The Authority Of God Part 2

When you study the life of Nero, the Roman emperor Nero, and he influenced the Church, he persecuted Christians, you will find one of the most bizarre and depraved men in all of history. He was insane, violent, and just sexual perversion. I mean, this man's life was absolutely evil.

Absolutely evil. And yet, it was during his reign that in Romans 13, Paul tells the Church that the civil rulers are ministers of God. Now, there have been people that have read that passage in Romans and used that as an excuse to follow evil rulers. People have read it and said, that's ridiculous, we can't trust Paul.

How do we answer that? How do we deal with that? To understand that, we have to understand this whole concept of authority. What I covered last time was the authority of God, and that we must understand God is the ultimate authority. He has, you know, you can have the power to do something that gives you authority, and then you have the right to have authority, and he is the right. He is the creator of all things. He has the right to have authority over his creation, and that's why we should be so glad of his goodness and his mercy and his love, because he has the right to do whatever he wants with whatever he makes, right?

He has that right. Let's review that just a little bit, his right to have authority. That's not questionable. Now we have to understand other levels of other types of authority and how God looks at that. So let's go to Deuteronomy 10. So we're just going to recap this with a few different scriptures that are basically saying the same thing we covered last time.

Deuteronomy 10, 12. Verse 12 says of Deuteronomy 10, And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? But to fear the LORD your God, and walk in his ways, and to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. So God says, this is what I require of you, that you love me, that you fear me. In other words, you understand my greatness, my power, my majesty, and that you walk in his ways, and you serve him, not just out of fear or because you want something back, but you serve him with all your heart and all your soul.

Verse 13, And to keep the commandments of the LORD and his statutes, which I command you today, for your good. He says, I give you these things for your good. I'm not trying to harm you when I give you that thou shalt not steal. I'm telling you what's good. What's good for everybody. Indeed, verse 14, and then he gives the power, the authority behind what he's saying, Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. In other words, I'm giving you a way of life, and this works, and I know this because I own everything. I know what is good. I know what is evil.

I know what will create good results. I know what will not create good results. And I'm telling you this because I own it. I made it. You know, this is all what God made was all within his will of what he wanted to accomplish. So he has authority over his creation. But I also mean he owns us.

I had, when I gave this in Nashville, there was a brand new person there. I'd never been to a UCG service before. And he says, how do I know that God owns me? He says, I don't think God owns me. I mean, a legitimate question about the sermon. So let's go to 1 Corinthians 6 and look at this. 1 Corinthians 6, because he agreed when he thought of what this says here. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19.

Or do you not know that your body, this is talking to Christians, is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own? Wait, that was covered in the sermonette some here this morning. And you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. You are not your own. Now realize, you are owned by God twice. He made you, he owns you.

We left him. We were born into this, so we left him even unconsciously as a child. But eventually we all find ourselves we're separated from God, right? So here we are separated from God and he bought us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to come back into ownership. So he owned us twice. He made us and he paid for us.

That's really profound when you think about it. He made us and he could have said, you know what, you're not worth it. He could have wiped us out. He didn't do that. He made us and he paid for us. That's his ownership. And when we come into a really a real understanding of our submission to God, it's because he owns us and because we have absolute faith, only he knows how this works. Only he knows. No one else knows. And so we submit to his ownership, gladly submit to his ownership, and believe that in his love and his might, he's going to get us through that we become his children.

So how does God deal then with the fact that there's all this authority on the earth? Let's go back to Genesis 1. I know I go back to Genesis a lot, but lately I can't help it. I'm back in Genesis because it's where everything starts. Genesis 1 and verse 26.

So once again, rebuilding off of what we and recapping what we covered last time. And God said, let us make man an hour image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female.

He created them. So whether you're male or female, you're created in your mind in the image of God, which I find interesting because there's different characteristics to male and female, even in our minds, which shows different aspects of the nature of God. So he created us in his image and said, this earth is yours. I made it for you. Do what I say. Live under my dominion. And this is going to work out really great. But you know the story.

He also said, but you get to choose. Everything came in. Convinced them. They chose wrongly. And what happened was, of course, is that we gave up, I say we because humanity, gave up our dominion and gave it to Satan. Now we can think, okay, we live in Satan's world, yes, but it doesn't belong to him.

Remember, we just read where God told Israel, I own everything, the universe. You look at the stars, I own it. You walk anyplace on the earth, I own it. You look at any person, I own them.

They're mine. I gave you dominion. You lost it. You gave it to him. But remember, human dominion was limited, right? Adam and Eve couldn't make up their own laws, couldn't do their own thing. They had to live within God's dominion for this to work. They didn't live within God's dominion, and they lost their dominion. And now Satan has deceived the world.

But Satan's dominion is limited. Satan's dominion, he doesn't have control over everything.

He doesn't have control over everything. It's interesting, and well, we'll get there in a minute because I want to go someplace where God says that directly. So now we have human dominion that's being manipulated by Satan, and that's the mess we live in. God still has authority.

Nobody, whether Satan or any human being, can take God's authority away from him.

And that's what's important to understand. But because he gives us choice, we seize authority, we use authority, and we end up creating the mess we live in.

That's why it doesn't matter what we do. There is no solution until Christ comes back and sets up that authority on the earth. Now that authority is in our lives. We're living as citizens of the kingdom of God now. So God's dominion is in us right now. We're submitting to God every day of our lives in our habits, in our thoughts, in how we treat others, how we obey God, how we keep the Sabbath. Everything we do is a submission to God as He rules in our lives.

And we're submitting to the laws of the kingdom. But we live in this occupied territory, where an enemy has certain control within this territory. The bonds of that rule has been broken in our lives. We're to be growing out of the dominion of this world, because the bonds have been broken. Now, in fact, Adam was told, tend and keep the garden. Okay, you take care of this. Let's see what you can do with this.

And human beings have done all kinds of experiments with the world we live in, and we've done some pretty amazing things with it. We've also done some terrible things with it.

And God's allowed us to do that. He's allowed us to still have that dominion, that we get to do with the earth what we want, until we get to the place we almost destroy it, and then He's going to stop us. So, now, He then allows human beings to have authority within their dominion. Their broken dominion without God's direct influence on a lot of things, and with Satan's direct influence, they have authority within that.

He allows people to rule, and on occasions, He puts people in charge of even the governments of the world. God doesn't put every person in charge of a government on this earth.

He doesn't control the authority, except in terms of His plan. In terms of His plan, when He needs to, He'll put somebody in a place which has to drive Satan crazy.

You know, it's my dominion! Well, a little bit, and God will do things, so that, in the end, His plan is carried out exactly, in spite of us, and in spite of Satan. Now, we're going to talk about different levels of authority. We're going to talk about it today. We're going to talk about it the next sermon. We looked at God's authority, but that's through ownership, and that's because He's bought us. There's another kind of authority that exists within the human realm, and how are we supposed to deal with that? The Bible actually talks about that quite a bit. There's actually five different types of areas of human authority, and we'll have to talk about that. You know, the Bible says that husbands have certain authority over their wives. That's what it says.

So we have to decide. We have to look at it. What does that mean? Parents, you have authority over children.

The command is, children obey your parents. That's a command. They have authority. You obey them.

What does that really mean?

What we will find is that whatever authority we have as human beings, God says, once we enter into a relation with Him, so His authority is in us, all of our specific authority has limitations. It has goals and limitations. I mean, we obviously just talk about children. It's obvious. Parents have the right to teach children. They have the right to punish them and correct them and take care of them. They don't have the right to abuse them. They don't have the right to beat them. They don't have the right to berate them.

That authority has limitations, but the authority is real. And if we don't do that authority, our children will suffer. If we abuse our authority, our children will suffer.

So the authority that is set up by God in this world has very specific goals and very specific limitations, no matter what it is. It also has a responsibility towards God, and we'll show that.

Anyone that has any authority in this world, even if they deny God, they're responsible to God.

Because it's His creation. It's His creation they're misusing. It's the people that He created in His image that they're killing. They're responsible for that before God. And there's very stern consequences from God when we abuse authority. It's not that there is an authority, there is authority, but the abuse authority is punished personally by God.

So we're going to have to look at the first one. How are we to respond to the authority of civil government? I mean, surely they're not the ministers of God. Well, if you take that statement out of context, you have a bizarre viewpoint. Nero was a minister of God. What we have is a realization, and we'll go through it, that God said, if you're going to do this on your own, you're going to have to have government. Anarchy produces what? Everybody killing each other until what? So somebody takes over and creates a government. Then someone creates another government, and then they kill each other. And I mean, that's the way it is. That's not the way it's supposed to be. But basically God said, there is a judicial authority that you have if you're going to go your own way. And I'll show you what I mean. Let's go to Genesis 9. This is a very broad statement, but it's something God says to humanity. Okay? They're thrown out of the garden.

He destroys the earth because of the absolute level of sin and anarchy that's happening on the earth.

And then he says, in verse 9 of Genesis 9, he gives them humanity now. It's after the flood. So he's telling Noah and his descendants, here's some things I require of you. He says, surely for your life blood I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast will I require it. From the hand of man. For the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of a man. Whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made him.

As for you, be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply again. Now understand what he's just said. He says, now that you, you know, it's after the flood, but Satan's dominion wasn't taken away entirely. Satan was still the god of this world, as it says in the New Testament. Humanity still was not converted. And he says, okay, I know the road you're going to go on. I require this of you. If someone commits what we would call first-degree murder, or if an animal kills a human being, the animal or the person who committed first-degree murder is to forfeit their lives. And you have that right from me. God gave that right. He gave that authority to humanity. At that point, he's given them authority for judicial power. Now, ancient Israel, who lived directly under God, received 613 laws. This one at the beginning is, you have the authority. If you're going to go this way, see Adam and Eve, if there's no sin, it ever ended into humanity. We wouldn't have had to go this way, but it was going to enter in sooner later, just the way human beings are with free will. Eventually, judicial power is given. You can't have lawlessness. So if you're going to go your own way, there has to be a judicial system, or a government, that actually brings justice, and murder specifically was mentioned.

So, God gave permission for human governments to do one thing, but of course, once the government is formed, it does all kinds of things, right? But that's actually a permission to create a judicial system. He didn't give them a judicial system, he gave them the right to create it.

So now let's go to Romans 13.

We have to look at Romans 13, and I did cover this in the Bible study last month, but I want to cover it again. Romans 13, verse 1.

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Was Nero appointed by God? Now let's go back to Genesis. What he said is, I gave humanity, okay, you're going to go your own way, you have the right to create governments.

You have the right to... because the judicial system requires a government. You have the right to do that. I'm giving you the right to do that.

Now has any of them worked? No. He didn't say they would work. He said, I've given you the right to do it, and that's the point he's making here. He's not saying Nero's a good man. He's not saying the Roman government was a model of the kingdom of God. It was a model of Satan's kingdom. It was Satan's kingdom, right? Everything we have on earth today is in one way or another part of Satan's kingdom, including the United States. It's all part of Satan's kingdom, influenced by him, influenced by human beings with corrupt nature. But... it's just God's nature. You're going to go that way? Okay. You better get a government, or you'll just end up killing each other, just stealing, lying, you know, whatever. You're just going to absolutely destroy each other, which is actually what's going to happen, right? Before Christ comes back, if he doesn't come back when he does, it says no one will survive. All of you men will be wiped out. He says, okay, get some kind of judicial system. You better have some government. So there, I give you the right to do so. He gave us that right because he has the authority. And so Paul's speaking in this context.

He's not defending the Roman government because there's other places he openly attacks it and refuses to obey it. So he's talking in the context of when you're interacting with the civil government, remember they have the right to do certain things. They are things they don't have the right to do. Remember, all authority that God allows, or even he delegates authority. He delegates authority to parents. That's a delegated authority from God to us as parents.

But here he says, okay, I allow you to have this. So as Christians, submit to it when you can.

He doesn't say submit to it when it's not right. And we have to work through how they looked at that in that first century. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. What he's saying here is, if you refuse to obey the laws of the land, he's not talking about...

And I'll give you some examples in a minute. He's not talking about, oh, disobey God to obey the law of the land. That's not what he's saying at all.

We're told not to do that. What he's saying is, if the law of the land says this, and you don't like it, or it's an inconvenience, or it's stupid, do it anyways.

If it's against God, no, your authority of God is in our lives. He is in our lives as the king of our lives. Jesus Christ is the king of our lives.

So we have our allegiance to that kingdom. Anything that comes between us and that kingdom, and our relation with God, we are to reject. But, you know, we actually are expected, according to this, to get a hunting license when you go hunting.

We're expected to do what the civil government says for us to do that's not against God. And if not, then we'll pay the price. You know, you break the speed limit, and you don't have a license plates. You can tell the policeman, but I'm a Christian, and you'll still get a huge fine.

It won't make one bit of difference, because we haven't broken the law of God, we've broken their law, which God gave them, okay, you got cars, you can make up whatever rules you want for cars. And so we live by it.

He says, for rulers are not a terror to good works. Here's the original purpose. God said you can have the authority to set up governments, because they were supposed to produce good works. Was Nero a terror to good works? He sure was. He killed Christians.

Here's the ideal. He's taken us back here to, this is why God let us do this, create governments.

And this is how Christians are to approach it. But to evil, do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you are praised for the same. Now he's not talking about the laws of God, he's talking about the laws of the land. For he is God's minister to you for good, but if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Now he's chased the evil. You go steal, you go commit fraud, you go murder somebody, and the law of the land is going to come after you. That's what's going to happen to you. And you can be a Christian and say, I've repented for being part of a some kind of crooked deal, business deal, and you know, yeah, I stole $5 million in this crooked business deal, but I've repented and I've, you know, I'm sorry. And the law of the land is going to put you in jail, and it doesn't matter if you're a Christian, and it doesn't matter if God forgave you. God's going to say, even if I forgive you, you still live under those judgments. If you do evil, you get the judgment of the government, and you have to live by it.

So we have to be aware that God isn't going to protect us sometimes, most of the time, from the judgments of the government when we've done something stupid or we've actually committed a crime, because we have to pay those penalties. Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but here's the point, for conscious sake.

Now that's a very interesting statement, for conscious sake.

Because what he says here is that we are to have a clear conscience with God, and we do not want to be persecuted because we brought shame on God because we just didn't like some government regulations.

So for our conscience, to have a clear conscience before God, we do a lot of things that God would not be doing, but it's not sin, and it's what the government says.

So when you're driving 80 in a 55-hour speed zone, God isn't going to save you from the ticket.

And if you say, but I'm a Christian, that policeman doesn't care.

Why? You broke a law of the land.

So we look at how God allows this, but also understand God's judgment is on every senator, every president, every king, every dictator.

Every one of them is under the judgment of God because they have authority.

Every one of them. It's fascinating. You know, when we look at Daniel, and we look at Daniel 2, we always go to that dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, and there's the statue, the image with the four parts which are four kingdoms. There's actually another dream he had we don't look at very much. Let's go to Daniel 4. Daniel 4. Do not think that the evil people who rule don't receive either in this life or next a reckoning with God. In the resurrection, they still have to stand before God and repent, and they will be condemned for what they did with the authority that they had. So don't think God is saying, obey everything the government says. No, obey God. But if it's not against God, okay. Daniel 4. It's interesting here. He has this dream, and he brings Daniel and says, okay, you know what dreams are. Tell me what this dream means. And so here I'm gonna, I'm breaking in the middle here. You can read all of chapter 4 and see, you know, the details of the dream. But verse 23, Daniel says, inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, an angel, coming down from heaven and saying, chop down this tree. So, you know, there's all this imagery, chop down a tree, and all different things happen. And then he says in verse 34, this is the interpretation of king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King.

Daniel had already told him, this great dream you had, that head of gold is you personally, and your empire. And did it humble Nebuchadnezzar? No. Did he now turn to God? No. Did he change from being a cruel master over his people? No. So God says, wait a minute, you have authority to do this, only because I allow you to. I can take this away from you any moment. And he still stayed who he was. He says, and this is the interpretation, verse 25, they shall drive you from men, your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like oxen.

They shall wet you with the dew of the heavens, and seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he chooses. Now once again, God doesn't choose every single ruler, but there are ones He does choose for His plan. And Nebuchadnezzar was told, you have a place in the plan of God. And it didn't change him one bit. He had all this authority, greatest empire on the earth at the time. And now he has another dream, and he says, well, this one isn't like the first one where you got all this glory. You still don't recognize God as God. In fact, he says in verse 26, and as much as they gave the command to leave the stump and roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be assured to you after you come to know that heaven rules.

He said, your kingdom's not going to go away, but you are. Until you come to grips with God is God, and God rules. And if you read the rest of it, after he told him this, he went absolutely insane and spent seven years living in the field eating grass like an animal, until his beard grew and his toenails and his fingernails grew, and he was an absolute insane animal. That's what happened in Nebuchadnezzar. And after seven years, he woke up and said, God is God. He abused his authority, and God put him in insanity for seven years. The whole time he's going through it, he remembered what it was like to be insane. And when he woke up out of it, he knew who God was.

Keep going. She's lost. You're okay. Over here. Come here. Oh, there's Mom. Go back to Mom. Okay.

That looked like I'm lost, and there's people looking at me. There you go. Okay.

It's terrible to be a child and feel lost. That's a terrible feeling.

So you know, he tells him, you only had authority because I let you have it, and I can take it away from you anytime I want. He didn't put Hitler into power. He let him have it, and he hated. When I say he hated, God actually hates things. In fact, the Bible says there's certain people he hates. He hated him. Now, I don't know. He still may have a chance of salvation.

I mean, we're all God's enemies, right, when he calls us. But he hates him. He hates the things that people do, especially when they have authority. But he said, you only have it because I let you have it. I just let you have it. Nero wasn't put there by God, but he let him have it.

And Paul said, look, do what the Roman government says to do as long as it doesn't come between us and God. I mean, it's interesting. In John 19, Jesus brought before Pilate. John 19. I always get trouble when I give a sermon like this because some people say, oh no, we're supposed to obey the government no matter what. And some say we're not supposed to obey them at all. I remember I came up with a wedding seminar or a marriage seminar years ago in, I don't even remember where it was. It might have been Jeansville, Wisconsin, or it might have been San Antonio, Texas. I don't remember. But some people came from Church of God Seventh Day.

And afterwards, the women came up and said, well, we thought you were minister of God. We're not coming back to the second one. I said, oh, why? Well, what I had said was we talked about a man's authority in the house. And I said, now women, remember, you are responsible directly to God as his daughter. If your husband tells you to do something against God, you're not supposed to do it.

He doesn't have the authority to do that. And the women came up and said, no, the husband is the head of the house. If he tells us to do something wrong, then God holds him responsible. I said, so if your husband convinced you to doctor your tax documents so that you defrauded the government, you would say that's okay to do even. I said, would that be okay to do? Oh, no, that would be sin. So it's okay for you to commit sin if your husband tells you. Yes.

No, you're misunderstanding authority. And who you are is God's daughters. They couldn't see it. So you're the daughters of God. He's above your husband, you know. They couldn't accept it.

They had to obey their husbands no matter what. They didn't come back to the next seminar.

It's the same way here. God is our ultimate authority because he owns us.

But we do have a relationship with the authority that he's allowed and how we submit to it. John 19 verse 5. So Jesus comes out. He wears the crown of thorns, the purple robe. You know, here he is. He's been humiliated, been beat. And he comes out before Pilate and all the people are shouting things at him and calling him names.

Therefore, when the chief priest and officer saw him, they cried out saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! And Pilate said to them, You take him in crucifying, for I find no fault in him. You know, Pilate talked to him and thought, He's just, you know, he's sort of like a stoic philosopher. He's just this mystic guy. I find no fault in him and I'm not going to crucify him. The Jews answered and said, We have a law and according to our law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard that, saying, he was more afraid, and he went again to the Praetorium and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer.

Another in Matthew's account, he adds things that John doesn't. And one of the things Matthew says, he actually says to him, Are you a king? And he said, Yes, but my kingdom's not of here. It's from someplace else. And he went out and said, He's no threat to Rome. He's some kind of mystic. And Pilate said to him, Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you? You and the power to release you? He says, Don't you know the authority I have?

I'm part of the Roman system. And Jesus answered and said, You could have no power at all against me, unless it had been given to you from above. He says, You think you have power. It's only because God allows you to do this. You know, remember he told one of the disciples, I could bring down 12 legions of angels. I mean, he's basically telling them, If I want to save myself, I can lay waste to the face of the earth and kill every human being, just with one command.

And he told them, I can bring down legions of angels to save me, and I'm not going to do that.

They have been given the authority to do this for the plan of God, and they will carry it out.

And I will submit to it.

They said, They don't have any authority, except God allows it. So God allows the authority that we live under. And you and I are fortunate because we live in a country that is much more free than most places have been in history.

Let's go back to Romans now.

Romans chapter 15. And let's go to...

Let's skip a little bit here.

Lost place here. There it is.

Oh, I'm 13. Verse 5.

Talks about for conscience sake.

Or as Peter says, Peter talks about this very same thing, and he says that we do it for the Lord's sake.

In other words, if we are persecuted by the government, let it be because we are Christians, not because we're anarchists.

Not because we're anarchists. Let it be because we are Christians.

Because your persecution because you're a Christian comes from governments all the time.

Right? And that's the point he said. For God's sake, or for conscience sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For they are the God's ministers attending continually to this very need.

Render therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor.

He said, just be respectful and pay your taxes.

There's always a question. Should Christians pay taxes?

And Jesus said to pay taxes. It was a very simple thing when they asked him about paying taxes.

Do you have a coin? Who's pictures on it?

Jesus? Give the Caesar what's his.

Give the Caesar what's his.

Hers is Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

Give to that government what is theirs.

Give to God what is God's. And God always comes first.

So Christians should pay taxes. And that's hard. We say, well, if we pay taxes, they'll use it for military. They'll use it for all kinds of wrong things. They use it for abortion clinics. They use it for all these things. And that's true. But believe me, it's no worse than what the Romans used their money for. They said, give the Caesar what's his. Give the Caesar what's his.

This is why no human government will last. All of them will break down. I mean, we watched this. We've watched our empire because we live in the greatest empire the world's ever known. I mean, the United States has had control over much of the world since the end of World War II, at least half the world.

And we're watching it decay. And we sometimes we think, oh, it's going to collapse. And now we think, well, okay, maybe it won't collapse. It's going to collapse sometime. It's going to because no human government will survive. One of the reasons God gives human beings the right to form governments is to show us we can be the smartest, we can be the most powerful, we will always fail. Go ahead and do it. Then I'll come back and show you how it's done. And when he comes back, he has, you know, when Christ comes back, yes, he comes back to love the world, but remember, he kills millions to do it. He kills millions of people who come to fight against him because he says, no, no more. And he stops it. And no government's going to survive.

Actually, no church is going to survive because we all come into one church in which Christ rolls over. That's what happens then. We just muddle through it as we go through it now. So we submit to this for conscience sake. And I'll give you an example, and I know I've been criticized for this example, too, but I have hunting rifles. If they change the Constitution of the United States and say you have to give up your guns, when the sheriff knock comes to the door, I'll give him to it. God is not the source of my right to own those rifles. The U.S. government is the source of the right for me to own those. What am I going to do? Shoot them?

Oh, there's the Christian thing to do, right? So if they change the Constitution, I will give them to them. If they come and ask me for my Bible, they will have to put me in jail.

Or shoot me, because they're not getting it. Because that's from God. That's a different right.

That is from God. See the difference? That's the kingdom of God. That Bible, this is the kingdom of God. My rifle isn't. You know, both of them were my dad's. One was my mom's gift to him when he, uh, when they, on their first wedding anniversary. And I like to take people out shooting that 3030 and 3006, because I love to watch the look on their face when that recoil from pulling that trigger, because it's not like modern rifles. But you know what? God didn't give me that right.

His government did. And they can have it back. Because that's not, that's not gonna get me into the kingdom of God. But this, this is something else. You can't take it from him. You have to come arrest me to take the Bible. That's what I mean. We have to understand how this works.

What we're willing to do and not do. And it's all based on for the Lord's sake.

I mean, I can't see them coming to Paul and saying, do you have a sword in your house? Yeah?

Give it to me. And him saying, no, I will slay you. Of course, Peter would try to do that. At least he did.

Didn't work out so good. Yes, there. You never see one of the converted, you know, once God's Spirit was poured out in the church, there's not one case where they record any Christian in the New Testament drawing a sword on a Roman soldier. Not one. Think about that. Not one. Because owning a sword wasn't part of the kingdom of God. It just happened to be what you could do. Everybody could own a sword then. There's no restrictions on arms. You could own whatever you wanted.

And so, yes, we pay our taxes, even though we know those taxes are abused and misused.

So, we've looked at how all authority is from God.

Once human beings lost their dominion, we still have a dominion. I mean, we're still sort of running this earth, except under Satan's direction, not God's. God gave the right to form judicial systems and governments. He said, okay, you've got the right to do it. You have the authority to do that. And he knew, once he gave it, it was always going to fail. He knew that. But he gave it anyways. Go ahead, do it, and see what happens. So, we are to submit to human governments. Remember, all human governments are an exercise in futility in the long run.

There's good to it in the short run, and we do live as dysfunctional and bizarre as we do. It's dysfunctional and bizarre and insane as our government is sometimes. This is a good place to live. This is a good place to live. And so, we get those benefits of that authority. But that authority was, you know, allowed, relegated by God. But his direction of it is only for his purpose, not because this is ever going to be the kingdom of God. Just like his movement among Nebuchadnezzar, to get him to accept he was God, wasn't for Nebuchadnezzar's sake or that Babylon would suddenly become his kingdom, because it didn't. It was to show, this is still my world. It's still mine.

And we forget that at our own peril. We are to always be mindful first that we are the citizens of the kingdom of God. He owns us, and he paid for us. He owns us twice. Now, we've got to break this down into practicality. And that is husband's authority in the marriage, parents' authority over children. We have other things we have to look at. So next time, we'll go through breaking that down, how that applies. And remember, all authority has responsibilities before God, and all authority has limitations. We'll talk even about the authority of elders in the church. And that has responsibilities, and it has limitations, because that's the way all authority is. So we'll talk about that next time as we do the third and last sermon on authority.