openbaptistchu...
Open Baptist Church Hartbeespoort
Pastor Rudi Botha
Romans 13v1-7 - ESV
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.
6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
1. The Divine Source of Authority
Psalm 115
3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
Psalm 115
16 The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
Genesis 1
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Isaiah 24
21 On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.
Ephesians 6
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
1 Corinthians 15
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Timothy 2
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.
2. The Divine Source of Authority
Judges 21
25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
3. The Christian's responsibility
Acts 24
15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
16 So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
A. W. Tozer quote:
"singles you out as though nobody else existed. God has given us a faithful witness inside of our own being. . . . It is able to single a man out and reveal his loneliness, the loneliness of a single soul in the universe going on to meet an angry God. That’s the terror of the conscience. Conscience never deals with theories. Conscience always deals with right and wrong and the relation of the individual to that which is right or wrong. Remember the conscience is always on God’s side! It judges conduct in the light of the moral law, and as the Scripture says, excuses or accuses."
8 окт 2024
