[MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning. I'm so happy you're here. And would you turn in
your Bibles please, to the book of
Romans, chapter 13. We have really, or at least I
can speak for myself, really enjoyed the ability
to go verse by verse through this incredible
book of Romans. It's been so rewarding
for me personally, and I think it's been
good for us as a church. We're in Romans chapter 13. Now did you ever hear
what I heard as a kid? I think maybe even
from my parents. Never discuss religion and
politics in polite company or in public, however
you want to spin that. You've heard that before, right? It's kind of a common maxim. If that's true, I'm
in a world of hurt. Because the text before
us is Romans chapter 13. The theme of the first
section of Romans 13 is the relationship of the
Christian to the state, or to the government. It outlines our responsibility
to civil authority, which some people have
great difficulty doing. J.C. O'Neill even wrote,
"these seven verses have caused more unhappiness
and misery in the Christian east and west than
any other seven verses in the New Testament." That may be an overstatement,
but certainly the issue of how a Christian operates
in a secular environment, especially in terms of the
government and government authority, can be challenging. But here's the bottom line. As believers, we have
dual citizenship. We are citizens of Earth
and its governing realm, but we are also
citizens of heaven. Philippians 320, Paul said
our citizenship is in heaven. So I have an earthly address. I live in this country. But I have a heavenly
address, a spiritual address. I am in Christ
Jesus, which means I have an eventual address
in the kingdom of heaven. So since we are
residents of two realms, we should learn to live
responsibly in both. We cannot be cloistered. We ought not to be
uninvolved or uninformed. But learning how to balance
our allegiance to both realms. I came to know Jesus
Christ in 1973. Some of you weren't
even born at that time. During that period known as
the Jesus movement, that's a real thing, it's a real
period of spiritual history in our country. A lot of people were
coming to Christ. There was a lot of
excitement that Jesus was going to return, which by
the way, I still believe in. I believe he's going to come
soon, sooner than we think, perhaps. But there was such an
anticipation and excitement that Jesus was going to return. I mean, people thought
like, he's coming next week. So that excitement for
the return of the Lord became, in some cases,
irresponsibility. Why bother getting
involved in our culture, why bother getting involved
in any political structure, why bother getting
involved at all? After all, Jesus is
coming next week. And I even had friends think
I can get a credit card, I can get all sorts
of charges rung up. And if Jesus is
going to come back and I'm going to get
raptured, I won't have to make any payments. I even had a friend come
to me and say, "why do you bother going to college?" I announce I am
accepted to UCLA, I'm going to go
through a program. And the guy said, "why would
you ever go to college? Don't you know Jesus will
return before you graduate?" And I said, well, if he does,
he'll find me in a classroom. Because last time I checked,
colleges need Christians. Last time I checked,
colleges in our country are not bastions
of righteousness. I think they need
involvement of believers just like political
structures do. Jesus said occupy till I come. That is, stay busy until I come. In fact, Jesus even prayed
in that great high priestly prayer of John 17 when he
prayed to his father privately, he prayed for his
disciples and he said this. "My prayer is not that you
take them out of the world, but that you keep them
from the evil one." Our Lord never intended that
we live in caves or monasteries or other hibernaculums
that cloister us away from responsibility. In fact, Jesus even
put it this way. Behold, I send you out as
sheep in the midst of wolves. Now if I'm a brand new sheep
following that shepherd, that doesn't sound comforting. Come here little sheep, I'm
glad you're following me. Now I'm going to send you
out in the midst of wolves. Thanks a lot. You must not love me. No, I actually love them so
much that by sending sheep out into the midst of
wolves, my hope is that some of those
wolves will become sheep. That is his plan. That is where the
interface comes in. So one of our
struggles as believers is balancing the
responsibility as believers with God and state. But since we carry both
passports, one in this world and one in the next,
we need to discover what our obligations are. And we have that outline for
us in the first seven chapters of Romans 13. Let's get a sense of it. Let every soul be subject to
the governing authorities, for there is no authority
except from God. And the authorities that
exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever
resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will
bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror
to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be
unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will
have praise from the same. For he is God's minister
to you for good. But if you do evil, be
afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's
minister and Avenger to execute wrath on
him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject
not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this,
you also pay taxes. Uh-oh, now he's
getting personal. For they are God's ministers
attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore
to all their due. Taxes to whom taxes are due. Customs to whom customs, fear to
whom fear, honor to whom honor. Before we jump in and
unpack those verses, let me take you back to
the governmental structure of the New Testament. Can I do that? Let's go back to the time when
Paul was writing this letter. In fact, a little bit before
that when Jesus lived in Israel at the time of
the New Testament, you need to know that the
political background of the New Testament was not a democracy. It was an autocracy. There was only one
governmental structure in power in most of the world,
at that time, at least the world we're dealing with,
and that is the Roman Empire. Rome had been a republic. Rome had quickly
become now a monarchy, if you will, an autocracy,
where all of the power was invested in one single
individual named Caesar. He had unilateral authority. If he wanted to, and
he did, he couldn't take a census of the
known world and tax it. And the New Testament
even records that. Caesar in Rome, though he
had a Senate around him, Caesar in Rome was considered,
at one point in Roman history, to be a God that demanded
respect and worship and loyalty. So that every year the
citizens of Rome scattered throughout the world and
all of their communities had to publicly swear allegiance
saying Caesar is Lord. And they were given a little
libellus, a little certificate that announced, here's
a loyal citizen. The political power
in Rome, though vested in one individual, also had
around it a Roman Senate. But if you know your
history, the Roman Senate was easy access for
wealthy patricians, but not so easy for the lower
class plebeians. So it was very off
kilter, off centered. Power was really
all in one person. We also know that Israel
was conquered by Rome. It was part of the
Roman government. And to rule Israel,
Rome used governors. So you know some of them
like Pontius Pilate or Felix and Festus in the book of Acts. But they also had proxies. That is, Rome was
benevolent enough to let you keep your language
and your customs and even, up to a point, a certain
form of government. So Israel was allowed to have
a guy by the name of Herod as their King. A King under Rome, but
a King nonetheless. And Herod was
called of the Jews. He was the King of Judea. But he had so much power
that he was a tyrant. He had unilateral power. He could make a mandate that
every male child two years and younger, could
be slaughtered in one section of
Judea, which he did, without any
repercussions at all. He couldn't be impeached,
he couldn't be voted out, he couldn't be put in prison. What he said was law. Now add another layer to that. Slavery abounded. Slavery was an epidemic in Rome. One person said there are
three slaves for every one free person. The actual statistic is between
one third and one half-- depending on what era-- between one third and one half
of the entire Roman population were slaves. Add to that an oppressive
form of taxation to keep that Roman
machinery operating and you have a little
bit of understanding of what the governmental
structure was like at the time Jesus lived
and at the time Paul wrote. With that in mind, we
approach Romans 13 once again. And I'm going to show
you out of this quickly but definitely, five
elements that form the relationship of the
Christian to human government. Ready? First element is our role. What is our role with
government to be? It'll be summed up in
one word in verse 1. It's the word subject. It says let every soul-- I think that would
include yours, since you are a living person. Every soul is every one of us. So let every soul,
including yours and mine, be subject to the
governing authorities. You might automatically
have a problem with that. And maybe you're even
thinking, well maybe it really doesn't mean
what it says it means. So in case you're thinking
that, look at verse 5, because he says it again. Therefore, you must be subject. That is an imperative. It is a command. What does that mean, subject? Peter took the same
work and translated it. Submit. The Greek word is a
familiar word, Hupotasso. Some of you have heard
that before, hupotasso. Comes from two words,
hupo, means under. Tasso means to line up. It means to line up under. It was used in a military sense
to arrange troops in formation under a leader. When it was used in
a non-military sense, it meant a voluntary
attitude of cooperation. It was even translated
to help carry a burden. So then the basic
role of citizens, including Christian
citizens, is to help carry the burden of government
by submitting to it. So in a nutshell, believers
are not to be subversive, not to be rebellious,
not to be troublemakers. But in fact, model citizens. Now why was this important? Why did Paul include this? Because at the time
he wrote, and it would get far worse from
this point forward-- but at the time Paul
wrote, Christians were already being
viewed very suspiciously in the Roman Empire. And that is because their
conduct was so different. They had their own
private meetings. That is, they got
together for fellowship. They did not worship the
Roman emperor as Lord. And so their actions were
already being scrutinized. So Paul thought it was
important that they be seen as good citizens without
compromising their faith. Now here's what you need to
know besides what I told you about the background
of their government. What you need to
know when Paul said, "let every soul be subject
to governing authorities" you need to know who was the
governing authority at the time in Rome when he wrote this. It was a Caesar by the name of-- anybody know? Nero. Caesar Nero. Infamous. Caesar Nero would be
the very Caesar who took Paul's head off his body. He will be the one responsible,
eventually, for Paul's death. Paul, that guy,
writes about that guy saying, let every soul
be subject to governing authorities. Now we believe Paul wrote the
book of Romans around AD 58. Which means within
six years, by AD 64, an event will happen during
that year, which some of you know your history. You know about the
Great Fire of Rome. There was a fire that
broke out in AD 64 In Rome that decimated
a lot of the city. Decimated the Palatine Hill,
a lot of the buildings. It just destroyed a
lot of that great city. The rumor was, the
belief was, and it was spreading across Rome,
that the fire was set by none other than Caesar Nero. That he started it. Well, when that was
becoming public knowledge, Caesar Nero was thinking
quick and he thought, I got to find a scapegoat. I've got to blame
this on somebody. So who did he blame? Christians. He said, it's those Christians. They lit the fire. Now him saying that perpetrated
a series of persecutions that were unbelievable. There's even a story that
halfway through his reign, Caesar Nero got the idea that
he was a great chariot racer. He wasn't. But he thought he was. So he had a track
built in Rome where he could race his chariot. And he liked it
so much, he wanted to do it not just during
the day, but at night. The only problem
is Thomas Edison wasn't around to invent
a light bulb for him. So there were no
electric lights, there was no Benjamin
Franklin with a kite. So to fix the problem so
he could raise his chariot at night on that newly
constructed track, he ordered his army to round
up Christians, impale them on poles or tie them to
poles, cover them with pitch and light them a blaze to light
up his racetrack at night. That's the Caesar
in power when Paul says let every soul be subject
to governing authorities, which means we have a problem. The problem is, what do you
do when the world you live in is filled with Caesar Nero's
or Adolf Hitler's, or Bashar al-Assad's or
Soleimani's or whatever. What do you do? Hold that thought. I'm going to get
back to that thought. That's our basic
role with government. Be subject. Let me move on now to the
second of the five elements. And that is the
rule of government. Let's see how far reaching
Paul says this authority goes. Look at verse 1 again, but the
second sentence in that verse. For there is no authority
except from whom? God. God. And the authorities that
exist are appointed by God. Wow. Therefore whoever resists
the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will
bring judgment on themselves. It's a very difficult statement. It's difficult. But Paul begins
where you ought to begin, and that is with the
sovereignty of God. Here's his point, power
has only one source, and that source is God. No matter how well, no matter
how poorly that power is used, all power comes from God. If you have trouble
with that, you need to understand Jesus
had no trouble with that. Jesus stood before
Pontius Pilate, the very man who would
demand the execution of Jesus on the cross. And at one point, as they
were meeting together, Pilate questioned him
and Jesus gave no answer. Had nothing at
all to say to him. So Pilate said to Jesus,
are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have
the power to crucify you and the power to release you? Jesus answered, you could have
no power at all against me unless it had been
given to you from above. Did you hear his answer? Pilate, the only
reason you have power is my Father in heaven
put you in power. That's Jesus saying
that to the guy who's going to send him to death. Here's another example. Pharaoh. Was he a tyrant in
the Old Testament? Yeah. He butchered God's people,
persecuted God's people. But in Exodus chapter 9 verse
16, the Lord said to Pharaoh, "for this reason, I
have raised you up that I might show my power
in you." who raised him up? God raised him up. Here's a third example,
Nebuchadnezzar. The self-serving arrogant
ruler of Babylon. Had a dream, Daniel came
in to interpret the dream. Daniel said to that
King the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives
it to whomever he chooses. That's divine sovereignty. That is power. Now eventually, Nebuchadnezzar
will come to understand that. He didn't believe
that at this point. But he will, as
you know the story. Now, the function
of human government began after the flood. You could go all the
way back to Genesis chapter 9 and human
government was given by God, established by God,
as a part of what theologians call common grace. Have you ever heard
that term, common grace? Well, common grace means is
the benefits or blessings given from God, apart from
salvation, for common man. That's not restricted
to just believers. That's saving grace. But opposed to
saving grace there is common grace,
where God commonly blesses people in this world. Everything from
the air we breathe to the beauty of nature. Jesus said the sun shines on the
just and on the unjust, that's common grace. The rain falls on the
just and the unjust, that is common grace. Government is in that
category of common grace. Part of the way God restrains
evil in a fallen world is through laws, police
forces, judicial systems, that write and rewrite and
enforce laws and even armies. Why armies? Because so much evil is
irrational and can only be deterred by force. Now ordained by God, but
all of them imperfect. You will not find a
perfect form of government, and certainly there is no such
thing as a Christian government or a Christian
nation, at least yet. There will be in the millennial
kingdom, but not now. That is the rule of government. So we have our role
with government. We have the rule of government. Let me give you a third element. And that is the
reason for government. Why does it exist? What's the purpose
of a government? Well, verse 3 through
5 gives you the answer. For rulers are not a terror
to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be
unafraid of the authority? Do it as good and you will
have praise from the same. For he is God's minister
to you for good. But if you do evil, be
afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. By the way, that word sword
has a specific reference to capital punishment. It is the sort of
execution in its context and in its linguistic roots. For he is God's minister, and
Avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject
not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. So this is the reason
for government. There is a twofold reason
Paul says government exists. Paul says government is to
be God's servant on earth for two reasons, to
protect and to punish. To protect the community
and to punish the criminal. But did you notice the word Paul
gives to government officials? He uses it three
times, minister. Now this is a different twist. When is the last time you
got pulled over by a police officer, roll down your
window and thought, there's a minister of God. Hi, Reverend. The word he uses for minister,
by the way is the word, diáconos. Diáconos is the Greek word
where we get our word deacon. A word that Paul uses for
servants in the church. What he means, by using
this term three times in this passage, is this. Governing authorities occupy
a divinely appointed office. Which means it's a shame
when we have an attitude that is angry and belligerent. When instead we should thank
them for enforcing the law. I have a very different
attitude than I used to have with police officers. I'll remark on that in a moment. But I now make it
my point, whenever I see a police officer,
somebody in government, to thank them for their service. To thank them. Thank them that
they're in harm's way. Even when they pull me over
and they write me a ticket. And yes, your pastor
has gotten tickets. But so have you. And I always make it
a point to thank them. It's not easy. I don't like it. I'm not happy, but I do it. Now when I grew up, I had
a very uneasy relationship with law enforcement. Picture a young
unsaved California kid who liked motorcycles
and he had two. I had two neighbors,
they were both brothers, the Latist brothers. Both of more CHP,
California Highway Patrol. They in particular did
not like motorcycles and young boys riding them, of
which I was one of my brother was the other. So they'd pull us over a
lot, and hassle us a lot. And so they didn't
like me and I was not particularly fond of them. And then a little bit later,
I got a driver's license for a car. As I was getting that, I was
driving on the San Bernardino Freeway. I got pulled over
by a police officer. I rolled down my
window, he said, your offense is you
are impeding traffic. Now you may have never
heard that before, and perhaps this only
happens in California. But I said, what does that mean? He said, you're going too slow. I said it probably only
happens in California. So I said, officer, I was
doing the speed limit. He said, I don't care. The whole flow of traffic
is going at this speed. If you get in this
lane and you slow down, you are impeding traffic and
that is a moving violation. I said, sir I promise you I will
never let that happen again. So because of that, because
of my early altercations with the law, whenever I
see a police officer now, you know what I do? I white knuckle
the steering wheel. I just kind of panic. It's just sort of a reaction. And I automatically
look down at what? The speedometer. And if I'm going 75 I go, oh-uh. If I'm going 45
I say praise God, there's a servant of the Lord. So the purpose of the government
is to protect and to punish. That takes us now to
the fourth element that forms our relationship
to human government. And that is the
response to government. Now we already
know what he said, the basic response is to be. And that is to be subject to
line up under that authority. But he kind of fleshes that
out into a twofold response, verse 6 and 7. For because of this,
you also pay taxes. For they are God's ministers. Think of that IRS now
as God's ministers. Boy, you know, that's a stretch. But it's in the word, so
I'm going to go with it. For they are God's ministers
attending continually to this very thing. Boy, that's an understatement. That's all they think about
is how to get my taxes. Rendered therefore
to all their due. Taxes to whom taxes are due. Customs to whom customs, fear to
whom fear, honor to whom honor. We are to have a
twofold response. Number one, government
should be supported, that's where you pay your taxes. Number two, government
should be respected. Honor to whom honor,
fear to whom fear. Listen, Christian
brother, Christian sister, in the very least,
you and I need to be very careful how we speak
about government authorities and political figures. You may disagree with them. But you are bound by scripture
to honor and pray for them. And if you talk about them,
I hope most of your words are talking to God about them. That you're praying for them. When Paul wrote to Timothy in
First Timothy he said this. Now keep in mind,
again, who's the Caesar on the throne in Rome? Nero. Paul says this to Timothy. I urge, then, first of all,
that petitions, prayers, intercession, and Thanksgiving,
be made for all people. For kings, and all who are in
authority, think Caesar Nero. that we may live
peaceful and quiet lives in all the godliness
and holiness. In these verses he
mentions taxation. Now tax supports the
function of government. Even though some of our tax
money may go for bad causes. You can't say,
well, I'm not going to pay taxes if they're going
to use my taxes for that. Oh, yeah, you will. Because they bear
a sword for that. However, you may complain about
whatever taxes you have to pay. I just want to again,
remind you of the taxation in the first century in Israel. They had a system of
taxation called tax farming. What that meant is
the Roman government gave the tax collector
status to the highest bidder. You bought the position. Whoever paid the most for
it was granted the position. Rome assessed a region
for its taxation. They didn't care how much you
as the tax collector collected, as long as they got
what they assessed. You could get twice as much if
you wanted to, if you could. And you could pocket the rest. So with this kind
of a system, it was open for incredible abuse. One Roman writer even said,
only once in his life, and it was in Athens,
did he ever see a monument to an
honest tax collector. Because they were so rare. What kind of taxes did they pay? Let me tell you about it. Every citizen paid what
it's called the poll tax. The poll tax. P-O-L-L. Every male
aged 14 to age 65, every female aged 12 to
age 65, paid a poll tax. What's a poll tax? It's being taxed
on breathing air. For being alive, age 12 or 14 to
age 65, you paid the poll tax. That's just for you living. On top of that, there was the
income tax, a flat 10% rate. On top of that were taxes
for roads and harbors. On top of that
were import taxes. On top of that-- we're not done
yet, was it the ground tax. One tenth of all the
grain or the proceeds of the grain, one tenth
of all of it went to Rome. One fifth of all of the wine
or proceeds went to Rome. Then there was the fish tax. The fish tax, you were
taxed on how many nets you would throw out into
the lake or into the sea. You were then taxed
on every single fish that your net caught. On top of that, there
was called the cart tax. If you had a cart, you
were taxed on the number of wheels you had on your cart. So the wheelbarrow
was your friend. If you can get by
putting everything in a one-wheel vehicle, great. If you require four wheels
to distribute weight, you'll be taxed for it. So people lived under
this oppressive taxation by an oppressive government, OK. Into that world was
born Jesus Christ. The Messiah. As soon as he came
people thought-- most people thought he
was a political messiah. They wanted him to
take political sides. The Jewish belief
is that the Messiah will be a political ruler
who will give them freedom from the oppressive
yoke of Rome. But then Jesus
spoke and he lived. And he made no call for
a political insurrection. He never tried to
win a culture war. He never tried to
overturn the tax code. He never really even
addressed social issues. And there were plenty of them
to go around like slavery, like bad treatment of orphans,
bad treatment of widows. Was he aware of
those things, yes. Did they break his heart, yes. He knew the great
needs, but he did not come to enact a
social revolution. He came for a
spiritual revolution. He came to save people. Because he knew if
a person is saved, that saved person
changes their lifestyle. And so if you want to change
a country, get a person saved, get that family saved,
get that community saved. And that will spill out into
a whole different way of life. That's what he did. People were not happy
with him doing that. They still wanted him
to take political sides. So you had one group
and another group to try to get him to
be a political figure. There were the Pharisees. The Pharisees hated the Romans. The Pharisees didn't
want to pay taxes. On the other hand, there were
a group called the Herodians. Remember them in
the New Testament? They were Judea's who
believed in the loyalty to the family of Herod
and the Roman government. Believe you should pay taxes. The Pharisees and the
Herodians hated each other. Until the day they didn't. Because they both hated Jesus,
they tried to trap Jesus. And they asked him a question. Master, Jesus, is it lawful
to pay taxes to Caesar or not? You know why they ask
him that question? They wanted to
start a rebellion. A riot. A revolution. They wanted Jesus to
take political sides. Oh, there's another group. Besides the Pharisees
and the Herodians, there was a volatile group
known as the Zealots. You remember reading about
them in your New Testament? Zealots were Jewish
nationalists. They refused,
absolutely, to pay taxes. And a group of them
staged terrorist attacks. Mideast terrorism is not new. There were a group of these
Zealots called Sicarii. They were dagger carriers. And they staged
terrorist attacks to kill the Roman oppressors. But get this, their rebellion
was all based on scripture. They would often quote the
text out of Deuteronomy 17, you shall not set a
foreigner over you who is not your brother. So you got Pharisees and
Herodians and Zealots and Sicarii, and all
trying to get Jesus into their little
political thing. So they say, master, can you
pay taxes to Caesar or not? Don't you love Jesus'
answer, Matthew 22-21. He said, give me a coin. Held it up. He said, whose mug
is on this coin? Whose face is-- whose
inscription is on there? He said, Caesar's. Put it down. And he said, then give to
Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And give to God
what belongs to God. That ended their argument. He said yeah, pay your taxes. But give to God
what belongs to God. So back to Romans 13. God is honored when his
earthly representatives are seen as stabilizers in society. Not rebels. The central issue here is basic. A good Christian
is a good citizen. Not only because there are
laws that impose that on him. But he says in verse
5, for conscience sake, for a clear conscience. Speaking of a clear
conscience, I've always loved the
story about the guy who had a guilty conscience. So he wrote the IRS. The letter said dear
sirs, I cannot sleep. Last year when I filed
my income tax return, I deliberately
misrepresented my income. Now I can't sleep. So enclosed is a check for $150. Well, that's pretty cool. He came clean. But he ended by saying,
if I still can't sleep, I'll send you the rest. Yeah, let me just give
you enough payment to ease my guilty conscience. If that doesn't work, I'll
pay you what I really owe you. By the way, according
to Forbes magazine, 7 million Americans fail to
file their income tax returns every year. That's 5%. And you can try to justify that. Well, they would spend it on
things I don't agree with. So what? Render to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar. Render to God what
belongs to God. The point of Romans 13 is God
is the ultimate authority. And if the ultimate
authority says submit to intermediate
authorities, guess what? Then you line up under them. Now this brings up an
issue, and I told you I'd get back to this. Is there ever a time-- is there ever a time
for civil disobedience? I'm glad you asked. That brings us to
our fifth element that forms our relationship
to human government. I call this the rival
against government. I'm going to play off
a word in verse 5, it's the word conscience. Notice verse 5. Therefore, you must be subject,
not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. Let me explain that quickly. The context is that God
has given us a conscience. A conscientious recognition
that government is God given. So by submitting to
authority, that gives us a clear conscience, generally. But what about when it doesn't? What about when the
government violates God's law and we know that, and now we
have an uneasy conscience. What if the government
is violating clear scriptural principles and
your conscience is violated? Paul said, I always live
to have a clear conscience before God and men. But what if the state
passes laws or policies that oppose God given laws? Let me make it more complicated. Picture yourself, put
yourself in these shoes. You are living in 1850s America. You live in the south. You happen to be the owner
of a quite large plantation and you have working
on your plantation a number of people
that are slaves. You have become a Christian
and you're starting see a moral problem with this. This is wrong. Humans shouldn't be owned
and treated this way. I feel uneasy about this. Yet, this keeps
the economy going. It feeds my family. But then you read
in the newspaper that your area, the South,
is waging a war on the north to secede from the Union. What do you do? Do you stay in the South? Do you run across that
line to the north? It's a moral dilemma. What do you do with that? Or let me move you
ahead a little bit. You're a politician
in 1930s Germany. Everybody's so excited about
this new ruler, this fúhrer. Adolf Hitler and
his Third Reich. It seems so promising. Adolf Hitler gets a hold
of you and offers you a high ranking position
in his Third Reich. But you come to realize that
he has an incredible antipathy to the Jewish people. And you come to realize
this is wrong, morally. What he says about them, what
he says he's planning for them. But as a believer, you
remember Romans chapter 13, be subject to
governing authorities. And maybe you even
justify it by saying, well, Daniel was able
to work in a very ungodly political environment. So was Joseph with
Pharaoh for that matter. So is there ever a time
when believers obligation to civil authority is negated? Yes. Yes. Yes. And here's the rule. Here's the principle. We submit to the
government up to the point when obeying the government
means disobeying God. When the government says, don't
do this and God says do it, you do it and disobey
the government. If the government
says the opposite, to violate a clear command
of God, you obey God. Are there scriptural
examples of this? Tons of them. I'll spare you. I'll give you only five or six. Number one, Pharaoh. He was in charge. He was of the powers that be. He gave a law. He ordered the Hebrew midwives
to kill all the newborn baby boys who were Hebrews. What did they do? They said no. They refused to obey. Exodus chapter one,
but the midwives feared God and did not do as
the King of Egypt commanded. That's civil disobedience. Second example,
Nebuchadnezzar ordered Daniel and all of his Jewish
recruits to eat the delicacies from his table. Daniel was a kosher Jewish boy. Daniel, chapter one, but
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
with a portion of the King's delicacies or the
wine which he offered. Civil disobedience. Third example, the same
King Nebuchadnezzar commanded an image to be
built, a golden image. Commanded everybody in the realm
to bow down before that image. There were three Hebrew
workers on his staff. Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego-- we know them by their Babylonian
names, or Hebrew names, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They said no way Jose. They refused to do it and
took the consequence of death, if that was the case. In Daniel chapter 3 they said,
we do not serve your gods nor worship the golden image. Fast forward a few years
to a new King in Babylon named Darius. Darius made a decree that
for a month, for 30 days, no one could pray to any
other God except himself, the Babylonian God. Daniel refused to do it. And in Daniel chapter
6, he opened his windows toward Jerusalem. So he's inviting eyes to come
in and like, see what I'm doing? I can't do it. Watch. He opened the windows
toward Jerusalem, knelt down on his knees
three times that day, prayed and gave
thanks before God. Almost cost him his life. Here's another one, a fifth
one, the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, the powers that
be in Jerusalem, mandated a law. Passed a law that you could
not speak the name of Jesus publicly anymore in that city. Peter and John found out
and said, pft with that. I'm going to go out right
now and preach the gospel. So they went out and did it. They get arrested. The powers that be said,
why are you doing this? We gave an order. We gave a command. It's a law. I love their answer,
act chapter five, we must obey God
rather than men. That is civil disobedience. Because to obey man would be
to disobey God, and they said, we'd rather offend you
and take the consequences than offend God. There are other examples
we could point to. We could look at Dietrich
Bonhoeffer who violated laws that Nazi Germany passed. He was killed for it. We could talk about William
Wilberforce taking the laws in Great Britain of
slavery to overturn them in the parliament. But Eric will talk
about that next week. But you and I are confronted
with issues today. Laws on same sex marriage,
laws on abortion. We are confronted with a
society that says this is OK. And we go, no it's not. Here's the rule, and
we close with this. Here's the rule. A Christian is to
be a good citizen until being a good citizen
means being a bad Christian. That's the rule. That could sum all
of what we said up. A Christian is to
be a good citizen until being a good citizen
means being a bad Christian. In closing, we could
discuss all day the idea of our relationship
with government and what about this and what about that. But there is a bigger issue. We're talking about what
should I render to Caesar? You know Jesus said. Render to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar, but what else did he say? Render to God what
belongs to God. So a coin may have the image
of Caesar stamped on it. You have the image of
God stamped on you. You're made in the image of God. God wants you. You should surrender
your life to Him. That's what God wants. That's where we begin. That's where we should
all begin, in subjection and submission to the one who
has stamped his image on us as a special creation. My earnest hope and prayer. Beyond being a good citizen
for y'all, beyond did you keep the speed limit on the
way home from church, my big issue is have you
rendered to God what belongs to him? You. Father, we close with this
incredibly profound thought that you created us so we
are yours by that fact. But then you sent Jesus
to buy us back to you. We call that redemption. And if we are
believers, we are yours by creation and by redemption. You own us. We are your slaves. We are your servants. You are our master. And what benevolent
relationship that is, though we are your
slaves, to be your slave really is to be Royalty,
is to be a King or a Queen. And so my prayers for
those who have yet to surrender their life to
Jesus is that on this day and going forward,
they would give you control over their lives. If you have not done that yet,
if you're here in this service or you're watching online or
watching by television or radio or internet, how about right
now you say a simple prayer, mean it from your heart. If you mean it, say this. Say Lord, I give you
my life, I surrender. I know that I'm a sinner. I am sorry. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I believe you sent him
to die for me on a cross. I believe he rose from the
dead and conquered death. And I take his offer
for ever lasting life by believing in him. And I want to follow him. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. How will you put the truths
that you learned into action in your life? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church And just a reminder, you can support
this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
