Elijah's prophetic rebuke.

2 Kings 18:18

Context: Jehoram did evil and walked in the ways of Ahab.

2 Chronicles 21:5-6

Context: Jehoram's wickedness attributed to his marriage to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab.

2 Chronicles 21:2-4

Context: Jehoram murdered his brothers to secure his throne.

2 Kings 11:1-3

Context: Athaliah destroyed the royal seed except Joash who was hidden.

Hosea 1:2, 6

Context: Hosea's marriage pictures Israel's whoredom; God declares He will no more have mercy.

Romans 13:1-4, 6

Context: Civil rulers are ordained by God as ministers for good, to execute wrath on evildoers.

2 Kings 11:17

Context: Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people.

2 Chronicles 23:16

Context: Jehoiada made a covenant that they should be the Lord's people.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Context: The Shema: God is one, and His commandments are to be taught diligently.

1 Samuel 8:4-20

Context: Israel demands a king, rejecting God's rule; Samuel warns of the consequences.

Deuteronomy 4:5-8

Context: Israel's uniqueness was having God's righteous laws and His nearness.

1 Samuel 10:19

Context: Samuel tells Israel they have rejected God who saved them.

1 Samuel 12:12

Context: Israel demanded a king when the Lord was their king.

2 Kings 17:7-19

Context: Israel's sin of walking in heathen statutes and rejecting God's covenant led to captivity.

Micah 6:13-16

Context: Judgment comes because the statutes of Omri and works of Ahab are kept.

2 Chronicles 36:15-17

Context: God sent messengers, but they were mocked until wrath came without remedy.

Proverbs 8:35-36

Context: Those who find wisdom find life; those who hate wisdom love death.

Historical References

Reverend Isaac Case (died 1852)

Context: A godly Baptist preacher in Maine whose son remained unconverted, illustrating that grace is not hereditary.

Dr. A.R. Crane's 1904 paper

Context: Presented to the Maine Baptist Missionary Convention, praising Isaac Case but noting his son's absence from church.

American War for Independence battle cry

Context: Colonists cried 'No king but King Jesus,' rejecting George III in favor of Christ's rule.

Hegel, Johann Fichte, Hitler, Mussolini

Context: Quoted to show the statist view that the state is absolute and the source of right.

Albert J. Nock, 'Our Enemy the State'

Context: Nock's critique of statism, where the state's approval determines justice, even justifying fraud and murder.

George Orwell

Context: Orwell's vision of a future without Christ is a boot stamping on a human face forever.

Important Quotes

Theological fornication always precedes a change in culture and also a change in our lives and a change in society.

Significance: Establishes the foundational principle that doctrinal error leads to societal decay.

Grace is not hereditary, depravity is.

Significance: Illustrates that godly parents cannot guarantee godly children; salvation is of God alone.

The source of one's law is his God. If you can discover the source of the law of a society, you can discover who the God of that society really is.

Significance: Key argument that law reveals the true object of worship in a culture.

No king but King Jesus.

Significance: Historical battle cry showing the early American desire for Christ's rule over human monarchy.

A king rules by his law. If the king is changed, the law has changed.

Significance: Explains why rejecting God's law is equivalent to rejecting God as king.

All law is religious. That even includes man's law. Man's law is religious.

Significance: Argues that every legal system is inherently religious, based on some ultimate authority.

God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage.

Significance: Counters the misconception that God's commands are restrictive; true freedom is found in obedience.

The only thing that man can produce apart from Jesus Christ is a society of death.

Significance: Summarizes the ultimate outcome of rejecting God's law and Christ's wisdom.

Discussion Questions

How does theological error lead to changes in civil government and society?

Context: Weaver argues that theological fornication always precedes cultural and societal change.

In what ways is all government covenantal, and how does this affect our view of civil authority?

Context: Weaver explains the covenants in 2 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 23, and applies it to the U.S. Constitution.

What does it mean that 'the source of one's law is his God'? How can we identify the god of our society?

Context: Weaver states that the law a society follows reveals its true god.

Why did Israel want a king, and how does that desire reflect modern attitudes toward government?

Context: Israel wanted to be like other nations and have a king to fight their battles, rejecting God's direct rule.

What are the practical consequences of a nation rejecting God's law, as seen in 1 Samuel 8?

Context: God warned of military conscription, forced labor, property seizure, and oppressive taxation.

How should Christians respond when civil government enacts laws contrary to God's law?

Context: Weaver mentions that unconstitutional laws are not binding, implying a higher loyalty to God's law.

What does it mean to rebuild society on God's law, and is that possible today?

Context: Weaver asks what law structure we would use if society collapsed, urging a biblical foundation.

Applications

Examine your own submission to God's law

Summary: Recognize that rejecting God's commands in any area is spiritual fornication; commit to obeying His law as an act of loyalty.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'We do what we do because we believe what we believe... If you don't know the truth, very obviously you are not free.'

Choose a spouse who fears God

Summary: Jehoram's marriage to Athaliah led him into greater wickedness; believers should marry only in the Lord.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'It does matter who you marry. Because Jehoram married wrong... his wife even made him more wicked.'

Pray for and teach your children, but trust God for their salvation

Summary: Godly parents cannot guarantee godly children; only God can save. Faithful parenting must be accompanied by prayer.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'All a godly person can do is pray for their children, witness to their children... but only God can save them.'

Recognize the religious nature of all law

Summary: Understand that every law reflects someone's god; evaluate laws by Scripture, not by state approval.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'All law is religious... behind every law that man issues is a determination of what is right and wrong.'

Reject the idolatry of statism

Summary: Do not look to government as provider, protector, or moral authority; trust God alone for these roles.

Evidence: Weaver warns, 'It is an enthroning of man and a dethroning of God.'

Prepare to rebuild on God's law

Summary: If society collapses, be ready to advocate for a biblical law structure rather than humanistic systems.

Evidence: Weaver asks, 'Whose law structure would you use to rebuild society?' and implies only God's law brings life.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T05:06:30Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T17:02:52Z

Clean Transcript

Spiritual Fornication - Part 2

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Father, we are thankful tonight for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His Word and for His truth. We ask, Father, for Your blessing tonight. Help us to live for Thee. Help us to learn. Help us to consider Thy Word and apply it in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen. Well, let's begin again tonight where we left off last night. So let's open our Bibles, if you would, to 2 Chronicles chapter 21.
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And we're going to be looking at verses 10 through 13 again. In fact, we will look more closely at 2 Chronicles 21.
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Now, let me just tell you some of the information that I'm going to give you tonight. Some of you may be familiar with it, however. You may not be familiar with it from this perspective because we're still talking about spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. You know, when you start thinking about spiritual fornication, and you think scripturally, it involves so many areas of life, it is almost unbelievable. I'm only just named three. I'm only going to cover one tonight, but I covered last night spiritual fornication in theology and ideology. I want you to see something tonight, and I want you to see spiritual fornication in reference to the civil and governmental sphere. What I'm not going to be able to cover is there is also a spiritual fornication in relationship to economics and commercialism. You have to remember that in Revelation chapter 17, there's not only a religious Babylon, but when you get to Revelation 18, there's also a commercial Babylon as well.
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And so let's look, if you would, in 2 Chronicles 21, beginning there with verse 10. Remember, this is King Jehoram that we're speaking of. The Bible says, "So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and compelled Judah thereto." And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, "Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the way of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and hast also slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself."
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I pointed out last night that everything begins with a theological and ideological fornication. The truth is absolutely plain. Whenever we err theologically, we're going to be erring in a vast number of arenas. Theological fornication always precedes a change in culture and also a change in our lives and a change in society. So you have to understand that our theology or our lack of theology affects every area of our life.
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We do what we do because we believe what we believe. Or we do what we do because we don't have any theology, we don't understand. The Bible says in John 8, our Lord said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." If you don't know the truth, very obviously you are not free. Our Lord also said in Hosea 4, maybe we'll get to look at it a little bit later, in verse 6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
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So when we do not take the Word of God seriously, then we're going to be in serious trouble. Theological fornication always leads to fornication in other areas as well. One such area that we have never really considered in this light is the civil and governmental area. When you look at the Scripture, you're going to find that God considers an ungodly and reprobate civil government as fornication—spiritual fornication. The Bible tells us in 2 Kings chapter 18 verse 18—you don't have to turn there, I'll show it to you in 2 Chronicles 21 as well—but the Bible tells us in 2 Kings 18 verse 18 that Jehoram did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of the house of Ahab. Now, you've got to remember that Ahab was the husband of Jezebel, and Ahab was one of the most wicked, vile kings of the northern kingdom. In fact, he's classified as the most wicked. The most wicked king in the southern kingdom was Manasseh, but Ahab is the most wicked king in the northern kingdom.
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Now, the interesting thing about Jehoram is this. He came from a good stock. His father was King Jehoshaphat. There was a great revival that took place under King Jehoshaphat. His grandfather was King Asa. Asa was a godly man. Both Jehoshaphat and Asa not only were godly men, they had godly rules. So the question you have to ask is this: What went wrong? How could such godly men and godly rulers produce such an ungodly and wicked, reprobate son and grandson? Well, if you'll look in 2 Chronicles 21, at verses 5 and 6, you're going to find out exactly where his perversity and depravity came from. Mainly, notice if you would, 2 Chronicles 21, verse 5, "Jehoram was 32 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem."
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Now look, "And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab. Why? For he had the daughter of Ahab to wife. And he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord." So Jehoram had married Athaliah, who was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehoram was so wicked and so vile, he murdered his own brothers just so that he could solidify his own kingdom. If you look in 2 Chronicles 21, after you look at verse 2, all of his brothers are named.
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The Bible says in verse 3, "And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was his firstborn. Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel." So, interestingly enough, Jehoram now has murdered his own brothers, as well as many other godly princes as well. Consequently, when Ahaziah died—Ahaziah was the son of Jehoram and Athaliah—when Ahaziah died, Jehoram's wife, Athaliah, did a very ungrandmotherly thing. She murdered all of her grandchildren.
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with the exception of one, and the only reason she didn't murder him was because he was hidden. Notice if you would, hold 2 Chronicles, we're coming back there, but look in 2 Kings chapter 11. 2 Kings chapter 11. And let's begin reading there with verse 1. 2 Kings chapter 11 and verse 1. This is what Athaliah did. "And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Jehoram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land." So Athaliah then murdered all of her grandchildren, except one, and she would have gotten him had he not been hidden from her. Wow.
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You're talking about a wife I would not want and a grandmother I would not care to have. That was Athaliah, that is for sure.
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Now, before we go any further, let me just point out several truths here. First, I could point out this: It does matter who you marry. It does matter who you marry. Because Jehoram married wrong, he may have already been depraved and may have already been wicked, but his wife even made him more wicked. The same thing with Jezebel. The Bible says that Jezebel provoked Ahab to more evil. So it does matter who you marry. That is important. But the one that I really want to emphasize right now is just simply this: I want you to understand, godly men do not always produce godly children. Jehoshaphat was a godly man.
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He was the father of Jehoram. Asa was the grandfather. He was a godly man. And yet here you have Jehoram who turned out to be an absolute reprobate. I have to tell you about Reverend Isaac Case. Reverend Isaac Case died at the age of 91 on November 3, 1852. Right after the American War for Independence, he actually was really preaching and teaching in Maine, and he was centered around Readfield, Maine. He started Baptist churches in Readfield and in Thomaston, Maine, and he was very active in the ministry up until his death at age of 91.
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He baptized, I don't know how many people, a countless number. In those days, you did not count a convert unless he was baptized and added to the church. So he baptized a lot. He started several churches as well. In 1904, Dr. A.R. Crane presented a paper to the Maine Baptist Missionary Convention entitled, "The Baptist Ministers in Maine from 1804 to 1904." And he mentioned Isaac Case in this paper as one of the leading Baptist preachers of that era. He also said that he heard Isaac Case preach when he was an old man.
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And he had this to say. He said, Isaac Case, as an old man, not only had a tremendous grasp of Scripture, but had as much power with God as any man that he had ever known, even when he was an old man. But he said there was one thing he could not understand. And that was why Isaac Case's grown son did not darken the doorway of the church. He said, "I could not understand, I know this is a godly man, a man that had power, a man that had preached for years and evidently his son is unconverted, won't even darken the doorway of the church." And so Dr. Crane then asked Case's grown son why he did not attend church. And although Case's son was unconverted, yet he had a pretty good grasp of theology. Because when Dr. Crane asked him why he did not attend church, he said this.
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"Grace is not hereditary, depravity is." Grace is not hereditary, depravity is. So he said, "I'm depraved." That's what he was saying. And I got it from my father and my mother. Grace is not hereditary, but depravity is. Do you realize all a godly person can do is pray for their children, witness to their children, lead their children, teach their children, but only God can save them. So godly men do not always produce godly children.
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The next truth I want to emphasize right here is this, and it's equally plain. We reap that which we sow.
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Now that is not only true individually, familially, and ecclesiastically, it is also true nationally. No one escapes this principle. God said, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
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Now, what did Jehoram do? Jehoram had no mercy upon his own family. He murdered his brothers. And he had no mercy upon the nation because he compelled them into idolatry. He forced them. Undoubtedly, many of them wanted to as well, but he did force them into idolatry. So, basically, he destroyed not only his family and his nation. And if you will look in your Bibles, hold 2 Chronicles, but turn to the book of Hosea chapter 1, right after the book of Daniel, Hosea. Look in Daniel, Hosea, Hosea chapter 1, and I want you to see what God says. When you look in Hosea, you have to remember that Hosea married Gomer, who was an unfaithful wife. And God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer because his marriage was to be a picture of what Israel had done to God. So if you look in Hosea 1 in verse 2, the Bible says, "The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms."
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Why? "For the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord."
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Now, you're going to have to ask yourself this question, and I hope we're going to answer it tonight. How did Israel depart from the Lord? It was not just theologically and ideologically. That was just the foundation. But skip down, if you would please, to verse 6, because here we're talking about one of the children, and here's what God says concerning the children, or this child particularly: "And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away." I'm going to destroy them. You destroyed your family. You destroyed the nation. I'm going to destroy you.
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You reap what you sow. That's true nationally, just like it is true individually. The next principle I want to emphasize tonight is that covenants are binding. Covenants are binding. You see, God basically married Israel. Israel was considered as a wife to the Lord. In fact, she was considered as joined to him as a husband. Thus, when she committed idolatry, she was then guilty of spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. It was adultery against Jehovah.
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Now, I want you to look back in 2 Chronicles chapter 21 and notice if you would please what the Bible says in verse 11 concerning Jehoram. "Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto." So, Jehoram then, who married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, not only permitted Baal worship and Asherah worship and all types of idolatry into the land, he compelled, he forced the people into idolatry. Thus, this new governmental religion then was considered spiritual fornication or spiritual adultery.
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By the way, let me just point something out to you. When the Bible talks about groves, you're going to read how Ahab built a grove and Manasseh put groves in the house of the Lord. Anytime you see the word grove in the Bible, in the Old Testament, with the exception of Genesis 22 and verse 31, when the Bible says that Abraham planted a grove, that is a grove of trees. We talk about a pecan grove or a pecan orchard or a peach orchard or a peach grove. When we hear the word grove, we think of a grove of trees. Now that's what Abraham planted in Genesis 22 and verse 31. But any time else when the word grove is used in the entire Old Testament, it's a totally different word, it's the word Asherah, which was a sex goddess, part of Baal worship. So all of these groves are not trees that are being planted by some king, they are idolatry.
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So thus you have, in 2 Chronicles 21, a new governmental religion. Now, stop and think. Do we have a governmental religion today? Oh, yeah. And I'm not just going to call it humanism. Sure, it's humanism, but it is a governmental religion of political correctness. That will become more conveniently known in just a moment.
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Now, let me tell you something, I just said covenants are binding. When you look at your Bible, you usually see Old Testament, New Testament. Do you realize the word Testament just simply means covenant? Old Covenant, New Covenant. We are still a covenantal people. We're still bound by a covenant. And it is just as easy to violate a covenant today with God as it was in the Old Testament. So, tonight I want you to see civil and governmental fornication, and I want you to understand it from this perspective. You've got to remember, all government is covenantal in nature. I don't care if we're talking about our family, our church, or our nation. Husbands and wives are engaged in covenants.
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Children are basically covenantally obligated to their parents as well. Parents are covenantally obligated to their children. When you come to the church, you're covenantally obligated to that church. I don't care whether you have a covenant up on the wall or not, that's immaterial. There is a covenant based upon the Word of God. All government is covenantal in nature, including civil government.
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Now, I want you to turn, hold 2 Chronicles 21, but turn very quickly to Romans chapter 13. I am not going to preach this chapter. I've done so a multitude of times past, but I want to just show you something just to refresh your mind for just a few minutes before I go further. I want you to notice, if you would, verses 1 and 2, first and foremost, of Romans chapter 13, where God says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." Now, look what he says. Verse two, "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation" or condemnation. Now, when he says in verse one, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers," the word powers there is exousia, which literally means authorities or jurisdictions or power. He says there is no authority but that which is of God. If anyone has any authority at all, I don't care if you're talking about a husband, I don't care if you're talking about a pastor, I don't care if you're talking about a Congress, anyone who has any authority at all, God established it.
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That's why he said in verse 2, it is the ordinance of God. Now, let me just answer this question for you. I hope you're asking, why then did God establish civil government? Well, look very quickly at verse 4. He's talking about the civil ruler here. In fact, go back to verse 3. He says, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same." So we're talking about civil rulers. Now watch in verse 4. "For he," the civil ruler, "is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid."
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"For he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
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Now twice in verse 4, the civil ruler or the government is referred to as a minister. The Greek word is diakonos, it's where we get our English word deacon and it just literally means servant. So God ordained civil government to be his deacon or to be his servant. If you look in verse 4 also, the civil ruler is called a revenger. The word revenger is ekdikos in the Greek. Ek is a preposition which means out of or from, and dikaios is righteousness. Literally, he is to exact God's righteousness. He's to draw out that righteousness. So why did God ordain civil government? Number one, to be His servant. Number two, to be His exactor of righteousness. It is not government that determines right and wrong. It is God that determines right and wrong. It is not government that determines what is just. It is God that determines what is just. Government is ordained by God to exact His justice and His righteousness. When you look in verse 6, he says this, "For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing."
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Now, the word ministers there is a different word from diakonos in verse 4. In verse 6, it's the word leitourgoi, or leitourgos, which is the singular. It is where we get our English word liturgy from. What is a liturgy? A liturgy is a public form of worship. Every church has a liturgy. You say, "Brother Weaver, I go to Baptist church. We don't have liturgies." Oh, yes, you do.
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You open in prayer, you sing hymns, you receive an offering, you hear preaching, you have a closing hymn. That's a liturgy. A liturgy is just a public form of worship. So why did God ordain civil government? Number one, to be his deacon, his servant. Number two, to be his exactor of righteousness. And number three, to be his public worship. Wow.
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Now I want you to understand something. Even in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament here, government is shown to be covenantal in nature. So I want you to go back in your Bibles, first of all, to 2 Kings chapter 11. Then we're going to 2 Chronicles 23. So go to 2 Kings chapter 11, and let me show you what Jehoiada the high priest did. 2 Kings chapter 11, and look in verse 17. In fact, when you talk about covenants in relationship to government, actually there are two different ones. They're both related, but they're two different covenants. Notice if you would, 2 Kings chapter 11 and verse 17. The Bible says this, "And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's people." Now watch, "between the king also and the people." So here's two covenants. Jehoiada the high priest made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people that they should be the Lord's people. So in this first covenant, the king agreed to be God's king.
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And the people agreed to be God's people. That's the first covenant. Here's the second covenant. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. Now, in that covenant, the king agreed to rule faithfully and the people agreed to obey him as long as he did. It's just that simple. If you look in 2 Chronicles chapter 23 and verse 16, you'll see the same exact truth. 2 Chronicles 23 and verse 16. The Bible says that Jehoiada made a covenant between him, that is God, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people.
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By the way, when our country was first founded, if you will go back, and I have on my computer at home, and I've preached this in several different sermons, where I quote from the original charters and constitutions, where every colony, which it would now be every state initially, of the 13, all of them covenanted to be God's people. In fact, as liberal as Massachusetts is, originally it says the laws of this colony shall be the laws of God as given through Moses. The judicial laws of Moses are the laws of this colony. You will find we entered, our forefathers did, entered into a covenant with God. Even if you disregard all of the original history, when you look at our Constitution, whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not is immaterial. The truth of the matter is the Constitution is a covenant between the people and the government. Where the government agrees to rule constitutionally and the people agree to obey as long as they do rule constitutionally.
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I'm just now preaching two messages on the essence of rebellion. And in my first message, I show, quoting the Supreme Court, and I'm Juror 16, where no one is obligated to obey an unconstitutional law. Where even the Supreme Court says it is unconstitutional from its inception. You do not have to wait for a court to say, well, this is unconstitutional. No. It is not binding on anyone, any unconstitutional law. Why?
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Because the Constitution is a type of covenant. Now, I want you to turn to First Samuel, Chapter 8. I want you to just hold that passage, please. I'm going to tell you something about First Samuel, Chapter 8. And we're going to come back in just a moment and read some scriptures here. Before I do, I want to give you some things to consider before we look at First Samuel, Chapter 8.
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Now that you understand that government is covenantal in nature, you're going to see this even more clearly from this passage. You're going to see, I hope, how Israel got out from under God and his kingdom and got under man and man's kingdom. You're going to see the same thing that happened in America as well.
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Now, let me tell you this. I'm going to repeat this in just a little bit. I will repeat it. But I want you to understand this. The only way that you can understand 1 Samuel chapter 8 is to see it or to view it as a transition from one law structure to another law structure. You're going to see that whenever there is a change in rulers, there is a change in law. If you can always remember this, a king rules by his law. If the king is changed, the law has changed. OK, now let me give you several things to consider before we look at 1st Samuel Chapter 8. I want you to hold 1st Samuel 8, but go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy Chapter 6 because I want you to see this. The very first thing that you need to consider before we look at 1st Samuel Chapter 8 is that we must understand that God is one and His law is one. God is one and his law is one so you can say it like this: one God.
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One law. Now look in Deuteronomy chapter 6 beginning there with verse four. By the way, verse four is known as the Shema Yisrael. If you go to any Orthodox synagogue—I'm not asking you or advising you to, but if you went to an Orthodox synagogue, usually you would hear something like this: "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad." And all they're saying is this: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. That's what that verse says. Look at it: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." Notice since he is one, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart," one Lord, one law. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes."
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"And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." God says, I am one. And my law is one, one God, one law. We live in a universe and not in a multiverse. So let me put it like this. God is one, his law is one, and his law is the absolute standard to which man must conform. Now listen. Israel, if Israel in the Old Testament or New Testament Israel, they could not and we cannot leave God or His law without committing spiritual fornication and spiritual adultery. Because God is one and His law is one.
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Now, when someone tries to say, "That can't possibly be true," but it is true. You see, the only way that you can deny that statement is by asserting polytheism, which is many gods or some system of evolution. If you try to say, well, God is one, but his law is no longer valid. Oh, well, what happened? Did we change gods? Or did God evolve? Or did God get smarter? What happened? The Bible says in Romans chapter 7 and verse 12 that we know that the law is holy, just, and good. You see, any time you try to say that God and or His law has been replaced, you can't help but either admit to either polytheism or some form of evolutionism. It's just that simple. God said in Malachi 3 and verse 6, "I the Lord change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."
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So in systematic theology books, we read about the immutability of God, the unchangeableness of God. God does not change. You say, but Brother Weaver, in this day and age, we're saved by grace. Well, let me tell you, they were saved by grace in the Old Testament. Anytime anybody's ever been saved, it's been by grace. But you know what the Bible teaches? The Bible teaches the proper response to grace is obedience to God's law.
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That's why He said in John 14, verse 21, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." You get down to verse 24, "He that keepeth not my sayings, loveth me not." When you get to 1 John 5 and verse 3, "And this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." The response to grace, even in the New Testament, is obedience to God's law. So here's the principle. One God, one law. Secondly, you have to understand this, that all law is religious. All law is religious. That even includes man's law. Man's law is religious.
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Now, it may not be the Christian religion, it may be a humanistic religion, but it is religious. We know that God's law is true and accurate, and it is religious in this sense of the word, because it proceeds from God Himself. Man's law is also religious, even though it may not be true or accurate. Well, how can man's law be religious? Because behind every law that man issues is a determination of what is right and wrong, good or bad, fit or unfit, just or unjust. And when a man says, aha, this is a good law, what is he saying? He's giving a religious determination of what he considers to be good. So you cannot have an unreligious law. All law is religious. It may be humanistic, but it's still religious. It could be atheistic, but it's still religious. Humanism is religion. Atheism is religion.
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Cults, isms, and schisms are all religions. No matter who issues a law, it is a religious law. And when you hear some politician come up and say, well, we're unbiased and we're not going to force religion upon anyone, that's exactly what they're doing when they say that. They're forcing their non-religion or their humanistic religion upon someone. Okay? Now, law, no matter whose law it is, law governs man and society. And law then establishes and declares what is just and right in the eyes of the lawgiver. So if God issues His law, He's the one declaring what is just and right. If the law comes from man, man is the one that is declaring what is just and right. Okay?
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Here's the third thing for you to consider. There can be no disestablishment of religion per se. There can be no disestablishment of religion. If you say, well, we're not going to go by the Ten Commandments, we're not going to go by the Bible. We're going to disestablish that. No, you're not disestablishing religion. You may be kicking out the Christian religion, but you are establishing in itself and instead of humanistic religion, you're just simply trading religions.
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I hope you understand that is basically what has happened in this country. We have changed religion. You see, no society, no culture can exist without a law system, without a system of law. We have to have law. The question is, whose law will we have? Because it is our law system that determines morality.
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Fourth, you need to consider this. The source of one's law is his God. The source of one's law is his God. If you can discover the source of the law of a society, you can discover who the God of that society really is. When archaeologists go digging around those ancient ruins, one of the first things they want to discover is their source of law. Because if they can ascertain the source of law, they can figure out who they worshipped and what their God was or who their God was. So if you try to tell me, "Brother Weaver, I don't need the Bible. I'm a rational, cool-headed, level-headed, thinking individual, and I can reason things out in my mind." Well, your reason is your God. Your rationality is your God. That's why they called it the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, because men rejected the Word of God and depended upon their reason. You say, well, I don't have to tell or figure out anything, because those nine black robe justices up on the Supreme Court, they declare what law is.
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Oh, well, then they're your gods. The source of your law is basically your God. I'm going to show you that from the Bible in just a moment. So here it is. If we acknowledge God as our God, then His law is in our lives. And if we look to His law as a source for governing our lives, then we're acknowledging Him as our God. If we look to the state, if we look to the federal government, then of course we're acknowledging them as our God. I want you to understand that modern day humanism and modern day political correctness always locates law in the state. And when I say state, I'm talking about not just like the state of South Carolina or the state of Georgia, but the federal government or the state.
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It doesn't matter, statism, it's all referring to basically the same thing. Let me just show you. It was Hegel who said, "The state incarnates the divine idea upon the earth." Let me paraphrase that. He said the state is God walking on earth. Well, the German philosopher Johann Fichte said this: "The state is the supreme power, ultimate and beyond repeal, absolutely independent." Oh, the state is absolute and beyond repeal.
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Hitler said it like this: "The state dominates the nation because it alone represents the nation." Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, said this: "The state embraces everything and nothing has value outside of the state. The state creates right." You want to know why we have abortion in this country and why most people think that abortion is not murder and abortion is not sin? Because the state said it's not sin. The state said it's not murder. The state creates right. So ask yourself, how did we arrive at our state of political correctness? How did we arrive at the stage in this country where everything has to be done in favor of government? How did we get to the point in this country where it is now government that determines right and wrong, good and evil, what is just and what is unjust.
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If you've never read anything by Albert J. Nock, I would encourage you to do so. Nock has written a book—and one was written more, but one is entitled "Our Enemy the State." In fact, there's a Nockian society, N-O-C-K is his last name, Albert J. Nock. And here's what he said. If you understand statism, if you understand humanism, listen to what he said.
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Now you can understand abortion and everything else in this country. Nock said, "In this view," that is in the statist view, "there is no other criterion of right and wrong but the approval or disapproval of the state. There is no criterion of justice between man and man except the interest of the state. If what one man does to another affects the state favorably, it is just, even fraud, arson, theft, and murder."
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"If unfavorably, it is unjust." Wow! Do you realize that is the thinking of the federal government today? That's the thinking of most state governments. Everything has to be done for the state. And if it's done for the state, then it's fine no matter what it is. Well, I want you to consider these things as we look at 1st Samuel chapter 8. I want you to go there and I want you to see literally how civil and governmental fornication developed. It's been before 1st Samuel chapter 8, but this is just a very good, clear illustration of it. So look in 1st Samuel chapter 8 and we're going to begin reading with verse 4. And I want to read through verse 20. All right, look in 1st Samuel chapter 8 verse 4. Think about these things I've just shared with you as we look at this. 1st Samuel 8 verse 4. "Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways."
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"Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them."
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"According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you."
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"He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. And he will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants."
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"And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."
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Now, if you examine this passage closely, you're going to find and discover the root of statism and also the root of civil and governmental fornication. I want you to note several things in this passage. First of all, there was a theocratic rejection. Theos is the Greek word for God. Kratos is the Greek word for power. So theocratic just simply means the rule or the reign of God by virtue of God's power, that's what it means. So there was a theocratic rejection. Look in verse 7.
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"And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Now, when they realized that Samuel was old, and his sons were not walking in his ways, they came and they said, make us a king. Make us a king. Now, I want you to note, if you would please, they didn't ask Samuel, pray and ask the Lord what he would have, or ask the Lord to raise us up another prophet like yourself. No. Didn't say that. They just said we only came. And God said, look, when Samuel prays, He said they're not rejected, they have rejected me. Here's what they're doing in first Samuel, chapter eight, they're trading God for a man. And the reason they were going to trade God for a man was so that they could be like all the other nations.
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Do you realize it was precisely this one thing that made Israel unique? Precisely this one thing. They were the only nation that had God as their King. In fact, hold 1 Samuel 8, but look back in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. And notice if you would please, Deuteronomy 4, verse 5. We'll start there. Moses says to Israel, "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it."
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"Keep therefore and do them." Now, he's talking about God's law. Look what he says. "Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law?"
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"which I set before you this day." So, that which made Israel unique was they had God's law. Not only did they have God's law, God was their king. He was their sovereign. He was their ruler. And now, when you look back in 1 Samuel chapter 8, what they want to do is to trade God for a man.
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Now, they were willing to sacrifice this uniqueness that they might be like everybody else. Look in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 10 and verse 19. I'm going to show you a further explanation of 1 Samuel 8. Look in 1 Samuel 10 and verse 19. Look what Samuel says to the people. "And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us."
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"Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands." Look what he said. You have rejected your God. You don't want God ruling over you. Look in 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 12. 1 Samuel 12 and verse 12. He said, "And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king." Now, when you go back to first Samuel, chapter eight and verse seven, God says they've not rejected thee, but they rejected me that I should not reign over them. They did not want me. They wanted a man.
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It must be pointed out clearly and distinctly. This was not just an individual that was rejecting God. It was the entire nation. It was a people. They did not want to acknowledge Him as their King and their Sovereign. May I remind you that when the American War for Independence was being fought, there was a battle cry that our colonists used. And you know what it was? No King, but King Jesus. That's why they cried. No king but King Jesus. We don't want George III. He's not our king. We want King Jesus. It's only King Jesus who's going to rule over us.
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So you have, in 1 Samuel chapter 8, a theocratic rejection. We don't want God. That's exactly what America today has done, just like Israel of old. We've rejected God. Notice if you would, secondly, there was a theonomic rejection.
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Now, again, theos is the word for God in the Greek, nomos is the word for law. So a theonomic rejection is rejection of God's law. When God said in verse seven, "The Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Let me ask you a question. How does God reign? How does God rule? The answer is, by his law. A king rules by his law.
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I'm going to show you this in the Bible, just momentarily. A king rules by his law. So, when you reject God, you're rejecting his law. It is a theonomic rejection. The law of God has been given to lead us and guide us and direct us. And the law of God reveals God's edicts and God's commands.
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Now, when you and I think of the law, we tend to think of the Ten Commandments, or we think of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. But truthfully, all of the Bible is God's law, because God rules by His law. This is His law. The Bible says in Isaiah 33 and verse 22, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us." So God then is judge, lawgiver, and then king. Now, in reality, you cannot separate God and His law.
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Now I just separated it for you just for your consideration. When I said there was a theocratic rejection, I showed you that.
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Now I'm telling you there's a theonomic rejection, but really and truly they stand or fall together. Because when one rejects God automatically, he rejects his law. Let me show you. I want you to turn, hold 1 Samuel 8, but turn to 2 Kings chapter 17. Second Kings chapter 17. And I would encourage you when you get home tonight to read all of Second Kings 17. You want to really understand how Israel traded God for a man and what happened to them. Here it is. But look, if you would, please, in Second Kings chapter 17.
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Let's begin reading there with verse 7. Second Kings 17, verse 7. "And it was so, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods." Now let's stop right there. Look at that very carefully. God has brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods. How do you know what God you fear? How could I look at Kevin and determine who his God is or what God he fears? How could I look at a Muslim and tell what God he fears? How could I look at a Hindu or Buddhist and tell what God he fears?
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Now let me show you. This gets very, very practical. So go back to 2nd Kings 17 and verse 7. "For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods." How do we know they did? What was the evidence? What was the manifestation? Here it is.
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"And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made." Wait. What did they do? They took God's law and set it aside. They said, we're going to keep Baal's law. We'll keep Asherah's law. We'll keep the laws of the heathen. We will keep the laws of Israel. You have to remember something about the laws of Israel. Every king that the ten northern tribes had, the kings of Israel, every one of them were reprobate and corrupt. Not one was godly. Do you remember Jeroboam I? What is the first thing he did in 1 Kings chapter 12? He made two golden calves, set one of them down in Bethel, and said, "These be thy gods, O Israel." And every king of Israel worshiped the golden calves.
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And what is Judah doing? Same thing Israel did. I'm going to show you that, too. They're taking the laws of the heathen and are obeying. Well, look, look at it. Let's read it. Verse 8, "And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God."
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"And they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger: And they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing." Now watch.
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"Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God." Watch verse 15, "And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do
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evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger." Do you see what they did when they rejected God? They rejected God's law. But you have to have a law. No society can exist without a law. So they said, well, since we rejected God, God's not our lawgiver. Baal is. Or the state is. Or Molech is. Or Asherah happens to be our lawgiver. And they lived according to the laws of the heathen.
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Oh, go to verses 18 and 19. See, it was just not the ten northern tribes. The Bible says in verse 18, "Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight."
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May I tell you something? If you will read 2 Kings 17, you will find exactly why God sent not only the ten northern tribes into captivity into Assyria, but the two southern tribes into captivity into Babylon. Why? Because they rejected Him and they rejected His law. They committed civil and governmental fornication. They committed theological and ideological fornication first. It led to the civil and governmental fornication because they rejected God and His law and they established a pagan, heathenistic law system. And they developed a pagan and heathenistic culture and society. And God says this is why He sent them into captivity.
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Now, let me show you another passage. Look, if you would, hold 1 Samuel 8, we're coming back there. But look at Micah, chapter six toward the end of the Old Testament. I think it's Jonah, Micah, Nahum. If you look in Micah. Yeah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, look in Micah, chapter six, Micah, chapter six, at verses 13 through 16. Now, as I read this, although we're talking about Israel in this passage, would you tend with me just for a moment, and as we read this, think about America. If you want to know where we are and how we got here, I want you to think about our economic condition. I want you to think about our agricultural condition, the drought that's raging, the floods that are raging. Just watch this. Look what God says. Micah chapter 6, beginning there with verse 13. God says, "Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins."
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A lot of sickness, a lot of desolation. He says in verse 14, "Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine."
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Why are all the judgments coming? "For the statutes of Omri are kept." Omri was the father of Ahab. Watch. "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people." Why are they being judged?
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Because they are walking under an alien law system. They're not following God's law, they're following man's law. You have to understand that rejection of God's law is a rejection of God himself, for a king rules by his law. Anytime you reject God's law system, it is only so that you may receive an alien law system. You can't live without law. You have to have a law system.
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And when you have a government which was initially established as a Christian government, and now that Christian government is kicked out, you now have a religious, humanistic, alien law system. So there is a theocratic rejection. There's a theonomic rejection. I want you to go back to 1 Samuel chapter 8 because I want you to see this as well. There is also involved in this a pastoral or prophetic rejection. Notice in 1 Samuel 8, verse 5. "And they said unto him," that is to Samuel, "Behold, thou art old."
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"Thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." You're an old man, Samuel.
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Now, skip down to verse 8. Look what God tells Samuel, he said, "According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee."
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Now, listen, when an individual, when a family, when a church, when a society, when a nation rejects God and his law, at the same time, they reject all of God's representatives. They reject all of his messengers. If you will study the life of Elijah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, any of the prophets, the people wouldn't listen to them. Why? Because they don't have any respect for God, there's something they don't have any respect for man. I've preached so many messages and I've had people say, oh, oh, Brother Weaver, if you could just preach that in Congress, they wouldn't listen. You know what? They've rejected God and God's law. So therefore, they're going to reject any message of God.
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Let me show you this. Look in your Bibles to Second Chronicles, Chapter 36. Hold 1 Samuel 8, we're not through there. Look in Second Chronicles, Chapter 36. This may surprise you, but here it is plain as day. Second Chronicles, Chapter 36, reading in there, verse 15. Second Chronicles, 36, verse 15. Here it is. "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them," that is to His people, "by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place." So whenever God is going to show mercy upon His people, He sends them His preachers. He sends His prophets. So He sent them because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. Look at verse 16. "But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."
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"Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand."
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Now go back to verse 16. God sent his prophets. What happened? Verse 16. "But they mocked the messengers of God." Notice messengers is plural. More than one. Look at verse 16, "but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words," singular, that is, God's words. His messengers were speaking his words, and so they despised God's words. They mocked the messengers of God and, of course, misused his prophets, he said, until the wrath of God arose against them till there was no remedy. Why?
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Because of civil and governmental fornication. Our Lord taught the same thing in Matthew 21 verses 33 through 45. You remember what our Lord said in John Chapter 15, he said, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If they will receive me, they'll receive you. If they don't receive me, they won't receive you. The servant is not greater than his lord."
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"If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." So obviously, when there is a theocratic and theonomic rejection, there's also going to be a prophetic and pastoral rejection.
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Now, I want you to go back to 1 Samuel Chapter 8. I want to ask you this question so I can answer it for you. What are the consequences of civil and governmental fornication? What happens when we reject God's law and God Himself and get an alien law system? God shows us in 1 Samuel chapter 8. First, there's going to be an unbiblical military conscription. Verse 11.
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He said, "And this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots." I wish I had time to preach tonight on the militia in the Bible. Did you know that there was no standing army in the Bible, in the Old Testament per se, until David? David is one who basically started everything with militia. When our country was first founded, there was no standing army. It was a militia. Do you understand this? A king cannot have a war if the only fighters he has is a citizen's militia and the citizens do not want the war. But if you have a standing army, the king can say, all right, you sir, you're in my army.
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Now you go over to Pakistan or you go over to Afghanistan and you die over there. I'm going to send you over there. I'll take your sons. I'll take your daughters. I'll send them wherever I want to send them. Because now I have a standing army. You ought to study that out. You'll be amazed. And by the way, God judged David for numbering the people, counting them as his army.
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So there will be an unbiblical military conscription. Notice secondly, there will be compulsory labor battalions for the state. Verse 12, "And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots." Verse 16, as well, "And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work."
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This is what I've been saying earlier. When you have statism, everything has to be done for the state. Why do you think the federal government is claiming 90% of the land in Nevada? Why do you think now they're after, what is it, 900,000 acres in Texas? Everything has to be done for them. And constitutionally, the federal government cannot even own any land except that one little place where they're existing in the District of Columbia. Well, thirdly, there will be an expropriation of property, land and livestock. Look in verse 14, "And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants." You know, used to eminent domain, they could only take your property if a road had to be through there or a hospital had to be built. Now they'll take your property, build a recreational
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baseball field, if that's what they want. And God says this is the consequence that we're going to suffer for rejecting him and his law, eminent domain. Fourth, I want you to note that the state or civil ruler that plays God will demand also a tithe and taxes. Look in verse 15, he said, "And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants." Get down to verse 17. "And he will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants." Wow.
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You know, the average American would be pleased and happy if our civil rulers only took 10 percent. Do you know that the average American pays over 60% of their income in taxes? This is what is going to happen. Fifth, I want you to note that civil governmental oppression will be so severe that folks will get so tired of it and fed up with it. Look in verse 18, won't do any good.
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He said, "And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day." God said you didn't want me. You wanted a man. I'm going to let you have him. In fact, you can have him until you are sick of him. It's kind of like when those people bellyached and they wanted meat, they were tired of that manna. And God said, all right, I'll send you some quail.
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And you remember what happened? While the meat was in their teeth, God slew the fattest of them. He cut them down. Well, God says, listen. This is the price we pay for rejecting God and His law. Let me answer another question. Why would Israel want to trade God for a man? Why would America want to trade God for a man? Well, there are several reasons given. The first one I would say is this, is because men by nature erroneously think that God's law is bondage. It's not. In fact, God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage. Everybody says the thing, well, God is so, so punctilious and God says, thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that. And listen, I'd rather be somewhere where I can do what I want to do. Oh. What are you saying? You're saying God's law is bondage and my law is freedom. That's what you're saying. No. What you don't understand is man by nature is bound to sin.
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He's a servant of sin. He's a servant and the slave of Satan as well. It's God's law that sets us free. Men erroneously think that God's law is bondage. I know about you, but I'd much rather submit to ten righteous laws than a multitude of laws that I don't even read and can't read and don't even know about and can't even pick up the Federal Register. It's so heavy. You see?
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But here's the real reason. Look in verse 20. Here's a real reason men want an alien law system. He said, "That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." Men do not wish to be separate and unique first and foremost. Peer pressure. They want to be just like everyone else. But not only that, they don't want any responsibilities. We need a king, who's going to take care of us? And He's going to fight our battles. We won't have to learn to fight. We won't have to do anything.
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He will provide for us. Do you realize the mentality in this country today? It's, I don't have to work. The government will take care of me. Do you realize a third of this country today is unemployed, and another third work for government. And the only way the government can give you anything is by taking it from someone else. But men erroneously think that somehow government is going to take care of it. Government is going to be their God. It is nothing less than spiritual fornication, spiritual adultery in the realm of civil government. It's government as God. It's a denial of God. It's looking to man to give you everything that should come from God. It's looking to man to give you only that which God can provide. It is an enthroning of man and a dethroning of God.
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Let's put two and two together. We are exactly where we are in this country because of theological and ideological fornication and because of civil and governmental fornication. That's exactly where we are.
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Now, let me just ask you a question, I'll close with this, I want you to think about this. I know that this system is going to collapse. I don't know when. You say, how do you know that? Well, I know it's going to collapse because God is immutable. God doesn't change. He judged Israel. He judged Judah. He's going to judge us. We're doing the same thing they did. You can't thumb your nose at God and get away with it. It's just that simple. I know it's going down. We have a fraudulent money system. We're murdering babies left and right. We're doing everything contrary to God and contrary to God. It's coming down. I know that. Don't know when, but I know it's coming down. So here's my question.
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If it came down tomorrow, let's suppose the whole society collapsed tomorrow. And we're left and we're alive. We're the only ones in the community around. And we have to rebuild. Whose law structure would you use to rebuild society? If you try to tell me I would use the best of man's law systems, you're just setting up for another failure and another collapse. One last passage, I want you to turn to Proverbs Chapter 8. I want you to see this. Look in Proverbs Chapter 8. In Proverbs Chapter 8, Jesus Christ is wisdom personified. I want you to see what our Lord says. Proverbs 8, verse 35. Our Lord said, "For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord."
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"But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." The only thing that man can produce apart from Jesus Christ is a society of death. That's why George Orwell wrote, if you want a vision of the future, envision a boot stamping in a human face forever. Because all Orwell saw was a society without Jesus Christ. All man can produce is a society of death. Life is in the hands of God, not in the hands of man.
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If we rebuild biblically, we shall live. If we do not, we will die. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for Your love, Your grace, Your mercy. Teach us. Help us to understand spiritual fornication and adultery, and how it permeates not just our individual lives, our family lives, our society, our government, but even our economic system. And may, Father, we learn to be true to Thee in every area of our life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T05:06:30Z

Spiritual Fornication - Part 2

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver continues his study on spiritual fornication, focusing on civil and governmental fornication. Using 2 Chronicles 21 and 1 Samuel 8, he argues that rejecting God's law in favor of man's law is spiritual adultery. He explains that all government is covenantal, and when a nation rejects God as king and lawgiver, it embraces a pagan law system, leading to tyranny, oppression, and judgment. He applies these principles to modern America, warning that the same judgment that fell on Israel will come upon any nation that commits governmental fornication.

Introduction and Review

Weaver introduces the topic of spiritual fornication in the civil and governmental sphere, reviewing the previous lesson on theological fornication.

The Wickedness of King Jehoram

Jehoram's evil reign is examined, showing how his marriage to Athaliah led him to compel Judah into idolatry, which God calls fornication.

And so let's look, if you would, in 2 Chronicles 21, beginning there with verse 10. Remember, this is King Jehoram that we're speaking of. The Bible says,

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 21:10-13

"So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers. Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and compelled Judah thereto."

And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying,

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 21:10-13

"Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the way of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and hast also slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself."

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 21:2-4

"And their father gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was his firstborn. Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom of his father, he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with the sword, and divers also of the princes of Israel."

Scripture Reading — 2 Kings 11:1-3

"And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Jehoram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land."

So Athaliah then murdered all of her grandchildren, except one, and she would have gotten him had he not been hidden from her. Wow.

You're talking about a wife I would not want and a grandmother I would not care to have. That was Athaliah, that is for sure.

Principles from Jehoram's Life

Weaver draws lessons: the importance of whom you marry, that godly parents do not guarantee godly children, and that we reap what we sow.

Covenantal Nature of Government

Government is covenantal; God ordained civil rulers as His ministers to exact righteousness. The Constitution is a covenant between people and government.

Foundational Truths Before 1 Samuel 8

Weaver presents key principles: God is one and His law is one; all law is religious; the source of law is one's god; rejecting God's law is spiritual adultery.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord."

Deuteronomy 6 verse 4. That's what that verse says. Look at it:

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord."

Notice since he is one,

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart,"

one Lord, one law.

Scripture Reading — Deuteronomy 6:4-9

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes."

Israel's Rejection of God in 1 Samuel 8

Israel's demand for a king is analyzed as a theocratic and theonomic rejection—trading God and His law for a human ruler and pagan statutes.

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 10:19

"And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us." "Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes, and by your thousands."

Oh, go to verses 18 and 19. See, it was just not the ten northern tribes. The Bible says in verse 18,

Scripture Reading — 2 Kings 17:7-19

"Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight."

Consequences of Governmental Fornication

God warns through Samuel of the results: military conscription, forced labor, property seizure, heavy taxation, and oppression without divine relief.

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 36:15-17

"And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them,"

that is to His people,

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 36:15-17

"by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place."

Scripture Reading — 2 Chronicles 36:15-17

"But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

Why Men Reject God's Law

Men falsely view God's law as bondage and desire to be like other nations, seeking a human provider to fight their battles and remove responsibility.

Application and Warning for America

America's current state is due to theological and governmental fornication; judgment is certain. The only hope is rebuilding on God's law.

Spiritual Fornication - Part 2

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	520142213513
Subject	Civil Government
Course	Civil Government: Magistracy, Authority, and Romans 13: Authority
Genre	Sermon
Date	2014-05-20
Dictation Name
Book	Book 015: Spiritual Fornication — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	114

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction and Review: Weaver introduces the topic of spiritual fornication in the civil and governmental sphere, reviewing the previous lesson on theological fornication.
The Wickedness of King Jehoram: Jehoram's evil reign is examined, showing how his marriage to Athaliah led him to compel Judah into idolatry, which God calls fornication.
Principles from Jehoram's Life: Weaver draws lessons: the importance of whom you marry, that godly parents do not guarantee godly children, and that we reap what we sow.
Covenantal Nature of Government: Government is covenantal; God ordained civil rulers as His ministers to exact righteousness. The Constitution is a covenant between people and government.
Foundational Truths Before 1 Samuel 8: Weaver presents key principles: God is one and His law is one; all law is religious; the source of law is one's god; rejecting God's law is spiritual adultery.
Israel's Rejection of God in 1 Samuel 8: Israel's demand for a king is analyzed as a theocratic and theonomic rejection—trading God and His law for a human ruler and pagan statutes.
Consequences of Governmental Fornication: God warns through Samuel of the results: military conscription, forced labor, property seizure, heavy taxation, and oppression without divine relief.
Why Men Reject God's Law: Men falsely view God's law as bondage and desire to be like other nations, seeking a human provider to fight their battles and remove responsibility.
Application and Warning for America: America's current state is due to theological and governmental fornication; judgment is certain. The only hope is rebuilding on God's law.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Theological fornication leads to civil fornication

Error in theology inevitably leads to error in government and society, as seen in Jehoram's reign.

Weaver says, 'Theological fornication always precedes a change in culture and also a change in our lives and a change in society.'

Government is God's minister for righteousness

Romans 13 teaches that civil rulers are ordained by God as deacons and exactors of His righteousness, not autonomous lawmakers.

Weaver explains the Greek words diakonos and ekdikos, showing government is to serve God's justice.

Rejecting God's law is rejecting God Himself

Since a king rules by his law, to reject God's law is to reject His reign, which is spiritual adultery.

Weaver states, 'When you reject God, you're rejecting his law... a king rules by his law.'

Statism is a rival religion

Modern political correctness and statism are religious systems that replace God with the state as the source of law and morality.

Weaver quotes Hegel, Fichte, Hitler, and Mussolini to show the state is viewed as divine.

God's law is liberty, man's law is bondage

Contrary to popular belief, God's law brings freedom, while man's law leads to oppression and tyranny.

Weaver says, 'God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage.'

Scripture References

2 Chronicles 21:10-13: Jehoram's idolatry and compulsion of Judah to commit fornication, leading to Elijah's prophetic rebuke.
2 Kings 18:18: Jehoram did evil and walked in the ways of Ahab.
2 Chronicles 21:5-6: Jehoram's wickedness attributed to his marriage to Athaliah, daughter of Ahab.
2 Chronicles 21:2-4: Jehoram murdered his brothers to secure his throne.
2 Kings 11:1-3: Athaliah destroyed the royal seed except Joash who was hidden.
Hosea 1:2, 6: Hosea's marriage pictures Israel's whoredom; God declares He will no more have mercy.
Romans 13:1-4, 6: Civil rulers are ordained by God as ministers for good, to execute wrath on evildoers.
2 Kings 11:17: Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people.
2 Chronicles 23:16: Jehoiada made a covenant that they should be the Lord's people.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9: The Shema: God is one, and His commandments are to be taught diligently.
1 Samuel 8:4-20: Israel demands a king, rejecting God's rule; Samuel warns of the consequences.
Deuteronomy 4:5-8: Israel's uniqueness was having God's righteous laws and His nearness.
1 Samuel 10:19: Samuel tells Israel they have rejected God who saved them.
1 Samuel 12:12: Israel demanded a king when the Lord was their king.
2 Kings 17:7-19: Israel's sin of walking in heathen statutes and rejecting God's covenant led to captivity.
Micah 6:13-16: Judgment comes because the statutes of Omri and works of Ahab are kept.
2 Chronicles 36:15-17: God sent messengers, but they were mocked until wrath came without remedy.
Proverbs 8:35-36: Those who find wisdom find life; those who hate wisdom love death.

Historical References

Reverend Isaac Case (died 1852): A godly Baptist preacher in Maine whose son remained unconverted, illustrating that grace is not hereditary.
Dr. A.R. Crane's 1904 paper: Presented to the Maine Baptist Missionary Convention, praising Isaac Case but noting his son's absence from church.
American War for Independence battle cry: Colonists cried 'No king but King Jesus,' rejecting George III in favor of Christ's rule.
Hegel, Johann Fichte, Hitler, Mussolini: Quoted to show the statist view that the state is absolute and the source of right.
Albert J. Nock, 'Our Enemy the State': Nock's critique of statism, where the state's approval determines justice, even justifying fraud and murder.
George Orwell: Orwell's vision of a future without Christ is a boot stamping on a human face forever.

Important Quotes

Theological fornication always precedes a change in culture and also a change in our lives and a change in society.

Establishes the foundational principle that doctrinal error leads to societal decay.

Grace is not hereditary, depravity is.

Illustrates that godly parents cannot guarantee godly children; salvation is of God alone.

The source of one's law is his God. If you can discover the source of the law of a society, you can discover who the God of that society really is.

Key argument that law reveals the true object of worship in a culture.

No king but King Jesus.

Historical battle cry showing the early American desire for Christ's rule over human monarchy.

A king rules by his law. If the king is changed, the law has changed.

Explains why rejecting God's law is equivalent to rejecting God as king.

All law is religious. That even includes man's law. Man's law is religious.

Argues that every legal system is inherently religious, based on some ultimate authority.

God's law is called the law of liberty. We have liberty under God's law. It's man's law that is in bondage.

Counters the misconception that God's commands are restrictive; true freedom is found in obedience.

The only thing that man can produce apart from Jesus Christ is a society of death.

Summarizes the ultimate outcome of rejecting God's law and Christ's wisdom.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does theological error lead to changes in civil government and society?

[Context]

Weaver argues that theological fornication always precedes cultural and societal change.

[Question]

In what ways is all government covenantal, and how does this affect our view of civil authority?

[Context]

Weaver explains the covenants in 2 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 23, and applies it to the U.S. Constitution.

[Question]

What does it mean that 'the source of one's law is his God'? How can we identify the god of our society?

[Context]

Weaver states that the law a society follows reveals its true god.

[Question]

Why did Israel want a king, and how does that desire reflect modern attitudes toward government?

[Context]

Israel wanted to be like other nations and have a king to fight their battles, rejecting God's direct rule.

[Question]

What are the practical consequences of a nation rejecting God's law, as seen in 1 Samuel 8?

[Context]

God warned of military conscription, forced labor, property seizure, and oppressive taxation.

[Question]

How should Christians respond when civil government enacts laws contrary to God's law?

[Context]

Weaver mentions that unconstitutional laws are not binding, implying a higher loyalty to God's law.

[Question]

What does it mean to rebuild society on God's law, and is that possible today?

[Context]

Weaver asks what law structure we would use if society collapsed, urging a biblical foundation.

Applications

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