Exodus chapter 20, beginning with verse 1. God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." Thus far the reading of God's word this morning. We are in the fifth commandment and we remain there. moment. If you'll recall, the reason that we're talking about civil government is that civil government rulers are called fathers and mothers in the Bible, and therefore the fifth commandment applies as well to this. It means we are to honor them as well. Let's please look at Romans in the New Testament, chapter 13. Romans chapter 13, this is an application of the fifth commandment to the state, the civil government. We're reading the first four verses. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whoever, therefore, resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." Now notice what the scriptural definition of the ruler here is. Verse 3, not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Also in verse 3, if you do what's good, you shall have praise of the ruler. Verse 4, he is the minister of God to thee for good. Also in verse 4, he doesn't bear the sword in vain. That is, he doesn't have the power of punishment without the ability to use it. He is to use it. He's not bearing it in vain. He's using it. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. As I said last week, it's this idea of a civil government official being a minister of God is very foreign to American ears. But in Europe, they know that. In the parliamentary system in Canada, for example, and other parliamentary systems around the world, you hear terms like the foreign minister, the prime minister, minister of defense, et cetera. Those are all a throwback to biblical times when they understood that a government official was a minister of God, not a minister in the sense that he is authorized to dispense the sacraments and pastor a church, but minister comes from a Greek word meaning servant. So he is the servant of God in the civil realm, and we are to give him that honor when he does what he's supposed to do. So how is ruler defined in this? Well, I see six ways. First, he is not a terror to good works. He is not the enemy of good. Secondly, he is a terror. He is the enemy to evil. Third, he praises good. He supports it, essentially. And that is further expanded upon by the fourth point. He's a minister of God to his people for good. That's a positive sanction. There's also a negative sanction. He's a minister of God to his people against the evil, against criminals. He punishes criminals. And number six, he bears not the sword in vain. He's given the power to punish evil, and he's expected to use it. So it's anti-biblical for someone to say, well, yes, this person committed the crime, but he had a bad childhood. And you can't blame him, it's his parents, and he was abused. So he needs psychological counseling, even though he did butcher 30 people, yes, of course. That's obviously anti-biblical. That is bearing the sword in vain. So a biblical civil ruler, then, is a minister or servant appointed by God to carry out his will in the civil realm. Specifically, to minister to people for good. That is, to use the powers of his office for the good of the citizens. and to restrain and punish evil in society. A ruler who does not do this is not ruling biblically. But the critically important question I want to focus on this morning, what is the good? What specifically is the civil ruler to do biblically to obey this commandment, to be the minister of God for good? Now, John Knox, the great Scottish reformer, would have no problem answering that question, nor would the English Puritans or the Scottish Covenanters. who laid down their lives for it. Nor would many Reformed pastors and theologians of the past several hundred years have trouble with that. Nor would the authors of the Westminster Confession and Catechism have a problem with that. I don't think Paul has any problem in answering that question. In fact, we just read, he said, if I've committed a crime worthy of death, then I don't oppose the death penalty. In so many words, what we just read in Acts. So he believed in the death penalty. Now, it's only modern day Christians largely have no answer for what is the good that the civil government is supposed to do. Christians today are taught that restraining evil is all that is meant by promoting the good. Oh, there are liberals who say, oh yeah, the Bible calls for all sorts of welfare programs and all that, but I'm putting them outside the pale of the people I'm talking about today. Most conservative Christians today say, well it's The civil government is supposed to restrain evil, and that's it. Well, this assumes, think about that, that good is simply the absence of evil. Now, is it? Is that the biblical definition of the word good? Is morality simply the absence of immorality? Well, what did Jesus say? Many things on this subject. One of them was, every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is sawn down. thrown into the fire. To have the good, there has to be positive activity. It's common sense. I don't have to dwell on it. You have to bear good fruit. I mean, the Ten Commandments prohibits the doing of evil, but there's also a lot of positive things. You honor your parents, keep the Sabbath day, you work six days, et cetera, worship God alone, all these positive things you have to do. But let's say, OK, let's indulge those people who say, well, no, all the civil governor is supposed to do is to suppress evil. But won't they admit that the most peaceful society and throughout human history, the most peaceful societies have been those that had been more Christian societies? It's certainly the testimony of history. There's a direct correlation even to this day between the crime rates of the nations and their people's self-identification as Christians. As countries become more and more pagan, they become more and more crime-ridden. For example, the very interesting thing that I discovered doing research, I tried to find out the lowest crime rate in the world, and I went to the Department of State and various websites to find it. I couldn't find the lowest crime rate in the world because a lot of countries, they don't report their crimes. The State Department says they're not accurate or whatever it is. But the one that we do know that we have pretty good figures on is the African nation of Rwanda, which had a terrible civil war about 10 years ago. And it's one of the poorest countries in the entire world, not just in Africa, but the entire world. Yet its crime rate is one of the lowest in the entire world. It's one of the safest countries in the world, which puts the lie, by the way, the idea that poverty causes crime. Why is Rwanda's crime rate so low? Because almost 90% of the people regard themselves as Christians. Rwanda is an amazing, amazing success story of Christian missionaries in Africa. I'll look it up sometime. Over 90% of the people regard themselves as Christians. They're one of the poorest countries in the entire world, yet they have pretty much the lowest crime rate in the entire world. What does that tell you? It's the self-identification of the people as Christians that make that a safe country. If you want to have justice and peace in a society, make sure that society is Christian and has Christians running the country. The existence of mere laws punishing crime is not enough to produce justice and peace. Even when there's capital punishment, it's not enough to restrain evil. If it were, Texas would be a paradise. Jesus said in Matthew 28, 18, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth. He taught us to pray, remember, what does the Lord's Prayer say? That his kingdom will come where? On earth. as it is in heaven. We often gloss over that, but we're praying that His kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. He said in Matthew 11, 27, all things, all things are delivered unto me of my Father. Now, if all things are delivered to Him, if all things, it says elsewhere in Scripture, are put under His feet, Are we to think that something so important as the government of civil society is not part of that? The Bible is clear that civil rulers are to bow to the kingship of Christ, just as every one of us is commanded to do. You don't get some sort of exemption because you're an elected official. Take a look at Psalms, please. The second Psalm. verse 10, "...be wise now therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." In many places in the New Testament this psalm is said to be referring to Christ, and it's quite obvious that it is, to kiss a superior is an Old Testament custom of showing honor and respect, loyal subjection to him. And who is commanded to do this, to be subject to the Lord, specifically the Son? Kings and judges, civil rulers of the earth, no matter what their office is. Now some people have argued, well this means in their personal capacity they're to be Christians, but not in their official capacity. Well, that doesn't even fit in with the scope of the psalm, but even if that's granted, then the question has to become, well, how can a ruler serve Christ personally and not officially? Is he supposed to be a Christian at home, but not at the office? I mean, wouldn't Satan love that? You know, Satan's always tried to sideline Christians, make them culturally irrelevant, make them think their faith is entirely personal, to each his own, you know, just keep what you think to yourself and do it in church and behind closed doors in your house, but bring your faith into the workplace? Make decisions by consulting the Bible and praying? Bring others to Christ through your work? How totally inappropriate, how blindly intolerant, the world says. And if you think you can do this as a civil government official, plus If you think you can enact laws that are based on the Bible, well, you'll be violating the sacred principle of what? Separation of church and state, right? You ought to be impeached. You know, we live in a pluralistic society, you know. Toleration is our God. Well, that's nonsense. The idea that a Christian can serve the Lord inwardly but not outwardly, or serve Him at home but not at the workplace, is ridiculous. and certainly foreign to the Scriptures and foreign to anybody who is a Christian. You can't keep it all bottled up inside you and pretend you're not. So Psalm 2 alone is clear testimony that Christ rules the nations of the earth, if for no other reason than He created them. And the creature is always ruled by the Creator. But we have many other scriptural reasons, not only the Psalm we just looked at, but the many prophecies in Scripture of His rule over the nations. Psalm 47 says, He's a great king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us and the nations under our feet. For God is the king of all the earth. The princes of the people are gathered together. This Psalm 47 describes Christ's ascension to heaven, the gathering of the Gentiles, and the ultimate establishment of His kingdom all over the earth. The 72nd Psalm. Beginning in verse 8, "...he shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. All kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him, all nations shall call him blessed." Now this is not talking, it's very important, not talking about the new earth after Christ returns. There will be no kings in the new earth after Christ returns. No nations. This Psalm 72 describes the fulfillment of what is rightfully Christ's, the subjection of all the civil governments of the world. Please turn to Isaiah chapter 49. Very, very key passage. I've referenced it before because it's so key on the subject. Beginning in verse 22, Isaiah 49, verse 22, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, and kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. They shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of their feet. The context here is the church. He's talking about the church when he says, your nursing fathers, and your queens, your nursing mothers. The context is the church. This prophecy refers to our own New Testament times when the Gentiles are being gathered to Christ. It can't refer to the new earth after Christ returns. There will be no kings again, but Christ, then. Kings shall be thy nursing fathers is a similitude Which means that rulers will give the tenderest of care to the church. Not just punishing evil in society, but active nourishment and support of God's people. Matthew Henry says about this, quote, The church in this world is in an infant state, and it is in the power of princes and magistrates to do it a great deal of service. It is happy when they do so, when their power is appraised to those that do well. Others of them who stand out against the Church's interests will be forced to yield and to repent of their opposition. They shall bow down to thee and lick the dust. It is the duty of rulers to take care of religion, and to see that the duties of it be regularly and carefully performed by those under their charge, and that nothing be wanting that is requisite thereto. The magistrate is the keeper of both tables." That is, he's the keeper of all the Ten Commandments, not just a few of them. That's what we have today. with selective enforcement of the Ten Commandments. You're punished if you murder, but you're not punished if you blaspheme God, etc. John Calvin said about this passage in Isaiah, undoubtedly kings will supply the pastors and ministers of the word with all that is necessary for food and maintenance, sometime in the future, provide for the poor, and guard the church against the disgrace of pauperism, and make every other arrangement that belongs to the protection and defense of the church. Now this is a far cry from the opinions of most people that the role of the civil government is simply to leave the church alone and to punish evil. William Symington, who was a Scottish Covenanter, pastor in the 1800s, wrote this, quote, again on this passage in Isaiah, if according to the opinions of some, the best thing the state can do for the church is to let her alone, to leave her to herself, to take no interest in her concerns, it is difficult to see how this view can be reconciled with the figure of a nurse, the duties of whose office would certainly be ill discharged by such a treatment of her feeble charge. On the contrary, this prediction, in Isaiah 49, leads us to conclude that, in the times of the gospel, persons of the most exalted public stations shall exert their influence on behalf of the Church of Christ And this certainly supposes the subjection of such persons to Christ himself, the subjection of the leaders to Christ himself. The same prophecy we just read in Isaiah is repeated in Isaiah 60. I won't have you turn to that, but it's in Isaiah 60. And by the way, I'll give you a list of these scriptural references afterwards. Quote, men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings, Gentile kings, may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yet those nations shall be utterly wasted. Thou shalt also, again the church, suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breasts of kings. This threat of destruction of the nations that refuse to serve Christ proves that this will happen in time and history before Christ returns. There won't be any nations refusing to serve Christ in the new earth. Again, quickly, Daniel 7. says that he saw a vision that all people, nations, and languages should serve the Son of Man. Daniel 7.13, I saw the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominions and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. It can't be referring to events after Christ's second coming because it says that Christ came with the clouds of heaven to the ancient of days. That is, he came to the Father. It's describing what happened immediately after Christ's ascension, after the resurrection. Christ's work of redemption was finished, he ascended to the Father, and was given rule over all the nations. Daniel 7.13. Now, there are a lot more passages we could cite. In fact, the whole of Old Testament prophecy on this subject is quite uniform, I believe. Christ is king over all nations and rulers of all nations. They are to obey his commandments in their personal as well as official capacities. This is a commandment of universal and permanent obligation. In Psalm 22, 27, all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. Daniel 4.32, the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he will. So the Lord expects all rulers everywhere to subject themselves and their nations to him and to support the true church of Christ. Even in the Old Testament, you'll remember he punished Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, for disobeying the Lord in his official capacity. You remember what he did to him? Anybody remember what happened within one hour? What the king did was he was wandering around Babylon saying, this is a great place, I built it myself, I should get all the glory. And the scripture says in Daniel 4, I'm going to show you, O king, who built this and who rules. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as an oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." The Lord made him insane in one hour, and he was out in the field eating grass with the oxen. And why? Because he didn't glorify God. The Lord punished his son, Belshazzar, pretty much the same way. Not exactly the same, but he did punish Belshazzar. Remember, this doesn't happen in Israel. We're not just talking about Israel, we're talking about pagan Babylon. The Lord expected the king to glorify him in pagan Babylon. He expects it of every ruler, in every nation, in every time period, or they will face the same fate of these kings. The fact that the nations are in rebellion against him today, the fact that I'm standing here and people ask, what are you talking about? There's no nations that serve Christ today. If there are, we don't know much about them. That's no argument against what Scripture says. It's no argument that He doesn't rule the nations. No more than people's rebellion against God's commandments invalidates the commandments. It simply reflects the fact that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, 2 Peter, but His longsuffering toward us. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So how should then, in summary, should a civil ruler support the good? First, it's the duty of all nations and their rulers to glorify Christ in all their actions and in all their laws, all their policies, domestic and foreign, all their appointments to office. If nothing else, then 1 Corinthians 10.31. Wherefore, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Civil rule is not accepted to that. If Christ is the king of nations, then the nations as subjects are duty-bound to honor the king. That goes far beyond promoting social order and happiness. They must take the Bible as their source of law, as in the way we worship. or in any other area of life, there are only two choices in the making of laws. There are only two ways to make laws, sources of law, human reason or God's word. Now, you could say, well, what about Islam, based on the Koran? Okay, so we have a third, the writings of demons, if you like. But basically, it's human reason or God's word. We either have laws invented by the brain of man or laws based on the Bible. If nations are under the kingship of Christ, they are bound to regulate their conduct by whatever laws the King has given to them. Can anyone argue that the Holy Scriptures contain anything other than the most perfect system of justice, principles of justice? How dare we throw it away and believe we can think up laws better than what the Lord has given to us? What monumental arrogance is that? No, the people of Old Testament Israel were given laws written by God Himself. The chief magistrate was to have a copy of the law and to base his decisions upon that. Now, what parts of the laws given to Old Testament Israel are binding today? That's a subject we can look into when we have more time. The point I'm making today is that Jesus rules all nations, He sets up leaders, tears them down at His pleasure, And all nations are bound to rule by the law of God. Now think about this. If all nations are not bound to rule by the law of God, then they're not subject to being condemned by the law of God. So we can't blame them if they do anything monstrously evil. We can't blame Hitler's Germany, we can't blame Stalin's Russia, Mao's China, for all these other leaders that have done horrible, horrible things. If they're not bound by the word of God, then how can we morally blame them? What do we have to stand on to blame them? When we look at the New Testament and we find instructions to civil rulers which say, be wise and be instructed, what do you think it means? What other thing could it mean but there to be wise and instructed out of God's Word? After all, Proverbs 9.10, the fear of the Lord is what? The beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of holy is understanding. God ordains that civil governments exist. We talked about that last week. Civil society does not originate in a voluntary social contract. John Locke type of thing. The ultimate source of power is not the people. The ultimate source of power is not the people. It is the God of the Bible. So whenever the majority of the people vote for something that's against scripture, it's not binding on you. Obedience is not automatically required if it violates God's law. It should be obvious. So the sum of this argument is the same as expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith. The original Westminster Confession of Faith, it says, civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the word and sacraments or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, yet he has authority and it is his duty to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, All corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed, and all the ordinance of God duly settled, administrated, and observed." The original Westminster Confession of Faith. Question 191 of the Westminster Larger Catechism, which is still recognized by all reformed churches that take the Westminster Standards as a substandard, says, what do we pray for in the Second Petition? Answer, in the Second Petition, I'm going to excerpt from it now, which is, thy kingdom come, the Lord's Prayer we're talking about. acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray that the church be furnished with all gospel officers and ordinances, purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate." Countenanced and maintained. Countenanced to give or express approval to, condone, maintained by the civil magistrate. The authors of the Westminster Confession and Catechism expressly stated that the civil magistrate is to favor and maintain, that is, actively support the true Church of Christ. And by church, they didn't mean Buddhist temples or Islamic mosques. They meant the Reformed Church, whether organized as Presbyterian, Baptist, or Congregational Independent. You have question 191 is right there in black and white for all to see. And it says that those who say that they believe in the Westminster standards is a substandard below the Bible. that we are to pray for the civil magistrate to countenance and maintain the church. That's never been changed. If you ask anybody in these reformed churches if they believe that, they'd say no, they don't believe that. I guess they haven't read it. Civil government is an ordinance of God. They are the ministers of God. They are under special obligations to maintain God's honor. To speak of the civil government being neutral on religion is ridiculous. There is no such thing as neutrality. Jesus Christ told us himself. There's no such thing as neutrality. He that is not with me, he said, is against me. Power without Christian character is a monstrosity. If we are lukewarm in this, we're neither hot nor cold, neither doing evil works or good, what does the Lord say in Revelation 3.16 about those who are lukewarm? He says, I vomit you out of my mouth. That's how disgusting you are to me. We have to take our stand for him or against him. He that is not with me is against me. And that's in the civil realm as anywhere else. As the king of nations, Jesus Christ requires of the nations obedience to his command. That includes the national government nursing the church. John Calvin said, When we see that matters are now very different and that kings are not the nursing fathers, but the executioners of the Church, let us acknowledge that this is the reward due to us for our sins, and let us confess that we do not deserve to have good nursing fathers. But yet, after this frightfully ruinous condition, we ought to hope for a restoration of the Church and such a conversion of kings that they shall show themselves to be nursing fathers and protectors of believers, and shall bravely defend the doctrine of the word." In closing, when kings shall be thy nursing fathers from Isaiah, and their queens thy nursing mothers to the church, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, the nations of the world will look far different than they do today. Their laws will be based upon this book, the law book of God, the Bible. Their officials will carry out His will. in governing under both tables of the Ten Commandments. Their national mission will be the glory of Christ. By this, the way is open for the gospel to be preached to all when the nations open their doors, that His church is preserved and nurtured, and that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one, it says in Ephesians, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. even in him. Thank you. at SWRB at SWRB.com by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue Edmonton that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta abbreviated capital A capital B Canada T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart, from his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions. Since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important. When he says, that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay what he never knew.