Paying Your Taxes, Part 2
Romans 13:6-7
We're looking at Romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7, a section of Scripture that we've entitled "The Christian's Responsibility to Government." And particularly looking at verses 6 and 7, which deal with the Christian's responsibility to pay taxes. To prepare our hearts to look at this text, let me just remind us of some things that we're already fairly aware of. We agree, I'm sure, that our world is in terrible condition. We are face to face with it every day. Reading the local newspaper is a rather distressing and discouraging experience. We're all aware of the conflicts and the revolutions and the wars and the crime and the distress that goes on all over the place all the time.
And our world seems to be in unending conflict. That conflict rages on every level. It rages in the heart of an individual. We have people today who can't cope with life I think to the degree that never in human history have we experienced. It seems as though mental illness and the inability to cope is at an all-time high. It starts with an individual who can't get along with himself, and then he can't get along with his spouse, then he can't get along with his family and his neighbors and his country and his world and on and on it goes.
And very often we hear people offering solutions to this. They mean well. Most of them think the reasons for our problems are political or the reasons are economic. Bad economics, unwise leadership, certain inequities in society, social injustice, ideologies, and various philosophies. That if all of these things could somehow be altered, and we could sort of clean up our perspectives on life, we would, therefore, be able to deal with our problems and find ourselves in a happier condition.
But the truth of the matter is, all of our problems stem basically from two things. One is sin and two is Satan. The Bible is very clear about this. We've been studying the epistle to the Romans, and we need only to remind ourselves of what we learned in chapter 1, 2, and 3, and that is that man is hopelessly engulfed in sinfulness. And it is because of his sinfulness that he does the things he does. It is because he is bound to fallenness, a depravity that has reached the very base part of his existence, the deepest, profoundest part of his humanness, that he is what he is. Sin is the problem.
And to that we would add also that Satan is a problem, or Satan, as it were, provokes sin. He has a way of exciting the senses by design in the world to cause men to step into sin. It's what Ephesians 2 says when it says that men are victims of the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience.
The problems in our world, then, are related to sin and to Satan. And because man is a sinner, he finds himself in the domain of Satan. And in that domain, his sin is excited by everything that Satan can do to excite that sinfulness. He then is an incorrigible rebel. He basically is a...an inveterate criminal. And because Satan dominates the world of man, the problem is not just human, but it is supernaturally intensified. Man is a product of fallenness and satanic activity.
And if we look through the pages of Scripture, we are very much aware of the fact that Satan is in control in our world. For example, we go back in the Gospel of Matthew to chapter 4. We see Satan taking Jesus aside and saying to Him these words: "All these things...and he has just shown Him the kingdoms of the world it says in verse 8. He's shown him all the kingdoms of the world, and he says...All these things will I give You if You will fall down and worship me."
Now, it's very interesting to me that Satan said that, because it indicates to me that Satan possessed the various kingdoms of the world. How else could he say he would give them to Jesus? The kingdoms of the world are in the possession of Satan. First John 5 says it this way: "The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one."...In Luke 4, as Luke is giving his account of the temptation of Christ, it says, "The devil said to Him, 'All this authority will I give You, and the glory of them...That is the kingdoms of the world...For that is delivered unto me, and whomsoever I will, I give it.'"
Satan, you see, is in charge of the kingdoms of the world and has the prerogative to give them to whomever he will. That's a very important perception. In John's Gospel chapter 12, and I think it's verse 31 or about there, yes, Satan is called the prince of this world. Jesus says, "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." And Jesus, with His own mouth, affirms the monarchy, in a sense, that Satan has over this world. It is, in some sense, his world. In John 14:30, again it says "the prince of this world comes but has nothing on Me." And, again, Satan is called the prince of this world. In John 16:11, Jesus again calls him the prince of this world and says he will be judged.
Now, we wanna keep this in mind, because it is an important balancing point to what we're gonna learn in Romans chapter 13. Satan is the one who basically is in charge of the kingdoms of the world, and he has the right, by his own testimony, to give them to whomever he chooses...Just to demonstrate this further, turn in your Bible to Daniel chapter 10 before we...get too involved in our text in Romans. Daniel chapter 10, a very interesting incident takes place that gives us good insight into the matter of Satan's dominion...and it says in verse 10, "And behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hand. And said unto me, 'O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright; for unto thee am I now sent.' And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling. Then said he unto me, 'Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard; and I am come for thy words.'"
Now what this tells us is that Daniel has been praying a prayer. That prayer has been lifted to God in the first 23 or so verses of Daniel 9. He prayed to God on behalf of his people. And the answer comes that there will be a response on the part of God. And a messenger from heaven is sent with an answer to Daniel, but verse 13 says, "The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days." Now, here is the picture of an angel come from God to bring a response to Daniel, and that angel is stopped in his process of coming to Daniel in heaven by the prince of the kingdom of Persia. This is some demonic agent who works for Satan who is assigned a special role in the area of the nation of Persia, so that when Daniel is the one who is the object and the target of this mission from a holy angel, the holy angel is stopped. This angel who is identified somehow with the nation of Persia. Holds up this holy angel for 21 days until "Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me," he says. So Michael, who was always seen as champion angel or super angel, is sent to...to speed this angel on his way, lest he be held up further than 21 days by this particular unholy being.
Now, what this tells us is several things. First of all, about an angelic conflict, but also about the fact that certain demons identify themselves with certain nations. And by Satan's design, they function in generating evil within a certain nation as this one did who is called the prince of the kingdom of Persia. Further, I want you to look in the Old Testament to the 14th chapter of Isaiah. And this will be even a more familiar text to you. The 14th chapter of Isaiah...and here we find a judgment of course coming against Babylon's king. And then there's a transition. It talks about Babylon's king, verse 11, "His pomp is brought down to the shields of the grave, the noise of thy lutes, the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee." In other words, you're gonna die and be eaten by worms. And then immediately, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" And it goes into a discussion of the fall of Satan. An interesting parallel which, in a sense, identifies Satan with the king of Babylon. Which is to say that satanic forces were involved in the Babylonian Empire.
You find it again in another very familiar passage related to Satan, and that's in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel, and I'm just touching them lightly. In Ezekiel chapter 28, the very same thing. As you study that passage in 28, it seems as though sometimes the Prophet Ezekiel, with a message from God, the Word of the Lord it says in verse 1, is speaking to the prince of Tyre it says in verse 2. To the prince of Tyre. That is some being that...that rules Tyre that is, in some way, connected to Tyre. And it says in verse 2, "His heart was lifted up, and he said he was a God, and he sits in the seat of God." And so forth and so on, and, as you begin to read this, you realize that it is talking about none other than Satan. And, again, Satan is identified with the king of Tyre, as Lucifer was identified with the king of Babylon. And another prince of Persia is identified with the underworld of demon hosts. Well, all of this lets us know that Satan is a pervasive influence in the nations of the world.
Now you can go back to Romans chapter 13. You can get further detail on that by listening to the tapes that we did on that passage in our study through the Book of Daniel.
But Satan is a pervasive world power influencing individuals and systems of men. We need to know that. Now here's the paradox that I'm bringing us to. National governments, while they are ordained by God...Romans 13:1, "The powers that be are ordained of God." National governments, by...while they are ordained of God, are nonetheless expressive of and infiltrated by Satan's system of influence and activity. They are filled with demonic activity. Now, it is kept in bounds by those governments. And, yet, in a sense, the governments themselves are under some controls of Satan, as well. It is an interesting paradox. God has ordained government for the preservation of man. But because man is basically evil, and everything about man is evil, his government is evil, as well. And Satan is active and aggressive in human government. And, yet, he is limited by God who has set the boundaries of government to maintain a preserving influence in human society.
So the nations of the world, then, while we say they are ordained by God as to government, we are not saying that they are necessarily being run by God or are reflective of God's will. Since man has unlimited potential for evil incited by the world and the flesh, government is an essential restraint. And God has ordained it to restrain the inherent satanic activity that is within a national group of people...
You go back to Genesis chapter 6, and you read about the Flood, and it says that the wickedness of man had reached an absolute limit, and God drowned the whole world. There were some limited elements of social order before the Flood. There were no national governments as we know them. But there were families, and families were really responsible for holding society together. But, basically, it wasn't sufficient, and the whole world went amok, and God had to drown the entire world in the Flood. And after the people came back out of the Flood and began to repopulate the earth, the Lord instituted capital punishment, which is the first major emphasis of human government. Because it was proven by man's sinfulness that a social order based upon man's control within a family couldn't...couldn't handle it. So God instituted a governmental authority with the right to take a life of one who took a life. And, of course, it developed from there.
So I just want you to know, as we approach Romans 13 again, that while government is an institution of God, it is basically ordained to confine the activity of sin, which is almost limitless in man, and the activity of Satan, which is equally limitless in terms of its potential for evil.
So God ordains government, and what does He call us to do? Remember back in verse 1? First thing is to be subject. We are to submit. The second thing is we are to support, verses 6 and 7. We submit to government because it is ordained of God. That doesn't mean that it isn't satanic. That doesn't mean that it reflects the will of God. It simply means that God has ordained it to hold in check the rather limitless evil of Satan, his demons, and men, as well.
And so we are called then, in verse 1, to submit to those that are in authority, "For there's no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God." And we've gone through that. But I wanna give you just a little bit of an illustration further of that principle. So go back to the 16th chapter of Numbers, because it's, again, back to the Pentateuch, where God is...is sort of laying down the guidelines for governments and how men are to respond. And you get a little picture of how God feels about rebellion. It is a very serious sin.
We can't read the whole chapter. I think there are 50 verses, yes. Lemme just tell you what happens in the 16th chapter and pinpoint some verses. Moses was designed by God to be the ruler of this...this entity of...of government in which the people of Israel existed. He was the judge of the nation. He was the ruler. But there were some people who wanted to lead an insurrection against Moses. There were people who wanted to overthrow Moses. In verse 2, it says, "And they rose up before Moses."...It names them in verse 1, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and then it names others and mentions in verse 2 that there were "two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation and men of renown."
So Korah, Dathan, and Abiram really pulled together a coup to turn...to thy to throw Moses out as the leader. They enlist about 250 key leaders who are famous men of renown. They gather themselves together...verse 3 says...against Moses. They complain that Moses had too much authority. They did not like the fact that he had unilateral authority, at least in some degree, and they wanted it differently. They complained about his authority. And then they began to undermine Moses. In verse 13, for example, they would speak about Moses like this, "It is a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land that flows with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, except thou makest thyself altogether a prince over us?"
In other words, they say, "It's no big thing that you brought us out of Egypt, the land where we had everything, to let us die in the wilderness." They began to undermine Moses and question what he had done. Small thing that he