Grace and Truth
Bible Ministries

Veteran's Day Special

On Veterans Day we honor those who have served and who are serving in our nation's military. We do this because it is the veterans and their families who have sacrificed the most and continue to sacrifice the most in the acquisition and maintenance of our freedom.

Too many Christians do not properly understand their responsibility to both Church and State. This issue has been argued about for centuries. Is there really a conflict of responsibility between the Divine institution of nationalism and or the State and the Church?

Can a born-again Christian serve his country in the military, kill the enemy, and at the same time think with the Biblical thoughts of God as a believer-priest?

Today on Veterans Day we will demonstrate that there is complete compatibility between the God's Word and our national heritage.

Many great believers have fought and died so that we can have the freedoms that we enjoy today that make it possible to communicate God's word. This includes the freedom of assembly, the freedom speech and the freedom of communication that makes this message and others like it possible because of those who have served in the military to establish and protect our freedoms.

In order to understand our responsibilities we must first recognize that are three types of kingdoms on the earth today,

Satan's false Spiritual kingdom, Acts 26:18; natural earthly kingdoms or the "State", Rom 13:1; ", and the Spiritual Kingdom of God," the "Church". Matt 16:18;

God the Father; is the Author of the Divine plan for the human race. The Divine plan centers in the Person of His Son through whom a Spiritual Kingdom on earth would be formed. John 18:36;

The Father planned salvation so that all members of the human race with the desire that all be saved. 1Tim 2:4;

God's love found a way that was compatible with his perfect righteousness and justice. That way is grace. Eph 2:8-9; For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

In the course of human history every person who has believed in Jesus Christ, as Savior becomes part of God's spiritual kingdom. Gal 3:26;

However when the gospel is rejected, Satan's religious system of salvation by works is automatically substituted for God's system of grace; Gal 5:4; and it is Satan's system of religion that constantly opposes and attacks God's plan of grace by attacking the "seed of the woman', Jesus Christ, and His Word. Rom 10:3;

During our Lord's first advent Judea, the southern kingdom of Israel, was in decline as a national entity because, the individuals who comprised the nation had rejected the person of Jesus Christ. Hosea 4:1-6;

Because the Spiritual Kingdom within the National Kingdom was such a small minority, the freedoms, the blessings, the power and the tranquility that the nation had enjoyed for centuries were about to be removed under the "Fifth Cycle of Discipline." Lev 26:15-38:

The principle is that if a national entity is to exist with freedom under Divine establishment, as God would have it exist, there must be a sufficiently large Spiritual Kingdom within the national entity, Luke 17:21;

The spiritual kingdom would have an influence on the state, but it is not to be combined with the state. The Word of God teaches that any ecclesiastical or religious organization that seeks to be the State is false, degenerate and evil.

It is possible for believers to be so doctrinally ignorant that they cannot properly orient politically. It appears that the USA has reached that point and God help us now that we have become so spiritually ignorant and as a result have become so politically naive that we have chosen the tyranny of socialism, statism, corporatism and the nanny state rather than freedom.

This is exactly where Jewish Spiritual degeneracy was during the time of Christ's earthly ministry and it is why the Jews are scattered all over the world today and why; Israel does not exist as a spiritual nation or a theocracy under God today.

For many centuries the Jews had incredible freedoms, blessings and Divine thoughts that no other nation possessed but they lost it all because of their negative volition to Jesus Christ. Acts 4:11-12;

Matt 22:15; introduces our subject: "Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said." The Pharisees were the religious leaders.

Religion is man seeking the approval of God by his own works, in opposition to God's Reality, where the work has been done by God through Jesus Christ and man only has to believe to receive it.

These Pharisees wanted to rule the state but that was never God's intention because he had provided the Divine institutions in the world for all members of the human race, believer and unbeliever for their preservation. Neh 4:14;

A Christian institution is for believers only and includes the Lord's Table, learning the Word, metabolization of the Word, prayer, fellowship with God, Spiritual growth, thinking truth, the royal priesthood, the ambassadorship, praise, thanksgiving and worship etc. These things can only be preformed in the Filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit John 4:23-24;

A Divine institution is for both Christians and non-Christians and is God's plan to create and preserve order in the human race. This means that believers must learn how to function under both the Divine Institution and Christian institution.

The divine institutions for all mankind are:

VOLITION or FREEWILL established in Gen 1:26; Gen 2:16-17; is a Divine institution for the individual that is the basis of all true freedom Liberty; bestowed at the time of man's creation. Freedom with no authority is anarchy; and authority with no freedom is tyranny; God's plan is freedom through submission to His Authority The Word; and this is liberty. John 8:31-32;

Every member of the human race has the right to make decisions within the bounds of the law. There are many national entities today that deny the existence of the Divine Institution of Volition and are tyrannies. All Communist and Islamist nations deny volition.

Islam, Communism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Statism and any other" ism" in power; is a state religion and therefore Satan ruling the State. All Tyrannies deny the basic divine institution of volition and therefore restrict human freedom.

MARRIAGE established by God in Gen 2:21-24; is for both believer and unbeliever, and is the beginning of organization and stability in the human race. Satan uses Gay marriage, hedonism, polygamy, and fornication to attack marriage.

FAMILY described in Num 2:34; logically follows the second Divine institution, and is the basis for orderly society and protection of the human race. As the parents rule the children, children learn respect for authority, rights of others and freedom with responsibility. Satan attacks the family through gay adoption, broken homes and no discipline.

NATIONALISM was established by God after the Tower of Babel in Gen 11:8; and it is described in Deut 32:8; National entities have been ordained by God to keep the world from descending into chaos and to prevent Satan from completely taking over the world. Nationalism protects freedom and provides the opportunity for true evangelism.

God Himself put peoples within boundaries so that they would seek the Lord. Acts 17:26-28;

The Bible defines nations using three parameters: geographic racial and linguistic. These become the basis for common law and culture within the nation, and provide the basis for protection from external enemies.

The nation provides protection from the unrestrained tyrannical sin natures of other countries through a prepared military, and from the unrestrained sin natures of criminals inside a country; through law enforcement.

Jesus Christ faced a coalition of religious and political parties from an alliance of the two antithetical groups, the Pharisees and the Herodians who were trying to trap and discredit him.

Matt 22:15-16; Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.

The alliance between these groups is a classic example of the idea that "the enemy of my enemy is my ally" because to the Pharisees, true religion was a strict observance of the ceremonial law, and they controlled the religious life of the Jews through legalism.

The Herodians on the other hand were a political party of Jews organized to support and perpetuate the dynasty of Herod. They wanted Herod to rebel against Rome and take the throne.

The Pharisees did not want either Herod or the Romans because they wanted to rule as the State. Any time you find a religious people combining with a political group, there has to be some dire emergency and their emergency is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and truth had become and enemy to the objectives of both groups.

Since His rejection by his people Israel, the Lord Jesus is no longer proclaiming a kingdom on the earth instead he is proclaiming a Spiritual Kingdom composed of all believers scattered throughout the earthly nations. An invisible spiritual kingdom under God within each believer; 1Cor 6:19-20;

Since the Pharisees were a religious party and the Herodians a political one, we have in an evil alliance under the concept of union of Church and State. God, in His Word, has separated the two to protect the world from religion as a source of conquest and tyranny.

Whenever this principle is violated, there is aggression, torture, abuse, enslavement and violence in the name of religion. When Church and State unite, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is attacked. Hence, the union of Church and State in this Age is always, and without exception, satanic, anti-Christian and anti-Christ.

Having agreed upon their common purpose, the Pharisees and Herodians formed a strategy to trap the Lord Jesus. The Pharisees sent out their theological students or Disciples along with the Herodians to attempt to locate some weakness that they could exploit to discredit the Lord.

Their plan is to trap Him with a question that was contrived to get Jesus to make a strong and clear statement in opposition to the Roman Empire, thus opening the way for the Empire to execute Him as a revolutionary and an enemy of the State.

The crowd comes to watch, and this is exactly what they want because they want witnesses to hear his answer and testify against him.

So, the speaker asks: "Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?" Matt 22:17;

It is a trick question. If He gives a simple "yes," then they can publicly discredit is claim to be the Messiah and accuse him of being a sympathizer with Rome. If he answered "no", then they could go to the Roman governor and accuse Jesus of rebellion against the national entity of Rome.

Matt 22:18; But Jesus perceived their evil intentions, "poneria"; Satan's evil thinking and said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?

Remember, Jesus as undiminished deity is omniscient. He read their minds. And so His first answer is, "Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?"

Their question is actually a good one but their motives are not to seek knowledge, but to deceive and ensnare our Lord. So Jesus rebukes them for their duplicity and makes it clear that He understands their deceitful motives, but will still give an honest answer to the question.

Matt 22:19-20; "Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax." And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?"
They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's." Matt 22:21;

The procedure for believers in Jesus Christ, as citizens of His Spiritual Kingdom, while simultaneously being a citizen of the United States of America or any other earthly kingdom; is to: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."

Jesus recognizes the national entity is a Divine Institution . He also recognizes the existence of a Spiritual Kingdom made up of believers. And though these two Kingdoms coexist, they are never to be combined.

The Spiritual Kingdom, the ultimate solution to man's problems begins with personal faith in Jesus Christ and being born again John 3:3;

Man looks to his own systems to solve his problems such as poverty, war and environment; when after Salvation; we should stay in fellowship and learn Truth and grow and reach Spiritual maturity. 1Cor 14:20;

We are to constantly be turning our personal and national problems over to the Lord. Matt 6:31-34; this is God's plan for the human race. We can alleviate poverty, but not abolish it, Matt 26:11; Mark 14:7; only Christ can do that; and He will when He returns to earth.

War cannot be completely abolished, Matt 24:6; because of the old sin nature resident in every person. Rom 7:17-18; Only Christ can abolish war, and will when He returns. Isa 2:4;

We cannot afford to leave Jesus Christ out of our personal and national life. To leave Him out of our consideration or our life is to destroy our country and ourselves. Prov 8:36;

The existence of the Spiritual Kingdom, the Kingdom that is made up of all believers; and powered by those who are advancing to maturity; and is the only thing in these United States that is keeping and guaranteeing us any freedom at all. Eze 14:14;

We still live in the most wonderful country on the earth because it was founded on the Biblical principles of the Word of God, that absolutely declares Volition as the first Divine institution, and makes it possible for us to still have some measure of freedom today even as it about to be destroyed by the evil within.

Jesus states the believer's responsibility within the national entity is to "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" This means that you have responsibility to your national entity. A believer in Jesus Christ therefore has a double responsibility.

It is the believer's responsibility to witness for Christ; to show individuals within the national entity that the solution to every problem is personal faith in Jesus Christ followed by spiritual growth to spiritual maturity.

The second responsibility of the believer-priest is that he must, in time of war or in time of emergency, fulfill his obligation in military service. When believers understand this by rightly dividing the word of truth it is clear that there is no such thing as a "conscientious objector." from God's point of view.

Rom 13:1-7; defines authority in the national entity. "

v1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Every person, believer and unbeliever, is commanded to be subject to or obedient to the authority of the national entity. "There is no authority except from God: those which exist are established by God." declares that the national entity is a Divine institution.

v2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

God is not the author of confusion. 1Cor 14:33; There must be order in the human race, if it is to survive. Obviously, the structure of a tyranny like: Iran, Russia, China, Cuba
Venezuela, etc does not comply with God's protocol for Divine institution #4.

Rom 13:3; For rulers are not a cause of fear for good conduct, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. "Rulers" refer to authority under nationalism, or the government which administers justice. Paul is not approving Nero, but the principle of the legitimacy of the authority of government.

"Good conduct" of, Rom 13:3; describes the existence of a common law that parallels Truth in the Word of God. "The evil" is crime, which is the violation of common law. The believer in the national entity has responsibility to obey the laws of the land that are compatible with and parallel to the Word of God.

This includes participation in civic affairs such as voting, jury duty, etc. as well as participation in the military in defense of our country but it does not include obedience to international organizations that are anti-Biblical.

This means that if you are a Christian and are called into military service, serve as unto the Lord; if called upon to kill be the best killer in your unit.

A Christian taxpayer is to be the most conscientious taxpayer.

A Christian called to jury duty will be the most conscientious juror. You have a responsibility to the State, and the best citizens within the State are to be those of the Spiritual Kingdom who are who are born again.

v4 for it is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Capital punishment is the greatest restrainer of crime. "The sword" refers to capital punishment. Decapitation was a means of capital punishment in the Roman Empire. Under the Divine institution of nationalism the authorities of the State are "servants of God" to execute a criminal when appropriate.

v5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, Obey the rules; not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake.

The unbeliever is restrained from evil by fear of punishment; but the believer should be restrained "for conscience sake." 1Tim 1:5-6; When a believer's conscience is established in truth, he has the correct norm and standard of thinking; and can make decisions that are compatible with the Word of God.

Rom 3:6; For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

Because of the Biblical principle of subjection to the authority of government; under the divine institution of nationalism, believers have the responsibility to pay their taxes.

The government's abuse and plundering by the implementation of confiscatory and unfair taxation does not negate the principle. Leaders of government as God's servants; must be paid by a taxation system, even as priests and Levites were maintained by the system of tithes in Israel.

Rom 13:7; Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.

The illustration of taxation is used to establish the principle of Christian responsibility to one's nation. Military service, voting, jury duty, civil service, etc. Fear to whom fear"; reference to respect for law and law-enforcement agencies; Honor to whom honor"; denotes respect for government authority. Civil and military;

When fulfilling this obligation under the principle "render unto Caesar" believers should be the best because they understand that it is the Lord Jesus Christ whom we serve, that the Lord Jesus Christ controls history and the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the righteous and the unrighteous.

Believers have a tremendous responsibility before God to witness, to pray, to study, to learn to apply truth, and the promises and rationales of God's Word; and live in God's reality.

Truth builds up, it produces grace-orientation, the mastery of the details of life, a relaxed mental attitude, Minus mental attitude sins; capacity to love God as well as people, and have happiness that is tranquility of soul.

The first phrase "Render unto Caesar"; cannot be properly fulfilled without the last "And unto God";

Matt 22:22; When they heard his response they were speechless because his answer perfectly addressed the believer's responsibilities to both Church and State.

1. He recognizes the existence of the Church and the State while maintaining a clear distinction between Church and State;

2. He provides a clear understanding of the Christian responsibility to the State;

3. He shows that when the State doesn't follow the Biblical concepts of nationalism, the believer must declare his allegiance to God Acts 4:19-20; Acts 5:29;

4.He makes the issue of salvation clear and helps the State define and maintain freedom. The believer's responsibility to God as well as State defined.

5. The Church should support good government, but never become part of government.

In His answer, Jesus did not condone all of the evil practices of the Roman Empire, but rather the principle and purpose for the existence of the Empire, and the Christian's responsibility to it.

Remember that true evangelism can only be pursued where law, order and freedom exist and that law, order and freedom are acquired and maintained for the national entity by those veterans who serve and who have served who we honor today.

Behind these principles is the personal solution that must not be ignored. The only hope of any person within any national entity is the divine solution for both the unbeliever and the believer.

For the Unbeliever:
"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved" Acts 16:31;

For the Believer:
"Walk by means of the spirit and you will not perform the lusts of the OSN" Gal 5:16;

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 11/11/2012