Is the Church to submit to her own Husband, or is she to go whoring after the provision and comfort of the state?  Don Hart charts the history of church independence from government interference and calls on today’s churches to stop submitting the bride of Christ to a counterfeit bridegroom.  Subjects addressed will include the duty of elders to preach the Word with boldness to the issues of the day, the dangers of incorporating churches as creatures of the state, the pitfalls of seeking 501(c)(3) IRS recognition for supposed tax benefits, and much more.

Good afternoon. It's an honor to be with you. Delighted to be starting on time this time and I have to commend the attendees of this conference. So many stayed and either missed their lunch or certainly had it cut short this morning after our session started just a little bit late. And it's telling to me about where real appetites lie in the group that has attended this conference.

There's a real hunger for the things of God and the word of God and even so much so that we're satisfied to put off our physical food for a little while, sometimes to be fed spiritually. And I trust and pray that we have enjoyed that together thus far and just ask that you'll join with me now in prayers. We ask the Lord to continue to direct our steps. Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to speak about your word and your church. Lord, to encourage and edify Your people.

Lord, to be sharpened one by another and God by Your Word. Lord, we ask that You would be honored, that You would be glorified. I pray that the saints here would be taught and edified and encouraged. And Lord, I pray that Your church would be strengthened. Lord, that the name of Christ would be exalted, the Gospel would be advanced, and oh Heavenly Father that You would be glorified and honored in all that is said and all that is done.

Please direct my words and Lord, give the right filters of understanding so that the very message that you would have communicated is precisely what is accomplished. Father, we thank you that you are indeed sovereign. You are our defender, our fortress, our rock, and God, we love you. And we thank you that You loved us and that You gave the Lord Jesus Christ to make us right with You. And Lord, we pray these things in His precious and holy name.

Amen. Well, I'll have to admit to you that I'm not all together comfortable with the title of my talk. But I submitted some alternative titles for Scott Brown, the NCFIC Director's Consideration for this talk, and he grabbed on to this one in a hurry. And so this is the talk, the church, bride of Christ or whore of Babylon. And that sounds a little harsh to our ears, But what we're hearing is something that the scripture describes in Harsh terms in fact we're hearing in the description of the Whore of Babylon the precise King James description of that church which has through friendship with the world committed harlotry and is an adulteress with regard to her groom the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so as we start I expect that we know the answer to the question presented as the title for this talk, at least as it relates to the true church. We know who she is supposed to be, the bride of Christ. Ephesians 5, 22-32, it says, Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.

And the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the church. The mystery is clarified for us there, isn't it? Very plainly.

This description concerns Christ and the church and this marriage relationship which is described here in the duties which are described here in Ephesians 5 are chiefly important because this concerns Christ and the church and that marriage relationship is a reflection, is a shadow, is a type of the relationship of the church with her bride the Lord Jesus Christ. Wives submit to your own husbands. How many of you the first dozen times you read Ephesians 5 zeroed in on that? That it says own husbands. We've got one hand.

I'm delighted. I need to speak with you later. I'll have to acknowledge that I grew up hearing Ephesians 5. I grew up in the church and understanding that a man was to love his wife like Christ loved the church. I held to that understanding until the time I was married.

My dad talked about those things, my pastor talked about those things, but it was not until much more recently, the last 10-15 years at most, that I began to really consider wives submit to your own husbands. Your own husbands. That's very exclusive language. A wife submitting to her own husband is by definition instructed not to be submitting to everyone else's husband. Perhaps not even to anyone else's husband, absent other areas which are described as worthy of submission, for example elders within the local church.

There is an exclusivity described here with a bride and her submission to her own husband. Have you ever wondered why the workplace is the hotbed that it is for illicit relationships? Why more marriages are destroyed because of relationships that began in the workplace than anywhere else. You look at any of the statistics that are published regarding these origins of infidelity and marriage destruction and when they break up for those reasons, So often, so often it is because of relationships which were established in the workplace. Why is that?

Well, I'd like to offer you a word of personal testimony. And suggest some things to you. I'll be celebrating 19 years of marriage in a few months. I'll be celebrating 19 years of marriage to the best wife in the world. Some of you may think that you have the best wife in the world and it's good that you think that.

It's just for me, it's true. She's so much better than I deserve, and I am so much less than she deserves. And yet I am charged to model in my relationship with her the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh that is humbling. And oh how I have failed.

And oh how she has forgiven me. And oh how I'm reminded of my frailties and shortcomings as I look at my responsibility in that role. One of my many failures as her husband was when we were first married. I had her in the workplace. I had never thought about it.

I hadn't looked at submission to an own husband in Ephesians 5. Everyone I knew did it. Everyone I had known had always done it. My presumption was that was just what people did and then when the Lord sent children then you certainly brought your wife home and she was there, mama to those children every day. But until then, why not both row the boat?

See if you can't get ahead. Get a little money in the bank. Make some extra headway. I lacked vision 19 years ago and I still do, but I hope it's not as bad as it was. And it was a difficult season.

It wasn't a catastrophic season. It wasn't a crisis. Thankfully it didn't last too terribly long, although I suspect for my precious bride it seemed to last forever. But it was a difficult season. Why?

Because we were sabotaging our marriage. We didn't understand it, but we sure saw the fruit of it. She was working all day to make another man successful in his Dominion work. And I was an up-and-coming attorney, and I had a female legal secretary and a female legal assistant and they were working hard every day to make me successful. And other men's wives were submitting to me in my Dominion work as I understood it at the time and my wife was submitting to another man in his dominion work at the time.

I had not considered in any depth the instructions of Ephesians 5. As I said, I knew it was to love my wife even to be Christ-like in that love, but I really hadn't thought through the details or their significance very well. Nor had I thought particularly deeply about Genesis 1 and the dominion mandate and the fact that it might actually have something to do with my marriage, Despite the fact that the context there drips with relation to marriage. I missed it for a long time. Genesis 1 26-28, then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. Then God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." In the context of a marriage relationship, a man and a woman are to be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish the birds over every living thing that moves on the earth as a quick aside this has much to say about property rights and property ownership and how we should be cautious about a state that says we own everything and you just rent it from us as long as you pay your taxes. That is not consistent with the Dominion Mandate in my understanding as we see it described here but that's a topic for another day and it's well addressed in Dan Ford's new book the legacy of liberty and property Which I would recommend What do these two scriptures taken together really say to us Man and woman and marriage are very much about work. And not just work, not just working, not just being productive, but about dominion work done together. With the husband leading, protecting, providing and casting vision, and the wife following and helping and respecting him in that role.

And I believe strongly that the affection and purpose and closeness of that marriage relationship relates not only to a physical closeness as man and wife, but to a unity of purpose and production and vision and yes, dominion work. Marriage is about work, together, taking dominion, accomplishing important things for the Kingdom of God. That is so incredibly strongly connected to marriage. So the affection of a bride and a groom to each other has something to do with this dominion work that they do together. It is strengthened incredibly by that dominion work.

Remember our purpose to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The purposes of our marriage to reflect Christ in the church and to bring us to a better understanding of our relationship with Christ. The same kind of purpose that we see described in marriage we should certainly see even more strongly exemplified in our relationship with Christ, shouldn't we? The work that we're about with him ought only to be magnified in comparison to the work that we see that we are to be doing with our wives, taking dominion, working together with a wife submitting to her own husband. And here's sort of a chilling thought about how these things work together.

A devoted and affectionate bride whose eyes are only for her groom and who is working in beautiful harmony with her groom, who has no inclination to turn her affections in a direction other than toward her groom, is in grave danger of having those affections alienated when she is led and or required to submit to another groom. It's dangerous because there is a God-ordained connection in dominion work and in submitting to man and following him and helping him to accomplish dominion work. And it is, I believe, a risky thing for men to ask their wives to go and submit to other men instead of being fully focused on their dominion work together as husband and wife. I can tell you unequivocally that my Marriage is the best when we are working together and taking dominion and productive for the kingdom of God. And anything that splinters that has been a bad thing in my experience.

I believe that absolutely affects how our marriage reflects the image of Christ in His church. So let's turn our attention to Christ in His church and how, of course, it is the focus of this passage that we've read, and it is the main focus of these things that we're talking about, and it is the image that is to be reflected in the marriage that we enjoy and experience here as men and women in this life. Pastors so often ask their churches to submit to another groom. And the Scriptures talk in incredibly strong language about churches that do this. It talks about them in terms of harlotry.

It talks about them in terms of adultery. It talks about them in terms of love of the world. It talks about them as the whores of Babylon. How precious is this bride to Christ. Acts 20-28 tells us really plainly, Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood." You want to know the value of the bride?

There it is. Purchased with the blood of Christ. Purchased with the most precious substance I could imagine. What else can save? What else can impute righteousness?

What else can wash sin? What else can make a fallen sinful creature right with a perfect holy God who cannot tolerate in His presence unrighteousness, the blood of Christ. And that was the price paid for His bride, the church. That's how precious she is. That speaks to her value.

The most precious thing I can imagine was given for her. That was her price. That's the bride. This speaks to the sobriety with which pastors, overseers, elders, church shepherds, bishops, those men serving in those roles, must view their duties. Elders, we are shepherding the true love of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He bought with the ultimate price.

That is the most serious business that I can envision being involved in. The other side of this equation is not pretty. The horror of Babylon is not fun to contemplate. I don't even like saying it particularly, and I sure don't like contemplating being complicit in something that would fall into that description by loving the world. But that's precisely what we were warned about when we're told in James chapter 4 about the consequences of love for the world.

The admonition starts adulterers and adulterous. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Christ? Very plain, very clear, very unambiguous, Not full of a whole lot of compromise. It wouldn't seem in terms of the language used. The language of Revelation 18, 21-24 is even stronger, or certainly at least equally strong.

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea saying, thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and musicians and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee and no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be shall be found any more in thee and the sound of a millstone Shall be heard no more at all in thee and the light of a candle Shall shine no more at all in thee and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard No more at all in thee for thy merchants were the great men of the earth for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth. And chapter 19 goes on to say, And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are His judgments, for He hath judged the great horror which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." How could the church ever be guilty of such harlotry?

That could never describe us, could it? God forbid that it ever would. But remember the subtlety of our enemy. We are seldom seduced at first blush by the most obvious temptations, are we? Now it's usually a subtle compromise that begins us in a negative direction and results in the undoing of the church.

That's a big reason in my perspective and understanding that God has given us the regulative principles of worship that He has. And He has said be careful in how you worship Me and what you do in the church. And He has given us specific instructions. Worship Me like this. And however good your intentions may be, you are not free to innovate and do things that you think might be better than what I have instructed you to do.

Creativity of man, good intentions notwithstanding, often is one of the things that begins this deviation. That seems so subtle at first. It seems just off the least little bit at first. And winds up in a course that results in the worst kind of shipwreck. Friendship with the world.

Oh, the deceiver doesn't say, forsake Christ, be His enemy. No, he says you don't have to be God's enemy. Just be friendly to the world. Just be tolerant. What is God's perspective on tolerance?

Well, I've already read to you, or quoted to you the words of James 4. I'll read them to you now from the King James. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?

That little bit of friendship with the world. That little bit of tolerance. That little bit of, oh, just compromise about this. Just be a little less uptight about that. Don't be such a stickler.

You're so legalistic. Beware, brothers and sisters, of friendship with the world. Beware of little compromises that lead to giant gulfs between where you ought to be and where you end up in the church. Beware of things that we engage in for the sake of avoiding conflict. Don't go seeking conflict.

Be at peace with all men so much as it depends on you, but understand that conflict with the world is an inherent, inescapable fact of Christian life. It is something with which we wrestle inevitably if we walk with the Lord. Fulfilling the Great Commission and living out the dominion mandate always brings conflict of some kind into the lives of Christians. Salt brings savor, and light provides vision and clarity. It preserves, light illuminates, shows truth, drives evil back into the shadows, but salt can also sting.

And light's not pleasant to the eyes of those who prefer darkness and slumber. In fact, we can trust that if we truly love Christ, the world will hate us. An uplifting message so far, hasn't it? We're going to get to some positive things. These are positive things, believe it or not.

It's true. If we truly love Christ, the world will hate us. John 15, 18-25, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If you kept my word, they will keep, if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. And now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

But this happened that the Word might be fulfilled which is written in the Law, they hated Me without a cause. Rejoice when you are hated for the cause of Christ. Rejoice. And beware of compromise for the sake of avoiding conflict, when that conflict would result from following the Word of God and loving the Lord Jesus Christ and rejecting the kind of friendship with the world that is described as adulterous and as harlotry. John 17 and 14, where Christ prays for His disciples, He says, I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world.

If the word is in us, we will not be tolerant friends of the world. That doesn't mean that we will be unkind, or ing gracious, or hateful, or less than winsome whenever we challenge the world with regard to sin and remind them of their need for righteousness and their hopelessness of having it apart from Christ. And when we say there is one true God, well the world hating us and us not compromising and embracing friendship with them doesn't mean our hating them. No, in fact we can't fulfill this great commission. We can't be this bride of Christ if we hate the world.

But we can't be the friends of Christ if we love the world, not the ways of the world. The kind of love that we show to the world is the kind of love that Christ has modeled for us. The kind of love that comes by being obedient to Him and preaching the Word. Preaching the truth. Brothers and sisters, we must be true to our groom.

And if we love this world, we are adulterers and adulteresses. The very harlots, the whores of Babylon, which we abhor. Now I know I'm talking to a group that rejects harlotry against the Lord Jesus Christ and hates the idea of being in any way adulterous or just even beginning down that path. And Along with you, I often shake my head at extreme examples that we see out there. I am puzzled at how things that the Scriptures clearly describe as abominable are now accepted practices for pastors in the majority of the denominations represented in America.

I'm appalled at the church ashamed of the Gospel. And that will not mention the name of Jesus Christ. I'm as turned off as you are by the church that is worldly beyond belief, from rock concerts purporting to be worshiped to immodest dress, which would have been shocking ten years ago and is common and not even noticed in the church so often today. How did we get here? How did that which is described in Scripture as abominable become acceptable practice for those who are supposed to be shepherding the bride of Christ?

Well, when Christians, when the church somehow end up hopelessly lost, destined for shipwreck, as we've said, often it's a small departure from the course that starts us on that path. We're familiar with the analogy of the frog and the boiling water. He didn't notice that the temperature had increased by a degree two, three, four, and so he didn't jump out and that water continued to get hotter, but he didn't notice because he didn't react as he should have and suddenly just a little friendship with the world has turned into a boiling cauldron. And there are many churches in that that may not yet be alive. They may have been boiled.

But they didn't leap there just immediately. They started out often with hearts that meant well. Let's do good with this little deviation. Let's accomplish some good thing with this good intention. Let's change worship this way to be a little more about the worshipper than the worshiped.

Just a degree. But over time the water gets really hot. And we wake up to find the church behaving like a harlot, like the adulterer and adulteress that's described in James 4, like the Whore of Babylon from Revelation 18 and 19. And it seemed to start so innocently and why? Why?

Because she submitted to another groom. I believe it comes right back to precisely that. And just like the faithful wife who would have been happy at her husband's side, but was pushed away to submit to another man and who perhaps has her affections alienated because of it, The church has come to have affection for this groom that she's submitted to, this world that she's embraced. And all too often, what started perhaps with good intentions, has resulted in a raging affection for the things of the world. Oh, leaders, we can't let sheep be led astray.

And I shudder to think of the account that church leaders will give. Who for the sake of power or a larger church or a bigger building or the next job that they plan to get after this one, led the bride of Jesus Christ to submit to a false group. Oh, Scripture talks about it so seriously. And yet Scripture also provides answers in how to keep these kinds of things from happening. Throughout history, there's been a distinct contrast in the views of Christian societies and pagan societies regarding the relationships of their civil authorities and religious establishments.

Many of you know that I've done some work and spoken on the church and the issue of incorporation and whether or not a church should consider doing those kinds of things. We'll mention that briefly at the end of this talk, Lord willing, but it's not really the focal point of this talk. What I hope to accomplish in this talk is to make the rationale that leads to the right decision about whether or not a church is a 501c3 to make the case so strongly, to present the case so clearly from Scripture about the danger of submitting to a false groom by the bride of Christ, that frankly, there won't be much need for a whole lot of discussion about where the churches ought to be incorporated. That it ought to just really seem to us pretty much like a no-brainer, when we really consider the consequences of flirting with the world, of deviating in terms of our affections in the ways that churches can so often do. And one of the biblical safeguards against these kinds of compromises, against a false groom coming in and alienating the affection of the church and taking her away, is that separation that is to exist jurisdictionally between the church and the civil authorities.

One of the things that we see with regard to this is that Christians separate church and state. Many think, well, you know, isn't that just some idea in a letter from Jefferson? That really didn't have any basis in Scripture, and why are you talking about these things? I thought we wanted to suggest a connection between church and state so we can straighten the state out. Don't misunderstand me.

Separation of church and state is a far cry from a divorce of God and government. Those in government very much need to be under the council, receiving the rebukes, receiving the instructions of those who understand the law of God when they violate that law of God. The church has a duty, an obligation, and has the jurisdiction along with individual Christians to speak to those kinds of abuses by the civil authorities. But the Scriptures set jurisdictions between civil authorities and church authorities. Pagan cultures, on the other hand, almost always merge them.

Think about the pagan cultures with which you're familiar. From the most primitive tribal cultures, where the witch doctor is also the shaman or the mayor or the tribal leader, to ancient Egyptian cultures, where male pharaohs were believed to be incarnations of their pagan gods and sun deities and sky deities and were believed to enjoy that role even as they ruled in the civil realm, that merger of God and King in an earthly subject. Babylonian kings, pharaohs, always appointed the priests and the priestesses, the high priests of the nations, so that they would lead in that realm in a way that was pleasing to that God-King kind of a civil authority. Nebuchadnezzar forced his subjects to worship the official state religion or be thrown into the furnace. This is not some new thing.

1532, the English church surrendered its rights to speak to many of the issues of the day and to make ecclesiastical pronouncements independent of the king. And it promised that it wouldn't do so and that it would submit to only royally appointed canons that would be suggested. Now, it wasn't a real big correction because before that happened, the church had been controlling the monarchy and the degree of separation that should have existed wasn't there either. And So we see King Henry VIII imposed Protestantism in 1534 with himself taking the place of the Pope and appointing the clergy of the Church of England. But again, that merger of that church, state, God, king relationship.

And we could go on for a long time about the examples of pagan cultures that embrace a merger of civil and church authority instead of holding to its distinction and separation. But as we've said, that separation is not from a letter from Thomas Jefferson, although that's what I believe he referred to and was thinking about whenever he made the communication he did. It's a distinctly biblical concept expressed and modeled in the relationship of God to his church, his people, and the civil authorities throughout biblical history. It's not separation of God and government, but it's certainly a jurisdictional distinction between church and state which keeps the blur and distinction of the groom to whom the bride is truly to submit clear. The state is not the head of the church, nor is the church the head of the state.

Neither is the head of the other, but most importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of both. That separation of state without divorce of God and government. Jesus Christ reigns over both realms. The church is not to be a polygamous bride submitting to both the state and Christ. Nor is the state to be abandoned to her darker impulses and allowed to run afoul of God's law without accountability.

God calls on his people, his church, to provide that kind of accountability to civil leaders. Both realms are designed to operate in continuity, but with very distinct jurisdictional boundaries which separate them. And if those distinctions seem blurry now, I hope that they won't be as we continue our discussion How about some biblical examples that generally is a whole lot more helpful than? Than than lecture so let's let's move in that direction biblical history is really an excellent teacher about the things that I'm trying to describe before you. That origin of the separation of church and state as it was adopted by the founding fathers in this country, the tradition was first found in the Hebrew Republic.

Think about the Tabernacle and later the temples being set apart and walled and the Levites being separated from the rest of the congregation of Israel To do the work that they had been given if you want to make notes of scriptures that describe those things Leviticus 21 you see the regulation of the conduct of priests both in chapter 21 and 22 numbers 8 the Levites Set apart cleansed dedicated for their special work. Deuteronomy 10 8, the Levites were set apart there to carry the Ark of the Covenant. 1 Chronicles 23 through 27, you see David reorganizing religious or organizing religious and civil personnel into very distinct groups that would perform Perform very specific tasks and into organizational divisions that his successors would would continue first chronicles 23 you see priests and Levites 24 division of priests 25 Musicians 26 gatekeepers and treasures 27 military captains, all given distinct separate jurisdictions and areas of operation so that the church operated in its realm and the state operated in its. And they did not overlap and interfere with one another. Those jurisdictional boundaries had meaning.

God defended them. They were very important. Ezekiel 40 through 42, you see Israel's restoration after its Babylonian exile. And again there the temple is set apart and walled. In Ezekiel 42, 20, you see that the temple was measured on all four sides.

It had a wall around 500 cubits long and 500 cubits wide to separate the holy areas from the common. This idea of separation is not something that's unbiblical. In fact, the scriptures are replete with biblical examples of that very truth. We can trust God to bless obedient efforts, to respect and operate under the jurisdictions which he has established. We can have faith in him if we seek to hold these jurisdictional standards to the proper application that he has instructed in scripture.

Not only was the origin of the separation of church and state found in the Hebrew Republic in the ways that we've just described, but God was the defender of this separation. He responded very, very strongly when these boundaries were blurred. Who in here was in the talk that I gave this morning? Handful of hands that may hear a couple of things twice here, but it's important for us to remember them. We talked this morning about the example of King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26 verses 16 through 21.

You remember, he was a powerful, mighty king, a real military conqueror, conqueror of the Philistines, an incredibly strong king with an enormous army, 300, 000 plus. His fame was through Egypt. He was an awesome political power and an incredibly strong king. You remember what happened whenever he came into the temple to burn incense. And you remember what led him to do it.

It was the fact that his heart was lifted up. That he became proud. When he enjoyed the previous success that I just described to you, it was because he was seeking after the ways of the Lord. And when he dared to come into the temple and violate the boundaries between his civil jurisdiction and that of the church, it was because his heart was lifted up and because he was proud. And he came in and he presumed to burn incense there.

And you remember that Uzziah and 80 valiant men withstood him. They rebuked him. They said this to him, it appertainteth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed. Neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God." And these four score priests with Azariah the high priest were described in verse 16 as valiant men.

Valiant men. It's a theme that I've talked about as Robert mentioned in the beginning of our talk. The importance of valiant men standing for God's standards. When you see a nation in chaos, in turmoil, when you see the church behaving like a harlot, when you see these kinds of things, valiant men must rise up. Not men who are valiant because they are so capable or so strong or so able or so confident in their own ability, but men who are valiant because they understand God to be their defender, God to be their strength, God to be their rock.

That's precisely what was the case here with King Uzziah. Did Azariah have any possibility of prevailing according to earthly strength or standards that we would understand? He and his eighty valiant men against this king who had conquered nations, built cities, was powerful beyond belief, was wealthy beyond description, and who had brazenly walked into the temple to do what he wanted to do. No, by human reasoning, they didn't have a chance. If they thought that they could stand against those odds, they weren't valiant, they were stupid.

No, that's not what they thought. They knew who their defender was. They knew whose temple was being defiled. They knew whose jurisdictions were being violated. And they knew the power of the Lord God.

And they knew that these jurisdictions were important. And that God would defend them. So listen to what happened. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar. And Azariah, the chief priests, and all the priests looked upon him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence.

Yea, himself, hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord." And so God defended the jurisdiction which he had established. But the method mattered. There were 80 valiant men who had no chance to succeed according to human understanding, who were probably committing suicide with a king whose heart was lifted up, who understood the commands of God and said, we fear God, not man. We will stand.

And they did. And that method matters. Valiant men are called to stand and to preach the truth. We talked about several other examples and we won't spend a lot of time in them about valiant men standing when the civil authorities did what they shouldn't do. Remember Saul with his sacrifice in 1 Samuel 13 because the people were so terrified of the Philistines that had gathered against them and because Samuel hadn't come.

And Samuel's words to Saul, again God's man, speaking to the man with apparent ultimate power, but spoken with courage because of the understanding of who his defender was, he said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. These jurisdictions are very important to God.

This may seem like a technical, sort of a dry subject to talk about and work through, but it is not technical, dry, or uninteresting to God. When these standards are violated, God defends them fiercely. You know why? In my opinion, we see so many standards violated today and apparently nothing happening because of them. No consequences being visited so often as a result of them because there's a critical thing missing.

It's the valiant people of God standing and saying, thus saith the Lord. That's part of how God operates. He doesn't need us, but He has chosen to operate through us. Just like He's chosen for His gospel to be communicated through us, He has chosen that civil authorities who would abuse their jurisdiction and seek to take over the church, be held to account and rebuked by the people of God. It doesn't mean that we get to violate the jurisdictions that God has established and take improper control or do things that we shouldn't, but it certainly means that we should speak.

And we should stand. And we should be valiant. Samuel rebuked Saul more than once. You remember when Saul spared King Agag and the choicest of the sheep in oxen for a sacrifice according to Saul's excuse when he was confronted by Samuel. Samuel didn't let him off the hook, did he?

No, Samuel responded pretty decisively himself. And because Saul had seen that God defends His jurisdiction and works through His people, He respected Samuel. Samuel executed judgment on Agag. A reflection, I believe, of God's displeasure with Saul's disobedience. There are no shortage of these kinds of examples.

1 Kings 13, 1 Kings 18, you see God's men rebuking the king. 1 Kings 21, Elijah rebuking Ahab. Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah speaking to all the princes about their violation of God's law. Jeremiah 38, Matthew 18. How can we go past that?

Our admonition to go into all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Going into all nations means speaking to all nations, civil authorities, civilians, whoever may be there. A culture changing, life transforming gospel. And one that evokes a reaction of hatred all too often. If we preach it properly.

Now there's a Gospel that's easily accepted that just says, oh, there's nothing to becoming a Christian. Just say the right words. Perhaps you should be baptized. And then go on living as you have been. Now that's not the Gospel that elicits the hatred of cultures that are told, you're violating God's law and you must change.

Speaking the true Gospel can be costly as it was to John the Baptist rebuking Herod for his immorality, as it was to the Apostle Paul making his defense before the magistrates. Now this separation of church and state is not a novel idea or something that originated with Thomas Jefferson. It was something to which Jefferson referred. It was a biblical standard. It was something that the Reformers talked about and understood and embraced and while John Calvin I think had the most consistently biblical position on it, I have to say that Martin Luther had the best quote.

The church is to lick the fur of the state, not the feet. It's the role of God's people. To have a cleansing influence. A positive influence with regard to the law of God. We talked about this just briefly this morning.

What about the Apostle Paul and Philippi and his refusal to leave after he was wrongly imprisoned? What did he understand? This wasn't a man being petulant and difficult and immature and petty who said, oh, now you've figured out I'm a Roman. Well, I've got you. Now, this was a man of God who understood that when he was beaten for acts of mercy, casting a demon out of a girl, for preaching the Gospel, for obeying God's law, when He was beaten and imprisoned and treated improperly, that that had an effect on everyone around Him.

On every Christian in that city. That when that happened, they saw God's law disregarded, and a man treated that way, It was scary. It was chilling. And he understood that standing against it and identifying it as the wrong that it was was very important. That it was important to the people of the city of Philippi, the Christians there.

So that their Christian zeal and courage would not be chilled. So that they would see God's law embraced. So that they would understand that the Gospel has been slandered here. It's not for things that are true that this man is being treated like a criminal. It's for things that aren't just and that aren't right.

So Paul said come down magistrates and release me yourselves. I won't quietly leave in the wee hours of the morning, the dark of the night. No, you will come down here and release me yourselves and the city will see that you have done wrong and that you ought to repent. And that the law of God has been broken. A man of God speaking to the magistrate about their actions.

Paul understood his duty to defend the gospel. He understood that when it is slandered we are to stand and say, that's not true. Paul, another valiant man from Scripture, what an incredible example he is to us. But Paul understood something else. Paul understood fidelity to the groom.

Paul understood whose bride he was. Paul understood that judgment starts in the house of God. I'd like to read to you in closing from Ezekiel chapter 23. I mentioned it in the first talk this morning, but I'd like to actually read it during this talk and spend a few minutes in closing talking about it. Paul understood fidelity to the groom.

He understood what it was to fear man instead of God. He understood what it was to embrace the world. He understood the danger of just a little bit of friendship with the world. He understood the evil of compromise. He understood that there were certain things that Christian men, speaking the truth, aren't tolerant about.

He understood harlotry on the part of a church. He understood whoredom on the part of a bride. He understood the teaching of Ezekiel 23. And he understood that he could be no part of such things. And he knew it could cost him.

Just like the 80 valiant men, He knew that it could be expensive, that his life hung in the balance with these men that he would stand before and rebuke. But he would not submit to a false bride. Listen to Ezekiel 23. We see here the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem talked about and represented as two sisters who are engaged in harlotry. And we see pretty strong language.

This is the covenant people of God who have betrayed Him and who have loved the world and who have played the harlot. And listen because I think there's profound application for the times in which we live and we'll conclude here. The word of the Lord came again to me saying, Son of man, there were two women, The daughters of one mother. They committed harlotry in Egypt. They committed harlotry in their youth.

Their breasts were their embrace. Their virgin bosom was their breast. Their names, Ahola the elder, and Aholabah her sister. They were Mine." Do you hear that? They were His.

They were in covenant with God. They were His. And they bore sons and daughters as for their names. Samaria is Oholah. Samaria, the city in the northern kingdom of the Jews and Jerusalem is Oholabod.

It is very clear there's no mystery in terms of what is being talked about here any more than there is mystery about Christ and the church in Ephesians 5. God's talking about His people who have loved the world and played the harlot. And listen to His description. Ahola played the harlot even though she was mine, and she lusted for her lovers the neighboring Assyrians, who were clothed in purple captains and rulers all of them desirable young men horsemen riding on horses thus she committed her harlotry with them all of them choice men of Assyria and with all for whom she lusted with all their idols she defiled herself She has never given up her harlotry brought from Egypt. For in her youth they had lain with her, pressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their immorality upon her.

Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers." Here we see the judgment poured out on the covenant people of God who play the harlot, who love the world, who are adulterers and adulteresses. Here is their judgment. Therefore I have delivered her into the hands of her lovers. Who are the executors of judgment? When God's people are guilty of harlotry, the very world that they loved.

The very ones that they played the harlot with will be the ones into whose hands they are delivered for judgment. Into the hands of the Assyrians for whom she lusted. And what is their judgment? They uncovered her nakedness, took away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword. She became a byword among women, for they had executed judgment on her." The rest of the chapter goes on to talk about the exact same status, only worse, and the exact same fate for the younger sister representing Jerusalem.

When God's people don't understand that judgment begins in the house of the Lord, the world which we embrace, with whom we have friendship, with whom we might play the harlot, with whom a little friendship equates to enmity with God. Those are the ones who will be the instruments of our judgment. The Apostle Paul understood. We can't compromise. We can't fail to speak.

We can't be driven by fear. We can't be controlled by cowardice. We can't compromise. We can't submit to a false groom. We can't fail to speak the truth about the law of God, about the Gospel, about the status of the church, about the jurisdiction of civil authorities, about the family, about economic policy, about anything you want to name.

Do you remember our job here? We are taking dominion. We are teaching all nations, including this one, to observe all that Christ commanded. And if we forsake it, and if we are cowardly, and if we love the world a little bit or a whole lot, and embrace that friendship, we are the adulteresses, the harlots, the unfaithful brides, which have made this talk so difficult and so distasteful probably for some of us to have to endure and so hard for me to preach. And yet that is the truth of the scripture.

I am appalled that my children have probably taken their last flight on an airline. Unless this atrocity of uncovering the nakedness of the citizens of America and assaulting them is stopped. My children won't be flying again. We need to speak against it. We need to speak against it.

And yet, we also need to look at judgment being doled out by the world, by the state, by those who are the oppressors of religious liberty. And we need to see, this judgment is uncovering of nakedness. Have we loved the world? Judgment starts in the house of God. We need to speak against these atrocities, but we need to look at our own house.

And we need to speak not from a pulpit draped in hypocrisy, but from a place of integrity. And we must speak the truth. And it takes valiant men and women. Because the odds, humanly speaking, are against us. But the odds, divinely speaking, are overwhelmingly, crushingly in our favor if we will just stand and be brave.

Be brave, brothers and sisters. Trust the Lord God, your defender, who struck a king more powerful than any other in the world, a leprous, and drove him in shame and disgrace from his temple in the blink of an eye. Trust the defender of His Word and of His Gospel. Trust the groom, the Lord Jesus Christ. And brothers and sisters, let's repent.

Let's repent if our own house is not in order. Christians are experiencing this judgment that's happening with TSA. And it is appalling. It mortifies me. I'm offended by it.

I'm angry by it. But you know I'm also ashamed. Because abortion has been happening for decades. This state has been murdering the innocent and the unborn, in the womb. And I do not believe those who are called to be valiant have spoken enough.

And I believe our hypocrisy condemns us in many ways. And I believe we find ourselves in the hands of the Assyrians and our nakedness uncovered. And there could certainly be an element of the judgment of God in it. And so I encourage you to speak, to be valiant, to be strong. And I also encourage you to hold yourself to the highest possible standard.

Judge yourself. Judge yourself. As I am called to judge myself. The church must look at herself. And so, this church incorporation issue, what's a corporation?

It's a creature of the state created at the goodwill of the state, existing at the good pleasure of the state. And 90% of churches in America are one. Remember, that's the legal definition. Created by the state, existing at the good will of the state, the good pleasure of the state. That's what churches have voluntarily, voluntarily submitted to.

They were bought with the blood of Christ. They're not created by the state. They're not creatures of the state. They don't exist at the good pleasure of the state. They're the bride of Christ.

And for a little tenuous possible liability protection, the church would sell its birthright for a mess of pottage. Judgment starts with us. You search your own heart about what's going on with TSA. You go home and search your own churches about whether or not your church is a spotless bride being sanctified by her groom. When's the last time your church exercised discipline because of sin?

Now that's just some archaic, unenlightened thing of the past, isn't it? We don't do that anymore, do we? Well, certainly according to Scripture we should be. If that church is being sanctified, if she is a bride without spot or wrinkle, We ought to be looking at ourselves. That doesn't mean we stop looking elsewhere and we stop looking out.

But we need to clear out logs before we can remove splinters. And as We are offended at the state of things today. I believe there's plenty of room for us to be ashamed about the past. The blood of the innocent cries out for judgment from the soil of our land. Church, the bride of Christ, take courage.

Remember who your defender is. Remember wherein power really lies. Remember the moment in eternity that this life is. And make choices that are of eternal consequence. And askew friendship with the world.

Don't be ugly to the world. Don't despise them, but don't embrace them. Don't take friendship with them into your bosom. We cannot be harlots. We must instead be the valiant people of God who speak from a place of integrity.

May God bless you. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the Church and the family to the Word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated churches, where you