The Believer and Civil Government

Transcript

GR2262
01/17/21
The Believer and Civil Government
Romans 13:1-3
Gil Rugh

I mentioned the book to you on civil government by Robert Culver, it was published originally in 1974 but you will find it very current and very Biblical. But I want to mention Sound Words won’t have it in right now, they ordered them Friday so we will have some in by next Sunday. You can stop in and put your name down, I guess, to get on the list if you want, if there are a number of people. It is a book that will cost you about $30.00 so I don’t want you to go in and think, it’s a little more expensive than maybe some of the books. There are a number of pamphlets in Sound Words that are just a few pages in length. I would encourage you to stop in and look at those as well.
In these days with a lot of political unrest, arguments going on, fears being expressed, good for us as Christians to be anchored in the Word and that is why we are going to Romans 13 in your Bibles. We have been studying Romans in our time together on Sunday evenings and as I mentioned, want to move it to Sunday morning for this study and we will probably continue it this evening as well out of Romans 13 because it is the main section in the scripture on the issue of civil government. Now there are a number of other passages and we will relate to some of those as we move along but this would be the prime passage that you would have to include as you considered what does the Bible say about civil government, our responsibility to it. Something of what Paul had to deal with.
We have a slide on the dates of the Roman emperors, the caesars. The title ‘caesar’ came from the first Julius Caesar who ruled for a total of 5 years, his dates were 49 to 44 BC, but the title comes from his name, Caesar. It wasn’t a title for rulers before that, then other Roman emperors adopted that and it came to be a title for someone who has authority and power and so on. These are select number, I picked them, they relate to time in Paul’s ministry and shortly before Augustus was before Paul’s ministry. Paul was saved about 33 AD so you can see on here Tiberius would have been ruling when Paul was saved, he was a rather young man then, we don’t know exactly how old but you get an idea. Gaius, we probably know him better by Caligula, so we will refer to him as Caligula. And then Claudius and Nero would have been key during Paul’s prime ministry time, his missionary journeys, and he will ultimately die later in Nero’s ministry, maybe around 66, 67 AD, along with Peter in the persecution that broke out under Nero.
I spent some time reading this week on these various empires. An early Roman historian Suetonius, it’s S-u-e but we pronounce it as though it was ‘sw,’ he wrote on the caesars so it’s interesting to have his writings and then you have more recent works. You can call them up on your internet and your computers and get adjusted. They're not very nice characters, they make any president that we have had look like an angel, plus they were ungodly men who did very repulsive, reviling things. Hard to be respectable in that sense but they were those ruling and I just put those up because want to keep that in mind what Paul was functioning in the environment of and the Roman Empire was an empire beyond other earthly empires and a world ruling empire but Paul lived under it’s authority. The Caesars, one of them deified his horse, and he was so important that his horse ought to be a god, too. They’re just… one was in an incestuous relationship with his sister and when she died he was so distraught he built a temple for her to be deified as a goddess.
I mean, these are the kind of individuals… I don’t want you to get that book and say why would the preacher recommend this, I don’t think I want to read this. But we want to keep this in mind when Paul writes our responsibility to governing authorities its not because they were men of admirable character, men that we might have voted for, if you would have had that opportunity. Men that came into power by diversity of ways. Poison your opponent, that helps, then you don’t have to deal with them. Murder them. Nero got to be so disgusting that he ended up having to take his own life to avoid what those who were attacking him would have planned for him. Yet he started out being very popular and the people loved him and he did all kinds of things in governing that made people love him but it soon degenerated, so just keep that in mind.
In Romans and for those of you who have been part of the study, just a reminder, chapter 12 is a turn. For the first eleven chapters he laid the Biblical foundation of our gospel, the good news of God and it’s the salvation God provided in Christ, in detail. I’ll have something to say about that in coming messages because the gospel is under direct attack from within evangelicalism today. When you come to chapter 12, Paul says “Therefore I urge you, brethren” and he is going to talk more in these closing chapters about our conduct. How those who have experienced the power of God’s salvation in changing them on the inside to make them new should now be living their lives. What are some of the things that should characterize us?
I just want to note these first two verses because they are pertinent to what he has to say about civil government. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God,” and it was God’s mercy that brought salvation to us through the provision of his Son to be our Savior. “To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,” so these physical bodies he is talking about now are to be given to God for His use as Paul wrote to Corinthians, “You are not your own, you have been bought with a price, therefore, glorify God in your body” (2 Corinthians 6:20). These bodies are relevant, they’re important. We talked about these bodies as they will be resurrected but these physical bodies in the here-and-now are part of our worship of God. This is a sacrifice offered to God, what I do with this body, how I conduct myself, it is a “holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” We think of worship as when we come together and we call this our corporate worship when we as a family of believers gather together to offer our worship to God and we are instructed to do that. But we understand every day is to be a day of worship lived out of how I use my body. What I do is a worship act, I am worshipping God.
It is based upon the salvation He has provided and the power enablement of that salvation with the indwelling Spirit He talked about in chapter 8, for example. And every believer has the Spirit indwelling, that comes out now to be worked out in our bodies. We are not saved by our works but when our life is transformed, our works are transformed. We are transformed, we have seen that in the study of Romans. The other side of that is, to say it another way, “do not be conformed to this world” or this age, the world in which we live, the time in which we are living. “Be transformed by the making new of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
You know, we worship God when we obey Him. That is where Israel thought going through the external motions made it worship. You can come and sit in church, sing the songs, listen to the sermons, and go away and not have worshiped. It is a matter of I bow in submission to Him, this is what worship is. Some of the worship is to bow, to kiss the ground before the person. He is to be the one honored, exalted, obeyed. One of the extensive dictionaries of the Greek New Testament, when it talks about the word ‘Lord’ as a word for God, it says because any concept of deity must contain the concept of authority and submission on the part of those that are under God’s authority. We want to please Him. Well, I please Him by doing. Sometimes, Oh Lord, I want to do your will, guide me, direct me to Your will, I want to know what it is. Well, here it is. So we can know the will of God; we act on what He has said and trust Him to guide us each step of the way.
So then he talked about the church down through chapter 12, we are body of believers, we come together to minister together, to build one another up in our new life in Christ. He talked about what that would mean, what it would mean we do and don’t do. Then in verse 14, and really verse 14 brings up a subject, from verse 14 of chapter 12 through chapter 13, all of chapter 14, it really is a tight package and it will primarily focus on living our lives in the world of unbelievers. We are believers living in the world of unbelievers and that is why we have to be careful we don’t become conformed to the world. The world’s pressures don’t begin to shape us, that we don’t continue living like them when we are being transformed from the inside. Which would indicate now we are resisting God, we are not looking for God’s will, we are looking to manifest our will.
So he said in verse 14, “bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” That brings to attention, there is conflict here with those apposed to those who live for God. Then he talked about how we conduct ourselves as believers as he wraps that up with verse 17. Now he picks up on what he just introduced with that statement in verse 14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” Verse 17, “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” Verse 19, “Never take your own revenge.” Verse 21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Paul lived in the world as it was and it was a difficult time. I was reading a writer of the time just shortly after the first century and some of his writings, how he dealt with Christians: and I put two maidens, as his work is translated, to the torture because they claim to be believers but I could not shake them. Then he tells about those they claim to be Christians and I couldn’t get them to deny Christ or offer sacrifice to you the emperor so I sent them off to execution. This is the world, it has always been opposed to God and difficult and it always has different standards, different life styles, and yet we live in it.
One more passage before we go into chapter 13. Come over to Philippians 3, Philippians 3, and in Philippians Paul contrasts in chapter 3 what his life was like before he was saved and after he was saved. And everybody could see it to know he is a different person, he is not the person we grew up with, he is not the person we knew in Judaism. His life was changed and he said all those honors before in his life they can be put on the dung heap as he shared his testimony. I’m striving toward the perfection God has provided for me in Christ, verse 12 and following. Then in verse 17 he says, my life is to be an example for your life, follow my example. Not that he was perfect, he says not that I am perfect or have already attained but I have committed my life 100% to following Christ, and to being what he would have me be. Then he says many walk, verse 18, whom I told you, they are enemies of the cross, they’re end is destruction. They heard the truth but they have abandoned it, they have gone their way. Then he reminds them, “our citizenship is in heaven,” verse 20, “from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior.”
Now this is the two things we are talking about and we will see this in chapter 13, our citizenship is in heaven. We are looking for a Savior, but we are living in the now time, this age, in this world, and that is where conflict comes. That is where I am in a battle because the god of this world, Satan, is so working and the pressure of the world, it can be a suffocating environment and it pounds at me, it pounds at me to reshape me back into its image. I don’t have to be conformed to this age, what is acceptable here, what is practiced here. I’m different but if I’m different I won’t fit, if I don’t fit I’ll get persecuted. Yes, we find that growing in our own country, we thought that wouldn’t come maybe in our lifetime. Now if you hold a differing opinion you don’t deserve to have a job, you don’t deserve to be allowed to express yourself. Oh, yeah, but that is not… Yeah, but where is it going, are we prepared for that, how will we handle it? That’s the world Paul had to live in, it was a deny-or-die world. Why will Paul die? He won’t deny Christ. Why will Peter die? He won’t deny Christ. We think, well, the world is different. It has always been a fallen world. We don’t want to make it a make-believe world. We are going to talk about God is the ultimate sovereign but you know what, He’s turned the nations of the world over to Satan and yet God hasn’t relinquished His sovereignty. So how do we live here? We are citizens of heaven, we are looking forward to Christ coming, but now I have to be living in such a way my life is an acceptable act of worship to God, something He is well pleased with, that honors Him, that is consistent with His will and purposes. And when Christ comes He will transform this body of our humble state and we talked about this in this passage, we talked about the resurrection of the body, transformation, and it will be done by the power of God. So then my body that I am now living in will be brought into conformity with the body of Christ and His resurrection glory, and perfection will be achieved.
Come back to Romans 13, want you to note where we are going in Romans 13 because we won’t get there. It depends how wordy I am, maybe tonight, maybe next week, and maybe the Lord will come and we will get to where want to go. You note how he is going to exhort them, verse 11, do this what I am telling you to do and how to live, knowing that it is already the hour for you to wake up, wake up! You know, the church at Rome was in Rome. You know what the capital of the Roman Empire was? Rome. Do you know who’s palace was in Rome? Caesar. That was a very difficult place to live under the king, the caesar, who thought he should be worshipped, who thought the prior caesar should be worshipped because that was preparing for him to be deified. They had a pantheon of gods. It is alright if you want to add your god to the pantheon. Wait, wait, wait, He can’t be the only god. That is the problem with the Christians, they won’t worship anybody but Jesus Christ; they won’t worship anybody but the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament as they had. There is no place for you in our empire, you have to go. We have a lot of religions, you are bad for our society if you think you are the only ones. You are undermining.
Well, then you will get into other things. I mean, are we going to be able to continue to teach about what is right and wrong in marriage? The difference between a man and a woman? We don't even use gender language anymore. We had a man who was a candidate, to be a candidate for president, and he had a husband. What do we do with that? The Roman emperors indulged in things but the Roman Empire really never lost site of the value of marriage, and they had some pretty strict laws about marriage, and husband and wife, even though they would flaunt immorality. We have outdone the Romans but that is another sermon, too. This is getting to be series.
Let’s look at chapter 13, Paul is going to take us to keep your eyes on the coming of Christ. You see how he brings it back. That is why we were in verse 11, you have to wake up, our salvation is nearer. Verse 12, “The night is almost gone, and the day is near,” put aside all those things of the world that want to shape you and conform you, those practices. Verse 14, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Anyway we are going to stand out. Well, I’m a citizen and Paul claimed Roman citizenship, respected it, and obeyed its laws. But you understand it’s like when I’m in Colorado but my real home is in Nebraska, that’s where my rights are. They wouldn’t renew my car ownership if I bought a license plate in Colorado because you belong in Nebraska they told me. Well, I brought it back here and put a plate on it. This is the same idea, this is not my home so there are certain things I won’t be part of, we will never fit.
Alright, chapter 13:1, “Every person”, I always love the way the Spirit directs Paul. Literally, ‘all souls,’ you have maybe in the margin the word ‘persons,’ the translation of the word ‘soul.’ All souls, every soul, there is no exceptions here. He is writing to the church. You understand for this to be true, this is part of God’s plan for His creation, society in general, but every believer. We expect the world to be in rebellion against God, believers should not be in rebellion against God. We are being lights in the darkness because our lives stand out. Now they may not appreciate it, they may not accept it, and as Paul will do, he had to give his life to be faithful to that. All persons, everyone, “is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.” “Is to be in subjection,” or you could say ‘subject himself.’ Some of you are taking Greek, middle voice, it’s a command, must be in subjection. This word translated ‘subjection’ is a common word for subjection in the New Testament. It is used of our subjection to God so it is an important word, ‘hupotasso,’ you are arranged under the authority of another. It is used of the marriage relationship, the wife is under the husband’s authority. It is used of children to their parents. It’s used on several occasions of individuals to governing authorities, as we have it here.
“Every person,” and it’s an imperative, it’s given as a command so you could say here, every person must be in subjection to the governing authorities. Now what kind of governing authorities? He doesn’t sort out, and however you want to talk about it, this was not representative, republic, constitution, and all that, socialistic, whatever, he doesn’t define it. “To the governing authorities,” so whoever is governing were the ones, in Paul’s day it was an emperor, a caesar, and he was the governing authority, and their Roman senators and so on, they were the governing authorities. I don’t have to think, okay, what kind of government are we talking about here, does it fit? Well, government changed, Roman government changed, started out they’re republican, had changed to senators, pretty soon the caesar took the power to himself and he took delight in humiliating the senators showing he was the one with power. Oh, what about the change? In reading the New Testament we don’t even know when one caesar left and another caesar came. Paul, he’d think this was important, you are talking about the mightiest empire in the world, you travel from country to country under the umbrella of the Roman Empire. Don’t you have anything to say about we are changing the emperor? Maybe this will be a positive. Just “be in subjection to the governing authorities.”
Okay, why? “For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God”, the two go together. We claim the one often as believers and live in opposition to the other. There is no authority except from God, oh yes, God is sovereign, God is. The election doesn’t go the way we want, I have a problem with the last line, “those which exist are established by God.” We are caught up, well, the election wasn’t fair, I think that there were shenanigans. Of course! You think poisoning the emperor you want to replace wasn’t some shenanigans? Come on, you didn’t get there by the appointed means. “Those which exist are established by God,” so in His plan.
And part of it we get confused. We talked about the providence of God along the way, the providence of God refers to God using what we might call natural means to accomplish His purposes rather than a direct intervention, a miracle. So in our country He would use the election process even when it’s corrupted to bring about His purpose, because He is using even the corruption to put in power those that He has appointed for that time. In Old Testament times empires come and go by military might and that has happened in our day, too, but just to see different systems. We’ll go back to look at one of those just as an example. In others, they may do it a different way and then, well, it wasn’t fair. No, it wasn’t, we live in a fallen world; when believers lose that we begin to get all blown around by everything that comes down the pike and we begin to act like the world. You listen to… and we get to be conservative. I don’t want to get into politics because God decides who rules. Now we have in our form of government an opportunity to vote and we can vote. But all said and done whether it was corrupted, however it is, and everybody wanted to be in charge, who is the existing authority? God.
Now we keep in mind, I say some of these things come out as we move along, sometimes God puts people in place because He is going to judge. What did he say to Pharaoh? I raised, I raised you up? Why? To bring judgment on Israel. Well, Pharaoh was a godless man, he would not budge in his opposition to God and Moses was there to bring deliverance, but you know He raised him up, and to show My power, and then He will take him down, just the way it goes. There is no authority except from God and if I was back in the Baptist church I would say, everybody agree say, amen and we would turn on the sound machine now and say amen. They didn’t do that in the Baptist church, we are in different days today. Those who do exist are established by God, point two, so now I’ve cleaned up things for me, like to clear the cobwebs and that.
So now I think who is in power? Everybody is fighting over who he is. And that is why we as Christians have to be careful at how we get involved in these things so we don’t end up, where was God? I thought you said all the evangelicals where going to vote and God was going to give the President another term. Will this man be better or worse? I don’t know, God is in charge, maybe He is going to bring judgment on our country for our open defiance against Him. We all know where we are going if we believe the Bible, we are going to Revelation, it is not good, that is why we are looking for the coming of our Lord. Alright, “those which exist are established by God.” Doesn’t deal with, if they got the vote, if the majority are in agreement, if… If God failed… well, that is not a possibility. Then “there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”
“Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God,” we have to submit. Now we right away say… and the book I recommended to you has a good reminder… He says there are exceptions but the exceptions are not near as broad as many would like to make them. By and large we submit to authorities. Now we find Peter and the apostles, they were told by the Jewish governing authorities, and they had a certain authority delegated to them by the Romans, that you cannot preach the gospel anymore. And Peter made that well-known statement, we must obey God rather than men. He does show respect and honor, he is not railing about the inconsistency of the law and about blah blah blah, no, I cannot go there, God says I am to share Jesus Christ. So I want to be careful that we are where we need to be. Paul identified if I have broken a Roman law, I am ready to die, but I will appeal to Caesar because I didn’t break the law. The Jews are after me, well, it’s different than being consistent with Roman law, so I appeal to Caesar. The end of his life, his last letter is not about the injustices of the Roman system, it is about the truth that He has proclaimed and now I’m ready to meet Christ.
We want to be careful, that’s the way the world draws us in and we think, well, you know, yeah, I should be in there. Then once we are in there, you know, it is putting us into its mold and we get squeezed and pretty soon we are acting like the world. If we could channel some of the enthusiasm that believers can generate over a political situation or a football game for the gospel we probably would have been persecuted a lot more in the city but we will leave that for another day. Alright, “therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God.”
Let’s take time to go back to John 19, this is a good time to do it. John 19, look at verse 10. Jesus is before Pilate and Pilate begins to ask Him questions. Jesus doesn’t answer Pilate but he is respectful. “Pilate said to Him, ‘You do not speak to me?’ ” because Pilate is obviously expecting a defense from Christ in this situation. “You do not speak me? Do you not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus doesn’t go off on a discourse on Roman law and how you really should function more consistent with Roman law because these accusations don’t hold water and wouldn’t hold up in a court of Roman law.
What does Jesus say to him? Verse 11, Jesus said, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” All authority has been given by God, those who exist are God, God put Pilate in place. That is where the authority come from, the whole Roman system came because of the sovereignty of God and His providence. It seemed to come about because of Rome became an empire through time and defeated enemies and building up a mighty military and all that went with an empire that lasted as it did. He doesn’t get into that, let’s just get to the basic thing, you would really have no power unless it had been given to you by God, “for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” Because the Jews who turned Him over to Pilate were what? Jews who knew the Law, the Mosaic Law, they should have recognized Him as their Messiah.
They were using the system, abusing it, but using it cause they can get Pilate on their side. Because remember Pilate is a Roman governor, as he is titled, he had delegated authority from Rome. What he had to do was be sure that his realm that he was governor over stayed loyal to Rome. That there wasn’t constant trouble because if you can’t keep order we don’t need you and you had to be sure that Caesar was honored. That goes back to the first point. So you have the general Roman authority with its laws but Caesar and the Jews used it. What did they say when Pilate asked, you want me to crucify your king? What was the response of the Jews? We have no king but Caesar. Now Pilate is in a difficult spot. I’m going to turn loose a rival king. The Jews have said He is a rival to Caesar. Well, we don’t have any king but Caesar. Pilate is going to turn Him loose and the Jews are going to send a message, you know Pilate is supportive of a rebellious king against Caesar.
You see the world goes… it is a dishonest world, as the whole world lies in the evil one, it is a world of darkness. There is a reason the Bible talks about it. We believers, we think, well, we will improve the world, we’ll pull it up, and yeah, look we are finally getting somebody who will make laws and that. It is a false security. Now God is working His purposes, sometimes there is a breath of fresh air that blows through, the light comes with a greater light, but the world is not changing. There is only One who will change the world and that is the One we are looking for, the Savior. That is where Paul is going when we get to the end of chapter 12.
Come back to the Old Testament to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 27, and you see here, God’s authority and God having established the authority. The situation is the Babylonians, the one empire is going to replace another empire. The Assyrians already conquered the northern ten tribes and carried them away into captivity. Their god raised up the Assyrians. They were a terrible people, you know what they did to people? When a city resisted and they took captives as a punishment, the next city they get to they put stakes in the ground and just impaled those people on the stakes. What a painful way, they have these people flopping around out there and dying. And it was a message to the people, surrender, because if we have to fight for your city you will be impaled on stakes like this, too. They were not very nice people. They had their own gods.
God raises them up, gives them power to defeat the previous empire so that His people can then be carried away into captivity outside of their land. Now the Southern Kingdom didn’t learn anything so it was now ripe for judgment. The Babylonians are coming, that is how chapter 27 opens, “In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying” and here reminds Israel (Southern Kingdom, Judah, that’s all that’s left) of what is coming. Look at verse 5, God says, “I have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm.” It is a direct offense to the living, sovereign God to deny that He is the Creator and the Sovereign over all creation. That was the attack of Satan as we have studied other. So with His total sovereignty, it’s Mine, I made it all.
Note the last part of that, “I will give it to the one who is pleasing in my sight.” What does that mean? He is going to talk about Nebuchadnezzar, he was not a godly man, we know what he did to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the book of Daniel when they wouldn’t bow down and worship the image that was really an honor to Nebuchadnezzar. He threw them into the furnace and he heated it up multiple times so they would be burned to ashes and there wouldn’t be anything left. This is the kind of man he is. God said, “I will give it to the one who is pleasing in my sight,” the one who will do My purposes. Looks like the Babylonians swept in and their army and their maneuvering… no, God gave it to them, might be a battle, might be a war. Then what does he say, verse 6, “Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant.” He is not a believer, I think Nebuchadnezzar becomes a believer but that is later on.
He is going to come in and conquer. You know what happens to Daniel? He got carried away, young man carried away into captivity, torn from your family, your homeland, you’re now in the service of a pagan king. Remember the man who had to serve him food, the slave of Nebuchadnezzar? And Daniel said I don’t eat that kind of food, I have Jewish laws. What did that man say? You will endanger my head to Nebuchadnezzar, if I don’t feed you what he told me to feed you and you look skinny and pale, he will cut off my head. He is not a nice man, he is not a man to be played with, so to speak. God says I’ve given all these lands to him, he is my servant. Why? In His providence, sovereign control, if we could say ‘behind the scenes,’ but very direct, he is going to do what I want done. He is going to punish Israel for their sin and they're going to be carried away into captivity. Look at it, how its just not the people, I have also, end of verse 6, “I have given him also the wild animals of the field to serve him”. We say what does this mean? Nebuchadnezzar and the hanging gardens and his own zoo, but he was a man even the beasts wouldn’t be an obstacle to him. In a way God was working that the wild animals didn’t create a problem for Nebuchadnezzar and his taking over. Sometimes in those days some areas were hard to get control of it. Just showing how absolute God’s control is because he made them all, He can tell them what to do, even the animals. “All the nations,” verse 7, “shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him their servant.” That is the way God works. You know who’s at work.
So that’s where we want to be careful we as Christians don’t get caught up with the world in the constant bombardment of the news, and the internet, and everything, that this is the most consequential. Our rebellion against God has become more open, more open, more open, more defiant, and more encouraged. We don’t know how long we will be able to talk about a man and a women. Our school systems are being shut down to that, our representatives of government are not supposed to now be referring to one another as man and women and so on. You people who want to harm the minority, that have a desire for like people in the sense of a man with a man, you are harmful for our society. We want to have a society that everybody is open to. If you are going to preach that, you are not welcome here. Where are we going? Well, you have to be removed. But God is in charge, why does a Christian say, oh, if we would have only won the election. What? Was God taking a nap? As Elijah accused the pagan god? Call louder, maybe… he was even more blunt, maybe he went to the bathroom. Sometimes we as Christians are just as caught up and frustrated as the world. Everything is under control. Have we been unsettled with the course of our country? Has it made us want to be more clear with the gospel so people realize there is a living God they are rebelling against?

So He even tells him I will give it to your son, I will give it to your grandson, and then I’m going to make a change, new empire. How do you know? It is not that easy. For God it’s not easy? The nations are like a speck of dust on the scale remember, they don’t even move it. We think if we get the right people and if we get people out to vote. I am not against exercising our rights, I am against being frustrated when it didn’t turn out the way we planned it for God. He wasn’t waiting for Gil’s plan. Gil had to be waiting for God’s plan.
Come to the book of Daniel, come to Daniel 2, and now Daniel, he has been carried away to Babylonia. It’s remarkable to me the respect he shows, even in explaining why he can’t eat the food, just put me on trial. He doesn’t say you are a godless Babylonian, you don’t the God of heaven, you just give me the food I tell you. No, he is very respectful; put me on trial, I realize you don’t want to put your life at risk so, yes, you have to obey Nebuchadnezzar but take just a short time, that will give you an opportunity to see if I am deteriorating, and if I am then I will eat your food I guess. But an opportunity, very respectful. Every time Daniel talks to Nebuchadnezzar there is a respect in it, he is not fighting against it, he is not condemning Nebuchadnezzar. This is Jeremiah’s problem, the children of Israel didn’t realize this was God’s will for them. He tried to tell the Jews, look, settle down, you have been deported to Babylon and part of its empire, buy houses, plant fields, you aren’t going anywhere. But we are God’s people. No, you forfeited certain privileges God gave you.
You are in Daniel chapter 2, and Daniel talks to Nebuchadnezzar and these verses we have been to many times. Come to verse 20, “Daniel said, ‘Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him.’ ” Note, wisdom and power, He always knows, and He always has power to carry out what He knows. “Wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs.” Be of good cheer, the way things have changed and our government. “It is he who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding… He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.” Daniel acknowledges that all I have is from You. He is not saying what am I doing here in Babylon in the service of a pagan king, I like family, I have been uprooted, I’m at the center of paganism. God is in charge, if we just submit to that, the turmoil that churns. It is true in every area. We are talking about the government. This is true in my life, that is why sometime I have to take myself aside, sit down, and give myself a biblical talk. What are you so frustrated about, what are you so worked up about? Lord, you know where I am. Am I really in a position…? My problem is I doubt you or I’m unhappy with. Am I upset because the election didn’t turn out the way I have wanted? Now I have to fear about the future and what is it going to be like for my grandkids or my great grandkids, is there going to be anything left? I know the last chapter. I just forget it cause I don’t want that, I want what I want, it is like the two year old, he wants what he wants.
You are in Daniel, go over to chapter 4, Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar… Remember God said I am in charge of the wild animals, I give authority over them. You know what Nebuchadnezzar is going to become? You have read it, a wild animal. He continued to fight against God. Seven years you are going to eat straw like an ox. That is how great you are and yet God holds the empire for him. You know, when Nebuchadnezzar’s father died suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar was over in Israel and Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, died. You know what Nebuchadnezzar did? He took a contingent of troops and cut across the desert to get back to Babylon and secure his throne cause he knows that was a dangerous time. If he took the long way around, which was the better because you don’t go across that endless desert, by the time he got back there he might have been replaced and not be able to get the power. But he will eat straw like an ox for seven years and God holds the throne for him. At the end of seven years he was put back in place. You might have thought they would have slaughtered him and had him for dinner. No, he is eating grass, oh, he will be a great king, what are we doing with him. God is holding him, remember, He controls everything. So when his mind returns to him, he has a message to give to all the nations because remember he is the world power now. And “Nebuchadnezzar,” verse 1, “the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth: ‘May your peace abound! It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me.’ ” It is not all about Nebuchadnezzar anymore; the mighty Babylon which I have built with the might of my power, for my glory. Not that you bow down and worship the gods I give you, but “the Most High God.” “How great are His signs and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation.” He knew, I replaced the kingdom which replaced the kingdom. God’s kingdom is never replaced, this is His sovereign rule over all creation, I have come to acknowledge Him. I am the greatest king on earth by the appointment of the King who rules all the earth, who created it all. It is a remarkable turn-around.
Come down to verse 25, I just want to pick up these, you probably have them underlined. Verse 17, look at the end of the verse, “That the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.” You know, it might not have been your choice. He sets over it the lowliest of men, maybe the least qualified, the least you expect. The Antichrist is going to come on the scene unexpectedly, he is going to be a little horn that rises up among the horns, then he will take power and become the horn. “That the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.” The end of verse 25, “Until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.” The end of verse 26, “Your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is Heaven that rules.” You see that in any of our political leaders? Any of them come yet to recognize God is sovereign, we must acknowledge Him and His will?
I mean, even in the midst of the turmoil they want to make rules for the representatives that supposedly represent our nation, at the source of our government. We will not use gender terms, we will not refer to men, women, and those kind of terms in this place. What are we doing? Setting the pattern. Why? Because we don’t recognize differences, we are against that. It doesn’t matter, Jesus said, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?” (Matthew 19:4) Well, that is not acceptable here, ‘man,’ and I just use that as an example. The riots we have had in the streets, the defund the police, it is all a rebellion against God. God established authority, no nation survives that doesn’t have authority. What happens is, as the disarray continues, it has to be solidified again and then you have your socialism and the one-man rule. Does that upset me? It disappoints me to see our country go this way. But God is sovereign, I have read the last chapter, you have read the last chapter, we know where we are going. We just don’t want to get caught up in the rebellion. I am supportive of the man who is in the office. God has spoken, maybe you ought to turn the conversation that way instead of saying, yeah, if it wasn’t…, if they had done this, if they hadn’t changed the way the votes were counted, if… That may all be true but it is irrelevant if we believe the Bible, right? If God didn’t use the corrupt system for the accomplishing of His purposes and His providence, He would never have His rulers. We as Christians have to live it out, not be conformed to the world.
Heaven rules, down at the end of verse 32, if you didn’t mark it before in your Bible, “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.” Then Nebuchadnezzar, we get to now having the account, “raised my eyes,” his sanity comes back, “I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.” Verse 35, “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ ”
Remember in Romans 9, we talked about the sovereignty of God and Paul presented a situation where someone challenged God. They don’t see how that could be, that is not fair. What was the response? “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” (Romans 9:20) He does what He will because He wills it. We are fortunate that He is a God of grace and love but you understand He is a terrible God to be feared when He is disobeyed. There is nothing like His love. There is nothing like His wrath, it will result in a hell which burns with fire and brimstone into the ages of the ages. We translate it ‘eternally’ but ‘the ages of the ages’ it tells you, after time after time, those periods of time followed by another periods of time. Hell never changes, that is the wrath of God. What is going on? We as believers aren’t unsettled, we just realize, wake up from your sleep. Our country may be going down, our days may be numbered when we can present the gospel, when we can be interested enough to want to study the Word, when we are forbidden to come together, we are working through. We will talk a little bit about that in a future study when the government says you can’t. But there is freedom now, what about when it is gone? Oh, we will bemoan. What are you going to say? We remember the good old days, when we didn’t do much evangelism anyway, when we didn’t take advantage anyway, we complained about it? I want to be careful we got our mind and thinking together and we all have to do this, it’s not that any of us are exceptional. Paul didn’t write this because it didn’t need to be written, it’s because the Spirit of God wanted it written, preserved, so that we today, the beginning of the 2021st year for us, we will be reminded, with new people in charge, heaven rules. God sets men up, God takes them down. He rules in heaven above and on earth beneath. I belong to Him, that is not a problem for me, I am his child! He says He loves me, He takes care of me, He ordains my steps. Do you know Him? If you live a life of rebellion against Him you are going from bad to worse, but God is gracious, brought you here today to hear He is a Savior, He wants to bestow His love on you, not His wrath. You reject His love, you will get the wrath. For the rest of us who have trusted Him we want to be consistent with the Word.
Let’s pray. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Lord, it is a clear Word, it is not difficult to understand. You are sovereign over all, You have created everything and You are sovereign over everything. And it is Your will that is being done in the affairs of the world and the leaders of our country and the nations of the world. Lord, we get distracted, we become sleepy, lethargic, when it comes to truth. We are to be lights shining brightly in the world. The time is passing. Paul put it wisely 2,000 years ago, we come to the end of the night and the day comes, then the opportunity for our service in this world will be over. Pray for our testimony individually and our testimony as a church in these days. In Christ’s name, amen.