take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to the book of Romans. We continue our journey through this great and glorious Word of the Lord and we find ourselves this morning in Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7. We'll pick up our reading in verse 21 of the previous chapter. Hear the word of the living God. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. This is the word of God and we say, thanks be to God. Please be seated. Let's pray. And now, O Lord, we pray that through the preaching of the Word of Christ, the very words of Christ would be made known to His sheep. Give us aid, we pray, in the preaching and the proclamation of the Word of Christ, as well as in the hearing, the receiving, the meditating upon it this day and all the days of the week ahead, should you will. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. As often has been the case in our journey through this glorious book of Romans, we need to get the lay of the land. Do not forget that Paul begins this book not in chapter 13, but in chapter 1. Paul's bold declaration that God is making known a righteousness. His righteousness through His Son offered to all who will repent of sin and by faith trust in Him alone. That is the thesis. We find it in Romans 1, verses 1-4. We find it at the end of the book. That we might be obedient to the faith. Namely, the gospel. All that is written, therefore, in this book serves to show what the gospel is, to show how we ought to live gospel lives, to show why we need the gospel. And thus we need to be reminded that as we get to chapter 13, admittedly a chapter that there is great debate over, When we get to chapter 13 of Romans, be reminded that Paul is speaking to Christians, not necessarily to rulers. What do I mean by that? Does that mean that if you're a senator or a congressman or a woman or a president that this doesn't apply to you? No, but we mean that in context, Paul is speaking to Christians. He's just said at the end of chapter 12, these are the ways that you ought to live among yourselves. That you ought to be a living sacrifice. That you ought to remember that you're a body with many gifts. That you ought to behave like a Christian. What does a Christian look like? What are the features that mark out a Christian? And we looked at those last week. Ending with that phrase, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Do not take vengeance. keeping in mind that chapters were added later for our own ability to find verses in the Bible, Paul just continues, let every soul be subject to governing authorities. So Paul is speaking to Christians. He's not giving in Romans chapter 13 an exhaustive discussion of what it means to be government. Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Monarchy, communism, capitalism, dictatorship, rebellion, Brexit. He doesn't seem to mention styles of government, constitutional republics versus tyrannical kings. He doesn't seem to mention. And just in keeping with his context, he wants us to understand how we are to live, but what is this life that we're living? but a life that is subservient to Jesus Christ with a goal of understanding the gospel. So that's our first tier in understanding how to find our place in Romans chapter 13. The second thing is that there are often two extremes when people approach government. Christians, that is, approach civil government. With the full revelation of the Word of God, not just the Old Testament, not just the New Testament, but with the whole Bible, sometimes Christians fall into one camp or the other, which I think both deny this particular text and others. One camp goes like this. I, as a Christian, am an anarchist. All government is bad, and therefore must be rejected. It is a thorn in my flesh, and therefore, to the extent that I am able, I should shrug off all government." I don't think that lines up with what God says in Romans 13, among other places. But there is another troubling ditch on the other side. And it goes like this. The kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of government are exactly the same. And therefore, church and civil government really ought to be exactly aligned. We should run our state according to every single Old Testament law that we can find. For those of you interested, there's a name for this. It's often called theonomy. Civil governments ought to be run according to civil laws that we find in various parts of the Bible. So on the one hand, no government, throw it off. On the other, we must work to make our government exactly aligned with Christ's kingdom. This is not to deny that there is indeed a wonderful truth that when government is prayed for and run by believers who seek to live godly lives according to God's moral law that God doesn't bless it. That's good. But what we want to avoid is thinking that all government is bad or that government is so good, it's so right, that really God's plan is just to turn every government in this land and beyond into an extension of his church. So Paul then is speaking to Christians about how to live. Remember that, that's our context. Keep in mind that some of what he says here is written to individuals who quite possibly had some reasons to complain about government. Claudius, one of the Roman rulers, had already expelled Christians from Rome. Citizens reading this would have been or would likely become familiar with a man by the name of Nero. It's at this juncture that I might add this. For all of our frustrations in America concerning our government, we are a far cry from Nero and Claudius. So Paul's discussion is not based, as we've mentioned, on any one particular type of government, nor does Paul argue that government must be Christian, nor does he argue that all government will become Christian. He simply says to a gospel-centered man who loves Christ, to a gospel-centered woman who loves Christ, how ought you to live? With one another and with the state. It's at this juncture that I want to say something very startling and perhaps some of you will want to get coffee with me or shoot me an email later this week and give me your thoughts. Don't confuse politics with gospel. Don't confuse politics with gospel. What do we learn then? Living under a dictator, living under a president, living under a monarch, living under a Congress, whoever we are, wherever we find ourselves, in whatever period of time until the Lord Christ returns, what do we learn about civil magistrates, about government then from this text? I think there are four simple things. There are more, of course. But four basic principles that we can learn from this text. Look at verse one. Let every soul be subject to governing authorities for there is no authority except from God. Simply said, in God's sovereign rule and reign over the universe. Authority is from God. That's our first point. Authority is from God. You remember what our Lord Christ said shortly before He went to the cross. Turn over with me to John's Gospel, chapter 19. John chapter 19. Our brother this morning in dealing with the doctrine of the atonement spoke a little bit to how it was indeed God's very plan that Christ would be crucified. That it was God who delivered Jesus over to be crucified for the sins of all of his people. But remember what Jesus says when he's staring in the face of a civil magistrate, of a God-ordained authority. What does Jesus say? The sinless one. Pilate says in John's Gospel chapter 19 verse 10, are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you? And power to release you. Jesus answered, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above. Now, I don't think Jesus's main intent nor our understanding of John chapter 19 is to give us a treatise, a discussion, boys and girls, on government. There's a principle here that goes all the way back to God's moral law in the fifth commandment. All authority is from God. That doesn't mean that all authority acts sinlessly. It doesn't mean that all authority is moral. It doesn't mean that all authority does perfectly good things. It just means that God, who rules and reigns, controls all authority. And that generally speaking, in the pages of Scripture, authority is to be viewed not with a cynical view, but with the understanding that even when it has flaws, in general, God's call to obey authority is something that is for our good. Now you may say, preacher, what about when authority is bad? What about when parents are abusive? What about when supervisors do evil things? What about when government does bad things? We'll get there. But we can't get there if we don't understand that basically Romans chapter 13 verse 1 teaches us something about God. That God rules and reigns over authority. And notice the end of Romans chapter 13 verse 1, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. It is easy for us to be reformed. Those of you who may not know what that word is, it's a branch of Christianity, which among other things, sees God as absolutely in control of all things, including salvation. It's easy for us to be reformed when we walk our way through Romans 9, 10, and 11, but when we get to Romans 13, do we really believe that God is sovereign over all things? Maybe it's easy when our particular political party is in the White House, but it's harder when they're not. Maybe it's easy when we see governments doing good things in the world, but when they're not doing good things, do we see that God is the one who appoints all things for His purposes? Authority is from God. And boys and girls, let me just encourage you here, and this might be something you want to speak to mom and dad about. We live in a day where authority is constantly under attack. You will watch ads, perhaps today, on your TV or your devices that will call into question any kind of authority, who might say police officers are bad. Are there bad police officers? Yes. But are all police officers bad? No. And you are growing up in a time unlike the time that I grew up in or that your grandparents grew up in. You're growing up in a time where people want to say that authority is bad and that is the work of Satan. Authority is from God. Now, what we ought to do is be pleading with our Lord and our Savior day by day as we see in passages like 1 Timothy 2. Pleading, Lord, give us good authorities. root out injustice from our authorities. But let us not fall prey to the idea that God has nothing to do at all in moving the earth forward as it relates to authority. Authority is from God. He gives it to parents. He gives it to bosses. He gives it to civil magistrates. He gives it to elders. He gives it to a whole host of people in various settings and in general. We ought to see it as a good thing and be reminded, as we'll see later, that God blesses us with it. Well, authority is from God, and secondly, we see this in our text, authorities to be respected. We're climbing deeper. Some of you are really interested in where we're gonna go in this descent into this text. You might be sitting there like me, who this very week was absolutely horrified by things that are happening in our state government. You might be like me. You spent a little time on the internet and you might have even tried to craft emails to your various delegate or to your various state senator to say, please don't kill the unborn. And maybe the fact that our state is in utter disarray as it relates to God's law causes you to say all government is bad. All government must be thrown off. And yet, what does the word of God say to people whose governors and emperors were like the murderous, child-killing, immoral Nero and Claudius? What does he say? He says, I'm in control. I'm in control. And then he says, honor authority. What does he mean there? Therefore, look at verse two. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. Most practically, if you resist governing authorities, it may bring about consequences. And simple things, you try to outrun a police officer, A police officer is just and right within the laws of this country to turn the sirens on and say, we've got to figure this out. It might bring consequences. Or maybe you're living under a literal dictator like Nero, and you go against Nero, and that may bring earthly judgment upon yourself. There's a part of our text that relates to just basic living principles. But what does Paul say then in verse 5? Don't just be subject only because of consequences, but also for conscience sake. There's something in our text today that goes beyond simply having to deal with bad, and you fill in the word, kings, dictators, presidents, congressmen. So let's look, verse 2. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists what God has ordained. The ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. But you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's, and then notice a word that is there, minister. Maybe some of you have the word servant. He is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, Be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. In general, we're to see that authority is from God, that he rules and reigns. More specifically, that even governing authorities ought to be respected. Simple things. Like in our discussion about government. In our, perhaps, correspondence with government. Are we respectful? Keeping in mind that God has sovereignly ordained things. Social media doesn't help us, does it? Authorities to be respected. And notice, this kind of authority, in general, God has given His verses for our good. Now, I think it's most helpful if we interpret some of these verses the way that we often interpret the book of Proverbs. This is not Paul saying, hey, this is all that is ever going to be written in the Word of God about government. So you need to know that all government is good. You'll never be punished by government if you do good. That's not true, experientially, in every case. And I was looking this very weekend. We get a report every month about all the sermons and Sunday school lessons that we have here. And the amount of people who listen from various states, and we don't spend a lot of time surveying this, but what's interesting to me when I get that report is what countries are listening to our teaching? You know that there was someone in the country of Iran in the last 30 days that listened to one of our sermons for Sunday school lessons. That may mean death by an evil regime. So no, no. We're not meant to see this text as a text which says, just always do good every single time and you never will suffer governmental consequences. But there's a general principle here that as God is moving the earth forward, He will often use government to make it so that his gospel goes forward. It's a little bit like God's covenant with Noah in Genesis 6 through 9. We often look at that as God's covenant to kind of not destroy the world anymore. You ever notice that covenant closely? Why does God say he's not gonna destroy the world anymore? Without digging into Genesis today, Because of the sin of men and women. You're not going to destroy the world because of the sin of men and women. And if you really begin to dig into Noah's covenant, what you see is that God is going to withhold judgment so that the gospel of grace will get to every person who will ever trust in Him. So that every moment that another flood doesn't wipe us out is God's way of saying, I am doing something which sometimes you don't understand so that the elect will trust my son. It's a little bit like that here. Generally speaking, civil authorities are like a barrier. Not in every country and in every way the same. But it's like a barrier that God uses to make it so that cultures are not as evil as they could be. And thus, we ought to have a general respect for authority. No, I do not respect a pro-choice position. I don't. It's murderous. But, I also don't want to look and say, God, your complete rule and reign over the universe is one that I'm going to completely shirk and throw off because the pro-choice thing slipped by you this week in Virginia, in Richmond. We keep on doing all we can for God's gospel and God's moral law, and yet, we don't completely say all government is bad. It's always to be resisted. Generally speaking, like we do with the book of Proverbs, this is not a promise that in every case, in every way, government's gonna get it right. It's just a general way of saying that God uses governments to stem the tide of evil in the world, and that in general, God uses them for the good of His people. And what if that good is that your son or daughter, one day, lives in a country like Iran. And the good is that they know a perseverance that you and I will never know. Because God temporarily allows a pagan evil dictator to say you can't worship Jesus and your son or daughter who's sitting in this room today has a perseverance that you will never know about. Because he uses that circumstance accomplish his purpose. Well, Paul is not the only one to deal with government. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 13. Peter deals with this. Listen to what Peter says there. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king or honor the emperor. Authorities from God and in general we ought to see that God is going to use it and therefore we ought to respect the principle of authority. But thirdly, I think what we see in this book is this authority is to be received for the glory of God. It's not just to be respected because other people deserve respect. Boys and girls, it's harder to see this in our day if you watch the news, but we used to say something like this, I respect the office of the president, of the senator, of the chief justice of the Supreme Court. The fact that there's authority there is something that we all agree we're gonna respect, because it's important in our society. It's harder to see that today. But you know that we do that not just because humanly speaking, Humanly speaking, this person who holds that office deserves some kind of respect, but in a sense, we ought to respect authority and receive it for God's glory. Look at verse five. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sake. For conscience's sake. Do what is good, verse three. And verse five, be subject. Now, if this is all that we had, we might get the impression that we are to always obey the government no matter what they ask us to do. Examples abound. If we're living in China 10 years ago, and the government says you can only have one child, you're pregnant with your second, we must obey the government. No. What we must do is take this text in keeping with other texts. Texts like Acts chapter 5 verse 29 and Revelation chapter 13. Let's just look at one example. Turn over to Acts chapter 5 verse 29. There we see this. Peter and the apostles are on trial for preaching Jesus. And what do we see in verse 29? But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. What are they talking about? Well, look at the verse just prior. The rulers say, did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? The ruling authorities, the ruling authorities that generally should be respected, the ruling authorities that God in His sovereignty had ordained for His own purposes. They said, don't preach about Jesus. Government getting it wrong. And what do the apostles say? We've got to obey God rather than men. So we don't interpret Romans 13 without passages like that. Simply put, we submit to government authority unless government authority requires us to break God's law. And then we cannot submit to it. I'm aware that in some countries, this sermon thus far and what I just said would be grounds for me to be put in jail. And brothers and sisters, I pray that that does not happen in this land, but are we ready for such a thing? Are we ready for such a thing? We submit to the government, even in things that we don't necessarily like. I don't like all speed limits. I just don't. I think if our state government, our city government, would just sit down with me and get my opinion about certain roads, I could straighten it out. But that doesn't rise to the level of breaking God's law. You want me to drive 35 instead of such and such? We're talking about God's law. When government requires us, commands us to break God's law, we must, brothers and sisters, we must be ready to disobey for conscience sake, for God's glory. And then, in my own reading of Revelation chapter 13, we see a beast pictured there, which many commentators argue is in some way governments are arrayed against the church. This harkens back to our series in Revelation several years ago. But the Bible doesn't promise that governments will get it right. Nor do we, or should we expect that government sometimes won't be the very means of persecution for the church. And yet, how does it end? How does it end when the State House doesn't get it right? How does it end when the White House or the Congress or the courts don't get it right? How does it end when governments don't get it right? Christ rules and reigns, and He actually uses people who are dressed in armor against Him to accomplish His purposes. So, keeping in mind that a context is, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, living in a way that we're reminded that God gives authority, generally speaking, for good, to accomplish His purposes. We ought to ask ourselves this, when governments give us abortion on demand, do we work at crisis pregnancy center clinics, or do we just complain? When governments give us abortion on demand, do we offer our homes for foster care or for adoption? Do we seek to love women post-abortion with the Gospel? When governments give us a redefinition of marriage, are we seeking for God's glory to live in such a Christ-honored way in our own marriage that it's not just our voice against that redefinition, but it's our very home? that stands up as a way of saying, God is in control, I think the government's got it wrong, but we will live with our time and our resources and our lives for His glory. And when we live in a country which thus far gives us the freedom to gather on this day, thus far, in general, In most places, and I know there are exceptions, gives us the freedom to hand out tracts and speak of Christ. Do we actually use that freedom to pursue godliness and to proclaim Christ? Again, I think Paul is laying down some very general principles for a people at Rome who are going to want to know, you've proclaimed the gospel. What do I do with the state? Well, he says, generally speaking, fifth commandment, authority is generally a good thing. God is sovereignly in control over it all. Generally speaking, it's for your good. In fact, in many ways, when you do good, you are often praised. Not all the time. And in a lot of ways, the government is used by God to bring about justice, to find criminals. Not always. And therefore, Roman Christian, we seek to receive authority for the glory of God until the authority tells us to deny the God of glory. Paul continues though, doesn't he? A reminder in verse five, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but for conscience sake. So again, we don't just receive government authority to avoid punishment, but to live before God rightly. Even to a very controversial topic, taxes. Oh, taxes. There are various views on why taxes are listed here. In the first century, in this period of time, even in Rome, was prior to this or shortly thereafter, certain taxes that were going to be levied. Maybe he's using an example from the very specific palpable time in which the readers of this letter would get, or maybe he's borrowing the general principle that typically all governments need funding, and they're gonna come knocking for funding. What do you do? Well, Paul doesn't say, does he, Pay the taxes that you think are fair. There's a lot of unfair taxes. There's a general principle here. This does not mean that brothers and sisters, those of us who are in Christ, who have the opportunity to vote, who have the opportunity to work in the civil magistrate, can't work to bring about just taxes. But it is to say that we don't throw them off completely But rather, verse seven, we render therefore the due, with the ultimate ending of our section being this in verse seven, honor to whom honor. So by God's grace, can we offer respect to governing officials that we disagree with? I don't know about you, but that's very hard for me sometimes. I would say this, there are those who I would love to just throw a suitcase in with mine and travel to some parts of the world that I've been to when I hear them talk about how much they hate our government. I want to say, have you ever traveled to other lands? Our government has a lot of problems. But we're about to get off the plane in a land where if we're caught in a coffee house simply talking about Isa, it's Jesus in Arabic, we're gonna go to jail. I don't like the rhetoric happening in Washington DC right now, but boy am I thankful that God through government has allowed me to talk about Isa with an Arabic neighbor in this country. See there's a lot here for us to think about because Paul doesn't talk about these things. Authorities from God. Authority is generally to be respected. Authority generally is to be received for God's glory and perhaps the most important and last point. Authority is used in the hand of God for the ultimate flourishing of the gospel. I don't know how God is going to use what's happening in the Virginia State House right now. I don't know how God is gonna use what's happening in Washington, D.C. right now. Government gets it wrong a lot. If you just take the Ten Commandments and you look at civil governments, so much is a mess. But what we do know is that God is ultimately going to use all of this for the flourishing of the Gospel. A couple of glimpses of that in our text and others. Look at verse 6. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. What very thing? Taxes? No. The larger discussion here. The practice of good and evil in a society. But turn over with me to 1 Timothy. There we catch another glimpse in a different letter. 1 Timothy 2. What do we see there? Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men. For kings, This is really our proof text for why just about every week from this pulpit we pray for some civil magistrate, some government entity. For kings and all who are in authority. Why? That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Without preaching an entire sermon on 1 Timothy chapter 2, I hope you see that prayers for government... Yes, is ultimately in some sense about wanting truth to prevail and wanting God's law to be seen for what it is. But do you notice what Paul says? We pray for presidents, for kings, for monarchs, for dictators. Why? So that God may through them grant us a quiet and peaceable life that we may do what? Be about his gospel purpose. Notice how the Lord uses government. Paul doesn't picture praying for kings as a way of bringing in the kingdom, as if just getting the emperor saved is gonna solve our problems. How did that work out in the 300s with Constantine? No, this is our prayer because as a secondary means The Lord uses good governments and bad governments to further his gospel purpose, which takes us boldly back to Pilate, doesn't it? An evil, pagan, self-seeking Roman got justice wrong. And that was the very means through which you got a substitution on the cross. Does that mean that we say, well, then let's not be concerned about the government at all? No, pray. Pray that they get it right. But do so, pray for these kings so that you don't forget that your purpose is not to transform government. Your purpose is that the gospel may spread. You know where the gospel is spreading like wildfire? in parts of the world where the governments are worse than worse. Dictators are killing them, and yet they're witnessing. They won't let them gather to talk about Jesus, and yet they're doing it. The government is saying, this is how you're going to run your home, and they won't do it for King, but not for earthly King, for King Jesus. Yes, I am very concerned about the government even in this land. But Paul's instruction here is actually encouragement. God's got this. And as long as I don't say all government is bad and just ignore Some blatant teaching of the word. But I also don't, in some kind of gospel confusion, think that my goal as a Christian is simply to transform politics. Then I will be able to see that what God is actually doing through the government is in various ways and in various seasons making it so that more men and women hear about Jesus. So what do we see from Jesus's own lips? Final words to the apostles. All authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus says, what has been given to me. What do we see in the final few pages of scripture? Turn over to Revelation 1.5. You've got to see this, Revelation 1.5. John writes, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus? John writes, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. So authority is a good thing. And oftentimes authority gets it wrong. Authority ought to be respected as a principle because God gives it as such. Authority ought to be respected for God's glory, not just so that we kind of get out of consequences. And, in all of this discussion, we keep in mind that God is going to use authority, even evil pagan authorities, to bring about His purpose. Are we discouraged? when a person gets elected who is willing to slaughter the unborn? Sure. Are we discouraged when a person gets elected and as part of their platform says, I'm going to make it a rule that it's abuse if you don't let your children pick whatever gender they want? Yes, we're discouraged. But even in that clear infraction and breaking of God's standards, God is not surprised. And even in that seeming persecution of His people, God is going to use that to flower the kingdom with gospel proclamation. So our question should not be, when will the government be Christian? Or when will the government agree with my politics? But we ought to beg God, thanking Him for our freedoms, to continue to allow us to have a government that amid all of its faults allows us to preach Jesus. May I say something quite blunt to you? What our world needs is not the best legislation on abortion or the best legislation on marriage or immigration or gun laws. What our world needs is Jesus. So we ought work to our core if God gives us that sphere of influence for good and godly government. But don't ever think that that's God's ultimate purpose. It's Jesus going forward to the nations. Nations which are killing children. A kingdom doesn't come, brothers and sisters, from the courts. As important as they are, brothers and sisters, The kingdom doesn't come from the White House or the Congress. The kingdom doesn't come from my complaints or my cynicism about government. How do we live, Paul, with a bad kingdom? We pray, we pray, we pray, God, give us peaceable and quiet lives so that your kingdom can be spread. And lastly, and this isn't meant to induce guilt, because we are blood-bought believers. The worst of our sins has been covered at the cross. Jesus has been given over as our substitute. He has shed his blood for every sinner who will trust in him. There's no sin for which Christ can't redeem a sinner from. But it is a question that we ought consider. What if on judgment day? In terms of the judgment of how we've lived our lives, we're not talking about salvific judgment. But what if, on judgment day, the Lord has against us that we didn't use our freedoms for the gospel? I gave you, in that season, freedom to preach me, and you squandered it. while your brethren in the Middle East, who had none of those freedoms, were beheaded with my name on their lips." Now, it's a little hypothetical, because I don't think we ought to think about Judgment Day fearfully as Christians. But just think about what freedoms we actually have today to preach the name. in all of our concern about Republican and Democrat, State House and Congress, impeachment, immigration, gun laws, and all of the things that we rightly need to consider. Let it be chiefly known of us that we did with government what God is ultimately going to do with government. Use it to propel the gospel. And by God's grace and for His glory, we will be free for a long time. For my part, I don't think it's too early to teach our children about suffering for the name. Are we ready? Let us be by His grace. So, when an election gives you a Nero And what you'd rather have is a William Wilberforce. You can say, I don't like the outcome, but I know the one who's in control. And I know what he's ultimately going to do with this Nero. So, it might be difficult tomorrow. On my lips, I'm going to pray, God, I bring Nero before you. He killed my brothers and sisters, and they're not here. Give Nero a change of heart. Convert him. But if you don't, let us be faithful to use Nero to preach you. Let's pray. Almighty God, These are difficult texts for your people. Many of us have grave concerns about governments here in this land and elsewhere, and yet help us not to shirk off the general principles that we see here. Give us the comfort that you are ultimately bringing the course of history to your appointed ends, which is a people from every nation and tribe and tongue, irrespective of those nations' governments. You're bringing a people together who've been blood-bought by the lamb. So may our cry be amidst all of politics and government and disappointments, my God reigneth. and help us to be people who seek to use what freedoms we have for as long as we have them to preach Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand together.