Sermon: A Christian Response to Mandatory "Cookies"

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If you would, open your Bibles to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17.

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For those of you who are new to your Bibles, that's in the New Testament, Acts chapter 17. Beautiful historical narrative of the beginning of the

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Christian church. Jesus is raised from the dead. He is ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the

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Father. He receives that inheritance promised to the Messiah. He is sitting on David's throne with all authority, and in Acts we see at the very beginning the

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Holy Spirit of God is poured out upon the church, and the gospel explodes across the pagan empire known as Rome.

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Very hostile environments for the Christian church to start in, and God and His providence in miraculous ways begins to change the world.

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And you see the church in the book of Acts, just by the way, read it. Read the book of Acts.

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This week, do it once, at least once. Read the book of Acts from the first chapter to the last chapter.

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Read that and ask the question, are we faithful like they were faithful? Are we willing to take risks like the early church was willing to take risks?

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Are we willing to stand on truth to be beaten, to be on the run, to be hated, to have riots breaking out because of the proclamation of the truth in the public square?

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Read the book of Acts, because we see a world around us. As we get to the text here, today in our world, so much of the world has been influenced by the gospel and the

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Christian worldview. We see a world today where we ask the question, how can you overcome this evil, this lawlessness, this tyranny, this confusion, this redefinition happening all around us?

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How can you overcome it? Doesn't this mean that the church is lost in history and this is the end?

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I'd encourage you to look at the church filled with the same spirit of God that you are and I am, with the same message of truth.

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Look at them in the book of Acts in a pagan context with much smaller numbers in that pagan context, and they turned the world upside down with the truth.

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And that's the key issue. It was with the truth, the proclamation of the truth. And so we are in the book of Acts, chapter 17, just as a springboard verse today, as we talk about a

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Christian response to mandated cookies. And as you're watching this around the world right now,

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I would say to that, let the reader understand. In Acts chapter 17, we're going to start in verse 2.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. And Paul went in as was his custom.

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And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the

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Messiah to suffer and arise from the dead and saying, this Jesus whom

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I proclaim to you is the Messiah. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a great many of the devout

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Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out of the crowd.

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And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.

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And Jason has received them. And they are acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,

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Jesus. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray.

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Father, I pray for today's message. That it be a blessing to your church, to your people. We pray, Lord God, that it is your truth that transforms us, transforms the world and that emboldens us.

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God, grant to us the grace and the strength, the strength to speak the truth no matter the consequence.

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Pray that you would, Lord, allow me to get out of the way, that I would decrease, Christ would increase, that people would forget me in the midst of this conversation and remember your truth.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Do you see that? That's powerful. What do you see? Acts 17, just this little snippet, you see some of the methodology and the typical procedures of the early church, the kinds of things that they were engaged in on a regular basis.

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What do you see break out? A mob, a riot breaks out. Why? Because of the proclamation of truth.

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But just in this little section here, you can see that the early Christian church was not only engaged in the spiritual conversation and the spiritual affairs of the world.

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You see at the beginning there where the Apostle Paul goes to the synagogue and he begins reasoning and arguing that Jesus is the

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Mashiach, that he's the Messiah. So it actually is part and parcel to the Christian worldview and what we do.

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It is our M .O. and that's to argue for the truth. People who know the truth and love the truth are not afraid to bring the truth into the public square.

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People who love truth and believe that they are in the truth are not afraid to be scrutinized and challenged.

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Very important in the modern context. If you have the truth, why are you afraid to be critiqued?

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Why are you afraid to be cross -examined? And you see the early Christian church goes with the message of the truth of Jesus as Mashiach.

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They go into a context that, let's be honest, most evangelical seminaries today would say, Paul, probably not the right strategy.

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You need to invite people to barbecues and cotton candy things and all the rest. Give out free popcorn and invite the community into your little holy huddle.

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But what are you doing going to the synagogue and causing problems? You're reasoning and you're arguing for the cause of Christ.

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People have asked us over the years, why do you guys go, you know, to places where you go to a mosque and you go and try to hand out tracts and engage with them?

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Why do you go disrupt things like that? Why do you go to the Mormon temple and Mesa to stand out there and to love them and preach the gospel?

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Why do you do that? And my answer is, I'm just following the apostles lead. They go to the places of spiritual conversation to preach the gospel, to argue for the truth, to reason in a gracious and bold and humble way.

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And they do it because they love Jesus and they love the person in front of them. So they want to tell them the truth, no matter the consequences.

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And in this case, what do you see? You see the apostles engaged in not only the things that we would call spiritual conversations.

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Those are the spiritual conversations taking place at the synagogue with those who accept transcendent things.

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But they're also getting in trouble because their message is obvious to everybody around.

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It's the kind of obvious thing that people can say, bring it before the authorities, bring them to the state because their message that we would call spiritual has implications for the whole world.

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And they knew it. What's the accusation? I want you to see it again. The accusation is, quote, this is in verse nine, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.

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And Jason has received them and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar saying that there was another

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King, Jesus. So this is not just in the realm of the spiritual behind the ears and the walls of the church, the

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Christian message. They preached it so faithfully that the world understood the implications.

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We see King Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, ruler over the kings of the earth.

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I'm quoting scripture now. We see that in the modern context as, oh, that's for the church.

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That's our thing over here in this little huddle we have in Bible studies. We like to pretend that Jesus is king over the kings of the earth and Lord of lords.

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But we don't really mean that, Mr. President. We don't really mean that, Senator.

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We don't really mean that, Representative. Isn't it interesting that when this gospel goes down to the first century, this gospel of the kingdom, this gospel of salvation and forgiveness under the authority of Jesus Christ, they understood it.

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What? You're saying that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth right now?

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And that authority is over Caesar himself? And they understood. That's a treasonous statement.

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You can't say that. And we've done this. This is basically threadbare now for apology of church. In the first century, they don't care what you worship.

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You can lay down in the street and worship a rock in Rome and they do not care. Just as long as you give a little pinch of incense.

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Just as long as you acknowledge that your God, whatever it is, or whoever they are, has to be subservient to the authority of Caesar.

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Caesar is Lord. And the early Christian church was not simply engaged in a conversation about transcendent things that were out there that had nothing to do with this world right here.

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They were preaching a gospel that said, no, Jesus has all authority. He won. It is finished.

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He's the Savior and he's the one whom everyone must bow to and yield to.

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You see, these early apostles and Christians understood something about the Great Commission and that's that it was true.

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Stop there for a second and think about it just for a moment. The Great Commission, what's it say? Matthew 28, 18 through 20.

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It says all authority in heaven and on earth has been, past tense, given to me.

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That's what Jesus said before his ascension, before he ascended into heaven. He says that before a very small crowd in pagan

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Rome with Caesar with all authority. And these early Christians understood he meant it.

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Do we believe that? Do you believe it today? That Jesus has all authority today?

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Is it simply the pithy slogan that I'm always talking about? Or do we actually believe it?

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Because they clearly believed it to the degree that they were preaching it so faithfully and so clearly that everybody around had ears to hear and they said, ah, you're saying that he has all authority over every area of life?

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Even over these guys over here with so much power? Your Jesus has something to say authoritatively to Caesar?

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Not allowed. That's treason. You can't say that. But they preached it so faithfully that something happened.

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We love to be safe. Last generation we've been plagued with pastors who stand behind pulpits like this that are just simply cowards.

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They will not live their lives sacrificially for Christ or their body in such a way as to not be seen as respectable people.

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They have this last generation handed to us a context of a Christian culture that wants cotton candy, popcorn and music concerts rather than a faithful proclamation of the message of the gospel that says

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Jesus is the king and you must obey Jesus. There will be a day of judgment where you will be judged.

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Repent and believe in a hurry. We so want to be safe and comfortable that we have now given to the world a generation of very safe and comfortable

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Christians that just go along with sin and tyranny because they love safety and comfort.

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They are idols that we worship and they must be melted down because stupidity doesn't work.

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Foolishness doesn't work. And if we have yielded to all of this tyranny and lawlessness all around us, it will come knocking.

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And for many of you it's knocking at your doors right now. The early Christian church had a message of the gospel that was clearly understood to the degree that Rome killed

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Christians. Christians know those stories. We talk about them all the time. Rome killed Christians. They burned them at the stake.

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They wrapped them in pitch, lit them on fire. Nero used them as Roman candles to light his garden parties.

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They were slaughtering Christians. They were tearing their bodies apart. They were flaying them, taking the skin off their body while they were still alive, feeding them to the lions.

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They were killing them. Why? Because they said that Jesus is Lord. Now Christians today say,

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I believe that. I believe Christian is Lord. Do you believe it like they believed it? Where they meant it? Where they actually meant it?

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That Jesus' lordship meant that he was the king and the final authority over every single area of life?

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Not your own private spiritual experience? Not just for you and your wife and your kids, but not just for you and your church community, but they believed that Jesus was

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Lord in such a way that it impacted every single area of life. The proclamation of the gospel was not just about private salvation, but it was a gospel of a kingdom.

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It was a gospel of a rule of the king who has all authority. It was pointing to Christ as the ultimate.

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They preached it in such a way as the world understood. And what was the consequence? Riots, mobs, people tried to cancel them in the first century.

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They tried to do it without Twitter and YouTube and all the rest. They did what they could to cancel, right? That's been part and parcel to our experience since the very beginning.

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But the early Christian church was engaged in the proclamation of the gospel in such a way that it was comprehensive and was all -encompassing.

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If you look at, of course, Acts 4, verse 12, you know the famous story. Well, let's go to it.

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I want you to see it. I'm not just going to talk about it. Let's do it today as people are learning about the Christian response to mandatory cookies.

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Lay some foundations. Acts 4, in verse 12, this, of course, is the famous message that Peter gives.

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And he says to the Jews, in verse 10, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom

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God raised from the dead. So he says, you're guilty, you did this. By him, this man is standing before you well, talking about the healing that had just taken place.

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This Jesus is a stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

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And there is salvation to no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved now.

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When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished.

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Boldness? Talking to Jews about spiritual things? Well, they accused them, you're guilty of murdering

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Jesus. But then Peter's quoting here something that was known in the empire.

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It was something that was said about Caesar, that there was no salvation except through Caesar. Whenever a town would yield to the

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Pax Romana, they'd put posts up in front of that little town, talking about the salvation of Caesar, and there was salvation in no other, other than Augustus, the son of God.

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And now Peter is taking their famous tagline about Caesar and his salvation, and he is taking it and applying it to Jesus.

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Understand that the early Christian church was seen as an enemy of the state, not because they really were in terms of their behavior, but because what they said about Jesus was that his authority and rule was all -encompassing over everything.

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And isn't it interesting that in the modern era, as we've brought the gospel now in the last couple of hundred years around the globe to places we have never been before in such an amazing way, isn't it amazing that even in the modern era, when faithful Christians proclaim the message of Jesus in truth, with boldness and humility and love, those governments and governing authorities recognize the same problem that Christians are to despots and tyrants in history.

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So, for example, I've said it many times, but I need to make sure this is laid down to understand our response to mandatory cookies.

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When you look at North Korea today, how did it get that way? How did it get that way when the leader of Korea has grandparents or great -grandparents that were

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Christian missionaries? How did you get from a place where North Korea was seen as the

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Jerusalem of the East not very long ago to where it is today? How did you get there?

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Because the despots and tyrants who took control recognized that the Christian church is enemy number one.

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Why? Because they say there is a transcendent law above government. Because they say that Jesus is the authority over their nation.

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So what do you do? Get the Christians out of the way. Make Christianity illegal. Why? Because a faithful understanding of this word understands this.

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Jesus says, all authority. And that's true in a pagan context, and that's true in a nation that has been fully converted to Jesus.

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Jesus has all authority. It doesn't matter how many numbers there are. Jesus has all authority.

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I want you to remember this key issue. Jesus said that he had all authority in heaven and on earth with a handful of disciples in front of him.

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That was in the first century, long, long ago. That's the claim of Jesus. Do you believe it?

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In the early Christian church in the book of Acts, you see not only were the early Christians accused of going against the decrees of Caesar, saying there's another king above Caesar, Jesus.

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Not only was Peter taking a famous slogan for Caesar in Rome about salvation only in Caesar Augustus and turning it into Jesus.

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How very political of you, Peter. Why don't you just preach the gospel and stay out of this political stuff? Sound familiar?

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The common claim is, why are you guys engaged in all this political stuff? Why are you engaging all this stuff over here?

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Why don't you just preach the gospel? Tell that to Peter. Tell it to Peter. When he's taking something that the politicians were saying was law and he's subverting it and turning it into a claim about Christ.

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Tell Peter to just preach the gospel. Tell Paul just to preach the gospel. My answer is,

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I am preaching the gospel. You are not. You are not. And it's you are not preaching the gospel that has got all of our neighbors into all of this trouble.

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We know, of course, in Acts chapter five, verse 29, the famous statement from Peter, as they were told by civil governing authorities to stop preaching in the name of Jesus.

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The word from the inspired apostle was what? We must obey God rather than men.

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You understand, of course, that's not allowed. That's not allowed in context where you have tyrants or people who say that they have ultimate authority.

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For you to say that I must obey God rather than men is for you to display that you believe that there is a transcendent law and authority that everybody must yield and bow to.

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And that's, of course, the heritage of the Christian church. That is the faithful proclamation of the gospel.

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And I would say this, many people today don't like a minister like myself, and I'm not overly special at all.

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I have a lot of work to be done on myself as well. They don't like someone like me standing here before the people of God and coming against a cultural idol like mandatory cookies.

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Stay in your lane, Pastor Jeff. That's what people would say, stay in your lane. Stay out of these things.

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And I believe that the reason people would want ministers to stay out of this context is because they love their safety and their comfort more than they love

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God and their neighbor. That is the truth. They don't like the trouble of riots breaking out.

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They don't like the idea of going to jail for Jesus Christ. They don't like the idea of being on the run for their lives.

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They don't like being watched by the FBI and CIA, which is happening to us right now, because we stand against these things.

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That's the truth. And yes, we know about it. Gotcha. And I don't care, because the truth matters.

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And if you love God and neighbor enough, you'll stand up and say something. That's the call. You see, it's important as we talk today about a

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Christian response to mandatory cookies, let's imagine, if you will, let those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

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Let the reader understand. Let's imagine that there was a breakout of very unusual hunger pains globally.

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Very unusual hunger pains globally. Now, people got these hunger pains.

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Many people have gotten these hunger pains. They got the hunger pains, and then they got over them. And many people were really, really hurt by the hunger pains, and were very concerned for them, and were sorry.

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That's a fallen world that happens. People have to be affected by these things in a fallen world that happens, and we're not minimizing the damage.

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But let's say that these hunger pains can affect people, and over 99 % of people who get these hunger pains will actually recover from the hunger pains, and then have a special thing built in by God, and then have a special thing built in by God in their body to resist that hunger pain any longer.

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Let's imagine that was the case. Let's all pretend today. And let's imagine that the governing authorities produced a special healing cookie.

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And let's call it Joe's Cookies. And these cookies actually can be helpful in some context to take care of a particular segment of these hunger pains.

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Let's imagine that's the world we're living in. And let's imagine this world, this pretend world, where there's these hunger pains, this breakout of hunger pain disease, and we have these special healing cookies being offered to everybody, that we have to address that as Christians, because the government decides that they want everybody to eat the cookie.

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And the government decides that it's gonna become mandatory for you to eat these cookies. These are healing cookies.

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You must eat the cookie. Everybody eat the cookie. Did you get your cookie? Make sure you eat your cookie. Everybody has to have the cookie.

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And let's imagine for a moment now that the cookie is being given to everybody, and it's not just optional.

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It's not a voluntary thing, but everybody says you must eat Joe's Cookies because Joe's Cookies will ultimately save the world.

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We'll get out of the hunger pains disease if everybody just would eat their cookie. And let's imagine that the government goes from suggesting the cookie and saying things like we would never ever demand and make it mandatory that everybody eats the healing cookie because we don't have the authority to do that or to say that.

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They go from that months ago to saying everybody must eat the cookie to the degree that we will give men the death penalty for not eating the cookie.

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And what do I mean by death penalty? Well, here's what I mean. It is a modern version of the death penalty to tell somebody if they do not put the cookie into their body, they will not be able to work, earn money, feed their families, take care of their families.

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What is it when you take away somebody's ability to work, to care for themselves and their loved ones?

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What is that? That is appointing them to death. It is saying you eat the cookie or you die.

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That's where we're at. So what is a Christian response to this when a governing authority says you must eat the healing cookie?

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Well, we need to recognize that God's law is the standard. It goes back to this first premise.

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Jesus is Lord. That's the start of this conversation. He has

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Lordship and authority over every single area of life. There is nothing outside of the realm of his authority.

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And so the first step here is to say Jesus has all authority and it is a basic Christian principle that we must obey

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God rather than men. And that means that we recognize there is a transcendent law above all fallible human beings.

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Up the chain of command, all the way to God -ordained government, there is a transcendent law outside of all of us that we must yield to and obey.

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Jesus is Lord and God has a law and a standard that must be obeyed.

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And so when we look at this question as Christians who want to live peaceable lives, who want to love our neighbors and sacrifice for them and to give them the gospel so they would know

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Jesus, we must actually face this down because tyranny is lawlessness.

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And Jesus in Scripture has something to say about righteousness and justice.

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Jesus actually tells us, his people, that when you go disciple the nations, you teach them to obey all that I've commanded you.

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That's part of the great commission. And we have to recognize as Christians that God has something to say about his ordained limits to governments.

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God's law is the foundation and we need to look to it as to what is righteous and true and lovely and beautiful and just.

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And we recognize in Scripture that God has ordained government, amen? Amen. As not to say that all governments act as God's true deacons, his true servants.

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God has ordained family government. When Jesus tells his response to the controversy happening in his day in Matthew 19, he says, a man shall leave his father and his mother.

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He shall cling to his wife. They'll become one flesh. That's a new government. It's a new order.

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It's a new sphere, but it is this over here, the family. There is, of course, my own self -government.

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There is family government. There is church government that God has ordained. And then there is civil government.

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We recognize that. We think it's a beautiful thing. We think it's wonderful. Christians are not anarchists.

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We recognize Romans 13, for example, go there. Romans 13, the most abused verse of 2020 and 2021.

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We recognize Romans 13. First thing you need to think about when you're reading scripture is who wrote it?

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Who's he writing to? What's the context? How does this fit into all of scripture? But in Romans 13, this is the apostle

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Paul writing to the church in Rome. And we need to think about the context of Rome. Was Rome a

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Christian state? No, no. Let's remember now that it was

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Rome that tried to wipe the church out and kill all the apostles. It was under Nero's reign, more than likely, that the apostle

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Paul was killed, and Peter, and a bunch of the other apostles. They tried to wipe the church out. So when Paul is talking here about governing authorities, he says it in the context of Rome.

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So he is clearly not describing Rome as it was in his day in terms of this is what

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Rome is like. It's a real obedient deacon to God. Here's what he says. Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

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Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

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For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

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Then do what is good, and you'll receive his approval, for he is God's, what's the word?

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Stay with me. What is it? Who is the governing authority? Supposed to be, it's God's authority, God's servant,

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God's deacon. The word there is, same word we use for our deacons, deacons, servants of the church.

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The government here is supposed to be God's deacon, God's servant, for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, the deacon of God, an avenger who carries out

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God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

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So stop there for a moment. What's Paul doing? Is he describing Rome? How is

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Rome doing in the first century against Christians? How is Rome doing in wielding the sword of justice?

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Not so great. So Paul is not being descriptive here of Rome and all governing authorities, right?

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If you look at North Korea today, there's a government. Is it acting as God's servant today? It's not describing

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North Korea or communist China. This is prescriptive. This is the role of government.

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And note something very important. Verse three, for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

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Question, what do you think the apostle Paul's standard is for what is good and what is bad?

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Rome's definition or scripture? When the apostle

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Paul here is talking about prescribing the role of government and good and bad, he is thinking as a

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Christian in Christian categories. He knows what the word of God says. He knows the role of government and he knows the

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Torah. In God's law, civil government is actually supposed to be really small, really, really small.

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Civil government has a role in society to do mostly what? Protect victims' rights, punish evildoers, organize for national defense, and that's about it.

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That's about it. Wield the sword of justice. We live in a fallen world.

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Sinners hurt one another, sinners steal from one another, sinners kill one another, and the government is supposed to be the one instrument of God that actually here on earth justly wields the sword so that there is actually protection of victims and an upholding of victims' rights.

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It's not saying what government always does, but the law of God has ordained limits to civil government.

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And do you know what is not prescribed in God's law? Yes, we can tell you exactly the limits.

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Do you know what is not prescribed in God's law? Mandating cookies. Now look, if you wanna eat a cookie, eat a cookie.

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We believe in bodily autonomy because we're Christians and we respect bodily autonomy.

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Another person's decision to do with their body, however, whatever they please, as long as you are not purposefully and with culpability hurting another image bearer of God, if you want to eat ice cream and Cheetos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, go for it.

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It's not wise. We should talk a bit about that, but you know what? Go for it.

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If that's what you wanna do to your body, if you wanna rub ice cream around your earlobes and walk around town all day long, feel free.

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You're gonna get some weird looks, but those are your earlobes. They don't belong to me.

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And so when we talk about the ordained limits of government, we know that there's spheres of government with authority and the government, civil government, has specific rules and a context in which they're supposed to work.

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And one of the things they cannot do, according to God's law, is command that everybody take an experimental cookie that has very suspicious short -term data that is possibly injuring loads of people that we don't even know what it'll do in the future.

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The government cannot mandate that you put this cookie into your body. That is a violation of God -ordained limits to civil governments.

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Our country used to understand that because it came out of the Protestant Reformation. The word of God is the standard.

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If you wanna know what justice is, you gotta look to this book. Do you wanna hear something that is just tragic? And this truly is tragic, and we need to speak the truth to win this world to Jesus Christ because this is a tragedy.

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This country, the place you're sitting right now, the place that we're in right now and the blessings that we have around us, it didn't just drop out of the sky.

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It came from Christians. The Puritans came over, the Covenanters, the

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Huguenots, they came over here and they gave to us the blessings of all of their pain.

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They were slaughtered, they were massacred, they were drowned, they were abused in a court system that was moved away from God's law.

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And when they started as Christians looking into the word of God, they were saying, hey, wait a minute.

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This defines what is just. This defines what is righteous. This defines how a human being should be treated when they're accused of things.

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The king is not obeying the law. This is the law of God, this is transcendence.

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And Christians started speaking out against these things. They started saying, God has defined the role of civil government and Jesus has ultimate authority, not the king, the law is king.

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This law, lex rex, that was what they were saying. Lex rex, the law is king.

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That's where our nation came from. I'm not speaking here as the red -blooded American Christian talking about republicanism,

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I'm here talking as a minister of the gospel. You wanna know where this justice came from? You wanna know where these righteous standards came from?

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They came from the word of God. Specifically, specifically, Christians understood that when they gave us this nation.

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When Christians came over, whether they're Huguenots or the Covenanters or the Puritans or whatever, when they came over and they were establishing communities and cities, they would explicitly name

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Jesus Christ in their community documents. They would explicitly point to the law word of God as to what we will do in our community in terms of what is just and what is right.

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When this country was having its big upheaval, there were so many people that were saying, just go along, let's just be safe, let's not cause problems, let's just go along.

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What's a little injustice from the king? And the New England pulpit, the New England pulpit, pastors and ministers preached on Sunday before pulpits and audiences like this, they preached the law word of God and they preached the authority of Jesus Christ and that's what gave us this country.

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That's where we came from. They understood that God ordained limits of government. They understood that the king may be in charge and will respect and honor the king, but he's not the king of kings.

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He's not the Lord of lords and he must obey Jesus. That's where we came from.

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Christians understood that God ordained limits of government. Another thing that's important to think about when you think about a mandated cookie to deal with a particular breakout of hunger pains.

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You need to think about the law of God and not just in terms of God ordained limits of civil government, but you need to think about what

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God's law word says about love for neighbor. I want you to see it with your own eyes. Go to the text,

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Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22, verses 36 through 40.

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The text says, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, this is

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Jesus. He said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

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This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets, all the law and the prophets are built upon loving

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God and loving neighbor. Now, this is really important, especially in the context of where we live today, right?

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Where you have so many evangelicals today that will say contrary to historic Christian tradition, contrary to all of history, they'll say the law of God isn't relevant anymore today.

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The law of God, who cares about that? We just need to love God and love our neighbors. Fantastic, I like that.

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Thank you for giving me those two because that just gave me the entire law. What is

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Jesus doing here? He's not inventing a new way of being human in this instance around the law of God.

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He is quoting from the Torah. He's quoting from the books of Moses.

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You guys know the Shema? Let's do it together. Shema, Yisrael, Yahweh, Eloheinu, Yahweh, Echad.

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Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Jesus here, when he is asked, is quoting from what they understood because they were in it all the time and reciting it all the time, the

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Shema. He's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter six, verse five.

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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And then he quotes the next one from Leviticus 19 .18.

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That is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So when Christians say the law of God is irrelevant today after the cross, after the resurrection, after the ascension, they say we just need to love

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God and love neighbor. Thank you for quoting the Torah. Love God, love neighbor.

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You're quoting from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, that scary law book of the

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Old Testament. And if you say we are called to love God and love neighbor, then you just gave me the entire law of God, which it is built upon those things, and you just gave me the

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Christian resistance to mandatory cookies. Why? It is love for God and neighbor that requires of me to speak out against the tyranny of being told to put this into your body.

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Ignore your conscience. Ignore the data. Ignore it all. Ignore what this can do to your neighbors.

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Ignore it all, and you must take this into your body. I would say love for God and love for neighbor demands of me that I resist something like that, because it violates the

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God -ordained limits of civil government, and it puts at risk my neighbors.

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My neighbors. So love for neighbor is a command from God's law.

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Jesus has all authority. He defines, it's his transcendent law that is supreme, and he says in his law that I'm to love my neighbor.

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Love my neighbor. And one of the things that is part and parcel to loving your neighbor is this.

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Preserve human life. Preserve human life.

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You know what's amazing? Think about the last 100 years of history.

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Oh, we've just been blinded to this. This is what's happened to us. The last 100 years of human history, just that's close to us.

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Think about Stalin. Think about Pol Pot. Think about Mao.

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Think about North Korea. And what do you have, just as a sampling of human history, when you have unbelieving governments who do not yield to the authority of Jesus Christ and to this word, you have millions and millions and millions and millions of image bearers of God slaughtered, murdered by these governments.

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Why? If they don't yield to Christ, there is no transcendent law. There's no reason to love my neighbors and to work for the preservation of human life and to think long -term.

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If I don't have Christ, what are these people in front of me? They're just bags of chemicals bobbing around in a cosmos that doesn't care about them.

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The Christian worldview has at the heart loved God. His law is supreme.

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He is transcendent. His authority is over all. And I'm commanded to love my neighbor and to seek their best, their well -being and to preserve human life.

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This is why from the beginning of the Christian church, Christians were the ones who were just picking up babies off the street in Rome.

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Because the pagan Romans said, well, I don't want this baby. I'll let it die out on the street of exposure.

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And Christians were scooping these kids up, taking them into their homes, calling them sons and daughters and raising them to love

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Jesus. We won. We won. Because we were trying to preserve human life.

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Governments that do not yield to Jesus Christ do not work to preserve human life. They work to undermine and destroy human life.

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And God commands you and I as Christians, love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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And within that is the principle of the preservation of human life. I can't do all of these, but just some.

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Just in terms of what does it look like when God says love your neighbor as you love yourself. I'll give you an example. The preservation of human life in Deuteronomy 22 verse eight.

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You can just write the verse down, but we've talked about this before. Most of this is threadbare for Apologia Church, but we want this message to challenge you and to challenge believers around the world.

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In Deuteronomy 22 verse eight, you see that God gives them a law that works with love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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It is that if you're building something, they spend a lot of time on the roofs of their houses to get cool during the night.

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God says even when you're building something, you have to have an eye on the future of how your neighbors could be hurt.

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So you're building a house for yourself, but even in building a house, like you're thinking, you're conscious, you're aware, how can somebody be hurt in this home?

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And they were spending time on the roofs of their houses, so God gives them an example of the preservation of human life. He says put a parapet around the roof of your house, which is like a railing, so that nobody falls off and injures themselves.

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But hey, it's my house. I live here, it's my domicile, it's my home.

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And God says, yeah, if you love your neighbor, you're gonna do what you can in your home to preserve human life. It's just one principle.

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We're not to build rails around the roofs of our houses. Today that'd look weird in Phoenix, and you'd probably die, like super burn up, and you can cook eggs up there for sure, and cookies.

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But the goal is just simply a principle.

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Preserve human life, preserve human life, protect human life. How would you do it today?

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Well, I'd say if you have a pool, as a Christian, you gotta do what you can to make sure you preserve human life.

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Stop little ones from falling into the pool. That's how you would apply that rule today. Or if you had like a large property with a well on it, you should make sure that you put something around that well to preserve human life.

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Why? Because you're looking forward always to loving neighbor and preserving human life. Is there a risk to my neighbor?

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Could this hurt my neighbor? I've gotta love my neighbor and protect my neighbor. That's what the law of God tells us.

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And when you think about mandatory cookies, Christians have an allegiance to Christ and to his law, and we say that is not within the ordained limits of civil government that Jesus decrees, but also love for neighbor demands of me that I ask questions, and that I show concern for neighbor and the future.

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Love for neighbor demands of me. You shall not kill.

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Now let's imagine that we lived in a world where the government was saying, we have a healthy cookie called

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Joe's cookie, and you must eat this cookie. If you do not eat this cookie, you will no longer be allowed to work in the military.

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If you don't eat this cookie, then we're gonna shut down your business. If you don't eat this cookie, then you're not gonna be able to go shopping in grocery stores or go see shows or gather in large gatherings.

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You must eat the cookie. Everyone has to eat the cookie. Now a Christian says, well, God tells me to show concern for the preservation of human life and to love my neighbor.

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What is your long -term safety data about said cookie? And what if the government said, well, this is a new cookie, but trust us, eat the cookie, it's safe.

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A Christian who has allegiance to Christ, God's law, and a concern for love for neighbor will say, pause.

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I'm not against eating cookies. Sometimes cookies can be good. Cookies with, say, 50 years or 40 years of safety data, showing that it will not ultimately harm me, my kids, my wife, my family, my neighbors, those may not be bad cookies.

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We're not anti -cookiers. But your cookie, let's just speculate here, imagine the world where this was actually happening, but your cookies have no long -term safety data to show me that it's safe for my neighbors.

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And the short -term safety data is alarming and in many ways very suspicious.

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Let's imagine that we lived in a world where the government said, you must eat this cookie, don't worry, it's safe.

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And let's imagine that there was a daily report that you could go to that showed the cookie -eating adverse event report.

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And let's imagine that as of today, the report coming from official sources was that 16 ,310 people died from eating the cookie.

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And let's imagine that there were 75 ,605 hospitalizations of your neighbors and mine who ate the cookie.

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There were 87 ,814 visits to urgent care because of eating the cookie. 121 ,305 doctor office visits for eating the cookie.

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7 ,141 cases of anaphylaxis from eating the cookie. 9 ,446

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Bell's palsy from eating the cookie. 2 ,415 miscarriages from eating the cookie.

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7 ,868 heart attacks from eating the cookie. 17 ,619 incidents of life -threatening illnesses from the cookie.

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30 ,631 severe allergic reactions to the cookie. My question is this, do

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Christians have an obligation to say something about that? Love for neighbor would demand of us that we show concern for the preservation of human life when this is being offered.

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Well, what if we lived in a world where today, Iceland had suspended the use of the

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Mammurmus line of cookies after finding increased risk of cardiac inflammation.

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Sweden and Finland also suspended the Mammurmus line of cookies for people under 30.

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Denmark and Norway also have advised people under 18 not to eat those cookies. And what if we lived in a context today where legislators seriously were suggesting that we give these experimental cookies to children in order to operate in civilized society or to even go to school.

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First and foremost, get your kids out of those schools. And second of all, how dare anybody suggest that you take an experimental cookie and put it into the body of a child?

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We are in a conversation not about anti -cookie eaters.

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We're in a conversation that is a principled conversation standing on foundations from God's word.

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First, the authority of Jesus Christ over all. Next, his law is transcendent and defines the limits of civil government.

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This is a breach of that. And God demands of us that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We work towards the preservation of human life.

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I wanna point you again to Lex Rex. Brothers and sisters, you've heard us saying it a lot lately. Get to know it.

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This is a great book. If you don't have it in your library, get it in your library, start devouring it. Lex Rex, the law is king.

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This was written by Samuel Rutherford. He is an amazing beast of a theologian and wrote amazing devotionals.

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He's a Presbyterian and he's my hero. Lex Rex, this was the principle that Christians were appealing to in history.

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The principle that the law is king. There is a transcendent law and that is the king.

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That is what must be obeyed. It is not the king is law. That's what the

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Christians were dealing with. The Covenanters in Scotland were just being told, just say that the king has authority over the church.

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Just say that, just say it. They're killed for that. They were slaughtered for that. They were drowned for that.

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They were starved for that. They watched their kids die because they would not say that the king has authority over the church. Why? Why?

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Why not just say it? Why not? Why can't the king simply define that he has authority over the church?

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Because those Covenanters knew their Bibles and they knew that this is a sphere over here called the church where Christ has ordained a government and authority and you're a sphere over here.

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We're gonna respect you and love you, but do not attempt to cross over here. You'll be judged for that, king.

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And ultimately, the Covenanters won. After a lot of bloodshed and a lot of loss, they won.

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But their principle was lax, rex. The law is king. That is to say, there is a transcendent law.

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And brothers and sisters, Christians in history have always recognized this principle, that if no law, no transcendent law is recognized above government, then government will attempt to take the prerogatives of God and deify itself.

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Do we not see that happening today? Do you see it happening all around you? Do you know what?

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I'm not gonna go into the book of Revelation today a lot, but I'll just point this out to you. Isn't it interesting that in the first century of the church where the

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Christians are being persecuted intensely and they're slaughtered, when John was in Patmos and he got the unveiling, when he got

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Revelation and he writes it, isn't it interesting that when he's talking about Rome, this tyrannical state, this lawless state, the word he uses under inspiration to describe

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Rome in the first century is a beast. And he describes it as devouring and destroying.

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What was he talking about? He was talking about this system of government that was destroying and killing.

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It was a beast. That is how the Bible describes it. Now, I wanna address some important arguments and we are wrapping up here, which means we have an hour to go, right?

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So, just kidding. There is, of course, something interesting in the atmosphere today.

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Have you caught it? I hope everybody here has caught it. Have you noticed that unbelievers for decades have been shouting, my body, my choice?

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Have you noticed that they've stopped saying it as much? Why? Because their

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God changed his rules. You know, what's interesting about the my body, my choice argument is actually that's a solid argument.

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It's not a good argument for abortion, but it's actually a principally true thing.

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This is my body, it's my choice. Christian worldview would ultimately say, this is not wise and we would wanna talk to you if you're doing this.

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If a person said, hey, you know, I wanna cut my fingertips off, I'm gonna cut them all off. Ultimately, the government shouldn't have anything to do with that in terms of like punishment or anything else because it's bodily autonomy.

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It's your body, right? It's foolish, it's stupid, it's wrong. You know, I don't want you to do it.

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It's not wise, don't do that. But there's a bodily autonomy argument that says, it's my body,

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I can do with it as I please. As long as I'm not doing things to harm my neighbor where I am culpable,

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I know this is gonna harm and I do this, then I have bodily autonomy. Jesus believed that.

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We can make the case throughout all the scripture, but I'll give you one point. It might seem like an interesting point to make, but I think it's in principle it shows that Jesus believed that it's your body, you are to have authority over it and keep it under control.

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Jesus, of course, when he talks about sin and what people do in Matthew 5, 29, he tells them, if your eye causes you to sin, do what?

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Pluck it out, throw it from you. If your hand causes you to sin, do what? Cut it off and throw it from you.

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It's better for you to lose one of the members of your body than for your whole body and soul to be cast into hell. Now, stop.

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Jesus is not speaking literally there. You cannot deal with sin by pulling your eyeball out or cutting your hand off.

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Do not say, Pastor Jeff said, because that is foolish to take

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Jesus' words and say that I'm gonna deal with lust by pulling my eyeballs out. You're still gonna lust in darkness, okay?

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But what is Jesus doing there? He's saying you get to the root cause of your sin and you do everything you can to get it away from you.

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You don't cut your hand off that's causing you to sin and put it in your pocket. You get it far from you, cast it from you.

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But the point Jesus makes, get it, is on the back of an argument that this is your body that you maintain control of.

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So Jesus makes the spiritual point on the back of a principle, it's your body, it's your responsibility to maintain control of it and ownership of it.

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You are responsible for your body. So the my body, my choice is actually solid biblical thing.

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That's right, image bearers of God have bodily autonomy. Now, you might be saying,

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Pastor Jeff, we fight against abortion all the time. They have that on their signs. Why are you giving that away? Here's why, because the body inside the woman's body is not their body.

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And if you truly believed in bodily autonomy, then you would not be pro -choice because there is a body and a body.

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And if bodily autonomy is the principle, then guess what? Welcome to the abolitionist pro -life movement because the body inside also has bodily autonomy.

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But isn't it interesting that the people who have been screaming out into the streets in the public square, my body, my choice, are awfully silent these days because they're saying, our

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God changed his mind. He actually says he has authority over our bodies. Now, you must yield to Caesar.

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Yield to the beast. Your body belongs to the government now. No more bodily autonomy.

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But as Christians, we do believe in bodily autonomy. And so here's what I'll say to you. If there's a cookie you wanna eat, eat it.

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Okay. We should have a conversation about what those particular experimental cookies are doing to harm our neighbors and what they could do in the future to harm us even more.

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But what we're saying here is that the government under God has no right to tell people to eat the cookie.

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And it certainly has no right to give fathers and husbands the death penalty and to tell them they can't provide for their families anymore because they don't wanna take an experimental cookie with such alarming short -term data.

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We don't want your cookie, Joe. Now, I wanna address one thing at the very tail end here.

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There is an argument being made by Christians across the country related to cookies that have used aborted fetal cell lines.

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I wanna encourage you with this. Yes, that is an important thing to discuss.

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We need to fight against that. But just understand something. We have inside information, documents that have been given out to members of our military that the government is actually giving out sheets to people in a chain of command that if you have

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Christians in your branches that are saying, I want a religious exemption to the mandatory cookie, and they're saying because these cookies have participated in abortal fetal cell lines, they have flowcharts to respond to refute your argument and tell you you've already taken these cookies before.

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So we reject your argument. It's not a legitimate religious exemption because you've already taken this from us.

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Now, unfortunately, it is true. Sometimes you go down a military line and they stick you with a lot of cookies.

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And unfortunately, many of us in this room have had those things put into our bodies unwittingly.

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We didn't know. This is a conversation that needs to be had. Christians need to work in this area.

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They need to speak against this because it is immoral. It is murderous. You cannot murder human beings to save other human beings' lives.

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That's sin. That's sin. But I want to encourage you with this. Do not use that argument as the basis for the resistance to the cookie because just know this, the governing authorities have already developed a response, a literal flowchart response to your use of that argument.

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It's already been done before. You've taken it before. And so you need to take it again or you lose your job.

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What would be better is if you stand on more biblical, consistent, and historic

01:00:05

Christian tradition arguments like the one I gave you tonight. Christ is Lord.

01:00:11

He is transcendent. He's above all. He defines the limits of government. His law reigns supreme.

01:00:18

And God commands me to love my neighbor as I love myself if there is no long -term data for the cookies and the short -term data is alarming and suspicious, then in this pretend world of mandatory cookies,

01:00:33

I will resist. And I will resist with an eye on two things. First, love for God demands that I resist.

01:00:44

You are trying to take authority over Jesus Christ and what he defines.

01:00:50

And I resist. And love for neighbor demands of me that I show a concern for the preservation of human life.

01:00:59

What we're talking about tonight is mandatory cookies. And Christians have a responsibility to speak up.

01:01:08

Last thing I'll say here, pray for us, please. We are helping

01:01:13

Christian brothers and sisters. I have been on the phone so much over the last couple of weeks with so many people, important people, people in all kinds of organizations and branches of government, believers who are trying to resist right now who are being told that they're gonna be fired or thrown in jail, dishonorably discharged if they refuse to participate.

01:01:39

From Navy SEALs to Marine Corps, to the Army, to the Air Force, DEA, ATF, CIA, Federal Marshals and Secret Service members, all coming to our church for counsel and for help and guidance as Christians.

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How do we respond to this? How can we fight this? And I know, and I'm gonna speak to this very directly to our body, men in this room, men who love the

01:02:06

Lord, you love your families, I know many of you have taken a huge risk. With your deeply held convictions and commitments to Christ, you've resisted the command from your higher ups, from the business owners to participate in this, and many of you guys are losing your jobs or you've already lost your jobs.

01:02:26

Just know that we love you, we're here for you, we're gonna stand with you as a church body, and just know that we are working as hard as we can as your elders to fight in the public square for righteousness and for justice for your sake.

01:02:41

So pray for our church as we speak against this in the public square, pray for our country. This is important.

01:02:48

We do not deserve God's mercy. That's the nature of mercy, isn't it?

01:02:53

It's undeserved. It's not giving you what you do deserve.

01:03:00

We have blood guiltiness in this nation, we have for so long, you, brothers and sisters, listen, we've been saying it for a long time, we're not prophets, but we've been saying it for a long time, you can't kill 60 plus million babies and not get a response from God, and not get a response from God.

01:03:22

You cannot redefine the fundamental aspect of human society and not get a response from God.

01:03:30

You cannot parade your sin like Sodom before the face of God and not get a response from God.

01:03:37

God has shown in history that he is merciful and he is gracious and he is patient, but God will respond because God will not be mocked.

01:03:47

And brothers and sisters, I hate the idea of the church of the living

01:03:52

God in this nation going through a period of God's judgment and wrath upon a nation.

01:04:00

But that may be the case. You know that we are a hardcore, pipe -hitting post -millennialist here, we believe

01:04:06

Jesus wins the world, but that does not mean that we make it without judgment. And what our nation needs right now is faithful men and women to preach the gospel in the public square faithfully, lovingly, and courageously, like the early church did.

01:04:26

What were they being accused of? These people who were turning the world upside down have come here too.

01:04:37

They turned the world upside down? There were barely any of them. There's hardly any

01:04:43

Christians and they turned the world upside down? How? They didn't have any money.

01:04:49

They didn't have any power. They were considered enemies. They had nothing but a message that changed the world, a message that changed the world, that converted sinners, that took people out of death and into life.

01:05:03

That's what the early Christian church did, but they did it faithfully and they did it with consequences. We don't want consequences, be honest.

01:05:11

We don't wanna suffer. We wanna have ease. We wanna have comfort. We wanna have safety. And that's exactly the problem with the church in the

01:05:19

West today is that we love our comfort more than we love Christ. We love our safety more than we love our neighbor.

01:05:26

And so we walk away from those who are being abused because we simply want to live safe, comfortable, easy lives.

01:05:35

If you ask the question, why isn't there revival? Why isn't there reformation in our streets today?

01:05:42

Why isn't it happening? And the answer is we've got the same spirit of God that this church did.

01:05:47

We've got the same message that they did. The problem is, is that we don't want to say it.

01:05:53

We don't wanna say it with consequences. The early church said it and riots broke out. Paul's being lowered out of windows.

01:06:00

People are taking oaths not to eat until Paul is dead. They are burning things in the city. They are in danger for their lives.

01:06:07

And never forget this. When we look at the first century of the church where the gospel was transforming the world and turning the world upside down, the people who were responsible for that died martyrs' deaths to get it.

01:06:21

They lived sacrificially and died martyrs' deaths to purchase it for us.

01:06:28

And can I just make a little historical extension here? The Christians who gave us this country with these blessings, they also died in many ways martyrs' deaths and sacrificially for you.

01:06:45

Don't forget that. I'm not talking about America as the jewel in God's eye.

01:06:52

I'm not, you know what I'm saying? I'm talking about Christians who understood God's law, understood the gospel itself, and they were trying to pass on liberty and justice and the message of the gospel itself to the generations after them, but they did it with great risk.

01:07:07

You know where the covenanters, last word on this, you know where they signed the national covenant of Scotland in?

01:07:14

Anyone know what they signed it in? Their blood. They were like,

01:07:20

I don't need ink for that because I know that my signing this covenant that says that Jesus is the ultimate authority and not the king, that his law must be obeyed,

01:07:29

I know that I'm deciding to die. And so they signed the covenant in their blood because they knew they were gonna die.

01:07:39

John Hancock, it's not just a life insurance company. John Hancock, super rich guy early on, he wrote his name in big letters, big.

01:07:53

And when he was asked why he's writing it so large, his John Hancock, when he wrote it, he said it so that the king will be able to read it without his spectacles.

01:08:04

They knew what they were doing and they knew what it meant in terms of treason and what it meant in terms of their lives.

01:08:10

Christians, stand up for the gospel itself, stand up for truth in the public square. Brothers and sisters,

01:08:15

God does not need a massive, massive number of people to change the world and he has never done so, really.

01:08:24

In history, God always changes the world through a faithful, consistent minority.

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Why? Because he wants the glory for it. To show that it was not us and our large numbers and our power and our might, but it was

01:08:41

God and his truth that changed the world. You know what it takes to change the world? Moms.

01:08:48

Moms who will love their kids and love their husbands and teach them the word of God and show them a boldness and show them what humility is, show them what faithfulness.

01:08:58

You raise those families to change the world and go out and slay some dragons. It takes men, single men, married men, men to stand up for the truth no matter the consequences.

01:09:12

It takes a church like ours that's willing to be persecuted, vilified or whatever to speak the truth in the public square so that God changes the world through the message of the gospel.

01:09:24

We call people to repent and believe the gospel. That is our call. Brothers and sisters, let's get to it.

01:09:31

Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the message that went out today for your glory and for your kingdom. I pray, Lord, you would allow us as a church body and believers around the world who hear this message to be light and salt in the midst of so much darkness and tyranny.

01:09:44

We pray that first and foremost, we would call people to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord, and that we would teach our nations to obey you above all.