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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

As you know, we’re in the book of Romans And we have gotten to the 13th chapter of the book of Romans. And so that’s a kind of a government chapter. So I wanted to say a few things about government, not a lot. But anyway, take your Bible, turn to the book of Romans and chapter 13. Now you’ll notice from chapter 12, it tells us, try to be peaceable with all men. You know it possible. Try to get along with everybody.

Now you and I know that that’s not always possible, but it does say there in verse 17 of chapter 12, recompense to no man evil for evil. Just because somebody does your wrong doesn’t mean you still gotta do wrong. You can still do right. It doesn’t mean you have to be walked on, but you can still do right. There’s nothing wrong with taking a stand and so forth. But it does say this in verse 18, if it be possible.

Yeah, I’m so glad that’s worded that way. as much as life in you. Live peaceably with all men. And then he tells in verse 19, okay, don’t take vengeance. Give place to wrath. In other words, just because somebody does you wrong, you don’t have to react or respond so quickly and just try to get even with somebody because they did you wrong. Sometimes you just have to be defrauded, you have to be wronged. But he says, vengeance is mine, say, of the Lord.

And so that’s the reason we have governments. So government is supposed to take vengeance upon people who do wrong instead of you as an individual taking vengeance. Because if you do it, then you had to be, you know, judge and jury and executioner. You make all the decisions. And in a moment of rage, you could make the wrong decision. So that’s why we have government set up. God instituted government. There’s nothing wrong with government. Let me rephrase that. There’s nothing wrong with good government.

There are some governments that are just plainly not good. And so this year chapter we’re talking about now is called the higher power. And a lot of times those in place of government feel like they are as high as you go. But that’s not true. The higher power is God himself. And God’s the one who established governments and told us our limitations. And so man is not to make laws contrary to God’s laws. So we have a code of ethics in God’s word.

He told the nation of Israel how to live and what sacrifices to make. So he had these sacrificial laws. They had the ceremonial law. They had the civil laws. They had a lot of laws laid down by God himself. And so the Lord doesn’t want us to be overcome with evil though we do wrong to other people. So we’re supposed to have good men in place of leadership that executes righteous laws upon those people that do us wrong. If everybody would just do right, would it be wonderful?

But as you know, that’s not always the case. So you’ll look here in chapter 13 and verse 1, let every soul, every person, because everybody is under some form of government, every soul be subject unto the higher powers. there is no power but of God that lets you know that God is the higher power and so God has set up and given authority for people to be able to make decisions and in America we don’t have a king we don’t have a dictator in America some people forget that but we have a president and believe it or not it’s actually they are our servants.

See when you have a king or coming they serve them. But they are there to serve us because we pay their salary so they work for us. And sometimes we don’t make the wisest of decisions. So that’s a little bit about what I want to share with you tonight, but I want you to look here quickly. For there is no power but of God, the power that be ordained of God, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, it resistseth the ordinance of God.

So, God makes the law and then you can have a lot of ordinances and statutes and things like that. Those are laws underneath main laws. So there’s principles that God has laid down. Evenfarious in our Constitution there are certain things that have been laid down Hispan and says Leyen says this is what368 Congress says. So the Constitution is the chains upon Congress that binds them and says you can’t do anything thatagh not given you permission. the people. So we the people is supposed to be in power.

We just have some servants that were for us and they agreed that when you go into this position of leadership you will do negotiated what we authorized you to do and nothing more. Anything outside of this constitution is null and void. Most people if insure that realize we got a lot more freedoms than we did. They didn’t take any of our freedoms from us. We’re giving them up. But anyway, when he says in verse 3, for rulers are not a terror to good works.

Terror to good works. You do right, government should be a blessing and protect you from the people that want to do you wrong. So there’s nothing wrong with good government. And we have been blessed in America that we have the freedom to pick and choose our representatives and sometimes we make good decisions and we put good people in office and then we sometimes can put bad people in office but he says well I’m not then be afraid of the power and the words afraid to do wrong to your neighbor and so on because there’s consequences they can take vengeance against government can take away everything you have government can put you in jail government can take your life.

They got the power. Now does it mean that all their decisions are right, but they got the power to do what they think was the right thing to do. So we have, it’s just like this, if a policeman pulls you over and you think in your own mind, I will not. Well, you can go ahead and do that, but you might not like the consequences. And so there’s people, this is what all the stuff is going on in our country today is people that are, they’re trying to see just how far they can go before they, you know, cross the line and they know they’re going to get some kind of a reaction and some people are looking to be heroes and so they want to, you know, be a martyr for a cause and so on.

We got a lot of stupid people in America. But notice what he says, do that which is good and shall they not have praise of the same? That is, if you’ve got good government, which should be. For he is the minister of God. Now do you see the preacher and the policeman, the both ministers of God? In other words, those people in place of leadership are supposed to, they’re like ministers of God. They’re to minister God’s law. For in verse 4, for he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil be afraid, for he bareth not the sword in vain.

For he is the minister of God a a Avenger, and that word, Avenger goes back up here to chapter 12 in verse 19, when it says, avenge not because, you see, the government will be the Avenger and settle it for you, supposed to, somebody kills somebody in your family. You’re not supposed to get a gun, go kill them. Let government deal with it. And it keeps you from making decisions that you shouldn’t make and being guilty of something that, well, I thought he killed them.

Oh yeah, but I did not. So you’ve got to be very careful. And then he says this in verse five, wherefore you must need to be subject, not only for wrath, but also for consensates, so that you don’t have that guilty conscience that you did somebody else wrong and you rendered evil for evil to somebody else. And so he says in verse six, and for this cause, pay you tribute. In other words, if you’re gonna have a government, you’re gonna have to pay taxes.

Don’t you just love that? That means that you’re gonna have to take a part of whatever you make and you’re gonna have to give it to the government so that they can pay for the service you’re getting, because see they’re gonna protect you. And so we gotta pay for this protection and working real good. But that’s why he said in verse 7, render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom, tributives do, custom to whom, fear to whom, honor to whom.

So we’re to have respect for our government and respect for our law officers, those people who work in place of government. We’ve had a fire marshal that came out here. And when she came out here, she was very, very nice, very kind. But buddy, she knew the book, and she went right by the book. And as she walked around, she could see, she had eyes that only focused on everything that was wrong. I thought, look how many things that are right.

See those lights up there? Look how bright they are. Look how clean the windows are. Look how nice the floor is. But she was also looking for a lot of other things. But that’s her job. So we should show her respect and show her. and not get mad and ugly and bless her out. She’s doing her job. And so even when I talked to her, she was very nice. And so just to the all that they want to know, they gave us a nice clean bill of health.

We’ve got good health now for a year. So I love and respect the person. I just don’t want to see them for a year. So anyway, as we move right along, I want you to take your Bible and turn to the book of Habakkah, to the book of Habakkah, not Habakkah, Habakkah. In the book of Habakkah, which I believe it could go very well with some of the things that are mentioned in the book of Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1 just really tells you how bad Israel is.

Israel was in bad shape. They were sick. They were wicked. They were so ungodly. God was fed up with them. I mean, literally. So he was going to bring in somebody else to whoop the nation of Israel. Now, when you get to the book of Habakkah, he kind of makes a statement here in verse 1 of chapter 1, if you’ll look there in Habakkah, Psalm page 9.55, talking about the message that he had to brain and he had some questions for God.

You know, Lord, we’re bad, but we’re not that bad. And he couldn’t understand, Lord, what are you going to do about that? Don’t you see how bad we are? And so the Lord says in verse 5, Behold, he among the heathen and regard and wonder marvelously, for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe. But this is going to knock you for a loop. You can knock your socks off. He says, for lo, I raise up the caladians that bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breath of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

They’re dreadful, they’re terrible, they’re coming. Look out. Here they come. God’s going to bring in never to measure. I mean, they’re coming from the early caladades and they’re coming all the way over there. Here comes Babylon. and they are going to lay siege against them and it’s going to be bad news and it was bad news. So he says Lord I got a I got a problem. He says I know we’re bad but we’re not that bad and so in Habakkah chapter 1 and verse 13, thou art of pure eyes that to be whole evil and kent’s not look on iniquity, wherefore look is style upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he.

Now we’re bad but they’re really bad. How can you use and bless them to punish us when we’re not as bad as they are? And here we are looking at an election. And we say, well, how do you choose? I mean evil versus evil? Or maybe they’re two saints and we just don’t know it. Now how do you judge? Well one way is, well, the best of two evils. you try to find out is one of them more righteous than the other?

Even though things are bad and they both are bad. Israel was bad, but Babylon was worse. Is it possible that even God was able to use the bad, the worse one to whoop his own people and then afterwards what was he gonna do? Whooped them? Because of what they did, they walked in. So God will allow things to happen. And sometimes it’s beyond your control. And Habakkah, well it blew his mind. Could not understand. God, why would you do such a thing?

And so, as you go down through here, and there’s a reason why God did what He did. But He does make this simple. Look in verse 2 of chapter 2. And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain upon tables, that He may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it carry, wait for it, because it will surely come.

come, it will not tear you. Behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.” In other words, how shall a child of God live in a world that seems like it’s fallen apart? We shall live by faith. Well, our confidence in the Lord, regardless of how bad things are in the world, regardless of who’s running for office and how bad things may be, you and I are still to look to the Lord and serve God with all our heart.

Now I want to show you something about the oath to the Constitution. Now you can get this from anywhere, you can get it out of a Constitution because it tells you what is the oath of office. Now it’s only 35 little low words. I mean, so when they stand up there and they put their hand on the Bible and they take the oath of office. There’s one oath of office that the president takes. There’s another one that Congress and commissioned officers they take.

And there’s others that are civilians who go into the military and they take another oath of office. Now you and I, if we’re not in there, we don’t have to take an oath of office. We can choose whether or not we want to pledge allegiance to the flag. But there’s oath of offices that are down. And when you want to take and do this job, this job, or this job, there’s an oath that you take. But the presidency of the United States, he doesn’t have to promise all of these things that they go around the country telling you what they’re going to do.

Well, without Congress giving them the money from the House of Representatives, because all spending bills have to originate in the House. And they got the purse strings. If they will use it, then they can’t get no money for nothing. So it’s not a matter of you can just get in there and I’ll do whatever I know you can’t. Not according to the Constitution. You’re bound to only execute laws that have already been passed. You don’t make laws. Sometimes people forget these simple little bitty things.

But look at there at number one here, it’s not numbered, but the Constitution prescribes the following oath to be taken by the President-elect. I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will do the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” So that’s his job. That’s the his oath of office. That’s everything that they have been running for over a year telling you all these things are going to do.

Well, this is what he’s supposed to do. uphold the Constitution, execute the office of the presidency of the United States. So you have the legislative body, you have the judicial courts, and you have the executive branch. Three separate branches of government. And so there’d be checks and balances on each other so that no group can have more power than what they’re supposed to have so they can dominate or toward a disstore the other. It’s not to be done. Now look at the next statement.

Regarding the presidential oath of office, Justice Joseph Story wrote, the duty imposed upon him to take care that the laws be faithfully executed follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office that he will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Now when a president goes into office, whoever it may be, It’s not gonna be, they don’t have to take an oath of office. Will you uphold all those things you said you was gonna do? That’s not part of it.

Are you going to do this thing about trade? Are you gonna build a wall lying in Mexico? Are you gonna, you don’t have to take no oath, nothing like that. He can promise that all he wants to. She can promise everything that she wants to. And we’re gonna give you a free high school education and college education. And they’re gonna give me, give me, give me. And they probably give away all of a sudden. But see, those things are not in the Constitution.

They don’t have the right to promise something. They don’t have the Constitution authority to do. Look at the next statement. The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose. Story wrote further that if the president does not honor his oath, his office, will be utterly worthless for the protection of rights, for the happiness or good order or safety of the people. So this is why if a person doesn’t protect or honor that constitution, then there is going to be an opening of the borders because there’s no defense.

You’re not going to have a strong military because you’re not protecting our country. So those are constitutional issues about protecting our borders because it boils down to the Constitution. That is a constitutional issue. Our military being strong and so forth to defend us from any outside, we’re supposed to have a strong government. That’s a constitutional issue. Now, given everybody the freebies and so forth, that’s not a constitutional issue. You can search it all day long and you won’t find it in there, not in there.

So we’re doing a lot of things, just like public schools of the NEA, government getting involved in education. They have no authority. It’s not in the Constitution, but look how much money is spent on the national level for something that they have no right to do. they can control the whole nation because they can determine kids must go to school. And we run the schools. We set the standards for the teachers. We compel everybody to support the schools, the buses, the teachers, unions and all those things.

And they are mostly in the Democratic Party that are making a lot of these programs that we know is not going to work. And they simply have control of the minds of the kids. So you can buy an election because you’ll teach those kids as they come up to vote for the people that will give you the most. Why do you think so many people wanted to vote for Bernie Sanders? He promised him three lunch. Well, that’s the way that people are.

So it bothers me that so many people don’t get our form of government, what they’re to do and what they’re not to do. Anyways, we’ll move along here. get the next one down at the bottom of the page. Members of Congress and Commission, military personnel, are also required by statute to solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and what’s that in the word? Home, that’s here too. Outside, inside.

Remember, if they can’t storm the gate, they didn’t feel trade. But anyway, that I I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, so help me God.” So we have Congress at Square Shwapol the Constitution. And yet most of them, it doesn’t appear that they even know what it says because they pass laws that are totally outside the realm of the Constitution. But anyway, as things move along, look on the back page.

The old for enlisted military personnel. Now whenever I went into the Navy I had to take this. Bob Gilbert says he went in there, he had to take this. Anybody else in military you haven’t been in here? All right, a few of you. So you had to take the same oath of office. And whenever you took it too late now, but you’re backing out too late. The old four enlisted military personnel repeats the re-preceding affirmation that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and then it concludes with I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to regulations and the uniform code of military justice so helped me God.

Now when we read in the book of Romans in chapter 13 about the power that’s over you, this last one we just read goes a little bit further than the others. Because here they have to obey also the orders of the president. That’s why he is the commander in chief. He’s in charge over the military. And so whenever they go into the military, they have to swear that they will uphold the Constitution, but also the presidency of the United States.

Now Congress doesn’t have to do that. They don’t swear no allegiance to the presidency. They swear allegiance to the Constitution. That’s why if whatever the President says, and they had to obey that, well then there is no separation of powers and the President would be over Congress because he could say, this is what I want you to do and they have to do it. Yes. And those that are under officers. Then they have to do whatever they were told to do.

But there is a difference. Now look at the next statement. The subtle distinction between officer oath and enlisted oath is that officers are bound to disobey any orders that violates our Constitution. That means the officers and our congressmen are supposed not to uphold anything that the president says if it violates the Constitution. And the officers, our military officers, commissioned officers, is a protection that the president cannot authorize them to do something that is unconstitutional and they should say, no, and not do it.

Because they also uphold the Constitution and not to obey the president. The president is not king, not in our country. So look at the next statement. Similar oath are taken by state and local elected representatives and federal and state and local and civil servants. So people do this all over. Now look at the next statement. Notably, these oaths mandate the preservation, protection, support and defense of our Constitution as ratified, not a so-called living Constitution. The Constitution is in concrete.

not living like they want to say, well, it means what it does today. No, it means what it meant when it was written. So you always go back to what were the original intent of our founding fathers? What did they mean when they wrote it? Not what people today want to make it mean. And this is how we’re losing some of our, I guess you could say freedom, people are saying, well, it’s on a live document, and that means it could be changed anywhere along the domain what we think it means today.

No, what did it mean when it’s the same thing with the Bible? Does the Bible mean what it meant when it was written or what we want it to mean today? Whenever it was written. That’s the way it is. Now notice it. The next paragraph, while uniformed Americans serve in our nation, defend our Constitution with their lives, constitutional with their lives. Many elected officials debase it by enacting extra constitutional empowerment of the central government, invariably to appease special constituencies and or to perpetuate their office.

When people get into place of office, they were supposed to be there to serve and then get out. But now when they get there, they wanna stay there. And so it might not be a bad thing to have a limitation upon certain things, but I don’t think that those that are in there are going to pass anything that would limit them from all these terms that they stay in. And some of them have been there for 40, 50 years.

And so now they work the system. You ever wonder how these people who are our servants can go into government and be poor when they get there and multi-millionaires when they leave on what we pay them? Now I’m not going to pay you anything. You can figure it out for yourself. This is your invitation to join us for our third Sunday dinner held in the Florida Bible College of Tampa building on the Calvary Community Church Campus. The dinner is a family-style, covered dish dinner, and a great way to showcase your favorite dish and pick up new recipes.

Each month you have the opportunity to invite your family and friends to join us for our Sunday morning service at 1030 and then stay for our third Sunday dinner immediately following noon. Third Sundays at Calvary Community Church where you’ll be fed spiritually and physically. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida 33634 and now a A closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.