Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Revelation, Chapter six. Revelation chapter six, beginning in verse one. And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, come and see. And I saw and behold, a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him. And he went forth conquering and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, come and see. And there went out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from the earth and that they should kill one another. And there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, come and see. And I beheld in low a black horse. And he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny. And see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked and behold, a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth. Look with me again at verse 2. This morning, Lord willing, we are going to make some further progress in this first seal this morning. And if the Lord wills, complete it. Next Thursday morning. And I saw and behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer. Remember, throughout this sermon series, we have been looking for marks and hints that the Holy Spirit of God gives in how to properly interpret this book. With that in view, we spent a great deal of time in the first five chapters, but as you have now heard me say frequently, I think so much of the interpretation depends upon the right interpretation of chapter one, There the spirit gives us many hints on how to properly interpret the book. And chapters 4 and 5 in particular as the visionary stage is set. And we must remember throughout the whole that the whole takes place on that stage and in that scenery. So having some understanding of where John is is important in the interpretation of these images. Remember what we said last time we were together. John has already been given a time hint with respect to the fulfillment of these early images. If you look back at Revelation chapter one, verse one, these have been characterized as things which must shortly come to pass. If you look again at verse three, The Lord says the time is at hand. These are things that are getting ready to begin their fulfillment We then in verse 19 get a threefold outline from the Lord Jesus Christ Concerning what John was to write and again, we have not Invented this outline. This is not an outline that we drafted ourselves by careful study but rather the outline that Christ gives John was to write the things that he saw and That was the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 1. The things that are, namely the condition of the seven churches of Asia Minor, as they were given in chapters 2 and 3, and then the things after those. So after the present condition of the seven churches. And we were given an additional hint that we had not made any mistake in Revelation chapter 4. with verse one, the second half of the verse, after having been given the condition of the seven churches in the present, the Lord then says, come up hither and I will show these things which must be hereafter. Metta Tauta, quite literally after these things. So here you've got the condition of the churches in Asia Minor in the present tense, and now the opening of what is the lion's share of the book, things that were yet future to John, the third part of that outline. So if we are looking for fulfillments, the Spirit has already taught us where to begin looking, and that would be in that age immediately after John's age, after the the immediate condition of the seven churches of Asia Minor. Just by way of review, John has given us a type, and the reason I read the first four seals was because throughout there is a consistent type that's given, namely a horse and a rider. The horses seem to be in four different conditions. And there seem to be four different governors riding upon that horse. But immediately we are given another test of the right interpretation of these images. As I described last time, the right interpretation is going to be homogenous. There ought to be a consistent treatment of the horse and the riders throughout. In other words, if we interpreted in the first image the horse to be the church and then in the next three images the horse is the Roman Empire we know that we have a problem in our interpretation it doesn't sit well with itself it is not self-consistent the interpretation will be strongest when these images are all treated of a kind in other words the horse remains the same throughout and the riders the same throughout Even if the circumstances change, yet the parties remain very much the same. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I have almost no doubt remaining that the right interpretation of the horse throughout is the Roman Empire. I might even go further and say the only thing that gives me and a further doubt is the multiplicity of other possible interpretations but I hope to present a compelling case that this is the Roman Empire and the first governor riding upon it is that of a revived office of Roman Emperor remember it is almost universally understood you are probably already acquainted with the horse as a symbol of martial strength, military strength. It remains so to the present day. If you go to Washington, D.C., it's not unusual to see our presidents portrayed in Roman garb, the garb of a Roman general sitting upon a horse. Not that they ever dressed up, although some of them did ride horses, not that they ever dressed up like Roman generals. It's all symbolic. It's not unusual to see George Washington, for example, dressed as a Roman general seated upon a horse. It's a symbolic representation of a general who was mighty and victorious in the battle. This certainly, right on the face of it, fits the Roman Empire, a warlike empire if the world has ever seen one. But more specifically, and remember, the more specific the correspondence, the more confidence we can have that we have rightly interpreted the images. So the details are very important. And if I might remind you, one of the reasons I think that there has been so little successful interpretation of Revelation is because interpreters are not patient enough. in the sifting of the details. We want the answer and we want to move on to the next image, but although some things in the scriptures are very easy to attain, this is not among them. We'll attain to the right interpretation only through exercise. Remember what we said about Rome. Rome from its earliest time, the Romans considered themselves to be the offspring of Mars. Mars was the god of war. My wife pointed out to me that I took that for granted last time I mentioned Mars. But you should know that Mars was the Roman god of war and the Romans called themselves the offspring of Mars. And Mars was frequently symbolized or depicted in connection with a horse because of the horse's military strength and power. And so we saw that here there was the association with Mars and the fact that the war horse was always sacred to Mars. From time immemorial, in other words, before Romans had written records concerning their history, coming out of the fog of that unchronicled past, they had annual horse races in honor of Mars. Long before John's time, they had an annual sacrifice of a horse to Mars, and this was part of their national character. They were terrible in warfare, the association with the war horse. In this particular image, and if you can remember some of the coins that we looked at where Rome was associated in its medals with both Mars and the War Horse. Very compelling evidence indeed. The fact that the horse is white would have been an image that I would contend would have immediately suggested itself to John. Something that John would have known as part of his own upbringing, the image of an emperor riding upon a white horse was a sign of victory. This was very common in any sort of triumphal procession for the Roman emperor to return to Rome surrounded by a vast retinue but riding upon the white horse, the sign that he had been victorious in war. So a white horse speaks of prosperity, well-being, inasmuch as he has been victorious in war, peace. He has won for his people peace and a settled condition. I do think, and I'd have you consider whether or not this would have been the very idea that would have presented itself immediately to John to see a victorious soldier riding upon a horse, a white horse. But there's more. This would be additionally significant to John in that it was against the current expectation It was counter-intuitive given John's place in history. We don't tend to think in these detailed terms because we didn't live in the period of time. We associate the fall of the Roman Empire with the 5th century. So a time long distant from John. But in John's time, the empire was in decline. A rapid and frightening decline. It began with the office of the emperor itself. All you need to do is name the emperors and you know that the office was in decline. These are men that have become notorious for their selfishness, their self-interestedness, their gross immorality and irreligion, Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, cowardly Claudius, Vitellius and Domitian under whom John is suffering at the time. In conjunction with this, not surprisingly, the citizenry was also in a gross moral decline, but also becoming disaffected toward their government. They could recognize that these men were vicious and foolish. and not worthy to be leading the empire so there's a level of alienation and to make matters worse Rome is at this very time being successfully invaded by barbarians in the north so we frequently think of the barbarian invasions as being the 5th and the 6th century they were already successfully invading in the 1st century in this reign of Domitian when you join with all of this that The Roman Empire was persecuting Christians sometimes Empire wide but even more frequently on a local level You can understand why Christians might expect the Roman Empire to be shortly Dissolved under the just judgment of God the last thing in the world you would expect is an image of Roman victory and prosperity. It would be shocking to us say for our nation to suddenly recover itself and become a place of virtue and godliness. This is just not something that you would expect. Well what was the historical event? For almost 90 years after the reign of Domitian the very next significant thing that happens in history for John and the surrounding peoples is that the Roman Empire says about 90 years of peace at home, prosperity, and victory in the foreign fields. You wouldn't have expected it, but this is exactly what happened. And it begins, interestingly enough, immediately with Domitian's death in 96 AD. Domitian was succeeded by Nerva who with respect to the office of emperor was greatly superior and revived the condition of Rome with the ascension of Nerva you have a new family come to power and all these emperors, I'll read them to you, some of them you'll know, some of them you won't but they were all one family by adoption Nirva, most of you will know the name Trajan. There's a very famous letter that passed between Pliny to Trajan where Pliny discusses, he's a local governor and he talks about the Christians in his area and how he's supposed to handle the Christians. And Trajan compared to former policy was remarkably sensible and humane. He said not to search them out and not to receive evidence against them unless the witnesses were willing to appear publicly. We think of this and we still think that this is ghastly, but this is a vast improvement for the condition of the Christians. Hadrian Antoninus Pius, a name that you will probably know, there was a minor persecution there, as well as under Marcus Aurelius, He was a stoic philosopher, sometimes called the emperor philosopher. He was not a believer in Christianity, but he was what we might call a sensible man and a moderate man. Lucius Verus and then finally Commodus. And the decline really begins under Commodus in 184. Interestingly enough, and we'll come back to the significance of this, this is all one family by succession of adoption. And that's very significant in this image. I mentioned to you before Gibbon's decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon was not a Christian. But he did say, he did call this the golden age of the Roman Empire. An unexpected golden age to be sure, but a golden age nonetheless. and here rather than using the language of gold John uses the language of the right horse but very much to the same purpose Gibbon says at home they had prosperity civil unity and liberty and good government the emperors compared to their predecessors were wise will you understand what I mean if I say they were public hearted men forget the days of Caligula and Miro men who were completely selfish and self-interested these were public-hearted men with all of their various faults they were men who sincerely desired and worked for the prosperity of the empire and the well-being of the body politic and at home they succeeded There was civil unity and concord, there was no civil strife, the people were largely free to conduct their business, their liberties were enlarged and the government, especially comparatively, was sound. Abroad, they had nothing but victories. You won't know these places if you wanted to look into them, but Nerva had conquest in Pannonia. Trajan had great success in the eastern field making it all the way to Mesopotamia. So he conquers all the way out into Mesopotamia. During the reign of Hadrian, Hadrian had mostly peace. but for those of you that know the history of the 130s Hadrian also had victory in the Jewish war there was a great Jewish rebellion during that time that was suppressed by Hadrian Antoninus Pius had a mostly peaceful reign but he successfully defended the frontiers and after Antoninus Pius this can seem contrary to our image but in some ways is perfect for it if you think deeply about it The Roman Empire experienced massive invasions by barbarians from every direction after Antonius Pius. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and then finally Commodus, they were suffering in this way. But what's very striking about these invasions is that after a period of initial success by the barbarians, They were first defeated upon Roman soil and then the war was taken to their own soil and they were beaten there. And Roman government was instituted in these places. Remember the image. We'll come back to this. He's going out conquering and to conquer. And so during this period of time, after a period of what we might call contraction in the Roman Empire, successful barbarian invasion, the borders of the empire shrink. during this period they actually expand. And every attempt at barbarian invasion is actually turned against the barbarians and becomes an opportunity for Rome to expand its borders. This image of a soldier conquering and riding out to conquer. Gibbon says this, and this is a quote, one of the greatest authorities on this period of Roman history. This is very striking. He was an Englishman, 19th century I think, and he says this, if a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would without hesitation name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the ascension of Commodus. So beyond just the golden age, he said that this was probably the happiest and most prosperous time temporarily in the history of the world. And Gibbon was no mean historian. His work in the history of the Roman Empire stands to the present day as a monument of scholarship This brings us to the writer himself and the first description of him. He's sitting upon the horse and he has a bow. I hope already we have a prima facie case that the writer is the emperors. Because the emperors were of course the agent in God's providence that brought this white condition, this prosperity and victory. Also, remember what I said that the emperors did ride upon white horses in all of their victories, in their triumphal processions. But interestingly enough, he is portrayed as carrying a bow or armed with a bow. Right away, you should ask yourself, you've got a rider on a horse and he's carrying a bow. What does this suggest to you? This is another military symbol. But there is a problem here. and a problem in our interpretation. In almost all the artistic representations of the emperors from the period, they're frequently seen upon white horses, but usually carrying a javelin or spear, sometimes a sword, but to my knowledge, never a bow. The bow was associated largely with the people of Asia and the barbarians, although of course the Romans used them what you don't find them is being used as a symbol with regard to the Roman Empire and so some have taken this as decisive against interpreting this as the Roman Emperors for those of you that are familiar with the history of Reformed theology no less than an interpreter than Vitringa rules out the idea that this is the Roman Emperors because of the bow He says that this so strongly suggested the Roman emperors that the spirit, if he was going to direct us in a different direction, would have to give us a symbol contrary to steer us in a different direction. Does the bow speak against our interpretation? On balance, I would say not only does it not speak against it, but it confirms it in every way in some of the most striking imagery that can be imagined. A little bit of further history. All of the emperors to the time of Domitian were either of the old Roman families or at the very least Italians. So they were either Romans or at the very least Italian families. Nerva was the first what they called Italian. Basically this means that he was a Grecian. He was a Greek who had settled in Italy, that's the name, Ataliot, and specifically he was from the Isle of Crete. Now remember what we have said, not only was Nerva a Cretan and of a Cretan family, but he had adopted all of these ones. This is recognized as a dynasty line from Nerva to Commodus. One family, I was surprised having read this in E.B. Eliot's Ori Apocalyptica, I looked it up on Wikipedia just to see what contemporary people say and there's actually a whole article on the Nervan-Antonine dynasty it's seen as being a discrete unit in the history of Rome and they are contemplated in that article as all being a single family through a line of adoption so that's all a Cretan family and the connection between the bow and Crete is striking and at this time already ancient and notable. First of all let me give you four points of detailed contact between Crete and the bow. This first bit of evidence is I might say a little less strong and mostly a probable explanation for what we find to be latter facts that are far from weak but rather indubitable. It appears that Crete was settled by Palestinian Karathene. Basically this was one of the Philistine peoples. And the Philistines, we've just been through this in our own family worship, you frequently find the Philistines fighting by means of the bow. This would not have been unusual, of course, even for the Jews. But you remember that Saul, for example, was first wounded by archers. They were famous for the bow. Some of the evidence, you might be able to hear the verbal connection between charathim or charathim and Crete. But it's not just in the Hebrew language. The Arabs called the region Karathah, that is the Philistine lands. The Syrians called it Krath, or Crete, and of course the Hebrews called it Cherithim, or Cherithim. And just one example of this, if you'll turn back with me in your Bibles, don't lose your place in Revelation, but turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 25. You might want to associate the prophecy of Ezekiel with the 500s BC. Ezekiel 25 verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines and I will cut off the Cherithim. and destroy the remnant of the seacoast." So there the seacoast, this was the Philistine settlement. They're called here the Keratin in Hebrew. So they're called Keratin in 6th century BC Hebrew. When it's translated into the Greek in the 3rd and 4th centuries BC, they translated it Thretos. So you hear the verbal association with Crete. Interestingly enough, when you come down further in history to the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Aramaic, they're called the Targums, Keratheme is simply translated archers, wittingly and directly. So wherever you see Keratheme, they translate it into Aramaic, the archers. That's how famous the Philistines had become for archery. The Carithaim were taken up in spite of the fact that they were of Philistine extraction and to be part of David's lifeguard. In other words, his personal bodyguard because of their skillfulness in war and with the bow. It is thought that perhaps the Carithaim settled Crete during the time of David because David vexed the Philistine so in warfare. Again, all of that is just meant to be suggestive of a possible explanation of what are later facts. And here we have three other parts of very striking correspondence. I want you to look in your outline at the coins struck there. Here the second part of correspondence is Crete's own traditional legends concerning itself. These medals were struck during the time of the Roman Empire and it shows that there was an ongoing association between Crete and the bow even up until the times of John and even later. In one of those coins you have the Cretan Apollo with the bow and he was said in the Cretan mythology to have been the inventor of the bow and that he taught the Cretans archery this was their traditional and legendary explanation for what is a later fact of history that the Cretans were superior in the wielding of the bow superior to all other Grecians and all of the other peoples of the region you also have in another coin there the Cretan Diana and her bow So you see the association between Crete and the bow, even a an association that becomes, in the time of John, symbolical. You know, Crete and the bow become synonymous, where the bow becomes a symbol for Crete. So that's the second point, their own traditionary legends. The third point is their military history. And I won't do all of this. I'll simply say that you have historical attestation of the Cretan ability with the bow in warfare from the time of Homer, which is the 8th century BC, through a long succession and continuous succession of Greek and Roman historians until the 3rd century AD. In other words, for more than a millennium, the Cretans and their skill in warfare with the bow was famous. And finally, you also see this in the coins. The Cretans also became famous for their manufacture and sale of the bow. And so you have a picture of a Cretan fashioning a bow They were very famous world over for their quality of both bows and arrows. The bows were strong and the bows and arrows together were accurate. Interestingly enough, far from being an argument against this, if you are wanting to depict the emperors and yet distinguish them from earlier and later emperors, there is no more perfect and fitting symbol than to put a bow. If you understand what I mean, if the Lord had been pleased to put a javelin or a short sword in his hand, he could not be distinguished from the emperors that came before the period or the emperors that came after. What is distinctive about these emperors is their association with Crete and the fact that they are a family dynasty associated with Crete and so there can be no more perfect representation than the bow. As you can probably tell, we're still not done in our proof concerning the significance just of this horse and its rider. We still need to deal with the crown, here in Greek the stephanos that he is wearing, and more particularly the image of going out conquering, and to conquer. This is too much to do in one day, although I do hope we can finish it next week. But I thought that we might draw a doctrine from this or rather take occasion by this to derive a biblical doctrine more broadly and seasonably as we had occasion to observe earlier we are in a period of national election we are going to be electing a president soon as well as senators and congressmen and other local officials of various sorts And so we must first take it as a doctrine that a good magistrate is a blessing to a people. A good magistrate is a blessing to a people. And we need to remember this. There are so many things about our government in this day and age that would prejudice us against the very idea of government. There are many things about our government that are provoking to Christian people. and seem almost purposefully designed to alienate our affections both from this particular government and notions concerning government all together but we must remember that irrespective of our current government a good government is a blessing from God to a people I'm taking occasion here from from what might seem to be a strange text, and I do want to offer some words of qualification, because I don't want to appear to be saying something that I'm not saying. These emperors were good, but they certainly were not as good as they could have been, nor as they should have been, in duty, and especially in the way that they treated Christians. So don't get me wrong. Our standard is a biblical Christian magistrate. So we desire much more than a wise and politic government. These emperors certainly were that. They understood political process and the functioning of military and they were skillful in wielding all of these tools to bring their people into a place of greater civil prosperity and peace. As Christians we desire something more than this. We don't want just the wise and the politic. We don't simply even want improvements in virtue. And these men certainly did make improvement in virtue. They were, even by Christian standards, more virtuous than their predecessors or their successors. They were a great improvement even in what we might call the natural virtues or living according to the light of nature. We desire even more than this. We want a biblical and pious government. Remember that the work that we have already done, and I don't want to I hope that we all have some interest in politics and the things that are going on around us. But I hope that that interest never becomes disconnected from King Jesus. Remember the lessons that we have already done. We have talked about Jesus Christ as being King of everything. King in the church. But frankly and directly, King of the United States of America and as a Christian people. We should never be able to be content with our government until it acknowledges Jesus Christ as King. And that acknowledgement will come by way of a constitutional kissing of the sun and it will make itself, very much like in the life of an individual, it will make itself evident in the life of a people as both tables of the moral law are enforced. So not just thou shalt not kill, but Thou shalt not have any other gods before me. Not just thou shalt not steal, but thou shalt remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. All of these things in acknowledgement of the kingship of Christ will be observed and kept. And more than that, the magistrate, because he desires the keeping of the fourth table of the law, will do his utmost to support the church. To further it in its life and work is helpful to his own government. Helpful so that he might discharge his own work, which is to further well-doing in a people. And remember, we can't, this would be a digression to do all of this, but remember that's his primary duty is to encourage those who do well and to discourage evil-doers. And it's not enough for him to discourage evildoers. If there are any that are doing well in a nation, we would hope that it would be the church. And so he would be encouraging them in their work to advance the true religion in his own nation. These emperors, when compared against that standard, certainly fall short, fall far short. They fail in many points of virtue and justice. We shouldn't think that all of their wars during this period were just wars. They weren't. And I don't want to be understood as saying that they were. And during this time, there was some measure of persecution of Christians, which is very provoking to God under any circumstance. So be clear, I'm not saying that these emperors were all that we might hope for as Christian people. But we can say this, and we should say this because it is a reality, that these emperors approach closer to the standard than those that went before and those that went after. In other words, they went much further in natural virtue than their predecessors or their successors. And when I say a lot further, all you have to do is go back and remember who Caligula and who Nero, just remember who they were. Some of the other names will be less famous as far as their successors, but Decius and others, these men were violent tyrants. will come to them at a later point in history and you'll see much more largely that these emperors were really a great improvement, not just for the empire, but if you were a Christian during this time, you would be breathing a sigh of relief. This is better for us that it is like this. We'll talk some about the condition of the church more particularly next week. So comparatively, Not compared to the standard of the Word of God, but compared to their successors and predecessors, these men were a great improvement in government. They ruled not according to their selfish inclinations and self-advancement. But as I mentioned, these were men that were public-hearted men, public-interested men. The persecution of Christians during this time was much lighter. And even though they were considered criminals, the measures that were used to track down these criminals were much more humane in many of these, and this doesn't sound great to us, but the death penalty gave way to banishment. And as a Christian you would be glad that they told you to go live someplace else as hard as that might be rather than feeding you to the lions or something like this. This was a better period for the church. And the effect of all of this is general blessing to the Roman people in the providence of God. And this is all I intend by my doctrine that a good magistrate is a blessing, and it is characterized as such in the scripture. Very briefly, turn with me to Romans chapter 13. And if you would like to know what the word of God requires in a magistrate, a couple of texts for you to look at in the peace and quiet of your own mind later this afternoon. Deuteronomy chapters 17 and 18. Romans chapter 13, which is what they call the locus classicus. If you want to, this is the classical text that everybody goes to when they're studying the biblical view of the magistrate. So don't neglect Romans 13 and 1 Peter chapters 2 and 3. And you'll learn much about what God expects from a magistrate. In Romans chapter 13, verse 4, And here, I just want to prove my doctrine that a good magistrate is a blessing, for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if they'll 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. A couple of things to note here. Notice that magistracy is characterized here not as a necessary evil, but as God's ordinance. More than that, if he is to be a good minister of God, he needs to perform his function, which is to encourage those that do well, you see that in the surrounding context, and discourage those who do evil, you see that in this very context. That's his primary goal and function. You begin to see how skewed our own government has become. He does nothing to uphold and encourage the good, He doesn't punish wickedness hardly anymore. About the only commandments that mean anything anymore and even then with qualifications are thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not steal. I think America has been a great experiment and ultimately a failed experiment in this idea. Can the second table of the law be enforced by the magistrate? and be enforced well without the first table. And I think what America is discovering is that really the second table doesn't make any sense without the first. Well, OK, let's all agree that we shouldn't kill. But what about when old people become very inconvenient and costly to the body politic? How about those? Can't we just put them to sleep? What about the babies in the womb? And you see, without thou shalt have no other God before me. This is nothing but opinion among men. What happened to the seventh commandment anyway? It used to be that divorce was only granted on biblical grounds, even in this country. Now you don't have to have any reason at all. You go and you basically tell the magistrate, well, we're not getting along. They call it irreconcilable differences. And he grants you a divorce. But not only is adultery not punished by the magistrate, but homosexuality now being legalized by the magistrate, because all of these things have left the realm of religion and morality and have simply become matters of personal preference. America has now endeavored the experiment and it clearly has failed. You do away with the first table, the second table will go, there won't be anything left of morality, it will simply be power. The person who has the power makes the rules, rather than the Most High God. This is God's ordinance, that is, magistracy. He's got a job to do, that is to uphold the good and discount the evil. Our government does about everything in the world besides this. It gets involved in all sorts of other things, but neglects this, that one thing that is needful for a magistrate. But notice here, I brought up this whole text for this one reason. He is a minister to thee for good, and he is good for people when he does his job. These emperors still left a lot to be desired, but they were more virtuous, they did more to promote what we would call natural virtue in the midst of a people. They discounted evil, they prevented and beat back the evils that are attached to invasion and the theft of property and then in effect for their people was a greater level of blessing. But there is more here. And there's a limitation on the blessing because of the way that they acted, or the limitation of their piety and virtue. These improvements, as notable as they were, and I've tried to point out that they were notable, these notable improvements were still not repentance and faith. And as long as it's not repentance and faith, It is not going to be acceptable in the sight of God. Apart from God, apart from faith, it is impossible to please God. So here Rome receives a season of mercy. During this age, the gospel goes out into the midst of them. They are blessed and yet they do not repent. The emperors and the government are still not receptive to the gospel although in spite of the fact that for them an ever-larging and perhaps disturbing segment of the population is embracing the gospel. Soldiers are laying down their arms and refusing to acknowledge the emperor as God, refusing to participate in the civil religion and saying if this is the terms of fighting for Rome we will not fight any longer. And you have these in greater and greater numbers all of the time. We see something here that's very instructive for us as a church and as a people. The season of mercy was abused by Rome and neglected. So the season of mercy was removed. And what we will find in the next seal is not a white horse, but a horse that is red, bathed in the blood of a civil war. and it is no longer these wise and in some measure benevolent emperors that are riding upon the horse but basically the military takes the government and the emperors become the puppets of the military inaugurated or removed at the good pleasure but this is what happens when they did not respond to the gospel they did not repent And this is for our reflection and our prayers. What is America doing with its season of mercy? The gospel still rings throughout the land. And every time we turn on the TV to look at the news or flip on the internet to look at what the politicians are saying, wise policy with impenitence still ends in ruin. And here you had a hundred year experiment in Rome. Wise policy, be it ever so wise with God provoking sins yet in the land still ends in ruin. And it doesn't matter how wise the policy. I could wish that in our national elections we were talking about other things. We need to stop talking about what works, what we think is pragmatically feasible. We need to start talking about what's right. And what's wrong? How refreshing would it be to your politicians? Stop saying we think we need to raise taxes because that'll work or lower taxes because that'll work. And I'm not saying that that's not important. But the first question is, is it right? Or is the government robbing its people in violation of the ruling of King Jesus, who said thou shalt not steal? So before we talk about what works, we need to first be selecting among lawful options. So the first question has always got to be, what does the king think? What has he said about these things? You should remember, and it's noteworthy, that the Egyptians sold themselves into slavery to Joseph. And Joseph took 20%. They kept 80, he took 20, and they were considered to be his slaves. Now think about the American people and ask yourself the question, is it right? Does the government have the right under King Jesus to tax willfully, and it seems to be without any limitation or end, as they simply consider what will work best for them in getting elected. We need to ask these questions. I'm not saying that I know the answer to what percentage is fair as far as maintaining magistracy in the government and the military and those sorts of things. But we need to start talking along these lines. Is this right? And only having determined that it's right does it become a lawful option to be considered in the question, does it work? I hope that is clear. But America should be reflecting during this time. God has already been rattling the saber. We've become comfortable again. And this is why I talked about abused seasons of mercy. You look at the history of the world. This is very common. The Lord swats a nation and then he gives them time to turn from their wicked ways and to repent. And you think about what happened in New York. And what happened in New Orleans and the fact that our economy has never recovered from that time, never was what it was before. It stopped being about those poor people in New York City. Every American started feeling it a little bit in his pocketbook. And it continues to be present time agricultural difficulties of all kinds. unseasonable wet and unseasonable dry and all of these sorts of things and we continue impenitent as a people it's an abused mercy and a God provoking sin but we yet have a season and we must remember our people the American people in our prayers I know that for Christian people a lot of this is provoking but we cannot let our hearts Remember, as an example, the Apostle Paul, he had received no good treatment at the hands of his countrymen. My wife was recently going through the Book of Acts with the children, and she was just struck how angry Jews chased Paul from Gentile city to Gentile city, trying to cause problems for him. These people had not been kind to him. It's easy for us so far removed, but just imagine how you would feel about a group of people who cause problems for you. Every place that you went, you move away, try to go work in peace someplace, they follow you. When they can, they have you arrested, put in chains, beat the skin off your back, stone you and leave you for dead outside of a city. This is the way you've been treated by these people. And yet read the way that he talks about them in Romans 9 through 11. I could wish myself a curse from Christ for the salvation of my kinsmen, no coldness of heart, no alienation in spite of the abuse. And this is my my use for our doctrine is we must pray for the American people. They are our people. This is our nation and our country. And we cannot let our affections grow cold. If Christian lips grow mute in prayer, if our hearts grow cold towards our nation, it bodes very ill for our nation. If God withdraws the spirit of supplication, what hope is going to be left for the nation? But we need to pray for our government and pray for these elections that are coming up. I hope that what we have done by way of doctrine provides a strong motivation that in these elections the welfare of the nation and the church are very much involved. We are not disinterested spectators to the well-being of the nation. Our American people and the church are very much tied up in these things. And we have a God-given duty and responsibility to pray. Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 2. The context of this is all the more striking inasmuch as It's altogether likely that these are what are known as the pastoral epistles, the two epistles to Timothy and the epistle to Titus are probably the last things that Paul ever wrote. You're getting very much toward the end of Paul's life. And the history of the church tells us that Paul was executed by a Roman sword under Nero. And no doubt, by the time that this has been penned, he has already been locked up by the Romans several times. And who knows, he might even at this present time see that he doesn't have very much time left. That makes this all the more striking. First Timothy chapter two, beginning in verse one. I exhort, therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. This is one of those texts where the Armenians have latched onto a small handful of words and they've dropped the context. Remember, that is always both a mistake in exegesis as well as in logic. They drop the context and they excise some words. And they say, well, here it says that God wills that all men be saved. And so God is out there trying to save every individual on the planet. Observe the context. Here, the context is telling Timothy how he is to conduct himself in the church of the living God. You'll get to that at the end of chapter three. He's telling them some of the things that he wants to make sure are done in the church and in the religious life of the church. And he says, first of all, that supplications, prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. for kings and for all in authority. So we are to pray for all men. Interestingly enough, no Arminian ever takes that word all in verse one to mean every individual on the planet, which clearly is impossible, even if you wanted to do it. It just means all sorts, without limitation. And what he has in view here, you can imagine the question. This is written to Ephesus, Timothy's in Ephesus at the time. Do we pray even for pagan kings who are persecuting us? And there are a few things there that are noteworthy that could cause the confusion. One, they have their own religion. Imagine people coming out of a very polytheistic Very much like our own. They have their own religion. And they are kings that have their own religion and are esteemed as gods. And they're persecuting us. Do we pray even for these? And he reminds them that in spite of the fact that they have their own religion, there is really only one savior. One mediator between God and man, their religions are empty and mere pretense. There's only one God. And one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, only one Savior that can actually help. So abandoning them or turning them over to their religion is not to help them at all, because their religions are not true. We are to pray for kings. This is to pray for individuals. This is to pray for what you might call a corporate conversion, so you've got the individual king, but notice here it's in the plural, and all that are in authority. These bodies of political rulers on every level, so we pray for them as individuals, we pray for them corporately, we pray for their conversion because there is only one mediator, and that is Jesus Christ, and we pray for the populace. And in particular that Christian populace that we might under a good government live quiet and peaceful lives in carrying on the work of the church and the spread of the gospel. And if you value that, you have a great motivation to pray indeed. So you notice what This language of all here, if you look at the whole context, has clearly got nothing to do with every single individual. It's answering the question, do we even pray, if you will, for that other sort? A very different class, kings, very different religion, and very opposite to us. Do we pray for those two? Yes, we pray for all men. Because God is saving, in that sense, all men. all sorts of men. And you remember, glory be to the Most High God, before Paul passed out of this world, there were converts even in Caesar's own households. Christians in the Imperial Palace. Those prayers were offered and they were heard and Paul had the great privilege of serving the Savior Christ by preaching that gospel in Caesar's house to the conversion of even Caesar's household members. So two things just by way of review. It's very important that we continue to stir up our hearts in affection for the American people. And it is very important that out of a heart full of affection, we pray for the American people and for those that govern us so that we might live quiet and peaceful lives in the gospel work. Let us pray together.