All right. During a trial for
a believer, we are brought low enough to look to Christ alone. And we're given rest, we're given
comfort, and we're given peace during that trial. That's during
the trial. It will make us see Christ, make
us see ourselves, our weakness. will bring us to Him, and we'll
have peace during the trial, looking to Him. His grace is
sufficient. He'll show us that. But after
the trial, once the dust settles, once the wounds are scarred over,
son, a little bit of calluses build up, then we are taught
the lesson of the trial. We're still looking to that same
Jesus. We're still looking to Him. But
we mature in faith after the trial, through that same trial,
but only after the trial. Once it's not painful for us
anymore, once we're not as sensitive to it anymore, then Lord will
teach us from that trial. The state just lifted the stay
at home order. You can go get all the haircuts
you want, as of yesterday. And traffic was busy. I'd go
across town. That happened the day before
we come to Romans 13. A year ago, almost a year ago,
I read you Romans 13, and I hope at that time it gave you some
peace. I hope at that time it gave you some comfort. But I
hope this trial that we've been through this last year, that
I've been through this last year, I hope the dust has settled enough
off of it. I hope the pain's gone away enough,
the calluses scarred up enough that the Lord can teach me something
and mature me in faith through this trial. Hope we've grown
some knowledge and understanding of this text that we're going
to have for this evening. But what I have to say concerning
some of the practical applications in this text, it's going to be
shocking to the majority of this nation. It's going to be shocking,
I mean slanderous, to most of this world that we live in nowadays.
And spiritually, what I have to say concerning this text spiritually,
its application to us, it'll be more shocking. to the unregenerate
heart, it'll be shocking. And I pray it's comfort to those
that the Lord's done a work in. I pray we can see the Lord's
sovereignty this evening. His ability, His sovereignty. And our walk in this world as
believers, that's our response to His ability. Our responsibility
is our response to His ability. And while we would want to walk
in a way that honors Him, in a way that serves our Lord, in
a way that doesn't bring reproach on this gospel. Why would we
want to do that? So often I say, God is sovereign. The Lord rules all things. He
controls everything. But me saying that is not a substitute
for me looking to the Lord. Me saying that the Lord is sovereign
is not a replacement for me resting in Him. me know when he's sovereign
and say it out of my mouth, that doesn't mean I'm believing on
him. A sinner that's redeemed by Christ,
by his blood, born of the Spirit, they will know that the Lord
rules and reigns all things. Unfortunately, our mouths repeat
things that our heart is not always reminded of. We're getting
a routine now. There's a big difference between
speaking of the Lord and crying out to the Lord. Are we hearing
that? There's a big difference between
speaking about the Lord and crying unto Him. That's about the same
difference as a trial, isn't it? We speak of Him until a hard
trial comes and boy, we'll cry out to Him. I pray our hearts
are reminded of our almighty, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient
God this evening. He is all-powerful. He is all-present
and He is all-knowing. Paul wrote to the church in Colossae,
said, put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that was created, that created him, where there
is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Christ is all to his people. And he is dwelling in each of
his regenerated sheep. He is all of our salvation and
salvation is all of Him, completely. But He also is everything in
creation and everything in providence. He's the creator of all things.
He's the ruler of all things, the sustainer of all things.
He is the fullness of the Godhead in a body, in all things. From the ruling of an atom, to
the heart of a sinner, to the heart of a king, to the ruling
of a home, to the ruling of a local assembly, a nation, the orbit
that this world travels around the sun. In perfect holiness
and in perfect wisdom, the triune God rules and governs absolutely
everything. All things. Turn over 1 Chronicles,
if you will. 1 Chronicles. After Judges and
Ruth, you got the Samuels, the Kings, Chronicles, and if you
get to Ezra, you went too far. You who believe, you who have
an interest in the gospel, we rest in knowing that our Savior
is all and in all in our salvation. But how soon we forget that He
is all and in all in creation of this earth and the sovereign
ruling of everything in His providence. Everything. 1 Chronicles will be in chapter
29. 1 Chronicles 29. We'll begin in verse 9. 1 Chronicles 29. 9. Then the people rejoiced,
for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they
offered willingly to the Lord. And David the king also rejoiced
with great joy. Wherefore, David blessed the
Lord before all the congregation, and David said, Blessed be thou,
Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord,
is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory,
and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and
in earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor
come from Thee, and Thou reignest over all. And in Thy hand is
power and might, and in Thy hand it is to make great and to give
strength unto all." Anything we have is of the Lord. He reigns over all, whether that's
the great strength of our bodies, of our understanding, of our
minds, or that's the great strength of the trial that comes our way.
He rules it, He reigns it, He sends it. There in Daniel 4.35
says, 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. That's us. It's everybody
on this earth. And none can stay His hand nor
say unto Him, what doest thou? He rules all people. Our sovereign
God does. We call them natural disasters,
don't we? I'm going to try to start calling
those natural decrees. There ain't no natural disasters.
It's just something the Lord sends, isn't it? It says in Nahum
1.3, the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.
The clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea. and maketh it dry, and dryeth
up all the rivers." We can't rebuke the sea, can we? We can't
hold your hand up and make a wave stop. You'll drown trying to
do it. We've seen big floods. Where I'm from, there's a lot
of floods. Floods every about 10 years or so, big ones. People
say, oh, this is something terrible. It's a disaster. God didn't want
this to happen. Psalm 29.10 says, He sits upon
the flood. sets upon the flood. All the
great things in creation are ruled by God. And so are the
small things. That's not just big tsunamis
and whirlwinds and tornadoes and earthquakes. That's all the
little things too. Cross said in Matthew 10, are
not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Aren't two little birds sold
for a half a penny a piece? They ain't worth nothing. We
got quail up there at our house. A mess of them. pay a farthing
a piece, get rid of them. They run all over the yard, don't
they? Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of
them shall fall to the ground without your Father. Not a bird
way out in the jungle that nobody's ever seen falls to the ground
unless the Lord controls it and decrees it in His providence.
That's just for the small animals on this earth. Now how minute
of detail does the Lord control in His power and all of His might
over His chosen vessels of mercy, those that He loved before time
and Christ? Does He look after us? The next verse in Matthew
10 says, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. The
hairs of your head are numbered. The color of the hairs on your
head are determined by the Lord. He controls all things. The casting
of the lot. People say, chance, fate. Chance and fate, the rolling
of the dice. That's a fool's say. That's fully at the disposing
of the Lord. There's no such thing as luck.
Brother David Edmonton, he probably stole this from somebody else,
but he said there's three ladies people always talk about, blame
everything on. That's misfortune, lady luck, and mother nature. No such thing. That's an imagination
that's deceitful from the heart, trying to turn away from God.
Turn back a couple pages there to 1 Samuel 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2. Here's a short
declaration of Christ's sovereignty in creation, in providence, and
in the saving of His people. He gives all life. He gives all
mankind their talents, their abilities, and success that He
wants them to have. And He is gracious to whom He'll
be gracious, and He keeps those that He's chosen to keep. 1 Samuel
2, verse 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. That's creation. He gives life
and He takes it. Verse 7, The Lord maketh poor
and He maketh rich. What about those evil corrupt
bankers? What about those big corporations? Who made them rich? The Lord
maketh poor, maketh rich. He bringeth low, and He lifteth
up. The providence of our lives is controlled by the Lord, and
He saves who He will. Look here in verse 8. He raiseth
up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from
the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit
the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them. He chooses
who He wills. And He sustains us. He preserves
those that He keeps. Look around verse 9. And He will
keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent
in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. All of
our strength in coming to the Lord. All of our strength and
trust in Him. Our strength doesn't prevail.
His strength does. He even rules the evil things
of this earth. Did you know that? by allowing them to take place.
And Amos 3 says, shall there be evil in a city and the Lord
hath not done it. Something evil happened in La
Mesa and the Lord didn't let that happen. Isaiah 45 says,
I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and I create evil.
I the Lord do all these things. Now the evil that is committed
is not of God. Listen to me. He is not committing
evil. He is holy and perfect. The judge
of the earth shall do right. But the evil committed is from
fallen man and from Satan. But God controls Satan and he
controls fallen man. Peter wrote to us in 1 Peter
5, Be sober, be diligent, because your adversary the devil as a
roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Who he's allowed to devour. He's allowed to devour everybody.
Did you know that? We saw that in Job 1. Satan reported
to the Lord. He'd come to him and he didn't
say, I want to get my hands on Job. The Lord said, what have
you been doing? He said, I've been going to and
fro. He said, have you considered my servant Job? He said, yeah,
but you've got a hedge about him. He said, do what you want
to with him. Spare his life. Put bounds around
him. All of creation. He did that
for the saving of Job, for the good of Job, for God's glory,
and he did that for our good too. Our brother Job endured
that so we can read about 4,000 years later. All of creation, from an atom
particle to the cosmos, is ruled by Christ our Lord for His glory
and the saving of His people. All of providence, from the chemical
reactions in our body, from cholesterol being in my arteries, to the
big trials, life events, from the conception to the grave,
whole lot, it is ruled by Christ our King for His glory and the
saving of His people. all principalities and powers.
Scriptures say the government is on his shoulder. And I thought,
you ever carried something heavy? I got to put two shoulders on.
All principalities and all powers. That's a whole bunch of mayors,
isn't it? Think how many there are in the world on one shoulder.
Don't need to. It's all on His shoulder. That's
just providence. And then salvation is all of
the Lord. From the intent to save, the
completion of saving, and the keeping of those that are saved.
Salvation is of Him. And back in our text. Romans 13. In light of all this,
I told you all that to tell you this. In light of all this, the
steps of the saints of God are ordered and directed by Him.
Our walk in this world is for the glory of God, it's for the
saving of His people, and it's for our eternal good. How are
we to walk concerning those that rule over us? Paul is giving
us some instruction here in this second half of Romans. We're
going to talk about rulers in this part. I want to go through
these. On each verse, I want to look at the practical. How
does this fit in shoe leather? When I go out that door, what
am I supposed to do? I want to do what's right. I
want to do something that honors the Lord. I don't want to be
a fool out and about in public. What am I supposed to do? More
importantly, spiritually, how does this affect us and why would
I want to do this? Romans 13, verse 1. 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. This applies from the top all
the way to the bottom. From the president, to the governors,
to the mayors, pastors, husbands, parents, police, and so on. Anybody the Lord's put in a position
of authority. For you young folks, that's teachers.
That's a position of authority over you and the Lord put those
teachers there over you. There's someone of authority,
the Lord put them there and we are to be subject to them as
unto the Lord who ordered them to be there and gave them power
to be there. We're supposed to be subject to them. What's that
mean? It's not only just to be submissive to them, obey them,
sit underneath them. That's to pray for them. If you've ever been given a new
heart to come boldly to that throne of grace, and you pray
for someone that's been put in a position of authority over
you, and you're mad at them, you get real mad at a boss at
work or the policeman that gave you a parking ticket or something
like that, earnestly go to the throne of grace and pray for
that person. And you know what? All the wind
out of your angry sails will get took out. Lord, they're a sinner. Oh, teach
them the gospel. Show them Christ. Give them an
eternal hope in Him. All of a sudden, he ain't mad
no more. He's subject to it. Pray for
him. Now, there are some truly wicked rulers in this world.
There's some wicked parents. There's some wicked spouses.
And they'll say, you're not allowed to go worship Christ. I don't
want you going to church down there. You ain't allowed to do
it. That's wrong. Or whenever a government says,
don't say Christ's name ever again. We have that recorded
in the scriptures, don't we? I don't want to hear his name.
It's illegal. You can't say it. Or whenever they blatantly go
against what the word of the Lord says in his scriptures. They come in and tell me you
have to marry Sodomites. Or you can't say election anymore.
You have to be all inclusive. God didn't say the people. We
are not to obey then when it comes in direct conflict with
the gospel, but we're still to pray for those rulers over us.
The Lord will deal with them, but we're to pray for them. They're
doing bad things. Oh, they're corrupt. They're
horrible. And it's obvious. Should I still
pray for them? Just let them go? Or do I pray
for them? God has saved some wicked rulers,
hasn't He? Nebuchadnezzar. He was a wicked
ruler of Babylon. They came and took over Israel.
Israel was under Babylon. And the Lord smote that man.
Made him walk on all fours and eat grass like a cow. He went
plum crazy. Took his mind from him. And he
wrote in Daniel 4.35, he said, all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he that he doeth according to his
will the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand nor say unto him, what doest
thou? He said, now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
that great king, conquering king, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are
true. and His ways, judgment, and those
that walk in pride, He is able to abase." You think Nebuchadnezzar
learned that? He's able to knock down a proud
heart. He's speaking from experience, isn't He? That was after his
trial was over. The Lord taught him something.
And you know what He does out of kindness and out of love?
He proclaims it. He tells what's done for him.
Physically, we are to submit to those in power over us in
the confines of Scripture. We're supposed to. Spiritually,
we are to submit to Christ. There is no power of salvation
in man, only in Him. That's what Paul told us there
in chapter 1 of Romans. He said, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. The powers that be are ordained
of God. The power of God unto salvation is ordered. It's ordained
for His elect children to be put in Christ. As sure as our
sovereign God rules all things in the hearts of His people,
He rules them in this physical world too. So we are to subject
not only our hearts to Him, but a whole of us. A living sacrifice
to what Paul said. Turn yourself over, lock, stock
and barrel. Why would I do that? Who put the ruler there? Keeps
going back to him, doesn't it? He must abase our pride to bow
us to Christ, as Nebuchadnezzar said. And he must abase our pride
to bow to the powers that he's put over us in this physical
body. Now, verse 2. Whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they
that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Physically. Does that mean if I get a speeding
ticket and I fight it in court, I'm going to hell? I've heard that. No, it doesn't. Of course not.
But just as a marriage is a picture of Christ and His church, those
in authority over us are a picture of God ruling everything in providence,
everything in creation, everything in the hearts of His people.
If we resist and we make it our mission, our focus to fight authority,
we are not rejecting those in authority. We are rejecting God
who put them in authority and we're taking our eye off of Christ
to do so. It's happening too much around
our world right now. And it's easy to condemn everything
that ain't on par with us. I think we ought to be fighting
on that flank. All these other flanks are bad,
but this one's okay. It always starts in the home,
don't it? Children don't obey their parents as they ought to.
How's the parents obeying? Am I obeying? The power is put over me. If
I'm not, why should my children obey me? But all that is rejecting God. That's the world's problem with
authority right now. They're not mad at whoever they're protesting
and carrying a sign over. They're mad at God. Remember, Israel,
they wanted a king so they could be like everybody else. We want
to be like all the other nations. Give us a king. The boy Samuel
warned them, didn't he? And the Lord spoke to Samuel.
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. They haven't rejected you, but they have rejected me, that
I should reign over them. Spiritually, in the saving of
His people, do we reject the power of Christ over us in salvation? Do we reject His power to call
us to Him? His power to keep and sustain
us? Do we come with our own plans and our own ideas and our own
thoughts, our own will and our own works? If someone comes to that throne
of judgment in their own merit, their own works, their own will,
they're not honoring God. They're not doing God a favor.
They're opposing Him. They are enmity with Him. They
that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Now physically,
what's that mean? If you go out and you resist
arrest with a police officer, you're going to be punished physically
or financially. You may get tased, and you may
get a fine, you may get both. Makes sense. That's something,
that's crazy stuff in our nation right now. If I was to go out
in the streets saying that, somebody would probably come up and spit at me or pepper
spray or something. That makes sense. That's logical.
Spiritually, if you deny Christ, demand to be judged in your own
works, in your own righteousness, you will receive eternal damnation.
Verse 3, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Will thou then not be afraid
of the power? Do that which is good, and thou
shalt have praise the same. Rulers are not a tear to good
works. It's a shame that we have to
say all these things, and there's a stigma around it in our day,
but if a police officer tells you to put your hands up, put
your hands up. Roll your window down. Roll your
window down. Give them your ID. They will
not be a tear to you if you do what they tell you to do. Little
ones, if your teacher tells you to do homework, Do the homework,
and you won't have terror on your report card at the end of
that semester. We understand these things, don't
we? Physically, we understand that. If we walk this earth as
people that believe God, we pay our taxes, we do what's right,
we mind our business, and we mind our words the best we can.
There's no reason for rulers to mess with you. There's no
terror in them. But if we're doing evil, if we're
doing something wrong, we have fear, don't we? My Sunday school
teacher in high school told us that. We all started driving.
And she said, do you want to talk about driving today? Boy,
he had all of our attentions then. You know, get a 16-year-old
talking about driving a car. And he said, when you're going
down the highway and you got your cruise set on 65, speed
limit 65, and you see a cop sitting there, he's clocking everybody. And you say, oh, look at that
guy. You just keep on going. Don't think nothing of it, do
you? But if you've got cruise control set at 80, He said, you reach down and you
turn off. You don't hit the brake, because they'll see them lights.
And I learned something that day. He said, you have a fear
run through you, don't you? You know what you're doing is
wrong. We know that. Do what you know is right. Obey
your parents, subject yourselves to authorities, and you will
have the praise for the same. What's that mean? In turn, you'll
respect them, and they'll respect you. Spiritually, what does this verse
mean? He's the ruler of heaven and earth. A terror of good works. Those that are doing righteousness.
Those that believe on Christ and love their brethren. Those
that do the works of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit. We just
saw that on Sunday. There's no law against the fruit
of the Spirit, is there? Do it all you want. He's not
a terror to those good works, is he? But God will by no means
clear the guilty. He's a terror to those outside
of Christ. Those that reject His power and salvation and approach
Him just contesting and fighting His Word. He'll be a terror to
them. See in this sovereign Almighty
God of all things, won't you be afraid? Won't you fear Him? Won't you bow to Him? Worship
Him? We've all done evil in His sight
against Him. Lord, I've sinned against You
and You only. Spiritually, Paul writes, Do
that which is good, and thou shalt have praise for the same.
Do that which is good. Come to Christ. There's none
good but God. And He's the Lord. Be subject
to Him. Come to Him. And thou shalt have
praise for the same. That's got twofold meaning. You'll
be praised on the merit of Christ. You will be good and faithful
servant in the eyes of the Father by looking to Him and believing
on Him because of who He is and what He accomplished for His
people. Be a child of God. And secondly, you will praise
God for His goodness and His mercy in coming to you, drawing
you to Christ, giving you a heart to believe. You'll be thankful
for your salvation. Verse 4, "...For he is the minister
of God to thee for good. But 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." Now physically, those putting
authority over us, it's for our good and Christ's glory. But
if we do evil, if we willfully Go against those set above us. Be afraid. The handcuffs, the baton, the
tasers, the pistol, the sheriff, he carries it not for show. It's
not in vain that those police officers going up and down the
road have those things. There's a whole lot of people that say
they're sovereign citizens sitting in jail right now. I don't have
to do nothing. I read the news not so long ago,
a guy carried a pistol in a bank. It said, I'm not in this country.
Gravity says you are. Physically, we know those things,
but spiritually, Christ made himself a servant of the Father.
He is our King, and He's our High Priest. He will judge mankind
in the light of the Word of God, and His sword will not be in
vain. He said in Matthew 10, Thank
not that I am come to send peace on earth. The world still thinks
2,000 years later. Thank not that I am come to send
peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. His
two-edged sword, it divides households, it divides families, it divides
close relationships, mother against daughter, by performing a heart
work in one and condemning the other. by giving a new heart to one
and offending the other. It's said in Hebrews 4, for the
word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and marrow, that's below the bone, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It's not what's on
the outside, that's what's on the end. He comes to us. Why do we need to submit to all
these men that the Lord put over us, and these rulers that's put
over us, and why do we need to submit to Christ? Look here in
verse 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject
not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. As children
of God living in this world, we must be subject to those that
our All-Knowing, our All-Wise Father has put over us. And not
only so we don't have to just deal with that known outcome,
physical pain and money, time and everything else, but for
our conscience sake, for our conscience sake, I wrote that
down. Imagine seeing me on the news, going viral on a YouTube video
of having it out with a police officer. Everybody that you know
has seen it. Oh, have you seen that guy? That's
my pastor. What a reproach that would bring
on the gospel. What a reproach that would bring on my brethren
if I were to do those things for conscience sake. Physically,
we ought not do these. But spiritually, we need to subject
ourselves to Christ. We need to come to Him, bow to
Him, rest in Him alone, and not just to keep from going to hell.
It's not just for condemnation. There's a whole lot of people,
a sane person doesn't want to go to hell. They want to go to
heaven. They have no interest in Christ. They'd be pretty upset
when they got there. But anybody knows better than
that. But this isn't just to keep from going to hell. But
we do it because His person and His work. Our new mind knows
who He is and that He's worthy of the praise. He's worthy to
be submitted to. Our new heart knows the propitiation
His blood was for our sin. He died on Calvary's cross with
that blood, the value of that blood. Whose blood that was. Why it was shed for me. And we
come to Him in a humble spirit, for conscience sake, out of a
debt of love, honoring Him. And verse 6, for this cause pay
ye tribute also. Because of all this, now have
an understanding. After those first 11 chapters,
now he's getting to chapter 12, now he's starting in chapter
13. After all this letter he's written to the Romans and to
us. For for this cause pay ye tribute also, for they are God's
ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Render
therefore to all their dues." They're asking for it. Tribute
to whom tributes do. What's that mean? In Paul's time,
that's federal taxes. They're spending on corrupt things.
Pay you federal taxes. Custom to whom custom. That's
sales tax. Fear to whom fear, honor to whom
honor. Fear and honor the Lord, and
fear and honor those that He's put above you. Pay your taxes,
even if the government's living up to that phrase that's spinning
like a congressman. They're wasting every bit of
it. Give tribute to what we give tribute to. Pay your taxes. Why? Why would we do all this, every
bit of this? Verse 8, oh no man anything. but to love one another. For
he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Get all these things out of the
way. All the political arguments, all the arguments over taxes,
all the arguments and concerns over who's doing what, who's
recalling who. Just get it out of the way. Submit
to it. Why? live as a child of God and
as a person that believes God in this world because then the
love of Christ in you may be used to save one of your brethren
that's in a position of authority or on the other side of the aisle." Somebody said, why, how could
you be so calm? Why ain't you upset over these
things? Why would I be upset? I'm a child of God. The cross
died for me. The Lord bought me. If He's done
all these things spiritually to take care of me and provide
for me, give me His grace of sufficient salvation, what makes
me think it ain't in this world? And they say, where do you go
to church? Where did you get those things?