SUBJECT TO HIGHER POWERS
#020 SUBJECT TO HIGHER POWERS
Scripture Romans 13:1-14 NIV Orig. 11-11-62 (8-85)
Rewr. 5-18-88
Passage: Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.[c]
Purpose: To speak to my people during Religious Liberty Week on the need to subject ourselves to the social as well as spiritual needs around us.
Keywords: Citizenship Law Duty Love
Timeline/Series: Romans
Introduction
Among sermons in my library is one preached more than a century ago by Robert William Dale, a Congregational pastor in Birmingham, England. He raises, and speaks to a question pertinent to Religious Liberty Week. He quotes John 6:15:
“Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew.”
He then asks, “Did not our Lord miss a great chance when he refused the position which they offered Him? . . . . Why did He not consent to reign?” He then answers his own question. “It was the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, . . . that provoked the popular enthusiasm. No doubt the people thought that if He were their king all their material wants . . . would receive satisfaction. Ah! But it is not Christ’s first object to secure . . . outward conditions favorable to universal ease and comfort. That was clearly not His object in the creation of the material universe which He has built for our home. Men have to live by the sweat of their brow, and in most parts of the world, they have to work hard in order to live. There are fogs and floods, harvests are blighted; there is intolerable heat, . . . cold; men are disciplined to endurance by physical discomfort; their intellectual life is provoked to strenuous activity by the hardships and difficulties of their condition. The proverbial garden of the sluggard is not a reproach to Providence but to the sluggard. It was God’s will that he should have not only a garden bright with flowers, but that he should have the physical vigor, the industry, the intelligence that would come from cultivating it. God cares more for the man than for the garden. . . . Government is a divine institution, but it is through human virtue, . . . self-sacrifice, . . . patience, . . . sagacity, that the material blessings which are possible through the social condition are to be actually won. . . . It was impossible that Christ should accept power on the terms upon which He knew that it had been offered to Him.”
It would be left up to us to secure the kind of government that we deserve. That’s what Religious Liberty Week is all about.
I. Subject to Higher Powers Means Duties to the State. V1 “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God.” This acknowledges the sovereignty of God, and abused authority is answerable to Him. Governing authorities are put in place. Even in a police state such authority is responsible.
The will of God includes government within a social system. The dark ages were marked by a serious challenge to state and church. Henry the Eighth is easily recognized for this period.
Paul, who knew no pope, seems to have made room for no such power vested in the church.
Ann and I served on a Jefferson Parish jury years ago. A man from our neighborhood was in the jury pool with us; a Jehovah’s Witness, he asked to be excused.
I Peter 2:13f: “. . . submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, or to those sent by him. . . .”
We are fortunate indeed to live within an open system. Agitation for better government is allowed and expected. The system, with all its faults, advocates teaching to improve. We should all be good students of history. Obey the law, but be prepared to work to improve the system as needed.
Does being “subject” mean respecting leaders? It is a military term. It acknowledges a chain of command. I remember my own military experience. We were admonished to salute the rank.
In 1977, the little Strode boy in Marion, North Carolina, and his parents were far off base; it is reprehensible for parents to allow their son to say the things he said about teachers and administrators.
I remember a First Sergeant whom I did not, could not, respect, but I was subject to him.
II. Subject to Higher Powers Means Duties to Citizens of the State. V8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” He is speaking outside of the purview of the church: “Owe no man.” Do not be obligated to another. Don’t let others control your destiny.
He uses the civic term “neighbor” rather than “brother”: “’Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor.”
Some see contradiction with Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace.” Our relation to God is spiritual (Romans 6:14). Our relation to the world is legal (Romans 13:8f).
James Stifler (E13p219), The Epistle to the Romans—“God demands much more of the believer than the state asks. The latter says ‘Thou shalt not injure thy neighbor.’ God says, ‘Thou shalt love him as thyself.’”
The goal, then, for the Christian, is to care about other people. It extends beyond other “believers.”
It is an obligation to pay our own way and our just debts. Love teaches us not only what good to do, it teaches what ungood to avoid. Love restrains us from: (v9) adultery, murder, theft, false witness, covetousness; all else is “comprehended” in “love.”
We would do well to remember that the state can only administer by the sword. If it administers wrongly, grievous injustice can and does result. The church, however, is to administer through love. Even if we are wrong, what injustice is there in love? V9: “. . . All is summed up (kephelaion) in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
III. Subject to Higher Powers Means Enforcement of Civil Duties. V13 “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.”
What we do, do it because of the time. V11 “Knowing the time.” There is too much tendency to sleep, moreso, to fail to see moral and cultural deprivations. Biblical advice is that it is time to awaken out of stupor; time to grasp the meaning of ineptitude; time to perceive that we can make a difference. On May 14, 1988, while Monroe, Louisiana, bar owners were celebrating their school’s 2a.m. victory, a customer of Kentucky bars was turning into the wrong lane of the freeway, and killed 27 people.
The true significance of this passage is in its relationship to Christ. First, the “night” of Christ’s away, V12; second, the “day” of His reappearing. They were to put off the works of darkness, put on the works of light. Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
You see, when we have taken Christ, we have done all we can, or need to do. Hebrews 10:37, “For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come, and will not tarry.”
Simple honesty demands that we be in daily living what we claim to be in profession. V13 “Let us walk honestly.” It means “becomingly, decently.” Paul uses the same word in I Thessalonians 4:12, “Walk honestly toward them who are outsiders.” We who are believers do have moral, as well as spiritual obligations to others. Not many “drunken” or “perverted orgies,” or even “jealous strife.” But the text reminds us (v10) “Love worketh no ill to one’s neighbor,” remembering Christ’s definition.
The summation of all is that we are to “put on” Christ. Romans 6:3 “As many as are baptized in Jesus, are baptized in His death.” Galatians 3:27 “For as many as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.”
There is obedience. There is disposition. There is hope.
***THE CONCLUSION OF THIS SERMON HAS BEEN LOST***
PUTTING OFF AND PUTTING ON
#022 PUTTING OFF AND PUTTING ON
Scripture Ephesians 4:17-24 NIV Orig. 11/14/71
Rewr. 10/3/85 (10-79)
Passage: 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Purpose: To lead my people to consider the willful response of the believer to become a new person in Christ Jesus.
Keywords: Assurance Holiness Obedience Revival
Introduction
Paul shares a different kind of expression with us by way of his instruction to the believers in Ephesus. “Putting Off and Putting On” is an exclamation of his faith that in Christ we become new people. It is not a new concept. We are quite familiar with such terms as “the new birth” or “born again.” These terms, falling into contemporary jargon, are losing their significance to us, however.
The Christ-life itself is not now, nor has it ever been, an impossible ideal. But we must understand that the hope and joy of that life, is not so much in its fulfillment as in its aspiration, something of which Robert Browning wrote:
That low man seeks a little thing to do,
Sees it and does it.
This high man seeks a great thing to pursue,
Dies ere he knows it.
Paul here encourages the Ephesians about “Putting Off and Putting On.” They are to “put off” the old man, the deceiver, the corrupt one. They are then enabled to “put on” the new person, being recreated to honor God.
Years ago, E. Stanley Jones labored for Christ in India. This great missionary statesman, earnest and deeply committed believer, maintained a hope that Christianity would become culturalized into the very essence of the life of India. He knew that little headway would be made as long as his faith was looked upon as a “religion of foreigners.” Mahatma Gandhi, the great liberator of India, was his friend. Mr. Jones asked what could be done to accomplish such a goal. There were three suggestions:
That all of you Christians begin to live more like Jesus.
That you practice your religion without toning it down.
That you present yourselves by love, for love is the central soul of Christianity.
I. Put Off the Old Man of Corruption. Put on the New Person of Obedience. V23 “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” We are not given any false notions that this is easily done.
Our age is a critical age. It is not a time of peace. It is a time of war. Revolution is a way of life. Korean evangelist Billy Kim survived the Japanese occupation of his country and the Korean War, was educated in America, and delivered a speech entitled “I Speak for Democracy.” Wimpy Smith, missionary to Argentina, said that country was like a phonograph record, 33-1/3 revolutions per minute. The only time an assassination in the Third World captured my attention was when Fritha was in Liberia.
Perhaps we don’t expect to hear of these things, but we do not abhor them. We make light of the struggles going on.
The Bible pictures this Christ-life accomplished under adverse conditions. Ephesians 6:11 “Put on the whole armor of God.” II Timothy 2:3 “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. As Christ’s soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the One who has enlisted you in His army.”
Dr. E.V Hill, pastor of a church in Watts, defines their sign: Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Conservative-Liberal-Militant: He says, “Conservative, because we believe every word of the Bible. Liberal, because we try every means available to get the job done. Militant, because we will not take ‘No!’ for an answer.”
Obedience is to desire those things that will better enable our service for Christ’s sake. It is more than living within the framework of a book. It is that! The Bible! It is letting that book change us. The Hebrews had the book, but living without it they failed. We Christians can carry a New Testament in our pocket or purse, but is Christ in our hearts?
V 21,22a “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: That you put off your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts.”
II. Put Off the Old of Doubt, Put On the New Person of Assurance. V23 “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The substance of this assurance is that Christ is Lord. This link in Paul’s life is clear. I Corinthians 2:2, “I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Philippians 1:20 “So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.”
It is just as clear that this is God’s will for us all. You admire this in religious leaders. You insist upon it in pastor and staff. You desire it in deacons. You respond to it in Sunday School teachers. And you should! But it is the goal of God for all believers. Look ahead to V30. The believer is “sealed for the day of redemption.” The “seal,” then as now, declares ownership.
Such assurance declares that you are traveling the available road Godward. In Galatians 3:27, Paul uses this very idea of “putting on” Christ through baptism. It is clearly a step Godward. Baptism implies repentance, remorse over sin, a turning. Its use here takes us another step Godward. We put on the teaching of Christ. We seek that that He offers. It is to take the garments of Christ to cover our lack. Colossians 3:14 “But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”
Remember all the while that any other road is a road to Godlessness. There is a place of eternal loss. Punishment in the spiritual sense is the worst kind of punishment.
III. Put Off the Old Person of Worldliness, Put On the New Person of Holiness. V24 “And that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” It is a newness of life that instills a new and different purpose. We need to remember that it is accomplished by degrees, rarely in great, sudden surges, more often in slow, predictable change.
We must also recall that Christ, Himself, only achieved this response to God absolutely. We may go forward for a time, lose ground, start, as it were, over.
But once enlightened through Christ, we are never set adrift. Isaiah 32:18 “My people shall dwell in . . . sure dwellings.” 2 Corinthians 5:1, “We have a building of God, an house not made with hands.” I Peter 3:13 “Who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?”
It is a purpose that separates us to the will of God: to live in His will with or without material advantage; to rightly interpret the bounds of warranted pleasure; to interpret God’s will on the basis of the Word.
Conclusion
In Shaw’s play, Saint Joan, an interesting dialogue takes place. Joan of Arc, as she would later be called, is hearing the voice of God, and is then told to declare to the king what she has heard.
Dauphin: “O your voices, your voices. Why don’t your voices come to me? I am the king, not you.”
Joan: “They do come, but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening to them. When the Angelus rings, you cross yourself and have done with it, but if you prayed with your heart and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do.”