Good evening, let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 454. 454. Christ has for sin atonement
paid, what a wonderful Savior! We are redeemed, the price is
paid, what a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! I praised Him for the cleansing
blood, What a wonderful Savior! That reconciled my soul to God,
What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord He cleansed my heart from all
its sin, What a wonderful Savior! And now He reigns and rules therein,
What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord He gives me
overcoming grace What a wonderful Savior And triumph in each trying
hour What a wonderful Savior What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord To me He's
given a new heart, What a wonderful Savior! The world shall never
share a part, What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior
is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
361. 361. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, that calls me from a world of care, and hits me
at my father's door. and which is known in seasons
of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. And on this day, a tender stare
By Thy return, sweet act of prayer. Sweet air of prayer, sweet air
of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear, to Him whose truth
? And faithfulness ? ? Engage the weary soul to Christ ? ?
And since He gives me seek His grace ? ? Believe His word ? And trust His grace, I'll cast
no care I every care and pray For Thee, sweet Isle of Prayer Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, May I thy consolation share, Till from my fist comes
forth divine thy beauty. This road of flesh, I'll trod
and rise To cease the everlasting night They shout while passing through
the air, Farewell, farewell, sweet Alabama. Romans 13. Romans 13. While you're turning, let me
tell you, schedule a meeting for June the 27th through the
29th. Had to figure out three, tried
three different weekends. None of them worked till the
very last one. So preachers is coming is Greg
Elmquist, Todd Nybert, Bruce Crabtree and Caleb Hickman. All of them agreed to come. I'm looking
forward to it. I need to hear some preaching. All right, let me read these
first seven verses and deal with them by God's grace. That 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 resists the
power resists the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall
receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are 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 thou
shalt have praise of the same. 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. Wherefore, you must needs be
subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake.
For for this cause pay you tribute also, for they are God's ministers,
attending continually upon this very thing. 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. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to bless you
that you've allowed us to meet again this side of eternity,
to gather out here with some of the sheep, some of God's elect,
some of God's blessed people. Lord, what a blessing it is to
be numbered among the living, be with them that know Christ
and are here because they want to be here. They need to be here. Lord, enable me to speak tonight
and make some sense out of these verses. Lord, bring glory to
you and good to us. Lord, forgive us of everything
that's unlike you. And we do pray for those whose
bodies are weak. I know some believers whose bodies
are weak. They're having afflictions. We
pray for them, Lord. We know that Your grace is sufficient,
and in your good pleasure and time, if it's your will, you
can heal them, make them whole. And Lord, we pray for our children. Oh, Lord, our children, our grandchildren. Lord, my heart gets so heavy,
and I know everybody's does over their children and their grandchildren
that seemingly have no interest at all. But, Lord, we know you can create
that interest. You can create that interest.
Everyone in this building tonight that's been saved by your grace,
there was a time, Lord, we didn't have an interest. We were self-righteous,
full of self, lovers of self, haters of God. And, Lord, you
saved us. So please, in mercy, deal with
them and do it for Christ's sake. Meet with us, please, O God.
Amen. Amen. In number 204. 204. Oh soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
seek. And life for abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look
full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace Through
death into life everlasting He passed and we followed him there. Over us in no more hath Dominion,
For more than conquers we are. ? Turn your eyes upon Jesus ? ?
The fool in his wonderful face ? ? And the things of earth will
grow strangely deep ? ? In the light of his glory and grace
? His word shall not fail you,
He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. ? The book that is dying ? His
perfect salvation today ? Turn your eyes upon Jesus ? The fool
in his wonderful face And the banks of earth will grow
strangely deep In the light of His glory and grace. Well, back here in Romans 13, you know, we dealt with Romans
12, and I dealt with that, hopefully, by the grace of God, deal with
it how love is. But the key to everything in
our lives is that, brethren, I beseech you, by the mercies
of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy. Got to be holy. Got to be acceptable
unto God. He said, that's just your reasonable
service. That's just our reasonable service. And, uh, tonight I want
to deal with this. Romans 13 is talking about authority,
authority, and what kind of attitude we ought to have toward authority. Now I, I've always had problems
with authority. I really have. I'll be the first
one to admit that. First one to admit. Well, I should
say not authority. Only time I didn't like authority
was when I was about 19 or 20, 21, and I certainly didn't like
it in the Marine Corps. But I've grown some then, and
I understand the necessity of authority. understand the need
of authority. But there's three reasons why
that he's dealt with, you know, let's every soul be subject to
the higher powers. There's no power, but of God,
the powers that be ordained of God. And three reasons why Paul
dealt with this subject, because the early Christians were charged
with sedition. And sedition means that you're
trying to take over the government. You're wanting to split the government
and be against the government. And they were thought to be enemies
of the government. And in fact, they even outlawed
Christianity in Rome there for a while and used them for candles.
You know, set them on fire in the town. But you remember our
Lord Jesus Christ, they said, well, he's a friend of Caesar.
So that meant he was an enemy of Caesar. And so that's what
they used against him. He's against authority. He's
against the rightful king. And the Jews said, we have no
king but Caesar. No king but Caesar. And the second
reason being, a lot of the early, early Christians were Jews. A
lot of Jews. You know, Abraham's seed. And
they resented any Gentile power. If you was a Gentile and you
was in power, they didn't like it. They didn't like it. They
still had that Jew hatred for Gentile dogs. They didn't like it. They resented
any Gentile ruler. And third reason is, is because
some of the early believers had the idea that since most rulers
and magistrates And people in authority were wicked men, profane
men. And therefore, as God's children
in his kingdom, they didn't have to be subject to him. They didn't
have to be subject to him. But here's the key. Let every
soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power
but God. And the powers that be are ordained
of God. Now, we understand something
about God's power. We understand that. We understand
something about God's power, God's authority, God's right
to rule and reign in this government, in this world, and everybody
that's in it. It's His right to do that. He's got all the
power. Nothing exists without Him. And that's what Paul said
here. There's no authority except God
didn't ordain that authority. God ordained the powers that
be. Now, you know, when God ordains
something, predestinates something, ordains it to take place, He
ordained that everyone who heard the gospel should be believers.
So that's an ordination of God. And so everything about God,
we got to first of all understand God's power, God's right to do
what He wants to with the people that's in this world. And let
me also say this, God's word, God's word has something for
every particular situation you may ever be in, for whatever
circumstances you may be in, or whatever problem you face
or I face, God's word got something to deal with it. And this time
he's dealing with authority, authority of man that God ordained
to do. And when he says, let every soul
be subject, he means let everybody be loyal and be subject to civil
powers, governing authorities, whether they're kings, presidents,
governors, policemen. Whatever they are in the office
that God's called them to their big God gave them the authority
over us and whoever position that they have And I tell you what it's God
done these things he put people in these powers look. I want
you to look in Colossians chapter 1 with me I thought of this after
I read these scriptures, and I thought, I've got to get up
here and look at this. I want you to see this in Colossians
chapter 1 while you hold on to Romans 13. Talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ in verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of every creature. Now listen to this. For by him
were all things created, that are in heaven, that are in earth,
whether you can see them or whether you can't see, whether they're
thrones, whether they're dominions. And you know, we sang that song
from sea to shining sea. And you know, here, and he says,
our principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and for him. He's before all things and by
him, all things consist. So even he says there that everything
that there is, if there's a throne, he said, I set it up. If there's
a dominion, I set it up. If there's any authorities, I
set it up. And if they still continue in
power, they stay in power by me, by me. And you know, when
it says to be under subjection to these higher powers, what
it actually means is to show respect to. It means to obey
them, to honor them, and what station that they have in this
world, and obey their lawful commands with submission. We
was on our way tonight, and here comes a police, a sheriff car
just flying, just flying by us. You had to get over, and I almost
hit one of them big orange things in the road. But he was going
somewhere, and so you get out of his way. He got the authority.
And I'll tell you something else. You're talking about respect.
There's two sheriff deputies, two men that come over to where
I work out at, and one of them's on the SWAT team. And he got
recognized and got a great award, and I told him I really appreciated
the award he got, and I appreciate what he does as a police officer. And all that is is showing respect.
If you get stopped by a policeman, or if fire trucks come by, you
get out of the way. But if you get stopped, is anybody
in here going to argue with them? Huh? You're going to say, why
in the world did you stop me for? I ain't doing nothing. No, you don't talk back to him.
You show him with uttermost respect. Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir. Yes. And that's what he's talking
about. Show respect and obedience. Submission. And oh my, pray for him. But
instead of railing against them, look with me over here in Titus,
you know, Titus, that little bitty book right before the book
of Hebrews. Look here with me in Titus chapter
three. You know, we, you know, Peter
says, you know, pray for them who are in authority and obey
them as for the Lord's sake, is what he said, obey them for
the Lord's sake. But look what he said here, Titus
3, verses 1 and 2. Put them in mind, now, this is
what Paul's telling Titus to do. Put them in mind to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work, to speak evil of no man, not to be a brawler,
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. And you know there's
no authority There's no authority in this world except God gave
it to them. You know, and there's been some wicked, wicked kings.
There's been some wicked, wicked rulers. But still yet, these
authorities, they come from God. God's the source. God's the source
of every power that happens to be in this world. And what he's
talking about here more than anything else is civil authority.
But it's true of all authority. Just like a husband. The husband's
head over the wife. Parents. Parents. God gave them authority over
their children. And you know, even young children
now, they don't even show no respect to adults anymore. But
you know, your parents, they're over their children. God gave
them authority over their children. And then what about an employee?
What about somebody you work for? They got authority over
you. They're your boss. They're your
boss. And elders, oh, show respect
to elders. That's something that Shirley
and I both, it bothers us to see people not even showing respect
to elders. That's an awful thing to do,
not show respect to elders. You know, everybody in this building
here, their parents taught them that you show respect to people
that's older than you. You show respect to people, the
policemen and the authorities, and all those people, you show
respect to them. Don't be high-minded and rail
against them. And all of these people, parents,
employees, Husbands, they all get, and elders, they all get
their right to rule from God himself. God himself. Now, I know, I know that there's
evil men. I know that there's evil men.
And they may abuse, they may misuse and corrupt authority. But still yet, you got the government
and their leadership, and they're necessary for us to obey them. And then look what he said in
verse two. For whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the
ordinance of God. That's the first thing you got
to understand. If you resist what God set up at his authority,
he said, you're resisting what God ordained to be done. He said, you're not only fighting
authority, you're fighting against God. That's what he's saying,
you're fighting against God. You know, whosoever resists the
power, resists the ordinance that God
himself set up, the things that God did. And oh, look what he
said, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. I don't understand all of that,
but I do know that the person who resists and rebels or sets
himself against proper authority in any of these places, he's
resisting the very order and power of God himself. Authority that's resisted in
the faithful and right discharge of his office will bring God's
judgment on a man. You know, and if you're an offender,
and we see it all the time, and we see people resisting the powers
that be all the time. We do it. I was watching a couple
of women police officers trying to arrest a young woman. She
shook herself loose from them and took off running. She ran. You're just wasting your time.
They're going to get you sooner or later. But what I'm telling
you is, if you resist the power, I don't want to resist God's
authority, no matter where it's at. I don't, because God ordained
it. If He ordained a president, then
He is the president. If He ordained a schoolteacher,
if He ordained a policeman, and He gave that policeman the authority,
and He gave him the badge, and He gave him the power, He gave
him authority, what are we going to do? Well, I'm just not I don't
think that's right. Well, go ahead and resist then.
You know, but I tell you what, you find a person that's right,
faithful in their office. And I tell you what, don't never
set yourself above their rules and the laws because you'll set
yourself above the law of God. You know this. The first promise
that God gave anybody in the Old Testament, and when it comes
to the law, children obey your parents because with it comes
the promise of longevity. You'll live long. You'll live
long. And oh my, when men set themselves
in a defiance of God's law, they are to be resisted. You go up
against God. God's law, and we're talking
about the principle here of the lawful authority. I'm not talking
about the Ten Commandments here. I'm not talking about that. Then
look what it says in verse 3. Rulers are 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 thou
shalt have praise of the same. Do you get scared when you see
a cop? Do you get scared when you see a highway patrolman?
Do you get scared when you see somebody in position of authority?
Does it scare you see a cop coming? A sheriff coming? Highway patrolman
coming? Does it scare you? No. They don't bring terror. They
don't bring terror. No, no. You know, if you got
the right motive and you act right, and you know, authority,
they're not a terror to us. They are to the evil. They catch
you drinking and driving. Catch you driving all over the
road. You know, wrecking and all the
things that people do. Listen, authority is only hated
by those who are evil. People that's into meanness,
you know, drugs or whatever the people are doing. But I tell
you what, we have no dread. I have no dread of those that
are in authority. I don't. I really don't. Do you? I don't dread them. You know
why? Because I'm not going to do anything
to get them after me. It's that simple. You know, David,
Dave back there, he was a, Sheriff's deputy for 25 years. 25 years. And he got in, he's
telling me a couple of situations he got in, and it's a wonder
that he got out of there with his whole life. And so you know
why he had to get in those situations? Somebody resisting the power.
Why was they resisting the power? Because they didn't want to be
arrested. They didn't want to go to jail. They didn't want
to be manhandled. They don't like authority. But
authority, they're not a terror to us. You know the only people
scared of them? People that's doing something
wrong. Doing something wrong, huh? You do what's right, you
do what's right, drive right, act right, think right, and be
right when you're in your automobile or wherever you be, and they'll
never bother you. Never bother you. I remember,
you know, up in New York City, there was a time, I don't know
what it's like now, but they had a cop about every third or
fourth block. They walked a beat. And those
guys was so helpful. You walk up to a policeman and
ask him, well, how do you get from here? How do you get from
there? And you know why they had them out there? to let everybody
see them, and they was the nicest fellas, and they'll tell you,
oh yeah, you can go here, go there, go this way, go that way.
And I never seen one of them ever get out of the way and have
to deal with anybody. Never seen anybody. But oh my, look down
here in verse four. It says, thou shall have praise,
and in other words, they'll approve of you. If you don't resist the
power, and you act like you got good sense, Thou shall have praise
of the same." They'll be glad to say, well, you're doing what's right. You're
doing what's right. I'll tell you something else
happened one time. I just remembered this. I used to have a place
down here on Interstate 40, and they'd put up They put up a sign out there
that said that there's a roadblock, you know, that the police are
setting a roadblock up at the next exit. So they'd get off of that, know
they'd be waiting on them, and you would not believe how many
people they caught drinking and how much drugs they got. How
much drugs they got. Oh, my. So you do that just right,
and you'll get their approval. You'll get approval from Him.
And then look what He says in verse 4. For he is a minister
of God. You notice that? All things are
the power of God. And God said He's a minister
of God, and He's a minister to God for you, and for your good. For your good. He's not out to
get you. He's out after somebody breaking
the law. And we don't want to break the
law. But if thou do that which is evil, God made him a minister
for good. It's for the welfare of all of
us. General welfare for the public. But if thou do that which is
evil, be afraid. Be afraid. If you do that which
is not right, and break the law in any kind of a way, and just
be a rebel, be afraid. Because he says here, this minister
of God, he does not bear the sword in vain. God didn't give
him that authority to be vain about it. He's got that sword, he's got
that authority, he's got that power. For he's a minister of
God, talking about these people in authority. Sheriffs, firemen,
policemen, governors said he's a minister of God, a revenger.
to execute wrath upon him that's evil, that does evil. They're
gonna be angry and they're gonna bring the sword down on people
that are doing evil. Drug dealers are evil. Drunks, they got no business
on the road. And you know, there's so many
things you can deal with, but that's just, you know, You think
about a place where there is no authority. You think about
this. He says, you know, he's a minister
of God to thee for good. He's a minister of God also to
execute wrath and judgment against you. You imagine a place of persons
or places of authority wherever they are. They're called the
service of God, and they're for all of us. But what would a home,
what would a school, what would an office, what would a factory,
what would a city, what would a county be like without authority? You think about a place being
without authority. You think about us being in here
without any authority. God's Word. Or me being your
pastor. But you, what, What would a home
be like without authority? What would a school be like without
authority? What would an office be like
without authority? What would a factory, a city,
a county be like without authority? What about a ball game and not
have a referee? That's what he's talking about
here. And you know what would happen? Chaos, chaos, chaos,
chaos. That's exactly what would happen.
And if we're not willing, by God's grace, to follow God's
order and His proper chain of command, and you noticed I said
proper chain of command. You know, when I was in the Marine
Corps, I said chain of command. I was the low man on the totem
pole. Everybody's above me. If I was a Private dinner became
a PFC. So that meant unless corporals
above me a corporal's above me a sergeant's above me and I mean
all the way up and That that's what he's talking about. God
has a chain of command. He said start out with God He's
got the power. He's the one with the authority
God said this is way I want things done in this world and I'm going
to put people in authority. I'm going to put people in power.
I'm going to put people with the, with, with, with, they're
going to be my ministers. They're going to be, if anybody
does that, which is right, and does that, which is true, and
don't, and, and, and, and minds what God says, or else if he's
going to be a rebel, and he's going to rebel against authority,
he's going to rebel against God's chain of command. He's going
to rebel against that and resist it. You know what's going to
happen? They're going to come down hard on them. and they should.
Every one of us, when we see somebody, find out somebody done
something evil, done something wicked, abused a child, a pedophile
abused a child, a mother killed her child. You know, they ought to They
ought to take them, you know, we can't think of nothing too
bad for them. And we want the judgments, we
want the judges, and we want justice to do with them and deal
with them the way they ought to be dealt with. We have no
problem with that. But I'm not going to be doing
those things. Are you going to be doing those things? I'm not
going to be cussing nobody. I'm not going to be arguing with
nobody. I'm not going to be debating anybody. I'm not going to resist
a cop when he stops me. And I've been stopped lots of
times. I was going to a meeting one time, and I got two tickets. Going through Virginia, highway
patrolmen got me, gave me a ticket. I come to a light and turn right.
Pulled up there. I said, oh my kid. You have mercy. Please. Would you have mercy
on me? He said I can't do it. I Had over $300 worth of tickets
at time and I thought I asked for that last one was for mercy
because the guy got me good on the other but But what I'm telling
you is that I never made me mad. I made me feel bad Made me feel
kind of sick Not just because it cost me money, but because
I was breaking the law. I should not have been... There was a fella coming down
Lantana the other day, and I mean he was laying low. Sheriff turned
around, turned on his lights, and went after him. But Shirley
and I watched that guy just pull right in his driveway, and the
police moved right on by. But if the cop had seen him pull
in there, he'd have pulled right in behind him. But that policeman set out after
him, because he was, I mean, he coming down Lantana Road probably
65, 70 miles an hour. He shouldn't have been driving
that fast. But he got by with, he just happened to turn into
his house before the policeman saw him. But you know, I'm not making
fun of these things, but what I'm telling you is, is that God's
got a chain of command. Starting first and foremost with
him, his blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're willing
to obey God and do what God says, we should not never have any
problems with authority in this world. Is that not right? All
right. Where are we at now? Verse five. Wherefore, you must
needs be subject. Wherefore, you must needs not
hope you will. You need to be, wherefore you
must needs be subject, not only because of the wrath, you're
not afraid of the wrath, but here's the thing, for your conscience
sake, for your conscience sake. You know, instead of thinking
about the wrath that's gonna come upon you if you disobey,
you know, we're not afraid of the wrath. We don't live in fear. But we approve of authority.
We respect of authority. And we do it because of our conscience. Because God's way of rule and
God's way of order is right. Is right. And we approve of God
and we approve of His way. We love His way. And look what
he says there then in verse, so we don't do these things because
we're scared of the judgment coming on us, or what a cop will
do to us, or a sheriff will do to us, or firemen will do to
us, or government will do to us, not only for wrath, but for
conscience, for cause of our conscience. And then look what
he said in verse 6. For this cause, for this cause,
and just go back and look at everything he said. It's ordained
of God, it's God's power. It's for the welfare and good
of all of us. We understand and agree with
the needs for leadership and authority. And then look what
else he says. For this cause, pay ye tribute. You know what tribute is? Taxes. Taxes. And that's what it means. You
know, we got to, you know why we had to pay taxes? good road right out here. That's
one reason. Got to have a policeman. He's
got to be paid. Got to have fire department.
They got to be paid. Got all these things it has to
do. And that's what we do. We support these magistrates
and these leaders in government. We do. County officials, policemen,
firemen, teachers, because they all are good for our society
and supported by the taxes that we pay. All right, let me give
you this one and I'm done. So, you know, verse six, for
they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing.
That's why the tributes for. that everybody gets paid, and
teachers, firemen, government people in the government, you
know, regardless of what we think about that. And then he says,
render to all men that is due unto us. Whatever a man is due,
if he's due authority, if he's due respect, if he's due honor,
what's due him, you give it to him. You give him the respect
and the honor that he does. And then tribute to whom tributes
do. You give the taxes to whom taxes
are due. And then custom to whom custom.
Now if a custom, you know, people that are in the position of authority
and that, you give custom to whom customs do. And then fear
to whom fears do. And honor to whom honors do.
My whatever authority a man has entrusted to him It's a sacred
sacred trust and he'll have to give an account to God one of
these days But that's God's business, but our responsibility is to
obey Respect and submit to those as unto the Lord Pay taxes to whom taxes are due,
give respect to whom respect is due, and give honor to whom
honor is due. Pretty simple, ain't it? But
the thing you have to start with, all powers of God, every power
that are, God put it there. God put it there. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, I know that your word has something for every situation,
for everything we have to deal with in this world. And we, Lord, we've got to understand
that you're the one that ordained these things, that it's of your
power. And so Lord, we as your people,
your believers, your sheep, as those who's been redeemed by
the blood of Christ, we want to live honorably in this world,
peacefully in this world, respectfully in this world. We don't want
to mistreat anybody in any position of power or authority. And Lord,
if you ever put us in a situation where we are dealing with an
authority, Please give us the wisdom and
for our conscience that we'd never, ever rebel against them,
fight against them, resist them in any way. Acknowledge their authority,
show respect for them, give honor to them. Lord, you blessed us
to be children of God, and we as children of God, ought to
be different than anybody else in this world. These men are
not against us. These authorities are not against
us. They're against men and women who break the law, who are rebels,
who resist us. Men that's cruel and mean and
do ungodly things. And Lord, so we want authority
to come down hard on them. Please give us respect for the
authority that you've ordained for us in this world, and do
it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. All right. Ain't got nothing else to say. I'll see you Sunday morning,
God willing. There's gonna be a wedding next Saturday. Is it
this Saturday?