Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 12. Jos 1:16-18; Rom 13:1-3.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 12. JOS 1:16-18; ROM 13:1-3.   

 

Announcementsopening prayer:

 

 

Delegated authority #4 - the government over the citizens.

 

Finally, the government has authority over the citizens in any nation. God will deal with the evil in governments or in sovereign rulers. If the government demands that a believer commit sin or be a party to the working of sin that believer must obey God rather than man, however, the government still bears the sword and that believer will likely suffer, but undeservedly, in which he can glorify God.

 

The thirteenth chapter of Romans discusses the relationship between church and state and the relations between the individual Christian and the various functions of government. We are instructed on civil disobedience and revolution as well as the Christian's role as a citizen.

 

As with so much of the NT, a teaching from Jesus is expanded and expounded upon.

 

LUK 20:25

"Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

 

There is definitely here a separation of church and state but not a separation of God and state.

 

Rom 13 and 1Pe 2 are expansions of this truth spoken by our Lord.

 

ROM 13:1 Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

 

ROM 13:2 Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

 

ROM 13:3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same;

 

At the time of Christ as well as at the time of the book of Romans, Palestine was an occupied country - a province of the Roman Empire.

 

Patriotic Jews were defiant to Roman rule in the first century. Thinking they were God's people they detested Gentile rulers and some of them openly rebelled.

 

They ignored the many prophecies concerning their dispersion and their subservience to other nations.  

 

Some things should be said about this.

 

God has allowed Satan to be the ruler of this world for a time, but that does not restrict God's sovereignty over the world's nations and governments. The confusion for many believers is that they do not understand the difference between the permissive will of God and the directive will of God. God allows sin and evil for a time, and overrules it or puts an end to it when He deems fit. He will put an end to it for all time in the future and this shows without doubt that He is master over it though not the cause of it.

 

God sets up nations and destroys them. He uses them to His own purpose, even when they are evil.

 

He doesn't make them evil, He allows them to be, and then uses them in His sovereign way in order to reveal just that, He is sovereign, and no rebellion will prevent Him from accomplishing all His good will.

 

In JER 27:1-7, we saw last time that political power is in the hand of God and that He establishes whomsoever He wishes.

 

The gift of authority is a divine gift, so precious that the Bible indicates that God will judge men severely for any abuse of it.

 

As hard as it is to comprehend, all power derives from God, even the vast power wielded by Satan.

 

Because of this we often find ourselves under unfair or abusive authority. We are all in this world and have to live in its system, so in some ways Satan is allowed to have power over us and there is nothing we can do about that while we live, however, he does not have to have power over our souls, how we think and conduct ourselves.

 

Just because it is hard to understand does not make it false. There is no power apart from God. God, as Creator, gave Satan his power and allowed his fall. Satan's power to darkness and evil is by God's permission, but not by God's cause. All the reasons are for us impossible to discern and we can fairly confidently say that much more will be revealed in eternity, but for now, it is an undeniable fact that we find ourselves in a world of war, conflict, tension, and rebellion, and that God inevitably has all things under control.

 

As a child obeys a teacher as he would his parents since his parents have commanded him to, so the believer obeys the governing authorities as they are delegated by God.

 

Truly this delegated power has been perverted, and sometimes severely, by arrogant and lustful rulers, but this does not nullify the command. At the time of writing Rom 13, Nero is the ruler of the world, who is a tyrannical, insane degenerate. Nero would soon, after this letter was written, institute a determined persecution of Christians in Rome.

 

We will see when the believer has the right before God to not obey the governing authorities where in these instances the believer must obey God rather than man.

 

The Christian is to live in the world, subject primarily to God. As such he is subject to God's delegated authority, with some exceptions.

 

Yet, as we must will all scripture, we must not read into a passage what is simply not there. There is nothing in this passage that instructs a believer what to do if the government departs from the role that God gave it. We must look elsewhere, and when we do we do not find every situation addressed. We must take what instruction God has given and apply it to the situation at hand with reflection and prayer, and if in anything we have a different attitude, God will reveal that to us also. A government should:

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—

 

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—

 

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.[Declaration of Independence]

 

A government should maintain law and order and secure the rights that our founders clearly saw as self-evident and endowed by God, and never by men, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

 

But what is a Christian to do when a government persecutes the Christian faith or commits moral wrongs? Help for these questions must be found in other passages, as Rom 13 affords no help for this.

 

It is clear in Rom 13 that no believer is exempt from the duties of citizenship in his nation even though he understands that he is a citizen of heaven.

 

We don't put New Jerusalem as our address on our tax forms and politely indicate that we are absolved therefore from paying income tax. At this time the Jews had a similar mentality, and they comprised much of the church, thinking that their heritage gave them a law unto themselves, and they were unwilling to render allegiance to any Gentile. They looked down on the Gentiles, considering themselves to be superior to the nations among whom they lived.

 

1PE 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

 

"aliens" - sojourner. "strangers" - settle down alongside of pagans. Christians have made their home alongside the unsaved and is settled down among them. He is different and so does not conform to them but is a witness of Christ to them.

 

The word "aliens" is the translation of a Greek word meaning "to have one's home alongside of," thus a "sojourner." "Strangers" is from a word which literally means "to settle down alongside of pagans." The two words describe the Christian in his position in this world. He has made his home alongside of the unsaved and settled down amongst them, a sojourner and one that is a stranger to them in that he is different from them. The exhortation to abstain from fleshly lusts is based upon the fact that Christians are living in the midst of the unsaved. They have a testimony to maintain and a message to give.

 

The fallen nature whose power over the believer was broken when he was saved is still there with its sin-ward pull. The effective witness overcomes this pull, though not to sinlessness, through the power of the word and dependence on the filling of the Spirit. He not only talks about Christ, his life reveals Christ. He not only talks about the life of Christ, his own life is a testimony to it.

 

War in the soul is the absence of perfect peace. The pursuit of lusts brings war and conflict.

 

1PE 2:12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles [unsaved world - ruling authorities], so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

 

Communion 090615

 

Since the enlightenment the idea of an actual and real heaven in which a resurrected believer lives forever came into serious doubt by philosophers who influenced the general population, and it wasn't long before this untruth had slivered its way into seminaries and church pulpits. The boom in science, scientific inquiry, and the telescope, which proved beyond a doubt that the earth was not the center of the universe, but a small planet orbiting a very common type of sun, of which there were billions of others, helped to give evidence that all of what was said about heaven as the abode of God was nothing but a fairy tale in the Bible.

 

To reject of doubt the future that God has been so kind to reveal is to lose hope and to remove the comfort from a life that is lived in and unfair, unjust, sinful, evil, and cruel world. The Lord's Supper is given to us to bring Christ and His finished work on Calvary into remembrance.  One of the great things it reminds us of is that our future is secure, that He is indeed resurrected and has gone to heaven to prepare a place for us where:

 

REV 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them,

 

REV 21:4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

 

REV 21:5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."

 

If it had not been to make comfortable our present life, and fill us with the delights of our foreknown blessedness, He might have kept His purpose to Himself, and never have let us know till we come to enjoy it, nor have revealed it to us till death had discovered it, what He meant to do with us in the world to come; yea, when we had got possession of our rest, He might still have concealed its eternity from us, and then the fears of losing it again, would have bereaved us of much of the sweetness of our joys. But it has pleased our Father to open His counsel, and to let us know the very intent of His heart, and to acquaint us with the eternal extent of His love; and all this that our joy may be made full, and we might live as the heirs of such a kingdom. And shall we now overlook all, as if He revealed no such matter? Shall we live in earthly cares and sorrows, as if we knew of no such thing? And rejoice no more in these discoveries, than if the Lord had never written it? If your Prince had sealed you but a patent of some lordship, how often would you be casting your eye upon it, and make it your daily delight to study it, until you should come to possess the dignity itself. And has God sealed you a patent of heaven, and do you let it lie by you, as if you had forgotten it! O that our hearts were as high as our hopes, and our hopes as high as these infallible promises! [Richard Baxter, Practical Works, XXIII]

 

Let us take comfort this morning, and rejoice, for our victorious King has gone before us into heaven where we will meet Him and live with Him forever in an immortal body that clothes our life from Him. The things of this world are passing away along with all its sin, evil, and injustices.

 

1CO 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;

 

1CO 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 

 

1CO 11:25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 

 

1CO 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.