Insights into our Political Landscape

turn in your Bible if you haven't already done so to Proverbs chapter 28. Now believe it or not we are going to be looking at a few verses that surprisingly deal with the subject of politics. And you know it's kind of dangerous when you talk about politics, isn't that right? Two things that can become dangerous if we get into conversation with people, if we talk about religion and politics. You know it's even more dangerous if you talk about politics at church. But politics are on our minds. They really are. Politics, the political scene, what's going on in our nation, it's truly on our mind.

Last night I came in, I had come up here to the church to do a few things, and I came in and I flipped the television on and and it was on PBS Public Broadcasting. And there was a special, I didn't catch the beginning of it, but I caught the end. There was a PBS special on and it was contrasting our Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, and our Republican candidate Donald Trump. Now some of the information, I knew some of it, I didn't. In the special they were talking about Joe Biden's past failed presidential attempts. I did not realize he had tried to run for president that many times. I guess that just got by me.

I also saw where they explained that he is always throughout his political career. He's always struggled to really come to a place of having his own ideas and his own policies. They just basically said it seems like he's always ridden the wave, always kind of adopted other people's policies. Something I did remember, they highlighted how he was really in a very prominent place during the Clarence Thomas confirmation. Remember that? He was put up for the Supreme Court position and that was a really difficult time in his career and also in our political life as a country. Also they talked about Donald Trump.

They talked about the great, not necessarily positive, but great influence of his father. They talked about all of his business exploits, how he was just a killer in business, whether it was moral or immoral, you know, and how he got off into show business. Of course they talked about his immorality, which is very well known, and they talked about how he was really influenced by, we would call him a heretical pastor, Norman Vincent Peale. He was a famous pastor in New York. He wrote a book called The Power of Positive Thinking. I remember that as a child.

He was around and he was heavily influenced as well as some other political figures were. Now I think we all know that politics, it's a hot topic issue in our land right now. Have a presidential election coming up, it's right around the corner. That makes us talk politics. We have this long debated subject of abortion, Roe versus Wade. Every time there's a national election, that gets brought up. We have the Democratic socialists and the socialists in their movement. That has us talking about politics. You throw in the Black Lives Matter movement. It is a political movement.

Then the riots, racial tension, the talk of police brutality and police reform, all of that is connected to politics. And then this week, something else has come up. This week Supreme Court Justice passed away. So what's happening there? Will the Democrats allow the Republicans to fill that seat? Will the Republicans step up and try to fill that seat before the election? That's going to be a fight. And that is all centered around politics. Politics on the national level. We even talk about politics on a state level. Many of us have talked about our governor and things our governor has done during the coronavirus crisis. We're still there.

I've heard some of you say you have been pleased with some decisions our governor has made. All of these things are on the table. They're on our minds. They're in our conversation. Annie came home from school this week and she talked about how she got into a discussion about politics and abortion with some friends at school. And she came back home and we sat at the supper table and we talked about politics. Now you might think that's kind of interesting for your 16 year old daughter, but that was the case. Well tonight we are going to look at a few verses here in Proverbs that speak to politics.

And these verses will give us some insights into our political landscape. Now think about this. Proverbs is an ancient book. Is it right? Isn't that right? It's an ancient book from another day and another time. And it might surprise us that what we see here in Proverbs can speak to our current world of politics. Now let me go ahead and give you the title of our study tonight. It's insights into our political landscape. And there are three things that we're going to look at. Three truths, three lessons that I want us to really digest.

I put this in some modern language and I want us to absorb this and put this in our minds and think about this. And I think you're going to see, wait a minute, this really speaks to us today far more than you know. So you see how we're going to go. You know our habit throughout our study in Proverbs. A lot of times we will read the verses as we go through the message. So number one, this comes out of verse two. Political instability. Political instability. Now when I say political instability, what in the world comes to our minds? I might date myself here. I was alive but I don't remember the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal.

I mean that was in the early 70s was it not? But I can tell you this, I remember my grandmother. I remember my grandmother was mortified that the president would do such a thing. And then those tapes came out and she heard our president use foul language like that. I can remember in the late 70s and 80s when I was a child my grandmother talking about that. That was a huge political scandal. I don't know why but brother Keith will mention this term hanging Chad from time to time. We'll have something out there that we just got to get done and it's just out there. He'll use that term hanging Chad.

Remember that goes back to the 2000 political election. George Bush, Al Gore, there was this controversy about the votes. I think it was connected with Florida and some other states. We've lived through some political instability. Think about the recent impeachment trials. He was acquitted, President Trump, and then we remember Bill Clinton and those impeachment trials. But believe it or not verse two speaks to political stability and instability. So look at the verse, verse two. When a land transgresses it has many rulers but with a man of understanding and knowledge its instability will continue.

Now this might surprise you but this speaks to political stability and instability more than you know. So first I want us to look at political instability. Go back to the verse. When a land transgresses, when a people sin, it has many rulers. Now I'm reading from my English Standard Version. Land transgresses. The New American that we study from many times it says but the transgression of a land. This speaks of sinfulness. This speaks of sinfulness of a people, the sinfulness of a nation. And simply the text says that when a people or a nation when they embrace sin, when they embrace unrighteousness, there are consequences.

And the consequences are political instability. Look at the verse. When a land, when they transgress, it has many rulers. That's what we see here. We learn what happens to a nation and a people when they continuously embrace sin. We learned about that in Proverbs I mean Romans chapter 1. Remember? When a land goes after sin, when a land desires sin and rejects God, they are judged. A people are judged. We studied that numerous times this summer. But we also see the same principle and see this fleshed out in the nation of Israel. When they rebelled against God and His will and His plan, they asked for a king. Remember that story?

Samuel thought they sinned against him. Samuel took that personal. What did God say to Samuel? No, they are sinning against me. They wanted a king like all of the pagan nations. Isn't that right? And God gave them Saul. Now we did have David who was a good king and Solomon who was a good king. But ultimately we when if we study the nation, they continued to sin and they continued to get bad king after bad king after bad king. There were a few bright spots. Think about it. It went all the way down to King Ahab who was Ahab's wife. We can study about Ahab in 1st Kings specifically chapter 16. So we see a principle here.

When a nation, when a people, when they sin and they embrace sin and they won't sin, political instability or turmoil will come. Israel is a great example. But then number two or the second part, we see political stability. Political stability. When a land transgresses, it has many rulers but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its instability will long continue. Now we see contrast all through Proverbs. Do we not? This is just Solomon's habit. And now we see the opposite. When a man or a people seek understanding and what is right, stability comes. Isn't that what the verse says?

We can see this taught really in other places in the book of Proverbs. I want to ask you to turn there because of time. I want to be conscious of our time. We got a lot of children in the back and so we want to get out at the right time. But write down Proverbs 8 verses 15 to 16. In my study today, I went through those verses and it just highlights political stability. So we see a principle here. When a people or a nation, when they pursue truth, when they desire understanding, they desire godliness, what happens? Political stability is the result. It's the same thing for kings.

When they pursue the same thing, political stability is the result. So in summary, just taking a step back from that one verse, what do we see here? Solomon simply says that sinfulness in a people, in a nation, it brings about political instability and then he shows the opposite. When a people seek righteousness and truth, stability is the result. And these principles are timeless. They are timeless. Now you tell me, does this not sound like the good old USA? Doesn't that sound like where we live? Do we not have political instability today?

Some of us are old enough to remember a few years ago we have seen it become increasingly more unstable and Romans 1 teaches what happens when a land and will a people and when a nation embraces sin. In here we see that sin affects the political landscape of a nation and that is just what's happening in our country today. Now a question, I always ask this question when I'm studying and I ask this question a lot when I'm preaching. So what? So what does it mean to me and you? Ultimately we have to understand what it means to us at our day. So what does this mean to me and you right now? Why is this important? We must understand our times.

We must understand what's going on around us, not just in Lincoln County and Brookhaven, not just in Southwest Mississippi, but in our country and even in our world. And if our nation continues to embrace wickedness what will happen politically? It will get worse. And if we keep our eyes on the horizon and if we embrace these types of verses and this teaching it won't surprise us. So we don't need to be caught off guard. What do we see? Political instability. When a people chase after sin and unrighteousness and godlessness it does affect the political landscape. So number two, you see where we're going. I call this sinners in high places.

Really it's two verses but it just says the same thing. Let's look at verse 12. When the righteous triumph there is great glory but when the wicked rise people hide themselves. And notice verse 28. When the wicked rise people hide themselves but when they perish the righteous increase. Many times Solomon says the same thing but sometimes he says it in a different way and that's what's happening here. Now to be honest with you when I was doing some studying I came across a commentator or writer. I'm not sure who it was. I jotted it down.

It was in my notes but he called this righteousness and wickedness in high places and I just borrowed it and I trimmed that down. But something else came to my mind when I was reading this. I think it was when I came across that phrase righteousness and wickedness in high places. I don't really like country music and I don't listen to country music but some for some reason the phrase from a country music song came into my mind. I have friends in low places. We've heard that song. You know it's really sad. If you think about that song it's sad because the song speaks about sin and it celebrates sin.

And so we must understand that sin and we must remember that sin always takes people to low places. I think about many times we help people deal with divorce. It's awful. I hate that. I hate that people have to live through that and most of the time it's because of sin. And that sin takes them to low places and in that kind of a situation even the innocent suffer. So sin always takes people to low places. Well here Solomon is showing what happens when sinners ascend to high places. High places in government. Ruling over people like kings presidents governors that we know of today.

So first when the righteous rule this comes right out of the verse when the righteous rule notice when the righteous triumph there is great glory but when the wicked rise people hide themselves. Here we see something great and marvelous the positive. When the righteous rule of people there is a great glory in the land. We see this all through Proverbs. Here I'm giving you homework again. Proverbs 2828. Proverbs 29 2 and 29 16 really communicates the same thing. We've learned that Jesus repeats himself to his disciples. Solomon repeats himself to us. Why? We're probably a lot slower to learn than we know. Those verses will be good to go read.

But think about the good kings in Israel the good kings in Judah. We know that after Solomon his son Rehoboam took over and the nation was divided you had another northern kingdom and the southern kingdom you had Israel and you had Judah. But there was these this long list of good kings in the in the country of Judah in Judah. And what would happen when those good kings would come along the people would prosper the nation would prosper. So we see that when the righteous rule of land there is good for the land there is good for the people. Now the opposite. Second when the wicked rule again the contrast.

When the sinful rise to power there are consequences. The ESV and the new American standard say the same thing people hide. When the wicked rise to power what happens? The wicked abuse power. Injustices abound. Sin against the poor against the disenfranchised. That kind of sin abounds. Violence against the godly and the vulnerable that abounds. Sin is celebrated and even sin is encouraged. What happened to the prophets of God during the reign of King Ahab? First Corinthians chapter 18. The scripture says that Obadiah had to hide the prophets of God. You see? So we see that when the wicked when they rise to power people suffer.

The godly suffer. The poor people they suffer. The vulnerable they suffer and they have to hide in society. So in summary take a step back notice what we have here. When the righteous rise to power there are good things for the people. Good things for the land. But when the wicked rise to power things are bad for the people. Only the power hungry, the violent, the murderous, the increasingly sinful prosper. Only they prosper when the wicked rule. The godly, the vulnerable in society they suffer. They have to hide. Again my questions these rhetorical questions. Does this sound like the land that we live in today?

As political leaders become increasingly sinful what happens to the godly? What happens to the good folks who don't want to live like that? They've got to hide do they not? They don't have a place in society. And look at our political landscape. Look at our political scene. Look at the governors of our land. Watch their legislation. We're watching states like Oregon and California and New York do some horrific things. I think most in the church are watching what's happening with California and Grace Community Church which is John MacArthur's church. Is they're challenging the state of California? Remember our country song?

You probably thought I didn't think Brother Chris would reference something like a country song. Remember our country song? They ascend. We're seeing them ascend. The country song? I know friends are I have friends in low places where we're seeing what happens when when the wicked ascend to high places well then the godly have to go to the low place and they have to hide. Now why is this important? Listen we really must see what is happening in our land and we're watching this happen now. I jotted down right off the news outlets just today a few stories. This one was right off the press this afternoon.

This is the the title of the news title of the title of the article. Seattle bank rolls in its in parentheses. Streets are Black Lives Matter activists x-pimp at a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be a part of a panel to help consider alternatives to policing. What happens when that ascends? See instead of sinners being in low places the godly will be in low places because the centers are exalted. I couldn't find it. I thought I had emailed it to myself this week but Brother Keith and I were talking about it earlier in the state of New York in a county a particular county a Satanist transgender individual was running for sheriff.

What happens with that is ascended to office. You see and that's happening today. So when we have sinners in high places then the godly and the good folk will have to hide. Now number three I want us to look at what I'm calling roaring raging rulers. Look at verse 15 and 16. I want us to read these verses like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a people. A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor but he who hates unjust gain will prolong his days. Honestly these verses sound like a zoo. Yeah right. I mean they sound like a zoo. Doesn't sound like a church. Doesn't even sound like church language.

One writer that I ran across this week said that Solomon was using animals and images that would have gripped the readers. They had these animals. They knew this language and the point was to paint a graphic picture to communicate a graphic truth. I'll never forget years ago an individual that I administered to through the years and witnessed to through the years.

He came to me talking to me and he lives in a particular part of the county where they had have automobile accidents on a highway a lot and he said he was at home with his family and I think he said he was cooking on the grill and he heard the noise a familiar noise an accident on the highway and he said he goes to the car he was one of the first ones to get there and there were some teenagers and they had crossed the highway at the wrong time and it was bad.

Two or three of them died at the scene a couple of them maybe died later and he said just the smell of the blood in the car in the in the smell of things burning in the sound and he just described it. It was graphic it was it was searing and he said it's been two or three days he said I can't get the smell out of my nose. See that graphic imagery and that's what that's what Solomon is trying to do here. He's teaching timeless principles he's teaching timeless principles but he's using really harsh and even brutal and serious language. So I want to start off with the graphic imagery or the graphic examples.

We do need to pause and think about what a roaring lion what a charging bear would be like. See the lion it roars typically in two circumstances in its need for food and when it stands over a kill and the bear take the bear when a bear is charging it's on the attack it is attacking the kill for food or attacking a particular prey. So we really have an intimidating picture here a lion that is killed its prey and is roaring a bear that is charging in for the kill. Now imagine the audience it's a little different for us I thought about it today like this they didn't have a gun.

I mean what did they defend themselves with a spear a bow a stone and a sling I don't want a stone in the sling I want a gun but they didn't have that and they would have been gripped by this this picture so we have a graphic picture in intimidating scene two ferocious animals roaring lions charging bears but then second really the graphic language or the graphic lesson that comes from the graphic examples.

We see rulers again in verse 15 we see rulers over the poor in verse 16 we see those who are oppressive to oppressive rulers now question what's the lesson a godless ruler a ruler that lacks godliness and understanding will ravage the poor and the vulnerable they will be cruel they will be oppressive so you could say it like this a ruler that lacks godliness and understanding is like a hungry lion or an attacking bear they will ravage the poor they will destroy the vulnerable and they will go after the godly they will kill and eat all they can because they are just like a hungry violent unrestrained beast I go right back to King Ahab remember he was the wicked king and who was he married to Jezebel nobody married nobody names their daughter Jezebel in first Kings 21 Ahab just cared about himself and he oppressed that poor fella named Naboth to do what to take possession of his vineyard and right there King Ahab was like a roaring raging lion why because he was oppressing someone to just satisfy his own sinful appetite and he was the king don't we see this in our land today are not our political leaders just like roaring raging animals are not our government officials increasingly just like this in it amazing they always retire in comfort they never like I heard somebody say they go in office begging for money and poor and they come out loaded and look at our political scene you know look at what we see around here look at how they're ravaging the culture in the community and they're ravaging to really fatten themselves I think about the mayor of Portland Oregon allowing all of these riots and just people are losing their businesses they're losing their way of life in all of these political operatives are coming in what's gonna happen in the future I don't know but but this is what we see a lot of roaring raging rulers now why is this important as our leaders become more sinful as they become more emboldened they will become more like this and listen we must watch so we can be prepared now I mentioned earlier about noticing what's happening around the world what about our fellow Christians in places like China do they not face roaring raging rulers we don't know much about the church and Christians in North Korea that's what they face now a couple of questions and we'll draw this to conclusion why is this important why the time in Proverbs Proverbs is about Christian wisdom we need all we can get it's real practical I've encouraged you throughout our study to be a good student of reading the Proverbs develop your own plan make it a part of your daily Bible study weekly Bible study monthly Bible study and these principles are timeless and sometimes we have to stop and read them slow maybe need a little bit of explanation and all of this really relates to today far than you know and what's the series title wisdom for Christian living we need Christian lip wisdom for Christian living when it comes to these things and this prepares us for our times this prepares us for the days ahead and it gives us understanding and really I think you need to discuss these things with your children if they're old enough if you're they're old enough now a question remember what I said earlier it's dangerous when you talk about religion in politics and remember I said boy when you talk about politics in in church it's really even more dangerous but a question we've got to ask ourselves will a particular party help us will a particular party fix things you know and make things like they used to be will one particular candidate fix things we need to ask that question are those questions and the answer to those questions is no it's an emphatic no unless our nation turns to God in repentance unless our people and our leaders turn to God to his word in his judgments listen judgment will continue it will continue it will continue we've learned in Proverbs chapter 21 excuse me Romans 21 what this judgment looks like and I'll never forget when we got through that series this summer I was in the back of the church talking to one of the men here and he was explaining how he understood it and saw it we're a nation that's being judged and notice notice a part of the judgment is what we just studied political instability sinners in high places roaring raging rulers that's a part of this judgment and there's only one fix it's for a people in the nation to turn back to God now I'm gonna begin to conclude by telling you about telling you about a conversation I had with a friend of mine after we had gotten through studying through chapter 1 of Romans I was explaining our condition and how we see it and the fact that we're being judged as a nation because we've rejected God and he began to have the conversation you know isn't it the church's responsibility to repent sure that's the case the church and God's people are always called to repent and come back to God's Word we spent quite a bit of time here studying the seven churches and the different churches in the New Testament seeing the church's responsibility to see it to repent of sin and get back to what God's Word teaches but it surprises a lot of Christians that peoples and nations are responsible to God as well every man every woman is morally responsible to God and nations and peoples are responsible to God this should be easy for us to understand because we saw in Romans 1 that God judges nations and peoples because they do what they reject him and so what we must see is even nations and peoples are responsible to God in Psalm 2 is a great psalm for you to read psalm 2 is a great psalm for you to read there so what do we see insights into our political landscape and I encourage you to read over these verses maybe read over some of the notes you've taken and just ask God to give you the ability to interpret the days interpret the times and have wisdom and then know how to live today and tomorrow and then ultimately we do that together as the church we do it together as the church