Q&A 3.27.26
- Mar 27
- 28 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
With Pastor Stan Mons
Transcription:
Let’s get into the Word tonight, church. Welcome to Friday Discipleship. If you’re joining us online, welcome. We don’t have any handout notes today, so you don’t have to email us for those. But I do encourage you to have your notebook ready to write down some of the Scriptures that are relevant to the questions we will be discussing tonight. Once again, Q&A. There are a lot of questions on the list—things that have been slowly coming in from you online and also from the people here in the house. And we’re going to start off with a good one. There’s a question—I shortened it—but it basically comes down to this: Why no sex before marriage? Why no sex before marriage? I want to start off by taking you to 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Here’s what the Bible says. A lot of you have wondered, “God, what do You want me to do with my life?” It’s in the Bible: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.”
The will of God for your life is right there in the Bible. Well, there are a few more places in the New Testament where the Bible actually literally says, “For this is the will of God for your life.” If you want to know the will of the Lord, you can just look that up, and it will give you those Scriptures that actually tell you where to get started if you’re going to walk out God’s will for your life. So simplify that. What is God’s will for my life? What does God want me to do? “For this is what God wants: your sanctification.” In other words, that you are separated more and more unto God Himself—what He enjoys, what He likes, what He purposes for your life, what He wants to spend your life on, what He wants to do with you together, also, as a Heavenly Father walking with you. This is what God wants: your sanctification—that you should abstain from sexual immorality. That’s what God wants. That’s what God desires. And the Bible also tells you that whatever you pray according to the will of the Lord, He’s going to give you the request that you place before Him. So if it is your desire to live a life outside of sexual immorality, that is perfectly possible with God. And why no sex before marriage?
God created it. God knows I have desires. God knows that I’m attracted. God knows how close we are. God knows that we intend to get married—whatever it may be. Why does the Word make such a big deal out of sexual activity outside of God’s covenant of marriage? When we engage in sexual activity—especially if we engage in sexual relationships with a person outside of the covenant of marriage or before marriage—you create a soul tie. It’s not a good soul tie.
Here’s how the Bible explains that. 1 Corinthians 6:18: “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality commits sin against his own body.” In other words, something in your body can tell that it is now tangled up in sin.
Every sin, the Word says, is outside of the body. In other words, it’s kind of like a fruit of your life that you’re producing as a tree. And if you are sinful, that would be an unhealthy tree. If you are in Christ, then you’re supposed to start to produce good fruit.
But this—the Word says—this sin is a little different. This sin is actually a sin against your own body. The body that you have to live with for the rest of your life—this is a sin against that body. This is fighting against yourself. This is hurting your own journey. And whoever has to eventually live with that body—whoever you end up marrying—is going to also see an effect of that. So the Word says, “Flee sexual immorality.” Why does it say that? We have counseled countless couples, and in order for you to qualify as sexual immorality, as we say it, you don’t have to go all the way. Biblically and according to Jewish tradition, anything that is beyond a closed-mouth kiss on the lips—anything beyond that—the Bible qualifies as sexual relationship. Anything. And anybody that has ever had a butterfly in their stomach knows that when they take it beyond that, all of a sudden it’s really hard to pull the brake. Attraction forms, desire is conceived, and desire is now trying to get what it wants. And the Bible tells us: flee from any sexual activity outside of the covenant of marriage.
The Bible tells us this is what God wants for your life—that you abstain from any sexual activity outside of the covenant of marriage. Why? We’ve seen it with so many couples. If there is sexual activity outside of the covenant of marriage—even if these people end up getting married—if there has been darkness, if there has been touching beyond that “innocent kiss,” there are always trust issues in the marriage. Always—100% of the time. And it is almost always the woman who has a hard time fully trusting the husband. And then the husband doesn’t feel respected. The husband doesn’t feel followed. The husband doesn’t feel honored. And it creates this whole slew of consequences, difficulties, and challenges in a marriage. Now, God is able to redeem all of that. But I’m telling you, listening to the Word is the shortest route to a healthy relationship and a healthy marriage. God is seeking to protect you, and He’s seeking to make you into a witness—not a witness that testifies on the platform of all the sin they did and how great God is at forgiving. There’s a place for that.
But God wants you to be a witness of the resurrected Lord: “I gave my life to Jesus. I allowed Him to be Lord over my life. And He gave me the strength, the wisdom, and the accountability to live a life that the world does not live.” The world does whatever they want, however they can get it. But that’s not what my Jesus did inside of my heart. Once He saved my life, He gave me the ability to do what He wants. And let me tell you—it’s been a good life. That’s the testimony. That’s the witness that He desires for you to be. Because there’s an incredible power in sexual sin raging through this world. And when people see that others can actually walk in freedom from that dominion—freedom from that power—that is incredibly impressive. It is, once again, God attacking every “god of Egypt,” as He did with the ten plagues—addressing every god that Egypt held dear. And He does it through you as well, right here in this generation.
Every powerful thing this generation encounters—sexual sin included—God, through you, wants to show: “I am greater than this, and I have come to live inside of broken people so that they can walk in freedom.”
God wants to protect you. And if you have abused your freedom, or you have used your sexuality in a lighthearted manner, and you have chosen mistakes instead of God’s will—there’s a way forward. There’s a way out of it. But I’m telling you, it is not a very pleasant, easy road. It needs to be walked if you have headed down that path. And it is possible to walk in freedom.
But there is great and grave consequence to a husband—to a man—who has not provided God’s will for his future wife, but has actually used his strength, his leadership, his influence to bring about his own fleshly will in a woman’s life. It is a scar that takes a long time to heal, and God wants to protect you from that. God wants to protect your relationship from that. Now, if you are dealing with that scar—if you are dealing with the pain, if there’s unresolved stuff—please don’t hesitate to come and contact Sophia. We would love to sit down with you—my wife and I—to talk with you, to help you where we can, to get that process started. But that is why the Lord wants you to abstain from sexual immorality. It’s a sin even against your own body, and it does really impact the way you’re going to do relationship from there on. Amen. Amen.
Next question on the schedule today: Is hell permanent death? Is hell permanent death? Now, this comes from a train of thought that basically says: well, either you’re going to be with God and you’re going to be in heaven—and eventually on the new earth—or when the Lord returns, you may not end up in heaven. You may end up on the new earth virtually right away. But in every case, those that do not go to God—those that are not joined with the Lord after their death or after the Lord comes back—they basically just go to the second death. They go to permanent death. It’s nothingness. You’re not conscious, and you’re just gravely missing out, but you’re not aware of it. And the answer to that is no. Is hell permanent death? The answer is no—not in that sense. Yes, it is the second death, but I’m going to elaborate on what that actually looks like according to the Word. I’m going to give you Matthew 13:41–42. Let me read it to you:
“The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Now, Jesus says this six times in the Gospel of Matthew. “They will be cast into the furnace of fire.”“They will be cast into outer darkness.”“There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Six times He mentions it. And what we learn from it is that there is consciousness—very clear consciousness—that there is unstoppable pain, unstoppable darkness, and that there is memory without rest. I’m going to touch on all three of those. There is consciousness. Even though you are in the second death, you are going to be fully awake and aware—able to perceive pain and even express emotion. There will be full consciousness. It will also be unstoppable pain and darkness. There is no fleeing. There’s no sitting down when your legs get tired. There’s no resting. There’s no sleep. There’s no taking a nap and getting a brief escape. There’s none of that. And there is memory without rest. Your memory—and the Word speaks extensively about this—you will continually, for eternity, remember every opportunity you had to come to Jesus. You will remember every single time you heard about truth. Every single person that was close to you that you knew was following Jesus more wholeheartedly than you—and you ended up not learning from them. You picked other friends consciously.
Every memory that has to do with you actually following Jesus, and having the opportunity to follow Jesus and to do life His way—it will be clear and present in your mind. Memory without rest. Unstoppable pain. Unstoppable darkness. And consciousness—for eternity. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t wish that upon my worst enemy. And yet, there are people in churches who can count on one hand the number of people they tell about Jesus in a year—and they have the answer against ending up consciously in unstoppable pain and darkness, with memories that constantly accuse them and remind them that they didn’t reach out, that they didn’t listen. And the Word has been given to you and me, as the church—the Word of reconciliation, the Bible calls it—the message of reconciliation has been given to us, the church, to hand out freely, without cost, to anyone and everyone who is on the road to hell.
Now, if you were the devil, and you could come up with a doctrine and a belief system that says, “Well, hell—yes, you’re going to miss out—but it’s not that horrible…”
Now, you see a generation of Christians, and I, it hurts my heart—but you really do. You see a generation of Christians, and they're not moved to have to lay down their life just to be able to tell more people about Jesus, because it became, somehow, somewhere, offensive to preach on hell. It became offensive to explain that you can go to church your entire life believing God and go to hell. Everybody that's a member of a church or sits in the pew every Sunday—we just got to assume they're not going to hell. Even though Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit.” Not by their membership, not by their tithing, not by the words that come out of their mouth. He says, “You watch their life. You watch what their life produces in the lives of those that get close to them—their friends, the people that are a part of their life. What does their life cause in the lives around them? You’ll know them when you see them. It’ll be clear to you when I live inside of their heart.”
Church—hell. And very soon I’m going to preach a message on hell. But hell is a very real place. Yes, there’s a lot of learning to be done, because there’s the kingdom of the dead and there’s hell, and the Bible speaks of both. And at times people have taken the scriptures about the kingdom of the dead and tried to explain hell away. Now, the people that were righteous, that believed in God, and the people that did not trust God—they all went to the same place. That’s what the Bible says. Solomon says it: “I perceive that both the righteous and the wicked go to the same place—Hades, the kingdom of the dead.” Now, those that died awaiting the promise of Christ—the Bible tells us they went to heaven when Christ died on the cross. They had awaited that time. They had awaited that moment, and they are now rejoicing in heaven, waiting for the Lord to come back and then make a new earth. Yes, that’s the more detailed explanation of actually what is going to happen. And those that have not believed on Jesus are now awaiting hell—both them and the devil, who will end up in a lake of fire, as it is one of the descriptions of hell. So sometimes that understanding of timeline—how did God take humanity from the garden to where now we can be preaching another tree, the cross—that storyline has certain sections in it. And when you focus in on one and forget the others, people can say, “Well, it may not be that bad.”
But to the Lord, there’s no limitation of time. And to the person that has passed from this life into the next—whether that be the second life or the second death—they are also not subject to time anymore. And so, because of that, there’s no comfort at all in the possible doctrine that hell, being in the lake of fire, really only happens possibly once the enemy is put in hell. I don’t believe that doctrine. I believe the Bible is fairly clear. Jesus, even with his own examples of poor Lazarus and the rich man, that there is already a place of torment. Now, but in every case, I believe with all my heart that with words we can never express, and with our human experience on earth we can never understand, the depth of the pain, the torment, and the brokenness that will be eternal for people that end up separated from God for eternity. I don’t think—he is our life, and he’s going to be gone. All we will have is death. All we will have is pain. All we will have is what sin was able to produce, and nothing will satisfy. Amen. Amen.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Now, the next question has a very short and fairly simple answer, but it is important. It’s a question that came in that says, “What Bible translations should I read?” What Bible translations should I read? Now, that’s a great question. And very often people ask that question because they just want to do it right. They just want to make sure they’re reading the right translation. They want to be safe. They may be a little bit worried that some translations are not to be trusted. And unfortunately, in some cases, that is a reasonable concern to have. But I’m going to explain to you also why you don’t have to be tremendously afraid, because there are also good reasons for certain other translations. Think of the better translations—but they’re still different—think of them as tools for specific jobs. One may be more of a broom, and it’s able to properly get into all the corners and the little bit of dirt that has gotten under your kitchen cabinet, and another one is more like a vacuum cleaner. It can do very quick work, but it doesn’t really get into the corners.
Now, depending on what you’re dealing with in life, one tool may be more appropriate than another. And so I’m going to give you four translations that I personally use. They’re not the only ones I use, but these are the main ones that I advise people to use. And I’m going to explain to you why—what that tool is for, in my understanding. So, I love the ESV translation—that would be the older-than-2011 ESV translation. This is about the most literal translation you can find that is still just readable sentences in English—far more literal than the King James or the New King James, far more literal as to what the original text is actually saying, without ending up in something like an amplified version or something that you cannot really read in book form.
So the ESV—that is my literal, closest-to-original-text when I am not studying or when I’m not going into the original language. Then we have the NKJV. Whenever you have an opportunity to share at a Bible study, or in a place, or with a person individually, the NKJV is just a really good, solid, mainstream tool that most people will not have a problem with. Sometimes you run into somebody that is, you know, easily upset about Bible translations—they are fully in support of one particular translation, or they are very cautious about this particular other translation.
If you run into a person like that, they’re not your enemy. You don’t have to mow them down at the feet. You don’t have to fight that person. But generally, if you just stick, in those situations, to the New King James Version, you’re going to be able to tell somebody about Jesus. And you’ll notice that here in our services, most of the time, that’s what we stick with. Now, if you want to simplify something because the language has gotten a little bit old, and there are also young people in the room, and you want them to understand it as well—or you are reading at home and it is just hard for you, for whatever reason, to read the New King James Version language—maybe it even feels old to you—the NIV, New International Version, is also a good translation, but it has simplified the language for everyday reading a little bit. So, if it is hard for you to do your devotional time with the New King James Version or with the ESV, then try out the NIV for your devotional time. That may be great. And when the Holy Spirit points out a scripture to your heart and you get very interested in that scripture, then maybe you pick up the New King James or even the ESV, and it helps you understand even more literally or more in depth what that verse is actually saying.
Now, if you have a fancy-smancy Bible that has, in the middle of two columns, a thin row—or sometimes at the bottom—small letters, you’re almost a scholar if you got that. So now, if you have that verse that you got very interested in, and you look at the number of that verse—let’s say it’s verse 37—you go into the column and you look for chapter 4:37, and it will tell you Matthew 3:14, and it will tell you Jonah 4:1. And what that tells you is those two places in the Bible are talking about the same thing. So now, if you want to understand that verse even better, you go to Jonah, you go to Matthew, and all of a sudden now you have three different angles where the Bible talks about the same thing. And now you can’t misinterpret it. Now you can’t look at it from one side and say, “Well, I think this scripture means this,” and get it wrong. Now you can look at it from three different perspectives and say, “Well, I really—when I was reading it just from here—I really thought A, B, and C. But now that I see every angle, it’s pretty clear that the Bible means this.” And now you’re getting it right. And then the last one that I do use from time to time is the NLT—New Living Translation. Now, this one is the least literal translation in this list. So I listed them from most literal down to the least literal. And there are verses in the NLT version that I feel like you kind of miss the depth of what the Word is trying to say—that does happen.
However, there are sometimes verses when I’m studying, and the Lord is making me interested in that verse, and I’m trying to understand it from every corner and from every side, and then I read it in the NLT after I’ve studied it, and I think, “Now why didn’t they say it like that in the first place?” And it just has a way of more explaining it, simplifying it, but getting to the heart of what, in the original text, that verse is actually trying to say. So I wouldn’t only read the NLT, but it is definitely a tool that sometimes helps explain a verse better—far better than I ever could.
Next question—this is question number three. It’s a great one that I’ve heard many people have, in one way or another. Is it okay to lie in specific circumstances? Now, that’s how short I made the question for you guys, but it really came in a lot longer. I’ll read to you the whole thing: “Is it okay to lie in specific circumstances that could protect others from situations like hurt, or is it black and white when it comes to the sin of lying? Same moral thought for other things also, like stealing?” So, is it okay in some cases to lie so that somebody doesn’t get hurt, or disappointed, or wounded? In other words, isn’t it okay to lie sometimes so that a greater evil, or a greater wound, or a greater negative situation can be avoided?
Hence, if you’ve ever had that wonder—the devil is a liar—is it okay to lie in specific circumstances? There are even biblical stories, pastor, where we see that. Let’s go to one: 1 Samuel 21:1–15. 1 Samuel 21:1–15. Let’s read together this story. Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. He came to the temple, and Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?” So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business.” He gets real random, vague. “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’” In other words, “I’m really sorry, but I can’t really tell you what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such-and-such a place. I’m really—I’m not alone. They are already on the way. Can’t tell you exactly where and why, but that’s why I’m alone here. It’s a secret mission.”
Now, that wasn’t the truth. David was running from Saul. Saul was on the throne. The priest answered to Saul, not to David. And David starts to deceive the priest because he’s in trouble—he’s running, and he needs things. He doesn’t have enough—doesn’t have enough food, doesn’t have enough weapons, doesn’t have enough support. And so he begins to change the truth and say, “Well, I got to think real quick here, but this could have been—I could have been sent by Saul, because I am close to him. I could have been sent—the priest would believe that.” And so he walks in and says, “Secret mission. Can’t tell you anything about it. I’m not alone. All my people are somewhere else. I just happen to not have supplies. We got everything else squared out, but somebody dropped the ball. So I came into the temple to get supplies. Makes complete sense. Don’t ask questions. Secret mission. Remember.” Verse 3: “Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.” And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.”
Then David answered the priest and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.” So the priest gave him the holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. And David said to Ahimelech, “Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” So the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah—there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take it, take it, for there is no other except that one here.” And David said, “There is none like it. Give it to me.”
Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
Now, up until that moment, somebody may say, “Well, that kind of worked out. David twisted the truth, made up some stuff, lied.” But David was the anointed of the Lord, and he was running from Saul, who was no longer doing the will of the Lord. So doesn’t this make sense? What else would have happened? This makes complete sense. Doesn’t that mean that I, sometimes, when I am between a rock and a hard place, or I’m cornered, that I am also allowed to create a way out if the favor of the Lord allows it for me? Because David could have written a psalm right here and right now—he didn’t, but he could have: “Oh Lord, you made a way for me to slip through the cracks. And the lies—yes, they were small—and I know, Lord, you did it. But I lied my way back into your will, because I’m safe now.” It never stops there. You’re going to see this—it never stops with one lie.
Watch what happens. It’s a continual story. I’ll read verse 10 again: Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. Now, this is David—with the sword of Goliath in his hand, the testimony of what God has done so near to him. And right here, now he’s in trouble again. But now he flees right away, without hesitation, back to lying again. It becomes a habit. Watch this: So he changed his behavior before them. He pretended madness in their hands—pretended to be crazy, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
Here’s what you need to understand: lying is always an action of trust—but never trusting God. Lying is always an action of trust in darkness.
If I can shield the truth, if I can conceal what is really happening, if I can explain away the truth of my situation, then I trust I’m not going to get in trouble. Then I trust I will not get hurt. I trust that a lie can protect me. I trust that a lie can help me pay less taxes. I trust that a lie will keep me from getting in trouble with my mom or my dad. I trust that a lie will keep me from losing my relationship. When we place our trust in lying, when we place our trust in the dark, there is always a ripple effect that begins to happen. Before you know it, David’s trust in lies had grown so swiftly that the next time he’s in trouble, the first thing he does is lie and make something else up. The first thing he does—written off as a madman. Dozens of priests were slain and killed because David had lied to Ahimelech, and he had helped David. He didn’t know he was helping David when he wasn’t supposed to. David’s lie had covered that up real good. Dozens of priests were slain and killed because David said, “Well, if I twist the truth, then maybe I can slip through the cracks.”
Listen—the consequences are not always instant, but they will hunt you down and stay with you, in some cases, for the rest of your life. You can be forgiven and be at peace, but the consequences are very, very real. There is no safety in darkness or lies. There is no protection in them. And that’s the false gospel that falsehood and lies constantly preach to humanity. What does the Bible say? When the devil speaks, he lies—and he speaks out of his own character. Lies promise you that if you abandon the truth and present a lie, you’ll have more safety, more favor. You’ll be more protected. You won’t be rejected. You, beloved—lies always tell you a gospel: “I will deliver.” And Jesus says, “I am the truth. I’m the truth. Come to me. Trust me. Lean on me. Walk in the light.” He asks us to believe that presenting ourselves in the truth and in the light is the best possible option for men and women like us. And that’s truly the heart’s issue of gravitating to lies.
Do I believe that I’m safe in the light and in the truth? Do I actually believe that I am safe in the truth and in the light, or do I believe that the dark offers safety too? And sometimes I’ve got to pick that for that situation? That’s the question. Do I believe Jesus? Do I believe that truth, at all times, is good for me? Do I believe that walking in the light, at all times, is going to be good for me? Or do I not trust that he’s going to protect me when I walk in the light? He’s going to defend me when I walk in the light. He’s going to make a way for me when the truth really means I don’t deserve a way forward. He will care for me. Do I trust him? He says, “I am the light.” Do I trust him, or do I trust darkness? Is it okay to lie in specific circumstances? The answer is no. You will always end up receiving what darkness pays out—the short-term promises in lies. For a moment there, it looked like it all worked out. But the truth—he is a person—and sooner or later, the truth shows up. Amen. Amen.
Here’s the last question we will look at today: Does spiritual authority stand above governing authority? I thought it was such a good question. Does spiritual authority stand above governing authority? Now, here’s my assumption about this question. And if I’m wrong, please forgive me, but this is the perspective from which I’m understanding this question. I understand this person asking: does spiritual authority—does a pastor, does a spiritual leader, does a person in spiritual authority in a church setting or anything of the like—does spiritual authority stand above governing authority? That’s how I took this question. That’s how I understood it. If I’m wrong, you’re just getting a fun question and a fun answer. But that’s what I believe, and this is what came with the question: Example—in Romans 13:17, it says to submit to governing authorities. If my spiritual authority goes against this biblical direction, which am I supposed to follow? That’s why I believe they’re talking about someone, for example, like a pastor in their life.
Does spiritual authority stand above governing authority? It's a great question. Let's read that scripture section first so that we have the whole context. Romans 13 verse 1-7. "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there's no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for the conscious sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For they are God's ministers, attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore all their due. Taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."
Does spiritual authority stand above governing authority? Bear with me on this. Spiritual authority always stands higher than governing authority by the very virtue of the question. Let me explain. Because the Word tells us to obey governing authority, automatically it means that the Word stands higher than governing authority. If the governing authority was telling us, "Hey, you better also pay attention to God," that would mean the governing authority is higher, and it would be telling us what to do. We should listen to it, and we should also listen to God. But it’s reversed. It is God’s Word that tells us to listen to governing authorities, which means the authority of God’s Word is higher. And because God’s Word says something, governing authorities also have authority, because God has spoken that into existence. The spiritual authority stands higher by the very existence of this question. But spiritual authority rests on the Word of God, not on a person. Sometimes we clumsily say it the other way. For example, this question says "spiritual authority," and they mean a person who is called. But spiritual authority rests on the Word of God. Now, that person may be called to repeat the Word of God, and so there is authority—but that authority rests on the Word of God, not on the person.
There is such a thing as spiritual covering. When you are at Safe House Church, Pastor Ena and I are your spiritual covering. In other words, we are called to continually pray for you. We are called to protect you. You are allowed to make mistakes growing up—learning how to do ministry, learning how to share your faith, learning how to lead people into a song of worship. And you get to do that wrong. But you're not going to answer for that before the Lord because you did that under a covering, as if you were a child growing up in a house and you’re not responsible for the rent when the bill comes due. Your father is, in a very small way, your spiritual covering. In, for example, a church, the spiritual covering is responsible to deal with some of the stuff that, honestly, you should be paying the bill for—but you get to be covered and you get to grow and learn in an environment that God created for you to be so safe that you can grow up while you make mistakes.
But a spiritual covering doesn’t mean that person is your spiritual authority. The Word tells us to submit to governing authorities—an authority given by God. And it is very clearly described that this authority is to be used by the governing to deal with right and wrong and the punishing of evil. Governing authority should be doing exactly what the Word of God tells it to do, and so should spiritual authority. A person called out of a life where they traded their time for making money, called out of that life to trade their time for serving people whom Jesus loves and helping them grow in their spiritual life, that person too should be doing what they were called to do: to repeat after God. Just preach the Word. That’s what the Bible says: preach the Word in and out of season. Don’t make stuff up. Don’t twist it to your own benefit. Go to those little letters in between the columns and study the Bible to understand what the Bible is saying, and don’t read into it or make it say what you would like it to say.
The Word stands higher than governing authority—but not because of the person preaching it, not because of the person sharing it. The only way that a person called into ministry has spiritual authority is because what they are saying is in line with the Word of God. That’s the only authority there is: the Word of the living God. And here’s where the rubber meets the road, and unfortunately, I know some of you have seen this go wrong, and it has hurt you and wounded you because you were trying to do what you believed was the right thing. You were trying to honor the spiritual authority, but they were not sticking to what God may have called them to do. In some cases, maybe they weren’t called at all. When a minister goes against the Word, you don’t have to obey. That really digs into the heart of this question because the Word tells us to obey governing authorities. So we’ve got to—we have to pay our taxes and not lie a little to make the amount go down. We have to pay our duty when we import something and not cover it up and try to get away with paying less. That’s what the Bible tells you and me.
The Bible is the very thing that tells us to obey the authorities. Now, what if the authorities tell me I cannot do something, or I cannot worship, or I cannot act according to my conscience? Then the authorities have stepped outside of punishing evil and rewarding good, and there is a clash. But what is the higher authority? The Word of God. So I stick with the Word of God. I pay my taxes, even though the government may be doing some things wrong. I was asked to pay my taxes. I was asked to cover all the bills. I was asked to do my part. And I can do that. I can obey the Word. Even if there are situations where I cannot obey the government, I can still obey the Word, which is higher and more important. Now, if a minister goes against that Word, just like if the government would go against that Word, you don’t have to obey, because the Word is the higher spiritual authority. That authority rests on the Word, not on a person.
The government didn’t get a “get out of jail free” card to tell you whatever they want. No. They were called as ministers to serve you, to protect you, to be a threat to what is wrong, and to reward what is good. And ministers within the body of Christ, who are called to nourish and care about your spiritual condition, are called to serve you and guide you to the Word, help you understand the Word, and help you walk in the Word. So I want to challenge you: know the Word. If you’ve ever been hurt or seen spiritual authority abused—where a person displayed themselves as if they had spiritual authority and just told you whatever they wanted—you need to understand this. They weren’t preaching the Word at you. They weren’t trying to get the Word into you. They were just glad to tell you what they wanted to tell you, and they did it while waving the banner of “I am the spiritual authority. You have to listen. You have to honor me.”
Church, the best antidote to getting it wrong—the best antidote to obeying a minister when they are not biblical, or obeying the government when it is not biblical—is this: know the Word. Know the Word. That’s where spiritual authority rests. And when you know the Word, you can begin to obey the Word. What does the Word tell you? Preach the Word. Now that you know it, you can do it. Preach the Word in and out of season. Be ready to tell people the truth of God that has the power to transform their life.
Bring them into liberty. Bring them into freedom. Remove all rebellion and resistance against government, remove all resistance against all of the good that God designed to build your life, and free yourself from worry so that you can take the Word of God and begin planting it into the hearts of people who are still stuck in their sin, still stuck in their hurts, still unsure if they die tonight, whether they go to be with the Father, or if they will be eternally separated from Him.
You were entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. That is your job. Let the government do its job. Let your pastors do their job. And you worry about doing yours. Take the Word into the city. Take the Word into the workplace. Tell people the good news that you have come to know in the Word. There is authority in that news. There is authority in that Word. Know the Word.
If you would stand with me for a moment:
Jesus said, “I am the Truth. I am the Life.” He also said, “I am the Word.” And a Word is a funny thing. When you say a word a certain way, it can hurt somebody. When you say that word a whole different way, it can make somebody feel loved or cared for. See, the Word in itself is a transportation device. And Jesus says, “I am the Word. I was sent from heaven,” and He invites us to get to know the Word, to get to know what heaven wanted transported to you and me so that we would understand. And then He tells us to take the Word and go into all the world. And Jesus prays this to the Father: “Father, I don’t only pray this for these, but also for those who believe because of their Word.” You are called to transport what God has done into this world. Jesus brought it from heaven to earth when we made a big mess of everything. And He has asked us to carry it into this world, as He purchased us and left us here for a season. He asks us to carry that Word of reconciliation, to transport what God has brought down from heaven and deliver it to this generation. It all starts by knowing the Word, spending time in the Word, investing time in knowing the Word, so that you have something to transport.
-Pastor Stan Mons
