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You're looking at the first two verses of Romans chapter 13. I'd like to have Tim pray to pray for the ministry of the word this morning.
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Romans 13:1, "Let every soul be in subjection to the governing authorities. governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by
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God. Therefore, he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive
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condemnation upon themselves. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for giving us under shepherds
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to study, to read, and to prepare, to deliver. Father, you know that we do not assemble to hear man, but to hear the word of God. So we ask that you would speak to
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us this day. That you would make us Christlike in our eagerness to hear the word of the father and to obey. We do ask knowing that it is hard for us to
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obey that you would work in our hearts this morning. Help us to be open to receive all that you ask of us. I ask
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There are many u who believe that the United States is a Christian While it is true that Christianity as a religion had far more impact on this
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country's founding and development than certainly any other world religion. It is also true that Christianity
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is in at least one aspect very unamerican. The American spirit, as it is known in our own country and really around the
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world, is typified proudly by the state motto of New Hampshire, live free or die.
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The American psyche is one of resistance to authority as a first reaction. And in that this country has developed
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almost to an art. We are by nature as Americans anti-establishment. We are by nature as Americans
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distrustful of government. If you want to experience a contrast between the American psyche and the rest of the world,
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then have conversation with a European or an Asian and you will be shocked by their implicit trust of their government.
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Even though objectively we can see that their governments are no better than ours. And for example, in the United Kingdom, they're they're challenging Italy for how many governments they can have in a
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short period of time. But nonetheless, they have a much more implicit trust of authority. And frankly, it was that trust of authority that that caused many of our
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forefathers to leave Europe because authority had led them into wars. Authority had persecuted them for their faith. authority had kept them in
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surfom and bondage. and bondage. So people came to the shores of North America and it is even rather inspiring to read the the annals of America and
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read some of the letters and the sermons and the political treatises that were written and they just exude freedom and liberty and human rights which at that
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But that's somewhat uncchristian in at least one sense. And that sense is the sense that we read here in Romans 13 in these first two verses, but also elsewhere that I'm going to try to touch upon this morning.
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But he starts out it it many of your Bibles say, "Let every person the the word is soul. Let every soul be subjection to the governing authorities
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for there is no authority except from God." That kind of reminds me of what Jesus himself said to Pontius Pilate, the all powerful Roman governor of
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Judea. And Jesus, this Galilean rabbi, says, "You would have no power over me unless it were given you from above." And from that moment on, Pilate's like,
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"I don't want to have anything to do with this guy." He he was put in his place and he knew it. And and this is what Paul is saying here. There's no authority that exists.
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None. That is not established by God. Now, at the time, the authority at the time this letter was written was most
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likely the emperor Nero. If you know anything about Roman emperors, he's not in the top 10.
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hands. But Paul knew that. And so Paul says, "Every soul be in subjection." But let's look at at some of the other things that the scripture
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says. For example, Ephesians 5. We are told to be subject to one another in the fear of God. That's verse 21.
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Some have taken that to mean that the church of Jesus Christ is to be egalitarian. Some would like the French Revolution where we call each other citizen. That we're to subject ourselves
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to one another. But Paul immediately beginning in verse 22 spends the rest of the chapter explaining what verse 21 means when he says be subject to one
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another. He starts wives be subject to your husbands. He goes on obey your parents in the Lord for this
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is right. slaves, be obedient to your masters according to the flesh and not merely with eye service, but as unto the
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Lord. So Paul lays out what it means for believers to be in subjection to one another. Everyone has a responsibility. Husbands
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are to to love their wives as Jesus loves the church. Masters are to be fair to their slaves. and the L and the parents are not to exasperate their
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children but raise them up in the honor and admonition of the Lord. So there's mutual responsibility mutual responsibility but that in that mutual responsibility one side
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one side duty is This passage of course that we read already deals with our relationship to
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civil authorities. And I think that's clear from the text. He's going to go on to talk about why the civil magistrates bear the sword. They are responsible for
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the punishment of evil. Um and then he goes on to talk about taxes. Um so it's it's very clear that he is discussing the civil magistrate.
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And we're told by Peter, for example, that we're to pray for the king who at that time was also Nero, that we're to pray for the civil magistrate and we are to be in subjection to them.
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Some of you may already be thinking, I'm done with this. It's not a very popular message. It it really never has been in our country because it seems to to say we we need to
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simply just acquies to government or we need to acquies to authority.
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Hebrews 13 brings it a little bit closer to home in terms of the congregation where the author says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them for they give keep watch over your
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souls." You see, the government keeps watch over your deeds. your deeds. He's going to make that clear in Romans 13. The government does not keep watch over your souls. They will not give an
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account to the Lord for the shephering of your souls. They give an account to society for the shephering of your deeds. If those deeds be evil, Paul says, the magistrate does
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not bear the sword in vain. That it is his responsibility to punish evildoers that society might dwell in security and
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The elders have a different responsibility. We don't wear a sword, but rather the sword of the spirit. And yet, our responsibility is far greater than that of the civil
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magistrate. For we must give an account for your souls. Now, I I would really ask that you let that sink in a little bit, that we must
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give an account for your souls. I think that's coordinate to what James says in chapter 3. Let not many of you be teachers for as such you incur a stricter judgment.
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stricter judgment. And I often I've often said that while every believer will stand before the Lord in the day of judgment. Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 5. We must all appear before the judgment seat of
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Christ. Elders will appear twice. As believers giving account for the deeds done in the flesh and as pastors giving account for the shephering of
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your souls. your souls. And hopefully by saying that I have scared all of you off from becoming an elder or at least put the fear of God in
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any such thoughts. But so far in the passages that I've read, I think I pretty much covered every human relationship that a believer
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has in this life. We we have the relationship of husband and wife. We have the relationship of parent to child, child to parent. We have the relationship in our country, thankfully,
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of employee to employer rather than slave to master. We have the relationship of of flock to shepherd, of believers to their leaders. And we have the relationship between us as citizens
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and our government. And these relationships prevail in every single society where Christ is preached. Regardless of the type of government, there is still
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Romans 13:1. There is government somewhere, some type. And in the church, there is leadership. And in the family,
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there is there are those relationships. So, we've we've covered it all. Every single relationship that a believer has in this life is covered by these commands to be submissive, to obey, to
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submit, to be in subjection. And all of that at its root is James 4:7.
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Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. You see, that's the root of all
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this. We do not submit to one another in the ways Paul lays out in Ephesians 5. We do not submit to the elders. We do not submit to the government because they
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are good and godly. We do not submit to them out of our own willingness to do so. But all those acts of submission are
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themselves manifestation of the ultimate submission to God. to God. We submit to God as Paul is saying here
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in verse two. We submit to God by submitting to those whom God has established over us. To say that you submit to God and do not
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submit to your parents, to your employer, to your government, or to your elder is a lie because you're you're not doing
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submission the to God the way God has prescribed it. prescribed it. And so we we need to first of all I think realize that we we cannot look to
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the quality of the one to whom we are to submit and certainly not to our agreement with that person or institution
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but rather to the God who has established him or it. That's what he says. Every authority that exists has been established by God. And then he
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goes on and says, "He who resists authority resists God."
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and and honestly I view it more as a teaching even than a preaching. And I I am afraid it may be more than three minutes.
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But I think it also goes far to explain why democracy why democracy never gains a foothold in Muslim countries. Muslim countries. As much as we've tried and as much as we
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think everybody in the world wants democracy, we've we've only found out over the the generations that that that's not true. And if you some of you remember I think it was 2011 Arab Spring
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remember that? Oh that was such a wonderful thing our government told us our secretary of state who shall remain nameless. But Hillary said that we are on the right side of history by supporting
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these masses who were overthrowing and murdering their governments because this will bring about democracy. Well, it didn't happen anywhere.
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What happened was civil war and more and more death. more death. Civil war and deaths that weren't taking place before Arab Spring. Now, don't get
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me wrong, these governments were brutal and they were totalitarian. Uh, and that suits really well with Islam because the word Islam means
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submission. That's what it means in Arabic, submission. And a Muslim, it's simply a variation of that same word. It means one who
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submits. So I think that'll help under make you understand why our government's attempts to export democracy really don't work very well, especially outside of countries that have been in that have
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been influenced by Christianity. And yet, Christianity seems to thrive in Northern Europe and in North America, where democracy and personal freedom and
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political liberty are really the rallying calls. Live free or die. Give me liberty or give me death. And and don't get me wrong, I I really
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don't want our government to take away any more freedoms. I don't like TSA. Okay.
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And I am probably more libertarian than most of you or than many of you would realize. My political leanings, I I frankly think our founding fathers,
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humanly speaking, were the greatest statesmen and political theorists the world's ever seen at any one time. And there has never been a political document that compares to the United
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States Constitution States Constitution for wisdom and brilliance. Okay? So please don't misunderstand me. I I am not for a totalitarian government. I do
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not think that keeping that taking away our freedoms would make us more Christian. But I think we do need to realize that the providential circumstances in which we live for which we should give thanks. It is far better
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to live free than in bondage. Paul said, "If you're a slave when you believe, stay in that situation. But if you can gain your freedom, rather do that." and he laid some pretty thick
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hints on his friend Phaleiman that maybe he ought to set Onesimus free. Okay, so you know, freedom, liberty, that's great. But do we
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understand the temptation and the danger that comes with it? Political liberty as we've seen historically is bondage to
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appetites. We are now living in a country that's coming up on 250 years. That makes us a pre-teen in the world of
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nations, most nations outside of Africa at least. But in our pre-teens, we are already seeing the fruits of political liberty. And that is you can't say no to
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anything. So we become slaves to appetites, then slaves to lust, and finally slaves to perversion. And is that not the country that that
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we're seeing? we're seeing? That's what's happened. So, we've paid a price for our liberty. And I have said before that the greatest danger of freedom is liberty or the other way
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around. The fact that you really can't deny anybody anything without eventually denying yourself liberties as well. So, it it carries with it. It's it is as as
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Church Hill said about capitalism, it is the best form of government in the world or the worst form of government in the world except for all the others. So we have a real challenge and we have
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to remember as believers what it is to be truly free. Truly free. True freedom is to be made willing, a willing bondervant of God
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through Jesus Christ. The believer's declaration of independence is the and all of our signatures should be there. But the most important one, the
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John Hancock is Jesus Christ written in his blood. That's our document of liberty. That's our freedom. And with that freedom, we need to resist the
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bondage that our free society would put us in.
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We have on our currency the phrase in God we trust. I I think it's a humorous story. Um it actually was not originally on our currency because we didn't have
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currency. But during the war between the states, I said that for any southerners here, not to offend. Uh but during that war uh the federal government issued greenbacks um
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that we're not backed by anything other than the word of the government that we'll pay it. And so the government thought it was wise to put in God we
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trust. And and so um we still have it. But I think you should put a question mark behind that
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because whether we trust God is manifest by whether we submit to the various authorities that God has
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put into our lives. To trust God is to say you are sovereign, you are righteous and you are good
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and into your hands I commit my soul. Which means that whatever form, whatever parents you've given me, whatever employment that you have led me
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to, whatever church leadership that you have put in place, and whatever government I am born into or move into, because remember, these things have to
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apply to all believers everywhere. Okay? If it doesn't apply to a believer in China living under a totalitarian communist regime, if it doesn't apply to
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a believer in an Islamic country living under a dictatorial and very anti-Christian regime, then it doesn't apply to us either. What the word of God
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says is not conditioned by our life circumstances. I think you all believe that. And yet our life circumstances are so powerful in determining our thinking and
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our our our decisions and our actions that we can find ourselves opposing God because we have the right guaranteed to
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us by the Bill of Rights to oppose our Now, I'm going to get a lot of people going to misunderstand what I'm going to
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say about the government and and honestly I had a I've been thinking about this passage for many many years. Many of you know that I am an amateur historian um but also an amateur
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philosopher and a lot of amateurs on other things too. But I I've I've read Loach and Milton. I've read Hobbes and Rouso and Montescu.
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I've read Madison and Hamilton. I know that Thomas Jefferson thought a revolution every 20 or so years would be a good thing. Kind of reset in blood the
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trajectory of a country. So I know what these men were thinking and where they derived their thinking. And none of them derived it from the scripture. They derived it from a concept of human
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rights that was actually at its root anti-establishment. and fundamentally for most of them
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anti-Christian. So that's where we're coming from. Now as it all turned out, we have been blessed with a degree of freedom and prosperity that no people on earth has
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ever experienced save perhaps Israel under David and Solomon. And we should be thankful for that. And all things are sanctified through prayer and thanksgiving. We should not feel
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guilty that we are a prosperous nation of free people. But we need to understand that that
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leads to leads to challenges that we have from the scripture. We we do not for example
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we do not submit to governments only when they are good or just. Paul is is not giving that as an option here. He he's not
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dividing or discerning between good governments and bad governments. And as I said, the government that was in place when he wrote this wasn't a good government. It wasn't a godly government. And so, we cannot say, well,
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I I'm not going to submit to this government because I didn't vote for it. Well, you know that man makes his decision and casts the lot, right? But
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every decision is of the Lord. Sometimes that decision is for blessing. Sometimes that decision is for judgment. But the decision Paul is saying here is of the Lord.
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If an authority is in place, we can just say without doubt, it was established by God. Because Paul says it in Romans 13:1. That government could be horrible. And
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we've had some horrible ones. It could be ungodly. It could be persecuto. It could deny our rights and even our right to to our religion.
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It can try to force us to do things in disobedience to God. I do need to say as a caveat, there is no authority on earth that trumps the
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authority of God. There is no authority on earth that justifies that justifies the handing over of Jews to be
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slaughtered. There's no authority on earth that can justify sin, rebellion, disobedience. We must rather obey God than man. That
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may come. That may come. It may come in your home with your family. It may come in the church with elders who no longer teach the word of God.
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It may come with a government when they not when they take away our tax deduction for charitable contributions. Well, let's not have another revolution over taxes. Okay, let's find something
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new. We We need to be very careful what we say we say is disobedient to God. And we're going to learn that in chapter 13. Okay. The
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government does have rights to do things that we don't like, especially as Americans, but these do not necessarily cause us to sin against God. And we need to be careful that we don't broaden that
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definition to the point in our church, in our home, in our government, our society to where anything we don't agree with is ipso facto making us disobey
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God. That's just a copout because at that point, you don't have to submit to anybody, do you? only that which you agree with do you submit to.
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submit to. Well, you can't get that out of Romans 13. So, it's a real challenge and it's a real struggle and and believers have struggled in our own country's history
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and you can you can see that in the sermons of the colonial and revolutionary eras. Not everybody supported rebellion against Great Britain. And those who did not
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camped in this passage. And he said, "Look at what it says. you don't have the right to do what you're doing because what the parliament
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and what the crown is doing does not constitute an a a usurppation of the authority of God but is rather whether you like it or not within the authority
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of human government but it's a challenge and and I I I think we should we should wrestle with that rather than just giving into the government and also on the other side
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simply saying I'm just not going to do We we do not our wives do not submit to husbands only when the husband is obedient to the Lord. No, the wife has
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to submit to the husband even if the husband is an unbeliever. 1 Corinthians 7 and also first Peter where the disobedient husband might be
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won over by the quiet and chasteed behavior of his wife. As Peter says, wives says the same thing that Paul says, children are are not called upon
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to obey their parents if they're good and godly parents. Now, he does say obey your parents in the Lord. But I think if you look at the rest of
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the New Testament with regard to this relationship, we understand that that means that even the parent, even a parent cannot make a child disobey the Lord. No human being can cause another
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believing human being to disobey the word of God. We would rather die. And that's what it means to live free is that we are in bondage to no one but the
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king of the universe or we die. And we can see that in the annals of the martyrs of Christianity for the last 2,000 years. They will
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rather live obediently or die. And so we cannot gauge our obedience on the basis of the one that we're
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obeying. Slaves are not called to obey only benevolent masters.
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To argue otherwise is to resist God who is sovereign. And really that's what it boils down to.
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The parents you have you have because of God's sovereign providence. The country into which you were born and the government of that country even as it changes exists because of God's sovereign providence.
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sovereign providence. That is to Paul also true of the church. Now, in our country, we've we've changed that because we've made the church into
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a voluntary society. We can't choose our family. That's that's kind of an old wag, right? You really can't choose your parents. You can't choose your siblings.
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And very few of us have the money that uh that what's her name? The uh Ellen anyhow, the one who moved to Great Britain. You know, these celebrities who
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don't like the election. So they moved to Spain. Well, they already had a house there anyhow. You know, it it's such an elitist and arrogant thing that they they fluff up and are so proud of that
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I'm not going to live there anymore. We hardly lived here anyhow. I mean, most of us can't do that. We're we're born in a country. We live in that country and we are sovereignly providentially placed
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in that country. Okay? So if we were born and born again in China, Romans 13 would be no less significant to us. It would just simply
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have a different reality than here in the United States. But the bottom line is it's God. It's God. It's
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God. So I think Andrew Nigran is very right when he says, and it's interesting. Andrew Nigram was a Lutheran
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or from the upper Midwest Lutheran which means the government actually appoints the officers of the churches the recctors the pastors um are appointed by the state in Sweden and
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Germany and the Lutheran countries. So Andrew Nigren he says um there are good and bad authorities god-fearing and godless governments. I wanted to ask him
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about some of the god-fearing ones if he could give me a even a short list, even one. Okay, but you know, but Paul is not talking about such distinctions. He is
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speaking of that which all authorities have in common, namely that they are instituted by God.
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I have been thinking about this passage for many decades in my personal studies and history, American history and political philosophy. Romans 13 is always
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forefront in my mind. And so moving toward this passage, you know, I thought, you know, I've got this one already prepared. I could do it without notes. But then over the past uh several
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weeks and and very powerfully over the past week um the passage kept coming to my mind, judgment begins at the household of God.
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Romans 13 is without a doubt talking about civil magistrates and our obedience to our government.
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But is there any purpose of preaching about submission to the government when there is little or no submission within the churches?
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I say churches um because in general western and American churches
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People vote with their feet or they hire and fire pastors according to whether they agree with them. And and so this this is again it's indicative of American society and
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American psyche and our political philosophy that has come into the church and and the Barna polls and whatnot will will verify what I'm saying and and that is people stay very short times in
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individual churches and pastors sometimes even less. But what forbids me from preaching this as a
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political sermon, which would have been the only one I preached probably in 33 is that the same thing exists in Fellowship Bible Church.
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Now, this is a sermon that I could not have preached last week and will not preach next week because the passage last week and the passage next week have nothing to do with what I have to say.
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So I think I can speak as someone who has experience and my experience um better today than in times in the
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past. But but in general it does boil down to something I have said from the pulpit before and that is for most professing
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believers there is a line that cannot be crossed. There is something that that they don't even know about yet but something that the preacher or the elders might say
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that will be one step too far and we're out of here. It might be something as serious as not supporting the practice of memorizing
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scripture. That was actually a cause. It might be a word of admonition or even rebuke. That has been a cause.
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It might be simply not having a an elaborate Denny's breakfast bar in the middle of the service. That was a cause. Um, but it'll be something.
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And I think it's because not that we're not believers, but rather that we are so American that we we just really think that what I think is right and
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I don't have to submit to any other authority. Now I want to make something clear that I think I have not made clear and has caused some confusion
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and I want to try to make things clear. But I also remind myself that God gave us language to confuse us. And I do know from personal experience
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sometimes the more we try to explain the more we confuse. But we only have words. It's all we got. We have one other thing and that is our
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history. Okay. The time that we've been uh pastoring a flock 33 and 28,
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big numbers, big numbers, but there's words. And so I want to make something clear if I can. And this is hard to understand. And I I accept that.
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When when Hebrews said to obey your leaders and submit to them, I do not believe the fundamental teaching of the indwelling of the Holy
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Spirit means that a believer must do everything the elders say or teach. I do not believe that.
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and and I maybe this is a little bit of pride and I hope it's justified but in terms of the food of the word I don't think you'll get fed anywhere better in Greenville in the upstate than
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the meal that's set before you every Sunday here
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love the word of God. And so we teach, but at that point, it's entirely between you and the Holy Spirit. It's it's not my right to command
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obedience to what I teach. It's not It's not that would not be faith on your part.
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And Paul says, "Anything that is not from faith is sin." So to just do something because the elder said so, taught it. That's not
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where we're coming from. And I try I want to really make that clear. I've taught things that that I know you don't agree with. That's between you and the Holy Spirit.
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Now, I do wish to say something that I've said before, and that is I really really hate I hate I hate I hate those of you who've seen
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Hook, that was my Dustin Hoffman impersonation. I hate competing with social media. I hate competing with talking heads in
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the Christian church with blog posts from men and women who will never have to give an account for your soul. So, I
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don't like that. And I've said that before. I'm not saying don't listen to anyone else either. I'm just saying be careful. Be careful how you listen. Jesus said, "Be careful how you listen."
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There are in your life right now two men who will stand before the Lord to give an account for your souls. There are no other people, including
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even your parents, who will have to do that. They may have to give an account for how they raised you, but they will not have to give an account for the shephering of your souls. As the
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scripture says, scripture says, Mark and I will So when we talk about submission, we are not talking about, oh, the elders
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want us to do whatever they say. No. Do we wish you would? Well, of course we do. Do you wish your children would do everything you say? Do you
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think the things you tell your children are wise and reasonable? Well, yes you do. I hope. And you yet you know that your children,
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especially as they get older and as they leave the home, they must make their own choices and decisions. When I hear children paring their
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parents, that scares me. It really does. and and it's something that as parents we should be very careful of that we're
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not simply raising dictaphones because every individual must be born again indwelt by the Holy Spirit and led
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that by that spirit into all truth. And so Mark and I are pastor teachers. Our responsibility is to give you the word in order to equip you for the works of ministry. Our responsibility is to show
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you the path of wisdom in God's word. Your responsibility is to listen and to pray and to see in scripture that these things are so.
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And then to obey not the elder but the word. And so I hope I'm making that clear in what I'm about to talk about.
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And that is the letter. I do not regret that the letter was written. I regret that it has had the
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impact that it has had because I don't we didn't want to to upset people. But I I want to try to address
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the complaints that have floated about. Um, we have had one-on-one conversations,
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not with everybody, but with everyone who asked to have one. I want to address the fact that we wrote a letter, which upset some people.
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uh that has always been our practice from the time that we went as elders to Bon Clarken to look into the biblical ministry of elders.
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We came back with a paper saying scripture teaches that the elders are your pastors. Therefore, we are disbanding the pastoral search
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committee. Okay, that was a proverbial lead balloon, but it was a letter. It was a it was a statement. We do that for two reasons. Maybe others, but two major
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reasons. One, it gives us the opportunity to think things through. The letter was issued in September of 2024. The first draft was written in December
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of 2023. of 2023. It takes a long time to say anything in
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Lord of the Rings. You didn't get that one. Okay, one. Okay, there's a lot of back and forth and searching scripture, a lot of prayer. In the interim,
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the elders received a unanimous statement from the deacons that the situation that was prevailing in Sunday school and the second hour was
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untenable. That was unanimous. So that makes the vaccinate and the elders in unity concerning what we perceive to
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be a congregational problem. But to deal with that congregational problem we felt was a pastoral matter.
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And so And so we sought to teach why we do and believe what we do and believe. We put it down in writing. The second
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reason that I put things down in writing is because I can forget what was said, but I can't forget what was written. God gave us his word in writing. There
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were a lot of other oral traditions and whatnot that prevailed and still prevail in the church. But we go with what is written. And we're told in that which was written not to exceed that which was
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written. And so when something is written then 11 months later you can pull it out and reread it and say this is what it actually says. actually says. And so that's why we did it that not
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because we're avoiding anybody or or don't want any conflict because everyone who asked to talk we met with.
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But the reason we did not do that proactively is actually pastoral experience. If you hear that somebody in the congregation is upset about something,
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and this has been my experience, you might think I would never do that, but this is almost uniform. If you go to that person, you probably experienced this in the workplace or as
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teenagers and you've experienced this. You go to the person and say, "I hear you are upset." And they say, "No, I'm not." Because nobody likes to be put on the
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spot. But nobody was refused an audience with an elder who desired to talk about this issue. Okay? It just didn't happen. So we will talk about these things.
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But I do want to try to address and I forgive me. I know this is taking longer than it should and I but I really think I you know I hate this but I want to try to preserve the harmony and unity and
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also set your minds at rest and your hearts at peace that that we can actually get through this and be the better for it.
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And so that's why I'm doing what I'm One complaint that was was not a single person, but of course not a single
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person. They had children. Um was not from just one person, but from several was that we were punishing those who had small children.
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And that one probably hurt the most because um we we really rejoice in the young people that we have who who are now um becoming of Milton age and and
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we're seeing them grow and that's exciting. But in addressing in in terms of that um that thought
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having young children will alter your lifestyle what you do and what you cannot do where you go. you go. And this is why many in our culture
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don't have children because they recognize that to have children means your life changes. Uh that's not a punishment. That's a
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cost of the blessing of child of bearing children and having children. It it is and and one of the blessings of having children is grandchildren.
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So it it's not a punishment and and so what we have tried to do and I want to I want to here give a great deal of thanks
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to to the folks who have have worked really really hard. We have tried to make provision for the edification of those who have
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small children. small children. Nursery and child care, but also streaming video and other rooms, making other rooms available for quiet
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cribs, the the classrooms, the the library, right? Just, you know, we are limited by the building that we have and we try to do the best we can. Over the
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past few months, some of the families have worked really, really hard to make that even better. Separating some of the classrooms so that the children don't have to all be
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in one room, trying to make it safer, more secure, cleaning the toys and sanitizing them. Um, but I think the root of this is what
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we're saying is if you have small children, you don't belong up here. And I think I I want I reread the letter and and there's a misunderstanding there. I want to give you a little history
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because the second complaint is that we're we're we're blocking children's access to Jesus. That actually reformed theologians don't believe in evangelizing children. And so
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we don't want children to come to Jesus. When Angel and I came to Fellowship Bible Church 36 years ago, just about the same time in the summer,
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it was the practice that everyone from teenager down, from 18 and under, were dismissed before the sermon to go to their age appropriate classes.
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The nursery was staffed by a hired individual. I look back on that and I think, why on earth did we even come here? But they were, it was a paid individual.
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Now, she was a very nice young lady and she was Roman Catholic because they have mass on Saturday and so Sunday mornings are free. No, it wasn't free. Um,
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Mark and I have endeavored over the years of being elders to get rid of all aged base aged base separation of our families. That's kind of where the Nehemiah 8
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comes in. And I'm going to address that hopefully briefly. I'm going to address that. But it it is not historical that that we actually don't want the children to hear the gospel. The opposite is
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historically true that all of the children that were by edict present prevented from hearing the gospel over time the bar you know it's like no no
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they need to be no they need to be. And not everybody agreed with that because there is this mentality that you come in the front door and you're immediately segregated by age group or even by whether you're single or married or
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whether you're over 65, you know, you got your own group. I don't we don't see that in the word. We really don't. We do believe that all who can listen or
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hear with understanding and that's caused some some some consternation. So I want to try to explain that as well. It's very clear to me from Nehemiah 8 that they were
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listening attentively because it's in that passage. They were listening attentively. Now, what is meant by that is that they were paying attention.
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We need to make a distinction between hearing with understanding and having ears to hear. Having ears to hear is regeneration.
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But it doesn't come without hearing with understanding. God says to Israel in Isaiah, "Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be
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as scarlet, they will be as white as snow." So what is that hearing with understanding? Well, I think at the very basis it it's it's understanding what's being said
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being said and it's it's also an ability to to reason to be able to connect what's being said with my own life because the Holy Spirit has been given
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to convict of sin and of righteousness and judgment. It is not the young child's fault that they cannot so reason. Paul said in Romans 7, I once
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was alive apart from the law, but the law came in and I died. I believe he's speaking of what we call a an age of accountability.
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And I have taught, and this is where I made that earlier caveat that I cannot command what I teach, but I do think there is a great danger of exposing
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children too soon to the law. You do not have a gospel without the law. Okay? You cannot have a gospel that God
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has a loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life without the preaching of the law. That you are dead in trespass and sin and need a redeemer.
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But I will tell you before God that every child the moment they reach that age of being able to process
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reasonably should be under the preaching of the word because at that point on they have sin has come alive and they have died. Now
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you may disagree with my interpretation of Romans 7. Fair enough. I do frankly believe that infants and small children who die before that age, I do not
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believe they are condemned. I do not believe Paul allows that he was once alive because every man will be accountable for his own sin. So that's
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what that means is being able to benefit, to profit, and even to hear savingly the preaching of the word.
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That's what we mean. But what it boils down to is not whether your children are up here or downstairs. Because even in the letter
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and in every time that I have taught on Nehemiah 8, it has been said the decision remains with the parents.
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We do not have a chronological age. Oh, they're four. They need to be baptized. You know, they're at the age of because they're different. All of our children are
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different, even within the same family. But no one knows the children apart from God, better than the parents.
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We're not saying they have to be saved before they come up and sit under the preaching of the gospel, which is God's means of salvation. That that's illogical. that's illogical. But when they can hear with
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understanding, they can profit from the preaching. That leads into the other and that the third and last and that is the idea that we want to slowly introduce
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our children our children to worship to worship by having them here during the singing. The songs of Zion belong to the children
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of Zion. of Zion. In our culture, music has become allencompassing and all powerful and is viewed by many as being salvific.
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There is a radio station in town whose pronoun I won't use. That is a travesty of the gospel. It pretends to be a church.
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But as much as I love music, music is not salvific and I do not want anybody to think that they can sing their way into the kingdom. And so we said in the letter and we've
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said it before and and we're going to say it again, we're not going to divide up the liturgy and say this constitutes worship or this
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is worship junior like Milton Jr. but you're going to get to will, you know, worship senior later on. That's not teaching a good lesson
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to your children or setting a good example to the rest of the body. Been chastised for this in the past, not by anybody who's here today, but I
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personally think the worship service begins at 9:30 with the exogetical instruction in the word. Okay? I encourage you to be here for that. It's
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it's food. It's good food. It's getting into the word deeper than than Mark or I can do during a sermon. It's a whole bag of mints if we try to do that. So, you
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know, I I do not separate even one from the other, although it's still traditionally Sunday school and worship service. That's not not a battlefield I ever desired to die on. So, what it all
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boils down to, um, we don't hate your children. We love your children. I love it when um Lette gives me a hug in the morning. You
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know, it's they're our children. We want their children to be saved. It it has been my prayer in the past that they would not know their sin a day
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longer than they know their savior. And so we preach and teach the word. And we have brothers and sisters who teach the word, who who teach to our younger
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children. But in all things, we must do it decently and in order. That's where what it boils down to is not whether or not your children can be here. If you think
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your children are paying attention, then not only can they be here, we want them here. We don't want them anywhere else. We want them under the preaching of the
