Grace Emmanuel Church

Pastor Sam Chess

Divine Politics 2006

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There are two words you don't like to see together. The politics we see in the 2 billion dollars spend during this election cycle ($2,000,000,000.00) don't look very Divine. Asking God to help your candidate get elected is like asking God to help your football team win…isn't it?

I had breakfast with a fellow minister this week. I had just voted using the theory we talked about here on Wednesday evening that I should vote for the candidate that most closely exemplified biblical values. When we came out to our cars, I noticed that he had a big bumper sticker for an opposing candidate in his back window. Now that's a dilemma…if we are both praying for the election….. who is God going to listen to?

Do you want when you go to vote on Tuesday….when each of you goes to vote on Tuesday.…do you want to choose a candidate who will demonstrate righteous governing or do you want to pick the one that promises to scratch wherever you happen to itch?

(Your vote does matter…read off bulletin…one vote put Hitler in power)

2 Samuel 23:3-4 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me:
'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, 4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.'

Noah Webster, the guy that gathered all those definitions into a dictionary back in 1828, said about political candidates:

When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect this duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted.

I think most of us, regardless of your political leanings would agree with the rest of the nation in saying that we are tired of "unprincipled men" leading us in our government. Our own congressman, Mark Foley is a prime example…..

'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, 4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning….

Oddly, according to a RasmussenReports.com poll this week :

80% of all voters, regardless of party affiliation, said that issues matter more than character in determining their vote!

That amazes me! If somebody tells you that they are going to improve the cost of prescription drugs and he/she has proven to be "unprincipled"…lacking in character…. in other areas of life why would anybody believe him/her… truth is, we basically don't…We assume that a politician will say anything to be elected so we give up expecting them to "rule in righteousness".

We have the best system of government in the world…we modeled our Republic and our system of representative government after the Roman Empire. That's leads to a perturbing little question…. If the Roman Empire came up with the best system of government in all of history, and our country has become so great and so strong because we modeled ourselves after them…. That's begs the question:

What happened to the Roman Empire?

If they were doing everything right….why did they cease to exist? The Roman Empire absolutely disintegrated. Why? Did they dissolve because of their democratic form of government? No…it's good one…it's still the best model of governing the world has known….So why?....why did the entire Roman Empire disappear off the face of the earth?

Because they elected unprincipled leaders… The beginning of their destruction is woven into the pages of the Bible. It was Caesar Augustus that levied yet another tax that lead Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Emperors like Diocletion started the persecution of Christians that drove the Gospel out to the World. You remember Nero who put Christians into the Circus arena to be ripped apart by wild animals.. just for fun… and he ignited and burned Christians on posts to light his royal parties….

There is a principle in Scripture that is really important for us to remember right now. The world is not really run by superpowers. The future of mankind does not really lie in the hands of politicians.

It is God.. and only God……who determines the final political outcome of every government. God allows, even, evil governments to flourish for a while if the final result will actually increase the spread of the Gospel.

Rome, inadvertently, caused the spread of Christianity. (persecution, road system, one world language) Communism…in trying to snuff our Christianity has caused it to grow out of their control. Europe's attempts to control its people's faith it what ultimately led to the settling of this country.. and the squashing of world powers like France and England.

It doesn't matter how powerful a country, or regime, or empire is…if they do evil…. God gives them a "shelf-life" and when it is over…so are they!!

A couple examples:

Leviticus 18:3 So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. 25 Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out.

Jonah 1:2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” (NIV) (Persians/Iranians)

God uses a term, in his discussion of world powers that is very interesting:

Genesis 15:13-16 Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. 15 (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) 16 After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.” (NLT) (cup of iniquity not yet full KJV)

Picture a bowl filling up with the sins of an empire or regime. As it fills it begins to tip toward a button of destruction. When the bowl finally comes in contact with the button God judgment falls on a particular civilization. Just read your history…it has happened over and over and over again. If anybody believes that it can't happen to our great country ….you are not seeing the bigger picture of history.

Pastor why would you even insinuate that our national cup of iniquity is filling up…. Because it is!

Harris Poll- (Harrisinteractive,com)

2003- 34% not absolutely certain there is a God

2006- 42% not absolutely certain there is a God

Those who are absolutely certain there is a God

65+ 79%

50-64 80%

40-49 74%

30-39 70%

25-29 60%

18-24 66%

The fastest growing religion (in terms of percentage) is Wicca -- a Neopagan religion that is sometimes referred to as Witchcraft. Numbers of adherents went from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. Their numbers of adherents are doubling about every 30 months.

14.1% do not follow any organized religion. This is an unusually rapid increase -- almost a doubling -- from only 8% in 1990. There are more Americans who say they are not affiliated with any organized religion than there are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans taken together.

About 50% consider themselves religious (down from 54% in 1999- DEC)

About 33% consider themselves "spiritual but not religious" (up from 30%)

About 10% regard themselves as neither spiritual or religious

You can think what you want about these polls… The reality is, there is a spiritual decline going on in our country and it will not be fixed by who wins the election….. The only answer to a spiritual slide is a spiritual solution… (revival)…however who we vote for can determine whether the slide speeds up or slows down.

There is a fascinating passage from God to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah: He spent his lifetime warning Israel that they were, nationally, slipping further and further away from God's ways and that judgment was just around the corner...

Jeremiah 18:1 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. 5 Then the Lord gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. 7 If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, 8 but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. 9 And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, 10 but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would. 11 “Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’” 12 But the people replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires.” (NLT)

The Old Testament ends with Israel off in exile in Babylon. They continued to walk away from God until God said…the bowl is full! The bowl of iniquity is full…

The good news is that during those seventy years of exile, in Babylon, the Nation of Israel finally, figured out what it meant to walk with God. Sadly, they never really did return to being a free nation, until just 60 years ago.

I hope you're not sitting there thinking…. Yeah, yeah.. that may have happened to Israel, and Assyria, and Babylon, and Egypt, and Communist Russia, and the Hitler's Third Reich, and Communist Europe but nothing like that will ever happen to the good ole USA!

I read a lot of A.W Tozer when I was a young Pastor and I remember him warning America in the 40's and 50's of what he saw coming and I remember him writing about how people thought he was just an alarmist. The things he warned about in the 40's and 50's are exactly what have come to be in the present.

I'm no AW Tozer but I am coming to believe that, unless there is a spiritual revival…soon…. The world our grandchildren will experience when they get to be our age may look nothing like the world we live in today.

This last week a nuclear producing Iran test fired missiles that, for the first time are capable of reaching Israel. Iran's President has openly stated that the Nation of Israel needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. If you read Bible prophesy about a huge battle called Armageddon…… you need to be paying attention. This is not a time when any of us can afford to put our heads in the sand.

On the positive side……The lessons of Jeremiah to Israel were that when a nation repents and turns back in God's direction the clock stops on God's judgment. They had heard it all before…from Soloman:

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (NIV)

I want to take you back to Israel's 70 years in exile in Babylon…. You see here the other side of what can happen when, even, godless people begin to see the power of God…While Israel was in Babylon a great drama unfolded.

Babylon was the most powerful empire on earth….it's king Nebuchadnezzar the most powerful man in the world. He was brilliant…not nice…but brilliant. He would invade a country, take what he wanted tax the rest out of existence, take the smartest, most promising young people back to Babylon to train as his personal advisors on the region or to send back as leaders. Daniel 1 says that God specifically chose him to bring judgment on Israel.

Nebby has a dream no one can interpret. He orders all his advisors killed. A young Hebrew named Daniel yells; Wait!!

Daniel 2:20-22 He said, “Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. 21 He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. 22 He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light.

Daniel 2:27-28 Daniel replied, “There are no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or fortune-tellers who can reveal the king’s secret. 28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future. Now I will tell you your dream and the visions you saw as you lay on your bed. (NLT)

He tells him that his kingdom will bite the dust and several coming after him will do the same but finally a Rock will roll in and smash all the earths kingdoms into dust… you know who that is? Nebby's convinced!

Daniel 2:46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him, and he commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burn sweet incense before him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.”

Act Two; Scene One: Nebuchadnezzar is so intrigued with Daniel's God, that the first things he does is build a 90' statue of himself and demand that everyone worship him. That's the story of the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. The three boys aren't killed and Nebby sees a fourth person in the furnace who looks like a son of God. Now he's really convinced…

Daniel 3:28-29 Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted in him. They defied the king’s command and were willing to die rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore, I make this decree: If any people, whatever their race or nation or language, speak a word against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they will be torn limb from limb, and their houses will be turned into heaps of rubble. There is no other god who can rescue like this!”

Act 3; Scene 1: The ruler of the world is humbled before the Creator of the world.

Daniel 4:1 King Nebuchadnezzar sent this message to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world: “Peace and prosperity to you! 2 “I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. 3 How great are his signs, how powerful his wonders! His kingdom will last forever, his rule through all generations. (NLT)

Another dream…another interpretation by Daniel…another bad fulfillment….

Daniel 4:29-37 Twelve months later he was taking a walk on the flat roof of the royal palace in Babylon. 30 As he looked out across the city, he said, ‘Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor.’

31 “While these words were still in his mouth, a voice called down from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you! You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. 32 You will be driven from human society. You will live in the fields with the wild animals, and you will eat grass like a cow. Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way, until you learn that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.’

33 “That same hour the judgment was fulfilled, and Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society. He ate grass like a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven. He lived this way until his hair was as long as eagles’ feathers and his nails were like birds’ claws.

34 “After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever. His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal. 35 All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him or say to him, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’

36 “When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before. 37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.”