Gods Government

I hate this. It's just pathetic what's going on. A lot of the last week, the presidential contenders were gathering in Iowa, and it just seemed that they were all playing the blame game.

It's all their fault. If they would stop doing this, the end would come, or we'd sort things out.

And before that, there was the big hassle over the debt ceiling. And the president was saying one thing, and members of Congress saying another thing, and members in the Senate saying something else. It just goes on and on, and you just get so frustrated. You want to throw the bums out, so to speak. That's the old American tradition. Throw them out and bring in some other bums.

And of course, then there's the public debt. It keeps going up and up, and that's what they were arguing about with the debt ceiling. And I know the numbers have changed, and there's a clock somewhere. It shows it ticking up every second. But I believe the amount of debt owed by the United States now amounts to about $130,000 per every family in the country. But I'm not sure if I haven't got that right. It might be every individual in the country. It's some astronomical amount that I don't know if we're going to pay. And the United States is giving away billions of dollars in foreign aid. We fork it over to countries, and then they hate us. They burn the American flag. They kidnap our citizens, and they blame all the world's problems on the United States. Now, there's an example that comes up in the winter of every year, and it seems like it won't be long now. Oh, that sounds like a song. But I was thinking, in the fall, you always hear about nativity scenes. Now, we don't celebrate Christmas, and I'm not a big fan of nativity scenes, but does it ever bother you when you hear a story about a lawsuit or some court judgment saying that a school or a county courthouse cannot have a nativity scene while in the classroom they're teaching lessons on Islam and Buddhism? And then there are other things. There's the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, where I don't know for sure what happened, but it's hard to say that justice was done. And as I said, the presidential campaigns that consist of lying and boasting and both sides blaming the other. And there's global warming, and then in a couple decades it's global cooling and environmental rights. Whatever it is, it seems to keep coming down to politics. Politics, arguing, getting involved, and trying to change things. And there is a reason for that. Of course, partly Americans, not Americans, people like to complain, and we'll want to blame others. But in the system that we developed in America for our government, we've made it so that any issue that's important to people will become a political issue. And I've said this many times in history classes. We've made it so people can engage the system, and if something matters to people, it becomes a political issue. And if neither of the big parties will address it, people will form a third party. And if people care about it, that party will grow until at least one of the two parties will say, oh, we better pay attention, and they'll co-opt that issue and bring it in, and it becomes a major political issue. That's the way it's always been.

So you might be wondering, or you might be in the situation if you're paying attention, or it's hard not to root for one side or another. And you think, almost, how much should I get involved? And you might ask, which side is God's side in all this? Now, admittedly, I think many of us in the church tend to lean more towards those that have conservative views politically, or at least socially. But not all Christians see it that way. I've found most of the people I associate with, as I said, side more with conservatives, but it's not that case. It's not a matter of if you're a Christian, that's the way you feel. I've met very, I've met many very devoted and converted people who say, oh, you know, Bill Clinton was the best thing that ever happened in this country, and, you know, that's the way they felt. Now, and there are Christians in other countries, and they can see something that we're often blind to. And I don't want to get anybody down on me, because I'm a patriotic American and love this country very deeply.

But I'd have to say that it's not always the case that the American way is the right way.

And Christians in other countries sometimes can see that a little more clearly than we do.

And that's where I think, as Christians, we need to focus on the fact that our kingdom is not of this world. Our kingdom is not of this world. And our politics should be the kingdom of God.

That's our politics. We weren't called by God to be Democrats, or Republicans, or Libertarians, or Socialists, or any other group. So I wanted to talk today about how we should relate to the governments of the world and their policies. I guess because I've heard so much about that on the news, and it gets me riled up, and I start thinking, what should we do? What shouldn't we do?

You know, God isn't relying on political governments. But I should say there was a time when He did work through governments more than He does today. And it is important for us to remember God is able to control what happens in world affairs. He's never sitting by thinking, oh, I wish the government would make this decision, or I hope Congress doesn't pass that bill.

He's not vainly wishing that people would straighten up and wringing His hand when they don't. Now, He does wish people would straighten up. God wants all people to repent and do things the right way. But let's turn to our first Scripture Day in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20.

2 Chronicles, chapter 20, and we'll begin in verse 5.

Now, this is the case of one of the fairly good kings in the kingdom of Judah after the kingdom was divided. Judah was in trouble. There was a major army coming wanting to destroy them, and so King Jehoshaphat made a prayer that included some comments that are very pertinent to this subject. 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 5.

Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, and in the house of the eternal before the new court. And he said, O Lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?

And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? And in your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you? Now, he asked that as a rhetorical question.

Aren't you God in heaven? Don't you rule with power so that no one can withstand you?

And the answer is, of course! Obviously God has that power and might. Nothing is getting done without God allowing it. Or a lot of things might not get done because he does prevent it.

But God is in control, ultimately. I want to cite a case of another wise man in history who pointed that out. There we go. Oh, somebody's watched me drink it. There's three glasses of water up here. Am I that obvious? In the case I want to mention Benjamin Franklin, who was not perfect by any means, but one of those that I consider a great man whose biography is worth reading. He did many things, and he was involved in our Constitutional Convention. Back in 1787, the United States had only been an independent country for a few short years, but we didn't have the government we have today. It was a government that consisted of 13 separate states that were fairly loosely allied and starting to bicker amongst each other and not paying each other's debts and competing. So they called a convention, sent some of the brightest, most intelligent people from each state to come together to try to form a new government.

They really genuinely felt that if they didn't work together, the whole thing would fall apart.

And perhaps the country would break up into two or three separate countries, and they might fall under the control of European nations, and they might war against each other.

So I want to set that backdrop to show you how serious they were, because they really wanted to work this out, but they reached an impasse fairly early on. Some of them started showing up as early as May, and they debated through the latter part of May and into June. Now they knew the pressure they were under, and they didn't need or want any pressure from outside. So they made an agreement early on that they would hold their debates in secret. Not because they were doing a secretive, evil thing, but they didn't want people influencing their debate. So they said, we're going to have the doors closed and the windows closed, and they even posted a guard to shoo away eavesdroppers. But what that also resulted in is not only reducing the pressure, but it got hot. They were in Philadelphia, they went all the way into June, the temperatures were rising, and they couldn't reach an agreement. There was a major disagreement between the representatives of the big states and of the small states, and they weren't about to back down on either side. And finally, Benjamin Franklin, after watching days and days of debate and argument, he proposed a motion for the whole con... for the... not the Congress, the convention. And I didn't write the quote down here, but I've got it pretty accurately because I've quoted it many times.

He said, if not a sparrow can fall to the ground without the notice of divine providence, is it very likely that a great empire can be raised without God's favor? And then he proposed that they begin opening their meetings with prayer every day. When I first read that, I thought, you mean they weren't praying every day? I mean, I know a lot of these men were God-fearing, but I guess that hadn't entered their mind. And this refocused them. And not very long after, they reached an agreement. They reached what was called the Great Compromise. They were arguing about how Congress would be formed. And I don't want to get into the politics of Congress, but the important thing is they realized what Benjamin Franklin said was right. Not only does God know every sparrow out there, but he knows what's going on in the affairs of men. He can raise up a nation, or he can drop it down. He can influence any vote in Congress or the State House.

It's simply true that God raises up governments. And he can bring them down as it suits his purpose.

He can bless policies or decisions by leaders, or he can prevent them. And I suspect in a lot of cases, though, God's not doing anything about some of their decisions. You know, God has a plan and a goal that he's reaching, and if they're arguing about something that's not going to affect his course of action one way or the other, God probably just lets it go. And he says, I can bless my people with this decision or that decision. But I think there have been some turning points in human history, and I want to emphasize this as far as the fact that governments do have a power that's given by God. Let's turn to Genesis chapter 9. I want to look at two of them.

The first one is one we don't see that often, but I think it's important, and it'll come back to mind later in this sermon. Genesis chapter 9 will begin in verse 5. Now, this is after the great flood when only Noah and his children and what animals were brought aboard the ark were able to survive. And of course, the animals that lived in the water. But they were all there, brought in, they were in that ark for over a year, and everyone else is wiped out. But now they're coming out, and God starts giving some instruction. And among them is this, beginning in verse 5, Surely for your life blood I will demand a reckoning, from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. For whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man. Now, I'm reading this because there are many biblical scholars. I don't know if all of them say this, but many believe that this is a point where God purposely delegated two human governments the power to impose capital punishment. Instead of saying, if you kill a man, you're answerable to me, God turned it over and said, by man's hand there'll be the punishment.

And that includes capital punishment. And we infer from there, if God is giving the governments the power to impose capital punishment, then all the lesser punishments would be included. Certainly, if you would let them, you know, take a man's life for his crime, he would let them lock him up in prison or impose a fine. So we can see this as a case of a turning point, and God's saying, okay, your governments have authority. I'm not running things personally right now. Now, that might bring to mind another turning point where this might have happened even sooner in a different way.

And I'm not going to turn there, but you all know the story of the Garden of Eden. You know, Adam and Eve were there. God said, eat whatever you want. Don't eat of this tree. The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course, that's the one they ended up eating from. And I like the way Mr.

Armstrong would put it after that. He said, let's just say what God decided then was he put them out of the Garden, and he could have said something like, okay, now you go out. You took the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You wanted to decide for yourself what's right and wrong. So go do it.

Go decide what's right and wrong. Set up your own governments. Form your own societies. Invent religions. Whatever. I'm out of it. But of course, God did reserve to himself the right to intervene when he needed to, because he had a broader purpose, a great plan that he was going to work out.

Now, I don't know, of course, if God said every single one of those words, but we see the results, and human history bears up that that was probably the way it happened.

It is worth noting, though, that Adam and Eve took of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Human government hasn't been all bad. A lot of it's been pretty good. And that's where, you know, if I sound like I'm getting down on America, I don't want to, because I want to say we've done a lot of things good. And as a history teacher, I can say the United States has done some great things in the world, and I'm very proud to be an American. I think we've been the best country in human history in a lot of ways. Man has accomplished good and so bad on his own.

And of course, it's clear that sometimes God has stepped in for his purposes.

I'm going to make a reference to Daniel chapter 2.

If you want to turn there, you can to follow along, but I just want to paraphrase, partly for the matter of time, because I found out I was running out of time this morning.

But this is a case where we can see clearly how God planned to intervene on the broad scale throughout human history. This is the case where the Babylonian Empire had risen to power. And notice I use the term empire. Have you ever wondered what's the difference between a kingdom and an empire? An empire is built of many kingdoms. It's where one government has conquered others and spreads out and rules many different peoples. And Babylon was the first, at least in Western civilization, to do that. And so as the first, God revealed to their first emperor, Nebuchadnezzar, what he was doing. He gave him a special dream, and you all know the dream. He saw this great image, a statue, and it was made out of four different kinds of metal. The head was out of gold, and then the chest and the arms were silver, belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron going all the way down to the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay.

And Nebuchadnezzar was so confused about this, what in the world does this mean?

And his soothsayers and magicians couldn't explain it to him. And he was so upset by it, he decided, I'm going to have him all killed. And when the word came, Daniel said, wait a minute, let me go to the true God and see if I can get an answer. And God brought an answer.

As I said, I'm not turning there, but I do like the one scripture where Daniel says, it's not in me to tell you when he talked to Nebuchadnezzar, but there is a God in heaven who does reveal secrets. And then Daniel explained what this vision meant. He said, each one of those metals represents a different empire that's going to arise. And he said, Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head of gold. You're a king over kings. And he was making the point that God allowed him to be there. It wasn't by accident. He said, you're a king of kings, high quality, but there's going to be another kingdom after you, and it'll be inferior in quality, but it would be bigger in scope. It'd be followed by the Persians, the Medes and Persians together would conquer the Babylonians. And then they in turn would be conquered by the Greeks, with Alexander the Great leading the way. And once again, an even bigger kingdom, but some would say an inferior quality. And later on, then the Roman Empire conquered the area that had been conquered by the Greeks. And the Romans were as strong as iron, with a very strong central government. Once they established the... the word I'm looking for, they had a Senate, and then they were replaced by the emperors with Caesar. And they ruled for many years. And of course, we can get into the details. That's not my purpose today, if we wanted to look at Daniel in Revelation, at the seven heads and the ten horns and the succeeding resurrections of the Roman Empire. But what I want to get at is that God predicted this well in advance. There's going to be these different kingdoms ruled by men, and God didn't just happen to guess how it would happen. He could control affairs to bring about what he wanted. But I wonder how many generals, how many kings, how many diplomats and officials along the way thought that they were making the decisions. And they were working things out. They didn't know God. They didn't know that it was really God doing it. But we know that it was God. And there's one unusual case where God revealed Himself to one of those rulers. Yeah, if we want to turn to Isaiah chapter 45, we'll see that.

Isaiah 45 will begin in the first verse. But I did have a note to myself to remind me to mention.

I find it interesting. God revealed what He was going to do in an area where His people, the descendants of Israel, were. I wonder, was He controlling the events with the Chinese? They had various the Hong and the Ming and the other empires with names that I would have trouble pronouncing. And then if you come to the other side of the world, there'd be the Incas and the Mayas and the Aztecs. God may have intervened in those, or He may have just let them go and said, I don't need to worry about what you're doing until such a time in history that I want to take charge. But let's see where God showed one of these rulers how He'd planned this out. Isaiah 45, yep, I'm in the wrong chapter. Thus says the eternal to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before Him, and loose the armor of kings, to open before Him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I'll break in pieces the gates of bronze and the bars of iron, and will give you the treasures of darkness, and the hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the eternal, who call you by name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servants' sake, and Israel, my elect, I have even called you by your name. I have named you, though you have not known me.

I am the eternal, and there is no other. There is no God beside me. I will gird you, though you have not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me, that I am the eternal, and there is no other. What's interesting is that God named Cyrus, and he was the general who was able to conquer the Babylonian Empire and bring in the Persians. I didn't go back and review all the details. If I remember correctly, he did it partly by diverting a river that flowed under the massive walls of the Babylonian Empire, so that they could get in and open the gates from within. So when it makes particular references about the gates being open and the bronze being smashed, God planned this all way in advance. This was written long before Cyrus was born. So God named him and said, I'm going to do this. He's showing that God had that control all along. No events in political history or in government are stymieing God or causing him troubles. He is in control all along. The analogy that struck me, and maybe it's a pitiful analogy, but if you play sports, I think of Babe Ruth. And if you remember the famous story where he called his shop and came up to the plate and pointed his bat, it's like, I'm going to hit a home run not just anywhere in the park, but to that spot. And he was able to do it. Well, God called his shot here, not just before the first pitch, but hundreds of years beforehand, showing what power he had. So God can get done what he wants. He doesn't have to resort to politics. He doesn't have to ask we, his people, to vote in a certain way. But I do want to point out there was once in history when God did chose to have his chosen people. Chose to have his people.

Sometimes words just don't sound right when you say it.

There's a point where God decided to work through a government and decided for his people to be part of the government, not outside of it. And of course, I'm talking about the nation of Israel.

So let's look at that a little bit. If you'll turn to Exodus chapter 19, I'm going to show Israel takes up a lot of the space in the Bible. But as we're looking at the broad sweep of history, Israel's example is somewhat of an exception. And we'll see that in a moment. But Israel is a very special case, and God did it for a reason. He wanted to show that he could set up a nation, show how good it could be. But of course, we'll know also that he wanted to show that without God's Holy Spirit, even the best government and the best laws wouldn't succeed. You had to have God dwelling in you, not just the walls on the outside. Now we're in Exodus 19. This is after God had delivered the children of Israel from Egypt and was bringing them to Mount Sinai. So we see here beginning in verse 1, in the third month, after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai, for they had departed out of Rephidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai, and had camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain, and Moses went up to God. The eternal call to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if, notice the if, if, I lost my point, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you'll speak to the children of Israel. So God was making a proposition to these people.

He said, okay, I brought you out here. Now you call it an if-then scenario. If you will obey me and let me be your God, then I'll make you a kingdom, a special nation. So he's saying, I'll create a civil political body out of you if you promise to obey me. Moses came and called the elders of the people. He laid before them all the words which the eternal commanded, and all the people answered together and said, all that the eternal has spoken we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the eternal. So God made a proposition. If you'll obey me and make me your God, I'll make you a great nation. I'll give you my laws and all that. And they said, okay, we'll do it. Now, I'm not going to read through all the rest of this, but God said, okay, I'm going to come and talk to the people in person since they agreed to this. And he told Moses, get them ready, tell them to wash their clothes and put up barriers so they don't come up the mountain. And God came down on Mount Sinai personally and thundered out the Ten Commandments. And there was fire and smoke, and the people were shaking in their shoes. So much so that they told Moses, okay, already, you know, this is great. We trust God, but please don't have him talk to us anymore. You know, he's too powerful.

Moses, you go talk to him, then you come back and tell us what he said. And I think God was expecting that. So he said, that's fine. Now, yeah, but what's interesting, he called Moses up afterwards. And we're not going to read through all of it, but if you read chapters 21, 22, and 23, he gave, it says at the beginning of chapter 21, these are the judgments that you'll set before them. God gave them a set of laws for ruling a nation. Now, these are laws we'll look to for guidance, sometimes for how to live our lives, but these are really a set of civil laws. Now, if they'd had motorized vehicles, he probably would have included a speed limit here and things like this. These are a set of laws that are, what's the word I'm getting for? They're not about necessarily how to worship God, although we worship God by obeying him and being kind to each other, but these are political civil laws. And then, if we get to chapter 24, we see once again that God wants to make sure that people will agree to this. You could say these are a set of laws or even a constitution, and then we're going to see how they would be ratified.

Exodus 24, beginning in verse 3. I've always found this intriguing how they worked this out, and a little bit gruesome, but that's the way the sacrificial system would work.

So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Eternal and all the judgments, and the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Eternal has said will do.

And Moses wrote all the words of the Eternal, so he wrote them up in probably a scroll, and he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and put up 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Eternal, and the Lord took half of the blood and put it in basins, half the blood he sprinkled on the altar, and he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. So he read it to make sure they knew what they were agreeing to, and they said, yes, all that the Eternal has said we will do.

And then he took the blood of the people and he sprinkled it on the people. So this, to me, I believe was the sort of ratifying of this law and this Constitution. They read it to him, they agreed to it, and they did a formal ceremony to say, okay, you're agreeing to this. And once again, they set up a civil government. And who was their king? They weren't going to have a Congress, they weren't going to elect a president. God was their king. But God was still God, and Jesus Christ at his right hand, who we now know is his high priest, that he didn't leave his religious role, but he took on a physical role as being a political ruler at that time.

And you can just note this down if you want. In 1 Samuel chapter 8 verses 1 through 7, it refers to the fact that God was their king. Also, 1 Samuel 12 verse 12. I probably should have just given you that one because it's very succinct. This is when the children of Israel said, give us a man to be our king like all the nations. And Samuel tried to talk them out of it, and he felt kind of hurt, and God said, no, they're not rejecting you, Samuel. They've rejected me.

Now, see, Samuel was in the position of being a political ruler at that time. He was a Nazarite, he served at the temple, but God raised up judges to run the nation. And then when they finally asked for a king, he said, okay, you asked for a king, I'm going to give you one. And he appointed 1 Saul, and then later David and his children. So God worked through this physical government, and the people of God were expected to support the government, be active in government at that time.

But that government wouldn't last. It lasted for several hundred years, but as we know, Israel and Judah would turn away from God. They would sin, they would break their covenant with him. And so he would withdraw his blessings from them, and he let them be conquered.

The northern kingdom was conquered by the kingdom of Assyria, taken off into captivity, and of course, disappeared from history. We know, though, of course, that they would filter through the nations, and later God would bestow on them the blessings that he had promised to our forefathers. You know, he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that it would make their descendants great and wealthy and powerful above any other nation. Eventually, God would fulfill those promises, but not because of what they did, but because of his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that's a subject for a whole other sermon that we might get to another time. It's important to realize, though, that after God allowed the destruction of the physical nations of Israel and Judah, he stopped using a civil government as the means for working with his chosen people.

God would still work with certain people, including us, but not necessarily through the civil government. God would instead turn to a different way of working with people, and thus he would give us a different way of relating to our governments, which is what I've been getting at this whole time. But I wanted to see... There is a difference, and if you ever wondered, how come there are laws in the... They're in Exodus and other parts that we don't really follow?

You know, and we might try to follow them in principle, but we don't see them as, you know, is it not a sin if you see your... Well, maybe it is. I'd say, if you see your neighbor's goat weren't going astray, you're supposed to keep it, and you know, that was a civil law, and we...

We don't interpret all those in the church directly because we're not running a government here.

I'm going to get myself confused. So let's go to Matthew 16. I'm not confused, but I don't want to say it, and it come out different than what I meant. And as I said, we are now operating a church. We talk about church government, but it might be more appropriate for us to say church organization. We're organized as a church, but the government here is, you know, we've got the government of Sciota County ruling here, and the state of Ohio and the United States government.

Those are governments that have that power to enforce their laws. The church, the United Church of God, has... is an organization, a corporation. We don't have power to put you in jail if you do something wrong. If you sin, we might ask you to not hang around us because we don't want to be influenced, but we don't have power to impose a fine or to put you in jail. You know, we're different. We're a church. Let's read Matthew 16 and verse 18. Now, this is breaking into the story.

We all know this is when Christ had asked the apostles, who are people saying that I am?

And they said, well, some people say you're Elijah and some John the Baptist or some other prophet.

And Peter... and he said, well, who do you think I am? Peter said, you are the Christ. You're the Son of God. And Jesus said, you're blessed because God has revealed this to you. And he said, also, I say to you that you're Peter, you're Petros, a little stone, and on this rock, this Petra, I will build my church. And the gates of hell won't prevail against it. Now, I'm pointing this out because this is the first place in the whole Bible where you find the word church.

So Jesus said, I'll build my church. Now, this is translated from the Greek word, Ecclesia. And I think I mentioned this in a previous sermon here, or it might have been somewhere else, but Ecclesias comes from two Greek words. The base word is klesis, or klesis, if you pronounce it that way, which means to invite or to call out. And ek is a suffix, no, a prefix that means out from. So in other words, the church is the people that are invited out, called out. Well, the question then is called out from what? What are we invited to come out from? Well, let's turn over a few pages to John 17. John 17, and we'll begin in verse 13.

We're called out. That's already telling us we're different, and we're coming apart from something.

Now, to set the context again, this is that final Passover that Christ spent before His crucifixion, and He gave a lot of instruction to His apostles after giving them the symbols of the new Passover.

And then He ended with a prayer to God the Father, and it was so memorable that John later wrote down the words. In John 17, verse 13, we see Christ talking to the Father, and He said, But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them your word, and by them He means the disciples that were there with Him. And the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

So He said, they're not of the world. Now, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil, or the evil one, if you have the new King James.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your word, or by your truth. Your word is truth. Jesus clearly said about His disciples then, and it applies to us today, that we are not of the world, but He said, Father, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, not physically out from the world. And why not? Well, because He's got a job for us to do while we're here. So we're supposed to be not of the world, but we're still in the world. We live amongst all the people of it. Because we're sanctified. It says, sanctify them by your truth. Sanctify means set apart, separated for a special purpose, usually a holy purpose.

The reason we're set apart, and what makes us different, of course, is we have our minds open.

The world is deceived. Mr. Armstrong called it a world held captive. If you want to make note of these, the Scripture is well known, but Ephesians 2, verse 2, refers to the Prince of the Power of the Air. We refer to Him as the Devil and Satan. And 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, says that men are blinded by the God of this age or the God of this world, but not us. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 6. Second Corinthians, chapter 6, and verse 17.

Further instruction for us on this subject.

I'm getting better at this. Seems like all week when I was working on this, I'd say 2 Corinthians, and I'd go to 1 Corinthians, and vice versa. So I might be there ahead of you if you went to 1 Corinthians.

But 2 Corinthians 6, verse 17, says, Therefore come out from among them, come out from among them those who aren't called, and be separate, says the Eternal. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

That's important. That's why, as I said, we're doing something different. We're part of a church, even though it's not a civil organization. Let's turn back a page. Actually, for me, it's on the same page. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20.

Paul wrote and said, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. I want to focus on that.

We're ambassadors for Christ. Paul was writing that about his role as an apostle, but I think it does apply very well to us as Christians in this world. We're ambassadors.

We're to represent God here in this world. We're set apart and different from most people because God the Father called each of us out, and he has that job for us. Now let's go to 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 5, verse 9.

It's a little explanation of how it is we come out and how we set ourselves apart.

Now this is a letter that Paul sent to the Corinthian church where he corrected them quite a bit, but of course we know later he encouraged them quite a bit as well. He says, In other words, he's saying, I don't want you to keep company with people who are sexually immoral or if they're idolaters or covetous. And he said, what I meant was don't keep company with anyone named a brother or who's a church member if they're doing those things.

If someone's in the congregation and they've got this kind of a problem, he's saying, don't keep company with them because it might rub off on you. Now we know from other places in the Bible you might go to your brother and say, hey, you've got a problem I want you to overcome. I'm going to pray for you and help you. But we don't want to go into that subject right now, but he was saying there's a difference in the way you treat church members from those who are of the world.

He said, I'm not telling you, you can't keep company with someone that's a sinner that's in the world because to do that you'd have to totally separate yourself. God would have to take us out to the desert or up to the moon or something like that. He said, no, you're going to be around sinners. So I didn't mean that. You're among them all the time. But you are to be different.

You're ambassadors there working with them. We fulfill God's purpose by being here and setting an example. We're among them, but we're not sexually immoral. And we're not covetous and idolaters.

Idolaters is hard to say. I want you to say idol worshippers. We're God's ambassadors here.

So let's take a little time while we're at this to consider then, how do we conduct ourselves in a relationship, not just to individuals, but to the governments? I've gone out of my way to make the case that we're part of a church. We're an organization, but we do have relationships to governments. As I said, we've got the city of West Portsmouth governs this land that we're on, and so does Sciota County. Seems like we've got a lot of governments when I start adding them up.

I'm sure there's a township in there. Well, like ambassadors, we obey local laws. Whether it is the West Portsmouth government or the Sciota County or the United States federal government, we obey those laws even though we have a higher allegiance. Let's read John chapter 18. John 18 and verse 36.

And we'll get a guiding principle. And, of course, you'll notice I quoted this earlier at the beginning of the sermon because it is my guiding principle. This is when, of course, after that final Passover, Jesus had given that instruction, conducted the new Passover, prayed to the Father, and then he was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers took him, brought him before the Sanhedrin and the high priest where they grilled him and mocked him, and then they sent him off to the governor to Pilate. Now, Pilate, of course, was a political leader who had that authority, and he was questioning him. I mean, one of the things Pilate said, are you a king?

And in verse 36, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here. Now, we do not fight for the governments of this world, but we are the servants Christ was talking about. If his kingdom were of this world, we'd be the ones he'd be calling on to fight. But that's a reason we don't fight for governments of this world. One of the things I'll mention, we don't enter the military of any country. Even though I'm patriotic and I'm raw, raw the United States, you know, when our troops are over in Iraq, I'm rooting for our side, but I'm also keeping in mind, wait a minute, my politics is the kingdom of God.

I don't want our boys shot, but I don't really have much against, you know, those Iraqi boys who have probably been led astray. Let's read 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 23. We're going to get into this a little bit more, and I skirted over some of it this morning in Prestonsburg. Most of the people there are old enough to be my parents or grandparents, and I don't think many of them were contemplating joining the military. We've got some young men here and young women who might. And I want to say, for someone who doesn't have that higher allegiance, service in the military is not a bad thing. It's not evil or sinful, but we have a higher allegiance.

1 Corinthians 7 and verse 23. You were bought at a price. Do not become servants of men.

That's to us. You were bought with a price. Well, who bought us? Well, Jesus Christ bought us, and the price was with His blood. So we're bought and paid for. We belong to someone else.

So if you belong to someone else, you can't enter the service of a different master.

That's what He said. Don't become servants of men. If a person enters the military, they take an oath and they commit full obedience to the command structure of that organization.

So a soldier in some ways becomes like a slave. Treated better, of course, but basically a soldier has to get up when he's told, go where he's told, eat what he's told, do what he's told, stop doing it. You know, when they say jump, you say, how high? And as I said, that's not a bad thing. It's good to be obedient to your commander, but if you've already been bought with a price, you can't sell yourself to someone else. Let's turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy 2, and we're going to read verse 3 and 4. 2 Timothy 2.

Let's make this analogy of soldiers. We have an analogy of us being soldiers in a different way.

Here Paul is writing to Timothy, a young minister, and he says, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So you are a soldier, but one that belongs to Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. So now a soldier who enters the military in our country say you can't get entangled in other things. They're not supposed to be involved in politics because they're going to have to answer to the commander in chief no matter which party elected him. And I kind of regret, and I tell this to Sue a lot of times, because we'll see these news stories where it's so sad these soldiers are being called up to service and they have to leave behind their wife and their children.

Well, that is sad. And I think you know there was a time in our country's history where if you were a soldier you didn't have a wife and children. You didn't entangle yourself in the world's affairs. Now you served as a young man for just so many years and then you got out and then you had a wife and children and you take out a mortgage and buy a home and things like that. You know, I wonder, part of me says that might be a good way to run things now, but I'm not getting involved in the affairs of our country and telling them how to do things.

Now we're soldiers for Jesus Christ, so we don't entangle ourselves with the affairs of the physical country. I'm not going to join the army because I'm a soldier in a different war. You know, it's interesting we sang the melody from Onward Christian Soldiers. That means something to us. You know, we're the ones, as I said, that Jesus said, if my kingdom were from here, my servants would fight.

He's talking about us. Now I cite these reasons for abstaining from military service before the sixth commandment, partly because I think it's important for us to know the distinction. You know, the sixth commandment says, thou shalt not kill, which is better interpreted as thou shalt not murder. Now we should realize for an enemy soldier on the field of battle to kill his enemy, it's not considered murder. But it would be wrong for someone who's not enlisted in the army to take it upon themselves to kill someone.

We also consider it's not murder when the state of Ohio puts to death a criminal who's been tried in a court of law and condemned to death. That's not murder. But, as I pointed out, we as a church don't execute that punishment because we're not a government. So, one of the reasons I point this out, and sorry I'm looking over at you young guys, but you're the young guys here. It's important for us to know why we do or don't do certain things.

And as far as enlisting in the military service, we haven't had a draft in this country in a long time, but there could come a time when we do once again. I remember it had not been discontinued for all that long when I came in my part of my middle teenage years. And back then, we were thinking it could start up again anytime.

And it could start up again anytime now, the way the world events are going. And one of the things they advised young men when I was one of those young men, or not quite a man, but thought I was, they told us, you know, it'd be good for you to write a letter explaining why you don't want to enter the military.

And what we did back then is we would write it out, sign it, and send it to either ourselves or to some trusted adult by registered mail so that it would be dated and sealed. And then they'd say, just keep it. Don't open it unless you're drafted. And then you can go to the draft board and you can say, see this?

I sent this to myself two years ago. Here's the U.S. Postal Service. And we're going to open it and it'll show you that two years ago, this is what I believed about military service. You know, and I basically, this is if you plan to be a conscientious objector and you want to say, okay, I have reasons that I don't want to enter the military. You know, I'll go, I'll, you know, work in the hospital here locally or do public service, but I believe it's wrong for me to become a soldier. And I don't want to kill on behalf of the government. And of course, I don't want to entangle myself in the world's affairs.

So anyways, I've often wondered how much weight that did or didn't carry with the draft board, because I didn't have to follow through on that. Although I did write the letter I was mentioning this morning. I think the last time we moved, I actually found it still in the envelope. And I was wondering, I wonder, I thought about opening it to see what I said. If it made as much sense as what I would try to do now. But, you know, it's good to think of these things. Draft boards want to know what you believe, not what your church teaches, not what your parents tell you, but what do you believe? So I emphasize this for young people, but also old, or older. And World War II, people in their 40s were going into the service. And in other countries, they were being drafted up until their 60s. Now, what about some other questions? What about voting? What about holding political office? Some of the same considerations apply, but not the exact same. Now, holding office requires a level of commitment that can be almost as binding as the military, but it is not the same thing. And I've got to say, the Scripture doesn't give us specific instruction. There are a couple of examples we can turn to. One of them is Daniel the prophet. I mentioned the Babylonian Empire before. Daniel held a high office in the Babylonian Empire. Now, the interesting thing is, he didn't campaign for that office or ask for it. He was one of those young people that were taken away from the Kingdom of Judah and put in this course of training so they could prepare for office.

And I think it's interesting to note that he not only didn't seek that office, but he risked his life at times to be obedient to God more than to the government that was employing him. He and his comrades. It's a very well-known story of he and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And often, I mentioned that this morning, we always use those names, and I believe their Hebrew names were the Hazariah and Mishael. I like those names better, but I can't remember them. They don't trip off the tongue as well. But anyways, we know all three of them said, okay, we're not going to follow the diet. We're going to risk being executed if we come out looking thin, but we're going to obey God first. Then later, of course, when Daniel was in a high office and had been for many years, some other leaders in the government got a law passed that said, you can't petition or call on anybody, any leader or God or anything other than the emperor. And Daniel said, well, I can't obey that law. And he went to his chamber, as the story says, and he bowed down on his knees three times a day to pray to God. And he didn't make a secret out of it. Now, it's interesting, he didn't do it out on the street, but he still left his windows open. Anybody standing out there could know, hey, he's breaking the law. He's praying to God. Daniel put his allegiance first, said, I'm going to obey God. I'm going to serve him. And then, if doing that will allow me to also serve a civil government, now then I could do that. I think we could make a good argument that Daniel was put in high government position by God. He was put there, perhaps, so that he could interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and so that he could do other important things. He didn't seek office, and when he was there, he used it to accomplish God's work at the time, not to build up his own wealth or his own power. But to be honest, I don't have a lot more to say about holding office. I think there have been some church members who have said, hey, I want to serve on the school board because my kids are in school. The Bible doesn't say that's a sin.

There's a similar thing about voting. The Bible doesn't give specific instruction about voting, and so the United Church of God currently has said, our specific teaching is that it's a personal choice. Now, those of you who have been around a while know that it hasn't always been like that.

For many years, the church gave a specific instruction, and the church said, don't vote.

We don't think it's good. Now, the main reason that for the change, I don't think it was watering down or because we've become liberal, it was where we said, I don't want to go any further than what the Bible specifically says. And the Bible doesn't say don't vote. Of course, it doesn't say don't vote. They didn't even know what voting was back then. So, it doesn't address something that would have been unusual. But we say it's a personal decision for each Christian to make. Now, you might imagine from the tone of the sermon so far that I don't recommend for people to vote, and I don't. I think it just starts to get you involved in things that God doesn't necessarily want us involved in. As I said, our politics are the kingdom of God. I don't recommend that people get involved in politics, and I'll just tell you I don't. Well, I do have to confess. When I was 18 years old, I registered to vote. This is when I was a little young or an immature. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure this might tell more about me than you want to know, but I didn't have this in my notes, but I thought I should give full disclosure. Way back when, we had a two-tier drinking age in Ohio, and when you turned 18, you could buy what they called 3-2 beer, and they were going to change the law and do away with that. I said, I don't want them to take away my beer. I'm going to go vote against it. And I did, and you know what? We lost the election anyways.

So it just goes to show I didn't need to be doing that. Anyway, so the one time I did, and I haven't gotten involved any time since then. But let me tell you the reasons. I listed three for why I don't vote. As I said, I can't show you a scripture that says, thou shalt not vote. But number one, we are ambassadors in this world. We're called to come out of this world and be separate.

Our primary citizenship is in heaven, and as such, our politics are the kingdom of God.

So ambassadors don't get involved in the politics or the elections of nations in which they're a host.

Number two, that one was easy because I've been talking about that for quite a while.

We know that the real solutions to society's problems are going to come when Jesus Christ returns to this earth, and he establishes his kingdom. And no political system, no law, no Congress is going to fix those problems before then. Now some might do a better job than others, and we certainly hope that they will. But I'll just cite to you Romans 8, verses 28.

Or Romans 8, 28, where it says, all things work together for good to those who are called according to God's purpose, to those who love him. I didn't quote that quite accurately, did I?

I need some ABC students here to get that straight. All things work together for good to those who are called. So we know that God is going to work things out. Let's also, let's turn to this one, Acts chapter 5. Acts 5 and verse 38.

This is a case where the apostles were preaching the gospel after Christ was crucified, and they got hauled in before the court. They didn't want them to do this. And they grilled them and chastised them, and then they put them out in another room so they could debate among themselves. And Gamaliel, the teacher, made a very interesting point. And let's see what he said here at beginning in verse 38. He says, So, Gamaliel, you're always right in that. If there's something going on that's just of men and it's useless, it's going to fail on its own, even if it takes until Christ returns.

But if it's something God is working out, you can't stop it. Do you want to be voting in an election and turn out that you're voting against what God planned to have done?

The example that comes to mind for me, and this is the example of Rehoboam.

You remember Solomon ruled in a golden age of Israel's history. And he put the people to work.

He had a labor levy and high taxes. And he built great things, built the temple and the king's house and all kinds of things. And then when he died, it was time for his son Rehoboam to become king. And the people came to him and said, okay, Rehoboam, your dad was really tough on us.

Lighten the burden a little. Will you please? Rehoboam said, okay, come back in three days and I'll give you an answer. And he goes and gets some advice from his leaders. Now, the old wise men said, listen to him. Lighten things up a little, and they're going to serve you for the rest of their lives. But the young men said, no, no, you got to show them you're tough. Let them have it. And he listened to the young foolish men. And he told the people, you think my dad was tough? He chastised you with whips. I'm getting out the scorpions or the scourges. And they separated. You know, a lot of people said, forget this. We're going to go form our own kingdom. Now, if I were a voting person, when that happened and it was put to a vote, I'd have been voting with the old wise servants, wouldn't you? So don't listen to those foolish young men about whipping them with scourges.

But what the case was, though, is God had already made a prophecy. When Solomon was still alive, he sent a prophet to say, I'm going to take the kingdom away from your son. I'm going to leave him two tribes so that I honor my commitment to David, but I'm going to take the rest away and give them to someone else. So God used that foolish counsel, bad political decisions, to accomplish his work. We don't want that to ever be the case. I mean, perhaps, I don't know, the Tea Party will get in party or get in power in Congress and we'll think, oh, that's great, but it'll accomplish something. I'm getting it backwards because I didn't plan to talk about that. Whatever we might want to support, thinking it'll work God's will, that might be contrary to what God wants to get done because we know as much as we love this nation, it's going to fall and it's going to suffer.

Not because we want it to happen, but God has a purpose and a plan. I got sidetracked there. I mentioned three reasons why I don't vote. The third is one that I've actually, in my prior employer, I mentioned several times to my boss because on voting day they were all political and he'd say, why don't you vote? And one time I told him, I don't vote in part because I'm a conscientious objector, because I'm not willing to serve in the military. And in my thought, in the way our country works, if someone is not willing to go serve their country in that way, they shouldn't take on them the privilege of voting and taking part in politics. Now, I said that's a very personal decision for me. That's not in the Bible, but I think it has some validity. If you want to bear the blessings of living in a land, you should bear some of the responsibility. We give up that responsibility because I think it's God's teaching, therefore I give up what some would consider a perk. Now, there are a lot of other reasons not to vote that makes it not a perk. Let's look on the other hand. I'm talking about what we don't do. We don't do this, we don't do that. What do we do in our country? There are some important things, and I do want to say we do support our country.

We uphold it. Let's turn to Matthew 22. Matthew 22 verse 17.

One of the ways we uphold our country is by basically coming across with the money when it tells us to. Even though it seems like they're always asking us for more than we think, more than I think they should get. This is the case where the lawyers are coming to challenge Jesus, and one of them came and says, tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes, to seize her or not? And Jesus perceived their wickedness. He knew they were trying to trick him. He said, how come you're testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money. So they brought him a denarius, a coin, and he said, whose image is this? Whose inscription? They said, Caesar's. He said, well then, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Now, this isn't the only statement about taxing, but I like the point that Christ puts it in perspective. He could have just said, yeah, pay taxes because you should, but he said, we've got more important things to think about. Certain things are important to God, and money isn't necessarily one of them. God can make money. Now, you might wonder, well, how come tithing is so important? Well, tithing is important, I say, for us to learn obedience, not about because the God needs the money. He's got all the money in the world, and if he's got all the money in the world, he's fine with us paying taxes to the state of Ohio and the federal government and everyone else. As a matter of fact, I'm upset. Sue and I, we have to go get a new driver's license because now that we've moved, I said, yeah, that's going to cost a fee, but that's one of the things we do.

Let's turn to Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 will begin at the beginning of this chapter. It spells it out a little bit more, but as I said, I like that Christ example because he puts it all in perspective.

Give to God the things that are God. Focus on what's important to God. And, you know, what's important to the government is a much smaller, lesser matter. Take care of that with them.

Romans 13 and verse 1.

Remember, there's no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror, at least we hope they're not. They're not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what's good, and you'll have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid. He does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on those who practice evil. Now, here's where I can point out some people have said, well, he's talking about government in the church. But, as I said, the church doesn't wield the sword.

We don't exercise that kind of power. He's talking about civil government, and he's saying, obey the civil government. If you obey the laws, you've got nothing to be afraid of.

And therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscious sake.

For because of this, you also pay taxes, for there are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Therefore, render therefore to all that are due, taxes to whom taxes, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. We obey the laws. We don't always like them, but we follow through. It crossed my mind when I was giving this sermon this morning. I'm thinking about building a shed at the top of the driveway, and I've got to look in and find out, do I need a building permit? If I need a building permit in Pike County, then I'll have to go get a building permit, even though I don't want to. You know, I'm going to obey the laws. I want to be a model citizen. Something else we want to do. Let's turn to 1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2, and we'll begin in verse 1.

Say, we pay taxes, we obey the laws, we try not to grumble too much about it, although I'm not setting the best example up here, am I? I should say, we love obeying the laws. They do keep you out of trouble. It says, you know, they don't wield the sword in vain. It could be saying, the sheriff doesn't carry a gun in vain, but if you're not causing trouble, and there's an old saying, you know, nothing good happens after midnight. If you're not out after midnight getting in trouble, you're not going to get in trouble with the law. And now that I'm older, I think, why would I want to be out after midnight? I don't even want to be on the couch after midnight. I want to be in bed.

But when you're younger, you see things differently. That's a side track. 1 Timothy 2, verse 1.

Therefore, I exert first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable inside of God our Savior. So we pray for the good of those who are in power, not necessarily for the success of their policies, if their policies are bad. There are some things that some parties want to do that I'm not praying that they'll succeed, but I can pray for the people. If nothing else, so that we can live peaceable lives, pray that the government will pass laws that make it possible for us to preach the gospel. Because we've had that freedom for a long time in this country, but things could happen to where that changes. We don't, you know, there is a prophecy of a famine of the hearing of the Word. We want to pray that God will stay that famine for as long as possible. Pray that we'll have peace and that the economic conditions will allow us to do the work and that we won't be harassed because we keep the Sabbath or we have other beliefs that are different than most people.

This is something, you know, and also, you know, we shouldn't be looking for people's punishment.

I know we know the prophecies to come and we think there's a time that says of Jacob's trouble.

And sometimes you might see what's happening and say, yeah, God, go get them, smack them down.

But I don't think that's his attitude and we don't want it to be ours. One of the things I commonly pray when I see these world events, when I hear of tsunamis wiping out part of Japan and earthquakes and the heat wave, I pray, God, if this is the beginning of Jacob's trouble, please let it pass swiftly. We know you're going to lose your wrath, but please let it pass over quickly and bring the time of peace because that's what we're looking for and want that for all of these people. I have some notes. I mentioned in a couple weeks I want to do a Bible study getting into Jeremiah because the book of Jeremiah, I think, is instructive in this because Jeremiah loved his country and was watching it go down. And he prayed for the good of his people and he grieved and cried. And I'm going to skip over that because we'll come to that later. But I don't think we've reached a point where we shouldn't pray for our people. We should pray for the success of our country. And it's okay to love our country. You know, we might not be entangled, we might not be voting or things like that, but we certainly want the United States to win. Boy, it was a month or so ago. I happened to be flipping channels and I saw the World Cup with the women's soccer team, and I was rooting for our women to win that. That's not even near as important as some other things.

Some of you are looking at me like, you're crazy now. I know soccer is not that important, but I want the United States to win everything we get in. But there are times when, you know, I watch the decline of our country and I hate that. There are some leaders that have policies that I really just despise and it makes me grieve. As I said at the beginning, you watch the news and you say, I hate this. I don't want this. I don't want the time of Jacob's trouble to come, but I know that it will, and I pray that it'll pass quickly. I don't wish our government leaders harm. I wish they'll change.

As I said, that brings us back to where we started. It's difficult to watch the country we love decline and it's tempting to get involved in politics or social movements to try to fix it.

But we're ambassadors here. We're primarily loyal to the kingdom of God. That's our politics.

We know that ultimately the establishment of God's kingdom and His rule on earth is what's going to solve its problems. So we refrain from getting entangled in world affairs and we don't join the military because that's not the solution. But we do support and obey and pray for good in the world and in the governments. And much more, we always pray that God's kingdom will come.