ROMANS 13 CITIZENS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 13 Citizens Of Heaven On Earth

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 2020.

Romans chapter 13 this evening and I saw that on the schedule and I was looking ahead and saying okay Lord what do you have for me teaching on Wednesday and looking at the schedule seeing Romans chapter 13 my practice on Wednesday nights a little bit different than Sundays right on Sundays I pick a passage that we read that week so anywhere you know from within that week's chapters I'll see what the Lord says and I'll teach one of those passages but Wednesdays

my practice is to teach from the chapter, either the entire reading or a portion of the reading that we read that day for going through the Bible in three years. And I saw on the schedule Romans chapter 13, and I was like, oh Lord, do I really have to teach Romans chapter 13?

Last time I shared from Romans chapter 13, I made some people really upset and had to have several meetings and conversations and there were some difficulties that followed. It's a tough passage, a tough chapter, but here we are. The Lord has us here in Romans chapter 13 and I plan to make some more enemies tonight and hopefully you'll love me and forgive me. But the title of the message here in Romans chapter 13 is Citizens of Heaven on Earth.

Citizens of Heaven on Earth. Now the book of Romans chapters 1 through 11 really dives deep on the doctrine of the gospel, the gospel of grace. And Paul is very thorough. He gives us all the doctrinal details that we need to know everything about the doctrine of grace and the gospel of grace.

He explains why we need the gospel. He explains how the gospel works and all the different facets and aspects to the gospel. And he also goes into, in chapter 10, how to receive the gospel. And so it's everything that we need to know about the gospel all packed into Romans chapters 1 through 11. But then as he heads into chapter 12 for the remainder of the book, he then goes on to describe and talk about the impact of the gospel.

Now that we know what the gospel is and all the details about it and how it impacts us and the importance and value and the grace and all of those things, now what does that mean for me? And what does that look like in my life? Chapters 12 through 16 of Romans is really about how I should live since I have believed the gospel message.

And understanding the radical message of the gospel will radically change my life. And that's what Paul is describing here in these chapters. Well, here in chapter 13, he focuses in on our relationship to authorities. He focuses in on us as citizens in earthly kingdoms. And so again, I've titled the message, Citizens of Heaven on Earth.

We are citizens of heaven as believers in Jesus. Our citizenship is in heaven, Paul will tell the Colossians, right? At the same time, we're still here.

And so how are we to behave as citizens while we are here, knowing that we are citizens of heaven, having been born again? And so there's four things that we'll look at that the gospel affects us in living out our lives in our community, in our nation, in our state, in the world that we live in. And so we're going to dive into verses one through four for point number one this evening, and that is,

And that last part of the point is really, you know, the hard part, right? Obey authorities with a good attitude. Verse 1 again says, There's some really challenging things that Paul says here.

Really powerful, straight to the point, but difficult for us to embrace. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, he says. Every soul, so he's talking to every one of us. We're all included in this. Every soul should be subject. The word subject, it means to place under in an orderly fashion.

It's in the idea of the military to arrange under in order. And so there is this chain of authority, this chain of command. And so this idea here of being subject is to place yourself. It's a volunteer thing to do that you yield to some instruction, command, authority, authority.

to put yourself in subjection, to submit to one's control. Let every soul be subject, be submitted. Let every soul yield to the governing authorities. It's a challenging thing. You can think about authorities, of course, in our nation. You can think about authorities in our state. You can bring it down to the local government.

There's also authorities in our workplaces. There's authorities that God has established within the home. There's authorities that God has established within the church. And these things speak to all of those. Specifically, Paul is dealing with our social, our civic authorities. And he says, let every soul be subject, be submitted. Pastor Thomas Constable says,

says this about being subject. He says, submission involves an attitude of compliance that is not necessarily present in obedience. Submission is essentially support. Now look, if you're my authority and you tell me to take out the trash, I can be obedient and

but be unpleasant about it, right? I'm obedient. I'm taking out the trash, but I'm grumbling and I'm upset and I'm, you know, got a frown on my face and I'm scowling and I'm throwing a fit and I'm letting you know I don't like this and it's terrible and you're stupid, right? I can have that kind of obedience. But when Paul says here, let every soul be subject to authorities, he's not talking about that kind of grumbling obedience. He's talking about obedience with a good attitude, right?

obedience that is an attitude of compliance, obedience that is joyful. And how can we do this? I mean, this seems kind of ridiculous, especially when you think about some of the, you know, things we're told or some of the people that are in authority. But Paul answers those objections that we would bring up. He says, for there is no authority except from God here in verse 1. And it's just a really clear statement, but it's hard for us to grasp hold of.

There is no authority except from God. Like, that's the truth. If there is authority in your life, that authority is there from God. He says the authorities that exist are appointed by God. This was something that Jesus pointed out when he was on trial before Pontius Pilate. And Pontius Pilate was kind of threatening Jesus, like, hey, why won't you speak up? Because, you know, don't you know I have the power to end your life?

And Jesus said in John chapter 19 verse 11, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. Jesus tells Pontius Pilate, the only reason you have power is because that power was given to you from above. It's the same thing that Paul is saying here in verse 1. The authorities that exist are appointed by God.

And so we are to understand authorities above us are appointed by God. They speak, in a sense, on behalf of God. And we are to be subject, similar to how we are subject to God. It's challenging. It's quite tough. Especially as we face some of the days that we've been facing recently. Now, of course, we know there are exceptions to this. When authorities command you to disobey God.

then now there's a conflict. And we must then be in submission to the higher authority. And so the higher authority is God. And so when a lower authority tries to move us away from obedience to God or move us into disobedience against God, then we must obey the higher authority. And so there is this room for exception. There is this room for there to be

a disobedience to authority when there's a conflict with what God has said. And I would encourage you to consider and really challenge those who, you know, want to go that route that there is the need for clarity then if that's going to be the case. And I would suggest to you that there's two options for when that's allowed. When there's written revelation or when there's direct revelation.

That is, okay, I'm going to be disobedient here because look at, this is what the Bible says. This is what God has written out in his word. And so this is where I'm going to stand. This is where, you know, I'm going to base my logic, my arguments on. This is what the Bible says. Authorities want me to do something different. Boom, you're done. Okay, you have the scripture to back up that decision. But there's also the opportunity for direct revelation, right?

that maybe it's not clearly spelled out in the scripture somewhere, but the Lord spoke to your heart and said, you know what I want you to do? I want you to do this. Even though authorities say that, I want you to do this. And there is room for that to take place, and God can override lesser authorities anytime he wants to. But I would suggest that it's those two cases where there's exceptions. Where we would really wrestle with this is, well, what if I don't like the command that

What if I could think of a better way? What if I disagree? What if I, you know, don't like their motives? What if they have an agenda? What if it's a wicked person? What if, you know, and so we could think about all these reasons why we shouldn't obey authorities, but I would encourage you to boil it back down to, do you have written revelation or do you have direct revelation? Those are the times where we have God's approval for disregarding lesser authorities and obeying him, the higher authority.

Now, if you think this is tough for us, then you might. Let me remind you that Paul is writing to the church in Rome under the Roman Empire. This is not, there were no godly leaders. There were no Christian leaders. There were no, you know, godly agendas or, you know, moral, you know, platforms or anything. It was nothing like that. And so, although we might find this challenging, it's not that we're in like some, you know,

more difficult context than the Christians at Rome were in. And so this still speaks to us. It still applies to us. Now, Paul goes into like lay the case a bit harder on us in verse two. He says, therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. So Paul says, look, it's very clear authority. It's there because God put it there. It's there because God established authority.

And so we're to be subject, we're to be obedient. And if we resist authorities in our life, we are really resisting the very ordinance of God. We're fighting against God when we fight against authorities, when it's not that exception, right? When it's not that occasion where the Lord has clearly told us to defy those authorities. If we don't have that clear revelation from God, whether it's written or direct, then

then we resist against the very ordinance of God, he says. And in doing so, we bring judgment upon ourselves because we're fighting against God. Now, there's some really powerful illustrations of this that I'm not going to get into tonight. But if you think about the nation of Assyria attacking Israel, go back to the book of Isaiah and back to the book of Jeremiah.

There was the nation of Judah that the Lord was allowing these nations to come against them in a call to repentance for them, but they were resisting God on every level.

And so Assyria came and they were unsuccessful as the people called out to the Lord. And then Babylon came and God told them, Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar is my agent. He's my minister. And so you need to be submitted to him. And the people of Israel were like, no way, we will never submit to him. Not going to happen. You know, he's not going to be our authority. And they fought against God to their own peril and destruction. Some powerful illustrations for us to consider.

obey authorities because they are established by God. And so we need to learn to do that with a good attitude. The apostle Peter also addresses this in 1 Peter chapter 2. In 1 Peter 2.13, he says, "'Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.'"

And so we have a clear declaration here from Paul in Romans chapter 13. I quoted also from Jesus, right, in John chapter 19. And now we see here the apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2. I wanted to hit all of those passages so that we have this certainty and this clarity. This is what God wants for us. This is the truth. Peter says, "'Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.'" It's the ordinance of man, right?

It's a man-made ordinance, but submit yourself to it. Whether it's the king, the king supreme, right? The emperor of the universe or whoever it might be, or to governors that are sent by him, local authorities. Peter says, submit yourself, have a good attitude, be obedient to authorities in your life. Now, Peter goes on to say in 1 Peter 2.15, for this is the will of God that by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

This is part of our witness, Peter is explaining. This is a big part of our representation of God to the world around us. This is the will of God that you would do good and in doing so silence the ignorance of foolish men. There's a great need for silence these days because there's a lot of ignorance being spewed about all over the place. And Peter doesn't say go chase around those things and you know,

end their foolish arguments. He says, silence their arguments by doing good. Submit yourself under authorities in government, in the workplace, in the family, within the church. Have a good attitude and support those authorities because they are there at God's direction. Verse three, 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. Rulers are there for good. That's their intention. That's why God, you know, created the role. Now, not every ruler is good and not every ruler does good, but the role was created for that purpose. And so he says, do you want to be unafraid of authority? Then do what's good, right? It's like

It's hard to get more clear than that. And I find it humorous because I've lived this verse, right? I've shared, you know, many times about that season of my life where I had, you know, outstanding tickets and failures to appear. And I was, you know, without registration, without insurance, you know, expired registration, suspended license, all those things, right? And I'm driving down the street still like,

a big dummy. And every time, you know, I see a black and white, right? I see some lights go on or something, man, I'm having panic attacks. You know, it's just so stressful. And the Lord would say, Jerry, do you want to be unafraid of authority? Do what's good. Pay your tickets off. Bring your registration up to date. Get insurance. Renew your license. You know, all of the things. Yes, do what's good. And then, hey, you don't have to be afraid of authorities.

And when you do what's good, he says, you will have praise from the same. They will be thankful. They will be rejoicing as you are submitted in obedience and honor of the Lord. Verse four, 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 and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Paul says he's God's minister, right?

Again, appointed by God, established by God, and it's for your good. And when you do evil, he's God's agent to bring correction. Authorities in your life are there to bring punishment, to bring correction. You need it. And so God put those authorities in place so that you would be corrected when you do wrong. He's authorized by the Lord. He doesn't bear the sword in vain to bring judgment, right?

And so you get written up at work, that's in line with what God has established, authorized to bring correction when you're out of line. You need that. He's God's minister to you for good, in the praising you for doing good, but also in the correcting you for doing wrong. He is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

Today at work I was listening to Romans chapter 13 on repeat while I was working and I took out my headphone for a moment and then it started to play over my speaker there in the office and it was right here in verse 4.

And so real loud in the office, for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. And then the guy sitting next to me, a good friend, he's like, he's like, whoa, like that's my problem. You know, the executing of wrath on him who practices evil, like that was pretty serious. And so it was just out of the blue, right? But that is the agent that God has established there. Notice two times he says here, he is God's minister. I mean, you might think of a pastor, right? That's God's minister. Yeah, true.

But also that authority in your life is God's minister to you for your good. Well, what about when those authorities overstep? Well, that's the example of Assyria that I mentioned earlier. You can check it out in Isaiah chapter 10, where the nation of Assyria was ordained by God to conquer much territory. And Assyria decided, you know what? I want to take Jerusalem too. And in Isaiah chapter 10, verse 11 and 12, the Lord responds to Assyria.

And he says, look, when I've done all my work on Mount Zion, then I'm going to punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks. He decided to go against those that I told him not to go against. The point is, even at a national level, a world empire level, God says, when authority oversteps their bounds, I'll deal with them. That's God's domain. That's God's responsibility.

Our domain, our responsibility is to obey authorities with a good attitude. Now, things are a little bit different for us.

in our context as Americans because we also have the opportunity to contribute to our government and to choose the governing authorities. And so none of this is to say that we shouldn't participate or that we shouldn't care or that we shouldn't do anything. We have those rights as citizens and so we should exercise those rights. This is not speaking against that.

But where we need to be careful is we have the rights to choose and there's formats and functions and ways to go about that. But once the choice is made, authorities that are in place, whether we like it or not, whether there's agendas, whether all the reasons why we would want to give that we don't obey those authorities, those are authorities. They're God's agents, God's ministers to us for our good.

It's really important to consider. And again, we're facing days where there's a lot of pushback. There's a lot of opposition. There's a lot of different sides. And again, I would encourage you to consider because there's a lot of arguments, right? And a lot of different kinds of arguments. There's American arguments. There's political arguments. There's scientific arguments. There's medical arguments. But make sure for yourself when it comes down to it, it's really about what's the biblical argument, right?

When authorities command you to disobey God, with written revelation or direct revelation, you obey God, the higher authority. But until then, you obey those authorities that God has established with a good attitude.

Well, I spent a long time on that point because I wanted to make as many enemies as possible. We'll move on to the next point now, the rest of the chapter, and we'll go through these a little bit faster. But here's point number two, looking at verses five through seven, support and honor authorities. Verse five, therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake.

So Paul goes on here, continuing the line of thought, talking about these authorities, and he says, So you must be subject. They're God's ministers. They're there to correct you if you're doing wrong. So because of wrath, be subject to them.

But he says also for conscience sake. Listen, you're not going to be able to be right with God if you're being disobedient to those authorities. Your conscience is going to be unsettled because you're disobeying what God has established. So be subject. One, because you don't want to be punished, but also because you don't want to have that guilty conscience and be involved in that disobedience to God. So you must be subject.

And looping in with this, he says, because of this, you also pay taxes. Because God has established these authorities and they're there for your benefit, because they're God's ministers, he says, you're to support them. You're to provide for them. There is no authority except from God. Remember he said in verse one, the authorities that exist are appointed by God. He's God's minister to you for good. And again, here in verse six, he says, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.

And so here Paul is saying, pay your taxes, pay your dues, because you're contributing to their work on behalf of God. And again, taxes is another subject that can be difficult and challenging and we can try to get out of and all kinds of things. But Jesus was asked with this question as well in Luke chapter 20. You might remember they were trying to trap him and, you know, get him to say something wrong and

Is it lawful for us to pay taxes or not? We don't like how the money is being spent. We don't like where it's going. We don't like who it's going to. You know, all these reasons. And Jesus, you know, laid it all out. Hey, you need to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's. That's appropriate. It's right and good for us to be contributing to the society in which we live. Well, moving on to verse 7, Paul here says something very similar. Render therefore to all their due.

taxes to whom taxes are due. If you owe taxes, pay your taxes. If you owe customs, you know, you're moving from one place to another place, one country to another country, there's customs that you're going through, then pay those.

If customs is more a reference to, hey, in our culture, we respect this way. We show our respect in this manner. We demonstrate our submission to authority in this way. We salute. We bow. We dance. Whatever. I don't know.

Render to them their due. If fear is due to those authorities, then give the fear. If honor is due, then give honor. That's appropriate. And so here Paul says, whatever is appropriate for those authorities, support them, honor them. Taxes, customs, fear, honor, be good subjects to those authorities that God has established in your life. Verses 8 through 10, he goes on here saying,

Point number three is love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. Verse eight says, "'Owe no one anything except to love one another, "'for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. "'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, "'all are summed up in this saying, namely, "'you shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And so here, as citizens of heaven on earth, the way that's represented is through love to our fellow citizens, to the community around us. Paul says, owe no one anything except to love one another. Now sometimes this is looked at and used as a

a verse to try to say, you know, you should never have any debt or, you know, if you buy a car, you should always pay in cash. I would suggest Paul's not trying to make that point. You know, maybe that's a separate discussion that you would want to have, but he's not saying it's always wrong to borrow money. He's saying, look, if you owe something, then pay your bills, pay what you owe. But the point that he's making here is that love fulfills the law. And the real debt that we have is a debt that cannot be fulfilled. And it's the debt to love one another.

Paul here is saying, look, you have not yet loved people enough. You might make seven years of payments on a car and you're like, that's enough. I've made enough payments on that car. Debt's paid off. You can't then translate that into, okay, I've loved this person for seven years. That's enough. I just, I'm not going to offer any more love. It's enough. It's paid off. No, that's not

the way that love works. We are to continue to love one another because love fulfills the law. The commentator Leon Morris 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. There's lots of things that we can do and it's like, okay, I've done my duty. You show up for jury duty once a year. All right, I've fulfilled my duty for the year. I don't have to do that

at all for the rest of the year, right? But you can't say that about love. You can't say, well, I already loved you this year. I already loved my neighbor this year. I already showed love or expressed love or, you know, acted out in love. And so I'm done. Paul says, no, we still owe the debt of love. And as citizens of heaven, but still here on earth, we are to represent the love of God to the world around us.

Now Paul goes on in verse 9 to give some examples of the commandments that love fulfills. And when the tablets were given to Moses, those 10 commandments, there was two tablets. On one tablet was the commands that were related to God. On the second tablet was the commands that were related to others around us. And that's what Paul is quoting from here.

You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. These are all related to our relationship with others around us. You can find all of these things in Deuteronomy 5 and Exodus chapter 20. Well, Jesus took these 10 commandments and reduced them down to two. In Matthew chapter 22, he said, love God, love your neighbor. That's the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And that's what Paul is saying here too.

He says, all are summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. This whole second part of the Ten Commandments is summed up in loving your neighbor. If you're loving your neighbor, then, well, verse 10 says, you do no harm to your neighbor because you're doing what is best. And I always describe love as doing what is best for someone, having their best interests in mind, and specifically speaking to the eternal perspective. What's best for them for eternity?

And so love is to be a significant feature of us in our relationship to the people around us. Your neighbor, you could say, who is my neighbor, right? Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to that question. Your neighbor is the people that you come in contact with. You could try to like legally say, okay, well, it's only this person who lives at this residence address, you know, right next to me. That's only, that's the only person who's my neighbor.

But that's not what Jesus taught. He said, look, the person you come in contact with that is in need, that's your neighbor. Love them. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Let the gospel transform your life in such a way that you are a loving person to the people around you, that you extend and express the love of God to those who are around you. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, finally, the fourth point, we'll finish up in verses 11 through 14. Point number four is wake up, put on Jesus, and walk properly. Wake up, put on Jesus, and walk properly. Let's read those verses. Starting in verse 11, it says, and do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

Starting in verse 11, Paul says, And do this. Do what? All the things he's been talking about.

Going back to point one, obey authorities with a good attitude. Paul says, do that knowing the time. It's high time to wake up and obey authorities with a good attitude. Do this. Point number two, support and honor authorities. Knowing what time it is. It's high time to wake up and support and honor authorities. Do this. Point number three, love your neighbor as yourself. It's high time to wake up

Know what time it is and love your neighbor because he says our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Do you know what time it is? Do you know how close we are to eternity? And there's one sense that we are close to eternity and that, well, our very next breath is not promised to us. We're close to eternity. Every moment we can be in eternity.

But we're also close to eternity as we see the return of the Lord draw nearer and nearer. And as you look at the events that are transpiring, as you look at the things that are going on, the things happening in the Middle East, the fulfillment of the scenarios that the Bible describes as the end time scenario, you see those things, they're like right on the verge of, it could happen at any moment. Do you know what time it is?

Now this is Paul writing almost 2,000 years ago, right? He says it's high time to awake. It's still high time to awake. It's more true today than it was when Paul said it. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. We're closer. And so it's time. It's not time to mess around. It's not time to make provision for the flesh, as he says in verse 14. Make no provision for the flesh. How much do you budget for the flesh?

You look at your financial budget. How much of that is for the flesh? What kind of provisions are you giving to the flesh? What's in your fleshly savings account that you are making an allowance for, giving opportunity for? This is my flesh fund right here. Paul says, take that away. Invest all of that in the things of the kingdom of God because, oh, we're so close. The time is near. You are on the edge of eternity. And so it's time to awake out of sleep.

It's time to wake up. We are closer than ever before. He says, the night is far spent in verse 12 and the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off. He's talking about casting off the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light. In verse 14, he talks about putting on the Lord Jesus. And it's really word pictures of changing clothes. When you go out to work on the car or

You probably don't wear the same thing that you're wearing to a nice dinner. When you're going to go to the nice dinner, you cast off those dirty clothes, those greasy clothes. You cast those off and then you put on new clothes that are appropriate for the dinner that's at hand. Paul says it's the same thing. You need to cast off the works of the flesh.

and put on the armor of light, put on the Lord Jesus, that you would put on the character and nature of Christ. And so Paul here is saying, look, is there any kind of sin in your life?

Cast it off. It's time to get rid of it. It's not time to say, okay, you know, I know this isn't right. I know it's wrong, but I can handle it. It's not really impacting me to a great degree. And so I think it's okay. I'm just going to kind of continue and dabble a little bit or have this here. You know, I'm not going to really deal with it. Paul's saying, no, no, it's not time for that.

It's not time for any kind of allowance or compromise. It's not time for you to let sin reign in your life to any degree or any capacity. It's time to cast it off. Eternity for you is at any moment. The return of Jesus could take place at any moment. The rapture of the church could take place at any moment. It's time to wake up, to put on Jesus'

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. He keeps giving these contrasts between darkness and lights, night versus day, wickedness versus righteousness. He says, let's walk properly. It's time to walk properly. Are you walking properly? It's time.

You've lived in that lifestyle. You've lived in those things. You've, you know, given enough of your life to the flesh. It's time to cast that aside and to walk properly. And this contrast that he gives between night versus day, darkness versus light, I think he gives us a really important illustration to consider. Just to bring a little bit of clarity to us, Paul is saying, throw off anything in your life that you have to keep hidden.

Is there anything in your life that you have to keep hidden? Throw it off, cast it off, take it off. Put those clothes away. Those are dirty. That's your flesh. If you have to hide it, you don't want to give any place to that in your life. And instead, put on the things of the Lord Jesus. Put on the things that you can do unashamedly.

Put on the things and put on a lifestyle that doesn't need to be hidden in any degree or in any capacity. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on the armor of light. It's time.

And sometimes we get in this mode where, you know, we're just expecting life to continue and things are just going to keep on going the way that they've been going. And we lose our sense of urgency. We allow compromise and complacency in our lives. And Paul here is saying, look, you are a citizen of heaven on earth and you're on earth for the moment, but at any moment you will be in heaven. So it's not time to dabble in sin. It's not time to goof off and mess around with your spiritual life. It's time to wake up

It's time to put on Jesus and to walk properly. That involves obeying authorities with a good attitude. It involves supporting and honoring those authorities. It involves loving your neighbor as yourself. It involves throwing off the works of the flesh, making no provision for it, giving no opportunity to pursue those things and chase those things in your life.

Cutting those opportunities off so that you can be focused on the things of the Lord, putting on the Lord Jesus and walking in the armor of light. Jesus was a good citizen. He's a good model for us. He was hated, but he represented the Father. It was clear he was a citizen of heaven on earth. Here we are, Paul says, follow that pattern. In many ways, we should be the best people to have around.

You know, our bosses should be like, boy, those Christians are the best employees. If we're just like all the other employees, we've really failed. We've really messed up. We should be the best. Not the ones who cause the most problems, but the ones who are the most pleasant to be around, to have around. We should be the best citizens. Communities should wish they have more of us. Now, they're not going to do that because they hate the truth in us.

But let them hate the truth, but not hate our behavior, right? Not hate our representation of Christ. We should be the best neighbors. We're citizens of heaven on earth. And how can we fulfill this? How can we, you know, fill this role? Well, that goes back to Romans chapters 1 through 11. The gospel, when you understand and believe the gospel, it's a radical message, right?

It's radical truth and it will radically transform our lives if we believe it. Believe that God works all things together for good and be submitted to those authorities unless God says otherwise. Support and honor authorities. Trusting God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Trusting God that he's established those things. The gospel truth in us should shape us and impact our lives so that we can behave this way and be citizens of heaven.

Here on earth, right now, we represent the Lord. We honor him in the way that we live in this life. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word and the challenge that it presents. God, we pray that you would help us to believe your gospel message, your message of grace. The truth, Lord, is transformative in our lives. I pray, God, that you would help us to grasp hold of it, to truly believe it with all of our hearts, Lord, that we could live lives that represent you, that we would live out the grace that you've extended to us to be your agents, your representatives.

to the world around us. I pray, God, that you would teach us when to be subject to authorities. Give us great wisdom and clarity, Lord, on how you desire for us to relate to those that you've placed in authority above us. I pray, God, that you would give us many opportunities to love our neighbor.

Lord, that there would be occasions for us to express your love in word, in action. Lord, that we would be your hands and your feet and your mouth to the world around us, declaring the great things that you have done, the grace and the mercy that you've extended. And I pray, God, that you would stir up within us an urgency, Lord, that we would be awake and alert, ready to live for you, ready to honor you.

to make choices, to take action like you would take. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 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.