Main Idea: Believers today need a fresh conviction to refuse to give to government the allegiance that ultimately belongs to Christ.

On this Independence Day weekend we’re going to talk about a believer’s ultimate allegiance that belongs to Jesus Christ. It is on this holiday that our nation celebrates the themes of freedom, liberty and allegiance to our country. It is right that we cherish the gifts of freedom and liberty that this nation affords to us. I am moved each time I remember that so many paid the ultimate cost for that freedom and liberty. Those freedoms are unfortunately quickly forgotten. I saw on the news last Thursday that there is now a national effort being made to teach children the National Anthem because it has been so neglected in our children’s education. In a recent survey of 100,000 high school students in America that one in three believe that the First Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion, free speech, free press, free assembly and free complaint goes too far in the rights it gives to you as a citizen. (www.mindfully.org, 12 April 2005)

While these are discouraging for our democracy I am troubled that a greater crisis believers regarding our confusing our allegiance between our God and our country. Today I believe it is imperative that we as believers belonging to the church of Jesus Christ once again sound the warning that a believer’s ultimate allegiance belongs not to the flag but to Christ and Christ alone.

A 5-4 vote this past week by the justices of the Supreme Court regarding the display of the Ten Commandments on public property confronts us with the confusing issues of religion and government. Their decision was that the framed displays of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky courthouses violated the separation of church and state and were to be removed. While a ten-meter high granite marker of the Ten Commandments in Texas delivers "a predominately secular message" and could stay. I’ve got news for all of us: When you read in Exodus 19 how God gave to Moses the Ten Commandments, in the midst of fire, smoke, an earthquake, a trumpet blast and carved by God’s own hand that to call them "predominately secular" is shameful. I refuse to equate the Ten Commandments with the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution or the Gettysburg Address in order that it may be posted on a public building!

The conflicting issues between government and religion are not new. They go back as far as Moses before Pharaoh, Jesus before Pilate, Paul before Nero, John before Domitian, right up to this very day. There is confusion, concern and contradiction because the issues are complex. Yet, regardless of the complexity of the issues, I believe it is clear that believers have begun to lose the conviction that the ultimate allegiance we owe is to Christ and not to government.

Theologian Stanley Hauermas said recently, "A Christian’s first political responsibility is to be to the church, and by being the church they should understand that their first political loyalty is to God, and the God we worship as Christians, in a manner that understand that we are not first and foremost about making democracy work, but about the truthful worship of the true God." (CT, July 2005, p. 23) Conservative columnist Cal Thomas said, "Fixing social ills does not begin in the halls of Congress or Supreme Court, but in individual human hearts. Government can’t go there. God can. But if God’s servants prefer government to God, or seek to attach God to political parties and earthly agendas, they are doomed to futility." (Jonesboro Sun, 2005 Tribune Media Services) Why are they doomed to futility? Because a believer’s ultimate allegiance belongs not to government but to Christ!

To understand more fully the need for a fresh conviction about our ultimate allegiance, I want us to look closely at the life of Daniel. The days of Daniel are in some ways similar to our day and in other ways dissimilar. Daniel was a teenager when he was taken captive by the Babylonians after they had invaded Israel and destroyed Jerusalem. He would live out his days not as a religious leader but as a civil servant to the governments of Babylon and Persia. Yet the reason we have the book of Daniel is because Daniel believed in a living God that had a plan for history. He believed that God was sovereign in history and would judge those who acted against that sovereignty. Again, he acted and believed fully in God while serving government, yet government never supplanted for him the allegiance that belonged to God.

How did Daniel maintain his allegiance to God while serving government? One way was that he refused the manipulation that can come from government (Dan. 1:1-4). In verses 1-4 we are told how that Nebuchadeezar took the things that belonged to God and placed them in his own temple to his god. He not only took the objects of the Temple but he also took the people who belonged to God. Both of these actions were common practices of conquering armies in that day. The temple of any god was also a bank. The particular temple in this case was the temple to the Babylonian god Marduk. This temple is still there today south of Baghdad. He took the things that belonged to God and placed them in the temple of his god for his own use.

He also took the very best people and placed them in his service. Verse 3 tells us how Ashpenaz was ordered to gather the very best and brightest of the youth and put them in his palace. He orders Ashpenaz to make sure that they are taught "the language and literature of the Babylonians." Again this was a common practice in this time. Yet what Nebuchadnezzar was doing was seeking to manipulate persons whose lives were dedicated to God for his own purpose. Nebuchadnezzar wanted those who were most responsive, those who were most attractive and those who were the sharpest intellectually.

What does this say to us? It is a reminder that there will always be a temptation for government to manipulate that which belongs to God when the people of God misplace their allegiance. Let me say that government in and of itself is not evil. Government is a force or power given to people that may or may not enhance the purpose of God. Paul speaks in Romans 13 of those who serve in government as being "God’s servant" (Rom. 13:4). I am thankful that we have persons in our church who have served and continue to serve both our state and community as God’s servants. Yet what we are to remember about government is, as Lincoln said, that it is "of the people, by the people and for the people." In other words, its agenda will always be what concerns the people, not what concerns God. The danger comes when we the people of God give to government the allegiance that belongs to God.

There are two places where government can manipulate what ultimately belongs to God. One is that government can desire to manipulate the things that belong to God. Whether that is the buildings, literature or Scriptures. The decision on the Ten Commandments is an excellent example. The Supreme Court rules that in one location the Ten Commandments are secular, not religious. Then in another they are religious not secular. Regardless what any court says about the Ten Commandments, they are never secular! The point is, though, that the court wouldn’t rule on them if they had not been placed into the hands of government to be manipulated. Whenever people give to government the things that belong to God, they can be manipulated.

Another place is in the danger of giving to government the very best people. Government always wants the best and the brightest and it should. That is seen in the current recruiting crisis in our military. Without the youth joining the military the armed services suffer. It is a fact or a given. Yet the danger comes when government seeks to secure for itself the best and the brightest to give the allegiance that belongs to God to government itself. As believers, we are called upon to refuse the manipulation of government whether that happens to be the things of God or the people of God!

Another way that Daniel maintained the allegiance that belonged to God was that he refused to compromise with government (Dan. 1:5-7). The king sought to get Daniel and his friends to compromise their religious commitment and their religious identity. In verse 5 the king ordered that they were to be fed with rations from his table. In verse 8 we discover that Daniel made up his mind to not defile himself by eating any of the food from the king’s table. Why did he do that? Because he knew that the food that came from the king’s table had already been given as an offering to the god Marduk. To have taken the food would have compromised his devotion to God and he would die before he did that.

Is there anything for which you would rather die than to do? In the mid-1800’s a devout Christian named Elijah Lovejoy began his own newspaper in St. Louis. He became convicted that slavery was a sin against both God and humanity and began to print his opinions in his paper as well as refuse advertising for the sale of slaves. As his articles were read, they stirred up the community to the point that mobs vandalized his office. He then moved across the Mississippi River into Alton, Illinois where the same thing happened again but this time his press was thrown into the Mississippi. Lovejoy , now even more determined ordered a new press in order to start printing again. The city government passed a resolution prohibiting Lovejoy from printing in the town of Alton, Illinois. Yet Lovejoy refused to stop. On November 7, 1839 Lovejoy’s new press was delivered to a warehouse in Alton. That night several hundred people stormed the warehouse, shot Lovejoy five times, killing him and threw his press into the river.

Four days before he was killed Lovejoy said, "You may hang me….You may burn me at the stake…. Or you may tar and feather me, or throw me into the Mississippi, as you have often threatened to do. But you cannot disgrace me. I—and I alone—can disgrace myself; and the deepest of all disgrace would be, at a time like this, to deny my Master by forsaking his cause. He died for me; and I were most unworthy to bear his name should I refuse, if need be, to die for him." (Freedom’s Champion: Elijah Lovejoy, by Paul Simon, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL, 1994). When faced with compromise of his faith, Lovejoy chose death instead. As a believer we must turn aside from anything that would ever hint at a compromise of our allegiance to Jesus Christ.

The king also tried to get Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael to compromise their identity to God. He did this by changing their names. Their Hebrew names all made a connection to God. Their new Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, gave their identity to the gods of Babylon. He felt if he could change their identity then he could change their allegiance. Do you not see the same danger when the Democratic Party or the Republican Party court the church and believers to identify with their agenda? Do you not see the danger of being identified as "the Christian right"? Does it not alarm you that your theology as a Christian would suddenly label you as a member of one political party or another? T. B. Maston, a late Southern Baptist Ethics professor said, "Christian is not an adjective. It is a noun!" We cannot subordinate our identity with Jesus Christ for anything or anyone! We must be ever vigilant as believers to refuse to compromise our commitment to Christ or our identity with Christ for government!

If believers are to refuse manipulation and compromise from government, how are we to respond? I believe we are to respond as Daniel did. When tempted by government with manipulation and compromise Daniel responded with conviction (Dan. 1:8-9). Daniel first responded out of an internal conviction. In verse 8 the Bible says that when faced with the temptation of manipulation and compromise Daniel "made up his mind" to not defile himself with the king’s food. The Hebrew literally means "placed it upon his heart." What you see is that no one other than Daniel was going to set the agenda for his life.

This principle is one that we as Baptists have stood for in the past but have I believe lost our conviction. Baptists, because of our persecuted past, have always in the past maintained that a person should live his life out of an internal conviction of what he believes is right without any person or government dictating to our soul what we should believe. We have called that soul freedom. It was because of a man like John Leland, a Baptist evangelist who worked with James Madison in 1781, that ensured that the words "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" made it into the Bill of Rights. George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, stood on the steps of the Capitol May 16, 1920 and said, "Each one must believe for himself, repent for himself, be baptized for himself, answer to God for himself." There is to be nothing between you and God to coerce your belief other than God’s Holy Spirit. I may not agree with you on what you believe and you may not agree with me but what I believe is something for which I answer to God and not to the government!

Daniel also responded out of an external expression. In verse 8 he asked for permission to change the plan. Because Daniel by his character had become known for his respectful attitude this request was granted. Furthermore, God honored his conviction by miraculously causing them to be healthier than the others who ate the things that the king offered. Daniel used his influence, not coercion to persuade the king about his conviction. By doing so God changed the attitude of people, altered the process and gave Daniel wisdom and power in all that occurred.

One thing that I want to make clear is that as a Christian we have just as much right as anyone to express our convictions. For too long the issue of separation of church and state has been used as a tool to silence the voice of believers from being heard publicly. Therefore, we have a calling from God to express our beliefs and convictions. Jim Wallis, author of God’s Politics says, "The separation of church and state does not require banishing moral and religious values from the public square. In fact, America’s social fabric depends on such values and vision to shape our politics—a dependence the founders recognized…God is always personal but never private." (CT, July 2005, p. 48). You and I have a responsibility to let others know about the convictions we have as Christians!

How did God respond to Daniel’s conviction to refuse to be manipulated by government and compromise with government? Verse 9 says God gave him great respect in the eyes of the government officials. The Hebrew language says this in such a way that there is no mistaking the fact that it was by God’s power and grace that this favor was granted. What we find is that God not only granted favor here but for the next almost 70 years through four kings, Daniel stood as a man of conviction. That conviction cost his friends a trip to the fiery furnace and it cost Daniel a night in the lion’s den but he never wavered from the conviction that government was never going to rule over his soul!

Today as a believer and as people who calls themselves Baptist I appeal to you to see the danger of giving to government the allegiance that ultimately belongs to Christ. Spiritual freedom is something that is ours because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross not because of the work of the founding fathers. Long before freedom was a political ideal for American citizens it was a spiritual ideal bought with the blood of Baptist martyrs! I say to you today that it is not the job of the church to fulfill the agenda of government nor is the job of government to fulfill the Great Commission. Whenever we confuse the two we are in danger of giving to government the allegiance that belongs to Christ!

This message is not a popular message. If I wanted to be popular than I could have draped the sanctuary in red, white and blue, decried the Supreme Court as the agent of religious persecution, questioned your faithfulness if you were not identified with one political party and started a petition to place the Ten Commandments on the Craighead County Courthouse. Yet I am not interested in being popular or you being comfortable. I am called by God to sound a warning to any and all who would hear when our freedoms in Christ are threatened. Today, I call on each of you to return to a fresh conviction that refuses to give to government the allegiance that solely belongs to Christ.

Jesus said to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18: 36) I say to you that neither is ours!

Sunday, July 3, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org