Obeying God or Man?

In the middle of the 18th century, the town where Jonathan Edwards was preaching was divided over their loyalty to the crown and their loyalty to their new homeland. And there were those on the other side of the debate who said that it's a Christian's duty to obey God rather than men. Welcome to Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Lee Webb. The Bible is not silent on this issue, and today Dr. R.C. Sproul is going to help us think through what God's Word says about our duty as dual citizens, if you will, citizens of a particular country and the kingdom of God. Dr. Sproul's text for this message is Acts chapter 4, and he begins reading at verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled, and they realized that they had been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do with these men?

For indeed that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them that from now on they speak to no man in this name. So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God you judge, for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them because of the people, since they had all glorified God for what had been done. For the man was over forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. Let us pray. Oh Father, give us ears to hear of the boldness of Peter and John before this august body of authority, and instruct us by Thy Spirit on how we are to act in similar circumstances.

For we ask that in Jesus' name, amen. I was reading a novel the other day, and I came across a strange line where one of the police detectives was often on television in the city, and somebody came up to him and said, Oh, you're that world famous detective. And he said, Yes, I'm world famous in the city of Minneapolis.

Any time somebody says that somebody has to introduce somebody as saying that they're famous, it seems to be unnecessary, because if they're famous, they shouldn't have to be introduced. But we never know how far and how broad our influence may extend, and sometimes we're surprised, aren't we? I'll never forget one of the most shocking, surprising experiences of my life came on the day when Lech Wałęsa, the leader of the police solidarity movement, was placed under house arrest by the Soviet officials. Some of you will remember that. The picture of his arrest was on the front page of every newspaper in America. And when he was arrested, he was shaking his fist in defiance of the arresting authorities. And in his hand, he was holding one of my books.

I said, that's incredible. And not only that, I later found out that that same book he placed in the casket of his father when his father died and was buried. And so I thought I never would have dreamed in a million years that anything I ever wrote would ever find its way into the hands of Lech Wałęsa. But it made me think a lot about his position in modern history, because I thought, why was it that the government at that time interested in arresting him? Why didn't they just execute him? That's usually the way it works in tyranny. The tyrants always have a secret police. They find a way to get rid of those who are in opposition to them, and usually it's by some form of execution.

But I realized that the reason why Lech Wałęsa was put in house arrest and was not executed was that he had already become too well-known. And to kill him would have made him a martyr, and the thing that every tyrannical regime fears more than anything else is the public uprising. Back in the eighteenth century, the philosopher Montesquieu, when he wrote his book The Spirit of the Laws, said that the maintenance of all forms of tyranny depends and relies upon the ability of the government to keep the people afraid. That's why you have purges. That's why you have secret police.

That's why you have mass execution in nations that follow that sort of regimen. And what Montesquieu said was that it only takes one person, one Lech Wałęsa, with enough courage to withstand the tyrant to bring down their powerful regime. Well, throughout history, we have seen individuals who have swim against the current, who have stood against powerful obstacles. Mahatma Gandhi, in our own country, Martin Luther King, stood against the authorities of his day. He defied those authorities and raised all kinds of questions about the legitimacy of civil disobedience. Back in the middle of the eighteenth century, in the little town of Northampton in Massachusetts where Jonathan Edwards was the preacher, the town itself was divided about equally well before the Revolutionary War in terms of their loyalty to the crown and to their loyalty to their local magistrates, because already the division over those loyalties was being felt in New England. And if you read your American history, you know that there were Christians on both sides of that debate. There were those Christians who insisted that it is never legitimate for any person or body under any circumstances to disobey the civil magistrate. And so though they were feeling exploited by the taxation and so on coming from Parliament in England, they refused to rebel or to join in the rebellion on matters of principle and on conscientious grounds of being obedient to civil magistrates, because the Bible teaches again and again that it is the Christian's duty to submit to those who are in authority over us, whether it's children to their parents, students to their teachers, employees to their employer, citizens to their government. Whatever it is, wherever we find levels of authority over us, the Bible calls us to be model citizens of submission and of subjection. And it was out of that principle of submission to the civil magistrate that Mary and Joseph made the arduous journey to Bethlehem, risking the life of both Mary and the unborn infant Jesus out of this deep affliction and inconvenience, they made the journey to obey the authorities that were over them. So the principle that comes to us again and again in Scripture is the principle of submission to those who are in authority.

But always the question arises, is it ever legitimate, is it ever ethically right to refuse to obey authorities who are over you? That's the question I want to look at this morning in light of the text that I just read. Let's look again at what's taking place because we continue to deal with the reaction of not only the people, but the authorities that ruled over the Jews in Jerusalem to the healing of the man who had been born unable to stand or to walk when he was healed by Peter and John by the gate.

Beautiful. And so we read in chapter 4 this, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they noticed, they perceived that they were uneducated, untrained men. Well, they could have stopped right there and said, therefore, ignorant rabble-rousers who have no credibility. But that's not the point here because they add to it, and they marveled because they marveled at their power. They marveled at their persuasive skills. They marveled obviously at the eloquence of Peter as he spoke on this occasion. Bringing to mind, does it not, the promise of Jesus to his disciples before he left this world saying, don't be afraid when you are brought up before councils and the rulers of this world because in that time the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you the ability to say what needs to be said. And so these men believed that promise of God. And in the face of adversity and opposition, Peter spoke with this boldness. So that the whole Sanhedrin, the 71 of them, along with the people, were amazed and they realized they had been with Jesus.

What a statement. How many sermons could we get just out of that one line? How many times has anybody ever said to you, oh, I know about you, I can tell that you've just been spending time with Jesus? Nobody's ever made that connection to me. They talk about my connection to the Steelers or the Penguins or to the Irish or whatever, but nobody says, oh, he must have just been with Jesus.

But they made the connection. The events that had transpired so recently in Jerusalem were so resonant in their ears that it was unmistakable that these men belonged to that group that followed Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. Well, surely they could say something against it. They'd say anything they wanted to against it, but what the author of Scripture is telling what Luke is saying is they didn't dare publicly say anything against it.

Who from the Sanhedrin, who among the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees is going to come out and say, that's enough of that, stop this healing, we can't have any more miracles around here. They didn't dare say that because of the multitudes of the people who were there. So then they commanded them to go aside out of the council, and they conferred among themselves. They went into executive session, and they said, what do we do with these men? But it doesn't even say, what do we do with these men?

The question is what? What do we do to these men? We have to do something to them because this is getting out of hand, and this has to stop.

And when they said, what should we do to these men, they weren't suggesting giving them some kind of honorary banquet. But they said indeed that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. Now here are the enemies of the apostles conferring among themselves, and they say, well, what are we going to do now? It's manifest, it's clear that through these guys a notable miracle has taken place. The whole city knows about it, and everybody's cheering them on. Of course we aren't.

Can you believe how wicked the hearts of fallen people are when they know the manifest power of God has been given right before their very eyes, and they still enter in a conspiracy to squelch it? That's what they're doing. But so that it spreads no further among the people, here's what they come up with. Let us severely threaten them. Let's not just warn them.

Let's not just say, you stop this or else. Let's make our threat severe that from now on they speak to no man in this name. So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. They come out of the executive session. They call back in.

Peter and John say, come on in here. We're not going to do anything to you now for what you've done. Let's just slide this time. We'll just write it up as a warning. But don't you dare ever mention the name of Jesus again as long as you live. We don't want to hear that name from your lips. Now let me ask you this morning if the apostles at that moment decided the Supreme Court of the nation has spoken.

It is our obligation now to obey. And suppose Peter and John came out of there and the people said, well what did they say? Peter said, my lips are sealed.

I'm never going to speak about what's His name again. Had that been the response of the apostles, we would not be here this morning talking about it or listening to a story about it, would we? But all of a sudden, Peter and John are in the worst of all possible conflicts of ethics, a conflict between ruling authorities. Every child knows what it's like when the child goes to the mother and says, Mama, can I go to the movie tonight? And the mother says, no. So what does the child do then? Goes to Daddy.

Hey Dad, can I go to the movies tonight? Tries to set one authority after the other, but it doesn't work because the father always says, go ask your mother. There's the soldier who's on trial for his life for war crimes at Nuremberg involved in genocide. And the court interrogates them, and the excuse that is given is what? I was only obeying orders.

I was only doing what my commanding officer required of me. But the court said, no, you are required at that point to disobey this magistrate rather than to commit genocide. Martin Luther King knew the law. He knew that any statute published by any state in the United States was challengeable by the Supreme Court if it violated constitutional rights. And so with passive resistance, he went ahead and broke the law in order to get the test case before the Supreme Court, which right was given him by the higher magistrate with respect to the lesser magistrate.

And we still have that. But the conflict of those situations at times can be unbearable. And here's how the apostles handled it. They said, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you or to God, you judge.

Wow, these guys are supposed to be the judge of Israel, the Supreme Court. But you see, still ringing in the ears of the disciples and of the apostles, because only a few weeks had gone by since they heard these words, was the Word of Jesus that we call the Great Commission, to go into all the world to make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the name of the Son, and of the name of the Holy Ghost. Jesus gave to Peter and to John and to the entire church of the first century a mandate. And it's our mandate.

And if any authority under heaven comes to the Christian and tells them he may not pray, he may not preach, he may not worship, he may not tithe, he may not do any of those things that God commands, that Christian may not only disobey, that Christian must disobey. Now in our ethics courses in the seminary, we give the principle. I've said it's a simple principle. Anybody can understand it.

The application of it to concrete circumstances is often excruciatingly difficult. The principle is this, that we are always to obey those in authority over us unless that authority commands us to do something God forbids, or forbids us from doing something God commands. The husband says to the wife, I want you to earn some extra income for us by turning to prostitution. Not only may she disobey him, she must disobey him. On the other hand, a woman is married to an unbelieving man, and the man says to her, you may not go to that church on Wednesday night and join the choir. What should the wife do? She should stay home because God nowhere commands women to sing in the choir.

I plead for it, but I can't command it. But what if the husband says to the wife, you are not permitted to go to church on the Sabbath and join the corporate worship of the people of God. Not only may she disobey him, she must disobey him because God commands her to be in the assembling together of the saints. Do you see how this can be very painful and very costly when we are caught in this vice between two authorities that differ? And we can never use the cop-out, I'm just obeying orders, as a license or an excuse for sin.

But the other side of it is this. Just because God gives us the right and the responsibility to disobey when an authority over us commands us to do something He forbids or forbids us from doing something God commands, that is not a license to be disobedient just when we disagree with the authority. Or if the authority is exploiting us, or if the authority is afflicting us, bringing us discomfort or inconvenience.

How inconvenienced were Joseph and Mary in making that arduous journey to Bethlehem? But they submitted because God never commanded that Joseph and Mary be comfortable or be wealthy or be popular. And so again, the principle that's the general principle is we bend over backwards to be submissive. But we stand with ramrod defiance when the magistrate commands disobedience to God. That's why it's very important for us to understand in our daily lives what it is God commands and what it is God forbids. Otherwise we are like sheep without a shepherd, and we go along with what Nietzsche called a herd morality, doing whatever anybody tells us to do, when in fact there are times the Christian has to say no.

There is a reason why the first century was the century where the blood of the church became the seed of the church's growth through the martyrdom of those who would not submit to tyrants who told them to deny the faith in Christ. With Job we have to say, though they slay us, yet we will honor Him. And so I urge you Christians to be prepared for that time when you have to choose obedience to those who command sin or obedience to Christ. Be prepared.

I think we can see how important it is to determine those boundaries ahead of time. Under the heat of persecution, it's so easy to compromise. We're glad you've joined us for Renewing Your Mind on this Wednesday. I'm Lee Webb, and this week our focus is on Dr. R.C. Sproul's teaching from the New Testament. So far we've heard sermons from the Gospels of Mark and Luke, and today we benefited from a timely and practical message from Acts. Dr. Sproul's many years of study along with experience teaching God's Word gave him the ability to pull important implications from God's Word. That's why I'd like to recommend our resource offer today.

It's R.C. 's commentary on the book of Acts. With more than 400 pages, this hardbound edition will be a great study companion. Request it when you give a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries. You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343, or you can give your gift and make your request online at renewingyourmind.org. Here at Ligonier Ministries, we want to encourage you to grow in your faith. We do that through this daily program, printed material like the Reformation Study Bible and Table Talk magazine, teaching series, and conferences that we host throughout the year. All of our resources and events are meant to help you articulate what you believe and why you believe it. Your generous financial gifts allow us to continue this ministry, to proclaim the holiness of God to as many people as possible around the world. Well, tomorrow we're pleased to feature another sermon by Dr. Sproul, this one from Second Peter. Please make plans to join us Thursday for Renewing Your Mind. .