If you'd like to stand with me for the reading of God's word and turn to Romans 13, read verses 1 through 4. Paul says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father, I come before you this morning with two requests prior to the sermon. I pray that if there is anything I say that is unscriptural or conflicts with your word, that anyone listening would be prevented from receiving it in their hearts or their minds, that you would keep the eyes and the ears of their hearts and mind closed, that that false teaching would not be received. My second request is that anything I share this morning that is true and from you, agrees with your word, is biblical and is what you would say to your people, that they would receive it as though it is from you, that it would bear witness to them, that they would be stirred up in heart and mind to obey what you say, and that it would be embraced regardless of whether it conflicted with any beliefs or suppositions that people had prior to the beginning of this sermon. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen. What's all this morning's sermon is appealing versus rebelling part two. Appealing versus rebelling part two. Two Wednesdays ago, the leadership shared that at this time we feel led to submit to the authorities or submit to the government and to appeal through letters, letters like Pastor Nathan was discussing. as well as appealing indirectly through our prayer lives and through our fasting, and we will probably, should we not be allowed to reopen the doors of the church in the near future, invite you to join us in fasting again. Hopefully, you're regularly praying, though. Last Sunday, I began explaining, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it that Wednesday night, and I felt that you were entitled to an explanation. regarding how we came to that conclusion. Because I understand that this is such an emotionally charged issue with so many godly people on both sides, you're entitled to understand why your elders came to this conclusion. And I began discussing that conclusion or explaining it last week and I'm continuing this morning. Before I look at the verses, I just want to remind you of the first lesson from last week. I left it on your bulletins, lesson one, we don't submit to sin. And I kept it in your bulletins so that you don't have this nagging question about how far submission extends, and not just how far submission extends, but how far we as elders would even extend the expected submission to authorities. Would there be a point at which we would disobey? And I hope I made that overwhelmingly clear in last week's sermon, that there is definitely a point at which we would disobey and say, we will not do this, we will no longer You can listen to last week's sermon if you want some of that information. But currently, we the elders don't think we've reached that point yet because, simply put, we don't think the government is telling us to sin. And I'll explain in this sermon why we have come to that conclusion, that we don't believe the government is telling us to sin. Let's look now at Romans 13, 1. The beginning of the verse, it says, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. Very similar to what we read last week in 1 Peter 2, 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Very similar to what Paul said in Titus 3, 1. He told Titus, who was a pastor, to remind his congregation to be submissive to rulers and authorities. One reason that I mentioned this command or the other instances in Scripture where it's recorded is that I've shared many times from this pulpit that when God wants to make sure that we don't miss something, He communicates it repeatedly in His Word. And this is something that is communicated repeatedly, which gives it considerable weight for us. Now, Titus was a pastor, and so when Paul tells him to remind them, he meant to remind his congregation to be submissive to rulers and authorities. And the only reason that I can imagine Paul telling Titus to give his congregation this reminder is what? that we need to be reminded to be submissive to rulers and authorities. And if there's probably more than any other time, the need for this reminder, it would be when we're most tempted to disobey authority or disobey the government. And I can't think of another time in my lifetime when there would be such strong opposition to the government or such a strong temptation for us to disobey, which makes this particularly fitting. The Greek word for be subject or be submissive, it's hupotasso, and it means to obey, which is interesting because I read an article this past week that basically said that there's a difference between submitting and obeying, and that you can submit without obeying. And the main problem with that argument is the word submit in the Greek does mean to obey, which is why that exact same Greek word is translated as obey elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, in Titus 2, when Paul tells older women what to teach the younger women, he tells them to obey their husbands, and that is the same Greek word, hupotasso. John MacArthur said, the Greek word for be subject or hupotasso was used of a soldier's absolute obedience to his superior officer. Scripture makes one exception to this command when obedience to civil authority would require disobedience to God's Word or would require sin, which is why we said last week that we wouldn't submit to sin. Hupotasso, this is the same Greek word that's used to command wives to submit to their husbands. 1 Peter 3, 1, likewise, wives, be subject, or hupotasso, to your husbands. Ephesians 5, 22, wives, submit, hupotasso, to your own husbands, as to the Lord. And the reason that I mention that this is the same word commanding wives to submit to their husbands is this. To be consistent, whatever we think it means to submit to government, we must also apply that to wives submitting to their husbands. And so in other words, if we say, well, I don't think that we need to submit to the government, I think we only need to show them honor, or we only need to show them respect, then we must also say, well, I don't think wives need to submit to their husbands, I think they only need to show them honor, or they only need to show them respect. Consider this verse, Ephesians 5.24. Now, as the church submits, again, this is hupotasso, the same word from Romans 13.1, as the church submits hupotasso to Christ, so also wives should submit, again, hupotasso and everything to their husbands. As you know, the marriage relationship is a picture of Christ's relationship to the church, with Christ as the husband and the church as the wife, and so wives are commanded to submit to their husbands the way that we're commanded to submit to Christ. And the reason that I mention this is, again, to be consistent. Whatever you think about our submission to government, because it's parallel language, the same Greek words are used, you must also apply that to our submission to Christ. And so if you say, well, I don't think we need to submit to government. I think we only need to show the government honor or respect. Then you must also say, I don't think we need to submit to Christ. I don't think the church needs to. We only need to show Christ honor. We only need to show him respect. Look at the next part of verse 1. Paul says, and this is why, for, or because, There's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. And so the word for, or because, introduces the reason that we should submit to governing authorities, because their authority has been given to us by God, or given to them by God. God is the sovereign, he is the almighty, all power, all authority belongs to him. And so anytime individuals have ever received any authority, whether it's husbands in the home, whether it's elders in the church, or whether it's governments over their citizens, that is an authority that they have received from God himself. Listen to what Jesus said when he was before Pilate, John 19 11, you would have no authority over me. That's interesting to consider, isn't it? That Jesus recognized the authority that Pilate, this ungodly governor, had over him. Jesus said, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. Now, Pilate's this ungodly man. He turns Jesus over to be crucified, but Jesus made the point that even the authority he had was given by God. Now, this doesn't mean that God is responsible for the sins that people commit. using the authority that God has given them. They are still held responsible or accountable for those sins. And so, if governments are given authority and they use that authority to murder babies, or they use that authority to pervert marriage, then they're abusing the authority that God has given them, and they will be held responsible for that. I want you to imagine something for a moment. I want you to imagine that Paul wrote these words in Romans 13 when the emperor at the time, let's say, might not have been a Christian, but was at least a moral or a decent human being. What would we say then? Well, we could say Paul told them to submit to the emperor because he's halfway decent. But we're being told to submit to Governor Inslee, and he's way worse than the emperor in Paul's day. But I'd ask you, who was the emperor in Paul's day that Paul was expecting these Roman Christians to submit to? It was Nero. And over the last few weeks, I have had many people tell me how terrible Governor Inslee is. And I'm not going to defend or argue against anything that was shared with me. In fact, I'll even go so far as to say, let's imagine all of it's true. Let's even imagine that Governor Inslee is ten times worse than all the things that I've heard about him. He still wouldn't approach the wickedness of Nero. He still would not approach the wickedness of the man that Paul told these Roman Christians to submit to. Since all authority is given by God, to resist authority is to resist God. That's not my interpretation. Look at the next verse making that exact point. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. So, we're resisting God when we resist the authority over us because He's the one who put that authority over us. And this brings us to lesson two, resisting authority is resisting God. Resisting authority is resisting God. I mean, I guess you could say I don't like your interpretation of this verse, but I didn't interpret it. I read it to you. I don't know how anyone could read these words without acknowledging that resisting the government is resisting what God has appointed simply because that's what the verse says. John MacArthur said, since all government is God-ordained, disobedience is rebellion against God. Now, Rae has gotten old enough, and I suspect that many of you who have more than one child have probably faced the same situation where your oldest child, you know, you're kind of looking forward to that day when your oldest child can supervise the other children so you have an amount of freedom in your life without having to call over babysitters every time you want to go out or do something. And so Rae has reached that point where we will put her in charge. And we'll tell the other kids, if you disobey Rhea, it's like you're disobeying us. And the reason is we have given her some of the authority that belongs to us. And similarly, God has put, the reason that Paul says, what he says in Romans 13 too is the same principle, that God has given some of his own authority to governments for them to rule. And when we resist those governments, we're resisting him because we're resisting the authority that he has given them. And let me tell you why I'm trying to make this so clear. It's not because I'm trying to upset anyone. It's not because I have an agenda. It's not because I have an ax to grind. I don't even want to share this with you. What do I, just think for a moment, what do I want? I want to throw open the doors of this church. I want to see all of you back here. I want our prayers, I want our appeals to succeed in allowing us to assemble as a church body. But, I care about you, I care about this church, and to be candid with you, I care about myself. I'm going to stand before the Lord someday and give an account. And this verse says that those who resist authority will what? incur or bring judgment on themselves. And I don't want to bring judgment on myself. I do not want to bring judgment on my family. And I do not want to bring judgment on this church. One thing I've heard many times throughout this situation, which I agree with, is we shouldn't fear the virus. And Isaac just gave a fantastic devotional explaining why we don't need to fear the virus, because of the victory that Christ has accomplished on our behalf. And all we should fear is God. But this is what I would tell you. That's what motivates me to obey this verse and not want to incur judgment. It is my fear of God. If I didn't, I don't preach about submitting to government because I fear government. We're talking about this because we fear God, and a fear of God produces what? Obedience. We often talk about having a biblical worldview. We say we want a biblical worldview, we want to raise our children to have biblical worldviews, we as elders want to equip the church to have a biblical worldview. But what does it mean to have a biblical worldview? It means to look at the world around you the people in it, the situations, events, circumstances, and interpret them through the pages of Scripture. This has been a particularly difficult situation to view through the pages of Scripture for one main reason, the emotions that are involved. This is an unbelievably emotionally charged situation, and this brings us to lesson three. We must, part one, think biblically versus emotionally. Lesson three, we must think biblically versus emotionally. This isn't a criticism. God has made us emotional individuals. And so to say that we view this emotionally is not to criticize anyone or to reflect on some weakness of ours. For understandable reasons, it is very emotional. Our lives have been changed dramatically. We know that the quarantine negatively affects people in multiple ways. Negatively affects people financially, or there's been a terrible economic impact from it. It affects people emotionally, it affects people Spiritually, we are unable to gather as we want. I was talking about it affecting us spiritually, and some said, well, we can still pray, we can still worship, we can still, we can, but there's a terrible spiritual impact that I appreciate. When I look out every Sunday and don't see the church family that I love here, there's a negative mental impact. We might not know anyone personally who has the coronavirus. Or even if we do, we probably don't know a lot of people who have the coronavirus. Or in other words, we don't know a lot of people who have been personally affected by the coronavirus, but we know plenty of people who have been personally affected by what? the quarantine, the self-distancing, because it is affecting everyone. We're told we can't see loved ones. We're told that we can't worship the way we want. Some people are told that they can't work. We've seen things, some people, if it's graduations, that people have looked forward to for years. being unable to observe or see take place. And so when our freedoms are affected this dramatically, we understandably start asking whether the government's actions are appropriate, whether the government has authority to do what it's doing. Or maybe even another way to say it is this, when we can see so many negative consequences from the quarantine, we start asking whether the government is doing something good. Now based on this lesson, as we try to answer this question and consider whether the government is doing something good, how should we come to that conclusion? How should we answer that question? With our emotions or with scripture? We need to do our very best to set emotions aside And look at this through the pages of scripture. If we want to have a biblical worldview, which I believe is the case for all of us. And we need to do something else. Along with setting aside our feelings and emotions, there's something else that I'm not saying we need to set aside, but we at least need to appreciate is secondary to the word of God. And that is the Constitution. And I'd like to think, no matter how wonderful you think the Constitution is, and I do think it's wonderful, you would agree with me that it's secondary to Scripture, correct? I've heard many Christians recently talking about the Constitution, what is and isn't constitutional, and I can understand that because as American citizens, this is the law for our country, so let me say this very clearly, it should definitely be taken into consideration. It is definitely part of this equation. But, and I don't think this is the case with anyone, but let's just say hypothetically that you're an American first, and you're a Christian second, then this is the approach you should take. You should study the Constitution. You should quote articles and sections in it. You should interpret the world around you through the pages of the Constitution. You should figure out what the Constitution says, and you should do your best to hold to it. But if you're a Christian first and an American second, you should be thankful for your American citizenship. You should be thankful for the freedoms and liberties that the Constitution gives you, but you should be more thankful for your citizenship where? In heaven? You should be more thankful for the Word of God and the freedoms and liberties it gives you. So you take this approach. You study the Bible. You learn chapters and verses in it. You interpret the world around you through the pages of Scripture. You figure out what the Bible says, and you do your best to hold to that. Because as wonderful of a document as the Constitution is, and again, I do think it's wonderful, I'm convinced that the people God has given me to pastor believe that the Bible is the document that holds the greatest authority in our lives and that we interpret everything through it. Now, since Romans 13 Well, let me ask you this. Where does the government get the authority that it has? I wouldn't say from the Constitution. I would say primarily from God Himself, based on what we just read in Romans 13.1. All authority comes from God, so we should answer our questions about the government's authority By looking at Scripture, Scripture defines the government's role for us. Scripture defines the range and the limitations of the government's authority. In other words, let me say this real simple. We can look to Scripture to see what the government should and shouldn't do. Let me say that one more time. If you want to see what government, and here's what we need to do, and we have tremendous problems with this, all of us, myself included. We have trouble lifting ourselves up out of this country. We have trouble thinking independently of U.S. government, the U.S. Constitution. What we need to do is think about what God's Word says, which applies to all governments. And so again, I would say the question isn't what, or the primary question isn't what does the constitution say about government? The primary question is what does the Bible say about government? What does the Bible say governments should and shouldn't do? And I believe wholeheartedly that's what you wanna do. You want to determine the boundaries and limits of the government by looking to God's word. God's word tells us what governments should and shouldn't do. And with this in mind, look at verse four. Romans 13, 4, for he, this is the government, is God's servant for your good. And God established government because we're sinful, we can't govern ourselves. If we didn't have human government, we'd have anarchy, we'd have lawlessness, it'd be like Lord of the Flies. And so government is for our good. But let me acknowledge the obvious and nagging argument that all of us have. Sometimes governments do not act for our good. Sometimes governments act for their own good. Sometimes governments do things that are absolutely wicked. We could have an entire sermon or maybe even a sermon series on evils that governments have done. And so the question is this then, how do we determine when the government or any government is acting for the good of the people? Let me say that one more time. Romans 13, four says, the government is God's servant for your good. Knowing that governments do things that are not for our good or do evil things, how do we know when they are doing something for our good? Or another way to say it is, how do we know when we should submit and shouldn't submit? Because if we're not going to submit to sin, how do we know when we're being told to sin and we shouldn't submit? And I would say, Based on this lesson, we interpret the actions or the behavior through the pages of Scripture if we want to have a biblical worldview. Here's the question we're all wrestling with to be very specific, the quarantine. Is it for our good? Has the government went beyond the boundaries that God's Word would allow them? Well, let's look at Scripture to see. Turn to Leviticus 13. Turn to Leviticus 13, the third book in your Bibles, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. The first few verses we're going to look at, this is very important, discuss infected people. Look at verse 1 with that in mind. The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, when a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot and it turns into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priest. Now, although many of your Bibles might say leprous disease, There's probably an asterisk there saying that this was a broad umbrella term really for any infectious or contagious disease. So it's not just leprosy in view. Verse 3, the priest shall examine the diseased area on the skin of his body, and if the hair in the diseased area has turned white, And the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body. It is a case of leprous disease. And when the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean." And so there's no question that these people were infected. They're not wondering that any longer. And so then they're isolated, or you could say they're quarantined. They're kept outside the camp. When they're put outside the camp, then they're also removed from the religious life of the nation. And so in many respects, this bears some similarities to what we're experiencing. We are isolated from our brothers and sisters in Christ. While I'm thankful that we can stream over the internet, I will be the first to say that this is a far cry from what we all desire, which is to be together physically. And so in that sense, we do feel separated from the religious life of our church. I want to address a common argument I've heard, and I want to say very clearly that I think it's reasonable. It is an understandable argument or question that people have, and it goes like this. Why don't we open the church doors because we have faith? By keeping the church doors closed, we are being fearful. We're being faithless. We should trust God. We should open the doors and believe that God will either protect everyone or if people do get infected or do get sick, then it was God's will for their lives. The reason I want to talk about that right now is because if you look at the verses, we just discussed what is God expecting his people to do? He's expecting them to apply not just faith, but an amount of wisdom to the situation. And this brings us to lesson three, part two, we must, part two, balance faith and wisdom. Lesson three, we must, part two, balance faith and wisdom. Let me just give you some examples to show some inconsistency to that argument that we should just trust God or walk by faith and throw open the doors of the church and, you know, what comes what may. Imagine parents who say something like, we let our children play in the road because we have faith that God is going to protect them. We would never look at those parents and say that they're being faithful or faith-filled Instead, we would say they're being foolish. Or people that say, I don't lock my doors at night because I have faith that God's gonna protect me. We wouldn't say, look at those people and say, wow, they're so filled with faith. Instead, we would say that they're being foolish. Or people who say, I need a job, but I just sit at home because I have the faith that instead of looking for one, I can trust God to bring me one. We wouldn't say that these people have faith. We would say that they're being foolish. We'd also say that they're being lazy. And so the point is this. It's not just an issue of having faith versus lacking faith. It's also an issue of being wise versus being foolish. And as Christians, we should always choose the path of faith and wisdom. And that's why God's Word gives us so much wisdom. God's Word says, Habakkuk 2, 4, the just shall live by faith. But then God's Word also has the book of Proverbs. and wisdom laced throughout the rest of the books. Because God expects an amount of wisdom. Now, we're not saved by that wisdom. Salvation is still the same. But once we're saved, God still expects an amount of wisdom to be combined with our faith. And that's what God is demonstrating through these verses in Leviticus, that he expected the nation of Israel to operate by faith, but with an amount of wisdom combined. Because notice what God didn't tell people. God didn't say, keep these infected people in your midst and have faith that I'll protect you. Or he didn't say, if you remove these infected people from among you, then you're acting in fear. And I have told you, do not fear. He didn't say, if you trust me, you won't be afraid of getting infected. And if you do get infected, then simply trust that that was my will for your life. Now, we can say that it is God's will who does and does get infected because he's sovereign. But at the same time, he still gave his people principles to infect, to prevent infection or to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. Now, this is why in some parts of the country, let's say where there's terrible snow storms, roads become very icy, and churches might close their doors. I, or there are some number of people, they sit at home and they choose not to go to church, and that's happened here a few times when it's been so snowy or so icy that people have remained at home. we're discussing the principle that prevents me from condemning those people or those churches. This is why I don't look at those churches or those people and say that they're disobeying God or they're acting fearfully or they're lacking faith. Instead, this is what the path of faith and wisdom looks like for them. Now, similarly, some people in our church have communicated to me that if we reopen the doors of the church, they're still going to remain at home and watch the service online and return at a later time. Now, as much as I would love to have those people down here worshiping us, I'm not going to condemn them. I'm not going to say they're fearful, and I'm not going to say they're lacking faith. Instead, this is what the path of faith and wisdom looks like for them. Now think about this. I don't know if you guys believe this about me or not, because it seems perhaps like last week's part one, this week's part two. I am always trying to prevent things from being as long as they could be. I'm, throughout every week of studying, exhibiting probably more self-control than you would imagine. And one instance of that self-control is not looking at chapters 13 through 15 of Leviticus that discuss all of these radical cleansing commands. So you're just going to have to trust me on this, if you aren't already familiar with them, that many of these radical cleansing commands were very difficult to obey, like the ones about tearing people's homes down. Do you think that was difficult to obey, not just for the person that had their home torn down, but for the people that went to tear down someone else's home? And here's what's really interesting about this. One reason I have so much appreciation for those, sometimes people will say this, well, New Testament believers are the ones who have to walk by faith. The Old Testament saints didn't have to because they were able to see all these things. The just shall live by faith, Habakkuk 2, 4, throughout all of human history, Old and New Testament alike. And for those individuals in the Old Testament, they had to obey these hygienic commands when there was no knowledge of viruses or germs or bacteria. And it was going to remain that way for millenniums until the invention of the microscope. So they were walking by faith, they were trusting that God knew what was best. When he was writing commands that were going to help them prevent the spread of bacteria and germs and disease and sickness, it was by faith that they were applying the wisdom from these commands. And they benefited. I'll give you one example. The Black Plague, which is also known as the Bubonic Plague, it peaked around 1350. It killed up to 200, excuse me one second. The Black Plague, or the Bubonic Plague, peaked around 1350, killed up to 200 million people. The Jews in Europe during that time, they applied the wisdom found in these commands regarding cleansing and hygiene. They did this before they understood germs. They washed away germs, they practiced sanitation, they destroyed clothing and items, they practiced the quarantine commands that we're reading about. And then by faith, they applied this wisdom and did not experience the same suffering and sickness and disease as the rest of the population, simply because they were applying the wisdom, which they applied by faith, that God's word commanded. Now, here's where this gets very interesting, and I suspect I heard this just yesterday. I've heard this so many times, this is why I'm discussing it. It gets interesting because, you know, maybe even as you're watching at home, some people have piped up, and I don't have a problem with this, with the most common argument against what I'm discussing, which sounds like this. The government is quarantining healthy people but God only wanted sick people quarantined. And the big problem with that is that it's not true. Notice the first word of verse four. It's, in most of your Bibles, the word but. That is a word of contrast because as we move into verse four, We're no longer discussing infected people and what should be done with them. Now we're discussing what to do with people who might be infected, but who might also be what? Healthy. Look at verse four. If the spot is white, but if the spot is white in the skin of his body and appears no deeper than the skin, this simply means the person has a mark, and it might be something or it might be nothing. In other words, it might be leprosy or it might just be a mark. The hair in it has not turned white. which means they don't have the most common sign of leprosy, which was hair turning white. And the priest shall still shut up or quarantine the diseased person. It says diseased person, but it simply means the person with the mark. They're gonna be quarantined for seven days, even though there might not be anything wrong with them. And then verse five, the priest shall examine him. on the seventh day. And if in his eyes the disease or the mark on the skin is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, get this, then the priest shall shut him up or quarantine him for another seven days. So this poor guy's going on his 14th day of quarantine when he might be completely healthy. Verse six, the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, or it means the seventh day of the second week of quarantine, which means the 14th day, and if the diseased area has faded and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean and there's only an eruption. And he shall wash his clothes and be clean. So then he can finally return to the people after it's shown that he was healthy during his entire quarantine. And this is important. Because these people were quarantined when there was only a possibility of what? A possibility of infection. They could have been completely healthy, yet they were quarantined anyway. I know some of you have John MacArthur study Bibles. If you want, you can look with me at what he wrote on verse 2. I could read the same thing from plenty of other commentaries, but I figure this is the most common one that our church has. And John MacArthur says, the symptoms described in verses 2, 6, 10, 18, 30, and 39 are not sufficient for a diagnosis of the clinical condition. For the protection of the people, observation and isolation were demanded for all suspected cases of what could be a contagious disease. So in other words, if there was suspicion or question or concern or even possibility people were quarantined, even if they were healthy, because according to God, it is better to err on the side of caution, or we could say to err on the side of wisdom, than to allow an entire nation to become infected. And this brings us to lesson four. Quarantining the healthy occurred in Scripture. Quarantining the healthy occurred in Scripture. The White House, as you all know, they put together the Corona Task Force. And at least what they would say, these brilliant minds within the medical community, I don't know how many decades, over five decades, I read that Dr. Fauci has been involved, I think, with every president, going back to Ronald Reagan. They get these individuals together, and they come forward, and they say, this is wisdom. This is what we should do. This is how we should respond. And I jokingly told Katie we could have saved a lot of time and energy if we just had a Bible study in the White House on Leviticus 13 to 15 and applied some of the wisdom that's found there. Now, it's great to see the recommendations the task force made to flatten the curve, but I just hope that everyone out there can appreciate that this is exactly what God told his people to do 3,500 years ago. So before, you know, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, or whoever's perceived as the head of the heads or most brilliant minds of the medical community came forward and said, this is the tip of medical research that we can appreciate that three and a half, you know, or 3,500 years ago, God had already told his people to do this. The main reason that I'm discussing this is Christians are objecting to the quarantine because they believe that only those with confirmed infections should be quarantined. There are many believers out there who are saying that the government should not be doing what they're doing because there's no precedent for it in scripture, but that's not the case. The wisdom that God shared with his people looked very much like what the government has instructed us to do. So hear me when I say this. We're trying to determine the limits or the boundaries for the government's authority. And so when God gives Israel's leaders the authority to quarantine when God gave Israel's leaders the authority to quarantine in the Mosaic Law, which we just read in Leviticus 13, based on what? Suspicion, concern, potential. And when I see God give Israel's leaders the authority to do something, I am not going to object to our leaders doing something similar. And to go further, I'm not going to call it sin. And I understand this isn't a perfect correlation, because you could be saying, okay, well, Pastor Scott, it might not be reasonable, because they were putting people outside the camp, a few people or a handful of people. I mean, first, we don't know how many people went outside the camp at one time, but I acknowledge definitely that they weren't putting everyone outside the camp, right? Everyone wasn't being quarantined. And our government has put everyone outside the camp, you might say, or everyone has been quarantined. Here's the problem, based on the circumstances, there's no other way around it. Because we're not talking about an infectious skin disease that has evidence of infection. Israel could look for skin diseases on people. We can't look for the coronavirus. At least one thing we know about it is some number of people walk around completely infected and don't even know it, with the potential to spread it to other people. Consider this verse, Psalm 91 6, the pestilence that stalks in darkness. The pestilence that stalks in darkness. That's a fitting way to describe the coronavirus. It can spread invisibly. It can spread silently. There are times you might go around with a mask when you're interacting with older people even though you be you're completely healthy simply because you would not want to infect someone just because you're not showing any symptoms. They're starting to come out now and say how many people have been infected and didn't know it. And so because of that, there's not a different way that I can see that the situation could be handled. And I know that this is hard for people to hear. And I will be the first to say that if you struggle with this, you struggle with it for understandable reasons. Our government has a history of overstepping their boundaries. Our government has a history of intruding into the jurisdiction of the family and the church. I acknowledge that. So I can understand why there's suspicion when the government imposes on our freedom, and this quarantine has affected our freedom more than anything we've seen in our lifetimes. But we also have a moral, and I would say spiritual, responsibility to evaluate every situation according to its own merits. And as we look at this situation biblically, We see the quarantine having biblical support. So we can disagree about a lot of things. We can disagree about the quarantine's effectiveness. We can disagree about the number of people who have died. We can disagree about whether the quarantine should be lifted at this point. We can disagree about whether the quarantine is worse than the virus itself. But here's what we can't disagree with, that there's no biblical precedent for it. Now, please hear me when I say this. If I'm going to draw a line as your pastor in the sand, and I'm going to tell my church The government has went too far. They are way out of line. We are going to disobey. And I'm gonna call all of you to follow my lead. And I'm gonna bring you into disobedience against the government, knowing that I'll stand before the Lord someday and give an account. I'm going to do that with murdering babies. I'm going to do that when marriage is perverted. I'll even stand behind the pulpit and you've heard me preach against debt. So you don't have to imagine for a second what I think about our government accumulating trillions of dollars in debt and the effect that I expect that to have on my children and my children's children. You've heard me criticize the creation of a welfare state. Stealing from people through socialism. all things the Bible condemns, all things that I can stand here and in good conscience, draw a line in the sand and say, we will condemn that, we will disobey, but I am not going to do that with something like the quarantine that looks so much like something God told his people to do in the Old Testament. And why is that? Because Romans 13 says, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. And since submission to government, not just submission, but submission to authority is such a prominent theme in the New Testament epistles, which are the letters of instruction for the church age. It's not one isolated passage given just a brief mention. We're talking about Romans 13, we're talking about 1 Peter 2, we're talking about Titus 3. It is a very serious thing as a pastor to lead your people to disobey the government. And I'm only going to do that when there is a clear conflict with God's Word. not when the government is doing something that has an amount of agreement with Scripture or precedent in the Old Testament with the leaders of Israel. I mean, to say it really clear, God looked at the leaders of the nation of Israel and commanded them to quarantine the healthy. When the government does something that looks like that, I'm not gonna label that sin. Now, I need to address something. Jeff Durbin, He's the pastor of Apologia Church, and I want to be absolutely clear about this. I have been blessed by his ministry. I mean, I don't think Jeff Durbin knows who I am, but I know who he is. I have great respect and admiration for him. I've been blessed by his church is very similar to ours. It's a family-integrated church. I've been blessed watching some of his street evangelism. I have been challenged and convicted by all he does in the fight against the murder of babies. It's challenged and convicted me because I feel like I should be doing more I think he's a wonderful pastor. I think that there's many ways, or maybe most ways, that he's a better pastor than me. But there's a sermon that he preached recently, and it's titled, Sermon to the Governor of Arizona, and it's become very popular. And considering that he's preaching the opposite of what I'm preaching, I feel obligated to make a few points about this sermon in case you have heard it or you plan on hearing it. He said this, we will submit to civil government when it agrees with God's Word. We will disagree or we will disobey civil government when it conflicts with God's Word. And I agree with that statement. I agree with that statement, but when the civil government is telling us to do something that's very similar to what God told Israel's leaders to do, I don't see that conflicting with God's Word. I actually see it agreeing with God's Word. Last week and this week, I said we should submit to authority unless we're called to sin, and I'm not going to say our government is telling us to sin when there's precedent biblically for their actions. Jeff also said this, If you read your Bible just a little bit, you'd know all the heroes in the Bible resisted authority. That's just not true. That is a completely untrue statement. Next week, which I already planned to do, it had nothing to do with Jeff Durbin's sermon. I planned this as far back as that Wednesday night. I could say I planned it as far back as the Sunday night when the elders got together to talk about what we were going to do. It was the example of the heroes of the faith appealing to authority, recognizing authority, submitting to authority that challenged us. It was those narratives of submission to authority that convinced us to appeal versus disobey. And next week, I'm not gonna go into all of it right here, there are plenty of examples of individuals appealing and submitting to terrible, evil, ungodly authority. I don't have the time to discuss everything Jeff said, but if I was gonna summarize his message in one sentence, it would be this. I'm not going to submit to the government because I disagree. I'm not going to submit because I disagree. And here's the fundamental flaw with the main point of the sermon of his. Submission is in place entirely for when we disagree. There's no need for submission when you agree. A wife doesn't need to submit to her husband when she agrees with him. She needs to submit when she disagrees so that the relationship can go forward. I don't need to submit to the elders when we're all on the same page. I don't want to go into the whole story. I needed to submit to the elders some years ago. There was a reality television show that wanted to interview us, bring all their cameras here down to the church. And I'm sitting in my office, and I've got Jim there, I've got Gary and Dave, and they're on one side of me, and then I've got the telephone on the other side, and where this producer is like, we want to come down there, we want to record, we want to interview you guys, we want to have a reality show about you hiring an associate pastor. And I'm like, this is going to give us the greatest platform we've ever had to preach the gospel. The other three elders said, there's no way we're letting all those video cameras come into our church. So I didn't agree with them. Don't tell them now that I agree with them and think that they were right at that time. But I had to submit to them because I disagreed at that moment with what they were saying. The main argument, if you ever want to hear from lots of feminists and egalitarians, write a book on marriage that discusses male headship and commands wives to submit to their husbands. Most of the arguments you'll hear against wives submitting to their husbands, from egalitarians and from feminists, is exactly the same. It's this, I'm not going to submit to my husband. I am submitting to God. I don't need to submit to my husband. I need to submit to God. If my husband was right, I would submit to him, but he's not. If your husband, if you thought he was right, you wouldn't have to submit to him. The point is this. We have to talk about submission to our government because we disagree. That's when we have to consider what God's Word says. Who has a problem submitting to government when we agree with what they're doing? Now let me share something else. Because of some of the things we've discussed, such as governments overstepping their bounds, because of the discussion of governments doing evil things, I understand people saying this. I have trouble submitting to the government because I don't trust them. It would be easier for me to submit to the government if I could trust them. Or, I do trust God, I just don't trust the government. Here's what I'd say. We're never expected to submit to people because we trust them, and you will not find that anywhere in God's Word. You will find the opposite. A wife is never expected to submit to her husband because she trusts him. Citizens are never expected to submit to their government because they trust that government. We're expected to submit because we trust God. And this brings us to lesson five. We submit because we trust God. And I would just ask you to consider If you're arguing against submission to government, what do you say about wives submitting to their husbands? Do you tell wives that they don't have to submit when they disagree? Do you tell wives, no, you don't have to submit to your husband, you only have to submit to God? I don't know any conservative Christians that say that, but I'm seeing that same logic being applied to our relationship with the government. The only instance I can see in Scripture where disobedience to the government is permitted, or disobedience to a husband in the marriage relationship is permitted, or disobedience to elders from a church would be permitted, is when there's an expectation to sin. And again, I just do not see it in this situation. Now, I hope this sermon and last Sunday's sermon conclude with two encouraging points for you about submission. Last week I said, when we submit, we're submitting to God himself, whether congregations to elders, wives to husbands, or citizens to their governments, because God is the one who has given the authority in those situations and has called us to submit. The second thing I'd say is, When we submit, we are submitting because we trust God, because he is the one who has commanded us to submit. And I'll give you some examples that make this point. When Peter wrote about submission in 1 Peter 2, and he uses Jesus as the premier example of submission to authority, basically his submission before Pilate, his submission before the religious leaders, Jesus is set down as this example for us, And part of His example and submission was that He trusted His Father. Let me just ask you, why did Jesus submit to the authorities? Because He trusted them? Listen to this, 1 Peter 2, 21. He did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly, referring to his father. Jesus set an example of submission for us, not because he agreed with or trusted the authorities he was submitting to, but because he trusted his father in heaven. The very next chapter, when Peter wants to talk about why submitting to their husbands, Why does he tell wives to submit? 1 Peter 3, 5. In this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. The holy women of the Old Testament, why did they submit to their husbands? Is it because they thought their husbands were perfect? Is it because they trusted them? No, and then Sarah is used as the example of submission And I know this is really difficult, but you can read it a thousand times and it still says the same thing. Even when her husband was asking her to do something dishonest, which was say that she was his sister, basically to protect himself. And she's lifted up out of the Old Testament and sat down as this example for wise, but by extension for all of us regarding submission. when we completely disagree? And what did God do with Sarah when she submitted to her husband? She protected, or he protected her. So I wanna be perfectly clear. I am not telling you to submit to the government because I trust the government. I'm not telling you to submit to the government because I agree with the government. I'm not telling you to submit to the government because I think the quarantine should continue. I'm telling you to submit to the government because you trust God and because the government is not telling us to sin yet. If they do, we will disobey. I want to be clear about something else. I don't have any illusions about how these sermons sound to some. I know when I'm sitting at home, I was putting these sermons together, what would sound heroic. I know what would sound courageous and faith-filled. It'd be standing behind this pulpit saying, throw open the doors of our church. Disobey the government. You know, you almost picture David before Goliath and he's like, who's this uncircumcised Philistine think he is to defy the armies of the living God? You know, I mean, that's a tremendous thing to be able to say. I'd love to stand behind the pulpit and say, who does this uncircumcised government think they are to defy the armies or church of the living God and tell us to close our doors? I know that this could sound faithless. Or I know that this could sound cowardly. Submit to government. If you resist the government, you're resisting God. And my point in sharing this is twofold. First, I don't like what I'm preaching. Nobody should say, Pastor Scott says all this because he loves our government. That is not true. I've never preached any sermons in my life that I dreaded more than these. I know it's not popular. It's almost like every, you know, who's gonna be upset with me this week? I'm not complaining, I'm just being honest. The other reason I share this is simply to point out this. I'm trusting God, too. Not just through submitting to authority or submitting to government, but through preaching these sermons. These aren't easy for me. I'm not asking you to do anything that I'm not doing. This impacts Me too. I'm tempted to give myself over to fear. I have to do the same thing as my Savior and entrust myself to my heavenly Father's hands. That's where I have to go each week in my studying. That's where I have to go every time I'm tempted to say, you know, let's just I mean, is this quarantine effective? How deadly is this virus? One of the things that Pastor Nathan and I were talking about, I greatly appreciated him sharing this with me. If this is a hoax, if a bunch of the conspiracies are true, it doesn't change much for you because you're a Christian first, and your call is to obey what God's Word says. Not to sit there and figure out and navigate through hundreds or thousands of different articles and probably still never figure out what is and isn't true. You have one responsibility. It is the same responsibility all of us have, which is to look at God's Word, see what it says, and obey it. We're all in the same position, and so let me close with this encouragement. This is what I have to repeatedly tell myself during this season. 1 Peter 2, 23 says, Jesus entrusted himself to him who judges justly. That word for entrusted, it means to give into the hands or place in the hands of another. It's the same word in John 19, 16 when it says Pilate delivered Jesus over to the Jews to be crucified, or when Pilate put Jesus in the Jews' hands to be crucified. That word for delivered, that is the same word for entrusted. And so the point is this, just like Pilate put Jesus in the Jews' hands, at that time Jesus was putting himself where? in His Father's hands. Let's let that be an example for us. My encouragement for each of you and for myself is this, put yourself in the Father's hands. Psalm 20 verse 7, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. I come with the same request that I had, or two requests, at the beginning of this sermon. I simply ask that if there's anything that I have said that was untrue or unbiblical or conflicted with God's Word, that you will prevent anyone from receiving it, that those seeds would not be planted in anyone's hearts. But if what I've said is true, if it is from you, if it rightly divides your word, there are a lot of voices out there right now, Lord. So many voices telling everyone what they should and shouldn't do. So many articles to read that completely conflict with what I've preached. Sermons that completely conflict with what I've preached. And if I'm wrong, then I pray that every person tuning in will listen to those sermons. I pray if Jeff Durbin, preach the truth, let that sermon bear witness. What I want more than anything else is for my people to walk in the truth, and if they have to get it from someone else, let them do that. But if what I'm preaching is the truth and it comes from your word, I pray that it will bear witness and you will protect the congregation you've given me from any false teaching or any voices that they might hear that contradict your word. And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.