Standing Firm Under Authority

You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller.

It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk.

Now, here's Pastor Miller.

1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

When you preach through a book of the Bible, as we're doing right now through the book of 1 and 2 Peter, or preaching through rock solid, how to have a rock solid faith in an ever-shifting, changing world.

When you preach through a book of the Bible, you have to come to texts that sometimes you would not often preach through.

They may not uh may not be as popular passages of Scripture, but they are indeed very important.

And so I want you to listen very carefully.

I'm titling the message today, Standing Firm Under Authority.

I probably should have entitled the message today, Standing Firm Under Unworthy Authority.

Peter's gonna preach a theme here over the next couple of uh passages of Scripture, and we're not gonna necessarily be in all of that each week, but we're gonna see the theme of it hidden into the texts.

But Peter's gonna talk about uh how believers under uh come under authorities in their life that are not worthy authorities.

He's gonna talk here today about government.

He's gonna talk about employers.

What do you do when you have an ungodly employer?

And then he's gonna talk about husbands and wives.

What do you do if you're a godly wife and your husband is an ungodly man?

What do you do in that situation?

And Peter's gonna talk about unworthy authorities.

That theme will even be seen in 2 Peter.

And what he's doing is he's teaching the people how to have a firm standing under them when there is not a firm standing above them.

And so he's teaching here about our submission to earthly authority that is an expression of our ultimate allegiance to Jesus Christ.

And so I want you to see the text today.

Well, we're gonna look at chapter 2 and verse number 13, and we're gonna read through verse 17 this morning.

The Bible says, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors, and as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well.

For so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

The central truth of this text is that a rock solid Christian knows how to live under imperfect earthly authority while remaining faithful and committed to his heavenly King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do you live for Christ in a world that doesn't follow him?

One of the greatest tests of Christianity is how we respond when somebody in authority makes a decision that we don't like.

What do you do when your mom and dad do something that you don't like?

What do you do when the school principal does something you don't like?

What do you do when the pastor makes a decision that you don't like?

What do you do when the president makes a decision that you don't like?

How do you respond when the authorities over you do things that you don't agree with?

It's easy to respect authority when you agree with it.

My wife loves me when I say yes, we can buy that.

Listen, she goes along with it.

My wife has never disobeyed me when I say we can buy that.

She has always said, You're right, you're a good man, you're a good leader.

It's the time when I say there's not enough room on the cargo ships for Amazon to bring that over from China.

We cannot do that.

All of a sudden, I'm a terrible.

No, she's always been so sweet and kind.

We have a little joke in our house that when there's a package on the front step, I always say, package for Michelle, Bill for Dean.

But what happens when the people that we follow are not wise?

They're not reasonable, they're not godly.

What happens when laws are unreasonable laws, when leaders disappoint us, when our Christian liberties are threatened?

What do we do?

Now you understand that Peter was writing to Christians who knew something about these pressures.

Now, understand, we we live in these blessed United States.

We have a constitution, we have a bill of rights, we have a declaration of independence, we have founding documents that talk about our principles and our purposes and our laws that govern our leaders, that those are truly the authorities.

We're just submitted to those documents.

But what happens when, pardon me, when people that are in leadership have a different idea than those founding principles?

The people that Peter was writing to didn't have any of that.

In fact, the days that Peter's writing about, Nero is the is the Caesar.

Nero was a godless man.

He's writing this two years before the great persecution of AD 64 when Rome burned because of Nero, and then Nero blamed the Christians, and the great persecution and purge came of the Christians.

Peter would be crucified upside down.

Paul would be beheaded very shortly hereafter.

The Christians would be pulled into Colosseums or they would fight lions, they'd be burned at stakes, they would be stoned to death and beheaded, and all of a sudden, this massive persecution would take place under a godless regime.

You've got to understand that in the time that Peter's writing of this, the the people, half the people of the Roman Empire were enslaved.

They were all under the crushing weight of taxes.

And every year, Roman citizens were required to say, Caesar Kyrias, Caesar is Lord.

And when Christian citizens would not say, Caesar is Lord, they would face heavy persecutions.

These Christians were scattered throughout the whole Roman Empire.

They were living under a government that did not share their biblical convictions.

They were often misunderstood, falsely accused, and treated as outsiders everywhere they went.

Nero, this godless man, was the one that Peter is talking here.

When he says honor the king, he's talking about Nero.

What does Peter do?

Peter does not tell believers to retreat from society.

You don't need to go live in a compound.

You don't dig a bunker.

You don't store up cambul soup.

You don't become a prepper.

You don't despise government.

You don't abandon your responsibility as a citizen.

Instead, he called them to live in such a way that their conduct would bring glory to God.

You've got to remember the progression here of Peter's arguments.

He's building an argument through chapter 2.

In verses 8 and 9, Peter talks about their identity.

You are a holy nation, you're a royal priesthood, you're a peculiar people.

So your identity is you're citizens of another nation.

You're under the King Jesus.

That's your identity.

But then in verses 11 and 12, he's going to talk about their integrity, having your conversation honest among these Gentiles.

Make sure that you abstain from fleshly lust.

Don't go to their wicked shows.

Don't engage yourself in their wicked ideals.

Don't follow the Roman influence of debauchery and drunkenness and wickedness and lasciviousness and fornication and sin.

Fight the flesh in your own life and have an honest and honorable and godly deportment in your Christian citizenship so that God will be glorified in you.

So he talked about their identity.

He talked about their integrity.

And now in these verses, he talks about their interaction with authority.

Christian citizenship should influence, our Christian citizenship in heaven should influence our citizenship on earth.

Peter's teaching us that being strangers and pilgrims doesn't excuse us from being responsible citizens.

In fact, the more clearly we understand our heavenly citizenship, the more carefully we should live out our earthly responsibilities.

It's interesting to me that freedom and responsibility are married.

No responsibility, no freedom.

And the more a nation loses its idea of responsibility, the more a nation loses its freedom.

Think about this.

And what do we have today?

We have today, you go to a store and the deodorant is locked up and the criminals aren't.

You lose freedom when a nation loses its responsibility.

So think about this.

My little granddaughter Renley, Bennett and Rinley are staying at our house.

And little Rinley, she's five months old.

That girl has no responsibilities.

She doesn't clean anything.

She's not does not pick up after herself.

She threw up all over me yesterday, didn't even get a rag to wipe it up.

She has no responsibility.

But she also has no liberty.

She doesn't choose which bed she gets to sleep in.

She doesn't choose what she gets to eat.

She doesn't even choose when she gets to eat.

We carry her, we put her where we want to put her, we tell her to do everything.

And listen, she has no freedom because she has no responsibility.

Now, as she grows older and she is given a responsibility and she cleans a room and she makes her bed and she does all her responsibilities and she's obedient to her parents and respectful to her mom and dad, you know what they're gonna eventually do?

They're gonna give her keys to a car.

And she's gonna have some liberty to go drive and go out and be with her friends and go to different places and to see different things.

And that's a that's gonna be a great time for her.

She's gonna have some liberties because of her fulfillment of responsibilities.

But suppose as she gets older that she breaks some laws and she gets arrested.

She goes to ch to jail.

And guess what happens when you go to jail?

No more responsibilities.

I don't have to get up and go to school.

I don't have to clean anything.

I don't have to do anything.

I've got no responsibilities, but I got no freedom either.

I don't get to sleep where I want, I don't get to get up when I want, I don't get to do what I want.

I have no freedom and no responsibility.

See, responsibility and freedom are married together.

The more free you want to live, the more responsibility you have to maintain.

Some of us are in financial bondage because we've never experienced financial responsibility.

So we have no financial freedom because we've been irresponsible.

Responsibility and freedom go hand in hand.

And so what Peter's gonna say here is if you want to be free, you better understand your responsibility.

So here's the first thing.

Number one, our first responsibility as a Christian is to have respectful submission.

Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.

Now, do you think that he was writing this by mistake?

Or did he mean every ordinance?

How many of you believe that he meant every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake?

Okay.

Well, half of you believe that.

I'm glad.

So the Bible means what it says.

And and uh, you know, he's even talking about modern-day Fort Collins.

It fits.

And I don't like some of our ordinances here.

When you pull out of my neighborhood, literally on the corner, when you pull out of my neighborhood, on the corner is one of those speed cameras that's just giving everybody tickets when they drive by.

It's right on the corner.

And I want to confess to you that when I pull past it, I become four years old.

And I make faces, I do all kinds of stuff at that camera.

And yesterday, yesterday, you know what they had?

They had a crew out there and they were putting up on the tree behind that speed camera, they were putting on that tree a game camera so they could capture the people who would come to deface their other camera.

So now there's two cameras.

There's a camera watching you and a camera watching the camera.

Pretty soon they're gonna have a flot camera watching both of those cameras.

It's insanity.

And the more cameras and all the less freedom that we have is because humans are not exercising responsible citizenship.

Submit to every ordinance.

If the speed limit is 35, do 38, 9, 40.

And give one of these to the camera when you go by.

No, don't do that.

Peter is Peter does not describe the character of those in authority.

He begins by addressing the conduct of those who were under authority.

Peter does not say, now listen, submit to every ordinance of these guys, but let's talk about the guys that you should submit to.

They better be Republican, they better be constitutionalists.

Then you submit to that guy.

No, Peter just says, hey, submit to every ordinance of man.

Submission, first of all, is a deliberate choice.

The word submit carries the idea of placing oneself under an established order.

It has the idea of a military term, even though it's not necessarily the context here.

He doesn't use the military term in the Greek language for this word submit.

He just talks about a man who willingly puts himself under the established order that God has.

For instance, uh a general and a private in the army, those two individuals are not unequal.

They're equal human beings.

They both have equal value.

But one has greater authority, and the other better learn to come under that, or he's going to be in trouble.

So there is a deliberate choice of submitting.

It does not mean that those in authority are always more intelligent or more spiritual or more valuable than those that are under their leadership.

But rather, it recognizes that God has established structures for the orderly functioning of society.

Romans chapter 13 and verse number one says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

The powers that be are ordained of God.

Now, what does that mean?

It means that the home and the church and the government and the order of society, the structures that are in society, the authorities that people have in those places are authorities given to them by God.

God has established human government as an institution, even though individual governments and individual rulers may act contrary to his purposes.

Did you hear what I said?

God has ordered that government.

That doesn't mean that always those governments and those people in the government always fall under his purpose.

It's the way that God told Habakkuk, I have raised Nebuchadnezzar up, I have given him this place, I'm going to use Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans to do a work in my people.

But there is a principle that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

So government is of God, but government doesn't always follow God.

And we've seen that in our world.

So there's an important distinction that is made here.

We are to recognize the legitimacy of an institution, but that does not require that we approve of every action of its leaders.

So, in other words, I don't just have to go along with ungodly rules and laws without making my voice heard.

I have met with our representative governments.

I have talked with people like Representative Nagus and other people in civil government in our area, and I have let them know.

I've watched how you vote.

You vote every time with the pro-uh-death group.

You're always after the children.

You're always voting for the mutilation of our children, for the death of our children.

And I'm watching how you vote, and I'm against that.

And I'm praying that you would change.

And here's what I've told them.

But you will ultimately give an answer to God for that.

Your voting record may give you power and votes in our state, but you will give an answer to God for that.

And let me tell you, I've met with some of these people and talked with them about that.

But there's still the authority.

So Christians should never approach government with a spirit with a spirit of rebellion and habitual contempt.

We should approach government with a spirit of honor, giving honor to whom honor is due.

This last week I preached in I preached in California at a large leadership conference, and I got the chance to meet the ambassador from Australia, uh from uh from Israel, rather, and and uh his excellency and I we got to talk for a minute, and then he spoke uh before me, and and um and he's on a goodwill tour of trying to help uh people fight against anti-Semitism and the Jewish hatred that has risen up in the world, and it was interesting.

He told me that uh that there that the majority of Israelis today are atheists, but that there is an awakening among Israelis because of the rise of antisemitism, they are beginning to realize that this is not a natural phenomenon, it is a supernatural occurrence, that there is a demonic spirit working in the world against them, and it's risen up to where even in evangelical churches, there is a hatred to the Jews.

Now, can I just tell you that the Israeli government is not always right?

And if I were in Elijah's day, I would be preaching against Ahab and Jezebel, the kings of Israel.

But I will tell you that God has eternal covenants with that nation, and that all of that should be dealt with with respect and honor and not habitual contempt.

To be able to share the gospel with those in authority is always an interesting thing, and I've had an opportunity to do that.

One of our good men in our church, Ken Cooper, uh, he was in the first service this morning, and he has introduced me to a number of our elected officials in the county and county commissioners and put together lunches, and I'll go and meet with an individual county commissioner and have the opportunity to talk with them and share concerns about our community and talk with them about their family.

I know their wives and their grandkids and and and their situations, and then share the gospel with them.

And uh and let them know that we we are voters in this community.

And this is this is one of the things that, as a pastor, the church that I represent, these are some of the things that are important to us.

And I want you to look out for the interest of all your constituents, and and uh and you ought to be uh in interest to us.

I remember a few years ago when when uh on in the month of June when our fire department here at Pooder Valley was, or Puder Fire Department was flying the rainbow flags off the back of their trucks, and I called the fire chief and I said, Hey, I'm really concerned about you flying the rainbow flags on the back of our fire trucks.

We have a lot of firemen in our church, and and this this violates their Christian conscience.

They have to come to work every day and they have to be on these trucks, and they're just trying to go out and do their job to serve their community, but they're they're forced to violate their conscience to do that.

And he said, Well, we just want to represent all of the people in our community, and we want people to know that when we pull up that that that we that we are not against them.

And I said, We have a flag for that.

It's red, white, blue.

Has stars and stripes on it, and it represents everybody who's a citizen here.

And I said, But if you're gonna, and he said, Well, this is what we're gonna do, and I said, Well, good.

I said, Here's what I want to do.

Usually Easter falls in the month of April.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna buy all the Christian flags, and I want you for a month to fly all the Christian flags on the back of the truck to represent.

I don't want any of our Christians to feel like we are a disenfranchised group in this area, and that maybe you don't represent our values and you don't represent us.

So you're gonna fly our flag.

Would that be okay?

And he said, Well, you can come to the board meeting and you can present it to the board.

And I said, Okay.

Now, let me just tell you something.

I was respectful to that man, but I was telling the truth to that man.

I'm going to submit in one way without disagreeing, while disagreeing, but without dishonoring.

Challenging without cultivating a rebellious spirit.

Submission, he says, number two, is motivated by our devotion to Christ.

Peter gives probably the most important phrase in this passage.

For the Lord's sake.

Our ultimate motivation for submission is not the popularity of the politician, it's not the protection of the party.

Our most deeply motivated reason for submission is.

Is for the relationship and the effectiveness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Listen to what I'm going to say here.

We submit to legitimate earthly authority because we recognize the authority of our heavenly Lord.

This is what Jesus did.

Jesus in Matthew 22, when he was asked about the coin, should we pay taxes to Caesar?

He said, Let me have a coin.

Whose image is on that coin?

They said, Caesar.

He said, Then render unto Caesar's what is Caesar's.

And he said, and render unto God what is God's.

And what was he saying?

You know whose Caesar's image is on that coin, but whose image is stamped on you?

So give the coin to Caesar and give you to God.

And what was Jesus doing?

Jesus was recognizing the legitimate obligations to earthly government while maintaining God's supreme authority.

Does everybody understand that this morning?

Paul reminded us of that in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20 that we are ambassadors for Christ.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

When I met His Excellency, the Israeli ambassador, let me tell you what he was doing.

He was putting Israel in the best light he could put them.

He was wanting to give a good will to her and bring a love and a representation of his people.

And he was doing that.

And listen, we are ambassadors.

We belong to another nation, and the way we respond and deal with other people here is what puts our nation in the right light to bring glory to Christ.

Thirdly, submission recognizes government's God-given responsibility.

Peter identifies two basic responsibilities of civil government.

He said, unto the king is supreme and unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well.

What's he talking about?

Government exists in part to restrain evil and to administer justice and to protect an orderly society.

In this verse, you have all three.

You have to the king is supreme, that's a federalist idea of government.

The governors in Rome, there were 28 or 29 different provincial areas.

For instance, like King Herod was uh the governor of Judah.

Cyreneus was the governor of Judah at one time.

Pontius Pilate was one of those men who was a proconsul of Rome in that province.

And so you had these local governments, so we state governments, and then you had those that go out to punish the evildoers and protect those that do well.

This is law enforcement.

This is your local officials.

And so here in this one verse, you have a federal, a state, and a local understanding of government, and God gives us our responsibilities all of them.

That government in part it exists to administer justice and protect orderly society.

Romans chapter 13 reinforces this purpose.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

But what happens, church, when government itself acts unjustly or commands what God forbids?

This happened during COVID.

COVID was a sickness, people were getting it, people died from it, but it was in no way, shape, or form the kind of thing that allowed governments to do the overreach that they did to take away the individual responsibility and freedom of its people.

One of our men here, Nick, and when he was in the Air Force, had to take his stand and and and God used him in a great way.

I was at his retirement and heard people speak honorably about him and what he did and his stand for that.

And and uh and and all of these things.

When it happened for us uh here, they said we couldn't gather in the church.

And so I met with our deacons and I met with our attorneys and we met with our insurance companies and we got a plan together, and I wanted to make sure we were doing everything right, so we were out for several weeks, and then I called the chief of police and I said, Hey, I just want to let you know um we're gonna be gathering together as a church.

And he said, Why are you calling me?

And I said, Well, I don't want to put your officers in a bad situation of being up here giving tickets to church goers.

I said, the media is gonna have a heyday with that, and it's gonna put a black eye on you and us and everybody else.

And so he goes, Well, we're not enforcing that, we're not gonna be ticketing anybody.

He said, That's a county issue.

So I called the sheriff and I said to the sheriff, I said, Hey, we're gonna be going to church on this day in person.

And uh, I just don't want to put you and your deputies in a in a bad situation where you're up here getting bad press because you're giving tickets to church-going people and to law-abiding people.

And he said, Look, you can gather, but only on one condition.

I said, and that is, and he said, Call every other reverend in town and tell them to do the same thing.

And I said, Okay.

And so then I thought, well, I better call the guy who's over our health.

And uh Tom Gonzalez was the man over the county health at Laramie County, and so I called him and I said, Mr.

Gonzalez, I said, I want you to understand, uh, I've talked with our law enforcement agencies and our attorneys and all of those.

And I said, and I just want to let you know that we're gonna be gathering together as a church in person on this particular Sunday.

And he said, Well, you can't do that.

And I said, Well, with all due respect, we can.

And we will.

And I said, I want you to understand that we're not gonna gather with our fist in your face in a rebellious stand against you.

We're coming together with our hearts in obedience to Jesus Christ.

And I said, and we, as the apostle said in Acts chapter 5, when they were told they could no longer preach in Jesus' name, the apostle said, We ought to obey God rather than man.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

And notice how Peter said that.

Peter said, We ought to obey God rather than man.

And I told our officials, I said, I can I can be in obedience to God while being in submission to you.

He said, Well, how do you do that?

And I said, I'm gonna obey God and I'm gonna gather with my church family, and I'm gonna submit to your authority and pay whatever fines you impose on us.

You have a right to find us.

We have a God-given responsibility to gather.

I'm gonna obey God and submit to your authority.

The pro the apostles did that.

The apostles went out and preached and submitted their backs to the smiters.

They went to prison.

And then what did they do in prison?

They preached in prison, and and the prisoners got saved, and the jailer got saved, and God had to shake them out of that place, and and they saw some great things happen because they decided they're gonna obey God rather than man, and yet all the while they took their beatings like a man.

In fact, Paul, even in Acts chapter 16, after they beat him and put him in the jail at Philippi, when God led him out, they said that just Paul, just slip out in the night and just go away.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

And he says, No, you beat me publicly, you walk me out of town publicly and show that I've been set at liberty.

So Paul used his citizenship the right way.

He didn't just kowtow and and and fall over, but he was respectful and honorable and submissive to the authorities.

Daniel did the same thing in the book of Daniel when Daniel was taken to Nebuchadnezzar's place in Babylon, and he was given the king's meat, and Daniel purposed in his heart he would not defile himself with that king's meat.

What did Daniel do?

Daniel said, I'm not gonna defile myself with that, so what did he do?

He went to the men, the man that was right above them, Ashpenaz, and he said, Hey, would you allow us not to eat this stuff for ten days?

And he says, Man, no, Nebuchadnezzar is gonna cut off my head.

So then he went to the guy above him and said, Hey, could you give us just ten days to not eat this?

And the guy said, Okay.

And in ten days, they were ten times better than the other men and more healthy, and God gave him favor there.

And in fact, as you go through Daniel's life, you'll see God giving him favor and favor and favor because he was obedient to God and submissive to his authority, and he did not compromise.

Listen very carefully.

We should be the kind of Christians who are difficult to accuse of rebellion, but impossible to persuade to compromise.

So I am, there are things I'm not gonna bend on, but I'm not gonna burn down the governor's house.

Secondly, and I've got to hurry, we're almost done.

There's a responsible testimony.

We talked about a respectful submission and a responsible testimony.

He says in verse 15, for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may be put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

Peter moves away from our responsibility toward authority to our testimony to those around us.

Our conduct should silence our critics.

People ask me all the time, what's the will of God for my life?

Well, the Bible says it right here plainly.

This is the will of God for you, that with well-doing you may put to silence the agents of foolish men.

Now listen, many of us want to get to heaven one day and hear Jesus say, Well done.

Well, if you're gonna hear Jesus say well done, you're gonna have to have had done well.

There is something about just well-doing, a Christian living in the conduct that is becoming of the gospel.

Peter was anticipating that Christians would be misunderstood, that they would be misrepresented, that they would be falsely accused.

And how should they respond?

They would respond with well-doing.

Uh just do right.

Do right, live a godly life, live an honest life.

Uh, Peter talks about putting to silence.

That Greek word carries the idea of putting a muzzle on the mouths of those who would defy Jesus Christ.

Our Christian conduct can shut the mouths of those who have falsely accused us and we give credibility to the gospel.

This doesn't mean that living righteous will eliminate all criticism.

Jesus lived perfectly and was still crucified.

But it does mean that our behavior should not give legitimate support to accusations against our faith.

I want to tell you, Christians have done a lot of damage to the movement of Christianity in this country by the way we've behaved towards those who are without.

There's been a lot of Christians who've had, who've put themselves in bad situations to give the gospel in the name of Christ a bad testimony.

See, Daniel's testimony was impeccable.

In Daniel chapter 6 and verse 4, when the leaders came to find fault with Daniel, here's what the Bible says.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find none occasion nor fault.

For as much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

What does this mean?

That means in the right, in the in the area of the kingdom, Daniel's taxes were current.

Daniel was, Daniel had not broken the speed limit.

Daniel was a man who was in good standing with his HOA.

By the way, if you ever think that you want socialism or communism, just see how the HOA goes.

And if you're an HOA president, I apologize, you're probably a good one, but we can still see your trash can lid over your fence.

So we're writing you up.

What if the only legitimate criticism people could make of us concerned our unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ?

What if the only criticism they could say is, you're too much of a Christian?

That's what they did with Daniel.

Your Christian testimony is not limited to what you believe.

It includes how you work, how you treat others, how you respond to criticism, how you fulfill your responsibilities.

All of that is part of God's plan of freedom.

Our lives should make the gospel more attractive.

Not by compromising its message.

I think a lot of times churches today have tried to compromise the message of the gospel to make it more palatable to unsaved people.

And in that, the gospel gets so watered down there's not enough power in that to save anybody.

We need to preach the gospel in the power of the gospel, but live lives that support that.

And then I'll say this quickly: our liberty should never become a license for wrongdoing.

As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness.

Peter introduces a fascinating paradox here.

Christians are free, yet they're commanded to submit.

How can both of those things be true?

Because Christian liberty is not dependent on our cultural freedom.

Christian liberty is not independence from all authority, it is freedom from the bondage of sin so that we are willing and able to serve God.

Paul said, Brethren, you've been called into liberty.

Therefore, use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh.

Listen, the idea that we can be saved and we're free to do as we want, that is not Christian liberty, and you're not getting that from the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does not give you liberty to do as you want.

The Holy Spirit gives you the freedom and the power to do as you should.

And the ultimate identity is that of a servant.

This is the key to the whole passage.

But as the servants of God, this is the secret to understanding this whole passage, we are free because we belong to Christ.

We're willing to submit to legitimate earthly authorities because we are the servants of God.

Paul expressed this in 1 Corinthians chapter 7.

1 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

He that calleth it is the Lord.

Being a servant is that Lord's freeman.

Likewise also he that is called being free is Christ's servant.

The believer is simultaneously free and a servant at the same time.

Christian liberty is not the freedom to do whatever I want, it is the freedom to do what God wants.

And I'll close with this today.

There is a rightful allegiance.

Peter gives a summary statement to all of this in verse 17.

Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

For those of you who like to-do lists, this is Peter summarizing it and saying, here's your to-do list.

Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

What does he mean by this?

To honor all men.

The word honor means to fix value and weightiness to.

Every human being has inerrant dignity because that person was created in the image of God.

Every human being is precious in the sight of God.

Even the people who disagree with you, even the people who are vehemently against everything that you're for, those people need to be saved.

Honor all men, he says.

Love the brotherhood.

He uses the word agape there in love the brotherhood.

This is the word that Jesus gave us in John 13, 35.

By this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another.

This is godly love, this is sacrificial love, this is Calvary kind of love.

Our allegiance to Jesus Christ creates a bond that transcends earthly differences.

Only within the church can people from all kinds of backgrounds and in different ways come into one body and love one another and serve one another and work together with one another.

Why?

Because of our allegiance to Jesus Christ.

In this room, there are all kinds of differences.

Some of you don't like the music of our church.

Others of you, some people think our music is way too conservative.

Some think it's way too liberal.

I don't understand how to balance all of that.

People don't like some of the things that we do.

Listen, there's times I sit in the back and there's things that there's things that go on in this church.

I don't like it.

I'm the pastor here.

We all have preferences, we all have differences.

But man, our allegiance to Jesus Christ and our love for the brethren transcends all of that.

And we never allow earthly disagreement to become more important than our biblical responsibility to love the brothers and sisters in Christ and to serve them.

And then he says to fear God.

Notice that Peter does not command us to fear the king, he commands us to fear God.

This distinction is enormously important.

We respect earthly authorities, but the Bible says in Proverbs 29 and verse 25, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoso putth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

When we fear people more than God, we become vulnerable to compromise.

If you kneel before God, you can stand before enemy, anybody.

If you fear God, you need not fear anything else.

We may surrender biblical convictions if we fear people.

And we will do that to gain approval, to avoid criticism, to escape consequences.

But listen, when we fear God, we are liberated from the controlling influence of human opinion.

So oftentimes I have to remind myself that I am not here to give everybody on, I'm not the director of a cruise ship.

I'm the pastor.

And I am serving for the audience of one.

As long as I hear him say, well done, then it is well done.

And then he says, honor the king.

He finishes where he started.

He ends up where he began.

He first talked about our actions toward the king, and now he talks about our attitude.

When earthly rulers are imperfect, Christians are called to demonstrate appropriate respect for the offices they occupy.

And you know where this starts?

Listen, it starts with prayer.

1 Timothy chapter 2, Paul says, I he said that first of all, prayers and intercessions be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Let me just tell you, I want to say, why do we do that?

So that we can live a quiet and peaceable life.

Let me ask you a question.

Who is the mayor?

Who's on the city council?

Who are our congressmen?

Who are our representatives?

Who are our senators?

Do you pray for them?

When I meet with these people, I can tell them legitimately, and I've got lists in my office.

I pray for you.

I pray for you by name.

I pray for your family.

I don't often tell them what I'm praying about, but I'm praying for them.

I prayed that you would lose your last election.

I pray that you get saved.

I pray that God would change your mind.

I pray that God would open your eyes to the great responsibility and the hideousness of some of your socialistic decisions.

I would pray that you would understand that some of the things that you're for are against God.

Now, I may not say all of that to them directly because they wouldn't understand all of that, but I will tell you what I say.

I pray for them, and there's a significant difference between honoring an office and endorsing every decision that that person makes who occupies it.

Christians can be respectful, questioning government actions and advocating for justice and exercising their lawful rights while maintaining a biblical attitude towards authority that gives ultimate allegiance and glory to Jesus Christ.

And that can be done.

So let me just say this this morning.

What does your response to earthly authority reveal about your submission to heavenly authority?

Are you submitted to heavenly authority?

Am I demonstrating respect towards those in authority even when I disagree with them?

Is my conduct strengthening or weakening my Christian testimony?

Is my allegiance to Christ governing my attitude and decisions?

None of us can consistently demonstrate this kind of character apart from the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

So let me just say this.

For those of you who do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the greatest question is not whether or not you're properly submitting to your government and that you're a good citizen.

And this is what I've I have met with leaders in our movement.

I've talked to people in the Turning Point USA, I've talked with people in Prager U.

I'm thankful for all the work that people are doing in the political arena.

But I've talked with them and I said, listen to me very carefully.

If all you ever do is make a generation more conservative, you're just going to make America a better place to go to hell from.

Our goal is not to make America align with a certain political persuasion.

Our goal is to get America under the authority of Jesus Christ.

And to bring them under the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I'm going to fight against any kind of rule and law that would prevent us from doing that.

But with the Spirit of Christ.

And so if you're not saved today, you need to submit yourself to the Lordship of one who died for you and gave himself for you, and you need to be saved today.

And for those of you that know Christ, today is a day for you to examine your attitude.

Examine your words, examine your conduct.

How are you living and are you demonstrating a faith that is rock solid in a world that is not?

My heart breaks for these people down here at Harmony and I-25 that are holding signs every Saturday on a beautiful Saturday, like, man, go touch grass.

Go take a hike.

Go dip your feet in the Big Thompson or the Pooder River.

I mean, listen, I'm driving by and there's a lady holding a sign.

Are you tired or crazy?

And I just went, mm-hmm.

I'm tired or crazy.

And you know what?

My heart breaks for them because their whole hope is whoever's in power.

And it's because they've never met him who has all power in heaven and in earth.

And they need Jesus.

So may God help us to live as faithful citizens in this earth as we represent an eternal kingdom.

Because Jesus is king.

Father, I pray today that you'll help us.