Church and the State, Part 4

Sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones taught extensively on church history, specifically on the relationship between church and state. In this sermon on Romans 13:1–7 titled “Church and the State (4),” Dr. Lloyd-Jones turns his attention to the underlying foundation of the view proposing an alliance between church and state. How do they biblically defend their position? What biblical evidence do they portray to say this alliance is biblically sound and wise? He enters this controversial topic by looking at two specific confessions of faith, the Belgic Confession and the Westminster Confession. The bulk of these confessions’ defense is taken from the Old Testament, with only one direct passage from the New Testament. Pointing to the position of Israel as a nation and Judaism as a religion, proponents of the alliance position maintain no distinction between Israel and the church in this way. Deviating from this position, Dr. Lloyd-Jones advocates for the separation of the church and state, based on the New Testament’s teaching on the kingdom of God. As he handles this delicate discussion, he reminds his listeners of the importance of this new identity of believers: the reality that Christians are now citizens of the kingdom through rebirth and this kingdom consists of citizens from every nation and tongue.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Most of you, I'm sure, will remember that we are considering at the present time the first
0:04.4	seven verses in the 13th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans, beginning with the
0:10.1	words, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God.
0:18.4	The powers that be are ordained of God, for whosoever therefore resisteth the power,
0:24.9	resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation,
0:30.9	and so on. Now, we have reached the point in our study of this most important vital statement at which we're
0:40.3	dealing with the relationship between the church and the state. Obviously, what the apostle is dealing with here is the relationship of the Christian to the state, the powers that be. And having considered that
0:56.4	from the standpoint of the individual Christian, we have proceeded to study it from the
1:01.9	standpoint of the church, a gathering of such Christian persons. And we've been doing it in
1:10.2	an historical manner.
1:13.7	It seemed to me that that was the best way of approaching this.
1:17.6	It's played such a great part in the history of the Christian church.
1:22.0	Even wars have been fought over this, and as I've been able to show you,
1:26.6	ever since the time when Constantine,
1:29.7	the Roman Emperor announced that he had become a Christian and took the Roman Empire into the
1:35.4	Christian Church around about 325 AD. This rarely has been a very great Christian and problem.
1:43.0	You can't begin to understand the story of the
1:45.6	Roman Catholic Church, can't even understand the story of Protestantism in its various branches
1:51.7	and ramifications unless you know something about this history. Now, we've finished with our
1:59.5	historical review, and I trust we all have been able
2:05.1	to see that this has indeed occupied a very prominent place, not only in the story of the
2:12.8	history of the Christian Church, but also in the story of various countries, and particularly the British
	...

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