God, Government and Taxes
Romans 13:1-7 · Randy Peterman · Jul 15, 2007
Romans (2005-07), No. 91
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926032497661

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I have some silly drawings up on the board here. Because there's no PowerPoint, you get to see how bad I am at art. That's why I use computers to generate art, usually. On the left-hand side, this is not a hot dog. Somebody said, oh, a hot dog. And it was a good guess. Once I looked at it, I realized it does. It's supposed to be a hamburger. Just in your mind, it's a hamburger.

And it says, eat this over there. On the right hand side we have something that we actually cooked up last night that was quite tasty. We grilled some onion, we grilled some pineapple and we put some blue cheese in the middle and it was just fantastic. I recommend trying that at home. And then I have taste this over here.

Now when you're a kid, which I know for some of us has been longer than others, but when you're a kid, your parents kind of put food on your plate and they say, eat this. Sometimes it's a hamburger, sometimes it's Brussels sprouts, sometimes it's mac and cheese, and sometimes it's broccoli. But as you get to be an adult, hopefully you kind of develop slightly more sophisticated tastes, and then the idea of a Vidalia onion and pineapple and blue cheese sounds like a good thing instead of frightening. you may not prefer those flavors together. But the concept with tasting this is that one of them is just kind of like you eat because you're supposed to, and one of them is you enjoy the flavors and you contemplate the way things work.

I want to contrast this morning as we're going to take a look at God, government, and taxes, Romans 13, 1-7, the concept that the world tells us about government, which is this is how it's done, and just deal with it in contrast to how the scripture is going to outline how we should evaluate and enjoy government.

How many of you enjoy government? Everybody enjoying government? I mean, we talk about government and just big smiles on your faces immediately. Oh boy! Let's take a look at the text here. I'm going to read it again for those... Yeah. Can... Oh, you like the crying? Roy is enjoying the crying about government and taxes. The passage here, I'm going to go ahead and read it for the recording.

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid. For it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. And therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.

For because of this, you also pay taxes. For rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them. Tax to whom taxes due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor." Alrighty. I was so excited to teach this week because government and taxes and theology all in one, it's It's money, it's politics, and it's religion.

I mean, the only thing we're missing is sex, and we could just say, well, we can't teach this morning because it's just taboo. But as usual, we need to keep in mind the context, the greater context of what's going on here. Any guesses as to what the foundational verses are that we're going to take a look at this through? What verses that we've already studied before are we going to talk about again in context of God, government, and taxes?

Donna has a good guess. Romans 1 and 2, that's right. Okay, I'm going to erase this. What are the concepts in 1 and 2 that you think we need to look at this in context of, or in view of, as the NIV puts it? What are the three concepts? Somebody turn there and look it up. Romans 12, 1 and 2. Let's take a look at that. We'll look at it together.

Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Alrighty, so what are the three core concepts that we need to keep in mind? Okay. Okay, by the mercies. Okay, what else? Living sacrifice. Okay, so present your bodies of living sacrifice. I'm just going to abbreviate that because I'm a bad speller.

Okay, and the third one, and this is the one that we need to really put our minds on this morning, is that you are proving the will of God. Who are you proving the will of God to? Any guesses? You're proving the authority of God? Or to the authority of God? I'm sorry, to the world, exactly.

God knows what the will of God is. That almost goes without saying, but just to prove the point, or to enunciate the point, God knows what the will of God is. The world doesn't know what the will of God is. If anything, they think God just wants us to be happy. How many of you are tired of hearing that one? I just want to be happy. I just want you to be happy. Let's all just be happy. If we've learned anything from the lives of the saints, it was that sometimes we're not happy and God uses that. So, we have by the mercies of God, living sacrifice, and proving the will of God.

When we're talking about government, is that a God-ordained institution or a man-ordained institution? That's kind of a trick question. It's a God-ordained thing, exactly. We like to think that as men, somehow, we're involved with that process. And we are. We are agents involved. But it's not without God's involvement. Let's take a look at verse 1 and have a look at that.

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. That's a humdinger of a way to start out. Why is he suggesting that we be in subjection to the governing authorities? Why would you want to do that? Why would you want to subject yourselves to governing authorities? You're submitting to the Lord. What's the alternative of everybody submitting to the government? Chaos. Anarchy.

Who's Paul writing to? Do you remember who he's writing to in this passage? In the whole book? Is it people in Denver? Is it people in Asia? Is it people in Israel? It's to the Romans. It's to people in the city of Rome In Rome proper, you can't get closer to Rome than where they're at.

You're talking about the political center, and so he's going to talk about government. Do you think these people had just like half a clue about what that was involving? Because it was around them all the time. In Carson City, when I was in the state capital of Nevada, we actually learned all kinds of things about politics because the politicians wanted to make sure we knew they were doing something. Unfortunately, here in Denver, I haven't gotten as much, but I'm not in school. So, we can take a look at this passage here. Can somebody read Romans 12, 17, please? Never pay back evil to evil to anyone.

Respect what is right in the sight of all men. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. How would respecting what is right in the sight of all men tie in with being subject to the governing authorities? What are the governing authorities going to institute? Are they going to set some laws up? Is that a good indicator of what's right in the sight of at least most men, if not all men? So the government is establishing a set of rules, laws, not the law that we're died to, but laws as citizens that we're to abide under and we're subjecting ourselves to.

It's not going to be a challenge because we're already, if we're abiding in Christ, hopefully doing just what we read in 1217, which is doing what is right in the sight of all men. Are we doing it by our own power? No. If we're resting, we're doing it by the mercies of God, as a living sacrifice, proving out what the will of God is.

There's a theme in this section, but unfortunately you have to get it all the way through the end of chapter 15, so get used to it. Let's ask some tough philosophical questions real quick. It says, every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. Now, I drew a picture of the hamburger, And I drew a picture of, hopefully, what would be a slightly more complicated and complex sophisticated taste of the onions, pineapple, and the blue cheese. Always subject yourself to all governments all the time. Is that what he says? He doesn't say that, but he does make a pretty strong statement. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. Now let's ask a very tough question.

What about being in the German citizenship during World War II? Should you subject yourself to the governing authorities? You have to ask this question because you can think about our government as being relatively benevolent at the present time just like the Roman government was relevant or relatively benevolent with some exceptions. How do you take this when you're under a Nazi regime who wants to kill Jews?

Carol? The righteousness of God is going to, through the Holy Spirit, indicate to us where, okay, red flags, warning, let's not kill the Jews. You're going to see that's wrong. However, in a benevolent government, what should be our behavior as believers? Subjection. We're subjecting ourselves to the government. What if we don't like it? What part of us is not liking it? Is it the Holy Spirit causing us to not like it? If the Holy Spirit causes us to not like it, it's because there's going to be something that's morally reprehensible going on. You know, it's like the, please tattoo the 666 on your hand, or whatever it is. Which we won't get into, but I just thought I'd throw that out there.

So we're to be respectful and subjective to the government in a benevolent scenario. Let's say you go to Saudi Arabia and you happen to be a Christian and the laws in Saudi Arabia are for you to not possess any Bible text in a hard form. You can't have it on your computer and you can't have it in written form. What do you do? Memorize before you go.

My father-in-law ran into this or my stepfather-in-law ran into this when he went to teach in Saudi Arabia on something and he went there and they scanned his computer hard drive and they checked his belongings to make sure he had no Christian literature.

In that case he had to comply. It just happened so that he had a GE official laptop that wouldn't have any Bible software on it in the first place so that was something he didn't have to concern himself with. But it meant he couldn't bring his Bible with him. couldn't do it. He complied because it was a short term time and it was what needed to be there.

In the long term, as a Christian, do you go into Saudi Arabia without a Bible? That's a call maybe you need to make between you and the Lord. Yeah, actually, pretty regularly we get hits to the Holly Hills Bible Church site with people looking for the Holy Bible, only they don't know how to spell holy, they spell it Holly. And as funny as that is, it is at least wonderful that hopefully they're coming here and getting good doctrine. But you can look it up on the internet, and that is a powerful tool, even if they're trying to block things like that.

Now the second half of verse 1 says, For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. We could probably spend the rest of the morning discussing this, but we're not going to get to. What is the consequence of thinking that God is not involved with government? When Bill Clinton had his affair discovered with Monica Lewinsky, Was God not involved with government? When George Bush does things that may be considered questionable in the eyes of certain political parties or certain people, maybe even you, maybe me, is God involved with government? When Richard Nixon got caught? When the government wiretaps our phones without us knowing it, is God involved with government?

This says yes. Do we get to embrace that with happy smiles again? Are we supposed to, abiding, living the life of the Holy Spirit, embrace it and smile and just take it? Like the hamburger, just take it. Or the onion. Taste it, think about it. Okay. I don't know. We're going to take a look at something tied to that in the next coming verses, so I'm going to hold off answering that for a moment. Well, that's what Paul's going to state a little bit later. However, we're going to get into that discussion in a little bit, where we'll look into that in a little bit more depth.

Basically, God is omniscient and omnipotent and is able to be involved with the government in an intimate way that's there. Does God set the boundaries of the nations? Does God define where those are? In the Old Testament, it's clearly enunciated in several places. How about where the mountains are?

Did God put the Rockies where the Rockies are? Even if it's not first place in the season standings? Oh, just kidding. We won't talk baseball. God put the Rockies where they are and He put the boundaries and the borders where they are in His sovereignty. Other passages speak to that. I've got some references in the notes there. We can look at Numbers 34, 4-12 and Isaiah 26-15.

God's involvement with government is not half-hearted. When the U.S. was started, where all of the politicians involved, all of the people representing the different colonies involved, believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It's not evident from the writings. There were a lot of deists, people who thought that God started things, set them off, and wasn't involved from that point in time. But even if they were deists, God still used them. Even if they didn't want to be used, even if they didn't think God was active in their lives, this verse says God's involved.

He's taking care of it. Now, again, a philosophical question. Was God involved with the Nazi regime? Just to use them as an example of evil. We've already said yes to that question, but even in that case, God set up that authority. Now here's a question. Is authority part of God's nature? We think of God as having perfect love, perfect righteousness, perfect justice. Is God perfect authority? Is that an attribute that we normally think of? Do we think of God as authority?

God is not the author of evil. I would totally agree with that and want to reiterate that, especially if somebody listening is unfamiliar with that. But God is involved with the allowance, at the very least, of the setting up of the evil government. Now what if God is using one government to bring wrath upon another government. Does he do that in the Old Testament? He does that in the Old Testament. And I believe that it's reasonable to say that God can use that even in modern times.

When we read about Revelation and God bringing things about in chaos between governments, God's involved with government bringing wrath about on the world. It's not a surprise characteristic of God where suddenly they're going to be in the time of Revelation and go, Oh, we didn't know! Well, the lost people will be saying that. But it's God's nature and He revealed that through His Holy Spirit that we would take in consideration. The authority is His and He chooses to give it where He has a plan. for his involvement.

Any thoughts on that? Because we really should probably move on to the next one. I'm looking at the clock, but the next verse. I'm thankful for our government. Really, it brings that. Because we're having to spend some time over in other third world countries. Yeah. Where they don't have a good government. They're in rough shape, in bad shape. Yeah.

So we really are blessed and when I was looking at this I kept thinking Paul's writing to a group of people that had a similar sense of government rome was not identical obviously the united states but there was a sense of the government was trying to keep everything at peace trying to get everything going and moving in the same direction uh... unfortunately the benevolent see if the roman government cause some problems by the time of the decline of the roman empire in rome proper they had two hundred and fifty official days off for roman holidays So if you think of a 365-day year, that benevolence, it reached a point of serious problems because nobody was ever doing anything but preparing for the next party. Well, I knew you wouldn't, Wayne. So we are blessed to live in the United States where the general benevolence of the government is pro-religion, at least to this point in time, so we can be here and we're really blessed for the opportunity to meet together and study God's Word. Let's take a look at verse 2. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God. Resisting authority. Yesterday I had to not resist authority.

We had a garage sale at our house and I went out to put up signs and I waited at the light because I wanted to put it at a good traffic intersection and I went out, the light said walk so I waited and I went out and I started to put up the sign and right there on the pole was a notice that was mostly covered with sticky stuff from other people putting signs up that said, don't put signs up here, you could be fined a thousand dollars and we'll come get you and we'll take all your stuff from your garage sale and you'll cry like a baby. Okay, didn't quite say that. But it was one of those things where it kind of threw a wrench in the works because I had a plan for advertising that people could come buy my junk and take it to their house and add it to their junk collection. Sorry, I won't refer to garage sales like that anymore.

But you see there is a consequence in our lives, often in an invasive manner, because we're being subjective to the government. But therefore, what if I had resisted that authority and stuck the sign right over their sign, and then said, I didn't see it! when the police officer came to my house and wanted a thousand dollars. Which would have been highly disappointing. What happens if you don't subject yourself to the authorities? This verse right here says that you're disobeying God. How does that feel?

Again, the philosophical question comes up. How do you deal with this in the context of the Nazi regime? And they come to your house and say, hey, are you harboring any Jews here? And you say, of course I am. Why would I want to resist the authority of the government? No, you would probably at that point in time find yourself in the higher moral standing of saying, there are no Jews here.

Move along, Mr. SS guy with the big gun. But in the context of a benevolent government, whom Paul is writing to in Rome, if we disobey, we're disobeying the ordinance of God. That's a pretty hefty thing to put on it. Because you know what, when we're speeding, when we're doing 65 in a 45 zone, and we're passing every single other car on the road, unless your wife's giving birth to a baby or you're hemorrhaging or some other issue that needs medical attention, probably not a great choice to be doing those things. In this context, it is disobeying the ordinance of God.

Any other thoughts on that before we move on to the next half of this verse? They who oppose will receive condemnation upon themselves. Is this spiritual condemnation? Is this condemnation of your soul and you're going to go to hell? Hopefully everybody feels comfortable saying no. This is judgment from a legal standpoint. God has put the government there to legally judge you and you're disobeying his ordinances and the government's ordinances and the agent of his dealing with things is through the government. Big questions are, how are we going to comply with those ordinances? By the mercies. Are you going to comply in the flesh? If you're doing anything in your life in the flesh, is compliance going to be the natural outcome?

No it's not. When you see crime, in the news or around you. Sometimes it's not in the news. Sometimes you get to see it firsthand. Earlier this week my dad helped subdue a thief in his apartment complex until the police got there. You can ask him for the full story. I'm not gonna spend the time that could be spent telling that story. But sometimes as human beings it's not just on the news, it's right in front of us or we're part of what's going down. Hopefully not as a criminal.

But the government is there to bring condemnation and God approves of that condemnation because they're using the authority that he established through them. When you're getting the speeding ticket, does it feel good? Do we rejoice in the speeding ticket? Should we rejoice in the speeding ticket? When the officer comes to the window, do you just shake his hand and thankfully greet him and say thank you for being an agent of Jesus Christ in my life. I think you might get another ticket for assault just for trying to grab his hand for shaking it.

When I was 16 I had my driver's permit still because I was a little slow in the driving world but I was driving too fast actually in California and it was like the weekend of Resurrection Sunday or something and we were headed to go visit somebody and We were driving along, and I was in California, and I had the needle buried.

The whole family's in the suburban with us, but it was buried because it was the desert, there was nothing there, and the road was straight. So I was just hauling suburban hiney, okay? So we were just going, and suddenly a highway patrolman whips out of the sagebrush, lights on, siren blaring, and I nearly died, which would have killed the rest of the family from fear. He pulled us over and he came around to my dad's side of the window to avoid being hit by people on the side because they're supposed to do that.

We rolled down the window and he said, do you know how fast you were going? I told him honestly, no, because remember the needle was buried. It was past numbers. I'm not saying this as a suggestion by the way. He said, do you have any idea how fast you were going? I said, no. And he goes, well I clocked you at 74 and I thought, that's funny because the speedometer goes way past 74. But I didn't say that to him because that would have been worse.

So he gave me a very stern warning. He said, I want you to look around your car. And I did, fearfully, look around my car. And he said, see your family there? If you had gotten in an accident, almost guaranteed they would all be dead. How does that feel? I was scared spitless. I was ready to go 35 the rest of the way through California because I didn't want to deal with that ever again. He didn't give me a ticket. He said, I want you to take this as a warning. I want you to know that this is a heavy responsibility having a driver's license.

That was a great example of mercy. I'm glad that I didn't ever have to go to court or anything to follow up on that and he didn't give me a ticket. in our own lives i actually count that as a god using a police officer in my own life to wake me up and remind me of the responsibility i have this is any other thoughts about opposing and getting condemnation actor uh... exactly yeah sure yeah sure well and that's that's one of the things about the issue with abortion is simply that as believers we We can be involved with the lives of people around us and influence the young person who, or maybe not young, but the person who wants to get an abortion. Often that's used as a classic example as the young person who's unwed and gets pregnant and then, oh no, let's go have an abortion. But we can influence those things. That's a negative positive law. It's negative in our eyes, but it's a positive law of It doesn't prohibit it, it allows something to be done. Just like alcohol or smoking cigarettes or various other things that we may personally view as negative, but in the end they're permissible. Yeah.

And it's one of those things where God's righteousness is there. What's funny is the agnostics and atheists, two weeks ago, got a real excitement. There was an excitement on the internet, I found, because some preacher got struck by lightning. He was out somewhere hiking or something, got struck by lightning. And they're like, ha ha ha! God's going to try to take him out! And it's like, well, he didn't die. You know, what is that?

But as believers, we don't have to participate in those things, and God's vengeance in those cases, it may be a heavenly, eternal vengeance that's there. Just because we're talking about abortion, I'm going to throw out something my uncle said that I thought was valuable, and that is that if God saves those souls that are unborn, to go to heaven, he may be sparing them from the turmoil of a born life out of his own mercy. And I'm not saying that to be pro-abortion, I'm just saying that we still need to look at abortion in the context of God's sovereign plan and will.

Let's move on to verse 3 because I can tell we're never going to make it through if we don't. Verse 3, for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

Now, Art brought up the question of wiretapping. Well, I kind of mentioned it, but Art asked the question, you know, how do we as believers react to wiretapping? And then Art said, I'm not doing anything on the phone I shouldn't be doing. Should I be concerned about it? In the case of the wiretapping, it was unauthorized, so that was a problem. So in that context, we would have to deal with that in our own civic government scenario where we'd say, hey, administration, let's not do that. And maybe they need to be dealt with by the appropriate government bodies that deal with that. But as a believer in this context, they're still keeping track of messages that go from who to who, They can check your email stuff and check that out. All kinds of things exist.

In fact, I work for a company as a contractor now. But I work for a company that makes a mail server. And when they hired me on, I fully expected to find code that would immediately, as soon as your message went through the server, send it to the government. I just expected that, maybe because my dad used to be a conspiracy theorist for a little while. He got out of that. But it was one of those things where in the back of my mind, I was like, wow, I'm going to get hired on and find out that the government reads everything I write.

They probably do, but it's just not in our mail server code. Sorry, I hate to be a skeptic. Anyways, so what about cause? What should cause us fear as believers? Anything in particular that the government should do that would cause us fear in a normal benevolent scenario?

Paul says no. Now here's a really cool thing that the Romans didn't have that we have today in the United States. You get to vote. You get to participate on some level with what happens regionally and locally and somewhat on the national level about what goes on in government. You can help cause certain rules and things to go in place that affect your behavior. That's not the case for most people and I think that was brought up valuably that we get to be involved with our government and it's not a dictatorship. It's not a group of people that we're not tied in with and have no influence over. So we don't have to be inferior if we have good behavior. Again, how do we have good behavior?

It's by the mercies. It's the Holy Spirit working in our lives that we're able to comply with those things. Paul says, if you don't want to have fear, do what is good. And then the last half of that verse, the second half of the second stanza, you will have praise from the same.

I've never had a police officer pull me over and say, you're driving just amazingly. Which is good, because that would just really throw my schedule off most of the time, because I don't find I'm leaving half an hour ahead of when I need to. But in some scenarios, does the government recognize citizens for excellent behavior or participating in a good way? How many of you really want to add that to your collection of rewards in heaven? You're like, look, Lord, I have this and I have the Aurora City something-or-else. and cast it down before his feet. Probably not. He's going to go, what is this? This is plastic with really crummy gold coating. Just kidding.

I don't think the Lord is going to give us trophies tied in with our local municipalities. But the government will honor those of us who are obedient, abiding through the Spirit sometimes. Now what does that mean in your relationship with the lost person if you get that award? Should you gloat over it? I got it, you don't. I'm sorry, what?

It's an opportunity for evangelism. It actually is. Man, you're always doing good things. You know, and it's like, well it's not me, it's Christ. Christ liveth in me. And you can sing him a song. And then go, you're kind of tone deaf. Or maybe not. So let's move on to verse four just because Verse 4 really got me thinking. Hopefully it'll get you thinking as well. It says, "...for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."

Alright, so it is a minister of God. What does that mean in your own mind and life when you think about the government. It is a minister of God. It doesn't mean that it stands behind a pulpit and does things in your local Baptist denomination. What does a minister of God mean in the life of the believer in context of the government? Okay, God's involvement, he uses it, the word for minister is actually deaconess or diaconess, which is where we get our word deacon, and it means to serve. Like a waiter. So they are bringing into your life authority and rules and regulations as a minister or a servant in your own life.

It's not how we often think about the government. We usually think about them bringing pains into our lives. Let's take a quick vote. Is your favorite pain regulations that you have to deal with day to day, or is it taxes? Everybody raise your hand if it's, is it regulations that are more irritating than taxes? Okay, I got one person. The rest, taxes, everybody? All right. It's amazing to think about how The government is a minister in our lives for our good. Now he says, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. Let's ask an important question.

Is the death penalty a biblical concept? Does this verse allude to the death penalty being a biblical concept? Yes it does. Does it mean we should go around killing everybody? No! But it says the government has the authority of life and death according to God.

If we go back to the covenant that God made with Noah, God actually institutes for all of mankind after the ark, capital punishment. He also has capital punishment for animals, which is one of those things that doesn't get brought up a lot. Government pinchers can be offed if they kill your babies or bite your babies or whatever it is that they're doing. God establishes capital punishment here. He brings in, they do not bear the sword for nothing. Now let's ask another important question.

Is a government that is not using capital punishment disobeying God if he instituted the authority that they have? They're probably not subjecting themselves to God in the first place, so that's probably the least of their concerns. But it's one of those things that they're not exercising an authority that God gave them. If they're not exercising it, that's not necessarily saying that they're a wrong government. They're not choosing to exercise it.

God could still use them in the lives of the people that are in their care. Now, the second half of this He reiterates that it's a minister for God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. It's a minister for God for good, and it's a minister for God for wrath. That's kind of a humdinger there because it's easy to think about government in a wrathful situation. We like to think of that when they're annoying us with taxes or regulations or whatever else it is. But also, a minister for wrath in the life of those who are living a wicked life.

When crime rates go up, who do we go to? Who do we go to when crime rates go up? Do we go to our government? Do we go to the city council or whomever it is and we say, hey, fix this. Can they really fix it? They're not going to offer salvation. Listen, we need an evangelism team out there working with the gangs, because let me tell you, that's going to fix the problem to a certain degree. If we can get them to abide, that will fix the problem. It's not going to happen that way.

But God has instituted justice through the government. In Romans 12, last week, Bob went over, vengeance is mine, says the Lord. The government may be an agent of God's vengeance. There are other times when God supernaturally intervenes without needing the government's involvement.

He's like, and you're going to have an accident now. And he'll take somebody out who's wicked. Now let's ask a quick question. How about Charles Manson? He's alive today. Charles Manson, involved with nasty cult leading and racism and a bunch of other things that definitely we wouldn't affiliate with righteousness.

God has not chosen to kill him yet. Of course, he's in California where they're a little lax with the whole capital punishment thing. But why would God choose to preserve Charles Manson? And I'm not asking for a definitive answer because you're not God. But why would God preserve Charles Manson in the government system if the government is an agent of wrath upon those who practice evil?

It's possible that someday he will come to know Christ. It's also possible that he's there as a reminder of justice. If you're going to be wicked and nasty and gross and hate people and do all these things, this could be the consequence of a lifetime of being isolated and being ostracized and hated by the general population. God can use sometimes the mild justice for consequences to remind the people. Because the lost person is under what system, grace or law? They're under law. So that's a reminder of the consequences of law, this only system they know.

Let's take a look at verse 5 here, because I'm definitely not going to make it through 6 and 7 if we don't get going here. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sake. Because that mirrors a concept earlier, and I talked to my dad and this is actually not a chiasm, so we're not going to talk about chiasms this morning other than to say this isn't one. But he does repeat some concepts. We can take a look at that in depth whenever we get the second hour of Sunday school. But since we only have one this morning, we'll just take a look, skim over that.

Verse six, for because of this you also pay taxes. And this is the part that I really wanted to spend some time talking about, was taxes. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. In my own life, very, very recently, I was trying to get out of paying some taxes by trying to come up with some alternative methods that were legal for me to manage my money so that I could pay less in taxes. And so reading through 6 and 7, and I'll go ahead and read 7, was enlightening. 7 says, Render to all what is due them, tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. Now that doesn't mean I'm going to stop looking for ways to legally get out of paying all of my money in taxes because the opportunities are there and I'm not being illegal by pursuing alternative tax methods. But, do I look at tax as an evil? Should we look at tax as an evil thing?

I drove here today on relatively well paved roads. I was glad for that. If you've ever seen video footage or maybe even in your own lives you've seen lots of dirt roads. I used to live two miles up a dirt road in California. When it got rainy it was a little awkward sometimes and in fact my grandparents still live there and there have been times due to flooding and severe rainstorms that they couldn't leave their house. You're not going anywhere no matter how massive your truck is. the big thick mud bogs mean you're not going anywhere. It usually costs thousands of dollars for them as a community that live up in this dirt road system to have their roads repaired.

So when we pay taxes we contribute to that and it's a good benefit. What other places do you see your taxes at work that are positive? As a believer you can rejoice when you see those because you're paying taxes for them. Are there any other places? The police, firemen, I'm sorry, what? Trash. In some places, I'm unfortunately having to pay for trash, but it might have come out of taxes in various places.

The thing is that we're, as an affluent first world country, our taxes benefit us very greatly for our lifestyle, for our comfort levels and various things there. We have indoor plumbing, we have traffic lights, we have all kinds of things. They work together. It's not fun to always have to pay as much as we pay in taxes, because we'd like to take that money and spend it on whatever else seems like a good idea, whether it's retirement or games or vacations or whatever it might be.

But it's there, the Lord uses it positively. I don't like to think that every quarter when I send in my estimated taxes, but this has caused me to do some evaluation in my own life to try to have a positive godly attitude towards paying my taxes. still have to find ways to be efficient with it. But it's calling us to pay them. Can somebody quickly turn to Matthew 22 and read verses 15 through 21 before our time runs out? Okay.

When the Pharisees went and plotted together how it might happen from what he said, and they sent the disciples to him along with a book of other things. Teacher, remember that you are truthful. Teach the way of God in truth and encourage no one where you are not partial to him. Tell me then, what do you think? Is it lawful to give a full text to Caesar or not?

But Jesus perceived their malice and said, why are you testifying against me? Alright, now that passage when somebody first explained it to me as not just a tax thing but God's involvement in our own lives rendered it, whose image was on the coin? It was Caesar's. Whose image is on you? according to Genesis 126. Gods. We are created in God's image. Our bodies and our lives are His. Obviously we've covered that already as a foundation for the believer. When it comes to respecting and honoring government, when it comes to respecting tax, customs, various things that are involved there, it's the governments.

Are we citizens of just the United States? Or are we citizens of heaven who just happen to also be citizens of the United States? Alishka will be coming in from the Czech Republic this Tuesday, I believe it is, and she would love to be a legal United States citizen. She would like to legally move here and get a citizenship here, but she can't do it. We've had issues with immigration here in the United States that have definitely been a hot topic. Wait, it's going to get more exciting next year for the election.

All of those things are elements there, but as citizens of heaven that happen to have United States citizenship, render to the United States what is the United States. When you look at your dollar bill, when you look at those things that are there, they're earthly things. They have no real long-term heavenly value, other than the sense that if we were to look at Philippians 4, 18 and 19, God will use monetary things in our own lives to meet the needs of others, or sometimes others meeting our own needs. But it's God's money. It's God's road system. It's God's car. It's God's house.

All of those things in context, it's not a big deal. We shouldn't have to worry about it, because hopefully we're abiding in Christ. We're living our lives by the mercies of God. Our lives are a living sacrifice, and we're proving the will of God. Obeying our government is evangelism. When you look at that, I'm a missionary by obeying the government, here in the United States. Even if it doesn't feel like it.

Let's close in prayer. We're almost out of time, but actually after we're done praying, we'll turn off the recording and then we can talk some more and ask questions if you guys have any more, but we're out of time. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would just bless the rest of this time this morning at church. We pray the main service would go well and we would stay focused on you. Thank you for authorizing and working in our government. We pray that you would allow us to be lights in our world by our compliance. and that you would open up our eyes for opportunities to glorify your name through compliance. We just thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.