SENATORS’ BIBLE STUDY • NEBRASKA STATE CAPITOL

The 2018 Nebraska Senate Series: “Good God: Give Us Good Government!”

Saving Society or Saving Souls?

esus said, “You are the light of the world.” He told His disciples they should not hide their Christian witness under a bushel basket. Light exists to shine.

When the Savior saves a soul, it shines. Jesus said His disciples would collectively shine like a city on a Holy Land hill, whose night lights would shine with a golden glow, brightly contrasting with the inky dark, sometimes starless, Israeli night sky. God saves souls so that they will shine. He cares about the salvation of souls. President John F. Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan. Numbers “35” and “40.” One might ask, “What do these two men have in common?” One might answer, “Both, with presidential concern, equated America to ‘a city on a hill.’” As point-leaders of our great nation, they both hoped America could be a shining society, nationally bright and brilliant, flickering with shimmering tranquility. Both presidents borrowed the phrase “city on a hill” from the preaching Puritan pilgrim John Winthrop. In 1630 he sermonized to his seafaring shipmates on the flagship Arbella about their need to arrive on Boston’s hilly capital and become a society which was “A Model of Christian Charity.” He preached, “We must always consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill–the eyes of all people are upon us.” Does God really care about the welfare of capitals and nations? Or is it souls about whom He is concerned? Which is it? Saving souls or saving societies? Does God care about church or state? Let us read on, considering what the Bible says. Rev. Perry M. Gauthier, V.D.M.

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Weekly Bible Study During the 105th Legislature’s Second Session SENATORS: 6:45-8:00 am; Wednesdays, Room #2010 (Sen. Albrecht). Hot Breakfast Served.

STAFF: Noon; Wednesdays, Room #2010 (Sen. Albrecht). Catered Lunch & B.Y.O.BrownBag.

MARCH 28, 2018

WEEK 11

INSIDE

HOLY DAY/HOLIDAY

Is Good Friday Good? ..... 2 STATE LEADERS

Must be “Born Again” .... 3 YOUNG ABE LINCOLN

National Suicide .............. 4 NORTH KOREA

A Nation in Darkness ...... 5 VERSE OF THE WEEK

Ephesians 2:8-9 ............... 6 ABOUT

Capitol Ministries® .......... 6

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Saving Society or Saving Souls?

I. IT IS GOD ALONE WHO SAVES SOULS...

Let us begin where you might expect a preacher to begin: the vital importance of the salvation of souls. Last week, I exhorted you that your soul’s eternal destiny is the most critical thing you will ever consider. If the soul’s salvation is paramount, how does one’s soul get saved? We all need to be saved from our sins. How? First, you must embrace your status as a sinner before God:

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

More bad news preceding the good:

Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We all sin. Jesus’ good sacrifice for our bad sins was on Good Friday. Our sins are bad “works” before God’s holy, all-seeing eyes. All “work” pays “wages.” Death is the pay guaranteed to all sinners. God said so. Death means “separation” and has two aspects: physical and eternal. Anyone who dies physically (when the spirit is separated from the physical body) with sins unforgiven is headed to death eternally (where he will forever be separated from God in eternity).

Sin is cosmic treason before the King of all souls. He created every human and knits them together in the womb (Ps. 139:13). All whom God has created are accountable to Him for living the life He gave them in a manner which is best for them but, more importantly, that pleases Him. Rebellion against this divine fiat is the spiritual-capital crime of treason. The penalty is death. Sin is a violation of God’s law. It is primarily an offense against God. So, God alone can forgive sin. Jesus, as “very God of very God,” forgave sins on earth in this famous text as the bystanders realized God alone saves souls by forgiving sins:

Mark 2:5-7 Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6But some of the scribes were...reasoning in their hearts, 7“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?”

GOD ALONE SAVES SOULS, NOT

CIVIL GOVERNMENTS.

If God alone saves and “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” how does one receive that saving gift of eternal life? Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus, reminding them how they had previously been saved (past tense). He also reminded them of the role their good “works” had to do with that finished, past-tense event.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Grace is a free gift (and cannot be earned like hard-earned wages at one of your jobs—did somebody say $12,000/year?). Faith means “simply believing” as opposed to “working.” Does the Bible say good works matter to a holy God? Yes.

GOOD WORKS MATTER, BUT IF

YOU THINK YOUR GOOD WORKS

CAN RESULT IN SALVATION,

YOU ARE NOT SAVED.

So then, before the Lenten season ends tomorrow, what can you do that can result in salvation? Believe in the Lord Jesus’ death for you as proved in the resurrection.

Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

GOOD FRIDAY?

Why is Good Friday good?

Good Friday is good because it is the day

when Jesus washed our sins away as He

hung on the cross to die for our sins. The

Negro spiritual* “Oh Happy Day” sings

about His good sacrifice for our bad sins,

our “bad works” before God. The wages

of our bad works were the wages of

death. What a bittersweet day Good

Friday is for Christians worldwide.

Rejoicing in the suffering Messiah is

anchored in the Hebrew hymnbook we

call the Book of Psalms:

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. 23This is the LORD’S doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. 24This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:22-24) * Oh Happy Day - Gospel Legends Volume 2 soloist Edwin Hawkins, Evelyn Turrentine-Agee

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SENATORS’ BIBLE STUDY • NEBRASKA STATE CAPITOL

Jesus challenged Nicodemus, a state official in Jerusalem’s High Council. Famously, He said to him:

John 3:3 “Truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

BORN ONLY ONCE—DIE TWICE.

BORN TWICE—DIE ONLY ONCE.

As “born again” implies, there is new life. Rev. Billy Graham lived 100 years although he died at age 99 (plus 4 months). Franklin Graham told an Omaha crowd 20 days ago, “Do the math. Daddy lived to be 100 like he predicted.” Yes, tiny Billy Frank Graham was alive in his mother’s womb, and his birth simply revealed that quickened life his mother had carried inside her.

When you are born again, you become a new creation. Forgiven by faith and grace alone, you get a clean slate spiritually before God because He sees you “in Christ,” since He died as your substitute. The new birth gives you a new life.

The transforming power of the new birth is vital to our next section.

2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

God alone saves souls—by faith, by grace alone, not a result of works. He causes the new birth. A living, newly-forgiven creation emerges. Such saved souls have internal light that shines like a nighttime city, as if illuminated on a dark hill!

God alone saves souls... II. ...AND SAVED SOULS SANCTIFY SOCIETIES

We cannot be forgiven of our sins or have our souls saved as a result of works. Romans 10:10 said faith results in salvation, and belief results in righteousness. So, how is a capital, society, or nation “saved?”

Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a disgrace to any people. Do the math. Follow the flow of the formula of faith: Faith results in salvation, and true belief results in righteousness—such righteousness exalts a nation. While writing this study, I told two UNO seniors:

GOD CARES ABOUT BOTH

CHURCH AND STATE, BUT

WITHOUT THE CHURCH, THE

STATE IS DOOMED.

SEVERAL SOCIETY SANCTIFIERS

A. SAVED AND SALTY

Jesus said Christians are light (Matt. 5:14) AND salt (Matt.5:13):

You are the salt of the earth. Salt preserves meat and prevents rot. Salt adds flavor to food. Did somebody say, “Weber Grill”? Saved souls sanctify societies by preventing moral decay and societal rot. Saved souls add the zest of the Gospel of grace to lifeless cultures.

SALTY SAINTS SANCTIFY

SOCIETY SCRIPTURALLY.

B. SAVED CIVIL SERVANTS

Non-Christian rulers can do a good job of punishing evil and promoting the good of culture. Better are civil servants saved by grace (not a result of works) who lead in righteous rulership, causing real rejoicing!

Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked bears rule, the people mourn.

God cares about society, and so do righteous rulers!

C. SAVING STATUTES SADLY STALL OUT

Our second President, John Adams, said the Constitution, the supreme law, was made only for a moral and religious (meaning Christian) people. It was wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

If you died tonight, would you wake up seeing the kingdom of Heaven? Are your sins forgiven? Are you “Born again?”

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus,* a ruler of the Jews; 2this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ 3Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” John 3:1-3 (NASB)

• Nicodemus was a state official ruling in Jerusalem’s Sanhedrin (High Council). State leaders must be born again.

• Nicodemus was religious and called “a teacher in Israel.” Religious people must be born again.

• Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. I call him “Nick at Night.” He was ashamed to publicly identify with Jesus as a state leader. Are you?

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Saving Society or Saving Souls?

Pres. Adams would agree with Dr. Wayne Grudem’s theology here:

Christians who seek to influence government must also remember that inwardly transformed people are needed if we are ever going to see a transformed society. Merely passing good laws and having good government will never be enough to change a society.

Therefore we must constantly remember that winning elections is not enough to change a nation. Christians could (in theory at least) gain enough influence to overturn the Supreme Court decision about abortion in Roe v. Wade, pass pro-life laws that protect the pre-born, and pass defense-of-marriage laws, yet all of that will not be able to stop people from having premarital sex or getting abortions somehow or committing homosexual acts, unless there is a change of people’s hearts and minds as well. (page 96)

The soul of a culture is what exalts it. The mighty Roman Empire was not destroyed from without but rotted from within. Salty, saintly ethics might have preserved it from rotting. A young Abraham Lincoln feared slavery’s sinful soullessness in a prosperous and strong nation which neglected God. He predicted:

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? ....If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

The sinfulness of the soul of a society is what dooms it. Like President Ronald Reagan said:

AMERICA IS GREAT BECAUSE

AMERICA IS GOOD. IF SHE EVER

CEASES TO BE GOOD, SHE WILL

CEASE TO BE GREAT.

God alone saves souls but... III. ...BEYOND THAT, GOD WANTS CIVIL SERVANTS TO BE SOCIETAL SAVIORS

Romans 13:4 says God ordained government as a minister-servant of His, avenging His wrath on earth.

Rulers serve societies in His name when they promote good and save societies when they punish evil.

A. LAWS AFFECT THE HUMAN HEART

Civil servants serve and save society by the creation of good, moral laws which they enforce. In two words:

GOVERNMENT IS “LAW

ENFORCEMENT.”

A good friend told me that I wrongly emphasized the law’s role on earth if I thought it could change the heart, since “only God changes the heart.” I replied that I used to think that only God changes the heart but now believe that is simply not true. Romans 13:3 promises fear to the heart of potential civil malefactors.

The heart and mind are the same thing in Scripture. I believe that all the following things can and do often change the heart and mind. Consider these aspects of nature:

❖ What about tornadoes and floods, and lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) ? People’s hearts and minds are changed by these aspects of creation (some, oh my!, by the mere mention of their name).

What of the human institutions?

❖ A parent grounding a child for bad behavior, praising one for kindness of speech, or abusing a child. These things change the hearts and minds of children.

❖ A non-Christian husband who cheats on his non-Christian wife will affect her heart and mind and change her somehow.

❖ A warning sign against speeders in a school zone. That yellow, black, and white piece of metal (representing rulers who make laws they mean to enforce) can make you change your mind, which changes your ankle pressure, which changes your car’s speed, which changes the safety of children (after you had a change of heart).

Laws do affect human hearts. An overemphasis of the church’s role in culture and an underemphasis of the role of all the other institutions (or of God’s creation) make us naïve, missing the full truth of what God’s Word says about the many things that change human hearts.

Abraham Lincoln eventually became one

of America’s most popular presidents.

"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! ...At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."

—Lincoln's Lyceum Address was delivered to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, on January 27, 1838, titled "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions."

—Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.

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SENATORS’ BIBLE STUDY • NEBRASKA STATE CAPITOL

WHILE GOD ALONE SAVES THE

SOUL, MANY THINGS ON EARTH

CHANGE THE HUMAN HEART.

B. BAD RULERS AND BAD RULES

DAMAGE AND DEGRADE SOCIETIES

Immoral laws (like Jim Crow laws) and immoral leaders (like SCOTUS Justices who declare unrighteous, unethical opinions) sink society. Psalm 94:20 (ESV) speaks of “wicked rulers” who “frame injustice by statute.” They pass laws to enable wrongdoing! Sadly, this has a profound effect on culture.

Important laws are put into writing, so Isaiah 10:1 protests with words of doom, “Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees...writers who keep writing oppression.”

The villainous fiend and anti-Semite, Prince Haman, used deceit in legal linguistics to trick Persian King Xerxes to create a holocaust of the Jews to destroy that culture.

Esther 3:13 Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews... in one day...and seize their possessions as plunder.

C. GOOD RULERS AND GOOD RULES

CAN SAVE SOCIETIES...SORT OF

To counteract the evil villain-high prince (and his duped king), lesser magistrates Queen Esther and Chancellor Mordecai wrote rules—laws—to save their Semite society.

Esther 8:10-11 [They] wrote in the name of King Xerxes...[and] granted the Jews who were in each and every city the right to assemble and to defend their lives, to destroy, to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people or province which might attack them. Praise the Lord, the Jews celebrate Purim to this day to celebrate their lethally, legally defensive victory!

Week 9 showed us the pagan king of

Nineveh. He legally proclaimed (for that Assyrian society) a civil duty to mourn, fast, confess, pray, and repent of violent, evil deeds. God saw it and saved the entire metro. Good rules and rulers saved society.

D. CIVIL LAWS AND CIVIL LEADERS

TEACH THEIR CULTURES

Since all public laws have a moral component, civil laws automatically have a teaching function in culture.

LAWS TEACH A PREFERRED

MORALITY.

Sadly, society saw the immoral Jim Crow laws as moral. Citizens often think what the government has said is the law “must be all right.” Seven Justices in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case have taught millions in culture abortion is morally right and good.

Civil leaders teach too—by example. Sounding gavels and pressing green buttons, Nebraska’s civil leaders’ actions publicly teach “morality” to 1.9 million souls. The personal lives and private conduct of rulers also speaks volumes about what they believe is moral. This is true for state rulers like Israel’s Nicodemus (not yet “born again”) and “church-going animals” like President John Adams, who counted the morals of the Christian religion as supreme and the crucified Christ as his only hope for Heaven upon his death. A CITY SET ON A HILL

Most Honorable Senator:

The Puritan John Winthrop rocked and swayed, 388 years ago, in the creaking Arbella, sailing to cold Boston Harbor, heart warm and airtight. He wavered not about the duty of Christians (saved souls) to illumine societies as glowing cities on midnight hills. I urge you to be sure before Easter Sunrise that you are saved and truly born again.

Available to serve you 24/7/365,

Rev. Perry M. Gauthier, V.D.M.

North Korea at night.

Many churchmen naïvely say, “The church should stay out of politics. Government involvement is just a waste of time. It is the church that impacts the world.”

Yet the importance of government’s impact on society is poignantly seen in night photos of North Korea. A communistic, tyrannical government produces a darkness in the hearts of its people, dims productivity, and blackens its country.

What must Heaven think looking down at North Korea at night?

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Saving Society or Saving Souls?

Senator’s Personal Study Notes

My Personal Application

Making disciples of Jesus Christ in the political arena throughout the world

Capitol Ministries® provides Bible studies, evangelism, and discipleship to political leaders. Founded in 1996, we

have started ongoing ministries in over 40 U.S. State Capitols and dozens of

foreign federal Capitols.

/CapitolMinistriesNe

@PerryGauthier

Capitol Ministries®

Nebraska State Offices 4547 Calvert Street, Lincoln, NE 68506

402-327-0011 work 402-770-6270 cell/text Perry@NECapMin.org Faith@NECapMin.org www.NECapMin.org

National Office www.capmin.org

VERSE OF THE WEEK

Ephesians 2:8-9

"For by grace you have been saved

through faith; and that not of

yourselves, it is the gift of God;

9not as a result of works, so that no

one may boast.”