this morning to Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13. 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 authority 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 good, but if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God and avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore, One must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason, you also pay taxes for the authority or ministers of God attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Oh, no man anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder. You shall not steal, you shall not covet. And any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your having assembled us in the name of the Lord Jesus. We thank you, Lord, for the freedom that we enjoy to do that. We thank you for your word. We thank you that your word instructs us in order that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished and equipped to all good works. We thank you for your love that you have for us in the Lord Jesus. We pray that we would be a bright light in our society, we pray that we would be salt as well. We pray that we would be testimonies of your grace in our lives in order that men will see and hear that the Savior has come, even as we've heard in song just a moment ago, that he is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by him. Bless our having come together today, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. The context of Romans chapter 13 is really the same context what we looked at in Romans chapter 12. When we contemplate the grace of God that has laid a hold of us and changed our lives, a new creation, the hymn that we were singing earlier this morning, that hymn that we are called to be God's people, that first stanza really kind of sums up and gives us an introduction. of what God has in mind for our lives and how we live our lives on this side of eternity. We're passing through Emmanuel's land. As we were singing, we're going to heaven. In the meantime that we would live our lives, we're called to be God's people. Showing by our lives His grace, one in heart and one in spirit, sign of hope for all the race. Think about it. Let us show how he has changed us and remade us as his own. Let us share our life together as we shall around his throne. What a marvelous thing. The context is And really, I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God. And he gives us an explanation of that, how we live our lives before God. It is the mercies of God that moves us. We understand and know the will of God for our lives. He has not left us in the dark. I want you to know how blessed we are. It's not that he's called us and placed us to be, and then now we say, well, what about it? How about it? How do we live? And what is it that we do? the 66 books of God's Word. 2 Timothy chapter 3 says, and he's given us the Word in order that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished, the King James, or that the ESV says that we are equipped for, that we have the Word of God for our lives, and he tells us that in these chapters. He's given us an explanation how we live in the church, the gifts and graces that he's given us. He's given us, in chapters 12, how we live in the world with unbelievers. And then we have come to chapters 13, and he gives us, in chapter 13, really a continuance of the Christian life and the relationship that we have to government. I want you to know when I look at this portion of God's word, how I bless and praise God's gracious hand in our lives. And then particularly, when I think about where we live and the government and the authorities that we have over us, even with all of the flaws and faults that we have in our day. We saw, and we looked at that last week briefly, we saw in the first place that the word of God tells us, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. Think about it. And I just want to simply say we do not have to, we don't have to qualify here, but we've made the statement last week that as we read this portion of scripture, the government is, and those that are in authority, they are an extension of God to praise those that do good and to punish those that are evildoers. That's a responsibility of government. And at the same time, the submission and the obedience to civil government never calls us to be obedient when there are things that are clearly transgressions of God's word in our lives. We looked at that last week, I had mentioned the midwives in Egypt. You remember how they were commanded to, that whenever someone, a woman has a baby and it's a boy, that you're immediately to kill that. And of course, you remember how the midwives were called on the carpet and how they excused that they didn't kill the babies, that the Hebrew women, they have their babies so fast, we have no opportunity to kill the babies. You remember how Moses' parents responded to that, that we know that Moses' mom, when she could no longer, when they could not no longer hide him, she took him on the ark of bulrushes and we find that in the sovereignty of God, they turned that baby over into the hand of a sovereign God. You all know what happened to Moses when it was all said and done in the history of redemption, how he became the most powerful man, if you want to say, besides Pharaoh in Egypt. You remember, and I know you've been studying in the book of Daniel, how they were commanded, you see, to bow before an image. And you remember how they did not because they feared God. They were called on that. There was, in the New Testament, the example and illustration that we had when the disciples in the early days, when they were preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, they were arrested, they were brought up before the authorities, and they were commanded not to preach and proclaim the Lord Jesus anymore, and Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And I want to just say to us here that it is not a question of submission and obedience to government, but whenever government is there and there are laws that we're to obey and the laws that do not transgress any law of God, that we're to follow through with it and we're to obey that. And so when I think about what he's saying here, let every person be subject to governing authorities. Secondly, we saw that let every person be subject to governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Isn't that a great, is that not a great thing to understand, you know? Does that not help us? I want you in a very encouraging demand. that as I look in our nation and what we have for governing authorities, that there may be things that you see displeases me, there are things that are wrong and black and white sinful, but at the same time, don't we know that these people have been granted the position by God? Let me read to you a few verses of scriptures that deals with that, Proverbs 8, verse 15. By me kings reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles even all of the judges of the earth. Psalm 75 verse 7, God is the judge, he put it down one and set it up another. Daniel, you've been studying in the book of Daniel here in recent weeks in Sunday school. Let me just read a few verses out of Daniel. Daniel chapter two, verse 21. He changed the times and the seasons. He removed kings and he set it up kings. He give it wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that no understanding. Daniel four, verse 17. This matter is by the degrees of the watchers and the demands by the word and of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and he set it up over the basis of men. In the same chapter, verse 26, we read, and whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the free roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Chapter 4, verse 34, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me. And you all know the story of Nebuchadnezzar. We don't need to go into that, but you remember that, that here is Nebuchadnezzar. He lifts up his eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that lived forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of the heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? There is no power but of God. As God is the origin of power and the supreme governor of the universe, he delegates authority to whomsoever he wills. Think about that for a moment. The third thing that we considered last week was this, that resistance of the authority is, according to this text, resisting God, and it will incur judgment. You know, I want to just simply say that that's very serious, isn't it? That when you think about that those who have been placed in authority, those who are kings, and I have to simply say, when you look and consider all of the authorities and the governments and around the globe with different kinds of people who are in leadership position around the globe, I have to say that when I think where we are, and what we are in this nation, and that when I consider that there are those that are totalitarians around the globe, there are dictators around the globe, there are others who say have some kind of democracy around the globe, that when I look at us, where we are in our nation, and it's very, very rare when you think about it, what took place in 1776. What are we? Can we call ourselves a a constitutional republic. Is that what we are? And the constitutional republic is that which gives us a bill of rights and gives us the constitution and that our founding fathers have said this is the order that we go by. And it is a very peculiar system when you look and see all around the world, and there are many other nations that have constitutions of some kind. They have some kind of a paperwork that they will go by. And then there are others who have absolutely nothing. There are some of the banana republics that we've watched in our lifetimes, where people simply take the power and take over, and they rule with this and that and one another. But on the other hand, I want to simply say that were we in our nation, that if we are resisting the authority that we have in our nation, that we would be resisting God, and at the same time, I want to say, if those who are in authority, in places of authority, if I understand our system of government where we are with authority, that those who are representing us, they are absolutely representing us, and we are the ones that are placing them in power and authority. Is that how I understand it? The government is, they are representatives of us. We're placing them in places of authority by our votes that we have as people are voted in and voted out. And they are, we're not working for them, but they are the one that are to represent us. Is that right? That's what we understand, okay? And so when I think about where we are, that in the fourth place that our text tells us that the governing authority is ordained to promote good and to restrain evil. What do you think about that? I was looking up online and I googled lawless nations. You ought to do that. And you got a list of nations that are coming up with the most lawless nation that, and it's pretty much all of the websites begin with Venezuela, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, and on and on and on and on and on. And then there is another website that you can look up the most law abiding or the most law nations that have the least amount of crime and they have the most amount of loss. And they start with, I think it's Sweden and Norway and some of the European countries and on and on and on and on. At the same time, I want you to know, when I look at this portion of Scripture, and I don't know how you look at where we are in our nation and how we respond as Christians to those that are in authority, do I recognize and realize that, first of all, were to be submissive to those that we recognize that they have been given and granted by God a place of authority and that I do recognize the gracious hand of God for the government that he's given us to praise those that do good and punish the evildoers. What a blessing that is. Can you imagine? Can we imagine life and living in this fallen world with the display of the human heart without government? No, you can't. No, you can't. To be honest with you, I don't believe that we can. The lawlessness. Wanton law is given for the lawless, and law is there to restrain, and law is there to warn, and then law is there for the fear of the consequences of being lawless in our own nation. When you think about it, at times we've seen it physically with news reports as we listen and look at our nation and some of the things that go on, decisions that have been made. And we have watched, have we not watched when there is at times people, because of the human heart, because of the sinfulness of the human heart, how they have responded at times when they are protesting about a cause and to take license to riot and to burn and to kill and destroy. That's, I want you to know that for a moment. The human heart is able and capable of doing that when there is no law or follow through with law of any consequences of breaking the law. Turn the human heart loose. And I want you to know, I don't want to live, I don't want to live, and the Lord has blessed us tremendously to be in a nation that is still governed and ruled by law and order. There is nobody that's gonna come into your house there on Brush Creek Road and just say, out! Out with a gun to your head, out, you're gone! There's no one that's going to take your properties and your rights. They may try. But what are you going to do? You're going to call 911. You're going to call the law. You're going to call those people that you know that will respond to that. We're not in a place of that. I want you to know that. And what a great thing. You see, lawlessness it is not regulated based on law or no restraints or controlled by law. But you think about the grace of God, what he's done for us and how he's caused us to respond to that. And I want to simply say, law is good. An order is good. Can you imagine taking law and order out of any government? Some of us give testimony of the fact. And how many times have I heard people say, Pastor, I come from a dysfunctional family. Anybody ever said that? I think I can say that. I came out of a dysfunctional family. It was the family that I grew up in. It was not dealt with on issues that should have been dealt with. It was the kind of thing that peace at all cost. And dysfunctional families are usually families where there is no order. Where there is no, no, we don't do that. No, we don't say that. No, we don't practice that. No, we don't do that. It's not absolutely no. And if you do, there are gonna be some consequences. Fathers and the responsibilities that fathers have in their home, to be the head of the home. And we can start with that already. We can talk about that in the home. And then, you know, the order that God has given, you see, not only to federal governments and authorities and those that are over us, but we can bring that all the way down to the home. God has ordained the order, and the order is this, is that God is the head, the Lord Jesus Christ is under the heavenly Father, and the husband is to be under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the wife is to be under the headship of the husband, and then, of course, the parents are to have order and rules and regulations for their children. And what does that spell? What does that spell? Well, let's say there's order. No, we don't do that. Of course, we can translate that into any business. We can translate that in, it doesn't make any difference in schools. We can translate that in any kind of undertaking because of the very fact that the human heart, unless there is order about it, that I thank the Lord for order, don't you? Peter sums it up, and I read that portion of scripture last week, but I want to read it again, and you might want to mark it in your Bibles, 1 Peter 2, verse 13. It's basically a parallel passage to what Paul is talking about in Romans 13. He says, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or as unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, for the praise of them that do well. He spells out the responsibility of government, I want you to know that. I read it plain and clear. He spells it out. For the punishment of evildoers, an extension of God and His justice and His wrath. I want you to know that's a good place for government. Prisons is a good place, I want you to know that. The scriptures tells us that there are consequences for breaking laws in the Old Testament. What was the Old Testament principle? What an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. It was very plainly and clearly pointed out. And for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. You see when we think about when this was written and I want you to know this was written in a place where those that were in authority were ungodly at times very very but he says for so and how you respond to that for the Lord's sake is for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free and not using your liberty for a gloat of maliciousness but as servants of the Lord honor all men Love the brotherhood. Listen to me. God has called us while we are here on this side of eternity to respond this way to all people. Regardless, yellow, red, and black, and white, regardless of station of life, regardless where they are, we're to honor all men. Why? Because all men have been created, you see, in the image of God, and they're even in their fallen state. I want you to know that. Love the brotherhood, fear God, and honor the king. Man, what a statement. And so in the fifth place, that passage of scripture that we've been reading, it says, therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. And so I want you to know, when I think about this portion of scripture, and especially Romans chapter 13, and for Christians, I want to say that Christian people, we're not to live our lives because of the fear of the consequences of breaking the law and bearing the judgment of God, but we recognize and realize that we live our lives for knowing this is the will of God, for knowing that we're serving the Lord, we're honoring God, and there is a difference there. How do we live our lives? It's that we don't live our lives that somehow or another that we fear the wrath of God. But then we come to, then we come to verses, Where am I here? Then we come to verses 8 and I'm thinking, what is the connection between verses 8 and 10 that we read with chapters 13, 1 through 7? And I believe there is a connection there which helps us to see what God really has in mind and how we respond to those that are around us. listen to what he's saying, in verse six he stopped, for the same reason you also pay taxes. Anybody, April 15th, is that an important date? You know there are some people who say, I'm not going to pay taxes, I'm my own man. I got this for you, pay taxes. Pay taxes and be honest with your taxes. For the authorities are ministers of God, attending this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, and revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. When I think about this particular point, what he's got to say and what he's fixing to say in this passage of scripture, I believe what he's saying. The believer, the Christian living in this world, he lives in a world with laws all around us. I wanted to, but I didn't bring it. It was too much of a burden for me to do that. I've got a Webster's unabridged dictionary. Anybody ever seen one of them? It's about this thick. And I was going to bring that this morning. And you think about all of the laws and think about all of the things that are in the books. You think about our legislators that are in Washington. And I mean, we're talking in Washington, in the state. You take about our own city people. You think about all of the laws that are being written anew and approved and on and on and on in order for society to, for some part, to be restrained. And then for the rest of us, I was going to bring that dictionary that's this thick, and I was thinking, as we live our lives in this world, in our relationship with not only those that are in authority, but our relationship with everybody else around us, Believers and unbelievers. Do we need to have a book as thick as that with 2,000, 3,000 pages for us to spell out how am I to respond to those that are around me? How do we live our lives? The believer, the Christian living in this world, he has one commandment. that sums up what God has in mind for those that are in the church, for those that are outside of the church, for those who are unbelievers, for those who are in the government, for people generally all around us, and what is that one commandment? Owe no man anything except to love each other. Listen to me. Did you all hear that? You know, one of the, as I was looking up the lawless nations, then I looked at the lawful, the nations that have, seem like they have the least crime, and somewhere down the line, it was Sweden, Norway, and three, four, five others, and then there was Germany. I didn't find a United States listed in there anywhere. But you know, Germany, and I can speak out of experience, Frankie and I, we've been in Germany since 1972, first time I ever taken her over there. And I remember us going through Germany with some of our relatives and we would take pictures of the mountains and the castles and the rivers and all of the beautiful buildings and the cities and all of that. And it was several years ago when I pastored over there, we went downtown Straubing, I have used that for an illustration before. In downtown Straubing, we're sitting in that beautiful, beautiful city plaza with them old antique buildings around us, and here is a person is going around with a McDonald's suit on, going to the trash containers out there in that public part. There are a dozen trash baskets, and going around picking out the trash out of them and putting it in the plastic bag, trash bag. And I thought, I need to ask that person. And I asked, was machen sie denn da? What are you doing? And the person said, I'm working for McDonald's and that the law has said, the city has an ordinance and a law that all of the trash that are in these public trash containers must be removed by McDonald's. And I'm thinking, Okay. And from that time on, let me tell you what we've done. We quit. I've got enough pictures of castles and rivers and beautiful structures in Germany, beautiful country. From that time on, I've started taking all of the foreboding signs in Germany, everywhere you look. There is a foreboding sign that you can throw trash after 8 o'clock into the trash container. There are foreboding signs and regulations in apartment complexes. There are 30 or 40 different laws that pertain to public parking in the hospital. There are all kinds of signs everywhere you look. It is foreboding, and underneath the foreboding is this, da ist die Strafe. The punishment for transgressing and pressing that is that. And so, I want you to know I've got hundreds and hundreds of pictures that I ought to get me a wall and put it up. And then I have a wall right there where I can say, here is a nation who is one of the most law-abiding countries because it is watched by law. Every German person is a policeman. And then I come to the United States. Listen to me. The effects of Christianity and the hand of God in this nation with our founding fathers to where we are is still seen in our day with all of the evils that are still going on. I don't see in every hallway, I don't see on every street corner, I don't see on any property, I don't hardly ever see any signs this is forbidden because of paragraphs so and so that tells you if you do this, we're gonna throw you into the slammer and you're gonna have thousands of dollars worth of punishment to pay if you do that. You see, I don't need the law if I live in an apartment complex, and some of you do. I don't need a law that at 10 o'clock at night tells me that I'm gonna get a jackhammer out and I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna take my pecans and I'm gonna go ahead and crush them because it's 10 o'clock and I'm a free man and I can do whatever I want to do. They say, no, hold it a minute. No, no, no, no, no. There are neighbors that live in this place. I'm not gonna do that. Do you understand the difference? Do you see what God has in mind when he says that loving one another is the fulfilling of the law? I don't need a book this thick. I don't need a sign on everywhere I turn to say, you cannot do that. We live our lives. before the Lord as a living, holy sacrifice, which we know is the acceptable will of God for our lives, and we keep in mind the benefit of those with the life that we live, how will that affect them? I want to ask you something. Thus committing adultery, affect people? It does. We're talking about generations, children, divided families. I want you to know that. Now, why is it that when it's all said and done, that I walk not with eyes wide open and commit adultery, because I know that God has for me one commandment, and that one commandment is that I love my neighbor as myself, and that I do not transgress and bring any harm to that, because you see, the far-reaching consequences, it is not just for me a 15-minute flash and a flurry to, for me, have some pleasure but you see that which restrains me is that I know that will have an effect upon people you shall not murder do I need a sign? I want to ask you something do I need a sign? to keep from murdering and stealing and coveting Don't we see what God has in mind for us? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And so I want you to know, brothers and sisters in Christ, when we live our lives and how we respond to those around us, How is it that we sort out? We're not carrying this Bible with an index to say, how am I gonna respond here and what am I gonna say here and what am I gonna do here? I want you to know that. What God has in mind for us is one commandment. And the whole law is summed up underneath that one commandment. Loving our neighbor, loving our God, and responding as we love. And I want you to know that's how we live our lives. What do you think? And that when I think about the freedom that we enjoy, I want to say to you, Calvary Baptist Church, with everything that's going on in our nation, Listen to me. With everything that's going on, submit to authority. As that authority is right and following through with what God has in mind, when there are commandments and things that are displeasing and that are clearly, clearly sin, we do not respond to that. Why? Because they've been ordained by God. They're an extension of God's hand. And then when you think about the privileges that we still enjoy, I want you to know that whenever the time comes where we vote, in this rare, rare nation around the globe, in this rare nation and the government that we enjoy, still in this nation, that we can cast our ballots. and that we would pray for those that are in authority, that we respond to those that are in authority. And I want to say to all of us here, there are times where I believe that our speech gets completely out of control. When we think about presidents and Supreme Court justices, when we think about senators, when we think about mayors and governors, and sometimes we name call and all kinds, it ought not come out of our mouths. We ought to restrain ourselves to say it is under the sovereignty of God that has placed me in this nation with this government helped me to display an attitude that has an interest for the interest of others and that I love and sum up the whole law by loving our neighbors as ourselves. And when we do that, I want you to know, people are gonna look at us and say, you know what? You are a testimony of the grace of God and the sovereign God that is on the throne that sets up and puts down that he's the one that governs and rules over all. In the meantime, we gotta remember this, as we were singing. We're on a journey. And when we get there, I want you to know all of that is done and we're gonna bow before the Sovereign One of All in the name of the Lord Jesus. Do you know Him today? I want to ask you, do you know Him? And without knowing Him as the Sovereign God, what we were talking about is an impossibility for you to apply. You know, by nature to submit to authority goes against the grain. By nature. But whenever the Lord changes the heart, And he shows us that he's on the throne and everything else is subject to him and under his care. The Lord enables us to apply ourselves to these truths. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you this morning. Oh, how blessed we are to be in this nation and the freedoms that we enjoy. Oh, how blessed we are that you've given us your word to apply to the course of our lives. And Lord, we pray, even as David was praying this morning, that work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do. And we know that it is you that works in us in order for that to be the case. Oh Lord, I pray. Enable us to hold up bright lights and that we are salt and light in this world and that we would point people and direct people to the Lord Jesus. Wash us and cleanse us and we give all of the praise to you in Jesus name. Amen.