Well, as is always the case when we get to the time of winter. Sicknesses seem to ramp up and we have a number of families that are out today because of sickness. And speaking of that, Chris Olds is sick and so he won't be able to be here tonight for the Bible study. So those of you who come to that that will not happen tonight. So just pray for him as he recovers from the sickness and a number of others too that are struggling with this. Whatever it is going around. Well, today we return to our study now in Romans chapter 13. So I would like you to open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 13. And we're going to continue our topic on the God-ordained purpose of government. Zeroing in on verses three through five in the context of the first five verses here, we probably have a couple of more messages to deal with this topic on the government. And then as we get closer to the Lord's Day for Christmas, there will be a special sermon related to the birth of Christ. And then we have our Christmas Eve service, by the way. If you haven't ever been to that, I would encourage you to plan for that. That is a great, great opportunity for your family to come in a very simple time of worship with the reading of scripture, the singing of the hymns that we're so familiar with, the receiving of the Lord's Supper. And then we have refreshments and fellowship following. It's a great way to spend Christmas Eve together here at our church. So if you can plan on that, and just so in case you don't know, that's December 24th. Okay, just to be clear. Romans 13 verse one, the word of God says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister. and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake." Have you ever heard someone say, you can't legislate morality? That's something we often hear, and it's an attempt to really silence conservative viewpoints, or really, more importantly, a biblical viewpoint. R.C. Sproul said regarding that statement, that is a ridiculous statement. It is an exercise in absurdity. He went on to say, if we would eliminate moral concerns from legislation, what would Congress be left to do in terms of enacting laws? Pass laws regarding the state bird? Many of these people who think that the government should avoid wading into cultural battles don't understand the biblical foundation of government. They don't understand what government is really all about. I mean, they might be appealing to the Bill of Rights and trying to tell us as often you've heard, I'm sure there needs to be a separation of the church and state. And that was never intended to keep the church out of the state. It was intended to keep the state out of the church. In fact, in 2020, as I've shared before, we saw how the state can encroach in on the worship and the assembly of God's people. Either way, it seems obvious to those around us that they don't fully understand the biblical foundation for the government that we have. And really the government in general, worldwide speaking, what God has ordained government to be. A professor of politics by the name of Thomas G. West states in a course entitled Constitution 101, government has to be involved with morality. Government has to be involved in morality. That was something that the founders, he said, clearly understood. He went on and summed up this idea by saying, you can't have a free country unless the people are relatively decent. Government is a duty to promote some basic minimal moral expectations and requirements of people and if they're going to be able to be responsible citizens in a free society. The founders passed laws promoting strong families and churches. They used public funds to provide moral teaching in schools and in some states, religious instruction in churches. And they believe that public commendations and honorable speeches of statesmen exemplified the virtues the government sought to promote. He went on to say, people habituated with virtue will better govern themselves. In turn, the natural rights of life and liberty and property will receive better protection. People will restrain themselves or act with courage even in the absence of supervision of government. This greater sense of security contributes to a greater enjoyment of the people's rights and is conducive to their happiness. That a virtuous populace produces such societal benefit explains why the founders thought virtue a paramount government concern. Here's one I know you're familiar with, John Adams. John Adams writes to the officers of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Militia of Massachusetts on October 11th, 1798. And he said these words, gentlemen, we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Did you catch what he just said? We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions that are unbridled by morality and religion. He went on to say extreme greed, ambition, revenge gallantry in the bad way would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net. He says, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to govern any other. If you have a ungodly populace, a populace of people who are unwilling to obey laws, you have chaos. And not only do you have chaos, you have an ungovernable people. In an article that was written in Answers in Genesis not too long ago, this author says, was the Roman Empire legislating morality when it abolished the bloody gladiator games? Or was the British Empire wrong to outlaw slavery based on the Christian view of morality? Was Martin Luther King Jr. being opposed to segregation because of the biblical commands of equality? Were his efforts inappropriate? This author went on to say, in reality, it is difficult to identify any law that contains no moral component. Laws preventing animal cruelty or environmental destruction, for instance, derive their sense from a human moral interaction with other living things and natural resources. And does anyone seriously believe that laws preventing human sex trafficking are flawed because they are based in a moral ethos? Can you imagine having a government that only is concerned with building bigger buildings and maybe monitoring some state bird? If we don't have legislative morality, we're going to have chaos, uncontrolled crime. I mean, laws are motivated by a number of moral concerns, and they really kind of can be summed up with our desire to have protection of life, liberty, and property. But frequently advocates of both sides of those who believe that the government should legislate morality and those that don't still use morality to make their statements. So the question is not this. The question is not whether or not the government should legislate morality. The question really is whose morality will you legislate? Will we legislate the immorality of an immoral, God-hating pagan? Or will we legislate a morality based on a righteous law of an eternal holy God? That is the question. The government will legislate something. And our goal, of course, and the biblical statement is clear, that the purpose of the government is to uphold and to enforce, listen to this, the laws of God. the laws of God. Now this does not mean that if you have a government doing that, that all of a sudden everybody's going to be holy or everybody's going to be pure and righteous. That is not the case at all because there's a lot of things, frankly, that you cannot legislate. Like you can't legislate whether or not you're coveting your neighbor's new car. Although God's word gets deep into that by his Holy Spirit, right? And the clarity of what Jesus taught the Old Testament law to mean and to imply. But there's a lot of things that you, you can't necessarily criminalize. Like for instance, although you would want it to be the case, you cannot criminalize and legislate a child honoring his parents. Now in the Old Testament, I think all of you are aware of this, if the child disobeyed his parents and dishonored his parents, he could be put to death. You can obey, and here's a way of looking at it, you can obey all the written external laws of a society and yet still not be free of sin. That needs to be clarified. We're not talking about making a moral community in the sense that they're perfectly righteous. That's not what we're calling for. What we're really asking is, what is the purpose of the government for? And as we've already seen before, it is obviously to promote good. But secondly, it is to punish evil. It's to punish evil. These are things that we all are familiar with and we all understand. But an anti-moral government or a lack of government to enforce moral conduct will leave you in a society described like the book of Judges in chapter 21, verse 25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Now, in our last couple of studies together, I went back and kind of re-outlined this passage, and we have six points that we're covering. The first one we've already looked at the position of the government, and that's found in verse one now. Look down there with me, all right? Follow along with me as we review quickly. The position of the government, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. In other words, the word subject is to be insubmissive to, hupotasos, the Greek word, it has the idea of lining up under the authority and taking your orders. That's what it means. It is a military term. Let everyone, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities or the higher powers here, as it is indicated by the original text. They are over you and under God, as we've already mentioned, that's the position of the government. They're over you, but under God, they are to be submissive to God as they rule over you. And then secondly, we saw the placement of government. The placement of government again, we read verse one, for there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. That is to give us clarity that government does not have the authority to do what it does in and of itself. It is a delegated authority. It is that which God has granted in some ways, we could say temporarily, right? While you're here, in this fallen world to create order in a society. God has granted that authority. It's not something they are able to come up with on their own. That's the placement of government. Then third, the priority of government, verse 2, therefore, since God has ordained them And since the authority that they possess and that they're delegated to rule with comes from God, verse two, therefore, whoever resists the authority, resist the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. That's a self evident truth. The fact that God has given them authority to enforce the law of God. And they have the authority to do so. If you resist that law, that ordinance of God, that ordained placement of government, then you are indeed rebelling against God. Now, I still would want to say and remind you that that does not mean that the government has absolute authority. We went over that in great detail. It does not have absolute authority. There's only one who has absolute authority. And who is that? God, right, he is the sovereign king of kings, the ruler of all things. What he says goes, whether you want it to go or not, right? But government doesn't have that same kind of authority in the sense that it can rule every single thing in your life. There are certain spheres that it doesn't have jurisdiction in. Like we said, the church, the worship of the church, the mission of the church. and then also your family. It can't come in and redefine what a wife is and come in and redefine what a husband is and redefine what your children are to be taught. It doesn't have jurisdiction in that area. So there are certain spheres, yes, where the government has the authority and does have the ability and the power and the delegated authority to do so, but not in those areas. So it doesn't have absolute authority. And that needs to be understood. But we began looking at the fourth point, and that is the purpose of the government, again, found in verse three and four and five. We find there, the rulers are not a terror, this is verse three, the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he, that is the governing authority, the ruler, is God's minister to you for good. And we sum this up by basically saying the government's primary purpose is really simple. It is to protect and promote what is good and to punish what is evil. And I think if we could ever get our government back to that and just kind of get its hands out of everything else it has its hands in, it would be a wonderful thing. The problem is once men have authority, they have a tendency to kind of go overboard with it and to take advantage of it. and to put their hands where they don't need to be putting them, and to put their authority where they should not be putting them. But nevertheless, here we have the clear, the expression of God of the purpose of government. It is to promote, protect, encourage would be another way, provide an environment for what is good. And one of the ways that it does that is by punishing what is evil, by punishing what is evil. We consider the government's purpose of doing this and promoting and rewarding what is good in our last study. But before we leave that subject, I want to just kind of go over a couple of other things regarding this. I would like you to just consider with me just for a few moments the condition of man's purpose before the fall. Genesis chapter one, you don't need to turn to it because you're familiar enough with this, I'm sure. But in Genesis chapter one in verse 26, it says, then God said, let us make man in our own image, according to our likeness and let him or let them have dominion. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female only by the way, he created them. Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Subdue the earth and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Now in the NET translation where it has its notes there, which are by the way very helpful in a study Bible, it said this, God's purpose in giving humankind his image is that they might rule the created order on behalf of the heavenly king and in his royal court. So the divine image gives humankind the capacity and or the authority to rule over creation. In other words, you're different, all right, as a human being. You're not a lion, you're not a bear, you're not a squid, all right? You actually have a lot more capability. Now I can grant you that a lion let loose probably could rule a certain area. I wouldn't want to be there, right? But it doesn't have the capacity to rule and subdue and have dominion over the earth. Or another way of saying that, to govern the earth. Human beings are created in the image of God. We have intellect, ability, choice, will, all of those things that go in to being created in the image of God. We have the ability to reason, to make laws, to govern our society. So God has given that specifically to you and I as humans to do, not to the animal kingdom or to anything part of it. I know you probably think, you know, the roaches or the mosquitoes have taken over, but they don't have the authority. You have the authority to get the can of raid and take care of them. And by the way, if any of you want to get rid of all the mosquitoes, go for it. I will not be crying one bit. I'm not worried about that at all. But God has given us and given to humanity the authority to rule and subdue the earth. And this just needs to be understood right at the very beginning. When we talk about the ability of man to govern and the ability of the government to do what is good, promote what is good, and to punish what is evil, you need to understand this comes from the original created order. This comes from the original created order. And to be able to do that, if you're going to be able to rule and you're going to have dominion over the earth and you're going to subdue the earth, you have to have certain freedoms to do that. You can't be bound up and locked up and unable to do that. You have to be free to do so. So in order to do this, as some have summarized, for all of humanity, we should have the right to life, right? Without the right to life, you can't live. You're not going to be able to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. You should also have the right to work. I know some of us don't want that, but you should have the right to work. And that means that you're able to provide for your family and take care of your basic needs of life. And the Bible even says that if you don't work, you shouldn't eat. There's a very important element that we need to understand that God gave you, and that is a right to life and also a right to work to provide for your family so that you can have dominion and you can rule over the earth. And you should also have a right to a family. A right to a family. I mean, if the Bible says you are to populate the earth, be fruitful and multiply, that means God has given you, by his own design, the ability to have a family and the right to have a family. And you're not going to be able to rule or have dominion over the creation if you're not going to populate the planet. It doesn't work that way. You see where I'm going with this, right? These fundamental rights that we talk about, they are God-given. They're not government given. And whenever you believe that your government gives you these rights, then that same government who believes it is God can take those rights away. But these are ordained of God so that you can properly fulfill what God has called you to do. That is so, so very essential. And that is part of promoting what is good and creating what is good in a culture. So government that God has ordained, which was in its infancy with the statements of God in the book of Genesis in chapter one, God has given to man the responsibility to rule and have dominion over the planet and every living thing on it. And he does that through obviously the men created in the image of God, but also the government. the ordained government, and it has a responsibility to fulfill its responsibility before God to promote what is good. And one of those first indications that we find of human government, by the way, is found in Genesis chapter 9. In Genesis chapter 9, you're familiar with it, of course. Now, we're post-flood, right? The flood's already occurred. Everybody's wiped out. The rest of them that are left at this point are Noah and his family. But God begins to lay down some basic laws that he's going to amplify much more later on the need to have rule and dominion over every living thing on the planet, including humans, and to have laws that enable goodness to be promoted and evil to be punished. Genesis 9, 5, surely for your life blood I will demand, God says, a reckoning. From the hand of every beast, I will require it. And from every hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of a man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man, his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. This is the first instance of the biblical mandate for capital punishment. That God requires that if someone takes another person's life, or even an animal takes another person's life, because that person is created in the image of God, God's justice demands that that life of that one who murdered is to be taken. In fact, this amplified even over in Exodus chapter 21, In verse 28, listen to this, if an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted. Listen to this, it goes a little further, but if the ox tended to thrust with its horns in times past, and it has been made known to the owner, And he has not kept him confined so that it has killed a man or a woman. The ox shall be stoned and its owner." God was getting very, very specific in his details of how justice is to be carried out and how evil is to be punished and justly so. It even goes further, and you can read many of them for yourself in your own personal readings through the book of Exodus. But in Exodus 22, verse 2, it talks about that you have the right to protect your property if someone comes in your home, and that you can take their life for trying to steal your property. Exodus 22, 2 says, if the thief is found breaking in and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed. So what I'm trying to tell you is right at the very beginnings, as early as Genesis 9, and then in the Exodus, we're getting foundations laid for us to understand what the government's purpose is, promoting good and punishing evil. Now that leads us to our next purpose we're beginning to talk about, that God's purpose for the government is to punish evil. Now we have a lot of people today who have the idea that that's not a good thing. We went through a number of months, a few years ago now, where they were defunding the police. And after that went for a little while, they found out that wasn't a good idea, right? What are you doing? You're letting men who are prone to bent toward evil, who desire to do what is evil, you're giving them free reign to do whatever they wanna do with no fear of punishment? What do you expect to get, right? But there's a lot of people out there saying that that is the more moral way or the better way, not to have the kind of government that is always cracking down with laws and punishment for evil, and especially when it comes to the topic of capital punishment. But in its punishment of evil, that is in government's punishment of evil, it provides an environment for the promotion and the protection of what is good. If a society is overrun with evil men, good will not flourish. It will not have the capacity to flourish. In my personal opinion, I see the purpose of punishing evil as essential as the survival of the nations. Listen, our nation, as John Adams eloquently said, will not be able to survive if we don't have people who have some sense of morality. And he was wrapping it, of course, in the context of religion. And if you have a culture or a nation that does not have that, its survival is at stake. Its survival is at stake. Men left to themselves naturally destroy one another. That's a natural thing. I say naturally because that is their bent. That's what they're born to do. They're born to do what is evil. And the heart of man, according to Jeremiah, is desperately wicked or sick. And history is full of examples which I could spend the rest of the afternoon going through with you of how men have acted in unrestrained ways in their evil. Every day we hear new stories of the depths of depravity of what evil men can do when they sense that they are not restrained or they have the freedom to act. Even while I was in Florida this past week, there was a new story that came across that said that there was a 12-year-old who was being prosecuted for murdering another 12-year-old. And for students of Scripture, we're all aware of this, are we not? We're all aware of the fact that God has prophesied that these things were going to get worse and evil men were going to be more. In 2 Timothy 3, but know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty. In 2 Timothy 3.12, indeed, Paul says in his last book that he wrote to Timothy, He says, all who desire to live godly will be persecuted. That assumes that there's going to be people persecuting them, which means there's going to be people who hate the name of Christ and hate the cause of the gospel and are going to want to try to persecute and kill the people who named the name of God. So there's going to be evil there. But then it goes on and says in the very next verse, but evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse. 1 Timothy 4, 1 and 2 says, now the Spirit expressly says, then in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, they will give heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. And one of the scariest points of that passage is, in verse 2 it says, they will have their consciences seared with a hot iron. That means they will be able to do evil with no conscious reaction. They will be able to break laws, violate humanity, do all kinds of evil acts and not even be prompted that what they've done is bad. 2 Peter 3, 3 says that their scoffers coming in the last days, they will walk according to their own desires and lust. And Galatians 1, 4, it says that Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us, listen to this, from this present evil age. That's what we live in right now. The present evil age is characteristic of that before the return of Christ. It is an age characterized by evil. I mean, think of it like this, even in the parables of the kingdom, Jesus reminds us of the need for government, even up to the end of the age. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, think of it like this. In the wheat and the tares, Jesus says, when the disciples were asking, should we go out and pluck up the wheat? I mean, pluck up the tares, you know, get them out of the field. He says, no, no, no, let both grow together until the harvest. The wheat and the tares are to be allowed to grow together until the harvest. Well, what's he talking about? Well, he goes on and explains the parable to us. He says in Matthew 13, 37, the field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. That's Christians, but the tears are the sons of the wicked one. In other words, right alongside of the believers are going to be unbelievers who are wicked and evil. He says, the enemy has sowed them, the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned into the fire, so also will it be at the end of the age. The son of man will send out his angels and will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those that practice lawlessness. What's the assumption of that parable? The assumption is until the return of Christ, until he shows up, we're gonna live in this present evil age and tares are gonna be right alongside of the wheat. We're going to live in a humanity that needs to be governed. All indications of this is that the need for imperfect human government will continue until the return of Christ. And then only then, when he returns and rules with a rod of iron, will he be able to punish the nations that disobey. Listen to Isaiah 9, 6. Now, we're coming up on Christmas, and oftentimes we only read part of this verse, but Isaiah 9, 6, and 7, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Who's he talking about, church? Christ, Jesus Christ, absolutely. But it goes on and says of Jesus, of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. And upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order and to establish it with judgment and justice. Listen, until the Lord comes back and rules and reigns, we're gonna have the same need for imperfect government to keep this somewhat chaotic earth under control. But when he comes back, he's gonna rule with a rod of iron and he's going to have a government that has no end and there will be peace then. There will be peace. He won't be the humble servant in the garden waiting to be crucified on the cross. He will be the king of kings coming in glory and all power and he's going to rule. And I can grant you this, you don't wanna go against that government. You don't want to. So in the meantime, while we're still here, as long as we live in this present evil age and have the need for God ordained government, human government, we will need to do and implement as best as possible what God intends for the government to do. And that is, as I said, to promote what is good and to punish what is evil. Now look at this verse again, look at verse three, four, three and four. The rulers, he says, are not a terror to the good works. Now rulers is just another word for the governing authorities, the higher powers. They're the rulers and they are not a terror to the good works. Now again, just so you know, and we're gonna look at this in the next couple of weeks, we're gonna look at how God uses evil governments and abusive governments in his divine sovereign plan What we're reading about here is the purpose of the government that God intends. It doesn't mean that every government is going to say, oh, this is what we do. Because governments are full of evil men. But this is what God has designed and ordained government for. He says, in a world where the government is acting biblically, if you will, acting as God intends it to act and to do, the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. They exist literally to put fear or the fear of God in men or the fear of punishment. He says, if you don't want to be afraid of the authority, do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. But look at verse four. For he, that is the ruler, is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath upon him who practices evil. Did you notice twice in the text it says that he is God's minister? Now, when you think of minister, you're probably thinking of a minister in a church, a pastor, or someone who leads a religious organization. But this is the word diakonos. It's deacon. Now, don't think of it also in the sense that we all of a sudden have ordained deacons who are in a church, and they're the rulers. That's not what it's talking about either. It's using the word diakonos in a very general way. It simply means a servant. A servant. They were used to be waiters for tables. They did the menial task of what God expected them to do. Whatever the need was that arose at the time in a local church, the servants were to do that. But when it comes to the government, these are God's deacons, God's servants that are put in place, first of all, to you or for you for good. They exist for you for good. And then also they are God's deacon. to be an avenger to execute wrath on those who practice evil. So they have a dual purpose. They are there and exist there for you for good, for your good, in fact, and then also they're there to avenge God's law and to punish what is evil. This is important to realize. This is not some group of men or group of leaders who are outside of God's ordained purpose and ordained means. They are God's servants. They exist as God's servants. In the Greek, by the way, the original text, the word God comes first for emphasis. There are gods. This is God's servant, the government. And they are ruler. They rule as God's servant, no less. And it also reminds us that they are no more. They're no more than God's servant. And that's important to keep us in perspective with this. But notice also in the text, it says they are a servant to you. They are a servant to you. Their existence, and this is so essential to understand, government does not exist for its own purpose and self-promotion. It exists for you. The reason why it has been brought into existence and the reason why God has ordained it is for you. The government is your servant. You probably recognize this, especially in, we just came out of a political season, right? The election of a president. Now, just so you know, we're fixing to go back into that election season in January and we'll be in it for four years till the next one. That's what they do forever and ever, it seems like nowadays. But the point is, is that you probably heard people say, I pay your paycheck. I pay taxes, therefore you serve me. And that's actually true. That's actually true. We'll see that next time as we talk about the need to pay taxes. Listen to this. Now, those of you who are historians, you know this well. In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln said in honor of the soldiers that gave their lives that their sacrifice was in order to, quote, that the government would be of the people, by the people, and for the people, and shall not perish from the earth. They gave their lives so that the government could be of the people, right? by the people and for the people. It's the servant. It's what God has instituted, ordained to serve humanity. That is what its purpose is. Now, just a couple other thoughts about this text here and I'll move on, but a few other thoughts about verse three and four. The rulers are a terror to evil works, right? They create literal phobos, fear for evil works. And if you do evil, you should be afraid. You should be afraid. He has the authority of the sword, we'll talk about that in a few moments, and the rulers are an avenger of wrath on evildoers, so be submissive because of the wrath that they can bring. So in our initial study of this text, it is clear that the government is meant to restrain evil. Right? To create in the mind of evil men a necessary fear of punishment that could come on them for doing what is wrong. By their God-given delegated authority, government has the right to create fear. To create fear. To create restraint and are able to punish those who violate the law. And again, as I said, I'm not talking about the abuses of government. That's not what we're talking about here. We're not, we're not giving credible acquiescence or permission to governments to do what is wrong and to go beyond what is right and what is just and what is holy and what is accordance with God's law. We're not saying that, but they are to do what God has called them to do. And in verse four, notice what it says. They do not bear the sword in vain. They don't bear the sword in vain. Now the sword was not used for spankings. It wasn't used for slapping on the wrist. It was used for execution. It was to take your head off, frankly. You would die by the sword. It was an emblem of death. When you saw someone who came with that kind of sword, it would be someone who had the ability to execute, who had the power of the sword. And in the Old Testament, the application of the sword or the application of punishment for evil was swift. It was severe. And it was just in accordance to God's law. And I think it's also important just to drop a little footnote in here right here. It's not insignificant that although the prisons were common, the prisons were common in pagan nations, in the biblical record, especially in the Old Testament, you don't find prisons. You don't find jail. And the reason why is that criminals either lost their lives because of the evil deed they did or they were required to pay back what they had stolen. What do we do most of the time in our culture is we create these huge facilities and they are growing and there's so many in the population of these prisons today that they're having to release criminals and we just fill them up. And we fill them up and we don't even give the person the dignity to be able to undo what he did by paying something back. And this incarceration was not something that was promoted in the Old Testament scriptures. You do find one incident in Ezra chapter seven, verse 26, which really was what was experienced whenever they came out of the Babylonian captivity. And it seems like they were incorporating some of the practices they had learned in Babylon. But overall in the Old Testament, you just don't find that. You don't find imprisonment. You don't find jail. One author said that although prisons had been common in Europe for centuries, they did not appear in America until the late 18th century. Interestingly, the idea was introduced by Quakers. probably on the grounds that imprisonment was more humane than corporal punishment. But the United States now has the dual, and I believe related, distinctions of having the highest per capita number of prison inmates in the Western world, as well as the highest crime rate. Prisons are breeding grounds, he says, for crime, homosexuality, and brutality. Because inmates, he goes on and says, because inmates are not able to make restitution for their crimes, there is no restoration for their dignity, though certainly not meant to be, they are in effect government-sponsored crime schools. The fact that an unbelievably large percentage of criminals are never punished or even indicted encourages crime even further. Listen to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 8, verse 11, because the sentence against evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. The incident that occurred a few months back in July with my mom, we found out that the man who had committed that crime had been in jail already twice and was released. Some of us would rather see imprisonment for a number of reasons because we may think it's more humane to do so, but the Bible is very, very clear about capital punishment. It's very, very clear about that. And too often, we're trying to give rights to the criminal and we're forgetting about the victim who was murdered. And some are even trying to tell us that if you commit capital punishment or you have capital punishment, then you're murdering someone else. Well, actually, no, it's an act of justice. It's what God tells us clearly in his word to do so. Think of it like this, and I know this kind of hits home to many of us here, the recent event that occurred in the local news about the potential parole of Susan Smith, who had been convicted and placed in prison for her rolling her car down into the lake in Union County with her two young boys strapped in the seats to drown. If you're like me, you can remember where you were when you heard that. She was sentenced to life in prison for her crime. But at that time in 1994 and 95, a sentence to life didn't really mean a sentence to life. It meant 30 years. And then you were open to the possibility of parole. And then after that, every two years following, consecutively, you could come up for the possibility of parole again. Our memories And the memories of those determining the potential parole that day and that hearing were met with cries for justice from the family. They stood there one after the other, crying out and pleading with the parole board there not to let her out. And there were a number of them that called for her death, called for her death. Would it have been right for her to have had to experience capital punishment? Yes. Yes. And I'm not trying to be harsh or cold at all. I mean, obviously I would want to see anyone who commits any crime, no matter what degree of crime it may be, that they would hear the gospel and come to Christ and be saved. Listen to God that hung on the cross beside Jesus Christ. We often refer to him as a thief, but that word is a lot larger than that. It can refer to all kinds of violent crime. And God can forgive anybody. It doesn't matter who they are or what they have done. But for society to exist and for society to have any sense of stability, there has to be punishment equal to the crime. There has to be, and so the sword was that instrument in the New Testament time, especially the Roman context, that symbolized the right to inflict that kind of punishment, and death was its punishment. Listen to Genesis 9, 6 again. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. Jesus told Peter in Matthew chapter 26 verse 52, put your sword back into its place for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. And Jesus was warning Peter, Peter, if you start wailing that thing around and you even kill one of these that are my enemy, you can be taken and actually executed yourself. The Apostle Paul agreed with capital punishment when he said in Acts chapter 25 verse 11, when Paul stood before the Roman governor, fetus, festus. Luke, edit that out. Okay, hold on. Am I turning red? A little bit, okay. When Paul stood before the Roman governor, festus, and made his appeal to Caesar, he said, if then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die. He understood that. Robert Culver, in a book entitled Toward Biblical Views of Civil Government, wrote these words. What must not be lost sight of is that unpleasant as the task of the jailer or the use of the whip The cell or the noose or the guillotine, these things stand behind the stability of a civilized society. And they stand there necessarily, for God has declared it so, in harmony with reality rather than an apostate sociological opinion. Government, with its coercive powers, is a social necessity, but one determined by the creator, not by the statistical tables of some university social research staff. No society can successively vote fines, imprison, corporal or capital punishment away permanently. The society which tries has lost touch with realities of man, that is their fallen state and realities in the world and the truth of divine revelation of nature and man's conscience and the Bible. In other words, if we try to go against what God has put in place, we're going to find absolute absurdity in our culture and evil will run rampantly. And when a society rejects capital punishment for the most serious crimes, here's something to think about, the nation comes under blood guiltiness for its unwillingness to enact justice. It's not a small thing at all. After Cain was killed, Abel, after Cain killed Abel, the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel, your brother? He said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. Cain had become a murderer and a liar and was equal to what his father, the devil, was doing. Immediately after the flood, as I told you, God established the divine law of capital punishment in Genesis 9, 6. And as a part of the Mosaic law, God declared this in Numbers chapter 35, 33, you shall not pollute the land in which you are for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except the blood of him who shed it. Among other things, I mean, after all, whenever Israel was sent into the Babylonian captivity, because of the many bloody crimes that they had committed, they were put in there for the crimes they had committed against the other people in Israel. And there was no justice for the crimes. And think of this, the horrendous reality of where we are in America with abortion. With abortion, abortion is murder. It's the murder of children. And not only do we not punish for that, we don't do that, we don't convict for that, we promote it. And I am just astonished, honestly. I am absolutely astonished, not only with the way the legal system has gone over the years, but also the fact that we have promoted the murder of millions and millions of children, and the blood of these children cry out for justice to be done. And I really wonder, is there a Babylonian captivity coming for us? Is God just going to sit back and say, well, I'm not going to punish that. All I can say is God has been tremendously merciful to us, but he will require justice. I think of the situation over in Revelation chapter 6 where it talks about the souls of those that are under the altar of God and they're crying out for God's vengeance because people had killed them for their faith and for the word of God and the testimony they had. And God says, you hold on for a little while longer. There's more of you who will die that way as a martyr. But note this in the text and the context, vengeance is coming. God will bring vengeance. Now, that's one of the reasons why we spent so much time in Romans 12, verse 19, where it says, beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And then Nahum 1, verse 2 says, of God, that God is jealous, and the Lord avenges. The Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. and will not at all acquit the wicked, at all. You find other verses like 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 2 that reveal to us that when Jesus Christ comes back, he's coming to bring vengeance on those that do not know God and on those who did not obey the gospel of Christ. Yet God is not only going to have that kind of eschatological vengeance in the future, but now he has delegated that vengeance through the civil authorities that he's put on this planet. That's why, like I read earlier in Romans chapter 12 verse 19, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. Give place to what wrath? Are we expecting fire and brimstone to fall out of the sky? Well, it could. Is he talking about eschatological wrath in the future when the Lord returns and he brings vengeance on those who don't obey the gospel of God and on all the evil workers? Well, that's definitely referred to that. It's referring to that, no doubt. But I believe in the context, because we have our Bibles that have the division with chapter 13, but in the original text, it just keeps reading. And then the text is saying, don't avenge yourselves, rather give place to wrath. Whose wrath? God's wrath. Well, where's that wrath? It comes in the governing authorities that he's ordained to actually implement and to punish those who have violated the laws that are in place. That's one of the ways that God carries out his wrath, is through the governing authorities. One last thought, and it's found in verse five. Here's the conclusion that Paul brings. Therefore, based on all that we have said, you must be submissive. As a Christian, what is your relationship to the government? Submission? Unless remember that unless it violates what God's Word says But there's one more step. There's one more step As long as it doesn't violate your conscience as long as it doesn't violate your conscience. It goes on in verse 5, therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath but also because of conscience sake. The conscience comes into play here. Not only because your conscience will commend you for doing what is right and obeying God and obeying the civil authorities, but also there's times whenever your conscience is going to, listen to this, encourage you to disobey the government whenever you know God tells you to do something that they're forbidding you to do or that the government is forbidding you to do something you know God tells you to do. And your conscience will say, can't do that, can't do that. The conscience works both ways, and God expects us to be submissive, not only because of the potential judgment that can come on us from the civil government, but also because of our conscience. It's the law of the heart that God puts in place for us to be willing to submit to the governing authorities. Well, we still have a whole lot more to say about all of that, and we'll talk more about that the next Lord's Day as we come together. As we close, I want to share just a couple of other words, and I'll be brief with this. First of all, I want to say thank you to all of our church who prayed for our family recently with the death of my sister-in-law down in Florida. It was a very unexpected event for all of us, but we're thankful to God for the opportunity to be able to be with our family. And also, I was granted the privilege of being able to preach the funeral, and that gave me opportunity to speak the gospel to most of my family that I've never been able to talk to, even extended family and friends, both on my side of the family and Susie's side of the family. And I'm just praying that God will bring fruit from all of that as all of us do, right? Whenever we have a loved one that passes away, we all desire that the gospels preached in that context so people can see the necessity of trusting Jesus Christ. Now I want to also add this. I'm going to do what Jerry Vines used to call a gospel twist at the end of my sermon. This was not quote a gospel message in the sense of talking about the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and the forgiveness of sins. But I want to encourage you today that if you are here today and you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord, you need to do that. Today is the day of salvation. My sister-in-law, she was 62 years old, and she did not have death on her calendar. She did not think she was going to die. Nobody did. We knew she was fighting some cancer, but we thought that was a long-term process. And it looked that way. And you may think you're okay today, but tomorrow you could be gone. You could. I'm not trying to scare you into the kingdom. That's not what I'm doing. The Bible says, it is appointed unto men once to die, then the judgment. Everybody has an appointment. I have one, you have one. And you need to make sure that you have the forgiveness of your sins in Christ. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this time together in your word. We are grateful, Lord God, for what you have put in place in this world to restrain the evil acts of men. And Lord, as imperfect as governments are, we are still so thankful, God, for what we would have without it. It would be absolutely insane. And Lord, I do pray that even our government here in this country, as we are commanded by God to pray for those who are in authority over us, I pray for those who are in the South Carolina government and those who are the lawmakers and those who actually enforce the law, that they would do what is right in accordance to your eyes and that you would bring justice. And Lord God, that you would stop the horrendous, horrific murder of children in our culture, and that we would see justice for this. And our Father, also, I want to pray for our national leaders and ask you, God, that you would give them wisdom to rule, but also that those that are there that know Christ, know your word, and know the law of God, that they would speak up and speak boldly for you and for the truth of scripture, and that we would see rulers who rule with justice and righteousness, and Lord, we would pray that. And we ask you, Father, also that if there's anyone who's come here today who's never trusted Christ, that you would open their hearts to the need to trust Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. He is the reason, Lord God, that we are here, and we give you praise for all of that in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together.