Thinking Biblically about Politics: The State

• View transcript

  Thinking Biblically about Politics: The State

  Download transcript

  Please turn in your Bibles to second Demacrations. Just even things up, Sham. You can notice up on the screen that we have actually gone with a new slide. People were reading too much into the last one, trying to decipher whether we put a little more red or blue on the split screen, and. But now this week, the debate is, oh, you made the elephant bigger because elephants are bigger. It's just zoology or whatever that's called, right, Jerry? Elephants tend to be the largest animals, land creature, as far as I know. But you could read into it what you want. Okay. It's totally up to you. Let's start in Psalm 89. We ended there last week. Just a final glance at a verse that has particularly an encouraging word for us as we think about the earthly throne that is up for grabs in ten days. Very important to remind ourselves of the heavenly throne that is unchanging and is founded on what we just sang about the character of God, who he is and what he does. Psalm 89:14 righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before you. So when we talk about thrones, that's the one that Colossians 3 would say we should set our minds on. That wherever we decide to go in the text this morning and we'll be going to Genesis 2 next, so you could get there in advance. We want to remember this morning, in this entirety of this series, on thinking biblically about politics, that the ultimate throne, the one that is on eternal pillars, indestructible heaven and earth, will pass away, but righteousness and justice will remain forever. That's the timeless truth our hearts gravitate towards as citizens of heaven. Why that's such an encouragement to us is, though we do have an earthly citizenship, we don't deny that ultimately we're citizens of heaven. And so ultimately, it's God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, who we trust in and we trust in those pillars, it says. Foundations, righteousness. What's more glorious than thinking upon the stability, the security of the righteousness of God for us? Because as the Christian, that's just not some abstract character quality. That is what makes him different from us. He absolute righteousness, absolute holiness, absolute perfection that we fall short of. And in his justice we would be condemned forever unless he was not just the just, but also the Justifier. And so the other pillar of the throne that we rejoice in our creator in this morning, as he is also our Redeemer, and that when his justice is the foundation of his throne, we know that we stand in him complete, because of the completed work of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's our hope today. And that's what encourages our hearts. That the perfect standards that he rules his creation by righteousness and justice are what establish our hearts and minds today. The pillars of his throne are not left or right, conservative or liberal, Fox or CNN. They're righteousness and justice. That's what we have to have our minds filled with. Any time we venture into the topic of politics but thankful today, we can see from the scriptures what God has said about the state, about government. That's what we'll be talking about today. Last week we started talking about God's very good institution of family from the beginning. At the beginning of creation, God had a very good plan for human flourishing. That hasn't changed since creation, and its truth remains consistent throughout the Bible and to today on the topics of gender and children in marriage. And I was greatly encouraged at your response. So many emails and texts over the last week that show me how much you love the relevance and the clarity that the Word of God brings. And so I pray the same will be true today. As we look at the idea of the state or government, the God ordained establishment and institution of his authority from heaven being delegated on earth. I mean, when you just think about the word authority and that's what the state is about, the state is about force, it's about governance. And when you think authority, there is a word that starts, that word that tells you everything you need to know about who's behind it, the author of authority. And when the author of authority says, I have an institution for human flourishing, for the advancement of the good of people and the prevention of evil from overcoming my creation, thenwe need to bow our knee before that truth. Every government that's ever been is under the authority of the author of life. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? When you think of pagan governments, if such a thing exists wherever those nations are, that what we would say would be pre-Christian, there's no law there. It's every person for themself. A true pagan society that whatever governance is there. Whatever authority is there is ordained by God. Pagan as it might be. And on the other hand, a truly secular society, post-Christian. That the gospel has visited there. They know the law of God, and there is no love for his law, and they've moved past it and their societies today that would be proud to say they're post-Christian. They're still under the authority of God. It's binding throughout the entire universe because he is the author of life. And Daniel 2:21 says simply, all kings and those and authorities have been raised up and brought down by one person. In every case, he casts the deciding vote.  
  That's the starting point today. Every authority there is isaccountable to God and will be judged whether they ruled according to righteousness and justice. So the big idea for today is this the state that we're going to talk about government. The state exists because sin exists, and the sword that the state wields was ordained by God for the promotion of good and prevention of evil. Just get that thought in your mind today. When we talk about the state, we're not trying to put one institution of human government above any other, because no matter what type of government, it is, transcending time and culture, the state exists because sin exists. And because sin exists, there needs to be a sword. There needs to be some authoritative force that can prevent greater wickedness happening and promote the well-being of its citizens. That's what it comes down to. As Christians, that's how we need to think biblically about the state. And if we don't think biblically about it, where are we going to have any foundation for thinking about government coming from? If we don't take it back to its fundamental roots, nothing less than this. God puts institutions of state here for our good and the punishment of the wicked. If you get that, you can flow with me today. So I'm here now to just prove that point. Starting with this first point,  the state is necessary because of evil, but is not evil necessarily. The state government instituted by God, ordained by him, created by him, the author of all authority. The state is necessary because of evil.

  And yet we do not say that it is a necessary evil, in that there is nothing good about it. Now we use the term necessary evil, talking about those things we think have some semblance of evil in them, and we know that a greater good can result. Examples of that being taxes. Going to the dentist. No offense. None taken, my friend. For young people in the room, taking a bath is a necessary evil in your opinion, but it is for your good and prevention of wickedness. At least the stench around you. Lots of examples of necessary evils. In fact, that phrase, at least in church history, runs all the way back to Augustine of Hippo, who was first credited with the idea that government is necessary because of wickedness, and that he stated, even a corrupt government is better than what? No government at all. Because you're left with the alternative of anarchy, every person doing what is right in their own eyes. No law whatsoever. So let's go back to Genesis and let's see the beginning or Genesis of the state. And it exists because evil exists. And so God starts at the top before there is any institution of state to govern between the evil that man can commit against man. We will see at the end of Genesis 3 that the evil that God has to deal with is that between man and God. The first sight of the beginnings of the state starts with a sword. We left off in Genesis 2 where everything is perfect. There is no state because there is no evil in Genesis 1 and 2. It's a perfect Paradise. It's Eden, no evil, no state. And at the end of chapter 2, no clothes for the matter. I mean that it doesn't get any better than that. A great place to raise a family. The blessing in Genesis 1:28. Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. And I said, that's the Adamic blessing. Be blessed. Have babies. Have dominion. And some people think that the God of the Bible is some cosmic killjoy. Talk about a nice way to enter in to society when all you're told is be blessed, have babies, have dominion, it's all yours. That's how it starts. It's not until sin comes in in Genesis 3 that we need this huge middle part of the Bible, because without sin you have a pamphlet, Genesis 1 and 2, revelation 21 and 22. You know what we contribute to it? Turn your Bible this way and in a big black magic marker. Right? My fault. Don't do that. But that's really what the middle of the Bible shows us, that if we don't sin and plunge humanity into the wickedness that we have seen throughout the entirety of history. It's a short story. The inception of this is in Genesis, chapter 3. The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, and he comes to the woman and he brings a question did God say...? Tempts her to eat from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden? The one the knowledge of good and evil, the one that God told Adam in Genesis 2:17 from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it from you you will surely die. Any other tree, including the tree of life, was accessible, was to his advantage. Well, Eve is deceived. Adam follows. They break God's law. They take the bait of the crafty snake. Devil Satan. Revelation 12 nine calls them the slanderer and the adversary slandering who God opposed to who God and what's he want? Death. Death. And what did God want? Life. Prosperity. Procreation. Dominion.Subduing. But now. Adam and Eve. Cursed by God. In Genesis 3, in the two areas that were meant to be a blessing. Having babies and having dominion. Notice verse 16. I will multiply your pain in childbirth, doesn't say stop having children. It doesn't take away that blessing. It's just now cursed by sin. The pain of it, the difficulty and travail of it. But it's still a good thing from God. As we said last week, children are a gift from God. And then having dominion, subduing the land cursed in verse 17 with Adam, cursed is the ground because of you and the toil you eat of it all the days of your life. Notice also he doesn't take that away, that just because those things were cursed, they were still for Adam and Eve to pursue. Neither command repealed because God's word doesn't change. Same commands, but due to the effects of sin, it would not be pure blessing as originally intended. How does this chapter end? Verses 22 to 24. Banishment. An often overlooked part of the origin story is man's banishment from God's presence for the promotion of his good and the prevention of evil, without any other humans around, just Adam and Eve. That banishment from the garden was for Adam and Eve's good, and the prevention of greater evil. That's what it states in verse 22. Man has become like us, knowing good and evil. And now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever. Notice how that tree of life that was once going to be a great thing for Adam and Eve within the garden, in a state of innocence now having innocence lost, the tree of life is actually bad for them. Because if they stay in the garden in the fallen state they're in, they're under the impression that by some way, shape or form, they can please God again according to their own doing. Yeah. We're fallen. Yeah, we've broken your law. Yeah, we're unholy. But we can stay in your presence and eat of this Tree of Life. And continue on as if nothing has ever changed. And if God is a holy God, that was the furthest thing from the truth. No one could be in the presence of God as a sinner and live. The loss of innocence. The addition of sinfulness is so serious and Adam could not understand it. Left to himself, as God says, they would stay. We gotta put them out. They don't know what's best for them. Had Adam and Eve tried to fight that banishment by working back into the garden, they would have been destroyed. So the first glimpse of the sword in verse 24 is not to prevent man from destroying man, it's to prevent God from destroying man. Do you see that? Verse 24, he drove the man out. And at the east of the Garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim, an angel, and a flaming sword. God's first form of the states, the form of force. He puts an angel there. He puts a sword there. And it's going to stop Adam from thinking that though I have lost something, I can gain it back by my own doing. And God puts that sword there to remind him, no, you may not, but he does give him a hope. He does give humanity hope. It's back in Genesis 3:15 when he says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He, the seed of the woman shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. What's he saying there? That there is a way back into my presence. Paradise can be restored. There is a hope. But it's not by you working your way back. It's by faith. It's by believing that I'll make a provision for you. Not through the sword, but by faith in the seed. Matthew Henry said this of Genesis 3:24 God revealed this to Adam, not to drive him to despair, but to oblige and quicken him, to look for life and happiness and the promised seed. In him, the flaming sword is removed. God, reconciled to us in a new and living way into the holiest, is consecrated and lay open for us. Do you see the grace in that moment? Do you see that it wasn'tgoing to be Adam working his way back to God, though he had 900 years to do it, right? He lived to be 930. Maybe he was thinking, I can cut a deal. I really screwed up the first 30, I get it. Plunged humanity into sin. Okay, that's on this side of the scale. Bad first 30. So you're going to give me 900 more years? God, I can make up for it. Maybe he could have lived for 900 years, never sinning again. Would that have been enough? Because one sin is enough. God is that holy? That's what's established from the beginning. The wickedness of man is so wicked in the eyes of God that that's enough, that not 900 years, nor 900 lifetimes of 900 years would be enough to work our way back to God. How can we get back? By the seed, the promised Messiah. Turn to Romans 5 makes very clear the only way back. The only way for the curse of sin to be reversed... Is not through Adam, not through our toil, not through our work, not through our own righteousness, but through the second Adam. Romans 5:12. Just as through one man, Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin. And so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Do you understand this morning, as much as I have an agenda to make clear that the institution of the state is a good thing from God for our human flourishing prevention of evil, that's important. And maybe you come in here a just a curious skeptic somebody brought you today and you say, hey, you know what? I'm listening to a lot of the stuff on the news. I'm interested in politics. I like this idea that Christians have that we should appreciate government. I'm for that. I'm going to vote that way. I like force, I like the sword. But if you don't understand something about yourself this morning that no matter how many rights and ethical policies you want to support, no matter who you think the best leader would be, if you don't have Christ this morning, you're lost. We are sinners by nature. It says right there sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and it spread to all men. So you may be in your mind convinced that you're not a sinner by choice. You've had a pretty good run in the last week or month or year, or you've done enough good things to overcome the bad. But the problem is inside you, not the things outside you. A sinner from within, by nature passed on through Adam. Through every generation. And your only way out. Romans 5:18 as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. That's all of us. We all fall short of the glory of God. No one is perfect. No one is righteous, no not one. Here's what it says. Here's the hope. Even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. That's the hope. That hope goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15, that there would be a perfect one who would come and live with perfect righteousness, and would be trusted in faith that his righteous life, his sacrificial death, can count before God as a substitute for your own wicked life, and that by faith you could be restored in a relationship to God. Romans 5:21 just as sin reigned in death, and grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you know Jesus Christ as Lord today? That's far more important than me changing any opinion you have of the state or of a politician. Who do you say Christ is today? Is he Lord of your life? Is he in your life? Everything to you. Have you trusted in him for his righteousness, saying that yours is but filthy rags? And you cry out for mercy and say, Lord, save me, the sinner. I bring nothing but my sin, and you give me everything in your righteousness. And I could be forgiven and live forever with you. That's the good news of the gospel today. And that good news goes all the way back to the garden, all the way back to the banishment that the same sword that stood before Adam and Eve and said, you'll never be in the presence of God again. By faith they say, yeah, you're right. But the seed that is to come will trust in him and will be made righteous by faith. You can have that same hope today. Adam and Eve lost their esteemed position in the garden, but not their esteemed position in humanity. They were still to bear children. They were still to have authority, but they could not force their way past the sword. And the storyline of Genesis picks that up and expands that out. From why God has to institute the sword to keep man from his own demise by trying to work his way back to God. That now God has to institute the sword for the destruction of between man and man. And that's Genesis 4 through 9. It starts on the most personal and painful level, as Adam and Eve conceive and give birth to twins, probably, Cain and Abel. Eve names Cain. I have gotten or acquired a child, maybe thinking that this son, Cain, was going to be the one that would crush the head of the serpent, reversing the curse. Except we find out he was anything but righteous. When some people question how, how quickly can things go bad? Adam and Eve, who raised their sons to worship God? They were. They were to bring offerings to the Lord. Abel brings the best. Cain brings something less than the best. Puts in his heart a spirit of envy, bitterness, hatred.And that hatred grew into what? Cold blooded murder of his own brother. Just a few years removed from Paradise Lost. God even warns Cain. He's giving Cain a chance to to restrain himself. But a sinner left to himself cannot restrain himself. He says Cain. Genesis 4:7. If you do well, if you do the right thing, will not your countenance be lifted up, this bitterness, this anger towards your brother? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire it wants you to master you, but you must master it. It's true of all of us. Sin wants to master you. It's at the door of your heart. It's wanting you to open it, to come in. We've taught our kids that from the time that they could understand anything we were saying. Just knocks on the door of your heart wanting to master you, saying it'll be okay. Let me in. He says you must master it. The result is Cain calls his brother to the field and kills them. That's how fast evil works. And so this sin is on a personal level now. It's just not between man and God. It's between man and man and his own brother. And it just picks up there picking up speed, picking up power. The wickedness does. Spreads throughout all mankind to a level of corruption that we would not believe it unless we saw it in the text. Genesis 6:5 A thousand years later. Adam's lifetime. How bad did it get? Genesis 6:5 the Lord looks on the earth after man has multiplied on the face of the earth, and then he sees the wickedness of man was so great that the writer of Genesis 6:5, Moses, gives a seven fold description of wickedness. Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's how bad man is. Every meaning abundantly evil, intention, meaning purposefully evil, thoughts meaning consciously evil, heart meaning personally evil from the essence of your existence only meaning exclusively evil. Evil meaning purely evil. Continually, repeatedly evil. And some want to make the case that you know what? People are pretty good people, if you just, you know, put them in the right environment. Is that so? This is what the Lord saw. This isn't Moses's version when he writes this later. This isn't Noah's opinion on how bad it was. The Lord saw this and saw through to the heart and saw abundant, purposeful, conscious, personal, exclusive, pure, repeated evil left to ourselves to find our own way outside the garden and apart from God's grace. This is us. We don't choose the righteousness of God. We choose wickedness. So when we say the state is necessary because of sin. This is what the beginning of Genesis is showing us. Why does God have to institute the state and the sword? Because apart from his grace. And apart from him putting a deterrent, a restrainer on us, the use of force, this is what society will become. It will destroy itself. It will destroy itself. So God has to come up with a way to restrain it. He restrained Adam through the sword of coming back in. How is he going to restrain humanity? After the flood, Noah finds favor in his eyes. Verse 8, as in things were so bad, things were so depraved. God shows his grace, loves Noah because he loves Noah. Not for anything good. Noah, did you say anything in verse 8 that says, Noah did all these wonderful works that made God choose him? He just finds favor in his eyes. It's a work of grace, just like Ephesians two 1 to 4 says, Ephesians 2: 1-4 is almost a commentary on Genesis six 5 to 8 dead in sins and trespasses, walking according to the course of the world, the prince of the power of the air. That prince that loves to steal, kill, and destroy. Among them we too formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and mind, and were by nature children of wrath. Sounds like Genesis 6:5, doesn't it? Sounds like there's no hope except for Ephesians 2:4. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, though dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. Genesis 6:8 But God or Father say, But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah is not the hero of the story here. God's grace is. Pulls Noah out of it. The seed of the Messiah is going to carry on. But how is God going to slow down the rampant wickedness he left off with back in Genesis 6:5? It's just going to happen all over again. So we start in Genesis 9 post-flood, and it's like a part in the film where the director yells, cut! Let's try it again from the top. This went really bad. And why I say that? Because it starts out just like Genesis 1:27-28 starts out God blessed Noah. God blessed the man and the woman, didn't he? And said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Take it from the top. Except I've got to change a few things here. If we're going to not end up back in a Genesis 6:5 world, I've got to add something. It's not just the accountability that man has before me. It's now going to be the accountability man has before man. And that's right there in Genesis 9:6 whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed. This is the beginning of the institution of the state. Using the sword to enforce the standard, God has to promote good and prevent evil. It's a progression. God is laying it out for humanity to see and for us to see today that in a post-fall and post-flood world, life is sacred and to keep life flourishing, man will be accountable. Even the animal kingdom is accountable. Did you notice that end of verse 5? Surely I will require your lifeblood. Every beast. I will require it. For what?Shedding man's blood. As in it's even over top of the animal kingdom. We see later in the mosaic code that if you have an ox that gores a person, the ox dies. That's not to be punitive on the animal. It's to be preventative for him not to kill someone else. That God has that high of a view of those created in his image, his desire to protect them for their flourishing and prevention of evil. That he puts this requirement out there. Promote the sanctity of life and humanity through the subduing of evildoers who want to kill. And God's binding law, starting in Genesis 9 and then carrying over into Genesis 11. Once the world goes international, is that wickedness would be kept in check from man to man, from the authoritative Word of God, and now by force being carried out by man, because man is made in the image of God, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly, and multiply in it. But now the sword would be there to take life for those who would take life. Listen, you have to have this kind of conviction sealed into your soul if you're going to think biblically about any form of government. This is the way God runs his world and delegates it to those in authority to run it the same way, all the way back to Genesis 9. Human life is that sacred? Human life is that valuable, created in the image of God. But now to be upheld by the state and the sword.And that carries over into the New Testament at the widest level, the societal level. Paul picks this theme up in Romans 13. In verse 4 he says, government, those in authority are ministers of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid for it. The government, the state does not bear the sword for nothing. You see how this goes all the way back to Genesis? The world of good and evil. God is trying to see good flourish and evil be prevented, and the state is to bear the sword. But it doesn't do it for no reason. It's a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. From seed form in Genesis, now into the church era thousands of years later, God ordains order in human society, even when governments like this one that were persecuting people like Paul and other Christians, pagan to the core, secular, whichever you want to call it, he could still say, that is my minister, to punish the wicked, to bring wrath on the one who practices evil. You say? Maybe that's just Paul's interpretation. No, it's Peter's interpretation, too, under the same wicked rule of Rome. 1 Peter 2:14. Back up to 13. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors, is sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. Both of these apostles are talking about empires that persecute Christians, the same regime in acts :223 that Peter said, nailed Jesus Christ to the cross by the hands of godless men. So you think there's some exception clause for a corrupt government? You say, you know. Yeah, that state thing applies. Except when. Except when what? That Peter could say that knowing his Savior that was put to death by the hands of godless men. But you get an exception for your submission. There's some way around that.? Do you see how God has designed the basis of all human governance since the beginning? The church has the mandate to promote spiritual life by the power of the gospel. The state has the God ordained mandate to protect human life by the power of the sword.  
  Which brings us to point two today. The state is distinct from the church, but is not separated from God. Maybe it's the misnomer that floats around church and society that says separation of church and state. You know, if I called on one of you this morning and said, hey, what's up with separation of church and state? Some of you are slinking down in your seat already. Like, don't call on me. Don't call on me. Don't call on me. I don't want to answer that one. It gets repeated. Separation of church and state. No, there is no separation of church and state in the sense of the authority that we're both under. Yes, there is sovereignty of sphere of influence and authority in each just mentioned it. Some have authority in the state. Some have authority in the church, but there's more distinction than there is separation, because both are under the sovereign authority of God. And even when we think about our faith, as R.C. Sproul said, it's pervasively political because our Savior is a king with a kingdom. The kingship of Christ is a statement of his authority. It touches every political matter. It's as the Dutch theologian turned prime minister, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Abraham Kuyper said that. There is no inch in all of creation over which Jesus Christ, who is sovereign, does not cry mine. Kuyper wasn't saying that just to preach a sermon on the sovereignty of God, Kuyper was saying that there needs to be there needs to be the law of God, promoted, given in society. He wrote if God is truly God, then all determination of law proceeds from him, and all that remains for us is to do is to ask with holy reverence for the road that can lead us to the purest knowledge of what God Almighty has stamped as justice for the whole of his creation, as eternal justice for every creature. Kuyper was trying to show that you can expect a civil society, a lawful society, without some inherent acceptance of a greater law than it can come up with on its own. Otherwise, I mean, again, another misnomer. Hey, you can't legislate morality. Really?What's the point of a law? Is it just unto itself? Why are we not supposed to speed? So that some knucklehead doesn't go faster than he should and takes someone else's life, right? That's why it exists. Why do all the laws that have a sense of protection from evil and promotion of good exist? Because there's some moral framework behind them. Where does that moral framework come from? Kuyper was making the point it comes from God. C.s. Lewis made the same point at the beginning of Mere Christianity in chapter one, when he wrote this law. This inherent law was called the law of nature, because people thought that everyone knew it by nature and did not need to be taught it. They did not mean, of course, that you might not find an odd individual here and there who did not know it. Just as you find a few people who are colorblind or have no ear for a tune. Love his way with words. But taking the race as a whole, they thought that the human idea of decent behavior was obvious to everyone, and I believe they were right. If they were not, then all the things we said about the war were nonsense. What was the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong unless right is a real thing to which the Nazis at bottom knew as well as we did and ought to have practiced. If they had no notion of what we mean by right than though we might still have to fight them, we could no more have blamed them for that than for the color of their hair. Do you understand what he's saying about that natural law written on our hearts that he writes later in the chapter, it says, when somebody does this thing to you and say, hey, that wasn't fair. Where does that sense of fairness come from? If we're to be a society outside of any understanding of a moral law, where does it come from? Now to keep the distinction between church and state clear as the Bible does? We would affirm that we want the church to do the things that the church were created to do under the authority of God and the state to do the things we want God, or we want the state to do under the authority of God. And those are the sovereign spheres that back to Abraham Kuyper, he talked about in spheres sovereignty, that you don't want the state trying to do the things of the church, and you don't want the church trying to do the things of the state.

  When Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the one that kind of coined the phrase a wall of separation between church and state.That's all he was saying. He wasn't saying isolate these two things so much that when you talk about the state, you can't talk about the authority of God. He was saying, just don't let this one try to do this other one's task. So this group over here is free to worship, but they cannot impose their worship on these people over here in a free society. So how does that hit us? Well, we see that there are in those distinctions between sovereign spheres in the state and the church. A use of force that the church has, and the power of the gospel and a use of force the state has, and a power of the sword. Though both institutions are created by God and under his authority. We stay in our lanes, so we don't want the state coming in to the church and using force to mandate church attendance or nobody's coming to my mind but the guy that will not get baptized. I would call up the cops, say, can you arrest this brother until he gets baptized? That's what I'm talking about. We don't call up the state to enforce the matters that are spiritual. Hey, I'm checking the giving records. Get over here, guys. Got some people not giving. That's the sovereignty sphere. Yet we do call them up when what? We see laws being broken, crimes being committed. Walk outside mugging in the parking lot. I don't stand there and just preach at them, man, I hope this works. Call the cops. Say, get over here. Guys, there is connection there. I'm not reticent to call them thinking, you know what? Separation of church and state. You know, I don't know if those guys are really down with the moral law that we should help people being oppressed. I mean, I was even hanging out with a guy that was a former Green Beret this week, and after hanging out with him, I was telling my son about it and he got interested in the Green Berets. So we watched some videos on it and found out that their motto is Free the Oppressed. That's a state group who says the motivation for what we do is something moral. There's evil and wickedness out there, and we're there to stop it. So you want a society with separation of church and state that they just come up with their own ideas asright and wrong? Or do you want them under the sovereign authority of God? Now here's where we come in. When we see the state not being the state as ordained by God, we speak up. How do we speak up? Well, you do it one way by voting. You don't sit back and say, oh, woe is me. Our society is going to hell in a handbasket. What should we do? Well, you try to make change in the ways that have been laid out and ordained. Write to the Congressman. Protest peacefully. And if you so feel called into the world of politics, then you go there. But there is a line that the church doesn't cross. We don't take up the sword against the government. I don't become the Secretary of conversion, mandating that any unbelieving people in the United States must convert to Christianity or be executed. I mean, that is unless you want to go back to a theocracy and we stone your blasphemous children. Is that what you want? It's one thing to say that the state operates outside of the authority of the church. It's another to say it operates outside of the authority of God. And when we see it do that, the church's role is not to call the state to be the church, but the state to be the state. R.C. Sproul wrote, the minute any state, whether in the US or China or Russia, declares itself independent from God outside of the authority of God, it has become demonized and become an evil empire in rebellion against the authority by which it rules in the first place. So if you end up in an elevator one day next to the president of the United States, you know, and you turn to them and say, hey, did you know that you are an authority under the authority of God, appointed within proper measure to promote the good and punish evil? Just thought you would like to know that. Reminded of that. That's your role. You're a minister of God. Romans 13. To promote the good and punish the evil. Reminds me of a story in we'll close in this. In 1 Kings 21 that there was a wicked king named Ahab. Greedy. On a vacation property.Wanting more land so he could be a homesteading influencer. That's what the text says. Comes about these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. This was Ahab's second home. Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden. See homesteading influencer. I want it close by my house, and I'll give you a better vineyard than in its place. And if you like, I'll give you the price. And it's money. So here's this greedy king wanting to grab up more land. But verse three, Naboth said to Ahab, the Lord forbidme that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. He knew the Old Testament law about not selling the family land, but to keep it for your grandbabies. And he was going to obey God rather than man, Because I know sitting in the back of your heads this morning sometimes is when do we disobey? When we are what? Called to do something God forbids or forbidden to do something God commands. So Naboth says no. So then, super wicked Ahab and his wife Jezebel, in verses 4 to 10, devise a plot to frame Naboth as a, and isn't this rich that he was the one breaking God's law? That worthless men were going to come and testify and say that he was a blasphemer, and he would be taken out and stoned to death. So they could steal his land. So verse 11 of 1 Kings 21, the men of his city, the elders and nobles lived in the city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them, just as written in the letters. These wicked, worthless men come, and they testify against Naboth. And they say, he cursed God and the king. So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. And then Jezebel says, well, there's your land. Go take it. In comes courageous Elijah the Tishbite, the prophet of God. What's his role in this? To go find some righteous men and say, hey, we got some worthless men. Let's go on a killing spree here. Let's be vigilantes. Let's burn down the palace. No! The word of the Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite saying, arise, godown to meet Ahab, King of Israel. Who's in Samaria. He's in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. And you shall speak to him, saying, thus says the Lord, have you murdered, and also taken possession. He called the king out for the abuse of his power. You're there to promote the good and prevent evil, and you used your power to reverse that. Says to him in the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth. The dogs will lick up your blood, even yours. Now, hey, back to that scenario where you're in an elevator with the president. Choose your words carefully. Not saying you go full Elijah on him here. But what you see is a response later on. Verse 27, end of the chapter, which came when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, and fasted and lay in a sackcloth, and went about despondently. It shows that secular rulers need spiritual leaders to be a reminder of the authority under which they live. When we make a case for 10 Commandments hanging on walls in schools and courts, they're not there to convert anyone, but they are there to put on the conscience of the person. I'm under authority. There is a God. There is a law. There is a standard and no one is outside of that standard. The distinction between church and state is a division of labor by delegated authority from its divine author. The state promotes the temporal good of society through the prevention of evil. The church preaches the gospel and promotes the greatest good imaginable, eternal life. Come back next week and we'll tie that up with a closer look at that final institution created by God that will outlast the family and the state, the institution of the church.  
  Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word this morning. We thank you for its clarity and its power. We pray you would use it in us and through us to be promoters of good in our own areas of influence. Protectors from evil in our own families and those who have an eye out in society and look for opportunity to be salt, to promote good and prevent decay, to be something of a pleasing aroma. When we speak of you and speak of Christ. Life to life among those who are being saved and death to death amongst those who are perishing. When we speak of you, Father, and salvation in your Son. We get the privilege to remind our world that you reign. Help us never take that for granted, that any time we speak up and speak of you, we're doing the work you designed us to do. Remind every single person that one day, every knee will bow before your sovereign throne, the throne of perfect righteousness and perfect justice. We thank you for that. In Jesus name, Amen.