Dennis Tuuri

that last week when we had our service for Malachi’s dedication as well as our affirmation of life with the two baptisms we had, that certainly part of the understanding for the sin of abortion in this country has to rest upon the civil magistrates of this land. But as Lewis Rushdoony pointed out in the article, the fundamental tactic of Christian resistance to tyrants and bad rulers are a judgment from God against his people for sin.

And that song certainly speaks to that. Before we dismiss the children to go to Sabbath school, I just wanted to read a couple of verses that some of us are familiar with, but I wanted to just read them briefly and make a short comment. In Nehemiah, the 8th chapter, verses 1 and 2, we read the following: And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the Water Gate. And they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation, both the men and women and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month.

I read that because I just want to explain again what our church understanding is in terms of Sabbath school for children. The word of God seems at this point to tell us that those who do not have understanding, it is legitimate for them to be away from the preaching of the word of God or the law of God if they cannot understand it. For that reason, we make allowance for those parents who wish to have their children not in the preaching portion of the service if they would not be able to understand what’s said, and so we make provision for them through Sabbath school.

It’s important there to recognize, however, that the primary reason for their absence from the preaching service is their lack of understanding. We use that opportunity to teach them things at their level from the covenant and from the book of God’s word, and hopefully they can understand at their level. However, it is of course the primary responsibility of parents to rear their children in the faith. It’s not the responsibility of this church to make sure that your children have a godly education. That’s your responsibility.

We like to make use of that time and use it wisely and redeem it as it were, but it’s not the church’s responsibility to raise up your children, and nobody in this church, I think, believes that’s the case. I don’t say it for that reason. But we have grown some in the last six months, and I wanted to make it clear why we have that provision.

At the same time, if people want their children to stay in the service and be with them for whatever reason, though they may not be able to understand the words that are spoken in the sermon, that’s certainly legitimate too. There’s no scripture that says that isn’t a good thing to do. And there are values to discipline and getting them exposed to the word of God, even though we may not think they understand it yet.

All I’m asking for there, I guess, is tolerance on the part of parents who believe their children should be away for the lack of understanding and for those who believe they should be here to help them understand. And so for that reason, those parents who wish to have their younger children out during the service should not be looked down upon for that, nor should those parents who have their children in the service be looked down upon for that either. I don’t think that’s happening. But you see what I’m saying? That’s what the word of God teaches.

Having said that, I think I would like to have us read Psalm 20 responsively before the children go out, however, because they can certainly read responsively from the Psalms with us. Please take the sheets that have Psalm 20 responsively before you. I have to get one. Verses 6 through 8 are the only portion that I will be speaking. So I would like now for you to begin with the reading of verses 1 through 5.

The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. Now I know that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright.

Save us, Lord. Let’s pray.

Father God, we thank you for this portion of your holy word. We pray that you would give us open minds and hearts to hear what’s in this, to understand it, and open hands to walk in obedience to it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

At this time, the children may be dismissed to Sabbath school.

This past week, I had a conversation with a person and thought about a lot of different things, but this particular individual had a pocket New Testament they were reading from. And there was, just in the course of conversation, it came up that it was said that sometimes it’s easier to read some things from the New Testament and simpler to understand them than sometimes it is to read things from the Old Testament. And you know, I got to thinking about that, and I thought that for myself as the result of what some of the theological changes I’ve gone through in the last four or five years, I think I find it somewhat easier now to understand with very little study what’s in the Old Testament than some of the things in the New Testament.

The New Testament is of course the second half of the book, and it is to be understood in the context of the first half of the book. And not having that context, I think it’s very easy not to understand or to understand incorrectly some things out of the New Testament. I bring that up today because what we want to talk about, based upon Psalm 20, is prayer for authorities. And in 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2, we read the following: 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 in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Now, one of the reasons why it’s somewhat difficult sometimes to read portions of the New Testament, or it could be erroneous without an understanding of the Old Testament, is that we bring certain presuppositions about the passages of scripture we read to the scripture, and we interpret things in the light of those presuppositions, which may or may not be correct. That is particularly true of verses in the New Testament where you have, as it were, a book that is written—a portion of the book that’s written—more in generalized terms about subjects without specific things being denuciated—enunciated rather—in the word of God in the Old Testament.

All I’m trying to say is this: What are the presuppositions we bring to that particular portion of scripture that tells us to pray for authorities in 1 Timothy 1 and 2?

Most of the time what you’ll say there is that you’ll first of all have no presuppositions with the person doing the praying. It’s obviously an imperative of God that we’re to pray for kings and for those that are in authority so we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. Usually the sort of prayers that follow that sort of admonition from the word of God in homes or in many churches is of the generalized type, where we ask God to bless the leaders of our nation, give them health, perhaps keep them from disease or calamity, and generally bless them.

And then we also recognize in this verse that we should lead a quiet and peaceable life. And many times we translate that—I think—as what Schaeffer used to talk about in terms of the gospel of personal peace and affluence. You know, that a peaceable life means that we just can do our thing and not be hassled so much by the civil authorities. Whatever we want to do, that’s what we should do. And hopefully we’ll have enough money to enjoy the things of life that give us that kind of freedom and just personal peace, you know, without recognizing the problems in society around us so much as long as they don’t come into our living room.

And maybe some people for that reason get rid of their TVs too, so they don’t have to read the news accounts of what’s going on in the country. Anyway, I want us just now to leave that aside, and we’ll come back to 1 Timothy 2 after we’ve gone through a little bit of talking about Psalm 20. And I think Psalm 20 will help us to bring to 1 Timothy 2 some more correct presuppositions about the prayer—the person who’s being prayed for—and what should be prayed in light of those things.

Let’s go to Psalm 20.

Now in Psalm 20, and in the next five psalms actually, there are a series of pieces as it were—they speak, obviously in the first reference, to the Messiah himself, to Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah, the anointed of God. He is the King of Kings after all, and the Lord of Lords. We will deal more specifically with their pertinence to Jesus Christ as we reach, primarily next Psalm 21, and then Psalm 22, when we speak about the atonement and the result of the atonement.

It’s important, of course, to recognize that these things speak first and foremost of a revelation of who our Creator is, who the Keeper of the Covenant is—Jesus Christ. That is what, after all, the word of God teaches us about—is the Covenant Keeper himself and the covenant relationship. It’s important to see that on the basis of that we have to understand certain things about ourselves. We’re creatures and are to be understood in light of our relationship to God and who he is. After all, we’re made in his image, and we have to understand God before we can understand ourselves.

Now, we talk about prayer for authorities because Psalm 20 ends with verse 9: “Save, Lord, and let the King hear us when we call.” That’s the specific portion of Psalm 20 that is, in a proper sense, prayer for the authorities. Save, Lord, let the King hear us when we call. However, all of Psalm 20 could be considered, I suppose, a prayer in that it seeks the intercession of God on behalf of the civil authority, the king, as he goes forth into battle.

First of all, an overview of what Psalm 20 is actually talking about. Psalm 20 begins with the problem. The problem is the day of distress. “The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble.” Another translation is the day of distress. The Hebrew word there for trouble has its origins in the word that means tightness—to be in a tight spot, uncomfortable, claustrophobic if you will—to be in a tight spot and to be in a time of distress or trouble.

The solution: the psalm doesn’t dwell on the particular problem. However, it goes on to the source of the solution for that problem, and we read things that the source of the solution comes from God himself. “The Lord hear thee, the Lord answer thee. Let the name of God defend thee.” The name of God is invoked as being the basis of the source of the solution. Help comes from the sanctuary. Strength comes out of Zion. Sanctuary is the dwelling place of God amongst his people, as was Zion.

So the source of the solution is God himself. “Remember the meal and burnt offerings. May God remember your meal and burnt offerings and answer from heaven itself.” Remember, the sanctuary is a type, as it were, of God’s dwelling in heaven. The temple was eventually constructed. At the time of this writing, all they had was the ark that dwelt in Zion. But the temple was to be the dwelling place of God amongst his people. The ark was showing on earth God’s dwelling, actually in heaven.

So although help comes from Zion, in the ark, where it’s really coming from is from heaven itself. And so it says in the verse here that God hears from heaven and saves from heaven. The strength of God’s right hand comes forth out of heaven to help the rulers. And then there’s a contrast in verse 7: “Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we’ll remember the name of the Lord our God.”

Again, the source of the solution for the answer to the problem of the day of distress is not to be found in chariots or horses or other inventions of men. There is to be found in the first place is in the name of our God and all that entails.

The results of that solution that comes forth from God himself are then talked about, and the psalm, although it starts on a defensive position—”Help thee in the day of trouble” or the day of distress—moves from a defensive posture to an offensive posture. God does more than just help the person out of the day of distress. He gives them victory over his enemies as well. There’s a move from a defensive position to an offensive position.

Now, because we talked about Zion several months ago, in Psalm 20 we have the reference that God will strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember, we talked about Zion and how it was, in the first reference, the city of David that David took back from the Jebusites. It was to be the site of Jerusalem. And remember we talked at that time it referred originally to this mountaintop that was very inaccessible, easily defended. And Zion had the connotation of being a strong defense, a strong bulwark, you know, against the forces that would come against it. It was hard to take that city.

When David went up against Zion, of course they mocked him and said, “You’ll never drive us out of here.” And he said, “Yes, I will.” And he did because God taught him how to war. But in any event, remember we talked that David didn’t use Zion as a place of defense primarily. David used Zion as the initiation of a war against the Philistines in the land, and to create again the United Kingdom. He used it as an offensive base from which offensive maneuvers would go out. So this psalm moves from Zion being a source of defense to Zion being the source of offense as well.

In verse 4, we see the specific thing that God will grant thee according to thine own heart—or grant thee according to thine own heart, the desires of your heart. And we talked about that before. God will fulfill all thy counsel. This is much more than simply helping the guy out of a tough spot. We have a victory orientation here as the result of the intervention of God in the situation.

Verse 5 says specifically: “We will rejoice in thy salvation.” And the word salvation there, in other translations, is translated victory. It means victory. We’ll talk a lot more about that next week in Psalm 21, which is a celebration of the victory that God does give his people and does give the king. “The banners are set up. We’ll set up our banners. The Lord will fulfill all thy petitions.” And then finally, there’s the last couple of verses: “The enemies of God are brought down and fallen. We are risen and stand upright.” Total subjection of the enemies of God and total victory to the king who goes forth in God’s name.

It’s interesting to point out there that the word for salvation also has its root word, and this is true throughout the scriptures. The Hebrew word for salvation is Yeshua, and it has its root word in the word for openness or wide open spaces. Just like trouble is to be seen as a time of being caged in, so salvation is to be seen—to be set free into wide open places. And that is the root word also for the name of Jesus, which means Savior—Yeshua. So Jesus saves his people and gets them out of tight spots, and gets them—more than get them out of tight spots—He gives them to wide open places, wide open fields.

Okay, that’s the overview of Psalm 20. Let’s go back now and look at some distinctives of this prayer in Psalm 20, and the things that build up to this distinctive of the prayer.

First of all, there is a prayer in this psalm—a prayer, rather. The person who prays: What does this psalm tell us about the person who prays for the authorities that are over them, the king? The psalm points out that those people have a reliance upon God and upon his sovereignty in the matter.

Verses 1 again, to point out: “The Lord hear thee. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” They recognize that God was sovereign in the affairs of men. And therefore, the people who were going to pray the prayer had to have a reliance on the sovereignty of God to pray that prayer confidently and assuredly.

In 2 Chronicles 14:11, we read a kind of a really good picture of what this is all about and the extent to which their belief in the sovereignty of God would go forth. 2 Chronicles 14:11, we read the following: And what’s going on here is that Asa, the son of Abijah, is now reigning in his stead, and in his day the land was quiet for ten years. And Asa was a good man—he did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. There are still enemies in the land, however. Asa takes an army of men out that bore targets and spears out of Judah—300,000—and out of Benjamin that bear shields and drew bows—200,000 and some score thousand. So Asa’s coming out with his men against some enemies of God. And there came up against them Zerah the Ethiopian with a host of a thousand—a million people came up against the troops of Asa—with 300 chariots.

Now, we think of chariots as some, you know, funny old thing, but chariots were, you know, it was like the tanks—the heavy armament—were coming out against them with a million people. They were in big trouble. A million people and 300 chariots came up under Mareshah. Then Asa went out against him and they set the battle in array in the Valley of Zephath at Mareshah. And Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said, “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go out against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God. Let not man prevail against thee.”

Asa called directly upon the name of God to sovereignly intervene in the situation. He said, “It’s nothing for you. You can win this battle with no men.” What’s God’s response to that? So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

You know, Asa says, “You’re sovereign. We want you to help in this situation. We’re going out in your strength. We’ve acted in obedience to your commandments these years. We’ve tried to turn the nation to good.” And God says, “Okay.” So God smites the Ethiopians for them. The name of God is to be relied upon by the people of God. And if they’re going to pray the prayer for civil authorities, they have to understand that reliance upon God’s sovereignty.

They also have to have understanding, however, of God’s means in terms of his victory. And the means, of course, first and foremost, are all wrapped up in the name of God. The name of God speaks to his covenant relationship to his people again—his special covenant name, Yahweh: “I will be to you all that I am in terms of the covenant.” It was the covenant name of God. And they relied upon that name of God, and they understood from that name of God the importance of the covenant relationship they had with God.

That covenant relationship, as I said, is linked to the name. I have a quote here from a man named Joseph Irons, quoted by Spurgeon in his Treasury of David, that talks about this reliance upon the name of God and upon the covenant. I thought it was very good. I’d like to read a portion of it:

“The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. I was once goaded by a poor silly Irish papist to try it, who told me in his consummate ignorance and bigotry that if a priest would but give him a drop of holy water and make a circle with it around a field full of wild beasts, they would not hurt him. Says I foolish papist. I retired in disgust at the abominable trickery of such villains. Reflecting, however, what a fool I am that I cannot put such trust in my God as this poor deluded man puts in his priest and a drop of holy water. And I resolved to try what the name of the God of Jacob would do, having the Father’s fixed decrees, the Son’s unalterable responsibility, and the Spirit’s invincible grace in operation around me.

I tried it and felt my confidence brighten. Oh, brethren, get encircled with covenant engagements and covenant blood and covenant grace and covenant promises and covenant securities. Then will the Lord hear you in the day of trouble, and the name of the God of Jacob will defend you.”

It’s important that we, when we pray for the authorities in our land, have that relationship—have that understanding of our relationship to God in the covenant. God’s covenant blood, his covenant grace, his covenant security, and his covenant steadfastness as we pray for the authorities around us.

Prayer has to understand God’s means, and his first and foremost means is himself and the covenant he has with his people. God’s means, however, also: the help from God will come forth from his sanctuary. It’s significant here that the help doesn’t come forth from the armory. It doesn’t come forth from the schools. It comes forth first and foremost from the sanctuary—God’s dwelling place to his people, the place where God’s presence was made evident, and the place from which his law would go forth.

The ark of the covenant had within it the tablets of stone. And it was from the presence of God that his law went forth. His law then is also a means of God by which people have to pray in accordance with understanding of his means when they pray. Otherwise, their prayers won’t be heard. And we talked a couple of weeks ago about that—their prayers not being heard if they walk in disobedience to the law.

These prayers in this psalm talk about “may God give you the desires of your heart, grant thee according to thine own heart.” And we talked in the past about Psalm 37:4—that if you delight yourself in the Lord, God will give you the desires of your heart. And the word delight means to make yourself molded or pliant, mold yourself to the will of God and to his law. And if you do that, then God—you’ll—God will give you the desires of your heart.

So these people understand that they were going to pray for the rulers to have that same attitude. They had to be supple. They had to be pliant to the word of God and to his law. That’s another means of God.

Prayer is obviously one of the means that they recognize in this psalm. They pray for him. They recognize it’s a means whereby God promises to work through and help his anointed. They also recognize, however, that there is real work to be done. They don’t tell the king, “We’ll pray for you. Don’t worry about it. You stay here. The enemies will fall over.” Now, that’s possible, and Asa recognized that. But normally, God works through means, and the means is work. The king goes forth out into battle. And the people recognize that is normally the means of God whereby he works and whereby he saves.

There’s a real battle. Friday night, as we were getting ready for a homeschool conference I talked at yesterday, it was late. I had pretty well gotten ready for the following day’s talk and everything we had to do that day. And I went out in the garage and I heard the guinea pigs squeaking, you know, which means they don’t have enough food or water or something. And you know, I could have prayed for those guinea pigs and gone back to bed, but you know, in the morning they’d still be squeaking. God works through means. I’ve got to get out there and give them water and food. And my children are understanding that too.

And it’s really their responsibility. But I went out anyway in the dead of night and stocking feet and got all muddy. Well, anyway, God works through means, and it’s wrong to put so much of a reliance upon prayer while ignoring that work itself is a means of God. It doesn’t mean it’s taken into your own hands. It means you recognize that God has given you responsibilities and you’re to act in obedience to them.

So the person who issues the prayer for the authorities has to have understanding of reliance upon God, understanding of God’s means, and then he also has to have an assurance that victory will be won. He recognizes that the movement will be from a defensive position to an offensive position—going forth—a victory orientation so that the results of all the application of the means of God and the sovereignty of God will lead to victory.

We talked yesterday at the homeschool conference about the law of God. You know, we always talk about Deuteronomy 6 in terms of homeschooling: “Teach all these things to your kids,” and it goes on to say, however, that “bind these things upon your forehead. Bind them upon your hand.” They made phylacteries and kept the law of God there. Well, it wasn’t just a visual reminder. It was an indication to them that everything that they thought was to be in accordance with God’s word, everything they put your hand to do is to be in accordance with what he wanted them to do—his law.

And I talked about: if the Christians of this land became—or put—as much time—let’s see—all the time that they put into trying to figure out what the mark of the beast is and how to keep it off their forehead and how to keep it off their hand—they put that same amount of time into applying the word of God where it belongs, to their minds and to their hands—they wouldn’t have to worry about the mark of the Antichrist. The mark of the beast is there because the absence from God’s law leaves those places vacated for the Antichrist to take over your mind and to take over your actions.

We need to understand: we have to move from a defensive position to an offensive position. And the person who prays this prayer has to understand that.

What about the magistrate in this case, the king? The king recognizes that God himself is the one who saves. In verse 6, this is the response of the king. And they would do this as they went out to battle. What we did earlier—they would do. The congregation would give this blessing. David would respond with these words, or a representative of his would, perhaps, and they would respond back. David says, “Now I know that the Lord saveth his anointed.” He recognized that God saves—that it wasn’t the power of his right hand or the power of his sword that was going to save him in the day of battle—that God was. God would work through means, but it was God’s responsibility, and it was God’s. Ultimately, the victory was to be given to him.

We went forth in battle this last year for homeschoolers in this state. And every time we talk about that legislation and that victory we achieved there, we always stress the sovereignty of God. Political action is heady medicine, heady wine, if you will. And it can become very intriguing in our land. Our land, let’s face it, believes that political action is the savior. We recognize that isn’t the case. It’s one means whereby God works through. But if we put our confidence in political action, we’ve done just what we’re trying to avoid in this country.

We always stress that. We talk about that bill. The king, the civil magistrate, the person who goes forth into battle, has to recognize that God saves. He has to recognize that he is God’s anointed. God will save his anointed. He has to recognize that he is subservient to the greater King, to the greater God, who is God himself—Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. He’s God’s anointed to do his will. He’s not anointed to go out and figure out some sort of abstract principles of natural law.

He’s been anointed by God to do his will in the land. The civil magistrate was commanded in the nation of Israel to go forth in justice, doing justice in the land based upon the law of God, to enforce it. The civil magistrate around the nation of Israel were called to do the same thing. Gordon Jones talked a couple months ago about the civil magistrate at communion time, and how the civil government is responsible to act in obedience to God’s law. It’s clearly taught in the scriptures, and he must do that. He must understand that it’s God’s strength that saves him.

I told my daughter I was going to wear something she made for me. So I’m going to do it. Isn’t this nice? My wife said that looked real stupid, but you know, why do I hold this up? Well, this is, you know, the kids make these sort of things. I don’t know why. And they wear them around the house playing like they’re queens or kings, you know. They see it as a crown.

And you look at this crown that she made, and I didn’t tell her to do this, but, you know, she’s got a cross here on this crown. She knows that civil rulers, queens, and kings rule under the authority of Jesus Christ. There’s hearts on this crown for the love that the king is supposed to have for his people. There’s a stamp over here that she got—a little scripture stamp she got—that says, “The Lord is near to those who are discouraged.”

My daughter, my eight-year-old daughter, recognizes the civil government is supposed to be in subjection to the ruler of—or to—God’s authority. She doesn’t understand it that way, but she’s getting the idea. She’s getting the idea. Howard L. was talking about Michael, and how it’s an embarrassment to them sometimes. You know, he says Michael plays cowboys and Indians or plays war, you know, with little soldiers he’s got. But in him, it’s not cowboys versus Indians necessarily. It’s Christians versus pagans. And, you know, some of the Indians may be Christians, and some of the cowboys might be Christians. They would be fighting other cowboys and Indians over here. And then Michael, you know—I guess when he has them killed, you know, when they kill each other—he sends them to hell. Some people don’t understand that. I guess Michael is saying, “Go to hell.” Well, anyway, the civil magistrate is to wear that kind of crown. He’s to understand that he is subservient to the King of Kings, is to delight in the Lord, so that he will receive the desires of his heart.

And we were watching Moby Dick again the other day, and I got to read the book because the movie is different than the book. We have a short two condensed versions of the book, and those are even different from each other. So I’ve got to get one that’s completely under bridge and find out what that book is all about. But in any event, it’s a great scene in that movie. Whether or not it’s in the book, I don’t know now. Where three officers of the ship who serve under the captain, Ahab, one of them says, you know, it says here in this book of order that if the captain uses this vessel, owned by the people that own the ship, for purposes other than what they want him to do—which is whaling and getting oil to anoint, to help people, and whatever—if he uses the ship for some other purpose, he’s to be discharged from his duty, and we’re supposed to take over the ship from him. And it said that right out of the manual he was reading from.

Ahab, of course, was not going after whales anymore. He was going after the white whale. And whether that’s God or fate or whatever it is, that’s a whole other question. But anyway, he recognized that the captain served under authority. Well, the other two guys didn’t recognize that, and one of them leaves the cabin quick and says, “You’re talking about mutiny.” He says, “The captain break the law.” He says, “Well, the captain is the law.” That’s a significant statement. It’s a statement over which people have lost lives for the faith, to go against that sort of teaching: Lex Rex, right? Book by Rutherford. Law—King. The king is subservient to the law of God, not the other way around. The law doesn’t come forth from the king. The king serves under subjection to God’s law. That’s the anointed, and that’s the person we’re to be praying for in the ideal sense.

The prayer: What is the prayer itself? Verse 9: “Save, Lord.” Simple prayer. He asks God to save the king as he goes forth into battle. One word is all the prayer consists of. Then: “Let the king hear us when we call.” It’s explicit, of course. It’s asking for salvation, for victory in the day of battle. But implicit in it is also a recognition that God would keep the king as a covenant keeper.

They’re not asking for God to save the king who is a covenant breaker. They’re asking for the king here who serves under God, who has those presuppositions we just talked about—his role in obedience to God. And they’re recognizing that the king has to be a covenant keeper as well. And they’re asking God, for instance, in verses 3 and 4: “May God remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice.”

Who was our burnt sacrifice? Our whole burnt sacrifice? Jesus Christ gave himself for the sins of ours. And the king has to recognize that. If the king doesn’t recognize that, God will not remember his burnt sacrifice—be it himself or some other god that he sacrifices to. God won’t remember that, and God won’t save that king.

Okay. Now, let’s go back to 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2. These are some things that we have correction from the word of God, clearly teaching these things. And now we’ll go to the second half of the book—the New Testament—and see what we’re to do with the civil authorities of our land.

I’m going to read this again. I’m going to start at verse 12. Oh, I—well, maybe I won’t. Well, I think I will. You flip it over. Thank you.

Verse 12: “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry—who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor, an injurious—but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all exceptionthat Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. How be it, for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which were before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some have put away concerning faith and have made a shipwreck, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

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 in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in 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 into the knowledge of the truth. For 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.”

These scriptures, seen as a unit, help us to understand what’s going on here. Remember, we started without having any presuppositions about the person that prayed the prayer. But now we know that if we’re going to pray this prayer in obedience to the word of God, we have to have certain presuppositions ourselves before we can pray that prayer.

The people that he’s talking about here are covenant keepers who are going to pray this prayer in obedience to his law. Those people have to have a reliance upon the sovereignty of God. And if we’re going to pray that prayer, we have to understand the sovereignty of God. And specifically, this whole first section of scripture speaks about the sovereignty of God first and foremost in salvation.

Paul has just said, “I was terrible, chief among sinners, blasphemer, whatever. Terrible guy, and God saved me.” He understood the sovereignty of God in salvation. He didn’t understand it just in salvation, though. He says he’s handing over Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme. He recognized that Satan was going to be used for God’s purposes. How many people recognize that these days? He understood the sovereignty of God and correction as well—that Satan himself was under the obedience of God, and that Satan’s work would work for God’s purposes. That these two men would learn not to blaspheme.

He understood the sovereignty of God, and he wanted us to understand the sovereignty of God as we pray for the civil magistrate too. We must understand God’s means: again, the covenant blood of Jesus Christ—that Jesus Christ is the only thing to relied upon for salvation and for truth. And also, of course, that the prayers are important. These prayers are part of the means of God by which he wants to save the civil magistrate or do what’s right in relationship to him. And that talks about a reliance upon the proclamation of God’s word, the gospel of Jesus Christ, a reliance upon that, and not chariots and his law.

Again, in Psalm 37:4, we’ve got to delight ourselves in God if we’re going to get the desires of our heart. Before we can pray this prayer, we have to understand that we have a reliance upon the law of God. We talked before about how if we pray regarding iniquity in our heart, like David did, God will not hear the prayers.

Now, does that mean that God isn’t sovereign? No. Does it mean that he’s going to act strict in relationship to what our position is? No. He can do anything he wants to do. He’s not bound to those things. But normally, God works through those means. We have to work. We have to put feet to our prayers.

If we’re going to pray for the civil magistrate, we have to do more than that. We have to work. We have to work for those things as well.

What is the civil magistrate in our day and age? There are laws. There are kings. There are rulers. There are all these authorities over us. And when you pledge, for instance, become a covenant member of Reformation Covenant Church, you do two things. You pledge to act in obedience to the governing authorities here, but to participate in that authority as well, to participate in that government.

If we’re going to pray the prayer for civil magistrates, we better be prepared also to go out there and work so that the civil magistrate acts in obedience to God’s law. Through what we did at the home school bill, for instance, the civil magistrate is now in a position of a more correct position under God’s law than he was before. He may or may not understand that. The senators and representatives that work down there—some do, some don’t—don’t. But the point is they’re now in a position of moral obedience to the word of God.

Presupposition regarding the civil authority: We had none before. We just prayed for any president. What are the presuppositions now? The presuppositions are the king is to rely upon the sovereignty of God. The king is to work under God’s authority.

Now, we could spend a lot of time about that, and that’s what we sang in that first song earlier. As we recognize the civil authorities in this land haven’t done that, and to that extent we can’t pray for God’s blessing upon them. We can’t pray for God to bless people that are acting in complete disobedience to his covenant and to his law.

We can’t ask God to bless a Supreme Court magistrate who sentences millions of infants to death before they’re born. God won’t bless that person. It’s wrong of us to work outside the means of God, which is his revealed will, and ask for blessing upon that person. Does that mean we should curse them? No, it doesn’t. But again, how do we know that? Because the word of God says so.

In Exodus 22, we’re reading through the law at lunchtime with our kids, you know, verse 2—time through the case law—and it says, “Revile not a ruler in authority over you, civil government, whatever. Revile him not. Don’t curse him.” And Paul, for instance, when he was confronted with a group of Jews and he started to curse, he said, “You whitewashed—” whatever it was. And the guy said, “You’re going to blast. You’re going to revile the high priest.” And Paul immediately retracted the statement and said, “I didn’t realize he was the high priest.” And he quoted that case law of Exodus 22 or 23 about reviling authorities. He recognized he couldn’t curse the authority.

That isn’t to mean, however, that we become subservient and do everything they tell us to do if it causes us to violate the law of God. You all know that. There’s a caution there. But overall, we have to understand that if we’re going to pray for the civil government, we have to recognize that what God wants out of that civil government is obedience to his laws.

So, what should the prayer be then for the authorities over us? That’s what we’re all leading up to. The prayer in this context, first and foremost, before and beyond this admonition to pray for the civil authorities and all those in authority over us should be for salvation—for correct relationship between that civil governor and God—that God would accept his burnt offering, that God would understand, that would bring this man to salvation in Jesus Christ, in a position of blessing if they’re not in that position now. That’s the first thing we should pray for civil governors—is their conversion.

Furthermore, we should pray for the civil governor’s obedience to God’s law. And I hope we made that clear here—why that’s true. The civil governor is to provide us a life—a quiet and peaceable life—and all good and honesty. If we’re doing our job as Christians, if we’re proclaiming forth the gospel of Jesus Christ and its ramifications in every part of society, we will not have a peaceful and quiet life if the civil magistrate is in violation of God’s law. We will have conflicts.

And so, some of you people are out there on the picket lines, picketing against the action of the civil government. Why is that? Because you can’t lead a quiet and peaceful life knowing that there are murders going on in your communities, right? So, if we’re going to pray for the authorities, we’ve got to work for them to act in obedience to God’s law. And that then will lead to a quiet and peaceable life. That’ll give us the base for victory in the communities around us.

A peaceable life isn’t just a personal peace and affluence. It’s acting in obedience to God’s commands, which is to go out and preach the gospel and everything it pertains to. So, we have to pray confidently as well, recognizing the sovereignty of God. The prayer then of God’s people, for the civil government, should be for the king’s conversion—the civil government’s conversion. Failing that, the civil government’s obedience to his law in everything that they do.

That prayer should be followed by action on the part of God’s people, going forth and helping instruct the civil magistrate in his responsibilities, and then to whatever degree possible, taking legislative action or working through other means so that the governors in our land and their laws be more applicable to the law of God. And that’s why we’re looking for somebody, for instance, to push a restitution system in Multnomah County, based upon the word of God. It will be good for the civil government. It’ll be good for the people of Multnomah County as well.

Another application out of all this is I hope that we learn to read the New Testament very carefully and very studiously, understanding all the ramifications of what has preceded it in light of what we’re reading in the New Testament.

Teach your children how to pray for these things. It’s a command of God. It’s an imperative statement that we pray for kings and all in authority. And that includes authorities in churches too. And pray your prayer for those people—all those authorities—for what we said before: conversion, correct covenant relationship to God, obedience to his law, and praying confidently that God’s work will be done.

Teach your children to do that. It’s easy to do so that your children, you know, will make forth crowns like this sort of thing here. And of course, we’re to work toward, as I said before, a turning—a king’s heart turning him back to the law of God.

I’d like to conclude by reading Jeremiah 29, verses 4 through 7. We looked at the ideal example in this psalm, the civil government, but it wasn’t unknown in the Old Testament—the sort of problems that we have in our land. Jeremiah 29, verses 4 through 7:

“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon: Build ye houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives, beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city, whether I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”

We’re in a very similar situation today to these people carried away captive into a land where the civil government did not rule in obedience to God’s law. We’re to pray for the peace of our city. Peace can only come as the word of God is proclaimed and obeyed by the community around us. To the degree that we achieve that correct proclamation of the word of God and preaching of that word and putting that into practice, to the degree that we pray for that end, and to the degree that we work toward that end, God promises peace. As the nation around us will increase in peace as well.

Let’s pray.