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The River ChurchSermons

Romans 9-16

Applying Righteousness: Towards Others/Government

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 9 November 2025 · Romans 13:1-10 · 51:27 · 8,338 words

Romans S29 · 13:1-10 Grand Blanc

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The message examines Romans 13, urging submission to governing authorities and prayer for them, declaring that every person must be subject to those in power. It condemns prideful resistance, reminding believers that God, not human rulers, is the ultimate authority. The sermon also shares the gospel: Jesus came to rescue sinners, and those who repent, believe and follow Him are born again and receive eternal life. The call is to honor God by honoring the authorities He has placed over us.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

authority 56 resist 21 government 26 slander 13 tax 18 leader 16 wrong 24 police 7 place 28 governing 10 overthrow 6 fight 17

Topics

Government & Authority 9 Prayer 7 Sin 4 Salvation 1 Conscience 1 Judgment 1 Faith 1 The Holy Spirit 1 The Gospel 1

Scripture referenced 20

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 13 4:35 Romans 13 5:23 Romans 13 5:25 Romans 13 8:28 Romans 13 8:34 Romans 13:1 8:36 Romans 13:1 19:55 Romans 13:2 26:04 Romans 13:2 30:48 Romans 13:3 31:49 Romans 13:3 33:00 Romans 13:4 34:35 Romans 13:5 35:27 Romans 13:5 35:34 Romans 13:6 38:29 Romans 13:6 38:33 Romans 13:6 39:04 John 3:16 48:09 Acts 3:19 49:36 1 John 5:12 49:40

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

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Well, good morning.

It's good to be together with you this morning.

Welcome to all of you joining us online.

We have been making our way through the book of Romans.

And this morning we come to a very important passage, very needed.

The passage that we're looking at today is talking about honoring the government authorities that are in place over us.

And the scriptures command us to not only honor.

Those that are in authority, but also to pray for them.

And it's because of this.

Some of you know, we, the pastors of the River Church, we went to Lansing last month and we invited every representative in everything to come and be a part of our gatherings this morning.

We invited all of our, I went to the township, I went to the city of Grand Blanc and invited everybody in those buildings to come and be a part of our gathering this morning.

At our 9 a.m. we had the entire city police department here.

And it's beautiful.

We had several others as well and just beautiful.

But we also have some that have taken us up on that offer this morning as well that are here at our 11 o'clock gathering.

And we want to take the opportunity to pray for them.

And so I'm going to just call them by name.

And if you wouldn't mind standing, I'd appreciate that.

And so.

There are two that we have here with us this morning.

So Grand Blanc Council Member Julie Nielsen.

Right.

Right here.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And then we also have firefighter Marty Quatermas right here.

Thank you.

First of all, I just want to say to both of you, thank you so much for making the time today.

We know that it's not easy to do that.

Your schedules are very demanding.

So we want to publicly say thank you, one, for making the time.

But also, two, we want to thank you for your service to our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We feel the weight of your responsibility.

We know that you carry a tremendous amount of responsibility to care for our community.

And we feel that.

And we know that in the last, you know, month or month and a half, that has been even heavier.

And we're very, very grateful for what you're doing.

And so we want to publicly say that we understand that.

And we thank you for your service to our community.

And so we know that it can be difficult.

It can be exhausting.

And so we just want to say to you as a church, we're here for you and your families.

And if there's any way that we can help you, we want the opportunity to do that, okay?

But as a church, we just wanted to bring you together and wanted to say thank you publicly.

And then also to pray for you.

Okay, so folks, would you join me as we pray for them?

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you so much for, Lord, what you have done.

Lord, who you are.

Lord, thank you for your goodness and faithfulness.

Thank you, Lord.

Lord, for...

Lord, Marty and Lord, also for Julie and their service, Lord, to you, to help and to protect and to care for and to guide and just all of the different ways, Lord, that they are being used to help our community.

We thank you for them.

We pray you would enable them to do what they do through their dependence upon you.

We pray, Lord, that you would bless them, that you would protect them.

And again, we thank you for them and their families.

We love you, Lord.

We give this to you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Thank you both so much.

All right, well, let's open our Bibles for just a few moments and let's look at this topic.

What does God say about our government officials?

So if you've got a Bible, Romans 13 is where we're going to be this morning.

If you're looking for seats, there's four up here in the front.

So what does the Bible say about our government officials, our leaders?

What is to be our response?

Let me ask this.

What do we do if they are good and godly leaders?

What is to be our response towards that?

They're following godly principles.

How do we respond?

But what if they're not, right?

What if they are not good leaders or godly leaders?

How are we supposed to respond to those things?

Of course, there's been many examples of that through history.

And God's people have always had to navigate the things that we are going to talk about this morning.

So it's important we understand what God has to say, okay?

Romans 13 addresses all of this.

And if you've never read Romans 13, it's going to push you.

I guarantee it's going to push you.

It's going to force you to decide to either accept what God says,

to deal with that, and as a result, to do what is right,

or to reject what God says.

And by very definition, that means that we will do what is wrong.

And so before we jump into this passage, let's pray one more time.

Let's ask him to speak.

He's the only one who can.

Let's open our hearts to him and ask him to speak, okay?

Lord, we do come to you in great need.

We need you, and we need you to speak.

I pray you'd open our hearts.

I pray you'd open our eyes.

I pray you'd open our ears to hear you.

We love you, Lord, and we look to you this morning.

Please open your word to us.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Well, the two things we're told you're never supposed to discuss, religion and politics.

We're going to do both right now, okay?

So, no, we're, of course, if you've been here, you know,

we're not really ever talking about religion.

We are not talking about religion.

Religion, Christianity is not a religion.

That might be a surprise for you to hear me say that.

But it is, Christianity is not a religion.

It is a relationship with the only true and living God.

Here's the difference.

Religion is man reaching up to God.

God, notice me.

God, look at me.

It is man reaching to God.

That is religion.

And that is, that's man's attempt.

Christianity is the exact opposite.

It is actually God who reached down to us.

This is all the difference in the world.

Not us reaching to him, but him reaching to us.

Not us trying to get his attention.

Him trying to get ours.

Him trying to convince us that he loves us.

That he came to die in our place.

To rescue us from our sin.

We had so many officers here this morning.

Firefighters here this morning whose goal,

whose job is to rescue people out of dire situations.

And this is what our God has done.

He ran into the building on fire, as it were,

to pull you and I out of it as we are willing.

He's trying to get your attention today.

He's trying to get yours to save you if you are not.

And so in reality, we're not talking about religion this morning.

We're also not talking about politics.

Politics are somewhat designed, I think, to divide.

We're not talking about politics.

We're talking about leadership.

We're talking about, you know, the right kind of governing and authority

and all of this and where it comes from

and what our response to these things is supposed to be.

So, as I said, Romans 13, depending on who you are,

how involved you are in various things,

Romans 13 is going to push you.

And right from the start, we'll see if you agree with verse 1.

Ready? Here we go.

Subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God,

and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

How you doing? You okay? You good?

Okay. Let's look at it a little bit more closely.

First of all, the words, let every soul.

This is about the clearest possible way in the Greek language

that you can say this applies to every single person.

Every single soul is what it says.

Okay? Very, very clear.

And what Paul is saying here,

is that every single soul,

every person is to be subject

to the governing authorities that are in place.

Every person on the planet,

at all times, throughout all of history,

throughout every kind of government that's in place,

we're going to talk about this,

is to be subject to these things.

We'll talk about what it means and what it doesn't mean

in just a moment.

But the word subject means to place ourselves

under the authority that is over us.

It's a word of willingness.

It's not telling you to do it outwardly.

It's telling you to do it inwardly.

It's a decision that you are making.

You are placing yourself under the authority that is over you.

And we're told here that all people are subject to this.

Whether you are a person in authority,

you are still also under authority.

Right? We're all in that same boat.

But this word is passive in the original language,

which means it's something you have to allow yourself,

yourself to do.

It means it's in place,

but you've got to allow yourself to submit

to the authority that is in place.

Now, the idea here is that we are generally speaking,

and we're going to talk some specifics here in a moment,

but generally speaking,

we are not to resist the authority that is over us.

We are to allow this to be under that authority,

a willing inward submission

is what we're being told here in the scriptures.

So some questions that,

you might have at this point,

does this mean we have to agree with everything

and anything that the government does?

No, it does not.

Does it mean we have to support everything?

No, it does not.

Does it mean we have to like everything?

No, it does not.

And does it mean that we are never ever,

is there's never a circumstance to resist wrong being done

by governing authorities?

No, of course not.

But we must go about that in a way that is both right,

and I'll put the caveat legal, okay?

So listen, this is a call out to every person who,

and maybe this is you,

maybe this describes you.

This is a call out of every person

who lives in a state of resist.

I resist, I resist all authority.

I will not subject to anyone, anything, any authority, right?

It manifests itself in, you know,

stuff we hear people say,

not my president, not my governor, not my country,

on and on people go.

It's calling out,

everybody who lives in this inward place of like resistance.

It's often seen in their endless keyboard warrior slander,

just gunning everybody down with their words,

slandering our leaders.

It is wrong.

And at the root of this is really just the age old problem

It is the refusal to place ourselves willingly

under the authority that is in place.

We go, nobody's over me.

We say people,

they have authority problems.

That person, they have authority issues.

You see it all the time, right?

Here they are.

They, they're complaining about everyone

and everything in government,

everyone and everything in their local city level,

everyone and everything in their township,

everyone and everything in the police department,

the fire department,

you know, the, I mean, every, their boss, right?

They're, they're constantly slandering their bosses,

constantly slandering their parents,

constantly slandering their community leaders.

I mean, just goes on and on and on.

Nobody, they will not be subject to anything.

Nobody, they will not be subject to anyone.

Please hear this.

You and I, if you call yourself a Christian,

you are not to be like this.

It is incompatible with Jesus Christ

for you to be like that.

You are in sin and you are fighting God

in the resistance that is in your heart.

You're not fighting your government.

You're fighting God himself to do this.

This is not to be us as Christians.

Please notice something in the Bible.

We do not fight God.

We do not fight God.

We do not find even one time

Jesus calling out Roman officials.

Not one time do we find this

who were doing wicked things in Rome.

We do not find this.

They were, they were doing ungodly,

immoral, horrifyingly evil things.

We don't find Jesus even talking about them.

Very interesting, isn't it?

We don't find the apostles of Jesus

even calling out all of the officials,

slandering them, telling people, right?

Even as those officials,

started to hunt Christians down to slaughter them.

We find nothing in terms of fight

and resist the governing authorities.

In fact, we find the exact opposite.

The apostle Peter specifically, here's what he said.

He said, therefore, submit yourselves

to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake,

whether to the king as supreme,

who was a wicked person at that time,

or to governors or as those who are sent by him

for the punishment of evildoers

and for the praise of those who do good,

watch this verse 15,

for this is the will of God.

This is how God wants you to be.

For by doing good,

you will put to silence the ignorance of foolish men

as free, yes, you're free.

You go, I'm free to do whatever I want.

Verse 16, as free, sure, you're free,

but watch this, not using your freedom

as a cloak, as a cover for what is evil.

I'm free to do whatever I want.

Yeah, you're being a sinner

and you're acting like you're righteous

and it's ungodly.

You're trying to cloak,

you're sinfulness in this pseudo spirituality.

God says, don't do it.

Look what it says.

It goes on.

It says, honor all people, love the brotherhood,

fear God and watch this, honor the king.

It doesn't matter what you believe or think

or whatever side you fall on.

We're not talking about Democrat, Republican,

independent, anything.

We're not talking about any of that.

We're talking about who do we honor?

Is it God?

What are we doing?

Peter did not say fight against Rome.

He did.

He did not say fight against Domitian

who brought the first wave of persecution

against Christians.

Paul says, therefore, I exhort first of all

that supplication, so prayers, intercessions

and giving of thanks be made for all men,

for kings who are in authority,

that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life

in all godliness and reverence

for this is good and acceptable

in the sight of God, our savior,

who desires all men to be saved

and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

You know, the people,

the people that are being slandered,

God wants to save them.

He wants to rescue them.

I hear people say that they are Christians

and then, you know, they've got signs that say,

my governor is an idiot.

And I go, that is wrong.

You may not agree.

You might agree.

You may not agree.

It doesn't matter.

That is wrong to do.

That is incompatible.

He wants our governor to know him

and be saved forever.

He wants our president.

He wants our cabinet members.

He wants our, all these people that we would,

you know, slander.

He wants, he,

loves them.

Paul did not say resist Nero.

He said, pray for Nero.

Do not slander, honor.

Do not resist, submit to.

Do not curse, pray for.

And here's what I would say to you.

This is the will of your Lord.

This is what he wants.

If you're doing anything else,

you're going against what he wants.

Now, before you say, well, you know,

Paul wouldn't have said this.

He wouldn't have written this

if he was living in our day and age

with our kind of leaders.

You know, Paul, Paul wouldn't have,

he would, you know,

he doesn't know the kind of leaders that we have.

To that, I would say that's dumb.

That's a stupid argument.

It just is.

First of all, it's not Paul's opinion

what he was writing anyway.

He was writing scripture.

He was writing from God.

Paul wasn't writing his opinion on stuff.

He was writing what God gave to him, right?

All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

It is profitable for reproof and correction

that the, right, the man of God,

the woman of God may be complete in every good work.

Paul's writing scripture.

So this isn't Paul saying it's God saying it to us

and it applies to all times and all ages.

But the second thing I would say is

that argument is just dumb

because it doesn't even look at the historical facts

of what, you know, the situation was

when Paul was writing this.

Listen, in the days Paul wrote these words,

they were living under Roman occupation.

Why did my voice go so high just now?

I hate it when that happens.

We'll scrub that in a post.

Yeah, as though we have a post.

I don't, I just hear people say that, right?

Let me re-say that.

Paul wrote these words in the days of Roman occupation.

There you go, okay.

Right, they had been completely conquered.

I mean, in the days of Jesus, Roman occupation

and their leaders, their rulers who were in authority,

they were anything but good and godly.

In fact, quite the opposite.

So much vile, wicked, horrifying things.

We wouldn't even want to talk about this morning.

Disgusting stuff.

And Paul did not say to these things, right?

Hey, you know, fight, fight these leaders.

They're evil, they're wicked.

Overthrow Rome.

We never see it.

So the objection is invalid.

The commands apply to you as they apply to us,

to me, to them, and that day, all the same, right?

And so the rest of the verse tells us

why we should willingly submit ourselves.

And here it is, verse one.

For there is no authority except from God.

And the authorities that exist are,

appointed by God.

I love when someone who's in authority

understands this truth.

They operate with God's authority,

with God's blessing, and to honor him

and to benefit others.

That is beautiful to see.

But here's the statement, and it's a big one.

Every elected, unelected, everything in between

has been, hear this, allowed by God

to be in the position of authority that they are in.

Do you believe that?

The question here is, does that mean

God elects them?

Does that mean God puts them in their place?

To that, I would say yes and no.

In a general sense, every person that is in authority

has been allowed by God to be in that place of authority.

That's the general idea of this passage.

They are allowed to be there for all sorts of purposes

that God alone knows, right?

They might be a good person doing good

and benefiting greatly the people that they are governing

and they're blessing the people that they are governing.

The people that they serve, that's wonderful.

They might not be.

They might be wicked people doing evil

and they're actually a judgment to the people

that they are over, the people that they serve.

They might reflect the people that they are serving

or they might be a complete contrast to the people

that they are serving.

We see all of this throughout the scriptures.

But in all of it, understand the authority that they have

has been allowed, has been given by God.

This is God's thing.

What we're talking about is the,

the concept of all of it,

this idea of people governing people.

God instituted it.

God set it up.

It's been established by him.

It's been ordained by him.

From very early on in human history,

we have had the need for human government.

I know this is gonna be a shock to you,

but not everybody in our world wants to do what's right.

I know.

I'm sorry.

I'll give you a minute to recover.

If you don't have security measures in the store

and you say,

just pay what you think is fair,

how do you think that's gonna go?

Not everybody wants to do what's right,

to quote a great movie.

Some people just wanna watch the world burn.

And we need government and systems to help deal with this.

And that's the point of the passage.

So it's important to understand all authority,

the authorities that exist, they are appointed by God.

It refers to the general positions of authority,

the place of authority, of people governing people.

That comes from God, but it's not necessarily saying,

hey, that president or that,

that person or that thing has been put in place by God,

that specific thing.

The question is, does God put people into those spots?

And again, we'd have to say, biblically, we have seen that.

We have seen God put people in their position before.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He can do it now if he wants to.

He can put somebody in a position if he wants to.

He can put a good person in

and bless the whole group they're under.

He can put a terrible person in and guess what?

It grinds out just like Saul was, right?

Saul was gonna grind you out.

Grinds you out is essentially what the prophet said.

He's gonna take your men.

He's gonna take your women.

He's gonna drive you all into slavery.

He's gonna just, for himself, he's gonna build.

Listen, God can allow these people to be in their spots

and use them in those things.

But here's what we would say.

On the whole, we would have to say,

we sort of have what we have

because we live in the world that we live in.

Man is electing man or woman, right?

And God allows, man raises up,

raises up his own government.

God works within all of that.

I don't think that every person that's put in their spot

has been put there by God.

Some of them have been put there by us.

And God works all these things together as he sees fit.

And we see that in the Bible.

We see people choosing for themselves.

In fact, Saul was the quintessential example of this.

They chose for themselves what God did not want.

God did not want Saul to be king.

They chose a king for themselves.

And God said, okay.

And then God used it.

He allowed it and he used it.

And so all of this means, listen,

when we have a good leader in any particular area,

you got a good boss, great.

We can stop and recognize

that the concept of human government

has been established by the Lord.

Then we can thank God that we have a good leader in that spot.

Maybe God put them there.

Maybe somebody else put them there, whatever.

They're good and they're doing good

and it's beneficial to us.

But we also might have a wicked person in place

and have a wicked person in place.

How do we handle that?

A selfish person, an evil person.

Well, again, we must stop and recognize

their authority still comes from the Lord.

That position has still been ordained by God.

So how do we, what do we do?

Well, we're told what to do.

We're told to pray for them.

We're told to pray.

We're told to pray for the wicked leader.

We're told to pray for the people they govern.

And do you know how many of your brothers and sisters

around the world are having to do this right now?

No ability to overthrow the government,

but have to pray that God would intervene

and God would intervene.

God would help.

And we've got to recognize something.

God either installed them as judgment

on the nation who has turned from him

or God is allowing them to be in place,

hoping to drive them to him.

And again, we've seen this through the scriptures.

Either way, the authorities that exist,

they are appointed by God.

Therefore, verse two,

therefore, because of this,

whoever resists the authority,

resists the ordinance of God.

So this is the issue, resisting.

The word resist there means I'm setting myself in,

in battle array against the authority in my life.

And you know what I'm talking about, right?

That's just a picture, but it's this idea.

I'm fighting against all the authority that's in my life.

Nobody is going to be in authority over me.

When we're doing this, we are inwardly,

if not outwardly, with our words,

with our actions, with our attitudes,

we are fighting against the ordinance of God.

What God has created, we are fighting against that system.

And in reality, we're fighting against God.

Do you not feel it when you say something against a leader?

Do you not feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God

when you do that?

Knowing you don't have God with you,

cheering you on as you do it?

I certainly do.

I don't stand here like I've never done that.

I don't have God with me

as I begin to slander this person or that.

Now, here's the other question.

Is there ever an occasion

where it would be right for a Christian

to be a part of something

where we would try to overthrow a wicked government?

Is that?

Is that ever allowable?

I think about like Hitler, right?

And his regime in Germany.

I think about so many of the nations around the world today.

Is it ever okay for a Christian

to be a part of the overthrow of a wicked government?

Here's what I would say.

Yes, it is, but it's with very specific parameters.

When the issue is human life

and the protection of human life,

again, I think of Hitler's Germany

and some of the wicked nations around us today

just crushing human life.

There is the ability for the citizens of that country

in a way that will honor God

to be able to try to resist

and to potentially overthrow.

But here's what I would say.

It is gonna come with severe consequences.

It is gonna come with massive cost.

So it is not easy street by any stretch.

Even if it's right to do,

it is gonna be very, very difficult to do.

And it would be an extremely difficult situation to navigate.

If this were ever the situation we were in.

But when the government that is in place

is wholesale slaughtering its own people,

oppressing people to the point of loss of life,

again, we've seen this throughout the world

at different times.

We're not talking about inconveniences, folks.

We're not talking about annoyances.

We're not talking about things that we just don't like.

We're talking about real stuff here,

real loss of life.

Then the overthrow of a government

is actually something that is an option,

albeit a very bloody,

And we've seen it through history, haven't we?

Very severe consequences.

But it is always at the protection of human life

that we would enter into something like this.

So the question is always,

are you Christians?

Are you pacifists?

Meaning, do we disagree with all war?

No, we don't see that in scripture either.

But here's the caveat, right?

Most wars are just simply about greed.

It's about getting as much as we can

and taking as much as we can from whomever we can.

But there are occasions where war is right

and it is good and it is,

commanded even by God

for the protection of human life.

And so in a general sense,

to resist the authority over us

is to resist God.

And you say, how so?

Because God has established it all.

The whole thing, to fight against it

because you are annoyed or whatever,

is to fight against what God has ordained.

And so, we're in the wrong if we do this.

We do not want to be slandering

the authorities that are over us.

By the way, we're never doing any good when we do it.

I was talking to some of our officials

who came at the 9 a.m.

and said,

one of the hardest aspects of what they do

is that everything they do is criticized.

Everything they do,

someone slanders and hates them for it,

regardless of how you feel about who they are

or what they do or whatever.

Just one of the hardest things for them to ever do

is just being under that kind of scrutiny all the time.

And I get it.

I understand that.

But listen, it is any resistance

to the established authority

for right or wrong reasons,

you've got to understand,

we are fighting against God.

If we're doing it in the wrong way,

and even if we're doing it in the right way,

there's going to be consequences.

That's what verse 2 says.

Therefore, whoever resists the authority,

resists the ordinance of God,

and those who resist, watch this,

they will bring judgment on themselves.

So hear this.

Anyone who has a general disregard

for the authority over them,

they're going to bring trouble upon themselves.

Maybe this has been you.

Maybe this has been your story.

Many people that are in jails and prisons today

have found this verse to be true.

Those who resist,

you're going to bring judgment.

You're going to bring judgment on yourself.

People can think they have the right

to go into Walmart

and fill their entire cart full of food

and walk out without paying.

They can think that that is owed to them.

They will find out

that their resistance brings judgment,

that their thinking has been a delusion,

and that actions have consequences.

We cannot just decide what we're going to do.

We need to willingly place ourselves rightly

under the authority that is over us,

submitting ourselves to God

that we will honor Him in what we do.

So verse 3,

not a terror to good works,

but to evil.

Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?

Well, then do what is good, Paul says,

and you will have praise from the same.

Now, listen, this is generally true.

Those in authority,

they should not be a terror

to those who are doing what is right.

The average person who is not committing crime,

who is not doing evil,

the government should not be a terror to them.

But of course,

in some governments around the world,

in some societies around the world,

this is exactly what happens.

A complete flip happens, right?

Where,

now the government is a terror

to people who are doing what is good,

and they are not a terror

to people who are doing evil.

That's where we get a government

that's completely flipped upside down.

Government was instituted by God

to be the ruler and authority over those,

watch this,

who do evil, right?

It's for the protection of those who do good.

This is government's purpose.

It's supposed to be a service and a benefit

to those who are doing good,

to protect them and punish them

and punish those who are doing evil.

This is government's intended purpose.

And so verse three says,

hey, if you're doing what's right,

you should not need to fear.

So let me give you a for instance,

if on the way here today,

you are going in excess of the speed limit

and then you pass a hidden police officer

and you go,

those stupid police officers

hiding all over the place.

That's so wrong.

You're the one that's wrong, right?

They're not the one.

if you pass,

if you're doing a speed limit

and you pass a hidden police officer,

you're like,

You know,

it's like no big deal.

Like I'm not worried.

But if you're doing 115 and a 25,

you can't be blaming the police officer.

You know what I'm saying?

Like we've got it all messed up.

Immediate terror fills your heart

because in the moment,

you know,

you're doing what is wrong.

I'm not concerned with an officer

at the doors of a store

because I'm not a thief.

I'm not trying to take things.

I'm not concerned with the IRA.

I'm not concerned with an IRS.

I'm not concerned with the IRS audit

of my finances,

even though it seems like

it would be a pain in the butt.

Am I allowed to say that?

We'll strike that part too.

Because I don't cheat on my taxes, right?

I'm not worried about it.

I'm not concerned about someone

grabbing my phone

and examining anything they want to

because I have nothing there to hide.

There's nothing.

There's no secret.

So I'm not worried, right?

But if we're doing wrong,

then yeah,

we have reasons to fear.

So verse four says,

for he,

talking about the governing authority,

God's minister to you for good.

But if you do evil,

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.

So it's what we said, right?

Human government established by God

for the benefit of all

by the punishment and protection from some.

And so a police officer's job

is to protect the majority

from the minority that would do evil.

a legal system,

definitely not perfect.

No one's saying that.

No one's saying any of this is perfect.

But all of this,

the intended purpose from God

is to protect most from a few, right?

This is the goal.

And so they do not bear the sword in vain,

meaning there are real consequences.

So look at verse five.

Therefore, you must be subject,

not only because of wrath,

but also for conscience sake.

So verse five is telling you,

listen, don't just obey the authority.

Don't just submit to the authority above you

so that you don't lose your job.

Don't just submit to the authority above you

so you don't get a speeding ticket

or you don't go to jail or whatever.

Calls us to something higher.

And it's this,

do it as unto the Lord, right?

Do it so that you don't sin against God

because that's what we're doing.

The idea of,

but also for conscience sake,

Paul says,

it means it is sinful to go against this

and do whatever we want to do.

You realize sin affects your conscience.

The Bible warns against this.

When you sin,

it's like a layer comes over your heart

in order to feel wrong.

And the more you do,

and maybe you're in this spot

where you don't even feel bad anymore

for any wrong that you do.

How does a person get to a place

where they don't feel wrong

for wrong being done anymore?

It's because of what sin does.

It calluses us.

It puts layers between us

and feeling the pain of that thing.

And so the Bible warns you,

be very careful

because you'll build up this callus

and you won't be able to tell what's right

and what's wrong anymore.

You won't feel pain when you do wrong,

which is very, very needed.

Look around at our world today

and you go,

how in the world can you think that way?

How can you think that's right

when that is so desperately wrong?

Calloused, right?

So for conscience sake,

so for the Lord,

so that we don't sin to honor him,

we need to do what's right.

We need to subject ourselves to the authority.

You know, a few years back,

it was popular to see yard signs

that said, my governor is an idiot.

And we called it out at that time

that it's wrong.

Whether you agree with

what our governor has done or not,

this is wrong to do for us as Christians.

And if you're doing it now in any way,

in regards to any leader,

just understand that you are in the wrong

by insulting, by hurting with your words.

You are in the wrong.

Can we point out wrong?

Sure, of course.

Can we attack the person's character?

No.

You don't even know the person you're attacking.

That's the truth of it.

You don't know them.

You don't know them.

And you'd probably speak pretty differently if you did.

You don't know them.

You don't know the person that you're slandering.

You also do not even have the authority.

You don't have the ability to see correctly.

You don't see everything.

So you can't make those kinds of judgments.

You don't know.

We can say that's not a right thing.

We cannot say this person is garbage.

Now, if you haven't liked anything so far,

you're really not going to like verse six, okay?

God bless all of you.

Okay, here we go.

For because of this, you also pay taxes.

And everybody said, oh, right?

It says, for they are God's ministers

attending continually to this very thing.

Render therefore all their due or to all their due taxes

to whom taxes are due, custom to whom customs,

fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor, taxes.

How many of you, this is your favorite thing to do,

How many of you just love this?

It's love it so much.

It's the best.

Yeah, verse six says, our taxes, very simple,

our taxes pay for our government officials,

our government leaders to do what they are appointed to do

for our benefit, okay?

And the words ministers attending continually

mean that our taxes are used

so that they can do this continually

and not sporadically, okay?

So as someone might do who does this on a volunteer basis,

hard to have a government purely on a volunteer basis.

You imagine calling 911 in your emergency

and hearing the words, I'm sorry,

all of our operators are out on vacation right now

because the weather's really nice.

Call back when the weather is terrible, right?

And we won't even talk about

what's happening outside right now.

Not even talk about it.

It's a beautiful summer day outside right now, right?

But that's what happens, right?

Our taxes go towards making it

so that they can attend to these things continually.

But in regards to taxes, I remind you

that the Lord Jesus, when asked about taxes,

specifically, should we pay taxes to Caesar,

what did he say?

He said, no, of course not.

Taxes are a scam.

It's a way for the rich to get richer.

Opt out of taxes.

By the way, I've had people tell me this

straight face to my face.

As Christians thinking they can opt out of taxes.

I'm like, have you read the Bible?

You ever read it?

Nope, he didn't say that.

Jesus said this,

he said, show me the coin.

Whose inscription, whose face is on that coin?

Jesus said, okay, give then to Caesar

what belongs to Caesar

and give to God, he was talking about yourself,

give to God what belongs to God.

So he didn't say, no, resist.

He said, give Caesar the stuff that's his, right?

Paul references that right here and says,

render therefore, so give therefore to all their due,

taxes to whom your taxes are due,

custom to whom customs,

fear to whom fear,

honor to whom honor.

My wife and I, we got off the plane recently

and someone was carrying a bag.

They were supposed to declare whatever it was.

I don't know.

We don't buy it.

They said, what did you buy?

We said, snacks, cakes, cookies.

I don't know, you know.

They're like, you have anything to declare?

I was like, I declare Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior.

They're like, that's not what we mean.

Did you buy, you know, $1,000 purse?

And I was like, do I look like a person

that bought $1,000 purse?

This woman was walking and she was like trying

to hide.

I didn't realize what she was doing.

She was trying to hide a bag.

And the customs people were like,

like smiling, like laughing.

Like she thinks she's going to get right by us.

They walked up, they said, excuse me, ma'am.

Do you have anything to declare?

She's like, no, no, no.

And like, so the purse that you have in there,

did you already pay the customs on it?

Oh, I didn't know you had to, you know.

Why do we have to be told these things?

Because we've got a problem, right?

Because we all have the same issue.

We're all in the same need.

Man is at his core a sinner.

And the Bible says that we're all in the same situation.

We all have the same need.

All have sinned and fallen short of the standard of God

in order to be saved.

We fall short of what God requires

for a person to enter heaven.

Please hear me.

If you do not know if you're going to heaven,

if you were to die today,

if you don't know you're going to heaven,

please listen to this.

Pay very close attention.

You fall short.

We all do.

Because we are sinners.

And God requires, please hear this, don't mistake it.

God requires perfection for you.

You have to be sinless to enter heaven.

You say, who in the world could be perfect or sinless?

And the answer is no.

No one.

Only Jesus Christ was perfect.

Only he was sinless.

But this is what God requires for you to enter heaven.

You must be perfect.

You must be sinless.

And you say, how in the world does that work?

Well, that is why Jesus came.

He didn't come to start religions or churches

or programs or build cathedrals.

He came to take my sin upon himself

and to die in my place, paying for it completely.

God came to trade places with you if you will let him.

For he became the sinner, the criminal,

to die in your place so that you could become the righteousness,

the Bible says, so you could become perfect,

so you could become sinless.

Not by anything you've done, but by what he did.

And it's only by his sacrifice.

See, Jesus didn't come.

To die as a good example to us or as a martyr.

He is God.

We're going to sing it in a couple of weeks.

He is Emmanuel, God with us.

He died to pay for our sin.

He came to rescue us.

He ran into the building that is on fire to pull people out.

And it's so, it's so shocking to me that so many people

will cling to a pillar inside that burning building and say,

no, I will not.

I'll make it out on my own.

I'll get there.

Myself.

Please let God beg you.

Let go.

Let him rescue you.

The choice is set before you.

Someone's got to pay for your sin and mine.

If you choose to pay for it, you're going to pay for it for all eternity.

But if you let him pay for it, it is instantly removed forever.

You will have heaven forever with him.

I want you to think about it like this.

If you were a criminal being charged in a court case

and all the evidence against you is there,

you are as guilty as anyone can.

The jury comes back and says,

we find the defendant guilty on all counts.

Then the judge says,

based on the crimes committed,

the sentence is death.

But then as the bailiff comes to take you away,

the judge says, stop.

And he steps down from the bench,

lays aside his robe,

walks over to the bailiff,

offers himself in place of you.

They take the cuffs off of you.

They put them on the judge

and they take the judge back now

to serve the sentence that was intended for you.

I ask you, where does that leave you?

Justice is being served.

It's just being served by someone else.

Where does that leave you?

Free to go.

That is the entire Bible.

That is the gospel message.

He came to trade places with you.

He came to rescue you if you will let him.

But sadly, so few will let him.

And that's what Jesus said.

Wide is the way that leads to destruction

and there are many who are on it.

Narrow is the way that leads to life

and there are few who find it.

It takes so much for us as people

to find it.

And they say, I need help.

I am broken.

I am lost.

I can't do it.

It takes so much for us as people.

Our arms are wrapped around those pillars.

There are so many stories on 9-11

where firefighters were trying to beg people

to come with them and they wouldn't.

He came and he's begging you to come with him.

This is the gospel.

This is the good news.

It's not religion.

It's God wanting to rescue you.

That great Jewish government

and the governmental ruler Nicodemus.

He came to Jesus at night

under the cover of night

and he said, Jesus,

what do I have to do to be saved?

And Jesus looked at him

and did not say, hey, if you do pretty good,

just be nice.

Take care of people.

Take care of your own.

Let your good outweigh your bad.

That's not what Jesus said to him.

You know what Jesus said to him?

I actually think it's pretty harsh.

Jesus said this to him.

You must be born again

or you will never see heaven.

That's what he said.

You must be born again

or you'll never even see it,

let alone enter it.

And then Nicodemus was like,

I don't know what that even means.

Am I supposed to get into my mother's stomach

and be born again?

And Jesus then said the most well-known verse

in the entire Bible, right?

John 3, 16.

God didn't send the firefighters into the building

to burn the building down,

to pull the building down on top of the people in it.

He sent them in to rescue people.

And this is why Jesus came.

If you need to be rescued today,

he will rescue you.

You must do three things, the Bible says.

You must repent of your sin.

This means we admit that we are sinners,

that we need salvation.

God will not save you apart from this.

You can't add him like an insurance policy.

You must repent of your sin.

The second thing you must do is believe.

You must believe that this is not just religion.

This is not just a crutch for people who need it.

Every one of us need it.

You must believe that Jesus came as God.

He came and he died for your sin and for mine.

And the last thing, very simply,

every person who came to him also went with him.

You got to follow him.

He said 22 times, follow me.

And I confess, I don't know what I'm doing,

but I just keep following that guy.

And that's how simple it was.

I don't know what to do,

but I'm going to keep following him.

And that's what it means to be.

And so today I close with two verses, Acts 3, 19.

It says,

And 1 John 5, 12 says,

I would ask you this morning,

do you have the son of God living within you today?

If you do, you have life.

If you do not, you do not have life,

but you can.

You can turn to him right now.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you so much for your mercy,

kindness, and your goodness.

Lord, I pray for every person here,

every person watching.

If that's you this morning,

if you are the one who you are not sure

if you are saved or not,

you must repent of your sin.

You must come to God in repentance and in belief

and then willing to follow.

If you will talk to the Lord Jesus,

he will listen to you in the quietness of your own heart.

You can be saved right now.

He will switch places with you.

He will pay for it.

He will pay for all of your sin.

He will blot out your sin forever.

He will give you life forever.

But you must ask.

He will not force you.

So turn to him now.

Admit your need and ask him to save.

The Bible says,

all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

We thank you, Lord.

Pray you'd help us to honor you

in this world that we live in.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.