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sermon: Authority

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 17-Oct-26; Sermon #1897; 82 minutes

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I do not know if you've noticed, but the world is a mess. And it's getting worse. Things are not at all like they once were. And there is no going back to the good old days. I do not think any kind of revival that could come around would ever change things back to the way they were. I know my dad used to talk about his boyhood and, and you know, it was, it was. Easy in comparison to ours. I'm, yeah, I mean, they did a lot of work and everything, but they trusted people. They did not lock their homes and their cars and you know, my, my dad, he lived on the north side of Pittsburgh and As a young teenager, he just took the train in and worked at Forbes Field and sold Cokes and whatever else and came back late at night uh, you know, reversing his, his trip back to the North Hills and you know, his mom and dad did not bat an eye about it. Uh, you could not do that today. Uh, go into any major city from an outlying suburb and feel like you're safe. Not here in Charlotte. Uh, we, we heard about that and some of the mess that's going on there. But It's not me just saying this observers across the fruited plain are increasingly commenting on social media, on programs podcasts, what have you, about how weird and unhinged people are becoming. They just do whatever, whatever comes to mind. I mean, we do not need them to tell us that we can go to Walmart. Where is the mall Some of, you know, just going down some of our city streets, we see the weirdness right out there in the open. I mean, think about it. New York City has a Muslim mayor. And he openly In every speech advocates for communism. And several democratic socialists That's code for communists. are vying for national office. I mean, you would never have thought of that. And they have links to terrorist organizations, but no one seems to care. And of course we know sexual perversion is rampant. We have that terrible problem at Cornell University, and what has come out of that is that no one knows what consent is anymore. And The, the poor woman, deluded woman, gave her consent and then took it back afterward. Can you do that? Is that consent? It, it's strange. Teenagers with gripes and manifestos shoot up schools and places of worship. LGBTQ plus groups ally themselves with Muslims. Who if they catch them in their their own territory will cut off their heads for being homosexual. Certain parts of the US and UK are already functionally under Sharia law because Muslims have taken over various parts of cities, France too. Um, the UK especially has come into the news over the past few months because they have basically said they are going to turn a blind eye to Muslim gang rapes. That's just how Muslims are. Pat the boys on the head and, and do not do anything. Of course I've said this one before, people identify as furry animals or babies or whatever weird thing, even in human things that somehow make them feel secure. Or something I do not know what it is. It's just too strange. Well, we also have the court case where the mother viciously killed her three children. And Women across the nation defended her. And when the the trial, the jury was hung, um, they went after the, the one, the lone juror who thought she should actually pay for her unspeakable crimes. And did you know Anti-Semitism is back in vogue. You can freely be a Jew hater. In public Because The left, I'll just put it that way, has determined that Israel is the aggressor in everything that they do, and they are ethnically cleansing poor Hamas and the rest of the Palestinians. They flipped. The tables It's You know, what happened on, on October 7th, a few years ago doesn't matter anymore. I mean, we, you can read about what Hamas did. During those few days where they ran rampant over those areas in in eastern Israel, southern Israel too, wherever they, they, you know, crossed the line into Jewish lands, and but that doesn't matter. That's entirely justified according to them because they have faced 60 years, 70 years of Israeli aggression. I mean, that's just totally undermining truth, fact. You go back and you read those things what happened and it was always the 300 million or whatever it was Arabs that were coming against 2 million Israelis and they were trying to defend themselves. But no, that doesn't matter. Now Israel must be condemned. This is the way it always happens. Uh, this is really nothing, nothing new. Uh, it's happened time and time again. But it's still not right. If you would please turn with me to Proverbs the twenty-ninth chapter. In verse 18 Proverbs 29:18. You know this verse Where there is no Revelation, the people cast off restraint, and happy is he who keeps the law, or but happy is he who keeps the law. It's one of those verses that we come to quite frequently because it it actually tells us a great deal. And what we are seeing out in the world today is human nature zinging about this world without restraint. And Solomon here, I should say, but Solomon here connects interesting ideas that most fail to see when they read this verse. Most people read this verse and think they understand what it means, but Solomon does something really intriguing here. He pairs The idea of Revelation, and I should should explain if you have a marginal reference, it probably says something like prophetic vision or something like that. I would further qualify what Revelation means here. As The Ministry or the purpose of the prophets. Not just one prophet but all of them. Saying that The Revelation that is given to the people. Is the warning and corrective meas teaching of the prophet. God sent His prophets for a purpose. He sent them. To go into Israel and kick some butts. I mean, I can't put it in a more colorful way. He sent them in there. He gave Ezekiel, I think it was a forehead of, of flint. He, he You know, I had to pump up Jeremiah in what he had to do and Isaiah too. He had to show Isaiah his glory so that he would fall on his face and, you know, lose all Control over his body. To make them understand that they were supposed to go at his call into Jewish or, or Israelite cities and give them what for? Tell them to get back to the covenant, get back to obeying God and His commands. So this is what this word Revelation in the Hebrew refers to. It's the, the work of the prophet and the warning message, the corrective message that he would give them. So that the people would have another session of teaching about the right way and how they are supposed to live. OK So Solomon pairs Revelation. As you get through the the verse with the law. Now you have to remember that a lot of these Proverbs are couplets, and they say either the exact same thing using different words or sometimes they say the opposite. So that you get it from a positive and a negative or sometimes it gives you a cause and effect or there are various other ways that that the that Solomon and others used the couplet. To teach, but in here the, the first word that Revelation or, or the first major subject Revelation. Links with the last word in the verse, the law. Now, how does this happen? Well, what was the basis for the prophet's message? Obviously it was God sending him out as a prophet. For one, but the other part of it was that he was speaking from the foundation of God's law. That was God's Revelation to his people. I mean, what do we have in Exodus 19? We have God coming down on Mount Sinai in all the smoke and all the fire and all the sound, and what does he do? He gives the law. So God's authority is linked. Inextricably To the law So Solomon here links Revelation to the law. So more broadly In this verse, when people fail to heed the prophets. Teaching based on the law. They Cast off restraint. They run wild, as many translations translated. Or as the King James Version translates it, they perish. That's the end. That's the result of failing to heed the prophet, failing to keep the law, and Running wild I mean, you run wild. Let's say you just go out running without. Hearing or seeing anything. And what's the result? Do this in a city and you end up smashing into buildings and probably running out into the street and getting run over by a bus. That's kind of the idea here. Because without the law you can't see or hear. What is right Or what is wrong? And so you just go. And run wild And ultimately If you keep that up, you will perish. And on the other hand, the second part of the couplet says that if you keep the law, you will live happily or blessedly. Now at its most basic, The law is a set of authoritative standards. God's law Enforced by his inherent authority as creator and lawgiver. Reflects his holy righteous character and thus defines right and wrong. It defines how to live or not to live, depending on whether the law itself is something that is stated positively or negatively. And we have both of those in the 10 Commandments. Remember, the Sabbath is a positive way. Of saying keep the Sabbath and, and you're going to live well. But he also says, do not murder, which is negative. Don't do that. Because you'll end up dying. Because the wages of sin is death. OK With that in mind The revised English Bible. Translates this verse quite strikingly, I think. It reads With no one in authority, the people throw off all restraint. But he who keeps the law leads them on a straight path. Now this one, this translation Personalizes it or personifies it or or individualizes it into a person of authority. It doesn't leave it like uh. In the other translations where it's just a a principle. This puts, gives some agency to the leader here. But The striking part To me, is that the translator grasped and thus highlighted the idea of authority in the proverb. With no one in authority, the people throw off all restraint. He understood That people run wild or lose all self-control when one. Authoritative leadership is missing. Or 2, people do not recognize or simply reject. The authority One, authoritative leadership is missing, absent, just not there. Or 2, people do not recognize or reject the authority in place. And we are seeing this in society on both counts. There are many areas in which the people who should be in authority have defective, defected or abdicated their roles. They're no longer there. Let's just put this in in church or religious terms. They're no longer there doing the prophetic role. Were they not crying a lot, sparing sparing, not uh, telling the people their sins. Or the on the others, uh. Side You have a whole bunch of people who've swallowed the swill of intellectuals and others who are leading people astray, deconstructing all this other stuff, and so they believe that there is no authority, that they should bow to no authority, that they should be free. To do whatever they want. And follow their own whims. Because Authority Said their teachers should not exist. But the proverb says, That when authority is present, And people Accept the authority. And especially if it is based on God's law. Then people live better lives, far better lives. No, probably you figured out I'm going to be talking about authority. Authority is something most people in these enlightened and please understand that as deconstructed. Or simply narcissistic. Times either dislike or outright reject. People do not like or want authority these days. In its pursuit of tearing down dogma and tradition. In its pursuit of raw individualism, in its pursuit of absolute freedom. Modern Western culture has undermined authority across the board. And what has it led to? Look out the window Instability, violence, and chaos. We see it all the time. We do not know. How things are going to go. Because Every man does what is right in his own eyes, and who can know what every man is going to do? We have to be aware of this effect. I mean, we are kind of in a bubble. And thank God for that. That we can live without having being affected. Quite so personally by these things. Some of us are, but most of us can live pretty well and ignore the things that are going out there, on out there. But we have to be aware of the insidious effect of this Idea This concept that batters us all the time. Taking authority down or Uh, getting us to desire complete absolute freedom. We have to be aware of this effect because If we succumb to it, It can have disastrous consequences. To our relationship with God. The ultimate authority. We need to really think about our attitude toward authority. Especially God's authority. Let's go to Judges 21. Verse 25 Last verse in Judges. This verse is repeated elsewhere. My Bible says here, Judges 17:6 and 18:1. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Hm, sounds familiar. Now this is an early parallel. To what we just read in Proverbs 29:18. They're on the same team. And this world is on the brink of this lawless, utterly chaotic state. It wouldn't take much to tip over into something like we saw or we read in the in the book of Judges. Nearly everyone does, I mean, in our time, nearly everyone does whatever he pleases. And few care about what law or authority figures might say about it. You just do it You do not care. You'll take the consequences. But you're going to do it. Because you want to So that's how we normally understand this verse. There was no king. And so people did whatever they wanted. But have you ever deeply considered the logic of this verse? I mean, that's something preachers do. We study night and day wear down the candle at both ends, you know, that sort of thing. Well, burn it. We do not wear it down, do you? We usually burn it. We think about things. Uh, it's a fine principle. And correct as far as it goes. Without legitimate authority, people tend to do whatever they want. Sowing chaos through society. That's true. It stands, we could say, as the theme of the book of Judges. Like I said, it's said two other places. I do not know. Perhaps the book was originally somebody's treatise. In favor of a monarchy and they wanted to show that without a king. This is what would happen and he's Picked his examples from that period between the death of Joshua and the crowning of Saul and said, hey. Notice what happened. Did you notice also that there was no king in Israel and people did whatever they wanted to do and you know this is the bloodiest book of the Bible or whatever, you know, this is what happened to Israelite society. They were all over the place, um, they had, you know, a few good decades or two, you know, when there was a righteous ruler like Gideon or Jeptha or whatever and. Otherwise, because there was no authority figure, things were terrible in Israel. And If that was the case, he was right. It's a correct conclusion. But you know what? It's not completely true. Like I said, it's correct as far as it goes. But if you think it through, You'll find that there is something lacking. In the statement How can I say that? Simple There was a king in Israel. I Samuel 8 Says conclusively that God ruled over Israel. He was their king And they came to Samuel and rejected God as their king, and Samuel was ready to lop off some heads, I think, and uh. God said, Hey, Samuel, cool down. They've not rejected you, but they have rejected me. From being king over them But then he says, OK, Sam, go out there and tell them what havoc will be wreaked. When they have a king. And they will wish they had me as a king. And so the rest of I Samuel 8 tells them how the king would take their land, and take their sons, they take the daughters, they take the taxes, they take their, their grain, you know, they take everything and do not give much back. Now we could say that a king is better than anarchy. That's true. But God as King is infinitely better. The truth is That the Israelites rejected both divine authority and the authority of his covenant and his law. Just outright, they just threw it away. During most of the period of the judges, about a time of 350 to 400 years. And they reaped the whirlwind. They were in bad shape. By the end of things, the tribe of Benjamin was down to what was it, 600 men. And they had to come with this. shameful way of getting wives for them. Steal them Hey, these people are having a, a festival. Go out and steal you some brides, Benjamites. Yeah, that's a good thing. Where did they get that in God's law? Not found in God's law. Because they did not accept it. They had rejected it So They rejected both of those things, God and His covenant in law. And What was the result? Well, they ended up defeated. Oppressed And miserable And weird. They were, they were all kinds of religious weird. And you know what? The same thing happened. During the period of the kings. Huh Take that, those of you who love human monarch monarchy. How did those periods end for the Israelites? They ended up defeated, captive, and in exile. And The Jews were so much better, right? Nope Little more than 100 years later they were defeated, captured, and sent into exile. Just like their brethren up north. They made a great choice, did not they? So The key point here I'm trying to make is that this statement in Judges 21:25. Is telling us what happens when the covenant people reject God. From being king over them and they reject his law. And do not follow it. You know what? That's the sad story of all of human civilization. Let's go back to the beginning into Genesis chapter 2. Because it started out this way and it has never changed. Not to any great extent. Genesis 2:15. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Now what this is, this is a command in which God lays down. Allah So he is taking the reins of authority here and giving them law, rules, guidelines. That he could set because he is God. OK, let's go to chapter 3. Actually, I do not need this with this huge print Bible. Let's read the 1st 4 verses. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die. Let's go ahead and read verse 5, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. What we see here Is that the linkage between rejecting godly authority and disastrous consequences goes back to the very beginning. Adam's sin resulted in God cutting off human access to him. To God, to Himself. And as we would see if we read further in chapter 3, he pronounced those disastrous, horrendous curses. that affect our lives even today. I mean, those curses go from difficulty conceiving. To painful childbirth, from the war between the sexes, to all the arduous labor and suffering. That we have to go through just to survive in this world. Had we accepted God's authority and God's law. We, as in Adam and Eve, our, our first parents, had we accepted that as, as humanity? Those things would not have been Put on us Now they may have come on us because of our individual sins later on. But God wants to show us early on in this vignette in the, in the Garden of Eden that Adam made a terrible choice. He fell into folly. By making, deciding to reject God. In his authority and his law. I mean, have you ever sat down and considered the utter foolishness of what Adam did? I mean, we talk about Eve here a lot. Because she was the one. Whom the serpent contacted first. And she made some foolish choices too, of course, but God in the New Testament puts the blame on Adam. Adam sinned. Eve was deceived. Adam should have. Thought this through rationally he should have considered. The consequences He should have thought it through. I mean, it would not have taken, you know, an Einsteinian brain or anything like that to have made the right decision. I mean it was a horrible decision. Evidently, I mean, if you read it in its narration, it sounds like you said, OK. Very quick, did not take the time. Honey, if you want that apple, fine, give me a bite. I mean, it, he did not think it through at all. I mean, consider this, just, just this one point. On one side We have The awesome Loving, powerful. Providential Creator God. Who does only what is best for us. And he says, Don't eat the fruit of that tree. I mean he's made everything on earth. He's he's made us. He owns us. He owns everything And It's his right what to do with it and how to govern it. I mean, Adam and Eve lacked for nothing. That was good and excellent and beautiful and would produce good results. Everything was fruitful and prosperous and you know tasted good and they did not have to work hard and all of these things. that we wish we had today. Well it was right there, right in front of him. I mean, God Himself. He was the Creator. He was their life giver. He was sovereign Lord. Obviously So he had every right to make the ground rules for humanity and to enforce them. That should have been obvious. And what do we have on the other side? A fast talking snake. Are the scales tipping in your minds here at all? What credibility, what credentials did the serpent have? It sauntered in. Hey Eat that. It's good for you. Don't. Don't matter what God says, go ahead. You'll be wise. And they believed him? Why? God A talking snake I mean, even if the talking snake was beautiful and magnificent. You know, we see in Ezekiel that, you know, Satan was made in a certain beautiful way. What if he showed them his glory in a in a. In one way or another. Well, there is still no comparison. He was a creature A created being And he had no grounds. For saying what he said. He had cunning. Tells us right there in in verse 1 chapter 3 that that was his major attribute. He was slick He was deceptive He could sell A vacuum In your house or encyclopedias. He was that kind of guy. He could sell you an old 47 Nash. Like a used car salesman. But He was not credible. He was an intruder in the garden. He was an interloper. Yet Adam And Eve believed and followed him. They rejected God, at least in part. Because Here's the big thing He was the authority. That was the reason He was imposing on them. His ideas of what was right and wrong. And deep inside, Adam did not like it. Adam and Eve wanted no authority over them. They wanted to be the ones in authority. They wanted to be the ones that were making the rules. And by that desire to be the authority, they fell into folly. And we have suffered ever since. Paul puts it in his own way in Romans 1. Now I've criticized Adam and Eve, but none of us would have done any better. Because we all want this. We all want to be the one who is in authority and makes the rules for ourselves. Verse 18, we will go down through verse 25. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world, we just saw it, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. They knew what they were doing. And this makes the sin all the worse. And gives you an idea of why we have suffered so. Ever since Because verse 21, although they knew God, who knew God better than Adam and Eve? At the time they did not glorify him as God. That is, as the one who is over all things. Nor were thankful. They were not thankful for their lives, for all the things that he was giving them, all the instruction blah blah blah. Uh, they did not thank God for any of those things, but became futile in their hearts and their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. This happened over time that human beings, after the manner of Adam and Eve and their rejection of God and His authority and His law, they made. Gods of their own And they designed them after the creation. Verse 24. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. Pretty good summary of what I've been saying. Now we can extrapolate from Genesis 2, especially in terms of, of verses 15 through 17. That God designed mankind. To live under authority. Especially his authority. That's the way it would have worked best if we just accepted him as our creator and our sovereign and followed his law. But we did not From the very beginning, we can also search this out in, in Genesis 2, but we will not. He set up a simple But effective order of headship. We could call it a hierarchy if you want to. Of ranked responsibility and leadership. And except for God the Father Himself, who is supreme sovereign, there is no one above him. Everyone, including Jesus Christ, the Son, is both a leader and a follower. Um A master if you will and a servant. Over others and yet also Under authority to others. Now we see this in summary form in I Corinthians 11. I Corinthians 11:2-3. I Corinthians 11:2-3. Paul writes to them. He says, now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. OK. He's Pointing out two things here that he was their leader and they had recognized his authority, and two, that they kept the law he calls them here the traditions, the authoritative traditions of the church. Which find themselves or or find their source in God's word. So we are talking about the same thing here, and he wants to explain things. He wants to give them a background here so that they can understand that this is all fits in the order that God had originally set up. For mankind to follow, so he says in verse 3, but I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. This is where we get the idea of headship. It comes from this in which he talks about head coverings. But, um, we will not get into all of that. But we can see that this is how he set up society. God the Father is supreme. Jesus Christ rules under him. Over all of his people. And then he has set the man as the husband. In the family To be Subject to Christ. But also responsible and authoritative in his own family. And he set the wife to be subject to the To her husband in the Lord. But also she is over. Those under her, her children, and you know, even the children. They're over the dog. They're over their toys. They learn how to be responsible by. Filling in their place in this. Hierarchy of authority. But for millennia, people have struggled against this very simple system. They either ignore it. Or they deny it. And they reap the terrible results of, of whatever their decision was. I mean we can see it very clearly in the modern feminist movement. Or in the modern or I could say the current conflicts within many Protestant churches. I do not know if you keep your ear to the ground of what's happening out there in churchianity, but I get a lot of stuff that comes across my desk. And The big debates now are between or over complementarianism versus egalitarianism in marriage. Complementarianism is what God set up in Genesis 2. That the wife is to be a helpmate, uh. One that goes alongside her husband and fits in and does the things as a compliment to him and his strengths. And on the other side is egalitarianism which is very strict equality between the man and the woman and in these days it means the woman is is the actual leader in the house because that's just how it works. I mean, if the man gives up his turf, she takes it all. The other one, the other conflict in many Protestant churches or denominations right now is the issue of women's ordination. And denominations are splitting up left and right over whether women should be preachers and pastors. Both of these issues follow directly from rejecting biblical authority on these matters. It's very clear what God says in Ephesians 5 about the way a marriage should be governed. It worked out It's very clear from Paul. That women are not to preach in the churches. I mean, he says that flat out. But they reject that by rejecting Paul or by rejecting the idea it was meant for the entire church. They said it was cultural, it was for that particular congregation or whatever, and so they do their own thing. Um So We can see how spurning God's design. Creates conflicts. In the family Ending in divorce marriages ending in divorce, or even in church and denominational issues who, you know, they may not have, uh. Understand in the way that we do, they may not be God's true church, but These Issues Due to the fact that they are rejecting God's authority on the matter, end up with church or denominational schisms. But we can say With confidence that any subversion or any elimination of the divine order will result in problems. That's just the way it is. They crop up in one form or another. So we see subversions of this order in modern families. We see the overbearing or abusive husband and father. Or on the other side we see and it seems to be. A lot more lately. The extreme opposite of that, the passive or absent husband and father. Who just gives up and lets the wife leave the home without hardly lifting a finger. And on the other hand these two different Kinds of men are, are paralleled on the women's side with the take charge, take no prisoner wife and mother who runs things like uh an army camp or whatever, what have you, and then she has an opposite, the proverbial welcome mat wife who lets the man and her children and everybody else basically run right over her. These are extremes. There to help you see how different human relationships are from what God has ordered. Um But They can tell us something. About how terrible it is. Because we know of situations that are like that, probably seen that over the length of our, our years. And we know that when something like that, one of those elements happens to touch a family. That It often causes deep generational, emotional, and behavioral issues for the children, especially. Um They just did not function according to the authority of God and the law that he gave about those situations. So whatever form it takes this going away, this rejection of what is proper, what God set out, the players involved have rejected God's authority in favor of their own. Or They blame somebody else. They give somebody else authority. I do not know how many parents who came through the 70s and 80s blamed Doctor Spock for the way their children, yeah, I was afraid I was going to say Mr. Spock. But Doctor Spock for the way their children turned out, um, after, you know, they went and Did terrible things One of the things they did not do is they did not follow what God said about those things. Well This discussion leads us to the fact that the issue of authority. Stands or falls On the character of the person who possesses it. Authority itself is neutral. It's not the problem There must be authority. We all live under authority. We all give authority to others, or we take authority or we use authority. It's just a fact of human life. We're all in different strata. Now, if you have an employer, you're under authority. If you are the employer. Well, you have authority. And it's, you know, we are under authority of our government. We have to pay taxes. They say pay taxes. If you do it, you're submitting to their authority. If you do not, you go to jail. They're using their authority. We're all under authority to our local magistrates, to our police. To the firemen that come and, you know, inspect our houses or whatever they do. Um, when they are not putting out fires. We are all under authority. Or we all have authority. The problem is how it's used or abused. Both happen Now if we think about God. We shouldn't have a qualm about his authority. He's perfect, right? He uses his authority perfectly. In measure, lovingly, fairly, appropriately. Because he's God. He's full of perfect, holy, righteous character. We should have no problem at all following his lead or his commands. Based on what he is. But we do Because we want to be in charge. It's the same old thing. Back to Adam Now, human authorities do not use authority properly. Not one human authority ever uses his or her authority properly. At least not every time. A good human leader and hope that you know like say your employer or whatever is one of these people a good human leader is one who is not perfect yes but gets things right. A little more than he gets wrong. People fall all along the spectrum of proper use of authority. Unfortunately I think we would say that most probably land on the bad side. Not using it properly. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but that's my point. Over the long haul, the lamentable reality of life on Earth makes every one of us cynical about and suspicious of those who. Lead us who rule over us It's a basic assumption of our culture that authorities cannot be trusted. You can't trust the police. You can't trust the judge. Can't trust your neighbor Can't Trust the kids on the street. You can't trust anybody. And you're certainly not going to trust somebody who may have your life in, in their hands. So it's the failure Of human authorities and the chaos that we know that flows from it that underscores the importance of Christians living. Righteously Under authority I mean Be real. We're not going to change the world's opinions about submitting to authority. What are we? Are they going to listen to us? I doubt it. But we've been called To submit To authority God wants to see it In us In this culture, facing all the things, all the chaos that's going around, and he wants us to still submit to him. We cannot influence this world. To follow God's law. They've rejected that long ago. I do not know if we could even convince some of them. Uh, a good major, a minority of them. To return to Traditional Christian values. Not even getting into, you know, the intricacies of God's law. If they would just go back to things like the Protestant work ethic or you know. Being truthful I do not think so. What can we do? I mean, with God's power, the church could do that. But I do not know From my point of view, We're so weak I do not think we'd have much impact. I mean, I could go to Revelation and show you the ministry of the two witnesses. Oh, they get a lot of people to change, do not they? And they get themselves killed for it because people do not want it. We could go to II Thessalonians 2. Uh, that'll be the time of lawlessness. Do you think they are going to get a lot of people to keep the law in an area in which the, the most lawless man of all time. Will be ruling and everybody will clamor. After the beast I do not think so. God has consigned most of humanity to futility and going at their own lawless way until he could call them at a more appropriate time. And then they will accept his authority and keep his law, but in this age. I do not see much turnaround. So God has called us out of this world to submit to his authority. Personally Right now And for the rest of our lives. Like I said, we live in little bubbles of submission to him. This congregation is a bubble in which we can submit to him. And have friendships, good relationships with others who are doing that as well. Our faithful obedience, our deference to Him and to His law, His principles, his statutes, his judgments. In our daily lives. will make a limited witness of his way of life. Maybe your neighbor knows you go to. To church on Sabbath. They'll have Your submitting to godly authority will have more effect. As a witness to your brethren. Because people in the world, they do not care. You may, you might be able to make a, a minor witness to them, but I think your major witness will be as an example to other brethren. In being under authority. But whether God uses your witness. Is or not is his prerogative. The broader Personal the broader reason he wants us to submit to him is personal. That is the relationship between him. And you That's how personal it is. It's one on one He wants you to submit to him. As a servant to his or her master. He wants us to Give him Every deference Every word he says should be yes sir yes Lord. To us He wants us to learn to be under his authority, and this goes to what Cody was saying earlier in the sermonette. He wants us to have this relationship with him now so we can teach it in the millennium. We can teach it in the white throne judgment. We can teach it to everyone and say, look. If you want to have a good life, if you want eternal rewards and come to the place that I have. Submit to God It's all based on submission to God. I'm going to show you that in a minute. So he does it to us now. He calls us and tells us to submit to him so that we can have a personal relationship with him with the proper humility on our side and so that it will be good for us in the end. So that the result of our lives is positive and good because submitting to his authority will train us in his character, his way of life, and it will result in the ultimate good. And that is eternal life with great authority given to us. In God's kingdom, because we will already have figured out how to use it. By looking at what God does. Now as we close here, We need to recognize two truths. The first we will find in Proverbs 1. Proverbs one We'll read verses 7 through 9. And then we will jump down to verse 20. Proverbs 1:79. What we are seeing here is the same process of rejecting authority as in In the world as we saw in in Genesis 2, as we saw in Proverbs 29, as we saw in Judges 21, this is another restatement of it. Verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother, for they will be graceful, a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck. It's an ornament. They will make you. Uh, better people, they will make you, uh. Beautiful To look upon and to observe. OK, let's go to verse 20. Wisdom calls outside allowed outside. She raises her voice in the open square. She calls out in the chief concourses at the opening of the gates in the city. She speaks her words. God's wisdom is out there. If we look for it Verse 22. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity, for scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. Because I have called you and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then you will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me because they hated knowledge, true knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel and despise my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies, for the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listened to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil. The beginning of knowledge. And wisdom as it says in chapter 9 verse 10 and learning to hate evil, which is chapter 8 verse 13, is the fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord? In essence, the fear of the Lord is acknowledging and living in the reality that God is our Lord and Master. The highest authority in our lives, that is the fear of the Lord. And you have this conviction. That this is true. And you follow it in everything that you do when you learn the fear of the Lord. You will desire to do nothing. That will disobey or displease him. In that attitude, in that position, we then are almost automatically. Believing Humble Submissive to his word and eager to serve. A person who has the proper fear of the Lord will be all those things. Because the position between God and ourselves is set and clear. And God does not want us to fear Him out of terror or compulsion, but he says here. In verse 29, 29 was it? Yeah He wants us to choose. That position Under him One, because we know it is right. 2, because it will bring us closer to him. And 3, it will result in blessing, unity, and life. Unity with him and unity with others who fear the Lord. OK, the second thing This first thing obviously was we must have the fear of the Lord. OK, let's go to Matthew 8. Matthew 8: And this one pretty much knocked my socks off when I. When I saw it the other day. Verses 5 through 13 you might want to jot down Luke 7 verses 1 through 10 where the parallel occasion is as shown verse 5. Now when Jesus had entered Copernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, Go, and he goes, and to another, Come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed. Assuredly I say to you I have not found such great faith. Not even In Israel And I say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion. Go your way And as you have believed. So let it be done to you. And his servant was healed. That same hour. Do you get what happened here? Do you get how this fits? The centurion understood authority. He himself was under authority to his superiors in the Roman army, and he commanded his century of soldiers as well as his family and the rest of his household. He knew how to give orders. He knew how to take them. He knew that that's how the world works. The world is structured on authority. Of varying levels. He applied this practical understanding of authority to the situation in which his servant was paralyzed and needed healing and concluded looking at Jesus. Hearing about what he had done. Hearing what he said, that Jesus' absolute authority, far above his own. would work the same way. He concluded That because Jesus had absolute authority as he understood it. That he would command the sickness to leave and as the human body is subject to Jesus Christ the Creator. It would be done. Whatever he commanded the body to do. So he simply asked humbly for Jesus to say the word believing. His servant would be healed. And he was Now the telling comment comes from Jesus himself. Assuredly I say to you I have not found such great faith. Not even in Israel. He links the centurion's understanding of divine authority with his expression of faith. Faith works or functions on the foundation of a clear comprehension of God's authority over. All things. We can trust him to act with benevolence. In our best interests because he is a loving sovereign with incorruptible, holy righteous character. We can ask, as James talks about in his first chapter of his epistle, we can ask for every good and perfect gift from him. With no doubting Because as the apostle says there in verse 17, there is no variation or shadow of turning with him. He is always the same. His authority is always. Over all things. It never changes. And Jesus compares The centurion's faith with the Israelites because that is the kind of faith or trust that he'd been looking for all along throughout the time of the Old Covenant, and he never saw it. And here this Gentile comes and gives him a marvelous example of complete trust because he knew. In his heart of hearts that Jesus had the authority to make it happen. Which tells you That the Israelites, the Jews, never fully submitted. To God's divine authority never. They always kept back. They always held back some bit of devotion. Some bit of autonomy. Rather than giving him their all And so they failed And died Let's end with the apostle Peters. Encouraging exhortation in I Peter 5. Starting in verse 5. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him. For he cares for you.