The scripture reading this morning is the eighth chapter of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter eight. If you would like to follow along as I read, I think we put, I don't recall if we put the whole, I don't think we put the whole text at all in your handout. So you'll just have to be radical this morning and follow along in your Bible. So I read Ezekiel 8, beginning in verse 1. This little ESV has the title of the chapter, Abominations in the Temple, which is a very accurate title. In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Behold, below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness like gleaming metal. He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem. to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley. Then he said to me, son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate in the entrance was this image of jealousy. And he said to me, son of man, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you'll see still greater abominations. And he brought me to the entrance of the court. And when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then he said to me, son of man, dig in the wall. So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. And he said to me, go in and see the vile abominations that they're committing here. So I went in and saw, and there, engraved on the wall, all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood 70 men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jazaniah, the son of Shaphan, standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, the Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land. He said also to me, you will see still greater abominations that they commit. Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me, have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. And he said to me, have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here? that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore, I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them." There was the... Turns out the deep state, as you can see, is nothing new, and there it was, hidden right in the temple of God, all this wickedness. That's the word of the Lord, and we are to receive it then as such. Well, let's ask the Lord then again for his blessing. on the ministry of his word. Father, we thank you for your word now that we have the privilege of coming to hear from you. This scripture is your word given without error by your prophets and apostles. And here we have it held right in our hands. We can open it at any time, and you are speaking to us. We pray, Father, that we would believe that, that we would come now, as we hear your word, to believe you, that our faith in you would be strengthened and increased, that you would convict us where we need to be convicted of sin, and you might grant us quick repentance. And, Father, we pray where Your word encourages us that we would be encouraged as well and that Christ would be glorified in it all. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen. On the last day of February, 1528, a young man of 24 years was executed by being burned alive at St. Andrews. This is in Scotland. He was Patrick Hamilton. And over the next 30 years, some 20 men and women were to endure a similar death, sometimes singly, as in Glasgow and Coupar, sometimes in groups, two, then another four in Edinburgh in the 1530s. And finally, in 1558, a man of more than 80 years of age, Walter Milney, endured the last such fire in St. Andrews. The explanation for this was to be found in the book which was prohibited reading in Scotland of the 1530s, William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament. There, in the book of Revelation, it speaks of witnesses being put to death and shows that the sufferings of the Christian church between Christ's first and second advents are not due in the first instance to human folly, but to demonic evil. Certainly the devil uses men, and the way he does so is set down in that same scripture. We read in Revelation 13 of Satan's purpose being expressed through two beasts. The one, nations and their governments. The other, false religion. Religion that looks like a lamb, but speaks as a dragon. By such passages, God gave to the martyrs a true understanding of their sufferings. Patrick Hamilton was condemned for affirming that the sacraments cannot save. The first charge against him at his trial was that he had said, the corruption of sin remains in a child after baptism. Another charge against him was his statement that a man is not justified by works, but by faith alone. These were the days of John Knox, who initially himself was a priest in that very church that burned Hamilton. We are not told in historical writings the precise date of it. But Knox himself said that of one day, he said of that day, quote, it pleased God to call me out from the puddle of papistry. And John Knox was saved then by the Lord's grace. I want this morning to take a little excursus from 1 Corinthians and draw your attention to a topic that God's Word has a lot to say about, and we can state the subject in question form like this. What is the true church that is the real body of Christ to be in a time of tyranny? What's our role? What are we to do? It really is the subject we're turning to. is really this whole matter of church and state, you might say. These are important questions because, for many reasons, but in part because if we don't get them right, if we don't answer these, you know, what is the church to be? What is the church to do? what is our role in times of tyranny, then we're in danger of being led down one of those detour paths that Christian and Pilgrim's Progress got deceived into going sometimes. There's been times in the history of the church when false paths like that have drawn Christ's people off into detours, diversions from the way that the Lord would have them be going. and all to the harm of the gospel. For example, this quote is also from the same book. It's A Scottish Christian Heritage, is the title, by Ian Murray. And he says, revolution has sometimes been confused with reformation. Revolution says that physical force must be used to further the progress of Christianity. You can remember the Crusades, for example. But such things are more likely to ruin a cause than to save it. So why are we talking about this subject at the present time? Well, first of all, tyrants, we know from the study of history and from scripture, tyrants all down through the history of the world are going to arise. And as Christians, we are going to face tyranny and tyrants in one form or another. Sometimes they're within the visible church, locally and nationally, such as 3 John's Diotrephes. Diotrephes was a tyrant in a local church. And then there's much larger, more widespread tyrants. The pope is a tyrant, the Roman Catholic And church is tyranny. Secondly, it's important for us to hear what God's word says on this subject because, and I would suggest to you, and I suppose I'm preaching to the choir here this morning, but we here on our own nation are experiencing at least a bit today of what it's like to be citizens in a nation ruled by a tyrant in the form of civil government, you see. Now, I don't want to ever inject politics into the pulpit in the sense of making the church become, you know, you can get off one of these detours of, well, our fundamental job here is to, and even some fundamental independent churches have gone this route, they become, in the name of patriotism and so forth, they become really all about pushing a particular political issue or reform or something like this. And it seems like the word of God and the gospel is proclaimed less and less. And we don't want to make that mistake. That's not the mission that Christ has called us to. I came across these couple of paragraphs. Well, this was a letter. written way back when, I guess in the 1700s, when, you know, y'all are familiar with John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace. But he wrote a letter to a fellow pastor that he respected, and he appreciated that pastor's sermons. They were sound and they were biblical. But of late, apparently, That pastor had begun to focus in his preaching on certain social and political issues. And he was using the pulpit to speak for that the church needs to get behind certain movements and reforms in Parliament, you see, and getting focused on that. And John Newton admonished him for that, and he said, And I think these are good words then. So he said, you know, I've always appreciated your sermons, but these sermons here of late that you've been preaching, I had a hard time getting through them. And so he said, I hope that I'm a friend to liberty, both civil and religious, but I fear that you will hardly allow it when I say, I think myself possessed of as much of these blessings as present as I wish for. I can indeed form an idea of something more perfect, but I expect no perfection in this state, in this nation, and in this world. When I consider the Lord's question, Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? So even in his day, he saw wickedness in England. And John Newton is saying, well, now wait a minute here. Shouldn't we be preaching, instead of focusing on reforms in Parliament, shouldn't we be rather preaching on the fact that the Lord is His wrath is upon this nation for sin. Shall not I be avenged on such a nation as this? I cannot wonder that such a nation as ours should still be favored with so many privileges which we still enjoy and yet abuse. Allow me to say that it excites both my wonder and concern that a minister like you, possessed of the great and important views expressed in your two sermons should think it worth his while to appear in the line of a political writer or expect to amend our constitution or situation by proposals of political reform. When I look around upon the present state of our nation, such an attempt appears to me no less vain and unreasonable than it would be to paint the cabin while the ship is sinking. or to paint a parlor while the house is already on fire. My dear sir, my prayer to God for you is that he may induce you to employ the talents he has given you in pointing out sin as the great cause and source of every existing evil and to engage those who love and fear him instead of losing time in political speculation. So there's these words, and we don't want to make that error that Newton is seeing in that other piece. In other words, those are great illustrations, aren't they? We don't want to be guilty of painting the cabin of the ship while the ship is sinking, you see. And that's what so many efforts can be If we put our trust in man, and then the church becomes a place where, well, we better effect this social reform, and we better get behind this political movement, and draft this legislation, and so on, else we're gonna be taking one of those fruitless dictators. And so we don't wanna make that mistake. But the word of God, also has a whole lot to say about tyranny, evil tyrants, and about the church being called to speak out God's word against tyrants. If you think about it here, you can think of some examples. I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit here, so I'll look ahead. Well, that's all right. I can think of them. Think of how often in the Bible the Lord deals, how does he deal with a tyrant? I mean, temporally in this world. Ultimately, we know how he's gonna deal with a tyrant. But in this world, what does God do over and over again? He sends a man to confront the tyrant. He sends a man to speak God's word against the tyrant. So for example, Moses, right? Let my people go. And God sends a man to the tyrant Pharaoh. John the Baptist, it is not lawful for you. And they cut off his head as a result. But he confronted Herod, you see. Jesus himself spoke of Herod. Go tell that old fox, you know, this kind of thing. Daniel. Daniel confronted very, very boldly right to his face both Nebuchadnezzar, Belteshazzar, and so on. So this is what God does. And so we know that God calls the church to speak God's word to and against the tyrant. And I think that we in this nation have been duped and pressured into being silent in areas where we are not to be silent. And what I mean by that is this. We're told that because a local church is granted tax-exempt status, right, as a non-profit religious organization, okay, fine, but then the state says, You are not permitted to lobby politically. You're not to take tax-free money and use it to promote the cause or lobby for a political candidate, all right? Now, there's some purpose in that. I mean, you can't have your cake and eat it too, you know? So sometimes I think, sometimes I think, We would be better off if we just said, keep your tax exempt status. We don't care if we get to write this stuff off. But at any rate, the state will often injure. And so what happens, though, is that we can get into this line of thinking where, well, better not ever mention what's going on in Washington. Better not talk about those things on Sunday. from the pulpit and so forth, because we're not supposed to get involved. We are supposed to get involved with those things. We are to speak against the tyrant. And that's not political lobbying. That's speaking God's word against evil. And the reason I'm bringing this subject up is, first of all, I think we can all share in this. We are all grieved about the condition of our nation. And specifically, we're grieved about the wickedness that's in our nation. And even more pointedly and specifically, we are grieved about the fact that we have a tyrant as a president. And if you watched, and I only watched part of it, I couldn't stand all of it, but if you watched his State of the Union message, that was clear evidence that Our president is a tyrant. And where that really struck home with me in particular was he stood supposedly giving, he's supposed to represent the union, it's the state of the union, but he took off immediately into an angry, threatening rant, that's what the whole message was, and specifically, The nine justices of the Supreme Court were sitting right down in front of him, and he threatened them. It was an out-and-out threat. You're going to see. So here you have the executive branch of our government, right, the president. You got the judicial branch down here, and then you have the legislative branch, Congress, sitting out here. And when he threatened the Supreme Court and revealed himself to be an out-and-out tyrant. I mean, it's as if Satan's in the room. The glad cheers of his followers stood up, and they're just clapping. And what was he saying specifically? He was threatening. the Supreme Court justices because they removed the judgment of Roe versus Wade in regard to abortion. And what he was telling them is he's telling them, you're going to see. You are about to see the power of women in this nation. And what he's saying is, we're going to bring the wrath down upon you. So he's threatening them. He's a tyrant. and those that are backing him up are tyrants as well. It's tyranny, and it's no less than that. He disregards the law of God. He is standing, you know, we don't wanna miss this, he is standing before the world, not just before Congress, he's standing before the world, and he's announcing, we're gonna kill babies, we are gonna murder babies, And there's nothing you can do to stop it. That's precisely what he was doing. And if you try, anybody that tries to stop us, well, you're gonna suffer the consequences. And that's what he's telling me. And not just in regard to abortion, it's in regard to all these other kinds of perversions of sexuality and any evil that is being perpetrated. pushed by him. So we're faced with a tyrant. So here's the question then. What are we to do? What is the church supposed to do, you see? Ezekiel, in his day, there was this tyranny going on, this deep state that was hiding there. What was he to do? Well, Ezekiel was God's man, and God raised up Ezekiel as a prophet, and he was to speak to and confront the evils then in his day. So what is a tyrant? First of all, that's a good way to begin, I think, then, with a definition. Here's one out of the Oxford Dictionary. Tyranny is the arbitrary, and arbitrary means There's no basis for something. There's no logical reason. It's just a personal whim, all right? Tyranny is the arbitrary or oppressive exercise of power. It is the unjustly severe use of authority, despotic treatment or influence, harsh, severe, or unmerciful action. Tyranny. We see this tyrant is unmerciful. Now, there's many examples of tyrants in the Bible. One of them is Pharaoh, right? Look at it now here, Exodus 5. And afterward, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people go. that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness." But Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I don't know the Lord. And besides, I will not let Israel go. Now notice what he does, what he is and what he does. Pharaoh sat on his throne. We know from Romans chapter 13, that rulers are appointed by God for the good of the people. But because they are appointed by God, they are to be subject to God, you see. They are to be a cause of fear to the wicked, not to the righteous. But tyrants misuse their office. They refuse to humble themselves before the Lord, just like Pharaoh here. And they become a law unto themselves. Who is the Lord? That I should obey his will. He's nothing to me. I am Pharaoh. They set themselves up as little kings, you see. So a tyrant is a king or a president, a congressman, a governor, some other person that's granted power in the civil government, particularly. who use power and control for their own glory and enrichment. They're supposed to be seeking the welfare of the people. But that's not what a tyrant, he could care less. And you always see tyrants then growing wealthier and wealthier and wealthier. It is a shame upon our nation that so many people are elected to Congress and they become millionaires, you see. That's a sign of tyranny and corruption. Well, what else do we see to be true of tyrants? Tyrants oppress. Pharaoh had enslaved the Israelites. To be more specific, tyrants particularly focus their oppression upon who? The people of God. The people of God. Tyranny targets the church. the people of God, upon the true Church. Our current president, you know, he claims to be a Christian and a member of the so-called Church, the Roman Catholic Church. This shows the corruption of the Pope. How can the Pope Here, the President of the United States stand up and say, we're going to have abortion, and not excommunicate him from, you see the hypocrisy and the double standard there. The Pope and his church are anti-Christ. So the anger and wrath of the tyrant is always particularly intense towards Christ and his people, just as Pharaoh's evil and oppression was targeted against the old covenant and people of God. What does that tell you? It tells you that tyranny and the tyrant is fundamentally satanic. It is a satanic thing. What you had there Thursday night, not just Thursday night, but when the president is standing up there threatening anybody that's going to take away the Freedom, you notice how evil reinvents the terminology? They're going to talk about killing babies. They're going to say reproductive freedom. You guys are taking away the freedom of the American people, see? Reproductive freedom, and that's what they do. The devil's always lying. If he had lips, if they were moving, you'd know that he is lying. This is satanic. So last Thursday evening when the president was up there raging and giving his threats, what was happening? Satan is there. It's exactly what Ezekiel saw. Look inside. Look behind the scenes. What's really going on here? Satan is there. He's the one that's behind the tyrant. He uses the tyrant as an instrument, then, of trying to destroy Christ's church and all godliness. That's why Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And you think about that term, the gates of hell. What does that tell you? Satan is always at work trying to destroy Christ's church. But you see that largely in the book of Revelation, right? The woman flees into the wilderness and Satan's there trying then to destroy her. Even when Jesus was born is still an infant. He's using rulers to try to go and kill Christ. And he was never Successful. But this should be no surprise to us. Satan's behind. That's what's going on. Ephesians 6, of course. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. I think I read in Lloyd-Jones saying on this subject recently, he said, if you don't acknowledge this, that the real enemy behind the scenes is Satan, you'll never get it right. How to deal with it, you won't understand what is really going on. And what will happen is, if the church does not recognize this, what will happen, that's where the church gets off onto all these detours. Well, we've got to take this action. We better push for this candidate, this time around. I hope we don't even have to push for a candidate. It's like a no-brainer, right? But if you love righteousness. But even if we vote for a particular candidate, we dare not put our trust in him. There, now everything's gonna be fixed. No. Hopefully some things will be fixed and they'll get better, but we don't put our trust in man, you see. Tyrants are lawless. This is another characteristic of a tyrant. They have no regard for the lawful law of the land, let alone the law of God. So in our nation, we see this increasing in many ways. The law of our nation, for instance, is based upon what? The Constitution, based upon the Constitution. So you have the judiciary branch, the judicial branch, that is the courts and so on, ultimately the Supreme Court. What do they do? They interpret the Constitution. All right? They deem whether a particular action is constitutional, then, or unconstitutional. The legislative branch makes the laws. That's Congress. They are subject to the Constitution then as well. The laws that they pass have to be constitutional. And the executive branch, that's the president and his group, they are to execute the laws, carry out the laws, but they must also, they must carry them out and enforce them as they are written and in a constitutional manner. The tyrant doesn't care. He doesn't care. He doesn't care about the law of God. He is a law unto himself. Here's a perfect example from 1 Kings 21. Now Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And after this, Ahab said to Naboth, give me your vineyard that I may have it for a vegetable garden. because it's near my house, and I'll give you a better vineyard for it, or if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money. But Naboth said to Ahab, the Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my father's. And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen. Sounds like Mr. Badman, doesn't he? Vexed and sullen, he's pouting. because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my father. Naboth told him no. And he laid down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food. But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said to him, why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food? And he said to her, because I spoke to Naboth. You can almost imitate his tone here, right? Well, I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. And Jezebel, his wife, said to him, do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite." See, doesn't care about the law whatsoever. We're going to take that guy's land because we can, and we're going to do it. And so what she does is she hires some false witnesses against him, claims he blasphemed God, and they put him to death. And Ahab had his vineyard. He seized his property. That's another characteristic. of tyrants. And you see it increasing in this land. They seize property illegally. The book in Hebrews, I think it's in Hebrews chapter 10, maybe 11, that the apostle reminds these persecuted Christians. He said, you know, in the early days, you endured the seizure of your property. And what he means was they were being persecuted, and their Property taken away. One of the characteristics of the Antichrist when he comes to power, right? Receive my marker. You can't buy yourself. So we will take from you. And so that's a mark of the tyrant. This is the satanic nature of the tyrant. Satan's man is the man of lawlessness. He's a law to himself. Second Thessalonians 2, it's talking about the Antichrist. Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that, here's another characteristic, he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. A tyrant is so wicked, so satanically impelled, right, that he, the ultimate fool, I am God. I can do whatever I want, you see. And so under our current tyrannical administration, we're being told what? The Constitution is out of date. We're gonna do away with the law of the land. We'll be a law unto ourselves. And Supreme Court, we're gonna fix you too. We're gonna rig things so there's even more justices and we'll put our lackeys, we'll put our people in there and we will get our way. Complete disregard for law. The tyrant is a lawless person. What else do we see in scripture about tyrants? Well, tyrants are merciless. They have no mercy. And again, current example, our president is merciless. He is without mercy. And you don't have to be speculative or imaginative to conclude that. You can see it. Then he doesn't care. He doesn't care about people. Tyrants have no fear of the Lord. No fear of God. Look, a tyrant is the ultimate fool. A fool is what? The fool has said in his heart, no God. There is no God. Well, that's the ultimate example of a fool, you see. So here he is, and I have no fear of the Lord. I will stand up as President of the United States, as a tyrant or as Pharaoh on his throne there, and in front of the whole world, I will present myself as a law, myself as an autocrat, and I will tell you how it's going to be. I will tell you that that I will tell you what the law. The law is whatever I say that it is going to be, you see. He has no fear of God. That's the ultimate in foolishness. Why? What do you suppose, do you think, was God listening to him Thursday night? Does God know what the tyrant is going, to do, what he's saying. He's mocking God. He is defying God. And God's wrath is upon him. Tyrants conspire against the righteous. They often make false accusations against them. Jezebel said, I'll find some witnesses here. We'll accuse him, and we'll be done with this guy. And that's what happened. There's another great example of this evil in the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 6. And it's in conjunction with Daniel ending up in the lion's den. Now listen to how this goes. I mean, this is so contemporary. This is exactly the tactic that is used against the righteous by the tyrant then today. So Daniel 6, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom. And over them, three high officials of whom Daniel was one. to whom these satraps should give an account so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. And the fangs of the wicked began to come out, right? Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom. We're going to get something on this guy because the king's going to promote him. He's going to be over us. We're not going to be able to get away with anything here. See, that's what was going on. So they're going to try to destroy him, try to kill him. But they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he, Daniel, was faithful. And no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God." So the whole thing's going to be a setup, you see. They're going to invent something, manipulate things, so that the king will have to punish and do away with Daniel. And of course, then, they They trick the king into passing a law that for a certain amount of time, if anybody worships any other god and so forth, and the king gets sucked into it because of his arrogance, and only when it's too late, because you can take back the law of the Medes and the Persians, then it's too late and Daniel has to be thrown into the lion's den. Well, how did it all work out for these conspirators, right? In the end, Daniel, the king goes the next day. Daniel's in the lion's den. Hey, Daniel, has your god been able to protect you? And Daniel calls out to the king, and they pulled him out of there. And the king says, you round up all these guys and their families and everybody else, and you throw them. Before their bodies hit the ground, the lions then were on them. But this is what happened, these conspiracies. We're going to get this person. false accusations, and so forth. Tyrants are demagogues. Now, that's an interesting word, a demagogue. Here's the definition. A demagogue is a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power. In other words, a tyrant is a demagogue. In this sense, he uses lies, promises, and flattery, pretending to be a champion of a certain group of people that he wants to win over to his side, a champion of some cause of the masses. But it's a lie. It's a pretense. He couldn't care less about the people and their interests as well. He's just using them in our country to get their votes, to gain power. So at the present time, for instance, we have a president who pretends to be a champion of women, a champion of so-called reproductive freedom. Our president is a demagogue in this sense. He is not a champion of women. If he were a champion of women, he would have dealt with his evil son, a long time ago who is an oppressor of women, you see. So what's he doing there? I'm a champion. He's threatening the Supreme Court. We're going to have this reproduction. He's a demagogue. He's using this false claim of being this champion of this group of people just to get their votes. And there are people that are foolish enough then to believe that sort of thing. But that's what a demagogue does, you see. They rise to power through demagoguery. Now, more importantly, what's God's attitude toward a tyrant? What does he think of them? Well, his attitude clearly is wrath, intense wrath. This is a certain promise from the Lord to us A tyrant will never prevail. He will never prevail. His doom is certain. Here's some examples. Acts 12. Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord. And having persuaded Blastus the king's chamberlain, that probably means bribed him, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food. So what they're doing is they're going, we better, we better get back in this guy's favor. We're in trouble here. What do we have to do? Okay, here's what we'll do. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration, a speech to them. All right, that's what he did. He delivered to them an oration, all right, oratory, that kind of a thing, what they do. The people, they started shouting, the voice of a God and not of a man, the voice of a God. And he inherited, ate this up. He ate this. Here they are worshiping. Now, they just wanted to get back in his favor. How were they going to do that? Well, this kind of worshipful praise, the voice of a God. And he, oh, man, immediately. 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. But the word of God, the church, increased and multiplied." And again, Daniel 5. And this is while the Babylonians were still in charge for a very short time. The handwriting on the wall. And this is the writing that was inscribed. So remember the scene, what was going on there. They were having this big feast, Belteshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. And he calls out, bring in the utensils from the tabernacle, from the temple in Jerusalem, from the holy place. Bring them in here, and we're going to drink wine out of them and boast about how we conquered Jerusalem. Our gods are greater than the Israelites' gods, and so forth. And the handwriting comes. This is the writing that was inscribed. Many, many tekel parson. This is the interpretation of the matter. Daniel tells him the interpretation. Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Now, see, this is an example. This is God's man rebuking the tyrant, all right? Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel, you've been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Paris, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar, I said Belshazzar, that's Daniel's Babylonian name, this is the king, Belshazzar, gave the command. Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler of the kingdom. Well, of course, this meant nothing to Daniel because he knew what was going to happen. That very night, Belshazzar, called Ian King, was killed. Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. The Medes and the Persians attacked. They conquered just like that, an unconquerable place. They conquered it, and he was put to death. He was a tyrant, and God struck him down. This is what God does. Every tyrant. will be struck down, will be brought to an end. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. We think, of course, of Hitler and what he, what happened with him, where his, where God struck him down, you see. What about the present tyrant or tyrants. What can we say about them? How long has tyranny been in Russia, for instance, or in North Korea? And those tyrants are still alive. But ultimately, we know this. God is going to strike down those tyrants. They're going to have to stand before God. And he will deal with them. His wrath, then, is upon them. So what is the church to do? What is the church to do? Well, Psalm 50, for example, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, perform your vows to the Most High. Largely, that says, keep right on doing what you're doing. If we're faithful to the Lord, we're worshiping Him, we're remembering the Lord's day, we're preaching His word, We're living for him through the week. Keep right on doing that, right? Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. And so pray. Here's one of our great weapons, prayer. Call upon the Lord. John Knox said, stand with Christ Jesus in this day of his battle, which shall be short. and the victory everlasting. For the Lord himself shall come to our defense with his mighty power. He shall give us the victory when the battle is most strong. And he shall turn our tears into everlasting joy." What is the church to do? Believe God's promises. Christ is coming. He's going to set things right. And furthermore, we have to always remember who our enemy really, really is. And I won't read the whole section again from Ephesians 6. You can do that yourself. We recognize the real enemy here is Satan. And if we're going to fight against Satan, we've got to use spiritual weapons, the weaponry that God's given us. Prayer is a big one. The chief one, really, is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The Word of God, then, you see, And then we can stand, put on the full armor of God. And then we can stand against the enemy. It's easy to become discouraged in times like this. We're all anxious about what's going on then in our country. It's like somebody I heard say recently, they said, is this whole nation going mad? Right? It's a whole crazy thing that A politician standing for righteousness is saying, and I will not let transgender men go into women's restrooms or compete in women's sports. Who would have thought that that even needed to be said? And so these things are grievous. And as citizens, it's, It's fine for us to try to get prohibitions passed on this sort of thing, but ultimately, ultimately our task as the church and as Christ's people is to proclaim the truth of God's word. And when it comes to a tyrant, the truth of God's word is, this is sin. You are sinning and rebelling against God. His wrath is upon you. Turn and repent or you will perish. All right? That is, that's the word of the Lord. The Lord always appoints a man, he always appoints his church to confront evil. The two witnesses. as we read earlier that Revelation talks about, the two witnesses. Who are the two witnesses? It's the church. It's in the reign of the Antichrist. And God permits and expects the two witnesses, the church, in the last days to speak his truth and to proclaim his righteousness. And when that mission is done, he takes us out of here. And then he comes and he deals in judgment with the wicked. And so that's what we're to do. Call wickedness and evil for what it is. But remember also, Jesus, when he was asked, well, how come you don't defend yourself? What's going on here? And Jesus said, 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 this world. And we need to remember that, that ultimately this world is perishing. Our kingdom, the real kingdom that we're citizens of, is then the kingdom of God. Since then, Peter said, all these things are thus to be dissolved. What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolve, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn? But according to his promise, we're waiting for a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells and everything that we do as Christians and as the church needs necessarily to keep that in mind so that we are not distracted. Father, we thank you for these truths from your word. We pray that you would give us wisdom and by your spirit lead us always in the way that you would have us go, that we would not be drawn off by the enemy into areas where we're not supposed to be. But at the same time, Father, we pray that you would grant us the courage to faithfully proclaim your word to a world that's perishing and to confront the tyrant, the tyranny, with its evil and pronounce the truth of the fact that God, our creator's wrath is upon that evil. And specifically, Father, in regards to our nation, we know that the fundamental problem here is sin, and that there is plenty of sin to be repented of by people of all political parties, and that we are not to look to a man, a person, for the real remedy. But the remedy is Christ. And we pray, Father, that you would bring about conviction of sin and repentance in this nation, even if that means that darker days are to come, Father. We know that A nation that has an evil person as its leader is experiencing judgment from you for our sins. And so we pray, Father, that we would all look to ourselves and ultimately then to you as our only source of real hope. And we pray all of these things in Christ's name. Amen.