Alright, turn with me to Romans
chapter 13. We're going to be there and we
may get through the whole chapter like I did last week and we may
not. We may get through just half of it. This is one of those chapters
in the Bible that people know. They know it, people who have
read the Bible much. And they know it because in this
particular chapter we see where we are as believers supposed
to be submissive to the authorities of the magistrate. And when I
say magistrate, I mean government, those who lead us. And in some
sense, we know that God has called us to hear and to heed the word. And so, not in some sense, in
every sense, we're to heed the word. But in some sense, this
is one of those particular passages of scripture that we have to
be very careful to understand how far we go. Because there
have been people to say, well, you're never to disobey the government.
And there have been people who said, who say that, you know,
we should never do anything that we're called not to do by any
law. But if that were the case, then
what would happen in Paul's day? Paul, who was a Roman citizen
as well as a Jew, what would it be for him to have obeyed
all the laws of Rome? What would it have been for him
to obey the laws of Israel? It would have meant that he would
have not been able to proclaim the gospel. It would have meant
that he would not be able to preach the truth. It would mean
that he would not be able to plant churches and a lot of other
things he would not be able to do. The same thing would be true
in westward expansion, in colonization, revolution. And so there is a
tender place in which we have to be careful not to isojeet
this text to some degree whereby we become pacifists or rebels. So I hope tonight to show you
what the text teaches and then to give by way of illustration
through the narrative of the New Testament the simple, what
can I call it, pastoral teaching of how we are to write to government
as Americans. So it's going to be a little
twofold there. And if we get through with that, then we'll
get over into verse eight. So verses one through seven,
let's read together chapter 13 of Romans. Let every person be
subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except
from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Therefore, whoever resists these authorities resists what God
has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For
rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Would you
have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is
good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant
for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid
for he does not bear the sword as a joke. For he is the servant
of God and avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
Therefore, one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath,
but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this, you also
pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending
to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed.
Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed.
Honor to whom honor is owed. Let's continue. Own no one anything
except to love each other, for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not murder, steal, covet, or any other commandment
are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love
is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know the time
that the hours come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation
is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night
is far gone. The day is at hand. So then let
us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies or drunkenness,
not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling
and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no
provision for the flesh. to gratify its desires. Now this
is a continuation of the whole of chapter 12. because of the
gospel, because of everything that God has established and
secured in the finished work of Christ. Therefore, now, do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may present your bodies, yourselves, as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing and acceptable to God, so that
you may, this is your spiritual act of worship, discern what
is good and acceptable and pleasing, which is the will of God. And
then he gave a very clear expression of what that meant. That we are
not here for ourselves, but for one another. That we are not
to live in a vacuum in our faith. That we're not to live just as
a household with our family and our immediate children and our
spouse, etc. But we are to live as one who
is part of the other. We are part of the same body.
And in that way, there are many things that we should do so that
we keep intimacy. There are many things that we
should do so that we may continue to have good relationships with
one another. There are many things that we should pay attention
to so that our gospel truth fleshes itself out in gospel living together
as the church. And chapter 13 is no different.
It's a continuation of that same thing. There are many members
of the body, but yet we're all an individual member of the body,
just like the hand is part of the body, even though it's part
of the arm, which is part of, you know, and so forth. So now
Paul goes from just relational living to the magistrate, to
the governing authorities. Now, in order for us to put this
in perspective, we need to remember who the governing authority was
for Paul. It was Rome. It was the emperor
of Rome and the proconsuls and all the others who served at
the will of the Caesar who was lord of Rome. of which Paul was
a citizen, which is why he exercised his right to appeal to Caesar
when he was on trial, and also exercised his right and his liberty
under the law of Rome to not be whipped. And though he was,
he went out the front door. And in that exit, it did cost
someone, possibly their life. Don't take that for granted,
church. that Paul exercised his right. So Rome governed Paul. No longer did the Sanhedrin govern
Paul, because the Rome governed Sanhedrin. And the government
that he was under, in some sense, was not a tyrannical government,
but a totalitarian government. It was a government that sort
of had a hand on everything, but yet they would let people
exist as their own people, but they took away all judicial power. In other words, they could not
legally kill someone. They had their own puppet courts,
but they also had a higher court, which would be the court of what?
The court of Caesar, the court of the Roman lords and others
that served under the Caesar. My mind didn't go into where
that word I wanted to get, but it doesn't matter. And so then
Paul, having this type of authority in this government, he says with
that in mind, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. So if Paul means in that statement
that everything the government tells you to do, you should do,
then Paul is a hypocrite. Because the government forbid
him to preach the gospel. The government forbid him to
proselytize for Christ. The government forbid him to
do a lot of things, yet he did them anyway. Why? Because the
law of God supersedes the law of man. Because the law of man,
as it says there in the latter part of that verse, The authority
that man has is given to him by God. So therefore when man
takes authority into his own hands and tries to go above what
God has required of him, then that is not something that we
as the church are to be subject. So Paul was not subject to the
laws of Rome concerning the faith. And what happened to Paul? He
was arrested. He was whipped. He was beaten.
He was shipwrecked. He was jailed. He was under house
arrest and ultimately crucified. No, ultimately beheaded. He was
beheaded by the governing authority that he said to be subject to.
Because every time they commanded him to do that which was not
in accordance with the law of God, with the word of God. Let's
say the word of God. He ignored it. Now, he didn't
make it his mantra. Let's go ahead and say this.
He didn't make it his mantra to say, we're not going to obey
this. He never preached that. Never is there anything recorded
by Paul that would tell us or give us an example that we as
Christians should go fight against this institution of government
that's tyrannical. Or that we should go out there
and make it our point to go out and show them what we will do.
No, Paul just did what he had to do. sometimes under the cover
of darkness, sometimes incognito, sometimes he would be slipped
over a wall, sometimes he would hide in the catacombs, other
times he would escape barely with his life. And when they
called up to him, he gladly accepted the imprisonment for the sake
of Christ. He didn't form militias to overcome
Rome so that the church could be free. The church was free
even when it was killed. He says so in 2 Corinthians 4.
So we are to be subject to the governing authorities, and Paul
lays this out here, for there is no authority except from God,
and those that exist have been instituted by God. That means
even in these horrible governments, they've still been instituted
by God. But it doesn't mean that we are to be subject. Some people
would say, well, you know, the leadership of Germany during
the Second World War, World War, World War, there we go, I got
it out. I need some coffee, y'all. She got me some coffee. People
say, well, you know, Christians should have just been subject
and just laid down. That's what they did. Some of
them. And some of them didn't. But
we're not to lay down for to be subject to law. That's wrong.
Thou shalt not murder. And yet people just genocide
is murder. So therefore, we do not have
to participate into these things. We can help those. We can lie
to the authorities when they come into our house and say,
where are all these people? And say, get out of my house.
Thankfully, the government that we have as a nation is not a
king, and it is not a kingdom, and it is not a house. It is
a document. The Constitution of these United
States is the governing authority that God has established for
this union. So therefore we obey it as we
obey God until it no longer submits to the things of God. And I could
talk for three hours on that just going through the 10th amendment,
but we won't because I would usurp the glory of Christ in
doing so. So Paul goes on in verse two,
therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God
has appointed. So that means if we're not being
subject to the authorities, we're actually not being subject to
God. Now we see that. We see the hierarchy of the magistrate.
We see the hierarchy of elders. We see the hierarchy of husbands.
We see the hierarchy of bosses, slave owners, and everywhere
else, and parents. We see this headship portrayed
in many different ways throughout all the relationships of life,
and it has been really destroyed by the sinful nature of human
beings who then take it a step further. And instead of just
being submissive to a husband, misogyny is born. Instead of just being submissive
to a master or a boss, the slave trade is born. Instead of just being fair, greed takes over. And I mean,
I could give you some examples on those things, but it's not
important. The important thing is that when man is left to his
own way, he will always destroy that which God has intended to
be good. And when it is not good, it is not that God has aired
is that God has established his purposes in these institutions.
And when we mess them up and we will, we are to consider the
ultimate head of the church, who is Jesus Christ, and be subject
to Him first. And as these other institutions,
as husbands are Christ-like, as governors are Christ-like,
as slave owners are Christ-like, then we are to do what? We are
to submit to them, but when they are not, it is not wrong for
the slave to flee. It is not wrong for us to remove ourselves out
from under ungodly headship, including government. However,
there is a consequence for it and it is not liberty, it is
typically death. for those who govern typically
have the power to do so, and they take it for themselves,
and they annihilate opposition, as we've seen in history. And
when we see those things, even in that sense, as I'll explain
a little bit further, the good picture of government, of the
magistrate, as I explain, we've seen it in history, but yet even
in those times when the government, when the magistrate was evil,
God purposed it that way. Many reasons God purposes that
and permits that and has decreed that is primarily so that we
can see that there is no true good head except Christ. That
all these other shadows are temporal and that when man is in the area
of choice on these things, he will turn them into sin. And
also for the fact that we need to recognize that God has not
only decreed the things that He has desired for His people,
for His own glory, for our good, but He does so, He also establishes
the means, and sometimes the means of that is through tyranny. So then yet we rejoice even though
we perish. We rejoice, even though we are
being led to the slaughter like lambs, we live. Paul never stopped
a moment to think about how he might liberate Israel from Rome,
because the only true liberation from an oppressor is the gospel
of grace. And though it may not set us
free in our selfish liberties of this life, it will always
set us free from the wrath of God. Paul goes on to say, verse three,
four, those who resist will incur judgment. Now, what does that
mean? That's not, let me say, this is verse two. It's not that
we will be judged eternally, but we all know that if I walk
outside and throw a rock at a car, I'm going to incur the judgment
of the magistrate. I'm going to be arrested for
a violent act. Now, when I was seven or eight,
you threw a rock at a car, you got your tail whooped and you had to work all
summer to pay for the window. Now you go to prison. It's a
big change, but it still is the law of the land. That is a good
law for the sake of the well-being of citizenry, for the sake of
the example of those coming up behind me who, like, maybe would
want to be a menace, realizing that, you know, I thought about
throwing a rock at a car, but I don't think I will, because
I know James went to prison for it. And then Paul continues there,
4. Rulers, verse 3, 4. Rulers are
not a terror to good conduct. Now see, now he's starting to
make some sense. See, when the government is running the way
God has ordained it, and I'll say this too, that God has not
called the church to reform the government, though the church
does have in each of our own personal lives, if we're so called,
we can be part of the magistrate. But we must govern as God has
called and commanded us to govern without compromise. I'd like
to meet someone who was in politics without compromise. Never have. Rulers are not a terror to good
conduct, but to bad. See, the governors who oversee
and who govern in our world, who are established by God and
are acting as God has established them to act, they are a terror
to bad conduct. And so though there is great
corruption in many forms of government throughout our history, even
possibly locally in the areas around us, there probably has
been historical circumstances where, you know, deep-seated
problems have been exposed. I know, remember the days of
the gangs in Savannah, the local gangs in Savannah, how deep all
of that went when everything was unfolded and everybody began
to tell on each other. We saw city councilmen and police
chiefs and others who were involved in gang activity. So corruption
is surely to happen. But even when corruption exists,
there is also the arm of the magistrate that establishes a
terror to bad behavior. Do not murder lest you be executed
or incarcerated. Do not steal that which is not
yours. Do not cause harm. Act this way and we will leave
you alone. Now, of course, we don't look
into police brutality and racial profiling and prejudice and all
these other things, but in a sense, as a whole, the government still
is established for the good of its citizenry. So if we are to
not fear That's what it says. Would you have no fear of the
one who's in authority? Then do what is good. If you're not breaking
the law, you should have no fear of the law. If you're not doing
crime, you should have no fear of the police. Now that's in
a vacuum. And of course, it wasn't the
case for Paul, was it? Paul's not being naive. He had
fear of the Roman soldier. Why? Because he was breaking
their law. But his fear was not as much
as the glory that came from preaching the gospel. And when God ordained,
Paul would be arrested. And when God did not, Paul would
be free. As a matter of fact, when we
see Paul teaching about his own awareness of his future mission
work, he says, I do not know what's going to happen, but there's
one thing that the spirit of God has made clear to me that
everywhere I go and in every town I step, I will be arrested. and I will be in prison. But
I go anyway, for I'm compelled to go, and God has called me
here, so the Lord wills I will do what I've been called to do.
And though I am in chains, as we see Him write many times,
the Word of God is free. The Word of God is free. You
have no fear of who's in authority? Then do what is good. You'll
receive His approval. You're doing good. You're driving well.
You're walking well. You're paying your taxes well.
Great. Do it. For He is God's servant for your
good. Because to be honest, without
government, without someone overseeing what is good and right, then
things just run amok. Things go crazy. People begin
to get away with things they shouldn't be able to get away
with. People begin to take into their own hands their own greed,
their own desires. People get too carried away with
their own system of justice. Could you imagine no justice
but free justice? However you feel like justice
should be served? Ben and I were talking before
service about crucifixion. It's amazing that people used
to die by crucifixion for stealing bread because they were hungry.
But the law said if you steal, you die. Even God's law, his
righteous shadow that points to Christ says you should not
steal. Better to starve than to steal. And the law is the
law because this is what it takes for us to have civility and goodness
and righteousness. But I could not imagine a man
stealing bread for his children, having to endure the cross. hours
and hours and hours of, by its own design and from its own system,
excruciating pain of the nerves, the exposed nerves of the back,
dragging oneself up through the nerves of the wrists and the
feet while opening up whatever coagulation was on the back so
they could breathe and not die from asphyxiation because they
were hungry. So see, somebody like me would
be like, I'm not going to charge this man with theft because he
was hungry. And then every thief in the world
would be like, we're about to be into bread business, baby. I would not be a good magistrate
in that sense because I would have sympathy on the hungry.
So the best defense for me would be, I was hungry. And there would
be no bread for anybody. So there is a need for government. Imagine without it what would
happen if someone trespassed on your property because they
tripped and fell into your yard and you decide they must die
versus just saying, let me help you up, my friend. How horrible
would it have been in seasons of the United States if we did
not have government and the freedom of religion? to believe or to
not believe or to believe in whatever we deem necessary to
believe or to believe in anything we desire to dream up of our
own. We might think that's a horrible
thing. It's not a horrible thing because historically when we
look at all these other nations, when we look at these other crowns
just for divorce, hundreds of thousands of people died. Thank God we have little persecution
in this country as believers for our good. But if you do what
is wrong, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain or
like I read it earlier as a joke. That's really what it means.
It's not as a joke. The government, the magistrate
doesn't hold the sword as a joke. He's not just saying, Hey, look
at my sword. Pick my teeth with my sword. No. He has been given
the authority of God to execute judgment. Inclusive of capital
judgment. The death penalty. God supports
the death penalty. There's a sound bite that would
get me on the news. If it is the magistrate that
is just. For he is the servant of God,
an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So we
see these things and we see the establishment of government by
God. In other words, if someone is doing wrong, that means they
are violating that which God has said is wrong. But as you'll
see historically throughout, I don't know how many times have
I said historically tonight, throughout all of the nations of the world
and all the governments of the world, there will come a time
when the government will establish itself in what is good and what
is right, punishing what is wrong, and then it will start to slide
the scale of wrong, making wrong what is right. And when that
starts to happen, our call is not to revolt. Our call is not
to take and make it our banner. Our call is to continue to do
that which is right even when it's wrong. And not let someone else teach
us that it's a sin because we're not obeying that which is right
because it has now been made wrong. The government should be an avenger.
As God has deemed necessary for them. To exercise that authority. Therefore, because this is true
about government, when a government is holding to that which God
approves of. One must be in subjection, not
only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
Now, what's that mean? Because God's wrath is exercised.
Now this isn't a spiritual wrath. Like I've had the question, and
even talked about it some today, you know, what in the world,
how is it that all these churches, all these congregations historically,
there's number nine, have said, you see it in the news, oh, you
know, a dozen, whatever it is, a dozen problems that have taken
place. Inappropriate behavior, I've
got children in the room, You know, oh, this pastor did this
to me, or this pastor did this, or this youth worker. Inappropriate
behavior, sexual offenses. Everywhere you turn, you see
it in the news. And what do you always see? Well, that's a shock.
He was such a good guy. He wasn't a good guy. He wasn't a good guy. But one
thing that always runs in the river of that is they covered
it up. They covered it up. They don't want to hurt the reputation
of the organization. You know what I say? I'm going to love you and visit
you in prison. That's what we do when someone commits a crime
against a child. That's what we do when someone
forcefully hurts someone else. They have to answer to the magistrate
and the judgment of God in a temporal way, even if they're a brother
or a sister in the Lord, they will face the judgment of this
life and we will love them and forgive them as we visit them
in prison. But, they will not lose their salvation. So that's not what's in view
here. Context, context, context gives us exactly what's here.
And not just to avoid God's wrath, but for the sake of conscience.
Have you ever been guilty of something in fear? Have you ever
been guilty of something and you can't sleep at night and
it always pops into your head? Have you ever been driving down
the freeway a little bit too fast and you pass a blue car?
And your heart rate goes like 160?
And you don't slam on brakes because you don't want to do
this. But you slow down and for the
next three or four miles you're rear view mirror driving and
you're knowing, oh my goodness, I'm about to lose it. Oh, is
he coming? Is he coming? Is the lights on?
Because you know you were speeding, you know you're guilty, and your
conscious bears witness to it, and you're just waiting for him
to turn around and pull you over and write you that $600 ticket
and put two points against your license, which will cost you
$150 a month for one car. See, so do what is right and
you avoid the judgment of a citation and a five year penalty on your
insurance claim, on our insurance policy. And you avoid the sake
of a guilty conscience. And that's just speeding. What
else would it be? What else? There's a lot of things
that we could and could not do that we know we shouldn't do,
and we do not do them so that we do not bear the judgment and
for the sake of conscience. And that is for our good, beloved.
It is part of the way God tempers even his people, because sometimes
the beauty of the cross is not necessarily enough to keep us
from sinning, is it? It should be, but sometimes it's
not. Let's be honest about that. And people hate when I say stuff
like this. Some people admire it. Wow, you just you're telling
the truth as it is. But it's not a braggart truth.
It's a surreal truth. It's something that it's it's
unbelievable. It's unbelievable. That we would
ever subject the grace of God to lucidiousness or continue
to hold fast to the grace of God for the sake of just sinning.
So that we could just get away with other things. But it is
true, sometimes it takes the law in order for us to what? To not do wrong. Because if we had the freedom to speak freely sometimes,
oh, what would we say to certain people? If we had the freedom
to put our hands on individuals that we see in public, for example,
Oh, 1990, no, 2000. We're in a mall at a food court,
and there's a man sitting there with his three children, an infant
in a car seat, a toddler, and like a seven, eight-year-old.
And the seven, eight-year-old stuck his hands in his ketchup
and licked his finger. Now, I think that's worthy of
at least six months incarceration. That's nasty. At least a good lecture. But
the father's just really passionately, and I'm using that word to be
kind, had a lot of choice words to say to this child, this first
grader. And then the toddler decides,
that looks fun, so he sticks his hand in the ketchup, gets
it everywhere. What does the father do? He reaches
over the table and he slaps the first grader across the face
until he falls into the floor. And I like to went to prison.
I'm not going to lie. There was no peace of Christ
in my heart. It was the spirit of Christ keeping
me from going to the penitentiary. Because as I got up from the
table, my wife says, just call the police. Do not go over there,
James. You will not like the consequences."
I said, oh yes I will. And it's worth it. You see what
I'm saying? But it was the law keeping me from going over there
and praying for that man and laying hands on him. It was ridiculous. As much as my witness says it
was, I don't want to go to jail. So the law, the government is
good in that sense. It helps us even sometimes. So
for the sake of conscience, and I like what he does in verse
6, he gives a statement here that is probably one of the greatest
areas of being free or guilty in one's conscience, and that's
paying taxes. Isn't that crazy? For an explanation of what I'm
trying to say here, Paul says, Because of this, because of not
enduring the wrath of the magistrate and also having a good and clean
and clear conscience, pay taxes as you're supposed to. Because
the authorities are ministers of God. Now, I want to ask you
a question. How was taxation done in Paul's
day? The people of Israel. Their own
people were sworn in as tax agents. And the way they got paid is
getting more taxes than were due. That's why Zacchaeus and the
story of Zacchaeus is such a phenomenal thing. That's why the Pharisee
is compared in the parable of Jesus to the publican, to the
tax collector. Because they were robbing. These
tax collectors were becoming, I don't want to say this as a
legitimate thing, they were becoming millionaires. on the backs of
their own people. Not earning a wage, they were
extorting their own people. So much so that Zacchaeus had
enough in the bank to pay everybody back everything he'd ever taken.
Because imagine not paying your taxes and getting a letter from
the Internal Revenue Service going, where are your tax returns?
You owe us a bajillion dollars. We'll see it next week. Would
you like to pay this in one lump sum or two payments? I mean,
you know. What would you feel like that night when you go to
bed? You would have a very bad conscience. Or what about if you were thinking,
maybe they're coming? Maybe they're going to come for me one day
because I'm doing things wrongly. So even when people were robbing
them, Paul is saying, For the sake of your conscience, just
pay them what you're supposed to pay. Pay them what you're supposed
to pay. Now, this isn't a lecture on constitutional law and the
constitutionality of the Internal Revenue Service. It's not the
point. It's not the place for it. The
place for it is that Paul is showing as you get along. We
have relational discord. We can have problems in the church.
We can have sickness in the church. We can have sin in the church.
We can have all kinds of things. But what happens if we're all getting
locked up? Isn't that not another relational division that we don't
really need to deal with? Are we not supposed to think
of each other long before we think of ourselves? Are we supposed
to realize that everything that we do in the context of the law
has a direct relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ?
And it's not even about public image or public witness. My Lord,
when we forgive one another, the world goes, I don't know
how you forgive. That's OK. It's not for them to understand.
It's not for them to see. We do what we do for the sake of
the glory of the name of Christ and we do what we do for the
sake of one another and our souls and our joy. So pay to all what
is owed to them. Pay. Taxes to whom taxes are
owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed.
Respect. You see now Paul gets really
out of what? He gets out of the money thing
real quick. It's just one sentence. It's just one breath. Oh, by
the way, pay taxes. And now pay respect to whom it's owed. Who's
respect? Honor to whom it is owed. In other words, pay your
debts. Honor. Honor who you're supposed
to honor. Respect who you're supposed to
respect. Here's a kicker. What's the context
of this conversation? The magistrate. Who are the magistrate
of the United States of America? The executive, the judicial,
and what? Huh? Huh? The legislative. Congress, the
courts, and the White House. Respect them. Honor them. For they are God's ambassadors,
even when they're despicable people. The constitution that
God has established, the offices that these people hold, are to
be respected by Christians. And in this owing people, we
got time, let's keep going. Owe no one anything. I wish I
had read that when I was eight years old. That would have been
great. But we do owe everyone something. What? To love each other. You
know what that's saying there? That's saying, Paul is saying
to the church, to the Christians of Rome, you don't owe anything
to one another, but you owe your love to each other. You owe your
love. It is obligatory to you. You
owe love. So you want to see an obligation
of the church? You see the command of Christ in that context? You
must love. You must love. We are obligated
to love one another. And this isn't the first time.
You see, He's already given it. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is
evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with a brotherly
affection. Even your enemies. If they're hungry, feed them.
If they're naked, clothe them. If they're sick, visit them.
Pray for them. And as you serve even your enemies,
it's like putting hot coals on their head. Love one another. You are to do it. And when you
do it, you're fulfilling the law. You're filling up everything
that Christ fulfilled. You're expressing. everything that Christ accomplished.
You're understanding the love of God for you in Christ. For
the commandments, all of them, just give a list like Jesus did
with the rich and ruler, are summed up in this word. You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
Therefore, love is fulfilling of the law. Now, we don't have
to go back and revisit chapters 1 through 8, right? We understand
the context of the law. We understand the context of
the law of Christ. We understand the righteousness of God is Jesus
Christ, by whom we are justified before the Father in every way.
This is written to those people, to you, beloved, for you, for
you and I, you and me. So that we are understanding,
we are by faith, receiving and grasping the depth of what God
has done in the fulfillment of righteousness in the person of
Jesus and then crushing him for the sake of his own justice so
that our outflow and the expression of our love for one another is
in itself a spiritual act of worship because we are sacrificing
ourselves for the sake of each other. And paying our taxes is loving
our brother. honoring our government and respecting
those in authority is loving our brother. This is what he's saying. Besides this, look at verse 11. You know the time that the hours
come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us
than when we first believed. The night is far gone and the
day is at hand. So let us cast off the works
of darkness and put on the armor of light." What's Paul saying
there? I love how Paul illustrates salvation
as the day of death. Have you thought about that? And Paul says that his salvation
is completed. Now we know there's a glorification
that we look to, but he's saying his salvation is obtained when
he dies in the flesh. And the day and the hour is coming
as it got worse and worse, not just for Jews, but for Romans. alike who are in Christ as they
continue to walk in this way? What is it that people wanted
to do with the church of that day? They wanted to malign them.
They wanted to get them to a place where the world could say, look
how weird these people are and how evil they are and how strange
they live to the detriment of society. But Paul is saying,
live for the good of society. So that when they persecute you,
it's not because of what you're doing in the flesh, it's because
of who you are in Christ. Peter reiterates this through
his epistles to his friends, to his Jewish brothers and sisters
in the faith. The night is far gone and the
day is at hand. So here, salvation is nearer. We are about to lose our lives. So we are now going to see our
Lord. Let us walk in this manner that
is worthy of the calling that we've received in Christ. And
though we have suffered a lot and though you're suffering now,
though this darkness, this light momentary affliction has overcome
you in some way emotionally and mentally and sometimes physically,
it has not consumed you and you have not been overcome by it.
So hold fast. Do not curse Rome for crucifying
your father. Let God avenge them. Sounds like pacifism, doesn't
it? What would we do here? It's a different story. The application of that is really
determined on how we what? How we live and where we live
and who we are as far as the nuts and bolts. But the theological
implication of that is eternal. Give time to that which is eternal.
Put your mind on that which is eternal. For this night time
is almost over. The day is at hand, and because
of that, let's walk as though we are day walkers. Does it sound
familiar, 1 John? Properly. And then, for the first
time, in this particular section, well, the second time now, in
this particular section of Scripture, Paul gives a little bit of a
parting shot of some things that are definitely going on in the
world that day. Don't walk like this. Orgies,
drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality, quarreling, jealousy. Isn't that funny how as a culture
we always hear the sexual immorality and the orgies. Murder, a bunch
of murderers. Jealousy, oh yeah, but you know. Covetousness, idolatrous, quarreling. I think sometimes on Facebook
we need to understand what quarreling is and keep our mouths quiet. the barbershop, at the beauty
shop, on the telephone. But put on! See, the remedy of
this is not just stopping. I mean, guys, we're going to
be tempted in this way. We're going to have calamity. We're
going to have stress. We're going to have the flesh
rising up and slapping us in the face and we're going to be
at a dichotomy of going, do I give glory and honor to the Lord Jesus
Christ or do I jump in head first in this fleshliness? And Paul is saying don't jump
head first into fleshliness. Why? Because through the flesh
of Christ you have been redeemed. Okay, so put it away. Because
the day is over. It's almost done. You're not
going to have to suffer much further. Quit spending your time. You know what it reminds me of?
Paul's teaching of the Ephesians. The days are evil. Redeem the
time. In our opening Bible study class
of the year, we're going to go through Hebrews with our high
schoolers. We had about 22 in there yesterday. So we're seven short of the enrollment. And I made the analogy that every
one of them have heard a song for the first time and none of
them knew the song, had ever heard of it, didn't know the
words, didn't know the beat, etc. But the second time, they
were familiar with the music just a little bit. By the third
time, they're starting to remember some of the words. By the end
of the week, they know the song from part. By the end of the next
week, they can perform it in front of the mirror. It's because of where they put
their mind. It's where they put their time. The reason so many
people across our country are experts on everything that doesn't
matter is because that's where they put their time. The church,
we ought not be experts on things that don't matter at the cost
of the things that do. We must put our attention on
the things of Christ. And the only place that takes,
the only place that happens, the only place that is found
is in the scripture. And the only community that is
established by God for that to be powerful is the assembly of
the saints. Not the government, not coming
against sin and evil, not making a mountain and a mantra and a
banner about all the false teaching that's going on. God established
it all in His sovereign decrees, and He has given us the glory
of Christ as our hope. Let us put our minds therein,
but put on the Lord Jesus Christ. So everything I just explained
to you, that's what it looks like. and make no provision for
the flesh to satisfy its desires. And that goes to a huge list. You want a better way of understanding
that? Do not set a place at your table to feed your flesh. Do not set a place at your table.
So in that way, we are fulfilling the law of Christ. To the praise
of His glorious grace. We have been redeemed and we
have been sealed and we have been secured. And, you know,
one of the lighter but really important benefits of this is
that our joy is fuller. Our joy is not just 45 minutes
on Wednesday and an hour on Sunday, 10 minutes on Monday and by Tuesday,
we don't even know where the gospel is. Our joy is full when
we focus on that which is the truest of our joys. And there are many people who
can't read in our world, but they can listen. Let me ask you
a question. Are you listening? Are you hearing
the word of God? Are you listening to the small,
still voice that is powerfully speaking through the scripture? then hear it and make no provision
for the flesh in these ways. Including thinking that your
flesh, that my flesh, that our flesh is going to establish us
mature before God. Because we've already settled
that. It is only in Christ. We are sanctified in Christ.
We are redeemed in Christ. We are glorying in Him. Let's pray. Father, put us in
the right mind. This text is easy to be disastrous. It's easy for us to have a real fleshly Father, you know
what I'm trying to say. It's easy for us to have a real
fleshly empowerment when we hear these types of things. And we
go away thinking, Lord, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that,
I'm going to be better here. That's not the point of what we've just
learned. So help us to rest in that because in thinking that
we must do, we make provision for the flesh. So help us to
recognize what you have done. Therefore, we are putting on
Christ. And there are so many other illustrations
in Scripture. I mean, so many, Father, that
come to my mind. But for the sake of time, Lord,
Your Word is sufficient here. Give us peace and hope in every
moment, in every breath, never looking at ourselves thinking
that we have come to a place of honor or a place of worthiness. But Lord, that we have only come
to where we are this night because of Your mercy and love toward
us in Christ. And it's in His name we pray
these things. Amen.