Matt Trewhella - Interposition and Lesser Magistrates

My name's Matt Chuella, it's good to be here. And I wanna give you greetings from my wife, Clara. I hail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I pastor a church there called Mercy Seek Christian Church. And they wanna send their greetings to you also.

Me and my wife have been married for 34 years. We have been blessed with 11 children. We also have 13 grandchildren from the oldest three who have been married. We still have eight more to marry off. So yeah, if we can live through that, we'll be doing good.

The Book on the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates

It's an honor to be here tonight. And that's because, well, I've written a book. It's called The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates. A Proper Resistance to Tyranny and a Repudiation of Unlimited Obedience to Civil Government.

It's the first book written on The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates in over 300 years. And the main motivation for me writing this book is because of the pre-born in our nation, because of the suffering that they've endured for over four decades now.

I was astounded by the fact that, in light of the fact that abortion is murder, it's a brutal killing of an instant pre-born child, that we had not seen one governor, not one legislature, not one mayor, not one common council, stand in defiance of this federal judicial tyranny upon our nation, not one.

The book has been doing good. It is selling hundreds or thousands of copies every month for well over a year now. I do regular radio show interviews, travel all the time speaking. I've met with legislators, governors, lieutenant governors, attorney generals in various states across the country.

We've actually seen three bills of legislation, bills of interposition, introduced in three different states as a direct result of people learning about this Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate. It's catching on like wildfire.

And I believe the reason for that is, is because people realize there is no federal solution to America's ills. Rather, the federal government is the problem. They're the ones who are the dispensers of injustice and lawlessness.

They're the ones who are the imposers of decadence and injustice. And so people are realizing they no longer have the convenience of behaving indifferently towards the unjust and immoral actions of their federal government.

They're realizing that resistance must be made. And when people realize that the threat needs to be responded to, they want to make sure what they're doing is proper and legitimate. And that's what they see in the Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates.

We have a federal judiciary in this country that behaves as an oligarchy. They are a law unto themselves, far outside their constitutional restraints. We have an executive branch at the federal level in this country that now behaves as an emperorship, has for decades, far outside their constitutional restraints and we have a Congress which is a weakling and refuses to rein in those two lawless, unconstitutional behaving branches of government.

In fact, they've added to all their injustice.

And immorality.

So people are realizing that something must be done and something definitely needs to be done on behalf of these pre-born babies who are being slaughtered in our nation, all on the basis of a mere court opinion by the Supreme Court of our land.

The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate is a doctrine which is employed by men for thousands of years. It's founded in scripture and in history. It's a doctrine proven successful to rein in the unjust or immoral actions of a higher civil authority.

It's a doctrine which needs application in our day on behalf of our helpless pre-born neighbor because the federal judiciary has made these little ones open game to those who kill for profit. But before I introduce this doctrine to you in the short time that I have, let me kind of just give you a little summary of our current situation regarding pro-life efforts over the last 40 plus years.

Listen to me now. For decades, pro-life groups have nibbled around the edges of abortion. They spend huge amounts of money and people volunteer huge amounts of time only to have a federal court trample their nibblings.

Then the whole process starts again with the same outcome once again. Many have wearied and left the field of battle because of it. Those of you who have been around in this fight for three decades or more like I have, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

A recent Bloomberg News article entitled, here's the title of the article, New Abortion Restrictions in States are Zero for Eight in Courts encapsulates what has been the standard operating procedure regarding pro-life legislation for decades.

State legislatures pass a law designed to curtail or regulate the murder of the pre-born, nibble at the edges, and then federal courts or the Supreme Court strike the law down in order to uphold their unjust and immoral 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion.

It's been going on for decades. And consider this. Consider the cozy arrangement the pro-life groups and the Republicans have created for each other. The pro-life groups offer legislation which nibbles at the edges of abortion.

This assures their continued existence as yet another measure will have to be introduced and fought over the following year and the year after that and the decade after that, and it goes on and on. It's been going on for 40 years.

Plus, the Republicans who like to pay lip service to the pre-born and see value in having them used as political footballs are more than happy to accommodate the small incremental legislation proposed by the pro-life groups.

Why?

Because this gets them votes. And it gets them labeled pro-life and even gets some 100 pro-life ratings from their pro-life organizations. The pro-life groups and the GOP benefit from this cozy relationship which they have established between each other.

They both legitimize each other's existence. They both win. The one who loses is the helpless pre-born whom they both disingenuously claim to care about but whose suffering they refuse to end. Last month in Oklahoma, when abolitionists gathered and demanded total abolition of abortion, Senate Bill 1118 resulted from their efforts, a bill that would have outlawed abortion in Oklahoma, declared abortion to be a capital crime, and which had no exceptions.

That bill was killed by the GOP leadership and the pro-life organizations of the state. Many of the senators who refused to support SB 1118 had 100 pro-life voting records because they had voted for the worthless nibblings, the incremental legislation that's been going on for over 40 years.

Look how the pre-born are played. Just look at the presidential campaign every four years. Every four years, the GOP tells us we have to vote for their nominee because if we don't, then the Democrat will get in and appoint Supreme Court justices.

Yet, a little view of history reveals that when Roe v. Wade was ruled upon, six of the nine justices sitting on the bench were Republican-appointed, and for the next 34 years after that, the Republicans had the majority either seven to two or eight to one.

They had the majority of the presidents during that 34 years, and numerous Supreme Court justices were placed on the bench, and yet abortion is still legal in our nation. This is the game that's been played, how the pre-born are used as political footballs.

I've been to state houses around this country over the years and one of the things I routinely hear from our enemies and from those who claim to be on our side is they'll get close to me and they'll say something like this, you Christians, you're the first to roll over and you'll do it for the smallest crumb.

The Christians are over and over again, the pro-lifers are over and over again willing to take less than what is needed and necessary to see this murder brought to an end in our nation, to take the scrap that's thrown to them off the table.

Now I don't say these things to be mean or to be little, I say them because they need to be acknowledged and we need to repent. Yes, we all need to repent. All of us in one way or the other have been involved in allowing this bloodshed to continue on in our nation.

I've been involved in this fight for decades and I spent countless hours helping pass incremental legislation which just allows the killing to continue on with a little tweak here or there. For that, repentance is needed.

That is a failed policy when you have 40 plus years of killing and you haven't brought it to an end. We need a paradigm shift. What stops all this? What stops this cozy arrangement? What stops this murder, the fruit of our repentance so to speak, is the doctrine of the lesser magistrates.

The doctrine of the lesser magistrate has been employed by men for thousands of years, it's found in scripture and history and it's proven successful to rein in the unjust or immoral actions of the higher civil authority.

Here's the definition of the doctrine. It's when the higher ranking civil authority makes unjust or immoral law policies or court opinions, the lower or lesser ranking civil authority has both the right and the duty to interpose and refuse obedience to the higher authority.

If necessary, the lesser magistrate may actively resist the superior authority. Simple enough, right? That's what the doctrine is. It was actually a higher magistrate, Emperor Trajan, who kind of summed up the doctrine when he was giving a sword to a subordinate.

Upon giving him the sword, he said, use this sword against my enemies if I give righteous commands, but if I give unrighteous commands, use it against me. That is the doctrine summed up in a nutshell.

Though practiced for thousands of years, seen in the Old Testament and throughout history, the doctrine wasn't formalized until 1550 AD in Magdeburg, Germany by Lutheran ministers. It's known as the Magdeburg Confession.

John Knox, who feared no man, built upon that, what these ministers wrote, and produced the best treatise ever written on the doctrine of the lesser magistrates in 1558 in his appellation to the nobles of Scotland.

The nobles of Scotland were the lesser magistrates of their day. In his appellation, Knox cited over 70, seven zero, 70 passages of scripture to establish the doctrine sound and wholly writ. He writes at one point to the nobles, he says this to them.

For now the common song of all men is, we must obey our kings, be they good or be they bad, for God has so commanded. And this is the common song of the lesser magistrates of our day. They hide behind the common song, the federal courts have ruled, all's we can do is obey.

Even when it comes to the pre-born who are brutally murdered in our nation, they lie down and say the Supreme Court has ruled, all's we can do is now obey, it's the law of the land. And that is a lie.

Here's what Knox responded to that by saying. True it is, God has commanded kings to be obeyed, but likewise true it is that in things which they commit against his glory, he has commanded no obedience.

The pre-born are made in the image of God, the magistrates have a duty to render justice on their behalf, not lay down and sing the lie, the federal courts have ruled, all's we can do is obey. The historic Christian doctrine of the lesser magistrates is rooted in the monumental Christian doctrine of interposition.

Interposition is that calling of God which causes one to step into the gap, willingly placing himself between the oppressor and his intended victim. Remember the midwives who were ordered by Pharaoh to kill the male Hebrew children?

They committed an act of interposition, they refused to obey and they let those male children live. Another example is found in 1 Samuel where Saul gave his foolish edict and said that nobody should eat until the battle was over.

His own son Jonathan didn't hear about it, ate a little bit of honey and Saul was gonna have his own son killed. But the scripture says that the people interposed and rescued Jonathan saying, not one hair of his head shall be harmed for he has given us a great victory this day.

That's what interposition is. The Bible and church history is full of examples of interposition. When it comes to the interposition of the lesser magistrates, they interposed between the people and the tyrannical higher civil authority.

In my book on the doctrine of the lesser magistrates, I start my book out with a story about a governor named Publius Petronius. In the year 39 AD, Caligula, who was the emperor of Rome, who was kind of tyranny personified, although our federal government here in America seems to be wanting to give him a run for his money in holding that prestigious title.

Caligula got ticked off at the Jews and he ordered, made a law of the emperor, had it sent to Governor Petronius and ordered him to have a statue of himself placed in the temple in Jerusalem. Upon receiving the emperor's law, Governor Petronius had the statue made, assembled 12 ,000 troops, thinking there might be a little bit of trouble.

The Jews got wind of it and they sent people there to talk to Governor Petronius and plead with him, remonstrate before him, demonstrate before him and say, don't do this. This is an immoral law. Don't allow this to happen to our temple.

Governor Petronius responded by saying, you know, I want to live. I will obey the emperor. I will go along to get along. The Jews weren't like your average American though. They didn't write their one letter and go home.

These were tenacious people who abandoned their own fields in order to continue to demonstrate before the governor. Actually, tens of thousands of them ended up showing up, up to 30 ,000 at a time, men, women and children and in the end, Governor Petronius relented and he sent word to Emperor Caligula that he would not put the statue in the temple and he exhorted the emperor to rescind his law to do so.

Well, in good typical tyrannical authority fashion, Emperor Caligula got mad and he sent word by ship to Governor Petronius to kill himself. Well, in God's providence, just two weeks later, Caligula's Praetorian Guard assassinated, assassinated Caligula and fortunately for Governor Petronius, the ship carrying word for him to kill himself arrived after the ship carrying news that the emperor had been assassinated.

It never was, the statue never was placed in the temple. It's a little story of the lesser magistrate doctrine in action. The doctrine can be needed in any form of government, not just the kind that Governor Petronius found himself in.

Why?

Because the hearts of men are wicked and they can distort any form of government. Tyranny can raise its ugly head in a monarchy or a democracy. It can raise its ugly head in a dictatorship or a representative constitutional republic.

In any form of government, tyranny can raise its ugly head. When it comes to the interposition of the lesser magistrates, the interpose between the people and the tyrannical civil authority and what we are addressing this evening between the helpless pre-born child and the abortionist knife whom the federal judiciary has made lethal and the whole power of the federal government seems willing to impose.

This is the duty of the lesser magistrates. They are to interpose for the pre-born. They are not to join in the federal judiciary's rebellion against God. We're talking about brutal murder here. Have you ever seen the photographs of the murdered pre-born?

I have. Have you ever held the bodies of the murdered pre-born in your hands? I have. It is brutal murder. And yet in over 40 years of this bloodshed, we haven't seen one governor, one legislature, one mayor, one common council stand in their position on their behalf, stand in defiance of this tyranny, not one.

And how can that be? It's because we've forgotten God in our nation. It's because America's pulpits have lost all fealty to Christ and instead love the praises of men, love to be liked by men, love to tell men what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.

Let me tell you, God's word speaks to all matters of life, including matters of civil government. And we need to instruct the magistrates as to what their role, function, and duty is. Election sermons used to be given across this nation.

They died out about 150 years ago. They're needed again. So the magistrates know what their function and purpose is in regards to good governance. The doctrine of the lesser magistrates understands the importance of divine law.

For nearly 1 ,500 years, the common refrain of Western man was, divine law trumps human laws. If a law was made contrary to the law of God, it was viewed as no law at all, and it was to be resisted. Whether you read Alfred the Great in the 9th century, or you read John of Salisbury in the 12th century, or you read William Blackstone, the most cited legal scholar by America's founders in the 18th century, they all referred to God's law as the higher law, to which all men and all governments of men were accountable.

They said that law was the objective standard whereby we judge the laws of men, whether they're just or unjust, whether they're moral or immoral, whether they're right or whether they're wrong. Here's what Blackstone said.

He said, upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, talking about God's written law, depend all human laws. This is the most cited legal scholar by America's founders saying this.

That is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. That's pretty strong. Unless you wonder who this God is, he went on to say, it, talking about the law of God, is binding over all the globe and all countries and at all times, no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority immediately or immediately from this original.

The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are found only in the Holy Scriptures. James Wilson, who was one of the movers and shakers for the production of the US Constitution, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was on the first US Supreme Court put there by George Washington himself.

He said this regarding God's law. As promulgated by reason in the moral sense, it has been called natural. As promulgated by the Holy Scriptures, it has been called revealed law. As addressed to men, it has been denominated the law of nature.

As addressed to political sides, it has been denominated the law of nations. But it should always be remembered that this law, whether natural or revealed, made for men or for nations, flows from the same divine source.

It is the law of God. This was the thinking of Western man for nearly 1 ,500 years, that God's law was the higher law to which all men and all governments of men were accountable. Wilson went on to say human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine.

This is the thinking of Western man. This isn't political theory. This is what they held to be true. John of Salisbury, who wrote Polycraticus in 1159 AD, how many of you have ever read Polycraticus? Everybody should read it.

All my sons and daughters have to read it. Yes, there are actually some good writings from medieval times. John of Salisbury said this regarding lesser magistrates. He said, loyal shoulders should sustain the power of the rulers so long as it is exercised in subjection to God and follows his ordinances.

But if it resists and opposes divine commandments and wishes to make me share in its war against God, then with unrestrained voice I answer back that God must be preferred before any man on earth.

Amen?

Now, men will forbear, and so we should. Actually, we should look for ways to resolve things that are done wrong within our government. But there comes a time when the interposition of the lesser magistrates is needed and necessary and they must interpose.

I want to share with you what those three situations are. Number one, they are to oppose and resist any laws, policies, or court opinions from the higher authority which contravene, oppose or contradict the law or word of God.

Number two, they are to protect the person, property, and liberty of those who reside within their jurisdiction from tyrannical attacks by higher authority. And number three, since we live in America, they are not to implement any laws, policies, or court opinions made by the higher authority that violate or exceed the U .S. Constitution or their state constitution and, if necessary, actively resist them.

You notice, when you look at these three, all of them apply to the pre-born. Number one, this opinion by the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade, says that human beings can be murdered when God makes clear in his word, you shall not murder.

Number two, the interposition of the lesser magistrate is needed because their very person is threatened with death. And number three, this opinion of the court has no founding in the U .S. Constitution whatsoever.

In fact, it's repugnant to the U .S. Constitution. In fact, they just made up their ruling, as they said themselves, from penumbras and emanations because they couldn't find anything in the U .S. Constitution for their ruling.

Now, let me state something that is radical to the average Christian mind in our day, but was completely the common thinking of Christians for hundreds of years, and it is this. The magistrates have the duty to uphold the law and word of God.

Let me repeat that to you. The magistrates have the duty to uphold the law and word of God. They have a duty to interpose for the pre-born. They are not to join in the federal judiciary's rebellion against God by singing the common song, we can do nothing but obey.

Now, here's what we need to do, okay? Here's what we need to do. First, we need to understand that there is no federal solution to the slaughter of the pre-born. The federal government is the problem.

They used raw judicial power to impose it upon our nation, and they have upheld this evil through raw judicial power ever since. Number two, state legislators and governors need to be prodded to end their cozy relationship with pro-life organizations.

This is a huge role of the people. You have to prod your legislators to end the cozy relationship they have with pro-life organizations, and do what's needed and necessary, and implement immediate interposition, total abolition of abortion.

This is hugely important. They have to end their cozy relationship with pro-life organizations that seem more interested in prolonging their existence and filling their coffers off the bloody backs of the murdered pre-born than they are in abolishing this killing in our nation.

Third, state legislators and governors need to know that we have their backs if they do what is needed and necessary to protect the pre-born. We need to assure them. We will give them our substance, our lives, our prayers, doing whatever is needed, both publicly and privately, to support them for making a stand.

They need to hear from you. I hear this routinely from lawmakers. The wicked are all in my face. I never hear from the good people, and we can blame the pulpits for a lot of that. The fourth thing is this.

We must demand immediate interposition and total abolition of abortion. We must demand it. Here's what Frederick Douglass, famous abolitionist, said. He said, power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. The legislators have found what the pro-life groups are willing to put up with.

It's not their bodies that are threatened with a brutal death, and so they prolong the slaughter for decades now, and it needs to be brought to an end. It needs to cease in our nation. And fifth, we must offer nothing less to our state legislators and governors than total abolition.

Do you know what happens if you offer a politician something less than what is needed and necessary? They'll take it every single time. And that's what they've done for decades now regarding the slaughter of the pre-born because of what pro-life groups have offered them, these little nibblings at the edges of abortion, rather than doing what is needed and necessary and demanding outright abolition of this bloodshed in our land.

This is huge regarding the role of the people when it comes to the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. You must prod your legislators to do what's needed and necessary. You must also instruct them from the word of God as to what their duty and function is as magistrates.

And you must rally behind them when they do take a stand, letting them know that you have their back. You will be there publicly and privately to help them out every way possible if they do what is needed and necessary.

Massively important for us to understand these things. The scripture says when you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you and put a knife to your throat. If you're a man given to appetite, do not desire his delicacies for they are a deceptive food.

You know why the scriptures tell us to put a knife to our throat when we meet with the magistrates? Because we need to put a knife to our throat. Because something happens when pro-life lobbyists show up at the halls of power and hear the little sayings of the magistrates why they can't do what's needed and necessary, and they lose total sight of why they ever started to go there to begin with.

You have to keep a knife to your throat. You have to demand total abolition and accept nothing less. Nothing less. If you offer something less, if you agree to something less, they'll take it and the killing will continue on.

They have to see that you're serious. They have to see that there's some pain involved for them politically if they continue to behave the way that they're behaving and not interposing. We have been taught that it's wise to take what we can get.

We therefore feel weird about standing strong and resisting lesser actions than total abolition. Listen to me now. We can only act differently than we have in the past if we look at the reality of what has been done and realize if we continue to take what we can get, the pre-born will continue to be slaughtered as the same cycles repeat themselves for another 40 years.

The interposition of the lesser magistrates not only protects those being harmed by the tyrannical civil authority, but it also reminds the tyrannical civil authority that their authority has limits. When the lesser magistrates don't go along with what the higher tyrannical civil authority is doing, it causes the opportunity for the magistrate, the tyrannical magistrate, to come to grips with his evil.

And it also reminds him that his authority has limits. In a true federalism, which is what our founders established, it is understood that all branches of government possess lawful authority, whether federal, state, county, or local.

Those in a true federalism also understand that whenever one branch of government decides to play the tyrant, it becomes then more than ever incumbent upon all other branches, whether federal, state, county, or local, to resist them more than ever.

Even if that branch playing the tyrant is the Supreme Court itself. All magistrates in America, from the policemen to the president, take an oath to uphold the US Constitution. They do not take an oath of subservience to the federal government.

They do not take an oath of subservience to the federal judiciary. They take an oath to uphold the Constitution. America's founders never expected the states to just go along with unjust, immoral actions by the federal government.

Just 11 years after the ink dried on the US Constitution, the federal government went outside their constitutional restraints. They went outside their delegated authority as given to them by the Constitution through the Alien and Sedition Act.

Two states opposed them, Virginia and Kentucky. They wrote resolutions in defiance of this lawless federal action. James Madison, who is the architect of the US Constitution, wrote the Virginia Resolution, and he said this in part in there.

He said, the states who are parties thereto, parties to the US Constitution, have the right and are in duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of evil and for maintaining within their prospective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them.

Do you see those words? Interpose for arresting the progress of evil. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolution, and he said in part that whensoever the general government, talking about the federal government, assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.

In 1859, up in Wisconsin, where I'm from, our state legislature defied the federal government and the US Supreme Court and declared this regarding the Federal Fugitive Slave Act, resolved that this assumption of jurisdiction by the federal judiciary in the said case and without process is an act of undelegated power and therefore without authority, void, and of no force.

This is hugely important. The founders never expected the states to just put up with egregious acts by the federal government. They expected the states to interpose. Understand Roe v. Wade is not a law.

It is an opinion of a court. The federal judiciary itself has created this fiction that what the Supreme Court rules is now the law of the land. The courts themselves created this fiction. And the lesser magistrates, along with the pro-life, pro-family groups, have given credence to this fiction because every time a federal court or the US Supreme Court does rule, they say, oh, the federal courts have ruled.

All's we can do is obey now. And that's a lie. It's a fiction that's been created and foisted upon the American people. They claim this is judicial supremacy. And they say that it's found in Article 6, Paragraph 2 of the US Constitution, where the Supreme Court is the final and lone arbiter of what is constitutional or not constitutional.

But the funny thing is, when you look at Article 6, Paragraph 2 of the US Constitution, the US Supreme Court isn't mentioned anywhere in there. In fact, federal courts aren't even mentioned there. You know what has supremacy?

The US Constitution itself. And everyone from a policeman to the president takes an oath to uphold it. That's what they take. So if one branch begins to play the tyrant and act unconstitutionally, all other branches have a duty not just to go along with the judiciary, but to oppose and resist them.

Article 1, Section 1 of the US Constitution says that all legislative power resides in Congress. That means that all lawmaking power resides with Congress. Now, if all lawmaking power resides with Congress, how much lawmaking power resides with the judiciary?

Zero. It is not the law of the land. It is an opinion of the court. This matter of the federal judiciary has been written about by men and scholars for nearly 200 years now. Men will forbear, and so we should.

But there comes a point where we can no longer do so. And we reached it long ago when it comes to this brutal murder of the pre-born. Should have been dealt with 40-some years ago. When the injustice and immorality needs to be confronted, men realize we have reached the point that they can no longer have the convenience of responding with indifference to the injustice and immorality of their federal government is imposing upon them.

Here's what Thomas Jefferson said. He said, the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the Constitution and the federal judiciary. An irresponsible body working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction until all shall be usurped.

We are there. For decades, we have already been where Thomas Jefferson warned us of. Understand, legislators, you cannot appease a tyrant. You must confront him. Many wonder what will happen if interposition of lesser magistrates, which is so needed in this hour, actually takes place.

What will happen?

What they need to understand is what will continue to happen if good men don't take a stand and interpose against the federal beast. If good men do nothing, it allows the tyrant the leisure of implementing the next plank of his tyranny.

And this is what the federal government has been doing in this nation for decades now. The tyrannical authority always counts on the compliance of the lesser magistrates in order to get their tyranny down into the fabric of society.

When they no longer have that, that is when the tyrant authority knows it has a problem on its hands. And it's time for the lesser magistrates in America to take a stand. The states were never meant to be mere provinces of the federal government.

They were never meant to be mere implementation centers of unjust and immoral federal law, policy, and court opinion but that's what they've been reduced to in our nation now. Jefferson said this, if those who administer the general government be permitted to transgress the limits fixed by the compact, by a total disregard of the special delegations of power therein contained, annihilation of the state governments and the erection upon their ruins of a general consolidation government will be the inevitable consequence.

We've long been there. The states have been reduced to nothing but provinces for an unjust immoral federal government. Listen to me now. Nowhere does the constitution bind the states and the people to a suicide pact with the federal government.

We are all not just to conform and go along with the federal government as they take our nation over the edge of the cliff. When men realize they no longer have the convenience of being indifferent towards the unjust and immoral actions of their government, when men realize resistance to lawless, higher civil authority must be made, they want to know that it's proper and legitimate and the doctrine of the lesser magistrate provides that.

Interposition That Abates God's Judgment

And let me close with this. Let me address you magistrates gathered here this evening or watching by the internet. Your inner position abates the just judgment of God. You have to understand that. Ezekiel chapter 22, verses 27 through 31, verse 27 says her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey to shed blood to destroy people and to get dishonest gain.

That's the magistrates. Verse 28, her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar seeing false visions, divining lies for them saying, thus says the Lord God when the Lord had not spoken. That's the church.

Verse 29, the people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery and mistreated the poor and needy and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. That's the people. So things are pretty bad. The magistrates are messed up, the church is messed up, the people are messed up and the Lord says, so I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one.

Your inner position magistrates in this regard abates the just judgment of God. The blood of over 50 million pre-born children cries out from the ground for justice and God will bring his righteous judgment upon a rebellious nation.

Your inner position can abate that. Here's what John Knox said to the nobles of Scotland. He said, shall you be excused if with silence you pass over his iniquity? Talking about the king's iniquity. Be not deceived, my lords, you are placed in authority for another purpose than to flatter your king in his folly and blind rage.

You are bound to correct and repress whatsoever you know him to attempt, expressly reputing to God's word, honor and glory or what you shall aspire him to do, be it by ignorance or be it by malice against his subjects great or as Pastor Jeff talked about, small.

Amen.