A Nation Under God? B

Hi, friend. This is Phil Johnson, and welcome to a special edition of Grace to You with John MacArthur.

We've interrupted our regular schedule to bring you a message that John preached just a few days ago. There's no way to hide from the chaos that is the year 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns are obviously huge parts of that. But also in the United States, we've had ongoing social disorder, rioting, and attacks on police officers that magnify the turmoil. How did we get to this place where unrest is rampant, where wicked and lawless behavior is tolerated across the social spectrum, and even given hearty approval by government officials?

Is there any hope for America? Are we really, as we say in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag, one nation under God? What conditions does the United States or any country need to meet in order to receive God's blessing? Consider those sobering questions as John MacArthur returns to this brand new message titled, A Nation Under God. Nations are obligated to worship the true God.

Did you hear what I just said? They're obligated to worship the true God, and there are dire circumstances that will come upon them if they fail to do that. There is no God except the God of the Bible.

There is no true morality but the morality of the Bible. There's no true worship but the worship of the true and living God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no personal blessing apart from Him. There is no national blessing apart from honoring Him, and there is no way to Him except through Jesus Christ.

Listen to how broad the Bible says worship of the true God is. Psalm 33 8, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the nations of the world revere Him. Psalm 117 1, praise the Lord all you nations, and extol Him all you peoples.

Now that has to come from leadership. So Psalm 72 11 says, let all kings bow down before Him, and all nations serve Him. All kings, all nations. This puts a huge burden on leadership in a country. I know there are a lot of people who are pursuing political power. That's a dangerous thing to pursue, because God has requirements for those in power. And I want to share just some of them with you, because nations are basically formed by those who lead them.

And by what they demand and what they tolerate, a nation will be defined. So what does God require? Let's go back to Psalm 2. I'm going to give you a lot of Scripture, so just kind of hang on and listen. Psalm 2 verse 10, now therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth.

If you're in a position of power, whether you're a king or a judge, governor, president, vice president, congressman, senator, mayor, whatever. Take warning. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

Reject the Son of God, and you will anger God, and His wrath will fall on you. Psalm 72, 11. Again, let all kings bow down before Him.

All nations serve Him. Listen to Psalm 138, four and five. All the kings of the earth will give thanks to you, O Lord, when they have heard the words of your mouth, and they will sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. In Psalm 47, clap your hands, all peoples, all nations. Shout to God with a voice of joy, for the Lord Most High is to be feared, a great King over all the earth. That is a call to universal, national worship of the true God. That is a command, and not to do that is to bring upon oneself terrifying judgment.

So what can we say? Should Mark a ruler? Worship of the true God. Secondly, righteousness. Second Samuel 23, 3, during the time of David says, he that rules over men must be righteous, ruling in the fear of God.

So worship and righteousness go together. Listen to Proverbs 16, 12. It is an abomination for kings, rulers, to commit wicked acts, for a throne is established on righteousness. Proverbs 14, 34. Righteousness exalts a nation.

Sin is a disgrace to any people. Proverbs 20, verse 28. Loyalty and truth preserve the king, and he upholds his throne by righteousness. Proverbs 25, 5. Take away the wicked before the king and his throne will be established in righteousness.

That's great wisdom. Get rid of the evil advisors, and a ruler has a chance at ruling righteously. Sometimes around here we see people saying, recall the governor, or let's get rid of our governor because they're upset. First of all, we need to pray for the salvation of our governor. And secondly, God is not unaware, and when it comes time for judgment, God will execute that wrath if there is not repentance and salvation. There's a third and very closely related characteristic of leaders that God requires, and that is justice. Psalm 82, God takes His stand in His own congregation. He judges in the midst of the rulers.

This is if all the rulers of the world are gathered around and God is in their midst. How long, verse 2, will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Vindicate the weak and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Those are the people who can't bribe the leader. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. They do not know, nor do they understand.

They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, you are gods. This is sarcasm to rulers. You are gods, aren't you? All of you are sons of the Most High.

That's sarcasm. You think you're gods. You think you're representing the Most High. You will die like men and fall like any one of the princes.

Arise, O God. Judge the earth, for it is you who possess all the nations. God calls together all the world rulers in that psalm, judges, legislators, kings, presidents, governors, people in any responsible role of leadership, and God presides over all of them. They are marked by darkness, intellectual darkness, and moral darkness. They rule unjustly. They undermine the moral order that God has established for human well-being, and they think they're gods, and they're not.

They're men who will be destroyed. Proverbs 29, 4, the king gives stability to the land by justice, but a man who takes bribes overthrows it. Proverbs 8, 15, by me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me, verse 12, wisdom. By wisdom, kings reign, and rulers decree justice. That leads us to a fourth characteristic of rulers, which is wisdom. I can't resist going to Proverbs 8 for a moment.

Pick it up in verse 12. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence. I find knowledge and discretion.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance in the evil way, and the perverted mouth I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding power is mine. This is wisdom personified. By me, kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me, princes rule and nobles, all who judge rightly. I love those who love me.

That's wisdom. I love those who love wisdom, and those who diligently seek me will find me. And riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness.

My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold, and my yield better than choiceless silver. I walk in the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of justice to endow those who love me with wealth that I may fill their treasures. God doesn't want to hold anything back, but His blessings are in the path of righteousness. The prophet Jeremiah, chapter 22, verse 1, thus says the Lord, go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word, and say, hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on David's throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord, do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also, do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place, for a few men will indeed perform this thing. Then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David's place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people. But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself, declares the Lord, this house will become a desolation. Consider your leadership. Innocents are slaughtered.

You will pay. The most innocent of all are the babies in the womb being murdered. And that leads to a fifth characteristic of a ruler, honesty. Just a couple of verses along that line. Proverbs 17, 7, excellent speech is not fitting for a fool, much less lying lips to a ruler.

Are you not weary of lying people in power? Proverbs 20, 28 says, loyalty and truth preserve the king. There's a sixth characteristic of a ruler, morality, and that is in the final chapter of Proverbs.

Proverbs 31 suffers a little bit because everybody starts with verse 10 about the wife. And that is an incredible passage, but if you start at the beginning, you're going to learn about what God expects of a ruler. The words of King Lemuel, the oracle, which his mother taught him, what, O my son, this is a king, Lemuel, what, O son of my womb, and what, O son of my vows, what would you like to know?

What do you want to know from your experience and wise mother? Do not give your strength to women or your ways to that which destroys kings, immorality. It is not for kings, O Lemuel. It is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to desire strong drink, for they will drink and forget what is decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing. Use it to ease somebody's pain when they're dying. Wine to him whose life is bitter. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his trouble no more. But open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy. Warning against vices, immorality with women over indulgence, indifference. There's another characteristic of rulers that God honors, and this is powerful.

It's humility. Go back to 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Manasseh, King Manasseh who followed Hezekiah in the southern kingdom of Judah, was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. He did evil in the sight of the Lord.

How did he do that? He built the high places, places for worshiping idols, which Hezekiah his father had broken down. He erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, a kind of a deity, worshiped all the hosts of heaven, worshiped the stars, built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, My name shall be in Jerusalem forever. He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

This is unbelievable. Manasseh is putting idols in the temple. He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom. That is to say, he burned up his children as sacrifices to Baal.

Practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery, dealt with mediums and spiritists, did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Then he put the carved image of the idol, which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon, his son in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel. I will put My name forever, and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers.

If only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them according to all the law, the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses. Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel. And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, and they paid no attention. Therefore, the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against him, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, took him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord as God, humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to him, he was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God, humility, a willingness to acknowledge sin, repent, and turn before it's too late. God expects that out of evil rulers. We need to call rulers who are doing evil to repent, fall before God, cry out for forgiveness and mercy through Christ. There's no mystery about what God requires.

Let me just suggest two other things. Protection, protection. We just read it, Proverbs 31, 8, and 9. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the afflicted and needy. He's a protector. Habakkuk 2, 12, the prophet said, Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence.

They're to be protectors. Psalm 94 speaks to this. This is a few verses, 20 and 21 and following.

Can a throne of destruction be allied with you? Someone who allows killing. One who devises mischief by decree. They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. All I can think about when I read that is abortion. But the Lord has been my stronghold and my God, the rock of my refuge, and He has brought back their wickedness upon them and will destroy them in their evil.

Our Lord will destroy them. I don't know a more devastating warning to rulers who tolerate the death of innocence than that. And finally, courage, courage. Rulers need courage. Courage is hard to come by. To be a virtuous ruler, to lead a nation that God will bless, a leader must worship the true God, must conduct his life and his affairs on behalf of the country or the nation with righteousness, justice, wisdom, honesty, morality.

He must be humble. He must be a protector of those who need protection. And finally, he must have courage. As Moses hands the baton to Joshua to be the leader, Joshua 1 6, be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous.

Now what does this mean? What's the basis of that courage? Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right or the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous.

Then you will have success. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." People say to me, you have a lot of courage because you're doing what you're doing?

No. I'm thankful the Lord has given me resolve, but I don't tremble, and I'm not dismayed no matter what comes because the Lord God is with me because I'm following His Word. I'm following the book of the law, and it does not depart from my mouth day and night. I want to do everything that's written in it, and then the promise of God is your way will be prosperous and you'll have success.

Do not turn to the right or turn to the left. These are the characteristics of leaders and rulers that God blesses. A man who has character, conviction, virtue, righteousness, wisdom, honesty will be very careful with power, and the first thing he'll do with his power is to make sure he honors God and the church of God and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be a strong advocate for everything that honors God. He will submit himself to God's commands and to all of God's demands for him as a ruler. There is no other way to distinguish a good ruler from a bad ruler.

It's not personality. God's standards are the only way to distinguish a good ruler from a bad one. The standard is very high. We need leaders like this, which means we need to replace a whole lot of the ones we have, or they need to repent and be saved.

Is there any hope? Is there an ideal king? You know the answer. Is there an ideal king? We're waiting for him, aren't we? The king of kings. Listen to what Isaiah said in Isaiah 33, 17, your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will behold a far distant land.

Your heart will meditate on terror. Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers? You will no longer see a fierce people, a people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends, of a stammering tongue which no one understands.

In other words, you're not going to be seeing another, another invader, another conquering power with a foreign language. Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feast. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation, a tent which will not be folded.

Its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its cords be torn apart. But there, the majestic one, the Lord will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals on which no boat with oars will go, and on which no mighty ship will pass. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us."

Love that. He will save us. Back to Daniel, very frustrating because I have a lot of other scriptures, but I only have another half hour.

No. Daniel chapter 7, verse 13. Daniel says in chapter 7, verse 13, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming, and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. To him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. Is there an ideal king?

Yes. Do we know who he is? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's coming back to establish His kingdom. He comes in the book of Revelation, riding on a white horse, King of kings and Lord of lords. The psalmist said in Psalm 2-8, ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession.

The Father is saying that to the Son. I'll give you the nations. Psalm 22, 27, all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the earth will worship you. Psalm 102, 15, so the nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory. A king will come who will reign righteously, and he will establish his kingdom, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. We're waiting for Him, aren't we?

We're waiting for Him. As we wait, we have hope, and that is a realized hope. We already cling to it firmly because it's promised in the Word of God. Let me close with Psalm 67. God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the people praise you, O God. Let all the nations praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the people with uprightness and guide the nations on earth. Let the people praise you, O God.

Let all the people praise you. The earth has yielded its produce. God our God blesses us. God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear Him. The psalmist is saying, if we are a blessed people, let the world see it. That's why we're here today, because we want the world to see God as a God who blesses His faithful people.

Let's pray. It is a high and holy privilege beyond expression to navigate the truth of Scripture, see its consistency, its power, its clarity. It brings upon our souls both conviction and blessing, fear and joy, judgment and forgiveness, the threat of wrath and the promise of heaven. We pray for our country, pray for our leaders, pray for their salvation, first of all. And we pray that those who are evil leaders will be replaced, and you will graciously give us righteous, just, truthful, worshiping leaders who will restore to us the national blessedness that is so far gone. Thank you for meeting us today. Now, may we go from this place committed afresh to live for your glory and your honor and proclaim Christ as Lord, we pray in His name. And everyone said, Amen. Thanks for being here for Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm Phil Johnson. We broke from our regular schedule to bring you today's lesson called A Nation Under God. John delivered this message just a few days ago.

The content was so timely, we wanted to make sure you heard it. Now, if you'd like a free copy of the full-length message, we'll send it to you, just ask for it. In addition, we want to give you a free copy while supplies last of John's classic book titled The Vanishing Conscience. This book sheds biblical light on the issues John talked about today, and it will arm you in your battle against sin of all kinds.

It outlines the path to true blessing from God. So to request your free copy of the book The Vanishing Conscience while supplies last, plus a free CD of today's message, contact us today. Our toll-free number here is 800-55-GRACE, or request your book at our website, gty.org. Again, we want to send you a free copy of The Vanishing Conscience while supplies last. Just call and ask for it, 800-55-GRACE, or you can request your copy online at gty.org. And remember, with the book The Vanishing Conscience, we will also include a free CD of the new message we aired yesterday and today.

It's called A Nation Under God. Again, call 800-55-GRACE, or go to gty.org. And thank you for telling us what these daily broadcasts mean to you, and thanks especially for praying for us.

We rely on that more than you know. To let us know how God is using this listener-supported ministry in your life, write us at Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Now on behalf of John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Look for Grace To You television this Sunday on DirecTV, Channel 378, and then be here Monday when John launches a series he calls The Sinfulness of Sin. Don't miss the next half hour of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.