A Christian's Response To The Election - [Romans 13:1ff]

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Christians are different people. They act differently.
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As my father would say, they're different. Two syllables instead of three. They think differently.
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They respond to things differently. They are by nature different, therefore that difference comes out in the way they think and the way they live.
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Justified people, redeemed people, those that are born again from above think and act differently.
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They have new ideas. They have different thoughts. Compared to the world, they think in black and white terms.
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Compared to other people, they're just off kilter, whether it's about social life, family life, work life, and church life, they're just different.
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Here's my question this morning though. Should Christians think differently when it comes to politics?
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Do Christians have a different perspective or a different view? Or should Christians just run around and think like everybody else does when it comes time for the election?
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Freaking out if their guy's not going to win or if it's a local election, their gal's not going to win.
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Believing every news pundit, watching every news poll, having their days ruined because the polls look like X, Y, and Z, or having their days made because the polls are
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X, Y, and Z. Should Christians be totally preoccupied with politics?
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Do these different people called Christians, should they have their minds so consumed, their time so consumed, their energy so consumed by politics that outside observers would say, those people worship
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Republicans. Those people worship Democrats. Those people worship
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Libertarians. I'm just trying to figure out how to get you all in these things this morning. Christians have been given a view of the risen
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King. They see things differently. They have been able by the grace of God to behold the
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Lamb that was slain in eternity past. They've been given a new nature, a new attitude, new thoughts.
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Their minds have been conformed to what the Bible teaches and therefore they think differently about everything.
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And the main thing that Christians think differently about when it comes to the election is, not who is going to win, but how do we respond to those who will win?
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Would you please turn your Bibles to the most important words ever written for politics?
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Out of all the Bible that's written, out of all the tomes for political writers, secular and sacred, turn to the passage that deals with the most monumental description of how
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Christians are to respond to the government. And that is Romans chapter 13. We are going to learn today that our response is going to be submission.
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Our response is going to include obedience. Our response is going to be thankfulness. And I want to change the way you wake up on Wednesday morning.
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I don't want anybody to say my life is made because we've got this new man in, or my life is ruined because we've got this new man in.
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How does a justified person, how does a Christian respond to the government?
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And you're going to find out that it's completely different than what your neighbors are doing, your friends are doing, what 96 .9
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is doing, what Town Hall is doing, what Slate is doing.
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It's completely different. And so we're deviating today from our normal passage in Matthew.
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And there are times where as a pastor, I just want to say, here's what the congregation needs. They need to be reminded who's in charge.
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And when 9 -11 happened, we just didn't carry on with the next few verses in Ephesians. And we have something very large happening in America on Tuesday.
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And I don't know about you, but I want to worship Tuesday and I want to worship
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Wednesday. So I might respond to God in a Christian fashion. Is that what you want to do? I'm sure you are, that's why you're here.
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That's why you're in this building that's too full now. We've got too many people here coming to hear the truth. What are we going to do about that, by the way?
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I thought maybe we'd get more people if I just kind of watered down the sermons a little bit. But then that actually wouldn't work, would it?
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What a joy it is as a pastor to preach the truth undiluted, not watered down, and people come to hear the truth.
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Romans 13, verse 1, gives the summary for all of Paul's thoughts when it comes to government.
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Let every person, an all -inclusive statement, Romans 13, be in subjection to the governing authorities.
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Every person who's ever born in the history of the universe, who's under a government, they have a mandate from God as they respond differently, as they think differently, and act differently.
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And it's not anarchy. It's not rebellion. It is submission. And you say, well, how can you just dive into Romans 13 without showing context?
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How can you say, this is what a justified person does. He submits or she submits to the government.
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What is a justified person, in other words? I'm glad you asked that. Let's turn to Romans 3.
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Romans chapter 13 is tied directly to chapter 3. Justified people are the ones who respond to government differently than everyone else.
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Show me someone who doesn't respond to the government properly. I'll show you someone who, A, isn't justified, or B, needs to be reminded of their justification.
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So it's the same thing in chapter 14 and 15 when it comes to liberty and legalism, what we eat, what we drink, what we don't eat, what we don't drink.
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When people have problems with their liberty and legalism in their life, they've forgotten chapter 3, 4, and 5.
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How are we made right in Christ? How are we declared right in Christ is the best question. And so what is justification?
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If you ask the question, how does a justified person respond to the politics and the political arena?
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The first question is, how is a person justified? What is a person who is justified?
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Chapter 3, verse 20, summarizes basically all of chapter 1, 2, and 3 when it comes to how can someone be made right in God's eyes?
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How can someone be declared right in God's eyes? It's the real question. Not who we are, but what
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God thinks of us. And He says in verse 20, because by the works of the law, trying to earn your salvation by something you do or don't do, no flesh will be declared right or just in God's sight.
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For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Everyone is born sinful and they cannot present themselves as just or right to God because they have been invaded by, permeated by sin, so much that their nature is sinful.
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And here Paul is going to show us by the Spirit's inspiration that you can't save yourself, you can't earn salvation, you can't merit salvation, nobody deserves salvation, so someone's going to have to come and save us since we can't save ourselves and we know who that person is.
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Look at verse 21, how this righteousness of God is described.
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There's justification by faith. How is it explained? And you'll see what Jesus does for us is something that we can't do for ourself.
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Sinful man can't make himself unsinful, so here God, Jesus Christ, works out a perfect righteousness that He gives to the sinner the moment he or she believes.
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But now, apart from the law, chapter 3, verse 21, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
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We're starting to see that God is to the rescue. He's coming to rescue us. Those that have prayed,
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God, deliver me from myself. I'm sinful. I can't please You, God. I've got a problem and I'm the problem.
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And we see this great passage where it says here comes the righteousness of God witnessed by the law and the prophets.
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So much so that if you look at verse 22, it says, even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe.
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And there's no distinction, for all have sinned in the past and continue to fall short of the glory of God.
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God says, I can save you from your sins, but not by taking your sins and making them a little prettier.
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Not by lowering the standards of my salvation. Not by saying, you know what, you can be less than perfect to have fellowship with the thrice holy
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God. No. He keeps His standards. He keeps His holiness. He keeps His justice.
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He keeps His righteousness. But He's going to count His own righteous Son's righteousness into our account.
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He's going to count us like that. And three words pop out so we'll understand this salvation. And the first word is found in verse 24.
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Justified. What is justified? Being justified as a gift by His grace.
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God says, based on the work of my Son and His perfect life, I'm going to take the gavel out. If I had a gavel here,
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I'd use it. I actually have a gavel in my study, but I don't really like props because then what do you do the next week?
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It's the next prop. So God takes His gavel like a judge and says, not what?
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Guilty based on your lack of guilt? No, based on my Son's lack of guilt.
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I declare you righteous because my Son's violent death has paid for your sins.
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So you have no sins to pay for. And my Son's perfect life that's been credited to your account takes care of your righteousness.
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Here, Jesus lives a perfect life that righteousness is credited to our account and God says because of the great exchange, not guilty.
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And it's all of grace. And He uses another word that's fascinating and that's the word redeemed in the very same verse.
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Being justified, verse 24, as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. We're not only justified, declared righteous by the work of another, but we are redeemed.
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We were sold out to sin, sold out to Satan, sold out to ourselves. And God comes along and says at the price of my
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Son, the ransom price, I will buy you out of that slave pit of sin. We're redeemed.
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We're free in Christ. And then He gives one other word to describe this great salvation that we have based on Christ.
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And that word is propitiation. We're justified, declared righteous. We're redeemed. We're now bought out of the slave pit of sin and now we're recipients of God's propitiation.
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Verse 25, whom God displayed publicly as a satisfaction, as a wrath assuager, a propitiation in His blood.
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God is angry with the wicked every day. And instead of being angry with us, the
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Son bears our sins and now God pours out His full wrath on His sinless, spotless
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Son. And now God doesn't have any more wrath because it's fully assuaged.
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It's fully satisfied. There's no one or no thing to be mad at anymore because it's paid in full.
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So now here's my question. And I think the congregation, you know these three words anyway. How do you take a person who used to be unjustified, who's now justified?
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Who used to be not redeemed, but enslaved and now who's redeemed? And a person whose being was being, that doesn't sound right.
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A person who was under the wrath of God, who's no longer under the wrath of God. Should that person think differently about sin,
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God, Christ, the world, and politics? You can't be justified, redeemed, and having
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God no longer have wrath on you and go, I'm just going to walk my merry way and before I was saved, this is how
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I voted, this is how I thought about politics. Now after I'm saved, I think the same way. I don't think that can happen because we are different at the core.
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Paul goes on to explain more about this, but let's go to chapter 12. We're getting close to chapter 13. How do these justified, redeemed people act towards God?
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How do they respond? Well, we'll figure out how we respond to other people and organisms soon, but how do they respond to God?
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If you were sinful on your way to hell and God interrupted you and saved you and redeemed you, how would you respond to God?
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And to what degree would you say, God, you can take over my life. I surrender 50%.
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I surrender like 25 % and I've got a few of these things I want to keep, but God, you did a pretty good thing, so I'll let you kind of do what you want once in a while, except on the weekends.
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Justified people respond to the government a certain way, but before they respond to a government a certain way, look at how they respond to God.
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And it is all out, holding nothing back. God has done so much for us.
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The response to that is verse one of Romans 12. You can hear the pastor in his voice.
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I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. By Romans chapter one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11.
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Those are the mercies of God. How you were a sinner saved by grace and God is going to keep you secure to the day of redemption.
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By the mercies of God, here's what I want you to do. Give your time to God. Give your money to God.
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Give your house to God. Give your paycheck to God. Does that sound stupid?
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I want it to be. Someone of the kids said no, just because they know if you ever say does that sound stupid, you're always to say no.
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It sounds stupid. Did God die for your money? Did the Son die for your time?
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Did the Spirit send the Son to die for your checkbook and your house and all those things? So you go, you know what?
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God did all this for me and I'm just going to kind of throw these bones of time and money and service and all that stuff.
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Should you respond to God with money and time and all those things? I think the answer would be yes, but that's not where we start.
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Where do we start? What does God want from you? Everything.
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You. See the text? To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your reasonable spiritual service of worship.
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It is unreasonable to have Jesus die on the cross so that you might be justified, redeemed and God's wrath assuaged on the
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Son instead of you and for you to go, I'll just present something else besides who I am. God wants it all.
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People that argue about, well, I'm going to take Jesus as Savior, but not make Him Lord need to refer to this verse.
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To present yourselves, you know what this language is? To take that offering up to the altar and have the priest there to kill the thing.
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It's everything. You don't go, well, I think for the sacrifice today, I'll go send that little lamb over there, that one year old ram and priest, here's what you do.
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I don't really want to give the whole thing. So just cut off its ears and cut off its tails. You can keep, well, not tails.
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That would be a strange offering. You couldn't give that offering because it would be somehow weird. Just cut off the tail, cut off the ears and maybe just a little wool and we'll present that to God.
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As Jesus was brought to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord, so too
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God wants you as a living sacrifice. Nothing dead about it. It's logical.
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It's spiritual. Listen to Isaac Watts. But drops of grief can ne 'er repay the debt of love
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I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away tis all that I can do.
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That's exactly right. A life of complete dedication, wholehearted dedication in every area.
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And now you're going to see how politics is going to fit in. If it's everything, then it means everything.
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I love this. You've heard me say this before. Will you please tell me in a word, a Christian woman told a minister, what's your idea of consecration?
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He took out a black piece of paper, said sign your name at the bottom and let God fill in the rest.
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Negatively, look at verse 2, and do not be conformed to this world. Don't think the way they think.
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Don't be put in their mold like a Jell -O mold. Don't do that, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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The world affects you. The world infects you. The world has an agenda. It sells you opposite of what
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God teaches. Satan is alive. Satan is well. We want to do things that are good and acceptable and perfect in God's eyes.
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So now we come to chapter 13. How do justified people, redeemed people, those that no longer pay for their own sins, those that have been born again from above, those that are new creatures in Christ Jesus, how do they act towards the government?
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Now Paul tells us. See, it's all about justified people. It's all about consecration towards God.
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It's not about us any longer. It's about God, and now God says, here's what I want you to do. If your guy doesn't win,
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I want you to go on a hunger strike. All right, let's find out. How do justified people respond?
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And the response is in one word, submission. Let every person be in subjection to government or governing authorities.
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Someone has authority over you in the government, state, local, national, you say,
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I submit. It's a military term. This guy is a lieutenant and I'm a private, and the right thing to do is to put myself under that person and to just say, it doesn't have anything to do about my value or my worth or do
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I lose my image and my likeness of God if I do that, but I will just militarily put myself underneath that person who is above me.
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Now, I have a question for you, congregation. Why doesn't it say obey the government? Obey them.
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Answer, because sometimes you can't obey the government. Sometimes you can't obey because if they tell you to sin, you can't sin, but you can still disobey the government with a submissive heart.
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You can always submit, even if you have to do something that's contrary to what the law says.
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For instance, if I ever get arrested, for preaching the gospel, and who knows, maybe I will someday, that I'm not to flop down on the ground and make myself as we would have our children.
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I remember when I was a kid, I tried to make myself heavy. You ever tried to do that? So people can't pick you up. My mom's gonna go give me a paddling some, and I go, if she can't get me in the room to paddle me, she can't paddle me, so I'm gonna make myself heavy.
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Mike Ebenroth, you've broken the law for preaching the gospel in a public place. I'm glad you're laughing because it sounds ridiculous.
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I'll say, yes, sir, that's true. Would you like my hands behind my back or in front of me? And I can still submit and place myself under their authority, even though I'm going to disobey them.
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So he doesn't say obey no matter what, because we'll learn this week or next week. There are times like Peter in Acts chapter five, where you have to disobey the government.
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I'm going to disobey you, but I'm going to do it with a submissive heart and submissive spirit.
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Christians sometimes have to disobey the government, but they never should say that I don't line up anymore underneath my military commander, the government.
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With voluntary attitudes, with the spirit of cooperation, we bow down because we are different.
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We don't do this because we can or we're able to in and of ourselves, but God has given us the spirit.
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He has saved us. Christ's redemption has been confirmed by the resurrection and the power that raised
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Jesus from the dead is now in Christians. And we don't want to submit. We want to rebel. We don't want to obey.
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We want to run. We want to say, you know what, I'm going to get ahead of myself, but that's okay. I'm not going to pay my taxes regularly.
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I'm going to give the government a bunch of pennies. $4 ,000 in pennies. How do you like it? And by the way, if I have to write a check,
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I'm going to be like Ray Stedman early on in his ministry. He wrote it to the Infernal Revenue Service. By the way,
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Stedman said they cashed that check anyway. What we're doing is we're remembering not too many chapters ago in chapter nine, 10 and 11 as God is dealing with righteousness in Israel, that God shows
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He's sovereign. God is in charge of your government. God is in charge of the federal government, the state government.
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By the way, Paul is writing this, and who is the leader? Nero. You say,
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Paul didn't suffer. I'll show you next week. Paul's already been in jail because of Nero and what Paul has done.
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And he still says, redeemed, justified people put themselves under the government.
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That's what they do. They submit. God will accomplish His will through the government, but He wants me to respond with submission.
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And to the text, it says in verse one of chapter 13, to government authorities, that's a broad word, congregation.
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That means at every level. That means every kind of. It's dedicated power, certainly, delegated power, certainly, but this is anyone that holds something over you is the
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Greek word. They're holding something over us. They've got power. They've got the military behind them, et cetera. But we remember
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John 19, 11, Jesus answered, you would have no authority, same word, over me unless it has been given you from above.
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If you say the government's sinful, we're to submit anyway. If you say they're not competent, we're supposed to submit anyway.
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If you say they're immoral, we're to submit anyway. If you say they're unreasonable, we're to submit anyway. If you say they're not
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Christian, we're to submit anyway. If they're the wrong race, we're to submit anyway. If they're the wrong height, we're to submit anyway.
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If they're Buddhist, we're to submit anyway. If they're pro -abortionist, we're to submit anyway. If they're secular humanist, we're to submit anyway.
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There is no loophole in this verse. Even when we disobey, we still have to do it with submissive hearts.
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So how does a justified person submit to the government? Let me give you several for our outline today, ways that will help you think properly regarding this topic of submission.
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The one word in chapter 13, these first seven verses that we need to remember is submit. But how does a justified person submit?
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How does Paul help us? He could have just said submit, but he gives us more than one verse and he helps us as we think how to submit, the way to submit, what's the purpose of submission.
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And so let's answer some of those questions. And I'm gonna call these this morning, rocking your world truths. How about that?
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We've had stomach turning truths. Now these are rocking your world truths. This is one of my favorite things in life is to think a certain way, have
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God show me from His word the right way to think, and then for me to just quickly jettison my wrong thinking.
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Isn't that freeing? Just go, you know, I used to just be so ridiculous. Why did
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I think that way? I'm gonna save you from a lot of grief on Wednesday morning, all right? You're gonna rise up and call me blessed.
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At least half of you. How do justified people submit to the government?
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Number one, they recognize that all government authority comes from God. It's not just a nebulous truth.
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Let me ask you, do you recognize that every form of government in the universe is established by God and ordained by God?
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And if you realize that, it takes a little bit of this sting off. Verse one, the text is the sermon.
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The text is the sermon. The text is the sub -point. The main point is submission. The first sub -point is, all authority comes from God.
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For there is no authority, I don't care what country you're in, most of us here are United States citizens, and if you're not a citizen, but you live here, you're still underneath our government.
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No authority except from the will of the people. No authority except right makes right.
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Might makes right. No from God and those which exist are established by God.
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God uses organisms and institutions to His glory.
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For instance, sometimes He uses these to restrain sin. And He'll do that in a local church.
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He'll do that in a family. And He'll do it in government. God has these institutions which He ordains and He knows sinful people will be in them.
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But you have to ask yourself the question, government, whose idea was it?
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God's. Was it a good plan? Was it a bad plan? How wise of God to make government?
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And to ask the question is to answer it. It is established by God. By the way, that's a perfect tense for you
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Greek students. That means He has ordained government and He continues to ordain government and He will always have ordained government as long as this earth spins.
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It is a permanent institution delivered by God. Daniel 2,
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God removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.
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God is the ruler, the most high. And He's the one who does whatever He wishes.
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When you're a Christian, you think differently about submission. You think, hmm, I understand husband and wife when the wife submits.
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I understand submission to the elders. I understand I'm submitting to my boss at work and I'm submitting now to the government.
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We weren't submitting to God first and now God has allowed us to bend our knee by changing us.
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And when we bend our knee to Jesus Christ and confess Jesus as Lord, it means that we also ought to bend our knee to those of us who are married or are women, our husbands, the government authorities, the elders, and anybody else who's above us.
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God's relationship with us affects our relationship with others. And our job is to live a holy life demonstrating that we're changed people.
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I could ask you this question. Do your neighbors think you're different than everyone else? Do they think you're a
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Christian? Do they think you're just odd about politics? You don't worship politics? You know, why don't you have signs up?
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Why don't you do this? Why do you do that? I wonder. We are different people by divine ordering.
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And we need to realize that God is in control and He's established it all. Furthermore, look at verse 1 in the same kind of idea, different nuance.
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And those which exist, government authorities, are established by God. In other words,
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God is the ultimate authority. God is established. He's ordained. He's in charge. And submitting to the government shows that you're submitting to God who's ordained government.
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How about a pharaoh? God says, for this very purpose, I raised you up.
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He's ordained. And justified people, because they can and because all that God has done for us, submit to the government.
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And you say, yeah, but I've got a bad president coming. I've got a good president coming. How about Nero?
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Let's think about Nero just for a minute. This is again, the man was emperor. And this is the man who allegedly opened up his mother's womb to see the womb that bore him.
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You say, yeah, but you know what? If you push it to the extreme that God establishes government and every authority has its basis from God, then that would mean something like Satan could do things and he'd have an authority derived from God.
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That would be something like Satan could do something like that. And the devil said to Jesus, I will give you all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me and I will give it to whomever
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I wish. Every authority that's on earth is derived from God's sovereign plan.
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So when you say on Wednesday morning, I'm not submitting to this government, I didn't vote for the guy. God voted for him.
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By the way, only three votes count on Tuesday. You want to vote, go ahead. But only three votes count anyway. Father, Son, and the
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Spirit, they all vote together. And God will give us who we either deserve or who we need or who we want, but certainly it'll be
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God's wise plan. Number two, how do justified people submit to the government?
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Why should justified people submit? Number one,
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God's government is essentially His own.
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And number two, remember that if you oppose God's government, you really oppose God. It's a corollary truth.
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When you oppose God's government, all government, you're opposing God. Who wants to oppose God this week?
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It's kind of going to be a difficult battle. Let's find out what verse two says, Romans 13.
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Therefore, he who resists authority, we're talking about government again, has opposed the ordinance of God.
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The person of God who gives the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
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We are libertarians at our core and we're sinful libertarians at our core. I don't mean politics. I just mean we want to be free.
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We will not have that man rule over us. And if he does, just not to the nth degree. But when we resist authority, when we say we're going to line up against this person,
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God, line up against this governor, this senator, the people on Beacon Hill, we are going to be opposing
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God. It's God's authority. They have delegated authority, yes, but it's
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God's authority. By the way, the text where it says opposed, this opposition word, it means face to face.
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So if you were to come up here and you wanted to confront me, and you thought, you know what, I don't care about Mike's personal space and I'm really going to give it to him this time.
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Don't do it up here, first of all, but if you were, and you were to come right up into my face and say something and oppose me, that's the word.
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This isn't like smoke signals to God. I don't really like your government. You know, maybe he won't notice. This is as it were going into the throne room of God and saying,
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God, who are you to put this person over me? And you might imagine what
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God's response might be. Hardy har har, high five. Glad you got a lot of enthusiasm.
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I could use that someday for my kingdom. Oppose here is perfect tense.
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I am opposed and I stand opposed. And I stand opposed in such a way that I don't care what you say.
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You give me an order, you give me an ordinance, that's what an ordinance means, a command, something that's pointed, appointed.
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I don't care what you say. And here it says, and those who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
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Number three, let's talk about that condemnation. I'd like you to believe God when he says that there are consequences to rebellion when it comes to the government.
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If you'd like to rebel, there are going to be consequences in other words. Redeemed people submit.
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And they say, God's in charge of all this. I'm not going to oppose them because I don't want to oppose
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God. And I don't want to be chastened by God through his minister, the government.
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Verse three, for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.
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Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good. You will have praise from the same.
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Notice this phrase of government used two times in this verse. It is a what?
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Minister of God to you for good. Government is a minister of God for you to good.
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But if you do what is evil, be afraid for it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a what?
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Minister of God and avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.
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Friends, if we learn it soon, it'll be better for us. Any government is better than anarchy.
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Every government is better than anarchy. Imagine back to the days of the judges and what did happen in the days of the judges.
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How wicked a time period. And every man did what was what? Right in his own eyes.
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You take the worst governments you can ever find and bundle them up all together and it'll be better than everyone does what is right in their own eyes.
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I only got a little glimpse of that in the riots in Los Angeles. And all of a sudden, down in South Central, all these things are happening.
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And I just remember sitting in my house going, there's a curfew. Haley was really little and Kim and I were married.
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I thought, what do I, do you go out? They told you couldn't go out at night. Can we go out for service at night?
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And we kind of sneak off to Grace Church. You know, do we do that? Do we not? Are you allowed to go out? All these questions where I thought, at the time
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I just had one little tiny .22 gun and I just thought, that's really gonna do a lot of work. When the police, you know, have to go down to the gun store to get right ammo,
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I'm gonna be sitting here in my house with a little pea shooter going, everything's fine. I digress.
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Anarchy isn't good. God has given us government because it restrains sin. And government sometimes chastens, but other times it rewards good behavior.
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We want law in Massachusetts, whether it's democratic or Republican law, we want law.
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Augustine said, without justice, what are kingdoms but great gangs of robbers? And you notice the text, you wanna have no fear of authority?
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Do you wanna not look over your shoulder and look at the rear view mirror? Then don't speed. Sometimes I'm riding my bicycle and I'll see a policeman and I'll think,
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I gotta slow down. I'm on my bike. What am I doing? Present imperative, keep on doing good things and you're never gonna be afraid.
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Do what is right, you'll have nothing to fear. And here God calls the government His minister.
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Can you imagine going up to a policeman and saying, hi minister? You go to John Kerry, hi minister.
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You go to Barney Frank, hi minister. Ted Kennedy, hi minister. You go to your selectman in your town, hi minister, how are you?
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For good. What did the
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Romans think when they look back and they go 14 out of the first 15 emperors were either homosexual or bisexual and when
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Paul was writing 1 Corinthians, Nero was planning to marry the boy Sporus. Hi minister,
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Nero. God's in charge of it all.
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And God says, call the government people, act towards them with respect.
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And by the way, look at what they've got there in case you are going to break the law to such a degree.
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Verse four, but if you do what is evil, be afraid for it does not bear the sword for nothing. What's the sword used for?
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It's a short sword and it's capital punishment. The government has been ordained by God to do capital punishment.
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If they decide not to, that's up to the government. But if they want to take your life, they can take your life to maintain law and order.
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The law of the sword is what they called it in the Roman days. And this is not the sword that was stuck in its scabbard glued in.
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They take it out and use it. And look at the text. Rarely do we think about government this way.
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They're an avenger who executes justice. If you don't do anything wrong, pay your taxes, you don't have to worry about the government.
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Remember I was about 16, 18 years old. I was going to go swimming one day. And problem is all the pools were closed.
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You just go at midnight, maybe nobody will see you. So you go at midnight and my friend and I, Joel, Jimmy the lock snuck in.
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We started doing dives off the high board and stuff. And it's amazing that if you stand on the rails and then jump real high and then jump at the end of the board, you can really catapult yourself pretty far.
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And all of a sudden, two in the morning, whatever time it was, the bad news, the side of the police car,
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I could see Omaha Police Department and it had two other letters. Well, one letter and one number, K -9.
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So the guy grabbed Joe, had him, dog was like, you know, on his arm and all that stuff.
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And I thought I'm going around the other way, barefoot soaking wet and we're gonna run around. And so I run around and I ran right into the cruiser.
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And the guy goes, get over here. And I said, pardon me, sir. And then I ran up the hill.
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I thought, how stupid can you be? So I ran straight to Joel's parents' house. I don't even knock.
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I run in, the dad's sitting there watching TV. And here I am in my swimsuit, soaking wet, you know, running from the police.
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Joel will be here in a minute. They grabbed Joel and they said, what's your friend's name?
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And he said, oh, I just met the guy, you know, we broke in together and all that. I bet you if we go to your dad's house, he's probably there right now.
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You know, for days, my conscience was getting me cause I thought, you know what? Which leads me to point number four.
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You wanna keep a clear conscience? Obey the government. Not just because they could punish you up to and including jail and death, but also just submit to God so you can sleep at night and have a good conscience.
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Not gonna worry, are they gonna get me today? You know, how many people do we hear about where they finally say to themselves, running from the law for 40 years, you know,
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Whitey Bulger finally hands himself in cause he's tired of running, but he can't, he can run from the police, but he can't run from his own conscience.
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Justified, redeem people by the grace of God. Submit to the government. And God in his goodness has told us one of the reasons why, and that's the fourth reason.
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You wanna clear conscience, don't you? Verse five. We submit not just because of punishment, but because of conscience.
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Wherefore, it is necessary to be in subjection. Not only because of wrath, the prior verses, but also for conscience sake.
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For conscience sake. I'm compelled, it's necessary for me to do that because I just wanna sleep well. I don't wanna have that conscience continually going.
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You know what? You're a law breaker. They're gonna get you, tonight's the night. This is almost worse than the first.
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Paul is upping the ante, as it were. It's a higher reason, it's an internal reason. My internal standard of right and wrong, that litmus test in my heart is telling me
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I'm doing the wrong thing. Paul said in Acts 24, 16, in view of this,
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I also do my best to maintain always a blameless, what? Conscience. Both before God and before men.
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Interestingly, beloved, think about this. If you only externally obey the government, but on the inside, you're everything in me,
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I'm gonna do it the opposite way. Your conscience is gonna get it. You might not be judged by the government and fined, or have a levy against your house, or be thrown in jail, or have capital punishment, but you're not gonna have a clear conscience because clear conscience says, my attitudes and my actions will submit to the government as an act of worship, like I'm submitting to God and now
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I can sleep well. From my heart, from the inside. I'm a justified person.
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I'm a different person. I think differently. And I can't run around saying, down with government.
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I can't run around saying, I'm gonna shoot abortion doctors. Christians should be better citizens.
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Daniel Webster even knew it. Whatever makes men good Christians makes them good citizens. And number five, lastly for today.
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Justified people submit to the government because it's an act of worship to the Lord. Because they can. Because they desire to honor their
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King who has redeemed them. Because if you love me, Jesus says, you'll keep my what? Commandments.
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Did you know that if you are a submitted person to the government and submitted to Christ Jesus that you'll pay your taxes?
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How do I submit? Number five, pay taxes. You will worship God by paying your taxes to the government every last cent.
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Before I read the verse, when you give money in the offering plate and you give it to the thrice holy
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God that we collect and count and use for ministry, if your attitude is begrudging, then the text says what?
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Don't give. If your attitude isn't with cheerfulness, then don't give.
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If your attitude isn't what Jesus did for me, how could I not respond with my first fruits? Then don't give.
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I want you on, for me it's going to be January 15th when I write taxes out, then
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April 15th, then September 15th and whatever the other days are, four times a year I have to send them in.
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With the same attitude that you hopefully have one of worship. I'm worshiping Jesus Christ with my offering today.
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Praise God from whom all blessings flow. You can look at this and say, I will write out my check to the
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Eternal Revenue Service or to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a love gift to God to the state.
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Is that how you pay your taxes? I think if you want to get a tax break because you can legally get a tax break, fine.
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But do you sit down and say, you know what, forget the legal things about it. I'm going to do the illegal things because I don't want to pay one thin dime to that government that's going to use my money to send down to Planned Parenthood.
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God will judge those leaders for taking all that into account. But let's see what the text says.
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Oh, it's so clear. You can't wiggle out of this one. For because of this, you also pay taxes.
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Because you're submitting to God, because they're established by God, ordained by God, because they can punish you because of your conscience.
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Because of this, you pay taxes. This is like the, when it affects the checkbook, it's big. For rulers are servants of God devoting themselves to this very thing.
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You pay your income tax and property tax. That's the tax that they're talking about here. Pay your taxes.
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Pay means to complete something. Telos. When Jesus was on the cross, He said, it is finished.
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Te telostai, same word. To finish something, to complete something. Something's not full unless you take care of it.
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And so you say, I'm going to complete this by paying my full taxes. You say,
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I don't really like to pay my taxes. Well, first of all, if you'd say to yourself, all the money I have is
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Jesus' money anyway. My ability to work is granted to me by my Father in heaven.
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And now that Father who has saved me and has granted me money and the ability to earn money says, I want you to make sure you give liberally to the local church.
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And I also want to make sure you pay your taxes. What would you do? If you say no, then we back up to verse chapter three and say, are you justified?
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Are you redeemed? You can't think that way and just go, I don't want to. We might not want to, but we bow in obedience.
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Just listen, don't turn there. When they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the two drachma tax said to Peter, does your teacher not pay the two drachma tax?
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He's over 20. He's a male. Gotta upkeep that thing. Temple. He said, yes.
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And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first saying, what do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll tax?
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From their sons or from strangers. And upon saying this, upon him saying from strangers,
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Jesus said to him, consequently, the sons are exempt. Oh, good. We don't have to pay taxes. It's a spiritual realm.
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But lest we give them offense, go to the sea, throw in a hook, take the first fish that comes up.
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And when you open its mouth, you will find a stater. Take that and give it to them for you and for me.
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Later on in the same book, then the Pharisees went and counseled together how they might trap him in what he said. And they sent their disciples to them, to him along with the
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Herodians saying, teacher, we know that you're truthful and teach the way of God and truth and defer to one another. You're not partial to anyone.
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Lies, lies, lies. Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to give a poll tax to Caesar or not?
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If you say no, you're going against the state and it's treason. If you say yes, the
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Jews are gonna flip out. There's no right answer. But Jesus perceived their malice and said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
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Kind of loving, kind Jesus. Remember when Jesus dealt with the people who thought they were righteous, he blistered them.
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And when he talked to people who knew they weren't righteous, he ate with them. Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
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Show me the coin used for the poll tax. And they brought him a denarius. By the way that the
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Jews thought was idolatrous because there's the picture of the Caesar right on the cover, right on the head's side.
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In the tales, it shows the Caesar sitting on a throne with a robe. Whose likeness and inscription is this?
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They said to him, Caesars. Oh, we're gonna get him now. Then he said to them, then render to Caesar the things that are
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Caesar's and to God, the things that are God's. And they walked away shaking their head.
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They had no idea what was going on. And Arkan Hughes calls that sentence, quote,
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Jesus' single sentence is certainly the most important political statement ever made.
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God has ministers. Some are in the pulpit. Some collect tolls.
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So how do we think? What do we think? Part two is coming next week, but let me just frame this for a moment.
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On Tuesday, if you'd like to vote, vote for the glory of God, I don't have any problem with you voting. On Wednesday morning, when you wake up and you know who the new president will be,
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I'd like you to gather your family around and I want you to pray and say, God, we thank you that we have government. We're thankful that you've ordained government.
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We're thankful that you're all sovereign and that you have given us this president. God, would you bless the president?
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Would you give him wisdom? Would you save him? I think both Barack Obama and John McCain need salvation, so it's gonna be the same prayer for both.
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God, would you please give them a new heart? And Lord, would you give us a heart too that doesn't run around with anxiety, that doesn't run around saying, what about the new taxes?
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That doesn't run around with any of that, except remind me, Lord, that I am redeemed. I'm regenerated,
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I'm justified, and I'm a person that can worship you with my attitude towards every single government.
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And God, I'm a different person, so don't allow me to run around like all these unbelievers because I don't wanna act like unbelievers act because I'm a child that submits to you in your word and you are on your throne and you do whatsoever pleases you.
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That's our response. And when your taxes go up, then you say, Lord, it's your money and I gotta send more of your money in, so you're gonna have to help me with the gas.
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I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'll never forget that when MacArthur said his van broke down when he was younger in ministry.
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And instead of going, my van broke down, what am I gonna do? I have no money. He said, Lord, your van broke down. You know I need the car for the kids.
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You're gonna have to help me. Justified people respond to the government as a minister from God.
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And they don't freak out because Nero's on the throne. More next week, let's pray.
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Our Heavenly Father, I do pray this for these dear people here at Bethlehem Bible Church. I pray that they would think about submission.
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Lord, you have allowed us to bow the knee to your son and confess Jesus as Lord, certainly for our good and for your glory.
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And we wanna respond to other people properly and we wanna respond to the government properly. I thank you for the state of Massachusetts and her laws and her government and her senators and her select men and women.
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Lord, we are thankful that we have a federal government. We're thankful that we have a president now and a vice president and a cabinet, senators, congresspeople.
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We have a Supreme Court. And Lord, it is our number one desire that you be pleased in our lives and we would live a life that would be called
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Christian. We wanna live like Jesus lived, certainly thinking about the government, but looking past the government.
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And Lord, I would just pray that you would grant John McCain and Barack Obama salvation. Lord, how wonderful that would be to see one of them saved in office because of the pressures of the office that they would bow their knee.
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And Lord, I pray that we wouldn't be proud people, but we are needy people. And so we need a good government.
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We need any government and we know your sovereign over it. And Lord, if it gets worse for the Christian church in the next 48 years, we will look at you and look to you for all good things.
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And we will say, thank you for giving us government. Protect our hearts and minds on Tuesday and Wednesday.