Our Civic Responsibility

Well, since the election for the President of the United States is just, what, nine, ten days away, I want to preach on that this morning. Turn to First Timothy chapter two.

Would you do that? First Timothy chapter two. I'm entitling this our civic duty. We've looked at this when we went through First Timothy, but we've modified it some for our application today.

I've simply entitled the exposition of this, and we can't unfold everything that's here, but I've entitled it our civic responsibility, and I'm not suggesting this covers all of our civic responsibility, but some main and primary aspects of it, you might say. Paul, writing to Timothy, whom he has left with the job of overseeing the new local church in the city of Ephesus, says this. Second Timothy chapter two, verse one, going down through verse eight. First of all, then, I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we, that's the church, may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying, as a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.

Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension. I make no apology this morning for once again preaching to you with a strong emphasis on the centrality, the foundational aspect of God's local churches. The local church in this time and this dispensation is the centerpiece of God's purposes and God's glory. If you lose a devotion to a true biblical local church, you've lost God's purposes in the world. God has no plan B. Matthew 16 18, Jesus said, I also say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.

And the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. He didn't say we would build his church, he did not say he would build our church, he didn't say he would build his church, he did not say he would build our church, he said I will build my church. Our job is to get in on it with him, cooperate with him in this work. The church, and for time and space history now, local churches is the premier work of the Son of God. Of all of the works, including the original creation, nothing comes close to the work God is now doing in the world of saving his elect and building his churches, which he will one day bring together as one whole and glorify in the eternal state. The New Testament tells us the church is his building, it says the church is his prized purchase, the church is his bride, the church is his body, in every way it seems like he could metaphorically or use an allegory to picture the importance of the church, he's laid that out before us. He says in Ephesians 3 21, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, who's the founder and maker of the church, sustainer of the church, to all generations forever and ever, Amen.

On a linear plane, he puts the church and the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Why would the church be matched up so prominently with Christ himself? Because we're his bride, we're his body, we're an extension of him.

When you take a bride, she becomes one with you and we are his bride. So to his church and to himself be the glory. You see, the church is not one of many equally important works of God, get that through your bone marrow. The church is not one of many important things, it is the supreme premiere work of God in the earth that will last for time and eternity. So the church is not one of many, the church is a one and only. All enterprises that are undertaken for God and that will matter for eternity are to be connected to and contending for the health and the advancement of his local churches.

All that is not gospel bought, spirit wrought, and local church centered will not remain because his church remains forever. So Paul's writing to Timothy here. In chapter one, among other things, but prominently so, in chapter one he talks about false teachers, men who deny sound doctrine and begin to teach false doctrine, and how these men are so prone to fall into immoralities, they misuse their leadership for self-pleasure, power, and personal profit. And so Paul in effect tells Timothy in chapter one, these men must be confronted, these men must be called to repentance, and they must be excommunicated if they do not repent and fall in line with the truth that is in sound doctrine.

Because these are the kind of men who cause great, great damage to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now on the hills to that we come to chapter two, and he shifts gears somewhat and says something quite interesting. You may not have predicted he would flow into this pattern of teaching at this point, but I'd like to say that the central foundational thing he's pointing to here is the good or the health or the advancement of the local church. He talks a lot about evangelism here, and that's always a prominent element of our ministry, must always be. And though it's prominently taught here, it's not the primary truth of this section of Scripture. The primary truth is the health and well-being of his local churches.

So let's look at it there. He begins with prayer, and I'll make Roman number one this, praying for all. He tells the church, church be praying for all. He says in verse one, first of all, then I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men. Now I would say certainly you could say that includes all people in general, but I think in the flow of the context here, what he's saying is you don't just have one segment that you pray for more than other segments.

I might say it this way, you don't have a segment you leave out of your prayers. All men of all classes, all categories, all positions in society should be prayed for by the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's because the early church, and here specifically the Ephesian church, probably had gotten out of balance and probably thought, no, there's a segment of society that just is so far gone, we're not going to pray for them. And they were perverting the doctrine. There was a segment of society. There always seems to be in every age segments of society that are so ungodly, so rebellious, so anti-God that we might just kind of write them off. And I think Paul is saying, no, don't think that way.

You're out of balance. Pray for all. So first of all, under Roman numeral pray for all, A, sub point A is a dissection of prayer. He says prayer, when the word prayer is mentioned there, it's a word that's only used in reference to God in the Bible. Three quick thoughts about prayer in general. Number one, prayer is a holy activity.

It's given to us from and by God, the Holy One. Secondly, it's a holy duty. Have you noticed, child of God, that many times when you start praying, it's cold, it's dead, it's lifeless, but as you continue to pray, it becomes warm and joyous and a blessing.

That's because you're His. The Holy Spirit just has to come in and get us warmed up again. But it's a duty. You don't wait until you feel like praying. You pray because it's right to pray. You pray because you're loved. Wives you submit to your husbands, not because you feel like it, because it's right. Husbands, you love your wives, not because you feel like it, but because it's right.

And then your heart will catch up with it. It's a duty. It's a holy activity. It's a holy duty.

And it's a holy blessing. Once again, as you pray, your life is blessed with refreshings and encouragements and spiritual strengthening. Now, he says, as you're praying, verse one, he uses the word in the New American Standard, entreaties. To entreat the Lord means to express a need. It's the idea that we are insufficient in ourselves, so we are entreating God.

It's really a confession. God, we are weak. We flounder. We blunder. We fail. We sin, and we entreat you, God, for your strength and your guidance. Entreaties, because we're so weak. Isn't it true that God always keeps a thing or two in our lives that we can't fix? If I could only change her, if I could only change him, and God says, no, if I change him, then you won't need me so much.

He sometimes steps in and fixes stuff, by the way, but it is always. So we have entreaties. We're a weak Lord. We're insufficient. Then he uses the word petitions.

This is basically used in the context of petitioning for another, asking God on behalf of another, which is where really Paul is getting to here. And then the word thanksgivings, all through it, we're to have an attitude of gratitude. Oh, there's so much, so much to be thankful for. For a person who ought to be in hell, under the just wrath of God, we all have plenty to be thankful for. What provisions?

What care? Now, these are like bodily organs, these aspects of prayer. They're interdependent, if you were. They're interrelated.

One blends into the other, kind of like chunks of chocolate and a double boiler. Just kind of, you don't really know where one starts and the other one begins, and that's the way prayer should be. Now, I think there should be some disciplines about making sure we're covering the areas of prayer the scripture teaches us to cover. But then again, do you not find yourself thanking God while you're asking for something?

And then while you're thanking God, you begin to ask for something again, and they just flow together. So that's a dissection of prayer. Notice next, the direction of prayer. He says here in verse one, on behalf of all men, saints, and sinners, our prayers must extend to the needs of all.

Here's where I think Paul is going. I think the church at Ephesus had something of a balance problem. They were God's elect church, they were the church of the church of the church of the church. They were God's elect church, so they knew they prayed for each other. They knew they prayed for the church, but perhaps they forgot that yet for now we are in a godless world. For now, we have to function in and under the powers that be that are of this world. And here's a thought, and we're closer to the election, Oakley.

I mean in my notes, not chronologically, but same, both are true. The well-being of the culture does affect the well-being of the church. I think that's where Paul's getting to here. Pray for all men. He's going to talk about leaders in just a moment, because as they do well biblically speaking, the church will do better. And we're concerned more than any. I'm not an American first, I'm a Christian first.

I love my country, and the best thing you can do for your country is being the best Christian you can be. Now let's think about some context of why these early Christians may have had things out of balance in their thinking. Nero is the Roman emperor at this time, and Nero was a cruel, evil, brazenly hardened sinner. He was overly sinfully indulgent and very perverse in his lifestyle. He even had his mother murdered out of fear she might be gaining too much power and control over the empire. That's the kind of guy he was. There was a great fire in central Rome in AD 64, and the high suspicion of the day was that Nero himself set the fire, because he'd been wanting to build a grander royal palace for himself, and the senate wasn't going along with it, so he burnt part of Rome down so he could rebuild his palace and make it a lot bigger.

That's the thinking. So to dissuade that perception or that viewpoint, Nero needed a scapegoat, and he looked around and he said, I know who I can blame it on. I'll blame it on an easy, easy target. These Christians. I mean, the culture of the side at large disdained them and didn't like them and hated them anyway, so they were an easy target. So Nero put out the word that it's the Christians who burned down part of Rome, and so Nero retaliates and starts viciously persecuting the church. He had Christians hung on poles and doused in oil and set them aflame to light the way of his roads in the central parts of Rome.

One early historian noted that, quote, he executed Christians with lavish publicity. So the early Christians, many of them were convinced that Nero was the antichrist, and the end was soon. So suffice it to say they were not very motivated to pray for the good of Nero. I think that's where Paul's going.

You and I would probably find ourselves in exactly the same place. They had no real desire to pray for Nero or any government leaders. They're all of Satan, they thought. They're all enemies of the church, and they're right about that. We would be right about that, but we're out of balance if we think we're not to pray for them.

Sometimes I think it's right opposite today. We're not too separate from the world that we forgot to pray for the world. Too often professing Christians in the average congregation are too much in the world, and when they come to church, they bring the world with them. The balance of our concern for the world around us and for the church is really, I think, spelled out in Galatians 6 10. You know, we have our Galatians 6 10 benevolence fund. I may not quote it perfectly, but Paul basically says there, as far as it is possible as you're able, do good to all men, but, conjunctive word, he's going to define it for us, but especially to the household of the faith, especially your local church, your brothers and sisters in your church, because if you go out there in the world and try to fix every need you might run across, you'll never get back to the gospel.

There won't be enough time. So as you can in balance, do good to all men around you in the neighborhood, et cetera, et cetera, but especially take care of the church family God's made you a part of, and that's the way you balance those things out. I've told you before that as a young Christian, I was just so zealous, and I did not have wisdom, and I thought that Christianity meant you do all the good all the time for everybody out there, and boy, I soon learned that's impossible. Then I run across Galatians 16, and it got me more balanced You may remember some years ago, we had one of those terrible flooding episodes and muscle shoves, and in appreciation to our city fathers, they've built more ponds and more pumps, and we don't seem maybe to have that problem anymore, but some of our church members, their house is flooded, and I remember a pastor across the river who heard about some of our church members had homes that were flooded, said, well, the Grace Life Church army will show up in a minute and take care of all that, and I don't know how many dozens and dozens and dozens of men and women showed up, but for days and days and days, we helped our church members get their houses cleaned up, cleaned out, rebuilt, and re-established, but while we were in the neighborhood, we also did work for some others who were not church members. I thought it was a good picture of how we especially take care of the household of the faith, season 6, 10, but as we can, we should try to do good for all people.

We should try to do good for all people. Now let's narrow it down a little bit, praying for all. Now we go a step further, Roman number two, praying that governing authorities would bring blessing upon the church. You could amplify that out to say, pray that the governing authorities would rule so that the church could function in blessing more effectively for God's purposes and God's work. So he comes to verse two, and the Apostle Paul says, I want you to pray for kings and all who are in authority. This was probably more than a mild rebuke to this church at this time, as we can understand how hard it would have been for them to pray for the well-being of a man like Nero, but that exactly is what God wanted them to do.

Now, to what end? Verse two, for kings and all who are in authority, so that, subjective conjunctive word that connects the earlier phrase to the dependent clause of the last of the verse, so that to this end, that we, the local church at Ephesus, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Wow, you're to be exceedingly local church-centered as you pray for governing authorities. Are you with me, church? You're to be thinking in your heart, what's best for God's church, God's work in the earth, the advancement of God's gospel. We need to pray for our civic leaders to the end that God's work, i.e. God's local churches, prosper and are effective in the world. Have you ever heard the phrase that everything centers around God's local churches?

If the church is worth the death of the Son of God, then it's the center of everything. And we should pray. You want to get God's attention? Now this is an anthropomorphic expression that you need to take literally, but God may be reclining in heaven somewhere, but the moment you say, God, for your name's sake and the good of your church, God, I heard that one. That's what's on my heart, God would say. That's my priority, God would say. That's what I'm all about, God would say. Now you've got God. You've got heaven's attention when you put first what God puts first.

So Paul says to the Ephesians, pray for these kings, even Nero and all who are in authority, so that you the church. And he lists, what, four things there in the New American Standard that we might lead a tranquil life. That means peace or stillness. That means no need to run or fret. So God, give us the kind of government so that we, Bible-based, Bible-believing Christians in your churches don't feel like we have to run and hide from their persecution.

Would you give us those kind of leaders? Secondly, not only tranquil, but very akin to that, he says a quiet life. Quiet has the idea of no external disturbance. Tranquility, the earlier word, is more of an external disturbance. But isn't it true that when externally you're being persecuted, sometimes internally it's hard to have a quietness.

They go together well. Then he says, thirdly, that we, as God's local church, might have godliness. The idea here is living out our Christianity. God, give us the kind of leaders that in the way that they lead, we're not tempted to be ungodly, we're tempted to be godly and live out our piety, live out our Christian convictions. And then he lastly uses the word dignity. Tranquility, quietness, godliness, and then dignity. It's the idea of being worthy of respect. God, give us the kind of leaders so that we're not so harassed and disturbed and persecuted to get distracted, so that we can focus on leading our lives in the right propriety with a holy and righteous dignity to the way we lead our lives.

All for your name's sake, of course. So we pray for our leaders. That's the foundation stone of our civic responsibility. We pray for them that we may serve Christ in a responsible manner, not disturbed or hindered by governing authorities. That is, that we could continue in our church life and as Christians in this world with a peace in our hearts without the molestation and trouble from outside sources. I'm getting ahead of myself, but when you go to the voting booth, you vote for the platform, the coalition that is most likely to leave the church alone and let us function with quietness and tranquility. That's what the Word of God says.

Well, it gets exceedingly easy to know which lever to pull at that point, does it not? You remember Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker, he was sued, went all the way to the Supreme Court because he would not bake a cake to celebrate and glorify a homosexual wedding. The courts ruled in his favor and then they came back and they set him up again and tried to get him to make a cake celebrating a transgendered situation of some kind.

He refused to do that based on his Christian convictions and I think three times he's had to go to court and I understand just recently the state of Colorado dropped all things and he's out of it for now, but it went on forever. Jack Phillips is the kind of man that would say, would you please pray that the civil authorities would leave us alone? That's what Paul's saying. And let us serve our God in godliness with dignity, without the harassment and the difficulty. Now we have an early church father named Tertullian. Tertullian would be considered one of the top three, I'm talking about the first or second century church fathers, one of the top two or three of the first and second century and Tertullian said this about the Roman Empire in his day. I don't have to remind you that the Roman Empire was exceedingly ungodly and the Caesars, the rulers of the Roman Empire were particularly ungodly, but living in the Roman Empire, here's what early church father Tertullian said, without ceasing for all our emperors we offer prayer. We pray for their lives to be prolonged, for security to the empire, for protection to the imperial house, for brave armies, a faithful senate, a virtuous people, the world at rest. Furthermore, he states that the preservation of the Roman Empire as wicked as it was, was better than the alternatives. The other powers that be in the world in that day is what he's saying. He said and I quote, we have no desire then to be overtaken by these dire events and in praying that their coming may be delayed, we are lending our aid to Rome's duration.

Wait a minute, wait a minute, Rome's duration? An anti-god, anti-Christ, wicked, vile kingdom with ungodly, cruel, evil men leading it? Yes, because that was better than the alternative.

That was Tertullian's position. And I think it builds on the principle of Ephesians chapter 2. Which ruling authorities, which of the ruling authorities that are potential will allow the church to have the kind of quiet, tranquility, godliness, and dignity. So first of all, we should not have to be as a matter of confession. I kept a prayer notebook for many, many, many years and that's a part of the accountability system that we're established many years ago.

Many of you are still doing that to some capacity. I praise the Lord for that and in that prayer notebook had a time to pray for ruling authorities and I haven't prayed as I should have prayed. So this reminded me afresh to be faithful to pray for your mayor, your chief of police, your city councilman, your governor, your state representatives, and senators, your president, the national senate, and house of representatives, and supreme court. Brothers and sisters, can I say that's probably your number one civic responsibility as a Christian. So maybe you would join your pastor in saying, I repent of my negligence.

I'm going to do better in this area. Now, in addition for praying for governing authorities that the church would be blessed, if you will, not hindered in her work, you also have to pray for the salvation of your governing authorities. Look at it there in verses of four through seven. Who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? I like what the scholar said, who said, just be mindful that he doesn't say that God decrees all men to be saved. He desires all men to be saved because if he decrees all men to be saved, all men will be saved. But in the complexity of the transcendent God, in the complexity of the transcendent God, he has a heart that desires all to come to salvation, though all will not. And so we ought to have God's heart. So as you pray for your governing authorities, first and foremost, pray that they'll be saved.

If they're saved, that will come to the primary focus of the text, then the church will be more blessed by the civic authorities, would they not? So pray for their salvation. Continue on, verse four, for there is one God and one mediator also, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I think the point is here that even those you are hurt by the worst, that are despicable to you, of all others, these governing authorities that are so ungodly, God saves those kind of people too. So pray for their salvation, continue on, verse four, for there is one God and one mediator also, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Verse six, who gave himself a ransom for all, not just for you saved folks in Ephesus, but he gave himself a ransom that he might save some who are in the highest places of government ruling. And so, as you pray for your governing authorities, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them, pray for them in government ruling.

And Paul says, verse seven, for this I was appointed a preacher and apostle, I'm telling the truth, I'm not lying as a teacher of of the gentiles in faith and in truth. So we pray for governing authorities that the church might prosper, the church might be blessed, we pray for governing authorities that God would save them also, as we pray God would save our and our spouses, and our friends, and relatives in the community. Now let me come to a conclusion for practical application.

A conclusion for practical application. In Romans chapter 13, verse four, the apostle Paul writes about the purposes of secular government or civil authorities. And he says this, for it, the governing authorities, is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing, for it is a minister of God and avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. So God says, my purpose for government is to bless and promote what's good and to be against and punish that which is evil.

Pretty simple, isn't it? So if I'm going to vote as a Christian, I'm not always going to pay too much attention about the personal attributes or lack of good attributes of the person running for office. I'm looking at the platform and the coalition and asking myself, is this group, if we put them in office, will they better support what God says is good and punish evil than the other group would? Are they going to do a better job based on evidence of what's been going before us, of blessing what is good according to what God defines as good and punishing or standing against what is evil according to what God calls evil? Or are they going to be a coalition of governing forces who will do exactly the opposite of that? Have they given evidence that they will in effect promote evil and punish good? Brothers and sisters, there's never been a time in modern history where it was clearer than it is today.

Never been a time. For example, when we vote, we ask ourselves, does this party, this person, undermine God's design for government and society? Do they undermine it or do they build it up?

Let me give you eight areas to consider. Number one, abortion, killing of unborn children, which unfortunately in some states means killing of newborn children. Does that undermine God's plan for society?

Does that promote what is good and punish evil or does it promote what is evil and punish what is good? Number two, marriage. Does one party view and define marriage the way God basically does and another party promote a perverse, unnatural view of how God defines marriage? Very clear, is it not?

Number three, gender denial. Does one party applaud and celebrate and affirm this idea that you can be a gender your creator didn't make you? Are they not opposite of what God said government should do? Is that not a promotion of evil and a rejection of what's good?

The good way God made us to be, that is. Number four, the systematic weakening of the military or the police. The whole movement of undermining the role and the responsibility of government to have a strong and good police force.

Romans says God gives you those authorities for the blessing of good and the punishing of evil. They're right the opposite of what God says undermined or is the foundation I should say of an effective government for the people. Number four or number five rather, judicial activism. Judges who as a philosophy say I'm going to the bench not to strictly interpret the law but to subjectively bring my viewpoint and my politics into force in the land. Which party does that? And which party basically speaking stands against this sort of judicial activism from the bench? Number six, undermining the virtues of responsibility, accountability and a work ethic. What is abortion but shirking responsibility? We live in an age when the largest number of young well-bodied men ever in our history refuse to even try to get a job. And there's a party that affirms that and supports that.

Because the more they're dependent upon government the more those people can promise free stuff and the more they can stay in office. The last thing you can do for a young person who takes out a student loan is say the first important decision you made we're bailing you out. You don't have to pay any responsibility for it at all.

You're not going to be held accountable for it at all. Now it might change my mind if they say 64-year-old guys can go back and get their money back. I paid mine. Well, Ms. Pound paid it because she was a celebrity who had a lot of money when we got married.

We paid ours. But this whole, brothers, that is not promoting good, that's promoting evil. It's taking one virtue, compassion, but not balancing it with other virtues of accountability and responsibility. And you'll see that, that's what the liberals do. All the time they'll take one virtue and they'll make an idol out of it by denying the other virtues that teach the balance of it.

You're not compassionate when you teach young people especially that you don't have to be responsible for your decisions. There's a party that promotes that kind of thing and a party that generally speaking does not. Number seven, undermining women's roles. I'm not saying that women can't have multiple roles in this culture, but there is a party that holds in disdain and contempt, out and out derision for a woman who chooses to be a wife, a mother and homemaker. That is undermining the good in the culture and exaggerating that which is evil. I don't care where your position is on this, women who decide and men who decide that's gonna be the priority of our wives lives are not wrong or bad or evil or selfish or narrow minded.

They're just trying to do what they believe God's led them to do. But there's a political priority that basically would almost kick you out if you did not agree with them that the highest purpose for a woman is find fulfillment in a career. Ladies, you may have a career, you may have a job that's between you and God and your husband, but that is not your highest priority or your highest fulfillment.

It is God's role of being a wife, a mother and homemaker. And it's clear which parties seem to promote that type of thing, which parties that do not. So number one, abortion. Number two, marriage. Number three, gender denial. Number four, weakening of the police. Number five, judicial activism. Number six, undermining responsibility, authority, or rather accountability and work ethic. Number seven, undermining women's roles and the last one, when you go to the voting booth, vote for the platform, the coalition, the person who seems to care something about the church's prosperity in the world. They themselves might not be much of a Christian, but at least their position seemed to be that they would be a blessing to God's church's work in the world. They wouldn't obstinately oppose it.

I remember when Hillary Clinton was running for office a few years ago, and she blatantly, simply, directly said the church is gonna have to change some of its doctrine. No, we don't. And we're not going to. I don't care how it upsets you.

I'm sorry, didn't mean to yell so loud. While neither political party is moral or godly, it seems that one, maybe the Republicans, are too often complacent, calloused, and indifferent, but the other one openly supports all manner of wickedness and actively seeks new transgressions to champion, all the while irrigating to themselves the banner of righteousness. That's what's most deplorable of all. They do these vile, perverse things and talk about they're the virtuous ones. That's undermining God's plan for government in society. So when you vote, ask yourself, which candidate is most likely to govern in a way that will help and not hinder the work of the church? Secondly, which candidate is most likely to advance biblical principles in society? You know, Daniel and Joseph are pretty good examples of this, Daniel was in Babylon, Joseph in pagan Egypt, yet they worked diligently to advance the cause of their leaders, ungodly leaders, but their motive was for the glory of God and the advancement of God's purposes, which God blessed. Babylon has a revival, maybe Kenezor is humbled, and many of the people of Babylon turn to Jehovah, the God of Daniel. Joseph is used to preserve the lineage of the Israel and certainly the lineage that leads to Christ.

So sometimes you have to look. I'll let anybody help me kill a snake. You walk upon a snake, I don't care who you are, Jew, Gentile, atheist, whatever, help me kill the thing. Amen? That's kind of the way Joseph and Daniel and I think Tertullian and I think Paul's purpose was here. Matter of fact, you wanna look at Daniel chapter nine and we'll close with this. Daniel chapter nine, here's Daniel in Babylonian captivity, they're there because of their sin and their backslidden condition. They're there for their ungodliness, and Daniel goes before the Lord representing the nation. He's imploring the Lord in repentance on behalf of his whole nation of people.

Daniel chapter nine, verses four and five. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. In other words, God, we're in Babylonian captivity because we deserve to be. You've turned these nations against us. You've allowed these pagans to overcome us.

You've allowed them to take us into captivity where we're miserable because of our willful, open, continual sin and rebellion. Now verse 17 of Daniel nine. So now our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his supplications.

Don't miss these next four words. And for your sake, not us, he's God-centered. And for your sake, O Lord, let your face shine on your desolate sanctuary.

Jerusalem had been destroyed, the sanctuaries crumbled to the ground. And that's an image you will, an emblem of God's prosperity and God's reputation in the earth. And so Daniel says, for your name's sake, would you consider continuing your purpose and plan and somehow in your great grace and mercy, let us get in on it.

Basically what Daniel's saying. Verse 18, oh my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations in the city, which is called by your name. For we are not presenting our supplications before you on account of any merit of ours. Lord, we're good people, help us from this government.

That's not what he's saying. No merit, but on account of your great compassion. Oh my goodness, what a great New Testament theological concept. You as a sinner, go to God based on God's covenant compassion to you as his elect child to forgive you and cleanse you and save you and keep you forever. So God, based on your compassion, give us through this, not based on our worthiness of gaining or meriting any particular compassion from you. Verse 19, Daniel nine, O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord listen and take action.

For your own sake, there it is again, not us God, but for the sake of your name and your glory in the earth, for your own sake, oh my God, do not delay because your city and your people are called by your name. Not too many years after this prayer of Daniel, God sent a righteous, godly, pure, pious, wonderful leader to deliver Israel. No, no he didn't, sent a despicable pagan to deliver Israel, Cyrus the Persian. But Cyrus had a policy that helped the people of God. And Cyrus' policy was, when I conquer a people, he conquers Babylon, Daniel's in Babylon, along with the other captives. Cyrus' policy was I'm gonna let them go back to their lands, let them rebuild their temples, let them worship their gods as they choose. God might be giving the United States of America our Cyrus, whose policies are close enough to what the scripture teach, that he'll be a blessing to the church and to the nation, even though he, i.e. Donald Trump, is not an outstanding Christian, he's on his third wife. He's not my champion, but he might be my Cyrus. He might be the instrument God would use to bless the church and help the nation return to a degree to the way it ought to be run by biblical principles.

So, I will hold my nose and at least close one eye and vote for Donald Trump. Because I think, biblically, we have nowhere else to go. Daniel's in Babylon, and they, you know, Daniel got thrown in a lion's den for worshiping Jehovah.

You remember that? So, when he hears about Cyrus the Pershing marching toward Babylon, and he begins to understand Cyrus the Pershing will let the Israelites go back to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the temple and worship God the way they wanna worship God, I bet you Daniel said, I kinda like that choice. I don't like him, he's another pagan, but I like his policy.

And aren't we kinda stuck in the same spot? But listen to me, God is good, and God is faithful. He will take care of his church. If this nation falls, his church will not.