Untitled Sermon (2)

God’s Politics Selected Scriptures

Turn in your Bible with me to Romans 11:36, a verse we read together last week.

With the anticipation of the election on Tuesday I decided to step away from the book of John so that we can consider some bedrock truths as we vote and as we process the outcome of the election and whatever happens thereafter. I agree with the many voices that say this election is of great consequence. There seems to be no doubt about that. But my burden in this message is to help all of us move away from the overwhelming fear and desperation expressed by those whose only hope is in this life.

There is no doubt that one of the two top candidates will be elected president, and whoever it is will have significant influence on domestic and foreign issues for the next four years. It’s also possible, because it’s happened multiple times before, that the election will be contested, and it’s also possible that the final outcome may lead to civil unrest.

No matter who becomes president, it is possible that our nation’s security and standing in the world will change from what it’s been since WWII. No matter who becomes president it’s unknown what will happen to the economy because no matter what the next president does, there are factors beyond their control, like COVID was four years ago. There is no guarantee that things will improve no matter who becomes president. And no matter who becomes president, it’s unlikely to have any meaningful impact on the moral downgrade in our country—except to make it worse.

Beloved, here me loud and clear: the reason we have the candidates we have, and the reason the one who wins the election will win—no matter who it is—is because we are under the judgment of God. God has judged every nation that has promoted the killing of children, and we have killed over 60 million children in this country.

And God has judged every nation that has celebrated sexual immorality, and that has been a driving force in our nation for decades. To my knowledge, no nation in history has denied the most basic fact of human existence—that we are made male and female—and yet that denial is enshrined into our law by virtue of Title IX and many other avenues of protecting and celebrating immorality and the debased mind.

And even though only one of the two major parties celebrates abortion and immorality as part of its party platform, there are plenty of people who identify with the other major party who also reject God’s design for life and family and marriage. As a nation, we are not under God’s judgment because one party celebrates what God hates. We are under God’s judgment because our culture as a whole celebrates what God hates—from government to businesses to schools to community organizations to individuals.

For that reason, we have the two top candidates that we have, our state is set to add what God calls evil to its constitution, and our culture continues to be given over on a host of issues to a “debased mind to do what ought not to be done”, as Paul says in Romans 1.

Where is God in all this? God is on his throne. God is on his throne and he is sovereignly working all things according to the counsel of his will. God is on his throne and he is providentially moving history toward its intended end, namely, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when he will judge the nations, establish his throne on the earth, and rule and reign in righteousness and justice for a thousand years.

The United States of America is but one of 195 countries in the world today, and but one of thousands of nations and people groups throughout history under the sovereign control of Almighty God in and through whom he is working out his purposes.

I want us today to step back from the myopic view we often have of what’s going on in our nation, and get heaven’s view. To do that, instead of focusing on one primary passage and working through it verse by verse as is our typical practice, I want to go all over the Bible to draw out principles that we can collect in a bucket called God’s Politics.

Now, there is no way we can be exhaustive in one message, so our primary focus is on what the Bible reveals about how God exercises his sovereignty over nations through providence for the purpose of accomplishing his plan of redemption. All together I have 21 points. But they are divided into three sections, and most of them will be very brief. To help everyone out, especially the note takers among us, we’ll put the points on the screen as we go along.

I won’t give you all the points up front, but here are the three sections we’ll cover. First, we’ll briefly lay down the three foundational principles of God’s sovereignty, providence, and purpose. Second, we’ll spend most of our time looking at 12 ways God exercises sovereignty over nations. And third, we’ll briefly consider six applications for our lives.

Foundational Principles

So first, let’s consider the foundational principles of God’s sovereignty, providence, and purpose. LOOK at Romans 11:36…

God is sovereign over the nations (Romans 11:36a; Psalm 47)

The first foundational principle is that God is sovereign. God’s sovereignty is his kingly rule and authority over the entire universe. We see that in the first prepositional phrase “from him.” This is to say all things come from God. Nothing can be excluded from “all things,” certainly not government. God made all things, therefore God owns all things, therefore God has authority to rule over all things. And not only does he have the right to rule over all things—he does it. He rules and reigns over all things, including the nations.

Psalm 47 says, “Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.” It goes on, “Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!” King of all the earth is not merely a title, it is what God does. And that should cause us to rejoice!

God exercises his sovereignty through providence (Romans 11:36b; Acts 4:27-28)

The second foundational principle is that God exercises his sovereignty through providence. Providence is the means by which God works in the world. We see this in the second preposition phrase here in Romans 11:36, “through him.” All things are through God, which is to say God is involved in all things, though he uses means. Those means include everything from his direct demonstration of powerto demonic activity to human agencyto the natural order. Almost everything God does involves multiple causes, but he stands behind them all.

Take Job for example. The primary causes of his suffering include the Sabeans and Chaldeans who stole property, and a wind that struck the house killing his children. A secondary cause behind those primary causes was the Devil who moved the thieves to steal property and who caused the wind to blow. But as much as nature and people were involved and as much as the Devil was behind those causes, God was the ultimate cause because he gave Satan permission, and even brought Job up to Satan knowing what Satan would do.

And just to show that’s not an isolated example, in Acts 4:27-28 the church prayed to God saying this about the crucifixion of Jesus. “… for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” Now this passage doesn’t refer to Satan, but other passages make it clear that Satan worked in the hearts of Judas, the Jews, and the Romans to crucify Jesus. But the ultimate cause was God’s predetermined plan.

This is how God runs the universe—exercises his sovereignty through providence. Though he is the ultimate cause, he works through primary and secondary causes.

God employs his providence for a purpose (Romans 11:36c; Isaiah 46:9-10)

The third foundational principle is that God employs his providence for a purpose. There are innumerable purposes God has in all that he does, but here in Romans 11:36 we see the ultimate purpose.Do you see the third prepositional phrase? It is “to him.” Everything happens by virtue of God’s providence, but his providence is not erratic—it is directed for a purpose, and that ultimate purpose is God and his glory.

Isaiah 46:9-10says, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counselshall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” And Ephesians 1:11 says that God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.” And what is his will? That he be glorified. That’s why Paul ends Romans 11:36 with “To him be glory forever.”

All other purposes God has for what he does meet at that apex—the glory of God.

This is the necessary foundation for our understanding of God’s politics: God is sovereign over the nations, he exercises his sovereignty through providence, and he employs his providence for a purpose, namely, his glory.

Let’s consider the 12 ways God exercises his sovereignty over the nations.

Ways God Exercises Sovereignty Over the Nations

1. God designed government for good, but sin corrupts it.

Government is not a result of the Fall. In fact, not only will there will be government during the millennial reign of Christ on the earth, but there will be government in the eternal state. Revelation 21:26 says that on the new earth, nations will bring their glory and honor into the New Jerusalem.

Romans 13 says that government is a divinely ordained institution that serves the purpose of approving those who do good and punishing those who do evil. In the broadest terms, government is simply the structure that brings order to society. Order isn’t required only where sin exists, order ensures that any group of more than one person has clarity in roles and responsibilities and direction and purpose.

Even in a theocracy, as Israel was intended to be, and as the millennium and eternal state will be, there are structures that shape how we live and conduct ourselves in the various spheres of life.

But the curse of sin corrupts government not only in that sinful people operate the government, but also in that the structure itself becomes broken and hinders human flourishing. John Adams wrote in 1798, “Avarice, Ambition, and Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Apart from sin, any form of government would work. But sin corrupts every form of government. When leaders, laws, and cultures undermine the value of life, people will be systematically oppressed and killed. Whether that’s through slavery, an oppressive criminal justice system, genocide, murderous tyrannies, or abortion.

Proverbs 29:2says, “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.” And there are endless examples of how wickedness has caused groaning in the world. But it’s not government as such that’s the problem, it’s the corruption of government. Nevertheless, God exercises sovereignty by establishing a good purpose for government.

2. God raises kings and removes kings

Romans 13:1 says “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” All government authorities have been instituted by God. The word “instituted” means to put in place, to determine, to appoint. If someone has governmental authority, no matter how they obtained it, they were ultimately appointed by God.

The Lord says to Pharaoh in Exodus 9:16, “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” And Jesus said to Pilate in John 19:11, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above…”

When Nebuchadnezzar was lifted in up in pride thinking he himself was the explanation of his success, the Lord gave him a dream that foreshadowed his humiliation. Daniel interpreted the dream and told him that the Lord would drive him to insanity and make him like an animal in the field until, he said, “… you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”

The Lord not only raises up kings, he removes them.When Saul made an unlawful sacrifice, the prophet Samuel said to him, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue.”

God gives authority and he takes authority away. No one can obtain a position of authority apart from God’s will, and no one can be removed apart from God’s will.

3. God punishes evil leaders

We know that on the final day, all wicked rulers will receive their everlasting judgment. But many times, God punishes evil rulers in this life. It often seems like evil leaders get away with their sin. But that is not usually the case. The Lord punished Pharaoh’s stubbornness by killing his child, along with the rest of the firstborn in Egypt, as well as by decimating his army and their economy.

Sisera was humiliated by being killed by a woman who drove a tent peg through his temple while he took a nap (Judges 4:21). Abimelechdied when a woman crushed his head by throwing a millstone from the top of a tower (Judges 9:53). Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, mocked God as he stood at the gates of defenseless Jerusalem with his army, but because of his mocking the Lord delivered the city by killing 185,000 of his men while they slept, sending Sennacherib home in shame to be murdered by his sons (2 Kings 19:25-27).

In the New Testament, on one fateful day, King Herod gave a speech and the people cried out “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” And Acts 12:23 says, “Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.”

If you look through history, very few evil rulers die of old age. Many of them are assassinated, die from disease, or they take their own lives before someone else can. And that’s on top of the many other troubles they face as a result of their wickedness. Whatever success they experience in their evil deeds, rarely do wicked rulers escape God’s punishment in this life.

4. God punishes evil nations

It’s not just rulers God punishes, he also punishes evil nations and people groups for their collective sin. In Leviticus 18, the Lord established laws for his people against two abominations: sexual deviation and child sacrifice. He then says, “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.” God commanded Israel to annihilate the Canaanites for the very things our country celebrates.

Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria which was known for unspeakable brutality. Though they repented at the warning of judgment from the prophet Jonah, their repentance was short-lived and a century later the Lord sent the prophet Nahum to declare God’s judgment which came to pass. The last verse of Nahum says, “There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?”

Then there’s Sodom and Gomorrah whose stench of moral wickedness rose to God, and his fire fell on them. God punishes evil nations.

5. God uses good government to bless people and punish evildoers

On a more positive note, sometimes God establishes good leaders and good nations who fulfill his purpose for government. Though admittedly, there are very few examples of good leaders and governments in Scripture as well as the rest of history.

David was a man after God’s own heart who led Israel out of the spiral of rebellion they went down during the time of the judges. David punished Israel’s enemies, beating them back and restored the security of the nation. Not only were the surrounding nations afraid of Israel, but the military defeats were so bad, mercenary armies refused to be hired to fight against Israel.

With peace established by David, Solomon brought prosperity to Israel beyond comprehension. When the Queen of Sheba came to see it for herself, it took her breath away. At the height of his reign silver was as common as stones, and Israel imported expensive and exotic products from around the world beyond measure. Though many of the people worked very hard to complete Solomon’s building projects, the nation was blessed beyond measure.

Even with the significant sin that marked both David and Solomon, the Lord blessed the nation of Israel through their leadership, and he punished Israel’s enemies.

6. God uses evil governments to punish evildoers

The Lord does punish evildoers through good leaders and governments, but more often he uses evil governments to punish evildoers. You see this happen repeatedly during the time of the judges. As Israel rebels against the Lord, he judges them by causing other nations to oppress them until they repent. Then they rebel again and the cycle continues.

But this is most powerfully seen when the Lord’s patience ran out on Israel and Judah centuries after Solomon’s reign in light of their abundant immorality, child sacrifice, and idolatry. That time, he commissioned Assyria to judge Israel in the north, and later Babylon to judge Judah in the south.

Babylon was an exceedingly wicked nation. So when the Lord told the prophet Habakkuk of his plan to use the Babylonians to judge Israel, Habakkuk responds, “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” He’s in disbelief that the Lord would use such an evil nation to judge Israel. And yet that’s precisely what the Lord does.

7. God punishes evil governments for their evil in how they punish evildoers

In the mystery of the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility, God holds evil governments culpable for their sin in how they accomplish the very task he assigned them to do.

Isaiah 10:5-6 speaks of God using Assyria to judge Israel, “Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.” But because of Assyria’s pride in the process, the Lord pronounces judgment. It says in v. 12, “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.”

Just because the Lord uses someone as an instrument to accomplish his task, does not give them the freedom to do it however they want.They will be held accountable for their own sin.

8. God uses godly people to influence evil rulers

In God’s kindness he sometimes providentially puts godly people in significant positions of influence. Think of Joseph who became second in command and saved the known world from starvation through his wisdom. Think of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—four young men exiled from Judah by Nebuchadnezzar.

Remarkably, through a series of events Nebuchadnezzar appointed Daniel as the ruler over the whole province of Babylon and over all the wise men. And Daniel in turn appointed his three friends to high positions of authority. Their unwavering faithfulness to the Lord, particularly through the fiery furnace and the lion’s den, led to pagan kings making public declarations of God’s supremacy over all nations and all gods.

As well, think of how the Lord used Esther to protect the Jews from annihilation by their enemies. Were it not for her providentially becoming the wife of the king of Persia, God’s people would have been destroyed.

We could also speak of Nehemiah, the cup bearer of King Artaxerxes, through whose influence the king supported and supplied all that was needed to rebuild the walls and city of Jerusalem. At many levels the Lord sometimes puts his people in positions of influence and authority even under evil regimes to accomplish his purposes.

9. God appoints women over nations in judgment

This may be the most controversial in our time, but it’s true. Just as it is God’s design for men to serve carry the weight of responsibility and leadership in the home and in the church, so it is in the government.

In Judges 4we read of Deborah, a prophetess and a judge. She was not a leader, but through her the Lord called upon Barak to fight against Sisera who was oppressing Israel. Barak refused to do it unless Deborah went with him, which was a sign of looking to her for leadership. In response, Deborah said that because he refused to go on his own, the victory would belong to a woman. And as I noted earlier, Jael was the woman who deceitfully gave Sisera a place to hide and rest, and she killed him as he slept.

Centuries later the Lord says through Isaiah “My people—infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them.” King Ahab was wicked, but his wife Jezebel surpassed him in her evil influence. There are only a few women who reigned over Israel, but each of them were wicked—Athaliah and Maacah both promoted false religion.

To be clear, not all queens and women rulers around the world are or have been evil—there are certainly many who have done much good. This is only to say that when women rule a nation, it is usually because God’s judgment has come upon them.

10. God blesses nations that turn to him in repentance.

Our final three points are positive ways God exercises sovereignty over nations. God blesses nations that turn to him in repentance. Sadly, there are not many nations that turn to him in repentance in some corporate way, but there have been some.

Israel, of course, had many periods in their history where the nation turned back to God, he relented of his judgment, and restored them to peace. Perhaps the greatest turnaround of them all is how the city of Nineveh heard of the coming judgment of the Lord and Jonah 3:10 says, “they turned from their evil way [and] God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them.” Oh that our nation would to God.

It rarely happens, but when a city or a nation repents of their sin, acknowledges God, and worships him, God will bless them.

11. God uses his people as salt and light no matter what government does

On this point we see God’s sovereignty in the fact that he does not need government to accomplish his purposes. Governments can neither stop nor hinder God’s purposes and plan of redemption. All throughout history various nations have sought to annihilate the people of Israel and they failed.

They’ve tried to oppress and suppress the worship of God, and they’ve failed. They’ve tried to stamp out the church, and they’ve failed. They’ve tried to threaten the loss of property, torture, and death—and they’ve made good on their threats—but they cannot remove God’s people from the earth.

Jesus says in Matthew 5, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” And right after that, he says, “You are the salt of the earth… you are the light of the world.”

Government can encourage and in various ways support the work that God’s people do to promote the kingdom of God; orgovernment can be apathetic about it and neither support nor suppress it; orgovernment can throw all their weight against it—no matter what government does, God’s people can still make disciples, worship, do the work of the ministry, and shine the light of Christ to those around them.

God’s kingdom is helped or hindered by government only to the degree he wants it to be. He can choose to use a nation’s freedoms to spread the gospel, and he can choose to use a nation’s oppression to spread the gospel. And he does both those things at the same time in different nations around the world.

12. God builds his church apart from the government

This point expands on the last one. In the last point the focus was on God’s work through his people in a particular nation regardless of what government does. In this point, I want to emphasize that God’s work of building the church and expanding his kingdom transcends government.

Jesus said to Pilate in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

If you think about the last 2,000 years, the church of Jesus Christ started with 120 people on the day of Pentecost, grew to 3,000 in a day, and ever since it has grown and spread throughout the world. And it has done so under empires, monarchies, dictatorships, theocracies, democracies, oligarchies, aristocracies, communist nations, and every other form of government that exists.

It does not matter what government structure exists and it does not matter whether its leaders are good or evil, God works through every structure to accomplish his purposes. To fulfill his plan, God does not need a particular form of government, nor does he need a particular kind of leader, and he certainly doesn’t have a favorite party.

The book of Daniel foretold how God would use future kingdoms to bring about the right circumstances to bring forth the Messiah.And that’s what happened. And the book of Revelation foretells that God will use various nations to bring about the right circumstances to bring the Messiah for his second coming and the establishment of his kingdom.

Until Jesus Christ sits on his throne in Jerusalem God always and only uses sinful people in flawed government structures to move history forward to his intended end. Beloved, whatever happens on Tuesday, no matter what the pundits and commentators say, and no matter how you feel about it, what is most significant, is that it will reveal the next step in God’s plan as he moves history toward the coming of Christ.

How Then Shall We Live?

1. Trust God

Trusting God begins with a disposition of your heart, but we demonstrate trust chiefly when we turn our concerns to him in prayer. 1 Timothy 2 begins, “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. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” No matter how good or evil we perceive our government to be, we ought to pray for them, and trust that God will do what is best in light of his plans for our nation.

2. Honor Government

1 Peter 2:17says, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” If there is anything in short supply these days, it is honoring political leaders. We should not join with those who mock and scoff and demean those who bear the image of God and whom the Lord has put in positions of authority. They will give an account to him. If anything, we should fear the judgment they will receive.

Without approving of evil or celebrating ungodliness, we can give honor and respect by acknowledging the extraordinary responsibility and complexity of politics in this age. Few of us could handle half the responsibilities and pressures and decisions they have on a daily basis, so we should honor their efforts.

3. Submit to Authority

1 Peter 2:13-15says, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” Then he says in v. 20, “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

When Christianity is associated with anti-government rhetoric, we misrepresent Christ. We become like Peter who tried to attack those who arrested Jesus. Peter learned his lesson and he obeyed Christ’s command to submit to government to the end. The Romans killed him, not for rebellion, but for proclaiming Christ.

The only time we should disobey authorities is when government tries to stop us from obeying God. Fulfilling our civic duties by voting and using government-approved means to promote justice and righteousness is part of submitting to government, but the way we go about it can hinder or help our public witness.

4. Give What is Due

Romans 13:7 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.”

It is not our responsibility as citizens to pay taxes only when we agree with government or only respect those in our party. God will hold us accountable for obeying him in giving what is due, and he will hold those in authority accountable for what they do with what they receive.

5. Shine Your Light

In Matthew 5:14-16Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Legislative efforts have their place, but the world does not see our efforts at changing laws to promote life or ban sin and give glory to our Father. Among many other things, shining our light means to spread the truth of Christ; to model how God’s design for life and families and communities is more compelling that what the world has to offer; and to demonstrate the love of Christ by caring for those desperate enough to make destructive decisions.

6. Remember the Judgment

Romans 12:19-21 says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

There is no place for the Christian to retaliate against perceived wrongs by the government or other groups or individuals.Believers should never be stirred up to revolt, but rather should promote calm and peace.

Our response to those who do evil is to remember that the Lord alone knows the full truth and he will deal with them in his way and his time. Therefore, instead of being in the position of judge, jury, and executioner, we are in the position to extend grace and mercy to those who are in the frightening position of receiving judgment from God.

Finally, beloved, whatever the election results are, and whatever happens thereafter, remember the words of Isaiah 26:3-4, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”