The Civil Magistrate - Chapter 24 LBCF

The chapter 24 confession is called Of the Civil Magistrate. And in the Westminster Confession and the Savoy, there's a paragraph 3 that we were taught about last week. And our paragraph three is most similar to the paragraph four of the other confessions. And so I'm going to start by reading the Westminster. It is the duty of the people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands and to be in subject to their authority for conscience's sake.

Infidelity or difference in religion does not make void the magistrate's just and legal authority nor free the people from their obedience to him from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted. Much less hath the Pope any power or jurisdiction over them in their dominions or over any of their people, and least of all to deprive them of their dominions or lives if he shall judge them to be heretics or upon any other pretense whatsoever. Now the Savoy is the same.

Also, just to note, if anyone else notices this waiting room, like if somebody pops in and I don't see it, let me know. I don't know if you guys can see the waiting room or not. So now the Baptist Confession of Faith reads as such. Civil magistrates being set up by God for the ends aforesaid. So this is referring to the first two paragraphs. Subjection in all lawful things commanded by them ought to be yielded by us in the Lord, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake.

And we ought to make supplications and prayers for kings and all that are in authority that under them we may live a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. now I'm going to read it from the modern English version but so if I know it's hard to sometimes listen to a long paragraph but hopefully you caught that it was it had some significant differences from the other confessions to the Baptist one. The mention of the Pope, the mention of an exception that some people may have had to subjection to authority that wasn't mentioned in the Baptist one. But in the modern English version now, we have what's maybe a little bit of a translation that helps us break it down.

Because civil authorities are established by God for the purposes stated, we should submit in the Lord to them in everything lawful that they require. We should submit not only for fear of punishment, but also for the sake of conscience. We ought to make requests and prayers for kings and everyone in authority, so that under their rule we may live a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness, and honesty.

So there's a few components here to look at, and there are some disagreements between Christians about what exactly some of these things mean. Not so much what submission means, but what is the scope and the extent of submission. and there are some people who disagree about how to define a civil magistrate in a sense, too. So let's look at a couple of aspects of this.

So the first one I want to look at is the really easy one, and that is the last verse that's referenced, 1 Timothy 2, 1 and 2, because that's kind of the easy part that hopefully every Christian can agree on and understand. It's not like so nuanced that you have to go into the Greek and figure out what it says. So Paul writes to Timothy, First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

So Paul in 1 Timothy 1.18 charges, you know, Timothy, this whole letter is, I'm charging you to do this and this and this. And one of the things that Paul's saying that not only I think Timothy should do as a pastor, but Christians ought to do is they ought to pray for people. And you can go into all those different words that Paul uses supplications thanksgivings intercessions and prayers But ultimately Paul points out that we pray for kings and all who are in high positions And this is a good thing in the sight of God.

We ought to be people who intercede on behalf of others. There are people who are in positions of authority who are going to have an impact on more people than maybe you can. And if God would turn his heart as he can turn the king's heart with it or so ever he pleases in the direction that he ought to go, that will have a better effect than maybe you going and feeding the homeless, for example. so you know the people who are making laws of lands the people who are deciding how much the people will pay in taxes the people who are deciding who goes to jail or prison or gets the death sentence or gets mercy whatever whatever whatever the different positions are that people have it might just be the guy that zones the buildings in your city and designs the road planning, whoever these people happen to be, praying for them is actually good for you.

And rather than ignore them completely, or rather than just think, well, you know, they're hopeless and things like that, God wants us to pray for them. And we have seen God do mighty things through pagan people throughout the Bible and even in our own lifetime. and so you know that that means it doesn't mean that you have to um you know pray nothing but but happy thoughts in a sense but it does say that to offer thanksgivings there is a sense that you ought to be thankful uh for for the leaders in your life the the civil magistrates that God has set up. So I'm not going to argue that every single one of them that's ever existed deserved thankfulness.

I think that there are people who have kind of forfeited their God-given status, in a sense, and they've shown that they are actually unqualified and unworthy of any kind of honor. But God has put people in positions, and you have a chance to actually make a change in your society through your prayer. And I think that we neglect that more often than we ought.

I think that when I think, even in my own thought, maybe I'm alone here, but when I think about, oh, maybe I should get involved in the political process more, and I think I should do something to help the process more, rather than just complain every four years that, oh, I don't like the two candidates I get to pick from and the next lady I don't like either and then just kind of be disappointed in all of them. I think, oh, I should do something about it. And I start thinking, well, what can I do?

Well, I can run for president. I could run for governor. You know, praise the Lord, some of you guys can't run for president yet because you're too young. So you guys have a lot of time left to prepare for that one. some of you, but the whole point is this. The last thought in my mind is I could spend a little more time and effort praying for the people who are actually put in these positions.

I'm not. I'm going to look at this little group of guys. I'm just going to say, look, I think you're all very special. I don't think any of you is going to be president. I really don't. I bet none of you will of a mayor.

You know, I just, most people's paths are kind of determined by now where you can see what direction they're taking with some things. So we can pray for those people though. And of all people, men of God who are supposed to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and living a righteous life and the effective and fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much. You'd think if men like us, we're praying for our leaders and maybe some more good decisions will be being made.

And so before we blame the guys in the high positions for the poor choices that they're making, most of them being pagan anyway, maybe we should look at ourselves and see how we have failed to do even the bare minimum of what God has called us to do on behalf of these men in our cities and counties and states where we live. And I'm included in that. So if you feel all convicted and you think I'm sounding mean, this is me too.

Probably the least, the thing I pray for least is probably nations and leaders and things like that. So I confess that to you. So now that's the kind of half of this. One half is basically establishing that civil magistrates are set up by God in order to be submissive to them. The other half was that we should pray for them. So now if we look at Romans 13, 5 through 7, which is the verses that are cited, and I'm sure none of you have turned to Romans 13 already this year.

So it's an unfamiliar passage for us, but Romans 13 is often remembered as the chapter on submission to authorities, and it is divided that way in a sense, but there's a lot more to Romans 13 than, hey, do what the emperor says, okay? So don't forget that there's like a whole second half to this chapter that's way more than that. But in Romans 13, verse 1, God says every person should be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God So there there a establishment of a definition here of of an authority and how they got there So there no accident It not like Satan is the one that put some people there and God the one that put another guy there.

God is the one who's ordained the authorities in your life, even the bad ones. And that's an important thing to know as a Christian. And so in 13.2, we're reminded that if we resist the authorities that God has appointed, we're resisting God. And these people are put there, and the rulers are there, not as a terror to good conduct, but to bad. So the idea is this.

As a general rule in God's economy that he has created in the world, people who do good will get good results. You reap what you sow. People who do bad will end up with bad results, not always immediately and not always, but as a general rule. Societies ultimately will fall apart and quit functioning completely if people don't follow what God has defined as right and wrong, as good and bad.

So you get a whole island of lesbian women and give them 50 years and it won't be anymore, okay? Some societies can't function because they're so in violation of what God has said. And then other ones are more slow degradation. And I could probably point to the United States of America. But one of the things that slows the degradation is the enormous number of people who even only outwardly try to obey God.

That is part of why we have had a slow degradation, because there has been a remnant of people praying for kings and people in high places, and there has been a large number of pagans, even back when it all started, who realized, hey, I hate this God they preach about, but his rules seem to make me prosperous. And I want money. I want fun. I want a good-looking wife that I can do sexual things with.

People have these things they want that aren't horrible things, and they realize, well, if I just do this stuff the way God said, they might not credit God for it. But if I follow these precepts and rules, I get the good result. And so there's been some positives that have happened because of people doing things the way God has said we ought, even at times giving lip service to God, which is a terrible thing in one sense.

But in another sense, it's better than somebody that blasphemes or won't mention them at all, in a sense as well. That could be argued different ways, but I think you know what I mean. So in 13.5, we're told, be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath, but for the sake of conscience. And then he says, for because of this, you also pay taxes. For the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing.

And when it says ministers, it doesn't mean they're all like pastors. He's saying they're servants of God. And he says, pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed.

Honor to whom honor is owed. And so the idea is this, that we're subjected to the authorities because we believe that the authorities were put there for our good because God put them there. And God cares about his people. And God does everything right and wise. And so we avoid God's wrath, but also the sake of conscience. And so part of it is it nags at your conscience a little when you violate rules, even if it wasn't a good rule.

So if an authority says you have to do this and you don't like the rule and it's not biblical, it's not lawful, it wasn't something that can be derived from God's word, it still nags you to violate it. And I'll give you an example. And Peter actually lays this out, I think, a little bit more in an outline form that will help us in 1 Peter. But Peter compares being subject to authorities as how we keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable.

And so we're subject to the authorities that are in place. And then Peter lists the emperor and governors. But then Peter immediately, he lists wives being subject to husbands. He lists slaves being subject to masters. and I think it's implied there as well then and Paul would would echo this that children being obedient to parents and so being in subjection in paragraph 24.3 here is about the civil magistrate but when we look at the bible there's patterns of how to be in submission to authorities that God has provided and and there's situations where you're the dad and you tell your kid to do something, and the only reason he has to do it is because you said it.

It's not because God said it, but God said that he has to do what you said. So you said, you know, put the dishes away. Well, it's not a law from God, but it came from his authority, his father, so your son has to do that. And similarly, with some of our authorities that we have in our life, they're going to tell us things that they want us to do that we could say, well, I don't think that's really a good rule.

But for the sake of our own conscience, we ought to obey it because we don't want to become conscience breakers. We don't want to become conscience seers. So we want to be people who are able to follow rules. And so, for example, an arbitrary speed limit on a road. And you know one they might know something you don know right They might know the statistics say like this bad thing can happen over a certain mile per hour So you try to obey it.

Secondly, you don't want to be a person that is a rule breaker as a habit, because what you'll eventually do is you'll start breaking God's rules, and you won't know the difference. And then third of all, you want to be helpful to others, and you want to encourage lawfulness and order. And so you don't want your conscience to get seared, and you want to avoid punishment from the authority.

That's the other thing is maybe you don't like the rules that have been put in place, and maybe you're right. Maybe they're not the best rules, but you certainly don't want to go to jail for it, or depending on where you live, get a death penalty or whatever the penalty might be. It's just, you know, it's not worth it. The fruit isn't worth the squeeze or the juice isn't worth the squeeze or something, you know.

So he says, pay to all what is owed to them. And basically, you know, so pay your taxes. This is, you know, whose name is printed on this coin? Well, Caesar's. Well, pay to Caesar what's Caesar's, right? You need to be in the situation that you're in.

You're not necessarily called to be a rebel here. One thing that was interesting where it says honor to whom honor is owed. When I studied through Lloyd-Jones' book on this chapter of the Bible or his sermons, which were made into books, he argues that that's not saying that these rulers are owed honor. Actually, he thinks it says pay to all what is owed to them honor to whom it is owed.

And he's saying you don't necessarily owe honor to these people. Honor goes to God, but Gretchen Whitmer might get your tax money, right? Right, Greg? She doesn't deserve honor necessarily. So then the 1 Peter 2 chapter, we'll just look at it real quick for you. 1 Peter 2, he says, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. and this is in response to when he talks about you being able to live as people who are free under the authority of the people who've been put in place.

And so one thing to note in 1 Peter 2 before we get to that point is he says, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. So there is a sense that there will be vice regents. So, you know, if a deputy sheriff, you know, comes to you, he's representing the sheriff, right?

And so sometimes you get what we'll call like a lesser magistrate and people lose respect for them. Like if the president walked in here right now and told me to do something, I'd do it, But if the vice president did, I wouldn't. And there is a sense that, especially in some of these larger kingdoms, the king would send a lesser magistrate to go and proclaim his will to the people and enforce it.

And so we should look at those people as sent by God as well and that they have a job to do. Now, to sum it up, it's saying that we're to submit to authorities, that the civil magistrate has God-given authority, and that if you look at the whole chapter, it's a good thing. A land without civil magistrates, a land without laws, without order would just be horrendous.

And so even as bad as a lot of leaders have been and as bad as some governments have been, I guess you could just say it could always be worse almost. It's hard to believe sometimes, but it would be and could be. So there's something in people that still keeps them from being as bad as possible. but not only are we to submit and Jesus gives us the example of of this type of submission there there is some nuance to some of this that seems to be lost on a few people and one of the nuances is you have to define who the magistrates are if I walked over to your house right now and I told you to do something you would not do it and it's because I'm not over you.

If I told your wife to do something, she doesn't have to do it. If you tell your wife to do the same thing, she's supposed to do it. So who is your authority is one of the questions that thinking Christians and especially men need to do. If you live in a country that has a Caesar, if you live in a country that has governors, if you live in a nation that has a king or a parliament, or if you live in a place like the United States with a rule of law such as the Constitution and different levels of magistrates at different levels, you have to figure out who of these magistrates has authority over me and what jurisdiction do they have?

The Queen of England has no jurisdiction over any of those. It's just that simple. She's like one of the most supreme monarchs out there. No authority whatsoever. I mean, it would be a joke if she called me and told me to do something. I'd probably just laugh.

So understanding how to define the jurisdiction that you're in and who who has authority in that jurisdiction is, the first steps to becoming a more thoughtful man sometimes than what I see out there sometimes. The second thing is, is that you may end up in situations where a person is an authority and another person is also an authority. And they tell you different things.

And in those situations, we have to know how do we reconcile that kind of stuff. and then finally submission does not ever imply absolute submission except when we're talking about God and so we should not submit to anyone that tells us to sin and I would even agree with the people that stand up and say I'm not going to bake a cake for a couple of homosexuals that want to do something they call marriage because that would violate their conscience they're saying So what people are saying is it makes me feel like I'm sinning by participating in this activity. So no one should ever submit to a government that would make them do something like that. They should rather submit to the government by submitting to the punishment that the government may apply to them.

So submission to government is not necessarily the same as obedience to every command they give. Oftentimes it means submission to the consequence of that wicked government's poor judgment on you making a good choice. Now, Peter promises us that, you know, who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good? The history of persecution in the church, although rich and true, is still a rarity.

Most people don't suffer the way a lot of the famous and very faithful martyrs have in the past, and even our Lord. So I would challenge people who get in a situation where you're not sure what to do to think through these passages and to think through who's your authority. Does your authority have the right in that jurisdiction to tell you to do the thing they're telling you to do?

Like, for example, the Supreme Court doesn't have authority to make law. so we don't have to obey any law that we think came from the supreme court all the supreme court does is say whether they think a law was legal or not constitutional or not and so we have to be able to think these things through and then it's always contextual you it's really hard to have this conversation with a canadian or a person in the uk or you know because because people's contexts are so different they almost can't understand what the other person's in so you need to be able to think those things through. And then thirdly, I would challenge anyone who thinks, well, the governor said I should do this, or the president said I should do this, or whatever it happens to be. I would challenge people to ask if they're so submissive to every command of God as they suddenly have become about some governmental command, which so many Christians are opposing.

So I find that a lot of the people who are like real big on, hey, we should all wear masks because the government said it, or we shouldn't go to church because the government said it. Now I'm getting into a relevant current issue here, but I often wonder like, well, where are those, why aren't those people freaking out, yelling about how we're all disobeying God's commands on a constant basis? Some of the clear things God has told the church to do that we're failing at, or at least a big portion of Christianity is failing at.

And these people aren't freaking out saying, we should be submitted, we should be doing this. But all of a sudden, they're told they don't have to go to church on Sunday. And it's like, hey, we need to obey the government. And I just think that there's a lack of thoughtfulness there. And I think that, you know, what they called Calvin, the accusative case, and maybe I have a little bit of that in me, I think there some people who are revealing to us that they don really love the commands of God because as soon as they get a chance to disobey them or even as soon as they get a chance to start doing something that just a little bit off they they happy to have that excuse And so I would, I just caution you in your own hearts when you think about these things to be very careful to be concerned that you're as meticulous to not only obey God and tell others to, as you would be to obey earthly authorities. and tell others to.

So the paragraph is there to basically help Christians understand how they ought to behave in this world. And Christians also need to be thoughtful enough to know when doing what God has commanded we ought to do and doing what is right would basically make any authority that's telling you otherwise out of their jurisdiction. We actually never actually rebel against authorities.

You either obey authorities because they're lawful, or when you don't obey, it's because they're out of their jurisdiction and you're actually not not submitting. You're simply doing what God has said you ought to do. I will add this, that the Christian teaching that we have to do whatever the government says, is like the favorite teaching of like the Democrats and the slaveholders and the abortionists and basically anyone who is a terror to good.

Because if they can get Christian ministers to stand in the pulpit and say, hey, the government said it, so you have to do it and you can't even speak against it, then they can start to control mass populations of the very people who are most responsible to go and often stand against the tyranny and for the innocent in those cases. So I'll stop there. Kroger is on private property, and we believe in private property rights as Christians, right?

So if Kroger tells you to wear a mask or you can't shop there, you wear a mask or you suffer the consequences of not wearing one. That's actually a good question. I know you're joke and well I don't wear a mask to Kroger and and and it's not in any kind of trying to be rebellious or anything but I don't wear a mask and and you know what Kroger doesn't care no one guy at Kroger said something one time and but Kroger has the right to say hey you can't shop here and I have the right to say well I guess I'll stick the mask on or or well you know what I guess I'm going to try to find another grocery store where where I think they're not aligned with something that I don't want to do.

You go to somebody's church, if they say wear a mask, you either wear a mask or you go to another church, right? That's different from civil magistrates. But there's no, well, anyway, Governor DeWine can't tell you to wear a mask, just let me tell you that. Maybe for 28 days he's got some weird power to do it, but that's expired. that's a really good point and it highlights paragraph two's importance a little bit that you know the christian can accept and execute the office of a magistrate because if if the system is as corrupt as as steve has said which we i don't think anyone to dispute what Steve said here.

One of the obvious questions would be, well, why would a Christian want to be involved? And one of my thoughts as Steve was talking was, I wish more Christians would get involved because that's what would heal the corruption. Christians fleeing the wicked system, although maybe for their own sake and because that's what they need to do, that's fine, but Christians fleeing actually just allows the corruption to fester It guys like Ben Sasse that are the reason our country hasn been destroyed yet So we need more Christians who are unstained by the world who have the self to walk into Sodom and actually just speak against it, and then walk out unstained as still, and come back to their church on the Sabbath and get blessed and get refreshment and get, you know, get edified for that battle.

And I'm not sure we think about it in those ways. I'm not sure we have churches that are encouraging people in those ways. But yeah, just think if every one of our cities, we had Christians running for offices that were, you know, let's get serious here. They were Reformed Baptists like us, so they're going to be really well aligned. I mean, who would you vote for?

A guy you never heard of that you knew was a 1689 guy or the incumbent guy who's been, elected six times. So we know who we think would make better choices, but we don't seem to be producing men like that. And no offense to Steve, but a guy who can't be around the corruption, he's not going to be helpful. That's fine. He can go do something else, but we need a guy who can walk in the middle of it and remain unstained like Jesus could.

Pray for Pray for more Christians who will go and speak in these situations and maybe even be involved and be close to it in order to slow the decay. Yeah, I think this is a very good chapter. Steve, I appreciate your candor there. I think we should be involved. And even if we just do a little bit, I think when I first got back to New Hampshire in August, I was a bit provoked.

So I volunteered to help out at the polling places. At least I could go and meet some of these people that are volunteering here in my little town. I could share a little bit, you know, because they asked me what I do. I could talk about that, you know, use it to talk about the gospel. just a little something that I could do here. And I was like, maybe I should run for one of these positions, city council or even mayor.

Like you said, maybe some of us probably couldn't be mayor or wouldn't be mayor. But, you know, I thought about it. I was like, yeah, I think I can knock on every single door in this town and talk to people. And I looked at it as a standpoint to lead rather than to, I don't know, gain money or prestige or whatever it is, but to serve people. And so that's kind of how I looked at it.

And I still kind of think about it, but at least I said, let me volunteer. Let me do something rather than just sitting back and complaining. and then and then to say something if you see somebody doing something wrong call out the the mayor and these people on city council be a voice stand up for the voiceless you know just different things like that and ask questions why are we doing this so that means we have to do a little bit extra to find out when the meetings are are we going to show up can you show up who's in charge of this. You know, so I learned a lot when I volunteered to work at the polling places how all that stuff works or how it should work anyway or how it works here.

And, you know, and all the things that are involved in it, like putting the ballots in the machines, the absentee ballots, making sure that they're all checked off. There's a big book with all these names and they check all that stuff off. So I see why it takes a lot of time. In our little town I probably did help with we say 1 of those things I couldn imagine doing it for 10 or 20 or something like that or however many people are needed to do things like that.

And then the next thing about praying for our leaders, to help me to do that, I started, I don't know, some time ago, but I just picked a day to say, okay, pray for the president on down the president the vice president their families their staffs you know their cabinets you know then that congressmen senators like that our judges the courts um state and and local and uh and try to have as many of their of their names as possible to uh pray for them so I'm still, I don't want to say provoked, but it's still a desire to do it more, to pray for those people more, knowing more names and how to pray for them. And then writing them as well. To say, I have a voice and this is my voice and then my conscience is clear when I say whatever it is I have to say.

Excellent. And when I said I don't think any of you will be mayor, as I said it, I was actually thinking I wish a couple of them would. Well, let the lesson be that we ought to all be men of prayer. And we should pray without ceasing. And we should pray and not lose heart. and as well we should try to structure our lives in such ways where we can actually perform the services that we probably think we ought to.

Many of us are very busy and that's why we can't run for mayor, county commissioner, it's why we can't help on a campaign, whatever it happens to be and I guess the question would be is well if you care about your country, your state, your local community, how can you restructure your life to be sacrificial if necessary and actually participate in those areas that, frankly, men like us should be doing? I mean, if the guys that are willing to get up at 6 a.m. and have 1689 study groups aren't wanting to participate in the political process, what do you expect? You know what I mean?

I mean, the best we can hope for is that the theonomist will take over right caleb not good for baptist brother not good for baptist i know so i thought i'd get you with that one so let's let's all uh work together um and i i think about it a lot and then and then life happens and and and i busy and then it's like it's not a priority. I think some of us need to restructure our lives like a lot of great men did, which is why most of us are sitting here with freedom right now because men literally died so that future generations would have freedom. May we have that type of thoughtfulness for others.

Thank you for listening to Be a Berean with your host, Michael Coughlin. I am a writer at thingsabove.us and I also have a personal website michaelcoghlan.net You can contact me by emailing me michael at thingsabove.us I hope that you have been encouraged to search the scriptures.