The State and the Disciple of Jesus

Father, your word is your word.

Every word in the Bible, Father, is the word that you wanted to have there.

And we confess, Father, that often because of our culture and often because of our context,

we completely and utterly misunderstand your word.

Father, we confess that sometimes we just, we get it all wrong and we don't even recognize

that we've got it wrong.

So, Father, we ask that you would continue to gently but deeply pour out your Holy Spirit

upon us.

Pour out your Holy Spirit upon our minds, our hearts, our wills, our bodies.

And grant us, Father, a constant humility in regard to our own opinions, a willingness

to change our minds.

Grant us a great humility before you and your word written.

And grant us a great hunger for you and for your word written.

So that your word might come into us, into our lives.

And we will then bear much fruit for your glory in this city and at the ends of the earth.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

I almost want to say I apologize, but I'm not going to apologize.

But I want to give you a bit of a warning right off the bat.

I know that there's many, many guests here this morning.

And I'm going to talk later on in the sermon.

It's just going to be brief.

But I'm going to talk about abortion.

I'm going to talk about doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia.

And I'm going to talk about same-sex marriage.

In fact, I was dealing with so many complicated and controversial topics, I almost thought I'd

throw in tithing while we're at it.

Just to get it out of the way, you know.

But I'm going to be talking about these three.

And some of you might think, you know, especially if you're a guest and you've come here to see

maybe your daughter or your granddaughter or your niece or your friend, you know, dance.

And you think, oh, you know, I knew those, you know, fanatic, hardcore, right-wing Christians

that all they ever did was hammer away at those topics.

I knew that was the case.

Well, that's actually, if you think that about churches in Ottawa, you could go to most churches

in Ottawa for five years and never hear anybody ever talk about any of those three topics.

Most churches in Ottawa are terrified about talking about those topics, just if that's what

you're thinking.

And so you might be wondering, well, George, why on earth are you talking about it on a

day like today?

And here's another thing that non-Christians often think about Christians, and they often

think it correctly about Christians, by the way.

A lot of people see Christians as being basically hypocritical, that we believe that we want to

know the Bible and follow the Bible, but we actually ignore big parts of the Bible, the big parts

of the Bible that we don't like, or we don't just agree with, or don't fit into our lifestyle,

we just ignore.

And so one of the things that many non-Christians say about Christians, and unfortunately it's

often correct, is that we pick and choose in the Bible.

And so I just want to share with you, I mean, at Messiah, we don't want to be a pick and choose

congregation.

And so one of the ways that we try to deal with that is that we preach through books of

the Bible.

And the Bible's long, so I'd have to probably have been the pastor here for 50 years to

cover every book and every word, and that's hard to do.

But we try to deal with that problem of bits and pieces Christianity by preaching through

books of the Bible.

And when you preach through a book of the Bible, it means you're going to regularly deal with

things that aren't very comfortable for our culture.

And so that's what we're doing in this church right now.

You can look in the bulletin later on in the blog, it talks a little bit about why we do

that and upcoming things.

But we're going through the book of Romans.

And as part of going through the book of Romans, we come to Romans 13, which is what we're going

to look at.

And I would fail you as a pastor and as a man who's called to open the word of God if

I preached on Romans 13 and didn't mention those topics.

It's abortion, doctor-assisted suicide or euthanasia and same-sex marriage.

So you've been warned, and I'll return to it, and hopefully I'll return to it twice.

But it would be a great help to me if you open your Bibles, because you want to be able

to see that I'm actually not just making it up as I go along, but I'm actually trying

to follow the Bible.

I should have warned you earlier that there's free Bibles over there.

I don't mind if you get up while I'm talking and go over there and get a free Bible.

And if you don't own a Bible, keep it.

It's our gift to you, or you can return it later.

But Romans 13.

And so let's get into the word.

And here's how it begins.

Let every person, Romans 13, 1, let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by

God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist

will incur judgment.

And just sort of pause there for a second.

We just want to pause here for a second.

Now, this is a really easy text.

Here's the problem about this text.

There's something so blindingly obvious about this text that if we recognize what's so blindingly

obvious, it's going to completely and utterly turn this text in a different direction.

But it's so obvious that we forget it.

And here, I'm just going to, you know, if you're a guest here this morning, I'll say it.

You might not know this.

But for Christians, many Christians aren't even aware of this.

But just before we get into it, I'm getting tongue-tied.

Christians believe what Jesus teaches.

And what Jesus teaches and the Bible teaches about itself is that the Bible is God's word

written.

And what that means is that every word that we see here, this is what Christians believe

because Jesus believed it, that every word that you see here is ultimately the word that

God wanted to have there.

Now, it doesn't have, like, it's not like dictation.

It wasn't as if one day Paul was out for a walk and then God took him over and he had

to go to a table and he had to sort of write like this as God sort of overwhelmed his personality

and overwhelmed him and made him write down every word.

That's not how it works.

It's demons which possess us.

And I don't have lots of experience with this, but my guess is that if you're demon-possessed,

if you listen to ten different demon-possessed people speaking or writing, they'd all basically

sound exactly the same because the demon actually possesses them.

And God doesn't possess us in that way.

He never overwhelms us.

And so Paul would just be writing what Paul is writing.

But what Christians believe, and actually Romans teaches this, but it's a little bit later

on, is that Paul writes just from his heart dealing with a particular problem.

But God is sovereign over it.

And so that later on, it's recognized that God caused those particular words, the particular

words that God wanted his people and the whole world to know, God used Paul to get that done.

Just as he used Peter and he used Amos and he used Isaiah and he used Jeremiah and he used

the different writers of the Bible.

And because he actually just uses Paul, it sounds like Paul.

And if you read, you know, Isaiah, it sounds like Isaiah.

And you read Jeremiah, it sounds like Jeremiah.

He uses their personalities and everything like that.

But God acts in such a way that the actual words that are written are the words he wants

to be written down.

And then he also acts in such a way so that it's recognized by the church, by the followers

of Jesus, that those are the actual words that God wants to have written down.

So it doesn't mean that Paul is particularly a special person.

It just means that God used him.

It doesn't mean that Paul was smarter than you and I or more insightful than you and I.

If we went back in a time machine and just listened to Paul, it's not that he was more insightful

than us, a special person.

Every writer of the Bible is in a sense like Balaam's ass, that God uses the donkey to speak.

And so why is this significant?

Well, it's very, very significant if you understand that it's God who's telling us to do this.

In fact, Andrew, can you put up the point?

If we don't understand this, we're not going to understand anything in Romans 13.

The King of kings and Lord of lords, the true and living God, tells his grace-ransomed children

to submit to human authorities and to respect and honor them in a way which fully glorifies

and honors him.

Now, just help me down.

I'm going to help to unpack this a little bit.

A few years ago, but maybe about 10 years ago now, actually more than 12 years ago.

I'm getting old, so things long ago actually happened relatively close.

Anyway, I was the chair of a national organization, and I also was, in a sense, the CEO.

And we had this really important thing going on.

I was still part of the Anglican Church of Canada, and there was this really important

meeting of the Anglican Church.

And we wanted to have a presence there to sort of represent, you know, biblical Christianity

in their deliberations.

And it was going to be very, very far-reaching, this meeting, in terms of the things they would

decide.

So I was there.

Several other people were there.

And we hired a communications person to help with daily press releases and a daily newsletter

because we wanted to just represent biblical truths as the Anglican Church was making

this important decision.

So we hired somebody.

In a sense, I hired him.

I was the chair of the board and the CEO, in effect.

And so we hired somebody to help us.

And he worked with a few volunteers.

And at the end of the event, as the three- or four-day or five-day conference, I can't remember

how long it was, but it was a long conference.

At the end of it, the Anglican Church of Canada made a horrendous decision.

And a couple of the very, very key volunteers who had been working with this guy that we'd

hired, they had their own private agenda.

And so they wanted to spin this particular important communication from the organization

in a way that favored their particular agenda.

And I heard about it that morning.

And I was horrified.

They were going to say the exact wrong thing.

The board would not have agreed with it.

It was the wrong thing.

So I went and I found the guy.

And I said to him, have you sent off this press release yet?

Have you released it?

He said, no.

I said, good.

You're not sending it.

It's wrong.

And he said, well, whoa.

Like, he said, well.

And he mentions these two really important people in the Anglican Church.

And they've agreed with it.

And I said to him, I sign your checks.

I sign your check.

I'm your boss.

They're not.

You're not sending it because it's wrong.

Now, there will be another sermon illustration as to the two volunteers and the strips they

tried to tear off of me when they found out that I'd actually put a kibosh to what they

wanted.

But here's the significance.

They, this fellow worked with volunteers in a sense because I, who was his employer, told

him that he could work with these two people.

But I never relinquished being his employer.

He was my employee, not those other people's employees.

So what's significant about this text?

And it's really even more significant because, as you'll see later on in the text, it's going

to refer, the text is going to refer to the rulers and authorities as the servant of God,

the slave of God.

So what we need to understand here is that this text is not a blank check to whoever's in power.

I can tell you right now that Justin Trudeau would probably be deeply offended to hear that he's

described as the slave of God.

And I don't think I would be overstretching matters to think that Beverly McLaughlin and the Supreme Court

justices of this country would be offended to understand that the Bible is describing them as God's slaves,

but he's describing those who are followers of Jesus as his children.

It's all the way through the Romans.

You'd have to be reading Romans all the way through here.

So that's why I've tried to express it this way.

Just remember what's happening here.

It's just like me hiring this guy to work with other people, and I give him some instructions.

Only it's different because it's not, God isn't speaking here to his employees,

but he's our Father in Heaven speaking to his children.

And he doesn't stop or relinquish being our dad.

And I could have said our Heavenly Father, but I wanted to emphasize here Lord of Lords and King of Kings,

the Creator, Sustainer God, the Sovereign God of all the universe,

who has ransomed you and me.

If we put our faith and trust in Jesus, he has ransomed us through Jesus.

We are now the children of the living God by adoption and by grace.

And that God asks me to respect and honor and submit to human authorities

that the text is going to describe as his servant and his slave.

This is not the government of Canada telling me how to worship or the Supreme Court giving me permission.

You see how this text, in a sense, to use a postmodern word,

it deconstructs and relativizes all human power and authority.

And then within that tells me not that Christians should rule,

but that we are to submit and honor and respect.

So it's a very, very surprising thing.

And from that, we have to understand as well several other things about the text.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities,

for there is no authority except from God,

and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed,

and those who resist will incur judgment.

So is this text saying that when God looked down at Moclair and Trudeau and Harper,

he said, I don't like Harper and I don't like Moclair.

I like Justin Trudeau.

So I'm going to make Justin Trudeau the prime minister,

and my people better submit to him.

Right now, I'm going to pick your boogeyman.

If we were in an American United States and Trump wins,

would all the Bible Belt Christians have to say,

God liked Trump better than all those other guys and that one gal?

Or if Hillary Clinton wins,

well, all those Bible Belt Christians have to say,

obviously God thought Nelson Cruz and Trump and Sanders were terrible, evil men.

He chose his woman.

Is that what the text is saying?

Just to put it very boldly and bluntly.

Well, if you could put up the next point,

this prayer is completely consistent with Romans 13.

And if we don't understand how this prayer is consistent with Romans 13,

we won't understand the text.

Lord, please spare our nation from the government that we deserve.

And in your mercy grant us a government which is better than we deserve.

Lord, please spare our nation from the government that we deserve.

And in your mercy grant us a government which is better than we deserve.

That prayer is completely and utterly consistent and congruent with Romans 13.

If you go back, and I don't have time to do this for obvious reasons,

you go back and you read the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament,

which Paul at that time would have just understood as the Bible.

And it's very, very clear.

In fact, the book of Habakkuk, which I'm going to return to in a bit,

it's a very, very famous book.

It's a very, very odd book because Habakkuk is complaining about

how completely and utterly evil Israel is.

And God says, good news.

I've heard your prayer.

I'm answering them.

I'm sending the Assyrians to take over and obliterate Israel.

And Habakkuk says, God, no, you can't do that.

You got it all wrong.

They're way worse than Israel.

Okay?

And then you go back.

You read about Nebuchadnezzar.

You read about all of these.

Just read Isaiah.

Read Amos.

Read Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Read the book of 1 and 2 Kings.

Just because the person's in authority,

sometimes they are there because it is the ruler the nation deserves

and it is a punishment.

I know I've opened up a whole other can of worms.

And I don't have time to go into it.

But Trump or Clinton cannot, or Trudeau cannot say,

I am obviously the choice person that God has chosen.

It might very well be that they are there as part of God's judgment.

And that is completely consistent with Romans 13,

which is why, in a sense, we have to be careful

because when our friends or the people that we like are in government,

we have to be careful that we stop praying a prayer like that.

But there is no mere human collection known as a nation,

which is God's favored people.

Israel is an exception.

But apart from that, there's no,

and even then Israel, just because they're Israel,

doesn't mean they do a whole pile of evil things, by the way.

Read the Old Testament.

Israel did horrible things.

Okay?

This is a prayer that we have to pray.

I mean, my hope and prayer is that God didn't give us Trudeau

as a punishment upon our nation.

I'm not trying to make a, I'm not making a political,

I really am not making a political comment.

I'm not.

This is a prayer we have to pray

as a nation that has a concern for our nation.

So some of you might say,

okay, George, well, this is all a little bit,

you've turned the text a little bit upside down on me.

But George, doesn't the text seem to say

a whole pile of nonsense stuff?

Doesn't it seem to say that, you know,

it's just stuff that isn't obviously true,

that, you know, rulers punish evil and rulers do good?

Like, okay, George, so this has surprised me,

but even if that's all true what you've said,

doesn't the text just say nonsense?

Like, how could anybody with a straight face

say that the government does good

and rewards people who do good?

Is it Linda McKibben?

Is that her name?

One of the most dangerous people

in the province of Ontario.

How many times has she been arrested now?

I mean, is it 25 times, 27 times, 30 times,

something like that?

Just because she quietly stands and prays

near an abortion clinic,

and she's thrown in and out of jail constantly.

Like, how can George, how can Romans be true?

It's obvious that governments don't reward good people

and discipline bad people.

Well, let's look at the text.

We're not going to hide from it.

Let's look at Romans.

We'll start at verse one.

We'll go through to verse seven.

Let's listen to it again.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities,

for there is no authority except from God,

and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities

resists what God has appointed,

and those who resist will incur judgment.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,

for he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid,

for he does not bear the sword in vain,

for he is the servant of God,

an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Therefore, one must be in subjection,

not only to avoid God's wrath,

but also for the sake of conscience.

For because of this, you also pay taxes

for the authorities or ministers of God

attending to this very thing.

Pay to all what is owed to them,

taxes to whom taxes are owed,

revenue to whom revenue is owed,

respect to whom respect is owed,

honor to whom honor is owed.

So, doesn't it seem to say odd things, George?

Here's the first thing.

Here's where your doctrine of the Bible

is really, really important.

If, in fact, God uses different human beings,

not because they're wise or particularly insightful,

but that God just uses them.

He chooses that he's going to use them

and they just write the way they think they need to write.

But at the end of the day,

the end of the process,

God has sovereignly worked in such a way

that the words that they've written

are the words that he wants written.

And therefore, there's not 66

completely different books in the Bible.

I mean, there are,

but there's ultimately one author

who's written the Bible.

And if you understand that,

then you say to yourself,

you can ask hard questions like this.

God asks us to ask honest,

intellectual, hard questions.

But we need to say,

okay, well, is God going to actually write something

which is just so obviously contradictory or foolish?

In fact, even without the doctrine of the Bible,

Paul writing these words would,

I mean, Paul knows that he has been unjustly put in jail.

Paul knows that the authorities act in a way

that oppresses him.

And in fact, Paul knows,

if you go back and read the book of Acts,

Paul knows that he used legal and quasi-legal means

to oppress people before he was a Christian.

That's what he did.

In fact, he was on the way with letters

from political and cultural and religious authorities.

He was going with powers to oppress Christians

in another city when he met Jesus.

Paul knows that.

In fact, it's so well known to Paul,

it was obviously a key part of how Paul understood himself.

You can see traces of how he reacted to that

throughout all of his letters.

And what's more,

Paul knows that Jesus died an innocent man.

That Jesus was a prey,

oppressed and betrayed

by the religious authorities

and by the Roman authorities,

by religious scholars

and the secular scholars and powers,

that Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent

and Pilate had Jesus condemned to death.

Paul knows this.

So what on earth is he saying here?

What on earth is he saying here?

What he's saying here, amongst other things,

is that Paul here is actually talking about

basically what we would call as general principles.

Just some general principles.

And it's actually a very, very curious thing

that he talks about these general principles in such a way.

Like, if you think about it for a second,

like, I've had people come and talk to me now

because increasingly,

especially if they have something to do with government,

that there's things going on at the government level

that for Christians are problematic or evil.

And how do they actually work in government?

Do they have to resign?

Or what do they do?

And surely, if you think about it for a second,

how would you give some general advice?

Well, do good.

Like, wherever you are, do good.

And if you're in power,

like, make sure that, you know,

if there's a, like, the Kameshi affair like that,

which, you know,

if there's complaints about misconduct,

like, you deal with that misconduct, right?

Like, you try to deal with the wrong things

that are going on in your workplace

and do good.

And that would be part of the way

that we're going to try to give people

a bit of a sense about how they work.

And if all this,

all that was in the text here

was just these words,

then it would be a lot more confusing.

But as we're going to look at in a moment,

there's also verses 8 to 14.

And so what Paul is doing here

is he's giving some general principles

in the context of God's word

to help Christians to understand

how they're to submit

and how they're to respect

and how they're to show honor.

And one of the things

which is exceptionally,

I mean, if you think about this for a second,

you'd have to think that God does this.

Is my mic dying?

Is my battery dying?

No?

I'm fine?

Okay.

It seems like it goes out all of a sudden,

but maybe it's just my hearing.

But when Paul wrote this,

it wasn't as if

there were Christians in power.

In fact, when Paul wrote this,

probably around the year 59 or 60,

the Christian faith

was an unregistered religion

in the Roman Empire.

They were a minority of a minority

of a minority of a minority

of a minority.

And the Roman state,

Nero was a god.

Everything's organized

around the worship of the gods.

The state practices slavery.

The state practices infanticide.

And there's no Christians in power.

But it's very interesting

if you look at this

in terms of

sending some basic principles,

not only,

as I'm going to explain in a moment,

principles about how we live

under a power like that.

But it actually looks down the road

to when Christians

get in positions of power and authority.

Because the very, very same principle,

which is going to help set the stage

for how you submit and respect

and show honor,

is communicating to Christians

that once they get in power,

what their job description is.

That they're to do good.

That they're to punish evil.

So it's very, very,

it's actually quite surprising

because it's 300 years

after this approximately

before Christians will be in power.

Now obviously many Christians

haven't kept it,

but it's very, very interesting.

And so this particular thing,

this is telling us

some general principles,

but some of you might say,

okay, George,

maybe it's saying

some particular principles,

but doesn't the whole idea

of being submissive

and showing honor and respect

mean that you have to do

what people in authority

tell you to do?

Well, okay,

we just keep these different things

that we've just heard

and remember that Paul,

with no break in his argument,

goes from all these things

about paying taxes and honor

to verses 8 to 14.

So let's look at these right now,

then we're going to sum it up

with two quick points

and then an overarching thing.

Look at verses 8 to 14.

So he's already told us

about, you know,

doing good

and what the state

in theory is supposed to do

and it's implying,

by the way,

that sometimes we're going

to fall victim to the sword

if we don't do what they want,

but look at verses 8 to 14.

Owe no one anything

except to love each other,

for the one who loves

has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments,

you shall not commit adultery,

you shall not murder,

you shall not steal,

you shall not covet,

and any other commandment

are summed up in this word.

You shall love your neighbor

as yourself.

Love does no wrong

to a neighbor,

therefore love

is the fulfilling of the law.

Just pause here

before we go any further.

It's very interesting

that the argument

for abortion is,

part of the argument

for abortion

is that it's the loving thing

to do.

Part of the argument

for doctor-assisted suicide,

for euthanasia,

is it's the loving thing

to do.

Part of the argument

for same-sex marriage

is it's all about love.

But Paul here,

when he says,

you shall not commit adultery,

you shall not murder,

he says,

these are all summed up

by you love your neighbors

yourself.

In other words,

he says that true love

means that you would not

do these things.

But we'll return to that

in a moment.

Verse 11,

besides this,

you know the time

that the hour has come

for you to wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer

to us now

than when we first believed.

The night is far gone,

the day is at hand.

So then let us

cast off the works

of darkness

and put on the armor

of light.

Let us walk properly

as in the daytime,

not in orgies

and drunkenness,

nor in sexual immorality

and sensuality,

nor in quarreling

and jealousy,

but put on

the Lord Jesus Christ

and make no provision

for the flesh

to gratify

its desires.

Now I know

that in a room

with this many people,

there's at least

one person

who's had an abortion

or who's aided

somebody to have

an abortion.

And so

this is maybe

a very,

very awkward

topic.

And I'm going to

return to it

in a moment,

but I just

understand that.

In fact,

you know,

there's been earlier,

even before it's

legalized

to help doctors

kill a patient,

it's well known

that there's other

subtle ways in the past

that doctors have acted

to bring about

the death of people.

I was involved

in a case

about 10 years ago.

So we,

and so there might

very well be

somebody here

who's helped

counsel a doctor

to act in such a way

so that they've

acted to shorten,

not just

like to actually

literally take action

to shorten life.

And I know this is

very uncomfortable

maybe for you.

Sometimes the government

tells us

to do wrong things.

things.

And when it says

here,

you shall not

commit adultery,

if you read through

both the Old Testament

and if you read

through the New Testament,

it actually,

the literal word here

which is used

is pornea.

and the pornea word group

points to the basic principle,

not that sex is bad,

that sexual knowing is bad,

but that sexual knowing

is restricted

or set aside,

maybe that's a better word,

for one man

and one woman

who've been joined

in holy matrimony.

And any sexual knowing

or sexual stimulation

outside of the one man

married to one woman

is adultery,

is pornea.

And therefore,

two men marrying

would be by definition

not something

that the church

should bless,

but that the church

with tears,

but with conviction,

should say is wrong.

And when the text here

says you shall not murder,

that means you shouldn't

take innocent human life.

And so,

any attempt by the state

to say that doctors

can be given the power

to take,

it's not a sin

to be old.

It's not a sin

to be mentally ill.

It is not evil

to have Alzheimer's

or dementia.

And it is not evil

to be in the womb.

It might be profoundly

inconvenient

for people

who are in power,

but it is never

a crime

to be in the womb.

And it's never

a crime

to be old

or to be depressed

or to be sick.

It's a call

for us

to show compassion.

It is not

a call

for us

to take

innocent human life.

and that means

that a state

that says

that there is

no restriction

on abortion

or that there

is the power

of the state

to give power

to doctors

to kill

innocent human life,

it's just wrong.

It's just wrong.

And so,

the interesting thing

here about

Romans 13

is that the Bible

here isn't giving us

a simple technique

or recipe

about how to deal

with things.

the Bible here

is actually calling us

to live

in an awkward

middle place

in between

those

who just want

to live

in Christian ghettos

and pretend

that the world

doesn't exist

in a sense

to be like a Hutterite.

I apologize

to mention them,

but I'm going

to mention them

to any

or any type

of Christian ghetto

that just tries

to live

as if the world

doesn't exist,

as if the world

is evil and gone.

There's the whole

implication of this text

is that we are

to pray for government

and we are to be

for the good

of the city,

that we are to pray

for the blessing

of the city,

that we are to be

involved in the blessing

and the flourishing

of the city.

So we're not

to take the one option

of just completely

withdrawing from the world.

On the other hand,

we are not to take

the other option

that whatever

the government

or the Supreme Court

of Canada says

that we just say amen

and we go along with it.

There's a very awkward

middle place

that the Bible's

calling us to,

which is one of the reasons

why we need the church,

we need each other,

and we need to develop

means of discipleship

and fellowship

and community

whereby we can help

people to figure out

what to do.

Here, could you put up

the third point

please for me?

In light of God's

instruction,

and I say God's

instruction because

all the way through here

when it says the law,

it means the Torah,

and the Torah

means God's instruction.

So in light of God's

instruction,

through his word

written,

I will offer real

but qualified

respect and honor

to rulers.

That's what the text

is trying to get at here.

Real,

but qualified,

qualified by the word

of God.

You see,

I don't remember if you,

some of you might remember,

but I don't know,

was it 10 years ago

that George W. Bush

came to Ottawa?

And just so you get the joke,

I only started wearing

glasses when I was 49.

And so at first,

when I first started

to wear glasses

and preach,

I had a bad habit.

My glasses would start

to go down like this,

and I would do this.

So I had a son

that every Sunday

he said,

Dad,

I'm going to tell you

how many times

every Sunday

you give the whole

congregation the finger.

And I would come home

and Jacob would say,

Dad,

five times,

five times a day

you gave the whole

congregation the finger.

I mean,

I guess it was a pain

of attention

to the sermon,

at least,

right?

And so I eventually

had to stop doing that

and raise my glasses

another way.

Some of you might remember

when George Bush

came to Ottawa

a few years ago,

quite a few years ago,

George Bush said,

Ottawa is such

a friendly city.

Everywhere I go,

people wave at me.

And some of them

even use all five fingers.

And I thought

that was pretty funny

on his part.

Anyway,

here's the thing.

Obviously,

if George W. Bush

comes and you give him

a finger,

you're not showing

him respect.

Right?

You're not showing

him respect.

The interesting thing

about this whole text

is the Bible

could have used

the word obey,

not submit.

But it doesn't use

the word obey.

It uses the word submit.

And submit's a very,

very different word.

Submit is something

that I do voluntarily.

That's why the very,

very early prayer

is that Jesus,

the King of Kings

and Lord of Lords,

he's asking his children

to do something.

He's telling us

to do something.

But I get to choose

and decide

how to submit.

The whole submit word group

doesn't mean

that the Supreme Court

of Canada

or Trudeau

tells me the shape

of how I submit.

That power is not

given to them by God.

I mean,

they have their own

secular powers,

obviously.

And Shadrach,

Meshach,

and Abednego,

they didn't submit

in the way that

Nebuchadnezzar thought

they should submit.

And he gave them

a chance to submit

according to the way

that he thought

they should submit.

And he said,

if you don't submit,

I'm going to throw you

into the fiery furnace.

I'm going to have you dead.

And Shadrach,

Meshach,

and Abednego

said very,

very powerfully

throughout the ages,

we believe

we are not going to do

what you have told us to do.

We believe that God

will deliver us.

But even if he did,

but if not,

but if not,

even if God

does not deliver us,

we will not do

what you want

because it involves

worshiping idols.

We won't do it.

We'll die

in the fiery furnace.

One of the reasons

that Shadrach,

that beautiful

old Jewish thing,

the sovereign God

that is the creator

of the sun

and the moon

and the stars

and the angels

and everything

in creation

are all to worship God

and Shadrach,

Meshach,

and Abednego

reminds us

as we read

Romans 13

that God is sovereign,

worthy of our praise.

And submission

is something

I do voluntarily

within a context.

And maybe

if we are serving

a boss

and she's the best boss

we've ever had.

She is a spectacular boss.

She's really competent.

She's honest.

She keeps her word.

She listens.

She makes decisions.

She's fair.

She just moves

the whole department full.

Then you know

that your honoring

and respecting her

is going to be really easy.

But maybe you have

a boss

which is completely

and utterly

not only

they're worse

than incompetent,

they're incompetent

and evil.

If something goes wrong,

it goes on you

even if they did it.

And if something goes right

and you did it,

they take the credit.

You know those types

of bosses?

And it's completely

and utterly

how we honor

and respect them

is going to be

very different.

The honor and respect

might be that you're

just silent.

That might be

how it looks.

Right?

It's qualified

by the context

and by God's word.

It's qualified

by the context

and God's word.

So that's why

it says

submit

and not obey.

That's why

in light of God's instruction

through his word written,

I will offer real

but qualified

respect

and honor

to rulers.

And it's also

why

you can't

this whole thing,

you know,

it's very interesting

that the Bible

puts

the

do not steal,

do not commit murder,

do not commit adultery

right after,

as part of this

whole

thing

in Romans 13

and in the power

of government

because in a sense

it's looking down

the ages

to when Christians

are in positions

of power

and it's saying

that any politician

who's in power

cannot say

I'm going to vote

for this

even though

I'm personally

opposed to it.

I'm going to

vote

for abortion

funding

even though

I'm personally

opposed to it.

The Bible doesn't

leave that option.

I mean,

it might be

that the MP

has to sacrifice

his career.

It might be

that in some

of these cases

you have to move

into other types

of law

or other types

of work

in the government

or where you

can do good.

but this

personally

opposed thing

is removed

by this text.

So,

if you could

put the next

point,

please.

I have to look

at my time.

Lord,

please help me

to be a disciple

of Jesus

gripped by the gospel

who builds my life

on your eternal truths

and not transient

legislative

and judicial

decisions.

see,

that's why

this text

is talking

about

things in

the Ten Commandments

at the same time

that it's helping

to try to give people

a sense of how

we're going to serve

both good governments

and bad governments,

both good rulers

and evil rulers.

It might be

that if Canada

was to become

a really oppressive

militaristic place

and there's the draft

then Christians,

I would urge

Christians to volunteer

to work as medics.

we're stretcher bearers.

I mean,

I don't know what it is.

I'm just telling you

that it's an awkward

middle place

but the heart of it

is that we want

to pray that God

will help us

to be gripped

by the gospel

and build our lives

on eternal truths

and not on transient

legislative

and judicial decisions.

The court looking

at the same laws

20 years later

reversing itself

on doctor-assisted

suicide and euthanasia

from the same documents

it just reverses itself.

Governments,

do what governments do,

judges do what judges do.

Sometimes they're

very, very wise,

they're very, very insightful

and sometimes

they're just merely willful

and that's what life is like

and we're to honor them

and respect them

and we're to pray

for the good of our city.

Now, I just want to

I have to wrap it up now.

Could you look at

verses 11 to 14?

I want to leave

those of you who are here

and you might be wondering

that if this,

what I've just said

is really hurtful

about abortion

and about doctor-assisted suicide

and same-sex marriage

and it just sounds legalistic

and cold.

There's something here

which is really important

that I have to look at

very briefly before we leave.

Look at verses 11 to 14 again.

Besides this,

you know the time

that the hour has come

for you to wake from sleep

for salvation is nearer to us now

than when we first believed.

The night is far gone,

the day is at hand,

so then let us cast off

the works of darkness

and put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly

as in the daytime,

not in orgies and drunkenness,

not in sexual immorality

and sensuality,

not in quarreling and jealousy.

But here's this wonderful verse,

but put on the Lord Jesus Christ

and make no provision

for the flesh

to gratify its desires.

Could you put up

the final point please, Andrew?

Lord, please make me

a disciple of Jesus

gripped by the gospel

who daily clothes myself

with the Lord Jesus Christ

and also turns away

from all that is within me

which is in rebellion against you.

That's what the flesh means.

The flesh in this particular case

means that there's things within me

even after I've come to faith in Jesus

that are in rebellion against God.

And so that's what verse 14 is saying.

In a sense it's saying

that every morning when I wake up,

like I can almost envision this

because you know how clothes

affect how you live the day.

You know, if you get up

and you're just going to spend

the whole day

in your grimiest working things,

that's not how you're going to go

to meet the prime minister, right?

On the other hand,

you don't, you know,

you don't, if you want to meet

the prime minister,

you dress one way,

you don't dress that way

then go work in the government, right?

And I mean work in the garden.

And so if you just in a sense

when you wake up

as you're a Christian,

you imagine that you're putting on

the Lord Jesus Christ

at the same time

you're just going to say,

Father, help me to turn away

from everything within me

that's in rebellion against you.

I want to live my day that way.

But here's the thing about it.

This is a text to ask us

to be shaped by the gospel.

You see, here's the wonderful thing

about the gospel.

Dick Gregory, who was an anti-war comedian

in the 60s and the 70s

against the Vietnam War,

he said that he had no problem

with sending his son

to go fight on the front lines.

But he said,

if Nixon had a son,

if you put my son

where Nixon's son is,

then I'm fine to send my son

to fight in Vietnam.

Because what do people in power do?

People in power send young men

and now young women to fight,

but they stay back.

What do they pay taxes?

They take honor.

They take respect,

but they don't give back.

They pass laws that we have to obey,

but often they refuse

to obey them themselves.

But what is the gospel?

The gospel is about

the most remarkable thing

in the world,

that the King of kings

and Lord of lords

that Jesus,

the second person of the Trinity,

that he sets aside

his divine prerogatives,

his right, in a sense,

to be worshipped as God.

He stays God,

but he sets all of his appearances aside.

He looks at human beings

who cannot pay the taxes,

who cannot keep the laws,

who are complete and utter lawbreakers,

and they can't stop it.

And he says,

I will go and pay the punishment

that they deserve.

And I will go and fulfill

and keep the law

that they cannot keep.

I will do that

for people

in rebellion against me.

I,

who am properly

King of kings

and Lord of lords,

I will empty myself.

Sorry,

I'm making kids cry.

We should all be crying

in repentance,

not just because I've been loud

all of a sudden.

I'm sorry.

But that's what the Bible's telling us

the gospel is.

A complete reversal

of our expectations.

And that's how we are made right

with God.

The Christian faith begins

when in a sense,

we call out to Jesus

and say,

Jesus,

clothe me with yourself

and what you've done

on the cross

to take me as your own.

I don't want to be your servant

or your slave in a sense.

I want to be your child

and therefore serve you.

And the Christian life begins

when we're gripped

with what God has done for us,

completely unlike human kings

and queens.

and what he does to die

for us to reconcile him

to himself.

And then the Bible says

we don't just sort of accept that

and then we go on

and live hard-hearted,

cold,

legislative lives

that are consumed

with seeking honor

for ourselves

and respect for ourselves

and money for ourselves

and power for ourselves.

No.

What does the text say?

Every day when I wake up

after I've given my life

to Jesus,

the text is saying

I should say,

Father,

there's things in me

that are incomplete

and utter rebellion

against you.

I don't want to have them

characterize my day.

I want to be clothed

with Jesus.

My Lord

and your Messiah,

my Messiah,

the Messiah and Savior

I need.

I want the gospel

to shape

how I make

every decision,

how I serve,

how I rule,

how I show honor,

how I show respect,

how I bless the city.

I want gospel

to shape that.

Please stand.

Father,

we ask for,

I've mentioned

Justin Trudeau,

I've mentioned

the Supreme Court

of Canada,

we lift them

before you,

Father.

Father,

we ask that you

would pour out

your Holy Spirit

upon them.

We ask,

Father,

that they would

come to a saving

faith in Jesus.

We ask,

Father,

that as well,

that they would

act,

they have their own plans,

they have their own agendas,

they have their own concerns,

but that your Holy Spirit

might move and work

in their lives

so that they will be

a blessing to Canada,

that they will rule

and act in such a way

that Canada will be prosperous,

that we will flourish,

that we will not only flourish

as a nation,

but that we will be a blessing

to all of the nations

on the planet,

that they will seek

laws that are

right with you

and right for us,

that bring harmony

and mercy

to our land.

Father,

we ask for them.

We ask that you'd not

give us the government

we deserve,

but that you would bless us

with great government.

And,

Father,

we ask for ourselves.

You know how,

Father,

if we have a person

that we don't like,

how easy it is

to show disrespect

and dishonor them

and tear them down.

Father,

we ask that you would

help us to repent of that.

Show us appropriate

honor and respect,

even for people

who

all of our contemporaries

in the world might say

don't deserve it,

but help us,

Father,

to show appropriate

respect and honor to them

as a way of honoring you

and bringing you glory.

And,

Father,

we ask that every day

you help us to turn away

from those things within us

that are in rebellion

against you

and help us to clothe

ourselves with Jesus.

Help us,

Father,

to figure out

how to follow you

in Canada

in a way which is

true to you

and is good

for this city

and this land.

Father,

help us to do it.

And if there are any here,

Father,

who today have given

their lives to you

for the first time,

may your Holy Spirit

flood them with might

and power

and deep conviction.

Seal them for yourself.

Seal all of us.

Make us disciples of Jesus

gripped by the gospel

who live for your glory.

This we ask in Jesus' name

and all God's people said,

Amen.

Amen.