“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether (Psalm 19:7-9).”

As one who has been privileged of the Lord to take the Gospel of the Kingdom to the exposed areas in America, eventually, one learns the different fronts of the battle that is raging for the souls of men, the lives of children, and the future of our nation. There are vile roots contributing to our manifold problems and there are dangerous fruits being produced under our watch. Today, the roots of our woes are child-sacrifice, the shedding of innocent blood and the spreading of the homosexual agenda. The dangerous fruits are lawlessness, the rise of Islam, governmental tyranny, injustice, corruption, economic ruin and licentiousness amongst American citizenry. 

Biblically, however, the battle comes down to two primary issues, who is Lord, God or man, and whose laws, God or man, are ultimately binding. Acts 17:7 reveals the answer. God’s word states, “Whom Jason has received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.” Notice the accusations against the early Church. The charges that led to their persecution and martyrdom centered on the Kingship of Christ and His decrees that threatened the tyrannical, pagan rule of Rome. May I suggest that these two issues define the same battle that faces us today? As wise King Solomon has stated, “There is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9).”  

The title of this message is “The Source and Authority of Law.” The premise this article seeks to establish is Almighty God, the God of the Holy Bible, and His righteous, holy character is the basis and authority of all just laws. James 4:12 states, “There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who are you that judge another?

James emphatically declares that the triune God of Holy Scripture is the one and only Lawgiver. He is the only one morally qualified to institute law. Men, as fallen creatures, are not morally qualified to make law. All men can do is either uphold or violate God’s fixed, moral absolutes. If we choose to break God’s moral commandments, however, the unavoidable consequence is they eventually break us. America is finding this out the hard way as we hurl ourselves against the Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offense (1 Peter 2:8).

The Bible teaches us in both Testaments that God rules and reigns in the affairs of men. After Christ was raised from the dead, He proclaimed, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you: and, see, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen (Matthew 28:18-20).

The Apostle Paul during the insane rule of the degenerate, dictator Nero pronounced “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God (Romans 13:1). Paul teaches the supreme authority is Almighty God and human governments are delegated authorities established by Him for His glory and our benefit. Therefore, they owe their allegiance to Him if they are to exercise lawful authority.    

If man is tempted to reject these Biblical truths, they can only fall back on two failed and disastrous options. The civil government or the individual is sovereign and the source of law. Is it not true that many Americans today consider the State as sovereign? This is why many thoughtlessly look to Washington D.C. as the source of all law, power and authority in the universe. I hate to burst this idolatrous bubble, but the Sovereign Lord of the universe was not born in Washington, D.C., He was born in Bethlehem. 

Historically, when man believes civil government is the ultimate authority, the ultimate power, and the ultimate source of law inevitably nations degenerate into “isms,” Communism, Fascism, or Nazism, just to name a few. These tyrannies have paved the way for terrible atrocities. If earthly government is the highest authority with no accountability to its Creator, it can easily be tempted to exploit and harm the very ones it claims to serve. This, in a nutshell, reveals much of mankind’s bloody history.

The second option, which we see increasingly manifesting in America today, is the sovereignty of the individual. If God is not sovereign and the civil government is not sovereign, then men resort back to the lie in the garden. The individual is left to construct his own “truth.” Men define for themselves what is good and evil apart from God’s objective truth. Thus, they become a law and god unto themselves. The consequences to this fallen condition are anarchy, chaos, and confusion.   

In the Old Testament, after God with His own finger wrote the Ten Commandments, He instructed Israel, “One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojournes with you (Numbers 15:16).” Clearly, God’s law/word was established as the standard by which the Hebrews and the foreigner in Israel were to live by. Moreover, God rose up prophets like Jonah and sent them to pagan nations to warn them to repent or expect His wrath. By what standard did He sanction these actions? By the same law/word He gave to Israel. These pagan nations were violating the Holy Commandments of God and God held them accountable.

In the New Testament, the Lawgiver became flesh and declared, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).” Notice He did not say Christians, believers, or my followers. He said man, generic; the whole human race is subject to God’s law/word. How do we know this is true? Jesus stated, “He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day (John 12:48).”

Roe vs. Wade is an example of men seeking to establish law apart from God’s revelation. It is a legal decree that violates God’s law, which states, “Thou shalt not kill (murder).” Roe vs. Wade decriminalized the murder of innocent babies made in the image of God. The Supreme Court, a court that did not fear God or man, vainly sought to remove the basis of law from God’s fixed moral standards and opted for an evolutionary view of law instead.

It is this mentality that seeks to change the Constitution of America into a living, evolving document that breaks the chains, which once restrained the Federal beast from devouring our liberties. To them, law like men, are evolving. Law is not God’s eternal rules for living set in stone; it has a more fluid quality that follows the path of political expediency. It is this path of least resistance that makes both men and rivers crooked. Roe vs. Wade is humanistic man seeking to make straight what God has called crooked.

Roe vs. Wade is America’s version of law, which finds its roots in the pagan Roman Empire. Back then, it was the father who had the authority under paterfamilias to determine whether or not children lived or died. If the child did not find favor with his dad, he was sentenced to the infanticide wall and left to the elements and beasts. It was Christians back then who rescued these precious infants and raised them in the faith. If any of you reading this article are seeking to save babies at abortion mills today, you are walking in this same grand rescue tradition established by the early Church.

Today, under Roe vs. Wade, it is the mother who holds the power of life and death when it comes to her children. If she wants the baby, thumbs up, if she doesn’t want the baby, thumbs down. America, with a straight face, pretends this is law. When laws are based upon the mere whims of men or women, nations become lawless. This places law keepers in a precarious situation. Why is the case? Simply put, in the days of lawlessness, those who keep the law, become the outlaw!

This accounts for some of the incredible injustices on display today in our nation today. On the one hand, a peaceful, Christian Pro-life pastor, Flip Benham was recently found guilty of “stalking” an abortionist. The case presented the abortionist as a sympathetic hero and the man of God seeking to save human life as a criminal. On the other hand, Casey Anthony was just found not-guilty for killing her two year old daughter, Caylee. People are outraged at these verdicts and rightly so.

But what should we expect when an entire generation succumbs to the Roe vs. Wade mentality? It has taught our nation, if we cannot handle our problems and take responsibility for our actions, then kill it. Now we stand in awkward amazement that our culture manifests the lessons we were taught by man’s attempt to make “law.” C. S. Lewis stated this ill-fated situation the best. He wrote, “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful.”   

Sir William Blackstone who wrote the Commentaries on the Laws of England stated, “Upon these two foundations, the law of nature (the eternal laws of good and evil) and the law of revelation (found only in the Scriptures), depend all human laws.  That is to say, no human laws should be allowed to contradict these.”

Historically, men once understood that the source and authority of law was divinely connected to Almighty God. In the modern times, however, men have made laws that are no laws at all. Any law that legalizes that which God considers an abomination Psalms 94:20 asks a critical question, “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with you, which frames mischief by a law?

Clearly, Roe vs. Wade framed mischief by law. Under the color of law, it has destroyed one third of an entire generation. I’ll conclude this message with a short prayer that comes from Psalm 119, which is a tribute to God’s law. The Psalmist prayed “It is time for you, LORD, to work: for they have made void your law (Psalm 119:126).” And the saints said, AMEN!