Well, let's turn our Bibles again
to Romans chapter 13. I titled the message this morning,
Our Relationship to Authority. I think this will be a message
that everybody can take home with them and apply to their
everyday life, no matter how old you are, from the youngest
to the oldest. You know, the gospel that we
preach is not just a theory, something that we preachers or
even theologians or, you know, any believer sits up in their
ivory tower, you know, and thinks about and really has some wonderful,
you know, ideas about, but does not apply to our daily lives
down here in the trenches. The gospel applies to every aspect
of the believer's life. That's obvious to see how the
gospel affects our spiritual life. We have spiritual life. God gives it to us through the
preaching of the gospel. He comforts our hearts. He strengthens
our hearts. He feeds us through the preaching
of the gospel. That's how our spiritual life is given and strengthened
and fed and grows. But you know the gospel also
affects our natural life here on earth. If it doesn't, we haven't
believed it. And I believed it right, I'm
telling you. Because the gospel affects the believer's attitude.
And your attitude affects how you do everything in your life.
We'll see three things this morning, how the gospel affects our attitude. How is it that a believer interacts
with governmental authority? Very simple, we submit to it.
How is it that the gospel affects us when we get our tax bill in
the mail? We submit to it, we pay it. The
gospel affects how is it that we deal with authority amongst
each other? How is it that we deal with each
other at all? It's by submitting to one another.
and love. It's submission. That is the
believer's relationship to authority. In a word, it's this, submission.
Submission. Now first, here's our relationship
with governmental authority. Verse 1, Romans chapter 13. Let
every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there's no
power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation. They'll receive to themselves
punishment. Now this is the reason that Paul wrote these verses,
at least on the surface. Christians are not enemies of
the government. We're not. Look over at Luke
chapter 23. The early Jews and our Lord were accused of this.
Our Lord was accused of it directly and those in Rome accused Christians
of this. of being enemies of the government,
of enemies of Caesar, and nothing could be further from the truth.
Luke 23, verse 1. And the whole multitude of them
arose and led him unto Pilate, led our Lord unto Pilate, and
they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting
the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying
that he himself is Christ the King. Now, even Pilate knew that
wasn't true. He's looking for an out, look
what he says in verse 3. And Pilate asked him, saying,
Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered him and said,
Thou sayest it. Even Pilate knew that wasn't true. He's trying
to get the Lord to say, No, I'm not an enemy of Caesar. The Lord
just said, You said it. I'm a king. But later on, our
Lord told Pilate plainly, I'm a king. You're right, but my
kingdom's not of this world. My kingdom's a spiritual kingdom,
not a physical kingdom. So I'm no enemy of Caesar. None
of my followers will be enemies of Caesar. As believers, now
we serve Christ the king. Christ is our king, isn't he?
We bow to him. We submit to him. We live under
the kingship of Christ, the authority of Christ. Scripture says a believer
has a new citizenship. We're not citizens of this world
anymore. We're citizens of the heavenly country, a heavenly
kingdom. But that does not mean that we're not also under civil
authority in this world. No, we still are. Earlier in
this very epistle, Paul said, you're not under the law. Now,
he meant you're not under the law spiritually. You're not under
the law as a way to earn a righteousness before God. He didn't mean you're
not under earthly laws. And just in case somebody could
have mistaken that, he tells us here, you are. We are under
this governmental civil authority. And scripture tells us plainly
we're to obey it. We're to obey it. The only reason
people are in positions of civil authority in our country, there's
just one reason, God put them there. That's what Paul means
when he says the powers that be are ordained of God. God ordained
for them to be in those positions of power. You may not like the
President, but I'm telling you this, the President of the United
States is in the Oval Office because Almighty God put him
there. Now, don't you disrespect him. If you do, you're disrespecting
God because God put him there. That's right. Same thing is true
about congressmen and governors and mayors and police officers,
parents, husbands, pastors, teachers, and even the dog catcher. Anybody
that's got any authority over anything has it for one reason.
God gave it to him. And we're to submit to it. We're
to respect it. If we rebel against that authority,
we're rebelling against God himself. That's serious business, isn't
it? And if we rebel against it and get punished for it, we got
nobody to blame but ourselves, do we? It's only right. God gave
them that authority for the good of society. So to be disrespectful
of the president is to be disrespectful of God. You may not like the
laws passed by Congress, but I'm telling you what, you better
obey them. You better obey them. To disobey
those laws is to disobey God. Gay rights. That's a law in our
society. I don't like it. I don't agree
with it. But I'm telling you this, if you own a business,
you better not discriminate against them on that basis. Because that's
the law of the land. And you submit to it. Now, the
only exception to that is this. Laws that are ungodly. Daniel
taught us that, didn't he? They made a law that you can't
pray. Well, Daniel said, I'm going to pray. Now, I have to
pray. I have to talk to my Heavenly
Father It's not just a routine that you gotta go through. I
must pray. He prayed. Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, they said you can't bow, you gotta bow down to this
idol. And they said we're not gonna do it. They did the right thing,
didn't they? So those laws that are against
the law of God, of course you don't have to obey those things.
If they made a law you can't preach the gospel and worship
together, we're gonna break that law. But thankfully that's not
our situation. But now, you know, really for
the most part, Most of us do not have to deal with presidents
or congressmen or governors or anybody like that. But we do
deal with authority every day. And here's Paul tells us how
to deal with it. Verse three. For rulers are not a terror to
good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid
of the power? Well, do that which is good, and thou shall 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. You're right to be afraid. For
he beareth not the sword in vain. where he's the minister of God,
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Now, we
face authority in many different forms all throughout our lives.
Just every day. I'm going to give you a few examples
of this. Here's a good example that is something you see in
the news all the time today. Police officers. I know some some police
officers. I've talked to them about this
business as things going on in the news today. And police officers
are not there. They don't put on their uniform
and go out and do what they do to try to terrorize people every
day. I know you'll find one that does, but 99.9% of them are good
at their jobs with good intentions. A policeman will never give you
a ticket for doing the right thing, ever. Now, do you want
to not be afraid of the policeman? Don't speed. Don't steal, don't
do drugs, don't break various laws, and you will not have a
problem with that police officer. I promise you, you won't. But
this is what I can promise you. Break those laws and you're going
to have a problem with him. And rightfully so. God gave him authority,
gave him the sword to punish people for the good of society. He enforces the law for the good
of society. Where would we be in our society
if there's no law and order? Nothing to stop people. You don't
need those laws. None of you need a law that says
don't break into your neighbor's house and steal their Christmas
presents under their tree. That law wasn't made for you.
But where would we be if that law, that threat, wasn't there
to stop some ne'er-do-well? They'd all break in if there
was no threat of punishment. God gave those people authority
for the good of our society. Judges who sit on the bench at
the courtroom, they have God-given authority. And buddy, I've seen
it in action. Wow, that guy's got authority. I've been in courtrooms as a
juror. I've been there as a plaintiff. And the judge was severe. I wasn't
afraid, because I didn't do anything wrong. I've been in the courtroom, and
I've been summoned to go there, because I got a speeding ticket.
I was guilty. I was afraid. And rightfully
so. He gave me exactly what I deserve.
I can't complain about it. I didn't want that to happen
again. I mean, that was good. Well, do you not want to be afraid
of the severe judge? Don't break the law. I mean,
that's simple. Just don't break the law. And
you don't you're not going to have a problem with him. God
gave him authority for the good of our society. All right, bosses,
everybody's got a job, everybody's got a boss. The boss has authority
on the job. It's for the good of the company.
It's so the company can make profits, so they can pay you
wages. Now, I've had good bosses, and I've had bad bosses. I mean,
I'm both wide extremes. I've had outstanding bosses.
I've had horrible bosses. But I'm telling you what, this
is true of both kinds. It doesn't matter if they're
good boss or bad boss, this is true of both of them. You do what
they tell you to do, and they're not going to fire you. That's all there is to it. Bow
to their authority. Whatever it is they tell you
to do, do it. You children, you face authority all the time,
don't you, from bigger people, big people, adults. You're under
their authority all the time, aren't you? Teachers and principals,
you go to school Monday morning. Mr. Thornberry, he's the principal. Buddy, that guy's got the sword.
He's got authority. He's got the authority to suspend
children from school. He's got authority. If they act
up and do the wrong thing, that man's got authority. You want
to see Mr. Thornberry's smiling face? I
saw a picture of him the other day with a big smiling face.
You want to see that smiling face? Do what you're supposed
to do. You'll see his smiling face.
You want to see Mr. Thornberry's frowning face? Act
up. Pick on some kid. Bully some
little kid that's littler than you. Smart off to the teacher.
You're going to see Mr. Thornberry's frowning face. I
told Jan, as we use this illustration sheet, you think Mr. Thornberry's
got a frowny face? I said, oh yeah, I bet he does.
I bet he does. Does he, Lila? Does he have a
frowny face? Do you not want to see his frowny
face? Do what you're supposed to do. If you do what you're
supposed to do, I can promise you this. If you're a child under
his authority, I can promise you this. If you do what you're
supposed to do, you've got freedom. He'll do everything he can do
to help you. But if not, you expect wrath. and rightfully
so. God gave him that authority for
a reason. So all the children in that school
have the best opportunity that they have, get the best education
that they have, because you need it. You've got to be taught. God gave him that responsibility
not so he can punish somebody, not so he can just make somebody
feel bad. It's so all the children can
learn and get the best education they can get. We ought to bow
to that authority, shouldn't we? Thank God He gave somebody
that authority. I'm glad He gave somebody some
sense, that authority. I got good hope for those children,
don't you? You children, now God's wisely
given your parents authority over you. Wisely He did that.
Scripture said, remember the article we read last week from
Brother Pruitt? Obey your parents and the Lord. Now I'm going to
tell you kids something. You think, oh, I got my mom and
dad. I'm going to give you one out. one out. If your parents
tell you you cannot read the Bible, or if they tell you you
can't worship the Lord, or if they tell you you've got to do
something illegal, you don't have to obey them. Otherwise,
obey them. Obey them. It's a true story. It happened recently. I just
thought of it sitting there a minute ago. Recently, I was in a convenience
store at night. We didn't have milk or something.
I went to the convenience store to get milk. I just came home almost crying.
You know what I saw in that convenience store? I saw a man, obviously
strung out on something, teaching what looked to me to be like
a four and five-year-old son and daughter. He's teaching them
to throw sick stuff in their coat. I want to take those babies in
my arms, take them home, let Jana raise them. I just thought,
oh, my soul. Well, in that case, you don't
have to obey. But other than that, you obey him. Because God
wisely gave your parents authority. You do what they tell you to
do. I promise you, you don't understand this just right now,
but I promise you this, boy, especially you get to be teenagers.
Teenagers think they know everything. I promise you, your parents know
more than you do. I just promise you that they do. So you do what
they tell you to do, and it will be for your best. I promise you
it'll be best for you. And if you disobey your parents,
Don't be surprised if they whip you, or they ground you, or they
do whatever it is they've got to do to get your attention,
because God gave them that authority so that they can teach you to
be a good adult. And if they don't teach you to
submit to authority and be a good adult, you're going to be a bad
one. What do you think those poor babies, their daddy teaching
them to steal, what kind of life do you think they're going to
have? What kind of life do you think
a child whose mother and father teach them to erase them? What
kind of adult do you think they're going to be? Another true story. I didn't think of it until I
was sitting up here. I was talking some time ago after service.
Most everybody was gone. We were in the vestibule. I was
talking to one of our mothers here about something very serious,
something that everybody didn't need to hear, but we needed to
discuss it. And certainly her children didn't
need to hear it. And one of her young daughters come round the
door just to smile, just plaster over something really good, really
excited to happen. She's making a beeline to her
mama to tell her about it. But we are in this conversation. And I thought, well, I must just
shut up. And this woman, she's holding her Bible like this,
and just with her hand like a police officer directing traffic. One
time, she moved her hand like this. And that kid just, I saw
the recognition in her face as she went, just right back through
this door. I thought, I got good hope for
that child. I got good hope when she gets
to be an adult. Her mama's taught her authority,
to bow to authority. Obedience to authority is godly. You want to be godly? Bow to
authority. Submit to it. Now, parents, that
puts an enormous weight upon your shoulders. Being a parent,
I mean, I'm still a parent, but I don't have that daily raising
them and teaching them under my authority anymore. But I haven't
forgot it. Being a parent is relentless. It's utterly relentless. That
burden is never off your shoulders or off your heart. Now, parents,
you listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. I
told you about Wednesday. We'll have observations from an old
man. Well, here's the observations from a kind of old man, from
a white-headed man anyway. Been around long enough to learn
something. Listen. Other than teaching your
children the gospel, teaching them to submit to authority is
the most important thing you have to teach them. Did you get
that? Other than teaching your children
the gospel, the most important thing you can teach them is to
submit to authority because they're going to deal with it all their
life long. If they learn to submit to it
when they're three, when they're 35, they'll do just fine with
it. I'm telling you the truth. Look at Ephesians chapter 6.
Their whole life, if you care about your children, their whole
life will be better if you teach them this submission to authority. And if you don't, their whole
life's going to be worse for it. Now, if you care for them,
better teach them this now, I'm telling you. Ephesians 6 verse
1. Children, obey your parents and
the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother.
which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well
with thee that thou mayest live long on the earth. Now, this
is this commandment. Honor your father and your mother. This is a commandment that came
with a promise attached to it. If you do it, you're going to
have a better life. God promised that. I'm not saying
that you're going to live longer and things, but I do. But I tell
you what this means. It does mean that you live a
better life. God promised. So Parents, teach
your children to bow to authority. And ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. I don't care what you have to
do to get your children to obey you the first time you do it.
If you've got to hurt their little feelings, if you've got to hurt
their little rear ends, you better do it. Because if not, when they're
an adult, they're going to pay the price. Make them pay it now. It'll be a smaller price now,
I'm telling you. All right, I'll get off my soapbox about that,
but that's... I have strong feelings about that, but it's so nevertheless,
you saw it from God's Word. Then there's us here at the church.
Pastors have authority in the church. But it's just like Mr. Thornberry down there at your
school. It's not to rule with an iron fist so you can beat
somebody up if you want to. Pastors have the rule for the
good of the church, for the spiritual good, the eternal life of the
church. Pastors have the rule. so that the sheep can be called
to God, so they can come to know Him. Pastors have the rule so
that God's sheep can be fed, so they can grow in grace, so
their hearts can be comforted with the gospel. That's the reason
God gave the church pastors. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. Don't
you see that's the reason that God gave the pastor the rule? It's pretty obvious if we see
that, that it's best for us to bow to it, isn't it? Hebrews
13 verse 7. Remember them which have the
rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose
faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Here
is the goal of their conversation, the goal of their preaching,
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Look over
verse 17. Obey them which have the rule
over you and submit yourselves They watch for your souls as
they that must give an account that they may do it with joy,
not with grief, for that's unprofitable for you. See, that is profitable
for us to bow to this authority. That's why God gave it. Now,
this is speaking to believers, you know, this this thing where,
you know, you're not to obey the law because of threats and,
you know, the punishment. It's our attitude and our attitude
in everything we do is so important. Look back in our text, verse
five, Romans 13. Wherefore, ye must needs be subject,
not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. So you submit
to this authority and obey it because you want to, because
you know it's right, not because you're afraid of getting punished.
You know, I would, I would hate, I might think about this, how
horrible would it be to sit on death row? I mean, that would
be so horrible, wouldn't it? But that's not why I don't kill
people. My conscience tells me that's wrong. I don't want to
participate in prostitution, and adultery, and lying, and
theft, and all these things. Not because I'm afraid of being
punished. I mean, I don't want to be punished. But that's not
why I don't want to participate in those things. It's because
my conscience tells me that's wrong. I don't want to bother
my conscience to steal and all the ugh. I don't want to live
contrary to sound doctrine, do you? Now, sound doctrine, what
is sound doctrine? Sound doctrine is all about God's
salvation. It's God's electing love for
His people. God chose a people to save. Sound doctrine is righteousness
coming to God's people through His obedience to the law, not
through our words. Righteousness comes through faith
in Christ, by being joined to Him in faith. Not by our words,
not by our opinions. Sound doctrine is this, there's
forgiveness of sin in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sin. That's sound doctrine. Sound
doctrine is this, that there's life in Christ given in the new
birth, when the Holy Spirit comes in power and gives life. That's
sound doctrine. And the natural offshoot of that,
what is connected to that, is a holy life. It's the offshoot
of that is living in obedience to God and living in obedience
to the authority that He has put in place. Last week in verse
9, chapter 12, we saw that we're to abhor that which is evil,
cleave to that, be glued to that which is good. Well, if we do
that, we're not going to have any problem with civil authority,
are we? And I tell you how far that goes. This attitude, it
extends to our pocketbook. Pay your taxes. That's what he
tells us in verse six. Or for this cause, pay you tribute
also. Further, God's ministers attending
continually upon this very thing. Now look over at Matthew chapter
17. You know, we may not like taxes. We may think they're too
high. We may think I should pay less
and somebody who's richer should pay more and all these things. But this is the believer's attitude.
This is what scripture teaches now. Don't worry about what somebody
else is paying, what you think they ought to pay. You pay your
bill. The Lord himself did it. The
Lord himself. Matthew 17, verse 24. And when
they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money
came to Peter and said, does not your master pay tribute?
And he said, yes. And I always wonder what's going
on in Peter's mind. He said yes and just went on
and didn't pay anything, did he? He was coming to the house
Jesus prevented him, stopped him, saying, What thinkest thou,
Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth
take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers?
Peter saith to him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are
the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should
offend them, you obey. Go thou to the sea and cast some
hook. Don't even put a worm on it, just cast a hook out there.
And take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou hast
opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take
and give unto them for me and for thee. Our Lord paid taxes. Then let's do the same thing.
Let's just pay our tax. The bill that you got, just pay
it. And don't worry about what somebody else is paying or what
they're not paying. And you know, this just makes logical sense.
We get benefit from paying our taxes, Tony. You think somebody's
breaking into your house in the middle of the night, you can
pick up the phone and call 911. Somebody's going to answer, and
the police are going to come running. You know why? You pay
taxes for that system. Your taxes pay those police officers'
salary so they can come running. If something happens and you
are cooking and you set the kitchen on fire, you can call 911 and
Terry Waltz and his friends are going to come running to put
that fire out. I mean, they're going to come running with urgency. Your taxes pay their salary so
they can be down there on call to come running if your house
catches on fire. Everybody drove here this morning on good roads.
I've been in places where they're not so good roads. We drove here
on good roads. Our taxes paid for that. It's just reasonable
then that we submit and pay those taxes. Our taxes help those who
are less fortunate. It's for the good of society. So submit to that authority and
pay your taxes. Submit to the authority of government.
That's exactly what Paul is teaching here in Romans 13. If you look
back at Luke 20, I can show you where he got it. He got it from
the Lord. The Lord taught him this. He
turned around and gave it to us. Luke chapter 20. Verse 21, and they asked him,
saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly.
Neither acceptest thou the persons of any, but teachest the way
of God truly. So is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar
or no? And he perceived their craftiness. And he said unto
them, why tempt you me? Show me a penny. Whose image
and superscription hath it? They answered, Caesar's. And
he said unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which
be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's. Pay your
taxes. Render to Caesar what belongs
to Caesar. And this brings us to our second point. Render unto
God things that are God's. Render unto your brethren the
things that belong to them. Here's how we're to submit to
authority among each other. Just pay everybody what they're
due. Pay them not money, but pay them respect. Pay them love. Pay them help. Pay them honor.
Pay people the things that they're due. Verse 7 in our text. Render
therefore to all their dues. tribute to whom tribute is due,
custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Whatever it is that you owe somebody,
pay it. If you owe taxes to the government, pay it. If you owe
honor to authority figures in our life, pay it. If you owe
love to people in your life, pay it by showing them your love,
by doing things that will help them and make their life better.
And let's make this especially true, especially true. in the household of God, among
each other. Verse 8, owe no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law. Now whatever it is that you owe
somebody, pay it. Now this is not teaching that
to owe no man anything, don't be in debt to anybody, does not
mean you can't go down there to the bank and get a loan. That's
not what that's teaching. You know, none of us could buy
a house or a car. You can't buy braces for your
children. You can't get a higher education without taking out
a loan. So that's not in any way teaching that we can't get
a loan. What this is teaching us is we've
got a debt to each other. We owe a debt of love to each
other. Now, don't let that debt go unpaid. You see that you pay
it in a timely fashion every chance you get. You have a responsibility. Every one of us here has a responsibility
to this church, to this body of believers. You do what you
can to show your love for the Lord by showing your love upon
his people. I owe a debt to you. I think
about it every day. I owe you a debt. The apostle
Paul said, I'm a debtor to all men, to the barbarian, to the
Greek, to the religion. I'm a debtor to all men. I owe
you a debt. Are you a debt to spend my day
to work hard in prayer and work hard in study to be the best
pastor, the best preacher I can be? I owe that to you. We owe that to each other. See
that it goes paid. Don't let it go unpaid. And you
take that rule of love and apply it to every relationship that
you have. The key to the whole law of God is love. That's what
our Lord told us. If you have a motive of love,
you will pay all these obligations to people in your life. Verse
nine. For this, thou shalt not commit
adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt
not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. And if there
be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love
worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling
of the law. Now you have a debt of love to
all the people in your life. Now pay that obligation to them
by showing them love. A motive of love will not cause
you to go out and harm people in your life, will it? I won't
commit adultery if I act in love to Jan. If I act in love, I just
can't do it, can I? If I act in love to you, I cannot
kill you. boggles my mind to think of killing
Mike Young because I love him. Love's not going to do that.
Love's not going to steal from your neighbor. Jay and I go visit
the girls. We go visit our girls. They've
got houses and they're all set up and different things, you
know. You know something that's never crossed my mind? They recently
married, so they got silverware and all new stuff in their house.
You know what never crossed my mind to steal their silverware?
Never. Because I love them. I mean,
duh! I'm not going to covet the blessing
that somebody else has if I love them. I'm not going to lie on
somebody and tear down their reputation if I love them. Just
act on this motive of love. Now, that's what the Word of
God teaches. On the surface, that's what the
Word of God teaches. And this is what I bet you. You didn't
need me to tell you that, did you? You do not need me. We're in real trouble if you
need me to tell you how to live. You could read that and know
that's what that's saying, couldn't you? Well, if we just stop right
here, I would fail as your pastor. That debt I owe you, I'd fail
it if I stopped right here. I'd fail as a preacher of the
gospel. There is no worse feeling than
going home and thinking, I've failed the Lord. He deserved
better. He deserved a better effort at this. Well, you might
think, where are you going to go with this? Where's the gospel
in that? Where's Christ in this passage?
Glad you asked. Let me show you. Here's our relationship
to God's authority and the authority of the gospel. And this is the
root of the matter. This is what it all comes down
to here. What is our relationship to God's authority over us? Well, God is the almighty. Capital
A, that's who He is. He's the Almighty. He has all
power and all authority. And my friends, there is no salvation
without submission to God, without surrendering to His authority,
without just utterly just stacking your arms and throwing yourself
on the mercy of the Almighty, because He's got the power over
you. There's no salvation until God
shows this to me. So I realize I'm in God's hand. to do with as He pleases. And
that's the right order of things. He's the Almighty and I'm a creature
of the dust. So this thing not in my hand,
it's in His hand. And all that can leave me to
do is beg Him for mercy because He's got the authority. If God
saved me, I will bow to God's authority. His authority, His
right to choose who He will to save and to pass by who He will. I'll bow to that authority. Now
that won't stop me from praying for my lost friends and my lost
loved ones. It won't stop me from praying for them at all.
But I bow to His right to choose who He will. If God has saved
me, I will bow to His sovereign right. He'll have mercy on whom
He will, when He will. I bow to that. If God has saved
me, I bow to His sovereign right to do what He will in this creation. It kind of goes back to what
we were looking at a minute ago. It's God's right to put who He
will in the Oval Office and who He will in those Senators' offices
and all those things. That's God's right and I bow
to it. But I tell you what more than
that. I bow to God's right to do with
me as He will. Even when it hurts the flesh. God give me grace David said,
our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever he pleased.
And that's not just everybody out there. That's what this means.
That's what it is. We say with Eli, it's the Lord. Let him do what's in his mind.
Because it is right. Now, I don't live this way. I don't try to live with this
motive of love because I have to. I don't bow to God's authority. because I have to, because God's
going to punish me if I don't. No, I bow to His sovereign reign
over everything because I rejoice. I'm telling you, I rejoice that
God Almighty reigns over every event of my life, that this thing's
not left up to me, that He reigns. I'm so comfortable leaving that
in His hands, aren't you? Because if it was left in mine,
it'd be a miserable failure. David said, the Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. I rejoice
that he reigns. That's why we bow to him. And
there is no salvation. There is no salvation until we
bow. Almighty God, until we bow to
King Jesus. Look at Romans chapter 10. Just
back a couple pages. Romans chapter 10. There's no
salvation until we submit to the authority of King Jesus.
Romans 10 verse 1. Rather, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. And nobody's ever going to be
saved until they submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ.
Now, what does that mean? What does that mean? That sounds
good, but what does it mean? I'll tell you what it means. No one
has ever been... God's not saved until they quit
trying to make God happy with what they do. And they just submit. They just rest in Christ, who
already satisfied the Father for His people. If I'm going
to be saved, I'm going to have to surrender. I got to surrender
any hope of getting any credit for what I do. I've got to submit
myself. I've got to surrender to Christ
so that He gets all the credit and all the glory. That's where
salvation is. Now don't submit to God. I'm
not going to be playing about this. I'm not telling you to
submit to God or He's going to damn you. Don't submit to God because
you're afraid He's going to send you to hell. Submit to God because
you love Him. Submit to God's authority because
it's the right thing to do. It goes back to where all this
started just a couple weeks ago. Submit, surrender to God. It's our reasonable service.
It's only reasonable that a creature of the dust would submit himself
to almighty God. And then there's the gospel.
We submit ourselves to the authority of almighty God. We submit ourselves
to the righteousness of Christ, to the authority of King Jesus.
And we submit ourselves to the authority of the gospel. The
gospel of God is the power of God unto salvation. This is not
just some, you know, religious sounding lecture we give. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Now, what's our response
to that authority? Believe it. We submit to the
authority of the gospel when we believe it. You don't even
have to understand how it all works. You don't have to understand
why God did it this way. Suffice it to say, this is what
God did and we believe it. That's submitting to God. Now,
in light of all that, pay to God what he's owed. Pay to God
what he's owed. I'm not talking about tithing
because all that is is a religious tax. I'm talking about not owing
the Lord anything because we love him and we act upon that
love. But what is due the Lord? Absolutely everything. Everything
is due to the Lord. Everything we have, everything
we are has come from Him. Is that right? Then everything
is due to the Lord. Then believe God. Believe Him
because He's trustworthy. Put your trust in Him because
He's trustworthy. Now yes, God is sovereign. God
saves whom He will, when He will. Absolutely right. But at the
same time, I'm responsible to believe God in believing because
he's trustworthy. Paul mentions here tribute, pay
God tribute. Now, tribute, that word we think
of it normally meaning a tax. And like I said, that does not
apply to God's people, to your pocketbook, to tithe, you know,
because that's just a religious tax. This word tribute, it also
means individual assessment, individual assessment. You do
what God's given you individually, your individual assessment. You
do what God's given you to do individually. You bow. You bow. You believe. You beg God for
mercy. You rest in Christ. That's your
individual assessment. And then use the individual gifts
that God's given you for the good of his people. That's your
individual assessment. Then Paul says custom, pay God
custom. Now again, that normally has
to do with taxes, I know, but the word also, I looked it up,
it means the end of the goal. This has to be speaking of Christ,
who's the end of the law for righteousness. You do, you fulfill
your individual assessment. You trust Christ. You trust him. Not someday, right now. Right
this very second, right where you sit, without moving off your
seat in the least, You trust Christ and you come to Christ.
You know what the Word of God says? You shall be saved. Do you know what the Word says
there? Trust. Believe. Come to. You shall be saved.
Let me ask you this question. You have not believed. If you
haven't believed Christ, you know it. Let me ask you this
question. Why haven't you? What are you waiting on? God has not given us the first
reason to not trust Him. The only reason we wouldn't trust
God is we're rebels against Him. That's right. We won't surrender. Here's your individual assessment.
Christ is the end of the law. He's the goal of it to come to
Him. And then fear. Pay God fear. Now fear, we normally
think of that as meaning respect. And we're not the believers that
have to fear God like a slavish fear. But the word here does
mean not respect. It means exceeding along. Genuine
fear. That's what the word means. Now,
preacher, what are you going to do with that? Live your life
in genuine fear. In genuine fear of being found
without Christ. Genuine fear of being found outside
of Him. But make it your heart's desire
to win Christ and be found in Him. You seek Christ to be your
Savior with everything you've got because you You fear being
found without Him. You seek Him because He is your
only hope of salvation. You do that and you've paid your
proper fear to God. Yeah. Then last, honor. And the word means dignity. Give
God the respect that somebody that's so dignified deserves.
Oh my. When you come to Him in prayer,
when you think of Him, when you speak of Him, do it reverently. Do it carefully. Carefully, take
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ upon your lips. He's the eternal
God. He's to say, give Him the respect
He deserves. And when you come to God reverently,
carefully, here's how you pay God honor. You want to know how
you pay the Lord Jesus Christ honor? At the same time that
you come full of fear and trembling before the throne of Almighty
God, you come boldly. Because you trust Christ. That's
giving Him the honor He deserves. You know you're accepted in Him
because you believe Him. Because you trust Him, He's all
you need. He's all God requires. That's
paying Him the honor He deserves. And you pay these things as a
debt of love. And you're going to live your
life fulfilling the song I love when Leah sings to us, how much
I owe. That's how you do this. Live your life showing how much
I owe. to God's eternal mercy and grace
and love for somebody as worthless as me. That's it. That is our
relationship with God. Well, I preached too long, but
that's a blessing to you. Let's bow and pray. Our God, how we thank you for
the blessed instruction that you've given your children in
your word. Father, we pray that you give
us a broken and a contrite heart, a submissive pliable heart to
your will, to your purpose. Father, cause us to bow to Thee. Cause us to fall at Your feet,
not because You broke our legs, but because we fall before Your
throne willingly, bowing, giving You all the glory and the praise
and the thanksgiving and the honor. Cause us to pay our debt
to Thee in belief of Your Son, in trust in Your Son, in love
for Thee. And cause us to pay our debt
to one by showing our love for thee, by showing our love in
action to our brethren and to those that are without, that
we might be found faithful to preach your gospel and support
it so that the glory of our Savior might be spread as far as you're
pleased to spread it. Father, thank you and bless us as we
go back out into the world, we go back out to these lives that
you've given us to live. Cause us to live them in fear
and honor. Christ our Savior. In his precious
name we pray and give thanks.