Folk used to call the Bible the
good book, didn't they? You know, what the good books
say. Well, there's nothing wrong with that because it is a good
book. It's really the only good book. It's full of good things. It's good counsel. It's the good news. Moses said, I bring you good
doctrine. Good doctrine. Chapter 1, verse
1, he says, this is the truth, the faith of God's elect, the
truth which is after godliness, godlike. Chapter 2, verse 11,
It says, The grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared
to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world, looking for that blessed hope the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." Chapter
3, verse 8. He says, this is a faithful saying,
these things I will that you affirm constantly, that they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. Verse 14, And let ours also learn
to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. So this is a good book. good news, good things, good
counsel, good doctrine that promotes good works. Alright, look at verse 1 of chapter
3. He says, put them in mind, remind
them, keep in their minds to be subject to principalities
and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. Put them in mind. And verse 8,
I just read to you, says, these things I will that you affirm
constantly, that they, the believers, are careful to maintain good
works. These things are good and profitable to all men. Put them in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers, the authorities, to obey magistrates
or judges and rulers. and be ready to every good work,
zealous. Go back to Romans 13 with me. Romans 13. He says, be subject
to the powers that be, the authorities that be. I need reminding this,
I need to be reminded, especially when I look around and see amongst
our rulers, it seems, nothing but corruption. And I need to
be reminded of this, that I've told you before, and you know
this, that these things were written back during a time that
was much worse than even our time. The Jews, the church was
under Roman rule, civil government rule, Romans. Nero, if you'll
study history, he killed many, many Christians. He's the one
that they said fiddled while Rome burnt, and he made sport
of killing believers and so on. So this is written by Paul to
the people then, and it applies to us now. Chapter 13 of Romans
1 says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there
is no power, no ruler, no authority, but of God. The powers that be
are ordained of God. We believe God is sovereign.
We know He's sovereign. And whoever is in power, men
may have voted them in. What does the scripture say? The lot is cast in the lap, but
what? The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. Proverbs 16, 33. Men vote for,
but it's God that puts them in office. It's always been that
way. Verse 2 of Romans 13, whoever resists the power or the authorities
resisteth the ordinance of God. They that resist shall receive
to themselves damnation. Rulers are not a terror to good
works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid
of the ruler, the power? Do that which is good, Thou shalt
have praise of the same." He's a minister of God to thee for
good. If thou do that which is evil, be afraid. He beareth not
the sword in vain. He's a 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,
say, conscience toward God. And for this cause, read on,
pay tribute also. That's taxes. They're God's ministers,
attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore
to all their due, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to
whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. They came
to our Lord one time, you know, taxes, we think taxes are unfair. Oh my, back then. And the apostles,
Lord, should we pay taxes? What did the Lord say? Yes. render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesar's. And he provided for them, didn't
he, to pay their taxes. Where do you get the money to
pay your taxes? Same place, same person. But we're to be subject
to and obey the laws of the land, be ready to every good work. 1 Peter 2, go over there, 1 Peter.
Chapter 2, after the book of James, Hebrew James, 1 Peter
2. Now this is, all the apostles wrote these things to us. 1 Peter
2, 11, it says, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
having your conversation, your life, your conduct honest among
the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God
in the day of visitation." Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, a supreme,
or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the
punishment by God, for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise
of them that do well. So is the will of God that with
well-doing you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men,
as free, but not using your liberty for a cloak covering of evil,
maliciousness. As the servants of God, honor
all, love the brotherhood, Fear God, honor the King. Servants, be subject to your
master." That's exactly what Paul wrote in Titus, because
this is what the Lord told them to tell us. God's people are
good citizens. They're the best citizens. You
know, the rumor, What many modern historians say
is that Christ was killed for insurrection against the Roman
government. They say that about the apostles
too, that they were rebels against Roman tyranny. That's not so at all. Nothing could be further from
the truth. They were the best citizens.
We read what Paul and Peter told us. And God's people are the
best citizens. They're meek, they're lowly,
they're submissive, like Christ. They're not rebels, they're not
rioters, they're not protesters. Don't enter into any protest
whatsoever. Don't do it. I worked for the
railroad years ago, and they went on strike one time. And
I went to the place where we pick up our paycheck. I didn't
know they were on strike. And I went there to get it and
they had that place barricaded. They didn't want anybody to go
in. They had guns and everything.
I said, what are you all doing? We're on strike. You know it's so, don't you,
that the so-called union people of this world, the workers of
this world, it's all about me. It's all about me. It's all about
me. They just assumed the company
would go down. Fail. Asked to give an inch,
wouldn't he? Give a dollar. They'd just as
soon lose their jobs as lose a dollar an hour. That's a fact. They wanted me to join in. I
said, I can't do this. This company gave me a job. I'm
thankful for it. I'm a company man. Oh, that didn't
go over well. That's what God's people are.
Well, you ask. I know what you're thinking.
What about laws that violate Scripture? What about the laws of the land
that violate what we believe, what the Word of God teaches
us, such as marrying sodomites? And that's what they should be
called. Don't call them gay. Gay is an old term that means
happy. I'm gay. I'm happy. They're sodomites,
homosexuals. Call it for what it is. Don't
soft-soak it. Call them what Scripture calls.
Call sin what God calls it. Sodomite. What about Mary and
Sodomite? Listen to this. Nothing is going to shock you.
But the Church of Scotland, the Church of Scotland is where John
Knox came from. The covenanters. Those people
that died defending the truth. John Calvin,
and on and on. There are so many great preachers
come from Scotland. The Bonars, and on and on it
goes. The Church of Scotland recently,
some time ago, they okayed for sodomites to be preachers and
ministers, and now they have okayed. They've made a law. They've passed it by an overwhelming
majority that they can marry each other. I mean, be married.
Preachers, so-called. Well, now here's the point. The
Church, the Church of God, the Church of Ephesus, the Church
of Philippi, the Church of Colossae, the Church of Rocky Mountain,
the Church of Danville, the Church of Pikeville, the Church of Fairmont,
whatever, the Church is not an organization. It never was an
organization. The churches at Ephesus and Philip,
they never did join together for political reasons, incorporate,
become an organization and elect officers and so on and so forth,
like a business, like a corporation to have, what's the word, influence
with. and a representation with the
government and so forth. No, sir. Independent, little
bodies here and there, independent bodies of believers. Not a corporation. Not an organization. Someone
once said wisely, the church is an organism. The body of Christ. Christ is the head. Not an organization. And the minute you become an
organization, like a corporation with officers, then the government
steps in. And civil laws apply. Even our
Constitution years ago was set up with separation of church
and state. It's supposed to be a separation.
But when the so-called church becomes big business, supposed
to be, a non-profit organization. Nothing could be further from
the truth about modern religion. It's the most profitable thing
on earth, isn't it? It doesn't pay taxes, and the
government knows that. And they're coming down on them
and setting these laws and so forth. When you begin to mix
politics, involved in politics and social causes, then you're
subject to the civil laws of the day. Nowhere in the scripture
did the prophets, the apostles, pastors and so forth marry people. They didn't marry people. That's
not in the Bible. My dad once said that. When did
we preach it? Because there's so much conflict,
so much trouble involved. It's a serious thing to marry
somebody before God as a religious ceremony. You bring two people
down front before God, and you're a man that's supposed to have
a conscience toward God and His law, and this is all serious.
And before God you say, do you, before God. God is our witness.
Take this man. Take this woman. And so on and so forth. Make
these vows before God. My dad said one time, I don't
know when we preachers ever got in the business of marrying people.
He said, I don't like it. I don't like it. I personally try
to make it a rule not to marry unbelievers, not to marry anybody
outside this church. Never have, and I won't. But
the point is, If we get involved in the things
of this world, involved in anything but the preaching of the gospel,
then the government steps in and we're subject to it. Now,
if the government decides, and it can happen, you can't tell
the truth. You can't stand up in your pulpit
and say publicly that sodomy is a sin. When that happens, buddy, we'll
go to jail saying it. We'll say it louder than ever,
won't we? Like Martin Luther, we do not stand against that
very point in which the world is rallying around if we don't stand
against it. We're not the servants of God.
And I personally think it might be the best thing that ever happened
to the church. It was in the beginning persecution for the
truth. If we speak, we'll speak more
like John Bunyan. You know how many men went to
prison, and women, you know how many men and women went to prison
for telling the truth? Just for telling the truth. Not
social causes, not political causes, but for telling the truth,
what God's Word said. Like John Bunyan, they said,
you can't do that. You can't preach the truth, Mr.
Bunyan. He said, you can't stop me. They
said, we will, and they put him in jail for 12 years. He said,
you can get out any time you want to. He just quit preaching. He said, I will not do that. I personally, I don't want to
see that happen, but I think it would be the greatest honor
ever. So he says back in our text,
be subject to it. Don't be rebels. Don't be rioters.
Don't be protestors. Don't do it. Verse 2. Speak evil of no man. Speak evil
of no man. The word evil there actually
means blasphemy, which is usually applied to God more than anything
else, meaning bring down, to bring reproach upon, to ruin
His name. But here the same word is to
bring someone's name down and to reproach, and to want to ruin
their name or their reputation. He says, don't do it about anybody. In James chapter 4, we looked
at this. He says, speak not evil one of
another brethren. Oh my. That's a lot more serious before
God is for us to talk about our brother, to bring him down before
the eyes of another brother. That's a whole lot more serious
than talking about the ruler of our land. And the point is,
if we can't say something good about a brother, now here's the
rule. Don't say anything at all. Just
don't do it. Don't do it. And we're supposed
to love our enemies and pray for them that despitefully use
us. Pray for them. Love our enemies, let alone our
brother. And if we can't love each other,
there's something wrong with us. John says, you don't know
God. You don't know God. Matthew 5,
go over there, look at what our Lord said. Very plainly, Matthew
5 to us, His disciples. Matthew 5, verses 43 and following. Matthew 5, 43. He says, You've heard it hath
been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
Now here's, the Lord is the one that wrote the law. And He said,
I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do
good to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your
Father, which is in heaven. He makes his Son to rise on the
evil and on the good. Sends rain on the just and the
unjust. We're going to look at the kindness
and love of our God, our Savior, this morning, in a little bit.
God is kind to everybody. He's tender mercies over all
His work. My, my. It's difficult, isn't it, to
pray for them that despise you, if not impossible. It's difficult,
I tell you, when people treat you badly. We've got a neighbor
that's just... You just can't believe what this person's doing
and saying about us. I asked the Lord, David, Lord,
don't let me hate this person. I tried to pray for this person.
Tried to. It's tough, isn't it, when people
say bad things about you in Laos. It's tough. It's tough to deal
with when you've been wrongly accused. It's worse when it's
a brother. It's a hundred times worse. It's more painful. Our Lord said
that in the Psalms. He said, if it had been my enemy,
I could have taken it. But it's my own familiar friend.
Brethren, don't do it. Speak not evil of anybody. Now,
David, you may ask this question. You know, David, throughout the
Psalms, prayed that the Lord would bring down evil on his
enemy. Throughout the Psalms. Many Psalms. What about that? He prayed for
the destruction of many of his enemies. I'll tell you this,
though. You and I aren't David. You and I aren't the king of
Israel. He was a king of Israel, he was
God's king, and he's talking about people who were against
God, against God's kingdom, against Him, God's king, and he said
in Psalm 139, I hate them with a perfect hatred. Do not I hate
them that hate thee?" He said, yes, I hate them with a perfect
hatred, a hatred that really has God's glory. See, we hate
and we get mad at and we get offended by people that offend
us. We pity ourselves. People are doing things to us. One time Shimei was cursing David,
and David said, leave him alone. The Lord sent him to curse me.
I need a good cursing. But as God's King, the Shepherd
over God's Israel, and those enemies that were against Him
and God's people, David said, I count them my enemy. Now if
we can have that kind of hatred, that's a good hatred. If we really
have God's glory in mind, God's people in mind, God's kingdom
in mind, And we can pray, God, bring them down. And I do pray
against these false prophets, Lord, bring them down. Like Elijah,
kill them all. If you don't save them, kill
them. Elijah did just that. He killed 450 prophets. But unless
we can have that perfect hatred with David, our Lord says, love
your enemies. I can't love Dad's enemies. He
stands my brother, and I'm going to defend him. But my enemies? They have the Lord. As far less
than I deserve, they have the Lord. Far less than I deserve. All right? It's one thing to
say our President is passing laws that are evil. Our President is passing laws
that are wicked. And they are. It's another thing
to say, I want that man, something bad to happen to him. You know
who he is? He's a father. He's got two young
daughters. He's a husband. He's got a wife
that loves him. Somebody's son. As much as I
hate what he's doing, I am not to say, speak evil against that
man. I'm to pray for him. 1 Timothy 2. Go over there quickly.
1 Timothy 2. Is this not difficult? Oh my. You say, but look what he's doing
to our country. Brethren, I understand that. And I have granddaughters
that have come up and live in this place. But I'm telling you
this, and this is what we're teaching our kids. We have here
no continuing city. This is not our country. We're
not of the world. If we were, our Lord said, we
would fight. But we're not. And God put that man in power.
Why? For the punishment of this evil
country. Because of idolatry. Because
of false religion. Just like he did Israel all the
way through the Scripture. Right? God put him there. Like
Manasseh. This thing culminated and culminated.
History was so bad, so bad, it got so bad until the Lord put
Ahab in to punish his people. They had a remnant though, they
weren't being punished. They were under that, weren't
they? They had a remnant. They were under that bad rule. God
was taking care of them. Always has. They sent men though
for the punishment of evildoers. And then it culminated into a
man named Manasseh. He was the worst ever. Scripture
says in 2 Chronicles 33 that He made them do worse than the
heathen. But you know what God did? Read
it for yourself. I was going to read it with you.
2 Chronicles 33. Jot it down. Read it. God had mercy on Manasseh. God turned that man's heart.
He repented. He humbled himself. He set laws
that said, we're going to worship the God of Israel. Can God do
that to Barack Obama? Absolutely. So what should we
be doing? Praying more. Wouldn't that be
wonderful? Can you imagine if the Lord,
if he just fumbled across sermon audio and heard a message and
the Lord saved his soul and he said, I hereby issue a decree
to Congress, we're going to start worshiping the living and true
God, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Can God do that? He did it. That's what we should
be praying for, shouldn't we? It's 1 Timothy 2, verse 1, I
exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers,
intercessions, giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings,
Oh, they're in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful
life in all godliness and honesty. This is good and acceptable in
the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved.
It doesn't mean God wants every single person to be saved, but
it's saying in context, God will save all sorts of men, kings. Those are in authority. From
kings to peasants, from rulers to subjects. And He did. He did. He does. He does, so let's pray for him. Back in our text, Titus 3, it
says, so we're not to speak evil of any man. Now that's what it
says. And I like that. We need to put
them in mind, keep this in mind, always, when you think something
evil about our president, when you start thinking, I tell you
what, he's no worse than the preacher right down the road
here in the pulpit. He's not as bad. He's not as bad as this
free will Southern Baptist preacher down here. He's not nearly as
bad. Oh yeah. And this is why he goes on to
say, in verse 2 he says, not brawlers, not fighters, gentle,
Showing all meekness unto all men. Wasn't that our Lord? He
said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I am meek and lowly. One of the brethren and I were
talking recently about our Lord, about this very thing. He heard men's thoughts. Everything. He knew everything
people were thinking all around Him. He who was holy, unblameable,
unreprovable, separate from sinners. God. Able to right every wrong. Able to strike down anyone at
any time. Able to save anyone he pleased.
Could have saved anyone. He could have judged anyone right
then. Killed them on the spot. Imagine him walking through this
land. All that he heard. All that he saw. All the oppression.
All around him. All the wrongdoing. Everybody
was doing to everybody. He heard it all. He saw it all.
He could have handled it all, couldn't he? He didn't. He didn't. Why? All for a purpose, a divine purpose. He knew that. And he himself
was sent here because of this sin. There's only one way to
put away sin. You know, kill this one, another one will raise
up. Kill this one, another one will raise up. He said, I'm going
to put away the sin in my people by being made sin for that. So he said, turn the other cheek.
Suffer yourself to be defrauded. Suffer wrongfully. And here's
the reason that we should do this. Keep this in mind, verse
3. We ourselves, but for the grace of God, that's
us, isn't it? But for the grace of God, I'd
be a false preacher down the road. Me and that fellow would
be in different places. I'd be lying on God and Him telling
the truth. But for the grace of God. You've
got to keep that in mind all the time. No one. Keep that in
mind. Paul said this, listen to this,
and Paul was, oh my, he was beaten. They went about to kill him,
says his Jewish brethren, Pharisees, men that were in religion he
was with, grew up with. They went about to kill him,
and one time they did kill him, stoned him. Another time they
beat him. You heard how many times he was beaten and stoned
and so forth. And one time in Acts 22, after
they'd beaten him within an inch of his life, and his face was
bloody and both his eyes were black, his eyes closed, his clothes
torn, and the Roman centurion had to drag him out of that crowd
to keep him from killing him. He said, hold on, hold on. He
said, I want to say something. And he was standing on the stairs,
and he said, man and brethren, Brothers. They call them brothers. He said in Romans 10, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. He said in Romans 9, I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. I can wish myself a curse for
my brethren. Do you have any of that? Those
that you love, have you talked to them about the Gospel? If
you really love them, if you really love them, You've got
to. And the greatest love you can
have is to lay down your life and tell them the truth at the
risk of being hated by them and separated. Truth separates. Don't say anything. You can get
along just fine. But if you really love their
souls, you've got to if you really believe this gospel. You've got
to, because it's about over. And then what? It doesn't matter
what the government wants. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. So Paul says, put them in mind
at this time. Keep this in mind. Let this mind
be in you, which was in Christ Jesus. Okay. Thank you.