Our scripture reading is taken from Romans chapter 13, verses one through six. Romans 13, one through six. And now you'll get a chance to read God's word together. Let's begin. 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. 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. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. That is the word of God. God, you and the government. Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, at the time of writing this letter, Jewish members of the church in Rome had great contempt for the cruel Roman government and wanted to shake off their rulership. And you say, why would that be? Well, many of the Jews from Rome had just been thrown out of Rome by Caesar Claudius. Furthermore, the Jews know that Romans had controlled and kept control of their homeland in Israel, which wasn't even existing at the nation, but places where the Jewish people lived. So how should the Holy Church of Jesus Christ respond to the state? even a tyrannical state. This is what you will hear about today. Our headings are three, a command, submit to the authorities, consequences if you don't submit to the authorities, and consequences if you do submit to the authorities. Our goals are that you will learn how to deal with the civil authorities and to maintain your Christian testimony and yet fulfill your kingdom-building activities. First, a command. Submit to the authorities. And we see this in verses 1 and 6. As a general rule, every person, every Christian, even every non-Christian, is to be obedient to the state. even if the laws were onerous, hard, even if the laws were costly, everyone is bound to obey the stake. Peter talks about this. First Peter chapter 2 verse 13, together, therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, and it goes on to list other things. So Do it for the Lord's sake. The ground for obeying the state then is that God ordained the establishment of civil government. Those ruling in the civil government are literally called here God's ministers. The same word is used to describe the angels in heaven. The same word is used to describe the priests in Hebrews 1 and 8 respectively. So it's a very strong word. Look also at Proverbs 8, verse 15, together. By me, king's reign and rulers decree justice. By me, by God. By his decree, John 19 11. Together, Jesus answered, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. God appointed Pilate. God ordained that Herod would be king. God is the one who controls. And therefore, it's on that basis saying, I put these people here, and I am telling you to bow the knee to them. Not in worship, but in submission. Now, part assuring that the state, that obedience to the state was to pay taxes, just as Jesus himself paid taxes to an oppressive Roman government. But government need taxes. They need taxes to perform their duty. Their duty was what? To punish the wicked and to protect the innocent or the godly. You will see the details of this next time. But there's no question that God has ordained the state. You should submit to the state and you should pay your taxes to the state so the state can continue. That's the first point. What can we learn from this? First of all, obey the laws of your land. Pay your taxes, your extremely high taxes. I've seen some of the numbers. We Canadians can pay 40, 50, 55% of our money in all the different taxes. And the government is so cunning, it puts taxes on taxes by calling one a different name. So you have your gas tariff that is taxed. Even if it's hard, you are to pay your taxes. You have to remember, if there were no government, what would be the result? It's anarchy. How would the kingdom be built? How would we fulfill our cultural mandate of multiplying and filling the earth if there was anarchy? So follow the rules of the road. I mean, it's coming here today, and there are a lot of people that didn't think very much about the rules of the road. Remember being in Kenya and seeing buses overtaking on the sidewalk. And you didn't want to walk on the road and think, no, as Christian. And by the way, the buses all have their Jesus saves, Jesus loves you. But they use Jesus as like a magic potion to protect them while they do all these reckless things. Follow the rules of the road. Check your smoke detectors. So you don't burn down your house and your neighbor's house in the process. Be honest when you file your taxes. You don't have to give them a penny more than they require, but don't short them a penny either. Vote at election time. These are all ways in which you play your part in the state. See, submission to God did not remove the need to submit to the state. That's what the Anabaptists said. So for example, the head of the Anabaptist movement said, we don't have to submit to the state. And God told me, I can go in your store and help myself to the groceries I need. That's theft. He should be arrested for that and punished. The Roman Catholic Church said for a long time that the state was under their control. They threatened the state. Both the Anabaptists and the Roman Catholics were wrong. You see, both church and state are under God. There's one king over the two kingdoms. Neither one is over the other. First point. Second point. Governments aren't a human invention. Governments were commissioned by God. So you must submit to them, you must support them, you must pray for them, and if possible, play a part in them. You know why? Love is fulfilling of God's law. If you love your nation, if you love the Lord, you be involved in the opportunities that are open. Is it easy to get involved in politics here in Canada? No, especially with the kind of wicked leaders and how difficult it is to be elected if you were to take a stand as the Bible gives us. Third, when governments don't obey God's law, those governments are declaring themselves to be God. And that's what our government has done. Our government is trying to be God and God will hold them accountable for condoning the murder of babies and robbing our babies in reckless spending. You know the hundreds of billions of dollars in debt Canada is in right now. All will be dead and gone. None of that will be paid off. So who will be paying for it? Grandchildren. I don't have any. I know they will have to pay for the debts that our government incurred while I'm here. That is reckless. Think of what they're doing in the schools, brainwashing our babies with anti-Christian and anti-God teaching. So under the curriculum, we're talking about for kindergarten, five-year-olds being told about having two mommies or two daddies. That's undermining and harming their standing against God. Remember what God did to Nebuchadnezzar when he stood up against God and tried to be God like our state is doing? Daniel chapter four, verse 32, together, and they shall drive you from men and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses. There's a wall that they discovered at the unearth and there were seven years in that wall. It was blank. But then the other side, there was history of Nebuchadnezzar before, and then afterward, there was history of Nebuchadnezzar after. What was in the middle? They didn't want to talk about what God did to him, how God humiliated him. One more lesson. Sometimes God gives men evil government to punish them, much like he used Nebuchadnezzar to punish the southern 1 and 1 1⁄2 tribes and Shalmaneser V when the northern 10 and 1⁄2 tribes were They're taken into captivity. The point is, God is always the controlling one. He controls history. Now, the command there is to submit. And it's not just you to submit, it's a warning to the state to submit to God because they're there by God's appointment. What happens if you don't submit? That's verses two and four, verses two and four. Since the state exists by God's ordination, anyone who resists the state either actively or passively when it is doing God's work is going to be punished by God. Of course, man should be afraid to do wrong in the first place because he fears God. But the warning is attached here. If you don't honor God simply because you fear him, you should be afraid of the punishment that you would get if you don't obey. So obey from fear of God, honoring God, but if you don't have the fear of God, at least think about the punishment that is coming. Look at two examples of how God ordained civil authorities, even under a theocracy, for their particular function. The first was Ezra chapter seven, verse 26, together. Whoever will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily on him, whether it be death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment. The imprisonment was a temporary hold while you waited for your sentence. Look also at Numbers chapter 13, verses 16 through 19 together. But if he strikes him with an iron implement so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he strikes him with a stone in the hand by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon by which one could die, and he does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. The avenger of blood himself shall put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he shall put him to death." You notice there wasn't maybe or if he wants to show mercy, shall. That's the idea of a command. He was required to execute the murderer. That's what happens to the one who commits a crime and defies the laws put in place by the state. In this case, the example I looked at is for murder. Moreover, Apostle Paul warned that the punishment for those who resist the state will start and can surely start now in this world. That's why the avenger is out there. That's why the executioner is there, because the state is the hand of God on earth. That's why we pray for those who are attacking the Christians in Nigeria, that the state would bring God's justice upon their heads, because the state was appointed for that purpose. And this is flowing from what we saw before. You are not to seek revenge yourself, but you are to bow the knee to the state, and the state is the arm of God for vengeance. What is most remarkable here is that the Apostle Paul himself would be unjustly punished by the state, and he would be executed later by this state. Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 20 say this, together, do not curse the king, even in your thought. Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom. For a bird of the air may carry your voice, and a bird in flight may tell the matter. In other words, God knows. Don't just say, well, I'm going to act like I like the government, but inwardly despise it. The government was there by the hand of God. Now that judgment against those who are rebels against God and against his ordained authority continues not only in this world, but it continues after this world in hell. There's judgment for the defiance of the state. Now, the problem is this. Most of us know how wicked many states are. How does this line up in the face of evil governments all around the world? We often hear about Kazakhstan and Iran and Saudi Arabia, where Christians are routinely arrested and persecuted. How many of our brothers aren't in jails in China for worshiping God and sharing the gospel and printing and distributing Bibles? And then why would the Apostle Paul say this when you know who the leader of the Roman Empire was at this time? Nero, the murderer of Christians, a savage, brutal beast of a man. He demanded worship from Christians. Now bring it a little bit more close to our home. I saw this this week and I thought it was hilarious in a way. It's ironic and sad for many people. Remember during the time of COVID when Dr. Fauci said, you get the vaccine, you are safe and you must get it. And then he had six shots and had COVID three times. So it certainly didn't work for him. And yet the state was so wrong. and they talked about the safety of the vaccine and they were so wrong. So many people died and have become sick because of it. How do you honor a state that does that? How do you respond to a state when it says, don't spank your child or we will take your child away from you? I heard a judge say that in a courtroom in Toronto. How do you respond to that judge that told a man out west, if you don't call your daughter a son, I'll throw you in jail? You think of how sick the state is when such wickedness has been going on for so long? Well, what's the answer? We have to remember that the Apostle Paul was not speaking in an absolute sense or a blind obedience. You're never to blindly obey. The Apostle Paul was a firm believer in the Old Testament and he knew that there were times of obligatory disobedience. When Nebuchadnezzar told the three Hebrew men that they must bow down and worship him, their response was, blessed defiance. We will not worship your idols. Even if God doesn't save us, we will not bow down and worship you. Or Daniel's refusal to close his window. That's all he needed to do. But he opened his window and prayed towards Jerusalem in defiance of Darius, Darius the Mede. And he prayed. Or the Jewish midwives who defied Pharaoh and refused to murder the Jewish baby boys. Or Rahab on the walls of Jericho who misled the murderous soldiers and committed treason by fighting against her own country. All of these people were notably blessed for disobedience. The midwives were given families. Rahab became the mother of Jesus. All these blessings flowed for their blessed defiance. So while Christians are obligated to obey even hard civil laws, They have an obligation to break civil laws if those laws require them to break God's laws. See, God's laws have priority in your life. And by the way, when you see they have the sword for a purpose, the sword was not intended to teach about long periods of incarceration. One of the things we know about justice, it should be swift. It should never be prolonged like in our system. It's a horrible thing that a man has to wait 15 years for final outcome of his crime. And that's consistent with what God said in Romans 9, but also what we see in Genesis 9, that there was execution for crimes. Sorry, Genesis 8 and 9. What do we learn here? There's a command to submit, but there are consequences if you don't, with the explanation of when you are not to obey. The point is, you must obey the state, and if you don't, their consequence. You commit murder, you should be executed. The state doesn't have mercy in its repertoire. The state is bound to execute. And therefore, you should do it. Now, you should do it because you fear God. But if you don't do it from the fear of God, do it from the fear of punishment. What's the lesson here, or the lessons? First of all, this does not mean there's a divine right of kings. James I of England argued, he was bound to bow the knee to Jesus. And if he demanded things contrary to God's law, he ought not to have received it. He ought to have been opposed. Governments must work for God by punishing the wicked and protecting the innocent. Second, this does not mean that there aren't times when revolution is necessary, but those times, brothers and sisters, are very rare, and only when specific conditions are met, and only with the support of the lower magistrate. So there's a very limited time when that is possible. We don't have time to get into that today. Third, if you don't submit to the authorities in all lawful things, even if it is hard, it will result in chaos, which will further hinder the kingdom of God from being established. Fourth, there is something important about public executions for serious crimes. Public executions quickly done are a deterrent. And even if it doesn't stop other people from murder, it certainly will stop that one person from murdering again. That's the command of the scriptures. Now the problem is there's no way in Canada to instill fear in people because there is no such thing as capital punishment and in fact people commit murder and I've seen some of their sentences are like five years for murder and here government trying to put people in jail for an eternity for protesting the lockdown mandates, and still persecuting people so many years after. There's an injustice in what we do. Our system is quite corrupt, and we must deal with that. It doesn't take away the obligation to obey, even in hard things. But we must acknowledge that our government, in many ways, is corrupt in what it is doing. Even in the US, there's no public executions anymore. They use a needle, put you to sleep, and then they kill you. They execute you that way. That's not what it was intended for. You see, public executions brought the whole community in, and everyone in the community came, and if it was stoning, they made a pile of stone on the body, and that pile of stone would remain there as a testimony. It sounds gruesome and gross, but I tell you, brothers, it's one way of stopping murders. when people would daily see, you know who was buried there? A murderer. That was a good lesson. There's one more side of this. We see the command to submit, even in hard things, with the nuances, and there are consequences if you don't submit. You have punishment in this life, and you certainly will have punishment in the life to come. But what if you do submit? What consequences are there? That's what we find in verses 3 and 5. Apostle Paul then declared a statement that has been questioned by millions of people, millions of times. And he said, for rulers are not a terror to good work. Again, as before, we won't elaborate except to say that he was not speaking in an absolute sense, for many governments are wicked and ignore their citizens, and they don't care if people do well. So, what would those rewards look like if they were given to the citizens by the government? Now, I saw some pretty cute ones, and one of them was really nice. The policemen were stopping people along the road on a summer day, and people start panicking. Of course, you assume you're doing something wrong if a policeman stops you. And the police will stop and tell the people, well, you've been scanned by radar, and you're found to be obeying the law. So here's a Haagen-Dazs as a reward. I thought, that was pretty cool. I wish I could find that from time to time, but we don't have such things here. That's the idea. You're giving some reward, some incentive for obeying the law. Maybe try that. You know, it works well when the children do well and say, here's a surprise award. Here's something you've done. Of course, you balance it when they don't with giving another award, a different kind. But that's not really what the reward is from the government, is it? Proverbs chapter 14, verse 35, together. The king's favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him who causes shame. The king's favor. So when the king is delighted, Good comes to the country. What are the rewards? Not Haagen-Dazs, that's fine. But peace, safety, freedom. You know, our government said, well, what we give to the people is free education and free healthcare and free housing. No, that's not their business. What they should be giving and keeping is safety and peace and freedom. And then verse five, therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for your conscience sake. And this is when he really gets to meddling, as we would say. There's another benefit of obeying the state in all things lawful. What he's saying here, it frees up your conscience. He's telling them, you have to pay taxes, but you have to do it with a clear conscience, not with one of hate for the civil authorities. but with a clear conscience. That's what you get. Maybe that could be part of the problem because we don't always have one. But he's saying you can clear your conscience when you obey the state. You know, you feel good when you pass a policeman and he's with his radar gun and you realize, I was going the speed limit. I didn't do anything wrong this time. And you have a clear conscience because you're following the rules. Well, similarly, you do what's right and you can go to sleep at night. You know, it's like someone who's a thief or you have a guilty conscience, you go to bed, you can't rest. Oh, you have a clear conscience if you submit to the state. And that's a precious, precious gift. Lessons. First of all, if you don't get praise from leaders for doing good, you will get your due praise from God. Romans 2.29 says, together, But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." And that's what we work for. Whether the state praises us or not, it doesn't matter. We're here for God. Second, keep in mind when you submit to the state, you are doing this for the glory of God. Because if you think When you pay your taxes of Prime Minister Trudeau or Premier Ford, you're likely to play around with the numbers because those are not very honorable men. They've spent us into debt, incredible debts, than all their predecessors, both of them. But if you think of Jesus, and think of his kingdom and say, yeah, I know it's high taxes. I know I might not even want to pay these taxes, but I must do it because this is important. We need civil authorities to maintain order so we can do the work of the Lord. In other words, it's about the glory of God. Third, it surely is better to submit to the authorities to honor God rather than from doing it for fear of punishment. That's the third, same application all three times. Four, wouldn't the governments do well if they were reminded to praise people to do well rather than those who are able to hire the best lawyers and lobbyists? Those are the people who seem to get all the praise from the civil government. The corruption within the governmental system is so great that only people who know how to play the game Get the praise of the governments. They should take warning. They'll have to stand before God in what they do. Finally, have the courage to defy the government when it demands that you sin against God, because that's showing love to them. You're loving the state when you defy them, when they tell you to do something wrong. You're saving them from judgment. That is so severe. Acts chapter four, verse 29 says together, now Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness, they may speak your word. So when they try to stop them from speaking the word, remember Peter, we must obey God rather than man. We will be emboldened by God to defy the authorities to do what is good. So when they don't want you to teach your children what they think you shouldn't teach your children, you should say, I must obey God rather than man. Now, you may suffer for it. But that's obedience to God, to defy a state that is demanding more. Let's conclude. Christians are called to submit to the governing authorities and to do so with a clear conscience, knowing the governments are there by the ordination of God. If Christians don't submit to the lawful commands of the lawful authorities, they can expect judgment even beginning now and certainly in the life to come. And you can expect chaos in society as well, hindering the work of the kingdom. But if you do submit to the lawful authorities, and the lawful commands from lawful authorities, the blessings will come. Blessings will come now and blessings will come in the life to come in heaven. So what do you leave here with, brothers and sisters in the Lord? Be thankful for civil authorities. Submit to them insofar as what they're requiring does not make you sin against God. Pray for them. Remember, They help to maintain peace even with their weakness. Second, when there is peace, the kingdom can prosper, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. You will be free to advance Christ's cause. You will help more men to have peace between God and them. And then fight. Fight in legitimate ways to make sure that you do have good civil government. Don't be a bystander. Get involved in politics if you can. Vote for good men. Promote good policies. That's what God expects. It's part of your civic responsibility. Finally, the only way to properly submit to the state is to have a heart change. And you can't do a heart change in yourself. It needs to be done to you. If you want to be able to obey God and you hear in God's word today that you are bound to submit to the authorities over you, ask him to count Christ's life and death as yours and make you his child, renew you from the inside. And so you will be able to obey. Let us pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for a reminder of our duty to the civil magistrate. We think, Lord, of the circumstances of our lives, that some of our leaders are awful. They stand in direct opposition to you, and yet, Lord, as in the time of the Apostle Paul, you call on us to submit to the state. Give us humility. And of course, Lord, we also need courage, that when the state demands us to break your laws, that we will stand firmly against their demands. And even though we may be punished, we will obey God rather than man. Strengthen us for that task, we pray, for Jesus' sake, amen.