Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:14-21
#churchleadership #faith #jesus #Messiah #salvation #SignsOfTheTimes
https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/moral-matters/romans-12/
Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:14-21
#churchleadership #faith #jesus #Messiah #salvation #SignsOfTheTimes
https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/moral-matters/romans-12/
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:08yeah just to add to the notices um next sunday is actually the last sunday in the month and i
00:13usually do the prophecy talk that sunday but this uh 22nd i have to go to a family event on
00:20the
00:2022nd so i won't be doing the prophecy talk that'll be the following week which will be the first of
00:25march and so we'll be showing this film the israel dilemma which gives you some interesting
00:31information about the background to israel's history in the past and its relevance to the
00:38present okay for today we're going to look at the book of romans so let's just have a word of
00:43prayer
00:43we're going to turn to romans chapter 12 romans 12 and read romans 12 and 13
00:52lord we thank you for your word we thank you that it is life and truth and we pray that
00:58you
00:58bless the reading and the preaching of your word now in the name of the lord jesus christ amen
01:04so romans 12 and 13 we're going to be looking mainly at chapter 13 but put it in context with
01:11chapter 12
01:14i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies as a living
01:18sacrifice holy acceptable to god which is your reasonable service and do not be conformed to
01:25this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and
01:31acceptable and perfect will of god for i say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among
01:36you
01:37not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as god has dealt
01:42to
01:42each one a measure of faith for as we have many members in one body but all members do not
01:49have
01:49the same function so we being many are one body in christ and individually members of one another
01:56having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us let us use them
02:00in prophecy let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry let us use it to in our ministering
02:07he who teaches in teaching he who exhorts in exhortation he who gives with liberality
02:12he who leads with diligence he who shows mercy with cheerfulness let love be without hypocrisy abhor what
02:20is evil cling to what is good be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor giving
02:28preference to one another not lagging in diligence fervent in spirit serving the lord rejoicing in hope
02:35patient in tribulation continuing steadfastly in prayer distributing to the needs of the saints given
02:41to hospitality bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse rejoice with those who rejoice and
02:48weep with those who weep be of the same mind toward one another do not set your mind on high
02:53things but
02:53associate with the humble do not be wise in your own opinion repay no one evil for evil have regard
03:00for
03:00good things in the sight of all men if it is possible as much as depends on you live peaceably
03:06with all men beloved do not avenge yourselves but rather give place to wrath for it is written
03:12vengeance is mine i will repay says the lord therefore if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is
03:18thirsty
03:19give him a drink if in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head do not be
03:24overcome by evil but
03:25overcome evil with good let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority
03:31except from god and the authorities that exist are appointed by god therefore whoever resists the
03:37authority resists the ordinance of god those who resist will bring judgment on themselves for rulers
03:43are not a terror for good works but to evil do you want to be unafraid of the authority do
03:48what is good
03:49and you will have praise from the same for he is god's minister to you to do for good but
03:54if you do
03:55evil be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is god's minister an avenger to
04:00execute
04:00wrath on him who practices evil therefore you must be subject not only for because of wrath but also
04:06for conscience sake for because of this you also pay taxes for they are god's ministers attending
04:12continually to this very thing render therefore to all that you taxes to whom taxes are due custom to
04:19whom customs fear to whom fear honor to whom honor oh no one anything except to love one another for
04:26he
04:26who loves another has fulfilled the law for the commandments you should not commit adultery you
04:32should not murder you should not steal you should not bear false witness you should not covet if there's
04:37any other commandment all are summed up in this saying namely you should love your neighbor as yourself
04:43love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law
04:47and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now our
04:52salvation is
04:53nearer than when we first believed the night is far spent the day is at hand therefore let us cast
04:58off
04:58the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk properly as in the
05:04day not in
05:04revelry and drunkenness not in lewdness and lust not in strife and envy but put on the lord jesus christ
05:10and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts
05:16context of this scripture is paul is giving his instructions on christians how to live
05:22how to relate to one another and in chapter 13 how to relate to the government
05:29begins by speaking about how we should behave with the renewed mind of the christian so when we become
05:34christians we should think now not as the world thinks but as god thinks as god gives us revelation
05:41through the holy spirit to change our thoughts into his thoughts and in this passage he gives you a few
05:48examples of what god wants speaks about abhorring what is evil and clinging to what is good
05:56speaks about in verse 18 if it's possible as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men
06:02and in verses 8 to 10 in chapter 13 he says oh no one anything except to love one another
06:09he who loves
06:10another has fulfilled the law and goes on to repeat the commandments and then says love does no harm to
06:17a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law so in the context of all this there is the
06:23idea
06:23of living peaceably with others living with the love of god and having our minds renewed by the holy
06:28spirit so that we're not thinking as the world thinks we're thinking now as god thinks and he applies
06:34this to passage in chapter 13 about government and i was thinking about this in the light of what's going
06:41on in our world today and thinking paul have you got this a bit wrong do we actually have to
06:46submit to
06:47governments and are they all right i'll explain that one in a moment obviously paul's day he was living
06:53in the roman empire which was a kind of autocracy the emperor had all power uh if he was a
07:01good
07:01emperor he may use it well if he was a bad emperor he may use it badly and often the
07:05christians came
07:05under the power of bad emperors especially when they wanted to be worshipped as gods themselves
07:09and christians couldn't do that so they ended up being persecuted by the empire we don't live in such
07:16a system we live in a western democracy which is much better isn't it church once said democracy is the
07:22worst form of government apart from all the others which is probably true when we look at it we have
07:30to say that our western democracies are in some trouble uh just this week we've had this all this
07:36news coming out from the epstein scandal and it's a horrible thing you just realize what people in high
07:42places are doing and just the corruption and the wickedness which is there and which is sometimes
07:47being approved by those in government and you see gross corruption and wickedness in high places
07:53affecting high places people powerful people people in the western world we see our own governments in
08:00trouble see scandals involving immoral behavior bad decisions affecting people's lives for the worse
08:07and people begin to question whether even democracy has a future
08:12and when you look at wherever you look you can see failing governments governments where there is
08:17strife where there's disagreement where there's a lack of positive useful action not just here crisis
08:25of government see in america you've got a huge gulf between the far right and the far left
08:30and it's manifesting itself in strife and very difficult situations in many places
08:38told that france is almost ungovernable now with a strife slip between the far left and the far
08:43right and all these kind of problems happening russia terrible situation in russia at the present time
08:49as a result of the war country is pretty well bankrupt and the society is falling apart under a
08:54very autocratic and cruel regime so are we supposed to submit to all these governments and accept them as
09:01they are and when you look about all the countries are in some kind of economic crisis
09:07you've got spending more money than they earn lending up huge huge debts but they'll never be able to pay
09:14and in the western world in our country in particular you've got issues which have come as a result of
09:18mass migration especially from muslim countries and a breakdown of traditional cultures
09:24fragmentation of society under multiculturalism and you see that the uk in a way has abandoned its
09:31christian framework which was in previous generations for law for education for justice
09:36all those things had a christian basis to it now our prime minister says our values are based on
09:41diversity and inclusion traditionally our best values were based upon christianity and as those have
09:47been eroded so we see all kinds of confusion coming in to our society see many ways also the influence
09:54of a secular immoral in my opinion education system i used to be a teacher so i can see what's
10:01going on
10:01now you can see things being taught to kids which are absolutely contrary to what god says you see
10:07the influences in the whole media system which is protecting values which are anti-christian and
10:14against the values of christianity and as a result you've got to confuse society with no commonly held
10:20beliefs no generally accepted moral values which really resembles a house built on the sand
10:27ready to crash when the storm comes and as you see some of the forces which are at work in
10:32our world
10:32today you can see forces building up which could cause that house to crash so how are we to rate
10:38to the
10:38government well paul says that we are to be subject to the governing authorities there's no authority
10:46except from god and i was thinking about this how do you work this out you look at the bad
10:51stuff
10:52happening actually what paul is talking about here is an ideal government an idea of what government
10:57should be rather than what it is ideally government should look after the economy ensure there's a
11:05fair distribution of wealth keep the peace look after the vulnerable restrain evil and keep order in
11:13society from our point of view as christians we want government particularly to keep the situation in
11:19which we have freedom of speech freedom to worship freedom to preach freedom to evangelize freedom of
11:24conscience and freedom before the lord before the law and to this end paul actually encourages to pray
11:33for the government in one chapter one peter one timothy chapter two where he says we should pray for
11:38the government quote that we may live a godly and peaceable life so our concern to pray for the
11:44government would be that the government will leave us alone basically to live a godly and peaceable life
11:48obviously you can look at many situations in the world where the government does not do that
11:52right christians are persecuted because of what they believe what they preach and in romans chapter 13
11:57i put to you that paul is actually writing from the point of view of such an ideal view of
12:02what
12:02government should be and in such a government those of faith will be free to live a godly and peaceable
12:09life he's not actually describing the government which he was living under under the roman empire
12:16the reality was that paul and the early christians were living under the roman empire which was a
12:21government system which gave supreme power to the emperor who may use that power for good or evil
12:28we know from the gospel stories that the roman empire was ultimately responsible for the worst
12:34transgression of justice in history which was the crucifixion of jesus christ and down through the
12:40centuries churches have said in their creeds jesus was crucified under pontius pilate pontius pilate
12:48was the roman governor of judea therefore the act of crucifixion was ultimately the responsibility of
12:54the roman authorities christians often blame the jews and obviously the jewish authorities had their
12:59part in it but the ultimate response was the action of the roman authorities now the bible also tells us
13:06this was in the will of god therefore god doesn't in one sense hold them responsibility because this
13:12was his will but they were responsible because they actually did what was opposed to god's will so you
13:19have this dichotomy if you like it was the will of god that jesus died for our sins but also
13:23it was an
13:24action which was grossly unfair and against natural justice and the roman authorities were ultimately
13:34the uh in probably about 10 years after paul wrote these words we're going to order paul's only
13:40execution for preaching the gospel uh in the roman law at this time actually the christianity the
13:47spread of christianity was what they was a was in the latin phrase was really religio illicita
13:55which meant an illicit religion an illegal religion as opposed to religio illicita which were legal
14:01religions religions which were allowed which included judaism and christianity which had broken
14:06away from this was not actually a permitted religion in the roman empire and as a result of
14:13this christians were much more open to persecution than had they been a legal religion and you can see
14:20in the book of acts how paul uses his own privileged status as a roman citizen to protect himself on
14:25times
14:26from arrest and even from death at the roman state the time when paul wrote romans which was around
14:3257 ad nero had just become the emperor previous emperor was a man called claudius claudius was
14:41actually quite an able and efficient administrator also an ambitious builder constructed many roads
14:48aqueducts across the empire which actually helped with the spread of christianity in the early days
14:55during his time actually britain became absorbed into the roman empire
15:00we know from history that claudius actually had an interest in the law he presided at public trials
15:06and he issued regular edicts including one which is recorded in the book of acts when he expelled
15:12the jews from rome read that in acts chapter 18 verse 2 it says claudius commanded all the jews to
15:20depart from rome interesting that's also mentioned in one of the roman histories a man called suetonius
15:28he wrote that claudius expelled the jews from rome since they were always always making disturbances
15:33because of the instigator crestus there's a question mark who is crestus it's not spelt in the
15:41if it's speaking about christ it should be christos it was in the greek but he says crestus
15:46could have got the words wrong there and this could be an instigation that there was some
15:51unrest in rome because of the spread of christianity we don't know that for sure but it's
15:56possible interpretation and the x does record that there were riots about christianity in
16:04acts chapter 17 the riot in thessalonica and in chapter 19 right in ephesus so christianity was
16:12causing some kind of disturbances in the roman empire uh the disturbances in the book of acts
16:18were caused by unbelievers who were upset because the christians were converting either in one case
16:24of thessalonica the jews in the synagogue or in ephesus the idol worshippers in ephesus uh worshippers
16:31of diana they weren't caused by the christians but by opponents of the gospel reacting against its success
16:39in spreading the message so but it was causing unrest so paul says actually that the christians
16:47should not be the cause themselves of the unrest if you you should live peaceably with all men
16:52as far as you're able and it may be that there are times when you're not able to live peaceably
16:56with
16:56all men now we know that nero was renowned as a persecutor of christians but at the beginning of his
17:02reign
17:02he actually ruled quite well uh he had an advisor called man called seneca who was a stoic philosopher
17:09who gave him good advice and actually restrained what was going to come later on he removed seneca
17:16from power in 62 a.d and it was downhill all the way from then and he began persecutions following
17:22the
17:22fire of rome in 64 a.d which also led to the execution of paul around 66 to 68 a
17:31.d
17:32so that's a little bit of brief round of the roman history of the roman picture at that time
17:37a lot of people have difficulty with romans chapter 13 seeing it as an apology for submission to
17:43whoever's in power uh the jewish critic of christianity called asher norman who i've
17:49commented on before he said that this passage shows paul was a plant of the roman authorities
17:54opposed to a legitimate resistance to roman rule
17:59uh well rebellion against rome actually didn't do a great deal because it caused a disaster for
18:06the jewish people in a.d 70 with the fall of jerusalem
18:10but when you look at this it actually fits in with what paul is writing about in this section of
18:14romans which is basically living at peace with all men and taking your part as christian citizens of
18:23whatever society you live in you can see it actually is being writing about an ideal view
18:29of the role of government as a whole rather than commentary on the roman empire of his day
18:35it actually fits in with the jewish teaching which paul had been imbibing even before he became a
18:40christian uh which says that god requires the jews to set up government under the torah
18:47under the law of moses with the gentile nation to set up government under what
18:53today contemporary jews call the laws of noah in order to keep peace and establish justice
18:59uh it teaches that god gave seven universal laws to noah which are deduced from genesis chapter 9
19:07because word to noah after the flood basic laws on to all mankind not to steal not to murder not
19:14to
19:15be sexually moral also to establish a legal system and to set up governments to provide the way to do
19:21this one jewish commentator on this says the non-jewish nations of the world are commanded to avoid the
19:27state of anarchy by assuming and exercising the sovereign jurisdiction to maintain courts that punish
19:33offenders by due process of law that provide civil redress in society the noachite laws themselves form the
19:41basis of the basis of this criminal code now that's extra biblical teaching but it gives you an idea that
19:46the
19:47concept was that the government should set up laws they should avoid a state of anarchy and chaos
19:53they should maintain courts to punish offenders and to restrain evil in society
20:02so in this framework that's what paul is describing what government should do
20:06rather than what it actually does he's also saying that a christian should submit to such government
20:12and obey the rules it makes when they're in accordance with god's laws should even pay your taxes
20:19and be a law-abiding citizen and the government does uh the bible does tell us that government itself
20:26is ordained of god doesn't mean that every government will be doing what god wants it to do
20:32but the concept of government is ordained by god go to daniel chapter 2 uh verse 21 it says that
20:41god
20:41changes the times and the seasons he removes kings and raises up kings he gives wisdom to the wise and
20:47knowledge for those who have understanding chapter 4
20:53verse 17 of daniel it says this matter is by decree of the watchers the demand of by the word
20:59of the holy
21:00one to the intent that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men and
21:05gives
21:05it to whomever he will and sets it up over it the basis of men in other words there's an
21:11overall
21:12government of god and god may set up evil men over society for his purposes in fact giving government
21:19to the basis of men may be seen as a judgment of god when you look in the bible you
21:24see that the last
21:25government before the second coming of jesus is actually going to be the worst government the
21:29government of the antichrist or the beast of revelation chapter 13 which is seen also as a
21:35judgment upon a society which has turned away from god in gross sin and rebellion against god
21:44fortunately the revelation doesn't leave it there because it follows with the best government
21:48which will ever be on the earth which is the second comes after the second coming of jesus christ
21:53an interesting revelation chapter 11 it says the world the kingdoms of this world have become the
21:58kingdom of our god and of his christ and he shall reign forever and ever god's ultimate purpose is
22:04to transfer the kingdom from the rule of man the rule of sin to the rule of christ and he
22:11shall reign
22:12forever and ever old testament prophecies in isaiah chapter 9 about the coming of the messiah also
22:18indicate this as part of god's plan says unto us a child is born this is is isaiah 9 verse
22:246
22:25unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder he says that this one is
22:30going
22:30to be born who is the son who is jesus the messiah ultimately he's going to have the government upon
22:35his shoulder he's going to rule and he's going to reign his name will be called wonderful council
22:41almighty god everlasting father prince of peace of the increase of his government and peace there will
22:46be no end upon the throne of david and over his government to order it and establish it with
22:51judgment and justice from that time forward even forever the zeal of the lord of hosts will perform
22:56it because i'm what they call a premillennial interpreter of the bible that means i believe
23:02there will be a literal reign of christ on the earth after the second coming of jesus when he will
23:07reign on
23:07the earth and perform this that's going to happen jesus is going to reign over the earth and bring peace
23:12and justice to the world so the last word won't be with the antichrist and the beast of the last
23:17word will
23:17be with jesus the messiah but we don't see that yet the government is not upon his shoulder
23:24in current world affairs and we have to make do with imperfect human governments we also have to
23:32reckon that there is a satanic principle at work in the affairs of men which mean that we should not
23:36be surprised to see evil men in power doing wicked things through anti-christian political systems a bit
23:43more on that later but to repeat romans 13 is speaking about what government should be doing
23:49government as a principle and in principle therefore christians are to keep the law according to this
23:56category in principle government is to be a terror not a terror to good works but to evil
24:06and that's a very important qualification there not a terror to good works but a terror to evil
24:13in other words government should set up some kind of justice system which has the right to punish
24:18people for doing bad things ceding murder violence terrorism all those kind of things not for doing good
24:26things implicit in this is the concept that government should be supporting and defending god's
24:32commandments for the welfare of society and support the basic unit of society which god has created
24:38which is the family laws should work for social laws should work for social good not for social harm
24:47they should restrain sinful behavior especially when it affects others with the right to punish offenders
24:54therefore governments should not punish or oppress people for doing what is right
24:58for being christians for serving the lord for preaching the gospel and you see many governments which do that
25:05governments also should not promote laws that conflict with god's law
25:09which is a problem which we have in our society where now you have governments promoting
25:15uh homosexuality is equal to heterosexuality promoting gay marriage transgenderism abortion
25:22now working on laws for assisted dying which is basically a form of getting rid of the old as well
25:27as
25:27getting rid of the babies in the womb both of which god sees as murder in fact so you have
25:33governments
25:33proposing things which go against god's law and that's when we have to say no to submitting to government
25:42things which government says which are against his law
25:48same time we have to recognize that governments do have authority when governments have authority
25:53from god and we're bound to obey them when they're doing what is right
25:59we don't have we don't obey them when they're telling us to do something which is contradiction to god's law
26:06book of acts chapter 4 verse 19 we have an incident where peter and john are summoned before the sanhedrin
26:16who call upon them not to speak or at all or teach in the name of jesus
26:23but peter and john answered and said to them whether it is right in the sight of god to listen
26:26to you more
26:27than to god you judge we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard
26:33so when they went when they further threaten them they let them go finding no way of
26:38punishing them because of the people since they all glorify god for what had been done
26:45do we have to listen to the there's a point in which we have to say to the authorities no
26:51we obey
26:51god rather than man and that's what the apostles did here
26:57but at the same time when the government is telling us to do something which is
27:02in line with what god says obviously we have to obey them and in fact christians should be the best
27:08citizens of all first of all they should be loyal to god but they should also be loyal to the
27:15nation
27:15and the society they're living in and seek its good and its welfare
27:20the passage in the book of jeremiah when the jewish people are taken into captivity
27:25and jeremiah says to the jews in babylon in captivity
27:30verse 29 chapter 29 verse 5 build houses and dwell in them plant gardens and eat their fruit
27:37take wives and beget sons and daughters take wives for your sons give your daughters to husbands
27:41so that they may bear sons and daughters that you may increase there and not be diminished
27:47seek the peace of the city where i've caused you to be carried away captive pray to the lord for
27:51it for
27:52in its peace you will have peace in other words in an alien land he told them to seek the
27:58peace of
27:58the people who had taken them captive seek its welfare be good citizens so with us in the world we
28:04are in a
28:05sense we are aliens in a world which is run according to values which are not our values and yet
28:12we are
28:12commanded by god to seek the peace of that society to seek its welfare to work for its good
28:18to be good citizens to be honest to give no trouble to the state when it's behaving in an acceptable
28:24way
28:25and to pay taxes and pray for the state and for its rulers pray for the welfare of the government
28:31in the context of the freedom to propagate the gospel and ourselves to live according to godly principles
28:38which is what paul says and i'm going to quote now that passage in one timothy
28:43chapter two where he says therefore i exhort first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and
28:49giving of thanks be made for all men for kings for all who are in authority that we may live
28:53a quiet
28:53and peaceable life in godliness and reverence this is good and acceptable in the sight of god our savior
29:00who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth there is one god
29:05and one
29:06mediator between god and men the man christ jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in
29:12due time for which i was appointed a preacher and apostle so paul says we should pray for the
29:17government that we may have freedom to preach this gospel and when it comes against that then we should
29:22pray that we may have wisdom to know how to respond to it going back to romans chapter 13 he
29:30also says
29:30the government is an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil so government in his true
29:37section should be used to punish evil to prevent evildoers from oppressing the rest of society so
29:45government should arrest people for doing things which are wrong stealing violence murder etc
29:55and it also implies that when the government fails to do this it opens itself up to god's judgment and
30:02correction also said bear the sword which actually implies capital punishment uh genesis chapter 9
30:12noah said in on in genesis 9 it says from the hand of every man's brother i will require the
30:19life of
30:20man whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed from the image of god he made men
30:28so paul actually speaking here by the holy spirit has no doubt that the state has the legitimate
30:33authority to execute people for premeditated murder another controversial subject but uh
30:38if you look at the bible says that certain categories of crime should pay the death penalty
30:45notably premeditated murder which would include terrorism and that kind of violence
30:52and that law courts should be established to ensure that this is done justly
30:57a bad government a dictatorship may execute people for going against the government for doing things which
31:06are right in the sight of the lord and you have the difference here between the government which is
31:11doing what god says and an antichrist government which may kill people for the wrong reasons
31:20and so in this to sum up in this situation basically we have to obey the government when
31:27it's giving what is right but there are times when the government will go against god's law
31:31and when we have to stand against it paul also says you pay your taxes render to all they're due
31:39probably not good news but that's what the bible says and christians should as far as we're able to pay
31:46our taxes in support of the common needs of the society which the government provides police education
31:55welfare health care etc not to enrich the government officials themselves and there's another point which
32:02does upset people today about paying taxes and then people are benefiting and not doing any work
32:08themselves and i think paul would have his arguments against some of the aspects of our welfare state
32:13today again could be a controversial matter but paul says uh even when we were with you this is in
32:22one timid two no two thessalonians chapter three even when we with you we commanded you if anyone will
32:28not work neither shall he eat we hear that there are some who walk among you in disorderly manner not
32:33working at all but are busy bodies now those who are such we command and exhort through our lord jesus
32:40christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread now i recognize that there are people not
32:46able to work for reasons or there's no work available but there are people who are not working because they
32:52don't want to work and they just want to get benefits and from the biblical point of view that's actually
32:58wrong
32:59and that you shouldn't pay taxes in order for people to live and do nothing when they could be working
33:04and earning their own living kind of principle and that's a growing problem in our society
33:11okay so in the light of all this is the rebellion against the government ever justified
33:17but one thing in a democracy like ours you do have a choice of who you're going to vote for
33:23in the long run it may not make a lot of difference but we are actually should engage
33:28ourselves in the democratic process we should pray for the government and we should also be
33:33willing if called to serve in the government
33:36jehovah's witnesses don't vote in political elections their policy of neutrality means they abstain
33:42staying from voting and running for office or participating in any
33:47action designed to change governments that shouldn't be the case for biblical christians
33:51we should take our responsibilities seriously and we should look for voting for the party which
34:00probably the party which does the least harm but the party which also look after the peace and
34:05the welfare of the nation and its people that's not my position here to tell you who to vote for
34:09but when you come to vote you should weigh up which government is going which party is going to do
34:14the
34:14most to promote the welfare of society to restrain evil and to look after the needs of the people
34:23and we do have the right to protest when they don't do this
34:27right to protest when there are things which are wrong in society and to make our voices known
34:35in some societies it may give you a lot of grief if you do that
34:39but if you go back to the bible you find that there's a situation where john the baptist
34:44protested against the behavior of herod and herod in power imprisoned him and he ended up being executed
34:52and you can see examples of in our own society of our own world of people who've stood against evil
34:59governments
35:00and have ended up in trouble because of it
35:05just reading about alexei navalny one of my heroes actually a russian dissident who spoke out against
35:14putin exposed some of the evils of his regime which are very considerable and as a result he's been
35:21imprisoned and now he's been killed in prison and it's just come out that he was poisoned in prison
35:27but if you speak out against an evil government you may be doing what's right but you may suffer for
35:34it so you have to weigh the consequences of that and we could pray for people around the world who
35:39are doing just that who are standing for righteousness and in the midst of very evil totalitarian situations
35:53and i would say that as we face the rule of increasingly anti-christian forces at work in governments
36:02and in power centers like in education and the media and even one has to say in the professing church
36:10there's a time when we do need to speak out against some of the evil things which are taking place
36:14in our society and although paul says that all government is ordained of god there's also an
36:20opposite force which is at work in the world system jesus spoke about the god of this world
36:28who's the devil who has the power over the world system john tells us in one john chapter 5 that
36:35the
36:35whole world lies in the power of the evil one and revelation 13 tells us that the final world
36:41government before the second coming of jesus will be that of the beast or the antichrist backed by the
36:46false prophet and controlled by the dragon who is satan and today we see sinister global forces pushing
36:55the world towards a kind of antichrist world government with control of the financial system with digital
37:01ids and central bank digital currencies and all kinds of things which can then be used to control
37:06people and to enforce a kind of totalitarian rule and there are a lot of sinister forces working in our
37:12own society as well as in places like russia and china which are pushing the world in that direction
37:20and we're also aware that revelation 13 indicates that the final world government before the physical
37:24return of jesus christ will be one that persecutes and kills people of god
37:28forces people to submit to the image of the beast and enforces a form of financial control
37:34which prevents those from who disobey it from buying and selling being being able to participate
37:39in society the 666 system if you're an optimist you're going to be taken out before that happens
37:45in the rapture of the church if you're a pessimist you're going to go through it and you're going to
37:49learn how to deal with it i'm not going to get into that argument now but we can see that
37:53the bible
37:53says say that the last government in this age will be one which is anti-christ which will bring in
37:58a
37:58dictatorship which is anti-christian and you can see many steps being taken which are pushing the
38:07world in that direction and we need to have discernment and to understand uh to seek god
38:12for wisdom to know how to respond to these things one of the things i try and do in my
38:17this month in
38:18prophecy talk is to outline some of these things taking place but you can see that the world today
38:23is moving more and more in an anti-christ direction including in our own society and ultimately that
38:30will lead to an anti-christ dictatorship
38:36going back to the bible you can see that there are
38:39clear that there are times when it's necessary to disobey civil rulers
38:44norman geisler compiled a list of these exceptional circumstances
38:49number one when the government permits true worship of god
38:53number two when it requires this taking of innocent life
38:58number three when it demands the killing of god's servants
39:01number four when it requires the worship of idols
39:04number five when it commands prayer to a man
39:08number six when it prohibits the propagation of the gospel
39:12and number seven when it demands the worship of a man as god
39:17gives references to those
39:20and would add when it promotes and requires aggressive unnecessary wars
39:26as are taking place in ukraine and other parts of the world today
39:32and of course if you do stand against these things you risk
39:36putting yourself in danger and in many cases imprisonment and even death for disobeying these
39:44commands of the government
39:47also speaks about taking innocent life
39:50we look back and we see the nazi time that was the supreme time when a whole government was arranged
39:55to
39:55take innocent life to
39:58organize the slaughter of six million jews and others in the horrific events of the nazi holocaust
40:06and at that point you had to make a choice whether you're going to obey the government or not
40:10anyone's seen the film the hiding place in which corrie ten boom
40:14a number of others joined together to resist the nazis to protect the jews and to
40:21uh resist their evil commandments and there's one scene where the uh
40:27they they have a jewish baby who comes into the the uh hiding place
40:32and they're asked to look after it it's very difficult for them to actually look after a baby
40:36so they want to try and get it out into the countryside
40:39and at that point the pastor of their church the baptist church comes to them and speak to them
40:44and they say pastor you live outside of the town
40:46why don't you take this baby and look after him he said that would be against the law
40:51and he says that the government has said that we should hand over the jews
40:57and at the end they say well the pastor's not paying god's law
41:02and so you have this dichotomy and he quotes the pastor actually quotes romans chapter 13 he says
41:06we should keep the law uh we shouldn't break it so what you're doing is asking me to break the
41:11law
41:13well not to break god's law asking him to do what god says and so you have this
41:19battle which can come in these situations and obviously people have to take a stand at that point
41:25when wicked laws are brought in which no christian should admit to but should resist wherever possible
41:32now just in western societies we have a problem here of relating to
41:37laws reporting relating to sexual morality which are brought in conflicting with god's law
41:44have the whole bringing in of abortion on demand of easy divorce of gay marriage
41:50we also have a problem with what you might call a two-tier legal practice which seems to be favoring
41:55some and acting against the interest of others
41:59see the government seems much more keen on defending the rights of muslims and multi-faith versus
42:06biblical christians more keen on upholding gay rights versus upholders of family values
42:15and actually upholding the rights of people who oppose israel's right to exist including
42:22recent decision on palestine action and against those who support israel's
42:27and this can cause a conflict with christian conscience also create problems for people
42:32in public service and education and health workers who question some of the woke left-wing
42:40pro-islam ideology which is actually becoming more and more tyrannical and forcing people to accept
42:46practices and ideas which conflict with god's word
42:50the way we're not in the position to change these laws but we don't have to submit to them
42:55and we can protest against them we can tell the government that we depose them and that they're doing what
43:01is wrong
43:03you can't stop gay marriages from taking place but we don't entertain the idea for ourselves that it would happen
43:08in this place
43:10and we say that if you will do that we will not allow it so we have to resist the
43:17practices in our society
43:21we also have a problem in our society which is what call what i call lawlessness
43:27another society which is in the greek word for lawlessness which is used often in the bible
43:33relating to the last days is anomia the nomos is the law of god
43:40so anomia means against god's law lawlessness and that's going to be a feature of the end times
43:46in fact the antichrist is described as the lawless one
43:52in 2 thessalonians chapter 2
43:56in psalm 2 it speaks about the kings and the
43:59rulers of the earth casting away god's laws from before them
44:03and you can see what's happening in western society there's a increasing lawlessness
44:10advocating things which i've already mentioned which are against god's law
44:14and as that lawlessness comes it's also oppressing the people who want to keep god's law
44:19so we suffer because of the actions of people who are breaking god's laws and god's commandments
44:25and out of a spirit of lawlessness and chaos it's very likely that ultimately a dictatorship arises
44:31if you look at the history of pre-hitler germany you find that in
44:36period up to the time of pitler coming to power you had a time of lawlessness
44:41you had a breakdown of the economy and out of that the strong man comes and imposes his dictatorship
44:46upon the society and i would say that our society is in danger because of the lawlessness the chaos
44:52the breakdown of morality and therefore out of this will come ultimately someone who poses a solution
45:00but it's not god's solution it's the enemy's solution
45:04so coming back to roma 13 what should we do about it
45:08just a few thoughts to close with paul says oh no one anything except to love one another
45:14on a personal level the only debt we are to carry is the debt to love one another
45:20and to produce a alternative society to the society which we see around us
45:27and he shows on to say that love is expressed in keeping god's commandments
45:31don't do some of the things like murder adultery stealing bearing false witness all these things
45:38are harmful to people and they go against god's command to love our neighbor as ourself
45:44and good government will do no harm to people under its authority
45:49bad government will and does do harm
45:52we are under the government of god should seek not to harm or injury
45:58to our neighbor but to love them as we love ourselves
46:02and he concludes the night is far spent the days at hand
46:06because we know the danger of the times we anticipate the soon return of jesus also the day of our
46:12death
46:13we are to live according to his plans his plans today we see the darkness covering the earth we see
46:20nations in disorder we see the nations following the last days conditions which jesus spoke of
46:26we see a lot of bad people in government and we see governments doing bad things
46:31not in all cases but in a lot of them and we do have the right to resist these things
46:35to call on people in power to repent of the evil they're doing to repine that one day they will
46:41face
46:41god in judgment and we also should awake out of sleep much of the church today is asleep
46:49it's taking on board things of the world which are harmful it's asleep to righteousness it's accepting
46:54standards which are way below what god requires and we shouldn't be blind or indifferent to the
47:01prophecies which are being fulfilled and the need to get right with god before jesus returns
47:07we should cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light
47:11all around us we see the darkness coming in we see much of it being propagated by the media
47:18by the education system by the government and we see things taking place in our societies which
47:25are evil in the sight of the lord
47:28we should cast off these works and put on the armor of light
47:33illustration is like putting off one set of clothes and putting on another
47:38when you get dressed you get dressed appropriately to who you are and what you plan to do
47:44therefore put on the lord jesus christ
47:49spurgeon said the rags of sin must come off if we are to put on the robe of christ
47:54there must be a taking away of the love of sin there must be a renouncing of the practices and
47:58habits of sin
48:00or else a man cannot be a christian it will be an idle attempt to try to water
48:04try and wear religion as a sort of celestial overcoat over the top of old sins
48:10the second thing we have to put off we have to put on
48:13put off the works of darkness characterized here by revelry drunkenness licentiousness
48:19lewdness strife and envy in the last weeks as the epstein files have been published we've seen
48:27examples of how people in power have done the very opposite of this and have put on
48:33life drunkenness revelry licentiousness lewdness and all kinds of wickedness
48:40these things are going to happen in the last days we can't stop them from happening but we don't
48:44do it ourselves we put on a new life in christ we put on the armor of light
48:51the armor of the lord jesus christ and we put on what he gives us by the holy spirit
48:57in order to deny the flesh that defiles and to glorify the lord in our lives we're told to walk
49:04properly as in the day walking behaving in the light of god's words trusting in jesus who said i'm
49:10the light of the world whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life
49:17so as we see the darkness of our present world and the evil which is coming upon the world because
49:21of
49:22human sin much of which is manifested in governments which are going against god's will
49:28we're called to go a different way and we do that in the knowledge that ultimately the government will
49:34be upon his shoulder he's going to rule and reign he's going to have the last word and all of
49:41these
49:41governments are going to pass away and our society is going to pass away in its present form and be
49:47replaced with the society under the government of god through the lord jesus christ so the final word
49:54is believe on the lord jesus christ put your trust in him and pray for the government pray that we
50:00may
50:00lead a godly and peaceable life but if necessary we may stand for god's righteousness and stand against
50:10the wickedness which we see in our society today pray this in the name of the lord jesus christ
50:17so father we do thank you for your word we thank you for the truth of the word we pray
50:20you help us to
50:21live according to your word according to the principles we find in it we thank you lord that
50:26you are the one god who has revealed yourself in jesus christ and we pray that you will restrain evil
50:33we pray for our government that you'll give them conviction of sin and that you'll impress upon them the
50:40standards which you have given in your word to keep your commandments to do your will and we pray that
50:47you will bring down the wicked and that you'll raise up the righteous and we pray lord for your soon
50:54return that you will establish your kingdom and your righteousness in jesus name amen
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