In Titus chapter 3, and let's
begin reading in verse 1, and just read a few of the verses.
We're just going to continue to study about civil authority.
We looked at this the last time, and let's just look at some more
things about it tonight. In Titus chapter 3 and verse
1, put them in mind to be subject to principalities, powers, to
obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. to speak
evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Christ Jesus our Lord. That being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
These civil authorities, we looked at this last week, and we looked
at it over in Romans 13, if you remember that. Some of you weren't
here. But it gives us a beautiful description of what these powers
are, who they are. And they're the authorities,
the civil government that God has set up. We found that out
there in Romans 13. There is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. And he sets all these powers
up, he establishes them, and he holds them up. And we looked
last week, and some of this is difficult to understand, all
governments in the world are not like ours. We've got a good
government that we live under, and we can hardly relate to living
in a place like North Korea. especially some of the war-torn
places like Syria, or some of the dictatorships like Saddam
Hussein there in Iraq, how they ruled over. But you know those
rulers, as well as our kind of government, they're set up of
the Lord. And we looked last week at the fact that if we consider
the Arab Spring and how they just tore the governments up,
The government there in Iraq, when we removed Saddam Hussein
and left the empty space there and ISIS came in, it happened
the same way now in Syria. But those governments are set
up of God, and they are to protect just and good and honest people. We looked at this there last
week in chapter 13. We saw these two things that
God has set up these civil authorities for. And the first one was to
punish evildoers. Remember Romans 13.4? He is a
revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. That's the
job of the government. They're not to worry about a
man's soul. They're not to worry about theological issues. They
punish the evil doers. And we looked at that last week.
They do that even in communist nations, don't they? They punish
evil doers. They don't punish good people.
Now, we're talking about the civil authority. I'm not saying
they don't punish Christians sometimes because they don't
like Christianity. But we're dealing with civil authority.
If you're a good neighbor, they're not going to punish you for being
a good neighbor. If you go to help your neighbor when they're
sick, they're not going to call you out and punish you because
of that. They punish evil doers. And without that, there's tyranny,
isn't there? Wouldn't you hate to live in
a country where there's no government at all? It'd be tyranny. And
when there's no government and when there's tyranny, boy, that's
when good people usually suffer, isn't it? Mean people and wicked
people, they prosper under a government like that. But you know, don't
this teach us something also. He's the avenger of God, the
government's the avenger of God to execute judgment upon him
that doeth evil. And that tells us something,
doesn't it? If God has given the civil authority,
the right to judge evil and punish it, He's going to punish it too,
isn't He? He's going to punish you too.
And that's what the Day of Judgment is about, that He's appointed
a day in which He'll judge the world in righteousness. All of us, every man and woman
and boy and girl, shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ
to give account of the things they've done in their body. So
we learn that God has given one man or a group of men the right
to punish, even put to death, men who deserve it, who have
earned it. And if He gave that authority
to men in the government, then surely He's going to take that
authority to Himself. And also in Romans 13, we saw there that
the rulers were not a terror to good people. They weren't
a terror to good works, but to the evil. And He said, Do that
which is good, and you shall have praise of the same, for
He is the minister of God to thee for good. So we saw that last week, and
that's very important. And something else was very important
that we looked at last week in Romans chapter 13, where it said,
give taxes, pay taxes to whom taxes are due. And remember what
we said about that? Sometimes we're burdened about
the causes that our taxes support. That's why some people have quit
paying taxes or threatened to quit paying taxes. But here is
a burden removed from us. Taxes is not a gift that we give. Taxes is a debt we owe. And when
we pay taxes to the government, we're not responsible for how
the government uses them. The Lord Jesus paid taxes to
the cruel Roman government, and He'd have never done that. if
he'd have been concerned about where that was going. It comes
right back to when we pay taxes to our government, then they're
responsible. The Lord will hold them accountable
for what they use that money for. Because they're going to
have to give account the same as you and the same as me. David, the
last words of David, in 2 Samuel chapter 23, David made this statement. He said, the Lord has showed
me The Rock of Israel spake to me, and this is what He said,
He that rules over men must be just. He must be just. And God will hold a man accountable
for how He rules other men. It comes right down to our family,
doesn't it? Parents ruling over the children. Pastors ruling over the congregation. And the civil authority ruling
over society. And they must be just. And the Lord will hold them accountable
for how they rule in our society. He'll hold them accountable.
So we saw that last week. But I don't want to leave this
so quickly. I want to spend one more week on this because there's
some more things here that's comforting to me. We dealt mainly
last week with we should be good citizens and render obedience.
to our government. We looked at that last week.
But I want to say something else about that. He says here in verse
1, put them in mind, remind them to be obedient, to obey these
magistrates. And that includes everybody from
the president all the way down to the local authorities. Obey
the magistrates. But here is my first point on
this. We can't a bit more render perfect
obedience to the laws of our land then we can render perfect
obedience to the law of Moses. We just can't do it. I used to
worry myself sick that I was breaking some laws of the land.
And I tried my best. I had such a tender conscience.
I didn't want to break any law. I didn't want to break any law
of God. I didn't want to break any law
of the land. But what I come to realize, man,
there are so many laws you can't obey them all. You absolutely
can't obey them all. I remember reading a story about
a, there was a police officer, he cut through this one community,
used it for a shortcut, and this man said every time he came through
there, he was a state trooper, he was flying down through the
neighborhood. And this guy, this neighbor laid
wait for him and he jumped in his car and took off after him
and stopped him down in the middle of the neighborhood and got out
and said, You come flying through our neighborhood, we've got kids
playing here, and you ought to obey the law yourself." He said,
buddy, you're right, I ought to obey the law as well as you
should. He said, me and you both ought to be law-abiding people.
So the guy got back in his car and went around the state trooper,
and the state trooper followed him. The guy turned off right,
and the state trooper stopped him and gave him a ticket. And
you know what the ticket was for? You may not know this. I
didn't know this. You have to give a signal 200
feet before you turn. He said, I've never heard of
such a thing. And the state trooper said, yes, you ought to obey
the law. So did you know that? When you all called me to pastor
you, I went up to the IRS because I didn't want to break. I wanted
to pay what I was supposed to pay. And there were some things
I didn't understand. So I went to the IRS office.
I didn't get them on the phone. I didn't write them. I went to
their office. I talked to the main shop there
in their office. And I was asking him questions.
Do you know what he told me? He said, I don't know. He said,
I don't know. And here's what he said. He said,
you're a man of God and I'll trust that you'll do what's right.
I said, man, what's right? That's what I want you to tell
me, what's right? But they have passed so many laws. Congress
has passed so many laws. They don't even know what the
law is. So when the Apostle Paul tells us here, obey the magistrates. He knew, as well as you and I
do, that you and I are not able to perfectly obey every law of
the land. So what He does here, He gives
us something good to live by. Here's the best thing. Unless
you want to go get you a law book that thick and try to read
and obey all of them, which you'll never do it if you knew them.
He gives us these couple of things. And He says it here in the last
part of verse 1. Be ready to every Good work. Be ready to every good work. In Galatians 6.10 he says this,
"...as you have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially
to those who are of the household of faith." Let us be ready. This
is what will make us a good citizen. Just be ready to do good Don't
mean your country any harm. Don't mean to cheat your country
or lie to your country or abuse the authority. Just as you live
your life in this world, as you have opportunity, be a good citizen. Just be a good person. Just do
good. I heard Joe tell some of you
about a young man there in our community, and he's failing his
classes. He's a senior this year, and he's failing some of his
classes. And man, his family's a mess.
You talk about a mess. I don't even know how the kid
is doing as well as he is. But Joe sort of took the young
man under his wings. He's a senior. And they got seven
lessons last night. Caught up seven lessons. They
did almost a half a term paper tonight. And the reason she's
doing that is because Paul said, as you have opportunity, do good. And some of you, you know, you
don't hear it. You don't go around talking about
it. But that's what you do in your family. You help people. You help them over the hump and
help them get by. Your neighbor needs help. You
visit your neighbor. You help your neighbor. You just do good. That's what we need. It may not
seem like much, but boy, after a while, it adds up, doesn't
it? It really adds up. This is the way Christians are
to live. If there's ever anybody in society that ought to be a
help for society, It's the church of Jesus Christ. It's His people. Just going about doing good. And the second thing He tells
them, here's something about their whole attitude. Here in
verse 2, look what He says in verse 2, "...to speak evil of
no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men." To speak evil of no man. I thought about spending
a whole study on this. To speak evil of no man. Aren't
you and I pronged to do that? Run somebody's reputation down?
Did you hear what old so-and-so did? And you know what we ought
to do when somebody says that? Here ought to be our response.
I heard that. But it went over my head because
I've done so much worse. Did you hear what old sister
so-and-so said? I heard what she said, but I've
said so much worse. Don't speak evil. And the word
itself means to vilify, to defame, or to rail on people, or to run
people down. Don't speak evil. Don't speak
evil. Don't speak evil. I remember
John 21, we just finished the other night, and I emphasized
this. I preached on this too over there where I was the other
night, where the Lord told Peter to shut up and follow Me. Just
shut up and follow me. I have to constantly tell myself
that, Bruce, shut up. Just shut up. Stop speaking evil. Stop implying evil. Just shut
up. Just shut up. That's good advice,
isn't it? That's good advice. Sitting around
our homes when we fellowship with one another, don't speak
evil. And he said this, don't be a
brawler. The word means a noisy person. Not arguing a person,
one who just wants to cause contention. Just stirring up people. Look
at our society. Have you ever lived in a day,
you can't even carry on a conversation today, hardly about anything.
People are so angry, aren't they? Look at the protesters out in
the streets. Man, they're angry and ready to hit the streets
and cuss and burn things down and tear things up. So contentious. Paul said, don't be a brawler.
Don't be a brawler. But look what he says. Be gentle.
Be gentle. You know if you'll do this, you
won't have to worry about breaking a lot of laws. I mean, you're
just going to be a good neighbor. Gentle. This word in the King
James is translated differently in other places. In Philippians
4-5 it's translated moderation. Listen to this. Let your moderation
be known to all men. That word moderation means to
avoid extremes in words or in actions. Avoid extremes. Don't make a mountain out of
a little molehill. I've heard preachers do this, bless their
heart, and I guess we've all been guilty of this. They want
to make this shocking statement. A man told me the other day,
we need to be making shocking statements. No, we don't. We just need to be preaching
the Word. Don't make these shocking statements.
Don't get out on the wings, the extreme. Just take the Word of
God right down the middle of the road, the Word of God. Don't
get off either way. There's a ditch on both sides,
isn't there? Extremes in our words, extremes in our action. Moderation. And the other place,
1 Timothy 3.3, it's translated patience. A bishop must not be
a brawler, but patient, gentle. Well, patience has got a lot
to do with gentleness, hasn't it? If you lose your patience,
you're not gentle anymore, are you? So that's one thing I like
about it. I know men weigh in. We read
all kinds of different versions. But one of the reasons I like
the King James is because it's got gentleness translated different
words in different places. And you can go there and learn
something about gentleness. It's moderation. It's patience. Be patient. You'll be a good
mother. You'll be a good wife. You'll
be a good husband. You'll be a good neighbor. You'll
be a good citizen if you'll be gentle. Be gentle to all men. Try that and see if it don't
work. Let Galilee be our example of being gentle. And James, he said then, well,
look over in James. We're close to that. Look over
to your right. How James uses the word. Chapter
3. James chapter 3 and look in verse
13. James 3.13. Who is a wise man
and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good
conduct, conversation, his works with meekness of wisdom. But
if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not and
lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish, demonomic, and where
envy and strife is, There is confusion in every evil work. But look at this. Look at the
wisdom of God. Look what an attitude that He
always gives. The wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, and then gentle, and easy to
be entreated, full of mercy and good fruit without partiality
and without hypocrisy. and the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace." When God teaches
a man, you know what He does? He makes him gentle. It doesn't
make you mean and contentious and argumentative, does it? I
was reading the words of one old Puritan. He said, this is
the truth. He said, you can take a fellow,
come along, and he begins to read the Bible and he gets in
his head that he just knows everything. And if he's not careful, he'll
get lifted up in pride and he'll get so contentious that he can
tear down in three months what it takes ten years to build up.
And when the Lord teaches us, we're not contentious. We're
not argumentative. We don't scream and stick our
hands in people's faces. We just don't do that. We're
not according to this. We don't. If anybody should be
meek and gentle in this world, it's believers. If the Lord is
condescended to have mercy upon me, then shouldn't that make
me merciful to others? It should, shouldn't it? Look
over in one more place. Look over in Romans chapter 13
where we're speaking about just a minute ago. Romans chapter
13 and look in verse 8. Just saying, you know, if we
do this, we wouldn't have to worry about all the laws. You
know, there'd be very few we'd really have to worry about to
be good citizens, to be meek, and when we had opportunity to
do good. That'd be a good lot as a believer, as a Christian,
to have that attitude like that. And here Paul was talking about
this civil authority and be subject to these higher powers and so
on. And he comes down here in verse
7 and says, Render therefore to all their dues, tax to whom
tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom
honor. Look at this now. Owe no man anything but to love
one another. For he that loveth another hath
fulfilled the law." And I guess we could say it not only fulfills
the law of Moses, but it fulfills the law of the Lamb, doesn't
it? If you love your neighbor, how are you going to treat him?
You're going to be honest. You're going to help him, aren't
you? 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 yourself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor,
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." So instead of me
worrying myself sick about trying to figure out what all the laws
of the land is, when I have the opportunity, I do good. I love
people. And I think if we do that, if
we have that kind of attitude as Christians, then we're not
going to hurt our country. We're not going to hurt our communities,
are we? We're not. So that's the first
thing. Second thing, right quick, is
this. We're not to yield unblinded
yield blinded obedience to our rulers. As citizens of a country,
we don't yield blind obedience to our rulers. When Paul said,
you obey those that are in authority, obey magistrates, we've seen
last week that not one is contrary to God's Word. They're rulers. They demand our respect. They
demand our prayers. The Lord told us to pray for
them. But it doesn't mean that we're never allowed to check
their wickedness. And let me give you a couple
examples of that. You remember when John the Baptist
told King Herod, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's
wife? That's sin against God. He got him put to death. But
I tell you, the Lord didn't hold that against him, did He? He
told him that. I bet you when his daddy, Herod
the Great, sent forth to Bethlehem and slew all those little babies,
two-year-old and under, I bet you he heard an uproar from that
from Christians, don't you? I bet there were some saints
that made their voices known to that. Herod, that was a wicked
deed, and God will bring you to judgment for killing these
babies. So we don't yield unblinded obedience. Paul's not talking
about that. And look in another place. Look in Acts 16. I've always chuckled when I've
read this little account. This is where Paul and Silas
was in prison. You remember why they were in
prison. These fellows had this woman, and she was a fortune
teller. commanded the devil to come out
of her, and it made these men mad because they were making
their living by this woman. She was palm readers, you know,
we call them, stuff like that. So they whipped them. The leaders,
probably the sheriff, the magistrates, they said, whip them and put
them in prison. That's what they did. And the
Lord sent the earthquake, delivered them from the prison, and then
we pick up the story down here in verse 35. Philippian jailer had been saved.
And look here in verse 35, And when it was day, the magistrates,
the rulers there, sent the sergeants, saying, Let those men go. And
the keeper of the prison told this, saying to Paul, The magistrates
have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go
in peace. But Paul said unto them, Oh no, no, no, no, no. They're not going to get by with
this. They have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans. and have cast us into prison,
and now do they thrust us out privately? Nay, verily, let them
come down themselves, and fetch us out. And the sergeant told
these words unto the magistrates, and they feared when they heard
that they were Romans. And they came down, and besought
them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of
their city." So there's a time. You can call it for standing
up for your rights or whatever you want to call it. But there's
a time when the authority can be checked, and a Christian has
got the God-given right to stand up and say, listen, you have
unjustly treated me and my family, and this is not right, and call
them to question. That's good for the leaders,
isn't it? When we talk about obeying the magistrates, we're
talking about don't yield civil disobedience over just every
little old thing. Be a good citizen. Obey the law.
Obey the law. Somebody said the Queen of England
feared John Knox. John Knox was a great preacher.
And the Queen of England feared John Knox more than she feared
an invading army. And she feared that if John Knox
ever took her to the throne of God and pleaded against her,
she was afraid God would kill her. That's how much she feared
that man of God. So the government should respect
Christianity. And I think in some ways, at
least more here in our country than do anywhere else, but we
don't yield blind obedience to them. We can check them. And
the last thing is this, and I love this. Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, our Lord, our Savior, is now reigning over these principalities
and these powers. While He tells us to be obedient
to Him and pray for Him, it's Him that has set them up. It's
Him that has established them. And He reigns over them right
now. And He will continue to reign
until He's put all of these authorities, all of these powers down under
His feet. See, He's not only a gracious
and merciful Lord, but He's a sovereign Lord, isn't He? The Bible says
He is reigning. He must reign. And you know it's
sad but true that most of these governments that He has established,
they live in opposition to Him, don't they? Why do the heathen
rage and the kings imagine a vain thing? They set themselves against
the Lord. Well, they are against Him, aren't
they? But you know something? He still reigns over them. And
He'll reign over them until He's put them all down. And when they're
all put down, there'll be one kingdom, and that'll be His,
the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, look at
them that's been put down already. He raises them up, the Bible
says, and He puts them down. And you know, He's going to do
that to this one. You and I love our country and we live in it,
but He's going to bring it down. It's temporarily. And it serves
its purpose under Him. But He's going to bring it down.
Oh, Nimrod, there in Genesis chapter 9 and Genesis chapter
11, Nimrod was said to be a mighty hunter even before the Lord.
And he established the kingdom of Babel. But where's it at now? Where's Nebuchadnezzar and his
big Babylon? that he bragged about his hands
as bill. Where's it at? Alexander the Great that ruled
the world at one time. Where's his kingdom at? Where's
the Roman empire at? It's gone, isn't it? All the
empires in this empire, the U.S.A., it's going to be gone. But where's
his kingdom? It'll stand for everyone. It
will stand forever. And nothing gives us any more
satisfaction that we look around at all the chaos in the world
today to know this, that Jesus of Nazareth, our redeeming God,
rules and reigns over these kingdoms. He does. And He's got a purpose
for them. He's fulfilling that purpose. And when He does, He'll
put them down. And the last kingdom that's standing
will be His. And where these kingdoms diminish,
His only increases. is increasing. I'm a patriot. I love my country. But there's
a kingdom I love more than that. And that's the kingdom of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. One more passage and we'll close.
Look in Revelation chapter 11. Revelation chapter 11. Disciples of the Lord, they're
in the book of Acts. Boy, they stirred up some people
when they went preaching, there's another king. One Jesus, they
said. He's king. And he's reigning. And this is the last trumpet
in Revelation 11. And look in verse 15. Revelation
11 and verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded.
That's the last trumpet. And there were great voices in
heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever
and ever. And the four and twenty elders
which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and
worshiped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
which art and was and art to come, because thou hast taken
to thee thy great power and has reigned." The church is happy
about that. But look at the nations. They
were angry. And thy wrath is come in the
time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest
give rewards unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints,
and them that feel your name, small and great, and shouldest
destroy them which destroyed the earth. And the temple of
God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple
the ark of the covenant, and there were lightnings and voices
and thunders and an earthquake and great hail." We know the
end, don't we? We know the end. The kingdoms
of this world are going to become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of His Christ. And then He's going to reign
openly forever and ever. That's our hope, isn't it? That's
what we're looking for. That's what we're looking for.
Lord bless His Word.