The Christian's Responsibility to Government, Part 1-2 By John MacArthur

The Christian's Responsibility to Government, Part 1-2

By John MacArthur

Let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter 13. And I feel a little bit like a man who has just eaten a huge meal and is standing in front of a smorgasbord. There's so much here, and I don't really know how much I'm going to be able to handle. After this morning's time in the Word, this seems almost more than we can receive.

And I'm not in a hurry with this passage because I think it is a very important one, and makes some very significant demands on our thought, and so I don't want to hurry. I want to be careful to properly ascertain and share with you its significance.

Nor do I want to sermonize and find cute little homilies and ways to attract your attention. I basically want you to understand the passage. And I'll do the best I can tonight to lay the groundwork that'll make this passage open up to you.

But to begin with, we need to read the first seven verses so we know what it is we're referring to. Romans, chapter 13, beginning at verse 1.

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but from God; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the institute of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword for nothing. For he is the minister of God, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

Wherefore ye must needs be subject. Not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For, for this cause pay ye taxes also. For they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

Render therefore to all their dues - taxes to whom taxes are due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."

Now in those seven verses we have outlined for us in brief and pointed terms the Christian's responsibility to government. This is the most clear, the most direct, the most straightforward and precise passage in all of the New Testament on this subject. And as a result of that, it is an extremely important one for us to understand.

The issue of the Christian's relationship to government is a very important issue. It has been through all of the church's history. Christian's have always had to face this issue, and even to struggle with it. Where the church has found itself in all kinds of places, in all kinds of governments, under all kinds of rulers, with all kinds of perspectives and forms of leading and ruling. And so Christians have always had to deal with this matter of how do you respond to your government?

Traditionally and historically in our own country we have had less trouble with this than many others. Say for example, our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in China or behind the Iron Curtain, or in Russia. Because we have lived in a somewhat Christian influenced society, we've had the best of situations. And the most benevolent of governments. But it hasn't always been that way for Christians as it wasn't for those in the New Testament times when this was written. Even for the believers in Rome who received this very letter.

But Christians, even though they have struggled to answer the question of what is their relationship to government, have not always answered it properly.

And throughout the history of the church, there have been revolutions in the name of Christianity where people decided that the Christian thing to do was to revolt militarily against the government that's in power, and demand their rights. There have even been wars in the name of Christianity.

And so Christians have struggled with this, and sometimes they have rightly understood what their role was, and sometimes they have overturned their God-given role and become revolutionary. There has been violation of law in the name of Christianity. I don't know if you realize this, but there have been, even in our own country, certain law violations, civil disobedience, subversive attempts to overthrow the powers that be on a local level, a state level, or a national level that in some cases were led by people who claimed to be Christians. All of this in the name of Christ.

Some Christians have decided that since they have received bad treatment from certain governments, it is justifiable for them to war against those governments. And in case you think this is far-a-field, may I remind you that for some people evangelical Christianity was their justification for the American Revolution. There are those people who feel that America was borne out of a revolution which was justified, and we had every right to load up our guns and kill Englishmen for the sake of our religious freedom.

There are some Christians even today whom I know personally who refuse to pay their taxes, because they feel they violate their freedoms.

The truth of the matter is, and you need to think about this - the truth of the matter is that our own nation was borne out of a violation of this biblical text. Now that may throw you for a loss, but that's the fact. Our nation was borne out of a violation of this text. In the name of Christian freedom.

That does not mean that God doesn't overrule such violations and bring about good, which He did in this case, but that doesn't justify the means. And still today we struggle with how we should identify with our government because even though America had sort of a Christian orientation, we are now living in I suppose what we could call post-Christian America.

And though we are fortunate to have a President who affirms the Christian faith, and who holds to Christian standards of ethics and morality, our government no longer upholds the Bible as a source of truth, Biblical morality as a source of what is right, and we are fast seeing all of that kind of thing eroding from our country. And so some people believe that we, as Christians then, because America seems to be losing its Christian orientation, have a right to protest, have a right to defy the law, to break the law.

Many Christian leaders are calling for other Christians to leave their present operation, their present Ministry, and become a part of a new political Christian lobby to use high pressure, social actions, so forth. Some are calling for anger, and protests, and a moderate kind of revolution against our government.

They say the government is taking churches' freedoms away. It is encroaching on religion. And in an effort to save the freedom of the church, a myriad of organizations are arising in our country calling for action against the government. I am amazed at how many evangelical Christians who 15 years ago wouldn't have been caught dead in such activity, are now very aggressively pursuing this political lobbying approach.

And I'm also equally amazed at the cobelligerents that wind up coming together on issues of civil authority and civil rights that would never find any common ground on the issue of truth. For example, many evangelicals are now aligned with Sun Myung Moon and the "Moonies" because they have a common cause for religious freedom.

So the coming together of these kinds of people in very strange ways as cobelligerents demonstrates this preoccupation with political ends, where theology and doctrine of Biblical truth are set aside for the sake of freedom.

I received recently an invitation to the inauguration of the President, and it was nice. I'm glad they invited me, and also to the ball, which goes along with it. I'm not going, by the way. To either. But because of that, I received a letter the other day which was a follow-up to that letter from a new group. I can't even remember the name, but it's something to do with Christian action in Washington, inviting me to come to a very special banquet and stand together with all these people to hold Christian freedoms in America. And I went down the list of people involved in that, and I wrote back and said I couldn't come, and I couldn't associate because I wouldn't be able to identify myself with those people.

It amazes me that you have a list of true believers, charlatans, frauds, false prophets - all jumbled together for the sake of "religious freedom" to do the political lobbying that people think is going to preserve the kingdom of God in America.

One of the worst fallouts of this new preoccupation with the political issues, this new politicizing of the church, is that ultimately the Ministry of the church is prostituted. And people are selling themselves for something short of that to which the church is called. The church cannot afford to become just a flag-waving, lobbying, protesting voice for government change. That's not our calling. And I'm appalled to note that many Pastors have turned from an emphasis on the Gospel to an emphasis on politics. From an emphasis on teaching the Bible to an emphasis on coalitions to support particular legislation. And all of this is based upon some ridiculous premise that Christianity's growth and power and impact is somehow related to the government policy in America.

C.S. Lewis once reminded Christians that human beings live forever, while the state is only temporal, and thus is reserved to comparative insignificance. And to spend your time altering the state when you could be spending your time giving people eternal salvation is a bad bargain.

To abandon the message which gives to that eternal soul life with God in favor of temporal change prostitutes and wastes the light. I mean it would be like a great heart surgeon with a skill to save many, abandoning his life-saving practice to become a makeup artist. To fool around with the outside. And ignore the skill which could save men's lives.

Seems to me that the church needs to use all of its power and all of its resources, and all of its energy and forces to convert men and women to Jesus Christ. And that's what God has called us to do. The Scripture speaks not at all about Christians engaging in politics. It has nothing to say about it. Other than the fact that we're to be model citizens, it says nothing.

It speaks not at all about Christians engaging in civil change. That is not our priority. It doesn't mean we're not to be involved as citizens where we can be. It's a question of priority.

In the Old Testament, for example, Israel was a priestly nation. And by God's design, Israel was to bring men to God. And in that nation Israel there were priests whose primary function was to do just that. There were others who could take care of the menial things, and the problems, the social issues. But the heart of the matter was the priesthood, the core of life which gave its identity to the whole nation, and they could not abandon the role of bringing men and women to God. That was God's design.

The church is the same. I believe we are a kingdom of priests, not a kingdom of politicians. That our design in the world is to bring men to God. You say, don't you care about change? Of course I care about change, but I also know that changes from inside, not outside. Right?

We must administrate the things of God. We must administrate the kingdom of God. So as we approach this whole issue of the Christian's role in government, I want you to understand from the very beginning that what we're saying has nothing to do with politicizing the church. It has nothing to do with lobbying. Has nothing to do with getting involved in those things which are good, but not our divine calling and priority. There is no biblical mandate for us to spend time, money, and energy in politicking or engaging in the matters of civil government.

We are to be - and listen carefully, this is an important thought - we are to be the conscience of the nation by Godly living and faithful preaching. We confront the nation. Not through political pressure, but through the word of God. That's how we confront the nation. We preach against sin. We preach against the evils of our time. But it is preaching and Godly living that is our calling.

Look at Christ for just a moment as we build a foundation for this passage. Look at Christ. He came into a very interesting world. He came into a Roman Empire where slavery flourished. Slavery. You understand that. Slavery. There were three slaves - approximately three slaves to every free man.

He also came into a world that was dominated by absolutism in terms of rulership. Men were absolutely monarchs, absolute rulers. After the end of the Roman republic, when the Caesars came in and took power, they ruled with absolute authority. And although Julius Caesar was murdered in the Roman senate in 44 BC, this only accelerated the centralization of power. The Roman senate declared Augustus proconsul and tribune of Rome for life, and he had absolute and total power. He was Commander In Chief of all soldiers, he stood above the senate, and he controlled all civil affairs.

So Jesus came into a world dominated by slavery and by one man rule. The absolute antithesis of democracy, which we believe to be so dear. All the power of the state was in one man's hands.

You had the same thing in Palestine. Where the ruler of Palestine, who was placed there as sort of a puppet king under Rome was a man by the name of Herod. Herod was an Edomite. Herod was not a Jew. That Edomite ruler of Palestine, the king with great power, had the single authority to demand that every single baby in a certain region be massacred, and nobody could stay his hand. He had absolute authority over life and death. He murdered his whole family. His mother, his wife, his sons, and no one held him accountable.

In the time that Jesus came into the world taxes were exorbitant, and those who worked in the taxing process who sold themselves to Rome for money, exacted exorbitant taxes out of the people, overcharged them. In fact, you remember don't you, that Zacchaeus when he was converted, immediately said I'll do what? I'll pay back everything I've extorted how many times? Fourfold. Which was rather typical of the kind of thing that went on. Tax collectors were extortioners.

So there were unjust taxes. There was unjust rule that heard nothing from the people. In fact, Caesar August decreed that all the world should be taxed, and tried to collect an exact from everyone.

Furthermore, Jesus came to His people, the Jews, in a very unique situation for them. They were chattel for the Romans. They were an underprivileged and oppressed minority. They had no voice in Roman government, they had to pay heavy taxes to their Roman taskmasters. Now that's the world Jesus came into. They didn't even know anything about democracy. About voting. About certain "freedoms" that we enjoy.

And what did Jesus say? He said this. "Render to Caesar," what? "The things that are Caesar's." You give the government its due. And to God, what? The things that are God's.

He did not come with power and force to overthrow the Roman tyranny. He did not seek social change. He did not attempt to eliminate slavery. He did not come with political or economic issues at stake. They were not the concern of his life and Ministry. He did not come to bring new government, to bring democracy, to wave the flag of Judaism, even. His appeal was ever and always to the hearts of individual men and women. Not their political freedoms. Not their rights under government.

He did not participate in civil rights. He did not crusade to abolish injustice. He preached a saving Gospel. So that once a man's soul or a woman's soul is right with God, it matters very little what the externals are. He was not interested in a new social order, but in a new spiritual order - the church. And he mandated the church to carry on the same kind of Ministry.

And listen - their problems in those days were far more severe than ours. Far more severe. Even people living on relief today have cars, TVs and modern conveniences.

So we have to look at things a little bit differently I think. When we come to this issue of how a Christian is to respond to his government. Just like I said at the very start, Christians through all the generations of the church have had to deal and struggle with this issue. And we have to come to some conclusion about how we fit in, and what are we called to do and be in this society in which we live? And what is our priority? And how are we to live? And what right does government have over us, and what is to be our proper response to that right?

And admittedly, we live in a tension. There's a tension. I mean, to be honest with you, from deep within my heart I'm really not that concerned about political issues. Economic issues. Externally social issues. Civil issues. Oh, there's a normal kind of concern about those things, but that doesn't occupy my mind. What occupies my mind are the souls of lost men and women. Does that occupy your mind?

I mean, I'm not so concerned that everybody be happy, and wealthy, and healthy as I am that people be saved. And I've only got so much energy and the church has only so much resource. And I guess I struggle a little bit with millions and millions and millions of dollars coming out of evangelical hands for politicization rather than evangelization.

We need to be concerned not about the external life of people, but the internal soul of the lost. So we ask the question then- what is our responsibility to government? How do we respond in the tension of being preoccupied with the Kingdom of God, and yet having to live in this world and wanting to be a good citizen?

First of all, as I pointed out to you, the issue is not to try to politicize the society. What God has called us to do is two things, right here in this text. Number one comes in verse one. "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." The second one is in verse six. For this cause, pay your taxes. Now you want to hear it as simply as I can say it? The Apostle Paul says two things are required of you as a Christian - submit to the government, and pay your taxes. Did you get that?

Submit to the government and pay your taxes. That's our duty. Beyond that, you ought to be busy in the Kingdom. Right? Busy doing that thing which is eternally valuable. It isn't the other things are not important, it is that they pale in importance when compared with the work of the Kingdom. That's the issue.

So, be subject to the government, and pay your taxes. That's what Jesus meant when He said "render to Caesar." What did Caesar want? Submission and money. Submit to the rules and the laws, and pay your taxes.

Now how does this section fit into this whole epistle of Romans? Great theological epistle, and all of a sudden he gets down into this deal about submission to the government, and paying your taxes. Well listen, it fits in beautifully. It just fits beautifully. In fact, Paul ties it in really two ways here. His logic is impeccable.

The first 11 chapters tell us about being justified by grace through faith. Right? He describes what it is to be a Christian. Now that you have all this from God's gracious hand, now that you've received all this, chapter 12, verse 1, do what? What's our response? Present your body, what? A living sacrifice. Give everything you are to the Lord. Your soul. Your body. Your mind. Your will. Give it all to Him! And so here is this idea of personal self-sacrifice. Give the Lord everything.

Now the result of that will be a proper relationship to God. You will know and prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So first of all, if I respond to the salvation God has given to me by giving Him my all, I'm going to have a right relationship with the Lord. I'm going to know His will and His purpose, and I'm going to do it.

Secondly, verses 3 through 14, he says you'll have a proper relationship with the family of God. Use your spiritual gift. Love folks, be kind to them, and so forth. All the way down through verse 13.

And then starting in verse 14 and going to verse 21, he says if your life is presented to the Lord, you're also going to have right relationships with your non-Christian friends, and even verses 17 to 21, your enemies. So the point here is that Christianity impacts every part of life. And this is really the heart of the epistle. All the stuff that he said about Salvation is just to get to this.

So he can say look, knowing what God has done for you, your response needs to be very simple. Your response to what God has done for you is to give the Lord your life. To give Him your soul, and your body, and your heart, and your mind." To give Him everything you have. And in giving Him everything that you have, you're going to find a right relationship with Him where you'll know His good and acceptable and perfect will. A right relationship with each other where you use your spiritual gift and meet each other's needs. A right relationship to outsiders where even if they persecute you, you're going to bless them. And a right relationship to people so that if they injure you, and if they seek to harm you, and if they do things evil against you, you're not even going to be avenging them.

And it follows then that if you have a life dedicated to Christ, you're not only going to have a right relationship with God, other Christians, outsiders, and enemies, but you'll have a right relationship with civil authorities, also. And they are an essential part of our life. Because government is an institution of God.

So I believe what he's saying here is a committed Christian who is solely given over to the Lord will have a right relationship to civil authority. How? By submitting himself to government, and by paying his taxes. That's the essence of what he says.

Now the connection here is marvelous really. You go back to verse 19 - well verse 17 really. "Recompense to no man evil for evil." Don't pay back evil with evil. Verse 19, don't avenge yourselves. "Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord." So if your enemy hungers, feed him, if he thirsts, give him something to drink, and so forth. Overcome evil by good verse 21 says.

So he's been talking about non-retaliation. Non-vengeance. Returning love for hate and good for evil. And so here's one way you do that. No matter what the government does, you submit. No matter what the government does, you pay your taxes. You're not violent. You're not a terrorist. You're not a subversive.

No breach of peace - no breach of peace should ever come from a Christian. Verse 18. "As much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men." Christians are not to be those who breach the peace. Who make trouble. And there's no place for personal vengeance. Verse 19. Don't avenge. God takes care of that.

If we are injured or defrauded and there is a way through our system to get back what was taken from us, that's fine. Somebody said to me last week, "You mean if somebody defrauds me in my business, and takes all my money and takes my business, I have no right to retaliate?" You have a right to go to the proper authorities to try to get back what has been lost, but no right to go beyond that and seek personal vengeance at the expense of the person who did it.

If someone takes something of mine, I can go to the authorities, I can go to whatever jurisprudence I'm able to and try to get that back if it is justifiably to be gained. But what I can't do is then turn around and try to strip that person bare of everything they possess by a selfish vengeful lawsuit. You understand the difference? We are not to be those who breach the peace, and we are not to be those who seek vengeance and retaliation. To get our pound of flesh.

You say, "Well, who's going to do that?" Who's going to make it right? Where's the justice going to come from? And the answer comes in chapter 13. Vengeance is not the role of the individual. Retaliation is not the role of the individual. Bringing evil to evil men is not the role of the individual Christian. It is the role of government.

The principle of the Old Testament - an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life - is a principle of government. Not of personal vengeance. So we don't retaliate, and we don't seek personal violent vengeance. It is the role of civil government to deal with those who are evildoers.

So the passage then shows us that when criminal things have been done against us, we return love for hate, good for evil, and the government will take care of proper recourse. That is the government's role, and that's where he moves in chapter 13.

So he ties it in two ways really. In the flow of the things that a Christian is rightly related to, and then as a response to this section on non-retaliation to the question, "Well, if we don't get back - if we are defrauded, who's going to get back to that person and make them pay for their crime?" The answer he comes with is, "That's the role of the government." And we'll see that unfold as we look through the passage.

Now I want to approach this passage one more way. And I'm just setting up some pillars so that everything's going to come right together for you. In Paul's day, this was a very critical issue. A very critical issue. And I want to try to give you a little historical background so you'll understand why.

And this is pretty much foundational tonight, but you have to have this. In Paul's day it was a critical issue and I'll tell you why. The Jews were notoriously zealous for their own identity, their own nation, their own independence, their own freedom, their own God, their own religion and so forth. So the Jews constantly rebelled against Roman control. There were just little fires cropping up everywhere. And even though Roman domination was, for the most part, beneficent, and the Roman peace was, for the most part, easy to bear - it was not harsh and unrealistic - still the Jews did not like the idea that they were under the yoke of anyone.

And when conversing with Jesus, you remember in John 8, they said, "We have never been in bondage to anyone." Which was a pretty ridiculous statement since they were at that very time under Roman domination. And prior to that were under the domination of the Greeks, and prior to that were under the domination of the Achaemenid Persians, and prior to that were under the domination of the Babylonians, and even earlier than that were under the domination of the Egyptians. So they had short memories.

But what they were really saying was not - we were not under domination externally, but what they were saying was "We've never been dominated in our hearts. We have never accepted that kind of bondage." So they didn't like that tyranny, and even though they enjoyed exceptional privileges in the Roman Empire.

In fact, the Roman Empire which advocated Caesar worship, and everybody was suppose to worship Caesar as a God, allowed the Jews to worship their own God. Safe-guarded their right to worship. The Romans safe-guarded the Sabbath day, the Sabbath laws, the food laws, the prohibition of idols. The Romans made a law that no one could come into the city of Jerusalem inside the walls with any image of the Caesar, because that violated Jewish idol law.

They did everything they could, and when the Jews wanted to kill gentiles who went into the inner court, the Romans upheld their right to do that. Even though that was nothing to do with the Roman law, but only with religious law of the Jews.

So they were very gracious in a sense to the Jews, and still they chafed under their authority. They hated the Roman domination. They questioned its legitimacy, they fought against it. In fact, you'll remember in Matthew 22, the passage I mentioned earlier. They came to Jesus and said, "Look, you tell us. You tell us. Do we pay our taxes or don't we?" Remember that? This was constantly on their minds. They felt that it was an absolute crime for them to acknowledge Caesar. And he said, "Show me a coin," and they took out a coin with Caesar's image, and of course, that would be in their minds a what? An idol.

And they despised that. And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." What he was affirming was the fact that in spite of what they felt, they were obligated to submit to government. But they chafed so much under that.

And you remember Mark 15:7, which accounts for Barabbas who had led an insurrection. It wasn't the only insurrection. There were a lot insurrections. The Romans dealt with them continually. In fact, the Romans did a lot to keep the peace. One time they even put Paul in prison because they thought that Paul would be the cause of a Jewish riot, and Jewish riots could turn against them. They knew that, and so they were very cautious in imprisoning Paul not only for his own protection, but for the protection that they would gain from some kind of riot.

In Acts 5:36 we read, "Before those days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves who were slain. And all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to nothing. After this man, rose up Judah of Galilee in the days of registration and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all as many as obeyed him were dispersed." The Romans were constantly breaking up these kinds of small revolutions that were started by these would-be Messiahs who were trying to overthrow the Roman yoke.

The Jews took as the basis for their hatred of the Roman yoke, and the Roman rulership. Deuteronomy 17:15. You know what that says? "Thou shalt surely set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from among thy brethren shalt thou set as king over thee. Thou mayest not set a foreigner over thee, who is not thy brother." And so they said based on Deuteronomy 17:15, they were not going to have a king that was not a Jew, and Herod was not a Jew, and Caesar was not a Jew, and Pilot was not a Jew, and none of those who ruled them were Jews, and so they used that passage as a defense for their attitude towards the government.

What they forgot was they weren't living under the terms of Deuteronomy anymore. They had so violated God's covenant that they were under judgment. And those kinds of things had been set aside.

Now also among the Jews were a group of people known as the zealots. Do you remember the zealots? They believed there was no king but God period. And there should be no taxes paid to anyone but God, so they defied the government every way. They wouldn't submit, and they wouldn't pay taxes.

They embarked, the zealots did, on violent action. They started groups. They became murderers, careers of murder and assassination. They were known as dagger-bearers. They were fanatical nationalists I should say. Sworn to terrorism all their life long. And they had a great influence on the Jews. That's why when Jesus came along and the Jews saw His power, they wanted immediately to make him king. Why? Because they wanted the ultimate revolt. The ultimate war to take place, and they would fight and win against Rome.

Now this kind of attitude, this kind of constant fomenting attitude against Rome, is ultimately why the event of 70 AD happened. Finally the Romans took all they could take, and in 70 AD they came in and just wiped out Jerusalem. They killed 1,100,000 Jews. Massacred them. To stop the incessant revolt and revolution.

This is not a Godly attitude. And that's what Jesus meant when he said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And that's what Paul meant when he said, "Live peaceably with all men." We're not to be concerned with issues of the state and the government as a priority. We're to be busy living Godly lives as the conscience of a nation, and preaching God's word. And not starting revolutions and protesting, and making trouble.

But Roman law, for the most part, continued even during the life of Paul, in spite of all these things, to be somewhat favorable to Christianity. They frankly saw Christianity as nothing more than a sort of offshoot of Judaism. A sort of Judaistic cult if you will.

There's an interesting incident in the 18thchapter of Acts where the Corinthian Jews accused Paul of propagating an illegal religion. See, the Romans didn't allow a lot of religion, but they had legalized Judaism. So they said Judaism is legal. So when Paul came along preaching Christ, the Corinthian Jews wanted to get Paul in trouble with the Roman power, so they said, "He is preaching an illegal religion." And so they called in the pro-counsel, Gallio, to tell him that this was an illegal religion, and he paid absolutely no attention to their accusation at all. Which indicates to us that he thought of Christianity as nothing more than a few Jews disputing with other Jews about some element of theology. And because of that attitude that Christianity was just sort of an offshoot of Judaism, it gave Paul freedom in the Roman Empire to continue to preach the Gospel of Christ.

Over the next ten years his ministry could continue due to this perception. And he was able to preach. Even though Christianity truly, if understood, was not a sanctioned religion.

But looking at it from another angle, too, Christianity was to be watched. Even though they tolerated it, I'm sure they knew that it needed to be watched. After all, the Romans knew that the founder of Christianity was one Jesus, one Jesus Christ. In one reference He is called Chrestus. And that that founder was basically killed because, as far as they knew, he was claiming to be a king and offered a rival to the Caesar. So they knew there was a potential within Christianity for trouble, and so even though they tolerated it, they watched it.

There were some Christians no doubt in some places who posed a threat to some Roman authorities. Some of them were thought to be subversive, some of them were assumed to be real troublemakers. In fact, in Acts 17, they said, "These that have turned the world upside down are come here also, and they all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, one Jesus."

So the idea that their founder was a rival king sort of followed them. But even in spite of this, there was real tolerance for Christianity. But Paul is very careful in what he says, because he doesn't want any trouble. It's possible that if they pushed a little too hard at their freedoms, if they didn't know how to respond to the Roman government, they could really be in trouble. The Romans were watching them, even though they had some freedom. The best thing for them to do was to continue to live peaceably and honorably as citizens in their society.

They were not to be associated with the Jewish mentality of insurrection, and rebellion, and revolution, all of that. So he writes this to remind them of their duty as citizens. To establish exemplary conduct, like Christ had shown. Christ had shown. Like the apostles had shown. Like the believers in the earliest part of the church had shown. They wanted to separate Christianity from insurrection as to Judaism. They wanted to affirm that Christians are good citizens. Christianity and good citizenship goes together. And good citizenship isn't just a question of not committing crimes, it's also a question of honoring and respecting, and giving dignity to those in authority over us.

So the Lord then establishes the basic principle in verse one, and it is this. Civil government, in whatever form or under whatever ruler or rulers, is to be obeyed and submitted to by Christians. A Christian has the duty to his nation, even if his ruler is a Nero or a Hitler.

You say, "Well, isn't this an isolated text?" No. I want you to look again, as we continue to lay a foundation, at I Peter 2. I Peter, chapter two. In Peter's situation, he's writing to some believers who are right at the edge of a major persecution. He's encouraging them to be ready to face what they're going to face.

Over in chapter four of I Peter, verse 12, he says, "Don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial to test you. Rejoice," verse 13, "inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's suffering." Verse 14, "If you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you." Verse 15, don't suffer as a murderer or a thief, or an evildoer, or a busybody in other men's matters, but if you suffer for a Christian, don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed.

So he says, "Get ready. You're going to suffer." The spirit of God gives him insight to know that the persecution that's already beginning on an individual level is going to become wholesale. And so Peter is writing then to some saints who are living in a time of persecution. The wholesale persecution hasn't yet broken out, but there is some persecution that's already started. And they need to be ready to handle it.

How do you handle it? I Peter 2:12. "Have your behavior honest among the heathen, that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." In other words, they may speak of you as evil, but let it be a lie. How you going to do that? How you going to live in a society that wants to persecute you so that they see your goodness?

Thirteen, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man." Same thing Paul said in Romans 13:1. Same thing. "Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or governors or them that are sent by them for the punishment of evildoers." That would be the police. "For this is the will of God," verse 15, "that with your well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." Foolish men are looking for something to criticize, and your lack of good citizenship and your lack of obedience to the civil authority will give them their reason.

And verse 16 says don't use your supposed freedom as a cloak for your maliciousness. I see a guy on television from time to time who curses at the leaders of our state, who uses profanity to describe the people in our state. I don't think he's ever read this passage, or if he has, he ignores it.

We're not free to do that. We're not free to be malicious. We are to honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. And honor the king. And even if you're a slave, "slave, be subject to your master." And take it to the end of verse 20 - patiently. So here is a persecuted group of people and Peter says to them, "Accept it, and obey your authorities."

I will never forget the conversation I had with Georgie Vince who had come from Russia after living under the tyranny of the Iron Curtain as a Christian, who's now escaped from that place. Has been to our church on several occasions, and we asked him one time in a special time we had with our staff, how it was to live in a communist country with tyranny, repression, total control - you can't go to a certain school unless the government sends you there, and they won't send you there if you're a Christian. You can't pursue a career. You can't pursue education. You're totally locked in. You have no say in the government. You have no freedoms to speak of it all.

And the question was posed to Georgie Vince, how do you approach that? He says, "We obey every law in our nation. Every law. Whether they appear to us to be just or unjust, we obey every law. Except when we are told that we cannot worship or obey the Scripture. But if we are persecuted and if we are imprisoned, and if we are killed, it will be because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Not because of a violation of some law in our nation."

Interesting. Interesting. I was interested recently to see that Svetlana went home. Did you see that? Interesting. After years and years in the freedom of America, she chose to go home. There's a certain security in home anywhere. And I guess it isn't as bad as we think it is, if you just go along with the way it is.

And Christians in any society who are willing to obey the laws and submit to those laws, as we shall see later on in Romans 13, will find it to their benefit. Now we go back to Romans 13, and we see that Paul is basically saying the very same thing that Peter is saying. We have a serious responsibility to live out our justification by grace through faith. Our self-sacrificing to the Lord as Romans 12:1-2 describes it, should make us model citizens of our nation. We should not be known as protestors. We should not be known as those who lambaste, criticize, and demean people in authority. We should speak against sin, speak against injustice, speak against evil, speak against immorality, fearlessly and without hesitation, but give honor to those who are in authority over us.

This is a biblical pattern for every age, and every nation, and every Christian. Has nothing to do with America. America didn't even exist when this was written. Obviously.

Now, the first principle given then in verse one, let's look at it, and we'll just take a look at this principle, and then we'll expand all the reasons for it. "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers." There's the principle. It's unqualified. It's unlimited. It's unconditional. Every soul is kind of a Hebraism for every person - everybody. The emphasis is on the individual. Every individual person. We each have a very precise duty. Let's be subject is the verb. It's an imperative, hubataso. It's a military term, means to line up to take your orders. Let everyone of us get in line in submission to those who are commanding us. And who's that? The higher powers. Literally means the authorities which are over us.

The authorities that have authority over us. It's kind of a double phrase. Excuiaze, whoperic excuiaze. Authorities who have authority over us. The supreme ruling power. They're called in verse three rulers. Rulers.

The text makes no distinction between good rulers, bad rulers, fair laws, unfair laws. In fact, it is the obedience of Christians to unfair laws, the obedience of Christians to unjust rulers in the early years of the Roman Empire, the obedience of Christians through the persecutions that brought tolerance, acceptance, and finally Christianity to that same empire.

We're called then to submit, and for us it isn't that difficult really because the laws for the most part are just. They rightly represent divine truth. They're changing fast, but we are to submit. We have to face this post-Christian America, if you will, although the nation has never been a Christian nation. There aren't Christian nations. There are only Christian people. You understand that, don't you?

And though things are changing, we still have the same duty. I Timothy 2, do you remember that? Verse 1 and 2. "I exhort, therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior." In other words, God our Savior wants us to live a life that is peaceable. We make peace, we don't make trouble. We make peace, we don't protest. We make peace.

And we live quiet, peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty. We affect the society from the inside by changing the hearts, not the structure.

In Titus, Paul again writing to the church, "Put them in mind," he says to Titus. Put your people, all people, in mind. "To be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawler, but gentle showing all meekness unto all men." That's it. Peaceable. Loving. Gentle. Meek.

It bothers me to see people in the name of Christ running around doing tirades on the leaders of our nation. No matter whether we feel they're adequate, inadequate, just, unjust, fair or unfair, there's a principle here. And it's repeated in the Scripture. We saw it in Peter, we saw it in I Timothy, we saw it in Titus, we see it here.

Now you say, "Wait a minute. You mean we're to submit to everything? Everything, everything without limitation?" No, there's one limitation. There's one limitation. And we'll deal with that and conclude our study tonight.

Look to Acts 4, and verse 13 says that the Jewish leaders heard the boldness Peter and John, and couldn't figure out how they could be so bold and so articulate when they were unlearned and ignorant men. They took note of them, that they had been with Jesus. That was evident because of their message, and because they had seen them with Him.

And so they're drawn into the counsel, and they have a little meeting. What are we going to do? The result of the meeting, verse 16, "What shall we do to these men? A notable miracle has been done by them that is manifest to all those who dwell in Jerusalem, and we can't deny the miracle. But that it spread no further among the people, let us threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name." So we'll just tell them they can't speak again. They called them, commanded them not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus.

Now this is the government. This is the ruler. This is the authority. Even though it's the religious authority, it's authority. "Peter and John said to them 'You judge whether it's right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God.'"

Now we have a real conflict, right? God, in the form of Jesus Christ said to them go unto all the world and what? Preach the Gospel to whom? Every creature. Now the authority says don't preach. Now you have cross commands. So Peter says you tell us - who shall we obey? You or God? Fairly obvious isn't it?

The one time we have a right to disobey the authority and the government is when the government commands us not to do something God commanded us to do. Or when the government commands us to do something God commanded us not to do. Okay? When it invades that domain.

For example, if all of these laws that are suppose to be being made for the rights of homosexuals come to the point where they make demands on Grace Community Church to hire homosexuals, that's where we say sorry, you have just told us to do what God forbids us to do. We will not do that. Those are the only places where we have justification. And I hope, if it comes to that, we have the opportunity to speak loudly and clearly as to why we stand with the truth of God.

And you know what happened, don't you? Well, verse 31. They had a prayer meeting, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. That tells you who they decided to obey, doesn't it? They weren't quiet at all. Not at all.

Same thing happened in the second persecution in chapter 5. They were told again to be quiet. To say nothing. Verse 28, "Did we not strictly command you that you should not teach in this name, and behold you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." They didn't obey. That accelerated their efforts.

And you intend to bring this man's blood on us? You know, part of their message was that the Jews were responsible for killing the Messiah. Peter said the same thing, along with the other apostles. We ought to obey God rather than men. That's the only time a Christian comes to the point of tension where he must violate his government. And that's what Georgie Vince meant when he said if we're in prison or if we lose our life, it will always be because of a commitment to obey the word of God. When the government calls us to do other than that.

Listen, there's no such thing as a Christian government, there has never been such thing as a Christian government, so don't assume, please will you, that Paul is writing this with a Christian government in mind. Certainly the Roman one wasn't. And there never has been one. The only Christian government that will ever be is the millennium. The millennial kingdom. But until then, all governments are flawed.

We have been privileged in our country, and I thank God for the privilege of living under the best, one of the best of human governments in the past. And we are grateful for that. That is a great privilege. And I believe God has given these 200-plus years to the United States of America in this time of redemptive history for one specific purpose. Do you realize that for that last 200 years America has been the primary source of Missionaries for the world? Do you realize that?

And now there's a change coming about, beloved. A change. The mission's emphasis of the world I believe is turning to be a world mission emphasis. In other words, I see other countries now taking the high profile lead in sending out Missionaries. And I think that maybe - and I can't predict this - but it looks to me like our time in God's economy to be that nation that's supported by sending and by financing - you know, of course, that American church money for the most part financed the last 200 years of world missions. Our time may be done. And God will bring up a new people to send those who will reach His world.

It isn't just us. We've been there for our time, and you and I may have lived to see the diminishing of that productivity. I don't know. I don't want to guess that that's true. It seems that that appears to be on the horizon.

But there's no Christian nation. And so we're called to submit, if our government changes its form, as governments do, to be model citizens who not only obey, but who have a spirit of obedience. And give honor to those who are in authority over us. That the name of Christ might not be evil spoken of. And that the critics who are looking for ways to condemn Christians, if they're going to condemn us, please, let it be for our faith, not our political viewpoint. So we submit.

Now, immediately after that, we say why, and just so that the point is made so indelible you can't forget it, Paul gives seven reasons why we are to submit. And we're going to start with those next time. And I mean, they are powerful, powerful principles that I think are really going to have a dramatic effect on all of us.

Let's bow together in a word of prayer. Our Father, we are citizens first of all not of this world. Our citizenship is in Heaven. We know that. But even though we enjoy a citizenship with thee, we have a sense of dual citizenship, too, because we are here. And we want to be model citizens. Also, Lord, because we are in Christ, we are free. But we cannot use our freedom as a cloak of maliciousness. Even though we are free in the spiritual dimension, we must be circumscribed to the laws of the nation in which we exist, for that is the commanded Scripture. So teach us to enjoy that spiritual liberty, at the same time submitting to the laws of men given for the preservation of society.

Teach us to enjoy all that our heavenly citizenship means, and yet to live peaceably, honestly, godly, in this present world. That the world may change, not because of our effort to change its structures and forms, but because of our commitment to see its souls changed by the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Help us, Lord, as we go through these coming Sundays to see clearly what it is that Your spirit says to us, and as each new principle unfolds its rich, profound meaning to us, fill our hearts with a sense of joy in knowing more clearly how to be Your children in the midst of a crooked, and perverse generation so that we shine as lights in the world for those who dwell in darkness.

We thank You for what You're going to accomplish in our hearts, in Christ's name, Amen.

The Christian's Responsibility to Government, Part 2

Let me say as you're sort of settling into your Bible about now that Christianity, as you know, is a total life experience. Christianity is not an addendum added to life. It is not peripheral. Christianity is a total life experience. It touches every element of life, though, word, deed, and relationship. Nothing is left unaffected by the transformation of the Lord Jesus Christ in a life. And so Christian living is not divisible. It is not segmentable. It cannot be isolated from any part of living.

And as you study the New Testament, it becomes obvious that the Spirit of God over and over lays out the totality of the Christian's experience. If you're looking at Ephesians5and6, for example, you begin to see that every relationship is touched by the affect of the Spirit of God in the life of a believer. It talks about husbands and wives and parents and children and masters and servants.

If you look at Colossians3, you see the very same thing. Every relationship impacted by the power of Christ in a life. But just for a moment, turn to 1Thessalonians4, and let me select one out of many possible passages that illustrate for us the totality of Christian experience.

Beginning in Verse1 of 1Thessalonians4, the Apostle Paul says, "Furthermore, therefore, we beseech you brethren, exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that has you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more." He says you ought to live according to your faith. And then in Verse3, he says, after having mentioned the commandments given to them through his agency from the Lord, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification. Abstain from fornication. Know how to possess your vessel," or your body.

Verse5, "Not in the lust of evil desire as the pagans who know not God." Verse6, "Do not go beyond and defraud your brother in any manner." Verse7 says, "God has not called us to uncleanness. And if you reject these laws," Verse8 says, "you're rejecting God, not man." "As touching brotherly love," Verse9, "you need not that I write unto you, for you, yourselves, are taught of God to love one another. And, indeed, you do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more."

So what the apostle is saying is, "Now that you've become a believer, it affects every relationship. No more illicit relationships. No more lust. No more unclean relationships. But only true love and pure love." And Verse12, "You walk honestly toward all the people who are outside the faith, and that ye may lack nothing."

So whether you're talking about those who are in the faith with brotherly love, those who are outside the faith, you are to be sure that all relationships are properly impacted by your faith in Christ. And you can read the second chapter of James and see very similar teaching where James says, "As an assembly, you are not to have respect of persons. You are not to show partiality. You are not to say to a man who is wealthy, 'Sit in this place of prominence,' and to one who is poorly clad, 'Sit here under my feet out of the way.'"

All of these passages tell us the myriad of dimensions of relationships that are impacted by Christianity. It affects all of our relationships within the family, all of our relationships outside of the family. Our relationships to the poor and the rich are all covered. Now in our text the Apostle Paul says our Christianity affects our relationships to those in authority over us. It affects our relationship to government, to rulers, to leaders, whether on a local or a national level.

And what we are learning here is that we are given some very strict and clear direction from the Spirit of God as to how we relate to the government that is over us. and in affect, if we just bring the epistle into total focus, Paul has said, "Since you are justified by Grace through faith, since you have been made right with God, since you have become citizens of His Heavenly Kingdom, since you are now controlled by His Holy Spirit and living under His Lordship, every dimension of life is different," every dimension, he started out, didn't he, in Chapter12, Verses1and 2. We immediately have a different relationship with God, and we present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices.

And then beginning in Verse3, he talks about how different our relationship is to believers. We are to minister to them. We are to love them. We are to be kind to them. Our relationship to those in need is touched in Verse13, "We are distributing to the necessity of saints and given to hospitality." And then he talks about our relationship to those who reject and hate our Gospel, and us as well. We are to bless those who persecute, "Bless, and curse not."

And Verse17, "We give back evil? No, not for evil. We give back good for evil," says Verse21. We do not wreak vengeance on someone. So what he is saying is that all relationships are impacted by our justification. And that is the intention of this epistle. Many people feel the epistle to the Romans is a great treatise on the doctrine of salvation, and that that is its high point. May I suggest to you that that is only a means to an end?

If all Paul wanted to focus on was the matter of justification, he could have ended the epistle in Chapter11, but he doesn't. He goes on to deal with the implications of the doctrines, which have been laid down in the first 11chapters, which implications we are now looking at. And so it is essential that a Christian understand that his relationship to authority, his relationship to government and those who are over him is dramatically impacted by his salvation. We are called to live as model citizens that we may reach the world around us with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now last week we pointed out to you that this is not the only passage that deals with this truth. You remember what we saw in 1Peter2:12 where Peter says essentially the same thing "Having your behavior honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." How are we gonna get he Gentiles to glorify God? "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King as supreme, or unto governors, as under them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well, for so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men."

In other words, how you behave under the authorities in your country, your nation, your city, whatever it is, will demonstrate your faith, the legitimacy of your faith, to that society. And so we are to submit then to the King, to the governor, to anyone who is over us in authority. I want to turn you to another passage that we haven't looked at in any detail, and just briefly mentioned last week, 1Timothy2. 1Timothy2:1to4. And I want you to notice something here that is going to be foundation for us as we go on in our study.

Now as the Apostle Paul writes instruction to Timothy, it is instruction basically for the church. It is for the church, Verse15 of Chapter3 says, "I want you to know how you ought to behave yourself in the House of God, which is the church." This is behavior principal for the church. "I exhort, therefore, that first of all," Chapter2, Verse1, "supplications, prayers, intersession, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Now there are two very, very essential points that comes out of that brief reading. 1)That we are to pray and intercede and supplicate and give thanks to God for kings and all that are in authority in order that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty or sincerity. In other words, if we want to live a quiet and peaceable life, if we want to be able to walk as God wants us to talk, and enjoy peace so that we can live out our godliness, our approach is to pray for those in authority over us. We do not affect our rulers by protest. We do not affect our rulers by disobedience. We do not affect our rulers by revolution and uprising, but by prayer.

And so the text says, "First of all, we come to God in prayer in order that as a result of that, we may lead the quiet and peaceable life, a life of godliness, a life of integrity, which will be the will of God, because through it, men will come to know the Savior." That is God's desire. In Jeremiah29:7 we read, "And seek the peace of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captives." This is a message to the Jews in captivity in Babylon. And God's Word to them through Jeremiah is, "Seek the peace of that place. You're captive. You're prisoner. You've been taken hostage, as it were. But you seek the peace and pray unto the Lord for it."

And, again, the same instruction is given that if you want peace in a society, to enjoy your faith, and to spread your faith, then pray for those in authority over you. That is the God-designed pattern. And it fits, doesn't it? With 2Corinthians10:3and following, where Paul says, "The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly," are they? But they are spiritual. And they are might to the pulling down of strongholds. And the most powerful weapon we have as believers to pull down strongholds, if you will, strongholds of the enemy of God, are the weapons of prayer.

And so for Christians, revolution has no place. Pray has the priority place. In a very significant book, written by Robert Culver, entitled Toward a Biblical View of Government, he says this, "Churchmen whose Christian activism has taken mainly to placarding, marching, protesting, and shouting, might well absence the author of these Verses. And then they might observe him first at prayer, then in counsel with his friends, and after that, preaching in the homes and marketplaces.

When Paul came to be heard by the mighty, it was to defend his action as a preacher of a way to Heaven," end quote. In other words, Paul says, "When it comes to political changes, when it comes to governmental issues, pray. If you're going to be thrown in prison, make sure you're thrown there not for a political protest, but for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

The goal of that kind of praying is a quiet and peaceable life in order that -- and that's the second thing that comes out of that -- we will have opportunity to see men saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And so we pray that God will allow us the privilege of living peaceable, quiet life to radiate the saving grace of Jesus Christ. The tranquil, quiet, peaceful life is to be the distinctive mark of a Christian.

And I grieve, frankly, when I hear all of this rhetoric about anger and violence and reaction and uprising and revolution. Listen to Paul's word again to the Thessalonians church in Chapter4, Verse10. "We beseech you, brethren," as we left off a moment ago, "that you are to increase more and more," in love, is what he means, "and you study," he says, "to be quiet. Study to be quiet, to do your own business, to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that are outside, that you may have lack of nothing." Study to be quiet. Learn to seek peace.

Frankly, beloved, all we can expect from government is protection of life, and protection of property, protection of life, and protection of property. If it does that, it serves God's intended purpose. Today, unfortunately, in our society, I think we see some failures, even in those areas. It seems as though with our government tolerating so many lawsuits that there are people who, in order to defend themselves, are losing some of their property; defending themselves when they're not even guilty of anything, but just to remain and maintain their innocence is a great cost.

And I think our country, in part, of course, fails in the protection of life with its millions upon millions of abortions. But in spite of those kinds of things, as Christians, we must pray and live a peaceful life, influencing the world, not by political protests, not by efforts to overthrow the government, but by godly living and bold, confrontive, forthright, preaching of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, that must be our message. Like the prophet, Amos, like the prophet, Neham, like the prophet, Malachi, we have every right to confront the sins of our society from the viewpoint of the Word of God, but not to engage in political acts of violence or overthrow or uprising or protest or revolution against the government.

And another passage that I would draw to your attention as we begin, is in Titus3. And, again, it's the same idea. And we're just picking up some of the things we briefly touched last week. in Titus3:1, Paul, again, setting things in order for the church over which Titus would have influence and responsibility says, "Put them in mind," or remind them, "to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men."

And then in Chapter3, Verse8, he says, "It's a faithful saying in these things I will that you affirm constantly, that they who have believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works." So we are called again, to a spirit of submission to those in authority over us, a life of godliness, a life of good works, a life which seeks peace. That is the unmistakable principal with which we begin our look at Romans13. Now you can turn back to Romans13. With that in mind, we come to the text. And it begins with this statement, Verse1, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers."

That is the bottom line command given to Christians. It does not discuss their character, their qualifications, whether they're good or bad, whether they were elected or appointed, whether it is a republic or a monarchy. It doesn't discuss any of that. It says we are to be subject. It is remarkable to me that in Matthew23, our Lord spoke to the people in the temple setting, and He said, "The scribes and the Pharoses sit in Moses' seat. And whatever they show unto you to do, do it." They have a God-given place of authority.

He says, "Do what they tell you to do. Just don't be like them." They were hypocrites. But their authority is granted by God, even though they were perverse men in their own hearts. Now I'm amazed that some people, in spite of the clarity of this command, persist in disobeying it, not only in our society and in our culture, but in others as well.

And this week, I had occasion to read book entitled, Bad News for Modern Men. And in that book, the author calls for Christians to fight. In fact, he uses the word "unite and fight." He calls for them to fight using -- and these are the words -- "confrontation, activism, protest, civil disobedience, and uprising." In that entire book, from front to back, there is no mention of Romans13, understandably. If you're going to take that view, you better avoid these verses. Jesus never taught His people to storm the Bastille.

Jesus never taught His people to revolt against the king. He never taught His people to kill unjust rulers. He never taught His people to march on city hall. He never taught them to barricade the administration building on the campus, to sit in to the President's office, to harass leaders, to violate law. Didn't matter what the form of government was, that was no issue. It's not even stated as to whether it's capitalistic or socialistic, democratic, or a monarchy, the matter is simple, we are supposed to reach the world.

And in order to reach the world we have demonstrate a godly, virtuous, peaceable kind of life so that what we possess and what we have is attractive to others. And if we are to let our light shine in a perverse and wicked generation, it must be the light of the glorious Gospel that shines in the face of Jesus Christ. now having said all of that, may I remind you of what we saw last time, that there is only one occasion tolerated in Scripture where we will violate this command, and that is when the government demands us to do what God forbids us to do, or demands us not to do what God commands us to do. Right?

The only time we violate this law, the only time we break this command to be subject to the higher power is when God, Himself, has called us to do something which we are being forbidden to do, or has commanded us not to do something we are being called to do. A couple of illustrations of this might help.

Turn in your Bible for a moment to Exodus1. And you'll notice in Verse15, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, the name of the other was Puah. And he said, "When ye do the office of a midwife," that is when you're a part of the birth process, "to the Hebrew women and you see them upon the stools, if it be a son then you shall kill him. If it be a daughter then she shall life." Now they're caught in a difficult place.

Now the government is saying, "If a son is born, kill that son." This is the king of Egypt saying this. "But," Verse17 says, "the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive." God blessed them. In Verse20, "Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very mighty. And it came to pass because the midwives feared God that He gave them families."

Of course, what was the greatest blessing to a Jewish person? To have a family. And so they disobeyed because they would be in violation of a command of God. They would be murdering, and they could not overstep the Law of God. There was another occasion of this.

Look for a moment in your Bible to Daniel's prophesy. And here you have a very clear, precise illustration of a man who refused to do what the king said, because it would be in violation of what God had said. And you remember in Daniel1 that Daniel was taken in Babylon captive with other of the young princes of Israel, and several of them are named in Verse7. Their real Hebrew names are in Verse6, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

And it says in Verse8 that Daniel purposed in his heart he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's food, nor the wine which he drank. Now here you have the occasion where Daniel is instructed by the Babylonian monarch to take the food of Babylon and eat it. To do that would have been to violate that which he knew to be laws revealed by God, for the Jews had very circumspect dietary laws, and he would not defile himself with food that was not prescribed by God. And yet, in all of Daniel's attitude, there's a spirit of submission.

"He requested," Verse8 says, "of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." He asks permission. He goes to the one who is over him, over the king, and over him, and he seeks permission. And he gets into a little dialogue. He says, "Let's try a test. I'll commit myself to eating what I would prefer to eat, and after a period of certain days, you come back. We'll look at everybody, those who've eaten the king's meat, and myself having eaten just these vegetables. Ten days will go by and we'll see who looks the best."

And this was a wonderful and conciliating way for Daniel to seek to obey God without becoming abusive of this man who was carrying out orders from his king. And so in Verse14, the man consented and ten days passed. And, of course, you know the story. When the ten days were ended and the man came into to check everybody out, Daniel and his friends far and away surpassed all the others and rose to place of prominence.

Now Daniel could have protested. He could have revolted. He could have been respectful to the one over him. He could have badmouthed the king. He could have done all kings of things. But he saw to conciliating means to obey God in the midst of a difficult situation. But he would not compromise. Later on, as you follow through for a moment in the book of Daniel, you'll remember that three of his friends, of course, in Chapter3, refused to bow down to the idol image. And as a result of that, they had disobeyed the king. They were told to bow down. They would not, because they couldn't bow down to the king when God had told them to bow only to Him. And so they were caught in the same crux of the same dilemma. And they were true to God and they said, "If you want to throw us in the fire, throw us in the fire. If God wants to deliver us, He'll deliver us. And if He doesn't want to deliver us, we still won't bow down."

And so there was a no-compromise attitude. But there was a sense of respect in what they said in Verse17. "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And He will deliver us out of thine hand, oh king. But if not, be it known unto thee, oh king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up." They did not speak any evil words against him. They were not disrespectful. They called him by his proper title. And they simply said, "We will not do this. But we are more than happy to suffer whatever consequences you feel are just for our seeming disbehavior."

And, again, their attitude is remarkably conciliating and gracious in the light of what they might have said. As a result of it, Chapter3, Verse30 says, "The king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon." They got a promotion because the king surely appreciated men with great conviction. He also wouldn't mind having people on his team who could walk through fiery furnaces. (Laughter)And then in Chapter6, we find, of course, that very familiar account of Daniel in the lion's den.

And now it's moved out of the Babylonian setting, and we're in the mido-Persian Kingdom. And by the way, I want to say as a footnote here, there is absolutely nothing wrong for anyone serving in a government position. There's nothing wrong with serving in a civil government role or a state government, or any other kind of leadership. That is an honored position. And Daniel is the single best example of that in the Scripture. And every time he was uncompromising, he got a greater reputation.

And because of his uncompromising spirit, he was constantly promoted 'till he finally became the prime minister of the whole nation, the whole Kingdom. It is an honorable thing to serve in government. It is not a dishonorable thing. Daniel is an illustration of that. But it was Daniel's wonderfully conciliating, and yet non-compromising attitude that caused him to prosper. You remember that Daniel prayed. And so those princes that wanted to get rid of Daniel got the king to sign an edict that no one was to pray to anybody, no one was to give obeisance to any other God.

And, of course, Daniel went on with his prayers. He went on with doing what he knew was right before God. And so he was thrown into the den of lions. But he was not at all disrespectful, as you know. In Verse21, just before God protected him, "Then said Daniel to the king," Verse21, "'Oh, king,'" what? "'Live forever. Long live the king.'" This seems a strange thing for a man about to be thrown in a den of lions by this king. But he understands that the powers that be are ordained of God. And he is submissive in a unique sense, and very trustful that no matter what that king does to him, he's in the hands of God.

God delivered him at the end of Chapter6, Verse28 says, "So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and the reign of Cyrus the Persian." Daniel's no-compromise approach, along with his friends, meant disobeying the government. But his attitude is a model for all those who come to that crossroads of having to face the reality that you can't do what the government says, or you can't not do what they say to stop doing. He never wavered from honoring the king, and neither did his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were never disrespectful.

In fact, just let me give you a little bit of a pattern that I see flowing out of the experience of Daniel. First of all, normally we obey, respect, and do everything in response to and to please those in authority. We are to be model citizens, obedient not only outwardly, but obedient in spirit. Secondly, we resist and disobey only when we are commanded to do something the Word of God forbids, or are forbidden to do something the Word of God commands. And those two things are illustrated in Daniel's prophesy. He would not do what the Word of God forbid, that is, eat a certain king of food. And he would not stop doing what God commanded him to do, and that was pray.

The third principal that flows out of it, even when government and the Word of God conflict, we should not disobey overtly until we have done all we can to try to resolve the conflict peacefully. Did you get that? To try to resole the conflict peacefully.

I will never forget in the State of California some years back when a group of Baptist Churches had their tax-exempt status removed. And they were slapped with large tax bills which they refused to pay. And some of those churches were boarded up by state officials. This is the State of California a few years back. It came to our attention when Sam Erickson who is an attorney in Washington now, of course, for the Christian Legal Society, was on our staff and here as a part of our church. And Sam said, "It is unbelievable that in the State of California these churches are being boarded up." And so he began to dig into it, and this is what had happened.

The IRS sent out a form to all churches -- a simple form to be signed. And what that form basically said was, "We, as a church, will not get engaged in political activities." In other words, "To keep our tax-exempt status, we have to be fully a church." Well, it's remarkable to me that the state understood some things that not all churches even understood about what a church is to be.

Now there are occasions when we do get involved in things which are political, like abortion and laws related to homosexual freedoms and those kinds of things. And there are times when we want to speak on issues that are very political, like capital punishment and dealing justly with criminals and so forth. So all we needed to do on that form was to say, "We will not engage in any political activities except for those times when the state is engaged in things which are spoken of in the Word of God. And then we feel they become matters of conscience and morality, and we have to speak."

All churches that wrote that, all the churches that sent that rather conciliating approach in had absolutely no problem. The churches that just said, "We won't sign your paper. We protest your paper. We'll get involved in anything we want," had their tax-exempt status removed, and some of them, because they didn't pay, were boarded up. Sam Erickson flew to Sacramento to talk to the state officials. He sat down in a meeting.

He explained to them that the intent was simply to say that there are times when Scripture intersects with the things the state does and so there are times when we have to speak on issues that are referendum issues or voting issues or issues of government. But not unless they relate to the Word of God and to our moral conscious, will we speak to those issues. And he said to them, "That's the problem here." The response of those people in the state was that, "If we had known that, we wouldn't have worded the form the way we did. We apologize." And those leaders of the state said to Sam, "We will never put out another form in this state related to this matter without consulting you first." (Laughter)It was simply and only a question of seeking a conciliating way to deal with an issue.

And Daniel went to the leaders of him and said, "Look, isn't there something we can work out here so that I can maintain my convictions and you can carry on with what you have to do?" Now that brings us to a fourth point that we learned from the pattern of Daniel, and that is that if disobedience is necessary, we must be willing to suffer the consequent punishment.

If we are called to obedience and our government says, "You're gonna be punished for that. We don't care if it is what you believe to be biblical," then we have to quietly and peacefully accept that punishment, just as Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did when they went into the fiery furnace, and just as Daniel did when he went into the lion's den. And all we simply do is commit ourselves to the safekeeping of the one who we're obeying. Right? And we couldn't be in safer hands.

But at all times, we say, as it were, with Daniel, "Oh, king, live forever." And we never have anything other than a respectful and honoring attitude to the authorities who are over us. This speaks volumes of the integrity of the Christian faith. And it also speaks loudly and clearly about the fact that Christianity is not a political viewpoint. It is not a political lobby. It is not a social perspective limited to some idea or some concept of social or economic existence. But it is a matter of soul salvation. That's the principal, and I've just tried to underscore it in many ways.

Now let's go back to Romans and at least take a brief look at how Paul unfolds the reasons why this principal is valid. We are to be subject to the powers that are over us. Why? He gives seven reasons, seven very logical, connected reasons. They flow out of each other, and actually, even overlap. And we'll take them one at a time. We'll take a few this time, and then a few more two weeks from tonight when we meet again. Let's begin with the beginning.

The first reason for this command to be subject to the higher powers, very important, is this, Verse1. "For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained by God." And so we say first of all, government is by divine decree. Government is by divine decree. Civil authority in any form comes directly from God. It's an institution like marriage is an institution. In a sense, it doesn't matter who the couple is, it doesn't matter what their lifestyle is, it doesn't matter the level of their commitment, marriage is an institution of God, isn't it? God designed for the passing on of society's preservation and meaningful relationships. And the church is an institution of God, and so is government.

Government is an institution of God. Now notice how he says it. "There is no power but of God." Now that's to say this, there's no power anywhere in existence that isn't reflective of the purpose and will of God. Did you get that? That is an inclusive statement. There's now power anywhere that is not representative of God's authority. No civil government exists in any nation of the world, never has, never will, apart from God having instituted it.

Psalm62:11 says, "Power belongs to God." All power belongs to God. All creation belongs to God. All things belong to God in Heaven and in earth. The entire world belongs to God. Man and all of his social contacts, and all of his social connections is only what he is and relates to who he relates to by the creative act and purpose and will of God. He is imminent in the world. He, who created the world, controls the world. He manages the world for His own purposes. And he, alone, is sovereign. And anyone who possess any sovereignty on earth has delegated sovereignty.

God alone has sovereign rights, undelegated. So all authority comes from the Lord. It doesn't matter what that authority is. Now when you bring that into the area of government, we have to say that all authority is from God. You say, "Now wait a minute. Are you talking about Communist China?" Yes. "You talking about Russia?" Yes. And you can just keep going, because it isn't gonna change. All power that exists is ordained of God, and there is not any power that is not reflective of a God-ordained authority. That's just the way it is.

God is the ultimate sovereign. I think this is reflective of a thought given by the Apostle Paul preaching on Marse Hill in Acts17. He talks about the nations. And he says in Verse26, that "all nations of men who dwell on all the face of the earth," that is speaking of God, "has determined the times before appointed and the boundaries of their habitation." In other words, God is the one who has designed and created nations. The length -- that is their duration on the earth -- and the breadth -- that is their identifying and signifying marks. So the gift of authority is a divine gift. No tyrant ever seized power without God allowing him.

Now you're gonna ask yourself some questions. You're probably doing it right now. You say, "What about the cruel governments? How can you say that about communist governments? How can you say that about Adolph Hitler? How can you say that about abusive kinds of government? How can you say that those are ordained of God?" Well let me answer it by saying this; I didn't say it. I just read it. The Bible said it. So I'm off the hook, folks. This is not my problem. (Laughter)There is no power but of God.

And then the other side of it is, the power that is, is ordained by God. "You mean in our nation that's what it says?" If it is a power, it's ordained by God. Well you say, "What about the cruel abuses?" Listen, the cruel abuses and the injustices and the wrongs of governments are no reflection of God's holy nature, and no reflection of God's holy will, any more than divorce in a marriage is a reflection of God's holy will. But marriage is no less an institution of God. And though there is apostasy in the church, the church is still an institution ordained of God. But the apostasy is no reflection of the nature of God.

No, abuses do not deny the sacredness nor the divine trust and authority in any of God's institutions, be it the home, the church, or the government. Frankly, men abuse all God's gifts, don't they? And wicked rulers are part of God's plan to punish wicked nations, and to allow evil to run its course toward destruction. If the truth were known, and perhaps someday in Heaven, God has designed by His sovereign purpose and will, a reason for every government that exists on the face of the earth. Some are for the benefit of those who have done well. Some are for the punishment of those peoples who have done evil. We cannot second-guess why God institutes a certain kind of government in a certain place.

God has ordained government to protect and preserve men, to protect their life and their property. To do that, there must be the role of government to repress evil, to repress crime, and to hold up and honor those who are virtuous and good. So Paul says, "The powers that be are ordained by God." The powers that be -- I hope you know this -- are not the will of the majority. The majority only reflects the sovereign purpose of God. The powers that be are God design. And that means any governmental power in any form.

So here, beloved, is Reason Number1 why we submit to the government, because the government is in place by the decree of God. It is the time for God to do in a nation what He chooses to do. It is expressive of the divine will. Sometimes He wants to punish a nation. Sometimes He wants to prosper a nation. Sometimes He wants to bless a people. Sometimes He chooses to judge a people. But government in all its form is by divine decree.

Now that leads us to the second principal. And, indeed, it is a dramatic principal. It is this, "Resistance to government --" here's another reason why we submit, "resistance to government is rebellion against God." That follows, doesn't it? Verse2, "Whosoever, therefore," obviously the "therefore" is there to connect it up with what was just said, "Since all government is ordained of God, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the institution of God." That couldn't be more clear.

If you resist the government, you resist the institution of God. The word "ordinance" there, sometimes translated "ordinance" is the word, neatage. It means institute. Because God is the power behind all government, whoever resists the authority of government, whoever is anti-taso, whoever lines up against the government -- and it's in a perfect form. Whosever has and continues the permanent attitude of resistance against the government, whoever arranged himself against the government by refusing to support, by disobeying, resists God.

Way back in 1839, Robert Halldane, writing in his wonderful commentary on Romans wrote, "The people of God, then, ought to consider resistance to the government under which they live as a very awful crime, even as resistance to God, Himself," end quote. It's quite a remarkable statement, and one which I mentioned to you last week, is whole-heartedly ascribed to by Georgie Vins and those who have come out of Russia to tell us that the dear Christian brothers and sisters in Russia will make no resistance against their government. And if they are imprisoned, it will be simply and only because of their love and proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was not consequential whether the Roman emperor was kind or good, whether he was a persecutor of Christians, or a lover of Christians. It was not consequential whether he was elected by the people, whether he was appointed by the senate, or whether he took over in a military coo. It was not consequential worker the assertion of imperial authority by Caesar was just or unjust, whether he was wicked or whether he was basically good. None of that was consequential.

It was simply and only that government, as it exists in any situation, is for the purpose of God in that situation. And resistance and rebellion against that government is resistance and rebellion against God, now again I say, unless it is obvious that the government has overstepped its bounds and is forcing you to do that which is contrary and counter to all that Scripture indicates. God operates in the maintenance of government. We obey.

We honor that government whether the president or the governor or the senate, house, the police, whatever it is. And I'm thinking back, do you remember David's horror when he had occasion to kill Saul? Do you remember that? But he wouldn't do it. He just couldn't do it. He understood this truth of honoring the one in authority. It was so important in Israel to teach children this that the penalty for a disobedient child, one who was disobedient to his parents, was what? Death.

So government is divinely decreed, and to resist it, is to resist God. Now I want to take you to a third thought as we wrap up. Those who resist will be punished. Look at Verse2, again. "They that resist shall receive to themselves judgment." If you resist the government, you're going to be punished. That's the way it is. The word is "crima." It's a word that means judgment.

It's used in 1Corinthians11:29, of the judgment of God. But here it's used I think primarily in reference to the punishment that comes from God through civil authorities, through civil authorities. God has ordained government to punish evildoers. And if you resist the government, you're gonna get punished. Now, if like Daniel, you have to because you have a higher command, then you accept the punishment. But if it's not in that situation, if it's just a choice you make to resist, of course, you're gonna receive the punishment. Now that was true in the Old Testament economy.

If I can digress for just a moment to give you a little bit of an insight. Old Testament punishment is very interesting. If you go back to the Old Testament and see how criminals were punished, it's quite a fascinating study. We don't have time, obviously, to exhaust that study. But as you study the Old Testament economy, you see that there were ways in which people were punished. And let me suggest what they were, to you, just in general. Restitution was one.

In other words, whatever you took, you had to bring back. Recently our home was robbed. They took some things of value like a gold watch that I've had for years. It was my grandfather's. And they took some of the silver that we received when we were married, and they took some things like that. And recently the police called and said, "We caught the guys that did this. We know, because they mentioned this watch and so forth and so on. But they took it down to a receiver or a fencing place down in Hollywood, a pawnshop, and it's melted in the back and out the door before we could get it back. And we now have them in custody. One of them is released on bail. The other one's here because there's another warrant for his arrest, and so forth and so forth and so on."

They said, "We regret to say that there's no way that you'll ever recover the goods that were taken," which is not a big issue. But what I thought about was the Old Testament pattern of restitution. The way a criminal was punished was not to then take him and stick him somewhere where he's no earthly good to anybody for a long time, but to give him the dignity of working with his hands.

You'll also find in the Old Testament that punishment was invariably corporeal. That is, it was physical. It was bodily. It was a matter of whippings, lashing, so that pain came instantaneously, and shame was public, and it was now, and it was over, and you went on with life. You paid for your punishment. You paid with your punishment for your crime, and you went on with life. You commit another crime, you're gonna get it again. And, of course, if the crime was worthy of death, and there were nearly 35different crimes for which death was a prescribe penalty, you died, and you died very fast, obviously. So their punishment system was very simple. For any of the lesser crimes, it was corporeal punishment and restitution. For the greater crimes, it was death. And their objective in punishment was multiple.

First of all, it was a matter of justice. Secondly, it was a deterrent to crime. Thirdly, it was a restraint on criminals. Fourthly, it allowed them rehabilitation. In other words, you paid and it was over with. You didn't go and sit in some cell and learn how to be a better criminal and be raped by a bunch of homosexuals. And there was, obviously, in this kind of immediate judgment and punishment, a prevention of private vengeance. There were no prisons in Old Testament Judaism. And there's nothing in the Old Testament text to indicate that Israelites should ever have had a prison.

There's no command of God in all the commands that are given for Levitical social law, for the life of Israel, for them to establish a prison. They created no prisons. They operated no prisons. They were a part of Roman social order and other Pagan social orders. There's one occasion in Jeremiah37 where they wanted to get rid of Jeremiah. They didn't know what to do with him, so they wanted to incarcerate him. So they made a prison in a home, which indicates to me that they didn't even have one. So prisons are not that which is endorsed biblically.

Instantaneous payment of the criminal was exacted in severe punishment. Lashes and whippings, corporeal punishment, and then the opportunity for restitution, which restored the man's dignity. In early America, you might be also interested to know the Puritans used corporeal physical punishment. You remember seeing some of the pictures in your early American history books of people sitting in stocks with their heads and their hands and their arms stuck through those little holes. And we say, "Oh, how terrible. How painful. I've only been in church an hour and a half and I gotta stand up. I can't imagine being that way for three or four days or a week or whatever it might have been." They used corporeal, physical punishment. They understood that that was indicative of scriptural reflection. And where the crime was very severe, it could be banishment. And the most severe crime, execution.

Frankly, it was the Quakers who came along and introduced the prison system. The first American prison was what was called the Walnut Street Jail. And by 1790, the law had established imprisonment as the proper way to punish criminals. It is a very late thing, even in American history. Today, we have in the United States a half a million prisoners, and the highest crime rate in the western world. And you ask the question, "Does it work?" And we answer, "Of course, it doesn't work." Prisons are breeding grounds for criminals, homosexuals, brutality. They operate crime schools. "The American prison system," says one biblical write, "is unbiblical, inhumane, ineffective, inefficient, and idiotic."

We've punished, by the way, according to the statistics of 1982, 25 out of every 500 serious crime criminals; 475 are unpunished. The 25 that are punished, are punished by being put someplace where they sit for years and years. God has given government the right to punish. And now we hear all the time about advocating the rights of prisoners, don't we? So that prisons are fast becoming country clubs. And some people don't mind being there. They get free meals and they're cared for by the state and so forth. But in the Old Testament economy, the government had swift right to punish. And they punished corporeally, and they punished immediately, and they forced restitution which allowed a person to gain back his dignity and pay his debts. And the restitution process, interestingly enough, was usually conducted by assigning that man to a family. And he lived in that family and was cared for by that family while he worked out his restitution. What a dignified way to restore a man's character.

And so whatever the crime demands, the punishment was to be given swiftly. And you remember, don't you, the reflection of Ecclesiastes, is it Chapter8, Verse11, "Because sentence against and evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." If you don't bring about sentencing speedily, then men will do evil. We've come to that place where it's anything but speedily done in our society. So any punishment of an evildoer is a God-given right, given to the government. And when a person violates the law, they should expect that they be punished, because God has given the state the right to do that.

So human authority punishes violators. And certainly, you say, "Is this the human authority punishing?" Yes, but it's in a sense, representative of God. The instruments of punishment are human. The laws, the source, is God. now listen, do you see when this all begins to break down, when we forget that government is an institution of God, that the powers that be are ordained of God for whatever His purposes may be, when we begin to allow evil to go unpunished, then the whole instrument of government begins to break down. And I fear, dear friends, that politicizing isn't gonna change that. I think we're watching the collapse of our government. I think we're watching the collapse of our society.

There's only one way to change that, and that's not by political action. That's by the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Right? That's our priority. That's what we must be committed to. So we submit to the government. Why? The government is from God. To rebel, is to rebel against God. And to resist brings punishment. To resist brings punishment.

The fourth one, which I'll just introduce and we'll cover next time, is in the next verse, Verse3, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil." And that tells us that we are to submit to the government because government serves to restrain evil. It does. You know that even a communist Chinese government restrains evil? You know that Russian government restrains evil? Any of the iron curtain governments that we look down on, restrain evil. Any government does that.

There's no government on the face of the earth, for example, that will punish you for failure to rape somebody. There's no government in the world that'll punish you for failure to rob somebody. No government will punish you for failure to murder somebody. No. even the worst kind of governments deal rightly with matters of right and wrong. I was talking to someone from Ethiopia not long ago, and Ethiopia is a country in turmoil, unbelievable governmental turmoil.

Revolution is going on in Ethiopia. And we would say that is the worst kind of situation governmentally. We're talking about the fact that what is the crime situation like in Ethiopia, and this person reflected to me that a missionary had said, "Well, three years ago, there was a rape there." Three years ago there was a rape in Adas Ababa, city of I don't know how many million people. And they said, "But there hasn't been one since because the next day, the guy was hanging in the marketplace."

Now you might not like the politics of Adas Ababa. And you might not like the style of government, whatever style it is over there. But that, like any other government, is in the business of at least knowing the difference between right and wrong. Beloved, that came in the fall. If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're gonna know good and evil. And even fallen, sinful people know that, and government upholds that.

And I daresay, I hate to say it, I don't like to say it, you're safer on the streets of Iran at night than you are on the streets of Los Angeles. Because if you mess around in Iran, you don't last very long. And they, at least, know what crime is, and they deal with it, even though we certainly wouldn't want to live under that kind of a government. So government is in place to restrain evil. And even those governments which we wouldn't want to identify with or be subject to, do have a modicum of understanding of right and wrong. We're gonna get into that in detail when we go in our study.

Well, I'll stop at this point. I feel somewhat frustrated because there's so much more to say and I feel like I'm giving you half a piece each time of what's in my heart to say. But I'll entrust this to your care and the Holy Spirit's until we can bring it all together our next time, two weeks from tonight. Let's bow in prayer.

Lord, we just know that in our hearts we desire to be what You want us to be. That's our deepest desire. We're not bringing some ulterior motive to this text because there are a lot of things that we don't like and would like to change. And there are a lot of dear brothers and sisters that we love in all the countries around the world that are living under very oppressive and difficult governmental situations. And, Lord, there's so many things we would want to change.

Something in us cries out against injustice and inequity and unfairness. Something cries out against encroaching power against the church. Something in us cries out on behalf of those in our societies around the world who may be oppressed and unfairly treated. And we would desire to see governments change, and their attitudes change. And yet, Lord, we have to hear what You have said to us, that the priority for us is not politics, it is not social structure.

The priority for us is godly living, peaceable living, a quiet life that exalts Jesus Christ within integrity and honesty, and a bold and forthright and loud proclamation of the saving Gospel. Father, help us to be faithful to this, and to know that whatever government there is is there because by Your providence and Your sovereignty, it is reflective of Your purpose for that time and that place and that people, and there is no power in existence that is not there because You have permitted it. And all power is ordained by You.

And help us as Christians to know that if we disobey that power it brings to us a just punishment, for that is to resist You, and causes us to be worthy of the punishment which You have delegated to that government. So, Lord, help us to be model citizens, who, with our well doing will silence the ignorance of foolish men. May the world never see us a politically active group, as a group that takes a certain social view, or a group with a certain kind of philosophy of leadership, a philosophy of ruling. But may they see us as distinctly Christian, reflecting the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth of the Word of God. and may it be, oh Lord, that when those times come when Your children must go against the government because You have commanded us to do so, may we do so with a gracious spirit, with a spirit that is willing to take whatever punishment is to come, committing ourselves to the care of the one who cares for us, our own God and Heavenly Father.

And may we at all times, show respect to those in authority over us, while being uncompromising in our commitment to obedience. And thus, may we bring great glory and honor to You. And may we prosper even as did Daniel and his friends, for Your praise in glory, in Christ's name, Amen.