What Lessons About Governing Does God Want Us to Learn?

As was mentioned, this past Tuesday we had the midterm elections. This particular cycle, the Republicans did well. In other cycles, the Democrats did well. These things are cyclical. Perhaps by the next cycle, which would be 2016, the Democrats will come back strong again. That's just the way these things go. But what I found interesting is the way the leaders of the two political parties, as well as the political observers and analysts, discussed how the leadership in both parties, both the Republicans and the Democrats, were saying how they want to govern over the next couple of years. Until we get to the presidential elections in 2016.

Now, in addition to that, both parties are searching through what took place last Tuesday for information as to what they can learn from what took place last Tuesday. So each party can move forward successfully. Both parties want to do that. As I was thinking about this, and we're setting aside worldly politics here, but as I was thinking about that, a related question was entering my mind. And that is, what about us as Christians? What about us as Christians? Does God expect us to learn lessons about government? Now think about it for a moment. You might work in a position for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, then you retire. But if we all are successful and we're all in God's kingdom, as a given, a billion years from now, you look back and you're thinking, well, what is 20 years that I worked for so and so, or 30 years or 40 years? After a billion years of being in God's government, and you're going to be a part of government, you're going to be a government worker for all eternity. But right now, what lessons does God want us to learn? Forget about the Republicans and the Democrats. What lessons does God want us to learn in the church, about the church? What does He want us to be taking into the millennium with us? Well, that's the subject of my sermon today. If you're taking notes, write down this question. What lessons about governing does God want us to learn? What lessons about governing does God want us to learn? And again, I'm not talking about worldly politics or anything of the nature. We're going to be talking about what we as Christians need to understand. I've broken this down into a number of lessons. Lesson number one. God wants us to learn to govern and to be governed. To govern and to be governed. And it's interesting that in the very first two chapters of the Bible, God discusses this subject for the very get-go. Now, here's part of my Genesis. I think I do maybe a new Bible here. I've got to be careful how I open this thing up. But let's turn to Genesis 1, verse 26.

Genesis 1. Here we are in the very first chapter of the Bible. And God is already instructing us about something that's important, foundational, and fundamental for us to understand as Christians. Genesis 1, verse 26.

So God created man in his own image. And who is God? God is a ruler. Right? He's created us so that we learn how to rule. He's given us all of us our own... I may mention this last week. He's given all of us our own sphere of influence. He's given all of us our own kingdom. We've got our family. We've got our loved ones. We've got our checkbook. We've got our card. There's all sorts of things that we have in our life that are ours, part of our kingdom. How are we doing with our kingdom? How are we doing with our dominion? What lessons are we living our life properly? Is our kingdom in order? Is our kingdom the way God would have us order our kingdom? God's watching us. He wants to make sure that we're doing it right.

So God created verse 27. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. God blessed them, instead of them being fruitful and multiplied. Fill the earth and subdue it. Now, the word subdue here is very interesting. Some commentators would insert here, instead of the word subdue, they put the word husband. God wants us to treat the creation as a husband would a wife in the proper way of things. Where husband needs to nurture and to love his wife. God wants us in our rulership to be loving and nurturing.

Now, there's all sorts of bad rulership in the world. We are all aware of that. We see that every time we turn on a TV set. We look all around the world. We look in our country. See, all sorts of bad rulership all over the place. But God wants us to be a good ruler. He wants us to learn, even with the things he gives us right now in our life. So, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, or for every living thing that moves on the earth. So, number one, God wants us to learn to govern to be governed. Let's move on to chapter two of Genesis. Genesis 2, verse 18. Because we're going to see now another layer of government that God adds. In the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper comparable to him.

Man by himself, just, you know, he needs help. All of you wives know that we need help. And some of us need lots more than others. But we need help. So, God has made us a helper comparable, not inferior. The women have a different function in the family, certainly not inferior. I will make him a helper comparable to him. Verse 20. So Adam gave names to all the cattle, showing him his rulership, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. Now, let's add to this 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11 and 3.

1 Corinthians 11 and 3.

But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman is man. And the head of Christ is God. So when God created Eve, a new level of government came into existence. Prior to her creation, God allowed Adam to come to realize he was incomplete. He needed a partner. That Eve was to be his helper indicates that Adam was to be the leader. So here you have another layer of government. The way God views it, the way it should be done properly, is you've got a loving husband taking care of his wife.

Ruling over his wife. You want to use that word. Ruling. In a proper sense.

Not because she is inferior, but simply because she has a different function. She is of the same strata. She is a human being. He is a human being. But everyone has different functions. Like the church. There are different functions in the church. Different functions in the family. One is not better than another. They are just different. Governmental authority within the family structure was established by God at creation with the very first family. First two chapters of Genesis we see this.

But let's add to this. We are seeing where God wants man to govern. Governing everything around him. Governing the family. The wife has to be submissive. Again, in a proper sense. We'll talk more about that as we go through the sermon. Let's notice Deuteronomy 30. It's not just that man needs to know how to govern. He needs to know how to be governed.

How to be governed. When you look around the world today, are we seeing people who enjoy being governed? I don't think so. And I may have mentioned this, I think, last Sabbath as well. But I do want to return to Deuteronomy 30, verse 15. See, I've said before you today, life and good, death and evil. You know that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes, His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in a land which you go into possession.

And I'm going to turn to Matthew, chapter 15. I'm going to turn to Matthew, chapter 15. And then multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in a land which you go into possess. And so we are blessed to the degree that we are governed by God. Now we can ask ourselves, in our hearts of hearts, how well are we being governed by God? How is that being shown in your life? How is that being shown in your example? How is that being shown in your little individual kingdom?

Now, we've seen the beginnings of government here in the first couple of chapters of Genesis, but we're not going to stop in those first two chapters. Let's go to Genesis 3. Let's go back there for a moment. Because we see the work of the first anarchist, Satan. Satan hates the government of God. He hates what God's government stands for. He hates the family. That's why he wants to destroy the family. He wants to destroy the governmental structure within the family.

Because Satan realizes that one of the purposes for us as a family is to learn family. Because that's what we're going to be for all of eternity, right? So notice here in Genesis 3, verse 1, Now, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field. Now, in my way of thinking, that's an understatement. If you were to give Satan an IQ test, and I've said this so many times, if you were to give him a human IQ test, he would blow that thing away.

He was a, and is, a brilliant being. He's spiritually insane, but he's brilliant in his insanity. He's brilliant in that insanity. Which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Has God indeed said? So here we've got doubt. Satan is good at his craft. Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent. Now notice, he is charismatic enough to induce her into a, to lead her into a conversation. And right now, he's already got her. He's got her to be, she's responding. You know, he's, he's going to lead the conversation, ask leading questions. He's going to take it the way he wants it to go. Woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden. God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

Then the woman said to the serpent, You will not surely die, for God knows in the day that you eat it. Your eyes will be opened, and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And she bought it. And Adam bought it. The arch enemy of God's government was right there at the very beginning, with lies in the window and making God out to be this bad being. Now, Satan has two tactics that he's used from this point, actually he used this even before this point.

But let's take a look at what Satan has done with mankind in terms of his two twin tactics. Let's take a look at Matthew 20. Matthew 20. Remember, Satan hates government. He hates what God has. He certainly hates family and government and the family. Notice here in chapter 20 of Matthew, verse 25, But Jesus called them to Hisself as disciples, and He said, You know the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.

So one of the two big things that Satan uses, one of his big guns, is he wants to have authority misused by those who govern. Satan wants to make sure that those who govern aren't, they don't govern with love, they don't govern with God's Holy Spirit, they don't govern properly. And you've probably known people like that. And certainly we look into history, we look into what's happening in the world. We see plenty of people all around the world, the despots, the people who murder their own citizens. So the tendency is to misuse the power of those who govern, to use it improperly.

But there's a second, a second way that Satan wants to get at us. He doesn't just want to get at leadership, he wants to get at those who follow. 2 Peter 2 2 Peter 2 And verse 10 2 Peter 2 and verse 10 And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority They are presumptuous, self-willed, they're not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. So a second major tactic of Satan, first one, is to get the leaders to improperly lead.

But the second is to have those who are being governed to despise authority. To despise authority. Now, you have to ask yourself, you know, we've talked about politics a little bit. And I've probably been as guilty as anybody, but you know the Bible talks about how we need to respect the king. And whether you agree with the king or not, how many of us have spoken evil of dignitaries?

Probably too many of us, maybe all of us. And we all should be ashamed of ourselves for doing that. You know, God has put various people in charge of various things, and you know, we want to run our mouth off at times, and we shouldn't do that. We shouldn't do that. God has not given us the right to do that. Not spiritually. He's given us a mouth to use. But that's an incorrect way of using our mouth. Despising authority. Is that what we want to be known as from God?

That we are just falling into Satan's trap, and we're despising this one, or despising that one? You don't want to go there. That's what Satan would have us do. So lesson number one, God wants us to learn to govern and to be governed. Lesson number two. Lesson number two. Structure isn't the key to righteous government. Structure isn't the key to righteous government. From a time of Adam and Eve, from the very first human beings on planet Earth, human beings have experienced and they've tinkered with all sorts, all different types of government structures.

Many of them appear very good in theory, but all of them failing because of human nature. No structure can account for the control of the inherent weakness of human nature. Now, there are those, especially in our church culture, there are those who say, if we could just get the right form of government, if we had the right form of government, all the churches would come together, we would do a great work, Christ would come sooner, and it's all just wonderful.

But as I've told you so many times in the past, and I'll say it again here, it fits very well here, this portion of the sermon, at one time, all the angels in the universe existed under the perfect governmental structure, perfect organization, perfect laws, perfect overseer, perfect ruler in God Himself. And yet that perfect system did not prevent one-third of those beings from being deceived and rebelling. Structure is not the key. Structure is not the key. Many well-meaning Christians believe that defining a one-mold fits all circumstance, of church government would end confusion and bring us all together.

Well, you know, brethren, I've read this Bible that you've gotten in your lap, and I've gotten in front of me here. I've read it from cover to cover many times. You probably have done the same. And as I've read the Bible, I don't see anywhere in the pages of the Bible one monolithic, immutable, unchangeable structure that God put in place. As a matter of fact, I don't see a whole lot in the Bible about structure at all. Just a smattering here and there about structure and how God's government is. I don't see a lot about that in the Scriptures. We'll talk more about that as the sermon progresses.

But one thing is a constant. Whether you're looking at the Church of God in the Old Testament, the Church of God in the New Testament, there is one constant. Let's take a look at Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5, verse 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, we've talked about that in the past today, as also Christ is head of the Church. Old Testament times, New Testament times, there is one constant, and that constant is that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. There may be all sorts of different structures that God the Father and Jesus Christ have used in the Old Testament times and New Testament times. But one constant is that Jesus Christ is always the one in charge. Now, what is God focused in on? Does God focus in on whether we've got one man in charge or a committee? Is that what God focuses in on? No. God focuses on something altogether different. God focuses on attitude and character. Attitude and character. We find very little in the Scriptures about what a government should look like, but we find a lot in the Scriptures about what God's leaders should look like and what we should look like. We find that God focuses on the constant for human beings, and that constant is His Holy Spirit and following and obeying Him. Therefore, the critical questions to ask concerning Church government are not about, is one man in charge or a committee in charge. One man is fine. A committee is fine. I really don't think God cares that much as long as we obey His laws, because He's used them all. But what God wants to see is, are His servants working together in unity? Do the servants love one another? Do they support one another? Are they family? Are we yielded to His explicit directives through love and honor one another? If we have Church government without God's Holy Spirit, then all we have is human government wrapped in religious wrapping. And we don't want that, do we? Is that something we want? No. So lesson number two is, structure isn't the key to righteous governance. As much as those in our church culture and various fellowships want to make it a big point, it's not a big point in the Bible at all. Lesson number three, regarding governance, God wants us to learn, lesson number three, we have been created to serve.

We have an interesting set of scriptures here in the book of Deuteronomy. Israel demanded a king. Notice what God says here. Let's go to Deuteronomy 17.

What did God require of a righteous king? Now obviously there are plenty of unrighteous kings in both Israel and Judah. If you're going to do it God's way, what was God looking for?

Deuteronomy 17, verses 18-20. Let's take a look here. Verse 18.

Now many of us in this room go back far enough. Remember the old 58 correspondence, course lessons we had back in the old days? I remember doing those. I remember being so excited about those, those who come to my home. Remember what Mr. Armstrong said to do about those? He said, you have to write out the question. It's right there in the book. But they want you to write out the question, then write out the answers. It's amazing that those of us who are old enough don't have carpal tunnel, all of us. Because I go visit people and they have these big thick notebooks.

A little skinny, the lesson is really skinny, 16 pages, whatever it was. You have this much where you're writing all these things. But what does that do for us? When we're writing it, when the king is writing it, it's going into his mind. And notice what it is that he's supposed to be writing. Verse 19, that it shall be with him, and he shall read all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes.

This is what God wants from his leaders. He wants character. He wants attitude. That's proper attitude. Verse 20, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren. God wants humility in his leaders. That his heart may not be lifted above his brethren. That he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left. That he may be prolonging his days in the kingdom, and he and his children in the midst of Israel.

So here we see a summary statement of what God views as great leadership. Now, verses 16 and 17, here's what God doesn't want. Verse 16, but he shall not multiply horses for himself. That was a sign of military strength and power. God says, I don't want... if you're going to be my king, and you're relying upon me and my power, and you're a king who's got faith, you don't need to worry about enemies.

We've gone over there in 2 Chronicles 20, where a million-man army came up against Jerusalem. A million-man army. What did the king do? He said, you know, Father, we don't know how to handle this. And so the king said, Josiah said, I'm going to ask everybody to fast. And they fasted, and then what did they do? They sent out the army, but in front of the army was the choir.

And the choir sang praises to God. And the enemy began to destroy one another. Israel's... Judah's army didn't have to fire one single shot, because God protected them. And so here he says, don't you dare multiply horses. You're going to rely upon me. You don't need a great army.

You don't need an army at all, actually. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. Don't rely upon allies, for the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. Don't be caught up with this whole thing of what we've got, allies. And we went through the book of Isaiah, verse by verse, and we showed how the fallacy of that thinking, where Israel said, well, if I just have these allies, didn't save them.

Verse 17, neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. So, you know, the bottom line in all of this, verses 18, verses 16, I should say, you know, don't look to foreign powers, don't look to your own strength.

Verse 17 here, don't be selfish. Don't want to be thinking about what's good for you. You know, you want not only power, we see in verse 16, but you want wealth. You want gold. You want silver. That's not where God says the, where your mind should be. You should be wanting to serve others. One last verse for this section will be over here in Matthew 5.

Matthew 5 is the Sermon on the Mount, the Heart and Core Teaching of Jesus Christ. Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount. And notice how Christ starts this sermon, the Core Teachings of Christianity. These beautiful attitudes, Beatitudes. Matthew 5, 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for what? For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They'll be given an opportunity to properly rule. Why? Because they're humble. Verse 5, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Again, they're going to be given an opportunity to rule and to govern. Why? Because they're teachable.

They're humble. They're teachable. Jesus Christ was repeating the principles we've read there in Deuteronomy 17. So lesson number 3 about governing is we are to learn to serve. The kings of Israel were there to provide a better nation, to set an example, a godly example. They weren't there for their own sakes.

At least that's not the way God envisioned it. Lesson number 4. God's church needs government. God's church needs government. Let's take a look here at Matthew 28. Matthew 28.

In verse 19. Matthew 28. Here we've got the Great Commission. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. If we're going to make disciples of all the nations, we have to have organization. We have to know what we're doing. We can't just be in chaos. Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe all things that have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus Christ gave his church, spiritually transformed believers, a responsibility and a mission to proclaim his word. And that didn't die off with the original apostles. It says here, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. And so the idea there is you're going to be doing these same things until I come back at my Second Coming. So God's church needs structure. Again, the structure must be people of character. People who are looking to follow God and to worship God properly and set the best of examples. Ephesians 4, verses 11-13.

Here we see some structure that God wants inside of his church.

Verse 11, he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. This is ordained of God. He wants these folks in the church. But notice the purpose, verse 12. For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, as it says in my new King James, for the work of service. It is my job as a pastor to work with you here in Ann Arbor, in Detroit, to work with those folks over in Ann Arbor, and to some small degree to work with people over in Windsor, Ontario. To give you what you need. Not for me to just speak about pet subjects that I like speaking about week after week. It is my job to go through these scriptures in an organized, systematic way to make sure you're properly fed. That you get a good, well-balanced spiritual diet. So that you can be equipped to do the work you've been called to do as an individual. Again, in your own sphere of influence, in your own little kingdom.

Verse 13, Till we all come into the unity of the faith, to me this is one of the great verses in the Bible, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man or woman, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now, in this governmental structure, godly character, spiritual qualifications are needed, and they're looked for. We don't just ordain anybody to be a part of the leadership of the Church. That's why we've got 1 Timothy chapter 3 in Titus chapter 1. That's why before we ordain anybody, we think very carefully. We fast about it. We pray about it. Those of us in ministry will look to others and say, Well, what do you think? Is this person really being called for this particular office?

Then we, as the Bible says, we don't lay hands suddenly on anybody. When the time is right, we lay hands on the proper people to serve you, the members of the Church. So lesson number 4, God's Church Needs Government. Lesson number 5 is very similar to something we said earlier about structure, but lesson number 5 is a little different. That is, there is no one single form of Church government. The Bible simply doesn't show that there's one size fits all. It doesn't show that one way or another.

Let's take a look at a principle here in 1 Corinthians 12.

If you want to see a guiding principle that we want to explore with this particular topic that we're in now, 1 Corinthians 12.6, there are diversity of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all. Diversity of activities. There are different types of governments that we see in the Bible. We're going to go through those in survey form in just a moment or two. I want to ask a question. I know and I love various people in various church fellowships. I think I know people in all the various church fellowships that we have out there in our church culture. Wonderful people. But when they come to me and they say, Hey, Mr. D, I like you, but you guys just really have the wrong form of government. I would ask them this question. Was man made for governance or was governance made for man? It's a little bit of a twist on about the Sabbath. Was man made for the Sabbath or was Sabbath made for man? If we're going to go to the place where we become so obsessed with a particular form of government, church government, it becomes an end to itself, and that's not what God wants. That's not what God wants. Now, having said that, let's take a survey. People want to start with Moses, but let's start before Moses in terms of Old Testament church government. They were looking at the church in the wilderness, even prior to the church in the wilderness, when God was working with Abraham. You might just want to draw a line down the middle of your paper. On the left side, you might put the name Abraham. He had a patriarchal system of government. In other words, family government. Family government. This was largely one person in charge. It's fine. Nothing wrong with that. I'm not arguing that there shouldn't be that. What I am addressing is the fact that God goes past that. In your notion, on the right-hand side of your page, you might put Genesis 18. I'm not going to turn there for the sake of time. Then you've got Moses. Moses was a single leader. That's wonderful. You might put down Exodus 18 for that. Also, when Moses was leading his father-in-law, Jethro said, You know, there's too many people here, Moses. You've got three million people here. You can't do it yourself. So, Jethro said, you need to find some good people. Then we read there in Exodus 18, various spiritual qualifications. And so you have a judicial system that Moses uses. Going into the book of Numbers, Numbers 11, you've got an elders system that was used in Israel. Not just one person. There were 70 elders. Then you come to the book of Judges. The book of Judges. Was there one person in charge during the time of the book of Judges? No. As a matter of fact, there were several instances where you had two or three judges ruling at the same time, concurrently. Wasn't one person in charge then. Then you got the kings, the period of the kings. In your notes, you can put the book of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Because you had to divide a kingdom, you had a king of the north, you had a king of the south. One person in charge there? No. You don't have one person in charge there. And then in addition to that, you had the prophets. When they spoke for God, you better listen, right? So you had the kings, you got the various prophets, and there were normally several of those alive at any one time.

So other than looking at Moses and Joshua, maybe even Abraham threw him in there. Okay, so you had some examples of one person in charge.

But is that all of it? Is that all we see in the Bible and Old Testament? No. You got the judges, the kings, the prophets. New Testament? You got twelve apostles. You can't look into the Scriptures and say, Peter was it. Why? Some people think he was the leading apostle. Well, Peter was a man who was... He liked to get in front of everything. He liked to speak his mind. Does that mean he was in charge? There are arguments that maybe a guy like that shouldn't be in charge.

But the Bible nowhere talks about him as being one in charge. They had an apostle. It doesn't say that any place. And of course, under him you have Paul. He had a number of apostles that were running around back in those days. Barnabas became an apostle, various other ones. Then you had the ministers, the deacons, the deaconesses. There's just simply not an argument to be made from what I see in Scripture, that there's one single form of church government. Just not there. So, lesson number five, there's no one single form of church government. Lesson number six of the seven. Lesson number six. The ministry has authority within the church.

The ministry has authority within the church.

Now, since 1995, this has really taken a hit. The authority and especially the respect of the ministry. This last week, once a month, first Tuesday of the month, the three pastors here in Michigan get together for a lunch over in Howell at Tomato Brothers. And we always invite Mr. Rhodes. So there's four of us. We have a nice lunch together. And one of the ministers, it wasn't me, but one of the other fellows said, you know, we in the ministry really have taken a hit since 1995 in terms of the way people view us. That there's just a total, not a total, but there's a lack of respect.

It's not what it once was. And, of course, you know, I was, I pointed out that, you know, in some ways I can understand that. Because too many of us in the ministry have shot ourselves in the foot. All these various splits and, you know, on and on with that, some of our fellows have now acted in a very respectful way. But, but does that give you the right as a member, as a Christian, that if they are acting ungodly, does that give you the right to therefore act ungodly?

Is one wrong? What did your mother teach you years ago? Does one wrong, two wrongs equal a right? Not at all. But there is authority within the church. Let me give some examples. Again, another overview. In Acts 4, I'm not going to turn to these various ones, but in Acts 4, we see where the brethren, because of their zeal, were wanting to sell things that they had and to offer the money to the church. So in Acts 4, you've got people like Barnabas selling property and giving the proceeds to the church. Well, what happened there in Acts 4?

Where did they bring that money? They brought the money to the ministry. They laid it at the apostles' feet. They believed that the ministry had oversight on the funds. So that was part of the authority that they had. In Acts 6, we see where there was a need for the widows and others who couldn't adequately help themselves for others to help them.

And so what took place? The ministry asked the members, look out from among you and find those who would be good to handle the situation. And so names from the members were brought forward to the ministry, and then the ministry made decisions. They talked among themselves. They made a decision. Then they ordained various people, deacons. The people didn't ordain the deacons. The ministry ordained the deacons. So there you see the appointing of staff. In Acts 15, there was a doctrinal dispute about circumcision, whether it was required anymore or not. Now, that's not a doctrinal issue for our day, but it was for their day.

But what did they do? Did everyone just do their own thing? Did everyone write their own study paper and live according? It was a chaos? No. They brought the issue to, in Acts 15, they brought the issue to Jerusalem, to the headquarters church. And they had the ministry there, all the ministry there, weigh in on that issue. So there's doctrinal oversight. You look through the writings of the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle Paul was always asking Timothy or Titus to go here or to go there.

So there were manpower decisions that needed to be made. In 1 Corinthians 5, you see where Paul had to disfellowship somebody. That was an aspect of power. Of course, Paul used that power correctly and properly. So you see now, lesson number six, the ministry has authority within the church. Now, number seven is where I'm going to get into... we're going from preaching to meddling here a little bit. Lastly, lesson number seven, God calls upon Christians to submit to the authority in the church.

Now, hopefully what I'm about to present to you is a balanced approach on this matter. A balanced approach. You can tell me afterwards if you felt I was balanced or not. Let's go to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13. A couple of verses here. Hebrews 13.7. Remember those who rule over you. My margin... there's a little one next to the word rule, and the margin says lead. Remember those who lead you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.

Now, here you've got a discussion about leadership, about submission, but notice the way this is qualified here in verse seven. It says, whose faith follow. I'm not going to turn there, but in your notes you might want to put down 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1. Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. You might put down Acts 5, verse 29, where it says we ought to obey God rather than men. So yes, we will follow the rule of people who are following God properly, but I'm not going to follow somebody who's a heretic, and neither are you.

That's why you're here. You didn't stay where you were in 1995. You're here today because you wanted to follow the truth. So there's a lot of ramifications here about submitting. We want to look at a number of them. Verse 17, Obey those who have the rule or the dominion over you. Be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy, not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

So once again, the same principle as we talked about in verse 7, apply in verse 17. But notice here where God says that we need to be submissive. And brethren, that's not just for you.

That's for me. I've got ministers over me. I'm not a law to myself. I've got to be submissive, just like you do. And frankly, all of us have got to be submissive, one to another. Submission is not just for men over women or for pastors over members of a congregation. It's for all of us. We'll get to that in a moment. Now, we're talking about submission. Let's fill out the whole view here, so we have what I hope is a balanced look at it.

As a minister, do I have the authority to just ask anything of you? Do I? Well, let's take a look at John chapter 19. John chapter 19, verses 10 and 11 is a principle here we want to take a look at. John chapter 19, verse 10. Then Pilate said to him, Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know I have power to crucify you and power to release you? And Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against me unless I have been given to you from above. And so in this whole discussion about authority, we must remember, brethren, that we in the ministry, we have got limits imposed upon us by God Almighty. The only power that we have as a minister is what God gives us. And frankly, what we're going to see, the only power I have over you is what power you give me. Let's be honest. We're talking about rulership in the church here among converted people.

And the only power I have is what you give me. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 13 through 17. Another aspect of the limitation of power that we in the ministry have, so you don't feel an aversion to submission when you add all these facts together. Verse 13. 2 Corinthians 10. 13. For we, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us. A sphere which especially includes you. So every minister has a sphere of influence. Now, we've got some guests here from different congregations, different places. I'm not your pastor. I can't walk up to you and demand this or that of the other. That's not my position. Even for those of you who are here and a part of the Detroit church, I don't demand anything from anybody. Now, I might go to you and encourage you or hopefully inspire you, stir you to action along certain lines. But there are guidelines within which we in the ministry must work. Paul here is talking to a group of people who was in his sphere of influence. Others were not. Remember when Paul wanted to go to Northern Turkey? God says, no, you're not going there. You can't just do whatever you want to do. And we find out why wouldn't Paul want to do a good work? Why didn't God allow Paul to go to Northern Turkey? Well, because Peter was in Northern Turkey.

And Peter had the say so over those people and how he was working with those people.

And of course, there was also just from an economic point of view, God says, why should I double the resources in that area? We've got enough. Peter's enough. He can handle that. Paul, you stay down here in the south part of Turkey. Verse 14, if we are not overextending ourselves, as though our authority did not extend to you. Verse 14, verse 14, for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ. So Paul is again reiterating the fact that he's not overextending himself. They are in his sphere of influence. And so far as God is concerned, he's responsible in making sure those people understand the truth of the gospel. He's responsible for properly teaching them. So a leader must work with it. Not only does he have limitations in terms of his power, but he's got limitations in terms of who all is in his sphere of influence. Now a key here, maybe the biggest key, is 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And this is something, brethren, you always need to remember. Because I've seen where some have tried to use this in a very improper way. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 24. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but our fellow workers for your joy. For by faith you stand. I don't have a right to rule you spiritually. Now again, if I feel you're going someplace, that if you don't change, repent of, that you might be in the lake of fire, it is my responsibility to go to you. But it's not my responsibility to scare you to death and say that you're going to the lake of fire if you don't do everything I tell you to do. That's not a my purview. That's not what I should be doing. We don't have dominion. The word is rulership. We don't rule over you. I am a brother in the faith. Now the ministry has authority. We talked about the various types of authority of the ministry. But we don't have authority to run your life for you. We don't tell you how to...we should not be telling you spiritual issues. But we...well, let me take that back. We'll tell you about...let's say, for example, somebody is committing adultery. Well, I can go to that person and say, well, you know, this is wrong. This is sin. And if you don't repent of that, then, you know, obviously, it's big trouble. But on the other hand, I can't force you by intimidation or threats to make you do something. That's your character. That's your character. So we don't rule and control the spiritual lives of others. Even when Paul disfellowshipped the ban for sexual sins in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul was not ruling him. It was up to him whether he was going to change or not. But Paul said, you know, you've come to the brink, fella. If you don't change your life, you will be in a lake of fire. Now that is very much in the purview of the ministry. But Paul wasn't trying to live his life for you. That was up for him to do. So, brethren, how does a Christian properly submit? And let's understand something. The word is submit. Doesn't mean you're always going to agree, right? Didn't say Christians agree with your pastors. No, it says submit. There are times you're not going to agree about various issues. But, again, we're talking about, more or less, most of the time, we're talking about administrative things. But let's look at the Scriptures, what it says here. 1 Corinthians 16. I do want to turn to some of these. 1 Corinthians 16.

Verses 15 and 16.

I urge you, brethren, that you know the household of Stephanus, that he is the first roots of a cat. Now, remember earlier we were talking about whose faith follows, things of that nature. Well, the people knew the Stephanus. They knew his household. They knew the outcome of his faith, so to speak. They have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints. So here's a minister who is a good record among the people, that you also submit to such, and to everyone who works and labors with us.

So there is some submission that has to be done. We may not always understand. You know, when I said, well, we're now starting church at 3 o'clock. There are those of you who didn't want to start church at 3 o'clock. But you submitted to the fact that we were going to have church at 3 o'clock and no longer at 2.30. Okay? Let's broaden this out a little bit. 1 Peter 5.

1 Peter 5 and verse 5. Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another. Be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud that gives grace to the humble. You know, over the years, I don't know how many different women have come to me and said, My husband demands I submit to him.

And yet, so many times the fellows will look over at Ephesians chapter 5, where it talks about why I submit to your husband. But before that whole discussion takes place, what does Paul say? Before that whole discussion, Paul says, we need to submit one to another.

I'm happy to submit to my wife. When, you know, when we're planning with the decor of the home, you don't want to live in a home that I planned out. Everything would be black or gray. All the furniture would be old, overstuffed and ugly. It probably wouldn't sit well. But, you know, Mary knows how to decorate. She knows colors and how to do things. You walk into our home and it's warm and you like to be there. And she makes a meal. And as people have said, when Mary makes a meal, it's going to taste as good as it looks. And it looks like something that came out of one of these great magazines. Because she's just got the talent for that. Now me, you come to my house, where's the baloney? Where's the Velveeta cheese? Give me some soy pop!

So I'm happy to submit to my wife along those lines.

Submission goes, you know, brethren, it comes right down to it.

We all must submit to one another in multiple ways. You submit to your ungodly employer. You submit to Uncle Sam when he's wanting your tax return on April the 15th. All sorts of people we submit to. And certainly we can submit to brothers and sisters in the faith. Before I close the book on this particular discussion, let's go to Luke chapter 22.

Because people say, but Mr. Delisantro, we've got these ministers and they make mistakes!

Let's go run and hide. We've got ministers who make mistakes. Well, yeah, we do make mistakes. We're human. And God's designed it that way, that we're human. Not only do you have to live with my mistakes from time to time, but I have to live with your mistakes from time to time. That's a two-way street, right? You know, you might go to bed, oh, Mr. D, he's exasperating. Or I might go to bed, oh, so-and-so at a church, are they exasperating? But you know, that's what God, He wants us to learn from one another. To grow, to overcome. Chapter 22 here, verse 30.

I got the right thing here. Luke chapter 22, yeah, verse 30. That you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on the thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So God realizes His disciples are going to, you know, if they overcome properly, they stay the course. They're going to be having great positions in the kingdom of God. But go to verse 24, same chapter. Now there was a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. So here we see where these guys are arguing about, I'm better than you are. And yet, those are the guys that God says, you know, I'm going to work with these people. They've got their flaws, they've got their weaknesses, but I want to work with them. So, brethren, God works with us in the ministry, just like He works with you. All of us are flawed, and all of us have to put up with one another's flaws. That doesn't mean that because somebody's flawed, we just simply toss them out the window.

Two basic statements I want to make, and then I'm going to conclude the sermon today. To those who are leaders in the church, the logic of godly shepherding dictates that the church leader should organize the congregations. This is me. And the work of the church in a manner that guarantees solid spiritual instruction, proper administrative oversight, help for people who have need of help, people who are weak, protection from abuse, an impartial system of judging conflicts and problems, and a commitment to openly admit and rectify errors. In me, personally. That's what I need to be doing. Now you, here's what you need to be doing. The logic of godly submission dictates that all followers have a mindset of working patiently and in a godly manner with those who have responsibilities over them. Even when one is hurt by a leader's mistakes, if he or she reacts in an ungodly manner, that ungodly manner is no better than the ungodly mistake. Ungodly reactions simply reveal a lack of god's government at work in one's mind, not being ruled by the mind of god.

It goes both ways. For the leaders, for those who are followers, when the problems take place, brethren, what is the solution? The solution is god. The solution is the mind of god. The solution is the spirit of god. And that's what you and I have to put forward if we want to do things the way god would have us do. So today, after the elections, the worldly elections, I got to thinking about government. And what it is god wants us to learn because we're going to be a part of his government for all time. Let me conclude today by just reviewing these seven lessons. Lesson number one, learn to govern and be governed. Lesson number two, structure isn't the key to righteous governance. Lesson number three, we are to serve others. Lesson number four, god's church needs government. Lesson number five, there is no one single form of church government. And I'll add in the prophecies anywhere in the scriptures. Number six, the ministry has authority in the church. And number seven, god calls upon Christians to submit to the authority of the church. Brethren, if each and every one of us learns these lessons, if I learn these lessons, if you learn these lessons, we're going to be so far down the road spiritually. We will, god will be so happy with us as individuals. If we as a Detroit church learn these principles, then god will truly bless us. Truly bless us. Let's see what I look forward to that blessing. Let's do what god shows we need to be doing as his sons and daughters.