You pay your taxes or you go to jail. And there have been good Christians that contributed to Christianity that didn't pay their taxes. And now they're in the house of numbers. They're in jail. So, you know, I preach the gospel there, but you got a basic tenet of Christianity wrong.
You don't have to like it. We are not to use violence or folly to further the gospel or to defend it. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Romans.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick. Today he'll begin in John chapter 19 and then continue in Romans 13 on this edition of Cross Reference Radio. John chapter 19 verse 11. Jesus answered, You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. He said, Yeah, I'm going to suffer. You're going to crucify me. My father loves me and he's in control.
And I'm not backing away from any of those two things. Well, he's giving us an example also of how we should go about our business. God is sovereign. I don't know why he does what he does.
I don't know why he put a mark on Cain after Cain murdered his brother and said, No one is to kill Cain. He knows why. He didn't tell me.
He didn't have to. He's told me enough to understand he is sovereign and he is love. And by faith I accept that. Church behavior, contrary to the scripture, is sub scriptural. You reap what you sow. It's sub scriptural religion and it rots an otherwise decent culture. When the church is a blank, it doesn't do what she's built to do.
And then there's the scramble to get it together, but oftentimes it's too late. Persecution is on your doorstep. We've looked at Europe, many parts of Europe, began to infect the church with humanism and liberalism and other junk.
They were the first to go. Yes, shame on you who claim Christ to be your Lord, but you cast your vote when you have a choice not to, when you cast your vote for Antichrist people. Those aggressively opposed to Christ, while at the same time championing evil policies. Just look at how they vote. Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit.
Fruit is the behavior, the outcome of what's on the inside. He says here in verse one, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. David understood that. That's why he didn't kill Saul and the two opportunities. David could have made his life so much easier. All he had to do was stick his sword in Saul. He had plenty wanted to help him.
He did not. God made him king. I'm not stopping that.
That's not for me. Proverbs 8.15, Solomon writes, By me kings reign and rulers decreed justice. Well, how do you deal with that as a Christian in a corrupt culture when the politicians are against you? You stand your ground. God's sovereign. He's love.
This is where I'm, this is the society I'm born into, and I'm supposed to function as a believer nonetheless. Daniel 5. Nebuchadnezzar had learned God rules in the kingdom of men and appoints over it whomever he chooses.
Why? Well, you don't have an answer. You have to obey. God allows the rulers.
What they do with their appointment is on them. This is the case with King Jeroboam. Israel had a united kingdom under King David and Solomon, and then when Solomon died, his incompetent son Rehoboam took the throne. Because of arrogance, born of faithlessness, he created a condition by which the kingdom split in two.
Essentially two tribes in the southern part of the nation and ten in the north. And God sent a prophet to Jeroboam. Rehoboam with an R is the one that messed it all up, and Jeroboam with a J was the one God appointed over the ten tribes through one of his prophets.
This was official. This was a calling. That's in 1 Kings 14 if you're not familiar with it. Jeroboam, of course, ruined the nation, but the point is God appointed him. What Jeroboam did after that is on Jeroboam. God knew what he would do, what Jeroboam would do, but he didn't stop it.
This is the story of the kings and the chronicles in the Bible. Paul wrote these words in Romans 13 while Nero was Caesar. The Caesars were cruel, idolatrous, lewd, lustful, savage, tyrannical. Most of them were very, very bad.
All of them were bad. But as Caesars go, his first five years as Caesar were relatively productive and good. Seneca was his mentor, but then he had Seneca killed. He also eventually had his mother killed, his wife killed. He was demon possessed eventually, not initially. Paul preached to Nero, and it was sometime after that that Nero began his dive into darkness and he never recovered. The Christians did not get auxiliary commandments under persecution.
They remained the same. Preach the word in season and out of season. Sometimes that out of season is very ugly. In verse 2, therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Now again, we're going to get to our, well, we'll just keep going. Preaching Christ, that's our assignment. No matter the politics, we're to preach Christ with how we live and what we say.
Sometimes what we say has to go underground. We restrain it, manage it wisely. He said the same thing to Titus, a pastor under him. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. Now most doctrines we establish through cross-reference of other scriptures that present the same doctrine.
Well, there you have two of them for this one, for submitting to the authorities. Romans 13 1, Titus 3 1. We can, as Christians and citizens, be involved in politics to a point.
Where's the point? 2 Timothy 2, Paul writing to another pastor. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. That he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. I didn't sign up for you world, I signed up with Christ. He's my leader. He is my government. He is my king. There's where my primary citizenship lies, in the kingdom of heaven. However, I have orders.
I am part of an occupation force. Not to seek and destroy, but to seek and to save. Luke 19 10, the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost and he is still doing. Of all the things Jesus began both to do and to teach, O Theophilus starts out the book of Acts. And then it continues to unfold that story. Living with a corrupt government.
Yoo-hoo, sign me up. Matthew 12, Matthew 5 12. They persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And he's saying this in the context, it's coming to you too. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution in some form, some more intense than others. Resistance, the Christian resistance is by living and speaking the truth.
That's our primary weapon against a rotten society and a dirty government, not through violent action. No government has the right to force a Christian to sin. And no Christian is to sin if coerced, if there's an attempt to force them. Law abiding citizens that Caesar wants, for example, us to just put a pinch of incense on that altar and it'll be all good. That's what got Polycarp burned at the stake. He refused to put a pinch of incense on the altar.
I'll get to that again as we move forward. Caesar has no right to my conscience. My orders come from God and they're better, incidentally. Outlawing Christianity comes when a government feels powerful enough for an easy win. When the government doesn't think they can take over its population, they restrain themselves.
But when they feel that we can do this quite quickly, there's nothing you can do physically to stop that. If you are familiar with the fiddler on the roof, which is built largely on Jewish history, there is a scene that speaks this well. The Russian authority came into their village and said, you've got two days to get out of here. And the men, the Jewish men said, we're going to fight.
And he said, against our military, I don't advise that. They would have been slaughtered, them and their children. And who knows what in between that slaughter. And so they relocated.
The Jews are familiar with pogroms, not new to them. But we in America, you know, we struggle with these things. I keep saying I'll come back to that because it's all in my head and I have other things in my head too.
Let's get to them. So we see God as completely sovereign and therefore responsible. And that can cause a problem if you have no faith. God is not the cause of what he allows. There are other laws that we don't know about that he does. Evidently, we have enough of the law to understand that, again, it's a cursed world and it's all about getting people from under that curse. Salvation.
This should take up a lot of our time. When Jesus said, if anyone wants to follow me, he said to his disciples, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Find out what you're supposed to do and make sacrifices to do it. He's not obligated himself to stop all evil. But the Book of Revelation tells us the time will come when he will stop the evil and he'll do it in phases. He'll end the Great Tribulation period, he'll issue in the millennial reign, and then he'll stop that one too. And then there we will be with the Lord forever without any more and without any shadow of the curse.
So he does limit how far evil can go, but not necessarily in our lifetime. We are to survive persecution without retaliation. 1 Peter, now again, 1 Peter deals with persecuted Christians, 2 Peter deals with apostate Christians.
In the first letter, when Paul wrote to the suffering Christians, he didn't say awe, wish I could just, you know, try to cheer you up. He told them, stand their ground in faith, 1 Peter 2, verse 13. Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of those who do good. Years ago I remember an ardent patriot. I consider myself a patriot.
I root for America. But this particular person, a Christian, was insisting we don't have to pay taxes. Jesus was very clear about this.
There's no debate. You pay your taxes or you go to jail. And there have been good Christians that contributed to Christianity that didn't pay their taxes. And now they're in the house of numbers.
They're in jail. Or I preach the gospel there, but you got a basic tenet of Christianity wrong. You don't have to like it. We are not to use violence or folly to further the gospel or to defend it. Islam takes that step when she wants to spread. Islam is a government entity that uses religion. Communism is a religion that uses politics.
It doesn't really matter. It's just a fact. The fact is they don't have the Lord Jesus, but there are people that are in those groups that can receive them. Our Lord, Stephen, James, Paul, what do they all have in common? Well, they have a lot of things in common. Of course, their faith. But they were violently treated by government officials without retaliation.
They trusted God. What would you do if you lived in North Korea, in Yemen, in North Sudan, and just a bunch of other places? As a Christian, what would you do? You know, a Christian that says, well, what kind of outreach programs do you have? Well, the way you're saying it to me now, I've got an outreach program right now.
It gets you to be a little bit nicer. Anyway, foreign missions, there are those that, well, you should be out there preaching the gospel to everybody. Well, you're free.
Why don't you go to Riyadh Sabra radio and stand in Chop Chop Square and go start preaching the gospel? If you think it's that simple, it's not that simple. It's quite complicated. And when Jesus makes a statement, it's always an understatement. When he says, be wise as serpents, the understatement part is what he's leaving out. And what he's leaving out is you're going to have to be wise because stupid things are going to try to hurt you. Be harmless as a dove.
And I'm going to give you an example, and I'll give you an address where I left that example for you. It's Calvary, Golgotha, the place of the skull. We've got to come to grips with these things. If we don't, we end up being disobedient.
We end up contradicting our scripture because we don't like something that much. We feel justified in doing this. When they pledged to assassin the apostle Paul, he appealed for protection from those with swords, spears, and cavalry. And he got it. They wanted to kill him.
He found out about it. I appealed to see the nephew told him the story and told it to the centurion, and they got Paul out of there. So there are ways that may surface or emerge for us that we can physically protect ourselves, but sometimes there are not. Some in government want to take my patriotism away from me by outlawing it or outlawing Christianity. What if it comes to these things full blown?
Well, we know they fear losing their power. What we should fear is losing our testimony. Satan would have Christians do nothing and be slaughtered.
Satan would have Christians do something and be slaughtered. Either way, he's looking to set us up. So be ready to cross bridges that you've not come to before.
Be ready in advance. The Huguenots, they fled France for England. The Puritans, they fled England for the United States. Jesus said, when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For surely, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man has come. And what happens when Christians flee from one city to another city? Well, they take the gospel with them to that city.
What happens if you are unjustly arrested and in prison? Well, you get a chance to preach Christ in jail. Churches, pastors, parishioners must uphold scripture to keep it from going too far. Why aren't more Christians supportive of Bible teaching churches instead of non-Bible teaching churches?
Well, we know why. And not much you can do about it, but keep obedient to where God has placed you. Like a lily planted among the thorns. What a great lesson from the Song of Solomon. And those who resist bring judgment on themselves. Government usually has sufficient power to enforce their will.
Red China, Myanmar, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, there's plenty of places we see this today. Verse 3, well the rulers are not a terror to good works, but evil. Do you want to be unafraid of authority?
Do what is good. And you will have praise from the same. I bet while I'm speaking about these things, there's got to be somebody that's saying, No, it's wrong. We can fight.
We can use violence. What of that? Well, there were those saying we don't have to pay taxes when clearly you had to pay taxes in scripture. When Paul wrote what we call verse 3 here in Romans 13, Nero, again, post demon possession days and government was bearable. Things were, there were pockets of persecution of course.
He experienced them. He was a persecutor himself. Every sermon should be an assault on hell. And those who listen to that sermon have an opportunity to join the assault. You get to be part of the invasion force or not. And when enough people get saved, the conscience of society is awakened, it improves, and there are social reforms.
But that oftentimes has blood on it. Wickedness gets hold of people, makes them wicked, and they become dirty fighters. Do you want to be unafraid, verse 3, of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
Well, most organized societies are looking for their citizens to behave. If you are driving down the road and a deputy or trooper pulls in back of you and gives you the blues, you know, the blue lights, pull over. Cooperate. Make it easier for him. Roll down maybe, you know, your driver's window and the passenger's window behind you so he can see into the car.
Make it easy for him. As far as speaking evil of dignitaries, Jude warned about those who reject authority speak evil of dignitaries. Yeah, telling the facts about a dignitary is not speaking evil of them. That's fact.
If they have voted into legislation, a law that is wicked, you can say that. Where we should not go is to say, and he's a fathead too. See, that's when you start, you know, just trying to stay away from that is so easy to do. They provoke us to put us in the flesh and carnality surfaces and we get sidetracked at what we're supposed to be doing, and it feels so good to strike out.
Vengeance is fine when it feels good. We know better. Verse 4, for he is God's minister to you for good. Now, he's speaking in ideal circumstances. This is not going to work in a lot of places. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Well, God wants to help society be civil, and that there are rogue societies is not God's doing. What happens if you trample laws, if everybody just tramples laws? I'm going to just obey the ones I like. Well, anarchy, riot, we have a banana republic. The ability to preach the gospel will go away.
They'll burn your church down. Because anarchy will be the alternative if laws are not enforced, good laws. So, he says, but if you do evil, be afraid.
Well, don't pay your taxes, see what happens to you. For he does not bear the sword in vain. This talks about not only law enforcement, but capital punishment.
The sword is a weapon of death. So, he says here in verse 4, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Clear enough, penalties against murder go back to the days of Noah, and of course they continue to this day. Paul upholds it, so did Peter. Verse 5, therefore, well I should give you an address for those two.
Acts chapter 25, 11 and 1 Peter 4, 15. And these men are talking about the subject of righteousness and being killed without objection to capital punishment. Verse 5, therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. You must be subject to the point, of course, that I already mentioned. And I'll go over a list of, what do you call it, civil disobedience examples from scripture. When I mentioned that we are not to be entangled in the affairs of this world, that Greek word is entwined. You want to be a citizen and you want to be involved in politics as a Christian? Fine, no problem, just do not be entangled by those things.
Don't get tunnel vision. Your only conversation is politics and Jesus is somewhere in there. Remember who we are. John, his testimony in the Isle of Patma says, yeah, they jailed me for Christ. I'm a political prisoner. It happens to be a religious prisoner. Which is when Richard Wambran and Watchman Nee were in their prisons, there were other prisoners who were not Christians. They were political prisons and they suffered right alongside them. Except their cause was worthless on an eternity scale.
Not Wambran and Nee, their purposes were eternal. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast, too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio. So make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio.
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