Two Kinds of Government | Romans 13 - Romans: Book of Revolution

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

So Homespun Wisdom says that neither religion nor politics should be discussed in polite company.

But what about religion and politics?

That's the way we did our family.

We didn't just talk about religion or politics.

The whole family grew up talking about religion and politics, all we talk about, still to this day.

But we have the caveat of a kingdom of God revolution, that the answer is not completely left or right, but it's actually up and down.

And so it's our relationship with God that matters.

That's what changes society and changes culture.

Well, Romans 13, turn your Bible to Romans 13, is one of the most controversial passages in the Bible because it's been so misused.

And Adolf Hitler used Romans 13 to subjugate the church in Germany in the 1930s and 40s.

Hitler said, in effect, the Bible commands you to obey me as your political leader, so if you want peace, do what I say.

Erwin Lutzer, writing about Hitler at this time, wrote, Hitler began with lies, they were reflected through laws, and finally emerged as Lord.

Rushduni put it well, behind every system of law, there's a God.

Define the God in any system, locate the source of the law in that system.

So Romans 13 has been misused by government officials for hundreds of years.

And the German pastors basically ordained Hitler as their leader, and especially as the economy rallied back from 1933 to about 1937, it seemed like a wise move.

But guys like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller had read Mein Kampf.

Mein Kampf was the biography, kind of autobiography of the convictions of Hitler that he wrote while he was in prison.

They knew that this guy was evil, but the German pastors wanted to go along to keep along, to keep peace, and so they did, and that was to their own demise, their demise, but also the demise of the country.

But then Dietrich Bonhoeffer was obviously executed, as you know, in 1945 by Hitler.

Niemoler actually survived three years of a concentration camp and became a leading pastor after the war.

But as you look at Romans 13, there's really two parts to Romans 13.

It's kind of interesting.

Verses 1 through 7 is about civil government.

Civil government.

But then verses 8 through 14 is about self-government.

So we're really talking about two forms of government.

Well, verse 1 is the passage that many authoritarian leaders have used to keep Christians in their place.

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Now, during COVID, I had a meeting with 87 pastors here at the church from all over the city.

They came here and I announced that I was opening up in three weeks.

I was going to open up our church.

And I explained why.

Well, one of the pastors got up and quoted 13.1 that they were going to stay closed because that's what the governing authorities had told them to do.

And so they did.

So this is a passage that there's a lot of different translations and maybe even interpretations of what it means.

Let me just give you a little caveat here.

The scripture is clear that we are to obey our civil leaders with one exception.

When the command or law of the government would require disobedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, then we can disobey.

Ultimately, he is our king.

Now, if you take any verse in the Bible and all you do is camp on that one verse, you can create all kinds of doctrines.

So when you look at any controversial verse, just a little heads up to the Bible students out there, you always wanna, you always want to caveat that to the rest of Scripture.

So you go through all of Scripture to land on what the interpretation of that particular passage is.

So let me give you some a couple situations here, just for the sake of time, that I think explain better what Romans 13:1 is, and I actually used one of these during that pastor's meeting, and um, and I'll explain that.

Romans 13:1

So when Jesus was on trial, he stands before Pilate.

Pilate says to Jesus, Are you not speaking to me?

In other words, I'm the governor of this region.

Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you?

Listen to what Jesus says.

You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above.

So it was kind of a wake-up call to Pilate.

And if you remember, Pilate's wife had had a dream about having nothing to do with Jesus.

But Pilate was by and large a coward.

He was a cowardly leader, he was afraid of men, he was afraid of the authorities out of Rome coming against him.

So he began to have this dilemma about what to do.

And Jesus saying, Look, you don't have any authority over me.

If you have any authority over me, it's because God gave it to you.

And then remember, when Joseph had died, Joseph had died, knew Pharaoh, became king over Egypt.

And this was the edict from the king to the midwives in Exodus 1.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiprah, and the name of the other Puah.

Isn't that interesting?

We know their names because of what they did next.

They're inscripturated there.

Now we know their names some thousands of years later because of what they did.

And he said, When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him.

But if it is a daughter, then she shall live.

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.

So we have their names because of the heroism of these women who did not obey the laws of the land because it would cause them to disobey the God of their heart.

Remember Daniel.

Time of Daniel was King Nebuchadnezzar.

He set up a golden image on the plain of Durah in Babylon, commanded that everyone fall down and worship.

But we have these three guys that are now famous in all your Sunday school stories of Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego.

Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego.

So they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image which I have set up?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If that is the case, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O king.

But even if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the golden image which you have set up.

So listen, there's three aspects, I think, that relate to the laws of the land.

God desires our relationship with him, that's the first, obedience to his law, number two, and our own personal conscience, number three, to direct us.

And if the government is calling us to deny any of these, we have to obey God.

So in our schools, you've got issues of gender ideology and things like that happening.

Well, you have a choice.

You can either come into the, you know, get involved in the political or educational system and try to make changes, or if your conscience bothers you, what your kids are hearing, you bring them to our conference, that would help.

I would call it a PG 14, uh, the holy sexuality.

That's what Dr.

Christopher Ewan told us.

If your kids are under 14, we'd encourage you not to bring them unless you that's your call.

That's your parents' call.

But you have a job at home to equip them on issues of biblical gender holy sexuality.

If you don't feel completely capable, most of us don't, then come to the conference.

You'll get equipped, man.

We will have copious notes to help you grow in that arena or pull your kids out.

I mean, we homeschooled our kids.

So we did charters, we did a little bit of private, a little bit of charter.

I guess charter would be public, and we did homeschooling.

We did all that.

And we liked the way our kids turned out.

So you have to follow your conscience under the circumstances.

And fortunately, we're still in a land where you can follow your conscience.

Now in Acts chapter 4, the early Christians also defied Rome.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

So this is in the same generational period as Paul's writing, Romans 13, 1.

Acts 4, they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach 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.

In other words, you can have any opinion you want on that, but but we cannot speak but of the things which we have seen and heard.

So consistent, church, consistent with biblical history, consistent with church history, is you follow the convictions of your heart, obey God, and your own personal heart consciousness in making decisions.

And sometimes that means you're gonna have to defy the government.

You have to say, enough is enough, we're not gonna follow that.

And so that's what we did here at the church.

We opened up.

I mean, we we needed four weeks to really do our research.

And let me tell you, if I was convinced that the virus in this kind of a situation was going to be dangerous, we wouldn't have done it.

But we did the research, and we were not convinced that what Fauci and others were saying was true.

And so we went against that.

And we respect the NIH and we respect the um the um World Health Organization to the extent that we can.

But we're gonna obey what we think is the right thing to do according to God.

And and for the governor to tell us to shut down our churches, we weren't gonna follow that from day one.

But we would have done it if the health of the, we felt like the health was better.

And so we're we're probably we're probably the healthiest congregation in this city.

And I really mean that.

I mean, we hardly ever get sick around here because we've developed immunities.

We have Pam Holloway and Julie Black and Chandler Holt giving us all kinds of advice.

There's gonna be a health panel for the women's uh event on Tuesday.

One of the nights is uh is a health panel.

I'm leading the discussion on that.

It's gonna be awesome.

And we're healthy because we follow God's way.

So it says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God.

There's no authority except from God.

Just underline that part.

You see, what has happened in the past with those that have manipulated this passage is they take the second part, authorities that exist or appointed by God, without taking the first part of the sentence, which says that there's no authority except from God.

So when I wrote an op-ed, and then I got 25 pastors to sign it with the gazette, basically it was an op-ed to Governor Polis, open up El Paso County.

We're gonna open up El Paso County.

I didn't know what the consequences would be, but I was willing to bear that because it's contramundum.

That's the Latin phrase.

Contramundum means against the world.

Historically, the church is known as contramundum.

Do you realize that's what, if you guys are, some of you are old enough to remember the solidarity movement under Lekwalenza in Poland during Soviet Russia's control of Eastern Europe.

Because of the influence of the Catholic Church, and because of the Pope, and because of Ronald Reagan, there was this growing sense that this movement, the Solidarity Movement in the 70s and 80s, could actually take down the dictator in Poland.

That then became a domino effect across Eastern Europe with the shutting down of Soviet communism.

That's kontramundum.

That's standing against the world as radicals for Christ.

Now, verse 2 and 3, read this.

Read this with me.

Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God.

And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.

Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?

Do what is good, and you'll have praise from the same.

Here's what he's saying.

This is what I believe he's saying.

He's saying that most laws are for your protection.

Most laws are for your good.

Even in the worst system, I mean, he's writing with Nero as a dictator of Rome, he's writing to the Romans.

So Nero is one of the most despotic, corrupt, weird emperors in Roman history, but he's saying this because most laws, even under Nero, are for the good.

So if you're going down powers at 85 miles an hour and the speed limit's 55, and you get pulled over, you should thank the cop for pulling you over to protect you from yourself.

Because you're breaking the law.

I know, because I've been pulled over twice for going 85 on powers.

It's because I had to go somewhere to preach the gospel.

So you have an audit.

You know, you're audited by the IRS because most things that we have to be audited of is because we tend to be up to no good.

So here's the this is important.

The issue is not left or right.

Most of the time, the issue on laws is not left or right or up, but up or down.

Are you fearing God?

Because the more we fear God in the things that we do, then the more we find a kingdom of God revolution in our heart.

That fly is driving me crazy.

Let's see if I can nail it right here.

Almost.

I'm like two out of three on flies at home.

Come on.

There you go, baby.

Oh, I flew.

All right.

You know why we have bigger government?

Because we can't self-govern.

It's the same in your home.

Your job as parents and grandparents, now be careful on the grandparents' part, but if you have, if you have the opportunity and there's this kind of relationship with your kids, you're building self-government into your kids by having some rules.

I don't think you need a ton of rules, but you should have a few.

Because they're going to have to go out into the workforce.

And if they can get anything they want, get away with anything they want, you're spoiling your kid and ruining them for society.

And so self-government is there, so we have less government.

You need less government when you have good self-government.

There's not, we don't even have hardly any bylaws at the road.

I mean, it's about that long, our bylaws.

Because we don't need them.

I'm not going to set up bylaws for the church because just because we're the church and I'm in control or I'm the leader here.

No.

You guys self-govern yourself so well, there's hardly any need for any rules.

Because you tend, I think our one big rule is covenant of harmony.

That's our one big rule.

Because we're supposed to love our neighbors ourselves, which we're going to get to in just a second.

But the reality is, the one rule we have is if you've offended somebody or somebody's offended you, instead of telling everybody about it, go to that person and work it out.

Matthew 18.

Go to that person face to face and start off by saying you're sorry.

Well, I don't have anything to be sorry of.

Well, then you have to make a decision whether being in good relationships and harmony in our church is more important than getting it right by your perspective of what is right.

Will you humble yourself that God can exalt that relationship?

And so that's, we have very little of that.

And so I think even in a home, especially starting with mom and dad, if you guys are managing the home well financially, you're managing some of the rules of your family well.

There's a lot of love there.

Tons of love there.

You won't have to have a lot of rules.

But you, when you do, then you you do like we used to do.

And we used to make our, we we weren't big into spanking and stuff like that.

Some of you guys might be into that.

I'm not into that.

We made them run.

They would take a spanking any day than the discipline that we gave them.

It could be six inches of snow outside and go run eight times around the house.

And if you've been to my house, you know it's a big house.

Eight times around in the snow.

And they they learned not to say anything about that.

They knew that if they said anything, now it's ten times.

Well, dad, what ten times.

Well, what about twelve times?

Okay, shut up, man.

Get going.

Okay, run.

Or the other one that was really popular was clean the blue bathroom.

The blue bathroom was always a nasty one.

So that would be one of them is clean the blue bathroom.

So consequences, that's all I'm saying, is consequences for your actions.

So that's that's the way society is run most of the time.

Laws that you have to follow are not about whether you believe in God or whether you're a Christian or a Buddhist or an atheist.

It's usually set up for the good of society.

For he is God's minister to you for good.

But if you do evil, be afraid.

For he does not bear the sword in vain.

For he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

So God's minister is mentioned three times in this passage.

So I'm a minister in the spiritual realm.

I'm not a minister in the civil realm.

Our mayor is an instrument of the ministry of God in Colorado Springs as our mayor, our police chief.

He's a minister of God to protect us with the laws of being under the jurisdiction of the police chief and the sheriff in the county has that jurisdiction.

So this is important.

We have bigger and bigger government because we are people no longer who have self-control and self-government.

So if you're one of those people that tends to walk that line close to that line on some things, you're probably gonna get busted at some point.

So use self-control.

The more self-control, the lesser the government.

The less self-control, the bigger the government.

So the reason we have prisons is because we have to have prisons.

And the reason we have laws is because we need to have laws.

And during the Welsh Revival in Wales, at the turn of the 20th century, God's Spirit came in a kingdom of God revolution in such a mighty way, they couldn't even get the donkeys to go into the mine.

Couldn't even get the donkeys to go into the mine because of a kingdom of God revolution.

Because the terms, the the words they used with the donkey were curse words.

So the donkey only knew cuss words.

So they would say a cuss word, donkey move.

They say a cuss word, donkey would stop.

And then people didn't want to cuss as much anymore, so they couldn't get the donkeys to work.

And they had to shut down the bars because people weren't going to the bars anymore.

See what I'm saying?

So kingdom of God revolution is the answer.

God moving through self government.

Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.

So we follow our conscience in how we live.

Francis Schaeffer writes, God has ordained the state as a delegated authority, but it is not autonomous.

Dr.

Carl Henry sums this up.

If a government puts itself above the norms of civilized society, it can be disobeyed and challenged in view of the revealed will of God.

If it otherwise requires what conscience disallows, one should inform government and be ready to take the consequences.

So this is our really how our country was founded.

Our country was founded on some patriots who believed that the laws that were coming down from Great Britain were not right and that they were being abused.

And so that's how our country was founded.

And so sometimes we come to that place where we have to take those stands.

For because of this, you pay taxes.

I don't like this verse, but it's here.

For because of this, you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers.

The IRS is God's ministers.

Attending continually to this very thing.

Render, therefore, to all their due.

Taxes to whom taxes are due, custom to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

So the taxes that the Romans exacted on the Jews at that time were super heavy.

Over 50% went to taxes in these governments.

But Jesus, being asked that very question, said this.

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

But Jesus perceived their wickedness and he said, Why do you test me, you hypocrites?

Show me the tax money.

So they brought him a deneri, and he said to them, Whose image and inscription is on this?

And they said to him, Caesar's.

And he said to them, Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

Now don't give the government any more than you need to.

Do you know the IRS has a conscience fund for people whose conscience bothers them and that they should pay more taxes?

And they collect between 50 and 100 million dollars a year from the conscience fund.

My conscience is very clear.

So remember how Paul started the letter in Romans 1.

In Romans 1:7, this is what the verse says To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.

Romans 1:7

So men and women, you have two addresses.

You have an address in heaven, you're a kingdom person first, but you're in Colorado Springs.

So you have responsibility on this earth to civil authorities, you have responsible to God and heavenly, and responsibility to God is greater than the civil if the civil is causing you to go against your conscience in following the laws of the land.

And so that means to me that all government officials, you who are government officials in this room, you who are teachers, you are policemen, you're fire, you've been military, you have a responsibility, heavy responsibility, to be ministers of God in the way you protect us and the way you guard us.

So if you here are in the government, military, you're a school official, a teacher, fireman, police, doctors, nurse, or first responders, would you stand?

If you're any of those, would you stand?

All right.

And former military.

Would you stand?

There you go.

So, Father, we bless these men and women.

We pray that the fear of God would be that which causes them to make the choices and decisions that they make and bless them in what they do.

May we respect and honor them in what they do.

In your name.

Amen.

Alright, now the second part of Romans 13 is about self-government.

So 1 through 7 is about civil government, and verses 8 through 14 are about self-government.

Verse 8.

Oh no one anything.

Now, this is not speaking about taking out loans and things like that.

He's talking about love here.

Oh no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Now, when I read this, in the context in which it's written, you could take a little liberty and say, oh no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the civil law.

In other words, when we make love, the way in which we carry out our business, you're fulfilling in most cases, not every case, but in most cases that's what laws are there for.

For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet.

And if there's any other commandment, they're all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

And so, men and women, when we have self-government, the self-government of love, if everyone in Colorado Springs just followed that law, I mean we could, there would be no need for laws.

There'd be no need for civil laws if we were following the great royal law, which is to love our neighbors as well.

That's a kingdom of God revolution.

So when you hear me talk about a kingdom of God revolution, that's it.

Loving God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

What would happen if every time we saw trash on the road, we stopped and we picked it up?

Or we drove into our neighborhood, and that person that's four doors down and the grass is this high, and you find yourself going, I can't believe they never cut the grass.

When the reality is someone might be really sick in that home right now.

Their finances may be depleted.

And if you just went up and knocked on the door and said, Man, I don't know what's going on, but it looks like you guys haven't been able to get to your yard, I'm gonna cut your grass for you, or something like that.

Or if we began with love to tip people amazingly when we go out to eat.

If we took every opportunity we had to help those in need or make a phone call or pray for people, that's a kingdom of God revolution.

That's a kingdom of God revolution.

And the biggest problem as it relates to the political realm is when we say these things, but we act a different way.

And that's why even Paul, I mean, even Jesus says to those that are asking about taxes that you hypocrites.

He calls them hypocrites.

He knows that the reason they don't want to pay their taxes is because they're greedy.

And he says, look, who whose inscription is on this?

And he says, Well, that's Caesar.

Then some of this is Caesar's stuff.

I mean, folks, what would we do if we had no laws, if we had no government?

We have streets, we have lights, we have stop signs, we have rules that we follow.

Think of your house if you had no rules in your home.

Now I've been in some homes where I'm pretty convinced there's no rules in that home.

But if there were no rules, it's chaos.

You couldn't even drive home today.

You wouldn't even be sure you could come to church because somebody might be breaking in your house right now.

So we need government, but may we be known in El Paso County and Colorado Springs as the greatest people on the earth.

That Christians who follow Jesus, Christians who go to the road, road people are the best people around.

Those are people who love us, they show affection toward us, they submit to us, they honor us, and we can't wait to be around road people because they're so good.

And I and I remember we've had cops here, we've got a lot of police here, we've had sheriff deputies here for conferences we've done, we've done very a lot of controversial stuff here.

Um I've been in hot water with the authorities many a time because of different stands that we've taken and stuff.

And virtually every time the police or the sheriff's department say, man, your people are unreal.

Your people are so because you you walk up to them, you shake their hand, you thank them for what they do, you appreciate them.

I mean, that's love fulfilling the civil law.

A kingdom of God revolution are the people of God acting in love, proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom of God in our city, county, and state.

Verse 11, and do this, knowing the time that now it is time to wake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Now, this word time here does not mean chronos in Greek, it's kairos.

So chronos is where we get chronological time.

He's talking about Kairos, which means that moment in time of a season that we're in.

Do you know the season that we're in?

Church, do you know what season we're in in America?

Do you know what Kairos moment season we're in in America?

We need a kingdom of God revolution.

We need a mighty move of God in this land.

We've got to win the hearts and minds of the people in this county.

We've got to win the hearts and minds of the people in this city.

I'm not responsible for D.C.

except to vote.

But I'm not gonna spend my time staying up at night worried about whatever's the latest thing that's coming out of Washington, D.C.

What concerns us is what's coming out of Colorado Springs and El Paso County.

Be involved.

Be involved.

Pray.

Come to Noonday Prayer.

Pray for a mighty revival in our land.

Pray for a mighty move of God in our land.

If you feel inclined, be involved in government stuff.

If you feel inclined, be involved in educational stuff.

If you're an entrepreneur, build a great company.

Be a great producer.

Be more of a producer than a consumer.

That's what we've always tried to train the whole kids in.

Look, you're not here on this earth to be a consumer.

You're here to be a producer.

And all of our kids are entrepreneurial.

Most of them have two or three companies.

Because they were taught to have multiple streams of income, work their tail off, and make a difference as Christian believers.

That's what we do.

That's what road people do.

And all those kids right below us are a bunch of little kids that are the future leaders of America.

And we have a responsibility to love on them, to bless them, to build the DNA of the kingdom of God into them.

That takes work, but it's worth it.

And that's the Kingdom of God revolution too.

It's building into our kids.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness.

Let us put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.

So we put on the armor, helmet of salvation.

God, today I put on the helmet of salvation.

I'm going to renew my mind.

Lord, I'm going to put on the breastplate of righteousness.

God, check my motives.

Lord, if I'm mean-spirited, I confess yesterday I blew it.

But Lord, I'm going to be righteous today.

Lord, I put on the belt of truth.

I'm going to quit listening to lies.

I'm not going to listen to lies from the right or the left.

Because the issue is not right or left.

The issue is up and down.

It's about the kingdom of God.

And Lord, I take the shield of faith, which extinguishes the fiery darts of the enemy.

And so I'm going to walk by faith today.

Even if I don't feel like it, I'm going to walk by faith.

Lord, I'm going to take the sword of spirit, which is the word of God, which is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.

And then I'm going to shop my feet for the gospel.

We're going to be a peacemaker.

You can't be a peacemaker if you're a warmonger.

And sometimes we conservatives can be more about what we're against than what we're for.

And let us bring the kingdom.

Let us out love, outwork, outpray, and outmaneuver the enemy through God's power flowing through us.

Thank you for listening to the Forn for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.