Romans 13 The Role of Earthly Citizenship

[00:00:00] Amen. Let the church say Amen. I was thinking about that song we were just singing about the beauty of the earth and then it goes on in the second verse to say for the beauty or the joy of human love and relationships and then also it talks about for the church, thankful for the church and for the gift of salvation for the Lord himself as the gift he has given to us in the last verse. We didn't thank the Lord in there for government. How many of you are thankful for government this morning? [00:00:31] Alright, some of you are, not many. How would you like to have no government? I think then that would make us thankful for government. And it is true that the government that we live in and under seems to increasingly encroach into our lives and bring us discomfort and bring us annoyance at times. but really overall basically I think we should be thankful for our government and thankful for those whom God has, the laws that God has placed over us [00:01:03] and those who administer those laws, many, many people doing what they can to administer the laws but there are those of course that are corrupt and we hear about that a lot and we think about justice not being served in some of those cases But overall I think we should be thankful that God has placed governing authorities And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning from Romans chapter 13 So you would turn in there in your copies of the scriptures to Romans 13 And I want to talk to you this morning about good people and government [00:01:36] Notice it's not about people and good government It's not even about good people and good government It's about good people and government Good people and government and how that our goodness in chapter 13 of Romans gets fleshed out in relationship to government and in relationship to our neighborhoods and in relationship to our personal integrity and walk of holiness. So think about those three things as we look in verses 1 through 7 about good people or God's good people, [00:02:12] God's people in relation to government. and then verses 8 through 10 God's people God's good people in relationship to neighbors to our neighborhoods and then the last four verses 11 through 14 God's good people in relationship to personal integrity and their walk of holiness and so the Bible says in Romans 13 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 [00:02:48] authority resists the ordinance of God and those who resist will bring damnation on themselves or 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 will 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 is God's minister or let me insert the word servant it could also be translated servant [00:03:22] he is God's servant he is God's minister an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath but also for conscience's sake for because Because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. [00:03:54] Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet and if there is any other commandment are all summed up in this saying namely you shall love your neighbor as yourself love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of [00:04:26] sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed the night is far spent the day is at hand therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk properly as in the day not in revelry and drunkenness not in lewdness and lust not in strife and envy but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill people, its lusts. May God add his blessing to the word that is read. God's people are to be good people. God's people are to be good people. May I remind you that one of the aspects of the fruit of the spirit is goodness. So what is goodness and how are we to reflect that in our relationships, in our relationship with government, in our relationship with our neighbors, and in our relationship with our [00:05:26] personal walk of holiness three times here in chapter 13 verse 3 and 4 he talks about good for rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil do what is good and you will have praise of the same and God or minister government is God's minister to you for good and I see the theme of goodness traveling all the way through running all the way through chapter 13 good being excellent [00:05:57] beneficial useful and morally excellent is the meaning of good it has the idea of good character and a good disposition now the reason we are to be good people is not so that we can that that because we want to just be nice there is a difference between being nice and being good being nice you go to ABC warehouse and the guys there have you ever gone in there and they are waiting at the door they're like vultures you know but but they're nice vultures okay they are nice [00:06:33] they want to sell you something but they're dressed up they got white shirts on they got ties on they got slacks on they're really very they're very nice how may I help you but that doesn't mean that they're good they may not be good they may have sinister motives they may have selfish Nyangsh motives. They may have right motives. We don't know. All we know is that they're nice Well, God has called us not just to be nice But he has called us to be good and there is a difference. Goodness is the virtue of being [00:07:05] Of good character of being beneficial of not just being attractive The good man, in many cases, someone has said, has been replaced in modern society with the nice guy. The nice guy who looks nice, he's polite, he's friendly, he's kind, but he has no goodness about him. [00:07:41] goodness is an internal trait niceness is something that you can put on and so the fruit of the spirit is not niceness but it is goodness and so what is good we are reflection of the good God that we serve why should God's people be good is so that we can earn points so that we can be well liked so that our message can get across no there's a deeper reason why we should be good we should be good because God is good amen God is good in fact Jesus said it like this there is [00:08:17] none good but one and that is God and so when somebody says he's a good man we ought to deflect that and say well I'm not good but God is good and Christ in me is good and so we are to reflect The good God who has transformed our lives In chapter 12 To whom we have given ourselves as a living sacrifice Who has given us spiritual gifts so that we might serve others [00:08:50] And truly be virtuous and the moral excellence of goodness As a reflection of the character of God goodness is a moral quality of righteousness courage valor it is being useful beneficial benevolent and profitable it is an inner quality that expresses itself then as niceness politeness yes that's part of it but it expresses itself in so much more and that it expresses itself [00:09:24] In good works that point people to our Heavenly Father who is the ultimate goodness. Now, you keep that in mind in relationship to what we're going to see here this morning about government in this rather familiar passage of Scripture. And I'll be honest with you, I wrestled with this passage of Scripture. I'm still rather wrestling with it, even this morning as we work our way through it. In fact, yesterday morning our Conquer group met for an accountability group and I asked some of the men this question to help me process some of the principles [00:09:57] and so if I come through with some of the suggestions that some of these guys made and they had some good thoughts about Romans 13, believe me and so if I stole your thought this morning I could just automatically give credit to all the six guys that were in the group but nevertheless, no, there's some good, good thoughts so what we want to see is goodness, human goodness, God's goodness man's God's people's goodness in relationship to government the first thing that we see in relation [00:10:28] to government is that every soul should be subject to the governing authorities the word authority there has the idea of someone who is in charge of something and to be in charge of something means that there are those that are being led who are being in some cases controlled who are being motivated who are being looked over and so we have here we see that there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God so first thing we have some [00:11:01] good information here about government's origin about government's origin notice I didn't say and he didn't say good government's origin see we got to get our adjectives in the right place good people in relation to government he of course living under Nero and under Rome a pagan condition, an anti-God, well an anti-Christian God anyway, mentality, they had lots of gods but if you didn't bow their knee and give allegiance to the supreme God which had manifested himself in Caesar [00:11:36] and proclaimed that Caesar is Lord, you were on the outside of acceptability in Roman government and in Roman society and the Jews wouldn't say Caesar is Lord the Christians would not say Caesar is Lord and so that put them on the outside of legitimacy as far as the Roman government was concerned but he said let every soul be subject to the governing authorities and there is no authority except from God those that exist are appointed by God they only exist because God [00:12:14] has appointed them all authority here's the thing that we learn is all authority is delegated by God if you are a husband today you have a certain amount of authority in your home that authority does not reside in you it is delegated by God upon you okay and so we use our We use our authority, whatever we have, as an accountability from God to God for the benefit of those that we serve. [00:12:47] And so we also see that in relationship to fathers. If you are a father, you have authority in your home. You use that authority which has been given to you by God, placed upon you as a mantle, to do what is best for those who are under your care. So it is with the church, the authority of the church, or pastoral authority. These offices that we fill are not because of who we are, it is God's delegated authority upon the church or upon its leaders [00:13:20] to serve and to serve those who are under the care of the church. And so government and authorities are governed or are delegated by God and the authority is God's servant it is God's servant and we'll talk in a little bit about what God's servant does in relation to government now authority is good in its proper place and immediately our minds go in this passage of scripture well what about bad government what [00:13:54] about self-serving governors well he doesn't he doesn't address that he just simply says let every soul be subject unto the governing authorities and they are God's servant to accomplish certain things so what does God want to accomplish through government now in the purest sense government is to punish evil and to reward good he talks about that he says that they are not a [00:14:25] to good works but to evil they are government is God's minister for good to execute verse 4 to execute wrath on him who practices evil and so it is to reward those who are good by creating a sense of well-being in a community allowing those who are good to freely function in their goodness and allowing those who are bad to be restrained allowing them to be restrained restraining them Who are bad to keep them from harming people [00:14:57] And that's basically the role of government in its biblical sense And that has the idea also in relation to national security There are people who say, well, government should never go to war with anybody Well, that's not what God says God says they are there for the punishment of evil doers And the reward of good, of well doers And so if there is a threat to national security they are God's servant to protect the people under or within their boundaries so now if you are a bad [00:15:31] person doing bad things then you should be restrained and you should be afraid because they are not a terror to good works in other words if you're doing your job you're doing it right and you're obeying the law you don't have to worry okay you don't have to be afraid you don't You don't have to be looking over your back shoulder to see if there's a blue and red blinking lights behind you Because you're doing what you're supposed to be doing in a good way [00:16:03] You're driving, you're conducting your business in a way that is helpful, beneficial But if you are not doing what is good, you should be afraid He said because they will, they have the authority to punish, they have the authority to condemn they have the authority to mete out justice now this is important for us to realize because many if not all of the laws that have been instituted even in our own government are a result of some bad person or entity that wants to hurt and take advantage of people for its own self [00:16:47] you take a lot of the labor laws if you study the the use of labor laws and and again we have government that's encroaching it's annoying it's getting too deeply entrenched in our lives we get that but why is that is because there are bad people in the world who through the years have taken advantage of people not paid them a fair wage exploited women and children so on you go back and you look at the institution of labor unions and we've been not supportive of labor labor unions and understandably so but you know why labor unions were put into place we're called [00:17:20] into existence because corporate greed and corporations and and uh and uh heavy-handed bosses were exploiting people who were at their who were dependent upon them children were being required to work 10 12 15 hours a day women were being exploited and families were not being paid fair wage and so the labor unions came into existence labor laws came into existence and so [00:17:50] when you when you trace these things back it has at its root some bad person doing some bad things you take even building codes now this will rankle some feathers but even building codes are a result of the fact that there are some people who will try to cheat and will try to short change and will try to build with inferior building practices and inferior building products and it will wound people and injure people injure the public so the government comes along and says we will punish the bad we will reward the good and because people are increasingly doing bad things and the human mind is capable of all kinds of inventions that that are exploitatious or exploiting of other people and the government has to respond to those things they think and rather than the public policing itself [00:18:43] government has to police its people now that's what we mean by that the root of the beginning of some of these these things have a result are a result of bad people doing bad things exploiting people hurting people now how do we respond to that how do we respond to government so we've got some information here now what is our response he says i want you to be subject to it be subject to the governing authorities word here means obedient to place oneself under the authority of the governing bodies [00:19:19] the governing authorities and be cooperative do not resist he says therefore he who resists the authority resists the ordinance of God the servant of God and so don't resist the word resist here means to arrange an army in opposition so don't arrange an army or set things up to oppose and resist government in fact that should take care of the militia movement where we arrange an army of citizens so that we can stand against [00:19:53] the oppressive government when it comes to get our stuff and I said don't do that don't do that instead of resisting be a good man because good men do not need government to enforce goodness are you with me good people do not need government to enforce goodness only evildoers need government so be a good person be good not just be nice but be good be cooperative [00:20:26] be willing to pay your dues taxes to whom taxes are due customs to whom customs are due fear to whom fear that's respect and honor now as much as I disagree with his policies and as much as I don't like necessarily particularly like some of our governing authorities we should honor them we should respect them if if a dignitary came in even one that we disagree with [00:20:56] we should show the Christian courtesy of honoring that dignitary and how do you do that how do you do that well one way you might stand uh you certainly don't bow but you might stand uh you would be polite you would be kind you would be generous you would express a concern for them as a person that's difficult for us to do in our mentality which the American people have built up against government we are suspicious of government we are it's bothering us it's it's [00:21:31] encroaching upon us but we have to kind of get past that and say you know what the governor the governor is worthy of respect the laws are worthy of respect worthy of honor someone has said this it is impossible to be a good Christian to be a good Christian and a bad citizen and that's That's what this passage is about, is we are to be good citizens as good Christians. I don't hear too many amens this morning or see too many heads nodding, because this [00:22:06] kind of goes against how we've been trained to respond as conservative Americans. We have a conservative view of government. That's okay. That's fine. I do as well. That's where this hits me. I wrestled with this. how do you appeal to government when government is is abusing its authority how do you pray for government how do you respond to government God convicted me of at least one wrong thing that [00:22:38] at least one but a specific thing that I need to repent of in relation to this whole thing and so he wants us to cooperate and then he talks about good works it is impossible to be a good Christian and a bad citizen now your community may call you a bad citizen but if you're not a bad citizen it doesn't matter what they call you so if you're on the outside of the cult of Caesar [00:23:10] they may say well these Christians are bad citizens but like Daniel they have to accuse Jesus in relationship to our faith and not in relationship to our character. And there's a difference. Because in the life of Daniel, they said if we're going to find anything wrong with Daniel, Daniel was a good man, a godly man. They said if we're going to get anything, if we're going to find anything wrong with Daniel, it's going to have to be in relationship to his faith because his character is good. [00:23:43] So we need to be good. citizens and serve our community how do we serve our community how can we serve our community we've been asking off and on in the last year we've been asking this question I'd like to ask you a question this morning is your community is our community not just even right around the church but specifically here but even your community around your house is your community Is the community any better because you exist there? [00:24:19] Is the community around Living Water, is the community here in larger Goshen or Elkhart County, is it any better because we exist? Are we so detached that we don't think about doing good for our community? You can say, well, our presence there keeps the crime rate down. That's kind of a passive goodness. that's kind of a blessing of presence but I'm talking about an active goodness is there anything happening in our community that the community would say boy if living water [00:24:53] disappeared the church burned down and all the people with it there was no more living water that our community would suffer I'm asking the question just for us to think about because if we're ministering to our community the government will be much less likely to run us out of business Jesus said when the impact of the gospel is no longer felt in the world around the church [00:25:24] then the church is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and to be trodden under the feet of men but if it's good for something if it's ministering, if it's serving if it's making our communities better then they'll be much less apt to throw us out on the dunghill so can we recognize that government has a god-given role to keep people safe to punish evil and reward good and can we appeal to those qualities in government and encourage them [00:25:56] the governors to take on their god-given role i think it's appropriate my personal belief is that It's appropriate times to appeal to government and to let our voice be known and heard as good, godly people Reminding our governors that the only authority they really have is from God They are appointed by God, they are answerable to God And we can also say, really, you want to do the best job that you can to serve our community [00:26:31] we recognize that we applaud you for that and we appeal to you on the basis of conscience now he does refer to conscience here he talks about not just avoiding God's wrath and avoiding their judgment but about actually living according to our conscience for conscience sake that God would speak to you if you're not a good citizen and show you how to be a good citizen that God would speak to you about not violating your conscience [00:27:03] through obeying what you can obey and not violating your conscience through civil disobedience if it violates the word of God as we understand. God uses government to accomplish his purposes. Daniel chapter 4, 17 says that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men gives it to whomever he will and sets over it the lowest of men and I think you could say women in modern times. [00:27:39] God has a purpose. What are some of the purposes of God for government that he allows bad government to happen? Number one, he allows bad government to happen for discipline. For discipline. To refine his people. God allows bad government to refine his people do you believe that still not many amens a few almost nods but can you affirm that God uses bad government to discipline his people [00:28:12] Amaziah Amaziah was an old testament king second chronicles chapter 25 verse 20 Amaziah was king He appealed to the king of the north and he said, let's go to war to each other, with each other. The king of the north said, responded back and said, you're crazy, man. You are like a thistle trying to pick a fight with a cedar tree. And the wild beasts are going to come through and mow you down. But Amaziah continued to pick the fight. [00:28:44] Why? Because the Bible says that the Lord had appointed this. God was behind it to stir up Amaziah so that the king of Israel could come down and clean his clock as it were So God was motivating Amaziah to initiate his own destruction God do that with governments today, I believe he does And God uses governments to discipline his people You look at the government in Russia [00:29:16] and the church in Russia back in the last century, in the early part of the 20th century, how that God used government and the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of communism to discipline a church that had grown large and fat and prosperous and apathetic. And it happens. The second thing that God uses bad government for is for judgment. What's the difference? Well, discipline is to correct. Judgment is to destroy. and he uses governments to destroy governments he uses kingdoms to destroy kingdoms and powers to [00:29:52] destroy other powers you look at the whole old testament he and a lot of the old testament prophets were talking to this nation and this nation and this nation and this nation god's going to judge this nation with this nation then he's going to turn around and judge this nation with this nation and he destroys nations to accomplish his purposes on the chessboard of world history maybe a bad analogy but nevertheless man is simply being moved along by God in relation to the nations to accomplish [00:30:24] the larger picture that God has in mind and he uses nations to destroy nations the third thing is he uses government bad government to test his people to test us the exodus midwives who were By the king of Egypt, go out and destroy all the boy child, boy children. When you get there to help the Hebrew wives and women have their babies, all the boy child's children, destroy them. And the midwives refused. Why? [00:30:55] Because the text says the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded. It's an example of civil disobedience because the king commanded them to do something immoral, unethical, sinful not right sinful etc Moses's parents they kept their son because they feared God and believed that God had a plan for this child Daniel he didn't even go back to pray and close the window he went back to pray and left the window open so that no one would think that Daniel had [00:31:28] altered his plans and his faith because of the decree fourthly God uses bad government to spread God said his word to establish his glory the early church is an example of this how that they the authorities as they began to persecute the church the Bible says that they scattered they went everywhere and they went everywhere preaching the word everywhere preaching the word listen to what first Peter says to reinforce the teaching of Paul Romans 13 beloved I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims there you have two kingdoms you have the two kingdom concept we have the [00:32:06] kingdom of this world, we have the kingdom of God. As sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. That sounds like the last part of our text here about putting off the old man and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh. He said, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, you're on the outside looking in and they're condemning you. You may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. [00:33:06] as free yet not using the cloak using liberty as a cloak for vice but as bond servants of God honor all people love the brotherhood fear God honor the king there you have it now we just want to touch here briefly on the second third point the second point being goodness in relationship to our neighbors and our neighborhood you see good people don't need government to enforce goodness good people are good and reach out and minister and owe no man anything you see you know how much [00:33:42] is is is spent today in in in in the judicial system just to get people to follow that verse of owing no man everything anything just look at judge what's her name judge judy or judge pontus pilot or they got so many of these judge shows today uh that are that are trying to get people to pay what they owe. You got this civil unrest. You got this party against this people. This person owes me $3,000. I don't owe you $3,000. You owe me $5,000. And I don't [00:34:17] owe you that. And then they fuss and fume at each other. Good people don't need that. Amen? Goodness in relation. Owe no man anything except to love one another. And there again you're serving you're loving you're serving knowing that your neighbors feel that you are not out to get them but you're out to serve them you're out to serve them for he who loves has fulfilled the law and here it is all of the horizontal laws in the in the ten commandments [00:34:50] of course you have the two kinds you have the vertical laws in relation to God God shall love the Lord thy God with all the heart no graven images those kinds of things no idols don't take the Lord's name in vain and then there's the horizontal I shall not steal I shall not kill I shall not bear false witness thou shalt not commit adultery all of those in relation to my fellow men are kept by love and so if I love you I won't steal from you I won't murder you [00:35:21] I won't commit adultery with your husband or your wife I won't covet and I won't bear false witness against your character love and see that's the thing that we ought to owe and then we don't need government looking over our shoulder love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law verse 10 so we're to be good in relationship to our neighbors seeking the best for those around us fulfilling our obligations for the best of those around you fulfilling the law the perfect law of love and then the last four verses we see goodness in relation [00:35:57] to holiness goodness in relation to holiness we have good vision he said i want you to wake up i want you to open your eyes that the the day has come we're we're no longer walking in the night the night is far spent the day is at hand let's cast off the works of darkness how fitting the day before halloween casting off the works of darkness let us cast off and walk properly as in [00:36:28] the day not in revelry and drunkenness not in carousing not in sexual impurity lewdness or promiscuity lust and certainly not in quarreling and jealousy strife and enmity and those things that are part of darkness have nothing to do with them. Witches, goblins, sorcerers, and death, destruction, and darkness, demons, goblins, goons, whatever else the world puts out. [00:37:09] I hate to even walk through that section of the department stores. He said, well, they got Christmas up two months early. I mean, it's a month. Get Christmas up as soon as you can. Get that other garbage out of here. It all speaks of darkness. Put off the works of darkness. That's not the only thing that he's talking about. He's talking about personal dark works, works of our own personal life. Put those away as well. Make no opportunity for the flesh to gratify its desires. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. [00:37:43] Listen to what Jesus had to say in Luke chapter 12 For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed We think we can hide things May I offer to you an example of not being able to hide things that you think you've hidden Have you heard of WikiLeaks? Have you heard of reappearing emails? Have you heard of reopening FBI cases? because more information keeps flooding out I tell you what especially in the information age [00:38:16] you can't hide anything or very much and when it comes to God you can hide absolutely nothing if he wants to reveal it he has a way of doing so he said there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be known therefore whoso whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light that which you have spoken in the ear and closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops Ecclesiastes 12 14 says for God shall bring every work into judgment [00:38:51] with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil the good will be uncovered the evil will be uncovered and not only will government stand to condemn but God will stand to condemn, to judge, or to vindicate. 1 Corinthians 4 or 5, Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come. There are things that just won't get judged until Jesus comes back. Are you okay with that? [00:39:23] I struggle with that. Lord, I think you ought to have at least some consequences for that thing right now. He said, Judge nothing until the Lord comes. There will be a time when everything gets brought to light. says who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart ouch I mean he's not going to just reveal the deeds but he's going to reveal the motives and then shall every man have praise of God so part of our faith is to be willing to wait [00:39:55] for future vindication that means to clear us of wrongdoing and future condemnation to judge and condemn the evildoers. One thing that this chapter is calling for, that's goodness. God's people reflecting His glory, His character through moral excellence of their own character. Not because we have it innate in ourselves. [00:40:27] We're not just trying to put on niceness. we're actually being transformed to reflect the goodness of God let's pray Lord God we thank you this morning for our government and Lord we see various aspects of government that are becoming oppressive becoming annoying at least and even becoming ungodly Lord we recognize that we can be at peace with that when we know that you use government to discipline you use government to judge [00:41:01] nations use government to refine your people and test them and use government to spread the word and establish your glory and so lord whatever we have ahead of us in the days ahead in relation to government we know not what that will be for sure but we do know what our response should be for you have communicated it plainly to us today and so Lord would you help us to be good [00:41:32] not just to be good but to do good but to be good men and women that reflect the character of a wonderful, benevolent gracious, good and morally excellent God it's in his name that we pray and appeal for your blessing and your protection. Amen.