Leading a Dignified Life while Voting

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Good morning, beloved. You guys awake? Thank you. Did you miss me?

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I missed you guys. I went to a Reformed Baptist conference called

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ReformCon. It should have been called TheonomyCon, but I promise

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I haven't changed many of my opinions on things. But it was a time of edification and blessing, and I appreciate your willingness as a church to support me as I went that way.

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I do ask that this morning you turn your scriptures to 1 Timothy 2.

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And when you have that reading, 1 Timothy 2, we're going to be looking at verses 1 through 7, and do please stand for the reading of God's Word.

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Hear ye this morning the Word of the Eternal God. First of all, then,

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I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful, quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

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This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

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For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

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For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth, I am not lying, a teacher of the

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Gentiles in faith and truth. This is the Word of the Eternal God. You may be seated. Join me as I pray.

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Father, we do come before you to receive from thy good pleasure and thy good hand thy eternal word, the creed unto us for this morning, for the edification of your people, the uplifting of our hearts, and to receive good, proper instruction for the life ahead.

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We pray, Lord, that you grant us the gift of thy Spirit, lead us on level ground, and Lord, we pray,

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Father, that the Word of God will fall on good soil this morning. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. Well, folks,

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I've got a word for us this morning, and it's from God's Word in 1

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Timothy 2. But specifically, I want to talk to you about something that is oftentimes regarded as controversial when it comes from a

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Christian pulpit. And that's the issue of voting. As Christians living in this blessed nation, we have a responsibility before us.

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Maybe many of you have already voted to cast your ballots as citizens of this great nation. Mail them in.

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Maybe you're waiting to go in person on Tuesday as we have an election. My job as a pastor is not to tell you who to vote for.

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My job as a pastor isn't to tell you to be on a partisan side, but rather it is to inform you what

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God's Word teaches us and tells us in any given subject of life, including the subject before us today, and that is to lead a dignified life while voting.

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As Christians, we're commanded by the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1. First of all,

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I urge here's an urging, here's a command that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and Thanksgiving be made for all people.

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For all people. We live in a world that's divided, we live in a nation that's divided, and we live in a culture that's divided and probably hasn't been this divided since the 1960s.

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And yet the call for the church is to be in constant supplication, prayer, intercession for the people.

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For the nations. For kings. And I think, and I would propose to you this morning, that one of the reasons why our world is in such state of chaos is because the church hasn't been doing its job.

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We as a people, we as a congregation of God's people gathered universally across the world, we have,

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I think, failed to live up to this urge from the

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Apostle Paul to offer up supplications, prayers, intercessions, Thanksgiving for all people.

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You see, prayer is a powerful and effective thing. Do you believe that? Do you truly believe that?

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That prayer is powerful and effective? Because if we did, we would begin to really change the world around us.

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And not because prayer in itself is a magical incantation of words that somehow move heaven, but rather it aligns the human heart and the human mind to be closer aligned with the living

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God. That's what makes prayer so powerful and so wonderful and so effective.

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It's not that we get to move heaven like some evangelicals say, that we can call things and affect things in the heavenly places, but rather that the heavenly places is affecting and changing us.

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Amen? And that's the power of prayer. That's the significance of prayer. And that is why

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God's word instructs us and urges us to offer supplications. Now what does that word mean, supplications?

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If you're following along in today's teaching, Paul urged Christians to make supplications. And that simply means begging humbly.

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If you are giving a supplication, think of the posture as one of a beggar.

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And begging and pleading humbly on your knees. And that is what God is calling us to in this place and time.

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To be giving up supplications, to be begging the Lord for Him to move in our nation.

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For Him to move in our hearts. For Him to move in our families. For Him to move in every life and every circumstance of life.

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It is to request humbly of a great and merciful Savior and God.

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Clearly, He also refers to prayers to be offered. And prayers are, think of those as divine requests.

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You can put that in there, in the space there. Supplications being begging or humbly begging. And prayers being divine requests that we bring to the altar of God's grace through the name of Jesus Christ.

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As Christians, we ought not to overlook how it is that we get to approach God in prayer. And it is only in and through the name of Jesus that we can approach this merciful

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Father. This is what the Lord teaches us in John 14. He says, if you ask the Father anything in my name,

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I will surely do it. We have access to God only through Jesus Christ.

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It is interesting, if you have friends or you've been into a religious service other than that of a Christian service, and you hear how other religions pray and how other religions make supplications and petitions before their gods, and they'll usually end with maybe even an amen.

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Unless you're in the U .S. Congress and they'll sometimes occasionally say, a woman, which makes no sense whatsoever, but don't get me started on that.

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But clearly, when you look at other religious groups and how they pray, they will pray to their deity, to their god, make requests, but it is never in the name of anyone other than maybe the god they're petitioning.

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But the Christian religion is a unique one because ours is a faith in which we approach the Father only through Jesus.

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Jesus said of himself this in John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No man cometh unto the Father except by me. Jesus says there's only one way to God.

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There's not many ways, there's not a pluralistic road, many roads that lead to God, but rather there's only one.

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And Jesus makes an exclusive truth claim, but he's doing so inclusively when he says, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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Yes, come unto Jesus, but it is only through Jesus that you can approach the Father. Therefore it is appropriate that Christians only pray to God in Jesus.

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And of course as Christians, we don't only pray to the person of the Father, we have access to the triune

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God in all his glory, in all his fullness. As we've been taught in Scripture, we can pray to Jesus as he says in John 14, 14.

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If you ask me anything, I will do it. Surely we can approach even the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We're commanded in Scripture to pray in the Spirit. We can approach our holy and triune

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God in worship and prayer and adoration, and prayer again being divine requests that we bring to the altar of God.

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And not simply request, prayer shouldn't be just thought of as a list or litany of requests that we offer, that we give.

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Here's our list today, God. Here's what I want you to do for me, God. Prayer often time in the Christian worldview is treated as such a thing where we give

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God a list of things, and he's kind of our cosmic genie, and he has to now work things in our favor.

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Where really the Lord Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 6, in the Lord's prayer, how it is that we ought to pray our

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Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

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So you don't come into the equation until literally the end. Give us then our daily bread, and deliver us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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For thine is the power, the glory, the wisdom, the kingdom forever and ever. Amen. It begins and ends with the glorification of God's name.

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That's a prayer that honors God. And so it's not just offering requests, but it's also divine communication.

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It's divine speech towards a God who is in heaven who can hear us through the merits of Jesus Christ.

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The Apostle Paul also tells us that we are to make intercessions for all people. Intercession meaning intervention, to be intervening on someone's behalf.

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And think of it this way. As Christians, when we pray, we often think of others. Do we not?

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We think of other people and their circumstances. We know there's someone amongst us who is sick. We ask and petition the

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Lord. Intercession can be thought of as petition. To give, for God to bring healing, for God to bring power, for God to bring resolution to a conflict.

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These are all things that are very appropriate for us to be praying for. It is part of our intercessory work as Christians.

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For ours is a faith that makes us priests. We are part of a priestly class.

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Therefore, it's entirely appropriate for Christians to be interceding for one another. Unlike, however, the doctrine that's taught in Roman Catholicism, their intercessory work is quite different than that which is presented in Holy Scripture, where they believe it's even appropriate for you to pray to deceased saints and to pray for even individuals who are already dead, who may be in purgatory.

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Such intercession is not taught in God's Word. Instead, the intercession that is taught in the living and abiding

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Word of God is that which we intercede for one another in this place, in this time, in this world.

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That is proper intercessory ministry and prayer. It is indeed what God has commanded us to do here in His Word and to also offer thanksgiving for all people.

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Now, here we are in November. We're close to Thanksgiving. It's an appropriate time for us to consider what are we thankful for?

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What are the things that we're thankful for? Who are the people that we're thankful for? And it's important that we remember them in our prayers.

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Remember those who have come before us and maybe those who are alongside us. And remember them in such a way that brings honor to God but also that you remember them in your prayers.

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Verse 2, it gets interesting. For kings. For kings. So we offer this work not just for people who we know, not just for people who we love, but we also do it for the king.

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Understand the context, beloved. The king is not friendly towards Christians in this day and age or even in the age in which the

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Apostle Paul was writing this. The king was not friendly. The king was not friendly towards Christians.

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Have you read the book of Acts? How Paul is treated in those last few chapters? Imprisoned, unchained because of the work of ministry and yet the same man is requesting

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Christians to remember even the king and all who are in high positions of authority.

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All people in government. Beloved, regardless of your politics, I want you to ask yourself this question.

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When was the last time that you prayed for our president? When was the last time you prayed for our representatives?

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Now that might be a little bit unfair because as a church, we actually do pretty good at that because every

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Sunday we have a service where we pray for that. If you go to a home group, these are things that we ask you to remember in our time of prayer together.

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So you may have an unfair advantage over maybe some other churches and Christians. But even yet, when you're not prompted, do you remember to pray for kings?

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Do you remember to pray for those in high positions of authority? It is important that we do so.

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This is part of the intercessory work that the Lord Jesus called us to do, is to pray for even those who hate us, who misalign us, those who may even persecute us, and especially those who are in high positions of authority that can harm us, that can maybe even shut down our churches.

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It's not like that hasn't happened before. Amen? We just saw in the last several years of this pandemic, the higher authorities, the kings of this land, believing that they have the right and the authority to shut down the worship of God's people.

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May it never be so again. Amen? May we never bend the knee to Caesar in such a way that we exalt

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Caesar to the place of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can say and give us marching orders as to what we do in the regular worship of His name.

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Only He is authoritative in this space, and not only in this space, but He is authoritative in every space, in every place.

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One of the things that I did learn, and that I did take with me from this Reform Conference that I went to, they're very much theonomous, and I'm not, but one of the things that I really appreciated was how they responded to the government overreach, and how they have made it their aim to continue to push forward and making sure that such a thing never happens again in the context of God's people.

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That we do not again relegate to Caesar that which only belongs to God. And that was a very impressive thing that impressed my heart, was that Jesus is

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Lord over every aspect of life. And too many times, Christians relegate the

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Lordship of Jesus to only things which are spiritual, only things which are related to church, when

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Jesus is not just Lord over church, He's not just Lord over Sunday, He's Lord over all.

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Amen? He's Lord over everything. Therefore, we must live, we must contend for this faith in such a way, where we recognize the

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Lordship of Jesus Christ in every aspect of life, even in regard to government, and how we deal with government in this age.

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Again, we are called to pray for those in high positions of authority in government, and the reason is clear.

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Notice what God's Word says in verse 2 again. For kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

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That's why we pray for them. Because we want to live at peace. We want peace. I want you to write that in there.

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Government, that we pray for those in high positions of government, so that we may lead peaceful, quiet, godly, and dignified lives.

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That's our aim, beloved. That is our aim. Paul believed in praying and lifting up kings and high officials, so that we may find favor and lead our

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Christian lives without government interference. You see, the blessing of America and what has made

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America great is that even from the earliest Puritan settlers who traveled the

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Atlantic, fleeing religious persecution, America shined with the brightness and hope of worshiping

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God, free from the authoritarian hand of government. You see, our separation of church and state was not to exclude

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Christians from political life and discussion, but rather to keep the state away from theological debate and practice.

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In this country, we have constitutionally and God -given rights of freedom and freedom of religion, but not the freedom from religion.

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If you listen to many modern critics who are opposed to any Christian influence in government, those who call us the religious right or the

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Christian nationalists, which kind of has a nice ring to it, but they say that government and religion have no, there's no harmony.

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You can't force the two together and to some degree I agree with that. We're not trying to force government, but when you say that a

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Christian cannot vote according to his God -given conscience, is that what you're trying to get at?

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Are you trying to say that Christians can't vote for what is right and righteous and holy?

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Because if that's the case, then why not just outlaw Christians from voting? Because a true

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Christian will vote according to his Bible -trained conscience. However, it's not a freedom from religious influence, but rather the separation of church and state is to protect the church from government interference, from government influence.

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That's what the Founders had in mind. When you read the Federalist Papers and you read the understanding of the early

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Founding Fathers, that's what they had in mind. It wasn't to keep Christians or other religious groups from expressing their views in a democracy and a republic, but rather to keep government away from influencing the church.

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That's why, as Christians, we must desire to pray for those in high positions in government, even the ones we didn't vote for.

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So ours is not a partisan faith. Ours is not a faith that says we only vote for this people at this particular time and if our people lose, then we just throw our hands up or we grab guns and have a revolution.

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Ours is a revolutionary faith, but not that kind of revolutionary faith. Ours is one that leads us to a quiet, dignified life.

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So then, how ought we to vote? We have an election right around the corner this week.

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Again, some of you have voted already. How then are we as Christians to vote? We vote in such a manner, if we so can, where we vote for the individuals who allow us to lead a peaceful, quiet, and dignified life.

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It's really that simple. I like to make it even more simple. You know who

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I'm going to vote for? The person who is most likely to leave me alone. That's who

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I'm going to vote for. Whoever is most likely to leave me alone, that's my guy. I don't want them telling me who to worship, how to worship.

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I don't want them telling me what I can do with my life, I'm going to vote for the person who's going to leave me alone.

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And even of more importance than that, there's another principle that's at play. I'm going to vote for the person that is going to uphold the sanctity of human life.

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Because it's usually those who have a high view of human life that will be more likely to leave me alone in every other aspect of life.

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Amen? And so I'm going to vote for the person who's going to uphold human life and dignity at all stages of life and development.

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And I'm also going to vote for the person who's going to leave me alone. And that's how we as Christians ought to think in a functioning republic or democracy.

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Because ultimately the aim is the same. We want to lead a peaceful, quiet life.

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Peaceful, quiet life. I want you to remember that. Peaceful, quiet life.

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Whoever is allowing us to do that, I'll support them. But even more importantly, we want to be godly and dignified in every way.

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You know, who you vote for has consequences. And it has significance.

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The Lord is going to bring every action into account on that great day. Every action, every thought, every idle word will be brought before Him and be laid bare.

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Even in the political sphere of our lives. Who we voted for, how we talked about certain politicians, how we treated others, all these things will be brought into account.

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But know this, we ought to vote in such a way where we have a clear conscience before God.

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We have a clear conscience. We want to be godly and dignified in the way that we vote.

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Now if you can't vote for whatever reason, this still applies. How we talk about our politicians and those in high places of power ought to be also godly and dignified.

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And I will be the first to tell you, I sometimes struggle with that. Because I have very strong opinions.

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If you haven't noticed already. And I have very strong views.

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And yet, the call is still the same. Be godly and be dignified.

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And therefore treat others with the same dignity that we are required to have of ourselves in the

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Christian church. And so the call is clear.

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Live a quiet, godly, dignified life in Christ Jesus. You see, my job as a minister, again, is not to tell you who to vote for.

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I'm going to leave that up to your conscience. But I will speak to your conscience this morning through the word of God.

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So that you can make the best and most biblical decision when you vote.

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You see, it's not just the best decision for you. But it's to be biblical in our decision making process.

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And that's how a true Christian ought to think about all aspects of life. Because again, Jesus Christ is not

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Lord just over Sunday. He's not Lord just over our religious life and that little sphere of influence.

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But he's Lord over everything. Therefore, the Bible ought to inform us as to how we live in every aspect of life.

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Therefore, our decisions ought to be biblical. God's word tells us even more in verse 3.

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This is good. This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God our

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Savior. What is good? What is good is that we pray, that we intercede, that we bring supplications and thanksgiving for all people and even the king.

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Even those in government. This is a good thing that we pray for them. That we lift them up.

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So that God may hear our petitions, hear our cries and move in the hearts of our kings.

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Move in the hearts of our elected leaders. Because only God can. You see, in a democracy, we have the privilege of voting in or out our leaders every two years.

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Every two years, we can fire our elected leaders. That's pretty cool. And that's one way of getting our message across, but there's a greater way of getting our message across.

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Preaching the gospel and praying for those in places of authority. Those two things are far more powerful and effective than voting.

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Far more effective. Yet, that is not to the neglect of our responsibility as Christians to vote.

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But it is to remember and prioritize that truly the spiritual will inform everything else in life.

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Not the latter. Not the former. Where people tend to think that the physical will inform the spiritual.

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No, it's the spiritual truths. It's the spiritual realities which really shape and mold the physical world around us.

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And if we pray, if God will hear from heaven and hear the cries of His people, the petitions of His people, just as He did in the book of Exodus.

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When God, Yahweh, heard the cries of His people to deliver them out of oppression, deliver them out of slavery, so too

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God can hear our petitions and hear the heart of His people. This is why He says this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our

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Savior. God our Savior. I want you to write this in the next part. God is our

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Savior. Not any president or party.

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Amen? Now the problem with American evangelicalism today,

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I believe greatly, is this. We often look to Washington to solve our problems when we should be looking to Jesus.

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We often look to Washington for the answers when the answer is already in front of us in His Word.

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We often think that our problems are going to be solved by a political

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Messiah, but we already have the Messiah, Jesus Christ. We need to stop looking to men and to princes to solve our problems and know that what happens in our house is far more important than what happens in the

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White House. Amen? That is far more important. Who is Lord over your house is a far greater question than who is president in the

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White House. Government serves a purpose, but God's purpose and His plan through His kingdom is far more consequential and important, and that is the salvation of the nations through Jesus Christ.

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Jesus is not a nationalist. Jesus is not a Republican.

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Jesus is not a Democrat. Jesus is not an independent. He's not a donkey, nor is

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He an elephant. He is indeed the Lamb who was slain from the foundations of the earth, and it is

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His party, it is His kingdom, and it's His name to whom we owe true power and also allegiance.

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It's Jesus. He's the one we are to align ourselves to fully.

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Not to any one party president, political system. It is to Christ's kingdom.

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See, I've had the same concern every election cycle since I've been a Christian, and again, it's this trend of the church that expects that all of our problems will be solved by picking the correct political

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Messiah. Now, know and recognize this. When you lift up your eyes to the mountains and you ask yourself, from where does my help come?

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It's not going to come from Washington, D .C. It's going to come from the Lord, the

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Maker of the heavens and the earth. That's where your help will come from.

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That's where your Savior dwells. He shall come from Zion, and He shall deliver His people from their sins.

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Regardless of the outcome of this upcoming election, Jesus Christ remains enthroned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

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But at the same time, if we vote, we ought to again vote for the candidates that share similar kingdom interests and values.

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And again, we're not looking for a political Savior. I'm going to vote for the candidates most likely to leave me alone and let me live a life dignified and godly in Christ.

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But I will always vote for the candidate that stands up for the preservation of life and the sanctity of human life, which begins at conception.

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At conception. Because if you think that the Republicans are going to do a better job, maybe they will.

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But there are many Republicans in this nation who are proposing what's called heartbeat bills.

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These are bills that say only human life to a certain point is worthy of protection.

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And I believe that life at every stage is worthy of protection.

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And this is the Great Compromise as it's being called today. We live in historic times, the overturning of Roe v.

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Wade. I'm not trying to get too political here, but this is the times that we're living in. And the

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Great Compromise is those who will say we will protect life up to a certain stage of development.

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Brothers and sisters, I would submit to you that life is worthy of protection at all stages, and that is how we ought to vote.

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That's how we ought to vote. Don't compromise. Don't compromise. Evil should not be compromised with.

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Imagine if the abolitionists from the 1800s compromised and said we'll grant freedom to African Americans up to a certain stage of life or a certain age or a certain socioeconomic background.

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Nonsense. We would not have put up with that, nor should we put up with the most atrocious crime that's being committed in our day today, an abortion.

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We should not compromise on this. And this is how we ought to consider when we are voting.

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Life, again, ought to be protected at all stages, beginning at conception. And this is indeed good and pleasing in the sight of God, our

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Savior. Verse 4 says, who desires all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

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That's a text that may make some Calvinists a bit nervous, but it shouldn't.

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You ever speak to an Arminian or someone who is anti -Calvinist, and of course we're

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Calvinist people. We believe in the reformed doctrines of grace. They often point to a verse like this, verse 4, who desires all people.

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See, God desires all people to be saved. And to come to knowledge of the truth.

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And I say, amen. God desires all people to come to know Jesus Christ.

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Jesus Christ said of Himself, if the Son of Man be lifted high, He would draw all people to Himself.

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But what does it mean by all, and what does it mean by people? Clearly, when you look at how Paul uses this language, he's talking about the inclusion of the nations, the inclusion of the

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Gentiles. He wants all nations, all people to come and receive this knowledge of the truth.

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The same error is often made when quoting from the same book, and Paul says that the love of money is the root of all evil.

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What do we mean by all? Is it actually all? Well, it's really all kinds of evil.

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Similarly, God desired all kinds of people to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, referring to the inclusion of the nations into the gospel hope.

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So, of course, God, being our wonderful, excellent Savior, desires all people to come to know

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Him, to be saved. So I want you to write that in there. God is our Savior, not any president or party.

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He desires all to come and be saved, referencing His commitment to bringing forth salvation unto all nations.

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In verse 5, we see even more clearly, for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man,

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Christ Jesus. You see, Jesus is fully human.

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I think it is the CSB translation that says, that there is one mediator between God and man,

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Christ Jesus Himself human, showing that He is truly a man.

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He is truly human. In His flesh, He is the bridge that brings us to God.

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In His flesh, He is the one who unites us as fallen sons of Adam to now adopted sons of God through Jesus Christ.

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Jesus is the second Adam, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He is the second Adam. He is truly man, and He is the one who brings us close.

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Think of what a mediator does. A mediator is one who stands in the gap. A mediator is one who intercedes for both sides so there may come peace and reconciliation.

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And there is no greater mediator than the Lord Jesus Christ, who is fully man, born of a virgin, but was also truly

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God. Eternal Word made flesh. And in Him, is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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Jesus is indeed the source of all good things, and He is the source of life, and He is the one who brings us on to eternal life by reconciling us to God the

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Father. This is the gospel, the good news, that through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sinners can be reconciled to God.

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That through faith in Him, and through His ransom, sacrifice, and obedience, even obedience as far as death on a cross, our champion, our

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Savior, has won for us and secured for us an eternal salvation that not even

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Washington, D .C. can take from us. Amen? Not even the governor's office can take from us.

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No man can steal this joy, the joy of knowing Him. And so, beloved, if you're struggling as to who to vote for in this election, because we have two flawed candidates or two flawed parties, remember that we already have a

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Savior. We do not need to look to Washington for one. Jesus is our grand mediator between us and God, and He will remain sovereign and Lord over all the affairs of this earth, including the outcome of this election.

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This election's outcome is not unbeknownst to our sovereign Lord. It is indeed all things will work together according to His eternal decree, to the praise of His glorious grace, and He will work all things ultimately together for good.

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So whether your side wins or loses, God is still going to be on the throne. God is still good,

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He's still merciful, and He's still going to be Lord. So therefore, do not defy or deify or glorify any other human leader at the expense of giving

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Jesus the glory that is due to His name and His name alone. Before we worry again about who wins the house, we should first determine whether Jesus is in our house.

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Is He? Is He in this house, this church? Is He in your home?

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Is He in your midst? Is He in your families? Is Jesus the one to whom you are bending the knee?

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Are you following the decree of eternal God in which He urges us in all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, even the

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King, for His desires for all people to come to know Him. And the people will not come to know

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God by who you vote for. They'll come to know God by who you preach and who you live out.

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You must preach. You must be a proclaimer of the good news of this Jesus who we proclaim to you, the one who is the mediator between God and man, even the man himself,

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Christ Jesus. Verse 6 says, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

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Here's the testimony that the nation needs to hear. Not only this nation, but all nations, that Jesus Christ is the ransom sacrifice for all, that His blood is sufficient to save sinners, and that not one iota, not one drop of blood will be lost as He brings to glory

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His people and His saints. Jesus will have victory.

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He'll have victory over the political systems of this world. He'll have victory over the sins in your life.

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He'll have victory even over the great enemy, death itself.

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And He's already won that victory, because He who lived a perfect, sinless life, who was crucified by two thieves and was placed in a tomb,

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He did not stay in that tomb, but instead by the power of the

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Spirit and the decree of the Father, He was raised from the dead on the third day, demonstrating that not even death had mastery over Him.

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And because of that, we can now live with the confidence that our Savior lives, and our

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Savior is ascended far above every ruler, authority, power, and name that can be named not only in this stage, but also in the age to come, and that this

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Jesus reigns victoriously over His people. And He offers to sinners even now, while it is still called day, for them to come and receive pardon for sins.

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He has paid it all, and He calls men and women and children everywhere to repent of their sins, to trust in Him fully, to be baptized upon recognition of faith, and to be a member of a church, to declare the excellencies of His goodness and His grace for all ages to come.

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And may you know Him today, and may you recognize the proper and sovereign Lordship of Jesus, even today.

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And so the last question I want to ask you, before I close our time together, is, whose side is

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God on? Here we've been talking a fairly political message, but really it's not a political message, it's a spiritual one.

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But I want you to think about it. Whose side is God on? In this country, it's a weird one, because I lived in Canada for four years, and in Canada they have five major political parties.

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Okay? And in the United States we only have two. Most countries have far more than just two.

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But here we have a binary choice. And so the question is, whose side is God on? I want you, the last scripture

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I want us to go to, I want you to turn to Joshua chapter 5. Joshua chapter 5, starting verse 13.

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We have a phenomenal story where Joshua is encountering a heavenly messenger.

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And here's that interaction. When Joshua was by Jericho, so there's conflict happening in the land and they're still in the mode of conquest.

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When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.

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And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

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So what an interesting question. Joshua sees a man with a sword drawn.

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He asks quite reasonably, Are you with us or are you with them?

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Are you on our side or are you on the side of our enemies? And notice how this messenger responds.

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In verse 14, he said, No, but I am the commander of the army of the

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Lord. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him,

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What does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy.

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And Joshua did so. You see, God is for God. That's who he's for.

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He's not for your political party or someone else's political party. He's not necessarily just for you, though the scripture does say

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God is for us, who can be against us. But God is ultimately and principally for God.

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When Joshua during the conquest of Jericho asked the question, Are you for us or for our adversaries? The captain of the

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Lord's army said, Neither. Neither. I want you to write that in there. Neither.

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So whose side is God on? Is he on the Republican side, the Democratic side? The answer is neither. He's on his own side.

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He's on his own team. This is the party of the Lamb that we're talking about. Amen? I believe it was

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Tony Evans who gave this great analogy that I'm going to share with you.

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You see, when you watch an NFL game, which I don't typically do, you know, say

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San Francisco versus the Vikings or something, or Green Bay Packers.

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Did you know that on that field, when that game is being played, there's actually three teams that enter that field.

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There's the home team, the opposing team, and then there's another team. That team is called the team of officials.

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You see, and the job of the team of officials, they have one job, and it's to go buy their book.

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You see, they have a book that tells them what plays are legal and illegal, how a team can win a game properly, and they base all their decisions upon that book.

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So they're neither the home team, nor are they the opposing team, and nor are they influenced by the cheers or the boos of the crowd or the waves that come over the crowd.

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They have only one concern, and that is to uphold that standard and that book.

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Well, beloved, we also have a book, and we have a standard by which we are to live, and it is a standard by which we call the game of life and politics.

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And so this is what we have to live our, not only to live our life, but this is how we ought to think of all aspects of life, including that of civil duties and voting.

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You see, they're not, again, the team of officials, not swayed by the booing or cheers on your side, and they do not belong to either team, but belong to a higher authority, in that case, the

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NFL, in our case, the kingdom of God. Amen? And church, last time

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I checked, our citizenship was in heaven, where we await the Savior. The best thing you can do in the upcoming election is to vote by the book.

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Vote by the book. Vote for religious liberty. Vote for the rights of the unborn.

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Vote for upholding biblical morality and ethics. Vote for the candidate and party that will give us the most freedom so that we can live peaceful, quiet, godly, dignified lives while we worship and wait for the blessed hope and the glorious manifestation of our great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let me pray. Lord, I pray that nothing that I have said would be outside of your word, nor be misunderstood or misrepresented, that Jesus Christ is

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Lord over all of life, therefore all of life must be submitted to the sovereign headship of Jesus Christ.

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Lord, we pray that you would help us to put aside partisan bickering, that the church would not join into the quarrels of this world, but rather be distinctly different, that we would be like that team of officials on the field, not persuaded by the cheers or the boos on either side of the aisle, but instead,

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Lord, that we would live life according to the book that you have given us, that we would live life according to your perfect and holy standard, that you would help us to be proclaimers of this one standard, the standard of your word, the truth of your word, of which you have said even when you prayed in the high priestly prayer of Lord Jesus, and you said

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Father, your word is true, we believe it is true, and we live it out, and we pray,

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God, that only by your spirit we can live it out. We ask, Lord, that you would work in us that which is pleasing in your sight as we wait again for your great coming, your glorious manifestation from heaven, and we know and confess this truth today,

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Lord Jesus, that you alone are the true and proper Savior of your people. Even so, come,