Gods Word is an Authority that is above Human Authority
Intro: Well morning friends and visitors – my name is Matt Johnson and today we are continuing our study of Ezra thinking about SPIRITUAL WARFARE. What we see today is the government telling Gods people they can’t obey God. So who should the Jews obey?
Intro:
Well last week we saw the SPIRITUAL BATTLE between Gods people and evil politicians begin. It happens in Ezra with Xerxes, Artaxerxes and Tattenai. It happens in Nehemiah with Saballat, Tobiah and Geshem. The Jews are in the minority (about 50,000) and political forces are stopping them. So who should the Jews obey, God or man?
This week I bought a book called (Slide 2) “THE LEGAL RIGHT TO DISOBEY LAW.” Now this is written by two very highly respected Christian law professors. (ENTER) Dr Augusto Zimmermann is Head of Law at Sheridan College in Perth and adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney. (ENTER) Dr Gabriel Moens was Professor of Law at the University of Queensland, Dean at Murdoch University and Head of Law at Notre Dame.
(Slide 3) A PROFESSOR OF LAW at Oxford University in London says this about the book. Free speech, freedom of the press, the erosion of the rule of law, and the encroachments of an increasingly AUTHORITARIAN STATE: the authors anchor the right to resist in natural law, an objective moral standard every government must obey. (Notice there is objective standard the State must obey). He goes on; this is a lucid, rigorous, and wide-ranging exploration of higher law jurisprudence and its enduring relevance.
Now why is this book necessary? Why did Karl Stephanovic leave mainstream media. Why are red-heads so popular in politics? Why is Anthony Fauci taking the 5th in Congress. Why does LABOR constantly tell lies? Why are the LIBERALS completely incompetent. (PAUSE) The answer is we are beginning to reap Gods curse. God’s truth has been thrown to the ground and our country is becoming a death cult.
Now before you conclude this is just Pastor Matt being anti-authoritarian – let me assure, it’s not true. In general, I believe Christians should obey those in authority because without LAW & ORDER – sinful man will create anarchy. Recently, I even submitted to UNJUST LAWS of the State and the Diocese because I refuse to lie and fabricate my personal testimony. So the Diocese took legal action – while declaring I was innocent, apologizing profusely and telling me I should have just lied to them. No! I refuse to rewrite the story of Jesus’ work in my life – just so people can tick a box.
Now shortly after this head-clash I thought my Diocesan leaders had finally found some courage. This is what Archbishop Kanishka Raffel publicly told synod on the 18th September 2025 (Slide 3; READ). Now “DEFY” in his Synod address clearly meant; do not obey the NSW Conversion laws. I have a signed copy here if you doubt me. However, ever since Kanishka said this I sensed a lack of conviction. So just before Christmas (when THE ARCHBISHOP was apologizing to me and justifying his actions because he has to obey the law) I reminded him – that he told Synod to disobey unjust laws. So do we obey or disobey? He started to protest and then stopped… I then reminded him that he promised to stand by anyone who defied these unjust laws. Does this mean you’ll cover my legal costs or take care of my wife and children if I go to jail? (PAUSE) All I got was head down and silence.
Now am I telling you all this out of malice? I sincerely hope not. I believe I am telling you this – because if you are waiting for clear, courageous church leadership on UNJUST LAWS – I don’t think it is coming. But this does not NEGATE our responsibility as Christians to resist and disobey unjust laws to love our neighbour.
Point 1: God commands the Jews to Build the Temple
Show: Ezra 5:1-2 (READ)
Explain: Well HAGGAI & ZECHARIAH are prophets of God. They speak Gods Word and they tell God’s people to re-establish Gods rule on Mt Zion. But Tattenai and then Artaxerxes try to stop them. Later, in Nehemiah Sanballat will also try to stop them. These are all “political” leaders. So what should Gods people do – submit or resist?
The rest of Ezra goes on to speak about the spiritual battle and what Gods people had to do to set up the temple in Jerusalem. COURAGE AND A REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE ON GODS WORD. The book of Nehemiah then also tells us about the spiritual battle in rebuilding the city. AGAIN, COURAGE AND A REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE ON GODS WORD. Now in these books I’d say Gods people do everything in their power short of physical violence to resist the tyranny of evil politicians. At times the situation gets pretty tense. GODS PEOPLE ARE NOT COWARDS. They do everything short of physical violence to resist unjust law and tyranny.
The problem is Gods people are now in THE MINORITY. So Satan gets all his USEFUL IDIOTS to start complaining about Gods people. Last week we saw Gods people say a flat out, NO to the world. No you can’t help us build the temple because you are immoral, syncretistic and evil. So the world is now saying; “Gods people say we can’t join them because our idolatry is wrong; sacrificing our babies is wrong; our sexual practices are wrong. GODS PEOPLE ARE SO HATEFUL.” So then all the local, state and federal politicians start stepping in, ISSUING UNJUST LAWS – to keep the immoral populace happy.
Welcome to Australia – where politicians now decree that good is evil and evil is good – HAVE A NICE DAY. The problem is you can’t build a healthy, stable, united, prosperous society while rejecting Creator God’s laws. It simply won’t work. Deuteronomy 28 makes it clear that if a nation wants God’s blessing they must obey Gods Word.
Every prophet in the Old Testament tells the same story including Haggai and Zechariah. So when they start telling Gods people – FIGHT the good fight, BUILD Gods temple and you will be blessed – Gods people decide to obey God, not man. In the face of unjust laws – it is BIBLICAL and RIGHTEOUS to disobey.
We see this in other parts of the Bible. In Exodus 1 – the midwives Shiprah and Puah disobey and lie to Pharoah (because he is issuing unjust laws). God commends them. In Daniel 6 – Daniel flat out disobeys King Darius when he says you can’t pray near abortion clinics. (I mean you can’t pray for thirty days). Even Jesus disobeyed the unjust laws of the Jewish Sanhedrin – when it came to healing people on the Sabbath and selling sheep in the temple. PLEASE UNDERSTAND that a Christian who obeys an unjust law is not being righteous. More often than not they are just cowards, who love self and want to avoid suffering for Christ. SO PLEASE REMEMBER – when the Nazi’s were prosecuted in Nuremberg and the United States – the defence that “I was just a soldier obeying the laws of the land” – didn’t save you. People were found guilty for obeying unjust laws. When unjust laws are in place – those who disobeyed like CORRIE TEN BOOM were more righteous, than the Lutheran pastors who told everyone to obey the State.
However, all this political and spiritual opposition began to gradually WEAR DOWN the Jews resolve. Although they returned to Jerusalem in 539BC, it’s now 520BC and only the foundations of the temple are BUILT. They’ve had 19 years. But all the opposition has broken their spirit, wearied their bodies and led to apathy. Sound familiar?! Sometimes it just all feels too hard. It feels like we are on the back foot and we just give up. My own bishop has a saying that we are suffering death by a thousand cuts. Another way of putting that is death by a 1000 acts of cowardice because no one manned up and said NO!
You know, just about EVERY COURAGEOUS MAN in Australia currently opposing unjust laws is a woman. Pauline Hanson (politics), Johanna Howe (abortion), Kirralie Smith (gender), Sall Grover (gender); Jillian Spencer (child abuse); Milicent Sedra (Bible clarity), Jasmine Sussex (gender). Where are all our male church leaders? Why have none of the big Church leaders stood with any of these women? All we get is crickets. Silence. As in the days of Deborah – too many of Gods men are cowards and women are stepping up to lead the charge.
So in 520BC HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH put a bomb under the Jews and told the leaders to MAN UP. Yes, its hard. Yes, you’re facing political opposition. But we are in a war. So man up, pull your damn finger out and start leading as MEN because all it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing. Ezra tells us that as Haggai and Zechariah started FEARLESSLY PREACHING Gods Word a mini-revival took place and everyone started building again (despite the threats and opposition).
Point 2: God’s Commands are challenged by Human Authorities
Show: Ezra.5:3-5 (Slides 7-8)
Explain: Well as you can see – STRAIGHT AWAY – opposition comes in the form of TATTENAI, SHEATHAR BOZENAI and their associates. These are just State politicians. Theu immediately start asking where’s your Development Application? Do you have a permit to cut down all these cedar trees in Lebanon? In the context of Ezra 4 and 5 – this is part of the spiritual opposition to Gods Word being on Mt Zion.
THE QUESTION; who gave you authority and what are your names – is actually intimidation. They’re saying; “you have no authority to do this and we are now taking down names because we are about to proceed legal action against you. (Now this is enough to see MOST COWARDS put down the tools and run away because they don’t want 12 months of legal process). This is now called “LAWFARE”. Not warfare. Lawfare. If you are in a position of power you can use the law to beat your opponents into submission. It’s got nothing to do with right or wrong. The legal process itself is the PUNISHMENT that coerces people into submission. Our State is now doing this to good people like Kirralie Smith and Jillian Spencer who have dared to challenge unjust laws.
So this is exactly what Tattenai is doing. He is flexing his muscles. He is moving out of the SECULAR DOMAIN and into the SPIRITUAL DOMAIN challenging the freedom of religion. This is a direct attack on God’s authority and God-given freedoms. The only God-given authority Tattenai has is to uphold good and punish evil south of the Euphrates river. He has no God-given authority to enslave people with endless, stupid laws and he has no authority in religion. THIS IS A FORM OF TYRANNY. SO WHO SHOULD THE JEWS OBEY – GOD OR MAN?
I now realise the CHURCH OF ENGLAND lacks the theological tools to answer this question because of their genetic DNA. HENRY VIII (the State) started the Church of England for his own purposes. It was a state a church.
We can say what we want but ever since the inception of the Church of England they’ve been playing tickle and giggle with the State under the table. So the Church of England holds an UNBIBLICAL POSITION that Christians must always obey the State – even if it means putting other good Christians like John Bunyan in jail. Now to justify such acts of betrayal to brothers in Christ – the Church of England pounds on passages like Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2. Despite Jesus saying the GREAT COMMAND is that “we love our neighbour as ourself”, the GREAT COMMAND of the Church of England is “Christians must obey the state.” This seems to trump every other biblical command.
Now when the Church of England said you must obey the State – with what was called the Act of Uniformity in 1662 – many Jesus loving Christians in England recognized an abuse of power. The Church of England was supporting unbiblical and unreasonable State laws. So many ministers left the Church of England and they started new denominations that upheld the importance of the separation of church and state. THE POINT IS – if you think the Anglican Church will eventually make a stand against the State – it’s simply not in their DNA.
Now most Christians ACCEPT that God has placed certain people in government to uphold what is GOOD and punish what is EVIL. This prevents anarchy when people are sinners. So Christians should generally try to obey the State. But we shouldn’t be naïve when they blatantly deny Gods Word and start promoting antichrist religions. We are in spiritual battle with the state. So let me show you the two main Bible passages that tell us to submit to the State. (Slide 9; Rom.13: 1Pet.2). NOW PLEASE NOTE that they both say; governing authorities exist to commend those who do right and punish those who do evil. That is their God-given authority. They have no right to bless evil and punish good. Now as you know – I’m going to Kenya in a few weeks to teach Romans and I’m using study material from Moore College (the Anglican Bible College). So I want to show you what the Anglican notes say about submission to unjust laws (Slide 10; Romans 13; PTC Notes). PLEASE NOTICE, the authors say; Paul does not deal with the situation where the authorities consistently punish good conduct and encourage evil. So you simply can’t use these biblical passages to suggest that Christians should obey tyrannical governments who bless evil and punish good. But nonetheless this seems to remain the official position of our Diocese. Until the government tells us we must all convert to Islam they’re going to keep telling us to submit…
IN MY OPINION all the most COURAGEOUS CHRISTIAN LEADERS in the world today are not even Christians. Sadly, it seems non-Christians are more willing to fight for Gods natural law than most Christians. ELON MUSK at least fights for freedom of speech on X. TOMMY ROBINSON fights to prevent child abuse in England by a particular religion. He was even willing to spend 6 months in prison (in solitary confinement) to make known the cover up. JK ROWLING opposes gender stupidity at significant financial cost. JORDAN PETERSON refuses to use pretend pronouns – even though it costs him his academic role. Even, atheist RICHARD DAWKINS, is now fighting the establishment because he insists science is clear a man is a biological man. Yet, from church leaders we get compromise and crickets. Silence without sacrifice.
Bishop Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther King (all great courageous church leaders) taught; “An unjust Law is no law at all.” It’s not even a thing to be obeyed or disobeyed. AN UNJUST LAW is NOTHING because God never gave ANYONE the authority to write unjust laws. This will be the fundamental premise of Professor Zimmerman and Professor Moens book. AN UNJUST LAW IS NO LAW AT ALL.
Point 3: God’s Commands are Obeyed by Challenging the States Authority
Show: Ezr.5:11-15 (Slide 13)
Explain: Now truly this is a VERY CLEVER ANSWER. First, God’s PEOPLE tell these tyrants God gave them permission to build the temple. They are servants of God. This is also a reminder that the politicians are NOTHING but servants of God. Gods people then speak of going into slavery for disobeying Gods commands. It is a straight-out warning to the politicians. Make yourself a law until yourself (like we did), oppose God and see what happens. C’mon, I dare you!
The leaders of Gods people are not backing down in COWARDICE. Thery say bring on your lawfare. GOD GAVE US 1) this authority, 2) this freedom, 3) this truth and we don’t bow to tyrants. So let’s dance. Let’s go to the supreme court and see if you have the authority you claim. But until this has gone to the supreme court – get off our damn building site – because we’re not going to be intimidated by you. Like many building sites this is COURAGEOUS MEN SQUARING UP – one step short of actual violence. It’s a stand off.
Gods people are saying; “If you’re going to try to take away 1) our freedom of religion, 2) our freedom to speak truth, 3) the freedom to raise our children without harmful ideologies and 4) all our other God given freedoms – I’ll see you in court for that. Bring it on. I’m not going to allow our wonderful country to be destroyed by people who come on behalf of Satan to steal, destroy and kill. The Bible tells me to love my neighbour as myself. PLEASE UNDERSTAND that I love my children and my grandchildren too much to simply lie down and let you take away all the blessings that God promises in Deuteronomy 28 if we obey His Word. So I’m going to fight that with EVERYTHING Jesus has taught me (to within one inch of physical violence) and I’ll even submit to unjust laws and embrace suffering – if that is necessary for my leaders to see that their deeds are becoming evil.
Apply: Now in Ezra 5:5 it says “the eye of God was watching over the Jews and THEY WERE NOT STOPPED until a written reply could be received from Darius.” NOT STOPPED! God’s eye is watching over those who stand against tyranny and unjust laws. So get off our building site because we are going to keep building Gods temple.
Friends, we are in spiritual battle. Governments are becoming AUTHORITARIAN. So we need courageous women AND courageous men to stand up. Giving in to unjust laws is never, ever loving your neighbour because the end result will be Gods curse, slavery and death. It will not be abundant life. It will be abundant death.
So we need more Christians who are willing to say – I AM A SERVANT OF GOD and I am challenging your authority to 1) deny truth, 2) deny morality, 3) deny God-given freedoms, 4) deny common sense and 5) promote a particular religion. You’re outside your God-given authority. MR ALBANESE what you are now doing is a complete blurring of the TWO SWORDS OF AUTHORITY – the secular and the spiritual. That’s like a caliphate. And I’m not going to let you to tell me that MY VERY VALID CONCERNS about Islam is some sort of neurotic phobia. If you are going to defend Islam and claim sharia law is good, not evil (under the guise of protecting Muslims from hate) I am going to oppose you. For the last 8 years our multicultural country has been asking for a Freedom of Religion Bill. But instead of giving us a freedom of religion bill, you give one “particular religion special protections” under the guise of Islamophobia.
(GOSPEL) Mr Albanese let me remind you (and all those voting for you) that there is a penalty for disobeying God and its death. You are bringing that on our country – DEATH. In many ways its already here. We kill our 100,000 babies p.a. We euthanise about 20 PEOPLE per week. 105 women were killed in domestic violence. And seven men kill themselves every day because women are telling lies in the Family Court and even when they are caught lying there is no penalty.
This is contributing to 7 men killing themselves every day. DEATH, DEATH, DEATH. The founder of Islam (that amazing religion of peace that you now defend) oversaw and ordered the deaths of at least 44 people. The same founder of Islam had child brides. This is not hate speech. This is on Wikipedia. These are facts. But when you honour a religious leader who has lots of blood on his hands and child brides between his legs it tends to LEGITIMISE certain behaviours.
But Jesus died to save us from all this DEATH – that we are embracing by rejecting Creator God’s Word. Yes, when we reject Gods commands – we deserve death, death, death. But Gods true Son, the Lord Jesus Christ loved us all so much that he died on the cross to save us – even his enemies, even Muslims, even Hindus, even atheists – from the very fate we deserve. This is true religion. This is love. This is life. This is a God who loves us and is truly worthy of our obedience. WHO we choose to venerate and WHAT words we choose to enshrine in our laws –.will determine what we become as a country. Standing before us today is a choice – life or death. It is the same choice God gave Israel when they entered the Promised Land. They learnt the hard way the importance of this choice. The problem is there is a Christ and there is an antichrist. One path is truth and blessing and life. The other path is lies, curse and death. THIS IS COURAGE and like Haggai and Zechariah – I’m telling you we need to RESIST tyranny, OBEY God and KEEP BUILDING because this is the only path of blessing for those we love.
