Discerning Truth: Christ and the Nations

Hi folks, Jason Lyle here with the Biblical Science Institute and our webcast Discerning Truth. Now here at the Biblical Science Institute we like to deal with scientific issues and biblical issues, hence the name, and our last X number of webcasts have all been science related so I'd like to do something on biblical issues in this particular session.

Christ and Government in a Time of National Judgment

In particular I'd like to look at the relationship between Christ and the government. And I'd like to do an exposition of the second Psalm. So we Christians could use some encouragement right now, or maybe it's just me, I could use some encouragement right now because of the situation in our nation.

In the United States of America we have enjoyed unprecedented blessings from God. And that makes sense because Psalm 3312 says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And the United States of America was founded primarily by Christians for the purpose of being able to worship God freely.

The way our government was set up by the founding fathers was based on Christian principles, recognizing that our Creator has given us certain inalienable rights. Our government was designed to promote good and punish evil, which is the purpose of government according to Romans 13.

Biblical principles, even the way the powers were divided, is a recognition that human beings are sinful and so to put one person to give one person absolute autonomy, not a good idea, power corrupts.

And as a result of the fact that our nation is a nation whose God is the Lord, or at least it has been for the majority of our history, we have enjoyed material blessings from God, a prosperous economy, unprecedented health, medicine, astonishing scientific and technological developments.

We have been blessed by God. We have enjoyed a government that is, for the most part, good and protects freedom and religious expression and promotes genuine justice. For these reasons it has been easy to be a Christian in the United States.

That's not to say we don't experience any persecution, but it's so mild compared to other nations. And that's starting to change. I think it's fair to say that as of the year 2021, the majority of our nation's leaders, at least at the federal level, are wicked.

The political left uses governmental power to promote what is wicked and suppress or cancel what is good and right. The left promotes sexual perversion like homosexuality, transgenderism, polyamory, things like, by The left promotes using the government to steal from people to redistribute wealth, which is theft.

The left promotes the murder of the unborn, and that is wicked. If you believe it should be legal for a mother to pay a doctor to assassinate her unborn child, you are hopelessly wicked, and you need to repent.

And by the way, if you're voting for people who promote such perversions, when there's an alternative, and I realize sometimes there isn't, but when there's an alternative and you still promote those who are promoting wickedness, you're in sin, and you need to repent.

You need to ask the Lord for forgiveness of that. Those who promote such wickedness are now in power at the federal level, and that concerns many Christians, because we now have a government that has become destructive of the very rights it was designed to protect.

The so-called Equality Act that's being pushed by Democrats protects and promotes sinful perversion and punishes those who stand for biblical principles. It really does. That means those of us who love Jesus and obey him will now have to suffer punishment by our own wicked government.

And by the way, that's normal for most of the world. The United States was a wonderful, refreshing exception. Yes, Christians suffer persecution here, but it's so mild compared to the rest of the world, and right now it's still pretty mild.

But it's the trajectory that we're concerned about. If the current trajectory holds, then that is about to change. The days of comfortable Christianity are nearly over. If you want to be faithfully obedient to Jesus, it will now cost you something.

It might cost you your job. That's already happened with a number of people. It might cost you your home, your financial savings. It might cost you your freedom as you're thrown in prison for disobeying a wicked and immoral law.

It might get to the point where it costs you your life, although I think we're still a ways away from that, but that could happen. So that's not an encouraging message, Dr. Lyle, but of course you already knew the bad news.

We're a nation under judgment by God for our wickedness. And in fact, God giving nations wicked leaders is one of the ways he judges them. That's not new. The judge meant we're currently experiencing so far is very mild.

We still have many of the blessings of our forefathers, but if our wickedness continues, that judgment will get more severe. That's the way God does things. As our government moves away from a free market economy and toward progressivism and socialism, which are contrary to biblical law, the more our economy will plummet into poverty.

That is mathematically inescapable. Every country that does that experiences that. What's the good news? First of all, this is God answering your prayers. You say, what? I wasn't praying for this. Have you been praying for a nation to repent of its sin and turn to God?

If you haven't, you should have been, right? In the Bible, how did God induce national repentance in various nations? Judgment. He would either promise judgment if they continued in sin, and sometimes that was enough.

Jonah preaches in Nineveh, you don't repent three days, God's going to destroy you. And they repent. If that doesn't work, then God implements judgment. At one point, he allowed the nation of Judah to be taken captive by Babylon.

And what happened? The people repented of their sin. They cried out for deliverance, and God delivered them. You see, generally people who are content do not repent, right? If everything's going well, you have plenty of money, you have food on the table, nice home, freedom to do what you want, people get complacent.

They think, why do I need God? I got everything. They don't realize it's God that has allowed them to have those things, those blessings. It's when God allows us to reap some of the consequences of sin when we don't have food on the table, when our freedoms are stripped away, that's when people repent.

Now, our nation loves money and the comfort that it brings, and when people make money, they're God. How are they going to repent? Well, you take away their money and their comforts. God may well allow the political left to implement socialistic policies in order to induce the economic depression that inevitably results in any nation that tries it.

But the good news is, see, we Christians, we don't really need those comforts. I mean, let's be honest, we don't need 99 of the stuff we have. I enjoy the material possessions that the Lord has allowed me to have, but they're not my God.

If God takes them away, blessed be the name of the Lord. My faith is not in my retirement fund. And by the way, yours shouldn't be either. That could go away at any moment. Biden could issue some executive order or there could be some new law in Congress that redistributes all that wealth.

Your retirement fund could go away like that, like Thanos snapping his fingers and it just turns to dust. But that's okay, right? Because if God wants to use poverty to induce national repentance, then bring it on.

Because it's eternity that matters. We might have to do without some of the niceties that we've become accustomed to, but if that results in national repentance, that's not a bad thing. When evil leaders enact evil laws that punish Christians for doing what is right, it's an opportunity to show our faith to others.

Christ Reigns Now Over the Nations

That's the second thing that's good about the judgment we're experiencing. I believe there's going to be a separation between those people who call themselves Christians, but are willing to compromise with wicked leaders in order to avoid punishment.

Well, the government insists we have homosexual pastors. Well, okay, we don't want to break the law. And then those genuine Christians who refuse to go along with sin and are willing to suffer for Christ's sake.

According to the Bible, it is an honor to suffer for the gospel. Peter and the apostles were flogged for preaching the gospel, and they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. You can read about that in Acts chapter 5 verses 40 and 41.

See, it's easy to say, oh, I would give up all my earthly possessions and even my life before I would deny Christ. Easy to say. Harder to do. I think of the time the rich young ruler came to Jesus, and he wanted to inherit eternal life, and he said, you know, I've obeyed the commandments, and Jesus says, one thing you lack, you need to go and give your possessions to the poor.

Because see, Jesus recognized a problem in that person, that that person was so attached to his wealth that he would rather have wealth than eternal life. That doesn't mean that all of us need to sell everything we have and give to the poor, right?

I mean, that's... but it does mean that we need to be willing to do that if Jesus tells us to. Are you willing? Are you willing to give up everything you have? It's easy to say, oh, I'd give up everything, I'd even give up my life.

But when the moment comes, will you be found faithful? I always wanted to try skydiving. I always thought that'd be a blast, to jump out of an airplane and free fall and parachute and everything. And I thought, yeah, I think I could do that.

But I always kind of wondered when the moment actually came. If I'm actually there, sitting at the side of an airplane and looking at the earth miles below me, would I be able to jump? I thought I could, but I didn't really know until the moment came.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to do that. And there I was, sitting at the side of the plane, and actually there was no fear at all. I jumped, and it was a blast. I highly recommend it. But you see, now I know that that's something that I can do.

Will you have faith to stand for Jesus when it costs you something important? You may soon find out. And that's not a bad thing. That's something that grows your faith. But the thing that's most encouraging to me, and I think it'll encourage you as well, is in this time of judgment, it has to do with the relationship between Jesus and earthly governments.

What is the relationship between Jesus Christ and earthly governments? A lot of Christians think that there is no connection, right? Government rules over earthly matters. Christ reigns over spiritual matters.

But I got to tell you, that's not biblical. There are other Christians who think when the future, either during the millennium or at least during the eternal state, Jesus will be king and rule the nations.

But they think right now, Satan's in charge. But I got to tell you, that's not biblical either. According to Scripture, Jesus is king of kings and Lord of lords now. He is currently ruling over the nations.

That surprises people, because they expect Jesus to rule in a different way than the way in which he's ruling. Even the disciples thought that when he came. Are you going to overthrow Rome now? And that's not the way that Jesus reigns on earth.

But he does reign on earth. And I want to show you this from the Scriptures. I want to start with Matthew chapter 28, beginning in verse 18. Now this takes place after the resurrection of Christ. The resurrected Jesus is there with his disciples.

In verse 18, the text states, and Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. All authority, not some.

Jesus is currently in charge of everything. All matters in heaven, all matters on earth. He's in charge. He has all authority, all power. He is currently king of kings and Lord of lords. Now a lot of Christians would say, but it doesn't seem like it.

Certainly doesn't seem like Jesus is in charge. Look at all the evil we have in the world. But that comes from a misconception of the way in which Christ has chosen to reign over the earth. People have this impression that Christ, when Christ is installed as king, he immediately destroys all of his enemies.

But that's not what the Bible teaches. And I'll come back to that. Right now, I want to point out that Jesus is currently king of kings and Lord of lords. He has authority over all nations and all nations have a moral obligation to bow to him.

All earthly leaders have a moral obligation to obey Christ, to implement laws that are consistent with biblical law. Now I'll be the first to admit, not everyone recognizes that Jesus is king of kings and Lord of lords.

There's a lot of rebellion against God in this world, but that doesn't change the fact that Jesus is king of kings and Lord of lords. Right? If someone who is a citizen of a particular country, and that country has a king, and that person says, I refuse to acknowledge the authority of that king, does the king go, oh, well, I guess I'm not king anymore?

Of course not. One person's opinion doesn't matter. The king is king and he has power. And if he wanted to, he could execute that person for that, that treason, or he might show mercy, but the king is still the king.

He's still in charge, but not everyone recognizes that Jesus has all authority now. And that explains the next two verses that we find in Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. So let me again read verse 18, and we'll continue on.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So again, verse 19, you see that word therefore. When you see that in scripture, it means that what's coming next follows logically from what came previously.

What came previously. Jesus indicates that he has all authority in heaven and on earth. He's in charge of everything. As a consequence of that, Jesus is saying to the disciples, therefore, as a consequence of the fact that I have authority, that I am king of kings and lord of lords, you go and tell everybody.

Because the problem is not everyone's aware of that, so you need to tell them. You need to tell them that they need to be disciples. You need to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In my mind, that implies evangelism, conversion, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. You need to teach them that they need to obey my laws, the laws that are laid out in scripture. Granted, some Old Testament laws, some of them have been set aside by New Testament Revelation, the ceremonial laws.

But there are a lot of laws that people ignore that they shouldn't, because they're God's laws, and God hasn't set them aside. Christ is king now. We have an obligation, as followers of Christ and citizens of his kingdom, to tell the world, you need to repent and follow Christ, because he is currently your king.

He's the one that will judge you. Now, there are well-meaning Christians who really don't like Matthew 28, 18, because it doesn't fit into their way of thinking about how God is supposed to reign. And so, it seems like many of them would like to translate verse 28, 18, where Jesus would say something like, all authority will be given to me in heaven and on earth.

Someday, I'll be king. That's not what the text says. It's all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. He's king now. There are other Christians, again, well-intentioned, who would kind of like to translate verse 18, Jesus saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven, but the earth, there's not much I can do about that.

That belongs to Satan. But that's not what the text says. Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. See, people have this misconception, even Christians have this misconception, that the nations today belong to Satan, and in the future, they'll belong to Christ.

That's not biblical. The nations currently belong to Christ. But wait a minute, didn't Satan tempt Jesus by offering him all the nations, implying that Satan owned all the nations? Yeah, and Satan would never lie, right?

Satan's a con artist. He was trying to sell Jesus on something that Satan didn't own in the first place, and something that God the Father had promised Jesus as an inheritance. Jesus was already going to get that.

He knew that, which is why he didn't fall for Satan's con. One of the reasons, though, that many people think that Christ hasn't started to reign, that he's not currently King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is because there's still evil in the world, and there are still evil kings.

There are evil leaders in this world. And people think, well, why would, you know, when Jesus reigns, he would immediately eliminate that. But that's not what the Bible teaches. And let's take a look at another passage.

This is Psalm 110. By the way, Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in Scripture, right? Sometimes scriptures quote other scriptures, and the one they do with that with the most is Psalm 110. That seems to be God's favorite verse.

And so let's have a look at it, and we'll see that the way in which Christ reigns is not the way that many Christians expect. A Psalm of David, verse 1. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.

The Lord will stretch forth thy strong scepter from Zion, saying, rule in the midst of thine enemies. So let's back up a little bit. So verse 1. The Lord says to my Lord. What's that referring to? David is speaking.

David's saying, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand. Who's the Lord? Who's David's Lord? The Lord, in this case, would be God the Father, says to my Lord, that would be God the Son, Christ.

They're both Lord, because they're the same being, they're just different persons. By the way, Psalm 110, verse 1, was quoted by Jesus to the religious leaders of his day, and he wanted them to interpret it, because they understood that the Messiah would be a descendant of David.

And yet here, David calls the Messiah his Lord. The Lord says to my Lord. Jesus asks them to explain that, and they can't, because they don't understand the incarnation. They don't understand that God himself became man.

God stepped into history as a descendant of David. And so Jesus is both David's Lord, and also David's descendant. So God the Father here is speaking to God the Son. And what does the Father say to God the Son?

He says, sit at my right hand. What does that refer to? What does it mean, sit at my right hand? In scripture, the right hand is a symbol of power, of authority. Most people are right-handed, and so that became a symbol of your ability to do something.

And that's used throughout the scriptures, the right hand of the Lord indicating his power. So when God the Father says, sit at my right hand, it means he's telling the Son to have power, sit in a position of authority.

He's installing Christ as King over the earth. He's giving him authority. But then it says, until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet. What does that imply? It implies that Christ reigns, he has authority, but his enemies still exist for a while, until they're made a footstool for his feet.

What does that mean, being a footstool for his feet? Well, in the ancient culture, sometimes a kingdom would conquer another kingdom, and the victorious king would take the defeated king, and make the defeated king bow down and put his foot up on his shoulder, use him as a footstool, as a way of saying, you've been conquered, you're my servant now.

You can imagine treating a slave and saying, you know what, you get down on all fours, I'm going to use you as a footstool, I'm going to prop my feet up on you for my comfort. You say, well that would be humiliating.

That's the point. It's a way of humiliating the defeated king, and if he wants to stay alive, he'll do it. He'll bow down and, yep, I'm king, but you're the king of kings. You're king over me. So it's an indication that, so when God the Father says, sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet, it means you sit in a position of power, you reign, until all your enemies are subdued.

Which means that takes time. It's not something that happens immediately. Christ doesn't immediately destroy all his enemies. He does it over time. He eventually subdues all of his enemies. And by the way, a lot of times, in ancient kingdoms, after they had conquered another kingdom, they would sometimes allow that king to continue to reign, the defeated king, to reign over his kingdom as vassals, as servants of the greater kingdom.

And they'd still have to do what the greater king says. Rome did that. Rome allowed the local nations to keep their current leaders and to rule and have their own religions as long as they paid tribute to Caesar.

Jesus allows kings on the earth, and he even allows wicked kings to rule, but he is in authority over them. And they will answer to him for how they ruled. And if they did not rule according to his law, they will be judged.

Verse 2, the Lord will stretch forth thy strong scepter from Zion. The Lord, Yahweh, will stretch forth thy strong, the Son's, scepter. The scepter, that means, that's the symbol of the king, the power of the king.

So that's indicating that Christ is the king, and the stretching forth of his scepter is an extension of his power. Saying, again, God the Father, speaking to God the Son, rule in the midst of thine enemies.

Not immediately destroy all your enemies, but rule in the midst of them. And so you see, according to the Bible, the way that Jesus rules now is he rules in the midst of his enemies. He allows his enemies to continue to exist for a while.

He gradually subdues them, all of his enemies. And according to 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, and he must reign until he makes all his enemies a footstool for his feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

So Christ's rule over this earth, this present cursed earth, he allows evil people to exist for a while. He eventually subdues them, and the last thing he destroys is death itself. He does that by resurrecting everyone, undoing death.

And that will usher in the eternal state then, right? So in the eternal state then, there's a different relationship in terms of the way that God had rules over the earth, apparently. He delivers up, Jesus delivers up the kingdom to his Father.

And in that eternal state, there will be no evil, of course. Those of us who have received Christ as Savior will enjoy eternal life with him in that new creation. But for now, Christ rules in the midst of his enemies.

Why? Why does God allow wicked people to exist? Why does he allow wicked kings to rule? The scriptures do answer that, and I'm going to come back to that a little bit later. What I'd like to do now is to move into Psalm chapter 2.

Psalm 2 and the Rebellion of the Nations

Psalm chapter 2 describes the way in which Jesus rules now. It describes God installing, God the Father installing Jesus, God the Son, as king over the earth, and that's something that happened at the resurrection, because it's at the resurrection where Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Psalm 2 can't refer to the eternal state because it refers to wicked people. And in the eternal state, when God rules over the new earth, and that will consist of only believers. There won't be sin in the eternal state.

So this is referring to the condition now, where there are still wicked leaders, and yet Christ is reigning in the midst of them. He rules in the midst of his enemies. So let's take a look at Psalm chapter 2, verse 1, which says, Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples devising a vain thing?

I want to first note the style of the Psalms. You recognize this by parallelism. Parallelism is the key to recognizing Hebrew poetry. This is Hebrew poetry. It's beautiful. And you recognize it by that pairing, often in a form of a couplet, but it doesn't have to be a couplet.

Parallelism is where you say something, and then you say the same thing, or it's converse, using different words. And if you say the same thing in different words, it's called synonymous parallelism, and that's what we find here in Psalm 2.

That first phrase, Why are the nations in an uproar, parallels the second phrase, and the peoples devising a vain thing, doesn't it? Because the nations, when you talk about the nations, you're talking about the people of those nations.

So nations goes with peoples, and uproar goes with devising a vain thing, because when you're uproar, you're just complaining. It doesn't actually do anything. It's empty. So why are the nations upset?

These would be referring, obviously, to nations whose God is not the Lord, in the sense that they have not repented and recognized that Jesus is king. They're upset. Why are they upset? Verse 2, The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed.

So again, you have that parallelism. Kings and rulers are both people in positions of power, people in positions of authority. They take their stand, they counsel together, both indicates that they're unified.

And what are they unified against? The Lord, Yahweh, and his anointed. His anointed would be the Messiah. That's what the Messiah means, the anointed one. So, God the Father and God the Son. They're against God, His laws.

And they think that if they stand together against God, they're going to win. So in verse 3, it says, Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. So they recognize in their heart of hearts that God is in charge.

Jesus in particular is in charge. God and his anointed one, his Messiah. And they said, We don't want to be subject to God's laws. God's laws are like fetters. They're like cords that bind us. Let's get rid of those.

Let's get rid of those. We want to practice sexual perversion and we want to murder babies. Let's get away from God's law. They're taking their stand against God and against the Messiah. And they think that by unifying together, that's going to work.

What is God's response to this? When his piddly little creations, they're like ants before him, and they come and they raise their fists and say, We're not going to obey your laws. We're going to have a society that that's based on man's laws, where man is God.

What's God's response? Verse 4, He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. It's an appropriate response. You have these piddly little creatures rebelling against God saying, You know, we're not going to do things your way.

And God says, Oh, yes, you are. Yes, you are. He laughs because it's so laughable, the idea that they could somehow be successful in their rebellion against God. They can't. It would be like, you know, those big sumo wrestlers that they have.

Imagine a little piddly, scrawny, 90 pound, 12 year old going out and saying, Oh, I'm going to wrestle you and win. You can imagine the sumo wrestler would just laugh at that because that's just not going to happen.

The probability of these little creatures being successful in their rebellion against God, it's not just implausible, it's mathematically zero. Because God is the one that allows them to continue to exist.

Christ is the one that holds the atoms of their body together because Christ holds all things together by the word of his power. So God laughs at this rebellion. But he's also it's it's a it's a laugh of amusement, but also a laugh of derision because he is angry at them.

Verse 5, that he will speak to them in his anger because God is rightly angry with the arrogance of people who think that they can rebel against God and be successful. So verse 5, then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury.

Verse 6, God's saying, but as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain. He's saying, I have appointed Christ to be king over the world, and you're going to obey him. And if you don't, you're going to be punished.

So this little rebellion you have planned, that's not going to work. I've installed the king. I'm the one who determines the way history unfolds. And it unfolds in such a way that Jesus is in authority.

You will answer to him. Verse 7, I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee. And the way that's worded is a little bit interesting. David is speaking as Christ because he was Christ's forefather.

And so it's effectively Jesus speaking. And then Jesus quotes God the father. He said to me, what is God the father? Say to Jesus, thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee. So that's God the father speaking of God the son.

That's repeated in the New Testament. It's quoted in Hebrews chapter 1, for example, where the author of Hebrews is making an argument that Jesus is superior to the angels. And one of the ways in which Jesus is superior to the angels is that Jesus is the son of God.

Angels are not. God never says to angels, thou art my son. Today I have begotten thee. He says that to Jesus. God the father continues to say to God the son, ask of me and I will surely give the nations as thine inheritance and the very ends of the earth as thy possession.

So God the father says to God the son, just all you have to do is ask and I'll give you the earth. It's yours for the asking. All you have to do is ask. And I would argue that this happened when Christ did the work that he was supposed to do on earth.

Right? So he dies on the cross, dies for all of his people. He ascends to the father. Okay, father, I have done what you've asked for me. What you've asked me to do. You told me to go and die for the sins of the people.

That's what I did. I've been obedient. I now ask you for the nations as mine inheritance. And of course he does that. And we know he did that because when Jesus appears to the disciples after the resurrection, he says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

So Jesus didn't forget to ask. He did ask God the father for the nations and God the father gave God the son the nations as his possession. And again, you see that beautiful parallelism there. I will surely give thee the nations as thine inheritance, the ends of the earth as thy possession.

So nations and ends of the earth goes together. That's all the nations, the entire earth, thine inheritance, thine possession. So that, and again, those go together. So again, you see the beautiful synonymous parallelism there.

Verse nine, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware. And some people again get the impression, well that means that when, as soon as Jesus installed his king, he immediately breaks the nations.

It's gradual folks. It's gradual because remember the Bible also says that Jesus rules in the midst of his enemies and he's, and sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet, indicating that it takes time.

It's not something that happens instantly. Verse nine is an indication though that God has the power. Jesus Christ has the power to do whatever he wills with the nations. And those that do not submit to him as king, as they should, because he is king, he will eventually destroy them.

God's patient. He gives people a long time to repent. He gives nations sometimes centuries to repent. But if they don't, eventually he'll destroy them. And he has the power to do so. That's the indication.

That's the meaning of verse nine. Verse 10. Now, therefore, O kings, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Verse 11. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. So backing up to verse 10.

So again, you have that parallelism. Kings and judges are both rulers. Those in positions of power show discernment. Take warning. You better think about what you're going to do carefully. Because you see, you rulers of the earth, you're not sovereign.

Sovereign means you don't answer to anybody else, right? And there are people that think, well, you know, I'm the sovereign leader of this nation. No, you answer to God. God is sovereign. You will answer to him.

Jesus in particular. God the father has appointed God the son as the king of kings. And therefore, you leaders, you better pay attention. You better do what's right in the eyes of Christ, because you will be judged by the way that you rule his nation.

One of the things they're supposed to do is worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. That second phrase, rejoice with trembling, is one of my favorite phrases in all the Bible, because it's just, there are two words that you don't normally associate.

Rejoicing, you know, and trembling, like in fear. But I love that because it's so representative of who God is. If you're with God, man, you should be rejoicing. If you're not with God, you should be trembling, because he's all-powerful.

But why doesn't God just immediately destroy all the wicked kings? God has a purpose for them. God has a purpose for them. Romans chapter nine, verse 17, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

Who caused Pharaoh to come to power? God did. Was Pharaoh a good leader or wicked? He was wicked, right? He mistreated the Israelites. He was harsh over them. Did God know that was going to happen? Of course God knew that was going to happen, and he had a reason for it.

God raised up Pharaoh, a wicked leader, for the purpose of showing his power to Egypt and to the Israelites. And of course that historical account is spread over the world. We now all understand God's power.

This is what happens when you rebel against God. He eventually destroys you. God gave Pharaoh plenty of opportunities to repent. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Yes, God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but the Bible also says Pharaoh hardened his own heart.