Good evening, congregation. If you would take your copy of God's Word, if you would open with me to Titus chapter number 3. Titus chapter number 3. We will look at verses 1 and 2 this evening. And as you take your copy of God's Word and open with me to find this passage, if your Bible is similar to mine, your entire book of Titus, can be seen with one glance from left to right, from this open page to this open page, spanning three chapters. We find ourselves now in chapter number three, introduction of this section. We're going to be looking at verses one and two by way of introduction, and then moving onward to see what Paul would say to Titus about the foundation that would bring a Christian to behave in the way that he teaches in verses one and two. You will find if you have been with us through the last month or so, especially within the context of our local church, you will find what we look at this evening as very familiar as we've been looking at Romans chapter 13. You're gonna see a connection regarding this theme. Titus 3, verses 1 and 2, you can follow along with me as I read aloud. This is the Word of God, and it reads as follows. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. And this evening I'm preaching on this subject, Christianity in an Anti-Christian Culture. Let's pray together. Father, we do love you and we thank you again for the privilege to open up a portion of your Word. We ask that you would bless our time together this evening. Strengthen us in your Word. We pray, Father, that you would encourage us That the very Word of God would be to us as the psalmist teaches. That it would be sweeter than honey, even sweeter than the honeycomb itself. That we would long and that we would love the Word of God. That we would desire to have the Word of God hidden in our hearts. That we would desire to have the Word of God taught to us. That we would desire to have the Word of God preached and proclaimed to us. So now would you strengthen your church, that you would encourage your people, and that you would give me the very freedom to preach, and that you would guard my words, and that they would be used as an instrument for your bride here represented at Praise Mill. And again, we ask all of this in Christ's name, amen. as we've been able to establish already in this very book, as we've been studying this together, that Paul is writing this to a pastor who was known as Titus, and he was writing for the very purpose of allowing Titus to disciple other pastors who would have been serving in various cities on the island of Crete. Now again, the purpose there was very clear. He would organize the establishment of these specific churches. Or if the churches were already established, and they were in many cases, then he was to make sure that they were healthy. He was to make sure that they were healthy because they would receive healthy doctrine. And we see that on a few different occasions in the first chapter, and again, leading up to chapter 2, verse 1, where he really charges Titus in a specific manner by saying that Titus was to teach what accords with sound doctrine. We've already discussed the meaning of that word sound is that word that brings us the idea of hygiene. Again, it was to be this idea of healthy teaching. And so it was healthy teaching that was to organize the foundation of these local churches. If the church was to be organized, the pulpit must be organized. If the church was to be healthy, the pulpit was to be healthy, because as the pulpit goes, so goes the church. And so as we see, this is the building, and the climax, if you will, of what Paul says to Titus, and we move through chapters one and two, and we come to chapter three, and then he says this at the beginning of chapter three, remind them. So all throughout this little letter that we know as Titus, Paul is writing, if you will, in such a way to establish the ongoing work of discipleship in the life of the local church. Titus was being discipled by Paul. Titus was to, in turn, disciple other pastors in local churches. And there was about, somewhere in the neighborhood of about 100 cities on the island of Crete, So you have about a hundred different local churches, about one local church per city. And so this was a daunting task. But at the heart of the task was faithful discipleship. And so, as Titus was being discipled by Paul, he was to be a disciple maker in the context of the island of Crete, so that those pastors would then disciple those local churches, and they would not only know grand truths about God, but they would know how to live out those grand truths in their cities. See, it's one thing to call yourself a Christian. It's a completely different thing to actually behave like a Christian. It's one thing to know about propitiation or to be able to sing about amazing grace. It's another thing to live a life that exemplifies the fact that Jesus Christ has accomplished propitiation on your behalf as he was nailed to a Roman cross. You see, it's one thing to sing John Newton's words, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, but it's a completely different thing to live a life that exemplifies the fact that you have become the recipient of God's amazing grace. And so let us look to verses 1 and 2 this evening and see what it is that Paul would say to Titus, that Titus should say to those pastors in those cities. Remind them of what? Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. I find it amazing that some people have suggested that expository preaching is somehow disconnected from the culture at large. It's not relevant for what's happening today because you find yourself bound up in verse-by-verse studies through books of the Bible while many different things are going on out there in culture. Well, providentially, in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of a pandemic where there was then a massive tragedy related to what happened in Minneapolis with George Floyd, that then subsequently sparked city-wide riots and protests and all sorts of evil that we have seen on the nightly news for months now, spanning all the way back to May. So here we are after an entire summer of protest after protest, riot after riot, fire after fire, shooting after shooting, and all sorts of language regarding social justice and how we should react to these various issues, and then now here most recently, the overreach of the government in California, restricting churches in ways that they're not restricting other businesses, which has now led John MacArthur and his church to defy Caesar. And so here we are in the midst of all of this that's literally on our news every single evening, and yet we've arrived here through faithful exposition, patiently working through Romans for the last few years. And God has providentially placed us in Romans 13 at this very hour. And not only Romans 13, mind you, but also as we've been going through Titus, here we find ourselves once again in Titus chapter number 3, verses 1 and 2, on what subject? Paul is saying to Titus, remind the pastors to remind the church that they are to be submissive To the governing authorities, how much more relevant could expository preaching ever be? Well, we're going to see two specific things this evening in verses 1 and 2. And the first thing is this, the church and civil rulers. Once again, as I've already stated in our series through Romans, in Romans 13, is that the church of Jesus Christ is called to submission. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 24 on civil magistrates speaks in three paragraphs about the church's responsibility to the governing authorities. I find this extremely helpful for us to understand what the Bible actually says. First of all, it teaches us in paragraph number one that God, the Supreme Lord and King, of all the world hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people for his own glory and the public good. And to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword for defense and encouragement of them that do good and for the punishment of evildoers." Now again, It's so very clear in that paragraph, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith is literally stating that God has established authorities. He has established governing rulers who would exercise authority in such a way as to encourage those who are obedient to the law, but to bring justice against those who are disobedient to the law. And so again, we must be reminded this evening of the vast importance of authority. And again, there are basically three spheres of authority in our lives. God has established authority in the area of family. He's established authority in the area of the church. He's established authority in the area of the state or the nation, depending on what type of government structure you might find yourself living in, specifically for us. It's a republic, a democratic republic. And so we find ourselves here in this very hour asking ourselves, how should we behave? How should we respond to governing authorities? Well, first of all, in the family, there's the hierarchy, and again, this idea of patriarchy, this idea of male headship. The father is the leader of the home. He is to have authority over the wife. The wife is to submit to her own husband. Children are to obey their parents, because this is right in the Lord. Again, we see this all throughout the scripture. And then if you move beyond the family, you see, in the sphere of the church, that God has established a hierarchy. He has placed officers in the life of the church. Two officers are mentioned, and two offices mentioned in the Scriptures. The first is the office of pastor, or you might see in the language of Scripture, that of elder, or overseer, or bishop, depending on the translation of Scripture that you're using. And so you have the office of pastor, which is the leadership office leading through the word of God and leading the church. And then you have the office of deacon, which is a service office, which is working closely with the pastors. to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, and to send the word of God forward with boldness and conviction, both in discipleship and missions. There's a hierarchy of structure there. And again, the church is called to obey the leaders of the church. Hebrews 13, 17 is very explicit. So you have authority in family, you have authority in the church, and you have authority in the state or the nation. And so Christians are called to obey ruling authorities. Consider, if you will, the language of the Bible. It's so explicit and clear that we as Christians are to obey. And so it doesn't matter if you're in Paul's day and the island of Crete and their governing authority structure, or if you're talking about the United Kingdom and a monarchy, or if you're talking about the United States and a republic, it doesn't matter if you're talking about presidents or prime ministers, queens or kings. It doesn't matter if you're talking about local mayors or state governors. It doesn't matter if you're talking about dictators or if you're talking about some sort of sheriff in the local town that you live in. The point is simply this. If God has established the authority, then we as Christians, the church of Jesus, we are to be submissive to the authority that God has established. The church and civil rulers, there's a relationship there. And we are citizens of God's kingdom, first and foremost, but yet also living within the The culture in which we live, we have a responsibility to obey the rulers and the authorities that God himself has established. But second of all, second of all, we see the language, the language of behavior. So we see the church and civil rulers just in a mere overview, if you will, the relationship there, the church is called to submit. But we see the church's behavior under the authority of civil rulers specifically outlined for us in verses one and two. In verse number one, you see, remind them to be submissive, to be submissive. So we see, first of all, Christian submission. The word submissive here is elsewhere translated, be subject to. to be subject to or to submit yourself to. So this idea here again comes from this Greek term, hupotasso, which again is a term that was actually a military term whereby individuals would place themselves under the ruling authority of a higher ranking official. Now, it's very clear that Paul is not writing to a marching army. He's writing to Titus and specifically the church on the island of Crete. But the point is clear. The point is clear, is that authority is established in the sense of governing officials and governing rulers and governing authorities, and the church is to put itself underneath the ruling authority of the government and those rulers for our good and for God's glory. It is so very clear. We consider, if you will, the way that this very word is used all throughout the New Testament. Again, in 1 Peter 3, verses 21 and 22, speaking about Jesus Christ and all authorities have been placed under subjection to Jesus. In Ephesians 5 24 we see that as the church submits to Christ, then the wives are to submit in everything to their husbands. Again, that's the same word that's being used here in verse number one. To be submissive to rulers and authorities. Well, this word is used in Colossians 3.18. Wives, submit to your husbands. It's used in 1 Peter 3.5. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands. In Titus 2.5, again, we find this very same word used. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters. Again, in James 4, verse 7, we find this very same word. It's used there. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Submit, submit, submit. That is the calling of the church. In various different spheres, whether it's the home, whether it's the church, or whether it's the state. But here, specifically, it's the state that's in focus. And again, to be mindful of the connection of various passages, you have Paul writing to the church in Rome, in Romans 13, 1, and he says, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For, he says, there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Again, be subject. to the governing authorities. In 1 Peter 2, verses 13 to 17, listen to the way that the word is used there. Hupotasso, it's used this way. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good, for this is the will of God. that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people, live as people who are free. Not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. You see how this word's used? It's used all throughout scripture in various different contexts in reference to Christians, to the church, in how the church is to behave. In this text, we see the church's behavior as it pertains to civil rulers. And we have an obligation to be a submissive people. Not too long ago, I was issued a traffic violation, and I was simply in the middle of an intersection turning left, and the light turned red while I was in the middle of the intersection waiting on oncoming traffic. And when I turned left, there was a police officer in the median, and he pulls out and he gave me a ticket. And I thought I was in obedience to the law. In fact, I still believe that I'm in obedience to the law. But the fact of the matter remains, I went to court, and the court date was eventually postponed, and I'm still waiting on that court date, even at this very moment. But on the day that I went to court, I was sitting in the courtroom, and I was watching other people be called up before the judge. And as individuals were being called up to speak to the issues that they were in court for, various different violations and various different issues, violations of different ordinances, There was a specific woman that went up there, as her name was called, and after she was addressed by the court, she started to speak and she was using behavior and conduct and language that was very disrespectful to the judge, very disrespectful to the court officials. And after the ruling was issued, she, in a very flamboyant manner, protested with her speech, used profanity, and stormed out the door. Well, after I walked out, I found her out there talking to an officer, and the officer was politely admonishing her. And here was what the officer said. As I was walking by on my way to go out into the parking lot, I could just hear these words. He was saying, ma'am, don't you realize that if you had demonstrated respect, respect and honor to the judge, that he would have been much more merciful to you in his ruling, but because of your actions, he actually gave you a higher penalty as a result of the way that you were speaking? And so I think back to that very example and I think about the Christian's conduct. We are to be people who have a submissive, a submissive behavior. And with that comes obedience. Because notice what it says, we are to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work. The word obedient here, again, is this very same word that's used in Acts 529 when the apostles were charged with preaching the gospel and threatened, and they said, we must obey God rather than men. It is the very same word. But here, the context is you obey the rulers. You obey the rulers. Now again, we know that there's not a contradiction between Titus 3, 1 and Acts 5, 29, because obviously when Caesar demands something of the church that God himself forbids, or Caesar forbids something of the church that God himself demands, then we must do exactly what the apostles did in Acts 5, 29, and we must obey God rather than man. But it's the same word. But it can also be translated to be persuaded of something, to obey or to be persuaded to obey, to the point of obedience. The very same word that's translated to be obedient here in verse 1 is translated in Acts 26-28 as persuade. It says, and Agrippa said to Paul, in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian? Would you persuade me to obey Christ? And so again, obedience, just a simple definition of it is doing what you're told when you're told to do it with the right attitude. And so, Christian behavior must look like a submissiveness, a willingness to submit to the ruling authorities, a willingness to obey the ruling authorities, a willingness to be ready to engage in good deeds that puts on display the fact that we are, first and foremost, submissive to Christ. Oh, don't you see this? This must be driven home. I just have to ask God as pastor of this church, why is it that you place this at Romans 13 and Titus 3 in this season? Well, there's a reason for it. It's not by accident. God is wanting to teach our church something of great profundity through all of this. Maybe some of us need a gentle reminder. Maybe some of us in this church need to be rebuked sufficiently. Nevertheless, may God's Spirit through His Word do His work for His glory. But we are called to be submissive people. Not only do we see the Christian submission, but the behavior of a Christian also specifies here the Christian speech. Notice what it says at verse two. Speak evil of no one. Now, once again, in this setting here, as he's talking about the behavior of a Christian, he says, remind them, teach them this, make sure that they're aware of this. Apparently they had already been taught this. The point he's driving home to Titus, Paul is saying, You shouldn't be speaking evil of anybody, but the nearest antecedent to what he's saying here is the ruling authorities. Now, it's an unchristian behavior to be speaking evil of just anyone in the community, just slandering and using words that are evil. But in this context, he's specifying that of the ruling authorities. Verse 1, context is always the key. Now, the word here, speak evil, it's a specific word in the Greek from where we derive our English term blasphemy from. In fact, it's actually translated in other places in the New Testament as blaspheme. And so here it's translated speak evil, but you could easily go over. to Mark 2, 7, when Jesus heals a paralytic and then forgives sins, and then he's rebuked for it and challenged as if, who can forgive sins but God alone? And they literally charge Jesus with what? With blasphemy. In Mark 2, verse 7, it says, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? So again, in that text, it's translated blaspheming. Here in our text, in verse 2, it's translated speak evil. But you can go over to Mark chapter 7, when Jesus teaches about the depravity of the human heart. And in Mark 7, he uses this very same word, but it's translated there as slander. So it could be translated in various ways throughout the New Testament. Either speak evil, as it is here, or blasphemy in various places, or slander. The point is, it's evil speech. evil speech against another individual with the goal of harming that individual's reputation or character. The point is simply this. We must not be just engaged in casual, flippant, blasphemous, slanderous, evil speaking against politicians, and presidents, and queens, and kings, and civil rulers, and local sheriffs, and local mayors, and state governors. We need to be cautious about that. But let us also be very clear. Let us also be very clear with the charge of the Christian is to actually speak boldly and to call out the evil of our culture and the leaders. Mind you, John the Baptist did not land his head on a platter because of blaspheming Herod. It's because he was speaking truth to Herod that Herod should not have his brother's wife. People were coming from all over the region to come and hear John the Baptist and to be baptized in the river. And here's this man, this bold prophet, and he's preaching the gospel, thundering the gospel, and it's causing such an uproar. People are coming from far and wide to hear the man preach. And then he would say, oh yeah, not only is Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and you need to bow to him, but yeah, by the way, you go back and tell Herod this message. He should not have his brother's wife. He's an adulterer. Well, that didn't go over too well. John the Baptist's head was eventually cut off, and it was placed on a platter. We need to be bold individuals who speak the truth even to those who lead us. We must look into the faces of these individuals and say, the church of Jesus Christ will not tolerate the butchering and the murdering of little babies. And we must not blush about this. We must be bold. And we must not be drifting off course as Christians on this very issue. And by the way, this is not just a one issue thing that the church is grabbing a hold of, just abortion. There are many other things. related to free speech and hate speech and everything else under the sun. But we need to make it known far and wide that we are not satisfied with voting for a candidate who upholds that type of legislation. I mean, I just stand with the late R.C. Sproul who once said it this way, quote, I will not ever vote for a candidate for any office including dog catcher who is pro-abortion, end quote. I mean, we just need to speak like that as Christians. But a Christian speech must be guarded because we must not be given over to this idea of just blaspheming individuals. and being guilty of raising up straw men, or being guilty of engaging in just character assassination attempts. No, no, no, that's not the issue at all. The issue is we will not bow to that sinful current that's sweeping through even professing evangelicals in our day. We see the Christian submission, the Christian speech related to the Christian's behavior to ruling authorities, but also we see Christian conduct. Notice, if you will, what else he says here. He speaks about not quarreling, not quarreling. Again, this specific Greek term means not fighting, not entering into a quarrel. It means, on the positive side, it means to be peaceable, that we as Christians are to be, we're to be peacemakers. We're not to be always looking to engage in fights. Our conduct must be marked with the aroma of peace. Because we have been saved by who? By Jesus, who is the very Prince of Peace that we read about in Scripture. Again, he goes on and not only speaks about the conduct of being a peaceable citizen, but also he speaks about being a meek citizen. He says here in this text, verse 2, we are not to be quarreling or quarrelsome individuals but were to be gentle. The word gentle here could be, it could be translated yielding to another. It could be translated gentle as it is here. It could be translated as being kind or courteous, to be tolerant. It's the idea of a meek individual. In Philippians 4, verse 5, this very word that's translated gentle here is translated reasonableness in Philippians 4, 5. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do you notice how Paul admonishes the church in Philippi? You need to be a gentle people. The Lord is at hand. He could return at any moment. Will He find you in quarrels and fights? Will He find you with blasphemous language? No. Let your reasonableness be made known to everyone. Again, here in this context, it's talking about the governing authorities. The governing authorities, in other words, our community leaders, they need to know that this church Praise for them. They need to know that this church is not interested in just slandering them. In 1 Timothy 3, verse 3, and in 1 Timothy 3, verse 2, in both of those verses, this word is used again, gentle, and it's used twice in regards to the office of overseer or the office of pastor. Be gentle. In James 3.17, we hear these words, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, good fruits, impartial, and sincere. Again, gentle. Gentle. The wisdom that is from above is gentleness. We are to be a wise church. We're to be a gentle people. We are to treat our ruling authorities with gentleness. Just last night, I signed a petition in our community that is opposing a 33% tax increase for our citizens. Why? Because I wanna be slanderous towards the leadership, or blasphemous towards the leadership, No, it's because I have a right as a citizen to express and to appeal to the ruling authorities as a Christian, as a citizen, but specifically even as a Christian, I can do this with the right attitude. So I signed my name to a petition saying, I don't think that that's proper, I don't think that that's justifiable. I would encourage anyone that's a Christian to engage in that type of community interaction. But you can do it without being slanderous. You can do it without embarrassing the church on social media. You can do it without embarrassing the church on Facebook. You can do it without being a reproach to Jesus Christ on Twitter. But you can be bold, and you can speak the truth, and you can do so with great wisdom and conviction and gentleness, and we can do this. How does he finish all of this up? Well, the church has a relationship and a responsibility to the governing authorities, and the church's behavior towards governing authorities involves Christian submission, it involves Christian speech, it involves Christian conduct, and the conduct of a Christian is specified here in this text, peaceable, not quarreling, It goes on and says we're to be gentle, but then it finishes and says to show perfect courtesy toward all people. Now again, that's a true point as it pertains to all people in our community. We're to be courteous people to all people, regardless of their beliefs. And then we're to tell them the truth of the gospel because we love our community. But again, the context here, is that of ruling authorities. And so we are to be courteous. This is the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of one's self-importance. We are to be gentle, we are to be humble, we are to be courteous, we are to be meek. We live in a culture that looks at meekness as weakness. That's not the teaching of Jesus Christ. The teaching of Jesus is that we are to be a people who demonstrate courtesy, even to people that we disagree with, who set the rule over us, and we can still appeal to them. in such a way that is not bringing shame and reproach to Jesus Christ. You see, the island of Crete was swimming with people in this culture at this specific time in which Paul writes to Titus who were called people who spoke with empty words, people who were walking around as empty talkers with lawless behavior, spewing out slander and blasphemous language, and were not being courteous towards one another. And here's what Paul is saying, is that Christianity on the island of Crete, Christianity in an anti-Christian culture should look different than what's the mainstream cultural behavior. And here we are in an American context where we have red-blooded Americans that want to puff out our chest and exercise our speech, but sometimes that speech is exercised with slanderous motivation, without courtesy, blasphemous talk that's rude, and you call yourself a Christian, and you look like a jerk. We have to be different than that. Boldness doesn't mean that you have to be a jerk to be bold. To have firm convictions as a Christian doesn't mean that you have to be rude in the process. Call out sin. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden need to be called out If our president, President Trump, sins and his inconsistencies and his immoral behavior needs to be called out, there should be a prophetic tone to the church as it pertains to ruling authorities. However, we also need to be courteous. This is one of the great problems that I had at a SBC, Southern Baptist Convention meeting a couple of years back Vice President Pence was invited to speak. He came in and when I walked in and made my way through the Secret Service line and entered the arena where the convention was being held, there were a couple of SBC leaders, like Russell Moore, Beth Moore, and others, who had put out statements, including Thabiti Anyabwile, who had put out statements that were very slanderous against the vice president and the office of vice president, suggesting that we should not have a presidential leader like the vice president coming to address the Southern Baptist Convention. And it caused people, young millennials, pastoring churches in various places throughout the United States of America that were sitting in protest when the vice president took the platform and came to the lectern to speak. Sat in protest, refused to stand in honor of his office. Some sat in protest and tweeted about it in the hallway, wouldn't even go into the room. We need to be courteous. The office of president, the office of vice president, it has with it and should bring with it a certain type of respect. And if a lawless man or woman in our culture that's not even a Christian knows how to show respect for the office of the vice president, then the church of Jesus Christ should as well. So when it comes to your own life, you call yourself a Christian, You claim that Jesus Christ has changed your heart. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, that you're a new creation in Christ. So my question to you is this, has Jesus changed your life and changed your heart? And if so, shouldn't that mean that he's changed your tongue? Shouldn't that mean that he has changed your disposition and your posture towards authority? Shouldn't that mean that he's changed your mindset of rebellion against authority? You show me an individual who has a problem with authority, and I'll show you an individual who has a problem with God. It doesn't matter if it's a teenager who's rebelling against his or her parents. It doesn't matter if it's a young adult who is rebelling against police officers. It doesn't matter if it's a middle-aged man who is slandering the president on social media. And it doesn't matter if it's an elderly person who is resisting the authority of his or her elders within the context of the local church. If a person has a problem with authority, it demonstrates a problem with an individual's heart, refusing to be in subjection and to be submissive to God. So my question for you is this, has God given you Has God given you a changed heart that has changed your disposition, that has changed your posture, that has caused you to be a submissive individual? To be submissive to the various different authorities and the various different spheres of life. If not, the calling upon your life this evening is to repent. Before you can have a rightful view of authority in the various different spheres of life, you must first have a rightful position. and disposition and posture towards God. And that begins with repentance. Repent of your sin. Repent of your lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. And admit that before God. And admit that you deserve justice. Admit that you deserve to go to hell forever. And then plead that God would give you what you don't deserve. That he would give you mercy, that he would give you grace, that he would give you salvation. And when your heart is rightfully. Submissive to God, you will find that your heart will in turn be rightfully submissive to other rulers, including those who have the highest rule over us in our civil government structure in our day. May God bless you as a church. May God strengthen you in his word. Join me in prayer at this time.