Testimony By Submission to Government

Transcript

GR1934
11/15/2015
Testimony by Submission to Government
I Peter 2:13-17
Gil Rugh

We are going to I Peter chapter 2. Peter is concerned that believers live the kind of lives in an unbelieving world that will be lights in the darkness and will have an impact upon the unbeliever. The unbeliever is not saved by seeing our life but a life manifesting the character of Christ in the world is used by God to impact them and perhaps provide opportunities to share the message of Christ.

In verses 11 and 12 he urged these believing Jews to abstain as aliens and pilgrims from the fleshly lusts that characterize this world and this world system and they wage war against the soul. “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation,” that God might work to convict them so then when it comes to the day of judgment they will glorify God for the salvation that was made known to them through your life and through your testimony.

Now what Peter is going to do is talk about particular areas where our life can be a testimony in an unbelieving world. He is going to talk about areas where we are to be submissive and he is particularly talking in areas where we have to be submissive to those who may be unbelievers. There are principles of submission that apply within our relationships as believers but Peter is concerned about our testimony before the unbelieving world. So he is going to talk about manifesting submissiveness to those who are in authority over us and that is to be a testimony that we conduct our lives according to the purposes of God for us as His children and that means we function submissively even to those who in their character and conduct we would think are not worthy of our submission but we don’t submit because they are worthy of our submission they are worthy because of the position they have but maybe not in their character or in the way they use their authority but our testimony is that we are following what our Lord and master has for us to do.

You know at the root of sin is rebellion. Sin manifests itself against God by our rebellion against Him, our refusal to acknowledge Him and submit to Him and so when we come to the area of submission, we have submitted to God. We call Jesus Christ our Lord and master. We claim to be His servants, His slaves and we live our lives in every area as He would have us live and it is God who has established the areas of submission and order. So failure to respond as we should in this area is an act of rebellion against God. That mars our testimony before the world because we end up functioning like them in so many ways, grumbling, complaining, looking for excuses and reasons to not submit as we should and Peter is concerned about that.

So he is going to focus on three particular areas here: government, servants and masters. We might talk about employees and employers and husbands and wives and in each of these he will primarily focus on unbelieving authorities that we must submit to and he will start with human government and then he will move to the servant, master. Then he will put in there the example of Christ that permeates all areas of our submissiveness and then he will talk as you come into chapter 3, “wives, be submissive to your husbands.”

It is important that we understand this. You know we are moving into, of course we never leave it I guess, but an election cycle. It seems they start awfully early. You know Christians, we are exposed to the new all the time and sometimes we get caught up in talking about governing leaders in the way the world does and we can develop very strong opinions and they get expressed and we need to be careful because this is the first area Peter is going to pick up on.

Look at verse 13: “Submit yourselves therefore for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.” “Submit yourselves.” You are to be under the authority and it is given as a very firm command. You must submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake. They are voluntarily, this is their commitment, this is what I want to do. I want to arrange myself under the authority “for the Lord’s sake to every human institution,” everything that is brought into existence that has lines of authority so it is broad here. Every human institution would include all authorities that have been developed. He will give example: to the king, to the governors and on down but when he says all that would mean all the ones coming down to the very local authorities you know what we would call lesser authorities and the greater. It is all order that has been established and we are to submit to these lines of authority. Whatever authority structures have been in place our society, we don’t have a king, but we have a president so when he says “every human institution” it would cover all levels and all kinds of government. He is not talking about good government and bad government, the governing authority. You do it “for the Lord’s sake,” on account of the Lord. This is His will.

So my testimony is on the line. I claim that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I have come in faith to have my life submitted to Him. Well, submit yourself on account of the Lord because this is His will basically for us as His children. “To every human institution, whether to the king as the one in authority,” and just about everybody in this room could name the one who was ruling Rome and the Roman Empire at this time because he is the most infamous, probably by name of the Roman rulers, Nero. He ruled from 54 A.D. to 68 A.D. He is the Roman ruler who will be responsible for the execution of the writer of this letter, Peter as well as Paul, multitudes of believers. The man so vile that his own people ended up revolting and driving him to suicide and his name has become infamous for that which is depraved. A godless man yet Peter says “Submit yourselves to every human institution whether to the king as the one in authority or to governors,” lesser authorities.

So it is important that we establish here. It is not a matter of whether he is a man worthy. His position makes him worthy of our honor and respect. That does not mean everything he does in respectable. It does not mean he may not use his authority improperly as he will when he will have Peter executed. So we want to be careful that we don’t in our minds, “They are so ungodly. What they are doing is ruining our country; the decisions they are making. Here we have the Spirit of God directing Peter, “You submit to every human institution, whether to the king as one who is in authority (verse 14) or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those who do right.”

One commentator put it this way “to put it into contemporary terms it means that Christians are to obey the law of the land whether on a federal, state or local level.” You know and then you go Presidents, Supreme Court, Congress, all the way down to what we would call minor, more minor local officials. “These have all been appointed for the punishment of evil doers.”

Now you note in here how did they come? Well they were voted in and people that were sinful and they didn’t think very well voted them in but you see “or to governors as sent to him.” God is the one who appoints those in authority.

Back up to Romans chapter 13, verse 1 and you might leave a marker in here if you want. Stick a piece of paper in. We will probably come back here. Romans chapter 13, verse 1, Paul writing: “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. There is no authority except from God. Those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God.” God has ordained it. He has established it and further more as believers we believe that God has sovereignly in His plan put each of these in position.

Jeremiah had to deal with this with the Jewish nation. God raised up Babylon to punish the Jews. Jeremiah as God’s spokesman told the Jews, “You better submit to the Babylonians.” They fought against it, they paid the price. It doesn’t mean that the Babylonians were a more godly nation than Israel. It is just they were the power that God had appointed. We have studied Daniel, and what? God places in positions of authority even the basest of men. Now we need to be careful because then we will say, “Well there is an example. That is sure one of the basest people I have ever known” and he is in position. He is worthy of our respect because God put him there. I end up denying the Scripture in manifesting an attitude of rebellion, complaining about them, speaking in dishonorable ways about them. “There is no authority except from God.” Am I telling people my God has made a mistake? He sure made a poor choice when he came into office. I mean now my complaint is directed beyond that ruler to the God who placed him there.

“Those which exist are established by God.” That is why Peter can say “these rulers have been sent by God, put into place by God for His purposes.” That doesn’t mean they are all doing things we would say, “Well they are functioning in line with Scripture.” The world is moving toward judgment. Many of the rulers God is putting into place, sinful men, are encouraged to do the sin that is ultimately going to bring the wrath of God on an unbelieving world. It doesn’t mean I am pleased with these decisions but it does mean I still give honor and respect to those that God has placed in authority. Again, not because of who they are or they are respectable in their character but because God has placed them in authority and the existence there. “Whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God,” and as one who says he has submitted his life to the authority of the living God, has Jesus Christ as his Lord and master we can’t rebel.

Come back to 1 Peter. So when he says “We do it for the Lord’s sake,” verse 13, “And he says ‘governors sent by him,’” the king sent them but it is coming down the chain of authority that has its source in God. So the governors coming what, representing the king and we have officials down the line which effect represent higher authorities and they are sent “for the punishment of evil doers.” And we appreciate that. We appreciate living in a country where there is some semblance of order. I mean when we look at what goes on in the world we are pleased that we live in a society where there is order, where criminal activity is restrained.

When you look at parts of the world as you know the Middle East now and Syria and those places there is just chaos. Who is the governing authority? You know things are out of control. No one is safe. So we are thankful for that. Now we may say, “Well there is lack of consistency. They are tolerating things.” But overall the principle is the still the same. There is order, “They punish evildoers.”

Important statement here, “It is right for government to punish evildoers.” It is not just to rehabilitate people. We have moved from the concept of punishment as archaic, that it is just rehabilitation. It is for punishment, retribution, proper vengeance meted out and when we move away from that we do begin to move to have a more chaotic situation.

Come back to Romans chapter 13, verse 4; continuing talking about rulers. You don’t want to fear the ruler, don’t break the law. “For it is a minister, a servant of God to you for good. If you do what is evil be afraid for it (the government and the governing authorities) does not bear the sword for nothing. It is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” It is intended that government established by God inflict punishment, avenge evil.

Be careful. Back in chapter 12 he said that we were not to take vengeance, personally, down in verse 19: “Never take your own revenge, (chapter 12 of Romans) but leave room for the wrath of God. ‘As it is written, vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” And some people get confused. This gets into the arguments sometimes presented on capital punishment. We are not going into that but just as an example. People will say, “Well it is not right that we kill someone for killing someone. We shouldn’t do that.” And you are right. Individually and personally we shouldn’t but government serves as the representative of God to inflict the vengeance that He has appointed. Now sometimes they misuse it. It is going to happen to Peter and Paul both. Government will use its authority to inflict their own vengeance on these men. It doesn’t change the principle.

Peter and Paul who carry the Gospel to a world because of the peace the Roman governing authorities brought to that world and that they could bring some order there. So in that sense God had established Rome and their authority that enabled Paul to travel from country to country and as a Roman citizen to have a certain protection. Remember at Philippi he is in a Greek city. He claimed his Roman citizenship protected him and the local authorities had broken the law and you remember they came and apologized and wanted him to leave town.

So we can see even a government that we would say was corrupt, so many of the rulers there were so vile yet it did keep an order. So it is government’s position to mete out vengeance. We want to be careful that we don’t get caught up in that argument. “Well you know we shouldn’t be taking vengeance. That is only God.” But He has established, He has given the sword which would represent the ultimate punishment, capital punishment to government and they should mete it out properly. “It is for the punishment of evildoers.” “And it is for the praise.” Back in Peter, “Of those who do right.”

I mentioned I got a traffic ticket. I broke the law. I shouldn’t have. I didn’t confess I was a pastor. I told her it was the woman that God gave me. In the passenger seat she was supposed to be sure I did not exceed the speed limit and she failed. That did not happen either. I couldn’t argue. I deserved it. I could be happy because you know what happens every time somebody blows by me? I say, “Where’s the police when you need them?” If I blow by somebody it is with a smile on my face but I have to realize you know it is for our good. If we didn’t have traffic laws you would be afraid to go out on the street.

Many years ago we were in a Mideast country. I would have never thought of driving a car there. A policeman was out blowing his whistle, waving his hand to stop and people just went around him on the sidewalk and drove on. A policeman trying to keep people from loading on a ship and he is holding his hands up and people are driving on. I am thinking, “This ship is going to sink.” You know we are glad that laws are there and in force, the obvious but it is what Peter is saying, “It is for the praise of those who do right.” We are blessed by it and we appreciate that they protect us, that they keep us safe. It is something to be thankful for. We are not always thankful for the consequences when we do wrong but we can be thankful for that.

It always comes in here. Well sometimes we may have to disobey, Acts 4 whether we should obey God or man when Peter was confronting the Jewish authorities and what it came down to they were going to be mistreated and punished as believers. They stood forward and took their testimony. We have to be careful. We still stand as a testimony for Christ. That is why it is often beneficial to us in our easy society to read stories of the martyrs and read of the giving of their life. They die with their respect. We read of one of the martyrs and he’s being martyred in England and he says, “God save the Queen.” I mean he is being burned in a fire. You know a certain respect that should characterize our lives.

Alright, Peter moves on. Why do we do this? Verse 15: “For such is the will of God.” That is why we submit to governing authorities, we do it for the Lord’s sake. He has put them in position at all levels they are sent down. We just say, “well He appoints the king but the more minor officials they get in and there are always connections, bribes paid and all of that.” Nothing is new in a fallen world but they are in that place of authority.

So this is the will of God “that by doing right you might silence the ignorance of foolish men.” I always think it is such a black mark on our testimony as believers when you see professing believers caught up in the political arena saying things about the governing leaders and attacking them. Where do we get that in Scripture? It is the will of God that by doing right you silence the ignorance. What it means to put the muzzle on. You silence the ignorance, those who are ignorant of God’s work, those that may be slandering you as a believer, those who may be mistreating you. You silence the ignorance of foolish men. The word ‘foolish’ used of those who don’t know God. Psalm 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God.’” These people making slanderous charges against believers.

So you see he is not saying you are always going to be treated properly by these authorities even… but you don’t give any excuse. Well they are part of the Christian right. You can’t expect them to be. We are not part of the Christian right. I am supportive of whoever is in position, who is there. We live in a form of government where we can vote for individuals but I am against preachers and churches that take positions on who should be voted in. You are free to vote as you believe God would have you vote and of course we are going to vote for people we think were consistent with the values that we have. I think we cross the line when we begin to promote that. It must be clear. I am supportive of whoever. You know Nero. You think Peter might take a shot at vile rulers who do such damage to believers and to the church or Paul might. No, so we need to be very careful that we don’t get caught up and connect Christianity with political positions and ideals and ideas. You know we go from Roman ruler to Roman ruler through New Testament history but you never know one Roman ruler’s been replaced by another because as far as the ministry is concerned that is not the issue. It’s the person God has put in place. We carry on our ministry. Some are going to make it more difficult for believers. Some might make it more pleasant for believers but you don’t find out. You know if I hadn’t told you Nero was on the throne ruling you would say you know maybe we are in a time of a good ruler and you compare the Roman rulers you are comparing the bad and the ‘badder.’ It is just that kind of situation.

Alright, we want to silence the ignorance of foolish men, those who don’t know the Lord. They don’t know God’s work. They don’t know His sovereignty in the world. They don’t know why God has put this person in that position for His purposes but I know it and I manifest it by my conduct. Not only in my behavior but in how I talk about him. “Silence the ignorance of foolish men.”

Verse 16: “Act as free men.” In Christ we are free. You know the reason he connects this to unbelievers is sometimes we get the idea that well, we are citizens of heaven and my allegiance is to God, not to man. And in every error there is an element of truth. That’s why it gets ahold of us as believers. But it is a distortion. It is because I am a citizen of heaven that the King of Kings is my King. I obey Him and honor Him and recognize His authority by functioning properly in the context of my earthly situation.

Paul claimed his Roman citizenship. He didn’t deny it. He didn’t stand there and say I am a citizen of heaven. You have no authority of me. No, I am a Roman citizen. I was born a Roman citizen. I also belong to the living God. I respect your authority and I honor it. Every time in the book of Acts Paul is standing before one of the representative authorities, Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. He speaks with respect. He doesn’t attack them for their godlessness; nor did Christ when He was in the presence of Pilate who was going to misuse his authority to a great extent obviously. “Act as free men.” We have been set free in Christ not to do what we want but to do what He wants. We’ve been redeemed by the grace of God. That is not an excuse for me. I don’t have to serve men. I have to serve as God has appointed me to. “Don’t use your freedom as a covering for evil but as slaves of God.” We have been set free from slavery to sin so we could be slaves of righteousness. Set free from slavery to the devil so we could be enslaved to God, Romans chapter 6, the repeated emphasis on our relationship to God. We are His slaves. We are doing His will. It is the will of God that we submit to governing authorities. This should not be an issue and we need to be careful.

You know if would be better (I don’t know if I will put this right way) if we maybe didn’t immerse ourselves in 24 hour news and political things because you know, it gets to you and pretty soon you are irritated by it. Pretty soon these men… That is not what our life is about.

You know I don’t see the destiny of our country determined by who the next president will be. I think the destiny of our country is determined by the plan of God. I believe that is true for every ruler everywhere in the world. I believe my God is so much in control that His control has put into place the most minor local official for His purposes. That simplifies my life. That doesn’t mean I can’t vote my convictions. That is consistent with the system of government we have.

In Paul’s system he didn’t have a say. We all have the same responsibility. Whatever the human creation is up in verse 13, the word translated ‘institution’ is basically the word creation, whatever has been brought into existence. Different forms of government come and go and we argue and we hear even Christians saying, “Our form of government is the best form of government there has been.” I don’t think you can support that from Scripture. When God established a form of government for His nation, Israel, He established a monarchy and the ultimate government established when the King of Kings rules will be a monarchy. Does that mean I wish we had a king? No, I have to live with whatever we have here. I’m saying, Christians get involved in this and we have to defend our form of government, it’s the best there has ever been and capitalize is and this is. We have been blessed. That is not why I am here.

“Act as free men. Don’t use your freedom as a covering for evil.” What would the evil be in the context here? Well the main thing he is addressing is by not submitting. We looked at Romans 13. This is the will of God. He put these rulers in place and when you rebel against them you are rebelling against the ordinance of God. Don’t claim Christian liberty to rebel against the God who has given you the liberty to serve Him. That is the point. “Do not use your freedom as a covering for evil. Use it as bond slaves of God.” My concern, I am His slave. I’m privileged to understand how everything is being carried out in the world. It is amazing. There is no chaos. “Does evil happen in the city and I have not caused it,” says the Lord.

So we saw catastrophe in France. It was part of the plan of God. He uses even the desires of sinful men to accomplish His purposes. We either choose to believe in the sovereignty of God and manifest that in our conduct or we are in trouble. We are just talking empty words.

Come back to Romans, Romans chapter 13. Just read verse 5. We read very basically the first four verses. Verse 5: “Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection not only because of wrath but for conscience sake.” Because as a Christian when I sin against God my conscience bothers me and I want to have the clear conscience of obeying God, pleasing Him. So it’s not just I’m afraid I will get punished. I am afraid God won’t be pleased with my behavior. “For because of this you pay taxes.” You may want to underline that and circle that. Why do we pay taxes? Government misuses our money. There is more wasting in government and they are… you think the Roman government used the taxes, Nero burning down the city so he can build his own palace and do all this and Roman emperors bankrupting an empire with their own squandering and selfish desires. I pay taxes because they are governing authorities and some of the taxes do go to protect us.

So I don’t want to get into a tax debate either. We have a right to debate it in the one sense but I want to be careful I don’t become a crusader as a Christian here as though I am defending Christian principles. The Christian principle is pay taxes. They tried to trap Jesus on this. Should you pay taxes to Caesar? Whose picture is on the coin? Pay taxes. Pay to Caesar what is due to Caesar. I mean this is the government we live under. If they raise the tax level to you know another 20% for everyone I guess we will all cut back and pay the taxes. I have something more important to do than to get mired down in that. It doesn’t mean I can’t express my opinion. I am going to be very careful I don’t get this tied to my testimony as a believer. I want to have my testimony pure and clean and clear as much as possible.

“Custom to whom custom. Fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” You see that this permeates. It’s not just I have a debt and I have to honor the king. This is where we are coming to in Peter. I have to show fear as I should. I have to render what is due to whoever. I don’t see my freedom in Christ as a freedom to be misused in this key area; so important that we are careful as believers.

Come over to Timothy, I Timothy 2. There is a consistency in this. I Timothy 2, verse 1: “First of all then I urge that entreaties, prayers, petitions, thanksgiving may be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority.” We pray for them. Pray that God will direct that they might make decisions and laws that will enable us to continue to carry out the ministry of God’s truth. That is our desire. “We lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” So you know every time I think I want to complain about the president or you know the Supreme Court or whatever I should just say, “Well I guess I could pray for them and pray God will direct even though they don’t know Him.” The mind of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He can turn it wherever He will. “He desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” So I am praying for them; praying that the testimony of believers will even impact them.

Paul’s in prison in Rome and he writes to the Philippians and says what? Boy, this imprisonment is a blessing because even some from the household of Caesar have gotten to hear the Gospel. How else would I have gotten to present the Gospel to members of Caesar’s household and that might get carried back and have what kind of impact?” You know you appreciate keeping the focus. This is what it is about. It’s not that I could tell them that if we had more just laws it would provide for a better empire and if the taxes were more properly used people wouldn’t be… What a waste. That’s what Paul was doing. He is saying I have had opportunity to tell some from the household of Caesar about the Gospel.

When he had a chance to sit with Felix in the book of Acts he reasoned with him about righteousness, self-control, sin, judgment. You know we’ve got to talk to them about the important things. I think sometimes we think if we would talk with our congressmen or had opportunity to talk with our president we would want to tell him about what he ought to be doing. We would be there to tell him you have a huge responsibility and many decisions upon you. I want to tell you about the God who can give you the wisdom you can get no other place, the God who can bring you the peace and the assurance that you need in decisions you make but you must become His child and you know that’s what we have to offer. There are people who are able to talk about the tax policy and many people can do that. Only a believer can tell people about the truth.

“God desires all men to be saved and there is only one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He gave Himself as a ransom for all.” You note the word ‘all.’ You may have it marked in your Bible. In verse 1 it is “all men, all men” twice; verse 2, “all who are in authority,” “all godliness;” verse 4, “all men,” and verse 6: “For all.” This is God’s plan so let’s pray for those in authority.

Come back to Peter. He has four brief commands given here, honor all people. We give the proper respect, the proper honor to everyone. Believers ought to have a proper, I don’t know the old word we would use is courtesy, respect, give them honor. We realize God has put them in that position. We want to respect them and give them the honor due them. This is the opposite and we won’t go to James 3: 9 and 10 – we are not to view people with scorn, or contempt. It is in the context of chapter 3 of our tongue and being careful what we say. We are not to show people scorn or contempt. We are to honor all people. That comes out of our mouth, our tongue, how we talk about them. You know people want to run down the president since he is the easiest to identify and we can say, well he does have a huge responsibility and difficult decisions rest upon him and I pray for him every day. I pray God will direct his heart. I pray that any believers who have contact with him will use the opportunity that they might have to show respect and share with him the truth that he needs to hear. I hope believers that get close to the president help to change some policies in this country. Well I hope they do something more important than that.

So “honor all men. Love the brotherhood.” Love the brotherhood, fellow believers. We are to love one another. It is interesting he brings this is. This is to characterize us in everything we do. We are a family. There is uniqueness about us and a special love we have for one another. We are not going to go through the passages we could do on that. We have done that a number of times.

“Fear God.” We are to show Him the proper respect and awe. We have a fear of displeasing Him because it would not be showing him reverence and respect. The children in your home; they respect their parents. When? When they obey. They do their will, they function to please Him. “Fear God.”

“Honor the King.” We honor all men, we honor the King. You know this is difficult material. When you think you have a Nero on the throne. I mean he is a man so despicable. He was involved in immorality with his own mother in public way. I mean the things there you can’t say in public. The way these men conducted themselves, there is nothing respectable, nothing is honorable but they are in the position they have because God has placed them there.

We complain about our rulers. We don’t have anything. We are always looking if we could find something, some dirt there and even we believers get caught up in it. Yes, terrible. I mean how could a man like that rule our country? We should have had a Nero or other Roman emperors, Suetonius or other lives of the Roman emperors. My goodness. That’s why Peter has to say “You honor all men, honor the king, submit to the king.” You think believers weren’t tempted to show disrespect at least in the way they talked about these men? “Honor the king.” This includes the submissive obedience that must be there.

Come back to Titus. You see the same thing. There is a consistency. Back toward the front of your Bible. I am going the wrong way. Titus chapter 3. What does Paul tell Titus he is to do? “Remind them to be subject to rulers to authorities, to be obedient.” Why does the Spirit of God direct this to be constantly put forth? Because these are unbelieving, godless people in these positions but understand it is God who rules in the realm of mankind and He places over it the basest men as we studied in the book of Daniel. We submit. Our God rules and He places rulers in authority. There is no ruler than has not been put there by God.

Then we begin to say, “Well I don’t think God would put a person in position in authority.” Now we’ve got problem with the Scripture, not the ruler because we are really complaining about what God did and saying He didn’t do the right thing or He is not in control or … where do we go with them? “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient; to be ready for every good deed; to malign no one.” In other words if you were with Peter or Paul you wouldn’t talk evil about Nero. Does that mean you don’t recognize his sin? Everybody knows about it. We are not here to do that. We respect him. He is the ruler. We obey him but we recognize God has put him into the place of power and I don’t always understand why God would put him there if he puts somebody there that was at least an unbeliever who had some moral standards and concern for justice it would have helped a lot. I don’t tell God how to do His business. I forget who the slave is and who the master is, who is sovereign and who serves. When I do that then the issue of who the physical ruler is, is not the issue. It is my rebellion against God. “Malign no one; to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” Why? We were once just like them. My heart was no more pure and clean before God than the vilest of them. “Disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts, pleasures; spending our life in malice, envy, hateful, hating one another.” What made the difference? “But when the kindness of God, our Savior, His love for mankind appeared. He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness.” You know when we have been saved for a while we begin to think highly of ourselves. We can speak in such ways as though we say, “I just can’t understand how they can be so sinful; how they can do what they do.” Well, do I forget what I was like? That’s what he says, “Remind them.” And we can understand we treat them with respect. We don’t malign them. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t speak of them of sin but we understand how they could conduct themselves like this.

That’s what we were like. That’s what we would be like today if it wasn’t for the grace of God. It wasn’t that we were better and more righteous and that’s why we ended up saved and they are not. It wasn’t according to our deeds done in righteousness. It was according to His mercy. He washed us. He made us new and poured out these blessings on us richly in Christ. So that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs of eternal life. That means what, verse 8. “This is a trustworthy statement, and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.” This is the area Peter is dealing with, the area of our submission to these often ungodly, godless rulers. I am not responsible for their conduct. I am responsible for mine and we as believers want to have strong testimonies. I want it to be a good testimony.

Where does Indian Hills stand on political issues? They don’t have a position on political things. Don’t they believe that homosexual marriage is sin? Yes, they do. They believe a lot of other things are sin also. Well who will they be promoting for president? They don’t take a position. I would want to tell someone “You could comb through all the sermons I have preached. You won’t find me in any sermons promoting.”

People have said you ought to at least encourage people to vote. That is your personal decision. I don’t think you are in rebellion against God if you don’t. Now you have to decide if you believe God would have you. It is a privilege we have in our country. We are encouraged to vote. The law doesn’t say we have to if a Christian chooses not to. There are times when I haven’t because quite frankly I couldn’t decide between the choices. So I just prayed the Lord would appoint the man of His choice and He will and if I vote I pray, “Lord I voted according to what I think is most consistent with what my values as a believer is. But my prayer is that Your will be done and I realize I will be fully supportive in honor and not speak evil of the people You put in place.” So our testimony in very practical areas is a testimony of God’s grace in our lives.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the work You have done. Lord we need to be reminded again and again because it is easy for us just to slip into ways that are not honoring to You. Lord, what a confidence we have in knowing You are sovereign in a world in chaos and seeming to get worse You are in total control. There is no chaos. In that sense our God is in control. I pray that our testimony might be strong and clear. Pray that You will continue to bless our country. Pray that we will not waste the opportunities we have in these days to share Your truth, the message of your saving grace. Thank You for the blessings that have been ours as a country. Thank You for all You’ve done for us as believers. May we be faithful in all we do we pray in Christ’s name amen.