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First Peter chapter two, and I want you to look at verse number 13. So I'm continuing this series on submission. I just thought I'd do another one this week. And, uh, in first Peter chapter two, and, uh, man, you guys are going to hate me for this one. But anyway, submit yourselves, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man. So submit yourselves. There's a submission, right? To every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King, I would have a King Barzun Kevin as supreme or unto governors, we have governors. Told for the sermon this morning is submit to the government. Submit to the government. Now, no one likes preaching on submission, honestly. Like, all right. You know, the first sermon in the series to submit to our Lord, to submit to our Lord God, that's an easy one. Yeah. We all admit, yes, we need to submit to God. He's Holy, he's perfect. He's pure. He loves us. He's looking out for the best of us. So yes, pastor Kevin, no one's going to get offended by that one to submit to the Lord. And then the next one was submit. I make it, I'm starting easy and we get into the harder ones, right? Then it's submit one to another, you know, submit to our church members, one to another. And that's a little bit more challenging. I've got to submit to, ah, you know, brother so-and-so who annoys me at church, but he's got to submit to me too. So I guess, you know, there's, it's, uh, you know, it's, it's balanced. And so that one's not so hard to accept. And then, uh, submit, you know, wives submit to your husbands and now I'm running the risk to offend the wives in the church, don't you know, pastor, my, my husband's not perfect. Uh, yeah, who is though? And, uh, and then it's like, well, let me now try to offend my entire church. Submit to the past. That was the next one. Ah, now you're going to offend everybody at church. How dare you say that I need to submit to you pastor for three hours of my week. You know, and, uh, you know, you're going to run my life for three hours in a week. And I thank you for coming back to church this week. It looks like it worked. Okay. That sermon, you know, but, uh, you know, every time you preach on submission, you run the risk of offending somebody who doesn't like authority, doesn't like the thought of having to submit at different levels. And now I run the risk of offending everybody, everybody, not just church members, but also just non-church members, everybody that tries to hide from the government, everybody that tries to hide whatever it is they want. They don't want the government to know about some issue or that issue. I run the risk of offending everybody here, but the title for the sermon this morning is submit to the government. Submit to the government. Let me start there again. Number 13, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man. Every, every ordinance. Now I've had people say to me, come up to me, pastor, I'm willing to submit to every law of the land. But if I receive an order that is not lawful, then I'm not going to submit to it. And yet the Bible says, submit to every ordinance. That's an order. So if, if, if, you know, and again, we need to understand one thing. Let me just start with it with very principle truth here. Okay. If this pastor is asking you to commit sin, you don't obey me. All right. Regardless if you're in the church service, wise, if your husband's ask you to commit sin, you don't obey him. You're obeying the Lord. If the government is asking you to sin, you don't have to obey them. Don't obey them. You obey the Lord first and foremost. Okay. So let's put that aside for a moment. I don't want this sermon to be tainted. Well, if you're asking me to sin, I'm not going to do it. Every ordinance of man. Now, look, this is at the end of the day, you're going to have to make certain decisions in life. You know, if you get pulled over by a police officer and they say, I order you to whatever, and you know, no, no, I've looked at my, I've looked at my, uh, my rights as a human being, and this is not law, this is your, this is just an order of the police officer. Well, I just want to point to this reference here. I'll submit yourselves to every ordinance of man. Okay. Why? For the Lord's sake. Do it for the Lord. You know, and I know immediately, I guess, Oh no, submit to the government. Do it for the Lord. And I know I find it hard to submit to the government too. I find it hard to submit to the pastor too. I find it hard to submit, you know, to my employers too. I find it hard to submit one to another too, right? But we do all things for the Lord's sake. Submit for the Lord. And that changes everything in life. Why, why should I submit to my husband? Well, why say that? Why should I submit to my, do it for the Lord? Why should the employees submit to employer, do it for the Lord? And when you're doing it for the Lord and you say, you know what, I'm just going to do what God says, it makes it so much easier, so much more pleasant. Because like I said, the very first one submit to our Lord God is easy because we know what he wants from us, he knows, uh, we know he wants the best for us. So it says, whether it be to the King and Supreme, like, yeah, if we have Kings and I guess we kind of do, we had kind of King Charles is kind of our King, but really he's not really ruling over our lives, is he, or unto governors, you know, God's making it very clear. Okay. If you don't have a King, you might have governors. Every nation has governors. Well, there it is. There's the governors that you are to submit to. And then it says, as unto them that are sent by him, my governors are sent by God. That's what it says for the punishment of evil doers. All right. So government actually plays a role in society. Partially corrupt. Of course they're corrupt. I mean, I don't know any Bible story where the government was not corrupt. Even when it's a God, like the godly nation of Israel, there were times, even a godly man like David were not the times that he was corrupt, were there not times when he took one of his servants wives and killed a man, I mean, look at the end of the day, like you're never going to get a, I'll only submit if it's a perfect government, obeying all the laws of God, it's not going to happen until the millennium, okay? When Christ is ruling this earth. And I want you to remember the, the very real world context of this writing. When Peter wrote these words, who was he asking believers to submit to? To a theocracy, to like a King David, to a King Solomon. No, in their day, it was the Roman empire, the Roman empire, you know, an empire that had false gods, an empire that elevated their Caesars beyond what they should be viewed sometimes these men as gods, even false gods, false religion, you know, stripping away the rights of the, you know, citizens of the land. And, you know, we see even examples when Christ was walking the earth and he's being challenged to obey the laws of God, do we obey the laws of Caesar? You know, Christ has to maneuver himself in this environment, upholding the laws of God, but at the same time, teaching submission to a Roman empire, a government, you know, it's, it's, it's something that we need to take into consideration because, you know, I recognize that in 2024, our governors, our, our councils even, whatever authorities that are over us can be corrupt and, and often overstepping their boundaries in our life. But this is a writing of God. Now, look, obviously punishment of evil do as we understand that is the, uh, you know, if we're, we're committing crimes, you know, we do need a process where people can be held to account and taken into captivity or taken to a jail or whatever it is and brought before the court of law, but not to say it says, and for, this is another reason why governments exist and for the praise of them that do well. So if you obey every ordinance of man, the Bible says you're doing well. This is one way for you to show that you're doing well in the side of the Lord. Okay. And then verse 15, for so is the will of God. What is God's will in my life? Well, right now it's to obey governments. How can that be God's will when they're corrupt and they're wicked and you know, I want to be off the grid, right? Completely off the grid. Well, look, no, an opportunity to be under the grid is for the praise of them that do well. Okay. And it is the will of God for you to be submissive in this environment. Again, I'm not, I'm not trying to say anything that the Bible that itself does not say, right? That's what it says. It's the will of God, uh, that we've well doing what's well doing again. Obeying every ordinance of man. This is well doing. Uh, I'm going to disobey that law or that's not well doing. What's well doing is to obey that law. I can forget if it's asking you to sin. We put that aside for a moment. Okay. Obviously if the government's asking you to sin, you don't do that. You obey the laws of God to set that aside for a moment. Okay. Cause I know, I know what it's like to be a human being and you're being challenged, you're trying to not, this is why I disobey the law. This is why I'm trying to get off the grid. This is why I'm trying to hide from the government. Whatever it is, right? You start to justify all these reasons. And then, cause you know, as a pastor, I get asked a lot of questions and pastor, what about this situation? You know, I don't want to obey the government about this situation. Are they asking you to sin? Well, yeah, I mean, it's against, you know, what I want to do sort of, yeah, but is it, is it, is it the transgression of the law though? You know, isn't that what sin is the transgression of God's law? I know they're asking you to do something you don't like, but are they asking you to sin or no quite often, and it's like, well, you know, the answer to the question then I don't have to tell you the answer as to what you need to do in that current situation with the governing authorities that you have over you and look, this is so important, let me read verse 15 again, for so is the will of God that we will do in again, obeying every ordinance you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. All right. Some people are out to fault us just as, as a believer, just as a God fearing person, loving the lost, preaching the gospel, trying to live a righteous life. Sometimes we were like, I don't, I can't really fault this person, but let me see how they interact with their governors. Let me see how they interact with the laws of the land so I can fault them. Okay. Well, there are foolish and ignorant men that are like that. And if you just do well, if you just obey every ordinance of man, they're not going to find some dirt on you that can be used against you. Okay. And then verse number 16 as free, say, well, if I obey the government pastor, we're not free. Well, we are free as free and not using your liberty as for a cloak of maliciousness. You know, the moment you were saved, like you don't have to remember in the context, you can read in your own time, the context of this chapter, it begins by saying that we're pilgrims, we're sojourners, this isn't our land really. You know, we're, we're, we're ambassadors for Christ. Our kingdom is from heaven. Our, our, our real boss, our King of Kings is Jesus Christ. So we are free in light of who we are in Christ Jesus. We've been saved from our sins. We've been saved from the burden of sins and being held accountable, you know, of, uh, rejecting Christ and thrown into hell fire. We've been saved. We received Christ. We are free. Okay. But we are not to use our freedom or our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. So say, God, how can I serve you? God says, well, obey every ordinance of man, whether it's Kings, whether it's governors, that's how you can serve the Lord. And again, I just want to bring your thoughts to this because sometimes people want to get, want to become a pastor or whatever it is, right? I want to serve the Lord with my life. You don't have to be a pastor to serve the Lord with your life. You can serve the government. You can obey the government and you're serving God in the process of doing that. You can work hard as an employee and, and be a valued asset to the company you work for and you'll serve in the Lord. Cause you're doing that unto Christ. You know, you can serve your Lord as a husband by loving and leading your family and providing a direction of life that will be profitable to them. Wives, you can serve the Lord of your life by submitting to your husbands and by, you know, uh, obviously all of us being in the house of God together, serving one another. We, we ought to be serving the Lord God full time, regardless of what your position in life is. And I want to show you that one way you can be a servant of God is simply by, you know, yes, you're, you're, you're free. You have liberty, but God still wants you. While we function in this world to obey every ordinance of man. And then verse number 17, honor all men. Love the brotherhood. That's easy. Be God. Yep. That's easy. Honor the King. Ah, ah man. Honor all men. I can do that. I guess. Love the brotherhood. Yeah. Brothers and sisters of the Lord. I can do it. Fear God. You have to honor the King. Oh man. Why is it in the same verse? Why couldn't it be somewhere else? You know, I just want to show you that honoring the King is just as important as all these other things, fearing God, loving the brotherhood, honoring all men. And so I know this is a very unpopular sermon. I had to get, anytime I preach on submission, it's going to be unpopular. And this one is definitely going to ruffle feathers and ruffle. Anyway, it is what it is. And I didn't realize how much it ruffled feathers until the COVID days. Really. I didn't realize just how much this teaching ruffles feathers and, uh, how much people are trying to hide, you know, uh, from the government or what have you. And yet God says, this is a way that you can be, you can do, you know, be a servant to him, well-doing, you know, not allowing this foolish and ignorant men to accuse you of, of malice or things like that. You know, God has a place for governments. Yes, it's corrupt. Okay. And it's not going to get any better until Christ comes back. But this is the instructions that God has laid us out in his word. Can you come up with something? God has laid us out in his word. Can you come with me to Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five and verse number 25. Now, as I preach this, obviously I don't, I'm not an expert in all matters of law, common law, the constitution, you know, every, every, uh, role of government, whether it's federal state or, or council level, I'm not some expert. Okay. But there are some experts, some believers that are experts and they spend hours and hours and hours researching these things. And, you know, even on the drive down the road from Malaney, down the hill, there's a, quite often there's a vehicle park there. It's like a Ute or something. It's got this box at the back of the Ute and there it's got, you know, the government has, uh, what's it called? I don't know. It says something like the government has backstabbed its citizens, rise up, you know, and blah, but whatever it is, blah, blah, they've broken the constitution, whatever it is, right. I'm sure you've all come across something like this and then I'm driving down and I see that all the time and go, yeah, you know, maybe you're an expert in this field and you understand how the governments have been corrupt. And, uh, and you know, sometimes in our hearts, we might want to rise up and rally the troops against the governing authorities and what have you. But then I kind of look at Jesus Christ and his ministry. And like, here's the one who steps I'm supposed to follow, right? Like Christ steps are the ones that went to follow. How much time did he spend mucking around with the government? Was it not corrupt in his days? So corrupt that they crucified an innocent man. That's how corrupt, right? I mean, even pilot says he's innocent, but we're going to crucify him anyway. I mean that, I mean, I don't know what, what, how much more corrupt do you get? With someone who does everything right. Who's perfect. Who never does anything wrong, completely innocence. And yet the corrupt government of the day says we'll kill him anyway. And we look how Jesus behaved, how he responded in his ministry. I don't see him wasting time with governing authorities. You know, he's focused on his mission. He's focused on his work. He says, my kingdom is not of this world. Guess what? Your kingdom is not of this world either. We represent heaven, ambassadors, as I mentioned before. Now again, you know, at the end of the day, you know, if you've got your hobby horse to fight the government and whatever it is, you do you, right? You do what you need to do, whatever it is that you feel like you need to do. But it's my job as a pastor to just show you some of these verses for you to think about, to contemplate, you know, how does this affect my life in the actions that I need to take? You know, there are some believers and, you know, I don't want to, I'm not trying to offend these believers, but they try to avoid every single government interference in their life. And they're even driven, if I have to go to court over this, I will and I'll win because I'm an expert in this field. I've studied and, you know, others that have done the same as me have been, you know, released. You know, the charges against them have been whatever it is, you know, that they've, the charges have been dropped. And if I'm taken before court and magistrates, the charges are going to be dropped for me as well and what have you. And again, I'm not an expert. You know, those individuals know what they're talking about, I suppose. But I want to show you something here in Matthew 5. Did I get you to turn to Matthew 5? Sorry, Matthew 5. And one thing I really want to make clear here is I believe strongly that God's Word strongly advises us to avoid court battles. Like avoid, like sometimes you can't avoid it, like you're just forced to. But, you know, in all that lies within you, try to avoid being taken to court. Okay. And brought before magistrates. Because in Matthew 5.25, Christ says, agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shall by no means come out hence, thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Jesus says, look, if there's an issue, just sort it out. Right? Just don't be taken to the magistrates who's going to deliver you to the officer, who's going to deliver you to the prison cell, whatever it is, right? And then it's going to be even worse for you. Just sort it out. You got some tax bill that you need to pay? Just pay it. Like, oh no, I'm going to fight it. Just let it go. You know, there've been times I've let people borrow my car. And I haven't shared this, but I just, you know, I've got a letter in the mail. You've gone over the speed limit. This is how much is owed. I'll just pay it. Who cares? Mine, not mine, whatever. I don't want any trouble. I don't want to make this a legal process and an issue, whatever it is, right? Who cares? And agree with that adversary quickly. You know, going through the court system is going to cost you so much more. You know, getting some lawyer to represent you. At least 10 grand. Just there, that alone. Right? And then the cost of the time spent to go through your case and all of those things. And not even sure if you're going to win. And if you're like, nah, I'm sure I'm going to win. But the stress, like the, you know, the warriors, a lot of these court, you know, being taken to court, it can take like six months before you go to court. A year before you get the hearing, before you, you know, there's a result. Like I've seen situations where there's like things just go for years sometimes with no results. Oh, I've got to fight. It's fine. I've got to fight. You know, the mobile phone, I was holding my mobile phone while I was driving. Whatever it is. But all the stress that it's costing you and your family. Just I agree with that. Yeah, yeah. I was holding the mobile phone, whatever. Bang. I'll just pay it, whatever it is. Now, at the end of the day, you know, it's up to you guys, you know. But what I'm trying to say to you is that Christ doesn't just agree with your adversary. It's not saying make him agree with you. You just agree with him. You know, I have been pulled over for speeding. Okay, one of my big sins. Sorry, guys. Because I'm supposed to obey every ordinance of man. So if it says 60, I should go 60. But there was one time I really like just ignorant. I thought it was 90. And it was a 60 zone. Okay, this was after we moved to Milani. So I wasn't really aware of the roads. And if you know some of those roads, they can go from 90 to 60 just suddenly. So I wasn't even aware. I thought it was 90 and it was 60 and it was a public holiday. So double demerits and all that, right. And the cop got me. Has a big fine. And a lot of points lost. You know what, but when a cop pulled me over and he's like, did you not see the sign? I was like, what? No, I don't know. How long have you been living here? You know, probably six months now. Oh, you should know better by now then. So all right, I disagree with my adversary quickly. Oh, cop the points. Oh, cop the fine. Did you like it, pastor? No, I didn't like it. Okay, I don't like, do you like that? I don't like that. That's a lot of money. It's a point. Now I've got to be really careful. I've got to drive like a grandma now because I'm afraid that any little mistake might cause me to lose my license. Like it was double demerits. Like that's a 30 kilometre difference. That's a big, that's a big one, you know. And I can whine or complain and I can be stressed, I guess. First thing I did was read this passage. All right, let me just find that money. Pay it. Clear my conscience. Clear my stress. Done. Gone. Forget about it. Done. All right. I'm not trying to fight this or whatever it is or try to create excuses or whatever. Done. All right. You know, we can't eat out for a while now. We've got to just eat beans and rice for a few months. But at least it's not a stress on my mind. It's not something I have to worry about for now, you know. So I know, I know the difficulties. I know that this sermon does not satisfy everybody. But it's still my responsibility to teach even these passages that are not popular, you know, in the years of our listeners. You can come with me to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, verse number 1. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse number 1. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse number 1. Now the Corinthian church was really messed up in many, many ways. Okay. But 1 Corinthians 6, verse number 1. There are any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. So when you go to court, what is Paul saying that they are? They're unjust. You know, it's very hard to find, you know, a, what are they called? A judge that is just. And in this situation, this messed up church, there are church members taking other church members to court to the unjust. Verse number 2, do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Now, obviously this has to do with small matters, smallest matters. If I commit a crime against you, of course, you know, like if I go and break into your house or something like that, all right, that's not something that, oh, let's just sort that out. Like if I've been a thief, you need to, you know, be taken to court. That's the, it's a crime in the laws of God. All right. But small matters, little issues, whatever it is, right? I don't know. You know, I was reversed in my car, in the car park, and I accidentally scratched your car. Now to some people, that's a big issue, but that's a small issue, really. It's a small issue, right? A piece of your possession got scratched. All right. Well, what are we going to do? Oh, I don't know. It wasn't me. I didn't buy whatever it is, right? Let's go to court about them at the issue. Verse number 3 says, no, you're not that we shall judge angels. How much more things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. The Bible says regarding small matters, now this is not saying get the least experienced person, but essentially it's saying that if you're going to go to court, it's still better to get the least experienced, the youngest believer in your church to judge the matter between two believers in the church, okay? Verse number 5, I speak to your shame. In other words, this has been going on in the church. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren, but brother go to law with brother and that before the unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another. Because this is a problem in your church. You're going to law. What did Christ say? Agree with your adversary quickly. Your adversary, we should not be looking at our brothers and sisters in the church as adversaries, as brethren, let's just sort it out. Why do you not rather take wrong? Now, this is so hard for the pride of man. He says, why don't you just choose to be wronged instead of going to the magistrates? Just, just say, you know what? Even if you don't believe you're wrong, even if you're not wrong, it's still better to just say, okay, I'm wrong. That's hard. It's very hard to do that. You know, I had to sort of train myself to do that, to take wrong. And the way I look at it, the way this is how I look at it, I look at, hold on, Jesus took my wrong. I deserve to be blamed by God. I deserve to be punished by God. I deserved to be thrown into hell. Jesus took my wrong. Like Jesus was innocent. And not just me, but the sins of the whole world. How much more wrong did Jesus take off me and put it on him? And then sometimes what I learned in the workplace, you know, and, and this develops thick skin as well. When your boss gets angry, because all bosses get angry at some point, believe it or not, because of stress and worries and risks that they're taking and what have you, and they blame you for something you've never done. Ah, why is he blaming me? Just, just take the wrong. All right, boss, you're right. I was wrong. I'll do better next time. And I think back to a past where, you know, I have upset one of my pastors. And to this day, I believe I'm in the right. And my pastor is saying, you're prideful, you're rebellious. I'm like, what in the world? I've been serving your church faithfully for nine years. What problems am I causing in the church? Prideful, you're rebellious, because I believe in the post-Trib rapture. You're prideful, you're rebellious. I'm like, yeah, pastor, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I've let you down. I'll do better, but I can't change my beliefs. I mean, it's what I see in the Bible. I'm sorry to have disappointed you, pastor. Later on that pastor went up to me and said, you know, I really appreciate how you handled the way I spoke to you. I guess he's expecting some other response. You know, sometimes it's just, it's hard to do, but I know what Christ already did for me. So I'm never going to make up for what Christ did for me. You know, with my fellow man, with my fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. Sorry, verse number seven. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? He says, it's better for you to be blamed for something you didn't do than to go to the magistrates, the unbelievers, okay? Be taken for that whole process. That's a shame if you're doing that to brothers and sisters in the Lord. Now again, I'm not talking about criminal action, criminal offenses, okay? We're talking about the smallest matters. Verse number eight, nay ye do wrong and defraud and that your brethren. It's like the reason you want to take him to court is you're trying to get more out of that situation than what you truly deserve. Now look, I know it's hard. It's so hard to take the blame for something you know you didn't do. But I just, I look at these verses and go, Lord, I'm going to do what your word says. I'll just take the wrong. Sometimes I get comments, pastor, did you know so-and-so said this about you? I don't feel compelled to make it right. If someone thinks bad about me, so be it. Let them think that way. I don't care. I feel like I barely have time to do my own personal hobbies, and I don't want to be wasting time in being the thought police and making people think well of me. If people don't think well of me, so be it. That's their problem. If someone hates me, so be it. If someone's bitter against me, so be it. And if there's some issue, then they ought to come one-on-one and we'll sort it out and whatever it is. You know, whatever decisions you make in life, and especially when you have positions like a pastor, there's always going to be people that agree or disagree with your positions, and sometimes people will think the worst of you. You know, you're trying to do things for the right reasons, and some people think well you're doing things for the wrong reasons. Okay, whatever. If that's how you feel, then I don't feel the need to justify myself. I look at verses like this, and I'll just take the wrong even if I don't think I'm wrong. And I believe that the Lord God's going to bless me for that. Like I truly believe if I just obey this, and I just take the wrong even if I'm not wrong, if I allow myself to be defrauded, that God's going to bless me. It's going to be worth more. The blessing is going to be worth so much more by being obedient to his word, than just trying to make things right with this other person, and making sure they see me in the right light, or whatever it is. I don't know what more I can do, you know, to make people realize that I have a love for God's people, you know. And if people don't think that, well, I don't know what to do. I'd rather, okay, you know, whatever it is. I'm a selfish, foolish pastor, whatever it is. If that's how you see it, so be it. But you know, we're talking about government here, and I want you to understand, looks, you don't have to always justify yourself. To me, it's like, just leave it with God. Going through months and months and years of court battles, and this and that, and being concerned, is it really worth that time in your mind? Stress? Stress it causes other people? I don't think so. Can you come with me to Acts 25? Acts 25. Acts 25, verse number one. What I'm trying to say to you brethren is avoid court battles. Avoid it. Just, you know, I've got to fight for my rights. I've got to fight my constitutional rights. What a waste of time. Just pay the thousand dollar fine, whatever it is. You know, just obey God. If and even if you didn't do wrong, just, I strongly feel, I believe God's going to bless you. You know what? Not only did Jesus take our wrong, once he rose from the dead, what happened? He was glorified. Okay, he was glorified. You know what? You take wrong that's not your wrong. I'm sure God will exalt you and glorify you and bless you. Acts 25. Now sometimes you are found in court and you can't help it. In this scenario, Paul was just preaching the gospel, not being a troublemaker. But of course, sometimes preaching the gospel makes you a troublemaker. I'm glad in Melbourne, in the shopping centers, nobody found out and nobody reported us to the security or whatever it was. But hey, you know, if that's the case and you get kicked out of the shopping center, are you really doing wrong? Just trying to preach the gospel to the lost. You're not being a troublemaker. Some people get bothered by things like that. In this scenario, Paul just gets arrested. All right, for just preaching the gospel. And then it says in verse number one, Acts 25 verse number one. Now Festus was coming to the province after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Then the high priest from the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul and besought him and desired favor against him that he would send him forward to Jerusalem, laying weight in the way to kill him. So Festus has to make a decision here. All right, we need to judge Paul and I'm getting like sweet, sweet talks, sweet, sweet words being said to me by the high priest. They're trying to tell me we should take Paul back to Jerusalem. Okay, but the high priest had an alternative motive for transporting Paul back to Jerusalem. So that way, halfway through the journey that they find him, they kill him and get rid of his troublesome religion. All right, and then it says here, verse number four, But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly dither. It says, Let them therefore said here, which among you are able, go down with me and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him. And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea, and the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, commanded Paul to be brought. And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove. At least at some level of justice here, right? Okay, you've made these accusations, can you now prove them? Verse number eight, While he answered for himself, neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all. He says, I've done no wrong. All right, I've done no wrong. He's in this situation. Verse number nine, But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, Look, I don't think Festus is this really horrible person. But you can see, even in a place of judgment, he's still trying to appease the people. How can I make judgment a certain way to make these people happy? I want to make the Jews happy. So he's like, okay, how can I appease them? Jews, answering Paul said, will thou go up to Jerusalem, and they'd be judged of these things before me. So Paul, are you willing to go to Jerusalem instead? You know, and he's trying to appease the Jews, you know, because those Jews are trying to kill Paul. Verse number 10, Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. For if I be offended, or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die. But if there be none of these things, whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them, I appeal unto Caesar. Is there a time, yes, you know, in this scenario, Paul is arrested, he's brought before the magistrates, he's brought before the judge. And he says, look, there's corruption here, right? Paul's aware these Jews hate me, they want to kill me. They're trying to take the justice process. So at this point, he says, I appeal to Caesar. He's saying, I appeal to the higher power. It's better for me to go to Caesar, the higher power, than to be taken to Jerusalem and killed. Okay, Paul is obviously aware that there's, this is not good in this situation. So look, obviously, I'm not saying don't go to court. You know, I've said avoid it as much as you can. But sometimes, you will be dragged into that scenario. And in that scenario, there's nothing wrong with you seeking justice. Okay, there's nothing wrong in that scenario for you to seek justice. And he says, I'm better off being judged in Rome with Caesar than in Jerusalem amongst the Jews. Okay, who hate my guts because I'm preaching Christ Jesus. Verse number 12 says, then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, thou hast appealed unto Caesar, unto Caesar, shalt thou go. All right, I just want to point out, you know, a situation where we've seen the Bible is brought before magistrates, and now he's playing the game. Okay, and he's trying to make sure things work out more favourably for him by going to Rome, where they don't hate his guts, versus Jerusalem, where they do hate his guts. So of course, he's going to try to make the system work for him as best as it can. But obviously, if you ask Paul, would you want to be in this situation? No, I'd rather avoid being taken to the magistrates. I'd rather avoid being arrested. At the end of the day, God had a plan for Paul to go to Rome anyway. And Rome was kind of disobedient, if you know the story. Eventually, God found a way to get him arrested and take him to Rome anyway. And it was through this process. Can you come with me to Romans chapter 13, Romans 13, Romans 13. Ah, Romans 13. You're one of those Romans 13 Christians. Of course I am. I'm a Romans 12 Christian too, and a Romans 14 Christian. And I'm a Genesis one Christian, and a Revelation 22 Christian. You know, I don't know. It seems like sometimes Romans 13 is like a hated chapter of the Bible. And always trying to make excuses for what it says and what it really means this. And it really means that it just, you know, it means what it says. That's what it means. Just like the rest of the Bible. Romans 13 verse number one. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there, and this is Paul, right? Paul's like, okay, I've got a Caesar, high power. But there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Isn't that interesting? The powers that be are ordained of God. God ordained them. You know, I'm an ordained pastor. Our government was ordained by God too. As much as we don't like them. As much as they're corrupt. As much as they pass laws that are contrary to God's laws. It's still a power that is ordained by God. Verse number two. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Do you believe that verse? Oh, it's corrupt. Just submit. It's an ordinance that God's put into place. You submit to that ordinance, you submit to God. All right. And obviously those that resist, there'll be damnation. You'll be damned. Obviously not damnation of your soul. But I'm saying like there'll be trouble that follows you. Verse number three. For rulers are not a terror to good works. So sometimes they are in corrupt systems. But you know, in God's perfect plan of a government governing power. They're not meant to be a rule as a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will thou then not be afraid of the power to that which is good? And thou shall have praise of the same. Again, there's that idea of praise. You just obey the government of thrones. You'll receive praise. It says, will thou not be afraid of the power? There ought to be some fear of the power. Not of man, but of the power that God has ordained over a nation. Verse number four. Now this is hard to absorb in our stomach. So our Prime Minister, Albanese. I don't like that man, by the way. But he's ordained by God. His power is ordained of God. For he, that's Albanese, and the government in thrones and your judges and whatever it is, right? Ah, for he is the minister of God. Oh, man. Pastor, you're the minister of God. Yes, that was our Prime Minister, unfortunately. For thee to, for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Now, this is important. Wherefore ye must needs to be subject. This is something you need to do. You must, okay, must needs to be subject, not only for wrath. Look at this, not only for wrath. This is so important, but also for conscience sake. For your conscience, just submit to them. For your conscience, just submit to them. Again, you know, I don't want to label it because I've had many discussions with different people at different things, especially during COVID days. I'm going to fight this and I'm going to be right. What do you think, Pastor? What should I do? Often I'm like, okay, I'm not an expert, but do what your conscience says. Oh yeah, my conscience is right. If your conscience is right, you wouldn't be asking me. Quite often, that's, that's real. You know, people ask me questions. Pastor, what do you think about this or that? And I tell them something they don't want to hear. Oh, but that's all right. I'm going to do this anyway. Okay. But you wouldn't have asked me if you already knew that was 100% correct. And if your conscience was on board. Like if you, if you know, like if you're going to make a decision in life, right. And you know, it's 100% right decision to make. Your conscience is clear. You're not going to come up to me and say, Pastor, what do you think about this situation? The reason you do that is because your conscience is being bothered. And there is such joy and there is such freedom. And I'm loving being a pastor because I've got a clear conscience. If I had a defiled conscience as a pastor, I'd just rather step down. It'd be hard to serve in the house of the Lord with a defiled and corrupt conscience. You know, it's very hard to live a happy and joyful life, free from stress and free from worries when your conscience is telling you, I should have obeyed the government, but I didn't. What if they find out? What if they notice I cheated on my taxes? What if it comes out in five years time and you know, and I've got to pay all of this back and think of the stress, the conscience of being bothered. They may never find out. You may have gotten away with whatever you cheated, whatever system you cheated on. They may never find out, but it's going to bother your conscience to the day you die. So for conscience sake, just whatever. And we get into taxes actually. Verse number six, for this cause, pay tribute also. For they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues. I didn't write that. I don't like that either, but it's there in the Bible. I don't like it as much as you do. Render therefore to all their dues. Tribute to whom tribute is due. Custom to whom custom. Fear to whom fear. Honour to whom honour. Owe no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another have fulfilled the law. Look, don't owe the government anything. You know, a couple of years ago I was doing my taxes and you know, mine's a bit complicated because I've got rental income and I've got, you know, church and two churches, all this stuff. And so I've got to, I've got to pay taxes. And I spoke to a new accountant and he said to me, you know, the way you've got things set up is not the best at the moment. You've paid, you've been paying too much taxes over the years. You've been paying too much. You know, I can help you because you can go backwards a few years. I don't know how many years it is. You can go back and adjust it and you know, the government can pay you back this money and you know, do you want to go ahead and do that? I'm like, no, I don't really want to do that. It's like, you look at me like, I'm confused, like you're weird. Why wouldn't you want to maximise your tax return? Now there's nothing wrong with maximising your tax return. It's just because I thought about as a pastor who's trying to preach the truth and I preach controversial things. You know what? If there's foolish and ignorant men that want to accuse me of anything, they might make accusations of finances. So in a scenario like that, just in my mind, I thought about, okay, if the government owes me money and it stays that way for now and I get accused and brought before magistrates and whatever, you know, financial audits and they conclude actually we owe you money, that's going to work out so much better. I'd rather that situation play out, right, than some other situation to play out. So I just thought, you know what, whatever, I don't care. Like it's been paid, it's out of my mind, I'm not thinking about it. It was years ago, whatever, you know, I'm doing okay, we're fine, you know, we're living, we're eating, we've got a roof over our heads, God's been blessing me, we're okay. Now if one day, for whatever reason, I'm not a pastor, I might try to chase that down. But rather, right at the moment, while I'm preaching God's Word and I'm a bit of a public figure being online and all things like that, I'd just rather the government owe me than the other way around. And I know that sounds weird, but I kind of want you to understand where I'm coming from. You know, and again, I just think God's going to bless me anyway. I'd rather be defrauded, right, than have to justify every little thing in my life for every single dollar. I'd rather just be defrauded. Now let's talk about taxes. Come with me to Matthew 22. Come with me to Matthew 22 and verse number 15. Matthew 22 and verse number 15, please. Matthew 22, verse number 15. You guys know this story. I love stories like this in the Bible. Matthew 22, 15, Matthew 22, 15, Matthew 22, 15, Matthew 22, 15, Matthew 22, 15, then when the Pharisees and took counsel, how they might entangle him in his talk in Jesus's talk, right? They're trying to find how to trip him up. And so I think about this as well. And I've had situations where people contact me just to see if I can trip up on my words, say something that I shouldn't say or whatever it is, right? There are people like that. They're just wicked people, okay? And one topic they're going to try to entangle you on is on the topic of taxes. Verse number 16, Now that sounds really wonderful, but they're trying to make him trip up on his words, right? They're coming with one, we just love you, Jesus. We just want to know the truth of what you're saying about the topic of taxes. But they actually mean bad, okay? They don't mean well at all. Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? Tribute there again is just tax, different types of taxes, right? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? All right, if he asked us, we would say, well, the image is Queen Elizabeth, right? The second, and eventually might be King Charles. I don't know what's going to happen with our currency. You know, that's it situation. Verse number 21, And they said unto him, Caesar's, or Queen Elizabeth, or whatever, the government, right? Then saith unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. When they heard these words, they marveled and left him and went their way. I love how Jesus just doesn't waste time on this issue. Look, if it belongs to Caesar, just give it to Caesar. But what belongs to God, you give it to God. Do you think really God cares about our money in that sense? When he owns every cattle on a thousand hills? Look, we need money. It's important. We ought to be good stewards of what God has given us. But I'm not trying to hold on to every little penny. If it's got Caesar's face, all right, so you can have it, whatever. I don't want to distract from my mission of serving the Lord. I don't want to be caught up being potentially taken to court over this issue, over that issue, because I forgot to pay my $10 fine somewhere along the lines. Caesar, you can have it because I've got other things to do. I need to give what belongs to God to God. You know, I don't want to be a pastor that, you know, during COVID days, you know, trying to fight Caesar and then drag through the court system and all my church being fined and, oh, but we won the battle. Yeah, but we've been fighting it for the last year and a half. The stress and the worry and the frustrations. When we should have been using that time to go to just Fiji or something. Using that time to do other works for God. Just give it to Caesar and let's just use the rest of it. Not waste our time. Let's give to God what belongs to God. What a great approach from, like, I don't think Jesus, when he did his tax, went to his accountant, make sure I save every single penny, right? Just whatever. Just again, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with obviously doing your taxes right. You know, avoiding whatever taxes you don't need to pay. There's nothing wrong with that. But it's not the battle that we've been called to be part of. We've got greater things to do for our Lord God. Can you come with me to Luke chapter two? Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two verse number one. Luke chapter two verse number one. Again, I'm not some expert of taxes. I know there are taxes that you can avoid. If you can avoid it, avoid it. You know, legally, if you can avoid it, just avoid it. Whatever it is, if you can get tax return over things, do it. Like, I'm not saying don't do it. All I'm saying is there are more important things in life than making sure every dollar, you know, returns back to you that, whatever, just, Caesars, I'll be wrong, I'll be in the wrong, I'll be defrauded, whatever. I just don't want to go through this system of, you know, being accused by the government, being accused as a wrongdoer, allowing foolish men to accuse me and have a terrible testimony and waste my years through some court battle when I should be doing other things that serve the Lord. But in Luke chapter two verse number one, and it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus and that all the world should be taxed. Oh man, that's not, that's it. I'm going to avoid these things. And this taxing was made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. In these days, in order for you to pay your tax, you have to go back to the city you were born in. Okay, you'll recognize to be, you know, a resident of that city. And look at this verse number four, and Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, and Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth. So he was living in Nazareth, right? Into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. So Joseph says, man, I've got to go pay these tax. And the Bible tells us that Joseph was a just man. He said, I better make sure I pay the tax. Man, I've got to leave Nazareth and I've got to go to Bethlehem. You know, a bit frustrating. Most of us, it's not that frustrating. We see an accountant, we do it online. It takes a few minutes, bang. This guy has to move locations to pay his taxes. And look, verse number five, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. Mary was heavily pregnant. I can see an excuse. I'm not going to go pay this tax. My wife's about to give birth. The trouble of picking ourselves up and go back to, you know, back to Bethlehem. And yet Joseph is a just man. Man, this is going to be hard. It's going to be a tough job. Man, this is going to be hard. It's going to be a tough journey for us. My wife can pop any moment, but it's like, we better pay our taxes anyway. Let's go to Bethlehem. And ultimately, it's to fill the prophecy of Christ that he'd be born in the city of David. So I just want to show you an example of a just man. He could make excuses. It's too far. My wife's heavily pregnant. He goes, I better pay it. I better go back to Bethlehem. Can you come with me to another passage? Matthew 17. Matthew 17. If I go over time again, brethren, my apologies. Matthew 17, please. Verse number 24. What I like about this verse I'm about to read, Matthew 17, is there is a truth that we shouldn't have to pay taxes. But we should pay it anyway. It's like this paradox, right? Two truths. But how do we deal with two truths that are seemingly contradictive? And I like this here in Matthew 17, verse number 24. And again, we're meant to follow the steps of Jesus Christ. Matthew 17, 24. So certain tax collectors, whatever it is, they come to Peter. Doesn't your master, doesn't Jesus pay tribute? Now, let me give you a word of advice. If you get approached by the ATO or whoever is collecting a tax and says to you, what about so and so over there? You say, it's none of my business. Ask them. Like, you don't need to get involved in other people's, you know, decisions of how or when they're paying the government. Okay, or paying their taxes. Like, I feel like Peter just fell in a trap here. Doesn't your master pay taxes? Like, well, ask him. Like, if you're trying to get taxes off Jesus, ask him to pay it. Like, if that's what you need, right? And this is our response. He sayeth, yes. Are you trying to do what's right? I guess we have to pay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he does pay taxes. And when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him. In other words, Jesus, before Peter got to speak, Jesus spoke first. Okay. Saying, what thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, of strangers, Jesus saith unto him, then are the children free. So this is a truth. Okay. That the way our government ought to collect taxes and payments is not from their citizens. It's from the strangers. It's from the foreigners. Right. And this happens as well. Like, if you've got a foreign student wanting to come to study into Australia, they're going to have to pay their taxes and pay for their applications. That is definitely one way. Or if there's a, you know, if there's a manufacturer in China that wants to sell, send their goods to Australia to sell, it's right for our government to say, all right, you can do that, but we're going to charge you this much levy. We're going to charge you this kind of cost, this tax, you know? And Australia is full of natural resources. And if you want access to our resources, yes, yes, you can have that. You can pay for it, but you're also going to have to pay taxes in order to receive our resources. That's how our government is supposed to make money. Okay. That's how this, that's how it's supposed to work. We're citizens of this land. We ought to be able to benefit from what the resources this land provides. Now that's, so in many ways we ought not to as citizens, you know, of our nation not to pay taxes. So that's a true statement. And so that's why believers sometimes are like, well, then I'm not going to pay my taxes. I'm going to avoid the government. I'm not going to submit to the government. I'm not going to submit to their authority because Jesus said so. There's a truth to that. But then he says this in verse number 27, notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go there to the sea and cast and hook and take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou has opened his mouth, thou shall find a piece of money that take and give unto them for me and thee. He says, look, whatever. We'll pay it anyway. Let's not offend them. We don't want problems. Jesus is focused on his ministry. Jesus is focused on doing the work of God. He says, look, go, go fish. Go do a little bit of work because he's a fisherman, right? Go work a little bit on the side. Make the money you need to, to pay the taxes. The first fish you fish will have enough to pay for my taxes and yours, Peter. So that's how Jesus deals with it. Oh, but I ought to be free. I ought to pay taxes. Don't you know, pastor? Our government's corrupt. Look, just whatever. You really want to be caught up in these battles through the court systems, fighting for your rights. Look, if you don't have enough money to pay for your taxes, go fishing. All right, go sell them at the markets, whatever you need to do. Go and like I did for a while, go and clean some houses. Whatever it is that you need to do to make up the shortfall. And God says, look, he'll make sure that he gives you what you need to be able to take care of, you know, your ability to pay the government their taxes. Don't offend them. Jesus knows that's going to cause us so much more trouble down the track, you know? But Peter, really, I guess in hindsight, Peter probably should have said, I don't know. Maybe he already has paid. I'm not sure. I'll go and ask him. Okay, or you can ask him yourself. Why are you coming to me to ask me about Jesus's tax issues? Come with me to Titus chapter three, please. Titus chapter three. I've got two more passages of Scripture. Thank you for your patience this morning. I know it's not a popular sermon. And if I bothered your conscience a little bit, I mean, good. As long as it's God's Word that's bothering you, right? And again, I'm not some expert. You don't need to come to me and say, well, what about this situation? What about that situation? You work it out. Like, you know, like Peter shouldn't have answered for Jesus on his behalf. You know, we have our own decisions and I know sometimes tax, taxation and submitting to certain rules and rules, you know, might be more complex than just a simple answer can provide, right? But I want you to notice this in the book of Titus, because we're going to be looking at Titus and we're going to look at 1 Timothy. And both Titus and Timothy are pastoral epistles. Titus and Timothy are the instructions of what a pastor ought to be like in the house of the Lord, okay? So when Paul says to Titus, as a pastor, this is what you need to do. I want you to understand why I'm preaching this sermon this morning. In Titus chapter three, verse number one, it says, put them in mind. So Titus, this is what you need to do to your church. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle showing meekness unto all men, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Paul says to Titus, you know what you need to tell your church? To put in mind, to be subject to these authorities, to be submit to the government, okay? And this is why we didn't do it in the past, like it says in verse number three, because we were sometimes foolish. We were disobedient. We were deceived. We thought we were doing the right thing, but someone lied to us. We were serving our own lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. You know, we didn't care about things like that in the past, but he's saying, look, tell your church, you need to be subject to these powers. That's an instruction that Paul says to pass to Titus. Now come with me to the next passage. First Timothy chapter two. First Timothy, pass to Timothy. First Peter, sorry, First Timothy chapter two. First Timothy chapter two. First Timothy chapter two, verse number one. I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. You go, yeah, amen. And then verse number two, for kings. Ah, and for all that are in authority. Ah, pray for kings. Pass, like, I don't mind praying for brother so-and-so, and family so-and-so, and sister so-and-so, and I don't mind praying for things like that, but for the kings and people in authority, we know how corrupt they are. Of course we know how corrupt they are. But we're not necessarily praying for their well-being, right? Something I really want to emphasize, we're not praying that our prime minister gets elected again, you know, whatever it is. Like, we're not praying for their benefits. The reason we pray for kings and governors is for our benefits, okay? Which it continues there. For kings and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. So pray that our governors don't make our life hard. Pray that our government, you know, yes, will tax us less. Nothing wrong with asking that God to pray for that. You know, pray that our governors never put law into practice, that we will be unable to preach the gospel to our neighbours. You know, pray that our government will not stop us from being able to meet for church, that we can live a quiet and peaceable life. I like that. I want a quiet and peaceable life as much as I can in obedience to God. And the reason I want to end on this, number one, I want to show you how Timothy and Titus have been instructed as pastors what they're meant to teach their church. And so if this is an unpopular sermon, I just want you to know, I'm just following the commandments of God here. Don't hate me. But also, by doing so, you're going to live a quiet and peaceable life. And I want to show you what I've observed of these. And I don't want to paint everybody with a broad brush, because there are exceptions to the rule all the time, right? But generally, believers that are always trying to fight the government, believers that are trying to avoid taxes, believers that are trying to be off the grid, because I don't want the government to know this or know that, are not living a quiet and peaceable life. They're always talking about the government, always talking about what laws might be happening next, and our rights have been taken away, and our liberties, and you can tell they're not at peace. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? They're not at peace up here. And I'm saying, look, just live a quiet and peaceful life, for conscience sake, right? This is the will of God to be submissive to these powers and authorities. We are to be submissive to the government. And of course, I'm not saying obey them when they ask you to sin. I'm not saying obey them when they ask you to do wickedness, but every ordinance of man. And when it's hard, you need to just remind yourself, hey, I'm doing what God's asked me to do. He's put them into power. He's given them that authority. And if I submit to him, I'm actually fulfilling God's will. And I'm sorry if it's an unpopular sermon this morning, but submission is always unpopular, regardless of who you were asked to be submissive to. Total for the sermon was submit to the government. All right, let's pray.