The Relationship of the Believer to the Government

Well, it's been an interesting week preparing for these verses because you guys are such political animals. Thanks, Mike. A couple of things. I would luckily, or maybe by God's grace, was looking around this week for templates for doing my overheads. You know, usually it's blank and I fill in the words and then we go from there. Well, I saw what Bob was been doing on Sunday school and what some other guys, so I went on a search and guess what? Boy, you can just have a great time figuring out what templates you're gonna use for overheads.

So this is the first one I found. And so today's verses are such that they apply to all of us, but because we're in the part of Romans where we are directed by the Apostle Paul to do certain things, I can't ever get away from how The apostle Peter used to say, I'm going to remind you. I'm going to remind you. He does it all the time. And Paul does it too. So we're going to start out with reminder.

Chapter three of Romans tells us about a 14-fold indictment from the Old Testament scriptures that all men, Jews, Gentiles, are brought guilty before God, and so all of their mouths are stopped. And if you remember when we talked about what stopping your mouth is all about, the Lord Jesus and God stopped everybody's mouth under condemnation For what reason? So that he could pronounce judgment against them? No, so he could pronounce grace for them. But you gotta get them quiet before they'll listen.

And then we found out in chapter four that there's a new thing, righteousness by faith, which really isn't new, but it's on the one side is performance, on the other side is grace. And righteousness, Our right standing before God is totally by a faith-based premise. Abraham and David, in whom the Jews specially glorified, accounted righteous not because they obeyed all the ordinances such as circumcision, but because they believed God. Grace, however, for the guilty, God's righteousness by another way other than law through faith in Jesus Christ. Grace, new. Chapter five talks about the glorious results of justification by faith.

We have peace with God. We have a standing in grace before him. We have access. We have a definite sure hope of our coming and going to glory and his coming here gloriously. And there's a joy in God right now, you don't have to wait. Then it got into the really interesting subject of the two representative men. Two men are the most important in all of history, Adam and Christ, those two men. In Adam, everybody dies.

And Courtney this morning was trying to get the class to respond to a question of what makes us all brothers in the Lord? And the right answer was, that Greek word means we all came from the same womb. So when we're born again, we come from the same womb. Everybody in this room, we're family.

And we come from the Lord Jesus Christ. Condemnation and death in Adam, and to all from him and justification and life by the Lord Jesus who all are from him. So by the law, sin becomes a trespass, by grace transcends it all. And grace now reigns through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grace is not a commodity that you have in your kitchen in a jar with a cork top on it. And then whenever you need some, you open it up and take a little out. Grace is the air you breathe, where you live in an environment, and we live, because we're all from the same womb, in the environment of grace. Every one of us, every time, all day. Then we got to six, and now the mechanics are shown to us, how did you get into this grace? You died with Christ. Not only did he die for you, but you died when he died. What's death mean? It means separation, right? We were separated from Adam, and our baptism, water baptism, is really a symbol of what happened to us spiritually.

Every one of us in this room, this has all happened to all of us. We can reckon ourselves now dead to the whole principle of sin. And we can reckon ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus, permanent. And then we're encouraged, based on that information, to present ourselves to God as ones who are risen, who are alive from the dead. We're not under a lost system, we're under grace. So sin loses its dominion over time over us.

Physically, it's already done. Conditionally, that's what spiritual growth is all about. So grace, not to be abused for sin always enslaves, I don't have to go on about that, you all know about that, and would end in death, obedience of faith, in other words, simple believing God brings freedom with the end eternal life, it's God's free gift in Christ Jesus our Lord, it's free. He didn't pay for it, He did.

Then chapter seven, interesting, the Lord was in our place of death and judgment. We are now in his place of life and glory. Romans seven describes the experience of a believer who has been shown by the law principle, the terrible bondage of his position in Adam. Where sin brought us, love brought the Lord Jesus even to death and his death is the end before God of all that we were as children of Adam and men in the flesh.

Seems like an awful lot to absorb in seven chapters, but it's the basics of our understanding as believers about who we are, where we are, and what we have. And we get to verse, chapter eight, which is a terrific chapter. It describes the experience of a believer who knows and believes what it is to be in Christ, in Christ, and who's being made free experientially from the principle of sin and death.

How? By the principle of life in Christ Jesus. Now, most of your Bibles will use The principle of sin will say the law of sin and death and the law of spirit of life. It's not a law in terms of statute. It's a principle. You know what a principle is? It's a way thing functions or operates and it does it the same way every single time. It never varies. Gravity never varies. It's a principle.

It is of immense importance that every Christian to know that the old man has been fully judged and ended before God. Now, a lot of Christians will say, yeah, but he hasn't ended before me. Well, whose opinion matters here, yours or God's? If he says, Your old man has been judged and ended before God, before me, and you're not changed or forgiven, but you're utterly condemned in the death of the Lord Jesus. You got condemned because you were a sinner, but then what happened?

You rose again. On the other hand, we have life in the one who is risen from the dead. Everybody here does. We belong to the race of which Adam was head. We belong, used to, But the death of Christ is, in God's reckoning, the termination of our history in Adam. So the next time I ask you about, you know, where'd you come from, don't tell me you came from Kansas. You came from the Lord Jesus. You came from him.

So Now, 9, 10, 11, it took us a while to get through it, but really it was a discussion, if God make all these premises to the Jewish nation, and now that he's done this incredible thing for Christianity, for believers, what about those promises? Is he gonna fulfill them? And so in chapter nine, we found out that God's sovereign choice is enunciated. He decides, he chose Israel, he chose them. God's sovereign choice is applied in 930 through 1021, and Israel's future redemption is of Jehovah. He's gonna bring them back, the nation of Israel, put them in the kingdom. And chapter 12 is the transition now.

You know how Paul writes his epistles, he gives you truth, doctrinal truth in the first part. And then in the second part, he will say, based on all of this, here's how this person who is now a new creature in Christ needs to live. This is the life he's called us to and enabled us to. So the righteousness of God is transmitted to each one of us. the relationship of our salvation to a living Christian life, that it just isn't doctrine, it's a life. Every day we walk and live in it. The imperative of the sacrifice of the believer, present your body a living sacrifice, which is your normal everyday Christian obligation. Present yourself, present yourself. and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Spirit of God will renew your mind so you begin to actually think as a member of the body of Christ, as Christ in you begins to take over your life. The imperative of the sacrifice of the believer and the service of the believer is where we are now. From 12 to the end of the book, will be what's the service look like based on what God has already done by putting us in Christ.

So chapter 13, Ezra, in this first part, or the whole chapter, I should say, the relationship of a believer to the government and to others. It's a pretty simple chapter. It's really, now that I'm a believer, oh, and by the way, as a believer, I'm a heavenly citizenship I don't belong to the earthy race anymore, the race of Adam. But what did, do I have a relationship or a responsibility to what goes on in the world? Answer, yes.

Regarding good citizenship, and that's what we're gonna talk about this morning. And as we go on, next week we'll talk more about regarding good behavior to your neighbor. And then lastly, We'll talk about the principle of law, love, the principle of love, how it's produced, the proper attitude to eternity. How do you think about eternity?

And walk in, I didn't do that right, walk in honesty. And put on the Lord Jesus. We've talked, on Wednesday night we're doing Ephesians. on our Wednesday night Bible study. And those who haven't done so, if you wanna join us via Zoom, you're sure welcome to do it. So last week we did Romans 13, one and two. Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. Pretty strong statement.

For there is no authority except from God and those who exist are established by God. So like it or not, the mayor of Denver is an authority that's been established by God, and the governor of Colorado, and the Senate, and all of these people, and oh, by the way, the cop that goes by and gives you a speeding ticket, he's been authorized by God to do that. Therefore, he who resists authority has opposed the ordinances of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. So what is he saying? You gotta comply. That's what Christians do.

Two principles are presented in chapter 13. One is the responsibility to which Paul exhorts us as a principle of love with which we are filled in Christ. Today's verse through verse 10. And the night, the second part which is gonna be cool, two weeks from now we'll talk about the night is far spent, the day is at hand, the Lord's coming soon. That's exciting verses when you start thinking about, oh wow, we really don't have a lot of time left.

These are God's ordinances. The powers that exist are ordained of him. Whatever power is established, the believer obeys it. And we'll get into, do you have to do them all? Resisting is resisting God's ordinances and Paul exhorts us to subjection to all civil authority. You like my templates so far? Pretty cool, huh? So we saw human government comes from God himself.

Now, if you look at John 19, 10 through 11, Pilate is, and the Lord Jesus are having this conversation, and Pilate says, therefore said to him, you do not speak to me. In other words, he didn't answer his question. So Pilate is pushing him a little bit. What do you mean you're not talking to me?

Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? What did the Lord Jesus say to him? He said, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. So who's really got the keys to the kingdom here? Who's the one who's really got the authority? It's the Lord Jesus. But he tells him, you have it because we gave it to you.

For this reason, he who delivered me up to you has the greater sin, because they should have known better. So we saw that the Bible is the foundation of all human government, and I got that from, for those of you who like to watch Bible conferences and stuff, there was a really good one in Georgia about a month and a half ago in which Andy Woods talked about the institution of government, and I recommend you look it up. You can go to, or see me afterwards, and I'll show you how to get there. It actually was pretty hard not to use a lot of his material, so I didn't. Human government is designed for what reason? To restrain violence. That's the whole reason.

Genesis 6, 11 through 13 says, the earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth and indeed it was corrupt. for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold, I'll destroy them with the earth. So what did God do?

He destroyed every one of them except for eight people. Every one of them now. A couple of things that Annie Wood said about this I thought was really interesting. He thought that there were seven to eight billion people on the earth at the time of the flood. So it was pretty populated. Two was is that there wasn't any government per se of God. They had their own. And they had sort of been left alone. And where did they end up? Violence, violence. And the other thing he said, you know what the Jewish word for violence is? Hamas, C-H-A-M-A-S. The Jewish word for violence is Hamas. So that's all you need to know about them.

So the verse today, verse three, for the rulers are not a cause of fear to good behavior, But for evil, do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you'll have praises from the same. So government can't change people from the inside out. So God had to do it. And that's what we learned about in Jerome's chapter three through eight. He changed us. He recreated us in Christ. Law can't do it, but law can keep it under control.

The whole passage considers the general path of the believer with reference to divine constituted authority. Verse three, for rulers are not the cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. The rulers that we have is to cause fear in the violent. The word for here introduces a reason for a frank and unreserved acceptance of the view of authorities. That's why they're here. We are to recognize the divine right of the state, for it is a representative, not for terror, an object of dread to the ones who do good, but to the ones who don't.

And if you look around in our society today, One of the weaknesses of it is this very principle. Who's afraid of the government anymore? If you're like me, you drive down the street and you see car after car after car that hasn't updated your plates, think, oh, I'm not gonna do mine either. Where are the cops when you need them?

It implies that those to whom he speaks will always be identified with the good works and so have the authorities on your side. If you live under these authorities as believers, you've got nothing to fear, he said. It's taken for granted that the state will not act in violation of its own ideas and the identified itself with the bad. What happens though, if the public officer served, let me get this other way, and then I'm gonna hit another point. The public officer, saved or unsaved, is a servant of God in the sense that God has instituted human government. He did it.

You know, when I was going to school, they would teach us ancient history, and I remember that they talked about this guy named Hammurabi. and how he came up with this law system to govern countries and local and that kind of thing. There was no government until Noah. No government. Why did God create the institution of human government? The answer, to prevent man from going back to the pre-flood violence. God put fear in human hearts.

I was watching the other day a video where two guys get out of a truck in the middle of the night, and they come up to somebody's porch, and they go around the side of the house, and the guy's got cameras there. And they see the cameras, what happens? They got afraid, and they turned around and ran away. Why? Because of this principle. They don't want to get caught.

What if the human government you're under, and this is the second point I want to make, is repressive to Christians. What do you do about that? I can tell you what William Kelly said. He said, authorities and power is an expression that embraces every form of governing power. Monte Carlo, aristocratic, Republican, all quibble on the score. is therefore foreclosed. The spirit insists not merely on the divine right of kings, but there is no authority except from God. Nor is there an excuse on this plea for change, yet if a revolution should overthrow one form and set up another, now what's your responsibility? Kelly says Christian's duty is plain.

Those that exist are ordained of God. His interest is elsewhere. We are heavenly. We are in Christ. His or our responsibility is to acknowledge what is in power as a fact, trusting God as to the consequences. And in no case, behaving as a partisan, Never is it warranted to setting himself up against authorities as such. That's a pretty strong statement.

Because we Americans, you know, we're free and we can do what we want. We don't like the government. We can revolt. No, we can't. Not as Christians, we can't. William Newell says, in those cases where Christians have been able to withdraw from intolerable situations, the rule isn't broken. The Huguenots fled from France to England, and the Puritans from England to America for the freedom of conscience. Much as the Lord said, if they persecute you in one city, flee to another. Escape is sometimes possible, and it is not rebellion.

So, why? Verse four, 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 upon the one who practices evil. I don't think I've ever looked at this verse until this week. They're God's ministers to maintain order. God put him there. Every Christian in his life should be praiseworthy in the eyes of all the rulers, and if consistent, he generally is so. I was thinking, I was thinking, you know, what does God want us to do?

And we looked in 1 Thessalonians, we were studying that. were to live a peaceful life, not bother your neighbor, work hard, and owe nothing to anybody. So I looked up this theologian named Trini Lopez. He says, if you want to be happy the rest of your life, make a pretty woman your wife. I don't think so. You know, do you ever get that stuff that goes through your mind, like a song or a saying like that, and you think, oh, I gotta figure out a place to put that. Authority for human government dates from the flood when God expressly established it on the earth. The Noahic Covenant subjects humanity to a new test.

Its distinctive feature is the institution for the first time of human government, the government of man by man. The highest function of government is the judicial taking of a life. All other governmental powers are implied in that one thing. So the government of God must be supreme since his authority over the universe is that of the creator. Well, he is the creator. It is his universe. He sets the rules. The Christian is called upon then to recognize human government as of God.

Any organized people must have some form of government as did Israel in the Old Testament and the local church in the New Testament. We have organized authority here in our church. If you look at the forms of church government today, there's really three forms of it that you will see. There's, I would call it strictly democratic, government by the voice of the people, as in a congregational form of church organization. In other words, everybody in the church votes for everything, you know?

Or it's monarchy. I can't say this word. How do you say this word? Okay, monarchy. Government chosen by leaders in the Methodist and Episcopal Church are like the Catholics, you know, they have a hierarchy, they have a clergy, and they make all the decisions. And then there's the Republican Forum, which we are, and I don't mean political party, it's just a forum. or government by representation as in those churches governed through elders and deacons. That's what we are. How do we pick an elder? How do we pick a deacon? We look around, we pay attention to our fellow brothers and sisters. And if the Holy Spirit has raised up somebody to fill that slot, we all know it. And it isn't that we make, it's not a favorite thing, it's that, oh, there's a person that God would have lead us, and so we install him. We're trying to do that with Miles right now.

For it does not bear the sword, it refers to the government, for nothing, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon one who practices evil. For it, the authority is a servant of God to you for good. And I think if we look at authority that way, it helps us tolerate some of the nonsense that goes on. But if you do that which is evil, you should be afraid. And I think all lawbreakers and evil people are afraid.

Law enforcement purposely bears the sword I don't, one of my favorite shows, because most of the television is terrible. Miles Stanford said, the best thing you can do with a TV is to get your buddy to haul it up to the second floor and throw it out the window. But I like to watch, like, documentaries. I watched this thing, On Patrol. You ever watch that thing?

It's a cop show, and it's live. And every one of these cops has a gun. Every one of them. And they have authority. The problem is is that the people they stop and arrest, most of the time because they're either drinking or something, don't recognize that authority and so here we go. So it makes for a lot of entertainment.

To bear is literally to bear constantly illustrated in the, provincial Roman magistrates habitual wearing of a sword, and this is a small sword. It was born before them in public processions as a symbol of their right to punish by death, just as a police officer bears a sidearm. Punishable by death. Well, you think, well, where did I get the authority to do that?

If you look in Genesis 6, 11, it says the earth also was corrupt. filled with violence. And God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me because of this violence. Well, since human government is designed to restrain human violence, does it authorize the taking of a life? Genesis 9, 6 says, whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed. for the image of God, he made man. So God gives authority to take a life for evildoing. How about soldiers? How about combat soldiers that have to go fight and shoot guns and stuff? What are they doing? They're acting for God too, because they're the authority. They're the authority.

Why? Every human being matters to God. Why? Because, look at this verse, it says, for the image of God he made man. Even though our image as sinners has been diminished because we are sinners, God still cares about us and we still bear the image of God.

And so what does he do? He protects those who do good from those who do evil by allowing those who do good and who are put in a position of authority to take their life if they took your life. And oh, by the way, they ought to do it quickly. One of the cool things about the British system is that if you get convicted, first if you're arrested for murder, You get a trial pretty quick, and you're convicted pretty quick, and they carry out the execution pretty quick.

Ten years is not what this is talking about. James says, with the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with your tongue you curse them who have been made in the likeness of God. God protects us because we're like Him. He made us that way. So I would say that God mandates capital punishment. legal execution since the beginning of the human government for the punishment of evildoers. William Newell says, and by the way, he said this in 1937, this is in accordance with God's covenant with Noah and after the flood, which covenant remains in force till today. Would the magistrate have the right to deal with a Christian if he became an evildoer? Answer, certainly would. would be bound to do so. Peter says, let none of you suffer as a murderer or an evil doer or as a meddler in other men's matters.

So verse five, therefore it's necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, fear of punishment, but for conscience sake. Believers are to be in subjection, not only to avoid earthly government dealings, but because of a loving conscience towards God, knowing that in being subject, they're doing the right thing, as well as avoiding trouble. It is God who has allowed the formation and growth of nations, given them authorities who govern them to do so by divine command. So, the bearer of the sword, whether for order within the nation or for defense towards an outward enemy.

I hope you can see that, is it big enough? Therefore, it's observed to call the work of a soldier evil and to confuse personal murder with the public execution of justice. Andy Woods made an interesting distinction in this. He said, The taking of a life is always a homicide, but it's not always murder. See the difference? The taking of a human life is always a homicide, but it's not always murder. Murder is what an evildoer will do or what somebody invading your country will do.

Cornelius, the centurion in Acts 10, a devout man, one that feared God with all his house, who gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always, heard the gospel at Peter's mouth and believed it and was filled with the Holy Spirit, what happened to him? He kept right on being a soldier, a minister of God's service along the line of government. He didn't resign his commission, he kept going. Verse six, and because of this, you also pay taxes.

Now this is where it really gets tough. For the rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. It's like here. We do a cool thing here. We never pass the plate. There's a slot back there if you wanna support us. But the principle is here. that we support whoever serves. It's the same way in government, it's the same way in society.

Public servants, this word, and I can't pronounce it, describing those in authority or rulers, God uses the same word in Hebrews 1.14 regarding the angels calling them ministering spirits and concerning the ministering and the Old Testament priests.

They're rulers and servants of God. In these days of pushback towards restraint and defying of authority, we need to reflect on the fact that the constitute authorities are these liturgists of God. They're appointed by him. They are the authorities that he put in place.

Not at all in spiritual things, but God's own ministers in government things. It is on the account of these governments you pay taxes. For those ministers of government, you have to support them. You know, one of the things we're learning with what's going on in our government today is that it's not the government's money, it's our money. And what's being done with it is really important to us. Who do you think bought the sidearm that the policeman carries, the sword? Who do you think bought the car that he, the squad car that he drives? We did. It's our job.

So because of that, we render to all who is due them taxes to whom taxes are due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. Really interesting. Taxes comes first in these four things. How great the temptation to avoid rendering this that is due. Everybody I know complains Let's see, this is March 23rd. How many days to April 15th? Gets a little sweatier the closer you get. Customs is an interesting thing. It's a tax, but it has to do, like Donald Trump wants to put tariffs in. Tariffs are a custom.

Those of you who have ever traveled to a foreign country and you come back and you have to declare the stuff that you bought in the foreign country, And if it's on the list, you have to pay a duty. So you go to the airport, and they have those duty-free shops where you can go in there and buy foreign stuff, and you don't have to pay a duty. Well, yeah, you do. It's already built into the price.

But the point is, it's generally a tax paid by subjects to a ruling nation. In other words, Israel paid a tax to Rome every year. And every one of the Roman, all of the countries that were under Rome all paid a tax. We were studying on a Tuesday men's Bible study about Levi, who was a tax collector.

Well, that's what he did. He was in the toll booth on the road, and if you were coming and going, depending on what goods you had, you had to pay him. And the guys that don't like to pay their taxes loved that first, because the Lord went up to him and said, follow me, and he did. He walked right out of that booth and never came back. Rome had to go find somebody else.

Custom is a tax on us or duty of our goods by our own nation. Now, fear here where it says, and some of your Bibles don't say fear, fear is a conscientious regard for and the awe of men in those hands and whose hands God has placed government authority.

I'm in awe of people that are good leaders. They deserve taxes, and they deserve regard. If any president ever walked in here, you wouldn't go up to him and stick your hand out and say, hi, Joe, how's it going? You'd say, hey, Mr. President, you're showing respect.

Respect is a very, very important thing. your submission to God to a man who's been put, or a woman who's been put into authority. So let believers be the first to give honor to whom honor is due, and leave the base, the despising of others. Honor to whom honor is our attitude of reverence for the person of those who have authority over us.

Whether police, magistrates, judge, governors, presidents, kings, anybody. If a cop stops you, it's yes sir, no sir. What can I do to help? It's not, why'd you stop me? Not only law officers, but those men of whom God has committed great wealth to, or outstanding ability, who have risen honorably among their equals, should receive the honor due them.

There are tremendous Christian writers who have never held a position of authority in a church. There are just people like that, that, you know, I don't know if you guys know the name Stromberg. He was a guy in the 1940s, 50s, was a very wealthy man, but he was a believer, and as far as I can tell, he probably gave most of his money away. But he was a man that deserved honor. I don't think God makes Christian men wealthy unless he trains them to handle the money.

He gets them ready to be able to be stewards of what he's giving them as grace. So, lastly, Peter says, honor all men, for they are made in the image of God. Love the brotherhood of saints. Fear God, with whom you have constantly to do. honor the king whom you may never see, but whom you hold in due regard in your heart. That's from Peter.

So, just to sort of wind up, I think, again, back to being political animals that we are, and the problem is we have this We almost get news faster than the person can commit the sin. We just know he's gonna do it, so we're gonna say that he probably is. But God puts all those people there, from the lowest local official to the President of the United States.

And one of the problems, I think, is that God is not a fan of one world government. He's a fan of, like our church, We have authority from him here, right here. We have other authorities we live under. You know what was really happening at the Tower of Babel? One world government. That was the first go at it, and what did God do about it? He changed the language so they all had to spread out and rule themselves in small groups. So, let's close.

Father, how we thank you for your word. Boy, you're so careful to instruct us as believers who live under grace, all that is required of us as we are ambassadors of your reconciliation to the world. We're so thankful for the grace that we live under, and we're thankful for our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus, and we pray in his name, amen.