Church and State

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the thirteenth chapter of the book of Romans and hold your place at verse 1, Romans 13, verse 1.
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Most of us who were alive remember with great clarity what we were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001.
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I was working in a bread truck.
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I had just delivered some bread to Publix and had been told that a plane had hit the Twin Towers and it wasn't too long later that I heard that the second had hit.
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It was a day that was etched into the minds of most of us and the images had been seared into our memories.
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But one particular memory for me regarding this event was that it became the first time that I would ever preach a sermon.
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I'd been saved for a few years.
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I'd been working here at the church with young people and our pastor who had been many weeks earlier in a car accident had been unable to preach and so they needed someone to preach.
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Tom Watts came to me who was an elder at the time and he asked if I would preach the sermon.
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I knew that this was a time when the people of God were looking for answers.
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The pain of a national tragedy was fresh in our minds.
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Many were scared that worse attacks would be on the way.
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Others were angry that such a terrible plot could be perpetrated.
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They were demanding retributive justice and so I prayed, God give me what you want me to preach.
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And I ended up preaching on this same passage that I'm going to preach on this morning.
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This passage is Paul's explanation of the role and responsibility of government.
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In 2001 I focused on the responsibility of the government to enact vengeance on evildoers and this passage says that.
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I knew we were likely headed for a very difficult season of war and so I called on our people to pray for our leaders.
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Today is almost 20 years later if you can imagine.
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And I want to look at this passage again and I'm doing so because we are at a time of unprecedented change in our country.
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Over the past several months things that seemed unimaginable just a year ago have come to pass.
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The government for better or for worse has had a huge part to play in these changes.
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And the question that I want us to ask today is how should we respond? How should the church respond? How should the individual Christian respond? How should we respond to the demands of government? How should we react when it seems to be that there is an overreach of power? How should we behave when injustice is being perpetrated against our neighbors? How should we react to the governing authorities? Well I hope to show that there is an unbalanced understanding on both sides.
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And when we fall into unbalanced understandings that leads us into grievous error.
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So I want to invite you again to open your Bibles if you haven't already and turn to Romans 13 verse 1.
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And I want to invite you to stand.
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We stand when we prepare to study a passage.
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We want to focus our minds and our attentions upon the word.
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And we're going to read verses 1 through 7.
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The title of today's message is Church and State.
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Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
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For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
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Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed.
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And those who resist will incur judgment.
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For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad.
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Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval.
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For he is God's servant for your good.
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But if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain.
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For he is the servant of God an avenger who carries out wrath, God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
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Therefore one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
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For because of this you also pay taxes.
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For the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing.
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Pay to all what is due or rather the ESV pay to all what is owed to them.
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Taxes to whom taxes are owed.
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Revenue to whom revenue is owed.
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Respect to whom respect is owed.
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Honor to whom honor is owed.
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Father in heaven as I preach I pray that you would keep me from error.
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For Lord God I know that I am a fallible man incapable of preaching error.
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I thank you Lord already that your Holy Spirit is here.
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And I thank you Lord that your Holy Spirit is ultimately the teacher.
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And I pray that he would teach hearts.
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That he would open up minds and ears.
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And Lord God that at the preaching of your word that you would be glorified.
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We pray this in Jesus name.
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Amen.
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Please be seated.
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I'm going to bring my trusty friend up.
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I'm trying to make it to where everyone can see.
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As you all know my instinct is to teach even when I preach.
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And so this morning you're going to get a little bit of that.
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Because I think it's necessary to understand what it is we're going to be talking about.
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God has established three spheres of authority in this world.
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Understanding these three spheres of authority is essential for the believer.
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Because these are not spheres of authority that man has produced.
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These are spheres of authority that God has established.
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And no it's not the judicial, the executive.
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That's not what I'm talking about.
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I can't even come up with three branches of government.
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It's not in my notes.
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I don't know it.
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It's not the judicial, the executive and the legislative.
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Yes, thank you.
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That's not what I'm talking about.
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The three spheres of authority that God has established is first the home.
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The second is the church.
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And the final is the state.
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Now one might argue there's also an individual authority.
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Every man has the ability and the right to self-govern in a sense.
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He has to make decisions.
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And so you could say there's a fourth where every man has to decide for himself what he's going to do.
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And every man has a certain amount of authority over his own body, his own life.
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But for the sense of what I'm talking about today, I'm talking about spheres of government that God has established.
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The first sphere of government that God has established is the government in the home.
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The father in the home stands in a position of primary authority and responsibility.
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His wife and children both are called to submit to his authority.
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He is called to protect them, to provide for them, and to pastor them.
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Every home stands as sort of a miniature government.
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In fact, it has been recognized even in secular writings that the family is the smallest unit of government in a society.
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And it is a building block upon which all the rest of society is built.
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So the home stands as an established sphere of government.
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The next is the church.
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We might not consider the church as a sphere of authority, but the Bible certainly does.
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The church has a responsibility in the lives of believers to exhort, to correct, and even to discipline its members.
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The church also has a prophetic voice in the world.
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We call all men to repentance, even men in authority over us in the state.
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The head of the church is Christ.
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The governing document of the church is the Bible.
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The elders are God's appointed leaders, responsible to teach and lead from the Bible.
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The deacons are God's appointed ministers, responsible to care for the members of the church.
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And the members themselves are responsible as citizens of the church to use their gifts in service to God and to one another.
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Therefore, the church functions as sort of a miniature government.
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And then we have the state.
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And people say, well, when did the concept of the state actually begin? Well, I would argue that the concept of men governing other men goes all the way back to Genesis.
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When Noah came off of the ark, he was given the first form of governmental procedure that we see in the Scriptures.
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Genesis chapter 9 and verse 6, Noah is told this by God.
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Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
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In that we have the constitution and the institution of capital punishment.
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The most basic form of retributive justice.
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If you kill someone maliciously and with the intent to murder them, then you have forfeited your life because you have attacked an image bearer of God, and therefore you have sacrificed yourself.
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You have forfeited your right to life.
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But who would enact this justice? Moreover, how would the person be tried? How would the person be found guilty or innocent? This would require a position of authority, a government to ensure justice.
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Therefore, we can say government was instituted as far back as the time of Noah, and it has evolved over the eons into various forms of government.
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And now when we look out into the world, we see various ways that men govern themselves.
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But we understand this, that the Bible tells us that governing authorities have been instituted by God.
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That's what Romans 13 says.
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It says that the governing authorities have been instituted by God.
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Meaning that God has placed them where they are, and He has placed them there for a purpose.
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Now, all three spheres of authority are instituted by God, the home, the state, and the church.
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And all three of them are liable to corruption.
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The home can become corrupt.
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Amen? The father can shirk his duties and his responsibilities.
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The mother can seek to usurp the responsibilities and role of the father.
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The children can rebel against their parents.
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And we can see families that become corrupt.
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And therefore, that miniature government can become a corrupt government if it doesn't function properly.
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Likewise, within the church.
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Within the church, we see pastors misuse their pulpits and abuse their congregations.
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We see congregations mistreat their pastors and abuse one another.
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We see false doctrines perpetuated, finances mishandled, and ministries neglected.
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The church can become corrupt.
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That's the one that's hard to amen, but we ought to.
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And the state, without a doubt, experiences various levels of corruption.
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People with positions of power abuse their power.
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As I have often said from this pulpit, power corrupts.
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And what? Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Citizens can also become corrupt, refusing to submit to even the most reasonable legal standards.
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The weak become exploited, the powerful become untouchable, and injustice becomes commonplace in a corrupt government.
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However, even within the possibility of corruption, the Bible calls Christians to be obedient in all three spheres.
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In the home.
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If you want verses for this, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 1.
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Children, obey your parents in the Lord.
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That's a command from God.
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Ephesians 5, verse 22.
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Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
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There's one that everyone loves to hear, but yet it's there.
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And it tells us there is an authoritative structure in the home, and we're called to submit in that authoritative structure.
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Likewise in the church.
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Did you know that the church is called to submission to the leaders? It says in Hebrews 13, verse 17.
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Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give account.
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Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
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You realize, church, that's your responsibility to the elders.
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Your responsibility to the elders is to listen to them, understand that they're seeking to manage and shepherd your souls, and they should do that with joy and not with grief.
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And oftentimes, it's not that way.
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But that's the call, right? That's the call of submission.
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And likewise, we have a call of submission in the government.
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We've already read Romans 13, verse 1.
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Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
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But there is almost the exact same wording in 1 Peter.
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So it's interesting.
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This is one of those times when Peter and Paul are both in complete lockstep agreement on something, and they say it in almost the exact same way.
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1 Peter, chapter 2, verse 13.
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Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to the governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
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For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
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Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
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Honor everyone, love the brethren, fear God.
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Honor the emperor.
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Now remember, this is the same emperor who would eventually put Peter to death.
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When Paul says submit to the governing authorities, this is the same governing authorities that would eventually behead him.
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That kind of puts it into an interesting context.
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So in the most basic sense, and without any reservation, we need to understand that Christians are called to obedience.
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We are called to obedience to authority.
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However, and this is a dangerous time to put in a however, because the problem with most of us is not that we're too obedient.
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The problem is we're not obedient enough.
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So when I give the caveat of the however, I was nervous.
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I was like, maybe I should take a five-minute break.
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We all go get a cup of coffee, and then I'll come back and give the however, just so that my last statement that we're called to be obedient will sink in.
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Because I know you're all waiting for the however.
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I know you're all anxiously awaiting for me to give you the escape clause.
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So please just understand that nothing I'm about to say is going to contradict what I've just said.
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That we as Christians are called to be obedient people.
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Obedient in our homes, obedient in the church, and even obedient citizens of the state.
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Okay? This is important.
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Because as I said, an unbalanced approach on either side is dangerous.
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We can be unbalanced in our obedience, and we're going to see that to the point that we allow the state to perpetrate evil without any words of response, and that's not good.
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But we can be unbalanced in our desire to rebel to the point that we are ungovernable, and that's not good either.
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We as Christians should be the best citizens.
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And we'll see that.
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So let me go back to the however.
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Christians are called to obedience to authority.
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However, the authority which is vested in these spheres is never absolute because every authority, whether it is in the home, whether it is in the church, or whether it is the state, is always subject to a higher authority, and that authority is God.
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Therefore, there are times when God honoring resistance to authority is necessary.
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Some might then say, but pastor, we just read Romans 13.
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We read all seven verses of the introduction, and doesn't it demand unquestioned loyalty to the governing authorities? And the answer is no.
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Not when taken and considered with the context of all of the Bible, and even all of the book of Romans.
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The governing authorities have an important place.
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They should be obeyed.
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They should even be honored.
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But they can never demand something contrary to God's commands and expect to be obeyed.
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Let me say that again.
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They can never demand something contrary to God's command and expect to be obeyed.
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The government has a responsibility, even in Romans 13.
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Do you notice here? It says that the government is from God.
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It says that they have been appointed by God.
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But it also says they have been appointed for a purpose, and therefore they bear a responsibility.
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And what is the responsibility of the government under God? To approve what is good, and to punish what is evil.
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The passage very clearly says that.
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They have a responsibility to approve that which is good, and to reward those who do good, and to disapprove of that which is evil, and to punish those who do evil.
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Notice that the government is called God's servant three times in this passage.
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Three times the word servant is used.
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And that word servant in the Greek is very important because it is the same word for deacon.
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The same word that we use in the church for a deacon of the church is used of the government.
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And therefore it could be rightly translated that the government serves as God's deacon to reward what is good, and to punish what is evil.
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And so my question would be this.
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Who determines what is good and evil? The government? No, there is a higher standard of determining what is good and evil.
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There is a higher standard than our legislature that determines what is good or evil.
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There is a higher standard than our president that determines what is good or evil.
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There is a higher standard than our senate that determines what is good and what is evil.
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And as God's servant they are responsible to that standard whether they believe it or not, and whether they like it or not.
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When the government is promoting evil and injustice, it is in rebellion against God.
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Therefore we call the government to repentance as we would any unbeliever.
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We point them to their responsibility toward God.
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And like the prophets of old, we say woe to you who call evil good and good evil.
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We cannot simply rubber stamp everything the government does as good if it is not good.
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We have a primary responsibility to a higher authority, and that authority is the God of heaven and earth.
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And this may at times require that we take a stand against the earthly authorities and power.
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Now, I want to quote a pastor.
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Many of you have heard him.
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His name is Jeff Durbin.
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He is out in Phoenix.
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And he said this, and I thought it was a very good thought.
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When we think about the issue of authority, and we think about the issue of responding to authorities, and we think about the issue of resisting authorities, he said this, and I thought this just stuck with me.
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It stuck in my brain.
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It percolated for a while.
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He said this, Some of the greatest heroes in the history of the Christian faith are those who stood against authorities.
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Some of the greatest heroes of the Bible are those who stood against authorities.
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I want you to look at these, because I don't want you to take my word for it.
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Open your Bible back to Exodus, and go to Exodus chapter 1, and go to verse 15.
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Now, remember what the context is here in Exodus 1.
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The Jews are multiplying in the land.
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The Pharaoh sees them as a threat, and so he gives the command to the midwives of Egypt, the ones who are helping to give birth to these newborn children, that they are to kill the male children.
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Because if you can destroy one sex or the other, you can destroy an entire generation.
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And you can introduce the concept of mixing with the Egyptians, and creating more Egyptians rather than more Jews.
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So this is what he says in verse 15.
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Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah, and the other Puah, When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women, and set them on the birthstool, if it is a son you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter she shall live.
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Verse 17, But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
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They had an authority over them.
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The authority was the king, unquestioned ruler.
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We don't understand unquestionable rulers here in America, because we live in a republic, a democratic republic, where we vote for our representatives.
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But this was a time when the king was an unquestioned ruler.
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His word was law.
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He was considered to be divine.
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And when he made a statement, it was a statement as if it were coming from Almighty God Himself.
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And he said, when that baby is born, and you look at that child, and that is a male child, you will take that child's life.
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And the midwives said no.
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Now if you go on into the story, you will see they didn't say no to him directly, but they went behind his back, and did what they were supposed to do.
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And they honored God and not the king.
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They feared God.
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And I don't even know if these handmaidens really understood who God was at that point.
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Maybe they had been introduced to the God of heaven by the Jewish women that they had been working with.
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Maybe they had understood who God truly was, because they had all the false gods.
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They had all of the Egyptian gods.
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But they knew that the God of heaven and the earth had said this is wrong, and I am not going to do it.
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Go a little further in your Bibles to the book of Daniel.
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Brother Andy mentioned this in his prayer earlier.
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I mean, we are skipping over many examples to get to Daniel.
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But Daniel is one that I think is so, it sticks in the soul so much because of what happens in the book of Daniel.
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In Daniel chapter 3, King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a statue to himself, a golden image, and he commands everyone to bow down to that golden image.
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When the horn, the pipe, the lyre, and all of the bagpipes are played, then you are to get down and you are to worship the statue.
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And here is the thing about this, and this is...
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Boy, I don't want to go off on a rabbit trail.
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I've got too much to say today.
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But very quickly, just how easy would it have been for everybody around Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to say, hey, don't make waves.
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It's not that big a deal.
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All He is asking you to do is take a knee.
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All He is asking you to do, you don't even have to mean it.
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You don't even have to really worship.
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All you've got to do is pretend.
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Think about what social media would have said of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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They are just troublemakers.
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They are just problems.
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We don't need guys like that because they are just going to bring the whole world down.
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We don't need those kind of voices in the Jewish community.
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We don't need those kind of Hebrew rebels.
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Listen to what they said.
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Daniel 3.16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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And by the way, that isn't even their real names.
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That's the names that they were given by the Chaldeans to try to rob them of their Hebrew roots, their Hebrew heritage.
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They gave them names that honored the false gods.
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
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I just always stop there and think, wow, you've got to think of what Nebuchadnezzar might have thought when they said, we don't really have to give you an answer.
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If this be so, our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
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But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
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You can tell us to do it.
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You can demand that we do it.
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But we will not do it and God will save us.
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And even if He doesn't, we're not going to bow.
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Go a few chapters over to Daniel 6.
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In Daniel 6, Daniel is faced with almost the exact same situation.
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Forbidden to pray to any god except the king.
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And here's the part.
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Maybe I should have just preached this passage because I'm going to end up...
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Here's the thing about Daniel's situation.
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It's only temporary.
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Read the story.
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It's only temporary.
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The king is not asking you to obey forever.
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He's only taking away a few weeks.
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And Daniel, he's not saying that you can't hide away and pray in your closet.
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You just have to be out of sight.
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Don't you understand how important your life is, Daniel? Don't you understand how important public safety is, Daniel? Don't you know better than to do what you're about to do? Because read what he did.
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In verse 10, when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he knew that a statement had been signed that if he prayed publicly to another god other than the king, he would be forfeiting his own life.
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It says, when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber, opened them toward Jerusalem.
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He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously.
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Again, think of what Facebook would have had to say.
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Think of what the internet...
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Think of what Twitter would have been abuzz.
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Hashtag Daniel's a rebel.
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Hashtag why can't he just submit? Hashtag it's only temporary.
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You might think to yourselves, well, this is Old Testament, man.
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This has nothing to do with us.
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We are now called to absolute subjection to governing authorities.
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Turn to Acts, which I do believe is firmly in the New Testament.
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Just to make sure.
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I believe Acts is in the New Testament.
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Right? Some of you are wondering.
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No, it is.
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It is.
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Acts chapter 5 and verse 27.
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Remember Peter and John, they had preached in the name of Jesus.
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They had been imprisoned for it.
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They had been miraculously released and therefore they are preaching again.
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Verse 27.
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And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them saying, we strictly charged you not to teach in this name, that is the name of Jesus.
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Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
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But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men.
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So the attitude of the New Testament apostles, who are the example of faith, who are the foundation stones of the faith.
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These are the men who Christ raised up to be examples to us to establish the church.
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The Bible says that the church is established on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Christ is the chief cornerstone and therefore these men who are the foundation stones of the church when they were commanded to listen to the government or obey God when it was in conflict, they said we must obey God rather than men.
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And their example has been followed down through the history of the church.
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Remember earlier I said our heroes of the faith are men who resisted authority? Well, that doesn't happen just in the Bible.
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We can follow the history of the church.
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Men like William Tyndale, who was called God's outlaw.
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Why was he God's outlaw? Because he translated, printed and smuggled the Bible in English when it was illegal to do so.
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And had he not, we might not have an English Bible today.
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Consider Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who not only wrote great theological writings, but he is best known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship and his vocal opposition to Hitler's persecution of the Jews in Rome.
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And he died for it.
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He died for it.
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And Tyndale died for it too.
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Consider the Dutch Christian educator Johan van Hulst, who is known for having saved over 600 Jewish children, smuggling them in baskets and sacks so that they would not be detected by the Nazis and that they would be saved.
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Consider Corrie ten Boom, who not only hid Jews in her home, but she herself was taken to a concentration camp where she was miserably treated and her life was terrible until such time as God released her from that captivity and she went on to become a great woman of service to the people of her nation.
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Consider the fact that currently, as we speak, godly men and women in China are perpetuating an underground church in defiance of their government because the Chinese communist government has sought to replace the worship of Christ with the worship of the communist state.
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That is not an exaggeration.
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I'll read you a quote from the South China Morning Post.
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It reports that the Communist Party of China visited believers' homes in Yugan County in the Xinjiang province where about 10% of the population was Christian.
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They urged the residents to replace religious displays with posters of President Xi Jinping.
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More than 600 removed Christian symbols from their living rooms and in their place hung portraits of the communist leader.
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So they took down pictures of Christ, they took down their crosses and they put up a picture of Xi Jinping, the president.
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In North Korea, it is illegal, it is illegal to worship any deity other than the Kim family.
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You know Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il, that family? That family has been deified in North Korea and you are only allowed by law to worship the Kim family.
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Think about our church.
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Our church supports Scott Phillips.
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Scott Phillips has preached right where I'm standing.
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Scott Phillips has been here several times.
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He is a missionary who goes into countries where the word of God is forbidden.
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And we have supported his work of translation and printing Bibles for the Tao tribe.
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And he hides these Bibles in his luggage.
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And we pray.
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What do we pray? God, give him safe passage.
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Close the eyes of the authorities.
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Blind them to what he is doing so that he might reach these people with the Gospel.
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How about this? How about the fact that we are called Protestants? What's the root of Protestant? To protest.
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Our very faith tradition is in the tradition of saying to the authorities, when you are wrong, we will let you know.
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And we will not stand for it.
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John Gill says this about Romans 13.
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And if you are unfamiliar with Gill, he was a tremendous writer.
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Powerful exegete.
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This is what he says about Romans 13.
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This is not to be understood as if magistrates were above the law and had a lawless power to do as they will without opposition.
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For they are under the law and liable to the penalty of it in case of disobedience as others.
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And when they make their own will the law or exercise a lawless tyrannical power in defiance of the laws of God and of the land and to the endangering of lives, liberties, and properties of its subjects, they may be resisted.
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Consider this.
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All laws that force us to disobey God must be resisted.
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And those which set themselves in opposition to God must be resisted.
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Should be resisted.
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We stand at a point in history where the time may come when we are faced with the necessity to take a stand against governing authorities.
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And it may come quicker than we think.
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So long as what the government asks us to do is not ungodly or a call to compromise our faith, we must obey.
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But when we are demanded to disobey God, to obey the government, we must obey God and not men.
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And some of you might think, well, that will never happen.
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I would say to you, you are naive at best.
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Because there are places around the world, I've just mentioned places around the world where it's happening now and there are already pockets of this type of thinking in our own country.
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I'm thankful.
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Brother Andy prayed earlier and I say with him, yes and amen.
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I'm thankful that we have a governor in Florida who did not close the churches.
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He recognized the essential nature of the freedom to worship.
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Our state provided guidelines and our elders sought as best as we knew how to be obedient to those guidelines and to work alongside the state with their sphere of authority and our sphere of authority to work together in ministry.
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We even went as far as taking a few weeks where we did not meet personally and then we met for a few weeks outside.
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And even now, we have our chairs separated a little to continue to do what we've been asked to do.
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However, across our land, some churches have not had that benefit.
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There are states which are still maintaining lockdowns which include the prohibition to gather for worship.
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And it has been suggested by some that churches will not be allowed to gather again until a vaccine is developed.
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Something which may or may not ever happen.
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One state in particular and one governor in particular has said that it could be up to a year before he will open the door to allow churches to fully reopen.
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Currently, the governor of California is not allowing the churches in his state to open.
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And as a result, a group of 500 churches have gathered together to reopen in defiance of the governor.
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I'll read to you a quote.
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The churches are not asking for permission, said Bob Tyler, a religious freedom attorney, advising the pastors.
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Quote, the governor is sitting here as a dictator trumping the constitution and is a kind of hanging on to the state of emergency for as long as he can hold it.
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The pastors have signed a petition and said that they will let Governor Gavin Newsom know their plans which include social distancing.
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We'll give the governor an opportunity to amend his order, said Tyler.
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But if he does not, these pastors have told me that they are committed to opening regardless of what the governor says.
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Some of them may end up facing severe consequences.
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Some of those men may lose their freedom, albeit only maybe for a time.
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But I believe we should pray for them.
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I believe we should stand for them and with them because the call to gather in worship is not an option for the believer.
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The call to gather together in corporate worship is a command of Almighty God.
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Now, can it be foregone for a season? Well, in the past, if a hurricane was bearing down on us, we've taken a Sunday off.
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And as I've already said, there was a time during this season where we took a few weeks off.
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But it cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely.
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Eventually, the church must stand up and say we will obey God rather than men.
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They may come with punishment.
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They may come with persecution.
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They may come with incarceration.
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They may even include evisceration in the media and social media.
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And that may mean that we become enemies of the people that we love, even those in our own family.
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But when it comes to the Christian's responsibilities, we are called to worship together.
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We are called to submit to government and we are called to submit to God.
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But only one of those is ultimate.
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Anyone demanding allegiance which violates God's authority must be resisted.
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Now, that doesn't mean we go march on Capitol Hill.
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I really don't care to go march anywhere.
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But what it does mean is we do what God has commanded of us in spite of the prohibitions and in the face of the consequences.
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God may one day call us to jail.
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And the fear that I have seen in so many people showed me that not many people will be willing to go.
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I told my wife, one day I may have a prison ministry.
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It's got to be what it is.
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We must stand for God first.
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And remember, this sermon is a call for balanced thinking.
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Since this virus has begun, I've seen extremes on both sides within the church.
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Those who would demand absolute and unquestioning obedience to the government no matter what they tell us to do.
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And that's wrong.
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But I've seen people on the other side who are so excited about rebelling that they would say, no matter what the government tells us to do, we ain't going to do it.
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And that's wrong.
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As believers, we need to recognize that God has established the state for a purpose.
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We need to be good citizens.
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We need to not be known for rebellion and disobedience.
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But when obedience requires disobedience to God, we need to let it be known we will not stand.
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Or we will not fall.
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We will stand.
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We will resist.
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When they say, You can gather at church, but you can't...
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Excuse me.
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When they say, You can't gather at church, but you can gather at Home Depot.
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When they say, You can't go to the church building, but you can go to the Planned Parenthood building.
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When they say, You can't have the bread and the cup, but you can go to McDonald's and get a Big Mac and fries.
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Well, sir, we have a problem.
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And this is my final thought.
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I do not need permission from government to worship my God and to gather with others to do the same.
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I have this command from God and therefore I have the only permit I need.
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If the governing authorities choose to punish me for doing it, I will receive that punishment for His glory.
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But I will not beg Caesar to worship Christ.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I pray that Your Word has been proclaimed truthfully.
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And I pray, Lord, that we would have the willingness to stand in the days where standing is necessary.
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That we would not be rebellious citizens.
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That we would be good citizens.
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That we would be the best of citizens.
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But at the same time, Lord, that we would never compromise our faith for the sake of safety.
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That we would never compromise our faith for the sake of civility.
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But, Lord, that we would always be willing to take a stand for the truth.
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Understanding that You are the one who goes before us.
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You are the one who fights our battles for us.
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You are the mighty fortress that is our God.
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You are a bulwark that never fails.
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Lord, thank You.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Let's stand together and sing.