We're going to go to Romans the 13th chapter again. What is it, verse 8? Romans the 13th chapter, verse number 1. We're going to read 13, 1-7. This is the establishment of governments by God, as Paul details it here. We know that God established governments in the day of Moses. and the day of Noah, that is, not Moses, here, after the flood, and governments are supposed to protect people from each other, and governments are supposed to protect the people from the government. That's another problem. Romans 13 chapter and verse 1, let every person be in subjection to governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who also oppose will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? That's anarchy, what we've had here in America for the last year. Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. For it is a minister of God to you for good, but if you do what is evil, be afraid. For it does not bear the sword, capital punishment for nothing, for it is the minister of God and avenger of who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be unsubjected not only because of the wrath but also for conscience sake. For because of this you also pay taxes for rulers or servants of God devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due to them, tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom is due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due. Now in America, we have a long list of presidents now. Some presidents probably should have been tried for treason when they were elected, or put in office, or stole office, or whatever you might call it. And we had some good ones too. And we're still here in the good area. And the fourth president of the United States, we have James Madison. James Madison lived between March the 16th, 1751 to June the 28th, 1836. He was president from March the 4th, 1809 to March the 4th, 1817. His party was a Democratic-Republican and America, George Washington warned America not to be a party system. We need to be a union of people thinking alike and going for one purpose and that's preserve our union and to establish it and to conserve it and support it. Democratic-Republican, what does that mean? A Democratic-Republican was one that believed in no more government than what an absolute necessity to have. Now, James Madison was a representative for eight years in Congress. He was a Secretary of State for eight years under Thomas Jefferson. For 20 years, James Madison was Thomas Jefferson's right-hand man. I mean, he did everything. Thomas Jefferson was known as the go-between between all parties, opposing parties. He was the go-between, mediator. He was known as the father of the Constitution and basically the father of the Bill of Rights and the father of all amendments, at least amendments in his time. He was married to Dolly Payne Todd. Now Dolly Payne Todd was a widow. She was married to a young man, John Todd, and whether Mary Todd Lincoln and Dolly Payne Todd, their husbands were related, we don't know, but possibly. John Todd was an up and going Philadelphia lawyer in his time, and he was struck down with the owl fever and died. Dolly Payne Todd had two children. One of them died, and then the other one, Payne Todd, went with them to the White House. Dolly Madison never had any children by James Madison. They have no children. Little Payne Todd was known as the little terror of the White House for a while, or the Washington bad boy. He was about 17 years old when he went there. Now, Dolly had a sister, and they were both Quakers. They were very friendly and outgoing, and their Quaker families kind of kicked them out because they were too outgoing for them. They needed to be a little more reserved. But Dolly Madison, became known as the First Lady. She was the First Lady, basically, they said, for 50 years. She was the first lady ever to really carry on parties and things in the White House. She bought a $40 mirror one time for decoration in the White House, and they investigated her for spending this money recklessly, And the investigation cost $2,000 to investigate her. So who wasted the money? That's politics for you, see? She was known as the First Lady for 50 years because she threw parties and she was an entertainer. Now, James Madison was a lifetime politician. He was what you might call a professional politician of his time. All of his life he worked in politics. He graduated from what became known as Princeton University in 1771. He was a brilliant student and a brilliant communicator. He was a very short man, about five foot four. But his mind was great. He was gracious and accommodating. He was a principal architect of the Constitution of the United States. And like I said, for 20 years, he was Jefferson's right-hand man. Now, he tried to carry on the policies of Jefferson because he basically believed in the policies of Jefferson. Jefferson, during his presidency, brought an embargo against France and Great Britain or British because they were attacking American ships. So to stay out of the war, They just said, well, our ships aren't going to go anyplace. We're just going to shut down. Now, it caused a lot of financial havoc. The English, the British, were really giving the New England states a hard time. And the New England states were under such pressure, they decided, some of them decided that they might secede from the Union and go back to Britain because they couldn't stand the heat. For decades, decades and decades, Madison was one of the foremost, largest, even though he was small and diminutive in character, he was one of the most foremost American politicians. That's what he did. He was the thinker. He served in the pre-Constitution Congress. He served in the Congressional Congress. Like I said, he was eight years a representative. He was eight years as Secretary of State. He is the one that helped design the embargo. And then he becomes President of the United States. He became President of the United States two times. But the New England states were in such pressure after he declared war, he asked Congress to declare war. He did it right. Bush didn't do it right. Many of the presidents didn't do it right, but he did it right. He had Congress declare war. He almost lost to Clinton in his second run for presidency from one electoral votes, 128 for him and 89 for Clinton because of the War of 1812. In his inaugural address, President Madison said that he believed in peace and he believed in trying to work out a peace with France and Britain and to try to work it out instead of go to war. He said, I don't want to go to war. America was a young country and England was a gigantic enterprise, worldwide enterprise. The sun had never set for years on the English empire. And Britain was a little bit upset because one of their most lucrative colonies had succeeded from the British Empire. He said, I will sincerely pursue neutrality toward belligerent nations where it's possible. He finally realized it wasn't possible. This is the only war, really, that America ever lost. Now, all the history books tell you that America won the War of 1812 with Britain. But actually, James Monroe was sent to sue for peace. And they didn't get exactly what they wanted. America was beat up a lot. Britain was losing money. The British subjects were tired of the high taxes and costs that keep them in war all the time. Britain was seizing America's ships. France was seizing America's ships. The British even armed Indians, and Tecumseh was one of them, and sicked the Indians on the new nation. and they raided American settlements in the Northwest Territory. James Madison thought, well, we have to do something. New England states referred to the War of 1812 as Madison's War. I remember when George Bush declared war and went over there and fought the wrong people, they called it Bush's War. It was Bush's War. We'll get to him later. The New England states were suffering greatly. They were burning down cities. They burned down Detroit, Michigan, and James Madison was the only president in American history that really ever, while he was president, ever had to commandeer soldiers and defend. Britain went after the White House in Washington, D.C. James Madison was late coming home for dinner and she was told that she ought to leave. The dinner was ready and she was waiting. She was a formal type lady. She wanted to have a formal dinner. He never came. Finally, he sent a note to her, get out of there now. He was out fighting and leading soldiers. He had been attacked. And by the way, they had to retreat also. She got out of there with her life. The British soldiers ate their dinner that they were going to have in the White House. They ate their dinner. And then the next day after they had taken whatever they wanted, they burned the place down. James Madison didn't believe in a large government, and one of the things he had fought was the Bank of America, or the Bank of the United States. He always opposed the idea of a national bank, but the War of 1812 led Madison to see the necessity for controlling financial institutions that would put the nation's finances back in order. He didn't like it. He said it was very dangerous, as Thomas Jefferson and others had said, it's very dangerous to take the nation's money and put it in the hands of independent people, independent bankers. That's like our Federal Reserve today. The Federal Reserve is not federal. The Federal Reserve is a bunch of bankers controlling America's money. Dolly Madison defined the role of the First Lady, of course. She was very popular with American people, but unpopular with the politicians of Washington. Because with her pomp and circumstance, they thought it was a little too flashy. And they didn't want to support all these parties. Now, later on, Abraham Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, was definitely spending money unbelievably. But Dolly Madison was very conservative with what she was doing. We know that Mary Todd Lincoln blew money like it was water. and put the president in debt several times. She had mental problems and the way she worked out her mental problems, she went shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping. The War of 1812 lasted until 1814. And it definitely didn't work out like America wanted it to work out. The British took and burnt down Detroit, Michigan. Like I said, they burned down the capital. Now both sides have suffered. The British suffered greatly in New York State. The Americans also captured Toronto and burned it down. And at Baltimore in September 1814, they stopped the advance of the British forces that had taken Washington. And during James Madison's time is when Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner, when he saw the forces and the bombs and the bullets and the shelling going on. British were still at war with France and many of the British subjects thought that the war with the United States was an unnecessary distraction. Absolutely. And then after Napoleon had finally abdicated in April 1814, the Britons became very boisterous against the Parliament. and James Monroe was sent for the Treaty of Ghent that ended the war and restored pre-war status quo in territories in the American colonies. And the captives were returned and the Americans didn't even win a declaration from the British that they would leave their shipping alone. They didn't say, we're gonna leave your ships alone. And we know there was a lot of pirates on the water, wasn't there? Now, after the American forces and the command, after the treaty, In America, we didn't have real good communication. We didn't have telegraphs yet, did we? So now, American forces under the commander of General Andrew Jackson won a smashing victory over the British that did a great deal to show forth the American anger over the British affronts at our young nation's expense and sovereignty. I want you to understand this one thing, too, with all of this. Here, America is an infant nation, and the greatest power in the world at that time attacks our ships on water. They have hundreds of vessels, and we have a few. The very idea that America held out under such great circumstances and forces against us was a miracle, a miracle of God. James Monroe had a lot to do with the treaty, and he would later on, what we call the Monroe Doctrine, et cetera, and by the way, I was named after him. The sovereignty of the United States, America wanted the world to know, was sovereign. that we were a nation to be respected. The Federal Bank was a great, what we might call door, an open door to tyranny and control over America's monies. Andrew Jackson later on dissolved it. But right now, a man that had fought against it, because of circumstances, had to bend to that. Thomas Jefferson said the unconstitutional power grabbed by the federal government is very dangerous. Public funds given to an oligarchy of private financiers and the possibility of corruption in that, we know, don't we? It is actually a second government, what we call an undercover government in our government. And it's developed its power by buying favors. And it's a challenge to the government of the United States in all reality. What has more power in America today than any other organization? The IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Reserve. When they control your money, they control you. They control what you can do, what you can't do. Well, with James Madison's signature, that signed and brought back into existence the Bank of the United States. One thing that James Madison tried to do was to keep America in one union, in one force, and going in one direction. He tried to unify the United States. He tried to unify the United States. America today is the most fragmented mess that you can expect, that you could ever believe, that you could ever imagine. A lot of it is because of the news media. And it's not news, it is fabrications. I'm afraid to even watch the weather on the Big Phi, because everyone will lie about the weather, and I'm sure they will. I'll look out the window. Oh, the wind's blowing from that direction. Hey, I see a cloud over it. It may rain. I can believe that. Like the old tripod that had a stone in the middle of it. That's the Indian's weather vane. If it's got water on it, it means it's raining. If it's got snow on it, it means it's snowing. If it's waving back and forth, it means the wind's blowing. You can believe that. John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson in his later papers, notwithstanding a thousand faults and blunders, James Madison's administration has acquired more glory and established more union than all of us three predecessors. Washington, Adams, and Jefferson put together. He did his best. Now, he had 108 slaves also. So now in America, James Madison is a great enemy of the people because he had 108 slaves. I'll tell you one thing. Thomas Jefferson's first lady was Sally Hemings Jefferson. He had six children by her. He couldn't come out and say, I'm married to a black girl, or a girl that's one-quarter black, actually. His children were seven-eighths white and one-eighth black. He couldn't come out and do that because you couldn't do that. Stevenson, one of the framers during Lincoln's time of the freeing of the slaves lived with a black woman, that she was his servant, but she was really his wife. But he couldn't say that she was his wife. Thomas Jefferson could not say that Sally Hemings was his wife, even though she was his wife's half-sister and that he loved her. He couldn't publicly do any of this and he was downtrodden and lied about And some of it was true. Remember, they said if Thomas Jefferson becomes President of the United States, we'll have nothing but black tyranny, blood in the soil, anti-God, and then he wrote the Jefferson Bible. He believed in God, but he believed in a deity. We'll have immorality. None of our daughters will be safe. Women would be raped from shore to shore, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, they said about Thomas Jefferson. But Thomas Jefferson freed his slaves when he died. James Madison did not. He did a lot of good for the United States. He is the father of your Constitution. He had faults, like every man has faults. Every woman has faults. If you don't think you've got faults, looking in a wrong kind of a mirror or something. Every leader that we've ever had had faults. They did. We had one first lady that was a lesbian. Well, actually two. We have presidents that were criminals. And we have good men for presidents. This is one of the good ones right here. This is a good man. James Madison was one of your great leaders. He gave you the Constitution. He tried to protect the government. He gave them a balance of power. We have a three-place government. The Congress, the Senate, and the Court, the Supreme Court. And he tried to have this balance of power to keep from any one group of people overtaking all things and it becomes an oligarchy and a totalitarian what we call dictatorship like we've got today. We've got problems right now, people. We've got problems. James Madison tried to prevent that. His constitution stood until now. Now the constitution is being twisted and wrangled. But this is the man right here that built that Constitution with safeguards in it. We need to thank God for this man. This man God used greatly to build America for 200 years. Our Father, we thank you for your word in Romans, the 13th chapter, and we ask you to help us open our eyes to what's going on around us. Thank you that America has been a missionary to the world with Christianity for almost 200 years. We thank you for men like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, John Adams, that tried to protect us, give us religious freedom. And Father, I thank you for their memory. I think that we ought to remember these men as what they have done for us and not as villains. Not to tear their statues down, not to defame their persons, but to realize that the world we live in is not a world that they lived in. And to thank you for standing behind our nation and keeping us free for all those years. And Father, Use your word to touch the world still and use these messages even though it's not totally about the Bible but about what the Bible says and teaches. In Jesus name we pray and Father please forgive me for I have failed you.