Lord, I swear there's no pain I know there's no danger In that bright world to which I go Welcome to this podcast from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. Faith Bible Church is a Christ-centered, Bible-teaching ministry dedicated to bringing the good news of the gospel to the whole world. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And now, for this week's message from Pastor Alan Battle. Today's scripture is Romans chapter 13, verses 1 through 7. 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 the authorities resist 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 in vain, for he is the servant of God, an 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. Pray to all, 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. This is the word of God. So we resume our study in the book of Romans this morning after a break for the holidays. And today we're continuing with this theme of our duty towards the government. And we continue to explore how we are to render unto Caesar. Verses 1 through 7 of Romans 13 is really just an expansion of Jesus' command to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Chapter 13 began with the command for everyone, every person, to be subject to the governing authorities, or those who the reformers called the magistrates, the civil magistrates. And we saw that although Paul doesn't address it here, there are biblical grounds for disobeying the government. That's when the government usurps God's authority and demands that its citizens either do things that are contrary to God's law or don't do things that God commands. Last time we went through verses one through four, where we learned that God instituted the sphere of governmental authority for the good of mankind, just as he has instituted the spheres of the family and the church and their respective authorities in our lives. In each of these, it's God who has established the authority. So it's our duty to obey those in authority when they remain confined to their proper sphere of authority. But when they encroach on the sphere of another authority, then Christians can rightly resist. Just as Peter and the other disciples refused to stop preaching about Jesus when commanded to do so by the Jewish authorities. We saw that government is good because it restrains and punishes evil. Magistrates provide law and order that allows people to live their lives in peace. And the state has the power of the sword, the right to use coercive and even violent force to maintain the peace up to and including the death penalty. And in the remaining verses of this section, we're going to see two motivations for obedience to the government, as well as two ways that we demonstrate that subjection to government. We left off at verse 4 where it says that the representative of the state is a servant of God who carries out God's vengeance and wrath on the wrongdoer. We pick it up now in verse 5 where he says, therefore, one must be in subjection. So a good reason to obey the laws of the land is to avoid God's wrath that comes through the hand of government. And for many, it's the only reason that they restrain themselves from evil. If you take away the fear of punishment, a lot of people will behave badly. When Dostoevsky said, if God does not exist, then everything is permitted, he was commenting about this restraining effect that God has as the ultimate judge. Now, of course, the fear of punishment isn't the only thing keeping people from continuously breaking the law. We saw in Romans chapter 1 that everyone has an inner witness, an inner sense of right and wrong. And many follow that light to a certain extent. But there's plenty of relatively good atheists out there. But many suppress the truth in unrighteousness, as it says in Romans chapter 1, and they descend into the worst of criminal behaviors. Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a man who was advocating this deistic idea that God is not interested in anything that goes on down here. And whether Franklin believed that or not, I don't know. But he thought it was a dangerous idea to spread in society. This is what he wrote to his friend. He said, you yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life without the assistance afforded by religion. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes who have the need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice. And then he advised his friend to burn the essay. And he ended with this, if men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it? And I would modify that to say, if men are so wicked with law enforcement, what would they be without it? So the government is there to restrain evil. But this is not the only or the best motivation to obey the rulers. Look at the second half of verse 5. We should obey not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. Fear is not the best motivation to do what's right. He says here that we should do it for conscience sake. What does that mean? Well, maybe this story from my past can illustrate it. When I was a kid growing up under the shadow of Rattlesnake Mountain in South Reno, sometimes my buddies and I would hike to the top of that mountain. One day we were up there and made a little fire and cooked some lunch. And one kid started playing with the lighter fluid in the fire, squirting it to make the flames shoot up. And then, oh, he squirted it out past the fire. And it went out into the sagebrush. And we all stomped on it, tried to get it out. We couldn't do it. So we ran down the hill, down to where we lived in Smith Ridge Park. And we watched and laughed from the big lawn of our condos as the plane flew over with fire retardant, the whole side of the mountain burnt down. We were a bunch of little hoodlums. And we thought it was really funny. Our consciences were seared. But there was this one kid who was with us. He just moved into the neighborhood, and we hadn't completely corrupted him yet. We called him Russell Duck. I don't know why we called him that. But anyway, Russell Duck started sobbing, saying his mom was going to be so mad at him. And we told him, shut up, you little baby. So what's my point here? Well, look at the verse again. not only to avoid God's wrath, also for the sake of conscience. Russell Duck was not fearing the punishment that he might receive. He was upset because he knew how disappointed his mother would be if she found out what we had done. He had a tender conscience. And this is the best motivation for good behavior. It is the desire to please God and not to grieve Him. Did you know that you can cause God grief? Ephesians 430, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. This word grieve, grieved or grief, is used dozens of times in the New Testament and every time it indicates some kind of emotional distress or sorrow. In First Thessalonians it's used for the pain that we feel when someone dies. So don't ask me how a perfect, holy, self-sufficient God can feel pain over our sin, but he does. This is why we should obey authority. We should obey it for conscience sake, because we want to please our Lord and not disappoint him. In a parallel passage on this topic, the Apostle Peter echoes Paul's exhortation and adds to it. 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 13. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the Emperor. So Peter adds another reason here for why we should obey rulers. It's for testimony's sake. By living in submission to authority, we can silence the critics. And though we are in submission, we really demonstrate the freedom that we have in Christ. And when people see us living a godly life, they're drawn to the gospel. This is our testimony. Now if the authorities are going to perform all these functions, they have to get paid for it, unfortunately. So Paul says in verse 6, for because of this you also pay taxes. And there's no limit set on this. It doesn't say pay what you think is fair. It doesn't say donate. It just says pay. The Romans, they were ruthless in their taxation, especially in the provinces. In the later empire, it got to the place where the population of the capital city, Rome, was mostly living on welfare. And they had to pay for it somehow, so they heavily taxed the places that they conquered. And they would hire the nationals to collect from their own countrymen. These guys were called publicans. In the scripture, Matthew and Zacchaeus were both publicans. They were allowed to collect as much money as they could, extort from the people, pay Rome a prescribed amount, and then pocket the rest. Nobody liked a publican. And nobody likes to pay taxes. This isn't an easy pill to swallow. So Paul adds a little more motivation here in the second half of verse 6. For the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing. Really? Ministers? This was the word that the Greeks and the Romans used for public servants. But notice that it says they are ministers of God. This is the same Greek word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for those who minister at the altar. And in the New Testament this word is always used in reference to ministering for God. John the Baptist's father, Zechariah, he was a minister in the temple. In Romans 15-16, Paul calls himself a minister of Jesus Christ. Angels are called ministers of God in Hebrews chapter 1, and Jesus himself is called a minister in Hebrews 8 too. But everyone who carries out God's will are his ministers, regardless of their faith or their lack of faith. In Isaiah, there's a prophecy of Cyrus, the future king of Persia, who would come and deliver the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. The fact that he's named 200 years before he was born is amazing enough. But what is really surprising about this passage is that God calls Cyrus his Messiah. Cyrus was a pagan ruler. He believed in false gods. But he was God's anointed king used to deliver his people from bondage. He was God's minister. So when Paul says that the reason that we must pay taxes is because the magistrates are his servants, his ministers, he's saying that paying our taxes is actually a sacred duty. We continue in verse 7. Pay to all what is owed them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed. The ESV uses the word pay here, but the King James and the New American Standard Bible use the older form, render. It's the same word that Jesus used when he said, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. It doesn't mean simply to pay. It carries with it the meaning of paying something back that is owed. So we're reminded here once again that this is not voluntary. It is an obligation. Taxes are debts that we owe. If we do not pay our taxes, we are stealing from the government. And Paul mentions two types of taxes here. The first was like our income tax, and the second is like sales tax. But regardless of what type of tax it is, the point is that taxes must be paid, no matter what form they come in. But money is not the only thing that we owe to the civil government, to the officials. Look at the next, the second half of verse seven. Pay respect to whom respect is owed and honor to whom honor is owed. It's not enough just to simply obey the law. Christians must do it with the right heart. It's so easy to treat those with whom we disagree with contempt and with disrespect. I'm as guilty as anyone in this. I've been convicted this week as I've been studying this passage. Back during the Obama years, I saw a bumper sticker that I loved. It said, Pray Psalm 109-8 for the President. So, what does Psalm 109.8 say? It says, may his days be few, may another take his office. Now, that's funny. Yeah, it's funny, but I think that it might be crossing the line into sinfulness. It's saying, I hope he dies so that someone better can get in there. In fact, the Good News translation actually says, may his life soon be ended, may someone else take his job. Now, I'm not knocking satire. It can be an effective means of truth. Jesus actually uses satire. The Apostle Paul uses satire. It can be used in a godly way. And the Babylon Bee is brilliant at this, if you're familiar with it. It's pretty funny. But I'm saying that satire shouldn't become nasty like the late night comedians have turned it into. You know, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, they used to do political humor with grace and good humor. But the current batch of talk show hosts are downright hateful and mean and not to mention disgustingly crude often. So we need to be careful when our opposition to false ideas crosses the line into hatred for those who promote them. After all, Jesus commands us to love our enemies. And not that all earthly leaders are our enemies, but they might be, and we should be praying for them either way. So here's another passage where Paul deals with our relationship to earthly rulers. 1 Timothy 2, 1-4. He says, I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them, intercede in their behalf and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority. so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. So here we see that the magistrate is the servant of God to maintain order, which allows the gospel to go out into the world. In the days of the early church, the Romans provided such stability. so much so that the gospel was able to spread freely and rapidly throughout the whole empire. And our prayers should include this purpose, that we might have the unrestricted ability to preach the good news to our neighbors so that they might understand the truth and that they might be saved. But none of this means that we should blindly follow. blindly follow civil authority. Christians should also speak the truth to authority. John the Baptist, he called Herod out for his adultery. The prophets of the Old Testament called out the national leaders for oppressing the poor. Magistrates should be reminded that one day they will give an account to God for how they use their office. The early church understood the concepts of honor and respect for rulers. Listen to this prayer written by Clement of Rome. He was a pastor of the church in Rome about 30 years after Paul wrote his letter. Speaking of the rulers of Rome, Clement prays this. You, Master, have given them the power of sovereignty through your majestic and inexpressible might, so that we, acknowledging the glory and honor that you have given them, may be subject to them. Resisting your will in nothing, grant to them, Lord, health, peace, harmony, and stability, so that they may blamelessly administer the government that you have given them. And then another church leader, 100 years after that, wrote this. Without ceasing, for all of our emperors, we offer prayer. We pray for life prolonged, for security to the empire, for protection to the imperial house, for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest, whatever, as man or Caesar, an emperor would wish. Do you pray for your political leaders this way? I'm gonna start. I don't know where you all are when it comes to how you view earthly rulers, but I know that this passage has challenged my attitudes, and it will cause me to be much more careful about how I think and how I speak about them. God's word has a funny way of doing that. So all authority in this world is a reflection of the authority of God. It may be a dim and distorted reflection, but it is a signpost pointing to the ultimate ruler of the universe. Any rebellion against God and his ordained authority is an indication of what R.C. Sproul called cosmic treason. He is the king and we owe our allegiance to him. There's two ways to submit to the authority of government, either through fear of punishment or through the realization that it's the right thing to do. Good governments, they don't want to have to threaten and punish people. They would much rather that people simply obey the law. Same is true of coming under the authority of God. In Ezekiel 18.23 it says, God says, Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not. I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. For some people it takes the fear of judgment and punishment to get them to wake up and turn to God. John the Baptist and Jesus both used this method of evangelism with some people at some times. The Baptist said to the Pharisees, you brood of snakes, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. And Jesus dealt just as harshly with those who stubbornly fought against him. He called the self-righteous religious rulers the sons of the devil and the children of hell. But for the vast majority of the crowds that came to listen to Jesus, he was gentle and winsome in his invitations. He said, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden. He said his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And he said he would never turn away anyone who genuinely comes to him in repentance. You and I are also called to use both of those methods when we're inviting people into the kingdom. In Jude 22, he says that we are to have mercy on those who doubt, but we are to save others by snatching them out of the fire. When you're pulling somebody out of the fire, you're not being gentle. You're jerking them out as fast as you can. And the cross is not polite. The fact that Jesus had to die in order to pay for our rebellion isn't nice, but it's life-giving. When we place our faith in Him and submit to His rule in our lives, we acknowledge His rightful place of authority in the universe. Satan promises freedom to those who rebel, but the opposite is true. Rebellion towards God, cosmic freedom, I mean cosmic rebellion, only leads to chaos. It leads to turmoil and eventually to death. Submission to the authority of God leads to peace and to eternal life. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you. We thank you that you've revealed yourself to mankind and that we all have the opportunity to submit ourselves to you, to come to you because of what Christ has done on the cross and be forgiven and put ourselves under your rule. So Lord, we ask that you would move in our hearts that we might submit to the authorities that You put over us and that we might reflect Your righteousness and Your holiness in this world and draw men to You. We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you for listening to the preaching of God's Word from Faith Bible Church in Reno, Nevada. We hope that it has been an encouragement to you and that the Word of God will fill your hearts and minds as you walk through this world. 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