Fear God, Honor the King

Introduction and Contextual Review

0:02 What a wonderful thing to be a Christian and know God in the way favor helps us to express that knowledge. Let us turn now to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, and I shall read in your hearing verses 11 through 17 of 1 Peter chapter 2.

0:31 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2.

1:05 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2.

1:36 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2.

2:10 Or as one newer translation renders it, in his heart a man plans, or plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Now certainly this has been true with my purposes of heart to preach through the book of 1 Peter. It was true in terms of when we began that endeavor, and it has been true with respect to the rate at which we are accomplishing that endeavor.

2:41 And in recent weeks, though my purposes of heart were to be much further along in our studies, an unexpected foot surgery and some unusual post-operative complications, a vicious upper respiratory bug, some planned guest preachers whom God knew would sound notes that we needed to hear when we hear them, all of those have conspired to understand. Score the truth that Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, wrote that a man's heart does devise his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

3:23 And I'm convinced with increasing understanding we will see the wisdom of God even in the frustration of the plans and purposes of our own heart. We've seen that many times over the years, when in regular consecutive exposition had the passage been expounded, when the preacher purposed to expound it, it would not have been anywhere near as kindly a word. I think you'll see that even this morning with post-impeachment proceedings. The words, fear God, honor the king, will have a lot more biting relevance than they would have had had I preached them two months ago.

4:07 As with any period in which you've been away from the passage, I cannot responsibly just plunge right in at 2.17b and take up the last two imperatives, as I purposed to do in our exposition. But let me take the necessary time, as briefly as possible, to do three things by way of review and introduction. First, to give a brief overview of the larger context of verse 17 in chapter 2.

4:39 When Peter wrote, Honor all men, love the brotherhood. Fear God, honor the king. What was the larger context in which he wrote those words under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit? Well, I have emphasized again and again and again and again and again this morning, that in these opening chapters there is a definite pattern by which Peter pours out the concerns of his pastoral heart for these people of God there.

5:14 There. In the five provinces of Asia Minor, now known as the land of Turkey. And what he does under the guidance of the Spirit is to give a marvelous concentration of gracious gospel privileges, true of all the people of God, and then he follows it with specific gospel duties. The privileges are the basis of the duties.

5:42 The duties flower out of the privileges. Or stated in another way, he gives us glorious gospel indicatives followed by gracious gospel imperatives. And in that cycle of telling us what we are and what we have in Christ, and what we are to be and to do because of what we have in Christ, we have come here in chapter 2 to that second cycle, of the imperatives that grow out of the indicatives. The duties that are founded upon the privileges.

6:24 And that section begins in verse 11. This is why I started reading there this morning. So this is the larger context of chapter 2 and verse 17. Another series of these imperatives.

6:41 And what is clear with all of them, is that in this section of imperatives, Peter is particularly conscious of calling the saints to a certain lifestyle with the recognition that they are living out their lives in the midst of onlooking unbelievers. Did you notice that as I read these verses? He says, I beseech you, verse 11, to abstain from fleshly lust, having your behavior seemly, becomingly, having your behavior morally good and beautiful among the Gentiles. So he's calling them to these gospel duties,

7:26 conscious that these duties have peculiar reference points as the people of God live out their lives in the presence of and under the scrutinizing gaze of the unconverted. He does that again in verse 15. For so is the will of God that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. He gives this exhortation knowing that they are living in the midst of those who are looking for an occasion to nitpick and to speak against the people of God.

8:04 Likewise, further on, he will do the same thing. So the larger context is, we are now in the second verse, the second series of gospel imperatives growing out of the second series of gospel indicatives, the second series of gospel privileges. And in a special way, the things to which he calls the people of God have a reference point in the validation of our Christian faith before the eyes of the unconverted. Now then, let's look secondly at a brief reminder of the more immediate context.

Immediate Context: Submission to Authority

8:43 We've looked at the larger context. We've taken our cameras and we've set the lens at 35 millimeters. Now we move up to 70. We move in to the more immediate context.

8:57 And what is that? Well, I hope you will remember it is this. After the general call to abstain from fleshly lust and to have a becoming pattern of behavior, Peter begins in verse 13 to focus on a specific area. And that area is the belief, a believer's submission to every source of God-ordained authority.

9:21 Look at verse 13. Be subject to every ordinance or creation of man for the Lord's sake. And there the form of the verb indicates that he is focusing upon this fundamental duty. Would you abstain from fleshly lust that war against the soul?

9:40 Would you believers there in Asia Minor have a pattern of behavior that is not subject to man's will? Would you have a pattern of behavior that is not subject to man's will? Would you have a pattern of behavior that is not subject to man's will? Would you have a pattern of life that commends the gospel?

9:47 Then here's the first area I want to address. How you are to relate to every structure of human authority as the people of God. Then he gets specific in three areas. First of all, the relationship to the authority of the state, whether to the king as supreme or to governors.

10:07 Verse 18, the servant to the master. Servants in subjection to your masters. Chapter 3, verse 1. In like manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands.

10:22 So the immediate context of verse 17 is this call to live a becoming commendable gospel-shaped life among the pagans as those who evidence that they've embraced the will of God with respect to every structure of human authority. And Peter picks out three specimens. This is not an exhaustive treatment of the doctrine of human authority. He gives the generic imperative, and then he picks out three specific specimen areas.

10:59 The Christian as citizen to the civil authority. The Christian servant in relation to his master. The Christian wife in relation to her husband. And again, in all three cases, the implication is it is the Christian citizen in the face of a hostile and unsympathetic state.

11:24 It is the Christian servant living out his life with an unkind and unreasonable master. And the Christian wife living with an unconverted husband. I'm amazed the more I study this portion of the word of God, how clearly the spirit of God has underscored this critical issue of how in the world am I as a Christian to live in a sea of non-Christians. God's telling us.

Summary of Previous Study: The Four Imperatives

11:53 That's the more immediate context. And now, very briefly, a brief summary of our previous study of the text. And then we're done our review and our introduction. In our previous study of the text, we have looked at verse 17, noting that, in a very real sense, it seems out of place.

12:15 Peter could have moved from the first subset of a God-ordained sphere of authority, human government, at the end of verse 16, he could have moved immediately to the next category. But he didn't. Under the guidance of the spirit of God, after setting out our duty and underscoring the motivations to perform the duty, before he moves to the second subset, servants, be in subjection to your masters, he gives us these four very terse, succinct, forgive me using the word, but it's this, stentorian. They come like a drill sergeant, barking his orders.

12:54 Don't you feel something of that? Honor all men. Secondly, love the brotherhood. Fear God.

13:04 Honor the king. Don't you sense something stentorian about that? Something like the drill sergeant barking out his orders. And in our previous study, we tried to come to grips with the fact that to be dogmatic about why these are introduced here is to manifest either ignorance or lack of humility or a wretched combination of both.

13:26 And I gave my suggestions. And it seems to me that the most reasonable thing is to recognize that when Peter said in verse 15, do this in relationship to the civil governor. Be submissive for the Lord's sake. This is the will of God that by way of the will of God, that by way of the will of God, that by way of the will of God, that by way of the will of God, that by way of the will of God, that by way of the will of God, that by way of the will of God, that by way of the will of God, he's concerned about the subject of well-doing in the presence of the unconverted.

13:52 Could it be that as Peter's mind turned over that motivation, he then brings these four imperatives to flesh out what does it mean in some of these more particulars to live a life characterized by well-doing? Well, if it's a life that honors all people, literally, one in which you show your distinctive love to the brotherhood, in the face of an onlooking world, in which you make it evident that you fear God and honor the king, that will be a life of well-doing that will commend the gospel and put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. That could well be the connection, though I would not be dogmatic.

14:35 And with respect to what is the internal structure, you have a form of the imperative in the first directive, honor all men, that is different from the final three imperatives, and frankly, I'm not quite sure why, and I haven't found a commentator who's persuaded me that he knows either. So then we just plunge right in to the first two imperatives. And the first was honor all men. That is, evaluate the worth of all men, women, boy or girls, this does not refer to those of the male gender, or honor all people, and treat them accordingly.

15:10 And we took up that whole issue of why must a believer honor all men, because he sees in all people, created dignity and redemptive potentiality. And then, love the brotherhood. Exercise continuous God-like affection to all the people of God. It's Peter's unique word for the people of God.

15:35 The church used only here, and in chapter 5 and verse 9, used nowhere else in the New Testament. Love the brotherhood. Those who have been begotten of the same spirit, brought into the same family, recipients of all the privileges of grace that Peter has described in the first cycle of Gospel Indicatives, chapter 1, verse 3 to verse 12. In the second cycle of Gospel Indicatives, chapter 2, verse 4 to verse 10.

16:03 You are brothers in the possession of all of these wonderful graces conferred by God in His mercy. Well then, that's our overview, review, introduction. Now we come, this morning, to this gracious Gospel Directive. We're going to take up the final two imperatives.

Duty 1: Fear God Explained

16:24 You say, oh, Pastor, I don't believe you're going to do it. Well, God helping me, I am. So, swallow your skepticism, tighten your seatbelt, and let's see if God will help us to work our way through. Fear God.

16:38 Honor the King.

16:41 Our first heading, The Duties Explained. The Duties Explained. Fear God. Honor the King.

16:50 It is most likely that when Peter penned these words, rattling around in the back of his mind, as with so much of 1 Peter, steeped in Old Testament language, imagery, analogy, references, were the words of Proverbs 24, 21a. Proverbs 24, 21. My son, fear the Lord and the King.

17:20 But under the guidance of the Spirit, Peter, Peter does not write, fear the Lord, fear the King. He writes, fear the Lord. And then you know what he does with the King? He puts him back on the same level with all men.

17:34 Exactly the same word in the original. Honor all people.

17:40 Honor the King. He's one of them peoples.

17:44 Fear God, but honor the King. Under the Old Testament, in the theocracy, where the King was God's direct representative in Israel, there, there, there have been a sense in which he was right for Solomon to write, fear God and the King.

18:03 Now under the new covenant, with no theocracy, and in the light of the pagan governments, within which or under which the people of God are to live out their lives, God wonderfully adjusts the text in Proverbs, and says, fear God, and honor the King. Now let me seek to explain these duties. The first duty, fear God, literally, a present imperative, be continually fearing God. Now for the number of you, and we're so thankful to God for the increasing number of you who are here, for whom serious Bible study is a relatively new thing.

18:47 You feel a bit embarrassed when everyone else is able to flip right to the book when we say, now let's turn to, please don't feel embarrassed, nobody's seeking to embarrass you, but we thank God you're here and you're beginning to take your Bible seriously. Well as you take your Bible seriously, the more you read in the Old and New Testament, you know what you're going to find again and again? You're going to find this little phrase, the fear of God, popping up again and again and again. The fear of God, fear God, the fear of the Lord, and you'll come into the New Testament and you'll even find the words, the fear of Christ.

19:24 So that you will begin to get, the idea, whatever this is, this is no sub-dominant note in the Bible's revelation of what true religion is. If I am experiencing or if I am to experience the true religion taught in the Bible, whatever the thing is, the fear of God is going to be something I know about experientially. And for those of you more acquainted with your Bibles, I'm sure I don't need to quote a text when I say, that the fear of God is a dominant emphasis in Biblical religion. Dozens and dozens of references in the Old and the New Testament,

20:07 right on into Heaven, where the fear of God is a dominant note in the praise of glorified saints in the presence of God. Now, because it is such a dominant theme in the Bible, a number of years ago I preached nine sermons, topical sermons, on this subject, trying to collate the major strands of Biblical truth about the fear of God, the different kinds of fear, what produces it, what ought to regulate it, how ought it to be expressed. And it has been a humbling thing to know that over the years, God has greatly used that series. It's still available in the Trinity Pulpit and in our tape lending library.

20:52 And I have no intentions to begin to re-preach that series, nor have I any foolish intentions, to try to condense nine sermons into twenty minutes of one sermon. So what I'm going to do is simply assert. And if you have suspicions that maybe the assertion is ill-founded and it drives you to your Bible with your concordance to prove me wrong, then that will be fine. But basically, the fear of God is this.

21:20 When Peter wrote, fear God, what was he commanding them to do? Well, to fear God, is constantly to maintain in the soul a reverential awe of God as he has revealed himself in his word and works. And, don't miss this and, and in the light of all that he is to us in Jesus Christ. What is it to fear God?

21:57 It is to constantly maintain in the soul, a reverential awe of God, as he has revealed himself in his word and his works, and in the light of all that he is to us in Jesus Christ. That is the essence of the fear of God. Now, if you just take this epistle, and remember, this is why thinking in terms of the unity of Scripture is critical. When Peter wrote, fear God.

22:37 God be continually fearing. The word God was not a four-letter vocable to Peter, a three-letter to us, into which the people were free to pour any concepts they wished. No! He has used the word God again and again in this epistle.

23:00 And it was thrilling for me in my preparation, just to go back and start in chapter 1 and verse 1, and go through and see everything about Peter's theology, his word about God, just in this epistle between 1-1 and 2-17. What a rich theology! I hope I tweaked your interest to do it. I can't do it.

23:21 I'm determined to prove you wrong, that I can get through both imperatives this morning. That's why I made sort of an unspoken covenant in the front end, because I told my wife, I said, Honey, when I get on this point, I'm afraid I'm going to go into orbit. Just read what he says about God. Just read what he says about God.

23:37 And when he says, Fear God, it's the God he's been talking about in this letter. Not some nebulous ephemeral spirit that floats around and you can attribute to it or him or her, whatever you want. He is a real, eternal, unchangeable, blessed, glorious, infinitely majestic being. And he says, Fear God.

24:08 This God, that I've been speaking about, this God who foreknew you, this God who blessed you with the salvation of his Son, who's laid up an inheritance for you, this God who's holy and commands you to behold, just go through the first two chapters and say, if I had no other book from which to extract a theology, a word about God, what could I know about God from 1 Peter 1, 1 to 2, 16, and you'd be a theologian. You would be. So when Peter says, in context, Fear God, he's saying to these believers,

24:47 you maintain in the deepest theater of your human spirit a constant reverential awe of this being who's revealed himself in his word and works and in the light of all that he is for you in Jesus Christ. When this is a reality, to us, then we'll seek to live before this God in faith and love, convinced that his smile is life's greatest benediction

25:27 and his frown is life's greatest curse. To live in the fear of God is to live under the last hair on the top of your head in such a way that you manifest to yourself and others that the smile of this glorious being is my greatest passion and delight in this life and incurring his frown is my greatest...

26:08 That's the fear of God. And furthermore, if that is the disposition and that gives birth to that all-encompassing desire, then fearing God will mean that in every relationship, in every circumstance, at all times, I will regard God's claims over me as ultimate, non-negotiable, and unchangeable. I will regard his claims over me to which I've joyfully submitted. How did he just describe God's people at the end of verse 16?

26:49 As willing bond-slaves of God. A slave has no will, but that of his master. And to fear God is so to live that in every circumstance, every relationship, at all times, his claims over me are ultimate, non-negotiable, and changeless. Now I say for those of you that want proof that that is indeed the stuff of which the exposition of passage after passage will lead, I commend the series on the fear of God.

27:27 But I must simply stop at this point and summarize my attempt to expound this first duty laid upon the children of God in the provinces of Asia Minor and through them upon us. We are continually to be fearing God, living with a reverential awe of him as he's revealed himself in his word and works and in the light of all that he is to us in Christ. Chapter 1, the end of it, proves this. Fast the time of your sojourning, and never lose that latter part.

28:01 Fast the time of your sojourning in fear knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, or with the precious blood of Christ, or the land without blemish and without spot, etc., etc. Fear conditioned by what we are in Christ. Fear conditioned by what God is in himself as revealed in his word and in his works.

28:24 Well, that means if I'm going to be continually fearing God, I've got to think about God, shaped by God's own revelation of himself.

28:35 It means I've got to know the discipline of a mind that fastens itself upon him. That's why the scripture says, Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. I must keep him before my mental eye. I must tell myself wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, I'm before the face of this glorious being whose smile is the most delicious thing my soul can enjoy.

Duty 2: Honor the King Explained

29:01 And his frown the most bitter. Fear God. But then the second imperative, Be continually honoring the king.

29:12 I render it that way because it too is a present tense imperative. Be continually honoring the king. Now we saw when we came to honor all people that the word honor basically means to place a proper value upon a person or thing and to relate to it accordingly. Etymologically and the use of that word in other places in the New Testament points to that.

29:36 I'm not going to go back over that ground and give you the exegetical lesson that we had in that first imperative. Now it says honor the king. Who is the king? The supreme ruler in the Roman government, the emperor.

29:51 In this case it was that scoundrel Nero. And I said well maybe Nero gets bad shrift among God's people. So let me see how he's looked upon in the eyes of the secularists. So I took down my Webster's New Collegiate Third Edition Dictionary.

30:08 I don't think that's too outdated yet. Is it Mr. Burkett? That's the one I used.

30:12 Oh good. All right. And when you look up Nero you know what it says? Roman emperor from 54 to 68 A.D.

30:23 And then these words in what is now a secular dictionary notoriously cruel and wicked. Thank God they haven't dropped the word wicked from our dictionary to be politically correct yet. I mean wicked is to make a moral judgment. Isn't it?

30:42 If something's wicked it ain't virtuous. It's the opposite of virtuous. Nero. Notoriously cruel and wicked.

30:55 To be the one who will implement Peter's execution and subsequently the execution of Paul the apostle. And most likely writing from that place that Peter calls in cryptic language at the end of this epistle Babylon, i.e. Rome.

31:13 He writes Fear God and all the saints say Hallelujah, that's right, that's just, that's good. But Peter, have you lost your marbles? Honor the king, Peter. That bestial, unprincipled, petulant, selfish, wicked man.

31:36 Yes, Peter says. Honor. Honor the king, the supreme ruler. Not in abstraction, but the supreme ruler that is who was at that time Nero.

31:57 Despotic, cruel, notoriously wicked.

32:04 I didn't write the Bible, but I'm called upon to preach it.

32:09 And my Bible says you who fear God, honor the king.

32:17 What does it mean? All right, we'll come to that. It does not necessarily mean that you can honor his person.

32:30 The Bible says in certain situations honor to whom honor is due.

32:40 No one, Christian or non-Christian, is under obligation to honor the person of a wicked man or woman. In fact, just the opposite is true. When the Spirit of God is describing the righteous man in Psalm 15, notice this part of the description in verse 3. He slanders not with his tongue, he does no evil to his friend, he does not take up a reproach against his neighbor, verse 4, in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord.

33:17 The mark of a righteous person is he knows how to have an internal disposition to the differing moral characters among men. And he has a holy despising of a reprobate and a holy honoring of God-fearers. Do you see that in your Bibles with your own eyes sitting on your lap? So when Peter writes, honor the king, he is not saying you must of necessity honor his person.

33:49 If there is that in his person, his own character, that is honorable, then you can honor the king in the way that is non-negotiable and also honor the king in a dimension that is negotiable. It doesn't mean you necessarily honor his person, nor does it mean you honor his policies.

34:13 He may be the king described in Ecclesiastes 4, in verse 13. Better is a poor man, a poor and wise youth, than an old and foolish king who doesn't know how to receive admonition anymore.

34:30 Now if there's an old and foolish king who won't listen to reason, who won't listen to admonition, how are you to regard the policies growing out of a bull-headed, stubborn, myopic, unprincipled ruler? Are you to say, oh, he's the king, I must honor him and his policies and politics? No, no, no. God does not call upon you necessarily to honor his person or honor his policies, but you must honor him in his position.

35:02 Not person, necessarily, nor policies, but position. And what do I mean by that? Well, here's where Scripture interprets Scripture. Remember Romans 13, what it says?

35:13 And it's interesting that the two most definitive statements on the Christian's relation to human government were both written in the Bible. Either to a people living under the shadow of the imperial palace at Rome, the epistle to the Romans, or by a man who was living under that shadow, 1 Peter. Now, does that say something to you? It says worlds to me.

35:37 It says worlds to me.

35:41 It says worlds to me. And what does Paul say in writing to the Romans who are living closest to the seat of imperial Roman government and rule, who see how Roman taxes are used for a thousand things that no Christian could ever approve of? Yet he writes, let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God and the powers that be, the powers that are in existence are ordained of God.

36:13 Therefore he that resists the power that is the institution, the emperor in his position as put there by God and that particular person who is put there, he withstands the ordinance of God and they that withstand shall receive to themselves judgment. Language could not be plainer. Now it has all kinds of questions growing out of it that I'm not prepared to answer. But don't let the questions cloud the assertions.

36:42 There is no power but of God. Honor the king. Recognize that the king is there by the appointment of God. You say, all of the intrigue that went on in the jockeying for position and in the unprincipled bribery and influence peddling.

37:02 Biblical writers don't care. The Lord is king. He puts down one and he raises up another. He gives the kingdom to whom he will.

37:11 Daniel 4 and verse 35.

37:16 And so we're to honor him in his position. Listen to John Brown, that astute, godly, Scottish commentator who's written a series of expositions to his sermons on 1 Peter. He stated this beautifully. The honor referred to here is that which is due to the office, whatever may be the personal character of him who fills it.

37:38 The respect due to the magistrate when acting as a magistrate. When the magistrate is personally possessed of those qualities that are the proper objects of respect, that is, when he's a man distinguished for his wisdom, his piety, his prudence, his justice, his benevolence, he is to be honored for the honor of the magistrate. He is to be honored for these qualities and honored all the more because he is a magistrate and in this high station is exposed to manifold temptations. But, but, whatever be his personal character, though he may be an irreligious and immoral man in his private capacity, which is always to be regretted, and I say, where necessary,

38:22 exposed by the humblest Christian with an open Bible.

38:27 Yes. Yes. Whatever he may be in his private capacity, which is always to be regretted, especially as it's apt to bring the magistrate into contempt. Sound contemporary?

38:40 The demigration of the office of the president? No new thing under the sun, folks. Don't flatter yourself that we end with a 20th century people as something special. No.

38:50 These are the things God's people wrestled with back here in the 19th century when this was written. We're to respect him nonetheless in his official capacity and to honor him while he performs the functions of a public ruler. That's what I'm trying to say. Be continually honoring the king.

39:08 And how will that honor express itself? It will express itself primarily, primarily by chiefly exercising a conscientious and a cheerful obedience to all of the magistrate's lawful commands.

39:30 That's it. That's why the whole chapter, the section began with what? In 1 Peter chapter 2. Now back to our text.

39:38 How did it begin? Obey every ordinance or creation of man for the Lord's sake whether to the king. Now what kind of subjection do you render to the king when he tells you they'll get a bucket of water? Simply, no.

39:53 No. When he's acting in his official capacity as king and laws and statutes are made and taxes are levied and again Paul says in Romans 13 tribute to whom tribute is due. Pay your taxes even though you people at Rome know what Roman taxes are used for. God doesn't hold you accountable for their use.

40:18 He will hold you accountable if you show a spirit of rebellion and anarchy. Pay your taxes. Show that you honor the king by giving submission to the directives of the king. Now, there are the two imperatives.

The Duties in Relationship to Each Other: Foundation

40:36 I've tried to open them up simply, I hope, with some degree of clarity. Be continually fearing God. Be continually honoring the king. And all of this because, now think of the amazing thing.

40:52 Here Peter has been taking this up in the stratosphere in that first unfolding of gospel privileges. He speaks of the new beginning, the lively hope, lovingness, loving and unseen Christ, and all of these glorious things. In chapter 2 he has been speaking of our being made a living priesthood in union with Christ, our living stone, and part of a living temple, and offering up spiritual sacrifices. And he comes down out of the stratosphere of glorious gospel privileges and says, be fearing God and be honoring the king.

41:28 My friends, that's what a Christian is. He breathes the heavy air of gospel privileges. He breathes the heavy air of gospel privileges. And then he comes down and he has his feet made stable with gospel duties.

41:42 That's a Christian. That's a Christian. And that's the kind of Christian Peter envisions there in Asia Minor who will shut the mouths of gainsayers, who will commend the gospel of the grace of God. Now, secondly, and much more briefly, having sought to explain the duties, now this is critical.

42:04 The duties described in relationship to each other. And this is why I was determined to preach them in one sermon.

42:12 Because I am convinced whatever the structure of all four imperatives may be, and I'm still not settled, after my preparation today, I'm absolutely convinced in my own soul that these last two belong where they are. I mean, they all belong where they are. God put them there, but I can see the reason for it. Consider with me briefly, then, these duties described in their relationship to each other.

42:35 And may we be brought to admire the wisdom of God. I've bowed at my desk admiring God's wisdom. As I've received, I trust some fresh light from the scriptures in my preparation. Number one, for the child of God, for the child of God, the fear of God is the foundational motive for honoring the king.

42:57 For the child of God, the fear of God is the foundational motive for honoring the king. Why does the child of God, why should the child of God honor the king? Because he recognizes that there is no power but that which is ordained of his God. The God who loved him.

43:19 The God who chose him in Christ before the foundation of the world. The God who affectionately called him. The God who made him a living stone in the living temple. Who made him a new covenant priest who's cleansed him in the blood of Jesus.

43:35 Has sovereignly placed him at that part of the Roman Empire. Under that particular administration of Rome and rule. And so the child of God looks beyond the intrigue by which a certain man comes to be a governor. And he looks behind the chicanery by which a certain one becomes a king.

43:55 And he says, because I fear God. I have a reverential awe of God as revealed in his word. And revealed in his word is the sovereign law of the nations. No, he's on the imperial throne.

44:09 Because my God put him there. I can honor him.

44:19 The Christian has the foundational motive for honoring the king. And therefore when he submits, what does Paul say in Romans 13? He doesn't submit primarily because he knows if he doesn't the king will come after his hide. He says, you Christians submit not for wrath's sake, but for conscience's sake.

44:43 Romans 13, 5. What's conscience have to do with it? Conscience is that little moral monitor that tells me whether I'm pleasing God or displeasing God. So he says, you Christians at Rome, you can obey that scoundrel.

44:56 Because you know God put him there and God tells you to honor him and to keep a good conscience. You're going to honor him. Your submission to the human government is not a matter of expediency or sparing your hide or pragmatism. You see, that's why the true, enlightened, obedient Christian makes the most consistently stable, loyal citizen.

45:25 Why? Because he's going to honor the king, i.e., respect the laws of the king as much in his secret chamber in the basement of his home as out in a public theater.

45:41 The worldling will obey when to obey will keep him out of trouble. How many times do we hear, everybody does it. I say, speak for yourself. I live in the fear of God.

45:58 I don't do it. That's why the Christian when he sits down with his 1040, he's as honest to the penny as though he were under a threat that if he cheated uncle out of a penny, he'd go to jail for 100 years. Why?

46:17 He fills out his tax form under the eye of God. And he wants to know when he licks the eye of God, you don't lick stamps anymore. When he peels the stamp off and puts it on and puts it in the post office, God smiles and says, well done, son.

46:38 You filled your tax form as a Christian. God smiles.

46:44 You see, the foundation of the believers honoring the king is the fear of God. Now listen to me and listen to the young people especially. Do you see why all of this talk about we want a society where we do not have a polarization of religious convictions and religious perspectives? We want the ideal society hung together by what?

47:08 Through the fear of God and it leads either to anarchy and fragmentation or tyranny. Because you've got a citizenry whose respect for law is limited by pragmatism, by the threat of punishment and by a host of other issues. I tell you, dear people, this thing's gotten into my gut. How relevant, how relevant,

47:37 dear God, to be the most consistent, respectful, loyal citizen. Why? Because you live in the fear of God all the day long. For the child of God, the fear of God is the foundational motive for honoring the king.

The Duties in Relationship to Each Other: Limitation

47:57 Secondly, for the child of God, and this note, some of you have been waiting for me to sign it. Well, I hope I go up a notch in your estimation. In a right way, for the child of God, the fear of God is the necessary limitation of his honoring the king.

48:17 It's not only the foundation for his honoring the king, the fear of God is the limitation of his honoring the king. That's why Peter said, be continually fearing God. Now when I tell you honor the king, don't you ever honor the king at the expense of the implications of fearing God. For what is the fear of God?

48:42 It is holding God in reverential awe, in the light of his self-revelation, in his word and works, and in the light of all that I am in Christ. And it's brought me to the place where having the smile of this God is my greatest passion. Having the crown of this God is my greatest dread. And therefore in all places and all circumstances and all relationships, his claims are alternate, irreversible, unchangeable.

49:15 Go back and read Daniel 3 and the three Hebrew children. They were so loyal to Babylonian administration that they are given responsibility as governors in several provinces.

49:33 But when the king says, here's an idol, bow down,

49:38 they said, we fear God.

49:42 They didn't have to go off and say, we fear God. They didn't pray about it for a week. They didn't have to go off and seek counsel. Read Daniel 3 again.

49:50 Then go on and read later on in the chapter, verses 16 to 18, Daniel 6. If you want to see a beautiful example of what Peter is saying, be fearing God, but honor the king. Fearing God is not only the foundation of honoring the king. That's why those men could live and function in Babylon with so much that was not possible.

50:13 It was Babylonish and ungodly and yet not be an irritant and take upon themselves to try to sort out all of the irregularities and injustices. No! But when it came to their personal submission to an edict that would mean violating God's law, they said, king, you've crossed the line. We don't need to be careful to answer you in this.

50:38 No, we fear God. And the reason we've been good Babylonian administrators and leaders is because wherever we are in all of our dealings, we've been administering the authority given to us under the eye of God. But under that God's eye, we cannot bow down.

50:59 To the furnace, to the lion's fangs, it's a no-breaker.

51:06 Did you know that Isaac Watts used to compose a hymn every Lord's Day for his people?

51:16 And I've got the only hymns and I've begun to go through them and off and on. And he has a beautiful little couplet. Here, he's captured the essence of what I'm trying to say. Listen to this.

51:27 Let Caesar's dues be ever paid to Caesar and his throne. Could almost say it together as a class, couldn't we? Let Caesar's dues be ever paid to Caesar and his throne. But consciences and souls were made to be the Lord's alone.

51:49 Consciences and souls were made to be the Lord's alone. When? Remember to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. That's Daniel and his three friends.

52:02 And to God the things that are God's. Thou shalt not bow down nor serve. It's clear.

52:11 They feared God and they honored the king. But that fear of God that was the basis of their honoring the king became the very limitation of honoring the king.

The Duties in Relationship to Each Other: Fruit and Evidence

52:24 The final principle of this relationship is this, the third one. The child of God honoring the king is a necessary fruit and tangible evidence of the fear of God. Here together,

52:40 there is an order but there is an inseparability. No one there in Asia Minor could have heard the reading of that epistle and gone out with the spirit of indifference, the spirit of a riotous rebel against the government. He could not have gone out and in the altar ego for Bob Glantz and Rush Limbaugh while naming the name of Christ, speaking sarcastically and scurrilously of Mr. Clinton in spite of his blatant sins.

53:17 For the child of God honoring the king is a necessary fruit and tangible evidence of the fear of God.

53:28 Yes, we may have to point out the sins of leaders like John the Baptist did, but there's no indication John, was put in prison because he was cheeky and snotty. It's because he isolated the man's sin and said it's not lawful for you to have her. You re-read this afternoon Acts chapters 25 and 6, 24, 25 and 26. I speed-read them in preparation for the sermon and Paul is in the presence of ungodly Roman leaders, Agrippa, Festus, Felix and we read that in two minutes, in two instances he's even addressing them about their sins.

54:11 But you look at the language, most excellent, oh king,

54:18 he never has the language forms of Limbaugh and Bob Grant and don't you as a Christian. Don't let that go in your ear, it'll get into your soul and you'll have a bloody conscience when you read Honor to King.

54:38 This text not only goes after the antinomian, it goes after the zealot who says, Thou runneth to God what is God's.

54:48 I care nothing for Caesar. The Christian who feels he's got a right to resist every law that is unrighteous while he is not personally responsible for making it or implementing it. There's no justification for that in the light of the word of God. Is the Roe v. Wade

55:06 a wicked, rotten, stinking, God-dishonoring, judgment-producing pronouncement of the court of the Supreme Court of this land a pronouncement that had no right to make? That is all true.

55:22 But to take upon myself to personally threaten doctors who go into abortion clinics is also sin.

55:30 God didn't give any individual that right. To lawfully picket, that's another thing.

55:39 May God help us in this place to be a people determined we're not going to let either of these go or let them go in their God-ordained relationship. We're committed to fear God and we're committed to honor the King.

55:57 And in our interaction if we find something less than the fear of God and people compromising what it means to live before the eye of God to carry the favor of the civil government let us remind one another we have a supreme responsibility ever to be in the fear of God. And that fear is to limit our honoring the King. And if there are careless words that are indicative of less than the spirit of honoring the King, let us graciously lovingly admonish one another.

Application to Unbelievers

56:30 Because all of this dear people is not some new legalism. Remember, this is in an epistle oozing with all of those glorious gospel vindicatives. And this is the kind of life under God it's supposed to produce. Now as I close I want to say a word to you who are not Christians.

56:51 You've heard God's will expounded this morning. God's will for his people. You know what happens every time you hear God's will expounded? Romans 8-7 tells us.

57:02 The carnal mind is enmity. It's a closed fist before God. It is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be. And you've been sitting here saying to yourself, I don't want to be a Christian.

57:14 If I were a Christian I'd have to do what that says. I would have to live in every relationship in every single situation with the thought that pleasing God is the thing that's got to count more than anything else my friend. My career. My pocketbook.

57:32 My son. I don't want to live that way. No, I'm not surprised you don't. Because the Bible says there's no fear of God before their eyes.

57:40 You know why you think that way? Because you've never seen what a beautiful worthy being God is. If you could but see what we see. My God how wonderful thou art.

57:58 Thy majesty how bright. How glorious is thy mercy seat in depths of burning light. Oh how I fear thee living God with deepest tenderest fears and worship thee with trembling hope and penitential tears. Yet I may love thee too oh Lord almighty if thou art for you have stooped to ask of me the love of my poor heart.

58:27 My unconverted friend face reality. That closed fist will carry with you into hell till you get on your face and cry out oh God have mercy on me. You are worthy to be feared and honored by all of your creatures. You have opened your heart in the person and work of your son and displayed your good will and kindness to sinners.

58:57 Oh God I throw myself into the ocean of your mercy revealed in Christ.

Application to Believers and Concluding Prayer

59:05 And dear child of God do you really do you really appreciate to any degree what we've considered in those two marvelous blocks of the great gospel privileges that are ours?

59:23 Chapter 1 verse 3 to verse 12 chapter 2 4 to 10 Peter sidles up to you and says now if you really do here's how you're going to show it.

59:35 Honor all people love the brotherhood fear God honor the king. It's like a poor man's guide as to how to live in all of these broad relationships so that we shut the mouths of adversaries and manifest who we really are. Let's pray.

60:06 Our Father we are so thankful for your word but beyond our gratitude for your word we thank you for you the God whom it sets before us. Thank you that you are such a glorious God. We worship you. We magnify you.

60:26 We pray that our hearts will be fastened upon you as never before that we may continually fear you and with your fear regulating all of our relationships that we may honor the king. Seal this word to all of our hearts to your praise and to our prophet through Christ our Lord we plead. Amen.