Christian Citizenship For the Lord's Sake: Part 1

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Christian Citizenship for the Lord's Sake: Part 2

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So please open your Bible with me as we continue our study, we continue our wonderful study through the book of 1
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Peter, as Brother Keith has said, this book has been really an encouragement, especially after going through the book of James, going through surgery, and now there's time for healing and encouragement, and the
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Apostle Peter is encouraging his people that were highly persecuted in that day.
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And as we look together at verse 13 through 17, 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 13 through 17, before we read it here as a whole, this text really flows from verse 11 all the way down through verse 20, but we are breaking it up into sections as we look into this, and this section in particular deals with submission to government, submission to government.
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And there's a lot that can be said here about this, so it's no way going to be exhaustive, but I've titled it
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Christian Citizenship for the Lord's Sake, Christian Citizenship for the
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Lord's Sake. So today will be part one of this series we're going to be looking at of submission to the government.
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I'm going to be reading from the NASB translation, so hear the word of the living
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God. Submit yourselves for the
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Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king, as to one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
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For such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men, act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God.
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Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
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Amen. We'll stop right there. May God richly bless the reading of His words from our ears to our hearts.
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Before we pray here, the great text of Scripture which we've read, this basically has at its heart the statement, which
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I personally believe is central and key, is found in verse 15. We're going to look a lot at that particular verse today, that it is the will of God.
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The will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
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Praise God. Let's look briefly to our Lord in prayer this morning as we seek His help and His power as we study this section from the word of God from 1
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Peter chapter 2. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, help us, we pray, to hear from heaven, to hear from Your mouth.
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Our hunger this morning is to hear, thus says the Lord. Father, Your word says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
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Lord, we thank You for that, that it's not physical bread that really nourishes us.
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We need the nourishment from heaven to feed our souls. So Father, I pray this morning for grace to be poured out upon us to help us trust and rely upon You and You alone within this dark hour in which we live.
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Lord, we pray today for that wisdom from on high. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of wisdom.
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And Father, for Your wisdom that's in Jesus. You have given us this wisdom in Your words as well,
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Your written word. Father, it says instruction in righteousness. It tells us how to live before You and our fellow men.
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Father, we thank You that Your word equips us and Your word builds us up for godly living and it's for Your glory.
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We thank You for what the psalmist said, Lord. Moreover, by Your word, Your servant is warned. And in keeping them, there is great reward.
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So Lord, this is our goal in life, to keep Your word, to obey it.
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And Father, help us by Your blessed Holy Spirit within this hour. Lord, we may, every one of us, leave this place as be -en -doers of the word and just not mere hearers.
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So that we may please You in everything that we do. And we ask this in the name of Jesus for Your glory.
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Amen and amen. This is a wonderful passage in which
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I've read the very point that the apostle Peter gives as an exhortation, really, to Christians to live in such a way that by our holy and those who criticize our faith, it's really to stop the mouth of our critics who are opposed to the
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Christian faith. We are to live a life that is above criticism, above reproach, a life that is above shame.
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As a matter of fact, we are to live a godly life in such a way that it even gives evidence of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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I remember old Dr. J. Burmagee years ago on the radio going through the Bible. He asked a question to everybody out there that was listening and he says, can you be convicted today that you're guilty of being a true
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Christian? That's a great question. Can people really find you guilty this morning that they would know that you are a true born again
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Christian? But here, this is what the apostle Peter is encouraging the persecuted believers to, is to live a holy, godly life.
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This is evangelistic and it's before God, first of all, and it's before our fellow man, no doubt, before a watching world.
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Actually, it is the foundation of our witness that is before God in a watching world and as we live our lives in this world, there are actually three perspectives that the apostle
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Peter gives within the text in which we have been looking at and the direction in which we are going.
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I'd like to point that out to you. He says you must view your life in three ways, in a sense.
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Three in one, I like to say. Three all together, three separate, but one track, one journey.
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Number one, you must see yourself as an alien. We are aliens, right? We're different.
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That means you're different in this world. A pilgrim to this society and that's exactly what
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Peter says. You are aliens. And we see this in verses 11 through 12 and he noted that we are aliens and strangers.
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We saw that, didn't we? We're aliens and strangers in this world and we have to view ourselves in that way.
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The second thing he mentions is in verse 13 through 17 in which we're looking at in this two part series and he says that even though you are aliens, you're still citizens in this world.
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We're citizens of heaven, but you're still citizens of this world. Even though you live in another dimension, in a sense, you still are here in this world.
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As the old saying goes, in the world, but not of the world. And that is so true.
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And you must conduct yourselves in a proper way as citizens for the Lord's sake. Underscore that.
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For the Lord's sake. Because a lot of the things that we are to submit to in human institutions is not always so pleasant, is it?
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And we're going to look into that a little bit more in detail. And the third thing he mentions is found in verse 18 through 20 in which we will be looking at that after this particular section is that the apostle
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Peter discusses the matter that we are servants. We're servants. So Peter sees the
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Christians as, number one, aliens, number two, as a citizen, and number three, as a servant.
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Now put that all together and you got something. A Christian is definitely a totally completely different breed of person.
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And as a citizen and a servant. All three yet packed in one and each one of those perspectives relates to how the watching world views us.
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That's huge, isn't it? And as the watching world sees us as citizens, they recognize us as servants, as servants and servants of the living
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God. But it is our life, the way we act, the way we react, the way we conduct ourselves, the way we behave that really matters.
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Not what we say or what we say is important. But really, you know this as well as I do.
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People are just not wanting to hear what you have to say. Most of the time they've heard what we say.
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They want to see it lived out in truth. And that's exactly what
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Peter is saying here. So beloved, everything Peter discusses here in these chapters we have been looking at is really evangelistic.
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It is evangelistic God's way. God's way. And I love that because it's not man's way that really matters.
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It's God's way of how we are to do evangelism. And all that is in how we live before God.
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Think of that now. How we live before God and a watching world.
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The world is watching us. A lot of times I don't realize it but people are looking at me knowing that I'm a
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Christian. Again, not what I say but how I live. And of course, this is an obvious statement but I'm going to say it.
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Everything that we do should be for the glory of God, right? Everything. Everything that we do.
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Everything that we do should be for the glory of God and for the good of His kingdom. But how we are going to live here?
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How should we live here on this earth until we get to the kingdom? That's what the Bible really helps us with.
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It gives us instructions in righteousness and He doesn't leave us alone as orphans, does He? God comes alongside and He gives us help.
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Help by the power of the Holy Spirit. So you are not alone in doing this. He gives us and He provides everything, all the means of grace to help us.
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That's why coming to church and gathering together is so important that we may build each other up, build up one another, pray for one another, love one another, respect one another, honor one another, all the one another's.
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And also, not only the means of grace but God has provided everything in the
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Scriptures and He's, of course, when you're a believer, He provides the blessed
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Holy Spirit to come alongside to help us and give us the power to do evangelism, to live out the life we should live.
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Now the Apostle Peter was careful to point out that Christians as a society are ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
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Now that's a huge word. As you well know what an ambassador is, an ambassador is a representative.
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We are representatives of the Lord. We represent Christ here and He represents us before God.
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Keep those two things in mind and it will transform the way everything, how you view everything. We represent
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Christ. We wear the banner of love, of the love of God.
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And God and Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ represents us before the
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Father and intercedes for us without delay.
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Now representatives of the Lord, how do we know this here? Peter talks about it. Look at verse 9.
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He says this, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies or you could say other translations or the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
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There you have it right there. We are God's own possession. You belong to God.
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You have been purchased at a high cost with the blood of Jesus Christ. So we are to go forth before the world and as we praise
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God and it says here in praises of Him or the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, people should know that we are different, right?
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They should know we are believers. And this is especially true when it comes to our relationship to government.
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Now, like I said, this is no way going to be exhaustive. We can do a long, long series on this, but I'm going to try to pack it in two if I possibly can by God's help.
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So the question that is really important before us is this. What is our proper relationship as Christian citizens toward the government?
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Again, let me say that. What is the proper relationship as Christian citizens toward the government?
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Now, I want to bring something to your attention. Keep in mind as we look at these verses historically to those whom
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Peter wrote lived with a government and society that was not very favorable toward Christian faith.
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Now, I'm telling you, it was pretty bad. Much worse then than it is now. It's bad now and it's going downhill.
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But at this moment and at this time when Peter was writing this, you must never forget that both
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Peter, the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul were executed at the hands of the
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Roman dictator and tyrant, Nero. He was one of the worst in history.
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If you read about him, I don't want to go into detail about that, he was absolutely a true blood -hungry tyrant dictator and he had these two great apostles executed.
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It was not until the fourth century under a man by the name of Constantine that Christian was afforded official protection by the government.
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And if you read the story in a battle, he saw a vision of a cross. Now, some people debate about the vision, whether it was from God or a vision of his own, whatever it was, but he said he claimed he had a vision and at that point of that government in that fourth century, he stopped the persecution upon Christians.
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So there was favorable, afforded official protection by the government at that time. But as verses 11 and 12 mentions how
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Christians are to live before the world as aliens and strangers, and it's not as permanent residents here in this world, but pilgrims that are journeying to the celestial city of heaven.
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It would have been easy, and I want you to think about this as we read this, it would have been very easy for his readers, the persecuted
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Christians, the type of government under Nero at that time, to conclude that they were therefore, that we would have no civic responsibility here on this earth.
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They were citizens of heaven, they were so heavenly -minded, they would think, well, perhaps they would have concluded that they could disregard or disobey the human government, perhaps, and since they were citizens of heaven and not on this earth.
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So the apostle Peter anticipates, I believe, here counters this wrong conclusion by showing, and aren't you glad he does?
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Aren't you glad there's instruction from God here through this apostle that shows us how to live before our fellow man, but even how we are to act and react toward our government, toward human institutions.
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So the apostle Peter anticipates and counters this wrong conclusion and shows how
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Christians must live in relationship to the government, and what
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I just said there actually comes and boils down to one powerful word, submission.
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Submit. Submit. Now, we're going to look a lot at this word. You hear me say this word a lot.
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You know, in America, it's a dirty word, isn't it? It really is. It's a dirty word. Dare you mention submission.
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Dare you mention this word submit. But, beloved, to the apostle Peter, it was a favorite word.
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To God, it was a favorable word. In fact, as we see, and if you look at this epistle, it dominates much of the rest of this epistle.
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I wrote this down. It occurs in chapter 2 verse 13, as we see. It occurs in verse 18.
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It occurs in chapter 3 verse 1. It occurs in chapter 3 verse 5. It occurs in chapter 3 verse 22.
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It occurs, again, in chapter 5 verse 5. And, the concept is implicit in chapter 4 verses 12 through 19.
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So, in submission, it has a lot to say about how we should live before we're to act or to submit toward the government.
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But, first of all, it's our submission to God. Now, we're going to look and see if these two collide.
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And, of course, they do at times, but we will see this. Now, this word is a military word.
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If you've been in the military like I have, I was in there for a couple of years in the army, it basically means to put oneself under another rank, up under another in rank.
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That's what it means. Or, it means to arrange in military fashion under the commander, under the commander, under that person's authority.
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Again, it means to put oneself in an attitude. I like that word, that attitude of submission.
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And this word is key in our study because we will look more at the meaning of submission later. But, for now,
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I will briefly say that submission is an attitude. It's an attitude. What kind of attitude do you have toward authority?
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An attitude of respect that results in obedience to that authority.
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That's the key right there is obedience to that authority and positive good deeds.
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Now, we're going to look at that. While yet there are exceptions, we're going to look at those exceptions.
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We need to be careful not to run to the exceptions as an excuse not to obey.
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There's people that do that. There's Christians I know that do that. We don't run to the exceptions, even though there are exceptions, but to make sure and check our hearts and check our attitudes that our attitude toward government is that of true submission.
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And I want to show you in the word of God why this is important. I've confined this message as much as possible to our text.
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I could have easily had four points this morning, but I knew I was not going to hit all four points.
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So I broke it up. I broke it up in two sections today. First of all, in my outline,
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I'd like for us to look at the purpose of human government, the purpose of human government. Again, this will not be exhaustive because that in of itself is a whole message.
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Second, I would like for us to look at the meaning of submission to government, the purpose of human government, and second, the meaning of submission to the government.
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And then Lord willing, next week, I like to break on part two. We like to look at the reason for submission to government, the reason.
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And then we will conclude with the limits, the limits of submission to government. Well, let's begin.
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First, the purpose of human government, the purpose of human government. According to the word of God, the government should promote two things.
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Keep this in the forefront of your mind. Two things, justice and peace, justice and peace by upholding the law and order, law and order, and by maintaining a reasonable national defense
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Now, that's huge. That is absolutely huge. The Apostle Peter says in chapter 2, verse 14, that kings and governors are for the punishment of evildoers, the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.
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So you have the two there, the evildoers and those who do right. And the
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Apostle Paul, and this is sad, folks, in the society in which we live, they're grayed, they're grayed in that area.
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People are fogged up. They don't know black and white. They don't know truth from falsehood because they don't know getting away from the morality, and that true morality is given from the word of God, the
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Ten Commandments, which is the moral compass. Sad to say, people want to push that away, and a lot of people are grayed in that area, but you also have people that very well know what they're doing, and they want to get rid of the truth and go in the way of falsehood and injustice.
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Now that's, we can just take a rabbit trail right there, but I'm going to try to stop right there, catch that rabbit, and get back on my track here.
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So the Apostle Paul also speaks of this as well. Turn with me to Romans chapter 13.
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This is a familiar chapter toward our attitude and our actions toward human institutions and government, and how we're to submit toward this government, but this is always a great reminder to us, isn't it?
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Romans chapter 13. So as you turn there, this wonderful chapter gives to us the right attitude we are to have towards governing authorities, governing authorities.
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Romans chapter 13. I like to read seven verses here, and as Christian citizens, we should submit to authority, right?
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That's vested in human government. Well, what's the reason? Well, the reason is found in verse 1.
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Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.
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Plain as that. You're to be in subjection to governing authorities. Here, this text, this great word, let me stop right there just quickly.
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The Greek word was used as soldiers, soldiers in absolute obedience to their superior officer.
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And one exception Scripture makes to this command is, of course, when obedience to civil authority would require disobedience to God's word, and we'll look at that more later.
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So here, he says, every person is to be in subjection to governing authorities. Why? For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
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God sovereignly establishes them. Verse 2, therefore, whoever resists the authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
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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, and you will have praise for the same.
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Peter is saying pretty much the same thing. Verse 4, for it is a minister of God to you for good, but if you do what is evil, be afraid.
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For it does not bear the sword for nothing. It is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
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Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake.
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That's a great text. Verse 6, and we're going to look at this a little bit more later too, but because of this you also pay taxes.
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For rulers are servants of God devoting themselves to this very thing. And then he says, and he takes this from the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and we're going to look at this text later on in Matthew 22.
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Render to all what is due them. Tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, and fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
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And I'll stop right there. You know, it's a great text, isn't it? And verse 2 actually says, therefore whoever resists the authority has opposed the ordinance of man?
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No, God. It's all about our submission to God. And they who would have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
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So why should Christians submit to the authority vested in human government? Because it is the ordinance of God.
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Ordinance of God. And the old authorized version simply basically means creation or institution.
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So it does not refer to actually individual law necessarily, but to institutions that make and enforce the laws.
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Now it is possible, let me say this and let me note here, it is possible to submit to institutions and still disobey the laws.
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Now I'll give you an example of this. It's found in Daniel chapter 1. You can read it.
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Where Daniel and his three Hebrew friends, his three friends refused to obey the king's dietary regulations.
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You remember that story, right? Under Nebuchadnezzar. That's right. And they disobeyed the law, but keep this in mind.
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This is very important. The way they did it proved that they honored the king and respected the authorities.
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They were not rebels. They were not making a riot. They did it respectfully.
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And they were careful not to embarrass the official in charge or get him into trouble.
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And yet they stood their ground firmly. Isn't that a beautiful example? They glorified
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God. They glorified God. And yet at the same time, as they were glorifying
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God in the way they respected God and even the authority, at the same time they honored the authority of the king.
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They did. They always gave honor to that king. Even though they did not agree with the king, but they gave honor.
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Now, Paul talks about government. In verse 4, notice in chapter 13 about the government bearing the sword.
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Now this is a complete different sermon, but I'm going to just make a few comments here. As an avenger who brings God's wrath upon the one who practices what?
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Evil. The overall purpose is to promote justice and peace.
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Righteousness. That is really the purpose of the government. And the government does this in part.
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Let me say that, okay. Or should do this in part. Depends what kind of administration is in charge, but the government does this in part by legislating morality.
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Now, how? Well, you and I know this. There's laws against murder. Right? There's laws against theft.
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There's laws against homosexuality. My bad. We'll look at that later.
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Right? Should be laws against homosexuality. Right? But now there's laws for homosexuality.
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Now that is a serious problem, but we're going to look at that later.
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But these laws that are technically are to protect the citizens from sin.
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And now this doesn't make one lick of a sense, but there's laws against pornography and prostitution.
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Right? But there's some places that are trying to make prostitution legal. That's a problem.
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Just like homosexuality has become legal. It depends what laws enforced.
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And you know there's laws against drugs, against meth, and et cetera, et cetera.
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Now, I don't want to chase a rabbit there. We'll come back to that later because I know you're raising questions in your mind.
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The word of God answers it. Well, the fact that some, something is illegal will have a restraint.
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A restraint meaning to otherwise may be tempted to engage in a particular activity.
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Now, when the restraint is gone, and you, we saw an example of this what roughly half a year ago maybe?
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Over a year ago. I'm sorry. Time flies. And we saw a restraint.
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What happens when the restraint's gone? Lawlessness abounds. Anything goes.
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And it's like the law sits back, the people, the enforcers of the law can't do anything about it.
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Well, they can, but there was some serious issues that was going on at the time.
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But lawlessness will abound anytime that the restraint or the enforcer of the law, the ministers of the law are removed.
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You know, God has given us these ministers to bear the sword for a purpose. It's to protect us from evildoers.
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Now, beloved, even the wicked, godless government act as a deterrent to crime.
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Now, how do you say that, Pastor? Well, Peter basically in other biblical texts showed that the government is ordained of God to promote justice and peace.
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Now, although Peter doesn't touch on it specifically, a result of promoting justice and promoting peace and order in society is there.
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It's important is what's really important is the place. What is the place the
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Christian has in society for this? Now, I want us to look very clearly in Scripture what our place is as Christians.
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Every Christian needs to know their place in society, our relationship toward government.
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So that's what's really important. What is the Christian's place in society for this? And most powerful effect, can
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I tell you this? The number one most powerful effect is not only a holy life. That's the greatest example.
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It's a living example. But you know something? The power of prayer has a lot to do with this, too.
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I think that should be number one on the Christian's, on his agenda or her agenda.
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Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 2, and I want you to see this. 1 Timothy, we're going to flip through a few scriptures here this morning.
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Well, after all, we want to hear what God has to say, right? I do. 1
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Timothy chapter 2. Let's keep this in mind as there are wicked presidents and wicked kings and wicked governments there.
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What are we to do? Well, Scripture tells us, first of all, 1
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Timothy 2, verse 1, look at this. First of all, don't you love when he says, first of all?
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And when he says, first of all, he means it. Then I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men.
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We should be praying for all men, just not those. But for kings. For kings, that means presidents and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil, quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
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And then he says, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires,
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God desires, God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
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Don't you love that about God? He tells us, states that Christians should pray for kings and those in authority.
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That's what we should be doing. Every president, every governor, every administrator, judges, we should be praying for their salvation.
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We should be praying that they're wise to make right judgments. And he tells us for what purpose, so that we may lead a tranquil, quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
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That word dignity means seriousness. And seriousness. Verse 3, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
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Savior. And when the word of God says it's good and acceptable, it means it's good and acceptable before God.
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God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That's God's will of desire. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
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Now verse 15, back to 1 Peter chapter 2. This is what
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I really want us to bore in on. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
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You know, thus government should promote justice and peace in society. That's what they should be promoting.
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So what does it mean to submit to human government? What does it mean? Well, this actually leads me to my second point.
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And that's a very good question, isn't it? What does it really mean to submit to human government? I want you to think about that.
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That's a good question. In other words, what does it look like? What does it actually look like to submit to human institutions, to human government?
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Well, my second point is this. The meaning of submission to human government.
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The meaning of submission to human government. Peter includes three elements. Three elements we need to remember in this.
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Now we'll learn something here, and I learned a lot, and I've been over this time and time again and studying it, but I need this in my own life.
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Peter reminds us there are three elements. These three elements are this. Number one is obedience. Number two, respect.
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Obedience, respect, and the third, the Apostle Peter has really been hammering down on this, and I want us to go to a lot of scripture on this, these two words.
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Good deeds. Good deeds. Remember those three words. Obedience, respect, good deeds.
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I've broken this up. Let's look at them. Let's look at submission. Submission actually means obedience, folks.
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That's what it means. It means obedience to the laws of the state. Now, the basic meaning of the word submit is to obey, and Christians must obey the laws of the government unless those laws force them to disobey
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God, right? If they try to force us or force us to disobey God, what did
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Apostle Peter say? To obey God rather than men. That's where we stand as Christians because Caesar is not
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Lord. Jesus is Lord, right? And we're going to look at Caesar and Jesus in a minute.
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But Jesus, of course, is Lord, not Caesar. Now again, that is the exception.
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That is the exception, and it's a huge exception, isn't it? But what does the Apostle Peter say?
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He says kings and governors. Kings we can apply to federal laws, actually. Governors we can apply to state or local laws.
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So to give a practical example to pay is, one is to pay our taxes, and second is a very common law is to comply with traffic laws.
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That's an example. Now, can you say amen or oh me? I say oh me. Ouch. Who likes to pay taxes?
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None of us loves to pay taxes, but with regard to taxes, let me give you something that Scripture says here.
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It means to properly report honestly and honestly, report our income, and following the rules to compute what we owe.
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Now, again, that's Romans 13, 6 -7. For because of this, you also pay taxes.
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For rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. And then Paul says, render to all what is due them, tax to whom tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
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Now, Paul did not come up with that himself. Where did he get it from? The Lord Jesus Christ.
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It is a biblical thing, and you know, remember in Luke chapter 1, when all the world began to be taxed, it was a command, it was a law, and Jesus himself believed in paying these taxes.
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I want to point out something here from Scripture that he taught that taxes are to be paid. You know, this is important because it's an attitude, that our attitude we're to have, and I want you to think of this.
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In Jesus' day, he lived in a day of the barbaric pagan
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Roman government, much more barbaric than what we have today. And Jesus paid the taxes.
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Go with me to Matthew chapter 22. I want you to see something here. This is very good, and it is this, actually
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Jesus was being tempted here, and you know how Jesus is with being tempted by the Pharisees and Herodians.
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He always knew how to silence his critics, didn't he? Yes sir, he sure did. Now, this is key.
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Matthew 22, 15 through 20, I'm sorry, 22, 15 through 22, gives to us the record of the conflict here that Jesus had with the
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Pharisees and Herodians on this matter. Listen to it. I'm going to just read it. Then the
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Pharisees, in verse 15, then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap him and what he said.
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And they sent their disciples to him, along with the
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Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are, notice how they try to flatter him,
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Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth and defer to no one, for you are not partial to any.
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Tell us then, you think, is it lawful to give a poll tax to Caesar or not?
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And notice what Jesus says here in verse 18, Jesus, but Jesus perceived their malice, their wickedness, malice, wickedness and said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
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Well, he just let people know exactly what they were from the heart. In verse 19, he says, show me the coin used for the poll tax.
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And they brought him a Daenerys, and he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this?
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And they said to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, then render
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Caesar to things that are Caesar's. Is this heavenly wisdom? And to God's, the things that are
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God's. And hearing this, they were amazed. And leaving him, they went away.
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He silenced his critics. They were tempting him. Now, I got a quote by Pastor John MacArthur from the study
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Bible and I love what he says in this context of this verse.
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In verse 21, listen to what Pastor John MacArthur says, you'll love this. Caesar's image is stamped on the coin.
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God's image is stamped on the person. The Christian must render obedience to Caesar in Caesar's realm.
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But the things that are God's are the things that do not belong to Caesar and should be given only to God.
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Christ thus acknowledged Caesar's right to access and collect taxes.
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And he made it the duty of Christians to pay them. But, I love that, don't you?
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But, he did not suggest, as some suppose, that Caesar had sole or ultimate authority in the social or political realms.
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Ultimately, all things are God's, including the realm in which
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Caesar or any other earthly ruler exercises authority. Isn't that good?
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It's ultimately God's. It's all God's. And that's why Paul said this in Romans 14.
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Everything that you do, you do to the glory of God. Everything. It's because God is sovereignly in control.
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This is my father's world. We was listening to that song on the way here. It's all God's. We know this as citizens of heaven and strangers and aliens and pilgrims passing through this world.
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And even though we have to submit to human institutions, because it reflects our submission to God, and we do it respectfully, and we do it lovingly, but when there is something to obey in the realm of Caesar's that's against God's word, that's right there is the point that we say, no sir,
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O King, live forever. But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bow to that golden image.
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Even if you have to throw me in the fiery furnace. You see? So, submission to human government is to obey.
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To obey those laws, except when they are in opposition against God's law.
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Now, next, we look at, bless you, next we are to look at submission means showing respect to government authorities.
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Showing respect to government authorities. You and I can obey the laws of the land, and can
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I say this, and this is sad, but when it comes to obeying the laws of the land, what kind of attitude do we have?
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A lot of times we have a rotten, bad attitude toward it, don't we? Oh, I hate paying these taxes.
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Why do I have to pay these taxes? Well, Peter says, how do we do that?
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Verse 17, notice what he says in verse 17, honor all people. Specifically, it means honor the king.
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Now, I want to say something here, okay? And I hope I communicate this right.
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But what if the king or the president we have is a wicked scoundrel? It don't matter, that's right.
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Beloved, even if we can't respect the leader, we are still to obey him.
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That's right, God put him there. And you know something? Have you ever thought that God allows a wicked man to be there because it's a judgment?
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It is, and that's exactly where we are. We are under a judgment of God, usually when there's wicked leaders, but God is the sovereign ruler.
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And no matter how wicked and corrupt and immoral, and I don't like it as well as you do, he could be immoral, he could be a no good scoundrel, etc.,
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etc., etc., we should respect his office, folks. And this is where we're at.
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Now, God's word says honor the king. Honor the king. We would do more good by praying for that person, like the
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Apostle Paul said, and giving honor and respect. And it doesn't mean we agree with him, right?
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But this helps us. This helps us submit yourselves, what did he say?
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For whose sake? The Lord's sake. We're to submit for the
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Lord's sake. So that's the attitude we're to have. It is to be a respectful attitude.
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We don't have to respect the person, again, but we do have to respect the office that he holds.
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Now, Jesus himself even called Herod a fox. He said, you go tell that old fox.
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Hey, he knew what kind of person he was. He was a fox. He knew what kind of person he was, of course
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Jesus did, but the reason we respect the office, again, is because God himself put him there.
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He ordained the government of the authority, and to despise such authority is to despise
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God himself. Well, the last point here is the submission means positive good deeds, positive good deeds.
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I think this is very important. This is very key. Again, verse 15, I've said it two or three times, but for such is the will of God that by doing right, you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
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Now, I want to point something out here. If you read carefully in the text, Peter is not referring to the government leaders as foolish men in this context, but rather to the willfully ignorant who slander
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Christians as evil doers. Keep that in mind. He is speaking to those who are slandering the
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Christians as evil doers, not to the government. Now, it doesn't mean that all people that are in government are wise.
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There are a lot of foolish men and women, right? They are, obviously. But to the context here, he's referring to those who slander
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Christians as evil doers. Verse 12, keep your behavior excellent among the
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Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers, they may, because of your, what?
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Good deeds. We look at this, and we'll look a little bit more to this. Your good deeds mean something as they observe them glorify
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God in the day of visitation. Now, again, to silence means to literally muzzle them, muzzle them, shut them up, quiet them, shut the mouths of lions.
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The idea is that by our active good deeds, we take away the basis for that criticism against Christianity from those who oppose the truth, see?
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So, Paul wrote to Titus. Now, here's another scripture I'd love for us to go to. Go to Titus, very quickly, chapter 3.
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Titus chapter 3. This is a good one from the word of God.
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Look at verse 1, beginning at verse 1. He says this, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, and to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.
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There it is. To be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, to be gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
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For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts, pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
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See, that's the way the Gentiles and the pagans act, right? He named it. And then he says in verse 4, but when the kindness of God our
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Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the
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Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
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This is a trustworthy statement concerning and concerning these things. I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed in God, believed
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God will be careful to engage in what? Good deeds. To engage in good deeds.
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These things are good and profitable for all men. Now if you back up a little bit in chapter 2, notice what he said in verse 14.
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Who gave Himself, speaking of Jesus Christ, for us to redeem us, to buy us off the slave market of sin to save us from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession.
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Peter says the same thing. Zealous for good deeds. Zealous for good works.
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Zealous. See, the good works always follows. It's the fruit of obedience after one is saved by the grace of God.
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Not before. We're not saved by good deeds, are we? But those good deeds follow the true believer.
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And that's the way the order goes in the Word of God. And I love what he says. Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.
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To be ready for every good deed, right? So when Christians live like that, in the midst of a pagan and godly culture, it's a powerful testimony, isn't it?
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It's a powerful testimony. And on the other hand, when a professing Christian disrespects the authority, it's not so good for a testimony, is it?
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Actually, he disdains the name of the Lord. When he disobeys the law, he has a bad attitude toward law.
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And when they just withdraw from society and live unto themselves without doing good deeds, it leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the unbelievers.
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And one is prone to criticize Christianity even more. And don't we see this so often? You see people naming the name of Christ, and that's why
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Paul says they are to depart from iniquity. They are to turn away from sin.
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Not to practice sinning in the name of God. They're going to give a serious account for that.
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A judgment. And if they're a true child of God, God's going to take them to the woodshed and let them have it.
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Or, pastor, you talk about God's a mean God. No, He's a loving God because whom He loves,
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He disciplines. And actually, if He's not disciplined His own child, they're actually illegitimate.
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That'd be a time to really be questioning that. Well, let me conclude this message with a wonderful example from the
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Old Testament, which I think is a really good counsel for every Christian. And we are exiled, aren't we?
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We're exiled in this world. We're strangers and aliens in this wicked and ungodly world.
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Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 29. Now, I've been reading a lot here recently in Jeremiah.
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I tell you, Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah is so relevant to what we're seeing here in America today, folks.
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We see this. We are living, right? It's so relevant. But this particular chapter here, this is a letter by Jeremiah as a message of comfort to the exiles.
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That went into exile. And Jeremiah's counsel to the
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Israelites in Babylon was to take all the practical steps in living as colonists, planning to be there for a long, long time.
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Actually, the amount of time was 70 years. Seventy years that they were in exile to Babylon.
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And this passage basically gives counsel in that they were to seek Babylon's peace and intercede in prayer for it, for their own welfare being bound with it.
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Listen to what the word of God says. Jeremiah 29, I'll start at verse 1. Now, these are the words of the letter which
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Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people who
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Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah and Queen Mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah, and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem.
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The letter was sent by hand of Elisha, the son of Shaphan, and Jemeriah, the son of Hilkiah, whom
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Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
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And listen to what he says, saying, verse 4, Thus says the Lord of hosts, now God speaking, thus says the
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Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
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Now, notice the counsel he gives. Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens, and eat their produce.
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Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters. And take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters.
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And multiply there, and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.
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Hey, this is exile, folks. Listen, seek the welfare of the city, God tells them this, where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the
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Lord on its behalf. We're to pray for them. And in its welfare, you will have welfare.
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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets who are in the midst of your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream.
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For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, declares the
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Lord. Talking about false teachers in the land now. And don't we see this in America? We see people talking about dreams and visions.
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They're not speaking for God. God says, I haven't sent them. You have to look at this as a whole.
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In verse 10, for thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
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And he's talking about the land in which he promised. And then he says in verse 11, this is one of the most misused verses in Scripture.
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People ask, like, is this a success and a good time? He's not talking about that in its context. He's just talking about the covenant.
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That God's a covenant -keeping God, and he's going to keep his promise. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the
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Lord. Plans for welfare, and not calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Now he's talking about the promise to Israel he gives.
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And then you will call upon me, and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
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But notice what he says, and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
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We need to be doing this, right? I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes, and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the
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Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile. Now the part I really want us to get here is the counsel he gives to them in exile.
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You build houses. You have families. You plant gardens. You live in them.
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You plant gardens. You raise families. You seek. You pray for the welfare of the cities where they live, where we live.
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You buy property. You work to improve the schools. You work, help out the community, do everything that you can within your power and community projects.
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Be good citizens. That's what he's saying. Make an impact. Be salt.
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Be light, Jesus said. Help out the community. Reach out in every way we can.
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Submit to the government means that we obey the law. We respect authorities, and do good deeds in our communities.
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Thus the purpose of government is to promote justice and peace in society. And the meaning of submission to government includes obedience, submission, and good deeds.
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You know, doesn't Scripture say in Hebrews 12, verse 14, pursue peace?
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There it is. Pursue peace with all men.
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All men. And Paul says, if it be all possible, live at peace. In other words, what he's saying, there is an exception.
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There's some people, they're not possible. But if it be all possible. But pursue peace with all men, and holiness, sanctification, that's living out, without which no one shall see the
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Lord. So you, what are we to do? Draw near to God with the full faith and the cleansed conscience.
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Have a genuine acceptance of Christ as Savior, and sacrifice for sin. Bring the sinner into fellowship with God.
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And this is a testimony to the watching world. And if they see
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Christ in us, the hope of glory, believers, unbelievers will not be drawn to accept
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Christ if believers do not demonstrate the quantities and the fruit. No.
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We must demonstrate the quantities God desires. And that includes peace and holiness and righteousness.
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The believer is to be salt and light to a decaying, dark world for the glory of God.
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Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this time.
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Father, we thank you that the very desire of our heart that you put there is to obey you. To obey you, first of all.
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First and foremost. But to be obedient to what you want us to do. And Lord, you put us here in this world.
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Father, we pray that you would keep us from the evil one, as Jesus prayed for his disciples. Keep us from the evil one.
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We're too weak. But Father, the Lord Jesus is strong. And Father, you're able to keep us.
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Keep us from falling. Father, I pray that within this message of the words of God that we have heard today, your word, that we will be faithful in prayer and that we'll be zealous for good works.
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Help us, O God, to be faithful proclaimers of the truth that you have given so that we will see people change through the gospel of Jesus Christ.