Who are you Accountable Too

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Greetings to you in Christ's name. I would like to ask a question at the outset of this message. But what would you say if someone would ask you, who are you accountable to? I think most of us would say that I'm accountable to God and there's some degree of truth to that. [00:00:36] We are all accountable to God and I don't think there's a person in here that would argue about that. We are accountable to God. I sure hope that we understand that. That's fairly common. But I would like to talk, speak about divine order this morning. If you are accountable to God, who else are you accountable to? Is it true that God has placed us within an authority structure? I think we would agree to that as well. [00:01:08] If we fail to follow that pattern, if we step outside of that authority structure, I think you would also agree with me that the results can be disastrous. Not only here, but in the time to come. I would like to notice several passages at the outset here, and then I've been minded to speak about three different areas. [00:01:40] But who is the ultimate source of authority? I think we would understand that God is. God is the ultimate source of authority. And King Nebuchadnezzar, when his understanding was returned to him, said this in Daniel 4, 34 and 35, And I praised and honored him that liveth 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 heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? [00:02:19] Now, that is a rather lofty picture of God, but I think he's deserving of it. That is who God is, and his method, his mode of governing his people is not very democratic at all in nature. Not at all. Not if, and I believe this is true. He is supreme, and he has supreme authority, and he has the last say in everything that happens. [00:02:56] And it doesn't matter what I think, that's still the way it is. That's just the way it is. He has the last say, whether it's in my life, or it's in creation, or it's in the brother's life that is sitting beside me. But in our age of democracy and a democratic government where all of us seem to want or have a say in what happens I hope that we're not part of it Don't consider ourselves part of democracy around here [00:03:29] Rather we are belonging to God's kingdom But it almost seems to me sometimes that this influence is making an impact on the church and God's people Where we all tend to think that I have a right to stand up for what I feel. And feelings influence a lot. And in this thing, there is a loss of appreciation for the absolutes of God's word. [00:04:01] What God says is there for my instruction, my admonition, and all of us. The rules never change. And God has never swayed by peer pressure or popular opinion. He's always right there. The same today, yesterday, and forever. Now, that assessment of God makes some people ask the question, is God then distant and angry with me? Is he? Is God angry? [00:04:37] Well, what does John 3.16 say? And there are many more scriptures, but that one just popped to my mind. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. You know, God loves us, but you know, there's a point. We can get a point. Read John 3.36. The wrath of God abideth on those that do not do the will of the Father. I'm not quoting the verse word for word. But there is, God has established an authority and he has given us a volition and if it seems as though God is angry or judgmental, it's probably because I put myself in that place. It's not because he has done it to me. [00:05:23] What I want to say here, and we are, if we are professing, if we are born again believers, we are under a theocracy. And this many times involves much more than what I think or comes to mind immediately. God has placed us in an authority structure. A theocracy, we don't use that word very much. A theocracy means simply that we are God controlled and God is the ultimate ruler and he is the one that calls the shots. It doesn't matter how we try to manipulate things. God is still in control and his word will stand. [00:06:13] Now, we all know that, and this may be a side note, that God is not the author of confusion. And even creation, nature, teaches us some things about the God of order. And simple little examples in creation around us. Now, you take the English sparrow or the starling out of his natural habitat. He may have been a beautiful bird in England, I don't know. But they're pests here. because they're not within God's order anymore. [00:06:47] They were, I don't even know the whole story, but I think they came over with some ships and they are out of God's order. In Florida right now, they're having problems with the boa constrictors because people have had them as pets and they escape into the jungle or wherever and they're out of their, they don't have natural enemies and they're killing animals to the point where they have to go hunt them and they're reproducing at a rapid rate and it's just chaos. [00:07:18] But God's order has been disturbed, the order of creation. Now, this is just simply for illustration's sake. God is a God that has order and he expects order from his children. Now, are we accountable to God alone? Am I? Well, all of us are. There are many people that have professed to place themselves in submission to God. But these same people, many times, and I would venture to say that I've probably been there myself, have resisted authority. [00:08:05] The authority structure that God has placed them in. God in his wisdom has placed us in authority. The church, the family, the home. We are accountable to people. God has placed us in an authority structure. And the interesting thing about this is the world rebels against the authority structure That the Christian should at least readily submit to you. [00:08:38] But notice this, that the world around us and the business world, they operate on a similar authority structure. They just don't recognize it. You look at any business structure and think about what Jethro told Moses to do when he told him you cannot handle this by yourself. He put in place, what do you call them, deputies? He put in place an authority structure where Moses was up here [00:09:11] and when you do business, if the company is large enough, you have a CEO up here and you have vice president of operation of sales and I'm not in that type of thing, but I've seen it and it happens. And in government, you have the same thing. They would not, but the buck stops somewhere And somebody is in authority. Now, I don't know if that is the natural inclination of man to do that or not, but it makes sense. And that's what God expects. But that's that's the world. [00:09:45] How do we fare as Christians in operating peaceably in an authority structure would be the question that I would like to deal with this morning. And, of course, in this thing of the home and the church, there has been endless debate on who's responsible. And I just want to say this this morning. [00:10:19] There are some things that need to be done in the home, and there are some things that need to be dealt with at church. But they should complement each other. Out of our homes should flow a commitment and respect for the authority structure of the church, and the church should respect and support the family, I think, as well. Now, I've chosen to speak just briefly on some of these different branches of authority, of the authority structure in our lives, and there's three things, the civil government and the church and the home. [00:10:57] And you may think of others and it might be three messages. I started preparing for this and I got about halfway through my studying and I felt like scrapping it and doing something else and I wasn't sure where to go with it. So bear with me. I'd like to read a passage in Romans 13, verse 1 through 6. And first of all, dealing with the matter of the civil government, Romans chapter 13, 1 through 6. [00:11:28] And this is Paul writing here. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise for the same For he is the minister of God to thee for good works [00:12:02] If thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake For this cause pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing Now, Paul wrote this at a time, I believe, when the government was probably not too kind to him. [00:12:38] And I want to be clear about this, that there are some things that I do not believe. I want to be careful. We have to, there are some things that our government may promote that we do not feel comfortable as Christians. And our Anabaptist history has taught us that we are first responsible to God. We answer to God and his. But I want to quickly say, though, that rebellion against authority, especially where there is no scriptural scripture being violated. [00:13:18] It does bring damnation, just like it says here in verse two. If we are going 85 miles an hour in a 60 mile an hour zone, I don't see where we have anything to defend ourselves. And I don't know if I need to say much more about our civil government, except that there is a way to respectfully disagree without causing a fuss. and there is a place to appeal [00:13:49] although we do not believe in force I do not believe in force but that is one of the authority one of the heads or branches of authority that God has placed us under and praise the Lord we are too free here we have had a government that has supported Christianity I don't know if anybody here has any idea what it would be like to be stopped on the way to church. [00:14:27] Now the second one I would like to focus on a little bit is the church or the brotherhood. And I, because of some of the things that we are involved in There is even argument about what a brotherhood should consist of Or what a church should look like And there is a movement today And probably has been for a long, long time That promotes a loosely structured church [00:14:57] Just, we, no one is really in charge and no one is really accountable to the person sitting beside me on the bench. And I don't know, probably all of us have at some point or another been in contact with that type of church, that type of doing things. And on the surface it appears good. [00:15:29] Good. We get together. We're not accountable necessarily. Nobody's really in charge. We just come to worship. But is it scriptural? Is that scriptural? Is that the way God wants it? If the early apostolic church is any indication as to what should happen in a church, then I think we have ample teaching about how a church should be structured. And what I'm saying is simply this. There were ordinations. There was leadership. There was discipline in the church. All of these factor in. And there was accountability. [00:16:12] And I wondered what was Paul saying when he told Timothy to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. I think God has, in his word, established an order for the way church should be. And if we're not accountable, why did Jesus express himself in Matthew 18 the way he did? Brother to brother and then bringing it to the church. It, it, it sets a precedent. It, it shows the importance of being accountable. And I would ask this, if we don't want to be accountable to anyone, what kind of an experience have we had with the Lord? I just want to leave that with you. [00:17:01] I remember well an incident that happened and this was quite a few years ago did not happen in this setting I'm not talking about anybody that you would probably know maybe some of you would and there was this this thing I was fairly close to this situation where a sister confronted another sister about a covering that she was wearing And it was the type of covering that was kind of on the edge in that setting at that time. [00:17:34] And I remember so well the response that was given. I will wear what God tells me to wear and you have no say. Just be quiet. Don't say it. Is that what God wants for his people? I would say this morning that we have seen churches that are in ruins because of that very spirit, that very spirit. [00:18:06] That rebellion against, we say we are not rebellious against God, but when we are rebellious against the authority structure that God has set in our lives, when there's a continual questioning spirit, we are already in rebellion against God. And I'm not saying this because I think it has to be my way or a certain way, but there is validity in brotherhood and promoting unity. [00:18:39] When we all speak the same spiritual language, that unity can go forward. Now, I would like to examine the family structure this morning. And I am departing from what I have said. I would not speak too much about the home because I'm in midstream. And I'm not telling you about my home this morning, but I would like to talk about what I think God is saying to us about the family structure. [00:19:11] And of course, our experience wherever we go has an impact on us. and recently we have been taking foster care classes and that has just opened my eyes to things that I didn't know were possible hardly or maybe I knew it but I just was not made aware of it and these things came to the forefront and I'm not about to teach you a class this morning on foster care, it would take way too long. [00:19:44] Well, we'll leave that. God has provided a successful blueprint for the family and the family structure. And it is not God that is messing up when there are struggles in the home. It is when I am no longer where I'm supposed to be that the home ceases to function the way the home should. And when we don't function as we should, we get out from that umbrella of protection that God places over us when we stay within his authority or under his authority. [00:20:28] Now, I think we would all agree that society around us is abandoning the values that the Christian home would promote, or that God would want us to promote. The home, the way God ordered it, is a defense against society. It is there for the, for the, when our homes are ordered the way they should be and our children go forward, we are sending out our children as fingers in society. [00:21:10] I can't think, I don't know if I can pronounce the word that I want. Perpetration. We are going beyond our borders when we have a God-ordered home. And I think we are well aware and have heard from, I think all of us have heard from Child Up what the structure should be of a home. But I think I'm going to look at just a few scriptures this morning. And the first one is in Genesis 3, verse 16, right out of the garden. [00:21:45] And this is what I'm getting at is what should our homes look like? And I want to say this. Sometimes, well, I've heard this statement coming from unmarried people, singles, if you may. Where do I fit in? Well, let me tell you, you have, there are authority figures in your life too. You have the church and God, of course. And so, if you're not necessarily in a home setting, it doesn't mean that you're, well, I haven't noticed that from our singles anyway. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. [00:22:23] In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desires shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Now, I don't know, that may seem a little heavy to this side of the aisle, he shall rule over thee. I don't know how you find that. But, and I looked at a number of different, almost all the different translations that I could find on my computer anyway, and almost all of them said this, and he shall rule over thee. [00:22:58] I don't know, there's commentators are not on the same page as to what the writer is saying here. But at the very least, Moses writing here is giving a directive on the home, on who should lead and who should be. And I don't think, I want to be quick to say this, that it is not a matter of superiority in the husband at all. It's a matter of authority and taking responsibility where God has put us. [00:23:34] It's not that one is of lesser value at all, not at all. And husbands and wives should function as a unit, not as an odd match, I guess I want to say. And I think we would also recognize this morning that there have been times when we have simply failed as men to take our responsibility [00:24:07] and there have been wives that have been forced into the position of doing some leadership things that have been very detrimental to homes. Now, I don't know if you like what Paul says in Ephesians better, but I would like to read a couple of verses in Ephesians. And I think he reiterates at least what was said, not word for word in Genesis, but Ephesians 5.21. He kind of puts this whole thing, what I've been trying to say all morning in a nutshell, I think. [00:24:41] I'm going to read from 21 in Ephesians 5, chapter 5, verse 21 to 25 for now. Kind of breaking in. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God The first verse there I think fits with the church Submitting And you know there's other places that we read about submitting one to another Yea all of you be subject one to another I think Peter writes And then he goes on in verse 22 [00:25:13] Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord For the husband is the head of the wife Even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body, therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Paul is rather matter-of-fact, I think. There's not a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings coming out. [00:25:46] He just says it, and this is the way it's supposed to be. He does not say, love your wife if she's kind to you, or submissive to you, or perfect, or any of that. He just says, husbands, love your wives. And the same is true. He doesn't ask our wives to be submissive only when you're married to the hunk of town. [00:26:19] I don't know how else to say it when he's tall, dark, and handsome. But he's just saying this is the way it is. Now, I would like to first of all focus on the husbands because I think that we bear responsibility to a large degree in how our homes are ordered and what comes out of our homes comes back. If we are in authority, it comes back to us. [00:26:51] And there's this last verse that I read about husbands loving their wives And then he says something else He says, even as Christ has loved the church And that puts a different spin on things How did Christ love the church? He gave himself It's a different something now When we talk about ordaining ministers We talk about shepherd leaders. It's a different position than a salaried position. There's a difference between a secular leader and a godly leader, and that goes for the home as well. [00:27:34] You know, when things don't go well, well, let me say this, and I don't know if I should say, well, I'll just say it. I've told my wife that when my children are in order and they're behaving, then they're my children. I like to take credit for that. But you know what? Things don't always go so well. Do we still stand in the gap? A shepherd leader, one of the things that a shepherd leader does is when things don't go well, we stick it out. [00:28:06] The shepherd is there to go on the other side of the fence and get the sheep back in. And it doesn't matter, I'm not only talking about our children now, I'm speaking, if there are relationship issues, whatever happens, who's there? Who should be there? Who is responsible? You know, it's our inclination to just kind of shrink back. And I'm not talking about being forceful or mean, but simply being kind and loving and continue to be loving. [00:28:41] It is our responsibility. Christ's love did not stop for the church. He kept going until he finally gave his life for the church, for me. It is the responsibility of the father to make sure that his children get proper training and discipline. And it is not, it is not, having a family is not for the faint of heart, I've said. It's not always cut in stone. [00:29:12] It's not always clearly laid out. But it is our responsibility, teaching and training, to a large degree, And what is motivating fathers to teach and train? If it's only so that I have done my job now and I have told Junior to get in line and that's it and to shut up at the supper table, it doesn't carry much weight. [00:29:45] It doesn't go very far. But when we get, when we fathers get to the point where we have a love for the soul and we have a vision beyond tonight or tomorrow or getting that child to quiet down so that I can keep going with my business. You know, I'm not exempt from these things, but it's so easy to sit there and read a book or read the paper and your child wants attention and there's several responses and finally the child gets in the way so we take care of it and we just deal with it or we just continue to ignore. [00:30:31] We're not taking our responsibility seriously. Well, there is another aspect to teaching and training. Sometimes I think the greatest amount of teaching that is done is done in the way that we conduct ourselves in our home. the relationship that we have with our wives, our neighbors, our brother in church, whoever it is [00:31:03] you are teaching something if we can't stand that school teacher what do you expect your children are going to say? probably the same thing fathers, it's important you are teaching without spanking you are teaching by example Remember that man that limped, and his sons limped, acquired trait. Our children are learning as they see their father and mother go through life. [00:31:39] And you know what? One of the things that became so evident to me as I sat in these foster classes, and they showed us some things that were horrible, abuse. And I almost felt like I had to defend myself, but I didn't. I suggested one evening, would you agree with me that if there is a stable home setting, a lot of these issues don't come? And they didn't agree with me. They felt like it was just simply the fact that this abuse and things that happen can happen to anybody. [00:32:14] But brothers and sisters, it's not true. You can see almost immediately in the workplace if a person comes from a stable home setting and they have been taught character. And I'm a firm believer in that. Kind of lost my train of thought now. But let me just say that again. Fathers, our responsibility, we carry a lot of responsibility to teach and train. And I've said, I guess I just want to reiterate [00:32:48] Somebody's watching you Somebody knows what you're doing Somebody knows if you're upset You don't have to say anything To the wives, I don't know if I should even say anything But Paul does say, ask simply that they submit to their husbands And submission, this word submission In this, the Greek word is hypotasso, I think they pronounced it. [00:33:20] It's an old military figure of speech and it means to line up. It means to subject yourselves in line in a specialized way. I don't know if all that helps or not, but there is something, there is strength. When there is submission in the home, there is, what is it? It's God's blessing on our homes. [00:33:52] I don't know how else to say it in just a few words, but it is God's blessing. And this is not an attempt to lift one up or put one down or speak to one side of the house. This morning I would like for us to simply consider who is calling the shots. Where am I at? What am I doing? Submission should not be a fear like the slaves had. [00:34:24] And I don't think it's hard, I believe firmly that it's easy for wives to submit if there is a loving husband in the home. I think the Christian home should be the epitome of Christianity It should be a little bit of heaven on earth And I think I've seen homes in our congregation that have exemplified that Just a little bit here at the end What are the results, some of the results that we see [00:35:00] When people step outside of God's divine order, we see homes where children are almost running the home, where there's anger expressed and there's tempers flare, there's argumentiveness and there is all of these together maybe. And, you know, who suffers when we as parents don't take our responsibility seriously? [00:35:33] Is it me, or is it the children? And, now, back to our classes, I was made keenly aware that somewhere, even the world, somewhere, if we don't take responsibility, I'm talking about maybe the society around us more than just here. I hope I am at least. But I noticed something. They take care of it somewhere. People are dealt with somewhere. And our prisons are full of people. [00:36:12] and our courts are overwhelmed with people because they were not taught, they were not trained. And I sat in there, I almost had to weep sitting in that class. They were showing us pictures of abuse and talking about abuse and in the state system you are not allowed to discipline or punish a child at all beyond speaking to it or having him or her stand in a corner. [00:36:47] And the thing that grieved me, finally it dawned on me that their philosophy of things is what is creating the problem that we're having, that we're even having to have foster care homes. And let me just give you a brief illustration. Here was this instructor telling us about the foster care homes that she felt had abusive parents because they made them sit still and listen. [00:37:20] And she was a foster parent herself. And one of the things you can never do is, you know, if your child, you have to do something. And your child doesn't want to eat. So, you can never say, you go to that room, I'll lock you in that room, you're not getting any supper. That's not allowed, you can't do that in the state system. But, a little while later she said this, one of my children just would not listen and I was in one of these foster care classes teaching [00:37:53] and the police called me and said, hey, your daughter's up here at the police station and why don't you, would you come up and take care of your daughter? We need some adult here in control. And she just said, oh, just lock him up. That's okay. You know, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't come out. It's not the way God wants it to be. If we don't take responsibility for our children, somebody will. [00:38:28] It always stops somewhere. Our doctors are trained to spot and report abuse. You know, there may have been a time when those things weren't necessary. And I'm not speaking. I don't believe there's anyone here that promotes abuse. I hope not. Now, homes. Homes have been destroyed. Devastated, devastated. Adults today are dealing with scars because of homes that have not been ordered the way they should have been. [00:39:13] Careers have been lost. Ministries have been abandoned because there have been people in churches that have rebelled, have withstood truth. I would just like to say this in closing. Micah 6.8 says this, He hath showed thee, O man, what is good and what the Lord doth require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. I think all of us are aware, most of us have been brought up in a Bible-believing home or homes where we've been taught. [00:39:51] And I would like to note this, if there are struggles, if there are things that are not the way they should be, what is it that Ann Lander says? If somebody writes her and says, is he worth keeping or not? That's what she says. Ask the question. What did Nehemiah say? And I think many of you will remember what Brother Daniel preached some time ago about rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem. [00:40:24] And I checked it out this morning, and if my memory serves me correctly, Nehemiah did not go out and get a whole new wall, but he rebuilt. And over and over again, it says he repaired the wall. If there is a breach in our home, in our church, in our life, do we have to get rid of everything or should we repair? I don't think we need to look at our spouse or our children as standing in the way of being where God wants us to, but simply restoring that relationship. [00:41:02] I just want to say this in closing. God has placed all of us where we are. And when each one of us stays where God has put us, in our appointed role, it brings blessing, it brings peace, and it brings harmony. To the home, to the church, to the school, and to our lives, it brings contentment. Shall we pray?