How Involved Should We Be in the World's Government?

...on the Internet. Have you ever found yourself listening to the news and you just get so frustrated and you say, I just hate this? I know, the last couple weeks it seems the politicians are arguing about one thing or another. They've been in Iowa and the Democrats are blaming the Republicans for every problem that's ever happened, and the Republicans are blaming President Obama and all of this is going on. And before that in Iowa, of course, there was the crisis over raising the debt ceiling. And if we didn't do one thing, it was going to be the end of the world. If we did the other, it was going to be this great disaster. Now, I'm sure the numbers have changed since I did this. Actually, they're changing every second, but I think when I looked at it, the United States debt alone for each individual person amounts to about $130,000. Now, it might be families, but it's still this ridiculous amount that you wonder if we're ever going to be able to repay. And then you look at international affairs. The United States is giving away billions of dollars in foreign aid. And of course, and then the people in other countries hate us. They kidnap our citizens, they burn our flag, and blame most of the problems of the world on us. And there's other social issues. We're coming up towards that time of year again where I always hear these stories. Now, we don't celebrate Christmas, but have you ever found it a little annoying that you'll hear these stories on the news that there's always someone following a lawsuit to keep schools or courthouses from having a nativity scene? You know, I don't care about the nativity scene myself, but it annoys me when they make it illegal to do that, but they'll teach classes on Buddhism and Islam in the classroom. And then there are other things. This last summer, you remember the Casey Anthony trial and the verdict on that. And, you know, global warming. Or is it cooling? Or is it just environmental rights of some kind or another? Whatever it is, it always seems to come down to politics, right? Now, in America, any issue that seems worth caring about always gets involved in politics. And I'll say that, you know, as an American history teacher, I say there's a good reason for that, really in some cases because our system was designed so that people can introduce problems into politics. But it seems that inherent in that system means there's going to be disagreements. There's going to be worrying and problems. Now, if you're paying attention, it's hard not to root for one side or another, at least at certain times. But you might wonder, how much should we? Which side is God on when it comes down to these issues? Whichever issue you take, is God on one side or the other? Now, I'd say, admittedly, at least most of the people that I've spent time with in the church tend to side more with the conservative groups more often than not. And I think that's because those people tend to have values that'll stay closer to Scripture, as I said, more often than not, but not in every single case. And not all Christians see it that way. There are some elderly brethren up in the Columbus, Ohio congregation that I've talked to, and they think the conservative politicians are way off that. And he thinks the Democrats have had it right. So we can go back and forth. And, of course, if you travel outside the United States, you'll find that there are Christians devoted to God's way of life who see, probably more clearly than we do, that America's way is not always the right way. Now, I say not always, because I tend to think it is more often than not. But what I'm getting down to in all this is that, as Christians, we need to focus on the fact that our kingdom is not of this world. I'm quoting, of course, Jesus Christ on that. He said...

... to rely on politics. But there have been times in the past where he got involved more than others. It's important for us to remember that God is able to set up and control what happens in the affairs of man. He's never sitting by wishing things would go a certain way and then frustrated when it doesn't. He doesn't vainly wish that people would straighten up. Now, God wishes people would straighten up. But he's not thinking, oh, if only they would vote this way in the election, we could get things going my way. I want to turn to 2 Chronicles 20. 2 Chronicles 20, and we're going to read verse 6. See, I think a pretty good statement on this. Now, this is the case where a king of Judah was facing a very serious problem. And he's praying to God, and he makes a statement that I think is fairly profound. 2 Chronicles 20 and verse 6. This is the King Jehoshaphat, as in great jumping. And he said, O Lord God of our fathers, you are not... Oh, let me back him and say that again. 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? And he said it very well. Say, you're God in heaven. You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. No one can stop you. Now, he was pointing out, God's in charge. He can give nations their power, or he can take them away anytime. I want to point out there was another wise man that also made this point. This isn't in Scripture, but Benjamin Franklin made an interesting statement during the Constitutional Convention. Now, if you remember this, the United States had won its independence a few years earlier, but we were 13 different states who were sort of loosely allied, but not one central government as we became later. And so they called this convention, with leading men from all the various states, to forge a new government. Now, that sounds great, and what came out of it was pretty good in the end. But early on, they were having some serious problems. They began about May and June, and delegates straddled in, and they started debating, and they reached an impasse. The big states wanted things a certain way, and the small states wanted things a certain way, and they just could not reach an agreement. And as time went by, the weather was getting hotter. Now, one reason this is significant is they'd agreed to have their meetings in secret, so they wouldn't have all this pressure from outside groups. So they kept the windows closed, and guards posted. So it was getting really hot and uncomfortable, and tempers were getting high, and it was looking like the whole thing was going to fall apart. They might say, we can't agree, we're just going to go our separate ways. Knowing that if they did so, the United States would be no more. They'd break up into a series of small governments. And at this point, when all seemed like it might be lost, Benjamin Franklin, the oldest delegate there and the most experienced, made a motion. He offered a motion to the convention, and I love the quote. He said, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the knowledge of divine providence, is it unlikely that we can build up a great empire without God's help and favor? And so, saying that, he made a motion that they begin opening every session with prayer. They hadn't been doing that before. So he said, basically, God's in control. Let's ask him for help.

And it was not long after that, the impasse was broken. They reached a compromise between the large states and the small states. Now, the compromise doesn't matter. It was in how Congress would be put together with proportional representation in the House of Representatives and then equal in the Senate. But I think it's significant that then when they realized they needed God's help, things worked out. Franklin was right. And we believe that God has been very much involved in the rise to power and prominence of these United States. I'm just telling old school. They say, the United States. They said these before the Civil War. Maybe since I'm south of the river, I should talk that way. I don't know.

But it is true. God can and does raise up governments as it suits his purposes, and he can bring them down. He can bless policies and decisions of leaders, or he can stymie them. And I suspect that in a lot of cases, he doesn't do either. I wonder how many cases God just sits back and says, you're arguing about this or that. I'm not going to take a hand because whatever decision you make, it won't change the plan and purpose that I have. Of course, he's not telling us which is the case and all of those, but I suspect it happens. Now, there might have been a couple of distinct turning points, and when and how God did work with nations. Welcome. If you will, let's turn back to the book of Genesis in chapter 9.

Genesis 9, we'll begin in verse 5.

Where I'm going to is shortly after the flood, when obviously God wiped out everyone except for Noah and his family, and he had them save enough of the animals to repopulate the earth, and then God starts giving some instructions for how things are going to work. It seems that after the flood, there was a distinct turning point. So, let's begin reading in verse 5.

Now, I think what he's saying here is, whoever kills a man, whoever sheds a man's blood, by a man, the punishment will be reckoned. Now, there are a lot of scholars who've studied this, and they think that this might be when God formally turned over to human governments the authority to impose capital punishment.

And if you have the authority to impose capital punishment, you have the authority to do everything less than that. So, in essence, this is one of those turning points where God said, okay, I'm giving you authority to rule yourselves, and I'm not taking a hand. You're doing your own governments. Now, there was an earlier crucial turning point, as we know, and I'm not going to turn there, but we know that after Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, God cast them out of the Garden of Eden.

And there's no record of exactly what he said. He gave them some commandments. But I love the way Mr. Armstrong used to say it. Mr. Armstrong said that, in essence, God told Adam and Eve, okay, you go out and decide for yourselves what's right and wrong. Since you didn't want to take the tree of life, you wanted the tree of knowledge of good and evil, I'm going to leave it to you.

You decide what you think is right and wrong. Set up your own governments. Build your own societies. Create your own religions. I'm staying out of it. Accept to reserve the right to intervene when I choose to do so to accomplish my purpose and program. As we said, we don't know if God said those exact words, but we know he gave man authority to rule over himself to some degree. And I should point out that, of course, not everything man has done since then has been bad. It wasn't the tree of the knowledge of evil, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So man's governments have accomplished some good and some evil. And I'd say that's the case in the United States. I'm guessing most of you are natives of the United States and loyal. Because I am, and I think we've done some pretty good things. I think the United States has been the best country ever to some degree. But it's clear that sometimes we're not doing what God wants, and he'll step in to bring things about for his own purpose.

Now, another case I'll summarize, and if you want to turn to Daniel 2 to follow, we'll see Daniel 2 is the case where God gave a dream to King Nebuchadnezzar. The king of this great empire, the Babylonian empire, was not just a kingdom, but it became a kingdom over kingdoms. It became an empire. Their king ruled over other kings. It was the first time, at least in this area of the country, and perhaps the first time in the world that that had ever happened.

And so Nebuchadnezzar was a special ruler, and God sent him this dream. And you all know, and we've explored it many times in the church, that he saw this great image made out of metal, but not all the same kind of metal. The head was made out of gold, and then the shoulders and arms were made out of silver. The belly and the thighs were made out of brass, and then the legs out of iron, with the toes being mixed with iron and clay.

And Nebuchadnezzar knew this had to be important, but he couldn't figure out what it was about. So he calls all of his soothsayers, all of his magicians, saying, tell me what this means, and none of them could. And then finally, Daniel, who was one of the captives from the children of Israel, is brought forward. Well, he volunteers when he finds out, you know, that King-soldiers are going to kill all the magicians.

And Daniel comes forward, and humbly says, I can't tell you the dream, but there is a God in heaven who reveals things. And Daniel reveals that God was letting Nebuchadnezzar know the course of human affairs for many years to come. And he said, basically, this head of gold represents you, King Nebuchadnezzar, in your empire. The head of gold represented the Babylonian empire, you know, the first in line of ruling over many others and of high quality.

And it would be followed by another kingdom that might be stronger, but would be of lesser quality. So the silver represented the Medes and the Persians, who conquered the Babylonians. Then the belly and thighs of brass represented the Greeks, you know, led by Alexander the Great, who built an even larger empire. And they say, Alexander, he died at a young age, considerably younger than I am now. And he was crying because he felt there was nothing left for him to conquer. Anyways, that went on for a while, and then finally the Roman Empire, represented by the legs of iron.

The Roman Empire was far larger than any of the others, ruled all of the known world at that time, with the strength of iron.

But some people thought, well, its culture is about as beautiful as iron. It didn't measure up to the gold and silver eras before.

Now, what I want to point out in all this is that prophecy would be fulfilled, and none of it happened by accident. God foretold many years in advance that it would be that way. And then he worked behind the scenes and caused things to happen in certain ways so that those empires would rise and other empires would fall exactly as He had predicted. And He made sure it happened to fulfill His purpose. And of course, if we were to go down to look at the prophecies of Revelation and Daniel, we know that there would be resurrections of that Roman Empire. Later on, we have the beast with seven heads and ten horns, and that's for another day.

It's also important for us to remember the end of that vision.

Daniel said, Nebuchadnezzar, then you saw a stone cut out without hands, and it smote the image on its toes, and it all crumbled and just blew away in the wind. And of course, and then the stone became a mountain that filled the whole earth. That stone in the mountain that came out of it represented God's kingdom. That, of all those kingdoms, would be the one that would last. That will be the one that God works through. And of course, that's the one where our loyalty will lie. That's where we get involved, and we are citizens of that kingdom.

Now, I've sometimes wondered, I believe, you know, we've seen through history all these things fulfilled, even though as God planned them in advance and revealed that they would happen. You know, I wonder, on the other side of the world, there were various empires that rose and fell in China. You know, when you hear the Ming and the Hong and other names that might be harder for me to pronounce. I don't know if God caused them to go in a certain way to fulfill His purpose, or if He just left hands off and said, that one doesn't matter to me. And the same in the Western Hemisphere. Later on, the Aztecs and the Mayans and the Incas would rise and fall. Did God bring that about the way He wanted, or did it not matter until the Europeans came over?

Well, we can be sure. Nothing has happened in world history that God did not allow to happen. And nothing that He wanted to happen could ever be prevented. Let's turn to the book of Isaiah, chapter 45. Isaiah 45 will begin in verse 1. This would be a prophesying one of those transitions from one kingdom, one empire to another.

This will be when the Persians conquered the Babylonians, and God foretold it in advance. Well in advance. So we begin here in 45, verse 1.

That you may know that I, the Eternal, who call you by name, am God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, my elect, I have 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. And that they may know, from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me. I am the Eternal, and there is no other.

And of course, he goes on. Now what's interesting, this is sort of like you've heard the story of Babe Ruth calling a shot. Famously at the baseball game, he pointed his bat, so I'm going to hit a home run right there. And we all know, well, if you play baseball, it's hard to know if you're going to hit the ball at all, let alone hit it out of the park in a certain place.

God did something far greater than that. Hundreds of years before the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire, he said, this empire is going to rise and conquer the one before it, and I'm going to name the guy who will be its leader. He called him Cyrus, even though Cyrus wasn't born yet. This happened before Cyrus was born.

And he said, I'm naming you Cyrus, you don't know me. Cyrus didn't read these scriptures, but God said, you're going to be the one that's going to go. And he described somewhat how he would get in. It talks about him being able to open the leaved gates. Historians say that Babylon had this incredibly thick wall, and there was no way to get around it. But Cyrus would eventually divert a river that went under the gates so that they could get in and then open the gates from the inside. So God planned it all in advance and knew how it would happen. And the tradition says that after Cyrus had done all that, then he came into the Holy Land to conquer what became Israel.

And they showed him this prophecy in the book of Isaiah, and he read the scroll, and he was just astounded that this had been written long, long before he was born and explained exactly what he was going to do. So God can get done what he wants to. He's in charge, and he doesn't have to resort to politics. He doesn't need us to vote in a certain way. But I do want to point out, and I'm going to make a transition here, that there was a time in human history that God did choose to have his people work through a civil government, where they would be involved in the government and set the laws.

And this was, of course, the nation of Israel. God would call them out and set up an actual government, and it wasn't just a church within a nation, but it was a nation itself. Let's turn to Exodus 19. I always find this interesting how God made an agreement, or he makes a covenant.

I always thought covenant is a very religious-sounding word, but it basically means an agreement between two or more parties to do things a certain way, and that's exactly what this was here. God will make an agreement with a group of people to set up a government and for them to accept the laws that he would appoint.

Okay, Exodus 19. And of course, this is after God led the children of Israel out of Egypt by a strong hand and brought them out to meet with him. So it says, 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 from Rephidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain.

And Moses went up to God, and the eternal called 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, and how I bore you on evil's wings, and brought you to Myself.

Now therefore, if, and it is a big if, 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. So He says, These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. Now, so God basically makes a proposition to the people.

So there's an if and a then. If you'll obey My words, then I'll make you into a kingdom and a nation.

Of course, if we skip to verse 7, not skip, but read on 7. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all the words which the eternal commanded him. And the people gave him an answer. The people answered together and said, All that the eternal was spoken we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the eternal. And of course, we go from there. So basically God put this proposition out to the people. If you'll obey Me, make me your God, I'll make you a special nation. They say, Yeah, we're going to do it. Go tell Him okay. And Moses goes back to God. He's the go-between. And God says, Well, good. Get ready. I'm going to come and talk to Him in person. And I'll summarize here, but He says, Get ready, wash your clothes. In three days, I'm going to come down and talk. And of course, He comes down on the Mount of Olives, Mount Sinai. And the mountain smokes and is on fire. And He thunders out the Ten Commandments. God's speaking to them in person. And the people were shaking in their shoes. They were very impressed. And they said, Moses, please don't have God come and talk to us anymore. That's great that He did, but that's enough. You go talk to God and let us know what He says. And of course, God expected that, I think. And so God called Moses up. And it's interesting. If you read, and I'm not going to take the time to do it now, Exodus 21 through 23, as a matter of fact, the beginning of verse 21, it says, These are the judgments that you'll set before them. And there's a whole set of laws, basically for a civil nation. It doesn't get into the sacrifices here, but it's basically a set of laws, how you're going to organize and run your society. And it's kind of like saying, Here's your set of laws. I'm going to establish a constitution. Now, are you willing to accept it? And if we go to chapter 24, chapter 24 will begin in verse 3. We'll see that the people already said that they would do it. Now they accept. And they do what I like to think of as ratifying the constitution. Now, when the United States Constitution is ratified, they sent it out and had special conventions in each one of the states and had the delegates vote. Here, they didn't do that, but they would have a special sacrifice. Chapter 24, verse 3.

And then, Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins. Half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And then he took the book of the covenant. Remember, he'd written all these laws out. And he read it in the hearing of the people. And once again, they said, All that the eternalists said we will do and be obedient. So they knew what they were agreeing to. And then Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. I've often thought that might have seemed a little gruesome at the time, but it was a special act saying, We're entering this agreement. Here are the set of laws for you to be a nation. They said, We'll do it. He sprinkled the blood there. And I'm looking, I believe there's a part later where it says he sprinkled some of the blood on the scroll. But they made this particular covenant and they agreed to it. So he set up a physical government. Now, it wasn't that it wasn't religious also. This is the one case where church and state were fully combined.

But I do have a note here just to remind you. Notice in all this so far, the sacrificial system wasn't yet included. There would be a set of laws for how to worship God, how to pay for sin, but he also gave a set of laws, as I said, for running a civil government. And in this kingdom, God was their first king. If you'll skip ahead to 1 Samuel 8, you will notice that it specifically says God was their king. Now, God, of course, is our king and he's king of kings and lord of lords. But I think we can focus here in a different way. He was the chief executive officer of this kingdom. So he wasn't just acting as God or just as the high priest, but he was their king. He was their physical ruler of their nation. And, of course, he had physical men need to appoint in offices. Usually they were called judges to carry out his word. 1 Samuel 8. We'll see that God was the king when people started thinking they wanted a different king.

Now, it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of the firstborn was Joel and the second Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. Now, of course, it's worth pointing out Samuel had been a Nazarite all of his life, and he served in the temple, but he became a judge. So God was the king and Samuel was like his agent on earth during his bidding.

He appointed his sons to help run things with him. But the sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest game. For some reason those words aren't coming out today. They turned aside after dishonest game, took bribes, perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Rhema. And they said, look, you're getting old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Now the thing is, just please Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us.

So Samuel prayed to the eternal. And eternal said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people in all they say to you, for they have not rejected you. They have rejected me that I should not reign over them. So here God is pointing out, yeah, I'm the one that's been reigning over them.

You've just been my agent. If you'll move forward ahead a few pages to chapter 12. Chapter 12 and verse 12. And a little bit later, Samuel is addressing the nation, letting them know what they're in for when they ask for a human king. But he says, you saw Nahash the king, the Ammonites came against you. And you said, no, but a king shall reign over us. When the eternal your God was your king. So God was once king of an actual nation. He wasn't just controlling things and raising up emperors, as he would do later through the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans.

At this one particular time, God was the king. And he set up a civil government that the people had agreed to. And there was a time then that it was proper. It was even expected for God's people to be involved in government. Because God was the king, his people should be involved in enforcing the laws and caring about those laws. Now, they didn't hold elections because God was also the law giver. They didn't have a three-part, three-branch system of government like we have in the United States.

But at that time, God's law was the law of the land. But that government would not last. We know that. Israel and Judah would both turn from God. They would break their covenant with him. And then he would withdraw his blessings and eventually let them be conquered by other peoples. It's worth noting, of course, God would still fulfill the promises that he'd made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He would let them suffer for a while, and then in the future would fulfill those promises.

And of course, he would raise some of those descendants to great prominence and power. And the United States and Great Britain have seen those promises fulfilled. We've become the most powerful nation on the earth because of what God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But the modern identity of the descendants of Israel is a subject for another sermon that I didn't want to get into today. Although, I think I might want to talk about it before too long. But it's important to realize that after God allowed the destruction of the physical nations of Israel and Judah, he stopped using civil government as a means for working with his called-out people.

At that point, when those kingdoms were there, when God was working with people, the civil government was their way of interacting. But when they fell, God would still want to work with people, but not through a government.

Instead, he would work through us through a different way. It's interesting. I was just getting there, and I looked at my notes, and I've got that same exact thing written down. Sometimes it's good if I follow them at the right pace. So let's review a well-known passage in Matthew 16. We're going to go to Matthew 16 and verse 18.

This is the famous case where Christ is talking to his apostles. At one point, he asked him, Who are people saying that I am? They're given different answers. Some say, Oh, you're John the Baptist, or you're Elijah, or one of the prophets. He said, Who do you think I am? Peter said, You're the Christ.

You're the Son of God. In verse 18, you're blessed because God has revealed this to you. He says, I say to you that you're Peter. You're Petros. I've heard some people speculate that he was sitting in a nice, cool cave. They were sitting on a huge rock, and he pulled up a little thing.

You're this. You're this little pebble. But on this rock, this massive petra, I'm going to build my church. This is the first time in all the Bible where the word church appears.

That's why I wanted to go to this one. I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now, you probably know that the word church here is translated from the Greek word ecclesia, or ecclesia. I've heard it pronounced different ways. And that's a two-part word. Ecclesis is the base, which means to invite. And ech, the e-k means out, or out from. So the church are those who are invited out.

Those invited out are the church. They're the ones that are set apart. And the church of God is a people who God has invited out, but out from what? Let's turn a few pages back to John 17. What are we invited to come out from?

John 17 will begin in verse 13. Now, this is a section of what we sometimes call the real Lord's Prayer. Part of that final Passover service of Christ's ministry, he revealed, and he gave the new emblems of the Passover and gave a lot of instruction. And then at the end, he said a fervent prayer to the Father, and John recorded most of it. And I lost my place. Yeah, 17 in verse 13. So Jesus is speaking to the Father, and he says, 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, that's His disciples, I've given them Your Word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. Well, clearly Christ was saying, when we say, what are we called out of?

It's out from the world, but not physically out from the world. Because He said, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but protect them from the evil of the world, from Satan's influence. So that's not only the apostles then, in Christ's time, but those who would believe through them. Christ prayed that the Father would call us out of this world, but not physically out of the world, spiritually. I read the Scripture, He says, sanctify them by Your truth, because we know the word sanctify means set apart.

Set apart for a special purpose, usually a holy purpose. And that's why we're set apart from this world. Now, we know why the world, when He said, keep them from the evil one, there are various places, and you can make note of these Scriptures if you want, I'm not going to turn there, but Ephesians 2, verse 2, refers to the prince of the power of the air. That's that same evil one that we call Satan the devil.

Also, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, says that men in general are blinded by the God of this age. Most people are blinded. They're held captive, as Mr. Armstrong used to say. But we've been given a calling to come out from that. We've been freed from that captivity. If you will now, join me in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6.

2 Corinthians 6, and we'll read verse 17.

Paul's quoting here. He says, Therefore come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. He says, Come out from among them, and be separate. It's like that being invited out. We're called out, but not physically out of the world. And I think this is an important thing for us to distinguish. And at summer camp earlier this year, I had some discussion with some of the young people about our views toward certain laws. And why don't we as a church enforce certain things that are written in the Old Testament? And one of the points I made is that we as a church are not a civil government. We live within different civil governments, but we don't have the authority to enforce certain laws the way a civil government does. We have the challenge to come out of the world as a body, as sanctified people, and we govern ourselves as far as our conduct within an organization. But we're not governing ourselves civilly. We don't set the laws and enforce the laws for stealing or for paying taxes and all kinds of things like that. Rather, what we are, if you'll turn back another... Actually, for me, it's on the same page, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 20.

2 Corinthians 5 and verse 20. 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. Now, when Paul wrote this, he was speaking of himself and the other apostles, saying, We're ambassadors for Christ. We're sent to you on Christ's behalf. But I think, appropriately, we can look at this as a description of what we are in this world. We're called out of the world, but not physically out. That didn't sound good. We're here as Christ ambassadors. We are here to represent his government and to act as such. As a matter of fact, let's also turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 9. I'm trying to take my time on these, because when I was reviewing my notes earlier, I said 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians. I was always going to the wrong Corinthians and getting chapters and verses confused. But 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 9, here, the Apostle Paul is describing some of our conduct as we separate ourselves from those of the world. He said, I wrote to you in my epistle, that is, my letter, not to keep company with sexually immoral people.

Yet, certainly, I did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous or extortion or idolaters, since then you'd have to come out of the world. So he's saying, I meant, he said, don't affiliate with people if they claim to be brethren that are doing these sins. In other words, don't hang out with someone in the church who is sexually immoral. You might go to him as a brother and say, you know better than this, you need to straighten this out.

I don't want to spend time at your house until you change your ways. But he's not saying, or he was specifically telling him, I didn't mean for you never to have any dealings with someone in the world who is committing some of these sins. Because to do that, you'd have to physically come out of the world. We'd have to all go off in the desert somewhere. And God didn't call us to do that. He called us to morally separate from the world, but physically we're in the midst of it, as ambassadors for God's way of life.

So we have this dual role. We're separate, but we're here.

And of course we fulfill God's purpose. We preach the gospel. We're a witness, an example, by being those ambassadors.

So let's take a little time. I've got some time. Good. I was worried about getting...

I had a lot of material. I wasn't sure how much to spend on some of that.

But how do we conduct ourselves in relation then to civil governments? To the politics around us. I started off by saying we hear all this stuff in the news, and we get fed up. And if you're like me, you sometimes thought, I'm going to go register to vote, because I'm going to support this man, or not that man. And I'm going to vote to change this law. So what do we do?

Well, for one, I'd say, as ambassadors, of course we obey the local laws. Now, we obey God first. We have a higher allegiance. But in any case where a local law doesn't conflict, if it doesn't make us great God's law, we obey the local laws. That includes things like, well, I've been thinking about building a shed behind my house now that I have the new house. I have to find out, do I have to have a permit to build a shed or not? Now, there's nothing in the Bible that says, thou shalt not pay for a permit. So if I need a permit, then I'm going to have to go pay for the permit. Of course, I'm hoping I don't because it's just another hassle. Let's turn to John 18. John 18, and we'll read verse 36.

This is an important principle that should guide us in many things that we do or don't do as far as dealing with the affairs of this world.

Now, this, of course, is after Jesus had been apprehended. Earlier, we were reading of his prayer to the Father at the end of that Passover service. We know then Judas Iscariot came with a band of soldiers, and they took him away. He was taken first before the Sanhedrin. He was questioned by the high priest, and they mocked him and abused him. Then they sent him to Pilate, who was the civil governor. Pilate asked him a lot of questions, and Christ said something very important.

In verse 36, Jesus answered, 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. My kingdom is not of this world. This pretty much sums up our guiding principle on how we deal with the politics and affairs of this world. We do not fight for the governments of this world, because our allegiance is first to the kingdom of God. To Jesus Christ as our king. When he says, If my government were from here, my servants would fight, we're the servants that would be doing the fighting if it came down to that. But he said, My kingdom is not from here, so they're not fighting. And of course, that's the biggest reason we don't enter the military of any country. Now, some of you or older, you might have been in the military before you were in the church, and of course, that's a whole different matter. I'm talking about when we're younger, do we serve God's church and then also go join the navy or the military? Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 23. 1 Corinthians 7, I better talk before Connor takes the stage from me. Apostle Paul says, You were bought with a price. When you're bought with a price, I mean, someone owns you. You're bought with a price. Do not become the slaves of men. I'm going to stop there because he was writing this to the Church of Corinth, but it applies to all of us. Now, if we were bought with a price, who bought us? Well, Jesus Christ did, and the price was His own blood. So He bought us. He owns us. And He says, Therefore, don't become the slaves or servants of men. Now, when a person enters the military... Now, I wonder, have any of you been in the military in the past? No? Okay. I know a lot of times when I meet the elderly brethren in the Church, a lot of them had served in other times. You know, when you enter the military, you take an oath. And you come under that command structure of that organization. When you're a soldier in the army, in some ways, you're like a slave. Now, they treat our soldiers much better than slaves. But you have to do what you're told. Obey without question. Go where you're told to go. Do what you're told to do. Now, that's not necessarily bad. You know, we want our soldiers to obey, and hopefully the commanders are well-trained and send them on good missions. But if you have a pre-existing obligation to serve God, to live by His way of life, then it could be difficult coming under that command structure where you're forced to obey. Now, think of this. You know, if a young man enters the army, is his commander going to allow him to just keep the Sabbath? Is he going to let him say, okay, take off time for the Feast of Tabernacles when that comes in October? Is he going to allow him to decide what he will eat and won't eat? No, of course not. A soldier has to obey his commanding officer. Now, we're not against soldiers obeying. Certainly, that's what we want them to do. Except we've been called to obey a different commander. And I know, well, most of us aren't probably in danger of going and joining the army, but I know some of us might have an opportunity to give advice to younger men and women. You've got to remember, it's a different day and age. A lot of women might enter. And it's good for us to have advice to give them as to how they should conduct themselves. Let's turn to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy, Chapter 2.

I did it again. I'm looking at 1 Timothy. I told you I was doing this all week. 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, and we're going to verse 3. Now, it's interesting because I've been saying we don't enter the army, but that doesn't mean that we can't liken ourselves to soldiers. Because here the Apostle Paul is talking to Timothy, a younger minister, and he said, "...you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of 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." And that's true for physical soldiers. And this is one of my gripes. Sue hears me say this when we watch the news all the time, because there's usually some story about how terrible it is that a soldier has to go off to Afghanistan or Iraq and leave his wife and children behind. And I've always said, you know, in the old days, you didn't have a wife and children if you were in the army. You entered and did your service, and then you got married afterwards. You know, it's a different era, but that was a case where you didn't entangle yourself in the affairs of the world. You didn't have kids. You didn't take out a mortgage and buy a house. You didn't do any of that. You were a soldier. And until you were done being a soldier, you didn't get entangled.

Well, he's saying we're a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We can't afford to let ourselves get entangled in the affairs of the world too much. Now, that doesn't mean we can't get married and have kids, because there's plenty in the Bible that shows us we can. And the same for operating a business or buying a home.

But there's some of the affairs of this world we don't want to entangle ourselves in. And I think some of those include politics. We don't need to get involved in politics or worrying about running for city council or things like that, because we've got a higher purpose. And I think when we sing onward Christian soldiers, that should mean something to us. Because we are Christian soldiers. We are the servants that Jesus Christ said would fight if His kingdom were of this world.

I wanted to spend some time there. And again, as I said, some of these are on my mind because of dealing with the teenagers that camp. I like to cite these reasons for not joining the military before the Sixth Commandment. We all know in the Ten Commandments it says, thou shalt not kill. And it's better to translate as thou shalt not murder. And I think that's accurate. We don't want to take things into our hands to kill. But killing an enemy soldier in the act of war isn't considered murder if you're following the commands of your command structure. And it's not murder for a government to impose the capital punishment.

If my understanding of Genesis 9 was correct, where I said, God told them, whoever sheds blood by man, his blood will be shed. That's by a proper government that has that authority. Now, for someone to go out and kill an enemy soldier, if they're not in the opposing army and following the commander's orders, then it's murder. You know, if someone goes out, if we find someone that we think is guilty of a crime that deserves the capital punishment, it would be wrong for any of us to go out and take it into our hands and say, I'm going to impose the punishment you deserve.

No, that would be murder, and we don't do that. But we don't say that it's wrong, at least my personal thought. If, you know, I know Ohio has the death penalty, I was guessing Kentucky did, but when they impose that, it's not our affair, so to speak. As Christians, we're loyal to a different government, and if this government imposes the death penalty, then so be it.

But we're not going to join in that government and take that upon ourselves and certainly not do it outside of the government. Now, as I said, these are important things for us to know, and if you're advising children or grandchildren, should they enter the service? Well, there are things to know. I remember when I was a young man, the draft had recently been discontinued, which I'm trying to think of, or was discontinued just before I reached draft age. It was fashionable back then for young men in the church, and they'd advise us to do it when we were 15 or 16.

We'd write out a letter that stated our reasons for not wanting to join the military, why we would claim conscientious objector status. We do this years before we could be drafted and send it to ourselves or to a trusted adult by registered mail. And then you keep it sealed. You never open it, but it's got a record of when you wrote it.

Then, if you ever called before a draft board, you'd open it there and say, See, three years ago I wrote this, and these are my beliefs as to why I shouldn't join the army. I didn't just make it up because I'm a coward and don't want to fight. Now, I sometimes wondered how much weight that would carry with a draft board. As I said, in this day and age, I never got called before one, but I did write the letter. I've been wondering if I could find that. I saw it a few years ago. I think when we moved into the last house before the one we just moved into, I found it.

And I might have said, Well, I don't need this anymore. Now I'm getting old and gray. I want to say, they're not going to draft. I think in World War II, we were getting up to men in their 40s would serve. Of course, a lot of them volunteered. That's getting into a whole other matter. But there are a couple of other questions to consider.

What about voting? What about holding government office? Now, these have some of the same considerations of serving the military, but not exactly. Let's think about holding office. One of the things I like to keep in mind is that serving in a government office to do it properly requires a level of commitment. Nearly as binding as the military. It's not quite the same.

You're not coming in that command structure, but they do offer... Well, they ask you to take an oath. Usually, they'll let you affirm, but you've got to be committed. Can you put God first and service to an office? Well, the Scripture doesn't give a specific instruction on those two. Now, I think it's worth looking at the example of Daniel the prophet. I wonder sometimes about government service. Daniel held a very high office in first the Babylonian Empire and then the Persian Empire. It was very unusual that he served in one, and then when they were conquered, the new guys brought him in.

And there's no indication that Daniel was wrong for doing that. But we should note, it's very clear that throughout his service, he always put obeying God first. And I'm not going to take the time to turn there, but we know that he would even risk his life to obey God first. He, when he was a young man, he, along with his friends, I'm going to chadrak, mishak, and Abednego. Now, those were their Babylonian names. I like to say it was Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael. You're looking at me blank. You don't remember them better than I do.

But they had Hebrew names. They risked their lives to say, we're not going to do what the king says. We're not going to eat that food he's giving us. We want to eat only vegetables. Basically, they didn't want to eat unclean meats. And, you know, the person that was in charge of them said, well, I'll take a risk and let you do this, but you're in big trouble if it doesn't work out. Later, it went even further. The government, the king, issued a command saying, nobody's allowed to call on any other deity or leader other than our emperor for 30 days. Daniel said, I can't obey that law.

I've got to pray to God. And he went three times a day, and it says he got down on his knees in his chamber, but with his windows open, he didn't go off to hide. Now, I don't think he was bragging. He didn't do it in the middle of the street. But he made it clear for anybody that wanted to know that he put obeying God before obeying the physical governments, even though he was, you know, an office holder in that government. And, of course, they caught him doing it, not that he was hiding. Took him and threw him in the lions den.

And, fortunately, God stopped the mouth of the lion and protected Daniel. I still love that. He was dead. The king stayed up all night worrying, and then he came the next morning and said, Hello, Daniel! Was God able to save you? And Daniel answered, Oh, king, live forever! Which was their standard thing. It's like, yes, God saved me from the mouth of the lion. And they threw the other guys down and it ate them. So, where was I coming with all that?

I think we can make a good case that Daniel was put in government office to serve God's purpose. He was fairly unique. You don't see that, you know, you don't see a lot of other examples in the Bible. He didn't seek the office. He didn't campaign. He didn't look for it. He didn't necessarily try to keep it. But he did use his power and his position when he was there to do God's work, rather than to build up wealth or his own influence.

Now, what about voting? You know, at this time, the United Church of God doesn't give its members specific instructions. Our official stance is that it's a matter of personal choice. It's not a sin if you go vote. It's certainly not a sin if you don't choose to vote. Now, it's funny, I've got in my notes, those of you who've been around a while know that in former times we've taught differently. And I'm guessing a lot of you have been around for a while. And you'll remember that we specifically said back then, we don't think it's right for us to vote. And we gave some pretty good reasons. You might wonder, why then did we have a change in our official doctrine? The main reason is that the Bible doesn't specifically say, thou shalt not vote. And honestly, it would be surprising if it did, because voting was a very foreign concept. Most of the governments in the Bible were autocracies or such like that. If you said, don't vote, it would have been like saying, don't start your car with someone else's keys. Start a car, what's that? And they said, don't vote, they wouldn't have known what it meant. Now, if it's a personal decision for each Christian to make, you might imagine from the tone of my sermon that I don't recommend people voting. And that's exactly it. I don't recommend that. And I don't. And rather than tell you what the Bible says, you know, since I said, it said, said, said. I've got to watch out, I get the same words coming through. It doesn't specifically say, thou shalt not vote. Let me tell you the reasons why I don't and why I recommend people not to. And they're mostly reasons I've been discussing. Number one, I believe that we are ambassadors. We are representing God's government in this world. And so our citizenship is in heaven. We're loyal to that government. So we shouldn't get involved in politics, even though we might want to, even though the news might really make us say, oh, I really want to take a hand in that. We don't want to get involved. Number two, we know that the real solutions to society's problems are going to come when God brings his kingdom to this earth. In the millennium, we're not going to listen to the news and say, oh, I hate this. Now, in the millennium, there's going to be good news and we're going to be saying, this is great. I love it.

If we did get involved, might we ever be found working against God's purpose? We don't need to turn there. You probably all know Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 28. I should have just said Romans 8, 28. All things work together for good according to God's purpose, for those who call it according to his purpose. So God will work out things to his good, and it might be something that we wouldn't have thought of at the time. You know, when he raised up the Babylonian empire, probably God's people didn't see that as a good thing at the time, but it was accomplishing God's purpose. Let's do turn to the book of Acts, Acts, chapter 5. Acts 5, we'll begin in verse 38.

I'm not going to end as early as I thought I would.

Acts 5, verse 38. Now, this is the case where the... I'm not quoting one of God's servants, but someone that I think God used to say something very important. The apostles had been taken into custody for preaching the gospel, and so the Jews who were in charge then took them and were trying to reprimand them. And then they set them out, and they were discussing amongst themselves in the Sanhedrin. And one of their leaders, I believe it was Gamaliel, said something important in verse 38.

I think of that as concerning what's going on out in the world. It might be something that is fulfilling a prophecy, that it's not the way God would have us do it, but he's letting men who aren't in the church do things a certain way to fulfill prophecies. So we don't want to fight against God. And one way or another, it'll work out to the good. One of the examples, you probably know the story, after Solomon died, his son, Rhea Bohem, was to become king. And he gathered in some of his servants, his advisors, and said, Okay, give me advice. The people are asking me to lower their taxes. And the old wise servants said, We'll lower their taxes, and they'll be your servants forever, and things will be great. And the young men said, No, come down on a par and say, My dad was tough, I'm going to be even tougher. And so we would have said, Rhea Bohem, don't follow that advice. If there had been up for a vote, we would have voted with the old guys.

But God caused Rhea Bohem to follow the bad advice, because it had already been prophesied earlier that the kingdom would be taken away from him. Even while Solomon was alive, the prophet came and told him, I'm going to take away the kingdom except for these two tribes. Now, let's leave those to your son to fulfill my promise to David, but I'm going to take the rest of the kingdom away. We would have never thought that way. We would have said, those politicians are idiots. Don't listen to them.

But God was working out his purpose.

Now, another reason I give why I don't vote, my third reason, is because I would claim to be a conscientious objector. Now, I'm old enough that they wouldn't want me serving in the military anyway, but if I were called on, I would say, No, I don't serve. And I gave you the reasons before. And I've told this, matter of fact, my former employer, my boss, would ask, Why don't you go vote? And I'd say, one of the reasons I'd say is, I don't vote because I'm a conscientious objector. I'm not willing to go fight for my country. Therefore, I'm not going to exercise the privilege of voting. I'm going to let those who would fight vote and take action. And, you know, that way it keeps me in the clear either way.

Now, on the other hand, what do we do to support our government? Well, we do a number of things. We uphold the laws of our country, and we support it in many ways. Let's turn to Matthew 22.

Matthew 22 and verse 17. It's just a couple of scriptures I want to read to remind us that even though we're citizens of Heaven, we have an allegiance to another government as ambassadors here, we support the government that's here.

Matthew 22 and verse 17.

Now, the Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus in a trip question. They said, tell us, do you think it's lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, this ungodly emperor?

And Jesus perceived their wickedness. He said, why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money.

And so they brought it to him. He said, whose image is this? Whose inscription?

And I said, well, it's Caesar's. He said, good, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

I wanted to turn to this particular passage. There's others that say to pay taxes, but this was Jesus's way of saying, we've got more important things to worry about money. You know, whether you have money or don't have money, God can control that.

He can give you all you want. You know, the government creates this money. It coins the money or prints it.

Give them what they want, but give to God the things that are most important.

Let's also turn to Romans chapter 13. Romans 13 will begin in the first verse.

This is a very good guideline overall.

Romans 13 beginning in verse 1.

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

Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring punishment upon them or judgment upon themselves.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Well, then do what is good, and you'll have praise for the same. In other words, if you want to get along with the government, obey. Don't cause trouble, and they'll love you.

For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid.

For he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for consciousness sake.

For because of this, you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due. Taxes to whom taxes, custom to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. So, whatever you owe them, whatever is their due, go ahead and give it to them. If you have to have a building permit to put up a shed, get the building permit.

It's important to notice, I've had some people say, well, when he says obey the ruling authorities, maybe he's talking about the government of the church. And I said, well, wait a minute, though. It talks about him wielding the sword, and he doesn't wield it in vain. The church never wields the sword. As I said, we don't have a civil government. We don't have the authority to punish you. I might be the pastor here now, but if you do something wrong, the most I can do is say, God asks you not to do that. I can't slap a fine on you or throw you in jail, and I don't want to have that authority. When we're made kings and priests in the millennium, God will give us that authority. But for now, when it says about wielding the sword, it's talking about the local magistrate. We've got a sheriff here, and is this Floyd County? I saw the county sign. I said, I like that. We don't have a Floyd County in Ohio. But there are officials to wield the sword, and we want to get along with them. We want to be model citizens so that they wish we would vote. They would beg us to hold office if we were willing to. That's our role. And of course, we should pray. 1 Timothy 2.

1 Timothy 2.1. That's before Hebrews, not after.

Therefore I exert, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of things be made for all men, for kings, and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, and all good godliness and reverence. So we should pray, not necessarily that if they have a bad policy, that the bad policy will succeed, but pray that we'll have peace. Pray that our rulers will do the right thing. And if they're doing the wrong thing, we can pray that they'll turn around. I've done that many times. I've prayed that our nation will turn around. When I think of the trouble that's coming, we know that there's going to be a tribulation. There's going to be punishment on God's people.

One thing I've prayed many times is, when the time of Jacob's trouble comes, God, please let it be short. We know you're going to exercise your wrath. Please let it pass quickly, because you are a God of mercy. And I think that's always a good thing to pray. You know, when I... I hate this government and what its leaders are doing at times. You know, I don't wish them harm, though. I wish they would change. And that brings us back to where we started, all this. You know, it's difficult to watch a country that we love decline. And as I said, I think the book of Jeremiah is instructive in this. That's why I wanted to start doing some Bible studies there. But, you know, we don't think... Let me back up. It's difficult to watch our country decline, but I don't think us getting involved in politics is the solution. Rather, we should pray for God's kingdom. We're ambassadors here and loyal to God's kingdom before any nation.

Ultimately, the establishment of God's rule on this earth is the only way its problems are going to be solved. So we refrain from any entangling alliance in governmental affairs, and certainly when it comes to military service. But we support, we obey, and we pray for good in this world. Much more, above everything else, we pray for God's kingdom to come.

This is interesting. This is when I would go sit down and wait for the song we did to take over. Instead, I'll put my notes away and let you get your hymnals out.