Paying Your Taxes, Part 2 B

Now what does God require of the rulers of nations? One, to know He serves divine purpose. Two, to be humble, serious, diligent, and loyal to truth and justice. Three, to be sure that He maintains order with a just and firm commitment to law enforcement. Four, He must not seek His own welfare. Five, He must sympathize with the needy. So the Scripture spells out some very specific things that leaders are to do. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It seems reasonable for government to use tax revenue to build better roads, pay firemen and policemen, improve the school system, or protect its citizens from foreign threats. But what about when politicians flat out waste your money, or worse, use it to fund abortions, or conduct unethical medical research, or wage unjust wars? What does that mean for you as a Christian and a taxpayer?

Should you pay your taxes if your government seems to take too much of your money and use it for evil purposes? Today on Grace to You, John MacArthur brings biblical clarity to the often complicated issue of taxes, as he continues his study from Romans 13, titled, The Christian and Government. John's going to show you what the apostle Paul, who lived under anything but a godly government, had to say about taxes. With today's lesson, here's John MacArthur. Now we have to keep in mind that all authority held by anybody in government of any kind is delegated from the Lord, right?

That's the point. And it is important for us to remind our leaders of that, that they have a divine trust, that they are granted what they are granted because God has granted it to them. In a sense, they rule under Him. And so will you notice back in Romans 13, he says they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing.

What thing? The service of ruling, the service of leading people, protecting them, collecting their taxes, doing their duty. All civil matters for the public good. They are to be attending to that. And we need to, when we have a chance and an opportunity to choose officials, we need to choose those who are competent and committed to that. If you find somebody who's in office who is unfaithful to that and isn't continually attending to that, but is continually attending to something else, and some of us have seen the absentee records of some of our congressmen and senators and we wonder what they do spend their time doing.

We need to take stock of that. We need to find people that are competent. It would be best if they were Christians, but sometimes we don't have that alternative and so we choose someone who's competent. If I was going to have heart surgery, it would be wonderful to get a heart surgeon who was a Christian, but if I had my choice between a nice Christian and a good unsaved heart surgeon, I'd take a good unsaved heart surgeon.

The Christian might mean well, but I'd rather survive. And there may come a point in government where our choice is between a competent person and an incompetent person. There may be times even when a Christian is the incompetent person and unfaithful to what he should be doing. We have to be careful that we understand who it is we're selecting. We want those people who do attend themselves continually to this matter, who understand something of the dilemma of Moses in Exodus chapter 18, who couldn't get all the work done.

He took a look at everything that he had to do in judging Israel and he just couldn't handle it. And that's when his father-in-law came along and said, you got to divide the responsibility up. And he gave himself to his father's advice and selected people to handle all of the varying responsibilities divided up the load and was able to do it and do it well. Government is called upon to do what it does well, to attend itself continually to the responsibility of ruling and protecting its people. And just to satisfy my own heart and mind, I spent some time looking through the minor prophets as well as the major prophets because they had so much to say to leaders.

This text talks to us, but I think it only balanced as we look at the text to kind of go the other direction. We've been saying we're going to be willing to submit and we're going to be willing to pay our taxes. That's our part and it ought to be said what their part is. First of all, to recognize that they are what they are because God has put them there and they need to know that they are delegated to that responsibility by divine authority and they certainly should take stock of a divine standard in their function and they ought to be faithful knowing their accountability is to God in that sense. Furthermore, the scripture is very, very explicit about the kind of people they are to be who are in leadership in government. And if you read the prophets, whether you're reading Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, or whether you're reading Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, whether you're reading all those prophets, you find as you read through those prophets that they spoke not only to Israel but to all the nations around Israel. They were calling for leaders of all different nations to conform to a divine standard.

It wasn't just Israel, not at all. For example, let's look at some of the prophets. Go to Jeremiah chapter 1 and I want to just give you some principles that we need to lay upon our leaders if they're going to be faithful to their part of the responsibility. In Jeremiah chapter 1, I want you to notice verse 9 and 10. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, Jeremiah said. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. Now listen to the next verse. See, I have this day set thee over, Israel? Is that what it says?

What does it say? The nations and over the kingdoms to root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, build and plant. In other words, Jeremiah's message went far beyond just Israel. God required things of all national leaders, not just those in Israel. And it was so not only with Jeremiah, but with many of the other prophets. And what does God require of the rulers of nations?

Let me give you a little list. First, he requires them to know that they serve a divine purpose. That's what I've been saying. He requires them to know that they serve a divine purpose. It was God who said to Nebuchadnezzar, you are going to learn the hard way that God is the most high ruler, who gives the kingdom to those he wills. And I believe any ruler from the president down to a local assemblyman needs to know that his responsibility is a God given privilege.

They need to know that. Secondly, the prophets made it very clear. By the way, I only gave you one of several passages in which that same principle is reiterated. The principle of God gives the kingdom to whosoever he will.

It's at least three or four times in Daniel. It's repeated in Jeremiah, so forth. The second thing that I believe the prophets call leadership to is to be humble, serious, diligent, loyal to truth and justice. In other words, it's a real commitment to the truth and to justice. They are to be humble. They are to be serious. If they really know they serve a divine purpose, they ought to serve in a manner that reflects that knowledge.

Let's look at a couple of illustrations of that. Isaiah chapter 13 is a very helpful one. And here Isaiah is giving prophecies against the nations all the way from chapter 13 on into the late 20's of Isaiah. And in Isaiah chapter 13 and verse 9, Behold the day of the Lord comes cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the earth desolate and he shall destroy the sinners out of it. Verse 11, I will punish the world, not just Babylon, but even beyond for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease and I will lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless. In other words, God says I am going to judge those proud and haughty and evil leaders who have led those nations. Daniel rebuked Nebuchadnezzar for his pride in Daniel 4, 25 and 26. He rebuked Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, 27 for oppressing the poor.

He pronounced judgment on Belshazzar for his pride and failure to glorify God. You see, God indicts the leaders beyond Israel. Now what I'm saying is this, I believe while we submit to our rulers, our rulers are called to an accountability before God also. And I believe that while we're willing to submit, we also have to be willing to confront their evil if indeed it needs to be confronted in a prophetic voice.

So we are going to be faithful and we are going to be the right kind of citizens and we are going to submit. But when it is a question of morality and evil and vice and wickedness and self-seeking and so forth, I believe we have to take a prophetic voice. There's a third principle that the prophets bring to bear upon this matter of ruling. And that is that the prophets teach that they should maintain order by a just and firm enforcement of the law. The prophets indict the nations for failing to enforce the law.

In other words, letting people get away with crime without punishment. And you see this particularly in Jeremiah's prophecy. There's some fascinating indications of it in Jeremiah.

Perhaps we would, for the sake of time, look at Jeremiah chapter 34 and verse 8 and just briefly look at this. Now this is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty unto them, that every man should let his manservant and every man his maidservant, being in Hebrew or a Hebrew-esque, go free, that none should enslave them to wit a Jew his brother. In other words, there was a covenant and a decree made to free these people. But verse 11 says, afterwards they changed their mind, caused the servants and the handmaidens whom they had let go to return, brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaidens. Now the people were supposed to let their servants go. They didn't.

They took them back. And the rest of the story chronicles the fact that there was no enforcement of the covenant. There was no enforcement of the law.

And because of that, because there was no enforcement, because no one, including the king, ever said this isn't right, we're going to make it right. God says in verse 16, you polluted My name and I'm going to judge you. In verse 22, our command says the Lord and caused them to return to the city and fight against it and take it and burn it with fire and make the cities of Judah desolation without an inhabitant. One of the reasons for the terrible captivity that came was because of the fact that they were not enforcing the law. They were not enforcing the covenants that they had made. Leaders are responsible to enforce the law firmly and justly. Fourth thing that I see in the prophets, and we alluded to it earlier, is the fact that leaders are not to seek their own welfare.

They are not to be concerned and preoccupied with their own welfare, their own position. Jeremiah 22 13, woe to the one who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong, who uses his neighbor's service without wages and gives not for his work, who says I will build myself a wide house and large chambers and cut out windows and it is paneled with cedar and painted with vermilion. Shout thou rain because thou closest thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink and do justice in righteousness and then it was well with him? This is a message to the evil, wicked Jehoiakim. But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness in shedding innocent blood and oppression and violence. In other words, where you have a leader who is covetous and self-seeking and violent and oppressive, the judgment of God falls. They are not to seek their own welfare at the expense of others.

There are leaders around the world that do that. They are under the condemnation of Scripture. Further, another thing the prophets make clear is that leaders are to sympathize with the needy. It should be a mark of those who are in official capacity that they care for people who have needs and you literally find this all throughout the message of the prophets, a great concern with people in need. Isaiah 10-1, woe to them who decree unrighteous decrees and who write grievousness which they have prescribed to turn aside the needy from justice and take away the right from the poor of my people that widows may be their prey and they may rob the fatherless. Israel had leaders that were unbelievably brutal taking things away from people who had absolutely nothing, depriving the poor and the needy and so forth.

Amos chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 talks about the same thing and so does some of the other minor reasons. So what are we saying? What is a faithful leader to do? One, to know he serves divine purpose. Two, to be humble, serious, diligent and loyal to truth and justice. Three, to be sure that he maintains order with a just and firm commitment to law enforcement. Four, he must not seek his own welfare. Five, he must sympathize with the needy. Sixth, and we could add this very close to the last one, he must treat others with kindness. There should be a spirit and an attitude of basic decency toward people. This of course is violated by the tyrants of the world, the despots, the murderous, and the ilk that come along in his path. Amos has so much to say about that.

That is expressed in verse 13 of Amos 1. It's incredible. They ripped up the women with child in Gilead. They found pregnant women and just ripped open their wombs. Horrible things. Not even basic decency. Seventh, they must speak truth. Leaders must speak truth. God hates lying lips. In the name of chapter 2 verse 4, for three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not turn away its punishment. He says I'm going to punish Judah.

Why? Because they have despised the law of the Lord, have not kept his commandments. Their lies caused them to err after which their fathers have walked. I'll send a fire on Judah and devour the palaces of Jerusalem. And he's particularly concerned with indicting the leaders for their lying, their lying tongues.

And then one more. They must enforce public morality. Leaders who serve continually in a delegated authority from God in order to be faithful to the task must enforce a public morality.

And we see them failing to do that so much today. God sent Jonah over to Nineveh and said cry against that city for its wickedness is great before me. God indicted that city and all of its leaders for tolerating wickedness and God came with a promise of devastating judgment had that city not repented. You look at Isaiah 13, 14, 15 all the way to chapter 23 I think it is and you'll find that entire section is a cry against the leaders for a failure to call the people to a high moral standard. So the scripture spells out some very specific things that leaders are to do and be involved in.

That's a whole other study. We could really get deeply involved in that but I just suggested them to you. Those are the things that God demands of leaders.

Let me just briefly review them so you'll have them in mind. One, to know they serve divine purpose. Two, to be humble, serious, diligent, loyal to truth and justice. If they know their service is rendered to God then they ought to take it with great seriousness. Three, to maintain order by a just and firm enforcement of the law. To not seek their own welfare, to sympathize with the needy, to treat others with kindness, to always speak the truth and to enforce public morality.

That's their responsibility. Now we'll go back to Romans chapter 13 and just very quickly wrap up our look at these two verses. These are they of whom verse 6 says, they continually attend or attend continually upon this very thing. And this is how they're to do it as we have seen outlined for us in the prophets.

Back in 1898 there was a series of lectures called the Bampton Lectures given by a man by the name of Robert Lawrence Otley. He had some interesting things to say that relate to what we're looking at now. He said this, the Old Testament may be studied as an instructor in social righteousness. It exhibits the moral government of God as attested in his dealings with nations rather than with individuals.

And it was their consciousness of the action and presence of God in history that made the prophets preachers to the world at large. There is indeed significance in the fact that in spite of their ardent zeal for social reform they did not as a rule take part in political life or demand political reforms. They desired not better institutions but better men.

End quote. And I believe in our day the church and its preachers have to rise to the level not to seek political reform but to call for better men. Not to try to manipulate the system but to confront its evil. And while I have said all along and sort of saved this for the last that we want to be submissive at the same time we will not be silent when the role of leadership is abused. So we support government by paying our taxes because we realize they are God's ministers called to attend continually on this.

If they don't attend continually on it we are responsible to bring that to their attention. Let's look last of all we saw the principle and the purposes at the particulars in verse 7. In this matter of paying your taxes he just gives us some particulars. The first command in verse 6 is a general one, pay your taxes. And now he sort of splits it out a little bit to make sure we really understand the fullness of the obligation.

Render is an interesting word. It's the word apa adidami. It means to give back something that you owe. Did you get that? That's what you do when you pay your taxes. You owe that. It isn't a gift.

You don't say dear Uncle Sam I've just been so encouraged by what you're doing this year and I'd just like to send you a little gift. No. No you owe it. The word render is to pay back something that is a debt. That is how the word is used.

Particularly does Matthew use it that way in chapter 5, chapter 18, chapter 20, chapter 22. It means to pay back. Render therefore to all their dues.

And the word dues ophale means a debt or an obligation. Pay your debt. We owe the government.

It's just that simple. It's a moral obligation. Look at verse 8. It says owe no man anything and that includes the government.

There's no real gap in thinking between verse 7 and 8. Pay your debt. And it says render therefore to all their obligation. All their debt.

All of it. Taxes are debts owed. And if you don't pay your robber. Paul says owe no man anything.

Pay your debts. And then he gets specific. Tribute to whom tribute.

And that he's just going to sort of give us some breadth here. Tribute is for roosts. It's a poll tax. It's a land tax. They had another kind of tax called kensos.

I mentioned it to you. That was a head tax. Every person paid that. It was a set fee for every person.

That was the census. Every individual paid a, I guess it was a flat rate. Then they had this poll tax which was like our income tax. An assessment was made on your land and your property and your slaves, your capital and the taxable amount of your possessions was determined. The tax rate then figured out and you were charged a certain tax. That was an income tax. So he says pay that. Pay your income tax.

Custom to whom custom. The word custom telos had to do with revenue raised by merchandise or goods. In other words this would be duty or sales tax.

Anything attached to a commodity. Pay your sales tax. Pay your duty. Don't smuggle things in and out. Pay what's fair and you know what they did don't you?

They set tax collectors at all the crossroads and when you were moving back and forth and that's what Matthew did sitting at the crossroads collecting taxes, duties from people transferring goods here and there. Pay that. And then I love this. Fear to whom fear. The word is phobos which we get phobia from. It's a word that can mean anything from respect to sheer terror depending on how it's used. In fact I think in this very passage it's used in the word terror where it says that rulers are a terror not to those who do good but to those who do evil.

Back in verse three that's the same word phobos. So it can mean anything from terror to respect. It means respect here. In other words you ought to have a healthy respect for the people who collect your taxes. A healthy respect for your leaders. And that healthy respect translates into giving them what you owe them realizing that they have a right to that for the service rendered. First Peter 2 17 says honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king, be subject to your masters and so forth and so on. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God and honor the king.

Show them respect for the position of authority that they possess. And then he comes to that last one, honor to whom honor. And that's an interesting word timme. It sometimes means money. Give the money to whom the money is due can be what it means. It can also mean respect again.

So it's perhaps best to see here that he has two words. One is tax, the other is duty, income tax, duty and then two words that demonstrate attitude. Pay your taxes, pay your duty and have respect and show honor. The honor here is an attitude. An attitude of respect. An attitude that says this is the right thing.

It implies the payment of money. Notice an illustration that's perfect because he uses the same word. First Timothy 5. First Timothy 5 says let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double timme. Same word, double honor. An elder that rules well is to be worthy of double honor.

What is the double honor? Well first, don't muzzle, the scripture says don't muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. In other words if you expect an ox to tread the grain you better feed him, right? So it's saying first of all if you have an elder that rules well, pay him money.

And then verse 19 says and against an elder receive not an accusation and that means show him respect. So the double honor is the money and the respect. We give the money and the respect. We aren't going to play favorites in the case of First Timothy and as he goes on to say if he does sin rebuke him before everybody. We're not talking about playing favorites but double honor would be respect and money.

Give the money when it's due and give the respect. So as Christians we're called to pay our taxes, respect our leaders, give them the honor that is due to them. So we want to do the things that are right in terms of giving honor to whom honor is due and respect to whom the respect is due.

Paying our taxes and our duty and living as Christians should live for the glory of our Lord. Gracious Father thank you for the privilege of serving you and representing you in this world. We bless your name. Help us to be the kind of Christians that the world takes note of. We thank you for the privilege in Christ's name.

Amen. Honor your government officials but hold them accountable for their actions. John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, showed you some practical biblical ways to do that today on Grace to You as he wrapped up his look at the Christian and government. As John has shown in this study, when we sin against civil authority, we really are sinning against God who is the one who put that authority in place.

And that, I suppose John, is the main point we've got to remember. Whatever government we live under, we know that system was put there by God. Yeah, and we were talking about this a little bit the other day, but when you see the civilization begin to collapse, you're going to hear cries to weaken the government. Defund the police. Get the authority out. Let us do whatever we want to do.

This is the complete end of civilization. Government doesn't bear the will of God at every point. It doesn't fulfill the will of God at every point, and certainly not every ruler does what God would want him or her to do. But government as an entity is God's gift to mankind so he can survive in a civilized way. We have tried to make that clear. And Christians ought to be the leading examples of submission to the government, just like they are to God's order for the family.

And they ought to be the number one supporters of the police. Those are the very agents, the ministers of God, Romans 13 says, to punish evildoers and protect those who do good. So we've been looking at the Christian and government based on Romans 13. This series is available in six CDs.

A CD album you can order only from Grace To You, or you can download the lessons on MP3 at the Grace To You website. And I have to say this, kind of wrapping up this whole thing, Phil, the world is looking at us. They've been looking at me as a preacher. They've been looking at our church and at Christian people to see how we should respond. Sadly, many Christian people have responded by being part of the problem rather than honoring the government and the authorities God has ordained. They've gotten on the other side of this issue, and it's harmed our witness. Let's be faithful to be what God wants us to be, even in our relationship to the government.

Right, and friend, that is really the focus of this study. It will show you how to glorify and honor the Lord no matter what government you're under or what direction it takes. It will also help you think biblically about taxation, submitting to leaders, civil disobedience, major issues that are being debated today. To order John's series The Christian and Government, contact us today.

The six-CD album is reasonably priced and shipping is free. You can order a copy when you call us at 800-55-GRACE or shop online at GTY.org. You can also download all six messages from The Christian and Government free of charge in audio or transcript format at GTY.org. And remember, if you're benefitting from Grace To You, we would love to hear a about it. Perhaps John's study on The Christian and Government calmed some of your concerns about the upcoming election, or maybe John's recent series on God's love helped you understand our Lord's grace and kindness in a whole new way.

Let us know about that. Email us at Letters at GTY.org or send your note to Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. And now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson reminding you to watch Grace To You television this Sunday, and then be here next week when John helps you prepare for the upcoming Christmas season with some messages on the best part of Christmas, Jesus Christ and the salvation He came to provide. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time on Monday's Grace To You.