Book of Romans - God's Governance of Man | Our Relationship to Government, Pt. 2 (12/19/2021)

Good to be back in Texas and good to see all you guys. So let's review just a little bit. Ben, I'll give you a second. Do you have the PowerPoint working? Okay. You're a little faster at that than I am.

That's really good. So let's review just a little bit. We started out here in Romans chapter 13 and it's a short chapter. I think we took the whole session last Sunday on verse one. I'll read it to you, Romans chapter 13, verse one.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God. And so this entire chapter 13, if you want to kind of give it a whole idea, the big idea is how God governs the actions of men.

That's kind of what the chapter is about. And so the first point in this chapter is, well, okay, what is the Christian's relationship to your human government here on earth? And that's kind of what we talked about last time a little bit.

And so with regard to that, one of the things we did last time is we went and looked in the Bible at where the Bible says human government began. It didn't begin in the Garden of Eden. It actually was right around Genesis chapter eight with the Noahic covenant, when God made a covenant with Noah, not to ever destroy the earth again with water.

Notice he put with water. So he modified it. So it doesn't mean he won't destroy it again. I mean, he's not gonna do it with water. And I remember my mom used to teach me as a little kid. Yeah, next time it'll be with fire.

And it scared me. Still does a little bit, except for the fact that now I know we will be with him before that happens. And so that's pretty cool. But this is found in Genesis eight, verses 18 through 22.

It talks about the covenant with Noah right after they were done with the flood and they're off the ark and all the animals are off the ark. And he's there with his three sons and all their wives. And I don't mean they all had a bunch of wives.

The men had a wife each and all those people that God saved, eight to be total humans, eight only of all the human race that he saved because of the evil that was on the earth at the time. God said that at that time, all of the thoughts of men were only evil continually.

And Jesus said, as it was in the days of Noah, it shall be in the end times. So we're getting there, aren't we? And with the internet, we can have way more evil thoughts than Noah could ever think of having in his generations.

Noah found grace in the eyes of God. Doesn't mean he was one bit better than any of the rest of them. It's just that God gave him free grace. Noah was saved because of free grace. Grace, that's redundant because grace means that it is unmerited favor.

Favor that we don't deserve. Same favor you and I have this morning. The same reason we're saved. Not because we deserve it, but because God loved us before the foundation of the world and knew us as his own children.

And guess what? He knew Noah and his three sons. And that's the only reason he put them on the ark, right? So they found grace in the eyes of the Lord. They didn't find good works. And great meritorious achievements, although building the ark was quite an achievement, wasn't it?

So, but that's not why God saved him. God had already saved him by grace so that he could build the ark. And that's a picture of us. Good works are an effect of our salvation, not the cause of it, right?

The fact that God knew us before the foundation of the world is the cause. So we know those things, but the world at large doesn't know it. And really the Christian world doesn't know much about that either.

Unfortunately, in these end times where they hear so much bad preaching and there's a few good pastors around there, you can know that God's got them hidden away. But then again, if you move into a city, it's not that easy to find a Bible preaching church anymore.

So we talked about that Noahic covenant. And basically we then talked a little bit about the different dispensations, if you remember. And so there are seven of them. And pretty much they correlate to the covenants.

And you have covenant theology and you have dispensationalism. And the two religious groups like to fight each other, but the truth is both are in the Bible and they kind of run parallel to each other.

So no need to fight, they're both true. And Schofield in his study Bible mentioned them, has a great teaching on where the covenants happen. I don't mean the covenants, but the dispensations. And a dispensation is just when God changes the way he deals with man.

We know that, we learned that last time. So the third dispensation is human government. We find that in Genesis 9, 5, right at the same place as the Noahic covenant. So there's an example of how dispensationalism and covenant theology really kind of talking about the same thing.

They just like to fight about it. No reason to do that. So in Genesis 9, 5, right after they got off the ark, the collapse of the vapor canopy, which is what caused the flood, also allowed the rays of the sun and the harmful rays of the sun to come through stronger so that man would not live as long any longer.

He would have diseases he didn't used to have. And so he needed additional strength. And so it's also the very first time that man was allowed to eat meat. It was right after the flood. And God told him, you need to eat meat now to have strength.

And we talked about that a little bit. So that's kind of where we were. All right, so the Noahic covenant finishes there and Genesis chapter three, right around verse 13, finishes up there. So then we went back and we read verse one again about the government, there's no power but of God.

The powers that be are ordained of God. And we asked some questions and that's what Ron was referring to. And you introduced the sermon today for me quite well, because I said, if you had lived, if you'd been German prior to World War II and you saw Hitler come and you were a Christian and you saw Hitler rise to power, would you think that was the will of God?

And most people would not, but the point is it was. Because without that, like you said, Ron, we would not have a modern state of Israel. And we have to because prophecy says we do, we will. So that God used Hitler as a tool in his hand.

Like brother Otis used to teach so well, he uses every creature, every creation of God because God is sovereign. He uses the lost people, he uses to save people, he uses everybody to accomplish his will.

And the lost don't wanna know that. You tell them that they would hate it, but they're putting everything on the shelf for God's people, right? But one of the other things they're doing is they're playing exactly right down the line of what history has to be because the father's already seen it.

He's already been there, seen it. It's not gonna change, it's gonna happen. And they're a big part of making it happen and Adolf Hitler was a huge part. If you think about that, a huge part in all of the fulfillment of the end times prophecies because had that not happened, the powers that be would have never allowed Israel to be a nation.

They wouldn't let them have that land. It was already owned by the Palestinians and yet they just forced it right through. And it's because they felt sorry for the Jews. Well, so God's will is done. God is always fair.

He just doesn't always seem fair. And then sometimes God seems a little mysterious, doesn't he? And if Ben pops up that slide by way of review, everybody will laugh out there in the internet world. So good to have you guys to get to see some pictures that we don't get to see in here.

God's Ways, Human Government, and the Mystery of Providence

All right, so let's take just a little bit of a rabbit trail here. Let me get you to turn to Isaiah chapter 55, verse eight this morning. And we had asked the question, you know, is can you name anyone in all of history who ever came to power outside of God's will?

And the answer, of course, is no. So I wanna get it on a little rabbit trail with those things in mind. Isaiah 55, eight. Okay, you got that? All right, you're about to hear a horn from a blow, but it's not the rapture, I don't think, because there's a train going by outside.

All right, so Isaiah 55, eight. For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. Now, when you look back now, I think one of the questions I asked last week was like today, looking back at that, at the slaughter of all these people.

And Ron, you taught me, I always said 8 million Jews. You said about 6 million Jews and 3 million other people. That's probably more accurate historically, but you look at that and you say, okay, how can a loving God let that happen, right?

That's what people say all the time. How does a loving God let bad things happen to good people? And I kinda like what Brother Bill says in Sunday School, he said, well, number one, there's no good people because the Bible says our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, saith the Lord.

And the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter three, I think verse 23, he said, there's none righteous, not one. No, that's chapter five, probably. But he says, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God in chapter three, right?

And then he says, I think chapter five, there's none righteous, not one. There's none that seeketh after God. So yeah, so how does a loving God let good things, bad things happen to good people? Well, it's kind of not like we're not seeing it clearly, are we?

But still, how does he let good things happen to save people? I mean, bad things. How does he let bad things happen to save people? Well, because he sees the whole picture of the entire plan and the plan is perfect and beautiful and there's not another one.

It's the only plan because he's perfect. He doesn't need another plan. So this is his perfect plan. And the fact that Adam and Eve asked to have good and evil, it's actually man's fault that we have evil, not God's.

It's man's fault. Satan came to Eve and said, well, you know good, but you need to be like me and God and know good and evil and God would want you to know that. So eat this fruit that God told you not to eat and you won't die if you eat it.

So she chose to know good and evil. So now we get both, right? We talked about that last time. But when you look at things that are happening around us, we need to remember Isaiah 55, eight. For my thoughts are not like your thoughts.

See, God is not made in our image. We're made in his image. And his thoughts are not like our thoughts, sayeth the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

So we need to remember that and always take a deep breath and say, okay, Lord, we don't see the whole picture. This looks really bad. Show us the good in it. Show us, because when it leaves your hand, as Brother Otis used to say, when it leaves God's hand, it's meant for good.

No matter what it is. That's a beautiful thing. He had so many beautiful things that he taught us, didn't he? But we need to remember this. Now look at verse 10 in the same context here. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but it waters the earth and it makes it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

You see, God is talking about how he has built this huge machine, nature, economies, nature, all these intricate things that we'll never understand how they work, he's built. And I love the fact that Democrats not only think they understand how it works, but they think they can work it, right?

You know, the Democrats are God because they think they can change the economy and fix it by printing money. We'll see how that works out. They think that they get to decide who lives and dies through abortion.

I thought that was God's job, but to decide who lives and dies. No, they think it's their job and they think they can heal the pandemic. Waiting on President Biden, he said, as soon as I get elected, I'll end it.

And now we got the third one, right? Not doing too well on that, but you see, they think they're God. So that means they don't respect the true God. And I know there's some Christians who are Democrats, used to all of Texas were Democrat, but they all were against abortion.

They believed in the Lord. They were a little different brand. So you guys that are Christians, if you get mad at me because I picked on the Democrats, maybe you should think about switching because the Democratic Party, the platform is non-Christian and unbiblical.

And I'll say it anywhere you want me to say it. Because it is. So you can pretend to be a Christian. You may be a Christian and be a Democrat, but shame on you. The Lord says, come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord.

Does it not? So think about that one. You people get a little angry sometimes out when I speak because like they don't know me, number one. Number two, some of them try to go home, prove me wrong. And they end up learning some things about the Bible and stuff.

And that's my job. That's my calling. So if you're listening and you're a Democrat, you might want to pray about that. See if the Holy Spirit wants to do that with you. It's kind of like I taught my kids.

I'm not going to tell you what music you can't listen to. When you turn it on, ask the Holy Spirit if he likes it. And if he doesn't, turn it off. So if he doesn't like the party you're part of and the platform you're voting for, stop doing it.

Amen, I love that rabbit trail. That's better than the Isaiah one. All right, so God is showing how he puts all this together and he makes the seed come up. And so that the person who makes a living sowing seeds has seeds to sow and he makes the bread for the eater.

So now you've got someone that buys the product from that person, makes bread with it and sells that to the next person. And the whole economy is happening because it's God's will. And there it is. Now look at verse 11.

So just like that, just like when you sow the seed and God brings the watering also, does he not? It's not the farmer that makes it rain. Would you agree with that? It's not the farmer that invented the seeds.

He got the seeds from God, didn't he? And then he plants them, that's our part. So there's a role we play. Responsibility of man is just as real as the sovereignty of God in the Bible and in reality. So you've got to do your part, but you can't water it.

Only God can do that. And that's what makes it come up and grow and be fruitful and multiply and so forth. And so we have to be walking with the Lord if we expect to have any success in this life as a businessman or woman, certainly.

But look what it says, just like that seed is sown. Now the farmer sows the seed, doesn't he? He didn't make the seed, but he gets to sow it. So we get to be part of God's family business and we're his children, we're working together with him.

Now we sow the seed and then God waters it. And then we go out and we reap the harvest. That's our work. So every other time you see God doing it in something we can't do, and then we have to do our part.

Then God does something we can't do and then we do our part. This is how the whole thing works. This is what brings us joy. This gives us a vision, a purpose in life. Why are we even here? And when you're a part of God's family business, you've got that purpose.

And the Bible says without a purpose, the people without a vision, the people perish. That's why we have so much suicide in our country today, that people don't know the Lord. They don't have a vision.

They don't know what God's plan is for their life. They're not even seeking it. They're not aware that he has great things for each of us to do. And so just like that though, look what verse 11 says. Just like that, that's what sow means.

Just like that shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. You see, the Bible said that the Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David. So we have all the Psalms. We have other things David wrote, but David is not the author of the Bible, God is.

Think of it again, by the mouth of David has God spoken. So the writers, the human writers were penman, not authors. God's the author. God calls it my word, not David's word, not Paul's word, not Jesus's word, although Jesus is the word.

It's not any of the writers of the New Testament or the Old Testament, I'd take that back. It is Jesus's word. I don't know why I threw him in there with Paul. Peter, let's try that one. Not Peter, not Luke, not John.

It's God's word, right? If I didn't fix that, you guys would have fixed it at the break down here. So I fixed it. Okay, fixed, I apologize. All right, so shall my word, he says, be that goes forth out of my mouth.

It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it. I had a friend very recently that expressed that perhaps he didn't know the Lord, and all I did is read scripture.

I didn't go, all right, let's pray this little prayer after me. He just read scripture, and God says it never returns void. It accomplishes the work that God sends it to do, and people that are his that don't know it yet, learn that they are, don't they?

Through the word of God. Nations are changed by the word of God. Nations, they're created like the United States was by the word of God. And so look at verse three. Now I'm in chapter 54 now of Isaiah, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles.

Now God is talking to someone. I want you to be thinking about who's he speaking to in this passage. Your seed will inherit the power of the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed.

I'm having a little trouble reading because the font's too little. I'm not, you know, I've been preaching by the PowerPoint for months. Now I'm printing it. My eyes have changed since I used to do it this way.

So next time the font will be bigger. So if I stumble a little bit, it's not my dyslexia. It's my eyes. All right, so fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed. It's one of my favorite concepts is found in many places, Old and New Testament.

That little phrase, it's like a word formula where God says, if you are my child, you never need to fear. I'll never let you be ashamed of me, of God. So when you think things aren't going right and you've been praying, they're still not going right.

Don't give up, don't give up because he won't let the enemy come and say, see, your God is not powerful. He won't let that happen. That's a good thing to remember when you're under the gun. All right, so fear not, you won't be ashamed.

Neither be thou confounded. You know, don't let confusion overwhelm you because what's going on in the world, because I'm in control. I'm your father. I'm not always their father, but I am your father.

And he says, for thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of your youth, the sins of our youth. You know, not only will God forget them, we will begin to forget them and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore.

And he's speaking, well, I'm not gonna tell you who he's speaking to because I asked you the question, but whoever he's speaking to, he considers them to be like a widow who in those days, it was a shame because she didn't have a husband, wasn't having babies, you know.

He said, you won't remember that you used to be like that. Now watch what's coming here. For your maker is your husband. God is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, that's Jesus, Yahweh, or in the Old Testament, or Jesus, God with us, Emmanuel, God with us in the New Testament, thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, by him, you will be called.

Now, what is this picturing? You, the bride, are called to the groom by the groom. He noticed you first. You didn't, you ended up not even noticing him. It's so funny how it pictures a young man pursuing a young woman.

She don't even notice him, but boy, has he ever noticed her, right? Candy, flowers, dates, you know, whatever. And finally, she notices the young man. Such a picture, that's how we are with God. God pursues us the whole life.

He already knew us before the foundation of the world. He's pursuing us with all kinds of things. We don't even notice him and finally we do. And when we do, it changes everything. The whole life has changed and we become one with him.

And so your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth is who you will be called by. He calls you to himself. That is the regeneration moment, the moment you're called.

And he does about 33 different things to you all at once, as most of you guys know that. And one of those things is he becomes the husband of the bride and the bride is the church, which means every saved person, every genuinely saved person in the world and even that's in heaven now.

All right, so for a small moment, God says, have I forsaken you? Now, how many of you lived life seemingly as the lost person, you were lost, but the shepherd knew right where you were your whole life because he knew you from the foundation of the world.

You were his sheep. You were never a goat, never would be. You were a lost sheep. He knew right where you were. He was coming after you with that stick that's got the crook on it. He's gonna put it around your neck and drag you back into the folder.

He's gonna beat you at the other end of it and spank you and get you back. But God is always after us. And so that's what our shepherd does for us. So he calls us at a certain point in time, which is our spiritual birthday.

And we awaken, our eyes are open. Our ears can hear God speak for the first time and we're born again into his family. All right, so speaking of all these issues here, for the Lord hath called thee, this is verse six.

This is beautiful, look at this. The Lord has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, a woman no other man wanted. That's how the church is. Like it's a woman that the world hates. There's no other man pursuing her.

Maybe we feel a little ugly. Maybe we feel a little useless. You know, we don't have that great of a thought about ourselves and yet the maker of the entire universe has chosen us. Out of all the others, he chose us.

And so for a small moment, he says, I forsook you. And that means he let us live as a lost person for a while, didn't he? Some of us, especially if we got saved later in life, like 24 years old when I was, it's so much more blessed to be saved at a young age, like our children and grandbabies can be because they hear the gospel all the time.

But some of us, you know, he chased us down, didn't he? And he only forsook us for a small moment, he says, but with great mercies will I gather you. Look at the picture. Here we are out in the world running around with the goats, thinking we are one and all of a sudden he just reaches out and gathers us and pulls us in.

Look up here, there's your shepherd, your sheep, you're hungry, I got the food. Make a choice, right? I've always said that we do make a choice of salvation. It's kind of like a starving, you know, a 10 year old boy and throwing him in a room with a Big Mac and say, you can choose, you can eat that or not.

And he gets to make the choice. It's a sense like that, it's that kind of choice. When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to our savior and we see him as he is for the first time, he is irresistible. Calvin got it right, didn't he, John Calvin?

Irresistible grace he called, people misunderstand what he meant by it, but he got it right. It's just people won't read, they won't read Calvin. If you don't like Calvinism, try reading Calvin. It's amazing.

All right, so you were forsaken, you were grieved in spirit and a wife of youth. When you were refused, saith God, for a small moment of our forsaken you, but with great mercies will I gather thee. Now listen to this.

No weapon that is formed against thee will prosper. I like that. Who's he speaking to though? No weapon that is formed against thee will prosper. In every tongue that shall raise up against you in judgment, thou shalt condemn.

You will condemn them. You'll be the judge of them. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from me, saith the Lord. There is so much great doctrine in this little passage.

Our righteousness is not our own righteousness. Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Isn't it Jeremiah that said that or is it Isaiah? But we like, it's not that that saved us. God imputed Jesus's righteousness to us and he imputed our sins to him and he died in our place and paid the sin death and he gives us his perfection and his goodness and his righteousness.

And God says, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is from me, saith the Lord. Isn't that beautiful? So God looks at us, he sees the righteousness of his son and of course he says, come on into heaven.

He sees us as perfect, God the Father does because of this great work that he did when Jesus died in our place, was buried and was risen and is in heaven and then sends his Holy Spirit and woos us, woos us, gives us flowers and gives us candy, gives us good things, helps us through the hard times and then all of a sudden, maybe even in that hard time is when he awakens us.

How many of you had it happen that way where you had to go through something tough? A lot of us raise their hands for that. Well, it's a beautiful plan. I want you to look at chapter 55 verse one and I still have you thinking about who is this speaking to this?

Because part of Bible interpretation, you gotta say, who is being spoken to? Is there any application to me? Is it spoken to me in the church age? Is it Christian or is it only spoken to the Jews? You have to ask those questions to be honest with Bible interpretation.

So be thinking about that, but look at 55 one. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and he that have no money, come and buy. So it doesn't mean buy, it means obtain, right? In English they put buy, but you don't have any money, you can't buy anything, right?

It's free, salvation is free. It doesn't mean buy, it means obtain. So look what it says, come, you don't have no money. You have no way to pay God for salvation because you're worthless. You're nothing but a sinner.

You already deserve hell. You're depraved. You don't even know good from evil. Really like we should, we do have a conscience that God gave us, thank the Lord. But we still, he's like, we're just muddling around blind and deaf and dead in spirit, like the whited sepulchers on the outside and full of dead men's bones on the inside.

And all of a sudden the Lord comes to us and offers us water. Isn't that something? Who is it that he offers this water to? And he that hath no money, come and obtain it. Eat it, if it's bread, eat it.

If it's water, drink it. Yay, come, obtain wine and milk without money and without price. You couldn't afford it if you could pay for it. It's infinitely valuable eternal life is. Wow, that's beautiful.

So who's he talking to? What do you think? Hmm? Sinners, I like it. Cause I thought you were gonna say Israel, of course. Well, it does start off looking like it's speaking of Israel in this beautiful passage here where it says up here, like, you know, no weapon that's formed against you will prosper.

That's quoted all over the world as to Israel, right? And that's why they're still there as a nation. The only nation that's ever been scattered into every nation in the world and come back as a nation again, reform.

Only once they ever had that happen. So it is talking to Israel, but does it have an application to sinners of all dispensations? Well, I think there are some clues in there because look at verse 17, right towards the end.

It says, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. That's not just Israel. We serve the Lord, do we not? So there's a hint. You have my righteousness. Well, that's not just true of Jews. That's true of Gentiles as well, isn't it?

And didn't the apostle Paul say that on this side of the cross, there's neither Jew nor Gentile. So we all get saved the same way through the blood of Jesus Christ and the sin debt that he paid and the blood that he sprinkles us with that purifies us from everything and removes our sin from us.

It doesn't just cover us, it removes it. So that's a hint that it's talking to us. And then in 55 one, everyone that thirsteth come to the waters. Does that include more than just Jews or is it just saying every Jew or is this everyone?

So it kind of sounds like he's talking to everyone, doesn't it? Even though primary interpretation might be the Jewish promise to the Jewish nation, it's bigger than that. And so let me get you to do this while we're on it.

Let me get you to take a look at John chapter four. Right quick, give you a minute to turn there if you're an old fashioned Bible or if you're looking at your phone, just punch the button. Boom, you're there.

Okay, John 4, 13. Let's talk about this fact that he says, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Would you call that an invitation by God to everyone that thirsts in the whole world, every age, age into age, everyone that thirsts, come to me.

And anyone that ever comes to him, he will never turn them away, he will give them that water. And you say, well, if Calvin is right and God elects and predestinates and all this, and he knows who's gonna get saved and he knows who's going to hell.

And the book of Jude says he created some people for the whole purpose of going to hell to be false prophets and then end up in the blackness of the darkness forever. And it says he ordained that. You say, well, how is that fair?

Well, it's not fair. It's not fair. Fair is 100 of the human race in hell, that's fair. Would you agree with that? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none that seeketh after God, not one.

We've all gone our own way. We've all gone astray. So fair is everyone lost. So God's not attempting to be fair, but I will tell you this, to save one person, one human being on the planet that was ever brought into being, including Adam and Eve, all the way down to our time, the only way God could be fair, because he said the wages of sin is death, is if someone else died in our place.

And that's who Jesus is. And it's the greatest revelation of God's love is his arms extended and allowing putrefied little men, like you said we are this morning, you didn't quite say putrefied, but we know nothing, allowing men to drive those nails in his hands, knowing what it was all about.

And then he says, God, forgive them. They know not what they do. Now, which one of us would have said that, right? And so he saves the world in the sense that he becomes the savior of the world, in the sense that he's not just the savior of the Jew, he is the savior of all men, but what it really means, pas in the Greek means all kinds of men, not just Jews.

He's gonna save some men and women and boys and girls from every race because of what he did on that cross that day. Now, if you think that's only for the Jew, let's look at John 4, verse 13. Jesus answered and said unto her, this is the woman at the well.

You remember that story? All right. He says, give me something to drink, lower the thing in the well, bring it up, give me a drink, Jesus said. She said, well, why do you want to, why are you asking a Samaritan woman, you're a Jew, why are you asking a Samaritan woman to give you a drink?