Introduction and Review

Weaver reviews the previous message, emphasizing that the government owes a constitutional debt, not a socialistic one, and that all institutions (family, church, state) are ordained by God and must be Christian.

If you'd open your Bibles to Romans chapter 13, and once again we're going to read verse 8. This is the second part of the message that I began last week, "The Government Owes Me." So if you have not heard the first part, I would encourage you to make sure that you hear the first part. Look in Romans chapter 13 and verse 8, where the Scripture says, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." And of course, verse 8 comes right after verse 7:

And of course, in the context, it is referring there, of course, to civil magistrates and civil governments as well. So again, the title of the message is "The Government Owes Me." And if you were here last week, or if you've heard part one, you certainly understand that this is not a socialistic message. It is certainly not a welfare-type message. When I refer to the fact that the government owes me, I'm referring to the constitutional debt that the federal government owes to the states and to the people of those states.

And please understand that my argument today is not as to whether or not the Constitution is a Christian document or it is not a Christian document. I'm not even arguing whether or not we should be under the Constitution instead of the Articles of Confederation. A lot of people understand that when our forefathers assembled there in Philadelphia, they went to rewrite and rework the Articles of Confederation. The point I'm simply making is this: The Constitution historically is the document purported that we are to be under in this country at this particular time. Obviously then, there is indeed a debt. Now please, in part one I established that no individual, no family, no church, no state, no country, no nation can exist without government. You have to have some type of government. We understand that God only ordained three institutions. He ordained the family, which is a ministry of education. He ordained the church, which is a ministry of grace, and He ordained the state, which is a ministry of justice. And when you understand those three institutions, and when you understand their ministries, then you understand how they are to function and the area in which they are to function. So each institution, whether you're talking about the family, the church, or the state, each institution is answerable and accountable and responsible to God. Now just like God requires the individual to be Christian, He requires the family to be Christian, He requires the church to be Christian, and He also requires the government to be Christian as well. Because each institution has been ordained and established to carry out the purposes and the functions for which God created and established each institution.

So government then, like individuals, like families, like churches, may become wicked, disobedient, and rebellious. We tend to forget that oftentimes it is government that is wicked and rebellious. All you have to do is read the Scripture and you will find where kings and governments consistently, constantly, violated the law of God. In fact, I preached two messages several years ago which I entitled "Civil Government and Idolatry," and I showed from Scripture where it was always civil government that introduced idolatry into the land.

Government Can Be Wicked

Using Psalm 94:20-21, Weaver shows that civil government can be wicked and rebellious, framing mischief by law and condemning the innocent.

So government then, like individuals, like families, like churches, may become wicked, disobedient, and rebellious. We tend to forget that oftentimes it is government that is wicked and rebellious. All you have to do is read the Scripture and you will find where kings and governments consistently, constantly, violated the law of God. In fact, I preached two messages several years ago which I entitled "Civil Government and Idolatry," and I showed from Scripture where it was always civil government that introduced idolatry into the land.

But last week I pointed out Psalm 94, verses 20 and 21. Let me take just a moment to read those Scriptures again just so I can emphasize this point. The question is asked in verse 20:

So I pointed out that we're talking about a throne. A throne speaks of government. Then it's called a throne of iniquity, so it's referring to a wicked civil government. So here's the question: Shall a wicked civil government have fellowship with God when that wicked civil government makes sin legal? And of course, verse 21 illustrates very obviously it's a wicked civil government because verse 21 says they, the civil magistrates or the government, gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous and to condemn innocent blood.

So Psalm 94, verses 20 and 21, by itself points out very clearly, very succinctly that God has never ordained a wicked, ungodly, totalitarian, tyrannical and despotic government. Now there are many other passages in the Bible that teach this and demonstrate this, but Psalm 94 points out very clearly that government can be a wicked and disobedient and rebellious entity. The Bible also teaches us in Romans 13, which we covered last week, that God ordained the civil ruler to be number one His deacon, number two His exactor of righteousness, and number three His public worship.

Covenantal Nature of Government

Government is covenantal, involving reciprocal obligations. The federal government was created by the states and owes them a republican form of government.

Now the truth of the matter is this: as Christians we do indeed owe a debt to a biblical government. And the reason we owe a debt to a biblical government is because we understand that God ordained government. God ordained civil government, number one, for the punishment of the wicked, and number two, for the protection of the righteous. So we have all the reason in the world as Christians to support a biblical and righteous and godly government, because God has commanded us to do so. We have all the reason in the world to do that. You remember last week, one of the things that I pointed out, I'm just trying to review. One of the things I pointed out is that government is covenantal in nature. And I also pointed out how all types of government are covenantal in nature.

I don't care if you're talking about family government, there's a covenant between husband and wife. I don't care if you're talking about church government, there is indeed a covenant between the pastor and the people. I have an obligation. I have a duty towards you to preach and to teach the whole counsel of God. You have a duty and obligation to me to be here, to hear, and to obey the whole counsel of God. So, it is covenantal.

Now, if it's covenantal in the family, if it's covenantal in the church, should it surprise us to understand and discover that government is covenantal when we talk about civil government? In fact, it is covenantal. And I pointed out last week, and I really emphasize this, that covenants involve reciprocity. Reciprocity just simply means that there exist reciprocal obligations and duties. I have a duty toward Alice as her husband; she has a duty toward me as my wife. I have a duty toward you as your pastor; you have a duty toward me as our people. The same thing is true when it comes to civil government. Reciprocity just simply means that there are obligations and duties and responsibilities on each side.

It is the idea, "I'll do this for you if you will do this for me." And that is true in covenants between man and man; it's also true in covenant between God and man as well. Now you must remember that the federal government was created by the states and the people of those states. So therefore the federal government owes the states and the people thereof respectively. Now last week we looked at one point. After I gave all the introduction, I showed you from the Constitution of the United States where the government owes us a republican form of government. In fact, it says that the federal government shall guarantee to each state a republican form of government. And I distinguished for you the difference between a republican form of government, a democracy, and a monarchy. Just to sum it up, in a republican form of government, it is the individuals.

It is the people in their individual capacity that are the sovereigns or that have the power. In other words, in a republican form of government, it is the people that have the power, the government is the servant of the people, and the government is ruled by law. Now, if you don't understand a republican form of government, I would encourage you to go back and re-listen to that first take.

The Government Owes a Limited, Restricted Form of Government

The Constitution limits the federal government to enumerated powers in Article 1, Section 8, and prohibits certain actions in Section 9. Founding Fathers warned against exceeding these limits.

Today I want to just pick up where I left off. I'm only going to give you three things today, two of them very quickly. The second thing that the government actually owes us is this: The federal government owes us a limited, restricted form of government. Now stop and think about that. If the states, if the Confederation of States entered into a covenantal agreement with the federal government, when it established it, and it did, then the federal government owes the states and the people of those states respectively a limited, restricted form of civil government. Do you understand that God restricts and limits every form of government? God restricts and limits family government. God restricts and limits ecclesiastical government. God restricts and limits civil government. I pointed out last week from Romans 13, verses 3 and 4, where God has basically restricted civil government to two issues.

The punishment of the wicked and the protection of the righteous. And by the way, the same exact truth is taught in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 14. Now when you come to the Constitution, you're going to find that the United States Constitution limits the federal government as well. I will tell you very pointedly, the Constitution does not limit the federal government as strictly as does the Word of God, but it does place limitations upon the federal government. I want you to listen. I'm going to give you an example, probably some of you have never read this, you probably never heard it, but I want you to listen to Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, because in Article 1, Section 8, there is a prescribed, there is a defined listing of what Congress may do. This is the only area in which the states gave Congress permission to act. Here's Article 1, Section 8. Listen carefully.

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; to borrow money on the credit of the United States; to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes; to establish a uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; to coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and to fix the standard of weights and measures; to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; to establish post offices and post roads; to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to

their respective writings and discoveries; to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offenses against the law of nations; to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; to raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; to provide and maintain a navy; to make rules for the government and the regulation of the land and naval forces; listen carefully, to provide for the calling forth the militia to execute laws of the Union, suppress insurrection and repel invasion; to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district not exceeding ten miles square (that is the District of Columbia) as may, by cession of particular states and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the

consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof." Now, that is all that Congress lawfully and legally may do. When you get to Article 1, Section 9, it tells you some things that Congress cannot do. For instance, it's a very short list. "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another, nor shall vessels bound to and from one state be obligated to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatsoever from any king, prince, or foreign state." Now, those are things that Congress cannot do. They are confined, they are limited to Article 1, Section 8, but when you get to Article 1, Section 9, here's some things they definitely cannot do. Please understand this. The Constitution was written to confine and limit and restrain and restrict the federal government. It was not designed to restrain or limit the states or the people thereof. It was Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, who said, "In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." What did Thomas Jefferson say? Bind all of these politicians down by the chains of the Constitution.

I'm going to give you a number of quotes today, and I want you to listen because I am trying to establish not only a biblical principle, but a historical principle as well. If you want to see where we have erred grievously in this country, then I want you to listen to what our founding fathers said. John C. Calhoun, known as the Ironclad Southerner, said this: "The Constitution has admitted the jurisdiction of the United States within the limits of the several states only so far as the delegated powers authorize. Beyond that they are intruders and may be lawfully expelled." Isn't that amazing? Calhoun said the only thing the federal government can do within the states is that which is limited in the Constitution, and if they come into the states over and above and beyond the Constitution, they are intruders and may be lawfully expelled. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution clearly evidence that the Constitution was a limitation of power on the federal government. They only have authority in those delegated areas that were given to them by the states or the people thereof, respectively. James Madison, may I remind you, was Secretary of the Constitutional Convention.

And here's what he wrote. I want you to think about our situation. I want you to think about the trillions of dollars of debt that we're in. I want you to think about how easy it is for Congress to basically create money out of thin air by the Federal Reserve. And by the way, let me just point out, none of your taxes go to pay off the federal debt. They just go as interest to the Federal Reserve bankers. The Congress borrows all the money that it wants. Here's what James Madison said: "If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands. They may appoint teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of the public treasury. Listen, they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision for the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post roads; in short, everything from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute

object of police would be thrown under the power of Congress." What? What did James Madison say? If Congress can borrow money, if Congress can control the money, well, they'll even establish government schools. They'll even establish a governmental religion. They'll take control of everything. Here is a warning from the founding fathers. And James Madison is specifically saying that the Constitution was written to bind down with chains, like Jefferson, those men in government, because the only power they have is that which the Constitution gave them. And what Madison was afraid of was this: if Congress then abused and usurped power, it would turn our country into a tyrannical, despotic, totalitarian government. By the way, what Madison feared has come to pass.

So let me just make it very clear. The government, the federal government, owes to the states and it owes to the people a limited, restricted form of government if it is going to act upon the Constitution as it was written by our founding fathers.

Recognition of Reserved Powers

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments reserve non-delegated powers to the states or the people. Congress cannot define the general welfare; that power belongs to the people.

Secondly today, I should say thirdly because I'm continuing from the first message, but thirdly the government owes to us recognition of our reserved powers. Now I'm not going to press this point deeply because it's tied to the previous point. I simply want to make it clear that the federal government is limited, confined, and restricted by the Constitution, and the powers that were not given to the federal government were indeed reserved to the states or the people thereof. Let me spell it out for you. The federal government is not God. It cannot do everything that it pleases and everything that it wants to do. If the federal government wants to obey the Constitution and be a lawful government, all is well. But when it ceases to obey the Constitution, it becomes an unlawful government. Okay?

Now, I want to read to you the 9th and 10th Amendments. Because the 9th and 10th Amendments set definite limits on the federal government by providing that the powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the people and to the states thereof. Listen to the Ninth Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." So we have more rights than those that are just listed in what are known as the Bill of Rights. They could not list all of the rights. Here's the Tenth Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." So here the 10th Amendment says, look, we only gave you certain powers; that's all we delegated. Certain powers, the rest, residue, and remainder we're keeping to ourselves.

These are ours, not yours. Again, John C. Calhoun said this: "It is a bold and unauthorized assumption that Congress has the power to pronounce what objects belong and what objects do not belong to the general welfare, and to appropriate money at its discretion to such as it may deem to belong to it. No such power is delegated to it, nor any such power necessary and proper to carry into execution those which are delegated. On the contrary, to pronounce on the general welfare of the states is a high constitutional power appertaining not to Congress but to the people of the several states acting in their sovereign capacity." What did he say? Congress cannot declare what it believes the general welfare of the states is. That belongs to the people. And yet that general welfare clause has been taken out of context and used as a pretext to do all kind of ungodly and unconstitutional acts. Thomas Jefferson said this, oh listen, "I consider the foundation of the Constitution is laid on this ground, that all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or the people.

To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power no longer susceptible to any definition." Wow. What did he say? If Congress goes over and above and beyond the Constitution, it has taken possession of a boundless field of power no longer susceptible to definition. You can't define their power. You can't limit it. You can't confine it. By the way, I hope you know that you cannot define God. You say, well I can. No, you can't. God is undefinable. Because to define is to limit, to confine, and to restrict.

And what Madison is saying, or what Jefferson is saying, is simply this: If Congress then has power that you cannot define, it becomes unlimited. It becomes a God unto itself. So it is obvious then, that if the government does not pay for that which it owes in regard to the recognition of its limited and reserved powers, and recognizing that those limited and reserved powers—or the unlimited and reserved powers—are to the states and the people thereof, then the government becomes something totally different from which it was initially created. The federal government initially was created to be the servant of the states. It was initially created to be a federal government, not a national government. But if Congress then can usurp, and if Congress does usurp and takes this unlimited field of power, then it becomes the master and not the ruled. And we the people become the servants and not the master. And what we have is a handful of petty bureaucrats then that usurp and steal authority that was never given to them.

A Sound Economic System Based on Silver and Gold

The Constitution authorizes Congress only to coin money, not print paper money. Legal tender must be gold and silver. The Coinage Act of 1792 made debasement a capital offense.

And they then expect everyone to obey them and to dance to their tunes. I want to give you a quote. Now I want you to listen. And it's going to amaze you who said this. You're going to think that this is a recent quote. I will tell you it is not. But listen to this quote. The author of this quote said, "The issue today is the same that it has been throughout all history.

Whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." That was spoken by Thomas Jefferson. Wow. The issue is the same that it was in 1776, 1787, 1790. It is the same issue in 2010. Whether man is going to be allowed to govern himself or he's going to be governed and ruled by a small elite. Again, it was Thomas Jefferson who said, "In free governments the rulers are the servants and the people are their superiors and sovereigns." Ask Thomas Jefferson what happens when governments grab an undefinable field of power. What happens is this: we become the servants and the slaves of a tyrannical, despotic, totalitarian government. Here's my last point. I'm going to take all my time today on this point.

The federal government owes us a sound economic system based upon silver and gold. Article 1, Section 8, let me just read the one sentence: "Congress shall have the power to coin money, to regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and to fix the standard of weights and measures." Congress shall have the power to coin money, not print it, but to coin it. Moreover, Article 1, Section 10 says this. Now listen, think about this in regard to your state. "No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility." So after the Constitution says that Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof, two sentences down, no state shall make anything but silver and gold as a tender for payment for debts. Now listen, if Congress is responsible for coined money, and if coined money according to the Constitution is silver and gold, it has a responsibility to make sure that silver and gold coin is tender in all states by providing such coins. Now listen carefully. Congress did not and still does not and has never possessed the power to make paper money lawful, nor has it ever possessed the right, authority, or power to transfer their responsibility under the Constitution to a third party such as the Federal Reserve.

The states did not enter into a covenant with the Federal Reserve. In fact, it was Roger Sherman who wrote in 1752 a booklet entitled "A Caveat Against Injustice, or an Inquiry into the Evils of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange." It was this book written by Roger Sherman and, of course, the Bible as taught by Pastor John Witherspoon. These two men, Roger Sherman and John Witherspoon, were the men who were responsible for the hard money clause in the Constitution. They understood not only what the Bible, but what history taught concerning silver and gold. Daniel Webster said this: "Most unquestionably, there is no legal tender, there can be no legal tender in this country, under the authority of this government or any other, but gold and silver. Either the coinage of our own mints or foreign coins at rates regulated by Congress. This is a constitutional principle perfectly plain and of very highest importance. The states are expressly prohibited from making anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts. And although no such express prohibition is applied to Congress, yet as Congress has no power granted to it in this respect but to coin money and to regulate the value of foreign coins, it clearly has no power to substitute paper or anything else as a tender in payment of debts and a discharge of contracts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Supreme Court Justice, observed on the term "coin," listen carefully, he said: "The word 'coin' must be taken literally." I'm quoting him, he said: "The power to coin money means to strike off metallic metals, coin, and to make those metals legal tender money. The Constitution says expressly that Congress shall have power to make metallic legal tender. How can it be taken to say by implication that Congress shall have the power to make paper money legal tender? Nor could the power to regulate the value of money be construed to have given Congress the power to create legal tender paper. Congress was to coin money and to regulate the value thereof. Only the relative values of coin money were to be regulated. The construction of the power to regulate comports with that used by Adam Smith, a major economic guide to the framers, who understood the term 'regulate' to mean the power to fix ratios of value between various types of coins. Moreover, the parallel grant of power to regulate the value of foreign coins contained within the clause conferring the power over domestic coin bolsters this construction of the word 'regulate.'

Clearly, Congress could not regulate the kind of money that foreign governments might issue, but only establish a ratio of value between foreign and domestic coinage." Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. also had another quote that I really liked. He said, "The secret of my success is that I found out very early in life that I was not God." Boy, a lot of people need to discover that truth. Thomas Jefferson said, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered." Why are so many homeless today? Because of banks, the Federal Reserve System, fractional banking.

It was President George Washington who said this: "Paper money has had the effect in your state that it ever will have—to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice." George Washington never thought too much about paper money. That's where we get the expression, "not worth a continental," because the continental currency that they issued during the war was worthless. And I have found reports of people criticizing George Washington for how much money he spent on his horse and for food for his horse. And they fail to realize the reason there was so much money spent on his horse and food for his horse was the continental paper currency was worthless. It took a bushel basket full of it to just about purchase anything. Thomas Jefferson also believed that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling the future on a large scale. Daniel Webster again warned, listen carefully. He said, "Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effectual than that which deludes them with paper money.

We're in danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper representing not gold or silver, no sir, representing nothing but broken promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors, and a ruined people." Many of you have heard of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. It was Ludwig von Mises who said, "Government is the only entity that can take a valuable commodity like paper, slap some ink on it and make it totally worthless." We have in this country legal tender laws, which forces us to take quote-unquote paper money. Stephen T. Byington wrote in September of 1895, he said, "No legal tender laws ever needed to make men take good money. It is only used to make them take bad money, kick it out.

You just stop and think about that. Who's going to turn down silver or gold? No one with any sense. But when you pull out a paper Federal Reserve note and you read, "This bill legal tender for all debts, public and private," and you offer payment in paper, according to legal tender laws, folks must take them.

Now let me ask you a question. Since we're talking about silver and gold, and our founding fathers said that Congress only had the power to coin money, and since no state could make anything but gold and silver a tender for the payment of debts, how seriously did our founding fathers really take the issue of silver and gold coinage? Of course you know we have never done it, but at one time, if you owned silver or gold, or you found gold ore, you could take it to the mint, and the mint would make gold coins for you, or silver coins for you. But how seriously did our Founding Fathers take this? The Coinage Act or the Mint Act of 1792, Section 19: "And be it further enacted, that if any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at said mint shall be debased or made worse as to the proportion of the fine gold or the fine silver therein contained, or

shall be of less weight or value than the same ought to be pursuant to the directions of this Act, through the default or with the connivance of any officers or persons who shall be employed at the said Mint, or for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent, and if any of the said officers or persons shall embezzle any of the metals which shall at any time be committed to their charge for the purpose of being coined, or any of the coins which shall be struck or coined at said mint, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of the said offenses shall be deemed guilty of a felony and shall suffer death." Wow! You debase our coinage, you're guilty of a felony and shall suffer death. Lord have mercy.

What happened to our coinage in 1965? What happened to it? It's still debased. And here the Coinage Act or the Mint Act of 1792 says anybody who debases it shall suffer death. Biblically and historically, gold and silver have always been money. I want you to look in your Bibles to Genesis 23. I'm certainly not going to have time to read and to go through all of the Bible.

There is so much on this. But I want you to note what Abraham did when he bought the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah in. Notice if you would Genesis 23, and of course I love this. Let's begin reading with verse 7.

Biblical Basis for Honest Money

Scripture demonstrates that money is silver and gold by weight (Genesis 23) and that God requires just weights and measures (Deuteronomy 25:13-16).

What happened to our coinage in 1965? What happened to it? It's still debased. And here the Coinage Act or the Mint Act of 1792 says anybody who debases it shall suffer death. Biblically and historically, gold and silver have always been money. I want you to look in your Bibles to Genesis 23. I'm certainly not going to have time to read and to go through all of the Bible.

There is so much on this. But I want you to note what Abraham did when he bought the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah in. Notice if you would Genesis 23, and of course I love this. Let's begin reading with verse 7.

the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. This is how they did business. "And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

Now I want you to note three things. First of all, only specie gold and silver is real money. Secondly, money is by weight. It is something that can be weighed. Thirdly, in order not to defraud, it must be current money, money that is correctly weighed and up to par. Some of you will remember and some of you know that your silver coinage, and I don't have any coins in my pocket, gold coins, and even our today worthless debased coins, they have these little ridges around the edges. That's because before that, there was a technique known as shaving. So if you would give me a gold coin, let's say it was one ounce, I could shave around the edge of that gold coin and get a number of grains of gold. And then I pass it on to you or to someone else as a full ounce. And every gold coin I did that to, pretty soon I have enough for a gold coin of my own. But that that's being passed around is not up to par.

It is not fully correct. So he weighed him current money with the merchant. God has just weights and measures. I want you to look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy 25. Note if you would what God says. Deuteronomy 25. And let's begin reading there with verse 13. Deuteronomy 25 verse 13.

God says, "Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God. Whenever an individual, whenever a family, whenever a church, whenever a state, whenever a nation violates the law of God, misery and destruction inevitably follow. And what we have allowed our government to do is to sin against God, to violate His law. And in doing so, we've destroyed ourselves. President Woodrow Wilson, a man that everyone loves to hate, finally said this: "A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world, no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." Listen, he said, "I am a most unhappy man.

I have unwittingly ruined my country." It was Woodrow Wilson who signed into law the Federal Reserve Act.

Consequences of Disobedience and Call to Obedience

Violating God's law brings misery. Obedience brings blessings. When government violates the covenant, the people are released from obedience.

Whenever an individual, whenever a family, whenever a church, whenever a state, whenever a nation violates the law of God, misery and destruction inevitably follow. And what we have allowed our government to do is to sin against God, to violate His law. And in doing so, we've destroyed ourselves. President Woodrow Wilson, a man that everyone loves to hate, finally said this: "A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world, no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." Listen, he said, "I am a most unhappy man.

I have unwittingly ruined my country." It was Woodrow Wilson who signed into law the Federal Reserve Act. Now my thought is this, if he was genuinely unhappy and genuinely repentant, he would have done everything within his power to reverse it, which he did not. And certainly his alter ego, Colonel Mandel House, was never even remorseful. It was Senator John Danforth, a Republican from Missouri, who reported in the Arizona Republic April the 21st, 1992. Listen to what Danforth said: "I've never seen more senators express discontent with their jobs. I think the major cause is that deep down in our hearts, we've been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country. Deep down in our hearts, we know that we have bankrupted America and that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected." Wow. One honest moment in his life. John Adams said, "All of the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arises, not from the defects of the constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.

Patrick Henry said, "Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government or the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." I'm going to give you just a couple of quotes and I want you to look at another passage. Listen carefully. Johan Christian Frederick Hölderlin said, well he died in 1843, he stated, "What has made the state a hell on earth is that man has tried to make it his heaven." What has made the state a hell on earth is that man has tried to make it his heaven.

You have to remember a message that I preached sometime back on the society of death. That all men can give you without Christ is a society of death. You remember that passage in Proverbs 8, verses 35 and 36, where our Lord said,

We cannot have the blessings of God upon us by and through our rebellion. The only way we can have the blessings of God is by our obedience. If we want God's blessings, we must be obedient. Heaven comes to earth by obedience, not by disobedience. If you will look in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 11, and let's begin reading there with verse 18. Deuteronomy 11, verse 18. Look what God says.

"Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth." If we want a taste of heaven upon the earth, we must be children of obedience. We must be families of obedience, churches of obedience, and civil governments of obedience.

And may I remind you, in closing, of the principle that I enunciated last week. It is true in common law. It is true in biblical law. It is true in statutory law that when one party violates the covenant, the other party is released from obedience. Government is covenantal in nature. And if our federal government has agreed to be constitutional, and it refuses to be, we, as free and independent people, have no obligation to support an unlawful, unconstitutional, unbiblical, ungodly government. Father, we ask that you help us, that you teach us, that you build us up in the most holy faith, that you make us godly and holy. Lord, give us understanding and help us, Lord, to recover some of these principles that we have forsaken and lost. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.