For he is God’s minister for good, etc. Magistrates may hence learn what their vocation is, for they are not to rule for their own interest, but for the public good; nor are they endued with unbridled power, but what is restricted to the wellbeing of their subjects; in short, they are responsible to God and to men in the exercise of their power. For as they are deputed by God and do his business, they must give an account to him: and then the ministration which God has committed to them has a regard to the subjects, they are therefore debtors also to them. And private men are reminded, that it is through the divine goodness that they are defended by the sword of princes against injuries done by the wicked.For they bear not the sword in vain, etc. It is another part of the office of magistrates, that they ought forcibly to repress the waywardness of evil men, who do not willingly suffer themselves to be governed by laws, and to inflict such punishment on their offenses as God’s judgment requires; for he expressly declares, that they are armed with the sword, not for an empty show, but that they may smite evil-doers.And then he says, An avenger, to execute wrath, “a revenger to execute wrath,” Com. Ver., Doddridge; “a revenger for wrath,” Hammond. Wrath is here taken to mean punishment, by Luther, Beza, Grotius, Mede, etc. see Romans2:5; Romans 3:5; Romans4:15. The phrase then might be rendered, “condemning to punishment the doer of evil.” There is a contrast between “for wrath” and “for good” at the beginning of the verse. — This is the same as if it had been said, that he isan executioner of God’s wrath; and this he shows himself to be by having the sword, which the Lord has delivered into his hand. This is a remarkable passage for the purpose of proving the right of the sword; for if the Lord, by arming the magistrate, has also committed to him the use of the sword, whenever he visits the guilty with death, by executing God’s vengeance, he obeys his commands. Contend then do they with God who think it unlawful to shed the blood of wicked men.
-John Calvin’s commentary on Romans 13:4
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But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women
childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel
hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
- I Samuel 15:33 (NKJV)
Samuel kills Agag
Artist: MERIAN, Matthaeus the Elder [PHOTO SOURCE: http://colonialart.org/artworks/571A] |
The Christian's Responsibility to Government Part 3
[Note: The
following transcript is available in lieu of a study guide chapter.
The original publication of The
Christian and Government did not include a chapter based
on this message.]
Let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter
13 again tonight. And I am really excited about the things that the Word of God
has unfolding to me. I find myself somewhat constrained. I suppose if I had my
preference, I'd just stick in this chapter and get all three or four hours of
it done in one night. But I'm afraid I would lose you all by the time we got to
the end. There are so many wonderful things and I can't really even touch on
all of them but I'm trying to be somewhat selective in unfolding the great
truth of this wonderful portion of Scripture.
We're looking at Romans
13:1 to 7 in our wonderful time in the epistle of Paul to the Roman church.
The title of this section is "The Christian's Responsibility to
Government." And this is our third in this series of messages on these
great verses.
Let me say at the beginning that as
Christians it's obvious, I think, to all of us that we are in the world but not
of the world. We're pretty clear on the fact that our citizenship is in heaven.
Our allegiance is to our Lord. But, at the same time we realize that we have to
exist in this world. We have to live on this earth. And so, we have a certain
citizenship function here that has to be fulfilled and discharged properly. We
are sort of a society within society. We are a community within a community.
And we must fit within that society. We must fit within that community and yet
our priorities are totally unique and distinct from the society in which we
live. We live for eternal reasons. We follow the directions, the commandments
and the standards of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, given to us in the
Scripture and energized in us by the Holy Spirit. And so, we live for eternal
matters. We live with a whole different set of priorities. And because of that
we need clear teaching as to how we are to relate to the government in which we
exist.
We saw that film tonight about China.
And perhaps you were thinking what I was thinking, how would it be to be a
Christian in China? Now with a little bit more freedom, but even a few years
ago under the very strong and rigid controls of the Mao system. How would it be
to be a Christian? How do you relate to such an oppressive narrow communistic
kind of government?
Whatever society a Christian may be in,
he or she must ask the very same question. How do I as a Christian fit within
the system in which I live? There are many things, of course, about the Chinese
form of government that would threaten us, that would impinge upon our already
experienced freedoms that would make us very uncomfortable. There are some
things we would perceive that they do not do very well in terms of providing a
happy and meaningful life to their citizens. On the other hand, they might look
at our government and think we have miserably failed in some areas as well. And
the truth is they would be right and we would be right as well because any
government of man will reflect man's fallenness and certain shortcomings.
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|
"If the truth offends, then let it offend.
People have been living their whole lives in offense to God; let them be
offended for a little while." - Dr. John MacArthur
|
So, we all struggle, whatever government
it may be, whatever society we may fit in, we struggle with how we are to
relate to that. And I fear that in our society in America, Christians have lost
their perspective, they've lost the sense of their distinctiveness. They've
lost uniqueness. They've lost their moorings, if you will, and they're sort of
floating on an open sea.
I see that in a couple of ways. First of
all, in the current preoccupation of American Christianity with a materialistic
life style. America has provided for us such an almost gross kind of life style
potential that Christians have been caught up in this to the point where
they've lost the sense of eternal values. They've made some great exchanges for
temporal things instead of eternal reality. I see American Christianity buying
the whole American dream to a fault. I don't want to talk about that anymore
tonight. I want to turn the corner a little bit.
We have in our contemporary Christianity
an overindulgent materialistic kind of approach that really is absolutely
antithetical to everything that Christianity speaks of. That isn't to say that
it is wrong to be blessed by God. It is wrong to be wasteful with what God
gives you and what God blesses you with.
The other thing that I see in American
Christianity that disturbs me is a preoccupation with the political system. We
are enamored with the American dream of capitalistic materialistic potential
and we are also enamored with the American system of democracy and politics to
the point where the church today seems to be preoccupied with making its
impression in the political world rather than in a spiritual dimension. And I'm
greatly concerned with that. Our battle has become a battle of political
weapons, a battle of raising enough money to lobby for our particular cause, a
battle of intimidating people in office by our voting power. And millions and
literally millions more of the Lord's dollars that aren't going to fund
somebody's personal self- aggrandizement and ego trip are going to buy
political power.
And I've often wondered if all of those
tremendous dollar amounts could be channeled to reaching the world the right
way, what in the world Christianity would be doing. It's frightening to think
of one television program in America needing one million dollars every three
days, and it's more frightening to realize they get it. What if all of that
could be channeled to the work of God in the way He wants His work done? And I
think about the fact that Christian people give millions and millions and
millions of dollars to political causes in the name of Christianity but don't
really touch on the heart of the real issue of reaching a world without the
Savior with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ that can change men's hearts.
Now, this kind of mentality that we see
in our country is contrary to the tradition of the church. It is contrary to
what the church has always known. The church has always had a sense of
stewardship on the one hand where its resources and God has blessed us with
much. But its resources are carefully used for the glory of the Lord, not for
personal embellishment. And that its stance in the world is not as a political
power but as a spiritual power whose weapons are not fleshly but spiritual,
mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, as Paul says.
Just to strengthen my own understanding
on this I went back a little bit into history. I read a book entitled
CHRISTIANS AS THE ROMANS SAW THEM, written by someone who apparently is not a
Christian just a historian, a professor at Notre Dame writing on the early
church and the view of the Romans toward that early church. He basically
chronicles the view of the very most well-known writers of those ancient times,
writings of ancient men like Pliny, the Roman historian who was born about 62
A.D.; Galen, born about 130 A.D., the physician philosopher of Pergamus; also,
Celsus, a well-known rationalistic thinker of early Greek philosophy, born
about 140 A.D.; and then a man name Porphyry who was the most learned and
astute Greek critic of Christianity, he was born in 233 A.D.; and then Julian
the emperor born around 330 A.D. who was known as Julian the apostate because
he was raised in a nominal Christian family and apostatized paganism and then
became a very overt critic of Christianity.
And the writer of the book, Wilken(?),
takes these critics of Christianity who, by the way, made such a tremendous
impression on the Christian church that the Christian church spent centuries
answering their criticisms. Clear up to the time of Augustine, the church was
trying to deal with the criticisms that these very prolific and very articulate
and very astute critics were bringing against Christianity.
And if you read their writings you will
get the idea of how the Christians were perceived in the first three centuries
of the time after Christ. And it is very interesting to study their writings
and find out what the Christians were really like from the standpoint of their
critics who were analyzing their faults and would almost caricature whatever
was true about them.
The sum of all of their criticisms is
very interesting, very interesting. They saw Christians as religious fanatics,
first of all. Unanimously they affirmed that they were utterly, totally and
almost exclusively preoccupied with their religion. They also noted that they
were self-righteous outsiders who very infrequently got themselves involved in
the things that the rest of society was doing. They called them arrogant
innovators of religion who thought only their beliefs were true, which is to
say that they did not try to accommodate their world but made it very clear
what they believed which was, in fact, contrary to what their world believed.
They also said they were believers in
one God who was free and transcendent and to whom the man Jesus was equal. They
understood that that was Christian theology. They thought that was a weakness
in their system, how could they believe in one God, they said, who was free and
transcendent and Jesus be equal to Him? If He's one God, nobody could be equal
to Him, which shows they did not understand the trinity.
They also said the Christians were fools
who hoped for resurrection from the dead and foolishly believed in an eternal
reward.
They further said that they were
believers in a historical revelation given in the Scripture. So far they're
doing very well.
Further, they said they are people who
are totally committed to personal virtue and piety. And they are indifferent to
the matters of the world, both material and political. Isn't that interesting?
The early Christians were indifferent to the matters of the world that were
material and political.
Origen, writing about 250 A.D. in that
particular time frame, showed that Christians did more good for the empire by
focusing on a kind of personal holiness that prayed for the well being of the
emperor and the safety of the empire. How interesting.
If we have lost touch with 1 Timothy 2,
they hadn't which says if you want to lead a quiet and peaceable life and you
want to get along well then pray for the king and all those in authority over
you. In other words, our means are not fleshly means of politics, they are the
spiritual means of prayer. The early church knew that.
Further, it was uncommon for them to be
involved in any way in the empire, even as soldiers. A Christian actually
becoming a soldier was very uncommon. It did occur. It was not something they
pursued as a group. Celsus wrote that the Christians were definitely not
pacifists, that is they didn't speak against being a soldier, they didn't think
it wrong to be a soldier, but they felt themselves called to a higher kind of
warfare. They felt themselves not called to a public and civil life in the
Roman Empire as much as a spiritual life in the Kingdom of Heaven. And so their
preoccupation was beyond that. In fact, one writer, Minucius, said, "Christians,"
and I quote, "do not understand their civic duty," end quote.
Now, the historian, Tacitus, reported
that they were executed by Nero. And I think it's so interesting, Tacitus said
they were executed by Nero not for their religious beliefs...now remember
that...they were not executed by Nero for their religious beliefs but because
of their hatred of the human race, Nero said, which was manifest supposedly by
their aloofness and disdain for the common ways of life. Isn't that
interesting? They were actually executed for a failure to get involved in the
system. I fear on that basis no Christian today would be executed, or very few.
In fact, quoting Tacitus, "They are people who wall themselves off and
break away from the rest of mankind." They were very distinct. They were
not unkind, they were not unloving, they were not insensitive, but they were
unique.
Tertullian also replied that early
Christianity was an association, he said, devoted not to political maneuvering
but to inculcating moral principles into its members and training people to
live virtuously. I mean, their preoccupation was with virtuous life, godliness,
serving the Lord, committing themselves to the Kingdom. And they were executed,
says Tertullian, not for incendiarism, which is inflammatory teaching, or
inflammatory behavior. An incendiary is some kind of an explosive, sets a fire.
They were not executed for incendiarism, that is for inflammatory teaching or
behavior, but, says Tertullian, they were executed for their anti-social tendencies.
Interesting.
Now the point of all of this is to note
that the early church while individuals among them served in all walks of life,
some were soldiers, some were workers in the government to be sure. And you can
be sure, also, that they were the best at what they did if they were devoted to
Christ. Some were leaders. They filled every walk of life. But they were not
perceived as a group to be concerned with temporal government. They were not
perceived as a group to be concerned with temporal materialism. But rather as a
group, as an association, to be preoccupied with that which was eternal and
spiritual. In fact, they...they were accused of following the pattern of Christ
and the Apostles. How is that for a crime?
Now, I fear that when history is written
about this generation, it will say something very different about our kind of
Christianity, that it was very much preoccupied with the things of the world,
that it was very much into political maneuvering and seemingly had little
concern for holiness, little concern for virtue, little concern for piety,
little concern for the spiritual dimension and the weapons of the spiritual
dimension--prayer--and little concern for the events of the Kingdom in the
hearts of men.
Now having said all of that I want to go
a step further cause I want to cover as much as I can in just the introduction
time as we kind of warm up to the text. All of this does not preclude the fact
that many Christians in the earliest days of the church served in temporal
government positions. Some of you may be involved in that. But we have people
in our church who serve our city in many ways, who serve our state in many
ways, who serve our country in jobs that are involved in civil service. And we
honor and we respect those people and we would not at all diminish the
respectability of that function. But as a group, we are not preoccupied with
bringing the Kingdom of God through those means. Jesus said it when He said it
to Pilate, "If My Kingdom were of this world, My servants would
fight." Which is to say we're not on this level, so we're not concerned to
fight on this level. But I want you to know that there were individuals even in
the Scripture who were very highly involved in the governments of their time
and every honorably so. But they never banded together to become some kind of
coercive Christian lobby but for illustration:
In Matthew 8, for example, we read about
a Capernaum centurion, you don't have to turn to it I'm going to move on fast,
but a centurion, basically, the word century, or one hundred is identified with
that, a centurion was a Roman soldier who was over a hundred other soldiers.
This centurion from Capernaum, stationed in Capernaum in Matthew 8, had
authority over lesser-ranked Roman soldiers. You remember that his servant was
healed by Jesus. And when Jesus healed the servant of a Roman soldier He didn't
say to the guy, "Now stop being a soldier, turn in your armor." He
said to him, "Go your way." Here was a man who came to Christ, here
was a man that Christ encountered and said to him, "Go your way, go on
with what you're doing." There was no diminishing of the role that he had.
Keep on soldiering, even though you now have a place in an eternal kingdom.
And then we find in Mark chapter 5 there
was a ruler in a synagogue who was a local leader much like a mayor of a town
would be. The chief ruler in the synagogue would be like the mayor of a Jewish
community. You remember his daughter was raised from the dead and he, no doubt,
continued to function in that same role of leadership. Our Lord did not call
him away from that.
It's remarkable, too, that in Luke
chapter 19 we meet a short little man by the name of Zacchaeus and what was his
profession? He was a tax collector. He was in the JRS, the Jewish Revenue
Service, or better, the RRS, the Roman Revenue Service. It was a combination of
both. And he had extorted from the people he was supposed to be taking tax
money. And you know he met Jesus Christ. Christ went to his home. Salvation
entered his house and he promised to pay back everybody fourfold of what he had
embezzled. And the wonderful story about Zacchaeus is not that Jesus said,
"Now stop working for the Roman government in collecting taxes," the
wonderful story about Zacchaeus is he became an honest tax collector. Nothing
wrong with that. The Lord never dissuaded him from his profession.
The believing centurion, you remember,
who looked at the cross and saw Jesus dying and said, "Truly this was the
Son of God" and gave glory to God, came to faith in Jesus Christ was a man
of dignity and a man of beauty in a picture of ugliness as Jesus died. And
stands in my mind as a very respectable and honorable man with great faith and
great integrity.
And by the way, the first Gentile
Christian in Acts chapter 10 was a man name Cornelius who was also a Roman
soldier, another centurion, a commander of a hundred soldiers. And then do you
remember in Acts chapter 13 when the gospel first went out from Antioch? Paul
and the other pastors at Antioch, you remember, were praying that the Spirit of
God would send some. And Paul and Barnabas were sent out to preach the gospel
and they came to an island called Cyprus and they came to a place called Paphos
and they met there the man who is called the anthupatos, the proconsul.
He would be the head of the provincial government of that region. He was the
number-one guy. His name was Sergius Paulus and he was saved and no doubt
continued in the same governmental function as a leader there to have influence
for Christ.
And then in Acts chapter 16 there was
the Philippian jailer, a Roman soldier of great responsibility. Jailers were
men of great responsibility who commanded all the other soldiers who had
responsibility for the prisoners, who were proven capable. He came to faith in
Jesus Christ. His whole family came to faith in Jesus Christ. And as you read
the aftermath of the story it's apparent that he stayed there and carried on
his function even though he was a member of the Kingdom.
And there was Crispus in Acts 18 who was
the chief ruler of the Jewish community in that region of Corinth. He was saved
and all his house. Then there was Sosthenes in Acts 18, another chief ruler
among the Jews in Achaia, he was saved. Then there was Felix and Festus who
were Roman provincial governors, they were given the gospel and in each case
treated with respect and regard by Paul in Acts 24 and 25. Then there was Herod
Agrippa II who was the Idumaean king who was in the line from Herod the Great
who was ruling under Roman toleration. He was overseeing the Jews. He was
evangelized again by Paul with great respect in Acts 26.
Then there was Paul himself who saw the
importance of government by appealing to Caesar when he needed justice in his
own case and couldn't get it. And you find that in Acts 26, 27 and 28. And
then, of course, in Philippians 4:22 Paul says, "All the
saints greet you, chiefly they that are in Caesar's...what? household."
There were many who were a part of the very cabinet of Caesar who had come to
faith in Christ. And those were not dishonorable roles. Since God Himself has
ordained government the position within that government is a position of honor.
And if a Christian is there, he should serve there as a Christian should serve.
But Christians don't collectively turn
to the world's means to accomplish spiritual ends. You understand that. That's
the point. Many key people in government today as well as then are Christians,
thank God for that. Even in the Old Testament, thank God for a Joseph in Egypt,
or a Daniel in Babylon and Medo-Persia, or a Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego,
princes in a pagan government. But wherever we are, whether we serve the
government or not, we are to live as Christians whose preoccupation, whose
priorities, whose perspective is at a different level, a different dimension
than to try to use political means to accomplish spiritual ends.
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“Today sin is called sickness, so people think
it requires therapy, not repentance.” - John MacArthur
|
You say, "Then what is a Christian
to do with his government?" Two things Paul tells us here. First, submit
to it. Secondly, pay your taxes. We'll get to that when we get down to verse 6
and 7. Submit to it and pay your taxes.
Now, we're looking at the first
principle of submission. And now you can go after all of that to verse 1,
finally. But I needed to say those things and if I don't finish tonight I'll
try to finish next time. But I won't do that either, I'm quite sure because I
haven't even started verses 6 and 7 on paying your taxes and we'll get into some
interesting things there.
You'll notice the principle that is
outlined here in verse 1. Here is the first principle, "That every soul be
subject unto the higher powers." Now that's the first principle. The
second principle comes in verse 6, "For this cause pay your taxes."
And then he kind of expands on that. But principle number one is this idea of
submitting to the government. Every one of us is to be subject unto the higher
powers, and that has reference to government. And we've looked in detail at 1
Timothy 2:1 to 4, Titus 3 verses 1, 2 and 8. We looked at 1
Peter 2:12 to 17. Those three passages say basically the very same thing.
We are called to a role of submissiveness. We are called to maintain good works
in a context of peaceful, honest, godly, quiet living as model citizens who
solve our problems with government by prayer and to accept whatever situation
we're in with thanksgiving knowing God has ordained it for His own purposes,
whether we are Christians in China or in the United States or anywhere else.
All we can expect from a government is
the protection of life and property. And any government basically does that. We
can't necessarily expect that we're going to have all that we would like to
have out of a government which basically reflects sinful man. The issue here is
not whether it's a good government or a bad government, whether it's a dictatorship
or a democracy or a monarchy or whatever it is. All government is constituting
a higher power for the protection of life and property to which we are subject.
Now I'm not saying that...that our
government is something special and so we want to be sure we're subject to ours
because we have a quote/unquote Christian nation. Listen, if you think America
is a Christian nation, you're wrong. There is no such thing as a Christian
nation, there are only are Christian people. You can't have a Christian nation.
We have had civil religion. I mean, we have "In God We Trust" on our
coins, unfortunately we have "Me First" in our hearts. But we have
"In God We Trust" on our coin...that's a very vague kind of thing.
That could be anything. Our tradition is a civil religion tradition.
But when I look at our government, I see
a lot of things in our government that disturb me greatly. I mean, I look at
our government and I see graft. I see people in high places who are immoral. We
hear all the time about bribery. I have very little toleration for allowing
homosexuals to have freedom and equal rights with everybody else as if they're
only a sort of sexual preference rather than a vile sin.
I don't like the fact that our
government contributes by its laws to the destruction of the family and the
destruction of marriage and the promotion of a role for women that is the
opposite of Scripture. I don't like it that our government makes laws against
reading the Bible in school and praying. I don't like it that our government
has what I believe to be very inadequate punishment for criminals, a failure to
prevent immorality in the media and let's people publish absolute filth and
splatter it all over the place. I don't like it that our government does that
in the name of free speech.
I don't like it that our government
legalizes abortion and allows millions of persons still in the womb to be
massacred. I don't like it that our government gives our children rights apart
from their parents so that a 15-year-old girl has the right to have an abortion
without letting her parents know. I don't like it that our government seems
more concerned sometimes to protect criminals than it does law-abiding
citizens. I don't like it that they are stifling rules constantly being made to
restrain law enforcement.
I don't really believe we have the ideal
system here. I mean, I'm not asking for my walking papers, I'm happy to be here
but I'm not under any illusion that we have some very special Christian
approach to everything. But, in spite of all of those things, I still find
myself coming under the statement of verse 1 that I am to be subject to the
higher powers. I do like it that my government wants to protect my life and
property. I do like it that there are laws instituted to indicate that if
something is mine, it is mine and you can't have it unless I willfully give it
to you. And that anyone who tries to harm me or those I love will be brought to
the law. I'm appreciative of those things. I'm appreciative of the great
freedoms that we have in this country for the ministry of the Word of God and
the preaching of the gospel, although I'm not under any particular illusion
that the Lord needs our kind of government to build His church. China has
proven quite the contrary.
There are many things I'm thankful for.
And I'm not saying I'm not. I just want you to know that I don't find, as I
look at this passage, that it might be any easier for me to think about being
subject to the higher power than it is for somebody in a country that we might
think is far worse. Any Christian is going to find difficulty in this country,
just as we do. And I ask the same questions you do. It's awfully difficult
sometimes to send my check to the IRS if I were to believe that the government
was going to fund abortions with it. I'm called to be subject to those powers
that be, they're ordained of God, God has His purposes, His reasons.
Now the only time that I'm ever
permitted to violate the government that is over me is if that government makes
a law that violates the law of God. Right? And we've seen that in Acts 4 and 5.
Now for a moment, I want you to turn
back to Matthew chapter 10. And I don't think I'll get done with my
introduction, so...it's all right. In Matthew chapter 10 and verse 16, and all
of this is so important, the Lord gives us here some very basic information
that we can assume is going to be very helpful to us. "I send you
forth," verse 16, "as sheep in the midst of wolves." Now get it
straight, folks, He says this in general to all who go out representing Him.
You're going to go out as sheep in the midst of wolves. In other words, you're
going to be headed for some difficulty. Whatever governmental system you're
finding yourself in, you're going to find that your strong Christian testimony
will generate certain hostility.
So, "Be wise as serpents and
harmless as doves." That is such a very important statement. That tells us
the profile of a Christian in a hostile environment. Wise as serpent...a
serpent, of course, is the model of cunning, shrewdness, keenness, caution. A
serpent is not a fierce attacker. A serpent is stealthy. A serpent is
calculating. A serpent doesn't court trouble. A serpent doesn't force the
issue. They were the model of shrewdness, the model of caution. And that's what
he says to begin with. Be very cautious. Be very shrewd. Be very keen minded.
Secondly, be as harmless as doves. And
that was proverbial, also. Nothing was more harmless than a dove. Couldn't do
harm to anything. A dove was a symbol of purity. A dove was a symbol of
innocence. So he says whatever you are, even if you're in the midst of wolves,
even if the environment is as hostile as wolves are to sheep, be wise and
cautious and shrewd and keen and don't court trouble and don't force the issue
and be as harmless as a dove, as innocent, as honest, as full of integrity, as
non-retaliatory, seeking no hurt for anyone. That's how we're to be, marked by
wisdom, marked by purity, marked by gentleness without compromise.
And I read like you do in the paper
about these people back in the Midwest who are always being thrown in jail by
the state authorities because they won't comply with some state law. And I see
that, to be honest with you, I don't think the state is right in those things.
But I'll tell you, I don't think they're right in the way they react either.
And I think if they reacted as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, if they
demonstrated a little bit of wisdom and a little bit of caution and a little
bit of willingness to work things out and they showed some purity and some
innocence and a spirit of non-retaliation, there would be very different things
happening than turn out to happen. But it's almost as if they seek the theater.
It's almost as if they seek the conflict which is the antithesis of what our
Lord calls us to when He calls us to face the world around us. We are not to be
vengeful.
You remember, don't you, Romans
13...pardon me, Romans 12:17, "Recompense to no man evil
for evil." If they do evil to you, don't give them evil back. Don't
slander and slam and slur them. If it's possible as much as lies in you, live
peaceably. Find a way to live peaceably. If there's some paper you need to sign
then maybe there's a way you can sign the paper and not compromise your own
heart conviction. And don't avenge yourself. And if your enemy's hungry, feed
him. And if he's thirsty, give him a drink. And overcome his evil with good.
That's the attitude of a Christian. We're not trying to pick a fight. We're not
trying to start a war. We want to be as gracious and loving and gentle as we
can and not compromise. And if in the end we are persecuted for the sake of our
message and the sake of our life, then let it be. But let it only be in that
case.
Then he goes down into verse 17 and
says, "Beware," in Matthew 10, "beware of men they're going to
deliver you up to the councils and scourge you in their synagogues."
You're going to be treated unjustly. They're going to whip you and..."And
you're going to be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a
testimony against them and the heathen of the Gentiles."
Yes, the time is going to come when the
state persecutes believers. It's been that way all through history. The state
is going to slaughter the sheep. The kings and the governors are going to call
you in. And sometimes this is going to happen. But remember this, when it
happens it will be a testimony...it will be a testimony. That's right. It will
be a witness. And I want you to know that whenever the church is persecuted, it
tends to...what?...to grow and the blood of the martyrs becomes the seed of the
church. And sometimes this is what purges the church.
And then in verse 19 He says, "And
when they deliver you up," that is when they take you prisoner,
"don't be anxious." Not even then. No, no, don't make a protest,
don't make a case out of it. Don't worry about what you're going to say.
"For it will be given you in that same hour what you shall speak." Isn't
that wonderful? The Lord promises to give you what to say. Be calm and
dependent, "For it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father who
speaks in you," verse 20. Isn't that great?
So, we want to do all we can to be
peaceable, all we can to be loving, all we can to be the best citizens possible
and quietly and honestly and with integrity and virtue and piety serve as seeds
of spiritual truth in our society. Live godly lives. Influence our world. And
if indeed they decide to persecute us, let it be only for our faith, let it be
only for our testimony. And even then we have no anxiety because the Lord will
give us what to say in the moment that we're to say it.
And then I like what it says in verse 21
to 23, it says, "A brother will deliver up the brother to death." It
will happen even in the family. "And fathers are going to give their
children over to death, children are going to rise up against their parents and
cause them to be put to death." And the history of the church tells us
this is really true. This is really true. There's conflict in a family. It's
not uncommon that there's a conflict even within a family. And He says in verse
22, "You'll be hated of all men for My namesake, but he that endures to
the end will be saved."
And then I like verse 23...you say,
"Well, when they persecute you, what do you do? Just say - `Here, hit me,
oh, hit me again, this is wonderful.'" No. Verse 23, "When they
persecute you in this city...what?...flee, get out of there." You're not
supposed to be cultivating a martyr complex. Get out of there and go to another
place and keep going as long as you've got another place to go.
In other words, the Lord says I'm not
asking you to stand there and get beaten to a pulp. If you can find a way out,
get out. I mean, patience does have a limit. Flee. But we submit quietly,
peaceably, we are wise as serpents, harmless as doves. And we infect our
society with our godliness, not with our political clout, not with our worldly,
gaudy, showy materialism. Those things defeat us, they don't help us. The world
needs to know clearly what we are, doesn't it?
And why do we submit? Let's go back to
Romans 13 and at least review what I gave you last time. In Romans 13 he gives
us seven reasons why we submit.
number one is government is by divine
decree, "For there's no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained
of God." And we've been making that point, I think, over and over again
that whatever the government is God put it there for whatever purpose He wants.
If it's a good government, He put it there for good. If it's an evil one, He
put it there to accomplish something. I mean, God has put all government into
place. There is no power that isn't of God. And all the powers that are are
ordained of God. That's saying it both ways. There's no power that is not of
God and all power is of God. Same thing said two ways, exclusively and
inclusively. Government is by God. Even governments that have a lack of freedom
reflect the purpose of God.
We ought to stand very clearly taught by
the lesson of China. The absolute antithesis of everything we know in American
democracy and the church has flourished in that. Because the growth of the
Kingdom is not related to any kind of political cult, none. Has nothing to do
with it. And the people who are under the illusion that you have to preserve
American democracy to preserve the Kingdom of God are wrong. They're not
connected. Even Nero who burned Christians was ordained by God and the death of
those Christians became the development of the church. God knew what He was
doing.
So, we are subject because government is
ordained by God. Secondly, because resistance to government is rebellion
against God. Verse 2, "Whosoever therefore resists the power resists the
ordinance of God." So, we submit because if you resist you're resisting
God. And these people who supposedly in the name of Christian freedom resist
what the government wants to do by some...carrying out some legal function or
having them sign some paper or go through some qualifying thing, they're
resisting the ordinance of God. For this time and that place God has instituted
that or allowed it to be...I don't mean by that that God is writing all the
laws, but they're within the framework of His tolerance and purpose and they
resist God.
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“Whoever
comes to us with a sword, from a sword will perish.” – Alexander Nevsky
|
And then we saw the third reason, didn't
we? At the end of verse 2, we submit--first of all--because government is
ordained by God; secondly, resistance to government is rebellion against God;
and thirdly, those who resist will be punished. It says, "And they that
resist shall receive to themselves punishment, or judgment." And it's
talking there not only about the judgment of God but about the judgment of man.
God has given government the right to punish evil doers. God has granted to
government the privilege of punishment.
Come with me, for a minute, back to the
Pentateuch. Let's go back to Exodus. I'll just give you a little brief look at
this and then we'll wrap up for tonight. But in Exodus chapter 21...God
instituted a law and the law was that government had a right to punish. Exodus
21, verse 23, "And if any mischief, then thou shalt give life for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning,
wound for wound, stripe for stripe."
In other words, any crime committed
deserves a corresponding punishment. If a life is taken, a life is owed. If an
eye is taken, an eye is owed. If a tooth is taken, a tooth is owed; a hand, a
hand; a foot, a foot. If burning has occurred, burning is owed. Stripes have
been given, stripes are owed. And here is the institution of governmental
privilege in punishing evil doers. This is not personal vengeance. These were
never given for personal vengeance. This is for government carrying out of
punishment.
And it further goes into chapter 22,
"If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore
five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking in
and be smitten that he die, there shall be no blood shed for him." In
other words, if somebody breaks in and he dies in breaking in and stealing and
you defend yourself against him, you don't die. "If the sun be risen on
him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he shall make full restitution; if
he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft." If he lives through
the night, gets up in the morning, he has pay back every single thing and if he
doesn't have anything to pay, he's sold into slavery and the money that's gained
from his sale is given to the person he robbed. So, this is a function of
government. From the very beginning when God laid down the laws of government,
He established that there were principles to be followed.
Go to Deuteronomy 35. And again we find...there
are many other chapters, I'm just giving you some highlights of it. Deuteronomy
35:19, "The avenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer. When he
meets him he shall slay him." In other words, if somebody murders someone,
there is to be an avenger. And the avenger goes and takes the life of the
murderer. I mean, that's capital punishment. That's the institution of the law.
Again in verse 21, says the same thing.
Then over in Deuteronomy chapter 22, by
the way, it was kind of an interesting thing that when someone committed a
murder, someone close to the murdered victim was the avenger who would go and
take the life under, of course, the direction of the court take the life of the
guilty party. In Deuteronomy 22:18, it talks about a man who
has committed a crime and it says in verse 18 of Deuteronomy 22, "The
elders of the city shall take the man, chastise him, fine him a hundred shekels
of silver, give them to the father of the damsel because he's brought up an
evil name upon a virgin of Israel and she shall be his wife, he may not divorce
her all his days." So, here is a man who has slandered, he is given a fine
and his penalty is to marry the girl and that's, of course, for life by God's
standard. I mean, it goes on and on like this.
In Ecclesiastes chapter 8...don't try to
find Ecclesiastes at this moment, happiness is sitting next to someone who
knows where Ecclesiastes is. But in Ecclesiastes, it tells us that judgment is
to be meted out immediately. It is to be meted out hastily. And that, of
course, is what causes people to fear punishment, punishment that is hasty.
I'm just reminded, also, I think it's
the thirty-first chapter of Job and verse 11...I might be wrong on this but I
think it...yes, it says: "For this is a heinous crime, identifying a
heinous crime, yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges."
In other words, it's the same idea. The
judges, the leaders, the rulers have been given by God the right of enacting on
those who commit a crime a corresponding and righteous punishment. And when a
government punishes a criminal, it is enacting the will of God. You understand
that? And when it fails to do that, it has blood on its hands. And I believe
the absence of capital punishment makes a nation blood guilty before God for
where a life is not taken for life, the ground even in the case of Cain and
Abel, the ground cries out unto God of unrequited blood.
You want to know why the murder rate in
our country goes higher and higher and higher and higher and higher? It's the
reason.
So, the instruments of punishment are
human but the source is divine. It is the purpose and plan and will of God
carried out by earthly government. And when this breaks down, when criminals
are not properly punished, an institution of God is destroyed. It's like the
home. When children aren't properly punished, what happens to the family? It
disintegrates. And the same is true in society.
And I really believe that America is
headed for destruction. And I don't think the destruction is going to come from
the Russians dropping a bomb on us. I don't think it's going to come from some
outside power conquering us. I think our destruction comes from within: our
lowering of moral values, putting a high price on material things, @massacring
unborn babies, failing to quickly and strongly punish evil doers, tolerating
vice, elevating homosexuals to places of honor, taking women out of the home.
I mean, you just go on and on with this
kind of stuff and that's the devastating reality of the fall of our country.
And ultimately, as in the case of individuals, I think God will give us over to
a reprobate mind. The answer, dear ones, is not politics. You understand that,
don't you? And the answer is not, "Let's be like them and have our own
Christian materialism." The answer is to put our money and our time and
our effort and our prayers and our lives into living a godly life and speaking
boldly the gospel of Jesus Christ which alone can change a heart. And changed
hearts can turn around a nation.
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10
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil.
12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high [places].
13
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness;
15
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked.
17
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God:
18
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
-
Ephesians 6:10-18 (KJV)
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.stfinnians.org/2016/11/05/prayer-warrior/]
|
So, we submit because government is from
God, to rebel is to resist God, to resist means punishment. And now we're up to
where I left off last time and we'll pick it up next time. I can't get to the
good stuff. I just spin my wheels. Let's bow in prayer.
Lord, we want to understand how it is
that we're to live in this world. We want to understand what Your Word is
saying to us. Help us. Help me. Help me not to say things that don't reflect
Your perfect will, that don't reflect the proper interpretation of Your holy
Word. And, O Lord, help us to be in the world what You want us to be. Help us
not to get diverted. Help us, Lord, to be faithful to live as You want us to
live, to speak as You want us to speak, to be bold in proclaiming the truth, to
speak of the sins of our nation, the sins of our lives. But, Lord, when it
comes to living, help us to live quiet and honest and peaceful lives, lives
filled with the love of Christ, filled with purity, filled with an
uncompromising stand for truth that, Lord, it may be that we move this nation.
And may it be, Lord, that we might even save this nation, not by political
organization but by the power of transformed lives. Help us to know that if the
Word is to be reached at all it is to be reached with the message of redeeming
faith. May we be faithful, Lord, to reach out, to so live in an uncompromising
and yet as model citizens in such a way who govern our lives so that Christ can
be seen in us. May we be like that early church, a community of people who live
so much for the Kingdom, who live so much for the spiritual dimension, who are
so lost in serving the Savior that our critics might be able to accuse us of
being indifferent to the world around us. And may we like them not gain our
ends by our wealth or our political power but by our holiness and purity of
life. We thank You for the privilege of following the footsteps of our Savior.
May we walk as He walked who name His name. Amen.
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