Government

how dare you insult God's high priest?

Paul replies,

brothers, I did not realize he was the high priest, for it is written Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.

He was just struck in the face unlawfully, spoke truth, but it was out of season because he was speaking to someone appointed by God to rule him. If we as elect exiles would take this example of Paul, which is really just reflecting the example of Jesus himself, be subject to every human institution, whether it be the emperor as supreme or the governors as sent by him. And this would be those lesser authorities, governors, mayors, police officers, IRS, pay your taxes. We must remember in the midst of this that Jesus' instruction,

give to Caesar what is Caesar and give to God what is God's.

That is very hopeful and freeing for us. Jesus is making it very clear that the earthly authorities, they only have so much authority. The earthly human institutions, they are given authority to rule and reign, but it has limits, like every human institution does. You cannot worship Caesar, but you must pay him taxes. Whenever the government is to command something that God has prohibited or prohibits what God commands, well, that's where we, with fear and trembling, consider how we might not submit ourselves to his rule. How dangerous it is to feel that the government is needed for us to be obedient, but also how dangerous it is to realize how the government rules has a great impact on The Christian church's freedom to be faithful. Verse 14, we see this purpose for the government.

To punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

This is what we hope for in our governing authorities, right? This is good, this is hopeful, this is what we want our governors, our police officers, our mayors, our councils, we want them to know what is good and to reward it and to know what is evil and to punish it, what we should be praying for. And this is where we can get confused about whatever that wall is between a church and state. Because a question we should ask, well, how will they know what's good? If they do not know the good God, how will they know what is good? Christian, if you wanna know what your role is, you should be seeking to make known what is good with your words, with your life, with your conduct. If you wanna know why I believe that, it's because he says a little bit later, do good. Do what's good. by doing good, you should be influencing, helping the world see what is truly good. We pray that by common grace they would know what is good to reward it and would know what is evil and punish it. But we also know governments have not always had that common grace. What I find confusing is the insistence that the the nation or the government, they need to embrace what the church says what is good without the insistence where the church should be embracing what God has said what is good. Christians seem to get real worked up that the nation needs to adopt what's good while not insisting even more strongly that it's the church that should fear God and conduct themselves according to what God says. Now let me say, with fear and trembling, the church has had to refuse submitting to government rule throughout the history. Caesar doesn't have absolute reign, and I say with fear and trembling because if you're ever to break a clear command to not be subject, there needs to be some rationale, there needs to be a fear and trembling about it. Here's some reasons that Christians in the past have refused to submit to governing rule, and it's first what the government prohibited. The government prohibited sharing the gospel. If the government prohibits preaching God's word, speaking God's word to one another or to other neighbors who would need to become Christians, then that's a time you, with fear and trembling, consider not submitting. If the government seeks to confiscate scripture, This was a significant issue in the early church. They wanted to take God's word from the church, and the church refused to submit. If the church government prohibits marriage, family, goodness, if the church government prohibits worshiping as an assembly, well, that's where their prohibition is, is in clear contrast to an absolute command of God. What are some of the things the government might command that you must refuse? Bowing down to anything that's not a god. Forced participation in ungodly, defiling practices. Giving up your children to be taught and trained in pagan religion. Mandatory entertainment on the Lord's Day so that you cannot worship. Now here's the thing, thankfully right now, I don't believe the government is prohibiting what God has commanded, nor commanding what God has prohibited. We might be fearful of these things, but let's be very clear, we have the freedom to worship as God has commanded right now. Are we doing so? Are we more worked up that we might lose the freedom to worship so that we're not actually being faithful? It seems a lot of Christians are fearful of the government possibly forcing disobedience to God while voluntarily choosing to be disobedient. Let me be really, get a nitty gritty. I don't think the government would have to prohibit worship on Sunday morning. I think they would just need to offer some kind of sports event or entertainment. And most of the church would just stop worshiping. We voluntarily do what we're afraid the government would make us do in a faithful way. My charge for you this morning, before the Lord, for the sake of the Lord, be committed to your holy God who has purchased you with his holy blood in your holy conduct. Be committed to being a temple built up as the living stones on the living stone. Be committed to the good works that are honorable in conduct to your neighbors. Let's look at those First words, be subject, why? Because of the Lord. You take that out and all this is nonsense. Because you're just looking out for you because nobody else is. But here it's be subject because of the Lord. Because you know the Lord. Because you know he is mighty. Because you know he will crush his enemies. Because you know that anybody that has authority is under him. for the sake of the Lord, because of the Lord. God is not distant. He's not powerless. We are called to submit to him, and therefore, we are submitting to the governing authorities. Now, if you're not a Christian this morning, this is gonna be confusing, and it's an internal conversation that Christians are debating and still discussing, and I'm sure there'll be lots of good discussions afterwards. Your call this morning is not to submit to your governing authorities. The cause of this morning is you need to submit to the Lord. You need to submit to the Lord who you've, well, you've sinned against by not submitting to him. So we all have refused God the proper worship he deserves. Every human being has refused to worship God as he deserves, and that's what we call sin. We sin in what we haven't done, and we sin in what we do. And the only forgiveness you can find is in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, and that plaque they put over his head, the King of the Jews. He is truly the King of kings, who died for a people to take away their sin so they could live for him, so they could live in forgiveness, so they could live in freedom from sin. The invitation this morning is to submit yourself to God. who says there's something seriously wrong with all of us and it's sin. There's only one solution. It's believing in Jesus Christ, his own son, who died to heal you. The first point is submit to God's servants. Those are those human institutions. Second, submit to God's will. This is verse 15. Four, notice there is a reason again. For this is the will of God. Full stop. If you mark up your Bibles, you should have a special color code for this phrase, the will of God. How good it is that God tells us what his will is. It's not some mysterious labyrinth we've got to figure out. God's will is good and he tells us what it is so that we know him. We know what his will is for us. Here it is, this is God's will. If you don't mark up your Bibles, this might be the one you wanna do. It's all God's word, it tells us all of who he is, it tells us all of what he calls us to do, but how helpful it is that he breaks out so many times and says this is the will of God. God's will is always good, the emperor's is not. but it's God's will that you would submit to the emperor. Let me say it another way. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life to submit to your earthly emperor. What a strategy he provides as to what that will looks like. Do good. It is the will of God to submit to every human institution, the emperor, the governor. This is the will of God By doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of the foolish people. So what is strategy? Do good. If you don't like what the world is doing out there, the key focus of how to properly serve God is by committing to doing what he says is good. And how do we know what's good? Well, he tells us what his will is in scripture. Do what God commands. Be committed to the goodness of his gospel. Christian, what a unique ethic we have as God commands us to love him, who's truly lovely, love our neighbor as ourselves, and those neighbors even include enemies. We see here a clear demand, do good. Jesus explains this a little bit more. He says,

whenever somebody asks for your cloak, you should give them your tunic as well. Or if somebody asks you to go a mile, you should go with them two miles.

He's actually referring there to most likely Roman soldiers who would demand something of you. Again, human institution, governing rulers. If they ask for something, demand of something, you give them more. What an amazing ethic. that then follows by love your enemy. Doing good means we're trusting God who is all good and is taking care of us. If you don't know what the great protest today is, it's do what is good. We might all want some kind of cultural or political revolution. If that's what you want, do what is good. in a world that's antagonistic to purity, goodness, modesty, morality, do what is good. Don't defile the marriage bed. Hold purity tight and strong and protect it. Promote what is good with families and babies and raising children. Do what is good. And by doing so, you'll put to shame those who are mocking in their foolishness. That's the outcome in verse 15. By doing good, you'll put those to shame who are ignorant in their foolish mockery. Can you imagine if all those who claim Christ as Savior denied themselves, carried their cross, and followed Him? What kind of revolution that might actually cause in our culture and our government? Or even better, what kind of revival that actually might cause in the church? Isn't that better? Which one would we rather see, a revolution in our government or a revival in the church? Which one would you rather see? I hope it's revival in the church. If we were to truly commit to knowing God and his will and doing good according to his will, we would see revival. And the outcome of that would be a changed nation, Lord willing. That's what we should long for. If we want a nation more aligned with God, we want the church first to be more aligned with Christ.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of the foolish. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

God's will is for you to do good. God's will is for you to use your freedom to serve him. Christian, you have freedom in Christ. What a great declaration. He's purchased your freedom. Freedom from the penalty of sin. You're free from guilt. You're free from wrath. You're free from condemnation.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You're also free from the power of sin. You're no longer a slave to the passions of the flesh. You have been set free from the penalty and the power of sin. You were once slaves to sin, and you were destined for death, but God in his great mercy called you. And now you're free. But you're not free to sin. You're free to serve a good master. You're free to say no to that evil master's sin, and you're free to serve the good master, God, the king of kings. Good theology requires tension, right? You are simultaneously the most free and the most bound if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. You're the most free because you've been set free from the greatest tyrant, sin. and you're most bound because you now have been purchased by the blood of the King, Christ. We must hold that tension. The will of God is for you to be free and in your freedom to serve God. And in serving God, you are submitting to governing authorities. One of the great freedoms that we have is freedom of speech. must be praising God right now that we have freedom of speech to assemble, to read God's word, to sing God's word, to proclaim God's word, receive it, and fellowship around it. There's a freedom respected by, a freedom protected in our Constitution. You have the freedom as a United States citizen to say whatever you want about your governing authorities. It's pretty amazing. It's protected. Certain platforms might not let you say it there, but you're protected in the government to say whatever you want about your governing authorities. But as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, as a citizen of Christ's kingdom who's been bought by his blood, you don't have the freedom to say whatever you want about your governing authorities. Your freedom is limited by Christ. because you can't use your freedom to cover up evil. You can do it as a United States citizen, but there are certain things we just cannot say and should not say as Christians. That example of Paul, where he realized he had said something out of season, out of step with God's word about the ruler, the chief priest, who was an evil dude. David Morris gave a great devotion on Wednesday night a few weeks ago on gossip, and gossip is when you're saying something true, but it's out of season. What a helpful, simple definition. There's a lot of things we could say about our governing rulers that are probably true, but should we say them? Can we say them with respect? Can we say them while still honoring those governing authorities? So we have to serve God, knowing that those governing authorities are placed over us by him, and so that changes how we're going to disagree with him. Our disagreement has to be marked with we're doing so still in worship to God. Last point, submit to order. Submit to God's order. Four simple commands, verse 17.

Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

That's worthy of you committing to your memory. I love passages that make something so complicated so simple without oversimplification. There's more commands in scripture than this, but this is an incredible list that puts different complicated relationships next to each other so we understand how they all relate to one another. This is incredibly helpful. Four simple commands with four different directions. I believe it's shorthand in many ways for a lot of the more significant commands in scripture. I believe the best way to look at this list of four is to see it as two pairs, and that's not the fruit, it's two combos, two sets of two. One's horizontal, one's vertical. The horizontal commands, honor everyone, love the brotherhood. That's how you're going to relate here. That's gonna relate next to each other, where you're living in your home, where you're working in your place of employment, or where you're worshiping in church. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood. It's important we understand the object of those commands to understand why they're different. Every brother is a person in everyone, but not every person is a brother. You see, honor everyone, That's referring to every human being. The everyone is every human being, everyone made in God's image. Your neighbor, your coworker, even your enemy, all are made in God's image. As believers, we must hold that as a first essential truth. When we're talking about another human being, no matter what they've done, no matter what they've done to us, they're God's image bearers. They have a significant dignity and worth because of what God has done. Now, it is terrifying whenever humans start talking about other humans as like a subspecies or a different kind of being. That's where atrocities take place. We have to understand the Darwinian worldview does this by definition. The conflicts we see are when we see people treating others as inferior in their being and worth. We have to be very careful of any worldview that seeks to erase the uniqueness of humans by either elevating other creatures or creating a hierarchy of being and worth and value. It's really amazing to think about that honor everyone. There's an atheist historian who's done significant work and his findings as an atheist show how Christianity has blessed the world by promoting marriage, women's rights, protection of babies, protection of the innocent, righteousness. That's that honor everyone command that Christians are supposed to hold out for every human being. The next is love the brotherhood. I believe you go from everyone to kind of think about your family table. There's a way in which you're relating to your family. This is family language, differently than everyone. I believe here we could hear Jesus saying, love your neighbor as yourself. That's an equal kind of love. Love one another, the family of God, as Christ has loved you. There's another step, honor everyone. Well, then love the brotherhood, those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ. The family imagery is that we are all now brought to the very table of God. We take the Lord's Supper together. We go to the table of Christ together. We've been adopted by the Father together. We share in the same love of God together. Those two mutual Horizontal commands are important to set next to each other. Understand, the love is a higher calling than honor. A well-ordered life prioritizes God's order. Well, that second pair, what I'm gonna call the vertical, fear God and honor the emperor. Now, the trick here is the word honor is the same exact word, but I believe it has to be a little bit different because, well, it's not, you're called to honor the emperor in a different way than everyone. that fear God. It's a reverence of worship and a fear of terror. The emperor isn't to be feared. It's worship. The emperor is meant to be honored, to show deference, to esteem highly. He is to receive honor, but God alone is to be worshiped and feared. Let's look at it this way. Our fear of God is why we honor the emperor. Our fear of God is why we honor everyone. Our fear of God is why we love the brotherhood. It's a God-oriented, centered life. Every relationship must first be ordered around who we truly fear, have a reference for, and it must be God. There's two unhealthy kinds of fear that we could have of our governing authorities. We're terrified of them and how they might impose laws on us, or we have a reverence for them as if they're our saviors. Christian, you're free of both of those. Fear God, the good ruler, who has not withheld any good thing. He's given us even his son. A healthy fear of God keeps you from an unnecessary terror of the government. A fear of God where we worship him alone and we see him as holy, holy, holy. All power belongs to him. All authority is his and he uses it for the good of all of his people. So we do not fear the earthly emperor while we submit to him. We fear God and we revere him. We have a healthy understanding of his holiness as sinners, and we are thankful for governing authorities on this earth that would punish evil and curb sin according to God's will. We fear God, knowing that anyone who has any power in a position is appointed by him. Now, the logical question is this. Well, how could God allow such sin from such a powerful person? I think if we had a different lens, we'd probably ask a different question. Probably more, wow, it's amazing how much sin God has hindered from taking place. We see atrocities. It's a real question to ask. I believe the significant focus here is by God's common grace, he's actually kept more evil in his restraining power from happening than would have happened because he's good. We've seen here fear relate to God once before. So that's in chapter one, verse 17.

And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

He goes on, this is right after he said, be holy for God is holy. And this is right before he tells us we were purchased by the very blood of Christ. For that fear of God not only affects our relationships, but our fear of God puts before us He is going to hold us accountable. Not judgment and condemnation, but judgment and holding us accountable for everything we've done and everything we've said. We see the weight even more now. This is the will of God. Do good. Be subject to your governing authorities. This is the will of God. Serve the Lord using your freedom for an opportunity to do good. May God give us the grace to see his goodness. May God give us the grace to submit to those we're gonna disagree with significantly because of the position God's put them in. May God give us the grace to be faithful and proclaim him. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your word that shows us your good design, that we were designed to be ruled by you, under your goodness, under your authority, to exercise all the power we have as your image bearers to reflect you and your goodness. And Lord, we thank you that you show us how in our sin we've refused to submit to you And so these governing authorities are designed to protect us from the sin we have and protect us from the sin all around us. We pray for our governing authorities, pray for our police officers, our city councilmen, our mayor, our governor, our congressman, our president, our Supreme Court. Lord, may they be blessed by you with the grace to fear you, to govern with a fear of you, to govern for the good of the people. Lord, may we be faithful in praying for your will and your righteousness among these governing authorities. May we seek your grace to be faithful even in the midst of suffering and persecution if they reject you. Lord, may we never lose sight of how good you are and that you rule us with your good word. You rule us with your good power that saves us from our sin. And you promise, justice is sure. It might not be tomorrow, but it is sure. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.