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Welcome to studies with Stearman. Join us as we look deeper into the Bible. Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching. And now here's Gary. Romans 13. Well, we've made it through the very difficult portions of Romans 6, 7 and 8, made it through 9, 10, 11, 12, talking about our responsibility toward God. Chapter 13 talks about your responsibility toward government. So what does the Bible say about how we should interrelate with politics? And that's a dirty word, I guess, but comes from a Greek word, polituo, which means citizenship. So what kind of a citizen should you be? Let's read Romans 13 where Paul says, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation or judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Those four verses are Paul's very tight summation of the government. First of all, I should point out that Paul was a Roman citizen who was raised in Tarsus. He spoke Latin and Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic and he was considered a scholar. He graduated from the University of Tarsus and then later on he got the equivalent of another PhD at the feet of Gamaliel in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. So Paul was an extremely well educated man. And in his life, if you recall, he resorted to appeals to the government. In fact, he appealed his case to Caesar. In the closing chapters of Acts, he testified before Felix, who was a Roman procurator. He testified essentially before the highest powers of the Roman Empire, because essentially they wanted to know what was going on, what in the world. This new thing called Christianity. The Romans referred to it as the cult of Chrestus. C H R E S T U S that's what they called Christianity. And from their perspective, the cult of Chrestus was simply another wing of Judaism. They couldn't figure it out. But one thing that really, really played a large role in what Paul writes here is that the Jews customarily saw no problem at all in revolting against government. They often revolted against the Roman Empire. In fact, during the reign of Claudius, prior to Nero in AD 49, the Jews rioted constantly in the Roman Empire, particularly in Rome, over in Spain, back in the country of Gaul and down around Tarsus, the Jews rioted constantly and consistently against Roman procurators whom they considered to be ungodly men who had no right to rule over any Jew. And so the Jews developed a reputation among the Romans as an unruly lot that had to be dealt with. And it was on this basis that Pontius Pilate came to Jerusalem to be the procurator there. At the time of Christ's crucifixion, Pontius Pilate saw the whole of Israel as a stinking kind of an outback, an uncivilized country that would not bow to the Roman Empire. And it was his job to try to straighten things out if he could possibly do it. His attitude toward the Jews was very bad, and I'm sure it wasn't improved during the kangaroo trial of the Lord Jesus Christ, that midnight trial when they found him guilty and they handed him over the next day to Pilate, who examined him and said, I see no fault in this man. And yet the Jews called for his death anyway. So the Romans really had a bad, bad relationship with the Jews. The Book of Romans was written in AD 57. This is very important because Nero came to the throne of Rome in A.D. 54, three years before Paul wrote Romans. And from A.D. 54, when Nero took the throne, until A.D. 68. From 54 until 68 was his rule over Rome. Here's the important part to remember, though, about Nero's rule. The first five years of his rule were considered a high point in the Roman Empire. Everybody was happy as a lark when Nero came to power. Those first five years, from 54 until 59, and this is the time that Paul wrote the Book of Romans. Everything was just peace and sweetness and light, and everybody had a job. Things were running the way they should be. And they thought Nero was the greatest thing since sliced bread the first five years of his reign. These five years, in fact, were called in Latin the Quinquenium Neronis, the Five good years of Nero. But some things began to happen in the household of Nero. Nero's mother, Agrippina, started plotting to remove Nero's enemies throughout the royal house of Rome and in the Roman Senate. Things devolved into a total mess. And so six or seven years after Nero came to power, Rome was right on the threshold of an internal revolt. Nero's mother, Agrippina, so frightened, Seneca the Roman senator and his co regent Burrus, that they suggested that the whole house of Nero be overthrown and put away. And there was a revolt in all the far flung colonies of Rome, in England and in Gaul under Vindex there was total rebellion. Under Galba, in Spain there was total rebellion. And the Julio Claudian house finally collapsed in AD 69. So Nero ruled from 54 to late 68. And in 69 the House of Julius, which included Nero, collapsed, never to rise again. And it was in this period of first peace and sweetness and light, and later of internal revolt that Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. And as he's writing this in 57 when he says, let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. At the time of this writing, he's writing about a Roman empire that's in pretty good shape, but it wouldn't be for long. And in fact, what happened after the fall of the Julio Claudian household after the fall of Nero and the rise of of the house of Flavius is that the Flavians decided, listen, these Jews who've been revolting against us have now extended themselves into another group known as Christians. And we're not going to mess with any of them. We're going to wipe them all out. But the Christians never did revolt under the instruction of Peter and Paul in particular. They did not rebel against the government. In fact, if you go to 2 Peter 2:13, Peter, who is a contemporary of Paul in Rome around this time, writes, submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king as supreme. The king of course, would be the emperor, in this case Nero, or unto governors. These would be governors, such as Felix Pontius Pilate, or unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of them that do well. So Peter is basically saying the same thing about government. God has put this government in place and so you need to honor the power of this government. Whoa, wait a minute. Looking backward, we think of Nero and then later of Titus, Vespasian and Domitian as ungodly men. I mean really ungodly men. In fact, Nero is a type of the Antichrist. The early Christians felt that Nero was the Antichrist and that he would rise again. There was a belief called in the Latin Nero Redivivus, which means Nero shall rise again. The early Christians believed that Nero would resurrect and come back as the Antichrist. As strange as that sounds. You can read it for yourself. In Roman history, it's written in two or three different places. So we look back at the government of Rome and we say, man, I couldn't possibly honor the government of Rome, particularly under Nero and Vespasian and Titus. These were bad people, they hated Christians. But both Peter and Paul say, for so is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness. In other words, you don't want to be an insurgent, a counterspy, someone trying to overthrow the government, but as servants of God, honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God and honor the Emperor, says Peter. Okay, good enough for Peter, it's good enough for me, right? Think about your government today and think about the words of the apostles. Both Peter and Paul are very, very clear in that it is God who puts these men in the positions that they occupy. Do you believe that? You mean God would put into power a man like you? Fill in the blank. Yeah, like Ahmadinejad for example, or Adolf Hitler. But God's ways are beyond man's ways. So you had the first five years of Nero's rule, and during the first five years of Nero's rule, Paul wrote Romans during the Quinquenium Neronis, beautiful time of peace, happy conditions until about 65, 68, there was total riot, absolute chaos in the Empire. And then in AD 66 there was an outright Jewish rebellion throughout the Roman Empire. Not a Christian rebellion against Garo, but a full blown rebellion in which the Jews went to war against the Roman Empire. And that was four years before the destruction of the temple. The Romans reacted to the Jewish rebellion by putting Jerusalem under siege and destroying the great temple. In 70 AD. Meanwhile, the Christians were being instructed, do not rebel against the Empire. God put the empire there, honor Roman law. So having this as a little bit of a guide, a little historical peek at what was going on at that time, let's study Romans 13. By the way, Paul was beheaded 10 years after he wrote Romans. He wrote Romans in AD 57. He was beheaded in AD 67. Jerome says one of the early patristic fathers, Jerome says that he was decapitated on the Ostian way outside of Rome on the same day that Peter was crucified upside down. So both Paul and Peter were killed on the same day, according to Jerome, in AD 67. And they were both killed by the Roman Empire. So the empire about which Paul writes ended up killing him, beheading him. This gives us something to think about. As Christians, it gives us a lot to think about as Christians. So Paul says, let every soul be subject to the higher powers. Hupotasso, the Greek word hupotasso, be subject to. In other words, put yourself under the rule of the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. That is, they come by means of God. And basically what he is saying is, let every man, Jew and Gentile Christians, let every man know that they have an obligation to human government. Fascinating. Challenging. Among Jews, as I said, there was a long standing tradition that if the government came against Judaism, you should rebel against it. This is Jewish law. Jesus came along and he was tested by the Pharisees. Among the things the Pharisees wanted to know was this, Jesus, are you going to submit yourself to Caesar or are you not? This is a test question. They asked Jesus, they said to Jesus, tell us, Jesus, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Good question. Or should you give tribute entirely to Judaism and turn your back on Caesar? What was Jesus response? We all know Jesus response. He said, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. So Jesus himself began this idea, began to implant a brand new idea which ran counter to Judaism, traditional Judaism. And the brand new idea was, yes, it is lawful to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Caesar was put there by God. Paul later embellishes upon this theme. Let's continue to look at this. Obedience to law is the question, what is Christian duty? Can we overthrow the government? Or must we use lawful means to remove or alter an unjust or unreasonable law? All powers among men must be in accord with the highest power, the moral sense that we get through Scripture. And even where law is hard and unreasonable, not disobedience, but legitimate protest is the duty of the Christian. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there's no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. And that means that guy whose name we won't mention, who is in power, that means him too. Wow. Because the Bible is very clear. God puts those people there. You know latter day prophecy universally, and I'm talking Old Testament and New Testament, Latter Day prophecy never says in the end of days, things are going to get better and better and better until they're just so good you can't stand it. It's just going to be a total bliss, a paradise. No prophecy says that in the last days, evil men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse. Basically, every prophecy you look at, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, I can name a lot of prophets, including the New Testament prophets, all say that in the latter days things are going to get worse and worse and the character of man is going to get worse and worse. And those people who are put in positions of power are put there by God for a purpose, because it's time for something to happen. It would appear, for example, right now that human government is bent on destroying the stability of global economics. Anybody with half an ounce of sense in economics 101 knows that you don't do what's being done in Europe and America today and hope to obtain a stable economic system. It's being deliberately destabilized by men who have other goals and other motives. And the question is, would God allow such a thing? Well, God would not only allow such a thing, but he would put in position the elements that bring it to pass. Because that's what prophecy says will happen. And who am I to stand in the way of God's plan? These things are prophesied. The One World Government has prophesied. They incredibly disastrous series of economic collapses in the latter days that are prophesied have to come about some way. And I think the Lord is putting men in position right now to bring those things to pass. There is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. That is, they are commissioned by God to do a certain thing. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment. Now Paul didn't resist the Roman government except by lawful means. And the Roman government ended up beheading him. He appealed to Caesar. He lost. Actually, he won his first round in court around AD 58 or so. He was free for 10 years. He traveled to Spain, to England, traveled to Yugoslavia, among other places. During that 10 year period he planted churches, he planted the Gospel all over the empire. He came back, he was tried again, found guilty and beheaded on the same day as Peter. So says Jerome. AD 67. So Paul had a lot of intimate dealings with the Roman government. But his word let every soul be subject to the higher powers. He says, for rulers, verse three are not a terror to good works. And you stop and think about that. Every ruler, no matter how rotten, loves to be praised for the promotion of good works. I don't care whether it's a communist like Cesar Chavez, Fidel Castro, they all love to be seen as people who are promoting good works, doing good things for man. And the way they end up doing it, of course is insane. But. But essentially men come to power with a utopian idea of creating a better world. And most of them just blow it completely. Verse 3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Will you then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have the praise of Sami. In other words, if you are a law abiding citizen, you'll be praised. Well, what if the government is asking me to do things that I cannot tolerate? You have the right to protest what happened to the early Christians in the Roman Empire in the days of Nero and then in the days of the Flavian dynasty. They were tortured, they were killed, they were enslaved. All kinds of horrible things happened to Christians. But as they were being killed, they sang hymns. And that's the honest historical truth of the matter. They were the martyrs that we read about in Christian history and they had all been taught not to rebel against government and they didn't. And we say, why did God do that? Well, you know, his ways are higher than our ways. And he may ask us to do things that we may not want to do, but the word stands very clear. Verse 4. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. And by the way, that word for minister there is servant. The delegated power of government is a ministry of God to you for good. And you could say, well, when Paul wrote these words, that's absolutely true. He wrote it during the first five years of Nero's reign and everything was fine. But Paul didn't know what was to come. It doesn't make any difference. The principle stands, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he's a minister of God. The minister of God. And this second word for minister here in verse four is leiturgos, which is a Greek word for a servant of the state. He is a servant of the state put in place by God, is what it says in Greek, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Basically, Paul is advocating a stable government. He is not necessarily advocating that you believe what the government believed during the days of Paul and the early Christians. One of the things that you were required to testify to is allegiance to Caesar as God. Will you worship Caesar as God? And if you said no, you were executed. There are many, many letters still in existence between Roman emperors in the Flavian dynasty and Bey into the succeeding dynasties. The Emperor Trajan killed many Christians and he got many, many legal opinions about his right to kill Christians. And the Roman state developed a way of handling Christians. They had a state approved method of inquisition and if you failed to answer a number of questions correctly, you were executed. That simple. So they had it down to a science, but still, Paul's letter to the Romans stands for he is a minister of God to you for good. Wow. That is a state representative, a public minister, a servant of the state, a minister to you of God from the state. Wow. Can you believe that? I know we all cringe when a representative of the state knocks on your door and says, good afternoon, Mr. So and so. I'm from the government and I'm here to help you. And you say, oh no, please help somebody else. I don't want your help. And yet the Bible says, for he is a minister of God to you for good. Wow. Gives you something to think about, doesn't it? How strong is your faith? How strong is your faith in God, in the sovereign God who puts together the state in any particular period of time for your good? But you say, well, it's not for my good, but your opinion and God's opinion may not mesh at this moment. God puts people in power at different times for different reasons. Think back to Nero. Why would God have put Nero in power when he did? Which would result in a hundred years of Christian persecution under Nero and four emperors who followed him, including Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, hadrian and beyond. 100 years of Christian persecution. Why would God allow that? You say blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. It's an old saying. You say, I don't want to be a Martyr, verse 5. Wherefore. In other words, for the foregoing reasons, you must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. Get in line with for this cause, pay ye tribute also. That's taxes by the way. For this cause pay ye tribute also. For they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due. Custom, to whom custom fear, to whom fear honor, to whom honor. Paul is echoing the words of Jesus who said, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. Be a good citizen, knowing that your true citizenship is in heaven. You might say you're just a visitor here. Your real place is in another country, in heaven. But while you're living in this alien land, where people do strange, alien things that you may not agree with. You have to observe the customs here. You do it on the faith that there is a God in heaven behind it all who knows what he's doing. Now that takes some faith because we all tend to look at a certain place on the Potomac river which shall remain nameless as being peopled with absolute self serving, amoral idiots. God put them there. Says in the Bible, God puts those people there. State capitals. There may be people there with whom you violently disagree. God puts those people there. Should we try to put Christians in state capital? Sure, absolutely. And God, I think can ordain a period of time in which that happens. But we've all seen that's not a constant. Government rises and falls and goes through cycles of degeneracy. But still your faith has to say, there is no power but that power of God. The powers that be, that is the earthly powers, are ordained of him. And that's what Paul says in the opening verse of this chapter. It gives you food for thought, honestly, it really does. Because you'd like to go out there packing heat. Let's get this thing fixed up right. You get the boys and I'm going to get the truck. I'll take care of these people, right. Well, that's not what the Bible says. That's just not what the Bible says. And it challenges your faith. It makes you review who you are in Christ. Particularly when you think back to Peter and Paul. Peter and Paul. Jerome writes about Peter. And someday we'll talk about Peter as recorded in history. But Jerome writes that Peter and Paul were arrested at the same time. And Peter was arrested along with his wife. And the historical record is that as Peter's wife was taken out by the Roman authorities to be imprisoned and executed, Peter stood up amidst a crowd of Christians and praised God. And within his wife's earshot he said, praise this day. Glory to God. This is a day ordained of him. And Peter was visibly happy when his wife was hauled off by the Roman authorities to be executed. You say, boy, he had a bad marriage. No, because he knew that he was going to be executed at the same period of time they hauled him off. Exactly the same time they took him out on the Ostian way and they crucified him upside down the same day as his wife was killed. And Peter glorified the day. He said, this is a wonderful day. Don't weep for me. This is a great day. The Lord prophesied this day. This is my day. Don't mess it up. And Jerome writes all about that, about how happy Peter was that the day had finally come that the Lord had predicted. You remember back by the Sea of Galilee, the Lord said, peter, you're going to live to be an old man and you're going to go someplace that you don't want to go. They're going to haul you off. And they did. And if by some chance you ever get hauled off by the authorities, he should glorify the day. The question is, would you do that? How's your faith? It's kind of fascinating to revisit these ideas. This is not comfortable stuff. Sometimes the Bible messes around with your comfort zone just a little bit. Verse 5. Wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience. For this cause pay ye tribute also, for they are God's ministers, that is, they are representatives of the state, attending continually upon this very thing. 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 any thing but to love one another. New subject. Owe no man any thing but to love one another. That is your obligation to love somebody contextually. And the way this is written in Greek is very interesting. It's written in what's called the present imperative case. And it says, and it uses a double declaration. This sentence opens as me, dimi, me, dane. It says me to me midain. That's what Paul says. And notice how you've got two words back to back that are the same word. Me, me, dane, me, de, me, dane. Two words. And what he's saying is, don't you go on owing anything but love. It's a present imperative with the me at the very first of the sentence, which means. It means he's hammering his palm with his fist when he says it. Don't you go on owing anything to anyone else but love. Now, there's an imperative statement. The way it's written in English, it kind of says, owe no man anything but to love one another. It's kind of mushy. Kind of. But in Greek, man, it hammers the idea. Don't you owe any body anything but to love? Well, how can I owe somebody love? They may not be worthy of my love. Right. In fact, most people I know are not worthy of my love at all. So I'm just not going to mess around with most people. Oh, there are a few people to whom I might owe love, but not everybody, right? Wrong. You owe everybody. Don't you owe anybody anything but to love them. Think of yourself as being indebted to somebody else to love them. And as I've said many times, love is probably the hardest assignment that any of us will ever receive. It's a very difficult thing to love because it means you may have to give up some of your own personal freedom, may mean you have to give up some of your own personal convenience, latitude, etc. But Paul says it's for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. What is the law as we have it? In the New Testament, Jesus condensed the entire 613 commandments into love God, love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind and spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself. The two commandments as given by Jesus both begin with the word love. Love God, love your neighbor. And Paul says, if you love another, you have fulfilled the law. That is, he later expands on this, it's the law of Christ for this verse 9 Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So Paul just goes ahead and repeats what what Jesus had taught earlier that the six commandments following the first four in the decalogue are condensed into the statement love your neighbor as yourself. And the test as you live your life is, can you do this? Will you do this? And you say, well, you don't know my neighbor. If you had a rotten neighbor like I have. Man lets his dog loose. A dog digs up my flower garden and he won't even acknowledge that his dog did it. And furthermore, he says, well, you ought to put a fence around it so no dog could get in there. It's your fault. You don't know my neighbor. All of these things are challenging this. Chapter 13 begins with a responsibility you have toward government. It goes to your responsibility that you have toward your neighbor, all of it being built around the concept of love agape love, the love of God, which is positional love that does not depend on any personal or private circumstance. It is love which is a condition of the very existence of God. Or from our perspective, it is unconditional love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And you say, wow, well, isn't there a time when you ought to stand up and just go over and tell your neighbor what he needs to hear out of love? I think probably love can be concisely critical at times, if it's appropriate. But that's between you and the Lord. As you're walking over with your heart rate about 150, and you're just as mad as you can possibly be, and you're getting ready to tell somebody off, you say, lord, let me do this with love. And it's between you and him, really. But you know what the Bible says, and that knowing the time, that now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. Now, he throws this little tidbit in here, knowing the time, knowing the season. The Greek word for time here is kairos. And kairos doesn't speak of chronological time. It speaks of a period of time when something is appropriate. And Paul says, knowing how things are, now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. This plays to the prophetic principle of immanency, because Paul and the other apostles believed that Christ's return was imminent, that he could return without any previous warning, in a moment, the twinkling of an eye, and that you should be behaving in a way that would be pleasing to him when he comes. And Paul and the other apostles really did believe in imminency. Now, in the second, third, fourth, fifth centuries after the death of the apostles, the doctrine of eminency dropped out of sight because Israel had been chased out of her land. And it wasn't until the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the return of Israel that the doctrine of imminency reappeared, because the imminent return of Christ can only happen when Israel is in the land, that is, when prophetic times are present, which they are today, I think we do live in prophetic times, with Israel being the chief reason for that. So when Paul says what he says here in verse 11, that knowing the time, in other words, being aware of the times in which you live, now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Have you ever heard a pastor stand up in a pulpit and say, jesus is coming soon. Sure you have. It's done all the time these days, and I think they mean it. And I think the spirit of God is having pastors stand up and say, jesus is coming soon. We know the time, and that knowing the time, now it's high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. In other words, your behavior toward government, toward your neighbor, your operation within the sphere of the love of God and the Leading of the Holy Spirit is done within the context that Jesus could appear at any second. And the great principle there is cleaning the house for a guest. We've talked about that so many times. That old bedroom back in the back of the house where all the cardboard boxes and the junk and stuff and magazines and everything. That bedroom stays that way until somebody says they're going to come and visit you and spend a week and you oh, no, I've got to clean out that back bedroom. And you get that back bedroom sparkling. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. In preparation for the guest. And that's exactly how you're to run your life in view of the fact that Jesus is coming soon. You get the rooms cleaned up, so to speak. The night is far spent, he says. Verse 12. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, and not rioting, drunkenness, chambering, which by the way, is a Jacobean term for everything you see on TV today. Wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Now he ends this section with an exhortation to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We already have the Lord Jesus Christ in the Spirit because, as he very aptly and in detail described back in Romans 6, when you received Christ, you were baptized into Christ, and He is a part of you irreversibly from now on. So what does it mean to put on Jesus Christ if you already have him woven into your system spiritually? It means that you are to get dressed. Put on is enduno in the Greek, which means to be clothed with or to put on clothing, which is far different from being internally baptized in the Spirit. It's one thing to be internally and positionally sanctified is quite another to display your sanctification as a part of your outer personality so that people watching you see in you the person and character of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's something different. This idea of putting on the clothing on this body of death. By the way, this ain't the real body. You know this what you're looking at right now, I'm going to have to ask you to pardon me, because this is not the way I really look. I really have a glorified body. You just haven't seen it yet. In person, I'm really much taller than you think. But while I'm living in this body of death, which I will. For some indeterminate period between now and when Jesus comes, I do my best to get dressed in the personality of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. You don't have to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. That doesn't require any work at all. That's natural. It's breathing. On the other hand, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ requires a little effort so we can say much more. We have fulfilled our hour this morning. What's Paul saying here? He started out by making a rather eye popping assertion that no matter how rotten the civil government, God put it there and you are to honor it. Which doesn't mean that you cannot protest it, but you are to honor its laws and its representatives because God put them in place. And he waxed rather eloquent on that. In verse 8 he said, Owe no man anything, which in Greek don't you owe anything to anybody except to love them. That's the way Paul, I think, thought. He thought in expletives, you know, don't you dare do that. You just love that person. And then he said, do this because you know the time now it's high time to awake out of sleep. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. And then he went on and he said, walk honestly as in the day. And then he said, get dressed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he closes this and I could go another hour right now. I mean, I'm just getting warmed up. Because the two things he closes with are getting dressed and going out walking. Everybody loves to get dressed up and go out walking. Well, that's what verses 13 and 14 are about. Let us walk honestly and let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, get dressed and go walking. And of course walking is the biblical idiom for the condition of your spiritual life. Are you a good walker or are you a weak walker? I mean, are you one of these people? Get out and walk 10 miles and it just makes you feel better? Or do you kind of peter out after two or three blocks? Walking, walking takes some effort, takes some planning. Getting dressed certainly takes planning. The whole idiom of getting dressed. And I've got so many verses written down here you wouldn't believe it that have to do with getting dressed. For example, in Galatians 3:27, as many as you've been baptized in Christ have put on Christ. But then over in Ephesians he says, put off your old lifestyle and put on the new man. And you can just go on and on and on in this getting dressed idiom. But what it really boils down to is you want to look sharp and be in shape. You want to be able to get out there and walk and look good while you're doing it. And the looking good part is looking good as a Christian. So in this chapter, Paul has given us a couple things to think about. And there are those people up there who are in charge of your life. And I'm certain Paul prayed for the people who were in charge of his life. Nero and others. Claudius and Nero, Vindex and Galba, Vespasian, Titus. I'll bet he prayed for them. They were not very nice people, but he prayed for them. Sa.