God’s Strange Servants

Beginning in verse 1, follow with me in your Bible. Paul says, “Let every soul…,” referring to an individual person, in this case believers, “…be subject unto the higher powers,” that is, civil or governmental authorities. He gives us the reason, “For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation,” or retribution. “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he…,” that is, the government authority or you might say as well, the police department or the civil authorities, “…is the minister of God…,” (this is where I got my title—God’s Strange Servants) “…to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon them that doeth evil. 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, no only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6 For this cause pay ye tribute…,” now, this is what makes this passage difficult. He is telling us to pay taxes right here, and if I could skip over a verse, I would skip over that verse. I’m no different than you. There are verses in the Bible that I think, “Ah, Lord, why did you stick that in there?” “…also; for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honor.”

In our study of Romans 12, which began the practical section of the book of Romans, we saw that the Christian has in his relationship four areas: to God, to himself, to believers and to others. In our relationship to God, we are to surrender our lives as living sacrifices. In relationship to ourselves, we are to be humble. In relationship to others, we are to love and serve them with the gifts God has given to us. Last Wednesday night we looked at our relationship to our enemies—we are to even love our enemies. As we move into chapter 13, Paul speaks about three more transformed relationships of the child of God. Again, these all flow out of Romans 12:1. When you present your body unto God as a living sacrifice, this is the kind of life that you live.

I want to give you an outline of Romans 13. We are going to just look at the first point. First of all, we see our relationship to the state, verses 1-7; secondly, our relationship to the law, verses 8-10; thirdly, our relationship to the Lord’s return, one of the marvelous passages in Romans about the coming again of the Lord and the conditions in the last days, verses 11-14. Tonight, is just the first point, verses 1-7. We want to look at our relationship as Christians to the government or to the state. This is a controversial subject, not because God’s Word isn't clear, it’s because we have different forms of government that sometimes we don’t like or care about, and we have issues of rebelling against the government or laws that we don’t agree with. We know a lot about that as Americans. We had the American Revolution, and we have a democratic government where we can vote, get involved, and change our government, so it’s hard for us sometimes to draw some really hard black and white lines when this subject is so vast and covers so many areas. We’re never going to be able to exhaust it in one setting. We talked about it from Peter’s epistle and we’re going to talk about it from Romans, but whenever you teach a section like this, no doubt, there are going to be more questions raised than there are answers. I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can from the text, and I’m always hanging out after service for anybody who wants to talk or discuss what we’ve covered tonight. I hope to bring some clarity to what the Bible teaches about this subject.

The church and the state have different roles, and as Christians, we have a duty to both. Remember when they tried to trap Jesus to whether we should pay taxes to Caesar or not? They came to Him with a loaded or trick question. They weren’t earnestly wanting to know—they wanted to trap Him. They wanted Him to commit to one side or the other. They said, “Is it okay to pay taxes to Caesar?” The Jews were under the iron heel of Rome, and they were paying tribute to the Roman government. If Jesus said, “Yes, pay taxes.” The Jews would turn against Him. If Jesus said, “No, don’t pay taxes.” The Romans would arrest Him. Actually, that’s one of the reasons that Jesus was ultimately arrested. They brought accusation against Him saying He was telling people not to pay tribute to Caesar. I say all that to say, what Jesus said in His answer summarizes this text. Jesus said, “Show me a coin.” Evidently, He didn’t have one on Him. He’s kind of like me, he reached in and said, “I don’t have my wallet. I don’t have any money. Does anybody have any money? Can they loan the Pastor some money?” This time it’s, “Can they loan the Messiah some money?” They gave Him a denarius, which was a Roman coin. Then, He held it up and said, “Whose picture is on this?” He used the word “image” or “superscription” or “Whose mug is on this coin?” They said, “Caesar’s.” It doesn’t say in the text, but I picture Jesus kind of, you know, Messianic cool flicking the coin back to them in a Messiah-cool kind of style. He said, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s…,” and then what did He say? “…and to God the things that are God’s.” Render to Caesar—we have a responsibility to the government. He didn’t say, “No, rebel. No, revolt. Don’t pay taxes.” He said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what belongs to God.” We have a responsibility both to God and also to the government.

What is our duty to the state? It is summarized in one word. I can summarize this whole passage in one word. Again, it’s a word that makes this passage quite difficult, a word we don’t really like. It’s the word “submission.” Not only does the Bible tell us to submit to God or to submit to one another, for wive’s to submit to their husbands, children to obey their parents, and servants to obey their masters (there is submission on all kinds of levels), but it tells everyone of us as citizens of the state to be submitted to the powers that be, submitted to governmental authorities. In our case, this would be federal, state, and local government. We are to be submitted to the civil authorities and powers that be.

If you’re taking notes, there are three main areas about submission Paul mentions. The first is the precept of submission, the statement that we are to be submitted. Go back with me to verse 1. “Let every soul be subject…,” there it is. That’s submission. Unto whom? “…unto the higher powers.” That verse flat out tells us in black and white that as a general principle, there are cases where it’s okay to disobey the government, but as a general overarching principle, we are to be subject to the government. It’s a command which means it’s an imperative. It’s in what’s called the passive voice which means that you are commanded to be obedient but you’re to do it voluntarily, willingly. Even though God commands us to do this, we do it out of a heart of obedience, willingly to God. Every soul is referring to every Christian, but Paul is saying that in Christianity we are to be good citizens and should be, as Jesus said, the light and salt of the earth. You say, “But, what about bad government?” We don’t know anything about bad government, do we? Well, they knew a lot about bad government.

Do you know who the Caesar of Rome was at this time? His name was Nero. Nero was one of the most wicked, cruel Caesars that ever lived. This is shortly before he would begin to very aggressively persecute Christians, which began about 63-64 AD, in what was known as the Neronian Persecution where he was just killing Christians wholesale. In the Roman empire, you actually had to pledge allegiance to Caesar. Every year you had to take a pinch of incense and put in on a government altar and say, “Caesar is lord.” Christians wouldn’t do that. Christians could not do that, but at this time Christians were still a legal religion in the Roman empire. Christianity was viewed as a Jewish sect before it would become an illegal religion and there would be open persecution, but hear this. Persecution has never hindered God’s work. Persecution has never hindered God’s church. Jesus said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” No matter what form of government the church is under it can flourish because Jesus is the head of the church, and Jesus is building His church. Amen? We find here that we are to be submitted even if the government is corrupt, even if we don’t agree with the government, even if it’s a wicked government, and we’re going to see the rational behind it because government is ordained of God.

One thing Paul says that isn’t in this text (that I want to mention before I forget, it’s not even in my notes), he doesn’t endorse any form of government, and there is no form of government that is absolutely perfect. We get the idea that democracy is Christianity and it’s not. One day we will have a theocracy meaning that Christ will reign on the earth. For one thousand years after the second coming, Jesus will be the King of all the earth. He gets my vote! Everybody is talking about who are you going to vote for? I vote for Jesus Christ. Come, Lord Jesus! At the end of that thousand-year theocracy, it’s going to flow into an eternal state that transitions into the new heavens and the new earth.

In 1 Peter 2, we read as we studied on Sunday morning, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme.” Christians are to be law-abiding citizens of the state, but is there ever a time where we can disobey the law? Is there no limitation to our obligation of submission? The answer is, yes there is—whenever man’s law contradicts God’s law. We have to make sure that it contradicts God’s law. Listen to me very carefully, if keeping man’s law puts us into direct conflict and disobedience with God’s law then what we do is say, “ We must obey God rather than man.” Right? Abortion is a controversial issue in our culture. It’s not for me. As a believer, I believe that it’s the murder of a human being. Now, the rub comes in today in the fact that the government isn’t forcing you to have an abortion. If it were, then you would say, “No, but you must obey God rather than man.” I’ll talk more about abortion in just a moment because there are some things I want to share that are on my heart in light of this coming election, and I think that they tie in with our passage tonight.

We find out that laws, even those the government establishes, have a moral bearing, a moral influence. We hear a lot about separation of church and state, which the founding fathers never intended that Christians couldn't be involved in politics. It was the idea that government shouldn’t control the church, but it was never meant to be the church could not influence the government or that as a government official you couldn’t exercise your faith in that position. Again, I know it’s a very delicate controversial issue, but I don’t believe that it’s wrong to be involved in government issues and to be exercising your Christian faith. It should affect your whole life. When I hear a politician say, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t bring it into the public sector,” that is so ridiculous. (I couldn’t find a better word to use right there—ridiculous.) You can’t separate your public life with your private life. If you’re a Christian and you oppose abortion, then how can you support a candidate that is for abortion or a party that supports abortion? That doesn’t make sense to me. I’m just picking one issue out. It might be the issue of same-sex marriage. I told you this is a hot passage tonight, and I’m making it hotter by talking about these subjects.

We pass laws that legalize same-sex marriage which contradicts God’s laws, and the government wants to force us to recognize their unions which, we believe, is in direct conflict with God’s Word, and the more liberal our government gets, we are right on the borderline, the message that I’m preaching tonight or some of the stands that we take as believers, we could actually go to jail for in the United States of America. Sometimes we dismiss that and say, “Oh, that’ll never happen in the United States.” Don’t be foolish. While the church is sleeping, the world is getting darker in the United States. While the church isn’t earnest in praying and standing on the truth of God’s Word, liberal seminaries are pumping out pastors that don’t believe the Bible as the inerrant, infallible Word of God, churches are being taught that all paths lead to God, we have moral relativity, no absolutes, and political correctness entering into the church, and the church is becoming weaker.

The church is the salt and light of the world. I actually blame the moral corruption in our culture on the church not the world. If the world is dark, it’s because the church is not shining as the light of the world. If the world is corrupt, it’s because the church has not been the salt that God wants it to be—as goes the church that goes with the culture. That’s why we need a revival, and to have a revival we need a re-Bible. We need to get back into God’s Word, begin to believe God’s Word, and live God’s Word in our daily lives to be that influence on our culture. As much as I think you need to pray and vote your conscience and be concerned about moral issues when you decide what candidate you’re going to support, that’s not going to change the hearts of men only the Holy Spirit can do that. We must, as the church, never stop and never compromise preaching the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? There’s no substitute. We’ve got to keep preaching the gospel, and the darker the world gets, the brighter we need to shine.

Now, I said there is a time when we can disobey the government. Let me give you just a few examples. I probably have more than I should, and I’ll just skim a couple. The first is in Exodus 1 when Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the newborn babies. What were the Jewish midwives going to do? It’s the law. It’s the law of King Pharaoh. We’re living in Egypt and when in Egypt do as the Egyptians do, so we’re going to take these male babies and we’re just going to throw them into the river so they die. No. They didn’t do that. They chose rather to obey God than man, and guess what resulted? We have a Moses who God gave the Ten Commandments. Thank God for these Hebrew midwives, and thank God a woman by the name of Jochebed feared the Lord, kept her child, and raised him. God had His hand on Moses.

In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzer issued his edict to worship the golden image. When the band strikes up the happy tune everyone had to fall down and worship this golden image, and if you don’t, you get thrown into a fiery furnace. What would you do? I’d say, “Well, I’ll just bow down, but God knows my heart. In my heart I’m not really bowing down.” There were three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, (those were the Babylonian names that they were given) who stood strong, tall and firm. They wouldn’t bow, they wouldn’t bend, nor would they burn, as the saying goes. Amen?

I see this picture, if you’re an artist you ought to paint a picture of this to see the Babylonians all on their faces. Have you seen the picture of Mecca when they’re praying toward Mecca and all the Muslims are on their faces? You see a sea of people bowing down, and then you look way out in the middle of the sea of people and there’s three little Jewish boys standing in the middle and they’re like, “(nervous laugh) What do you think, Guys? Do we get down?” To me, that kind of conveys a picture of how you and I ought to live in this culture. When everyone in this culture is bowing down, we need to stand for Jesus Christ no matter what the consequences. Amen? That takes a lot of faith. I love what they said to the king. They said, “Know this, O King, that we wouldn’t bow or worship your golden image and our God is able to deliver us, but if not, we didn’t worship your golden image.” They wanted to get that in the record. They got thrown into the fire, and the Lord shows up with them, they’re delivered, they come out, and it blows the king’s mind. What a testimony they were!

In Daniel 6, King Darius issued a decree that no one could pray to anyone but him for 30 days. Can you imagine that? The next President of the United States, the first thing he or she does when he or she gets into office is say, “Okay, no one can pray but to me for 30 days.” I don’t think so! So, Daniel did what he normally would do. He got on his knees and prayed three times a day. The spies were watching, they reported him, and he was arrested. He got thrown into a lion’s den, but the Lord protected him. He spent the night with the big lions and just had a good night’s sleep, just kind of lying there, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.” The king said, “O, Daniel, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” “Long live the king,” Daniel yelled. He pulled Daniel out and took the guys that conspired against Daniel and threw them in. Some critics say, “Well, the lions weren’t hungry.” Well, the next morning, when Daniel was pulled out and these guys were pulled in, they gobbled them up right away, so they were definitely hungry but God sent His angel. I picture the angel had the lions in a headlock. He’s holding that sucker, and God delivered Daniel who took a stand for truth.

In Acts 4, we’re familiar with that, when the Sanhedrin banned preaching in the name of Jesus, that’s when the disciples said, “We must obey God rather than man.” In each case found in the Scriptures, civil disobedience was to demonstrate submission to God not defiance to the government. Our heart is to be submitted to God. We’re not intentionally trying to subvert the government, we’re trying to be obedient to God.

Secondly, and this is the heart of this text, the end of verse 1 down to verse 5, the purpose of submission. I’m going to give you five reasons under the second point, the purpose of submission, and I want you to write them down. I’ll try not to get bogged down. The first is human government is ordained of God. These come right out of the text. I want you to notice that in verse 1. He says, “…be subject unto the higher powers,” reason, “… there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” You can preach a whole sermon on that statement. The idea that any government God has allowed, and I know that man rebels against God and there are corrupt governments, but even a bad government is better than anarchy and the church has always thrived under even oppressive governments. Do you know where the church is growing most rapidly right now in the world? It’s growing most rapidly in China, which is a communist country. It’s growing right now in Africa. It’s growing right now, flourishing, in the middle east. In Muslim countries, the church is growing and flourishing. It’s in America that we’ve been kind of lulled into complacency and apathy because we’ve allowed our liberties to bring us around back into bondage.

The reason for our submission is found in the fact that civil government has its source in God. I want to point out that there are three divinely ordained institutions: Family, Government and the Church. The family is the foundation and the building block—as goes the family so goes the government. That’s why, to change God’s design for marriage, which is the foundation for a family, before you have children you get married, which is God’s ordained path, is if you pervert the family then you affect government. It also has an impact on the church. The church and the family were made to complement each other. Your family needs the church, and the church needs your family. They both help, strengthen, and encourage each other—the family, government, and the church. We need to keep their function and purpose in their rightful places. God uses each of these categories to restrain evil. In the family, we discipline our children, raise our children, teach them moral values, and the government is to be used by God for the punishment of evil men and the rewarders of those that are good. The church is to be changing lives through preaching the gospel and using the Word of God to transform lives to become salt and light in the government and in the family, but we see a breakdown in all three of these categories in our world today.

The starting point in our submission to the sovereignty of God is that we are to be submitted to the powers that be. Go back with me to Romans 9:17. We covered the fact that the powers that be are ordained of God, “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” Here you have wicked Pharaoh, but who placed him there? God did. Sovereign God placed this king there that God would use it to serve even His purposes. It’s amazing to think about that God has actually ordained human government.

The second point I want to make is that to resist government is to be in rebellion against God. I want you to notice verse 2. “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.” So, if you resist the government, you’re actually resisting God, “… and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation,” judgment or punishment.

Thirdly, write this down, verses 3-4, government serves to restrain evil and to promote good. The two primary functions and purpose of human government is to oppress or restrain or to punish evildoers. That’s why our laws must reflect God’s standards. The problem in our culture today is we don’t know what is good and what is evil. The only way we can know what is good or evil is if we open up the Bible and look at God’s Word. George Washington said, “It’s impossible to govern a nation without God or the Bible.” We’ve rejected both in America, so our laws have no fixed point. We don’t really know what is good or what is right or what is good or evil, but that’s the job of the government. The job of the government is to restrain evil and to promote good. Paul used his Roman citizenship for that purpose sometimes to defend himself agains the Roman government or the Jews who were attacking him. So, we need to make sure that the law is there to help us, to restrain evil. We need to have laws that oppose things that are evil and that promote things that are good, but we’ve quickly become a nation who calls good evil and evil good, and we’ve twisted God’s Word and God’s law, but they’re there to protect us. Now, this would involve the police department.

How many of you are thankful that we have a nation with police departments. If someone is breaking into your house… Now, when you’re speeding, you may not be clapping. This message has been real hard for me because a couple of weeks ago when I was preaching up in San Bernardino, I was driving too fast to get there, and I got a big fat ticket. All day, as I had been studying this passage I’d say, “Minister of God for right, minister of God..,” because I was gonna say, “You know, I’m a minister, please don’t give me a ticket,” and he’d say, “I’m a minister too.” The cop could’ve said, “And God has called me to go to the highways and the byways and to bring them in, and you’re under arrest.” Thank God he didn’t arrest me or I wouldn't have gone to preach that day, but I won’t tell you how fast I was going. That’s just between me and God—and the judge in a few weeks, okay? Pray for me. I might not be here for a few weeks. I’m going to plead mercy, “Mercy, mercy, mercy!” I thank God that we have the police department. They are, twice in this passage, ministers of God to restrain evil. Had I kept driving at that speed, I might have gotten in an accident and killed my wife and I or killed somebody else. Trust me, since that day, I have slowed down tremendously, praise God! Some of you are looking at me like, “Pastor Miller! You sped on the way to church tonight!” Thank God that we have laws.

I did hear a funny story about a woman that was at a women’s Bible study one day at her church. The women were studying the book of Acts 2:38, repent and believe in Jesus. When this woman got home from Bible study, she got into the house and actually found that there was a burglar in the house. She came upon a burglar robbing the house, and it so startled her she didn’t know what to do she just yelled out, “Acts 2:38!” The guy just froze. He just stood there still, and she called 911. The cops came and arrested him. When they arrested him they said, “Why didn’t you run? Why, when the woman just quoted Scripture to you, didn't you run for your life?” He said, “Quoted Scripture? She told me that she had an ax and two 38s.” So, God’s Word can come in real handy! Just quote Scripture. I don’t know if that’s a true story or not, but it’s pretty amazing. So, the purpose of authority is to restrain evil and to promote good.

Let me give you the fourth, verse 4. Government is empowered by God to inflict punishment for disobedience, so they are to promote good and are actually given the authority and the power by God to inflict punishment. In the context of Romans here, this is quite interesting, what did we learn at the end of the twelfth chapter? “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” We are not to take personal vengeance on our enemies, right? So, if someone comes against us, what are we supposed to do? We’re supposed to have government authorities, the police department, they’re supposed to take vengeance. We’re not supposed to take it into our own hands. He just got through telling us that we’re not to take vengeance ourselves, and now he tells us that we’re to trust in our government, that they bear the sword. Notice it in verse 4. “For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon them that doeth evil.” Notice that phrase “bears the sword.” That’s Biblical language for punishment, and in the sword was the power of life or death.

I’m not just saying this, some New Testament scholars, based on that phrase and the very Greek word that’s translated, believe this supports capital punishment. Again, I know that’s a controversial issue, and we would never want to see somebody that’s innocent be put to death, but I think what weakens our culture around us today is the fact that we have weak penalties for those who commit crimes. I believe that we should allow the government to bear the sword, they “beareth not the sword in vain.” As a matter of fact, capital punishment was established by God way back in the book of Genesis—that if you took a life your life should be taken. God made allowance for other different degrees of murder and the cities of refuge as well, but he bears not the sword in vain and actually the government has been given this responsibility to bring swift penalty and punishment upon those who do evil. God actually uses the government to display His wrath.

Lastly, verse 5, we should submit to government for conscience sake. This is what really applies to us as believers so importantly. “Wherefore ye must needs be subject, no only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.” You obey the law not just because you don’t want to go to jail or you don’t want to pay a fine, but you obey because you want to obey God. You don’t say, “Well, you know, I know the speed limit is 65, but I’m going to go real fast because I don’t see any police around. You know, if the police aren’t around the Holy Spirit is not around, so I can go however fast I want.” You need to realize God sees you. Have you ever seen those signs “Patrolled by Air?” I’m always like, “Are there any airplanes around?” We forget that God sees, right? God is in the car with us, and God is looking at our speedometer. God knows what’s going on, and we need to live our lives with this God consciousness and an awareness that we have to do it. In 1Peter 2:13 it says, “…for the Lord’s sake,” so that’s a higher motivation that we do it as unto the Lord—for the Lord’s sake.

Let me give you my third and last point, verses 6-7, the particulars of submission. It’s very, very simple. Notice verse 6, “For this cause pay ye tribute…,” for what cause? “…for they are God’s ministers,” government is established by God. It is ordained of God, and for conscience sake we are to pay tribute for they are God’s ministers, again, “attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honor.” So, we’re supposed to pay our taxes. It’s almost hard for me to say that, but it is in the Bible. Again, Jesus said, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” I love what Chuck Smith used to say. He said, “Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, but not a penny more.” Take all the tax breaks you can and so forth.

A little thing I want to throw out, one of the issues in our coming election, and even right now, did you know that the government tries to restrict, and always has been, what I can say from this pulpit at Revival Christian Fellowship, which I believe shouldn’t be the case? That restriction is that I’m not supposed to endorse a candidate. So, Revival Christian Fellowship does not endorse or support a candidate as a church, as an organization. I can tell you who I’m going to vote for, John Miller, but I can't tell you who you should vote for, or as a member of this church, who you should vote for. I can tell you something that concerns me with the democratic platform right now, that is, to go back to my topic of abortion. Right now, we have a law called the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment is a law that was passed that federal funds and federal taxes cannot be used to pay for or support abortion. Your tax dollars cannot be used to pay for abortion. They aren’t supposed to go to Planned Parenthood that supports abortion. That’s exactly what Hillary Clinton wants to do. She wants to reverse the Hyde Amendment so that federal taxes will be used to support abortion.

Another thing that concerns me is the appointing of Judges to the Supreme Court. The next President of the United States is probably going to have an opportunity, we know, to appoint at least one Supreme Judge, and many believe another, at least, two and maybe even three. If we get Judges that are not constitutional Judges and do not uphold the law, then the liberal agenda sweeping through our nation and the standards on marriage and abortion and other moral issues are just going to be tragic for America. I know you may not like candidates, and I don’t like either one of the candidates, but we need to think about these moral issues and the impact they are going to have on America. I believe, as Christians, we should at least start on our knees—we must start on our knees. We have no way of knowing what way America will go, but whatever way it goes, we’re going to stand for truth and the Word of God, we’re going to keep preaching the gospel, and we’re not going to compromise God’s Word. Amen? We’re going to love our enemies, we’re going to submit to those who are in authority, we’re going to give honor to whom honor is due, we’re going to respect the office, we’re going to pray for those who are in power and authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, but we also have a higher authority in God and we want to be salt and light and I would never tell you how you should vote, but I would encourage you to pray and to vote Biblically, aligning yourself with Biblical issues. Moral issues are important. Our laws must reflect God’s Word. They’re going to reflect somebody’s standards, why not God’s standards? Somebody is going to impose their law on us, why not make it God’s law? Does that mean we’re intolerant of other people who disagree with us? No. We just read in chapter 12, we love our enemies. We pray for those which persecute you and bless those which despitefully use you, but we need to pray.

If I were to add two more things we need to do as particulars for our submission, we need to pay, pray and preach. In 1 Timothy 2:1-2, pray; 1 Timothy 2:2-7, we need to preach. We need to preach, preach, preach, preach, preach and preach and preach some more. Do you know what the Bible says? Paul said to Timothy, “Preach the Word.” I believe everyone of us needs to open our mouths and preach, to live our lives the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we become the salt and the light to this world around us. Let’s pray.