Church and the State, Part 5

Sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do the church and ruling government interact? Are they co-equals working together for the greater good? Do they share the same end goal? In this sermon on Romans 13:1–7 titled “Church and the State (5),” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones first examines the historical context of church and government traditions that attempt to work together. Many church leaders have fallen under the tyranny of traditionalism in various ways. One such way is the acceptance of the Roman Catholic position of the church and state relationship as one of mutual exchange, power, and respect. Dr. Lloyd-Jones urges evaluating this relationship in light of Scripture, not in light of tradition. Scripture, according to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, shows a negative position regarding the power and authority of the state, not a partnership. Biblical evidence clearly points to an understanding of two distinct kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of humanity. These two kingdoms are eternally different and the Christian must be wary of trying to join the two, especially when it involves the power of leaders. Heed Dr. Lloyd-Jones’s warning to take seriously Jesus’s words that His return will establish a reign and rule that is entirely different from worldly rule.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Most of you will remember that we are dealing at the moment with the first seven verses.
0:05.0	In the 13th chapter, Paul's epistle to the Romans, beginning with the great statement,
0:11.2	Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
0:15.6	For there is no power but of God.
0:18.7	The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore,
0:24.0	resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to
0:31.0	themselves damnation or judgment, punishment. And on Apostle goes to elaborate that statement.
0:39.5	Now we've been considering this for a number of weeks because it is such a crucial,
0:44.5	and such an important statement.
0:48.1	It's a most illuminating statement, perhaps the most illuminating in the whole of the Bible on this whole question of the relationship
0:58.9	of the Christian to the state, the governing powers of the country to which he belongs.
1:07.5	This has been, as we've seen, a cause of great perplexity throughout the centuries.
1:11.6	It was obviously a difficulty in the early church, and it has continued to be a difficulty throughout the century.
1:18.6	Now, at the moment, we are dealing with the whole question of the relationship between the church and the state.
1:24.6	We've considered the individual Christian, and now we are considering the whole
1:29.8	question of the church in general in relationship to the state. We've taken an historical view,
1:39.4	made a review of the history of this subject throughout centuries.
1:45.9	And having done that, we tried last Friday evening in a measure to evaluate all that history
1:52.4	in the light of the teaching of the scripture.
1:55.1	And we had to come to this conclusion that the position of those who believe either in the unity of the church and the state or a close alliance between the two is something that is based mainly, if not almost entirely exclusively, on the Old Testament scriptures, indeed at the expense of the new. That seemed to me to stand out very clever. Now, at this point, I think it might be advantageous before we come to deal with any particular problems of questions that confront the individual Christian and the church at the present time,
2:35.5	I think it would be helpful, perhaps, and convenient for me to try to sum up at this point
2:41.0	the things we have been considering together.
	...

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