Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Romans 13. Romans 13. This world was created by the Word of God. Nothing has evolved. Nothing
has changed. The way that God made it is the
way God made it. That's where Genesis 1.1 says,
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And when God created all these
things, He ordered everything according to His will and His
purpose and His power. He did what was pleasing to Him
and He set in order everything. This is the way you see this
world operating in nature, what I'm
talking about. This is the way God did it. The sun comes up and the sun
goes down and it's fall and it's winter and summer. Everything
works just exactly the way that God said it to be. All of the laws of this universe is according to when God says
it will be. Ecclesiastes 3, 1, to everything
there's a season, a time to every purpose under the heaven. The
reason that you're sitting here this morning and that you weren't
here in the time of Egypt is because this is when God determined
that you would be born. Your parents and their parents
and back, back, back, back, back, all the way back to Adam. Almighty
God determined all things would be as they are. There's no accidents. No accidents with God. Well,
knowing that Almighty God raises up, puts down all authority according
to the counsel of His own will. Romans 13, 1 says, Let every
soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power
but of God. The powers that be are ordained,
they're ordered of God. When we realize that civil government
is an institution of divine origin, then I'm going to tell you something.
The obeying of the laws of the land is worship. That's worship. That's obeying
God. Almighty God has set them up.
All governments are subject to God Himself, and believers are
subject to the government, the law. Let every soul be subject
to the higher powers. Now, there's a divine picture
here, and you know what it is. This world is based on reward for obedience and punishment
for disobedience. That's I mean, if I were to bring
it, you know, you said, what is the divine order of all things?
That's it. That's it. Almighty God has ordered. Obedience is rewarded. Disobedience is punished. Now,
you know, and I know this glorious Picture right here is set forth
in the very obeying of a stop sign. There's a picture right there. Obey and you're free. Disobey, get caught, and you
pay. That's the way it is. of Almighty God is established
in all things. When men say they'll stand before
God and they said, I never heard. Yes, you did. Nature itself is
an order. It's etched into our very fiber. Obey the law that every soul
be subject To the higher powers, I said, turn with me to 1 Samuel
8. I mentioned this the other day,
and we're getting ready to elect a new president, president, vice
president. And you know what the real issue
is? You know what the bottom line
is? I'm talking to us right here.
I'm talking to believers right here. You that believe. How much
have we asked that Almighty God have mercy on this country and
establish the leaders of this country to be those that are
appointed by Almighty God according to His will and His purpose. Now, we sit here and argue about
something all day long, but I'm going to tell you something.
Ask. Ask. You have not because you
ask not. What's the real issue here? It's
God's will. God's will. 1 Samuel chapter
8. 1 Samuel 8. It came to pass, verse 1, when
Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now,
the name of his firstborn was Joel, the name of his second,
Abiah. They were judges in Beersheba,
and his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after
lucre money. They took bribes and perverted
judgment. Then all the elders of Israel
gathered themselves together and came to Samuel and to Ramah,
and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not
in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel
when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed
unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel,
Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto
thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected
me. that I should not reign over them according to all the works
which they have done since the day that I brought them out of
Egypt, even unto this day wherewith they have forsaken me and served
other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto
their voice, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show
them the manner of the king that shall reign over them." What
happened? Samuel was a faithful prophet.
He had two boys. Those two boys didn't walk in
the way of the Lord. They were scoundrels. And the
people came and they said, man, we need a king like everybody
else got. They didn't ask for God's direction.
They didn't ask for God's leadership and guidance. And it grieved
Samuel. He talked to the Lord about it.
The Lord told him, he said, they hadn't rejected you, they rejected
me. He said, now I want you to, I want you to, you give them
what they want. Give them what they want. You
protest, protest against it, but you give them exactly what
they want. Verse 18 of that same chapter.
And you shall cry out in that day because of your king, which
you shall have chosen you. The Lord will not hear you that
day. Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of
Samuel. I'm concerned about this nation.
I love this nation. I love it and I appreciate it.
I appreciate the men that served in the armed forces. You, Scott,
Freddie, a few other guys, Bob. I wasn't in that long, just a
little bit. There's some men that truly served
and gave, and I appreciate it. I love this country, but I'm
going to tell you something. This is what I desire. I desire
God's will, God's purpose. Ask Him. Let us do that which is right.
Ask of Him. Well, 1 Samuel 9 verse 15, it
says that, Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before
Saul came, saying, Tomorrow, about this time, I will send
thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and I shall anoint
him to be captain over my people Israel that he may save my people
out of the hand of the Philistines for I've looked upon my people
because their cry is is come unto me. And when Samuel saw
Saul the Lord said unto him behold the man whom I spake of thee
of this same shall reign over my people then Saul drew near
to Samuel in the gate and said tell me I pray thee where the
seer's house is and Samuel answered Saul and said I am the seer go
up before me unto the high place You shall eat with me today and
tomorrow I'll let thee go and will tell thee all that is in
thine heart." The Lord listened. He gave the people what they
asked for. We want a king. We want a king
that's going to straighten this mess out. We've got a problem
here. We want to know. Just for the sake of time, let
me tell you what happened. The Lord allowed Samuel to anoint
Saul. The Lord told him, he said, this
is what you're going to have. This is what you're going to
have. And sure enough, boy, I tell you, it didn't take long. Saul
was told by Samuel at the Lord's appointment, he said, now, he
said, the Amalekites have been disruptive, disrespectful to
my people. I want you to go in there and
I want you to destroy all of them. I want everything. I want everything. I want everything destroyed. I don't want any of it left. Give it up. Give it up. I want
men and women and children and animals, and I want everything,
everything destroyed. I'll not have any gods before
me. So, boy, I tell you, Saul went
in there and, boy, I mean, took almost all of it out. He kept the king and he kept
the best of the sheep and some cattle. He did take it all. And so after the battle was over,
Samuel came to him and Saul told him, said, I've obeyed, obeyed
the Lord. I've done it. Samuel said, you
have. He said, yeah, yeah, I'll bathe
the Lord. He said, well, what's that sound I hear over here with
the bleeding of the sheep and the cattle? Oh, well, he said,
the people, you know how they are. They wanted to keep some
of the best so we could sacrifice unto the Lord. And God told Samuel, He said,
now, I'm going to take the kingdom away from Saul. because he was
going to have mercy on his people. And he raised up another king.
And he gave him David. And God raised up a king that
was after his own heart. God had mercy. I mean, one of
the greatest stories of the mercy of Almighty God toward a nation.
He raised up a man that God had taught. That's all found in 1
Samuel 16. You can you can read that, but
that's that's what happened. The scriptures sets forth. Let
every soul be subject to the higher powers, there's no power
but of God, the powers that be are ordered of God. We don't have because we didn't
ask. The thing that I want to impress
upon God's people. We don't look at things that
are visible, things that are invisible. Ask. Ask. Pray. All authority is ordained of
God. Parents, you are the authority
over your children. You are the authority over your
children. Whenever your children disobey,
Please take care of it. Please. For your sake, for their
sakes, and for everybody else's sakes, when they are disrupted,
please, please take care of it. The Scripture is exactly explicit
on what to do. Don't let the blueness of their
wound. Don't let that bother you. The Scripture says they're
not going to die. They're not going to die. If they're children,
Listen, your parents are your authority. Don't speak disrespectfully
to them. If they speak to you parents
in a disrespectful way, reprimand them. Take care of them. And I'm talking about I have
no right right now. I have no right to speak to my
mother disrespectfully. She is my mother. And when she
speaks to me or asks me something, the answer is, yes, ma'am. Yes,
ma'am. Yes, ma'am. She's my mother. I'm her child. She is, as far as this world
is concerned, she's my parent. That's divine order. Husbands,
you love your wife. You love her, and you take care
of her, and you speak to her respectfully. And wives, you
submit yourself, adapt yourself to your own husband. Don't speak
disrespectfully toward each other, old lady, old man. Bosses, you treat your workers
with respect. Mark, those guys that work under
you, they owe you respect. You treat them with respect.
The Scripture says, let every soul be subject to the higher
powers. What does that mean? That means whoever's in authority. If your boss offends you and
you're going to get back at him, I'll tell you one thing. This
job right here ought to take, I'll be able to do this in about
three hours. I'll stretch this one out to eight. I'll show him. You're a thief. You stole from
him. You stole from him. A thief. Don't do that. Don't. The only limitation is
when the higher powers demand that which God forbids. Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, three boys, they were told by Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar said, listen, got this golden image all lined
up. Now we're going to fire up the
band. And when the music starts playing, everybody bow down to
this golden image. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
said, we ain't going to do that. We're not going to bow down.
Told him, he said, now you don't bow down. He said, I'm going
to throw you in. He said, well, may do it. But we're not going to bow down
to that image. The only time that you have any
right to not obey is when the demand of the higher powers demands
something that which God forbids. If your boss tells you, you know,
got somebody in the organization and they're not acting right,
why don't you go bump them off? Well, now you know better than
that. I mean, you know, how much obedience only to the point that
it does not go against God's law? Verse 2, Whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they
that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Now, the word there, damnation,
does not mean eternal. It means the penalty. That's
what it's talking about. It's the will of God that all
civil government be established. This government, as I said, is
a type, it's a picture of man's responsibility before God. God has a law. It demands obedience
and you resist it and be found without a substitute or a mediator
or one to obey in your stead. And this is it. This is what's
going to happen. Resist that which is established
to be right. And you'll pay. There's a pay
coming. You obey and you live in peace. I tell you, disobedience just
comes naturally to us. Disobedience is a natural thing
to man. Obedience before God is accomplished
only one way. Perfectly. The Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." You know, if we realize,
and I'm talking to myself, I'm telling you that this is the
attitude that I have. Whatever the posted speed limit
is, for me, that obviously is probably about five miles too
slow. I don't know how they came up with 70 miles an hour on the
interstate. I mean, you know, obviously that's
not, you know, but do you know that? I mean, I'm breaking the
law. There's a stop sign, you know.
And I'm just, you know, I'm I'm doing a complete yield. But the
bottom line is this. If I'm caught doing that, what
have I got to say? It was a rolling stop. Rulers, verse 3, are not a terror
to good works, but to the evil. Will thou then not be afraid
of the power? Do that which is good, and thou
shalt have praise of the same. I mean, do what is right, and
you'll have the commendation of the law. Do what is right.
There's a lot of times a police officer, for some of you that
don't know it, which I'm sure nobody in here doesn't know this,
a lot of times a police officer will sit out here in the parking
lot and, you know, he's waiting. He's waiting for somebody to
come by, speeding. He's waiting out there. Now,
you know, I'll be sitting in here in the study. And I can
walk out and that police officer is sitting he's sitting either
right there in the middle or there's another one that sits
right here facing that way for any of them coming from Katie.
And do you know when I'm sitting in here and I just walk outside
I'll holler at him speak to him. Do you know I don't have any
any fear whatsoever of him? Why? Because I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything wrong. I
was in here. I wasn't driving. I didn't have
any fear. Rulers are not a terror to good
works. I didn't do anything. If I'm
driving and the speed limit is 45 and I pass the police officer,
I passed him while he's been sitting here. And do you know
if I'm doing 45 miles an hour right here, it didn't bother
me one bit, Brother Scott, to pass him. Why? I was doing the
speed limit. It is not a terror to good works,
but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid
of the power? Do that which is good, and I
shall have praise of the same." I want you to turn to Matthew
25 for a second. Matthew 25. Everything we're talking about
right here is a saver. of our obedience
before Almighty God and having no fear before Him. If I know
that all of my righteousness before God's law has been established
by Christ who has obeyed perfectly, then I have no fear of God. But the question is, what do
you think of Christ? What do you think of Him? Matthew
25. Verse 31, 34, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the
throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations
and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided
his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, the goats on the left. But then shall then
shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, you
blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. And look at verse 41, Then shall
he say to them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Now
the question is this, what's the difference in the two groups?
One's called sheep, the other's called goats. One of them enters
into everlasting glory and the other enters into everlasting
damnation. What was the difference in the
two? It came down to obedience. It came down to obedience. Obedience
before God. Now, I know this in myself, I
can do nothing. In myself, I cannot obey. I might say that I want to obey,
but it comes down to ability. Ability. I have no ability. to be able to obey God's law
perfectly. Therefore, I know that I must
have a substitute. I must have someone that will
obey for me. Knowing I have no ability, I'm
honest about it. The Scripture sets forth in that
third verse, rulers are not a terror. to good works. If I know that
I stand totally in Christ, then there's no fear of God's wrath
to me. And that's a blessed thought. Verse 4 says, He is the minister
of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil,
be afraid. For he bears not the sword in
vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil. This government, and it doesn't
matter, I mean, whether it's city government, state government,
federal government, whatever, all of them, all of them, government
and the laws of the government, is the institution of God, a
picture a picture of God's law and His demand for obedience,
and the reward for obedience and the punishment for disobedience. That's what I'm saying. Nobody in here is going to ever
say, I didn't know. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. This world is set under a government
of laws. And the rule is, obey the law
and you're okay, and you disobey, you're not. That's just as simple
as I know how to put it. And it permeates through the
very fiber of our existence. What would society be like without
authority? What would it be like? Chaos would reign. We're taught
every day, God is a God of order. Order. The most repulsive The
thing that there is, is chaos, disorder, nothing settled. You just don't want to be around
it. You don't want to have anything
to do with it. You want order. You want peace. Scripture says in verse 5, Wherefore,
you must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for
conscience sake. The believer sees the order of
God in the laws of this land. He sees that. Men by nature just
see it as a hindrance. You know, I mean, if I didn't
have to fool with all of this stuff, man, I'd get along a lot
better. That's the natural thinking.
And I mean, that thinking permeates all of us. Don't get me wrong.
But believers are taught. subject to the law of the land,
not only because they're afraid of the penalty. I'll be honest
with you. I don't want to get caught. I don't want to pay a
fine. I really don't. I mean, if I
get pulled over for speeding and I found out it was $175 or
$313 or whatever it was, man, that You know, that five miles an
hour really wasn't that much. Not only, the Scripture says, must needs be subject not only
for the wrath, but also for conscience sake. What does He say? It's the right thing. It's right. It's right. That's what I was
talking about a while ago. Children, Ephesians 6.1, obey
your parents in the Lord. This is right. It's right. Servants, Ephesians 6, 5, be
obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh
in singleness of heart as unto Christ. Do that which is right. Do it not only because you're
afraid you'll get caught. If it's just because you're afraid
you're going to get caught, well, everybody thinks that, but for
a believer, it's the right thing. Is there any honor? Is there
any honor? What about honor? Do the right. Do it right. Ephesians 6, 6, not with I service
as men pleases, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God
from the heart. I tell you what, I love just,
I've seen men, seen the evidence of men. I've looked at some of
these old buildings around here, and I told you before, I love
architecture. Go in, see some of these beautiful
staircases, and I thought, boy, what honor there was in craftsmanship. I love to see someone, when they
do something, do it to the best of their ability. Why? Because
there's some conscience in there. They're not trying to just get
by, Jane. There's some honor to it. Not because you're afraid of
the wrath, but for conscience sake, verse 6, for this cause
pay you tribute also. Well, they are God's ministers
attending continually upon this very thing. You know, since all
authority. Is ordained of God, the maintenance
of that authority is to. We. We pay our taxes. This is what it's talking about,
in case you don't realize, but it's called pay your tribute.
It's talking about taxes. We. We gripe about it and I'm
with you. I don't want to be unfairly taxed.
I really don't. I don't think that unfairness
in taxes. But if it's going to be fair,
well then let's set the standard and make everybody pay according
to the rules. Everybody's going to pay. But
we're going to have to pay. Why? Whenever a policeman is needed,
I won't be able to have one there. If my house is on fire, I'd like
to have a fireman if I possibly could. No one enjoys it, but
we enjoy the benefits of it. What does it cost for our freedom?
What does it cost for our freedom? Taxes. That's how we establish if somebody
flies an airplane into the World Trade Center. You know what I
want? Let's go get them. Let's go get
them. This is our country. And you
flew an airplane into our country. And that's an attack of war.
I would like to know that there's an army, an air force, a navy,
you know. But what's it going to cost for
me to have that? It's going to take payment. Let
me ask you this, what did it cost for me to be free? Humanly speaking,
taxes. Spiritually speaking, it cost
the blood of Christ. It cost everything. Everything. Am I willing to give, humanly
speaking, he's talking to the Lord through the Apostle Paul,
talking about tribute. For this cause, pay whatever
it costs, and pay it fairly. They are the ministers of God. What did it cost to free me?
It cost everything. It cost the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Scripture says in verse 7,
Render therefore to all their dues, Tribute to whom tribute
is due. Custom to whom custom is due.
Fear to whom fear. Honor to whom honor. Pay men
what they are due. Pay them what they're due. If a man does something for you,
if he works for you, pay him. Pay him. A workman is worthy
of his hire. You know, I want to try to get
the best value, but if a man is giving me a fair price, don't
make him feel bad. Try to chew him down and stuff. I mean, he's got a family too. Tribute. Pay tribute. Taxes on property or income taxes
is what we would refer to that as. Custom sales taxes. He says
pay fear, pay obedience, honor, respect. Pay a man what is due. What is due? Verse 8, O no man anything but
to love one another. For he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law. What does that mean? O no man
anything. I've heard people say that this
is proof that you should never borrow any money. Let me tell
you something, I don't know about you, but it'd be hard for me
to to really have ever had some things. House thing like that
just didn't happen to have that much cash on me. So therefore,
I would go and I borrow money. But when it says, oh, no, man,
anything. Here's what it means. If you
have borrowed some money, you borrowed $100,000, whatever it
is, and you're buying a house, you're buying a car, you're buying
whatever you're buying, if the note on that payment is
$700 a month, whatever it is, do you know what you owe $700?
You say, well, I owe the rest of it. Well, not this month.
But pay it. If you owe it, pay it. If you
owe somebody something, pay them. And if you don't have the money,
call them. Call them. Don't hide from them. Man, I'm telling you, if I sold
something to somebody and they owed me something, And if I got
the impression that you were trying to hide from me, now you
started to scare me now. But if you'll call me, just tell
me. Marvin, I'm sorry. Look, I know
I owe you $20 or something like that, but I just don't have it
right now. Can you give me it? Sure. Don't
worry about it. I'd probably tell you to forget
it. Now, if it gets to be more than $20, I don't know. But owe
no man anything. Don't owe someone Except, Paul
says, to love him. Owe no man anything but to love
one another. What does he mean by that? You
never completely pay the fullness when you owe a man. You never
pay him enough, Neil. That's what he said. I can't
say, well, I've loved Neil. Look, I've paid him all I owe
him. I ain't loving him anymore. You never come to a point to
where you've paid up loving a man. Loving? No, no, no. Oh, no man
anything but to love him. Well, you never pay completely
that debt. The Lord God said, I've loved
you with an everlasting love. Oh, I'm so glad He didn't say,
I loved you. Until this point, no more. I've
always loved you. How much do we love the brethren?
Yeah, I can't love you enough. How do I do that? How? If I owe you something else,
I can pay you. And we're done with that. That
debt was taken. But not to love him. O no man
anything but to love him, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled
the law. That's the order, the rule of
the law. The greatest indebtedness ever
occurred. was when the Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin. What did He give? All. All. He loved His own and He loved
them to the end of that life, but that love never stopped.
He died, but not His love. Verse 9, For this, thou shalt
not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, If there
be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, thou should love thy neighbor as thyself." You
know what? If you love a man, you love him,
you know what? You're not going to steal anything
from him. You're not going to take his wife or husband. You're
not going to take his money. Not if you love him. Not if you
love him. Not if you love him. Man that
says he loves him, you know, and then he'll do something against
him to hurt him, steal from him, lie to him. Anything that you'll
do to somebody to hurt them, you lie to them, you'll steal
from them. You don't love them. You don't love them. Don't tell
me you love them. No, you're a liar and a thief. Don't tell
me you love them. Don't tell me that. Thou shalt
not. Thou shalt not. Love, verse 10,
the last one, worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love
is the fulfilling of the law. Love delights in the happiness
of another. Prevents us from injuring those
that we love. Let me ask you this. What would
the Lord do to hurt those that He loves? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Chastisement. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
Somebody say, you see there? That hurts. Not to a believer,
it doesn't. Not to a believer. No, sir. Greatest blessing that I'd ever
receive in this life is for God to chasten me. Why? Because I deserved it. I told
you this, my son Gabe. told me after he was grown and
gone, he told me, he said, Dad, the best thing you ever did for
me is spank me. Best thing you ever did. Not
to leave me to myself. You know, love, love, love is
going to look out for the best of those who are the objects
of that love. He loved me with an everlasting
love. What did he do? He didn't leave
me to myself. He didn't leave me to me. Leave
me to me. And I'm telling you, I'll tell
you this, I'll have the worst attitude toward God. Let me share
this one thing, too, and I'll close. I was talking about discipline
and I had somebody tell me one time he was talking about children.
And I know that I know that many will say, well, Marvin, you harp
on kids all The very fiber of our society, now you listen to
me, the very fiber of our society is founded and grounded on discipline. Discipline. Discipline of children
causes children to raise up to have respect for authority. If
you want to know what your children will think of you when they're
grown, listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. Children
will have respect for those that discipline them and those that
leave them to themselves and say, well, I love them too much.
I'm just not going to, you know, they will not respect you. They
will respect those that loved them and disciplined them. They
love them. They respect them. They respect
them. Whenever you find one that God
has called out of darkness and has brought Him down in His estimation
of Himself and taught Him what He is by nature and chastens
Him, lovingly chastens. I'm not talking about God doesn't
abuse His children and we're not to abuse ours. But there's
a big difference in abusing them and discipline them. You discipline
them in love and God Almighty does too. But whenever God has
brought me down or you down, in the estimation of ourself,
and we see who He is, and He's God, He's in control. Not me, He is. Gives me a heart
after Him. Do you know what I do? I respect
Him. Thank you. David said, You've
dealt well with me. You've dealt well with me. Thank
you for not leaving me to myself. And Paul was dealing in this
first portion of this Scripture with obedience. Obedience to
the rules. Those that are in authority.
But the underlying truth that's set forth here, it permeates
all the way to the throne of Almighty God. Obey God. Obey God. What does a believer
want to do? Obey God. That's what I want.
I do not want to be found in disobedience before Him. God,
help me to stand before You in Christ, for in Christ alone I
am obedient.