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and be edified as he preaches your word. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Man, Romans chapter 13 is a really important chapter in the Bible that talks about the fact that God has ordained authority in our lives and that there is a chain of command where we are to be subject unto the higher powers. The Bible says in verse number one, for there is no power but of God. And here's what the Bible is saying there is that God is the source of all authority in this world. All legitimate authority figures in this world derive that authority in some way from God. So the question is, why do children have to obey their parents? Because God said so, right? Why do servants need to obey their masters? Because God has said so. Why do wives need to obey their husbands? Because God said so in his word. Because ultimately that authority, that structure that has been set up in this world has been ordained by God. There's no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Now this does not necessarily mean that God has chosen each particular person in those positions of power. But it is saying that God has created those power structures in general. God has created those positions. He's ordained that there be a husband, that there be a father, that there be a boss at work, that there be governments in this world. God is not the author of confusion. And so God wants us to live in an orderly society. He wants us to have order in the church, order in our families, order in business, not anarchy, not chaos, not everyone doing what is right in their own eyes. But rather God has ordained authority in this world. You say, well, I just don't want anyone to ever tell me what to do. You know, that is a wicked attitude because the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. So this attitude that wants no rules, no authority, nobody's going to tell me what to do is not a godly attitude. Okay. Because we are in this world that God has ordained with these structures of power, no power, but that which is of God, which God has ordained and the powers that be are ordained of God. Look at verse two, it says, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. So what the Bible is saying is that when you're rebelling against your legitimate God given authority, then you are actually rebelling against God. If God is the one who told you, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. And then you rebel against your parents. You're actually not rebelling against your parents. You're rebelling against God. Now this comes up a little bit in the books of Moses where we see Moses and Aaron dealing with the children of Israel in the wilderness and the children of Israel, they're murmuring against Moses. They're complaining, they're rebelling. And Moses brings up repeatedly. He says, you know, who am I, who is Aaron that you murmur against us? You're not murmuring against us. You're murmuring against God. And that's where this idea comes from that, Hey, wait a minute. If God said to obey your husband and you're rebelling against your husband, you're actually rebelling against God, right? If God says, servants, obey your masters according to the flesh, please them well in all things. And you go to work and defy the boss at work, defy the management, defy the owner of the company. It's really God that you're defying because God is the one who told you to go to work and obey and do your job and to do it well. If you defy government, that is legitimate government. Okay. You are defying God. Okay. Because God is the one who told you to obey these authorities in your life. So it's pretty serious to think about that and say, wait a minute. You know, it's not that I just am not respecting my mom or not respecting my dad or not respecting my husband or whatever. You know, it's actually God that you're disrespecting indirectly because God is the one who set up those authorities in your life. Okay. The Bible says in verse two, whosoever therefore resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive themselves damnation. Now, when we use the word damnation, a lot of times we just think that that means going to hell or something. But in reality, the word damnation is synonymous with the word condemnation in the Bible. One of them is a little stronger than the other, but it's really the same word. Even just looking at the word damnation, you can see that if you, if you put a con at the beginning, I would be like con damnation, right? And it's basically just the same word without that con prefix. And so I don't want you to get the idea looking at this that, oh, you know, there's a special place in hell for those who, uh, you know, resist their authorities. No, the Bible is just saying you're going to receive condemnation. You're, you're condemned, you're in sin, you're wrong. And the Bible says that, uh, those who resist the power, resist the ordinance of God. They, that resist shall receive themselves damnation for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do you want to not live in fear of that power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. Now, a lot of times people get this attitude that says, well, the authority in my life is impossible to please. You know, my, my husband's impossible to please. My parents are impossible to please. The boss at work is just impossible to please. No matter what I do, he's not going to be happy. And this is virtually never true. Although this is how people often think it is virtually never true. And that's a hard truth maybe for you to accept. But the Bible says here that if you don't want to be afraid of the power, do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. You know, even authority figures in the Bible that were wicked, unfair and unreasonable, God's people were usually able to make them happy and please them and get along with them. Like for example, Laban, you know, Laban's a guy who was a jerk of a father-in-law, jerk of a boss, ripping off Jacob, changing his wages seven times. But yet Jacob easily made Laban happy and Laban was very happy with his work performance and so forth. And you go down the list of Bible stories and situations in real life and obviously the exception proves the rule. You've got the situation like in Exodus where Pharaoh has this just ridiculous expectation that they have to gather the straw by night and make the bricks by day and it was just completely impossible. And so then obviously that was a situation where yeah it was impossible to please him because he just wanted to beat them and it was just uh part of his plan to just punish them. There are rare situations like that but I know so many people are thinking right now like oh that's my situation. No it isn't okay. It is virtually never true. It is virtually never the case. Although people constantly claim this oh my husband is just impossible to please. My parents are just impossible to please. You know usually that's just you not wanting to submit to the God-ordained authority in your life and so you're finding an excuse and you're finding a way out by just claiming that it's impossible. And you know what if you would have asked me when I was a teenager if you would have come and talked to me when I was 16 years old and asked me I would have said yep my parents are impossible to please. It's just impossible and I actually felt that way and I remember one time I even made this foolish blasphemous statement. I said you know what if Jesus were living in this home he'd get yelled at every day. I made that statement as a teenager. I didn't say that to my parents because I would have been afraid to say that to my parents but I said that to my brother okay and I made that wrong statement and you know what it wasn't true. I was wrong just like you're wrong right now if that's how you think okay because I honestly felt that that was true but then I decided to change my heart and change my attitude and change my actions and I started to make more of an effort when I got to be around 17-18 years old. I started making more of an effort to get along with my parents and I started just jumping in and helping out with chores around the house without being asked and just being nicer to my parents and it was just like my parents attitude toward me just changed like that. It just instantly worked. It was just like is there anything we can do for you Stephen? You know literally that's how my parents acted toward me when I was 18-19. They were just always wanting to help me out and they were always super nice to me. Why? Because I actually changed my attitude and my heart and I started pitching in and helping out and being a better son and it was just amazing to see that work and just turn on a dime and you know it's so easy to just complain oh my parents are always on my case but what does the Bible say because I didn't write Romans chapter 13. The Bible says do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. This is what the Bible is saying that in general the vast majority of the time yes authority can be pleased okay and it is possible to get along and live a quiet and peaceable life to be happy to be praised of the authority that you once feared okay. This is what the Bible says in verse 4, for he is the minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So now let's talk about actual human government as far as say the United States government or the Arizona government or the city of Tempe or whatever other different governments we are under in the United States. You know I look at our government today and of course there are many things about our government that I disapprove of as our country becomes more wicked and de-Christianized and we have a lot of ungodly rulers and leaders. You know I look at our government and there's a lot about it that I find fault with that I don't approve of that's not godly that's not right but yet I am the vast majority of the time typically able to get along with the government in this country. I mean I'm I go about my life every single day and the government leaves me alone and I pay the taxes even though a lot of the money is being spent on things that I don't think are legitimate for our government to do yet I pay the taxes I do that which is good I live my life and I don't have any issue right. Now here's the thing I could spend my life fighting against the government I could spend my life just just finding everything that the government's doing wrong and battling them on that and resisting them on that and protesting that and fighting that and there are people who do that and and some of the things that they're protesting and fighting are legitimate and I would even agree with where they're coming from but at the end of the day though God has called us to fight a spiritual battle and what is far more important than whatever the political problems in our country the spiritual problem is way bigger of a problem and in fact I would say that the political things in our country that we don't like are pretty much just a punishment from God because of the spiritual problem and that if we actually did write spiritually if we would actually follow Christ then God would bless us with righteous leaders and righteous laws and righteous governance. At the end of the day although there are a lot of things about our government that are ungodly you know I just don't think about it too much I just don't worry about it too much because this world's not my home I'm just passing through and my citizenship is in heaven and I'm more interested in fighting a spiritual battle for the souls of mankind and just writing that check every April and just sending it and just whatever go ahead take my money whatever you know what I mean because it's just I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fight something that I can't change you know I have the serenity to accept the things that I can't change and I'm not gonna try to fight city hall as the saying goes right so if the city or the state has a stupid ordinance then I'm just gonna go along with it I'm gonna obey every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake okay but with that being said there's a caveat to that that if the government does command me to disobey the law of God then I ought to obey God rather than men and if the government makes some kind of a law that is unconstitutional then I don't have to obey that law because the highest law in our land is the constitution of the United States and so yeah you can have local bureaucrats getting on a power trip making unconstitutional laws and it's okay to disregard those things because they're not legal because our supreme court in this country has stated that any law that violates the constitution or is repugnant to the constitution is not binding it doesn't matter I mean somebody could just put up a sign that says no breathing allowed you know and it doesn't mean I have to obey that sign every time I walk by I have to hold my breath or something because obviously there are laws that are unconstitutional or illegal laws you know kind of an oxymoron but yet there could be lower powers who make a law that goes against the higher power so the whole principle here is be subject to the higher powers the highest power is God so we're never going to break God's law no matter what anybody says if your parents tell you to break God's law you don't break God's law right you obey the Lord as supreme he's at the top and then basically you would say okay US constitution and then usually federal law Trump's state law and so you know there's all different levels of hierarchy there and so obviously when God says obey the higher power he's saying that we need to do what we can hopefully to obey everything in that chain of command but if there is a conflict we ought to obey God rather than men okay so if there's some law that says no soul winning allowed you know we can't go out and preach the gospel to every creature there's absolutely nothing wrong with breaking that law because you're obeying God's law and they can't make a law against God's law because they don't have that kind of power their power derives from God so how can they make a law against obeying the bible they can't they don't have that kind of power they're out of bounds and at that point they should be completely ignored and if they make a law that goes against the US constitution you don't have to obey that law either because you're actually obeying the law by following the constitution which is the higher power so I'm not saying that we would necessarily just blindly have to follow every single thing that any government person tells us to do but in general we should obey every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake as long as there's no conflict even if it's something stupid even if it's something we don't agree with we would just go along to get along why because otherwise we're going to be all tied up in court all the time and dealing with all the wrong battles and you know I'm glad that somebody's out there fighting the political battle and fighting for freedom and I would never be down on someone who's out there fighting for freedom in this country and standing up for our rights as Americans and so forth but I'm not going to make that the focus of my life and I don't think you should either even though I'll take my hat off to the guy who's doing it and I'm glad that he's doing it we have a special job as Christians that no one else can do as save born again children of God you know what we can do we can get other people saved we're saved and we have the power to bring forth fruit after our own kind and to get other people saved so let some unsaved people worry about all the political things and so forth and let's fight the battle that only we can fight which is the spiritual battle and make that the focus and not just get in fights everywhere we go but rather save our fight for the spiritual fight and try to get along as much as possible with other things you know it could be annoying little bureaucrats in our lives you know the HOA or the city or the you know the the Arizona tax whatever sales tax I forget what that division is called I used to deal with them all the time but you know a little annoying you know you just just just deal with just do it you know just just just use the crosswalk to cross the street if that's what we need to do or whatever just who cares don't just be a rebel in general be a person who follows the rules in general right in general follow the rules and you know these you know this whole face mask thing at this point is absurd at this point you know and and look when the whole covid thing happened in 2020 I took a really moderate approach because I didn't really know which way it was going to go and I was trying to err on the side of caution and took kind of a moderate approach and so I was kind of like okay you know let's try to go along to get along here with this but it's like okay two years later it's over it's been over for a long time right but yet you'll still have places sometimes like hey you got to wear that mask it's not you know I could see if there were like a really virulent infectious disease happening right now and you want to just slow it down or something so temporarily wearing the mask you know I could see wearing that temporarily it actually does make sense to keep spit and snot from flying just in a short-term emergency situation but wearing that thing as a lifestyle for the rest of your life is insane it's literally insane and we have people today just voluntarily wearing that and I've had people just come right out and tell me I'm gonna wear it for the rest of my life even when this is over they're like every time I go to the store I'm wearing it right because they're like I don't get sick anymore this is so foolish because listen Howard Hughes okay you need to get exposed to germs in your life and if you wear that thing yeah you'll never get sick until you do and when you do you'll probably just die because your immune system forgot that it even existed because you've been in Howard Hughes mode for the last you know several years or whatever so you know but here's the thing if I walk into a place in 2022 after the pandemic is long over and now that these new strains are literally pretty much on the level with like the flu or a cold or something because it's it's had time to mutate and you know we're a few years in and it's it's kind of a nothing burger at this point for most people obviously anybody can die from anything at any time in a freak thing but here's the thing if I walk into one of these places it's like oh you got to wear them you know I just had to wear one this week I walked into a place it's like oh you know you got to put on a mask I didn't just be like you idiot you know what I just said okay no problem and I just put the stupid thing on you know I'm not going to sit there and just fight every battle and die on every hill I don't really care if they if they want to have that rule at that place you know I might choose businesses that don't have that rule if it's annoying unto me but if somebody says wear this I'm not just in the habit of just everywhere I go just somebody tells me to do something I'm just like make me every single where every single place I go every single situation you know that's not a virtue being this person just everywhere you go it's just like oh hey stand inside the line go over there make me you know and you know a lot of times in America we do think that's a virtue to just be a person who just bucks every rule and rebels and always does the opposite of whatever you know in reality scripture does teach us to fight a spiritual battle and in the case of these carnal things to just go along to get along you know Jesus I remember you know I love the part where Jesus philosophically explains to Peter why we shouldn't have to pay taxes to the you know and he basically says to him you know uh of whom do the kings of the earth take tribute and custom of their own children of strangers and he says of strangers and he says well then are the children free like like we should be taxing other you know countries not ourselves not our own free citizens but he said nevertheless lest we offend them go pay it you know I'm shortening the story a little bit and uh doing a little bit of a paraphrase but he tells Peter go pay our taxes even though we really shouldn't have to pay this as Israelites go ahead and pay it anyway so that we don't offend them why because we don't want to get in trouble with the man so just pay it because we have bigger fish to fry we have better things to do does everybody understand in general we're able to get along with government you know you don't see me getting arrested in the United States you know even though I preach the bible go soul-winning knock doors and and people call the police on me all the time for various reasons you know I'm able to to make it work and you probably will be too if you do that which is good you should be fine okay now there are situations of course where governments start persecuting Christians and and punishing them for obeying God and then at that point you got to obey God rather than men but Romans 13 is for when we're in our normal mode and we're not going through that kind of situation and so the bible says he's the minister of God to thee for good verse 4 but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he buried not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil now this is actually talking about the government killing people because it says the sword you don't use a sword for anything other than to kill someone and so the bible says that the government is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil and this is ordained by God and this is why I believe in the death penalty the death penalty is biblical in the old testament God gave the children of Israel the death penalty but even before the old testament when Noah got off the ark God instituted the death penalty for murderers long before the mosaic law when Noah got off the ark and in the new testament God reiterates the fact that the government is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil and he does not bear the sword in vain you see if you study the old testament when someone was murdered their friend or family member would be known as the avenger of blood and would go kill the person who murdered their loved one and they actually had the right to go kill the person who murdered their loved one because they're basically bringing justice you know if you commit murder it's a death penalty so they would go and carry out the death penalty or if that person were brought before the judges then that person would be executed you know the avenger of blood would be the person that would first lay their hand upon them to kill them and afterward the hands of all the congregation and so in the old testament you had this system whereby the avenger of blood would take care of murderers under the old testament mosaic law but obviously that's not the situation in romans 13 that's not the situation at the time of christ and that's not the situation in america i mean if someone commits murder of someone that i love i can't just go out and kill them can i that's not legal and we're supposed to follow the laws of the land that's what jesus taught that's what we do so instead of the avenger of blood just going out and doing it himself you know the bible teaches that government is a revenger to execute wrath upon him that do with evil so government fills that role of executing criminals and so yes the death penalty is biblical even in the new testament it's uh still biblical and i support it for things like first-degree murder okay and see and other things as well that the bible teaches but the bible here is saying he bears not the sword in vain he's a he's a he's a minister of god bearing the sword to execute wrath upon him that do with evil key word there is execute because there's a sword involved and you don't give somebody a spanking with a sword okay at least no normal person does that and so it says in verse five wherefore you must needs be subject you need to submit to authority in your life whether it's parents husband boss at work and the government itself in the case of the sword and the revenger we're talking about actual government because that's who executes criminals obviously in our society wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake so there are two reasons to submit to authority number one because if you don't you're going to get punished number two because you want to have a good conscience before god so basically if you disobey your parents you should fear the discipline of your parents number one fear the wrath of your parents but also your conscience should bother you so that means that even if you can get away with it even if your parents will never find out even if your husband will never find out even if your boss at work will never find out you should be subject for conscience sake so there's two reasons to obey earthly authority because of the wrath of that authority coming down on you because if you do that which is evil be afraid be very afraid and also your conscience toward god is important then it says in verse six for this cause pay ye tribute also tribute is taxes for their god's ministers attending continually upon this very thing now not only is this verse telling us that we should pay taxes which jesus paid taxes jesus said render unto caesar the things that be caesars right but here's the thing it's also a statement about the role of civil government because according to the bible the civil government should be attending continually upon this very thing what very thing the punishment of evildoers so why does government exist according to the bible to punish evildoers does the government exist to take care of us cradle to grave does the government exist to make sure that we all have breakfast in the morning and to make sure that we all have a certain medical treatment or a certain psychological treatment or to educate us and teach us and love us and care for us from cradle to grave no that's not the proper role of government the proper role of government is to attend continually all the time upon this very thing punishing evildoers the whole point of government is to protect liberty by punishing people like thieves murderers adulterers rapists punishing those people so that we can remain free and live our quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty the government is there because if we didn't have the government there'd be a lot of stealing murder raping and pillaging going on and so that's why we don't want anarchy we want to have the government want to have an orderly decent society and so here it says that they attend continually upon this very thing unfortunately our government in many ways out of bounds and trying to do other things and fill other roles that the family should be filling that the church should be filling and that other components should be fulfilling the government is out of their lane they need to stay in their lane the church should stay in its lane the family should stay in its lane right god has ordained these different authorities and these different power structures and kingdoms and they should do what god has ordained them to do verse seven render therefore to all their dues tribute to him tribute is due again that's something like taxes custom to him custom this is like when you go from one country to another and you have to pay customs or some kind of an import tax or export tax custom to custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor oh no man anything but to love one another now this is a very famous verse that's often quoted right oh no man anything but to love one another what does it mean though what it's saying is that we should not be delinquent on any obligation that we have to anyone so that we pay our bills so that we pay our debts so that we do our job so that we do our chores at home so that we do what we are supposed to do and render to everyone their dues and if we rent it to everyone their dues now we could say okay we're square we're even i don't owe you anything now except the one thing that i always owe you which is to love one another right so i used to owe you 10 bucks but i paid you back the 10 that i borrowed and so now i only owe you one thing just that i love you because i always owe that to you i can't just say we're even now so next to you no no we're even now so i'm gonna love you because i'm gonna love my neighbor as myself i'm gonna continue to love so the only thing that we really owe one another once we've fulfilled our obligations once you've fulfilled all your obligations as a wife you're not done because now you need to love your husband once you've fulfilled all your obligations as a husband you're not done now you need to love your wife you say well i paid the bills i work hard i did okay but now you need to love your wife because fulfilling your obligations doesn't take away your responsibility for loving one another right so oh no man anything means fulfill your debts pay your bills make your payment do your obligation do what you've said you would do fulfill what you have committed to and then once you've done all those obligations the only thing that you owe is just to love one another at that point because you've done everything else you were supposed to do oh no man anything but to love one another and then it says this for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law he the loveth another hath fulfilled the law love is the fulfillment of the law this is why all of god's laws can actually be just expressed as love the lord thy god with all thy heart mind soul and strength and love thy neighbor as thyself that's it that's pretty much the law and the prophets right there right on these two commandments love god love your neighbor hang all the law and the prophets and you think about the ten commandments you know the first half of the ten commandments has to do with loving god the second half has to do with loving your neighbor if you love your neighbor you're not going to steal from your neighbor you know if you love your neighbor you're not going to commit adultery with your neighbor's wife you're not going to kill your neighbor and so forth so loving god and loving our neighbor fulfills all that so when it comes to our relationships with other people he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law if we walk in love we will automatically follow the rules if we walk in love we will automatically do no harm to our neighbor that's what he's about to say he says in verse 9 for this thou shall not commit adultery thou shall not kill thou shall not steal thou shall not bear false witness thou shall not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself that's basically the cliff's notes version of those five commandments is just love your neighbor as yourself love worketh no ill to his neighbor love doesn't hurt or harm his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law by the way here's an interesting note if you're reading one of these modern corrupted bible versions okay they actually remove from verse 9 the phrase thou shall not bear false witness so instead of having these five commandments listed the the latter five of the ten commandments you end up with only four listed there if you're reading an niv or new american standard or esv or one of these versions isn't it interesting that a book filled with lies that's constantly adding to and removing from god's word takes out the commandment about not lying right thou shall not bear false witness but that's another sermon that shall be preached at another time love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law here's the thing about that the more loving we are toward other people the less rules we're going to need the more love we have in our church the less rules we need the more love we have in our home the less rules that we need i don't want to run my home like some kind of a prison colony or some kind of a concentration camp right i don't want to do that i want to give as much freedom to my children and to my wife and to my household as i possibly can i want everybody to have maximum freedom amen i love freedom i love liberty i want to give people freedom i want to have as few rules as possible but here's the thing you know parents end up having to make rules why because the kids do stuff that makes those rules necessary and the brattier the kids are the more disobedient they are the more they disrespect mom and dad and disrespect the few rules that are there you'll notice that more rules will happen you know my children will have more freedom if they didn't abuse freedom that they're given see if i give them some freedom and then they abuse it you know what i'm going to do i'm going to take it away and keep tightening things up whereas if i give them freedom and they're a good steward of the freedom that they're given they're going to get more freedom right it's the same thing at your job you know some jobs the boss is just all over you and supervising you and just watching you and micromanaging you but other jobs you're given a lot of freedom just hey go get this done and i'll see you on friday you know you see them on monday morning hey you got all week to do this let's talk friday when you're done get it done however you want i you know i love that i love that kind of freedom to just be allowed to work my own schedule do my own thing get my own tasks done but when employees waste time don't get things done are ineffective dishonest about their time sheets or dishonest about the quality of the work well then all of a sudden now you have to have all these surveillance cameras and you have to have all these check-ins and supervisors and rules and it's really no fun for anybody is it and you know what there's a relationship between how godly you are and how many rules are imposed upon you and how much freedom you have those things are connected meaning that if you are ungodly you're gonna end up losing freedom and people are gonna have to be more strict with you if you're a bad child your parents are gonna have more rules they're gonna be more strict they're gonna you know tighten things up on you and and nobody wants that or at least i mean maybe some people want that but most people don't want that most people want to have a lot of freedom so here's the moral of the story if you want to have freedom be a loving person who does what's right and if you do what's right out of love if you obey your parents out of love if you do things that you know your parents are going to like out of love and don't do the things that you know are going to anger them because you love them and if you do right toward your siblings because you love your siblings and if you do right toward god because you love god very few rules will need to be imposed upon you if you're if you're a loving person if you love the lord and love your neighbor you won't need a bunch of rules you won't need somebody coming down on you with all these rules you know you look at the old testament rules and and some of the laws you're like god why what are you talking about that's how i felt the first time i read leviticus 18 and leviticus 20 i'm like why are you even bringing this up god what in the world but then you get to the end of the chapter it says well all the heat all the canonites did all these things and i'm like oh well that explains it no wonder god had to have these bizarre rules because people had done these bizarre things and so god had to prohibit these wild things that no normal person would have thought of no loving person no godly person would have ever even thought of but yet because sinful man had dreamed it up god's like okay don't do this don't do this and you're like why would i want to do that well these weirdos did it you're like okay yeah i guess we do need that rule then and so let your parents give you freedom let your husband give you freedom right be godly be loving be righteous you'll have praise of your authority and they won't have to micromanage you and have all these rules and be so strict with you you'll have more liberty if you do what's right if you walk according to the law of liberty you won't need all these strict laws and here's the thing our country we we talked about it a couple weeks ago in the sermon where i went through all the different political ideologies in light of the bible you know some of the founders of our country men like john adams and james madison they had quotes that said you know this style of government will only work for a religious and moral people it's not adequate to govern wicked people because why wicked people need more rules irreligious people atheistic people need more rules because they don't have the love of god in their hearts they don't have the love of their neighbor in their hearts they're going to need more rules christianity teaches us to be loving and considerate of others and you say oh the liberals are so loving yeah they're so loving that they murder their own baby because they're so loving right they're so loving that they go out and commit adultery with somebody else's wife because they're just so loving right they're so loving that they go out and father a bunch of bastard children that they don't take care of because they're so loving right they're so loving that they just go out whoring around instead of saving themselves for their husband so loving aren't they no my friend they're not loving okay they pretend to be loving they give lip service to being loving but at the end of the day the bible says love is the fulfillment of the law that's what the bible says you know i see somebody doing what they're supposed to do following the rules fulfilling the law of god that's a loving person according to scripture i mean what does the bible say in in in verse 10 love worked with no ill to his neighbor therefore love is fulfilling of the law you know the the this libtard philosophy in our country today it does harm people it does harm people because it promotes faggotry and the sodomites go out and molest people's children they're a bunch of pedophile perverts yes they are homos are pedophiles i don't care what the media tells you they are and you can lie and twist it all you want but that has always been part and parcel of that faggot lifestyle i just said the f word that faggotty lifestyle has always been about pedophilia it's always been about kids they're not reproducers they're recruiters and they want your children but that's why they have their drag queen story hour they're constant they do an inordinate amount of the molestations even though they're like a couple percent of the population they're like 40 of the molestation or something they're a bunch of perverts bunch of predators a bunch of pedophiles so promoting that and pushing that is promoting predators and promoting harm not only that they're harming our children when they screw with their mind in elementary school and listen to me anytime a kid sees a transvestite that's harming that kid because it's screwing with their mind so i don't know if you should use the word screw from the pulpit well you know i don't think they should be screwing with our minds you know it's funny how people get so offended by hard preaching or some of the the the vocabulary but they don't get offended by what i'm actually talking about you know any if my kids have to see a transvestite in public that is screwing with their mind that's that's a form of molestation just exposing them to that filth and smut and when they see it in a cartoon or when they're taught it in an elementary school classroom that is screwing with their mind it is harmful it is damaging they're not even old enough to even process that and i'm 41 and i'm not even old enough to process it but elementary school kids dead sure aren't old enough to process that garbage that filth and so it's harmful right sexualizing little children it's disgusting it's harmful it's working ill to their neighbor because they don't love your children they don't love you they love and are obsessed with themselves and all they care about is just dragging you down with you know think about satan isn't satan just doomed at this point is there any pathway home for satan at this point i mean is there a way for satan to just kind of patch things up with god just be like look god you know we we got off on the wrong foot i read revelation i can see where this is going maybe we could work out some kind of a deal whereby maybe i could get in on the blood of christ and get saved or something you know it's not going to happen is it it can't happen salvation is not available unto satan so what is satan doing with his life if you want to call it that what is what is satan's goal according to scripture i mean when we study the bible satan does not even love the people who are following him okay satan doesn't love satanists okay and so he doesn't he doesn't love people his goal he's going to hell no matter what anyway his goal is to take as many people down with him as he can he's just like well i'm going to hell and i'm taking as many people with me as i can that's who the devil is and you know what the devil's minions in this world that's how they are too it's not enough for them to be doomed and damned they want to corrupt other people their goal is to corrupt the innocent their goal is to doom others and so they want to pervert the minds of children they want to corrupt children and they want to teach children that which is contrary to the gospel of jesus christ and try to teach them that the bible isn't true and don't believe in jesus don't be christianity is bad and you know they want to tell all the native americans hey you know don't do the white man's religion you need to do your kind of like kind of religion let me tell you that that is going to take you straight to hell it's going to take you straight to hell straight to hell why because it's not jesus you gotta believe on the lord jesus christ to be saved oh you know you gotta get to your ethnic roots you gotta do your african religion you gotta do oh oh or and you know what and the white supremacists are even worse they want you to do some pagan scandinavian religion like oh they'll tell you like oh you know you're doing a jewish religion when you're doing christianity that's what they'll try to tell you you gotta get back to thor and and odin and all this garbage right they want you to do some pagan scandinavian and by the way that's what the nazis were all about they were all about being a scandinavian pagan that's what they're trying to move things away from christianity okay well and and you'll you'll find a lot of you know white supremacist types that are like that now trying to say oh you know you gotta go to this ethnic religion folks it's garbage christianity is the only right religion jesus saith unto him i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me all other paths lead to hell islam hinduism judaism paganism shinto buddhism it's all leading to hell jesus christ is the way the truth and the life but yet in our country there are forces at work to try to de-christianize and tell people no no no islam is wonderful buddhism is wonderful native american religion is wonderful hinduism is wonderful new age is wonderful be an atheist be an agnostic they want to de-christianize youth to take them to hell with them because they're already reprobates and they're going to hell and they want to take as many people with them as they can they hate the lord they want to turn people away from christ that's harmful is that harmful harming children by messing with their minds de-christianizing trying to poison them against the gospel trying to teach them that the bible is is something that they shouldn't listen to their religion in general is even bad sometimes they'll even go that far and so they're harmful okay they're not that's not a loving person right love is the fulfillment of the law and especially god's law you know when you see someone not stealing not killing not committing adultery working hard rendering to every man their dues doing a good job at work paying their bills that's a loving person right there and then once they've done all those duties then they still owe their fellow man just the love from their heart so then he kind of changes gears at the very end of the chapter he says and knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed the night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness let's put on the armor of light now what does that mean when it says that you know the time now is our salvation nearer than when we believed obviously when we believed we already got saved with respect to our spirit so the moment that i got the moment i believed on jesus i was already saved with regard to my spirit but not the my body not the flesh my salvation is not going to be 100 complete until christ returns and my body is saved right now we have the earnest of the spirit the down payment of the spirit and it's impossible to lose our salvation nothing could separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord and we've been sealed by the holy ghost unto the day of redemption so we're sealed our spirit is already saved and we're already sealed we have the first fruits of the spirit but the salvation process is complete when we are totally freed from the presence of sin completely by receiving a new body you know right now we still live in the flesh and our flesh is sinful and so that's all that's saying when it says now is our salvation nearer than when we believe it's talking about our total and utter salvation which is guaranteed unto everyone who has believed on jesus christ right now the spirit has been saved later the body will be saved at the resurrection right just a quick note on that the night is first spent the day is at hand the day is at hand that's again that's referring to the second coming of christ the resurrection our redemption of our body our salvation in that sense so therefore let's cast off the works of darkness let us put on the armor of light the bottle is saying look this life is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away life's going to be over before we know it the night is going to end before we know it the day is at hand so let's start acting like it now let's start living like it now let's cast off the work of darkness let's not be like the sinful unsaved community around us let's put on the armor of light let's walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put ye on the lord jesus christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof so bottom line is this god has ordained human authority in this period right now before christ's second coming when he's going to come and rule and reign at this time right now in this night as it were before the day comes and the day star arise in our hearts and christ come in the clouds and so forth you know during this time of night we live in this world we're in the world but we're not of the world and we have various authorities in our lives and we are supposed to walk in love toward god and our neighbor which also involves us following the rules in our life and that means following your parents rules following the rules at your job following the rules in your community so long as it doesn't ask you to violate god's laws right we should go along to get along and be a good testimony good example love people love our neighbor love god and if and honestly we won't need as many rules the more love we have in our heart the more love we have in our heart we don't need to be micromanaged by god or anyone else and so if you're a person who just by nature says i don't like it when people tell me what to do you need to change because that is a sinful attribute to just in general not want to be told what to do that is wrong and so you need to come to the place where you are humble enough to allow other people to tell you what to do and to take commands from other people and humbly obey the authority in your life and as you walk in love hopefully you can get more and more freedom and more and more liberty if the faction of our country that is so harmful and so wicked and so evil and not loving takes control of the culture and our society we're going to lose more and more freedom the further we get away from god the further we get from christ the less freedom we're going to have as americans okay in your family the more you disrespect and don't love your spouse your children the people around you in life the more that you don't love god the less freedom you're going to have in life right so here's the moral of the story follow the rules be subject under the higher powers and more importantly love god and love your neighbor and if you'll do those things you'll end up doing right by people and you'll end up following the law without even trying just because you're just by nature wanting to be kind because you're a loving part you just of course you want to do what's right because you love god you love your neighbor and so forth let's bow your heads in the word of prayer father i pray that uh the teachings of this important chapter would sink down into our ears lord and that we would not be deceived by all of the wickedness out there lord there there are people out there on all sides that are trying to pull us in different directions away from your word lord but i pray that at the end of the day all of our opinions and lifestyle choices and the decisions that we make would all be based upon your perfect word lord help us to read your word every day to derive your will so that we can do it and in jesus name we pray amen