The message, we've made it to Romans 13. Okay, so here we are. And this time we're going to talk about human government. Submit to human government, or submission to human government. And as Americans, and believe me, I know, being an American myself, when we start talking about government, there's a natural tendency to see government as one of our opponents. See them as a great bother. See it maybe from a partisan perspective. I have my politics and people that don't agree with my politics are just plain wrong, that kind of thing. Okay, that's not what we're talking about today. We're not gonna be talking about partisan politics or anything like that. We're gonna be talking about the role that God has ordained for government. Do you realize that it would be a sin to be a pure anarchist? An anarchist that wanted no government at all, wanted to throw it off, wanted to live in John Lennon's imagined world with no countries and no religion, and it doesn't work, it can't be done. God has put within us the need for government. Now, some governments are better than others. This is very, very true. But Paul probably lived in one of the worst governments that ever was, one of the most brutal, taking over the world as much as they could and as much as they knew, and then eventually taking his life. That's the apostle Paul. is the one that wrote the words that we read right now. Romans 13, one through seven. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there's 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'll 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's 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." And that's very important. We're going to talk about conscience quite a bit here today as we go through here. "'For because of this, you also pay taxes.'" Oh, my. Don't you just love filling out those endless forms and then paying more money than you could ever imagine in taxes? Well, we'll talk about that too. Remember that for all, okay, because for this cause 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, Starting to change our tone just a little bit now. Honor to whom honor? Oh, no one, anything, except to love one another. Remember, this has been The Christians. And so it should not surprise us that Paul goes back to the one another language from that church in Rome, or those churches in Rome, I might say. And Brother Pat, I commend you for reading that list of names there. Thank you, brother, you know? I was sitting there thinking, maybe that's why Pastor Mike went to St. Nella today. No, he was scheduled. It all came about, but thank you, brother. Those list of names can be quite daunting. And so, and he did a fine job. Well, the church in Rome, or the churches in Rome, I might say, needed to hear this, especially since Rome was not that favorable to Christianity, and not that favorable especially to Jewish Christians. It was more than once that they were exiled from Rome and had to go to other places. But this is what Paul says. Now, as we talk about human government today, do realize that human government is flawed like everything else in this present evil age. And I was convicted myself going over the scriptures this week because I'm kind of a political creature. I like politics. I enjoy it. I like to read it. I like to listen to it. I've got my favorite people that that I follow that I think are really spot on. And we know that we're living in a very divisive age. All you gotta do is just look at the makeup of the Senate, of the Congress, and see that it's almost 50-50. You know, it's just the way it is, you know. And so I've heard people say, well, things are worse than they've ever been, and that's not nearly true. I mean, we fought a civil war, right? Okay. That's much, much worse than any division that we have here today. But many people in the world live in fear of their government, and rightly so. They have to be very, very careful what they say. They have to be very, very careful where they go. You have to be very, very careful who they talk to. And if it's via a state church that's established, and you go against that, that's a problem. If it's a state religion that you go against in any way, or they think that you go against, it can bring harsh consequences. And in the many years past, many centuries past, and even up till today, Some have even had to give their life for the cause of truth. So, as we just give some more introduction, controversy is to be expected. I'm gonna be a little, I don't know how to say it, but every Christian should be proud of their country. Let me put it that way. You should be proud of your country as much as you can. And American government is messy, it certainly is. But it's a wonderful system of checks and balances which realizes a very important theological fact that people are flawed and people are sinners and people are not perfect. So you have an executive branch and he can't do anything that he wants to do because there's a legislative branch that is charged mostly with making laws and they can't do just about anything they want to do because it's a judicial branch that's supposed to watch over all of this and make sure that it's all done according to our constitution or the settled laws of the land. So it can be messy, and mistakes are made, and sometimes even very, very bad ones. But, you know, it is our system of government, and there's not many like it, to tell you the truth, because there's so many other kinds, even other democracies, pure democracies, or constitutional democracies, or like our democratic republic, or constitutional monarchies, even, or totalitarian regimes of many different kinds. many different ways of doing government. But you know, in our country, with the system that we have, I'll just say this, and it's really not a political statement, it's just a fact. Most of the poor decisions that have been made over the years, and there's been many, most of the poor decisions have been made because we didn't have a proper biblical worldview. As Christians, I hope you have a proper biblical worldview. And as you do that, you're going to see some things that upset you and are wrong. But today, we're gonna talk about what God has to say about submission to human government. And I'll admit, it convicted me, some, and maybe it will you, too, by God's grace. So we already read the verses here. It's really true that every Christian in every time and in every place has to abide by this, what the word of God says. Whatever country that you're in, whatever situation you're in, whatever time of history you're in, you have to abide by this. And it's written that way, I believe, on purpose, so that instead of being partisan in any way, it actually becomes a guide for us as Christians how to navigate this present evil world. So let's just go at it bit by bit. But it's important to say, as much as we're gonna talk about submission to government, there is a time to resist, and I'll try to bring some of those times up to you when we're done. There is a time to resist, but you really need to count the cost, because when you resist, the wrath can come on you, unless God intervenes. That's just the truth of the matter. So obedience isn't blind and absolute obedience, or there never could be a martyr for the faith. But I remember when, I'm looking out those doors right now, there's nobody out there, that's okay. But I remember when we had first opened up for the COVID days, days that we hope to never repeat. When we first opened up for the COVID days, I looked out there, I was preaching just like I am now, and all of a sudden a police car came up. and stopped right there at the front entrance. So I'm preaching, I'm not saying anything about it, just keep on preaching, but here's a policeman that I'm looking at him and he's looking at me. And I'm preaching, I'm thinking, Your mind can do things real fast. You can think about a thousand different things. Okay, what am I going to do if he comes in and tries to close this down? What am I going to do if this becomes a really big problem? You know, I'm certainly thinking all these things while I'm continuing to preach. And the next thing I know, he just kind of drives away. That's nice. That's good. Glad for that. And he was just checking it out. That's all he was doing. What's going on here? This is a little different than what it's been for a long, long time. And there's people in there. And there's some dude up there preaching. And off he went. I know nothing about that policeman. I know nothing about what he actually was thinking. But I do believe he was probably, he saw all the cars and he decided that he'd better check this out and see what's going on. And I found out later, actually later that week, I was telling this story to somebody else and he said, well, the mayor has said that that we're not going to close down churches, we're going to let churches do what they want to do. The mayor of Ontario had said that, which was a great blessing. So anyway, that's just one example, but you know, like I say, others Others ran into all kinds of terrible problems. And we talked about Jim Butler up in Canada, and he was being fined, oh, I can't remember how much it was every single Sunday that their church was opened by the authorities up there in British Columbia. And those fines were well over $25,000 when it finally went to court. They were being fined $25,000 for being open instead of closed like the government demanded. And you know what happened? They went to court. The court erased the fines. No fines at all, which was God's good grace. We'd prayed about that. And so these are just the things that happen. Okay, verses one and two. 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. So we first of all see that government itself is a God-ordained institution. It goes back to the garden, but we especially see it after the flood. when the situation takes place that was different than before. You remember Cain killed his brother Abel before the flood. And Cain says, oh, feeling sorry for himself, said, whoever finds me is gonna kill me for this, you know. God says, no, I put a mark on you, so that won't happen. And if somebody kills you, there'll be avenged seven times. You'll be avenged seven times. So he was protected by God. And then a man came along, Later, Lamech, who allegedly, and you find this in Genesis 5, Lamech allegedly killed a man in self-defense. And so he goes to his two wives, he was a polygamist, maybe the first, I don't know, but he was a polygamist, and he says to his two wives, if Cain was gonna be protected with sevenfold vengeance, I'll be protected with 77 bold vengeance. Now God didn't say that he would be. That's what he said would be the case. That's what he claimed was the way it was. Well, he self-proclaimed that. But after the flood, God says something very interesting in Genesis 9.6. He says, whoso sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. And we see an institution now that is going to take care of this particular terrible, grievous sin of killing those that are made in the image of God. Now, on your outline you notice submission implies hierarchy. Submission implies hierarchy. And the very Greek word that is subject to, be subject, or subject to, is a present tense verb, which means that it's a continuous action, and it's a military term, having to do with the kind of submission that a soldier owes to his superior commanding officer. And the word is made up of two Greek words, which means under and to arrange. And so what we're talking about is we're talking about a chain of command, so to speak. But of course, who's at the top of that chain of command? God himself is at the top of the chain of command. That's why if government officials try to usurp the place of God, we have to say no. because the chain of command goes through the officials, and the officials are accountable to God, and then God, of course, is the top of the ladder, so to speak, or the chain of command. So, R.C. Sproul says this, I put it in your outline, you can follow along. If I show no respect to a person whom God has set over me as an authority between himself and me, my disrespect carries beyond the person and ultimately lands on God as the giver of the authority. Now if that's true, and I think Dr. Sproul got it right, then we can't be a Christian anarchist, can we? Because we're fighting against the very institution that God himself created. He created the family, he's created the church, and he's created government for our good and for our protection. A few scriptures to look at, and then we'll be back here in Romans. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter two. First Timothy chapter two, Paul speaks about this in other places. And here's one of the places where he does. And he's writing to Timothy, writing to the church that Timothy's at also. And he tells us something that we owe. He already told us about honor and respect and fear and all those things, but there's something else that we owe to our government authorities. 1 Timothy 2, verse one, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now he's gonna tell us the kind of men, that just subcategory here of all men. For kings and all who are in authority, And 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. Obviously, it's a Christian context. And we owe our rulers our prayers for them. May they do their jobs well. May they do their jobs to the benefit of those that they rule over, and even may the Lord bless that they become Christians and they themselves know this great savior that we worship. Turn to Titus chapter three. Could use a little water up here if somebody would be so kind as to get some water there, thank you. Titus chapter three. And here we see the hierarchy principle of submission. To obey, oh, thank you, thank you. Here's the principle of submission. And chapter three, verse one. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work. Now, it throws obey in there, but it's really unclear if it means obey them or obey the mandates and the laws and such like that. It just doesn't say. Some translations do say, and some paraphrases do say, and they usually will pick one or the other. But it's a little unclear, so we just take it this way, and I think it's a good way to put it. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. As Christians, we ought to be known as those that obey. When we had an abortion ministry, and we were at the Upland Planned Parenthood, there were many things that we did and many things we checked out before we went there to make sure that we were in compliance with the law. But what would happen is occasionally someone would call the police and the police would come out and it was a problem for a while. It was a problem for a while. And until what we did was we went down to City Hall in Upland and made sure that we had crossed our T's and dotted our I's and we didn't interfere onto the property. We stayed on the sidewalk or on the median towards the road. We stayed in that area that is basically no man's land. We didn't go into their property and infringe upon them, even though we were against abortion. We wanted to be legal and right and make our well known. We did not harass anybody. We would offer to talk to somebody, but we did not harass them and yell and scream at them, don't go in that door. We didn't do that because we didn't think that was the right thing to do. We wanted instead to be honorable. And we actually wrote out the rules and such like that or had them printed out for us. And I remember one time one of the police officers came to He said, I really hate to do this. I don't want to close you down. I agree with you, but this is disorderly. You can't do this. And we showed him the paper that had been printed out and said, I guess you can do it. Did not realize. And really, we had no further problems the rest of the time because of that. So, you know, there's a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things. And I believe that we need to be very, very cautious as Christians to maintain our testimony as best as we possibly can. So, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. Now, submission is a key word in this doctrine, and Peter likewise agrees with Paul. Turn to 1 Peter. Not surprising that Peter would agree with Paul, because they're both inspired by the Holy Spirit. First Peter chapter two. First Peter chapter two. I'm gonna read a number of verses here, because Peter deals with this issue quite a bit. And Peter also was a martyr too, by the way, of the Roman government. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ told him that he'd be a martyr, if you remember, in the book of John. And Peter's response wasn't, no, no, don't let that happen to me. His response was kind of an interesting one. He says, okay, what's gonna happen to him? And Christ said, basically, it's none of your business. That's the living Bible translation of what the Lord said. None of your business. You follow me. Okay, 1 Peter chapter two, verse 13. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king or 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, we're free men. Yet not using your liberty as a cloak for vice or ungodliness, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. So we see the laws of the land and rulers and Christians should be the very best citizens of the country that they're in. And we had the men's breakfast yesterday and we talked about Talkative. And Talkative was willing to talk about religion, even good doctrine. But his life was a mess. And he was actually destroying the witness of Christianity by the life that he lived. As he spoke, because his life did not line up with the things that he was saying, he was the classical, what we call, hypocrite. And believe me, lost people love to find hypocrites. They'll say, I don't come to church because there's so many hypocrites there, which is a very hypocritical thing to say, by the way, but nonetheless. Excuses, we don't want to give people excuses. Verse 18. This one's tough. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it when you are beaten for your faults and you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. If you were a slave in the Roman system, and it wasn't like the American slavery, which I believe is very evil at its core, but if you were a slave in the Roman system, there were things you could do to get out of it, but you were still a slave. And it well could be that your master was not a good man. Well could be your master was not a kind man. Could be your master was very capricious. Well, it was a little different than American slavery. But nonetheless, it was a system that you just didn't want to be in. And you didn't want to be part of, you know. But it's a tough pill to swallow. What do you do? Well, even if he unjustly beats you, you take it patiently. Because what are you going to do? When you're a slave, you don't fight back. You know, that's not going to work out very well for you, sorry to say. So you trust God. You trust God in the terrible circumstances of being a servant with an unkind master. And then we can go down to 1 Peter 3 verse 1. Here we go. Wives, likewise be submissive to your own husbands. that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. And that's advice we've had to give to ladies over the years. We've had ladies come here that husbands are lost, and we say, well, what are you going to do? Well, you witness to them if you can, and if they'll hear you. But the most important thing to do is, even if they won't hear you, to be silent and live the Christian life before them. That's what you do. This is what God said to do, you know. And so we're using the same word here that we're talking about with human government. And again, it's the principle that what we have to do. And God has done that. I've seen it happen where wives have followed that and their husbands have also come to faith. Well, the next point is to rebel against God-given authorities, to rebel against God himself, and God has established the rule of the place where you live. Now, if the fall had never happened, you wouldn't need government. In the new heaven and new earth, there will not be government like we know it today. But let's save that one for a minute and talk about what that will be like. Government's an institution to help fallen men. And there'll be no need to be a terror to those that do evil in the new heaven and the new earth. But today, government makes it possible for sinners to live together. That's really the main point. To live in societies. Christians are not to go off and create their own societies and live apart from the world. Christians are to live in the world and not be part of the world and be a testimony to the world. And so with that being said and done, government authorities rule by his will and he, let me put it this way, government authorities rule by his will and will cease to rule when he so wills. A little tricky to say. But they rule by God's will and they will cease to rule when God so wills for them to cease. And you've seen it happen. You've seen it happen. You've seen what happened to Saddam Hussein, right? You've seen what probably happened to Hitler. You've seen what has happened to other despots. at other times. You've seen it, you've read about it, and it's true. They will come to their end and they will stand accountable to God for the authority that they've been given. That's kind of awesome, isn't it? But husbands, we will be too. We'll stand accountable to God for how we've behaved ourselves. And this accountability aspect. If you've been given authority, you've also been given accountability. And Christ commended the centurion who said, I'm a man in authority and under authority. And Christ said, he's absolutely right. Now how he meant that may have been a little bit different, I'm not quite sure, but it was very, very true. That no one is the ultimate authority, God is the ultimate authority. And something that we probably can relate to because of a misguided worldview is that government's lawful duty is to protect its law-abiding citizens. That's their primary job, that's job one. Government is to protect law-abiding citizens. We see this in verses three and four. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what's good, and you'll have praise from the same. For he's 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's God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. We've had some shoplifting laws that said you could steal up to $900 and nothing's gonna happen to you. You get a ticket, basically. You go, what? You know, what? And people have taken advantage of that. So guess what's happened? Not anymore. Not anymore. You can't do that. Stores try to protect themselves. You've seen it in the stores where they've had to put up glass and put things. You want to buy razor blades? Well, there you go. You got to call the guy. You want to buy some medicine? You got to call the guy and he's going to open it up for you. Wasn't it nice to be able to go into a store and shop and just pick it off the shelf and do what you wanted to do and go about your business that way? Well, they didn't put all that glass and locks on it because they just wanted to do it and it looks good. Or they're mean. They're getting robbed. Getting legally robbed, basically. Okay. Well, government's lawful duty is to protect law abiders and bring justice to law breakers. That's just one example. Government has a tendency, as we know, to grow and grow and grow, and do a lot of things, and do many, many things. And we could argue all day long whether that should be done or not, and that's political. And so that depends on your political persuasion. But there's one thing that government has been tasked by God to do, is to punish lawbreakers. And really, this happens from a worldview that is theologically flawed. Some have thought and some have taught and some have imbibed the view that man's inherently good. And if you just give him a chance, he's gonna prove how good he really is. Just needs a helping hand, needs a little education, maybe a little bit more money, maybe a little better opportunity. And if we did all those things, then you'd never resort to crime. Never, never, you know. But you know better, don't you? Man is not inherently good. Man is inherently evil. Total depravity is true. Now total depravity has to do with the spiritual realm. that no man of himself can come to God without God's first intervening. But it's also very true that we're born in sin and iniquity. And we're depraved. And man needs a force outside himself to restrain his evil desires. The police are a deterrent to crime. Penalties for crimes are a deterrent to crime. And when a government refuses to punish evil, the consequences will be horrendous and evil will abound and government has God-ordained tasks to punish evildoers. There's some societies that you would never find litter in the road or gum in the road or anything like that because they are so austere that you wouldn't dare to do that. Now, I'm not saying that's the greatest thing in the world, but it's true. that they've made littering such a massive crime that you don't do it. Okay, like that. But let me just conclude that by saying, if government will not take the role of punishing evil, then evil will fill the void with their own brand of street justice. We don't want that. We don't want that. Crimes must be punished. Government is the God-appointed means to exercise temporal judgment. And when the government properly punishes evildoers, it becomes a picture of the eternal wrath of God that will rest on those who break God's law. Because there is a hell to fear. No one can escape it outside the finished work of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. You have no righteousness of your own. Without Christ, you're guilty before God. Unless you're robed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, you'll perish for all eternity in hell because of your sin. That's exactly the teaching of the Bible. And there's another principle. We're talking about government. Rulers must not call evil good and good evil. Now, men are sinners, rulers are sinners too. Rulers need to rule according to justice. With that being said and done, rulers cannot rule on matters of the heart. They can only punish the outside actions and activities and should not meddle in religious affairs. They've been given the sword of justice. They have not been given the keys to the kingdom of God. One little note here, point D. It's lawful and right for Christians to seek to work in governmental jobs, that's fine. Believe it or not, there have been people in the past, and still are today, those that don't believe that a man can be a police officer because police officers carry guns. You can't carry guns. Pure passivism, you know, passivism. What a hard word to say. Anyway, it's okay. to be a police officer, it's a great thing to be a police officer. It's okay to be a soldier, it's a great thing to be a soldier if that's what God would have you to be. Elected office, well in America you can run for elected office. I wouldn't advise you to do like a man that I know did and to run four times and the fourth time he mortgaged his house to pay for his campaign and barely lost. Oh, man. I don't know what happened to him after that. I lost track of him. Good man. Really liked him. I even had him in my house to try to bring the neighborhood together to, you know, hear him and speak to him. And he was running for Congress. And, you know, good man. And never did win, you know. Four times he ran. Came close every time. Closer each time, you know. We were having a We were having a lot of, we made a whole bunch of food for the guys to come. This is, you know, true story. I shouldn't be telling false stories, right? It's a true story. So we were hoping to get a really good crowd out. And all that came was my family, of course, and another couple, and the man. That was it. It was really disappointing, really sad. We had all this food, you know. And my oldest son is always one to say things, you know. So we're talking, and we're doing what we're supposed to do. And the fella kept eating, you know, the other fella that came, really big guy. And he kept eating. He kept eating, kept eating. And it was over, and we were just about ready to close up. And Ben said, I know why you're so big. I wonder if they voted for him. I don't know. I don't know. But they took it in good spirits. And his wife said, yes, you're right. You're right. That's why. So anyway, you can run for elected office. But be wise as you do that. I think it's kind of rare to see Christians actually be successful in doing that. But there are some. There are. OK. Police, military jobs, lawful. Soldiers came to John the Baptist. He didn't exhort them, hey, you need to stop. This Roman stuff is a bunch of garbage. You need to quit, get out of there. That's not what John the Baptist said. John the Baptist exhorted them not to use brute force unjustly and to be content with their wages. And Christ and Paul often use soldiers as illustrations. So as a citizen, what do you do? Well, in our country, what you do is you vote for the very best candidate possible, ones that reflect your views. And you'll not hear our church endorse candidates from the pulpit. We will not do that. We do not do that. And yet, if you ask any of us, be they elders or members, or you're free to express your opinion on who would be a good person to vote for, you're very free to do that in your personal time. but you will not hear us from the pulpit endorsing candidates of any sort. American politics is made up of compromise, it just is. That's the way the system works. American politics is made up of a compromise and the church is supposed to be made up of truth. So it's truth that we try to proclaim. And we must pay legitimate taxes to support the work of government. I don't like paying the taxes. You don't like paying the taxes. Someone's got to pay the taxes. Someone's got to pay the bills. And there are bills. And we could argue all day long that some of the bills that are being paid are unnecessary. OK, that's political. but we do know that government must have taxes or some way of raising revenue to survive. And the Lord Jesus Christ tells us that himself. The hypocritical religious leaders came to him and said, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? What they're basically saying is, dirty, rotten, lousy Caesar that has all this control over us, and we hate him. They weren't saying that. But that basically was the sentiment of the crowd. Is it lawful to pay taxes to this guy? Show me a coin. You know the story, right? Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Render unto God the things that are God's. And what could they say? He stopped them. He stopped their mouths. Tried to trick him. There's various economic theories regarding taxes and such like that. Okay. Guess what? Pay your taxes. I've known a few Christians over the years that decided they didn't have to pay federal income tax because it's an unjust law. It doesn't exist. If you go to court on that, you will lose, and you'll probably go to jail. Don't do that. Pay your taxes. A Christian is duty-bound by his conscience to do that. It's what the text says very plainly. Well, I'll conclude with a few thoughts here. The principles of Roman 13 are written in such a way and ordained by God in such a way that they are applicable to every Christian citizen in every country in every time of history. With that being said, even wicked governments like Rome deserve our respect and obedience because they are God's representatives, but we're so blessed The most perfect form of government is the one that leaves us alone in worship and allows us to worship without interference or persecution. It helps us to lead quiet and peaceable lives. And I don't think any one of you drove to church today thinking, I hope the police don't come in and bust us today and take us all up to jail. You didn't think that as you come on your way here. We're blessed. Is there ever a time to resist and refuse to submit to our governing authority? You know there is, of course there is. But we gotta remember the principle of hierarchy that comes into play here. No one on this earth is the ultimate authority and everyone from the greatest to the least is accountable to their actions before God. And there's a time to disobey, yes there is. But you gotta be willing to take the punishment that comes with it. That's really what it amounts to. The principle remains, we must obey God rather than men. And the Bible is just chock full of incidences like this. Go back to the Egyptian midwives, who Pharaoh said, kill the males as soon as they're born. And they didn't do it. And God blessed them. Look it up in the book of Exodus. Daniel, the three Hebrew children, You know? The apostles. You know, in the new heaven and new earth, and this is where I close, in the new heaven and new earth, government isn't abolished. It's perfected. And you know what this very best government of all is? We're not gonna be voting against the Lord Jesus Christ and Satan No, we're not gonna be voting. The very best government possible is an absolute monarchy who loves his people and desires the very best for all of his people. And that describes the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly. The King of kings and Lord of lords who will rule and reign forever without an enemy. And we'll be so glad. And living in harmony with perfected bodies No longer having the evil desires that plague us today. No longer having all those sorts of things that plague us today. Instead, we'll live in harmony with one another, with our great King ruling over us for our good. Amen. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you even for this word of God that comes to us. It rubs us a little bit wrong as Americans. I'll face it, it does me, but we have to submit to your word. Lord, we like being the authorities. But Lord, you've established government. I thank you for the government that we live under. Thank you for it. It certainly is not perfect, and it certainly is messy, and it certainly can be contentious. But what should we expect amongst human beings? It certainly isn't as evil and vile and cruel as many governments are and have been. So I thank you, Father, for our country. Thank you for the blessings of it. We pray for our leaders. Father, we pray for our president. We pray for our congressmen and senators. Lord, we should pray for them individually. We should know who they are and pray for them. I pray for our justices, not just in the Supreme Court, but all the way down to the other courts of the land, that they would not have evil worldviews, but instead would desire to rule properly and according to law. Father, we thank you for the institution that you've ordained, which is government. May Jesus Christ be praised, and we thank you that we'll all that know him live under the very best government that could ever possibly be for all eternity. The great monarch, the absolute monarch, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, amen.