ROMANS 13 GOOD CITIZENS BECAUSE OF THE GOSPEL2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 13 Good Citizens Because Of The Gospel

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015.

And we are here in Romans chapter 13, and we'll be looking at this chapter this evening. And the plan is to look through the whole chapter. We'll see if the Lord lets us get that far. But we'll start out this evening by reading verses 1 through 7. So let's check out Romans chapter 13, verses 1 through 7. It says, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And

And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 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 will have praise from the same. 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. Verse 5. Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes. For they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.

As we look at Romans chapter 13 this evening, the title of the message is Good Citizens Because of the Gospel.

Now, we've been away from the book of Romans for several weeks now, well, probably about a month now since I was gone in Japan and then got back and shared a little bit about that. And so I want to take a moment to just recap and remind us where we're at in the book of Romans because

it's really important that Paul was writing this as one consistent letter. It's meant to be, you know, sat down and read all the way through because the things that he's sharing are building upon one another.

In chapters 1 through 11, he gave us great detail about the gospel. He really gave us all the doctrinal details of the gospel message, all the ins and all the outs, all the different aspects, and looking at it from different angles, and understanding the legalities, understanding some of the practical things, understanding the results of the gospel, and how it works, and

and why we need the gospel, and why the gospel works in the plan of God, and also how to receive the gospel. And he goes through all of the details about the gospel message, and this incredible work that God has done for us in providing for us the opportunity to be forgiven and to have the promise of everlasting life by faith in Jesus Christ.

and how God has done all of the work, and our job is simply to receive that work by faith in Jesus Christ. And so he went into great depth in chapters 1 through 11, and we spent a lot of time talking about that. But then as we went on into chapter 12, we began to look at the impact of the gospel. So we understand a lot better from chapters 1 through 11 what the gospel means and all the different aspects and elements of it.

But then what does that do to our lives? For those who have received the gospel, what does it mean for us? And what does it look like as we live it out? How should we live since we have believed the gospel message? And so as we began in chapter 12, verses 1 through 2, we looked at because of the gospel, here's how we are to be impacted. Number one, present your body to God. That you present your physical self. That you present your physical self.

that you submit yourself to God and that you make sure that your body is doing things that God desires and God has designed you for and that you're not engaging in things that are not of God.

But God's not just interested in your body. He also calls us to renew our mind. And so we saw that also in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we are to refresh and renew our mind, to relearn what life is all about through the lens of the scriptures and through the lens of the gospel. And

And as we renew our mind by the word of God, we will be transformed and it will change our viewpoints. It'll change our attitudes. It will change our heart. Well, then we also saw that we need to surrender our will. Because of the gospel, we must surrender not just our body and not just have our mind changed, but we must actually choose to submit to God's plan.

And that means to choose to deny our own plans and our desires and wishes, but to surrender our will to God. Because as we are renewed in our mind and transformed by God, then we'll be able to understand, to know the perfect will of God. And we need to submit to that will and do the things that God has called us to do. And so because of the gospel, because of how good God has been to us,

Our response is to present our body to him, to renew our mind by his word, and to submit our will to his. We went on in chapter 12 in the following week to talk about you and I being part of the body of Christ. And this is another impact of the gospel in our lives, is that we don't just, you know, we're not just saved and that we have the hope of heaven, but God has made us a permanent part of one another.

that we are united together as believers, as the body of Christ. And there's this dependency that we have upon others, but they also have upon us. And there's these great benefits that come from that as we get to be part of each other's spiritual lives and part of each other's eternity. And so we saw there that you are an equal member of the body of Christ.

That you, every believer, is an equal member. That you have an important part in the body of Christ. And we also saw there that you have a unique role in the body in verse 4.

And so you have a unique part. You have something special. God's designed just for you, and he's made that so that you are equal to the rest of the members. So there's no lesser members. There's no unusable members. There's no unnecessary members. Every person, every believer in Jesus is part of the body of Christ because of the gospel. It's part of the great work that God has done.

We also went on to see in verse 5 that you need the other members of the body. And so none of us can survive as Christians all by ourselves. None of us can be all on our own. It's not the way that we've been designed. As I talked about on Sunday, it's like pulling a fish out of the water and then being surprised that it dies.

a Christian by themselves, it's not a surprise if they die because we're not designed to live in that environment. We're designed to live in the midst of other believers. And we need to have those connections. It's how we live. It's how we have life. It's how we breathe, just like a fish is able to live in the water.

And so then Paul gave us the exhortation to fulfill your role in the body. Because of the gospel, you have a part in the body of Christ. And so fulfill your role. Do what God's called you to do because the rest of the body of Christ is relying upon you. And you get to be part of the great blessings and rewards that are there as you contribute your part in the work of the kingdom of God.

Well, then to finish up Romans chapter 12, we looked at relationships that are changed because of the gospel.

And we went through a bunch of different verses. Paul kind of goes through a lot of different thoughts there in the latter part of Romans chapter 12. But you could group them together with these basic things. Number one, relationships with fellow believers, but then also relationships with enemies. And so with our fellow believers, Paul told us to be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. And as he talks about this kind affection,

affection that we're to have for one another. He's talking about family language. He's talking about that we are to love one another as family, that we are to be, well, now we are part of, you know, the family of God, and we're members of the family of God together. We're siblings and cousins and

aunts and uncles, and we have these family-type relationships now spiritually, and so we are to behave that way and treat one another with kind affection in the same way that we treat our family members. Now, if you don't treat your family members with kind affection, then that's a whole different thing. So just because you treat your family bad doesn't mean you should treat other Christians bad. But the way that we're to

To treat one another as family is the way that we're to treat one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord. But then also he talked about our enemies. He told us to bless those who persecute you. He told us to repay no one evil for evil. And so our relationships are changed because of the gospel. Because, well, before, if someone paid you evil, you would repay them

evil. You would do back to them to pay back for what they did to you. But because of the gospel in your life, you're not to behave that way anymore. Repay no one evil for evil. Paul says in verse 21 of Romans 12, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And so this is a radical change

In our relationships with enemies, with those who persecute us or do bad things or do wrong things towards us, we're to not do bad things back to them, but to overcome evil with good. As Guzik said, we're to destroy our enemies by making them our friends. And so demonstrating the love of God is a radical change because of the gospel. We're to not do bad things back to them, but to overcome evil with good.

Well, Paul is continuing along those lines. And so now as we head into chapter 13, again, we're talking about good citizens because of the gospel. That you and I are to be good citizens, that we are to be, you know, behaving in a way that's appropriate and right as citizens of

because of the work that God has done in our lives with the gospel message. And so we'll look at five points this evening here in Romans chapter 13 and understanding the way that we are to behave as good citizens. And so we're going to start in verses one and two. And here's point number one, be subject to authorities.

Here's how we're to behave because of the gospel. We are to be submitted to authorities in our life. Check out verse 1. He says,

Here, Paul tells us something very challenging. And this has been challenging not for believers just recently, but this has been challenging for believers ever since Paul wrote it. These are difficult things for us.

to be able to grasp. But we need to go back and remember the radical nature of the gospel message and the radical truths that God has revealed about himself and his sovereignty. And if you remember in Romans chapter 8, how God says that he works all things together for good, there's an element of the sovereignty of God that we have to remember. There's an element of the trust of God that we have to really act

out and live out in our lives because of the gospel, because we know the great lengths that God has gone to in order to ensure that we have the opportunity of heaven.

And so with that same thought, trusting God to that degree, believing that he really is sovereign and works all things out for good, we can then apply verse one and let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. If you think this is tough, remember the context. This is written to believers in the Roman Empire, right?

And if you think we have tough leaders or bad leaders or ungodly leaders, the Roman Empire had even far worse as far as ungodly and their practices and the wickedness that was taking place. It was worse than what we might be able to look at today and think that we have so terrible today.

The commentator Albert Barnes says,

The word subject, it means to place in an orderly fashion under something. It's kind of a military term. And so the soldiers would be subject to the general. They would be placed in an orderly fashion. And so, you know, when he said to line up, they would line up in their place. And this is kind of the idea. It's to arrange under, to be subordinate to.

Now, our flesh, you know, it kind of bristles at the idea of being subordinate, right? But this is the position that we are to take.

Let every soul be subject. Now, one of the important things about this idea of being subject is it's a voluntary thing. It's not that, you know, you should have to be forced to be in this position. But hey, when the general says line up, you're to line up. You're to give it your all and to go and to do what you're supposed to do. That's what it means to be subject. It means to submit to another person's control.

Again, that's not something that we get really excited about, but it's something that God has called us to do in regards to governing authorities. We are to be submitting to another's control, doing what we're told, subjecting ourselves to the authority that is there above us.

The commentator Thomas Constable says, submission involves an attitude of compliance that is not necessarily present in obedience. Submission is not just obedience. It's not just doing what you're told because you can do what you're told with a really bad attitude.

Right? You can do it and be grumbling and have a scowl on your face and really be making ugly comments about the person who told you what to do and what you think they should do. And you can have all kinds of bad attitudes going on as you obey and do what you're told. Being subject to authorities, he says, it involves the attitude of compliance. He goes on to say that submission is essentially support

So to be subject to authorities is not to just strictly obey and do what you're told with a bad attitude, but it's to agree with those who are in authority and say, yeah, you're right, I'm going to do what you say.

Told me to do because it's the right thing to do. It's to support that authority. Not that you have to always agree with every decision, but you do that obedience with a good attitude. You do that willingly, submitting yourself and saying, hey, you're the authority. And so gladly, I will do what you have called me to do.

Now, one of the things that always causes people to get stressed out about this idea is, well, what about when authorities command you to do something that's wrong? And of course, there are exceptions to this.

However, just to throw out a little bit of a caution, I think, especially for us as believers in our society, in our culture, the exceptions to this are probably a lot fewer than we would like to think. It's more rare that, you know, authorities in our day are commanding us to disobey God. When there is that conflict, of course, you obey God.

Peter and John answered the religious leaders back in Acts 4, verse 19, when they commanded them to stop preaching. They said, hey, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you guys judge that. We're not going to try to figure that out or try to prove any point. We're going to do what God wants us to do, and we'll let you guys try to figure out if we should obey you rather than God. But as far as we're concerned, we're going to obey God.

When King Nebuchadnezzar built the statue and demanded that everybody bows down and worships the statue when the music is played, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood up and said, no, we're not going to do that. And even when they're threatened with death, they said, no, we're not going to do that. That's appropriate.

To disobey authority when it's a direct command to disobey God, that's appropriate. That's good. But like I said, we need to be careful because sometimes we use that as an excuse to just be rebellious. And God hasn't really called us to be rebellious. He's called us to be subject to authorities. And so we need to be very careful that we choose to disobey when it's appropriate authority.

acknowledging that that's probably less than we would like to think that it is. Well, he goes on to explain why we need to be subject to authority. If you don't like this idea of being subject to authority, well, then for sure, you need to understand why. In verse 1, he says, "'For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.'" So here's the reality. Here's why you must willingly submit yourself and choose to obey and support your authorities.

Because there is no authority except from God. Whatever authority is there in your life, it's there because God has allowed it. It's from God. And God is using that authority in your life as part of the working out all things together for good of Romans chapter 8.

So submit to that authority because God's placed that authority in your life. He says the authorities that exist are appointed by God. You can apply this to any kind of authority you want. We can talk about the president. We can talk about the emperor of the whole galaxy.

If you're talking about Star Wars. You could talk about the governor. You could talk about, you know, the police officer. You could talk about your father, your mother, those kinds of authorities. You could talk about authorities in the workplace, your supervisor, your boss. You could talk about authorities within the church. Every authority that exists, exists by God's appointment.

Because God has placed them there, you must willingly subject yourself to authority because of the gospel. God says, look, I love you so much. I sent Christ to die upon the cross for your sin. Believe that. Receive that. I have great things in store for you. And by the way, also, I've put these authorities in your life. And so be submitted to them as well. Now,

If you recognize that Jesus is an awesome benefit to your life and you receive that, well, you should also receive these other awesome benefits in your life that are authorities that God has placed there. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.

Peter agrees with Paul in this matter. In 1 Peter 2, verse 13, he says, Peter says, submit yourself.

willingly surrender your will, your control, your volition, and say, I'm going to obey the authority that God has placed in my life. He says, whether it's the king is supreme, so the highest leader of the land, or to governors that are sent by the king, and so lesser authorities or more local authorities,

These are sent by the king for the punishment of evildoers or for the praise of those who do good. So you could take it down onto law enforcement or code enforcement or officials in some capacity. He says we're to be submitted to every ordinance of man. Every ordinance of man. Every law, every command, every instruction, everything.

that the authority is given to us, we are to be submitted to that. And then notice he goes on in verse 15 of 1 Peter 2 to say, for this is the will of God. Some people wrestle with, well, I wonder what God's will is for my life. Well, here's one thing you can know for sure. God wants you to submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. It's the will of God that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

He says, you be a good citizen. You be obedient and do what you're asked to do by authorities that are there in your life. It's God's will for you so that by doing good, you silence foolish men. I think many times we are the foolish ones and all of our rebelliousness and all of our explanations of why we are refusing to obey, we become the fools. And instead of silencing the fools, we're

We're proving ourselves to be fools in our disregard for the authorities that God has placed in our life. Verse 2, back in Romans chapter 13, he says, When those authorities speak in your life, it's God speaking in your life. That's what Paul's saying here. If you resist those authorities, you're resisting God.

He's not just talking about, you know, the good ones, the godly ones, the Christian ones. He's talking about any authority. Again, the context then was the Roman Empire. They didn't have Christian leaders. I would be very hesitant to say that we have any Christian leaders also, but they name it. There's a whole kind of morality, you know, that we have today, even though we might disagree on quite a bit of things, but it's drastically different. They had it much worse in

But Paul said, look, if you resist those wicked rulers, you resist God. And if you resist, you're bringing judgment on yourself. You're saying, yeah, sign me up for punishment because I don't want to obey that guy. I don't want to do what I'm told in that way. I don't want to follow that instruction. I'm going to disregard that.

Paul says, no, be subject to authorities. Put yourself under authorities in the government, in the workplace, in the family, and in the church. And as he says this, he says, do this with a good attitude. Be supportive of your authorities. Don't just do what you're told grumbling and grouchy about it, but do it willingly. Even do it cheerfully. Be a good citizen because of the gospel, because you can trust God that much.

because of what he did for you upon the cross. Going on in verses three through five, we have point number two. To be a good citizen because of the gospel also means we obey the law. Now, these two things are really intertwined. They go hand in hand. They're not, you know, that different from each other. But he goes on in verse three to say, 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 will have praise from the same.

He says, God's appointed rulers. If you want to be unafraid of those rulers, then do what's good. If you want to be terrorized by those rulers, then do what's not good. Now, personally, I can share with you, I have lived this verse. And I've shared these kinds of things many times. It's a season of my life that stands out.

Pretty clearly in my memory, I don't have that good of a memory, but this season stands out really well because it was terrorizing. It was terrible. It was absolutely freaky. When I was driving with multiple...

failure to appears because of tickets that I didn't work out, and my license had been suspended, and my registration had been expired for over six months, and I also didn't have insurance at the time. And so I had a lot of things kind of stacked up against me. And so anytime I saw a police officer on the road with me, you know what happened? I was terrified. I experienced terror. Hey, do you want to be unafraid of the authority? No.

You want to see the black and white? You want to see the flashing lights and not be afraid? Well, get your tickets squared away. Get your license, you know, back in, you know, up to date. Get your registration paid up and get insurance like you're supposed to. And now I...

Still see the police in the same, you know, circumstances around me and behind me. I see lights flashing and, you know, I don't have the same amount of terror. And it doesn't hurt me. It used to hurt me physically. Like I was so terrified because, you know, I was just waiting for, you know, the worst to happen. I learned the difference between being terrified and being unafraid. And he says, look, this is, it's a choice you get to make.

Hey, those rulers are there for good. It's for good in your life. If you want to be unafraid of them, then do what's good. Stop disobeying. Stop doing what's wrong. Do what's good. And instead, he says, you'll have praise from those authorities. That's interesting to think about. Authorities should be praising us. Did the authorities in your life praise you?

Or is it a battle in your life with those authorities? If there's a constant battle with authorities, you need to go back to the drawing board and make sure that your heart's right. Now, there is cases where it's right to have battles with authorities. As I mentioned with King Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, yeah, they stood up and they battled the authority. That's appropriate. But consider the example of Daniel. In Daniel chapter 6,

Remember, Daniel was being raised up within the kingdom and he was getting more authority and the other leaders in the kingdom didn't like it. And so in Daniel chapter six, it tells us in verse four, the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful, nor was there any error or fault found in him. Check that out. They wanted to take Daniel out.

They were highly motivated to dig up some dirt on Daniel in regards to his work in the kingdom. And although they were highly motivated, they could not find any charge against him because he was faithful. Let me ask you to consider that. What if there was this kind of investigation of your work? If there was this kind of investigation regarding what you do?

Would they be able to testify the same thing? Yeah, we tried. Man, we dug into Jake's work there at Allstate. And yeah, we can't find any fault, any charge, because he's faithful. There's no errors, no fault found in him. And then in verse 5, it goes on to say, these men said, we shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God. They recognized Daniel.

Well, if we make what he's doing illegal, then we can charge him with something. And so let's make it illegal to pray to God. And so they try to take Daniel out by getting the king to change the law to make it illegal to pray to God. But would you have that kind of report if the investigation was on you? You know, the only thing we could find is he's really devoted to his God.

The only thing we could find in her is she really loves the Lord and she's faithful to him. And so if we make that illegal, then we'll have something. But other than that, we don't got anything because they're faithful. They give it their best. They do their all. They're submitted. They're obedient. They're doing what they're supposed to do. Authorities should praise us. We should let the gospel transform us so greatly that authorities praise us.

Because we are faithful to serve those that God has placed over us in authority. So we need to obey the law. Verse 4 of Romans 13, he goes on to say, Notice two times in this verse,

Paul says, he is God's minister. That ruler, that authority in your life is God's minister, God's servant. God uses that person in your life. Oh, surely not that person, you might think, right? Not that one. Nope, that one. Yep, God uses that one. He's God's minister. Wow, how could that be? Well, again, go back to Romans chapter eight. Again, because of the gospel, right?

trusting in the promises of God, trusting in the sovereignty of God, trusting in the work of God, the promise that he works all things together for good. Yes, that authority in your life, he uses. That authority is God's minister in your life. He uses, this is going to be a little bit radical, so prepare yourself, okay? He uses those authorities in your life just as he uses pastors. They're a minister to you just as much as I am a minister to you.

He uses authority in your life just as he uses his word in your life. He uses authorities in your life just as he uses trials in your life. Authorities are just one of the many tools in God's toolbox. They're God's ministers. And notice what he says there in verse 4. He's God's minister to you for good. As bad as it may seem many times in your life, God is using that authority in your life for good, to accomplish good.

to bless you, to give you reward in eternity. So be subject to those authorities and obey the law, obey the instruction, obey those authorities. But then he says, if you do evil, well, then you can be afraid because then there's still God's minister to you for correction, to set things right, to set things straight.

an avenger to execute wrath, to bring judgment on those who practice evil. And so if you're doing evil, well, law enforcement is God's minister to you, God's servant used to bring correction into your life. Over the past couple months, we've had some incidents here at the church where the buildings have been broken into.

And we just had another one this last week, Sunday night, late at night, someone broke into the Spanish house. And this time they didn't get anything. So that's, you know, good. They just caused some damage that we had to fix and repair. But through these times, I've had to have a lot of interaction with the police department and the police officers who come out to do the reports. And one of the questions that's just customary as part of the report that they have to fill out is, all right, if we catch this guy,

You know, you could put an asterisk there. It's extremely unlikely that we'll ever find this guy, but on the off chance that maybe, you know, one in a million, we might find this guy. The question is, do you want them prosecuted for this crime? And my answer to that is absolutely. Absolutely. Not because I'm angry and I just want them to pay and suffer, you know, that scumbag, you know, not anything like that at all. You know why I want them prosecuted? Because enforcers are God's ministers.

I'm sure they have good reasons, in their mind at least, for why they do what they do, right? Sure. And if they would come and tell me the story, oh, it might kind of, you know, make me feel sorry. I'm pretty gullible. And they could probably just sell me and go, oh, man, yeah, yeah, I could see. I could understand. So yeah, no, let's not prosecute. You know, they have a real hard life, you know, real difficult things going on. But what overrides that aspect of my heart is this reality. Now, you know, they're God's ministers to you.

And you need it. You need this instruction. You need this correction. And so absolutely, prosecute because they're God's minister to accomplish God's work in your life. Verse 5, therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. So he says, be subject because of the punishment or because you don't want the punishment. That's one thing. But then also for conscience sake. In other words, be subject because you don't want to be disobeying God.

So you can be subject and obedient and obeying the laws because you don't want the penalty. Now, quite honestly, if I could just be completely open and honest and you not judge me too much, the only reason why I don't drive insanely fast is because I'm afraid of the fine. I'm not afraid of the speed. I love the speed. In fact, give me more speed, but I'm afraid of the fine. I don't want to pay the price. I'm afraid of the punishment.

But he says, look, you must be subject not only because of the fine, not only because of the punishment, but also because of your conscience. You're going to be disobeying God. That's going to affect you. When you disobey authority, you disobey God. That messes with your conscience. That affects your conscience. And it puts you in this place of rebelling against God.

And so because of the gospel and because of what God has done in our lives, the result should be that we are good citizens who are subject to authorities, who obey the law because we recognize these are things that God has set in place for our good. Just like the gospel is for our good, authorities are in our life for our good. Well, if you thought it was easy so far, verse 6 and 7 might be a little bit challenging for you.

Verse 6, well, verse 6 and 7 give us point number 3, and that is to pay taxes. Verse 6, for because of this, you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Notice again, he says, these are God's ministers, God's servants. And so it's appropriate for you to pay because they're God's instruments. They're God's servants. It's appropriate for you to support God's servants.

And they're attending continually to this very thing. Their job is to take care of society. Their job is to help make things safe. Their job is to maintain things that bless you, like parks and roads and lights and, you know, those kinds of things. There's all kinds of benefits that you receive, and they attend to that continually. And so because of this, because God has appointed these in your life, and you receive great blessing from them.

both in the things that you would count as good, but then also in the correction and judgment that you maybe wouldn't count as good. But it's part of God's work in your life. And so because of this, he says, you also pay taxes. It's appropriate for you to pay taxes because, well, God's using them for good in your life. But paying taxes is something that challenges us. None of us like to pay taxes. None of us enjoy. It's always been a problem.

If you go back to Luke chapter 20, the Jewish people hated paying taxes. And so they try to trap Jesus, asking him the question, is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now, some people wrestle with, well, you know, I can't pay taxes because, you know, the money's used for things that I don't approve of and things that I don't like. Well, that was certainly the case for the Jewish people with the Romans that they were paying taxes to. And

There was that same debate that people have now. There was that same debate back then. And so they brought it to Jesus. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar? The Romans are not believers in God. They spend the money on things that we don't agree with, that God doesn't agree with. So maybe we shouldn't pay taxes. They were trying to trap Jesus with his words. And he understood that. He said, why are you testing me? But then he goes on to say, show me a denarius.

He says, whose image and whose inscription does it have? And they answered, well, it's Caesar's image. And so he said, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. Essentially, Jesus says, yes, it's appropriate to pay taxes. Give back to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. That's owed. They're God's ministers.

And so therefore, because of this, we pay taxes, Paul says. Verse 7. Render therefore to all their due, taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor. It's appropriate for us to give authorities whatever is due them. And if it's taxes, then we pay taxes. If we don't like the amount, well, that's too bad. We pay taxes. If it's customs,

Customs could be another type of tax. It's probably like an income type tax that they collected. If that's what we owe, then we owe it and we're called to pay it. If it's fear, then we ought to be fearing those authorities. If it's honor, then we ought to give honor. Albert Barnes, the commentator, says, "...Christianity is not designed to break upon the proper order of society, but rather establish and confirm that order."

It's appropriate for us to be good citizens, to give what's appropriate to authorities in our lives, whether it be taxes or customs or fear or honor. And so we are good citizens because of the gospel, willing to pay taxes, willing to give authorities what is due to them because of our position by faith in Jesus Christ, recognizing these are God's ministers. They're good for us.

Just as the gospel is good for us. Well, moving on to verses 8 through 10, we have point number four, and that is love your neighbor. Love your neighbor. Verse 8 says, We're also good citizens because of the gospel, because the gospel changes how we relate to people around us.

And so we work well in our society because we love one another. At least that's what we're called to do. He says, Now, a lot of times this verse is used and talked about in regards to borrowing money because it says,

But Paul's not trying to make the point here that it's always wrong to borrow money. That's not the Bible's position, that it's always wrong to borrow money. The idea conveyed here is if you borrow money, pay it back. So, you know, it doesn't mean you have to buy that car with cash and not have any kind of payments. No, it means when the payment is due for that car, well, then you pay it.

When the payment is due for your mortgage, then you pay it. That you don't have these outstanding debts. In other words, pay your bills. Don't have outstanding bills. Don't have things that you owe in that way, except there's one bill that is to be outstanding, and that is your love for one another. And the point that he's making here is that love fulfills the law, but love is a debt that you owe yourself.

that will never be fulfilled. Paul here is saying, you have not yet loved people enough. And always keep yourself in that position where you would say, I have not yet loved people enough. As opposed to, well, when you buy a car and you make payments on that car after three years or five years or seven years, whatever loan amortization you work out, at the end of that, you could say, it's paid off.

I don't have to pay that debt any longer. That's not the case with love. With love, you have to pay for it and pay for it and pay for it and give love and express love and show love and demonstrate love. But you don't get to a point where, hey, I've been doing this for seven years already. I'm paid off, man. I've shown you all the love that I need to show you. No, it's a permanent debt. You'll never pay back enough love to not have to love anymore. Leon Morris says,

says this. He says, "We may give respect and honor where they are due and have no further obligation, but we can never say, I have done all the loving I need to do." You can fulfill your civic duty and do all that you need to do and, all right, yeah. I showed up for jury duty once this year, so I fulfilled my duty. I don't have to show up for jury duty all year long now. That doesn't apply to love. Hey, I loved that guy that one time.

I don't have to do that for another year. No, it's an ongoing debt. He says, he who loves another has fulfilled the law. This is the same thing that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22, as they asked him what the greatest commandment was. He says, well, the greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first, the greatest commandment. But then he goes on to say, the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And he says, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. The whole law, all of God's commands are summed up in these two things. Love God and love your neighbor. And who is your neighbor? Well, you can look at the parable of the Good Samaritan, or you could just understand it means anybody that you come in contact with is your neighbor. Love them. Love God and love your neighbor.

In verse 9, still in Romans 13, he says, 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 is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So the Lord took the 10 commandments and reduced them to these two, love God and love your neighbor. And if you do that, well, you're keeping the commandments.

Because all those things that God said not to do, you won't be doing them if you love your neighbor. You won't lie. You won't cheat. You won't steal because you love your neighbor. And if you do those things, well, it's because you don't love your neighbor. That's what he's saying. It's all summed up in loving your neighbor. So work on that. Let God teach you how to love him and love your neighbor. Verse 10, he says, "'Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.'"

So again, you're not going to cheat. You're not going to steal. You're not going to commit adultery because love does no harm to a neighbor. It's the fulfillment of the law. It's the summary of God's requirements in our relationship to one another. And so love your neighbor. I shared a little bit about this a couple Sundays back as I shared on Sunday morning that God loves you and then concluded that message with the point that since God has loved us,

In these incredible ways, well, we ought to love one another. That's what John told us in 1 John 4. And so God loved you when he should not have. He loved you when there was no good reason. He loved the unlovable when you were incapable of loving back. And so that's how you're to love your neighbor, even if your neighbor is unlovable, even if your neighbor has no good thing that you could point to and say, well, it's a good reason for me to love them. No, you're to love them in the same way that God has loved you.

And God loves you in the same way that he loves Jesus. The one who is most precious and valuable to him, he loves you in that same way. And so you are to love one another. You're to love your neighbor in that same way. Love them as much as God does. And then you are to love them in the same way that God loves you and that he will never stop loving you. And again, it's a debt that we owe that never ends. We never get to the end and say, I've shown enough love and now I can stop.

Because I've shown all the love that is due, all the love that is necessary. No, we never fulfill this debt. It's something we owe because of the love that God's demonstrated to us. We owe love to our neighbor. We owe love to our neighbor.

It's a debt we can never fulfill. So keep on loving your neighbor. Well, finally, point number five, as we finish out verses 11 through 14, point number five is cast off the works of darkness. We are to be good citizens because of the gospel. And part of that is we cast off the works of darkness, all the things that are wicked and wronged,

were to put those off and stop doing them. In verse 11, he says, and do this, knowing the time that it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. He says, do this, love your neighbor, show this kind of love, demonstrate this kind of love, obey those authorities, do these things knowing the time. Do you know what time it is?

Prophetically speaking, you know, do you know what time it is? As far as God is concerned, Jesus was quite clear that we don't know the day or the hour that he will return. But Paul says here, here's one thing we know for sure. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. And so you can get all involved in all kinds of prophecy and you can look around and see

fulfillment of prophecy in a lot of ways. And there are a lot of things that God is doing. There's a lot of things that God is at work in. And you can see the stage being set for the end times for the Antichrist. And it could happen today, but we also don't know if it's going to happen today or even in our lifetime. But here's what we do know. He says, know the time.

That doesn't mean know exactly when the Lord's going to return. Try to figure it out. Do the math. You know, come up with some crazy formula and set a date. No, know the time. Here's the time. It's closer. You're closer to the return of Jesus. You're closer to the presence of God. Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. And so as you get nearer and nearer and nearer to being in the presence of the Lord, more and more and more,

You should be doing these things, subject to authorities, obeying the law, paying taxes, and loving your neighbor because you're closer to the presence of the Lord. Verse 12, the night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on, let us put on the armor of light. He talks about it in the idea of the picture of taking off clothes and putting on clothes.

When I was working with Jeff and doing construction around here, I would put on different clothes that day appropriate to the work that I was going to do. And today, I'm wearing different clothes than I would wear then because, well, these are more appropriate for what I'm doing today. In the same way, you're to take off the old dirty clothes that

all the evil, all the wickedness, all the sin that you were practicing before. Take all that off and then put on what's appropriate for what God has called you to do today. Put on the armor of light. Is there any kind of sin in your life? Is there any kind of wickedness that is going on, that is ongoing? It's time to cast it off. Take it off. Put it in the hamper. Let the Lord deal with that. Repent of that. Leave it there and put on something new. Put on the armor of light.

And live the way that God has called you to live. Verse 13. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. Again, you put on the clothes that are appropriate for the day and now walk properly. The contrast is night versus day or darkness versus light. So let me put it another way. Cast off anything that you have to keep hidden. If there's things in your life that you have to keep hidden...

That's walking in darkness. Cast it off. Wickedness is practice. Wickedness is done in darkness. But righteousness is done in the light. The things that you can do unashamedly, do those things. The things that you can do that you don't care who finds out. You don't care who knows about it. Yeah, focus on those things. Walk properly as in the day. And if there's anything that you have to keep hidden, that's a good indication to you that's wrong and you need to cast it off.

Unless you're planning a surprise party for me, then that's okay. You can do that in darkness, but you get the point. If we have to keep it hidden, it's because we know it's wrong and we need to cast it off and walk in the day. Verse 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. So again, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, put on the new nature, put on who you are as a believer in Jesus Christ because of the gospel, and then make no provision for the flesh.

If you look at your budget, how much do you have in your flesh fund? Okay, I'm going to reserve this amount of money just in case, you know, I want to go indulge my flesh. He says, no, don't make any provision for the flesh. Pastor Chuck said, regarding this passage, he says, that means you get rid of any magazines that

that stir up your flesh, that you disconnect any channels, or if you need help with internet access and that kind of thing, that you take those steps, that you don't leave provision for the flesh. Maybe that means that you break off relationships with

that stir up your flesh, that cause you to get into the flesh, that cause you to chase after the lusts and the desires of your heart. He says, make no provision. Cut off those things in your life. Get rid of those things. You're still going to sin. You're still going to have shortcomings and you're still going to fall. But don't set yourself up for it. Make no provision for the flesh. And if there's anything that causes you, that stirs up within you,

Those desires, those cravings, those sinful longings, cast them off and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Walk properly as in the day, and you'll be a good citizen because of the gospel as you cast off the works of darkness. Think about this. Jesus was a good citizen, and we're to follow his pattern. Now, Jesus was a good citizen, but he was also hated. He was hated by the authorities, the religious leaders.

But although they hated him, they could find no fault with him. When it came time to, you know, they were trying to put him to death, they even had a hard time falsely accusing him because they couldn't get the false witnesses to agree. We're to follow that pattern to be good citizens. Now it might end up that because we're good citizens, we're hated and crucified, but that's okay. We're to follow that pattern.

To be obedient and faithful. Jesus was a good citizen. He was submitted to authority. He loved his neighbor. He obeyed the law and paid taxes. He did all of these things. He's called us to follow that example. And so in many ways, as we follow the example of Jesus, we ought to be the best people to have around. Think about that. We ought to be the best people to have around. We ought to be the best employees of the workplace. If we're just like all the other employees, we failed.

We're not experiencing the full impact of the gospel in our lives. And oftentimes, very sadly, very tragically, Christians are the worst employees. It's often the case. Sometimes we cause the most problems. We get all worked up over what color the Starbucks cup is. You know, it's like, who cares? That's not anything you need to be wasting your time on. Yeah.

We ought to be the best citizens. You know, communities should wish they had more of us. Man, if only we could get more of those Christians in our community, you know, things would be so much better. Oh, sure, there's always going to be the hatred of Christ, but the way that we live should be so dramatically changed because of the gospel that communities wish they had more of us.

Even as they try to rebel against God, you know, they'll try to separate. Well, yeah, you'll continue, keep your morals, keep your good behavior, but leave Jesus out of it. They're sure, for sure, they're going to try that. But still, they should reckon, there should be this recognition. They're the best citizens. They're the best employees. They're the best neighbors. We're good citizens because of the gospel. Let God change you radically by the gospel.

And you'll be subject to authorities. You'll obey the law. You'll pay taxes. You'll love your neighbor. And you'll cast off the work of darkness. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would work in our hearts a full appreciation for what you've done for us. And Lord, we do receive the gospel, the good news that you have accomplished for us, all that is needed for life, for salvation, for forgiveness. And we receive it by faith in you.

We're justified. Lord, you're sanctifying us and preparing us for eternity with you. God, I pray that you would help us to understand that to a greater degree, to appreciate it. Give us great insight, Lord, into your gospel. Lord, that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we would submit our will to you and become the best citizens this world has ever seen. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.