Romans (Session 21) Chapter 13

well we're in the a review of the epistle to the romans and we're in the third of the three sections of the book we're in chapter 13 tonight now you may recall the first eight chapters of romans are doctrinal the the definitive diagnosis of sin the first three chapters four and five the definitive state chapters on salvation and 678 on sanctification and uh the they're the doctrinal and the climax is one of the greatest two forces in the bible in chapter eight the next three chapters are dispensational 9 10 and 11. and that's where paul hammers away that god is not finished with israel yet they have a climactic destiny yet ahead of us and then so we have israel past present and future that made up those three chapters in the middle of the book or in that section of the book we're now in the third section 12 13 14 15 16. there these are the five chapters that are practical how do you what do you do about all that so we've been through the tough part of the book really in the first eight chapters you'd call them faith dispensational or hope and this of course the love chapters and so we're in the third section we're in the second chapter of those we had responsibilities from the gifts last time and that's really included to the verses that many people consider the most important verses in the book uh romans 12 1-2 be transformed my wife has run it has published a definitive text on that whole textbook just on those two verses be not conformed to this world be but transformed by the renewing of your mind but we're going to tonight to look at romans 13 which will include among other things our civic or civil responsibilities and uh so chapter 13 is going to deal with a relationship between the christian and his government that's a paradox for many people because we are in a very unusual governmental situation in this country and often chapter 13 is often misunderstood certainly misquoted one of the questions comes up many questions must we obey a covenant uh government that is corrupt chapter 13 seems to presume good things and uh i might add that this is this was in our notes long before this administration incidentally so don't jump to any conclusions although it probably becomes a very relevant question in the in the recent administrations of this country how do we as christians relate to a government that is a representative republic don't have a king how do we read how do we relate the biblical instructions to our peculiar predicament do we have perchance a dual citizenship obviously that's part of the answer the fundamental institutions we're going to explore here are not just from the book of romans the fundamental institutions we're going to be dealing with were grounded in genesis the first 11 chapters so let's take a look at those one of the first is personal volition your free will is an institution of god often don't think of that the freedom to choose your own destiny you have a choice and that was very important it's interesting that the framers of the american constitution they reflect a very profound understanding of this very fundamental freedom the freedom of choice that was the concept that undergirded our founding father's work we hold these truths to be self-evident and so forth and see god didn't want robots volition or freedom of choice is a prerequisite to love a robot can't love he can just respond right but we're talking about something very fundamental here so we have free will as one of them another institution that's right at the very beginning of our bible is marriage and it's not just the relationship between a man and a woman the marriage is used by god to express explain and illustrate intimacy all the way through the scripture we find the marriage used as an instructional device for us to understand intimacy that's why we can speak of the bridegroom and the bride in the climax of the whole scenario and so on and uh the divine order and human race it all starts in genesis chapter two and for this cause shall man leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife and the two shall be one flesh there's a concept of leaving as well as cleaving in there and uh and men and women you know it's interesting as we go through these you'll notice that satan is out to attack each one of these and uh heterosexuals reproduce homosexuals recruit and uh we and one of the that comes home to roost in the book of romans we discovered in the first chapter something that eluded me for many many years i've never understood homosexuality i've always looked at it from leviticus and other points of view as an individual sin i was shocked to discover that romans deals with a very specific judgment of god on a culture that fails to recognize him as a creator that judgment is homosexuality and four times it's god that gives them over to that as a judgment for their behavior and uh and of course the other part of this is man is the head of the household and there's two rules for happiness in in in ephesians five and the man is to be in charge but the opposite the other side other part of it is he is to love his wife like christ loved the church gave himself for it two simple rules one is for respect and one is for unbridled and uh un uh unconstrained love respect in one direction love and the other two simple rules that leads to the most important segment of our society the family it's interesting how the the how satan attacks each one of these the the sanctity of the marriage the uh the whole nature of the family is under attack and uh by many many different ways the responsibility for authority over the children is the parents not the state how disturbing it is to see the un and other entities intrude on this thing this this institution and it's it's in the family that we learn respect for law and order it's the family that we learn about relationships and so on human government just stepping up each one that's we're going to encounter this now in this first seven verses of chapter 13. and uh the entire world was started with eight people let me say two no we're talking flood you know noah we're all descendants of noah did you know that we're all relatives in here did you know that that's why we don't get along any better probably but it's interesting that in genesis chapter 9 by man shall his blood be said speaking of the murders capital punishment is ordained in chapter 9. that raises a very sensitive issue that we'll get into and all other authorities derive from that one interestingly enough in a governmental sense that's why the high priest went around jerusalem wearing sackcloth and ashes when the cat the ability to administer capital punishment was taken away from them by rome they felt that the word of god has been broken because of genesis 49 10 they felt that the shiloh had departed from judah and and the messiah had not come they didn't know that he'd already come as a kid up in nazareth at the time there were no jails in ancient israel that's interesting when you stop to think about the population segment in this country that's in jail it's even more disturbing to see the ones that are not in jail anymore six hundred and five thousand sexual predators that are out on the streets registered of course yeah that helps i suppose in the scripture they had no jails also when you stole you had retribution of five times to return they played tough didn't they habitual criminals were stoned that's probably a little different tradition we have here but the word stone carries a different meaning today i think in israel they have these cities of refuge i consider i think they're very very fascinating actually you had six of them three east of the jordan three west of the jordan and if you somehow inadvertently caused a death the the the next of kin was after you and was going to kill you and if you could get to a city of refuge and convince the city fathers that it was indeed what we would call secondary you know manslaughter not not premeditated then you had sanctuary and that sanctuary endured until the high priest down jerusalem died then you are free to go home but till then if you left town you were fair game to the avenger of blood the next of kin who was after you he was the enforcer in a sense and uh strange strange approach in some respects what does the death of the high priest down there have to do with anything but that was the way it worked and uh i was once challenged about you know everything that bible points of christ but what about these things they do too you see the death of christ was that it was a premeditated manslaughter when god's point of view was premeditated by his predetermined counsels but from man's point of view is it manslaughter or is it father forgive them for they know not what they do i'd rest my case on that it's manslaughter as far as we're concerned so we're entitled to a city of refuge who's our city of refuge jesus christ and we're safe there until the high priest dies who's our high priest and he's died he said you know you begin to look at that and you realize that the holy spirit's playing word games with us but anyway this was that was the approach for manslaughter in israel they had no graduate school for crime like we have called a penitentiary you get up there from you you go get caught up into that system with a minor crime and you'll come out as a professionally trained major that's the rea that's the reality of it so that raises the whole issue of capital punishment now here's where we're probably going to we're going to divide up a little bit because some of you may not agree with me see after the flood god announced the principles of government that's in genesis chapter nine blood was six seven and eight nine was the rebuilding genesis nine starting at verse 5 and surely your blood of your lives will i require at the hand of every beast will i require it at the hand of man at the hand of every man's brother will i require the life of man whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of god made he man pretty straightforward language chapters this everlasting covenant with noah is to endure while the earth remains some people call this the noah covenant the covenant with noah and it's still operative it's the basis for human government a thousand years later under the law of moses god reaffirmed the governmental duty of punishing murders with death i don't have opinions about this it didn't matter if i did we have god on record the days of noah and days of moses numbers 35 moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death but he shall be surely put to death so ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are for blood it defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it wow is our land defiled boy it must be it must be say chuck that's pretty archaic yes it is but it's from the guy who designed the rules the creator himself i think many of us are grateful that in one sense that we don't have capital punishment because so often the innocent get deemed guilty and i've had public defenders say there's more people that are guilty that go free than the other way around but still it's an imperfect system that gives us pause but we cannot escape the command of god that by man that that bloodsh that blood should be said the number of known mankillers alive in america outnumber the courage of the clergymen the teachers in our schools the judges and magistrates and even the policemen on duty that's disturbing to claim that it is not christian to execute murders is to directly deny god's plain word in romans 13. that's a reality you may not like it you may not agree with it okay but that's what paul lays out for us here the magistrate beareth not the sword in vain and being a minister of wrath to him that doeth evil and one of whom evil-doers are commanded to be afraid so we're going to get into all this here therefore it's an appalling disservice to home state and the nation to call murderer that which god has commanded to be done the execution of the shutters of human blood i mean like the press likes to call you know the people like the protesters like to call that murder no that's what god has commanded to have happened it's liable on christianity claim that the current anti-capital punishment cry is christian it is not christian but a rebellion against the word of god to fight capital pun i never thought of it that way before but it's very true to fight capital punishment is is to take a position against the word of god strangely enough remember being in high school we used to have debates on this sort of thing this is one that's a dimension that never came up the penitent thief on the cross remember him he said we suffer our the due reward for our deeds and he cried out to jesus lord remember me when you come into your kingdom your lord's answer was today thou shalt be with me in paradise this demonstrates a fundamental truth government in this world salvation in the next two different issues only the ignorant confuse these two let's get another institution the first world leader shows up in the first 11 chapters of genesis nimrod whose name means we rebel genesis 10. he was from he was cushite probably black i mentioned that just because there's nothing inferior here they ruled the world at one time the first dictator was was apparently black cush was a progenitor of the south southernmost peoples located in africa and the descendants of kush are located around the southern parts of the nile that's why in many your bibles cush is translated to ethiopia it isn't necessarily ethiopia it's just it's it's uh down uh i should say upriver uh from the nile so uh he establishes capital at babal which becomes babylon babylon is the capital of the first world dictator and we believe that babylon is going to be the capital of the next world dictator it was an astrological temple in chapter in genesis 11 and and nimrod was a mighty hunter in defiance of the lord many people suffer from the real translation of that he was he was a major major leader in in genesis chapter 4 verse 26 this is one of the few places where the king james is a little mistranslated in the king james then man began to call upon the name of the lord technically in a footnote or probably say call themselves by the name of the lord the proper way to really translate that then man began to profane the name of the lord and that's not just my view that targa ankalos which is in the rabbinical community is known as the translation and desisted from praying in the name of the lord the target of jonathan surnamed their idols in the name of the lord and kimchi rashi jerome and also mammonities all ascribe the origin of idolatry to the days of enoch so that's where it all began if you will one world governments lead to a satanic tyranny now it's interesting that's exactly what's unfolding before our eyes there is a major move to create a one world government on planet earth and it has to happen for lots of secular reasons nuclear proliferation and terrorism being two of the big big ones the european union has finally got their thing put together through all kinds of chicanery and so on we're trying to do the same thing in north america with the north american union that's scheduled to be completed before 2010 and on it goes we can see it coming that will lead to the trinity to the satanic trinity that revelation talks about in those days the degree of evil was unlimited and first john 5 19 says we know that we are of god and the whole world lieth in what wickedness so we shouldn't be surprised as we see these things move we know the the niv does a little bit we are we know that we are the trump god and the whole world is under the control of the evil one so that's probably as crisp as it can be okay satan through socialism and other techniques is attacking all four of the basic institutions we talked about the free will marriage the family and so on feminism the rise and condoning of homosexuality and existing in romans 1 remember it wasn't just homosexuals those that condone it that take pleasure in them and relativism of course and consensus thinking being other aspects of of the mechanics here consensus thinking we just we all should just agree check your brains at the door we're all going to just get together and agree well let's just jump into romans 13. let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there's no power but of god and the powers that are ordained that be are ordained of god whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of god and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and that word is really uh judgment or condemnation well um that's all fine if you got a good government you get kind of a paradox when you've got a an evil judge it's going to get into this here see we have an exception and uh we need to know the law in acts 4 because when they saw the boldest of peter and john the crowd they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with jesus and beholding the man which was healed standing with them they could say nothing against it but when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council they conferred among themselves saying what shall we do to these men for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in jerusalem and we cannot deny it but that it spread no further among the people let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in his in this name okay and they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of jesus you know there's places our government's doing the same thing you know they call it hate speech right [Music] appearing john answered and said to them whether it be right in the sight of god to hearken unto you more than to god judgey for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard so when they had further threatened them they let them go finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people for all men glorified god for that which was done so they got off the hook see they chose to but they they chose to ignore this official edict of the governing council there's a pattern here if you're following me see we have a different situation a little different we our situation is one that wasn't ex anticipated in the way that scripture is written because we're in a very peculiar position you see the officials are our employees you see our the different the predicament we're in they were not their employees and they but they all they chose to disobey them we've got even a more bizarre situation because the people that are imposing their will on us are the guys we voted for we hired them in effect they're our employees we're in a little different the bible doesn't seem to deal directly at least with responsibilities of a democracy in which officials are elected and laws are drafted by elected officials and have authority over the officials see the our our allegiance is not too unofficial it's to the law a rule of law our our allegiance isn't to a person it's to an office you see and so um that that puts us in a kind of we're committed to the rule of law not a specific ruler now the most shocking disturbing thing is to realize that we're departing in our country from a rule of law we're departing from due process the shocking thing about the north american union rumbles it's not what they're doing it might be a good idea the real problem is they're doing it illegally they're doing it without the rule of the people without congressional oversight without the value of public debate why don't they do it because they know if they did that they'd never make it submission to our republic is primary to laws and constitutional processes not to persons that's why our predicament is a little deviant from the one that paul is dealing with directly here biblical submission is a readiness to obey law and uphold legal order that's really what paul is arguing for to hold the legal order and uh it's not an approval or endorsement of all lawmakers or even laws absolutely christ is the absolute supremacy over our lives and qualifies the absoluteness of human law because we follow christ rather than human law first if we're serious john the baptist let's take a look at him john the baptist preaching is an example of a proper indictment of present government authority john john the baptist wasn't following the first few verses of romans 13. in fact in verse 11 of chapter 11 of matthew jesus says verily i say to you among them that are born of women there have not risen a greater than john the baptist that's quite a statement by the way think about it of all that were born of women there have not risen a greater than john the baptist wow that's quite a from from our lord that's a knowledgeable and absolute statement notwithstanding he is least in the kingdom of heaven he that is at least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he well that raises a whole other issue what is the kingdom of heaven all about but i'm not going to get we've already talked about that a little bit but that's what jesus said of john the baptist now what makes this particularly remarkable where was john the baptist when jesus was saying this he was in prison not only that why was he in prison for publicly indicting the ruling king so there's a place for civil disobedience there's a place for uh accusing our rulers for when john herrod had john arrested he bound him and put him in prison because of herodias the wife of his brother philip for john had been saying to him it is not lawful for you to have her opposition to a leader's behavior a public criticism of it and declaration of moral and fitness for office is not necessarily inconsistent with a submissive spirit to governing authorities impeaching president clinton had an appropriateness there may be other impeachments in the offering who knows but those are not inconsistent with the teaching of scripture because in the third verse of romans 13 for rulers it means rulers in general for rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil will thou then not be afraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same see this doesn't really deal with the converse of this what do you do if you have rulers that are terror to good works and uh yeah and uh and support the evil this implies what is implying here the general case is they are the rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil rulers generally will be put be putting down evil contrast this with the rebellious jews against the roman law they rebelled and they got crushed wiped out and prohibited to ever enter jerusalem that was the the result of the of that rebellion and uh we know some outstanding ministers preachers that didn't that rebelled against the tax system they're doing they're in prison it's not a question of what they're right and wrong they're fighting the wrong battle don't fight the fact system they felt it wasn't legitimate and so forth well as a result it's curtailed or constrained they're preaching of the word which is what they were called to and doing a good job at it important to pick your battles and although they not be afraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same the jews rebellious rome and claudius expelled all jews from rome what's to be done when the rulers are evil and a terror to good works that's the enigma that haunts us because if we didn't rebel there would have been no no american there would be no american revolution a very small group but a very vigorous group established our independence see we have a very unique mandate and i think you and i are going to be held accountable for this mandate we have a responsibility in this country that many people in other countries do not have because we pick our leaders we're supposed we're going to be held accountable for a government of the people by the people and for the people one of the things that disturbs us as we examine this is the illiteracy of our electorate the biggest problem of the is our biggest problem ignorance or apathy they'll say i don't know and i don't care the apathy the ignorance of the american voter is going to end america within in my guess a couple of years not 10 or 20 two or three because nobody cares nobody has even the background to understand what's happening or the realization of what's happening to america see the first priority then is to know the truth about our leadership and i'm if you want an interesting read of books i encourage you to get stop the presses by joseph farah it's the story of world net daily but it's more it turns out to be more than just world daily it's an astonishing change has occurred in journalism in america in the last few years because of joe farah and guys like him because he feels that the primary mission of every public newspaper is there be a watchdog in the government without that you don't have a free press you don't have a free country the role of the free press is to not be the minion of the government tragically some of the mainline media are the same power people that need to be exposed rather than anyway critical role of the free press understand it that's why internet is so powerful it's not because right a lot of junk and foolishness on the internet but it also is a channel around the stranglehold of the so-called mainline media it's abomination for kings to commit wickedness for the throne is established by righteousness the abandonment of righteousness weakens the seat of government and the stability and security of nation one of our problems was the immorality of the previous administration not that this one's that much better don't misunderstand me but i'm saying that starts to undermine it's not just bad decisions and and corruption in the government it spreads throughout the whole culture it teaches our kids that the idea isn't to be good is to be a winner win at any price morality characters out the door mercy and truth preserve the king and his throne is upholded by mercy proverbs 20 28 putting in the nasb a little differently loyalty and truth preserve the king and he upholds his throne by righteousness same basic thought the abandonment of truth and the loyalty covenants undermines the leadership of a ruler the king by judgment establishes the land but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it it's talking about bribery nsb says the king gives stability to the land by justice but a man who takes bribes overthrows it gets a little more bribery is the root issue of private untruthfulness or truthfulness acting on principle rather than be driven by expediency is what we would like to see how tragically politics is the practice of expediency over principle bribery is a rude issue undermining truthfulness acting on principle rather than being driven by expediency thus integrity is when integrity is forsaken justice is overthrown nothing is more disturbing than you begin to realize the corruption that pervades our government and our court systems if a ruler harkens to lies all his servants are wicked that's what sends to happen proverbs 29 12. putting in another way if i'd rule pays attention to falsehood all his ministers become wicked another way to put it the minimizing of truthfulness corrupts others so the entire government becomes corrupt and we've seen examples of that last several administrations private morality has vast public implications that's what's so disturbing about immorality in the oval office especially when it's flagrant there may have been all kinds of innocent incidents in the past that at least had the the the uh sense to keep it secret not flaunted in the anyway not i'm not condoning it doesn't understand me well we got a forthcoming election it's not about political or economic philosophy whether we think so or not it's about moral law which will outlive this republic long before it's gone by the way the left never uses the terms litmus test or big tent left never use that terms they have never insulted their constituencies when i picked up that line i couldn't help think i don't know how you'd go about insulting their constituencies i'm not sure they're insultable insultable okay is any big tent as they always talk about big enough to embrace corruption the corruption they're committed to is any tent big enough to embrace those who would murder children during their delivery that's a platform of one of the parties is any tent big enough to endorse and subsidize sexual perversion major major constituency is any tent big enough to promote incurable disease promote incurable diseases is any tent big enough to destroy the concept of the family which god has ordained there are platforms built on these very issues where's the shame where's the outrage every time i think of that line i had a five minute opportunity at the council for national policy and i just went up there and i said i asked you know where's the outrage i just shot my mouth off a few minutes and after later on during the day someone slipped me a note to be in 137 at three that afternoon you know what's going on don't tell anybody okay i went there there was a room there's about 20 people in there they were planning the impeachment of bill clinton bob barr was there and all that gang and it was really good good try anyway for the wrong reasons the wrong way but anyway this is i'm putting this on here with my tongue in my cheek but i thought you get a kick out of it a wise man's heart directs him toward the right but a foolish man's heart directs him toward the left so if you if you want to know how to vote there it is now i'm i'm misapplying this for humor i have to say i'm misapplying because i don't think we have a right in this country everything's just how left you want to go you know anyway this coming election is not about political views it's about character it's about morality it's about keeping odes before the throne of god that's what it's all about a present president has an oath to enforce the laws of his country that he's willfully deliberately denying refusing refusing to do if they're wrong change the laws but if they're right enforce them that's his job he's the executive branch not the legislative branch congress and the senate take oaths you're a congressman or center you've taken an oath before god let's go ahead and reread those sometime guys are they relevant are they accountable they are accountable not just to the voters they're accountable before the throne of god they may not take that seriously but they will they will a mandate and commitment to preserve and defend god-given rights embody the constitution they're committed to they may not worship the same god but they're committed to enforce that constitution our duty is to stand for what's right not to vote for what's popular not to vote for what that which you think will have an impact or not you vote what's right the victory is the lord's should he choose the blessings and he may not okay but our job is to vote for what's right so you need to vote people say gee they're so depressed with what's going on they don't they think our vote doesn't count won't matter same power groups behind both political parties probably true okay that's no reason not to vote because you have a vote before the lord the victory whatever happened to be the lord should he choose to bless there is a poll you can't ignore and it has only one vote a poll that can't be ignored has only one vote there is an election coming which has your name on the ballot it'll involve a ballot box which will receive only one relevant vote gods results will not be determined by any rhetoric and what is your voting record been there's something more powerful than the ballot box that's your prayer closet you don't like the way things are going take it to the big boss seriously now to pray pray for the presence repentance and renewal in faith and honesty and purity of heart and body that i'm not just picking on a present present that's a good principle for all the people that we should be voting for pray for the office of the presidency that its moral leadership might be reinstated to shambles currently pray for all of our leaders not just the president for discernment and wisdom in their decisions for courage in times of crisis boy they need it they're fa they're pa they're facing tough times for repentance where their behavior still requires and we all need to repent and for the exaltation of god and exalted exaltation of the god in our land whose ways and the word have been ignored and despised we need to pray about that that's what thy kingdom come has all to do in our in the lord's prayer third item inform those in governing positions of your views and values have you written your congressman then don't gross about it you can get his email addresses from www.senate.gov or www.house.gov you have to write it down you can remember that senate.gov get get their email addresses and it doesn't take much to drown them in mail actively support candidates if you can find some of profound personal integrity there are some not many a few hold all your elected representatives accountable that's what daniel walker the head of controller currencies going around the country you know putting his boot behind the voters hold your congress accountable because if they don't take aggressive action the dollar is going to be worthless there's destroying this country by their incompetence decisions if you care about your children or grandchildren this should be your consuming commitment you got grandchildren think about the world they're going to be denied the world we grew up in which had its problems but was still the best place on the planet earth and it's being stolen from you let's move on to verse 4 for he is the minister of god to thee for good seeking of the minister in church but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of god a revenger to execute wrath upon him that do with evil he's arguing for civil obedience here and at presumptions that you've got good rulers you don't have good rules a different problem the ruler is the minister of god to thee for good but if i would do that which is evil be afraid because he has the power is the point for he beareth not the sword in vain for he's the minister of god or revenge or to execute wrath upon him that do with evil so he pray for our law enforcement officers they put every day put their life at risk to maintain order not very popular but they do don't overlook our armed forces i could argue that being a soldier is the highest profession available greater love hath no man than this the man lay down his life for his friends that's called combat that's called law enforcement they risk their lives compromises social engineering experiments like we see going on at the academies that have destroyed west point annapolis and in many ways those compromises may destine our present establishments for failure and future challenges when we need an officer car in the next engagement we won't have one like we had in the past because the long gray line issue from west point the brigade of mitchum it's it's a whole different experiment these days experiment guided by people who have never been there luke 3 then came all the republicans to be baptized and said in the master what shall we do he said to them exact no more than that which has appointed you and the soldiers likewise demanded him saying what shall we do he said unto them do violence to no man neither accuse any falsely and be content with your wages wherefore continue with paul wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake okay be a law-abiding citizen is what paul is saying as long as the laws are not in conflict with the law of god do not uncover the law of god obey the laws another way of saying what i think he's getting at is pick your battles don't injure your witness by being a a malcontent conform unless it conflicts with the law of god that's a whole different thing for this cause pay tribute also for their god's ministers attending it can't continue continually upon this very thing a friend of mine that was a prominent uh minister of the word of god uh was all hung up with taxes we shouldn't be paying taxes and um the the the example we have is when jesus uh peter comes to them you've got to pay some taxes and jesus says is it for us or for for uh foreigners it's for foreigners then we're not liable but nevertheless go to the fish get a coin in his mouth and pay it which he did you all know the story about the coin read the story very carefully jesus instructed him to pay a tax that they technically didn't have to pay interesting why keep the fees to avoid to avoid offense and uh it's interesting that's why this one friend of mine lost his ministry because he's all tangled up in tax tax fight which he's losing of course he's in prison right now for 10 years i guess for this cause pay tribute also for they are god's ministers attending continually upon this very thing and and but the interesting thing the the the gospel example was one which was it wasn't even a liability excessive taxes are a penalty for poor planning that's my that's that's not paul that's chuck misler if you're paying excessive taxes that's your penalty for doing some poor job of planning and any good tax advisor will point that out to you and it's too bad that you have to deal with those kinds of issues but you never ever ever evade taxes you can avoid taxes evasion ones that got that's a crime avoidance is simply good planning to structure affairs to minimize and that's it that's an in that's an a piece of advice that comes from the supreme court judge hand little his quote hangs in every every tax practitioner's office that it's appropriate to arrange your affairs so you don't have to pay more than you need to prior to 1913 the u.s survived without any income tax by the way render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor think about that render all their dues if somebody's supposed to fear fear them somebody's supposed to honor honor them don't make any waves to call for being a law-abiding citizen that's basically what paul is trying to say here but also recognize the laws in our case the result of our own efforts if you don't like the laws it's your fault collectively speaking it's not it's not imposed upon us by caesar once we have a a a global government like the european union's got a real problem now the the the european union controls us the loudness of lawn mowers in britain they redo gordon mcdonald gave an address at the veil conference here this past weekend about global warning warming global warming and uh it turns out that norway the ant the animal of norway is the moose right and it turns out that they've determined that a moose gives off something like 1200 kilos of methane a year which is about equivalent to a car driving 12 000 miles or something and so the eu is asking norway to reduce the moose population and gordon declined to explain how a moose gives off the methane but it turns out they have 120 000 moose in norway and they're wrestling with the fact that according to the eu they're gonna have to reduce the the the population of the of the national animal because of its methane footprint whatever okay now it's something there's something about local control right we don't have laws imposed by some foreign potentate we have we're ruled by people that we've elected into office it's our fault if the laws aren't what they should be romans goes on own no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law what a reason stop owing anything to anyone except love the debt of love and the real meaning of the law of the christian something higher and it's talking about the neighbor not fellow citizens not necessarily brethren in the body relationships within the body we've dealt with in romans 6 7 and 8 if you may recall this is outside the goal of the christian life versus the law first timothy 1 5. take a look what paul wrote to timothy now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and a faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside into vain jangling desiring to be teachers of the law not understanding neither what they say nor what whereof they affirm but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man for the lawless and the disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane for murderers of fathers and murders of mothers for manslayers for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for men stealers are for liars for perjured persons and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the blessed god which was committed to my trust i thank jesus christ is our lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but i obtained mercy because i did it ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in christ jesus that's paul's summary of himself walking according to the spirit converts a duty into a delight that's really his point and walking involves moment by moment incremental trusting incremental trusting moment by moment galatians 5 all through galatians 5. three principles here about stop owing anything to anyone the law of liberty everything not expressly forbidden is permitted it's law of liberty law of expediency or that's for a non-believer all things are lawful but not all things are expedient meaning your relationship there are things you're allowed to do but you don't because you'll cause someone that's a weaker faith to stumble that's his point voluntary restraint for the advance of the gospel can you have a glass of wine with dinner well if in a public restaurant maybe not it might cause someone to stumble at home sure why not voluntary restraint for the advantage of the gospel and the law of love between the brethren romans verse 11 13 11 and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed i remember the taliba we saw about salvation he's really talking about a number of things past tense salvation separation from the penalty of sin we talked about that before present tense separation from the power of sin future tense separation from the presence of sin separation of penalty of sin we call that justification christ did 100 of it you've got your passport stamp you haven't changed but you got a passport stamp you get you get into heaven separation of the power of sin sanctification work in process continuing for the ultimate goal of being separated from the presence of sin which is called glorification these three terms uh among our students in the institute we try not to use the word salvation because it's misleading confusing what do you specifically talk about one of these three things justification sanctification glorification they all are subsumed if you will by a broad brush term called salvation but that can be confusing continuing in romans the night has far spent the days at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light and this is where we could deviate and take the time into ephesians 6 10 through 18 the armor of god and we've done that before you can go back through your notes let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting a term that actually means or jesus on and drunkenness not in chambering cute old english term basically involving sexual promiscuity and wantonness debauchery not in strife really means dissension and envying a term that really deals with jealousy i didn't get back into the greek and all that take the time here but you can dig into that if you like it's pretty straightforward but put ye on the lord jesus christ and make no provision not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof make no provision for the flesh that's part of the the way you fight these things is never give them opportunity how do you do that well by confessing all knowns in and walking moment by moment taking every thought captive my wife has taught me that she really has developed a practical focused procedure taking every thought captive that's where it all starts taking a step at a time trusting in him being transformed by the continual renewing of your mind she's done two that wave agape is the primary text most of you know that she's got another text called be transformed that deals with this whole issue in very practical terms i have to share with you one little anecdote we're leaving october 8th to go to the to israel and the bbc is asked to accompany us waiting for the final approval we got a phone call today they can probably get their approval if nan will come along too it turns out as they canvassed europe and so forth there was a groundswell gee if nan's coming we're coming or that so that was that was that was their almost it wasn't quite their condition but almost such that if if if she'll come then make sure they can get the approvals they need to do what they're going to try to do a special tv series on a trip and so forth so so we'll see what comes of that james abram garfield interesting guy he served in congress 18 years he was elected as senate as a senator from ohio he was asked to make to give the nomination speech for john sherman at the opening of the republican convention in 1880 his speech received a standing ovation so much so the convention decided to nominate him instead of sure so he was elected president in 1881. wow where yeah but here's what he basically said now more than ever before the people are responsible for the character of their congress if that body be ignorant reckless and corrupt it is because the people tolerate ignorance recklessness and corruption if it be intelligent brave and pure is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature wow have you seen any of these campaigns based on character if the next centennial does not find us a great nation it will be because those who represent the enterprise the culture and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces that was back in 1877 thomas jefferson says i tremble for my country when i reflect that god is just that his justice cannot sleep forever back in 1781 alexander tyler made it this back 1750 made a democracy cannot exist as a permanent former government it can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largest from the public treasury boy help that's why we do not have a demo we do not have a democracy most people don't understand we have a republic there's a difference important difference tyler went on to point out something else said the average age of the world's greatest civilization's been about 200 years these nations have progressed through this sequence from bondage and spiritual faith from spiritual faith to great courage from courage to liberty from liberty abundance from abundance to complacency complacency to apathy apathy dependency and dependency back bondage you've seen me diagram that in some of my previous talks go from bondage to spiritual faith we certainly did in our early years that gave us great courage from which we established our liberty that liberty produced abundance and abundance that was the envy of the world that's the problem from abundance we get complacent we soon become apathetic which brings us to dependency back to bondage where are we on that cycle now almost at the bottom we're heading for it yeah exactly right yeah is the biggest problem ignorance or apathy i don't know and i don't care you know the whole thing this is one of my favorite quotes i always throw it in whenever i have a good excuse by samuel adams if you love wealth more than liberty and you prefer the tranquility of servitude rather than the animated contest of freedom then go home in peace we seek neither your counsel nor your arms but bend down and lick the hands that feed you and may your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen we'll close on a prayer by joe wright mr joe wright was asked to open a new session of the kansas state legislature and when he did though everyone was expecting the usual politically correct generalities but what they heard instead was a stirring prayer passionately calling our country to repentance and righteousness let's take a look at it heavenly father we come before you today and ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance we know that your word says woe on those who call evil good but that's exactly what we've done we've lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values we confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it pluralism we have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism we have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle we have exploited the poor and called it the lottery we have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation we have rewarded laziness and called it welfare we have killed our unborn and called it choice we have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem we have abused power and called it political savvy we have coveted our neighbors possessions and called it ambition we have polluted the air with the profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression we have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment searches oh god and know our hearts today cleanse us from every sin and set us free guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of your will i ask it in the name of your son the living savior jesus christ amen joe wright a few people walked out of that assembly but in just no time at all the church was deluged for copies of these prayers it's gone all around the world it's been made quite an impact well in our next session i want you to be prepared to review romans 14 should christians keep the sabbath or do they why was paul so paranoid by being a possibly being cast away i thought we had eternal security and yet paul lives his life in paranoia should we be concerned about the judgment seat of christ next time let's stand for a closing word of prayer

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Length: 59min 59sec (3599 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020