God's Authority

I had a very specific subject I wanted to cover today, and I was working on it and thinking about it. But then I realized to actually cover it, I had to cover something else first. I was looking at the difficulties we have with certain scriptures in the New Testament, where it says things like, Paul says, obey the king. Now, what does that mean? I mean, how much are we to obey the civil government? And then there's all kinds of things that people bring up all the time. Like, it says, obey your employer, or wives submit to your husbands. What do those things mean? How do we deal with this concept of the bad word called authority? It's a word we don't want to talk about. What does it mean? How do we apply it? And one thing is when you look at human history, there's probably nothing more abused in human history than people with authority abusing their authority. But before we can get to that subject, there's something else we have to talk about. In preparing for this, I read something this week that I even read for a long time. When was the last time, if any of you in the last year read the Declaration of Independence of the United States? One, two, okay. Oh, a few. Good. I read it. I forgot how logical the document is. It's an amazing document. But the reason I read it is I wanted to make sure I have this sentence right. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There is in this statement a remarkable concept, and that is every human being is given rights by God. Now, Thomas Jefferson had difficulty with this when he wrote it. He would write at other times about the difficulties he had because he was writing this while holding slaves. What he realized was a hypocrisy, and he had a hard time dealing with it. But what does it mean that God gives human beings rights? Does God give human beings rights? It's the basis, by the way, of our society. Not anymore, but for those who signed this, that was a basis. But there is, if you read then through the document and then you look at the Articles of Confederation and eventually the U.S. Constitution, there is a huge inconsistency in these documents. I want you to think about the logical problem here because this has to do with how you and I see God. It also has to do with why the United States, like all governments created by human beings, will fail. This government will eventually fail. It can't work. But this started with a premise. Now, this wasn't the Constitution, but this was the premise of why this new country had to form. God gives individuals rights. Now, for that to be true, that means God has to have the authority to give rights. But the authority of God overrules all civil governments. That's the premise that you have to have. If I get my right from God and it's inalienable and nobody can take it away from me, then God has the authority to give rights to individuals. All rights are governed by laws. So that would mean God has to have the authority to give the laws and the governed rights.

And why is not our system or government based on the laws of God? No, the Sermonette was about the Ten Commandments. You don't see in the U.S. Constitution a command that there could be no idol worship. It's not there. The U.S. Constitution isn't based. There's a few bits and pieces of principles in there, but it's not based on the laws of God. And yet, it was a group of people who said, our rights come from God, but we have freedom of religion. Our rights come from God, but, and they have all these buts. Now, I'm glad we have freedom of religion in this country. No human government can regulate religion. But there's a flaw here. There's a flaw in this whole concept. My rights come from God, but I live life the way I want to. That's why it will fail. That's why this society will fail eventually. I want to talk about this concept of God's authority, the bad word, authority, the power to do things and the willingness to use that power. God's authority. It does have to do a little bit with law. We're going to talk about law some today. Mr. Walker just sort of introduced what I want to talk about to a certain extent. This is a very complicated subject. We're going to talk about a very complicated subject and try to break this down into the authority of God and the rights that God gives every one of us. We have rights that have been given to us by God. They're not exactly the rights that are talked about in the Declaration of Independence, but there are rights that have been given to us by God. And we struggle, though, with the concept of God's authority. And we have to be honest about this. We have to be really honest about this. Human beings, all of us at times struggle with the concept that God can tell me what to do. What right does He have in my life to tell me what to do? And we might not say it that way, but we feel that way. God must not understand, why would God have me do this? And why does He say He has the authority to do it? I'm going to start with the greatest right that God has given to you, that every person in this room has a right given to you by God. Let's go to Genesis 2.

And reading through the Declaration of Independence, once again, I was amazed at the brilliance of it, that we have to form a government to protect the rights God gave to us.

But there was no movement to actually create a country that submitted to God, because they would have had to force a religion. A religion what Thomas Jefferson disagreed with. He was a deist, so he would have never accepted even what mainstream Protestant believes today. So, you know, they all had different ideas of what Christianity should be, too. But that's not really the subject today. Genesis 2.15.

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. God gave Adam and Eve, and all of us have the same right. He gave us the right to choose. Now, we have to understand what that really means. He says, I'm going to give you the right to choose, but first I'm going to tell you the right choice. And then I'm going to tell you, if you make the wrong choice, it gets really, really bad.

But I'm not going to make you make the choice. How easy would it have been for God to make them make the choice? He could have put them in an environment where they never could have made a choice. He could have said, you have free will, and then actually kept them from using their free will. He could have done that very easily. He could have controlled their thoughts. Understand, Satan didn't get into the garden because he snuck in. God didn't say, how did he get there? He came in because God gave him permission to come in. He was there because of God's authority, God's power. Satan doesn't do anything. We'll talk about this in a minute, that isn't within the limitations of what God tells him he can and can't do. So Satan came into the garden because Adam and Eve had the right to make a choice. They heard God's side. You'll get to hear the other side. They made their own choice. He had told them, there are consequences to your choices. You don't know what death is yet, but it will happen to you if you do this. Choices have consequences. God gave them a law. You have a choice, but let me tell you the law that governs this choice. Don't eat that tree. Bad things will happen. That's the law. Now you choose what you want to do. But the law is, don't do that. So with every right, there are laws that govern those rights. Now Mr. Coleman just talked about the Ten Commandments. Let's think about the Ten Commandments for a minute as a right. God gave you the right to life. All human life, it's a sacred thing. It's something God gives every one of us, life.

And then he said, don't you dare take that from each other. Thou shalt not murder. Yeah, this is what makes abortion so wrong. That little person was given the right to life by God. Abortion is to take the right that God gave them away from it.

It's a right that this law protects. Thou shalt not steal. You and I, and I've talked about this before when I've talked about the laws, that they're protecting something. That all of us have the right to own things. All of us have the right to make things. And nobody can take that away from us, or nobody's supposed to. It's a right. The fact that you can own property is a right given to you by God.

But what I really find interesting is, thou shalt not bear false witness, because that's a legal term. Now, we know that means you can't lie. But you know what it really, really gets down to? Yes, it's about lying. It's about slandering. It's about all those issues. But the way it's worded, it's the promise or the right God gives to a fair trial. False witness meant to get up and to witness something falsely. It means to give false testimony in a court. Basically what he's saying is, you have the right to a fair trial. You just can't take somebody, accuse them of things, and punish them. And that's part of that command, not to lie. Simply by the way, it's worded. You get a fair trial. You ever think about that in terms of God's law, and yet God's law has a lot to do with fair trials. Everybody was given a fair trial. In fact, under the law given to ancient Israel, it was better for a guilty person to go free than it was, I mean, better for a guilty person to go free than for an innocent person to be punished. It was better for the one than the other. Because God said, I'll take care of the guilty person. But you sure don't want to punish an innocent person. And there were all kinds of stipulations of what constituted a fair trial, which you will not find in other ancient laws. And of course, God's law tells us how to relate to Him. If God has the right to give us these rights, He has the right or the power or the authority to create the laws and govern the rights.

Now, we have a problem we can intellectually work through what I just said. But you know what the real problem comes down to? When we have to do the laws of God, obey a law of God, obey some instruction from God, and it seems to us it's holding us back from something good.

Wait a minute. If I do that, I don't get this and this is good. If I do that, this bad thing may happen to me. If I do this or don't do this, I give up something that's really important to me. Now we have a problem. Now we have a problem. It has to do with understanding the goodness of God. And we're going to talk about that too. Because eventually this comes down to understanding God's authority is a basic component of faith. So we may not like to talk about the word, and yet the truth is unless we truly understand God's authority and where it comes from, we can't have true faith.

Let's look at something that God said to an ancient king. This is to Cyrus. Cyrus was the king of Persia. At the time, he was the most powerful man in the world. Let's go to Isaiah 45. There are many, many passages I can read that would make this point. I use this passage simply because of who he's talking to. He's talking to the most powerful man in the world. And he wants him to understand his relationship to God. This man was the king of the Persian empire, which at this time extended from way over into India, clear through the Middle East. He would have been the most wealthy man in the world and had more power than anybody in the world. It basically could do whatever he wanted. And God says this to him. Isaiah 45 verse 9, "'Woe to him who strives with his maker.'" So God goes to the most powerful man in the world, tells Isaiah to tell him, "'Woe to you! You're in trouble for resisting me, and I'm the one who made you.'" And this is going to be the basis of God's claim to authority. Let the potshards strive with the potshards of the earth. That's a real interesting little statement. He says, you know what you're like, the most powerful man in the world? You're like a pot that get all busted up, and you're a little chunk of a broken pot. So if you really want to strive and show how tough you are, just deal with other little broken pieces of pots. Because I'm not the pot. I'm the maker of the pot. He says, "'Shall the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or shall your handiwork say, He has no hands? Woe to him who says to his father, what are you beginning? Or to the woman, what have you brought forth? Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, the Maker of Israel, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands, you command me. I have made the earth and created man on it. I, my hand, stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts I have commanded.'" So here's what God says to the most powerful man in the world. If you want to understand who I am, I am your Maker. Don't you look at the stars? I want you to look at the earth. I'm going to look at everything there is, and it's mine. And this is the basis of God's authority. God owns everything.

When we look at the human authority, we're going to see there's a huge difference between this and human authority. I'll just give you a quick example. I raised three children. I actually, according to the Scripture, had some authority over those children. I didn't own them. I could not kill those children.

In the law of God, parents cannot kill their children. They don't own them. They're gods. Now God gives parents authority. We'll talk about that next week. But until we understand God's authority, you really can't understand any other authority in the Bible. It will be abused or misused somehow. We have to first understand God's authority and the difference between God's authority and human authority. God's authority is based on the fact He owns us, and we have to come to that conclusion. Not only did He own us, we went bad, and then Christ had to go pay a price to buy us back. That's a whole other subject, but that alone is fascinating. He owned us. We ran away. Then He paid a price to get us back. Interesting concept. He owns us. He owns us twice. He owns us because He made us, and He owns us because He bought us back. So He owns us twice. To understand God's right as Creator, we understand His ownership. Sometimes that's hard for us. We want to see ourselves as totally independent human beings, capable of living life on my own terms, the hell I want to.

But that's not what we're created for. We're created to have a relationship with our Creator. There's a very interesting example of this in the life of Jesus that we see in Luke 7. Let's go to Luke 7. Luke 7. Let's go to verse 1 here.

Now when, let's talk about Jesus Christ, when He had concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum. And a certain centurion's servant who was dear to Him was sick and ready to die. Now this is very important because this means this centurion is a Roman soldier.

He was part of the occupying army, a pagan occupying army who had conquered the people of God and were keeping them from fulfilling all the things that God had told them to do, because they were supposed to be a sovereign nation and they weren't. And He has a servant that's very sick. So when He heard about Jesus, He sent elders of the Jews to Him pleading with Him that if you come and heal His servant. So obviously He had converted to Judaism. And you have, you know, He's not going to go to Jesus, and we'll see why in a minute, but He goes to some of the elders of the synagogue and He says, would you please go to this special rabbi? We don't know if he understood he was the Messiah, it doesn't say that, but go to this special rabbi who God is working through and receive from Him a gift for my servant. See if God will do this. And they went and they came to Jesus and begged Him earnestly, these are the elders of the Jews, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving. For He loves our nation and has built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. Now this is very interesting. Jesus is going with them. You know, it was not common for a Jew to enter into the house of a Gentile, even one who had converted if he was a Roman soldier. This isn't just any other, you know, any other Gentile. This is a Roman soldier that had conquered the people of God. So Jesus goes with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centaurian sent friends to Him, saying, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy that you should enter my roof. He's saying, look, look, I understand. You're a Jew of some standing. You're not worthy to come into my house. I'm not officially part of the people of God. I'm just asking here that you would go to God and do this, give me this special favor, this grace. He says, therefore, I did not even think myself worthy to come to you. That's why He didn't come to Him personally. Let me think what a big show would have been for a centaurian to walk up. He sent other people. But say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. That seems like, okay, well, that's just a soldier talking. But notice Jesus' response, because He's saying this man understands something about God. When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at Him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And those who were sent returning to the house found the sick servant well who had been sick. Now, what I find another interesting here is it did say Jesus and went with Him. Jesus went this far and said, this man gets it. It's done. And it was done. He understood God's authority. It has... God owned Him. God owned His servant. God had the choice to whether to heal His servant or not heal His servant.

It was God's choice. And He believed in the goodness of God. He had faith in the goodness of God. He said, well, you know, just if it's going to be done, all you have to do is say it. If it's not going to be done, all you have to do is say it. Either way, God will make His choice here. And Jesus said, what faith? That's why as we talk... When I said, we're going to talk about authority, and yet as we talk about authority, we're going to talk more and more about faith. We have to accept God's ownership.

You and I are just down here on this anthill, all running around, independent little ants. We are owned by God. Everybody's owned by God.

And God said, I will tell you how this works. This man understood. So why does God... Now, you see this man do this, and God heals him. Why is it that God doesn't always heal? I think even a more important question is, why is it that God will test us about His authority? Why? I mean, is He trying to just show how powerful He is? Is God just showing off? I mean, why does God test us over His authority? And it's very important we understand this, because we're going to have to accept that authority, that ownership, if we're ever going to become mature Christians, and if we're ever going to have real faith. If we're ever going to have complete faith, it's going to be God's. We go through a process of accepting God's ownership of me, and He's a good owner. He's a good owner. Think of Abraham. Think of all the things God asked Abraham to do. I want you to leave your house, leave your home, leave your family, take your wife and your immediate family, and I want you to go out, and I'm going to take you someplace called Canaan. I know you've never been there. You probably can't even find it on a map. It doesn't matter. I'll get you there. It's on the trade routes. You'll get there. And then I'm going to give you a land that you'll never really live on. You'll just be a nomadic tribe. And Abraham did that. And he says, I'm going to give you a son. And Abraham waited, and waited, and waited, and it didn't make any sense. But he never gave up the belief God was going to give him a son, and then it was absolutely impossible God gave him a son. And then he promised him that son is going to have children.

I believe that. And then the son grew up, wasn't entirely into manhood yet, but as an older child or possibly young teen, he comes to him and says, now I want you to take, and I want you to sacrifice that son to me. Now think of the things that goes through Abraham's mind. How many times have maybe you read that story and thought, how could God do that? How dare God do that? Is God doing evil? These were the same thoughts he would have gone through, because it took him three days to get to where he had to go. Three days where he had to wrestle with, but God says it's wrong to murder. The boy hasn't done anything wrong. Is it a punishment? No, it's a sacrifice. But God hates human sacrifice. He forbid human sacrifice. How do I take my son and do this? But he's a promise from God. If I kill him, he can't have children, which makes God a liar. If God's a liar, then nothing matters. How can God ask me to do something that appears to be evil? It wasn't evil.

Part of the problem we have is when we deal with the greater concept of what God is doing and developing our relationship with Him.

The book of Genesis doesn't tell us how Abraham worked that out. It just tells us he took the boy, wrapped him up, put him on the sticks, lit the fire, picked up the knife, and was about to kill him when God said, you don't have to do it. God never intended him to do it, but remember, Abraham did not know that. He doesn't know it.

He's about to kill his son. Now, he believes in the love of God. He believes in God's mercy. You can see him talk about that in Genesis. How do you rectify God's love and God's mercy with asking me to kill my son? Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11.

It has to do with ownership.

Abraham believed God owned Isaac. He believed God owned him, and God owned Isaac. He also believed in the goodness of God. He believed that God would not lie. He believed in the goodness of God. That leads him to a most remarkable conclusion. Hebrews 11 verse 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said, and Isaac your seed shall be called. He's about to offer the only chance he has for grandchildren. The boy who God said, you have grandchildren through him and now kill him.

You only do that if you believe God's a monster and you have to do it. Or you do it because you believe God owns me and God owns him, and I believe in God's goodness. And God doesn't lie. I stopped at the middle of a sentence. Here's what Abraham concluded, that three days of reasoning this out, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Abraham fully, completely, absolutely believed, I will sacrifice my son and God has the right to ask that of me because he owns me. And he owns this boy. And then he will resurrect him because I'm going to have grandchildren through him. That's a remarkable conclusion.

He was able to put together what seems like a request that is bizarre that you could argue, isn't that evil? No, it's not. God's authority isn't complete because God owns everything. It's His. And God is good. So as hard as this is, He's going to resurrect him.

Well, I tell you, you can see why He's the Father and the faithful. But understand, in this situation, what had to motivate Him.

Belief in God's authority and belief in God's goodness.

He had to believe those two things entirely. God has the authority to ask me to do this.

He had the right to say no, by the way. There'd be a different Father of the faithful if He had said no. Maybe somebody else got what He is. But He also understood that God owns me. That story is absolutely amazing because my first reaction to that when I was a kid was, isn't God asking Him to do something evil? And no, He is not.

He's only asking Him to do something evil if He doesn't own Isaac. But He owns him. And God can do with him whatever He wants. Aren't you glad God is good?

Aren't you glad God is good? Because He can do with us whatever He wants. You say, well, what gives Him the right to do that? He has the power to do it. He has the power to do whatever He wants.

Fortunately, He wants us.

Fortunately, He wants us to obey Him, to be His children, to have a relationship with Him, and to have the faith to say, yes, Lord, You obey me, and yes, Father, I am Your child. I believe in Your goodness. Even though You may be asking Me to do something that does not make sense in the moment, or it's something I'm going to lose out. I'm going to make this great decision, and a bad thing is going to happen to me. Why does that happen? Why do you and I struggle with that so much? Simple concept. You all know this one, but let's look at it. 2 Corinthians 4. The submission of God's authority is so difficult for us because of this. 2 Corinthians 4.

Verse 3. But even if our gospel, Paul says, is veiled, is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age is blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God, should shine upon them. 2 Corinthians 4. Satan is the God of this age. There are two things here. One, that means every one of us has been influenced by Satan, and Satan hates God's authority. At the core of his being, he despises the fact that God has authority over him. So God let him have this earth and have influence over humanity for a short amount of time. Now, when we say the God of this age, though, do not overestimate Satan's power.

Satan is the God of this age because God lets him be the God of this age. Somehow, God's kingdom did not disappear. God did not step down from his throne and say, okay, you can have it for a while. God still rules. He still interacts with his creation. He still has people he's interacting with. He still has a plan, and he still sends Jesus Christ back. And what's the first thing Christ does? Well, it seems to be He resurrects the saints. Then He takes Satan and says, times up, son. That's it. Times up. There's no power Satan has to stop that or resist it. So when Satan is the God of this age, it's only because God allows him to do that. And if God has called us, then who's on our side? God is with us. This is Satan's world, but don't overestimate his power.

Don't underestimate his ability to deceive. His enormous ability to deceive. But don't overestimate his power. God is still God, and Satan is not God. That small g there, just means he's the rule of the world. He's not God. Don't confuse the two in terms of the old dualistic belief of Gnostics that Satan and God were equal forces and struggle with each other. There's nothing equal about this fight at all.

But we have been influenced by Satan's hatred of God's authority, and that's why we struggle with it. That's why we have trouble with it. Only God knows how this works. He created it. He knows how this works. And he says, you're going to have to learn to trust me, and you're going to have to learn that I really do own you, and you're going to have to learn to do something with our will. This is more than about just making good choices.

This is more than just making good choices. I'll show you what I mean. We know that Jesus came as our Savior. He also came in human form to show us how this works. This is what it is to be a human being and to be godly. Let's go to Mark 14. This is one of those passages I have a hard time wrapping my mind around because I've tried to get into the mind of Christ here. What is He going through?

When you realize to leave God's throne, to leave where you are, to come be like us and participate in something as horrible as about what He's going to go through by design.

Once again, when those Jewish soldiers came and arrested Jesus and took Him and beat Him and then turned Him over to the Romans and all the things they went through all that night and all the next day until mid-afternoon, it wasn't like God said, I don't know what's happened. I've lost power here. I've lost control over this. This was all designed. The reason Jesus is struggling here is because He knows exactly what's going to happen. Every detail down to His last words was already planned out. And as a human being, He's horrified. He's afraid. To try to wrap your mind around, maybe I should just come home now. I don't want to be here anymore.

Mark 14.32.

This is after that night where they took the Passover.

He came to a place which was named Gethsemane and He said to His disciples, sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James, and John with Him and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. I can tell you, as the Word, I don't know a lot about God. He reveals to us, but I've never been to the throne. But I think it's safe in saying that as the Word, He never felt deeply distressed. Okay? These are human reactions. He's having a human reaction to what He had planned to do.

Then He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch. He went a little farther and fell on the ground and prayed as if it were possible. The hour might pass from Him and He said, Abba Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not that I will, but what You will. This is more than just making the right choice.

This is going to God. He's showing us how it's done by actually experiencing it. He's not playacting here. He's feeling what He's going through. What He says is, it's not just about making the right choice. It's giving up my desire to make another choice.

It's giving up my will to make another choice. Understanding the authority of God is understanding we must give up our will to make another choice. There's a right that God gave to us. He wants us to give it back. Not the right to make choices on a thousand things. The right to make choices are what's right and wrong. He gave us that and then said, give that one back when you're ready. Give that one back. God doesn't care about so many of the choices we make. He really doesn't. People ask me all the time, what is God's will on a college to go to? What college to go to? What gives God's will on what job I get? Sometimes God's will is very specific. Most of the time it's not. It's very specific when He wants you to do something. A lot of times God's will is, I don't know, go see... Well, no, I don't know. He knows. Go see what you can do. God's will is grab this adventure and go do something with it. That's God's will. A lot of times it's your attitude.

You know, well, we have this trouble. There's two people. We have this trouble. What is God's will? A lot of times it's to the minister, pastor, correct this person. The other way, you correct that person. And a lot of times I don't know what the real issue is. I mean, how to solve the real problem. I do know this. God's will is that you forgive each other and solve this.

God's will is that you forgive each other and solve it. Well, that's not what I wanted. I wanted you to beat up on this person for me. God's will is that you forgive each other and solve the problem. Here's principles for solving the problem. No, I think God's will is this. God's will in these issues of right and wrong is that we give up our will. That there's absolute trust that says, okay, I don't get it, but you know what you're doing.

See, this faith thing is really hard. This faith is really hard. I don't understand, but not my will, but yours. What I find so fascinating about Jesus here is He did understand what was about to happen, and it's so horrifying that it's unbelievable. And yet His response is, not my will, but yours.

He's submitting Himself to the authority of the Father to show us how it's done. In the most horrendous situation you can imagine, this is how you do this. The authority of God and our willingness to submit. So how does that happen? I'm going to end with two things, two principles concerning our understanding as far as our submission to the will of God. The first one is that God's will is revealed to us through the Scriptures. You and I can't always trust our own thoughts or our own feelings, but we have to look in the Scriptures. Here's where we find—it's in this book—that we find the will of God. So we search this for the will of God.

So that's where we search to find the revealed will of God. You go to any human being. Human beings can give help. Human beings can give advice. Human beings can give wisdom. But if a human being is going to show you the will of God, they'll always have to go to the Scripture to show it to you. And here's what God says. The second—and this is very, very important—you and I can't—and part of this was actually read, what I'm going to read next, was actually read in the sermonette—you and I cannot submit to this authority of God or even submit to the law of God by ourselves. Oh, we can do little bits and little pieces of it. The real intent of God's law—you and I can't do ourselves. We can't.

God has to help us do it. Look at Romans 8. Romans 8.

In the middle of a very complicated set of Scriptures—Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8—I'm pulling out one thought that's part of a very large and complicated section of Scripture here that Paul is talking about a number of things. He says, verse 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So he says, you're not condemned when you are no longer living in this natural rebellion against God, which is Satan's state. You might be obeying some of the laws once in a while, but you're living really in a natural state of rebellion. When we get down to it, we're always questioning. We never have faith. Many times we obey because we're afraid of punishment. He says, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Why would he say that? The law of the Spirit in Christ has freed me from the law of sin and death.

What does that mean? Next verse, verse 3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh... Now let me stop there. The law can't do something. I tell you what the law does that's really, really important. It tells us the difference between good and evil. It explains to us good behavior and bad behavior. It explains to us how to respond to God and how not to respond to God.

But what if all you had was the law? That's it. What if all you had was the Ten Commandments and you tried to keep the letter of the Ten Commandments, you would find that you read the Sermon on the Mount. Oh, wait a minute. Okay. I can't murder, but I can't hate either. Wait a minute. Okay. I never commit adultery, but you're saying, okay, I've lost it.

Okay. You go through all those. Or coveting. Okay. Let's find a person who hasn't coveted. That's one of the Big Ten. And so you'd go through the law, and if you looked at it and then understand Christ's application of it, here's what happens. The law says, guilty, guilty, guilty. Oh, you did that one right. Oh, that one's right. Guilty, guilty, guilty. You end up on the guilty side of the law. What happens when you are convicted of being a criminal?

You get a penalty for being a criminal. If all we have is the law, what we end up with is conviction, because nobody keeps the law exactly, completely right. Nobody. So if all we have is the law, we end up a convicted criminal. And he says, the problem with the law is a flesh. The problem with the law is, well, we keep making the wrong choices. This right God says, I gave you. Boy, you just messed this right up all the time. In fact, you know something, before God calls us, because of Satan, we don't even really have free choice in the bigger sense, because we don't even know any longer what good is.

So God has to come on and open our minds and say, oh, you actually have a choice here. Don't do that. Do this. So the problem with the law was the flesh. We can't do it. He says God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He doesn't say He came in the sinful flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.

Yeah, He was flesh and blood like us, but He never sinned. On account of sin, and He condense sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Now, that's a very important statement. There are those who say that the righteous requirements of the law are done for us by Christ. And that's not what Paul says. That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

And how do you know it's being fulfilled in you? Because you do not work according to the flesh. What happens when you walk according to the flesh? You break the law, but according to the Spirit. The motivation for this absolute subjection to God's authority, belief in His ownership and His goodness, that faith comes from God's Spirit. And you and I have to submit to the Spirit.

The revelation comes through the Scripture. The ability to submit to it comes through God's Spirit. Now, you and I can resist God's Spirit. It's that problem with that right again. I give you a right to choose, but we have the power to submit. The power to change is given to us. And then this is what Mr. Walker had mentioned.

He said, verse 5, For those who live according to the flesh that their mind are the things of the flesh, those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For we currently minded as death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. What's that mean, peace? Peace with God, no longer in this state of anger and rebellion, because God, you're holding my life back from what I really want, but an understanding that the owner of life knows how this works, and therefore I submit to it. Even though in the short run, it may make me a little bit unhappy, but in the long run, I am greatly happy because I have peace between me and God. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor deed can be. In other words, by ourselves, we try to keep God's law, but by ourselves, we really don't like it. Because we feel like it holds us back from what we want. What aspect of your life have you not given over completely to God? I guess the real question is, what part of your life do you still own and say, God, you can't have it? I tell you what, that's a scary question to ask.

Because you know what? Every one of us has something in our lives we're holding on to. We're saying, God, you can't have that. That's mine. Nope, nope, can't have that one. I don't care what it is. Your money, your car. I don't worship any idols, but boy, I worship my money. People do stuff like this all the time.

I understand the Sabbath, and I go to church. But, you know, the rest of the day, I just do whatever I want. Okay, does God own it? What part of your life, what little things in your life, or big things in your life, are you saying, I own this, you can't have it? Here's the problem with that. I can just... This is reality, folks. It's not pleasant, but here's the reality. Whatever you and I hold on to and say to God, you can't have it, gets what He's going to do. He can take it away from you. He can say, it belongs to me anyways. It's like a child grabbing another child's toy and saying, you can't have this, it's mine. And every adult in the room says, it's not yours, you just stole it. Okay? We're holding on to things that are God's, and we're saying, you can't have it, it's mine. No, I gave you the right to have it, but it's actually mine.

It belongs to Him. He's so patient with all this. What part of your life are you holding on to? Because you won't accept the authority of God that it's His. I mean, I have to ask myself that question, but God doesn't want us to be automatons. He has given us free will, and that means we have to come to accept and actually want His ownership. He made us, He owns us. He bought us through Christ. He owns us twice. We have to accept His ownership and His goodness in that ownership. When we desire God's authority in our lives, though, we're going to be confronted with another issue. Okay, I can accept that, but you can't tell me that my boss has authority in my life. You can't tell me my parents have authority in my life.

You can't tell me, fill in the blank.

God has given authority to human beings, but there is no ownership, and that's totally different. Totally different. So next time, this sets us up now. We'll be able to see the difference between God's authority and authority that He gives to other people. Just think about Satan. He gave Satan a certain amount of authority to be the God of this age. He never gave him ownership of anything. Satan owns zero. He owns nothing.

For those children of God who understand His authority and ownership, what does He give? According to the Scripture, someday He gives us everything.