Sermon Tone Analysis

! Romans 13

!! *Romans 13*

*Tape #8132*

*Pastor Chuck Smith*

* *

Romans, chapter thirteen.

I must admit that I do have difficulty with the first part of this chapter.

And so often, I think, we are prone to sort of dismiss it as a rather cultural thing.

And yet it is not just here, but it is teaching that is consistent through the Word, where Paul declares, /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.   /When Peter wrote his first epistle, he said somewhat the same thing.

There Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:17-18, Honor all men.

Love the brotherhood.

Fear God.

Honor the king.

In verse thirteen he said, submit yourselves to every ordnance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well.

For so is the will of God that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

The clear teaching of the Scriptures is that I am to be subject to those powers and authorities of government.

Not just if I agree, but as a matter of principle.

For all power and authority is ordained of God.

Now this was said when the Roman government, which was also corrupt in many forms, was the world power of that day.

And Paul was writing to those who were in Rome, the capital city of the Roman Empire.

People that were used to the excesses practiced by those in the Roman Senate, the abuses.

And yet to them Paul writes that they are to be in subjection to those higher powers because there is no power but of God and the powers to be are ordained of God.

In the book of Daniel, we remember the story of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of the tree that grew, the birds that lodged in its branches, men found comfort under its shade and so forth.

Now the tree was cut down.

From it there grew of course another tree out of the stump and none of these counselors could interpret the dream.

Daniel was brought in.

Daniel said to him, you know, this dream is one that your enemies are going to like, because you have been lifted up with pride, because of the great kingdom that God has given to you.

But the warning was that God was going to allow him to go through a very bitter experience of insanity until he knows that the most high God rules over the kingdom of men and gives it to whom so ever He wills.

All power is of God.

The governments are ordained of God.

Now the difficulty that I have is that is that I realize that many government officials are corrupt.

Many men in places of power are corrupt.

Why would God ordain corrupt leadership?

That’s the problem that I have.

I said it’s a problem.

I didn’t say I was going to give you answers.

It’s just a problem that I have.

We do know that in the Old Testament, take the northern kingdom of Israel, they really didn’t have one decent king.

The kings led them into idolatry.

They led them away from God through their rule they finally brought them into the judgment of God and captivity to the Assyrians.

Even in Judah there were such kings as Manasses, who was corrupt and horrible.

It is hard to understand how that it can be said that all power is of God or that God gives the authority to those whom He wills.

And yet this is the clear teaching of the Scriptures.

I believe there becomes a time in the nation when it has turned its back upon God and deliberately and willfully has defied the rules and the law of God.

That, that nation is to be brought into judgment.

I do believe that God sometimes raises up corrupt leaders as a form of judgment against the people who have rebelled against God's authority.

It’s sort of like, God says, okay, you don’t want Me to rule over you?

Then I’ll let him rule over you.

See how you like that.

I think that sometimes God allows corrupt leadership because we have rejected His rule over our lives.

It is a form of God's judgment upon a nation, upon a people when the form of government becomes corrupted.

People get what they want.

If they want to rebel against God, God will allow that rebellion, but it can’t come except at the cost of judgment.

So Paul goes on to say, / 2Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment /(condemnation) /on themselves.

/Now there are several movements today.

Militia type movements, that go by different names, constitutional movements and all, they are advocating the overthrow of our government.

I do not believe, as Christians, we are called to take arms to overthrow a government.

I think that Paul lays it out here quite clearly, even if the government is not what it should be.

God has of course provided the means of overthrowing the government through the ballot box.

And if the people have voted and have desired such leadership, then we are to be in subjection to that leadership accepting that this is God's will.

And God has allowed it.

It would not be unless God had allowed it to be.

I may not be in agreement with it, but I’m to submit to that authority because God has allowed that authority to rule.

Paul said, /3For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.

Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?

Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

/Do what is good and you will have no problem.

If you keep the law, if you are obedient to the law, you’re not going to have any problems.

If you are a violator, then you will fear the authority.

But if you keep the laws you will have the praise of the same.

And this is again, I told you I had problems, /4For he is God's minister to you for good.

/Now sometimes that is awfully difficult to accept when you are tied up in the bureaucratic red tape of trying to get a building permit.

I love that bumper sticker that says, make welfare as hard to get as building permits.

/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.

5Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.

/So the teaching of the Scriptures is not one of defying of the government or the powers of the government, but of submission to them.

Now, there are, of course, exceptions.

When Nebuchadnezzar had built that huge idol and had commanded that everyone at the sound of the music, bow down and worship that idol, though Nebuchadnezzar later was brought to understand and to know that he only reigned at God's caprice.

That it is God who rules over the affairs of man and set into the powers those that he will.

Yet Nebuchadnezzer had given the command that at the sound of the music, everyone was to bow and to worship this beast or this image that he had set up in the plain of Dura.

And when the three Hebrew children refused to bow, they were brought before Nebuchadnezzar.

He chastised them for their failure to bow.

He said I’ll give you one more opportunity.

And if you don’t bow, then you will be thrown into the burning, fiery furnace.

And they said, Oh, king, were are not even careful how we answer you because the God that we serve is able to deliver us from your burning fiery furnace and if He doesn’t we still won’t bow.

There was an open defiance to the decree that was made by Nebuchadnezzar, because to obey that decree would violate their own conscience before God.

Bowing to an idol when that was strictly prohibited in the Scriptures.

So if laws are made that would violate my Spiritual consciousness or my Spiritual conscience, and to obey that law would cause me to violate my principles, now Paul wrote this to the church.

Yet Paul himself, ultimately was slain by Rome.

And the refusal was to declare Caesar as lord.

During the times of the great persecutions in the early church, anyone could escape death by martyrdom by simply confessing that Caesar is lord, and the sentence would be commuted.

But thousands, millions of early Christians, went to death rather than to acquiesce to the Roman government and to declare Caesar is lord.

So we are talking about the basic laws of the land.

We are not to be violators.

Why does your heart pump when you are going down the freeway and you see a black and white?

If you are on the freeway and doing sixty-five, you don’t need to worry.

They are not going to bother you.

Your heart only begins to beat faster because you look at the speedometer and it says seventy-five or eighty.

And your old heart begins to pump when you see him make a U-turn.

It’s because you are violating the law.