The Government of God - Part 1 (Romans 13:1-7)

We are now about to embark upon or into Romans chapter 13. And we are going to take our time and unpack this chapter in ways that I trust you have not yet experienced. Uh, I do believe that if you were to hunt down other teachings in Romans chapter 13, uh, I hope anyway that by the time we're done with it that you would not have gotten such an exhaustive, uh, look at Romans chapter 13.

And I have to confess that it is very native or personal to this church because Romans 13 deals with the churches and their Christians responsibility to God and to government. And so as we look at this, I want to exhaust everything on this. I want you to be so equipped in this area that you have no questions uh about what you should or should not do. what it does and does not mean and how do we reconcile some things that are absolute biblical truths but if we don't understand them we think they might contradict one another. This is important stuff.

So I got to tell you you may want you may think uh well I want a Bible study that makes me feel warm and and fuzzy. Well, you know, I guess it, you know, the people say the beauty, what is it? Beauty's in the eye of the beholder because this kind of this kind of teaching that we're about to embark on makes me feel warm and fuzzy. So, I hope you join in on my warm and fuzzy and um learn and learn because listen, are we going to talk about God? Yes. Are we going to talk about Jesus? Absolutely. Are we going to talk about salvation? Are we going to going to talk about repentance? Are we going to talk about sin and righteousness? Yes. Absolutely.

But will we be talking about the two great dividing topics that have always been and you deal with them every Christmas dinner and every Thanksgiving dinner. And whenever family come together once a year or twice a year, it is those two topics of religion and politics. And I'm going to by God's grace, I'm going to have you be galvanized to never shy away from that Christmas dinner again. In fact, you'll be praying, "Lord, bring the Christmas dinner because you'll be ready. You'll be ready."

And um so I would write on the top of your notes today, Acts chap 17, 11, where Paul the Apostle uh told the Bereans uh to not believe anything that he says, but to search the scriptures to see if what he says is true. Okay? Can you do that? I want you to study the full council of God.

So, we're going to begin this series today, Romans chapter 13. And uh we'll read the first seven verses, but the title of this series is called the government of God. Can you write that down? The government of God. And um we're going to want to unpack that today.

So, church, let's stand as we read the word of God together. And um I'm just glad that you're here today. Uh many people are on vacation. Many people are away for the uh Easter or resurrection week and they'll be making their way back home today. But um what a great resurrection week we had. Friends, I don't know where you were at. I hope you were here. If not, you were somewhere worshiping God. But I got to tell you, it was awesome, right? From sunrise service all the way through the Lord just had people coming forward one after another. Uh we met some gang members that got saved. We met we met some people who had never been to church before in their life. We met some people from the Middle East who uh had heard about Easter services and they said we're we're going to go and they came and uh they went forward. Uh one of them said to the other this makes sense to me. Does it make sense to you? And the guy said it makes total sense to me. And they said well let's go. Let's do this thing. And so one thing after another and um wow God is so good. He is so good.

So 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 judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works. In other words, rulers are not a terror to those who are doing the right thing, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's ministers to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Wow. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers, tending continually to this very thing. That's true. I mean, all the time they do. Render therefore to all their due. Taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

Father, we pray that you would be our instructor today. And Lord, that we'd leave this building, this church, this gathering, your people, the assembly of your people, that we would be wiser, better equipped, and strong, stronger in the faith. For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We pray in Jesus name. And all God's people said, "Amen." You may be seated. You may be seated.

You know, when we say that we look forward, right, to the coming of Jesus Christ, we as a church, we study and we'll study more what is known in theology as esquetology. That is the study of the prophetic things of God. Uh, inevitably, you you come to the study of Christ returning. And you need to remember church, I know that you do, but I'm just saying it for our our broader audience that when you talk about Christ returning, you need to remember that you are talking about uh two distinct uh comingings of Christ or appearances or arrivals of Christ that need to be defined. Uh so for example, when you talk about or say, I can't wait for the Lord to return, we need to ask you or we need to ask one another, what do you mean by that? Because there is the appearing of Jesus Christ for his church where he does not come to earth but in fact appears in the atmosphere. And the Bible says that he will draw up all those who are alive and remain. Remember the dead in Christ will rise first and those who are alive when that day comes will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We'll we'll I hope it's us. I I hope it's today that we are pulled from the earth caught up or in Latin the word is raptured up. Uh and then listen don't confuse that with the second coming of Christ. The great second coming of Christ is when Christ comes in vengeance to the earth. He comes in the with the wrath of God. The Bible says it's the great and terrible day of God. The Bible says that in the second coming, the earth will tremble at his appearing and they will actually call upon the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the lamb who is coming to earth. And the Bible says that he's on a white horse and he speaks the word out of his mouth and he will judge the nations. You say, "Pastor, stop. You're scaring me." Well, listen. If you're a believer today, you will have nothing to do with that but be a spectator. If you read Revelation chapter 19, you will be I will be riding behind Christ as he executes wrath and judgment upon the earth. That's the second coming where he physically comes to earth. Like his first coming was a first uh arrival to Jerusalem and to Israel. So the second coming is his second arrival to Jerusalem and to Israel. In between those two things is what's known as his appearing. So when we talk about his second coming, what do we really mean by that?

You see, Jack, are you sure you're in the right book to study this right now? Oh, completely. Completely. For this reason, that when Christ returns, he will set up his kingdom. The Bible says, have you ever heard that before? Raise your hand if you've heard that. Christ is coming to establish his kingdom. And you have listen to be a kingdom you have to have a king. And if you have a king in a kingdom you have to have subjects. And if you have a king then he has to have a throne. And if you have a king who's a king of the kingdom you have to have a realm. And from Genesis to Revelation the Bible speaks about Jesus Christ being the king of kings and the lord of lords. But we don't often stop long enough to realize that for a king to be a king, here it comes. Hang on to your seats, that he must exercise what is known as a body politic or we would say the king's policies. Bluntly put, Jesus has his politics. He's coming to implement those. You say, "I don't want to talk about that." Yeah, you better. If you're a Christian, you want to pay close attention to that because everything that man has done thus far has been an attempt to try to implement government, which God ordained. We'll see this today. But they've done it their way and they've tried to do it without God. They've taken what is of God and they try to do it without God. And then you and you and I well know that it never works out right when people try to lead by laws without God.

Now, somebody is already criticizing this statement in their minds. They're saying, "Oh, boy. What are you uh you know, are you saying that God's kingdom should be established on earth?" Oh, I'm not s I'm not saying it. I'm I'm not even suggesting it. I'm saying absolutely. But how do you achieve that? You think you're going to achieve it through the Republican party? Do you think you're going to achieve it through the Democrat party? Do you think you're going to achieve it through any human property? None whatsoever. No, the answer is no way. But that doesn't negate the fact that God invented government. And to that you cannot escape but to understand. And so I hope you don't find this boring. I personally love the feelings, the warm and fuzzies I get when I think about this stuff. And and when the Bible comes to things like this, u I just rejoice about this. So uh we just need to remember that when we say, "Oh Lord, thy kingdom come. You need to know what you're talking about. When you say, "Thy kingdom come, oh God," you are actually saying this. "Your political rule and reign come Lord God, but it will not come through any nation on earth according to the Bible except one nation on earth when they have a king and the throne will be established in Jerusalem." Anybody know what that nation is? Israel. America will not usher in the kingdom of God. Okay. When people say, "Well, these Christian nationalists want to create a utopia on earth." Wrong. No, we don't. We happen to live in the nation of America. But listen, God first, Bible first. And America is not called to save anybody or to be a kingdom that lasts forever. But God will reign from Israel. He will sit upon the throne of David and he will reign from there forever. The scriptures clear. Yeah, you can applaud about that because there's a reason why today there's such an anti-se uh Seemetic and anti-Israel uh rhetoric going around the world today because it's spiritual. We're living in the last days and Satan, I think, is starting to tremble in his red underwear. He's getting shook up. He's getting a little terrified because he sees the opening throws of the last days. And Israel is the key player.

Luke 11:2. A lot of introduction today, so we may not even get to it. Luke 11 uh verse 2 tells us so he Jesus said to them uh when you pray say our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven that prayer is actually a request for Christ to return it's not to establish some perfect governmental reign a political uh party or uh the election of a particular group of people it's Christ is coming and that's to be the attitude ude of the believer.

But listen, in the revelation of God's will to all of mankind, please write this down. I I don't want you to forget this. There are three primary I listen three primary institutions created by God. There are more, but they all come out of the three. They come out of this trinity of truth in the Bible. Number one, according to God's creation, number one is marriage. You got to write that down. Marriage. You can uh sum it up by saying home life, the life at home, marriage, husband and wife, mom and dad, kids, home life, a community that leads us to that sense of community, marriage.

Number two, God established government and that is uh righteousness and order for a society. It is listen, man did not invent government. In fact, by nature, man is opposed to government. Man is more inclined to anarchy. But God's grace intervenes and God implements governments among the nations. You can't have a nation without government. And government according to the Bible is God's second institution that he has created. Notice he created marriage and he created government. Is marriage under attack? Is government under attack? Yep.

And then thirdly, uh you can combine these two together. It's the eklesia or the church and Israel. Not the church or Israel. It's the church and Israel. Summing it up this way, all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. How about that? Jew and Gentile alike who come to faith in Yeshua as Messiah. The Bible tells us that that is the third institution that God has created. And if I could prevail upon you to introduce a fourth for argument sake, it would be this. It would be the actual nation of Israel that is to be redeemed and that is the descendants of Abraham in the flesh. God has made a covenant with them and he's established them and they are soon to return and coming to faith. Uh that is something that uh is precious. But of course that falls under the trinity of those three statements a moment ago.

Um, so listen uh I have some questions and I'm going to say this sarcastically today. I have some questions for you today. Uh, and I'm going to ask for participation. Okay. Uh, should human beings be involved in what God calls government? H, that was a pretty confident yes. I'm surprised. But you've rightly answered because by me saying the word government, you're okay with that. But if I mentioned the word politics, we get a little we get a little nauseous. Politics is the implementation listen of what someone views as government. Did you hear that? Subtle, but it's poignant. politics and to politic politicking is to take what they want and to bring it about into being irregardless of your view, irregardless of God. And so we hate politics, but we love the fact that God has established government. And as I said a moment ago, we have a young Marine in the front row. How did that ever come about? Government. It didn't come around by politics. I'll tell you that. And so, we're going to understand the difference over the course of these next few weeks. Yes, this might be a big master class in civics, but it might be this, a master class in physics based upon the Bible and how you and I are to live our lives in real time. And to me, that would make for a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ in this time, in this age. The Bible says, you say, "Well, I don't even like this. I'm not coming back next week." Yes, you are. Yes, you are because of this one verse, Christian. One verse. Jeremiah 29:7. Yes, you are because you have to. So there, that's that. The Bible says, "Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive." And every Californian knows that they've been carried away captive into the city in which they live, and pray to the Lord for it. Did you hear that? We are commanded by God to pray for the city we live in. That's not all. For its peace, for its peace, you will have peace. If you pray and get involved in the city in which you live in by number one praying, God wants your city to be at peace and he wants you to have peace. Can somebody say amen? The God of the Bible wants your city to be peaceful. Boy, I tell you, if you can raise your hand, great. But please do this. Are you in law enforcement? Is anybody in law enforcement today? Raise your hand. We want to thank you. First of all, nobody nobody's gonna One guy, one girl. Boy, are we are we vulnerable this morning over here. All right, three of you. Listen, we thank God and we'll see in the next few weeks how how these who raise their hands are called by God to their vocation. But keep this in mind. Uh we call them peace officers. Where does that come from? The Bible. The Bible. They have been tapped by God to ensure peace and tranquility among our city. And that is ordained by God based on Jeremiah 29:7. The believer is to pray for the peace of the town, the city they live in, and for themselves that they might live at peace. I think that's absolutely beautiful if you think about it.

But we hear a lot today about justice, about uh balance, about fairness, do we not? I'm going to show you a couple of pictures of justice. This is what she looks like. This is justice or otherwise known as Lady Justice. She appears all around the world. At least she does in uh in republics and in democrat in in uh democracies. Uh notice the scales. They are to be leveled. Uh most of the time, not always, Lady Justice has what across her eyes? anybody a blindfold because she's supposed to be blind to influence only the truth to bring about justice. And so her her scales are balanced. I think we have a couple of more photos from different cultures. Uh that's her again there. Now she does she's she's not blindfolded, but you see how level the scales are. That's Lady Justice. I think we have one more. Uh that's a good picture. Uh very perfectly leveled. Lady Justice. We we talk a lot about justice. Uh people today demand justice and all these kinds of things. Listen, good, bad, or ugly, it doesn't matter who's protesting or or uh in the streets saying what they're saying. It's all predicated upon the concept in the mind that justice should prevail. And the concept, no, you know, some people are not going to like this. That whole concept comes from God, initiated by God, given to us by God. And he's written that reality and truth upon our hearts. This does not come from atheism. It doesn't come from evolution. It doesn't come from any other origin but God alone. And even today when people who are godless are yelling, "I demand justice." They have no idea that in their godlessness they are asking for God to manifest his balance, his fairness, his presence. This is vitally important because we want to expose hypocrisy. and come to that place of understanding.

And so, it'd be good for us to ask this question. What is government? What is government? It's God created. It's established order. It's to punish evil and it's to promote justice. That's what government's for, according to the God of the Bible. It is to establish order. It is to punish evil and promote justice. Isn't it funny? You and I live in such a woke culture where people don't want to hear about punishing evil. They think it's a bad thing to punish evil. I got in a lot of trouble this week. I'm told I don't read. People tell me how big how much trouble I'm in. I don't read social media, so I don't really know. And then people come out and say, "Boy, are you in trouble? You you did a podcast on on uh uh corporal punishment. What does the Bible say? Uh does a government have the authority to kill someone who committed murder?" The Bible's crystal clear about this. And I just simply gave the Bible. And boy, that went down uh rough, I was told. Uh why? Because people don't want they they want justice their way, not the way God wants it. And yet without God, there will be no justice in all of mankind. When somebody commits a horrible murder against somebody else and and if you don't have the God of the Bible presiding in your life, you you do understand that there there will never be any justice forever in your worldview without God. You say, "How do they get away with that?" No one's getting away with nothing. Well, they get they did it 30 years ago and look at them. They're living in the palace. They're not living yet. Just wait till God gets done with them. See, we want some. We want it our way. We want it now. And God says, "You just be quiet. That's not for you to do. It's for me to do. And when I get done doing it, you're going to say, "Wow, you did it better." Because he's a just God. Just be careful when we cry for justice. He just might bring it to you.

The Bible says in Genesis 9:6, again, we're all in the introduction here. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. Folks, that's in the Bible. Give that to your kids, your grandkids. Give it to your school kid. They're not hearing this in school. God says a human life is so valuable that when they take a a human life by murder or by some means of manslaughter, their blood must be taken because that's the value of a human life. You see, that doesn't make sense. Makes perfect sense. If you act like God and take someone else's life, your life must be taken from you by who? The government. That's who established by God. For in the image of God, he made man. That is the qualifier. Why is it wrong to murder? Because you are acting like God and taking the life of someone who was created in the image of God and you do not have that authority. And God says because you've done that, your life must be taken. Let me tell you something. You want to know crime rates and all the horrible crimes that are at the level they are in America today? because we've stopped enforcing the laws. It's it's if you knew if we put the Ten Commandments in every classroom in America for just one year, you'd see a drop in the bizarre behavior of kids because the Holy Spirit, the kid would read, "Thou shalt not murder." And then God will speak to that kid's heart, put away your gun. Put away that hatred. Put away that evil. But isn't it interesting that the politics that prevails in America today says you can't do that. Somebody might feel bad if they read the Ten Commandments and so they remove it. That's politics messing with government, folks. And if we were to do anything as a nation, we need to get back to law and order and the rule of law as given by God and how our founders so well understood.

1 Corinthians chapter 14:33 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all the churches of the saints is our listen on so to speak on the streets." I I could so prove my point. I I'm so I told you I'm excited about this. Sorry, I'm yelling. I just love this kind of logic and reason. We should all get in a big big bus and we should go downtown LA, South Central LA. We should get out and walk the streets of of the hood and uh see how you feel. I remember flying with uh LAPD and we were flying over the Watts Towers and there were uh quite a few vehicles of tourists that were down there. And how did we know? because uh it was being reported to us there's tourists at the Watts Tower and they weren't they were let's put it this way they they were from Europe uh speaking with an accent and they were not black because in that community the gangs it's intense and I remember one of the officers saying I hope those people know that they need to get out of there before the sun goes down if I took you to such a place right now and you experienced that sense of fear you would want to have good governance to respond to such things that are dangerous, ungodly, and life-threatening. Are you hearing me? Well, how do we fix this? God has ordained government to be used in the fear of the Lord. That is the awe of God. And as you get more and more into this study, you're going to see how far our nation has come from its roots. And you need to know people, I'm going to be reminding you for the next few weeks, you live in a country that is unlike any other country on earth. With all of our problems, there's something different. And I'm going to show you what that something different is throughout this series.

Romans chapter 12, the Bible says in verse 8, "Let him who leads do it with diligence." That is government both in and out of the church. And so if government has been invented by God, and we know that it is, then listen everyone. Is government good or is it bad? Listen, if government's been invented by God and the Bible says so, is government good or bad? It's good in its origin of creation by God. Correct? We all agree? But when it gets into the hands of man, what does man do with it? He ruins it most often. In fact, when leaders do not acknowledge God in their government, listen, 100% probability that that government that is controlled by man becomes godless and tyrannical and it will serve one or a few until it's a communistic system. and where those who are the communist leaders who preach atheism because you can't have that kind of leadership with God existing because they don't want competition. So they declare God to be dead and then they wind up raising themselves up as a deity themselves. Make sense? That's called the death spots or a tyrannical rule.

And so I want to make sure I I say this rightly and I read so I'm going to read it verbatim here in my notes. Uh we begin to take on the two most controversial issues known uh to man and that is uh faith and politics or said differently God and government. Listen, please notice what I did not say. I did not say faith or politics or God or government. There's an entire world view out there that demands that you must pick one. Listen up everybody. Don't do it. Did you hear what I just said? God or government? Which one is it? Listen, that's right. Both. Oh, faith or politics? You got to pick one. Uh, no, I don't. Don't let people frame you into a conversation. When somebody says, "Oh, do you have an American flag on your house? You must be a bigot. Have you ever heard that happen? Have you ever had similar things happen to you like that? Don't let that happen. Don't let that happen. You say, "Well, how how can I prevent it?" Don't defend yourself on that. Let them say it, but just keep going on with the conversation. Because listen, you'll never convince them because if they believe it or not, that's their argument. They're not going to change. So when somebody says to you, "God or government?" Yes. If somebody says to you faith or politics, yes. Why? Because God has given government. I believe in God. I believe in what he's given. And you and I bringing about his plan on earth until he comes again for us is us influencing the leaders that are around us in life. And that is politics. Influence the leaders. We are commanded to do this. And that's what you see throughout your Old Testament.

Also, this it's important as this argument breaks in upon us. This is very, very important. This is the hinge on which the entire argument moves. Luke 1 26. Luke 1 26 tells us there now in the sixth month of the angel Gabriel was sent to uh sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph. They're engaged of the house of David. That's interesting. That's a legal statement. Joseph was a descendant legally of King David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women." But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." Watch this. "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great." Stop right there. What does that mean? He will be great. Well, you might say, Jack, what kind of question is that? Great in every way. Don't you think? I agree. But do you know what every way is? How about every way is always or all of the ways, including, watch this, and he will be called the son of the highest. That's a declaration of royalty. Is royalty dealing with government? And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. Is a throne government folks? Absolutely. And he will reign. Is reigning an issue of government over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. That's his politics. The politics of the king is implemented within his kingdom. There will be no end. Wow. Mark these down. These are good verses to know and to understand. And we have more.

Matthew chapter 2 verse one. Matthew 2:1 says, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who was born what? King of the Jews." That's a political statement, folks. That's a governmental statement. For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. Isn't that remarkable? You ever think about that? Think about that. Coming together.

Psalm 110 verse one. Psalm 110 verse1. The Lord says to my Lord, this is David speaking. This is 3,000 years old as of now. The Lord said to my Lord, say, wait, what? David is saying, "I pray and I talk and I have a relationship with the Lord." And the Lord said to my Lord, the one I am speaking to God through and with. The Lord said to my Lord, this is a profound statement. sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foottool for your feet. This is not only an issue of governance and of politics. It is also of the kingdom that is to come. When Jesus returns, then and only then will the enemies be placed at his feet as he reigns for 1,000 years in the millennium. The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, "Rule in the midst of your enemies." That's the millennium. Politics, folks, God's government. We're almost ready to start our Bible study. Hang on.

Revelation 17 verse14. For he is lord of lords and king of kings and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful. Wow. What about this? Revelation 19 verse 16. You all know this. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written king of kings and lord of lords. Did you know that? Every time you hear that and say that, that is a kingdom declaration of the politics of the Christ. But we don't want to talk about politics. I understand how disgusting politics is. It's horrible. But you and I live in a world where God has implemented governments among the nations. And if you and I know the word of God, we are to hold elected people in power accountable to God's law, to God's truth, not man's. This is what everyone is supposed to do because we are not to violate the word of God.

So that took 23 minutes or so, or maybe less. I don't know. Doesn't matter. We've been here a long time. Number one, jot it down if you would. The government of God reveals the sovereignty of God. The government of God reveals the sovereignty of God. Very, very important. And we learned this way that in verse one it says Romans uh 13:1 let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God. Will you write this down? The reality of divine government. God is the author of government coming from him. This is the reality. What is it? That every soul should be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God. Meaning wherever you live, whatever country you live in, that government is under God's watchful eye and for whatever reasons, God has allowed that government to exist or survive or flourish. In other words, God's in control. The sovereign God over all the nations belongs to Christ, belongs to God. And so, this is very, very uh insightful.

I want to show you a few more uh uh pictures, images, etchings where Israel, for example, received uh their constitution, so to speak, right? Their laws and they were the first to receive and they were of course uh the first to export that to the world uh from the Hebrew God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, number one, first of all, you guys know he's holding the ten commandments. Did you like that? You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3. This is this is the government of God. You should have no other gods before me. Is this true or false? It's true.

Number two, you shall not make for yourselves a carved image. True or false? True. What you say? What's the big deal? I make statues. I make I make totem poles. I mean, what's the problem? It's to bow down to worship. It's to say that you carve something out or in our day, we don't really carve stuff out, but we go down to the store, we buy one, and then we set it up and say, "This is my reason for living right here." Whatever it is, could be a gold brick or it could be a house on a hill, could be a boat. You know what I'm saying? Could be whatever your affection is. You say, "That's it for me. I've arrived. Oh, that's it." And listen, when you get your first car, you can leave this up. When you get your first car, does it like possess you like it possessed me as a kid? I got my first car, I washed it twice a week. And when I wasn't washing it, I was waxing it. And then I knew it was an idol because God began to speak into my heart because when I went and parked at the store, I parked as far away from the store as you possibly could. And I had to walk miles, so to speak, right, to get to the store. Why? Because nothing could get near my God. It's not your God. Yes, it was. Because I listen I transferred my identity to that thing. If it got scra proof listen proof hang on ushers lock the doors. If your idol gets scratched or broken, how do you respond? If you respond like that, if you get all flustered about it, then it is a carved image that holds a place in your heart. Yeah, but Pastor Jack, you don't realize the thing that I own it. this that's part of the selfjustification of your idol. But if it gets scratched or dented, does it affect your mood? If it does, it's an idol.

Number three, you shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain. That not that does not only mean cursing. You shouldn't curse. You shouldn't implore his name, but it it it mostly means this, believe it or not. It means you're not to live in such a way that when you that that when you claim his name, your lifestyle does not back up who he is. It's not so much it. Look, it's bad to say JC or you know the other thing that's bad enough, but what it means is you're not to say that you know God and you live like you don't know God. That's what it means by taking the Lord's name in vain. Wow.

Number four, uh remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The believer is supposed to be on cruise control, resting, holy. What's beautiful about this is God told the Jewish people to have a Sabbath day. And then the book of Colossians tells us that Jesus Christ is our Sabbath where we can rest every day. We're no longer having to keep the law because the law now is inside of us and God works the law out through us and he is, the Bible says, our Sabbath. But listen, let's make it uh uh per uh personal and and uh as of now remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It means you you need to take a day and shut down and focus on God. Think about that for a moment. Well, somebody might say, "Well, it's it's from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset." Well, maybe for you, but not for me. I'm I'm called to work really hard on that day. Paul the Apostle said, 'I understand that. That's why I don't esteem one day above the other. I esteem all days exactly the same regarding Sabbath. The Christian should be in a perpetual state of Sabbath. I hope you are. I hope you are.

Next, honor your father and your mother. Honor them. You got to read the fine print on this one. I'll paraphrase it. Honor your father and mother so that you don't get killed by your father and mother. No, the Bible says if you honor your mom and dad, you'll live a long life. Okay, that's uh that's a tough one because a lot of moms and a lot of dads are hard to honor because they're so godless. There's a way to show respect.

Next, you shall not murder. Murder. Sorry, Marine. Picking on you right now, but man, you're sitting duck right up front. and you're and you're in your dress blues, man. So, you you can't hide. Um, you know what I you know what I want him to know and what I want every uh soldier, every marine, every guardsman, every pilot to know, what every law enforcement you you need to know this. You shall not murder. Uh that's not that's not your problem. If you go into war and you're in battle, nowhere in the Bible, if you kill a thousand guys or one guy, that's not murder. Did you know that? Our war fighters need to know that they're not committing murder by the lunatics that are on the streets, the the potinfested Birkenstock lunatics that are on the streets using their freedoms that are provided by soldiers and airmen and marines to give them the opportunity to protest about war when when they're they're laying down their lives so that they can protest against stuff they don't even understand. The Bible nowhere says, "Thou shalt not kill." Did you know that? There's a big difference in the Hebrew word. You cannot murder. Why? You're not God. You can't go and take somebody's life. That's God's business. It doesn't say, "Thou shalt not kill." If you read anywhere on anybody's madeup ten commandments and it says kill, it doesn't say kill in the Hebrew language. It's murder. You are not allowed to murder. But if you are a law enforcement officer and you're in a gun battle and you take the bad guy out, you did your job. And the Bible, we'll talk about it next week. The Bible says you exercised righteousness and you were God's instrument for good. Same is true for our United States armed forces. Think about that. A lot of people don't know that. If I had anything to say to a a group of Marines or US Army or anybody else, I'd tell them before you're deployed, you need to understand something. You are instruments of God's righteousness. And if you take somebody out, it will not be murder. It's killing. And God sanctions killing in war. God says to David, "Go out there and kill the giants." You think God was conflicted? Was God confused? No. This is a This gets me going. I'm sorry. I got to move on. I got to move on.

Number seven. Number seven. You shall not commit adultery. I saw in Time magazine it said that adultery may be in our DNA. Well, you think about that. Actually, I I had the same reaction you did, by the way. And then I thought about it. Wait a minute. It is in our DNA. S I N. Positive. S I N. If we don't have guard rails and laws, if we don't have a government that tells us such things, as God told the children of Israel, then we will do what's right on our own eyes. And listen, we will want to do whatever we want to do. And sometimes body parts yell at us louder than any other part. And you need to say that body part, you need to get the back of the line. This body of mine belongs to God. And we're not going to do that. Okay? So, listen. When the Bible tells us, "You shall not commit adultery." No kidding. I had a this this is this is a tough day when you're doing marriage counseling and they they come in and the you can always tell you always look at the woman. You could always tell a lot by looking at her. And then listen, this is just between us. When you ask the when you ask the guy a question, don't take your eyes off of her if you want to get the answer. Because if you if you look at him and say, "Did you commit adultery?" Come on. I'm so offended by that. You just asked me straight up like that, man. What do you think I am? And then I'll look at her. Look, I'll look at her and say, "Now I'm going to ask you again, sir. Did you commit adultery?" And she's she's got the answer on her face. And then you'll say to him, "I know you have. Who told you?" It's like, "Hands up. And then I've had people say, "Listen, um, I'm a good husband. I've never committed adultery." You don't get any points for that. You know that. You weren't supposed to do that. God says, "Don't do it." Why? It destroys a family, destroys people, and it just tears up both this the the perpetrator and the and the victim and all involved. It tears them up. It ruins them. destroys them, but for the grace of God.

Next, you shall not steal. Do I need to talk about that? Um, how about this? You're not supposed to take home the company's pencils, pens, and erasers. See, you thought I was going to say, you can't steal a horse. Can't steal a car. Shucks. Can't steal a car. Listen, when we take home company uh uh property, the our our justifiable thought is, well, they've got 10,000 pens and pencils at this place. They sure do. They paid for every one of them, too. And it's not yours, right? Think about that. How about this? You can't steal from company times. But I'm a Christian and I was witnessing to that guy on the job. You need to repent, get back to your job, and ask the guy to meet you at break time because you're stealing from the company. I can tell by your response, there'll be no parking problem next week.

Next, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Don't lie and destroy your neighbor. Lying with the intent to undermine, destroy, to uh in any way harm your neighbor. Thou shalt not lie.

Number 10. You shall not covet. Covet. Wow. Covet. For covetous sake, people will murder and do everything else down that list. Wow. Those are structured because they are given to us by God. And it's vitally important that we understand that. The Bible tells us, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God." And it's God's announcement to us that in Proverbs 29 verse2, it is his will. Listen everybody, it is his will that not to deny leadership and to deny government. Nope. God says you need to get involved in leadership. Here it is. Proverbs 29:2 tells us this. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. God didn't say stay out of leadership or politics. He said for good people to get involved. You say, "Well, it's dirty." Yeah, it's dirty. It's cutthroat, brutal, just where Christians ought to be. Think about that. And so the institutions of government have been created by God and for his purposes. And it's wise to remember that all earthly governments and the powers that are established are technically by God his servants and they're accountable to him. You say,

"Well, Jack, I have a hard time with that because how do you, how do you, uh, take up a leader like, uh, Kim Jong-un, who's killing Christians wholesale?"

Listen, I, I don't know how to explain that except this. God has the ability to take him out, and God hasn't taken him out yet. What does this mean? It means that God is going to deal with Kim Jong-un. I don't know how. It's not for me to know how.

But when you and I see bad leadership in the world, you have to be careful not to get all up in arms about it. Do what you can about it according to the word of God. But at the end of the day, you've got to leave those leaders in the hand of God. It doesn't mean you sit it out. If you can vote or get involved, by all means, God's giving you that freedom, but we don't know the full answer. In the end, we will.

I want to read this to you. The institutions of government have been created by God for His purposes. It's wise to remember that all earthly governments are to be God's servant for, listen, for doing or for the doing of good. And because it is true, all earthly governments are accountable to God for their actions. Matthew 25:31. "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he, this is Jesus, will separate them from one another." Notice he's going to separate nations as a sheep or like a, or as a shepherd, or like a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. Friends, in the second coming of Christ, He's going to judge actual nations when He returns. Matthew chapter 25, look at that carefully.

And that word, by the way, subject, that we are to be subject, "let every soul be subject." That word means this: to a place, to place or to rank under, or in order to be in the place to obey. We are subject by God's decree to obey, to be in subjection to, or in submission to. So listen, according to God's word, we as citizens here in this state and in this nation, we are to be examples by submitting to the government. This is the law of God. Forget about it being the law of the nation. It is the law of God.

Is there any situation where the Christian is not to obey the laws of a nation or those over us? Yes, we know it's in the Bible. But you guys know right, what the criteria is? Yes. The criteria is when any law is passed or action taken by a government that is acting contrary to the expressed will of God. Is that law, is that rule God-honoring?

So, for example, and I'm going to get it a little bit ahead. We have to end in a minute. But the, the thing is this. You say, "Well, I'm not going to pay taxes because they're using it for terrible means." Okay, listen. We agree with you. The moment, watch. The moment you pay your taxes, it goes off, and that money of yours that God gave you, Caesar, so to speak, turns and says, "You got to pay taxes." Yes. Yes, we do. So, we pay taxes.

There are some people who say, "I'm not going to pay taxes. You're going to go to jail. You know, you're going to go to jail for, hear. And well, I'm a martyr." No, you're dumb. Listen, that's not, that's not what you're doing. Are you ready for this? What happens when we, the believer, pay taxes to an ungodly regime? God takes what we gave and, so to speak, ties it around the leadership's neck. That in the day of judgment, they took our good and they ruined it, and they will pay the price for it. Are you okay with that? Because that's how it works.

Because if you say, "I'm not going to pay taxes. We're, we're funding, you know, the, the research for gay monkeys in Peru." And I'm not into that, which we probably are. Of course. Of course I'm not into that. I think we should launch a campaign. Be nice to monkeys. No, I'm joking. No, of course we are not for that. But you and I are not in the halls of power to change that. If you want to change that, run for office. But in the meantime, when you write that check and that 10 cents goes to that crazy thing, know this. You're not going to be responsible for what they did with your tax dollars. They are. Why? They are the authority, and they abused it.

Boy, I wish we just had all day to just go through this message. It's, um, so real quick on this. Um, Matthew chap 25:31 and 32 tells us that when the Son of Man comes in his glory with all his holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them from one another as a shepherd divides his sheep from his goats. We read that a moment ago. Here's the criteria for that. When you read all of Matthew 25, I wonder if you remember what is the criteria for nations at the second coming of Christ for them to enter into the millennial age on earth with Christ as king, or they are cast away into hell. Do you know what the criteria is? This is going to, this is so awesome. It's so relevant that it freaks you out when you read Matthew 25. God will judge the nations of the world based on how they treated. He said, "My brethren, the Jews." Isn't that amazing? Say, "Well, what?" Say what? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Listen, what are we hearing all around the world? Attack Israel this way. Attack Israel that way. Don't support Israel this way. Don't support Israel that way. Hold a march. Be anti-Semitic. Do a protest on a campus. Isn't it amazing? We are headlong heading towards direct destruction apart from God. If we don't change our direction and our ways and repent, God has already said in the Bible, there's a day coming when the criteria I will judge the nations by will be: How did you treat Israel, my brethren? And based on their judgment, those nations will either be destroyed at the second coming, or they will be allowed to live into the millennial age when Christ returns in the great second coming. The reality of divine government is remarkable and awesome. We're going to pick this up next time. I'm so sorry. We've got so much.

Um, can we, can I show you one thing if you promise not to be upset next week if I show it to you again? So, guys, I'm, I'm not exactly sure. It could be page seven. Um, it's the video. It's the, the news announcer guy, the anchor, the news anchor guy. So, um, so as they're finding that video clip, we'll end with that. In fact, you can stand.

Um, in, um, wow, in our current atmosphere, and what has been for quite some time now in our nation, certainly our state, let's just talk about California. You say, "We should never talk about religion and politics." Well, where did you hear that from? Because you didn't get that from the Bible. You got it from some family member who passed it on to some family member to now you think it's a law. At every holiday meal, you can talk about anything and everything. Just don't talk. Look, we're going to go to my uncle's house. Don't bring up God and politics. According to my Bible, you can't separate the two. Oh, but they're so controversial. Of course they are. That's why they're fun to talk about. Listen, we can be guilty of so trying to keep the peace that we never get to the truth. And right now, in our, in our climate, I find it interesting that people who do not want to think about God get very angry when you do. And I always thought that was kind of funny. Why would you care about what I'm thinking about? And then when I honestly hear things like that, it's like I have to say, you know what I'm thinking about now? I mean, I want to just really get them going. Sorry. I have to repent of that. It's like, but have you noticed that whatever they think about when it comes to religion or politics, it's not only okay, you must think the way they do. You know why that's the way it's always been? Is because people who are not secured and anchored are suckers for intimidation tactics. If you don't know if you, what you believe in for sure, you'll be, you'll be led astray.

And so some of you have seen this, but it goes in with what we're talking about if we have the right clip. And that is that if I would have done something different, if I would have said, you know, "Let's bow our heads to whatever god or goddess that you want, and let's pray to whatever thing you feel is right and good on your sweet little heart, and we'll just have this wonderful hug-hugest thing, and then we'll end it by saying amen or a woman." Because, you know, in our Congress, uh, one leader did say, and, and so we pray, "a woman," because this poor buffoon didn't know that amen is a Hebrew word. And, uh, and then I'm the one that gets criticized for being, what's the word? Ill-equipped, because I happen to known that that the word amen in Hebrew means "let this be true" or "it is true." I didn't know that a woman is, uh, someone that is opposite than a man. I thought it was how they thought they thought it was how you're supposed to end a prayer. And I'd never heard of such a thing before. So, do we have it? The clip? Okay, then we'll pray.

Members of Congress recently lashed out at California Pastor Jack Hibbs after an opening prayer in late January. House Speaker Mike Johnson invited the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California, to deliver the invocation on January 30th. During an interview, Hibbs explained he was already uncomfortable with all of the stipulations he had to abide by so he would not offend anyone. Then this happened.

"I just reviewed my prayer again and I realized, um, I just had to ask God, I am sorry for this prayer. Yeah. And so I just, I rewrote it right then and there and put it in my pocket." The rewritten prayer is what Hibbs delivered before members of Congress. And the opening line is what the pastor is being attacked for. "Almighty God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, together we come before you in humility."

In a letter addressed to Speaker Johnson, 26 Democrats accused Hibbs of being an ill-qualified hate preacher who was pushing a Christian nationalist, uh, agenda. According to Fox News, Hibbs is also in the crosshairs of the atheist group Freedom From Religion, calling on the IRS to remove the tax-exempt status of his church after he has reportedly endorsed a Republican Senate candidate from the pulpit.

I'm, this is, this is my full of this is my full of hate face. So the Lord is on His throne. He governs, as Ben Franklin said, in the affairs of men. But until Christ comes again, we are to be conducting ourselves in a righteous way. We are to be submissive to government as that government abides by the love of fellow man, law and order. But when that government becomes tyrannical, then the scripture says, "Whether it is right in your eyes to obey God or man, you be the judge." But the apostles said, "As for us, we must obey God."

Father, we praise You. We love You. We thank You. The greatest of all is the fact that God loved us so much that He sent His only precious Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, to die on the cross for our sins, to set us free from the grip of hell and death, that we might live new lives. Father, as we go through this series in the upcoming weeks, may we be a people galvanized with truth. And may we, Father, be excited about knowing the truth and loving the truth and knowing how to conduct ourselves in the truth. And may we speak the truth in love always. Lord, thank You. We love You, Jesus. Bless this day. We pray. And all God's people said, "Amen." God bless you guys in Jesus' name. God bless you.