Sermon: How Does God View Human Government?

#1564
Martin G. Collins
Given 26-Sep-20; 67 minutes

There are times in the history of a nation when the government disappoints and even betrays its people, and it becomes natural to ask why government exists and how it should function. We are going through such a period in the United States. "We are at war," so say world leaders as countries struggle to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. The planned unprecedented outbreak has pushed governments to take extraordinary measures unheard of in peacetime, including closing borders and instituting nationwide lockdowns.

People all over the globe are continually required to wear masks, carry permits, or face fines for leaving their homes. Many Christians are restricted from meeting to worship God or limited in what we are allowed to do in praising Him by singing hymns. Former US Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns warned, "This crisis could ultimately have an impact as serious as the World War in terms of the number of people affected, in terms of the impact on the economy, and on the people's way of life."

President Donald Trump echoed the sentiment, tweeting, "The world is at war with a hidden enemy." He also referred to himself as a wartime president in a press briefing, a statement that is without legal significance.

Under such circumstances, history has shown there is a very fine line between protecting citizens and eroding their civil rights—and that line can be exploited in times of great uncertainty.

Scott Radnitz, associate professor of international studies at the University of Washington, diplomatically cautioned,

Even without any malevolent intent, major economic crises and wars usually lead to an expansion of the state and greater intrusions into people's lives. And this can be for the better, but sometimes, once governments develop new capacities, they find it hard to let them lapse.

But political context matters when governments move to limit civil liberties, especially for countries that have a history of authoritarian leadership. Even in well-established democracies, there have been concerns about the lasting consequences of pandemic responses. In the United States, where individualism is a key element of the national character, the fine line between freedom and safety is increasingly clear. Richard Primus, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Michigan, wrote in an email,

It's often the case that governmental power expands in time of emergency and doesn't revert fully back to the status quo after the emergency has passed. Historically, the years of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II all saw important expansions of the federal government's authority, and those expansions in important parts remained after the wars were over.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, federal responses invoked under ostensibly temporary measures have continued to affect lives two decades later in the United States. The USA Patriot Act, which expanded the government's ability to invade privacy, override due process, and punish dissent, remains largely in effect despite the initial inclusion of sunset provisions.

Sunset provisions means they had to end when the crisis was over. They ignore that in this present COVID-19 fiasco.

The level of corruption among progressive leaders, especially at the highest levels of government, have made many cynical and fueled an already intense disdain for government or any other form of authority. People will react differently. Some are ready to pull down the system, while others were hardly ready to admit that a breach of trust had occurred.

What is right? How should we view government, particularly in those times when its decisions are unpopular, or when it obviously fails to conduct itself morally or do its job? The standard answer to questions regarding a Christian's responsibility to government has always been the reply of Jesus Christ to His critics.

Matthew 22:21 "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

In the background for this valuable guideline was a question about taxes.

Matthew 22:17 [the Pharisees asked Jesus] "Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

Christ's reply has therefore rightly been understood to give a binding affirmative answer in that area.

What should we do beyond this point or beyond this issue of taxes? Does the Christian have duties toward the state in other areas? Are those duties independent of his Christian duties? Suppose the commands of God and the commands of the government disagree. Do we obey Caesar, arguing that God has set him over us and will therefore take care of the consequences of our act? Or do we obey God? The issues are not always easy to resolve.

To go back to the matter of taxes, we see that even this is not entirely clear. The question, should we pay taxes if we know for sure that our tax money will be used for godless or immoral ends, shows that there are puzzling factors in this area also. Now it is probably true that there are always going to be what seem like "gray areas" in connection with this subject, if for no other reason than that it is rarely easy to see the whole situation clearly. But on the other hand, we are not entirely without guidelines because the Bible provides them in several places.

Paul's discussion of authority in Romans 13 is one example. Another is the somewhat extended discussion between Pilate, the representative of human government, and Jesus Christ, the representative of divine government, at Jesus' trial leading to His crucifixion.

Please turn over to John 19, verse 6. This issue was always at the heart of the trial before Pilate—this issue of the government and who is in charge, or who we do we obey. This issue was always at the heart of the trial before Pilate, because Jesus was accused of having made Himself a king in opposition to the legitimate rule of Caesar. The issue was whether Jesus stood in a right or wrong relationship to Caesar's government.

But in another sense, the question of the legitimacy of human government did not really emerge in the earliest stages of the trial because the examination of Jesus disclosed that His was a spiritual Kingdom, which Pilate assumed perhaps too quickly was none of his affair.

John 19:6-9 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" And Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him." The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.

Now the situation changes, and Pilate begins to interrogate Jesus again and demands He speak to him.

John 19:10-11 Then Pilate said to him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

This statement does not merely separate the two spheres of authority, Caesar's and God's; it brings them into relationship to one another, showing that the authority of government comes not from anything intrinsic to itself but from God. And that is, it is a delegated authority. Consequently, there is always the matter of government responsibility and sin.

So let us take these matters one at a time. First, there is Christ's statement that Pilate's power did not come from himself, or for that matter even from Caesar, but from God. This means that all power comes from God and is to that extent legitimated by Him.

Please turn to Hebrews 2, verse 14. One word often translated by power is dunamis. Most of you are familiar with that word. It means "explosive power." We get our words dynamite and dynamic from it, and it is used in such verses as Romans 1:16, which tells us that the gospel is the explosive power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

A second word frequently translated by power is the Greek word kratos, which means the "naked power of rule." Kratos gives us the words democracy, plutocracy, monocracy, and others. Although this naked power of rule can be legitimate, it can also be illegitimate, as in the case of Satan, who had the power of death, but it is taken away by God.

Hebrews 2:14-15 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

So if Jesus had used either of these words in John 19:11, He would have meant only that all power of rule comes from God, just as all life comes from Him. But Jesus did not use dunamis or kratos in His warning to Pilate. He used an even stronger limiting word, exousia, which means "legitimate authority." And thus He was saying not only that power in the sense of might comes from God, but that human government is divinely authorized and therefore exercises a rule that must be recognized.

When we see this, we begin to see not merely that Jesus was acknowledging the power of Pilate as a bare fact or even pointing out that its source is to be found ultimately in God, but rather that God has legitimized human government and that it is therefore to function properly and be highly respected. He himself respected it, because He courteously answered Pilate's questions and never once suggested that Pilate did not have authority to pronounce a judgment on Him.

Pilate pronounced wrongly, as we know, but he had authority to make the pronouncement even if it was wrong, and his authority was from God. So Jesus did not suggest that it be taken from him because he made so great an error as condemning the very Son of God.

Now turn over to Romans 13, please. At the very least, then, we are taught here that revolution for the sake of revolution, that is, "I would rather be king than you, so I will try to unseat you," is unchristian. Rather, we are to honor, respect, and be thankful for those who are over us, as Paul suggests.

Romans 13:1-7 Let every soul [or individual] be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, 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. 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. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

One other conclusion that needs to be kept in mind is that Romans 13:1-7 is quite clear: we are to be subject to the higher authorities. That is, we should be model citizens, and sadly it is often the case that Christians disrespect authority—elected officials, policemen, and others—and this leads naturally to a resistant attitude in regard to obeying them—and this should not happen in a Christian's life. Rather, we should be conscientious at this point. We should obey the speed limits and all other civil laws, pay our taxes honestly, and do as those who are in positions of authority instruct us.

Obedience should be given even to corrupt rulers. We are not only subject to the authority of leaders who perform their office toward us uprightly and faithfully as they should, but also to the authority of all who, by whatever means, have control of affairs even though they perform badly. And we will qualify this later.

Are there no limits then to that, obedience to authority or to the civil authorities? Suppose the king is a very wicked king or the president is a very wicked president. Is a command from such a king legitimate or should a Christian disobey it? The answer is that there are definitely limits. Therefore, although we must be careful to render every possible measure of obedience to those in authority—usually much more than we would like—we must still do nothing contrary to the direct commands of God in the Scriptures or to that standard of morality arising from them, even though a contrary act is commanded.

Here, the second part of Christ's statement comes in, because after instructing Pilate in regard to the ultimate source of his authority, Jesus went on to speak of sin, saying,

John 19:11 "Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."

So it is a sin that has to do with an attitude and an approach and that type of thing. Now if it were only power (dunamis or kratos) that Pilate had been given, it would be impossible to speak of sin as intrinsic in the exercise of the power. Because God would have given him absolute power which he does not give to civil authorities. He gives legitimate power, meaning limited. Just as it is impossible to speak of sin in the case of the cat that kills the mouse or the germ that kills another germ.

But since it is authority that Pilate has been given, this is another matter entirely. Because authority being granted by another necessarily involves responsibility to that other one. And responsibility, if it is not properly exercised, it involves sin against him. So if God is the one who gives the power, then they have to answer to Him, and if they do not do what He says, then they are sinning, and He takes care of it from that angle.

In other words, authority enhances human government, but it also limits it because it is an authority bound by the moral nature of the God from whom it comes.

Please turn over to Matthew 28, verse 18. Now one limit which the Bible places on obedience to human authority concerns the preaching of the gospel and this is a Christian duty based upon the direct command of Christ.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in[to] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen."

What should happen when authorities demand differently is illustrated in the 4th and 5th chapters of Acts. The disciples had been preaching and doing miracles, and these had created such a stir that they were called before a council of elders in Jerusalem. So the authorities examined the disciples, and in this case, Peter and John. Then, since the miracle they had done in healing a lame man was so evident, and the rulers could not deny it, these settled upon the precedent of merely commanding the disciples to keep silent. It was all they were telling them to do at this point, keep silent. But it was a command by the authorities.

Acts 4:18-20 So they called them and commanded them [that is, the authorities to the disciples] not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. [There it is: not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.] But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."

So the apostles were threatened in connection with this command, but they went back to their preaching, and when the authorities heard of it and learned that they were back again in the temple area teaching the people, they sent guards to bring them before the council, but peacefully this time. Then the council of elders questioned them about their defiance of the elders' authority.

The next chapter, Acts 5, we are going to pick it up in verse 27 and read down through verse 32.

Acts 5:27-29 And when they had brought them [that is, when the council had brought at the very least Peter and John, maybe other disciples as well, I cannot remember], they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood on us!" But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men."

That was an emphatic statement, a statement that was immovable, and it is a statement that we should have in our minds and live by it when it comes to the authorities trying to make us do something that is against God's way of life, talking about God's way of life as instructed in Scripture, not the parts that we add to it.

Acts 5:30 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him."

That means every one of us have God's Holy Spirit. Every one of us has a responsibility to witness to God and to stand up for God's way of life, and to not give in to the authorities in these situations that we are looking at here.

Now this enraged the Jewish leaders and they would have killed the disciples, but if Gamaliel had not intervened to advise tolerance they would have been killed.

Turn with me now to James 5, verse 1. But these stories indicate that we are to give precedence to the preaching of the gospel, and that is living it as well; and are not to cease from it even though commanded to do so by civil authorities. Of course, we must be willing to suffer the consequences of our persistence, even though that may be imprisonment or death. We may be right in resisting and the authorities may be wrong in imprisoning us, but we have to be willing. We have God's Holy Spirit, we have the strength of Jesus Christ and God the Father in us, and we have to be willing to take whatever they dish out. They have a certain civil authority that God has given them, and they misuse it often.

A second limit the Bible places on obedience to human authorities concerns Christian conduct and morals. No government has the right to command us to perform an immoral, non-Christian, or anti-Christ act.

James 5:1-6 Come now, you rich [or could be leaders or those who have power over us], weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days [so you see right here that it is talking about our time]. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

So it is one of the characteristics of the wealthy and powerful that they had been guilty of wrong towards good people. This may refer to an act of violence or to leadership and business practices that would wear people out by a system of oppression, injustice, and fraud.

In verse 6, the just person whom they condemned and killed was because the leaders are so powerful that all attempts to resist them by the just person is useless. And what made things worse, is that the injured and oppressed could do nothing but submit patiently to their acts of injustice and violence.

Now if you have a way of getting out and away from that by running or whatever, then we should do that. It is not saying that we should not do that at all. We do what we can but we still have to obey the authorities. So if they are coming to arrest you when you run, it is doing it against the law, and when they catch you, it will be even worse. So I am not advocating running in that case. I am advocating it if something is going wrong in your area or you see something coming. The sense here seems to be either that they could not oppose them because the rich were so powerful and the oppressed were so weak or that they patiently endured their wrongs with meekness and did not attempt to fight back.

Yet we have a warning even here because although Jesus Christ exercised His right as the ultimate Judge of the world to boldly point out Pilate's sin, He spoke at the same time of the sin of the church of His day and indicated that its sin was greater than Pilate's, even though Pilate was the one with authority to condemn or not condemn.

It is an interesting word, greater. It suggests that Pilate's sin was great. He was sinning against his conscience. He knew Jesus was innocent, and against his divinely-given responsibility he had pronounced Jesus innocent. It affirms that the sin of the religious leaders was greater. They were sinning out of hate-filled hearts and against their own law, which should have protected Jesus. It may imply that the sin of Judas was greatest. He was the closest to Christ and therefore sinned against the background of the greatest knowledge of all men who had betrayed Him.

Taken together, the parts of the comparison teach that the greatest danger lies, not with the state, but with those who are closest to spiritual things. Others may sin out of ignorance or neglect or cowardice, but many religious people are inclined to sin out of arrogance or pride or actual hatred of God and His truth, even when they think they are the most moral. Look at people who leave us and attack us for keeping God's way of life. They were once of us, no longer of us, have gone out from us, and they can be the most betraying of all.

We must compare our thoughts and actions to the truth of God which we profess to live by to see if we are hypocrites or true witnesses of God's way of life. It is not enough to merely claim to be a Christian. How can anyone be a citizen of heaven or an ambassador for Christ if he does not live it by example?

Now claiming to be a Christian of itself does not give us any superior insight into morality or any point of leverage from which to speak against or disobey the government which God has set up. We can only do that as we respond, painfully at times, to God's own voice which comes to us in Scripture, because then we are gripped not by a lesser authority than that of the state (that is, our own), but by a greater, even the overriding and only infallible authority of God.

And it is not always easy to know when a Christian's obligation to obey God requires disobedience to the state. If God and state were always diametrically opposed, the decision would be easy, but that is not always the case. We would obey God and disobey the state in all situations, but this is not the case. The state is often, if not usually, right. And furthermore, it has been instituted by God and is invested with God's authority. Consequently, under normal circumstances, we are to obey the government even when those who form it seem unjust.

Yet, what are normal circumstances? We are not to obey without question. How then do we decide when a particular demand by the state is wrong and requires firm Christian rebuke and opposition?

The authority of the state is limited in at least two important areas. First, it has no right to forbid the proclamation of the gospel. If it does, we must resist, knowing that we have been given a commission to preach the gospel from Jesus Christ Himself. Second, the state has no right to command an immoral act. If it does, we must refuse and face the consequences.

But it is right here that further problems develop because we know that it is extremely easy to consider the state hopelessly immoral simply because it is doing something we do not like. We see that in people quite often in the church. Those who resist taxation, for example, and other things, even the mask situation, is one of those. I have to admit I have resisted that one. And I have been irritated at that one and I have been angry at that one, and so God said, "I want you to do this sermon so you know better." So this is about me now. Well, I do not mean me, me, me; I mean that I am with here with you. But sometimes we are working on a sermon and then it hits us, whoops.

For example, we might be taxed more than we think is reasonable, so we resist. We may attempt to throw off its authority, not because that authority is being exercised tyrannically or in clear opposition opposition to the commandments of God, but simply because we do not bend to the authority of any other human being. We saw that Jesus alerted us to precisely this danger in John 19:11 by indicating that, although the sin of Pilate was great, the sin of the religious leaders was greater in that they sinned out of pride and against a greater knowledge. They knew better.

It seems from this comparison that the closer we are to spiritual things, the greater the danger of acting from impure motive becomes. So what do we do? We are helped here by the unfolding of the story of Christ's appearance before Pilate, for Pilate, by contrast, shows what we should do. Pilate did not want to condemn Jesus. Of that, we are certain. That he did not want to see Him executed is a bit puzzling because he was not intrinsically strong on justice and certainly did not have any high regard for the Jews or Jewish prisoners. However, he was certainly trying to get Christ off, whatever his reason may have been.

Please turn with me back to John 19, verse 12. To begin with, Pilate pronounced Him innocent. Then, when he met with violent and almost revolutionary opposition to that decision, he tried a series of expedients, sending him to Herod, suggesting his release rather than the release of Barabbas, causing him to be beaten and then produced suddenly to the Jews to produce sympathy from the cruel mob that was chanting, "Crucify Him!" After these things, even after Jesus' pointed rebuke to Pilate's arrogance in John 19:10-11, Pilate tried again to release Him because verse 12 says,

John 19:12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar."

If Pilate was as unwilling to pass the death sentence as this verse and the other incidences show, how is it that he was eventually convinced to do so? Verse 12 gives the answer. The Jews, perceiving that Pilate could not be made to do their will except by the strongest methods, implied that if he did not condemn the one whom they considered to be a traitor, they would denounce Pilate to Caesar, and Pilate, who feared this more than anything else, complied.

Pilate is seen here in a contemptible stance, and yet he is also in a sense pitiable. Pilate was the governor. He spoke for Caesar. He had the legions of Caesar at his call and to enforce all his bidding. He should have been above fear, but he is riddled by it, and thus made spineless in the greatest moral encounter of his career.

Of what was the governor afraid? Very obvious here. He was afraid of three things. First, he was afraid of Christ. We see this in John 19:8, because we are told that after Pilate had heard that Jesus made Himself out to be the Son of God, he was even more afraid and determined anew to release him. And this was certainly not the kind of holy reverence for Christ that a true follower of Jesus might have, but it was true fear. Pilate thought that Jesus might actually be more than a man. Perhaps one of the half-humans, half-divine gods of Greek and Roman antiquity, and so move fate against him if he judged unfairly, meaning he was probably somewhat superstitious to the point of being very afraid.

Second, Pilate was afraid of the people. He did not like them, of course. His many dealings with the Jews show his consummate disdain and even hatred for them. Yet he knew their power and feared to have them unite against him. If he had not feared the people, he would have released Jesus quickly and would have shown no concern for pacifying them.

Third and most significant, Pilot feared Caesar. And with cause! The suspicious nature of Caesar Tiberius was well known, and Pilate had already had other confrontations with the Jews which had worked to his disfavor before the emperor. What if Caesar would disapprove of his handling of this matter? What if the leaders of this people sent another delegation to Caesar saying that Pilate had refused to deal forcefully with one who was guilty of high treason against the against Caesar? If Pilate had possessed a clean record, he could possibly or perhaps have overlooked a threat based on such false charges. But his record was not clean, and it was quite possible that Pilate could lose his position and even his very life if such an accusation were made. We know that years later Pilate was removed from office by the proconsul of Syria and banished to France, where he later died.

Pilate's failure suggests the answer to the questions raised earlier. Pilate feared man! Consequently, he was unable to do the just thing, and he even fell so low as to pronounce sentence on the very Son of God.

We will do better only when we fear God over man and act justly regardless of the consequences. But we need to expand this out a little further. What specifically does it mean to fear God more than man and how can we personally be brought to the place where we do so? Well, I have listed 3 requirements here.

The first requirement for responsible action is we must have it fixed in our minds that God is truly sovereign in human affairs and whenever we come up against the law, we immediately begin to have anxiety, be concerned deeply if it is something that is negative. But are we at that point really looking to God as our sovereign, knowing that whoever is either arresting us or catching us in something, whether it be speeding or whatever it might be, that God has given them authority to fulfill the law?

We have to make sure that we fear God more than man. We say we do, but do we really believe that God is sovereign over all things in our life since we have God's Holy Spirit and are His children? We know this because the Scriptures teach it, that is, about God's sovereignty in human affairs, but in addition to knowing it, we must also have it planted in our minds so firmly that we can, without hesitation, trust God when a crisis comes.

Daniel was one who was able to do this. As we read his prophecy, we realize that he was familiar with the concept of the sovereignty of God because he witnessed the rise and fall of several great empires. Can you imagine that? Seeing, maybe living through the rise and fall of the British Empire and the American Empire and other great empires of the world at that time.

We think, for instance, of that great vision of the statue whose head was of gold, whose breast and arms were of silver, whose stomach and thighs of bronze, whose legs were of iron, and whose feet were of iron mixed with clay. Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed of this statue, but he had forgotten his dream, and he demanded that his astrologers and sorcerers tell him its meaning. But they were unable to do this since they did not know even what the dream was.

At last, he was sent for Daniel and Daniel asked for time. And that night, God revealed to him Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation, and Daniel then interpreted the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, showing it to be a prophecy of four succeeding world empires, the last of which was to be overturned by the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. And Daniel obviously knew God's sovereignty in the matter of the setting up and taking down of kings, but it was not only intellectually that Daniel knew this, he knew it experientially and therefore was not afraid to stand by his convictions.

Darius, who succeeded Nebuchadnezzar's son Belshazzar, was a kind man and a friend of Daniel, but he was tricked into signing a law according to which no one was to ask a petition of any god or man for the period of 30 days except King Darius. And when Darius signed the law, he was not thinking of Daniel, his friend. But soon word was brought that Daniel was continuing his practice of prayer to the God of Israel three times daily. So it even goes to that point, for we cannot be stopped from praying. Daniel was caught, and the king was caught too because he had signed the order according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which could not be altered. Daniel was thrown into the den of starving lions, the penalty for violating the emperor's decree, and we know that God delivered Daniel from the lions, just as he had earlier delivered the three companions from the burning fiery furnace.

But the fact that God would deliver him and the others was not known to Daniel and his friends beforehand, at the time their moral stances were taken. They could have humanly reasoned that God would not want them to suffer and die. I have actually heard people who, after leaving the Worldwide Church of God and all that mess, people saying, "Well, God wouldn't want us to suffer." That is not what the Bible shows. He may not want us to suffer, but He allows us to suffer if it is better for us or better for someone else.

They could have obeyed the king's command and possibly been rewarded by him. They could have complied because of social pressure and avoided public ridicule and humiliation and not lost their worldly friends.

What is the difference between compliance and obedience? Obedience occurs when you are told to do something by authority, whereas compliance or conformity happens through social pressure, the norms of the majority.

Obedience involves a hierarchy of power and status. Therefore, the person giving the order has a higher status than the person receiving the order.

Please turn with me to Daniel 3, verse 16. What gave these men the ability to reject the king's authority, especially when so many plausible arguments might have been raised in favor of compliance? The answer is found in Daniel's personal knowledge of the truth of God's sovereignty. God was in control. He knew that; he had no doubts. Consequently, God was able to and certainly would accomplish what He had chosen to accomplish in these situations. God had control from beginning to end. And here is the way the friends of Daniel put it when called before Nebuchadnezzar, and they refused to worship the statue on the plain of Dura. These verses are very familiar to you.

Daniel 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the golden image which you have set up."

That is pretty emphatic. It does not get much more definite than that. They did not waver at all. These men were able to resist the unjust demands of the powerful rulers of their day because they trusted an even more powerful Ruler. Furthermore, they were determined that in the ultimate analysis, He and not they would control their lives, whether they whether they lived or died, and they were fine with that.

A second requirement for responsible action in the area of God and government, is that we must be thoroughly informed by Scripture. We have to know what we are talking about. To want to do the right thing is not enough. We must know what the right thing to do is, and there is no way to know that apart from God's specific revelation of His standards in the Bible. Of course, the Holy Spirit leads us, but it does not lead us if we are not reading the Word of God and learning from it.

But without the Bible there are no sure answers at all. Consequently, there is no substitute even for the busiest of Christians for studying the Bible and conscientiously striving to submit one's own thoughts to it. Some would suggest that we must trust in conscience, but conscience is an unsure guide and less well trained in the Scriptures.

At best, conscience tells us that we should do right when we know the right, but it does not know what is right all the time unless the light of God's revelation shines upon it. One writer compares conscience to a sundial which is made for the sun just as conscience is made for God's revelation. And in the light of the sun, a sundial may give pretty good time, but suppose it is consulted by moonlight. By moonlight it may indicate that it is 10 o'clock when it really is 3 o'clock in the morning. Again, by using a candle or a flashlight, the sundial may be made to tell any hour one desires. It is reliable only when the light of the sun shines upon it. In the same way, the conscience is useful only when the light of God shines on the human heart and mind from the pages of the inspired written Word of God. We desperately need this Book, and we need to grow in our understanding of it, and if we do grow in our understanding, God will increasingly show us His way, pointing out our sin and accelerating our will to do what is right before Him.

I cannot tell you how many times, it has been so many, that I have gotten a phone call or somebody who has been reading the Bible for a month or two, or a year, maybe it has been as much as two, and they want to tell me what the Bible actually says when they have no clue. And you just shake your head and you try to help them through, but some are just arrogant about it or defiant. And they better not follow their conscience because they could be in big trouble if they do, and maybe that is what they are doing. But that happens quite often. I am always amazed at that.

The third requirement for responsible action is needed if we are to know what is right and actually do it, even when confronted by a contrary claim by our government or some other strong social pressure. What we need is to be willing to surrender everything. That means give up everything, to lose everything to obey God.

It is possible to have followed the first two steps I mentioned: to trust in God's sovereignty in human affairs and to study the Bible to such a degree that we know what is right—and yet fail at the crucial moment simply because the proper cost is too costly. And those are material things. Or the costly may be more than material. Of course, our bodies are material. It could be to death.

If it was not from fear of God and not from a failure to know what is right, it can have been only from the fear that he (Pilate) would lose his position, and it was this above all else that he valued. Pilate had to choose between what was right and what the world wanted. When the issue was clearly defined, he did not hesitate to choose the world and its rewards.

Pilate failed to do the right thing, not because he did not know what was right—he did—but because he feared to have it even suggested that he was not Caesar's friend. What irony! He wanted so much to be a friend of Caesar, but he was not Caesar's friend. He barely knew Caesar, and what is even more significant is Caesar was not his friend at all. Pilate had no friends anywhere, and yet there stood before him one who, although He was God Almighty and King of kings, never stooped to be the friend of sinners.

What a contrast Pilate is to Jesus Christ! Jesus is your friend. He is the King. He demands your total allegiance and faithful service. He is the most reliable friend you will ever have, along with God the Father.

But He does not demand of you what He was unwilling to undergo Himself. No matter what you may go through for His sake and the sake of righteousness, He will go through it with you, thereby continuing to show Himself to be a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Please turn with me to John 18, verse 38. Now there may be no point in the entire life of Christ where the sovereignty of God is more evident than in the final minutes of His trial before Pilate. Pilate was convinced that Jesus was innocent.

John 18:38 Then Pilate said to Jesus, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all."

John 19:4-6 Then Pilate went out again and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him." Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!" Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him."

Three times he admitted this. Pilate wanted to release Jesus and actually set out to get Him released. Yet in spite of Pilate's personal convictions, will, and efforts, Christ was crucified. Why? The answer is that God had decreed that Pilate would sentence Christ to death, and therefore not all the powers of the earth could thwart it. And this does not absolve Pilate from responsibility. As we have seen, he was to blame.

Yet it does cause us to see beyond the evils of the human condition to the purposes of God the Father and Jesus in Jesus Christ's sacrifice. The sovereign presence of God in this crucial moment was undoubtedly clear to the apostle John because he has marked the point by time references, the first specific references to day and time since the start of chapter 13.

Up to this point there has been a lot of movement and uncertainty. There has been various trips by Jesus followed by the various movements of the arresting party. There was the trial before the Jewish court in three parts, followed by the trial before the Roman court also in three parts. And now this comes to an end, and Pilate takes his place to render final judgment. And John says in writing,

John 19:13-16 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew [it is actually in the Aramaic], Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him!" Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" And the priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.

Having placed the moment of the official verdict to his own satisfaction, John immediately goes to the overriding issue. Jesus had been accused of having made himself a king, so Pilate now asks, "Shall I crucify your King?" The question is fraught with irony. There is irony on Pilate's side because his question is meant to be contemptuous. Who else but a beaten wandering preacher would be a Jewish king? But John on his part, as also records the words with irony, because this one actually is the king of Israel.

And John then records that the chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" Nothing could be more ludicrous on the lips of the priests of Israel than this protestation. It means, we are loyal to Caesar and to Caesar alone, but actually they hated Caesar and maintained that only God was their king. Why would they say such a thing? You would think that they would have choked on it as they they said it. Yet so great was their hatred of Jesus that they would rather deny their own convictions than see Him escape crucifixion. And still the leaders of Israel spoke truer than they knew. They thought that they were loyal to God and hated Caesar, but it was the Son of God, God incarnate, whom they rejected. So they are actually showing that indeed they do not honor God and instead chose Caesar.

Please turn with me to I Samuel 8, verse 4. Something similar had occurred early in Israel's history. The government then was a theocracy, that is, Israel was ruled by God directly through spokesmen and spokeswomen such as Moses and the many judges, as well as prophet-like figures such as Samuel. This was God's design, it was good for Israel in every way. However, the day came when, as Samuel grew old, the people looked at the nations around them and felt cheated because these had kings and they did not.

I Samuel 8:4-7 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "Look, you are old, your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, "Heed there heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me that I should not reign over them."

It has been said that human beings never learn anything from history except that they never learn anything from history. That should be a banner flown over Israel! The Israelites were and are certainly guilty of this. Yet it is not an Israelite or Jewish decision alone because the rejection of God and Jesus is not a Jewish verdict alone. It is the decision of humanity. From the beginning of mankind's history, God's rule has been willfully rejected. It means humanity will not abide by God's commands and guidance so that they may receive the gift of salvation and eternal life. They say, "We will not have this man rule over us."

Please turn to Psalm 2, and we are going to be reading verses 1 through 3. In the second psalm, the psalmist is viewing, not the rebellion of one man or one woman against God, not the rebellion of a few Jewish leaders and one Gentile ruler against Jesus, but rather the collective rejection of the Creator by the united political kingdoms of the world.

Psalm 2:1-3 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."

So there is a vicious global conspiracy to overthrow the authority of God and His Anointed one. Why the hostility? Because people despise the rule of God which they believe restricts their freedom. We actually have more freedom under God's law and under God's way of life than they have, but they do not understand and know that. The rule of God is regarded as ropes and chains binding them and keeping them from an unrestrained pursuance of their desire.

How does God reply to such hostility? His response is not hatred. It is not a knee-jerk reaction to the rejection of His sovereignty. Instead, He has a carefully planned and controlled response.

Psalm 2:4-5 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision [or contempt]. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure.

God is temporarily amused by this laughable insanity, but the laughter quickly gives way as He moves to unleash His judgments.

Let us begin to wrap this up. This brings us to the final lessons of this section in John 19. In view of the references to a king and Caesar, John 19:8-16 has been dealing with the relationship between God and human affairs. God is over all and the authority of the state, while a legitimate authority, is nonetheless subject to Him.

But here is a progression. In the words of Jesus Christ, we have the proper picture. God and Caesar, with God in the dominant position. In the reaction of Pilate to the threat of the Jews, that is, "If you let this Man go, you are no friend of Caesar's," we have a warped position. God and Caesar, but Caesar in the dominant position. In these verses with which the issue of God and state is closed, we have the worst stance of all. Now it is no longer God and Caesar in whatever relationship, it is Caesar alone. God is forced out of the picture entirely.

Nothing is worse than this. Tyranny is not worse because even under the worst tyrants, if God is in the picture, we can at least appeal to Him for help and the injustices may be corrected. Without God, what is there? Nothing but the insatiable lust and cruel arrogance of human beings. Specifically, without God in the picture, there is no sure check on Caesar. God is still in His throne, but He lets evil leaders do what they want on evil subjects. And we need a check.

In America, we recognize this secularity because we have developed a system of checks and balances according to which one branch of government has limited control over the other. We have the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the executive branch. Now we recognize the need for checks and balances on the secular level because we know by experience that people in positions of power are untrustworthy. The united voices of the rulers of even so great a land as ours cannot be ultimate. God is ultimate. He is the ultimate authority. So if we forsake God, we are at the mercy of our governors, mayors, councils.

Because this nation is openly rejecting God, we are seeing the deterioration of the branches of government that they keep things in check. And we are not only seeing those deteriorate, we are also seeing all authority begin to deteriorate in this nation. Without God in the picture, we have no sure means of guiding government properly. That means the people. And we need checks to keep government from becoming a law unto itself and therefore abusing and tyrannizing the governed. Corruption always exists in human governments, and it is going to come to a head at the end of this age, worse than it has ever been in the history of man.

But suppose the government is not tyrannous. Suppose it operates relatively well as the U.S. government generally did (by human standards) up until recently. Even then, it needs God because it is only from God that we can receive an organized system of morality and a wisdom beyond our own in the secular sense. Only this is able to lead us upward to the fulfill the fullness of those domestic blessings that God has for a people who sincerely seek Him.

True power, which is the ability to exercise authority effectively, belongs to God alone. The only true strength is the omnipotent sovereignty exercised by God, or ability that finds its source in God. Power and might are attributed above all to God, and His power is shown both in the fact that He created the world and sustains it; and He remains more powerful than all the forces within it.

And His power is also seen in His mighty acts of salvation. Revelation 19:6 says, "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, 'Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns!'"

Beginning with the Feast of Trumpets and then on to the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, the Lord God omnipotent reigns is a major theme.

What a wonderful blessing we have, to be called by our Almighty God to come before Him to worship Him on these holy days. We have so much to be thankful for!

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